Large Warhammer Patch In December, Two New Classes

Eurogamer reports on an announcement from Mythic CEO Mark Jacobs regarding the future of Warhammer Online. Jacobs said the first big content patch will be coming in December, and it will contain two new classes, the Black Guard and the Knight of the Blazing Sun. These are two of the four classes lost to the pre-launch content cuts. A number of other changes are on their way as well. "The Knight of the Blazing Sun is described as a tactical leader using Battlefield Commands, while the Black Guard is simply 'the embodiment of hatred and disdain.' The arrival of the two new careers will mean that every race in the game has a damage-taking tanking archetype. Of the originally planned careers, only the Dwarf Hammerer and Greenskin Choppa, both melee damage-dealers, will remain on the cutting room floor."

Comments

It's perfect

[Dracil]

In Novemeber people can go back to WotLK, then in December they can come back to WAR. Maybe Blizzard will offer something big and new in January.

Re:It's perfect

[Endo13]

Warhammer is definitely a good game, no doubt about it. I preordered, played open beta, and was right there at release. Judging by my short experience in open beta, I figured the game was going to be a keeper. But there's one huge problem with the game, that you don't really discover until you've been playing a few weeks/months. There comes a day when you just want to take a break from the leveling/questing/PvP and do some lazy work.. like crafting, fishing, or shoot the bull in town with a few dozen other players. The problem is, all those little time-wasters are completely AWOL. There's nothing even remotely like fishing, and the crafting system... is mostly useless, what little there is of it. And nobody uses public chat channels. I mean nobody. In WoW, if you ask a question you'll at least get a smart-ass response. In WAR, you get nothing. It's like there's no one else even in the game. Even dungeons are sparse. So at end-game that leaves literally with nothing but PvP, and so far it hasn't struck me really as being significantly better than what you get in WoW. Scenarios are nothing new, and that's what most players are doing right now because it's the fastest way to gain renown and XP. There's 'real world PvP' aka RvR where you attack or defend keeps, but that's mostly like AV with uneven sides. And talk about PvP grinds. WoW has nothing on WAR for grinding. I saw a forum post where someone did some quick calculations, and it will take an average player (20 hours per week doing scenarios) over 1 year to grind the renown needed for the best PvP gear.

The skills are also all mostly just slight variations of what WoW has. Yeah, there's knockback, which to be honest is more annoying than useful. And WoW has that now too, in the form of a balance druid talent.

So if you like to run BGs and/or attack/defend keeps all day, Warhammer is the game for you. If you like other little fun things to mix it up, better stick with WoW.

Everything I hated about WoW

[dj245]

WAR addresses everything I didn't like about WOW. You can queue for Battlegrounds (scenarios) anywhere. When you are done, you are returned to where you left off. You can hook up with random people and do public quests easilly and quickly. These are basically uninstanced mini-dungeons. Gold farming isn't very useful, since I have yet to find a use for all the gold I have collected (still level 18 though). They also seem to be stamping down on the gold sellers pretty hard. You get comparable XP for PVE and PVP. Its NOT a giagantic time-sink, but its fun to play. Tactics and skill matter much more than gear. In PVP areas and battlegrounds, levels are boosted for low-level characters so skill can matter more than level.

The only things I don't like are there seem to be too many classes. Since I haven't played all of them, I can't look at a character and always tell what it is, much less know their weaknesses. I also wish I could play level 1-10 PVP scenario maps after level 10. Some of these maps make me want to keep creating characters just to play them. The game lacks a little polish, and character animations seem low quality for the amount of CPU/GPU power my system has. Some of this I expect to be corrected in time. Its still a very new game.

YMMV

[Moraelin]

1.Well, first of all, you have to realize that everyone has different tastes. So what someone likes, someone else might hate, and viceversa.

So for some people it apparently was all that, especially, I gather, those whose online life revolved around PvP. For me it most certainly didn't. I don't find it to be a horrible game, mind you, but it did feel unfinished and... well, it _is_ a PvP game, no matter how much the devs and publisher insist that PvP is purely optional. _Technically_ it is, but it's about on par saying that distributing your talent points is optional on WoW. If you're content with being a second class citizen, they are.

_I_ have no interest whatsoever in PvP, so my interest in WAR is also diminished. Being interested in only their PvE game, I found it smaller and relatively less interesting than WoW, plus marred by the fact that you _will_ be a second class citizen without PvP. (They even have the equivalent of talents earned with PvP.) On the other hand, I guess someone whose whole life revolves around PvP, might appreciate having less filler around the PvP part.

I don't even see it as necessarily a bad thing. PvP and PvE _are_ largely different games, so it stands to reason that they could be better catered for by different MMOs. Maybe Blizzard can start caring less about pleasing the PvP-ers if they fuck off to WAR, and stop messing with the PvE balance to PvP ends, for example.

2. If you want a bigger picture, I'm affraid it's too early to say. Bear in mind that it takes time for the flux of players back and forth to stabilize. And we didn't even have one month since WAR's release yet, to see how many remain after the free month expires.

People have been saying the exact same about Dungeons And Dragons Online, Lord Of The Rings Online, Age Of Conan, and even Tabula Rasa. Each time we had doom prophets heralding the coming of the WoW-slayer, and swearing that as soomn as <NEXT GAME> comes out everyone and their dog is swearing off WoW for good. You don't even have to scroll too far back through the Slashdot archive to still find the masses of disgruntled WoW-ers swearing that AOC is all that, and then some. It hasn't quite happened so far.

Maybe WAR _is_ all that, maybe it isn't, and I'm not going to be the one who proclaims either. I'm just saying that it's too early to tell.

3. And in the end, unless you have shares in either Mythic or Blizzard, does it matter? As I was saying, tastes are subjective. Whether a million people liked their game or whether everyone hated it, is no guarantee that _you_ will do the same. Wait until they offer a 7 day trial or something, and decide for yourself.

Re:YMMV

[Endo13]

Depends on what you are looking for in "PvE". Yes, you can go fight NPC mobs. But then, you can do that in virtually ever PC game ever made that has combat. If you're looking for real MMO PvE content, it's pretty thin in WAR. There's only a handful of dungeons, and from what I could tell in my stint in the game, not many people bother with them since the best gear is from PvP anyway. Good luck finding a group for one. As for PQs, sure there's about 2-3 per pairing, per chapter. So once you get to the final chapter, there's going to be about 6-9 PQ's that offer 'end-game' gear. That might keep you busy for oh, 2-3 weeks if you keep going until you also have the best possible loot from each individual PQ. Your influence will be maxed in a day or two. To say you can "PvE all you want" is just plain wrong. You could spend as much time as you want doing PvE, but 'all you want' also includes plenty of variety in PvE content to keep you happy for a long time. WAR doesn't even come close to offering that. WAR is about RvR, plain and simple. It's the biggest selling point; it's the main goal of the game. To claim anything else is beyond absurd.