Open Beta thoughts

Hey gang, now that a few more of you are starting to get in and play around, what do you think?

As for me, I had a blast this weekend grouping up with a couple of you and let me tell you it will be a RIOT once we go live and have a regular group of us Sunday nights at least. Now just gotta figure out what all everyone is playing for the grouping character (those who plan to play a guild group character anyhow, if you're not planning to play frequently or want another character left back with the pack so to speak)... Anyone know for sure what they will be playing for guild grouping and care to share so those of us fencing on 3 or 4 toons can narrow down?

I'm not making a toon until my main hits 40... and I don't plan on hanging back... =)

when I do hit 40 with the SH, I'll be happy to run up a char to you guys, hehe

Witch Elf. And let me tell ya, I am SOOOOO glad I am getting in before the masses. I started a Chosen Sunday afternoon, it was insane. There were sooo many people. especially for the PQ, I got like 22nd place each time i did it. It's just going to be a "good luck" thing for gear/quests when it opens to everyone.

I can also say that the Senarios for the Dark Elf and Chosen are gay. Lets run around in circles. In my opinion, every RVR type thing should be a forced confrontation. Else is just a PVE with Renown.

I dunno, Mark, Mick, Aaron, and I ran the chaos one last night and had a blast... I think it could be closer together, but I still had fun.

I like that they are different. I would get bored with so little options for so many levels. This way at least you can group and have entered into different ones during the course of an evening and mix it up a bit. Just my take I suppose, but it adds a different dynamic to the pace and feel when you have to split out a bit more or if you're playing the greenskins and are packed in close fighting.

Oh..I don't mind that they are different, but it seems some of them you are just running around all the time instead of actually RVRing. Kinda dull. They weren't THAT bad...but, they could be better.

Hey guys, for someone who hasn't been able to play at all yet in closed/open, but plans on playing quite a bit when I can get my hands on the game, could you make any suggestions on a class to play that will fit in well with what everyone else is planning on playing?

I've noticed that if there's two or three of you, it doesn't matter at all what you play. having a healer in group is always nice, but if we're grouping, I think we've managed to make most classes work well together. unless we're taking a crapload of champion levels or hero levels, you don't need a healer.

I would suggest playing something you enjoy, vs what the guild needs.

I guess I'll have to mess around with them until I find my niche. The only class I fell in love with in WoW was the warrior.

I think the tanks for destruction were the black orc, and the chosen but I don't play tanks, so I have no idea =)

'________' is not a tank. its Melee DPS.

Black Orc and Chosen are Tanks

wierd how my message doesn't say anything about marauders... <cough> edit <cough> =)

Yeah, depending on why you loved the tank could influence your decisions here. Cal was correct, Black Orc and Chosen are the true tanks.

Marauder is really more of a dps, wearing only medium armors and would be closer in tankish feel to playing a shaman in WoW. Now that being said, their mechanic is similar to the warrior in that he has stance-like system each relating to a mutation he puts his arm into. One for claw (more DoTs), one for sword style (positional and single target offense), and one for club (AE focused attacks).

Chosen has more of a Paladin feel as he has auras that are centered around AE debuffing enemies. He can twist these and keep up to 3 active affects around him at once but this eats up a large number of your action points (each class gets 250 APs which regen pretty quick even in combat). Seen a lot of these running around, both wielding a big two hander and wielding a sword/shield type setup.

Black Orc is a brawler, they like to do whatever it takes including moves like kick to the nuts (they name it much better). Decent class, but most of the time these are defensively setup using a shield, although they can go two handers as well I believe.

I will try to write up some more on other classes as I get time today... See how many calls keep coming in and how little I feel like programming this app I gotta get completed by end of the month.

Healing classes are a unique set from most games. There are 3 healing classes for Destruction, Shaman, Zealot, and Disciple of Khaine.

Shaman is a combo healer/nuker class. They have a counter balance mechanic which makes better use of both ends of this. If you throw a couple heals, you will gain a bonus to your next nuke... This usually is cast speed increase and/or action point cost decrease. I believe with instant cast spells already you gain bonus heal/damage but I didn't examine a ton to be sure. Same of course goes for tossing a couple nukes and your next heal will get a bonus. This counter only goes to 5 either way so you need to mix a spell of the other type in now and again to get best benefit.

Zealot is most like a true healer. They have no counter mechanic to force them to do something else to be able to heal well. They start with instant cast heal which is much more powerful on healing then the other two healers for pinch healing or PvP but this likely balances out more later on in levels. These guys are a serious nightmare in PvP and are difficult to kill. That said, they lack much offense and only real amount is in a DoT and then a cooldown instant nuke which can weave in between. They do shine in regards to buffs as well, which they can toss on group mates and these buffs will enhance 2 stats or some resists plus give a clickable/keyable offensive spell as well that is instant and on a 1 minute timer. For example the first buff you get does a small nuke to single target and always buffs the str and int of the person based on the TARGETS level which is really nice for grouping.

Disciple is the melee healer, focusing heavily on regens and lifetaps. The lore with them and mechanic is based around stealing the life energy of the opponent to fuel your own healing. They do decent melee damage, dual wielding swords or at higher levels adding a chalice which presumably will be more focused to the healing side. Their buffs are pretty cool, one being a group lifetap chance per swing. They have a max 250 healing pool and then the normal 250 AP pool, attacks come out of the AP pool and most melee attacks build a small amount of healing pool up. Heals pull only from the healing pool and once it is empty you need to be swinging in melee to cast more heals.

Well, I know for sure that my main class will be the Black Orc. I plan on being a big, fat meat-shield. Awesomness. As for the class I tool around with so as not to get to far ahead of those who can't play often...well....undecided. Likely a Disciple of Khaine or a Magus.

Magus would be a nice break from a meleer and have a different style to him. We'll have to see, but loving him right now in beta.

DPS classes are the final installment of my please don't make me work series....

Squig Herder is the one I have very little to add on. They are a ranged archer style with a pet which they consider very disposable. These pets have special focus depending on which one you have out, and are fairly annoying although not terribly damaging in PvP but handy in PvE and great tanks like the hunter in WoW.

Witch Elf is similar to the rogue, high damage and easily the one class the tweenies will flock to just to make half naked women running around. They are always female, no male characters for the class at all. They wear less clothing as part of the lore, distraction to the masses of mainly male warriors on the battlefield. They have limited stealth, this is something they designed to be good for sneaking in against a distracted opponent, but unlikely to get a vanishing act on someone looking for you.

Marauder I covered earlier, so scroll back to the warriors conversation even though they belong here Cal brought them up there so I talked about them there.

Magus is supposed to be a defensive caster, although at this stage they are still being tweaked. They ride around on a floating deamon at all times, and summon a deamon pet which is useful although not overly powerful. They have better survivability then the sorc, but notably less DPS. They will likely shine once you get to keep runs where you setup inside a small space and make a wall which is hard to pass by in a choke point. They are very fun however if looking for a good nuker, and get some decently strong close combat attacks to fend off attackers if needed (and it will as you stand out in PvP on that disk so every witch hunter and warrior priest will charge you).

Sorceress is quickly becoming one of my favorites to play given the extreme dps they can put out. They are the true glass cannon for the realm and get squished a LOT. The good news is about 70% of the time it is actually yourself that gets to kill you. Their mechanic is based off building up dark magic. Each spell you cast builds up a bit of dark magic, and if you let it build to 100 it has a chance to backlash you. This equates to a few hundred points of damage 50% of the time you cast at 100 dark magic, however you gain 50% increased crit and 100% increased crit damage, so if you can maintain it you can demolish things. You also get a spell to discharge yourself onto a target if you feel the need not to kill yourself or the healer is screaming too badly.

I was getting Pounded by the Wizards in the PQ. Ouchie!

Chosen will be my main - shared with my son though......so if you see me on before 10 pm.....be prepared for 3rd grade antics!! I definitely don't plan on a defensive spec with him though.

I plan on leveling 2 though - second will either be a Shammy, DOK or Zealot.....Definitely a healer variety, but I'm leaning towards a more offensive oriented type - i want a toon with some range.....so quite possibly the shammy.