Warhammer impressions for WoW players
So I've been playing Warhammer for a few days now. Four days that is, for a few hours a day. For the first day I leveled a Dwarf Engineer to rank 5. The second day I leveled a High Elf Archmage to rank 5. For Saturday and Sunday, I decided to stay with the Archmage and am now rank 14. If you're more familiar with WoW terminology, here's a little guide for you:
Level = "Rank"
Battleground = "Scenario"
Raid = "Wargroup"
There are a couple of things I appreciate about Warhammer that I think WoW should steal in order to make their game better.
1. You don't have to run to a battlemaster to queue for a battleground. In Warhammer, you can queue for a "Scenario" by clicking on a link on your minimap. When the scenario is available, you can teleport directly into it, and when it's over you get teleported directly back to where you were. The great thing about this is that you can run around questing, kill mob #5 out of 10, go play a scenario, and then jump right back to where you were and kill mob #6 and keep questing. No waiting around in town.
2. A level 12 healer can kill a level 18 tank. In RvR scenarios, you can have rank 12s fighting rank 21s and they don't get completely owned. The biggest advantage a higher ranked character might have is a larger selection of spells, and any bonuses they could get from better gear. Plus, level 20 characters get mounts... but it's not an "IWIN" advantage like it would be in WoW.
On the downside, Warhammer's graphics feel like an updated DAoC. It's not as pretty as Korean MMOs nor does it feel as smooth as WoW's simpler graphics. That being said, the game looks nice, but I think a lot of the details get missed because things are moving too fast. It's like the difference between plain bold text and beautiful caligraphy. The caligraphy is more detailed but sometimes you have to stare at it for a moment to figure out what it says. Bold text lets you get the whole picture in the blink of an eye. I think WoW graphics are like bold text and Warhammer is more like caligraphy with loops and swirls added in unnecessarily. I don't even know what a Squigherder really looks like and I've been battling them for three days straight.
I think Warhammer has good staying power though. I doubt it will ever get as big as WoW, but it could hold up as a number two MMO. The real test will come when WotLK comes out.
Level = "Rank"
Battleground = "Scenario"
Raid = "Wargroup"
There are a couple of things I appreciate about Warhammer that I think WoW should steal in order to make their game better.
1. You don't have to run to a battlemaster to queue for a battleground. In Warhammer, you can queue for a "Scenario" by clicking on a link on your minimap. When the scenario is available, you can teleport directly into it, and when it's over you get teleported directly back to where you were. The great thing about this is that you can run around questing, kill mob #5 out of 10, go play a scenario, and then jump right back to where you were and kill mob #6 and keep questing. No waiting around in town.
2. A level 12 healer can kill a level 18 tank. In RvR scenarios, you can have rank 12s fighting rank 21s and they don't get completely owned. The biggest advantage a higher ranked character might have is a larger selection of spells, and any bonuses they could get from better gear. Plus, level 20 characters get mounts... but it's not an "IWIN" advantage like it would be in WoW.
On the downside, Warhammer's graphics feel like an updated DAoC. It's not as pretty as Korean MMOs nor does it feel as smooth as WoW's simpler graphics. That being said, the game looks nice, but I think a lot of the details get missed because things are moving too fast. It's like the difference between plain bold text and beautiful caligraphy. The caligraphy is more detailed but sometimes you have to stare at it for a moment to figure out what it says. Bold text lets you get the whole picture in the blink of an eye. I think WoW graphics are like bold text and Warhammer is more like caligraphy with loops and swirls added in unnecessarily. I don't even know what a Squigherder really looks like and I've been battling them for three days straight.
I think Warhammer has good staying power though. I doubt it will ever get as big as WoW, but it could hold up as a number two MMO. The real test will come when WotLK comes out.