A few weeks ago the unruly folks over at Multiplaying.Net started playing Warhammer Online again and talking about it on their podcast. I have always felt that on paper WAR is the MMO I should love the most: multiple races with differing starting areas, lots of PvE, and varied PvP gameplay that I can participate at my discretion. I think the main sticking point for me is the PvE content; the quests are really well written, seem pretty varied at times, but there is so much running around and the level grind was tough to stomach after playing WoW so much.
But I decided to use my Call to Arms 10 day free play, and I have been reminded of why I both like and dislike the game. I will say that leveling seems to be going much faster now, primarily due to the huge amounts of rest xp I have, so that was a pleasant surprise, but there is still a lot of running around at my level. In the short amount of time I did play that was really the only complaint that I had with the game, it's been a lot of fun doing scenarios and running around doing oRvR in T2.
But my free play ends today and with all the hockey going on right now I will not be reactivating my account. At least not yet. I figure that once the first round of the NHL playoffs are over there will be more time to play games, but right now I am DVR-ing everthing and watching games before and after work, I love it.
I bring this up because WAR has been my MMO of choice for the past two months, and pretty much my game of choice really. I don't remember how much WAR I had played before this most recent stint, but I do know that I had a very different mindset about what I was looking to get out of the game.
When I wrote that post in April, I was still looking at WAR as a pve game with optional pvp content to satisfy me, but it's the other way around. WAR is a pvp game with pve content used to fill time when there is no oRvR going on. Back in August when I resubbed, I started of questing and leveling till about rank 6. At that point I thought I would see if there was any action going on in T1 oRvR, and it was at that point when my experience with WAR changed. No longer was I looking to quest, level and do some PQ's, I was only interested in how many Destro players I could kill from that point on. That was of course when I was playing my Engineer, I have since gone back and spent most my time with my Black Orc.
But not everything has been peaches and cream. T2 pvp was awesome, it was fun and it was easy to get into. T3 was when the game slowed down for me and finding consistent oRvR was a pain. I eventually had to resort to questing in order to rank up and to gain some gold, cause pvp was not making me rich and it was an extremely slow way to gain rank.
Then came T4. Once I hit r30 I immediately headed to T4 looking for some oRvR. Unfortunately the game really changes in T4, and my first impression was not positive. Frankly the pvp is not as accessible as the previous three tiers and the game becomes very gear dependant, something that turned me off to WoW's pvp.
The thing is I still love WAR. I love the look, the content, the pacing of the combat, but I don't love the lack of oRvR when I am eager for some and the pacing of the game really slows down by the time you make it to T4. So what does the future hold for me and WAR? For now I plan on toughing it out in T4 with my Black Orc while messing around with the various other characters I have. I do love this game.
2 comments:
"I love the look, the content, the pacing of the combat"
Despite all the commentators that write it off as a WoW clone, I think WAR really nailed that unique games workshop aesthetic. It is distinct from and superior to the aesthetic of WoW (no matter how hard Blizzard tried to rip off Warhammer miniatures) to me.
I also loved the pace of combat. In fact combat and character design were areas where I really always felt they nailed it.
I've always thought that WAR has a certain something that is different than all the rest. It's the only MMO where I've really enjoyed and sought out the PvP. That said, it still felt rough the last time tried it. Of course, that's been several months. I'll probably try it again one of these days.
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