Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
They initially had a bunch of individual classes with their own flavour that all brought useful tools to the table, playing as an Alliance player and bumping into a Horde-exclusive Shaman was one of those things that was exciting, just as a Horde player bumping into a Paladin would have been super cool.
Each of the classes would have their own unique spells that added to the unique flavour of the classes; hunters would have 'Eyes of the Beast' which allowed them to take control of their pet, Priests would have different spells depending on which race they were, Paladins had a spell called Divine Intervention where they would sacrifice themselves to give a protective bubble to a party member, etc. etc.
All of these super cool unique spells were removed which in my eyes removed a lot of the flavour from these different classes.
As long as every Archtype has its place in all the content then there should be no need to Homogenize every Archtype.
The first review I read was on the negative side by a blogger. ESO ads where featured on the page. I immediately looked for more information and here I am. We will hear and read more negative reviews as time goes on because they don't want the competition to succeed.
Balance burst damage like mage and fighter (even longbowman/sniper). Balance DoT classes like rogue (poisons) and warlock (diseases). These have similar combat styles with very distinct visuals (leather wearer in melee range vs the clothie in long range).
That way they are easier to balance while leaving their combat style and visual style very unique.
The same can be done with healers (HoT vs Burst) and tanks (armor vs evasion vs damage sponge)
Don't look at it as a battle of classes. It should be a battle of skills.
But, yeah, it's generally not going to be that simple.
Depends on the specific builds: race, gear and Religion/Social/Guild augments will also play a factor..
I would add that being Cleric/Cleric "might" have lesser heals than a Cleric/Mage IF that Cleric Mage chose a God with bonus healing, came from a Node with special bonuses for healing, had specific gear to give better healing, along with having a mana decrease concept, AND from one Race that had bonuses to healing vs that Cleric/Cleric who might choose a God of Defense, a Node of War (to give more DPS), gear with defense, and a Race of sturdiness.
With the amount of options to make a character unique, it seems that just picking a certain "second" will not be the end-all for having an L33T maxed out character for one particular function. It will probably also be supremely beneficial in sieges and wars when you "think" that character isn't going to be a big deal, but in reality they have extra support abilities from all of the things you don't see beyond being a Cleric/Mage or Cleric/Cleric.
The issue with other games, like WoW, is that they are around so long that people get into the "I'm going to make another alt on this server" attitude and they just want to power level it, complain it is so boring, and the Devs just start changing things to make every class have a heal, have a taunt, have a defensive ability, have a DPS attack, etc etc., which then allows someone to just solo up so they can do "end game" stuff with that new alt. I don't see that being a possibility in AoC world because of the vast array of choices. And not every MMO caves to that kind of thing, i.e., RIFT still has its Soul Tree concepts and different Souls with various capabilities.
I went back last summer to play WoW after not playing for 10 years. I was astonished at how simplified it is. My old 65ish level characters were all turned into "oh! you are level 65, well here are your 7 abilities for your level. Enjoy!" and every single character was exactly the same. Every Hunter in the game is a mirror, with maybe different gear. I am glad I didn't pay for that week, it was just a trial. I pre-ordered the Collector's edition for WoW and played on day 1 too. Just shake my head at what all they've done to it. But, time can be a factor I guess.
I think there have been too many games with promising ideas that were "different" than the status quo which failed miserably over the years. That, I believe, causes many to immediately discount anyone trying to do something "different" and create a game with new concepts and a new way of doing things. I've watched a few of the YouTube videos and there are concerns, but some that are just flat out, "Nah, it sucks and it'll fail miserably" who don't want anything to do with it because they can't do comparisons of it to other games. Nor can they be optimistic about a new game that isn't being done by the same companies that have done games for years n' years.
The only thing that is tough to swallow is the amount of time we will have to wait to play. I'd like to think "Alpha" will start earlier next year than "December", but we shall see.