Alright,
I remain unsold so I will start with a basic review of the game for those debating. To start with I tried Beta a little and was not star struck, but maintain it is a beautiful game, the UI is clean however you do lose SA whenever you access basically any submenu, and the overall "feel" is very much an elder scrolls game. That being said lets cover the basics:
Combat: getting used to the controls is a bit tricky for those who didn't play AoC, but you have a standard look cursor like most console RPG's it's your targeting device and turning, the combat is fluid and effective, but I highly suggest scrolling your view out to third person both for pve and pvp situational awareness. Other than that 5 button hot bar, with a two bonus slots for ultimate abilities and quick slot items. Skills are based on your preferences for weapons and class and you do build your own bars (unlike some free to plays). Skills are standard RPG; aoe, dot, hot, ranged, etc...nothing cosmic though it gets a little better due to...
Skills: Each class has three skill lines, each skill has a "morph" giving you a choice on how to progress that skill with an additional effect, they can be respecced but are costly. After class skills, you have weapon skills (every class gets the option to train all weapons) and armor skills (same all classes can train whatever they like), this gives ample specialization and customization, I would expect nothing less from Elder Scrolls...be that heavy armor dual wielding mage! You also have a tree of guild skills (mages, fighters, and undaunted) with more passives and actives. Your race also has a race skill tree and there's world skills, crafting skill trees, and PvP skill trees...there's roughly 300 ish skill points in game so you can't cap them all, but you have a world of options. Skill points come from all sorts of places (leveling is 1, pvp level is 1, some quests, story line, skyshards, etc) Overall so much customization it will drive you nuts and will make for some great end game imho, could also be a good gold sink trying to get through content, also makes easy target spotting in PvP a pain, is that a tank or a healer...who knows depends on spec...
PvE: Standard, run quests, get rewards, profit
Crafting: not a quick process to level and takes skill points but from what I've seen so far will likely yield BiS gear for most and again lots of options. you can focus fire one or two and fiddle with all, completely up to you. Material farming is standard although you can "salvage" for you old DAoC folks which gives mats and skill experience.
PvP: HUGE area, long travel times, death removes you from the fight as punishment, due to the death punishment tactics actually play a role even in zerg vs zerg (unlike GW2 imho) area is large enough that small groups and solo have fun as well, I was surprised the feeling I got in this area, I have loved every second I've participated so far even as solo, xp is slow out there, rewards are good for the local quests, but very fun and can give bonus to PvE content like DAoC relics...not to mention more skill points to earn and new skill trees to unlock.
Overall, I see what they are selling, though I'm still not sure I'm sold, very impressive game, seems to have a good support crew for bugs and what not (though there's still a few bugged quests). Progression feels right for a casual, and the quests leads to a feeling of exploration on a very large scale map.
Happy to answer questions from a noobs perspective, taking my time and seeing what they are trying to convince me to pay 15 dollars a month for, we'll see at the beginning of may lol.
JJ
Mon Apr 14, 2014 5:26 pm
