In a State of the Game address last week, Mythic Entertainment general manager Mark Jacobs revealed that a whole mess of updates is on its way to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning this fall. Of note, the company head said that it would be reintroducing two playable classes--the Dark Elf Black...
In a State of the Game address last week, Mythic Entertainment general manager Mark Jacobs revealed that a whole mess of updates is on its way to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning this fall. Of note, the company head said that it would be reintroducing two playable classes--the Dark Elf Black Guard and the Empire Knight of the Blazing Sun--that were cut from the final version of the game shortly before its September launch due to quality concerns.
;)
The two heavy fighters were half of the four total classes cut from the game, with the other two being the Dwarven Hammerer and Greenskin Choppa. In an interview with Eurogamer today, Jacobs confirmed that one of the two outstanding classes will also return to the game in the not-too-distant future, and one most likely will not.
"Well, one of them we hope to put back in," said Jacobs. "I can't tell you which yet, that's a surprise. We're probably going to be replacing one and putting in another class in its place. But we'll be talking about that in a few months."
Jacobs went on to further explain the rationale behind removing the four classes in July. "When we cut them out, one of the things we said is that if we can't make those classes great, we're not putting them back in. One of the careers, we just couldn't get great. We're not going to put it in just so we can go, 'See guys, we put it back in.' If it's not great, it doesn't belong in the game. There will still be four going back in, it just won't be necessarily the same four."
For more on Warhammer Online, check out GameSpot's full review.
Tom Magrino has covered the games industry since 2006. He's been compared to Steve Martin by Ozzy Osbourne and Daniel Craig by Tim Schafer. His voice, heard largely on GameSpot's podcast, recalls that of Kermit the Frog. It ain't easy bein' Magreen.
Awesome. I can't believe people still like WoW. Especially with those LOOOONG downtimes. Yesterday i resumed my account and I couldn't get into my server the whole day. Blizzard is just a nerd-piggy bank. Bunch of WoW nerds+Blizzard=Blizzard's easy cash.
I'm perplexed by you people who are complaining about the grind in WaR. You went back to WoW because of the grind? rofl. You can RvR, solo-quest, or do public quests ALL for xp. It's true that the game is currently underpopulated on most servers. Yet, that will be fixed. You think ONLY doing repetitive, monotonous solo-quests in WoW is any better? Mythic came up with some really great ideas to ease the grind. Like giving XP for PvP. When wow came out, there wasn't even ANY pvp. Just ganking. Furthermore, you have over 20 scenarios throughout the game, as opposed to THREE in WoW. I don't know about you but I'm not a huge fan of doing AB, AV, or WSG millions of times over. This is a no-brainer.
I parked my WaR subscription as well. I loved PQ's but if no one is around then they can become side road obstacles that now must be passed. I found the PVE content to be pretty thin, the best/efficient way to level is RvR battlegrounds - you get multiple advantages, Realm exp, regular exp, far far better loot drops (from looting enemy players bodies), exp builds towards Armor Sets, etc. Problem is that I found the battle grounds to be annoying and quickly felt like grind fests. Auto leveling players to help even the balance is nice but its still not enough to keep it fun/fair. Having 3+ levels plus abilities and then gear.... nope not balanced at all. You experience this first hand when you wade though opposing players as they desperately try to kill you 4v1 and fail... As you and other players keep storming the beaches over and over in RvR maps, only in the end feels static and dull, a realm exp feeding trough. At around 20th level the exp gains slow way down - more time investment per level. Normally I would not mind this but WaR is built for endgame. Much like Dark age of Camelot. From this view point spending a lot of time leveling feels, well like a waste of time as you eagerly keep peering at 40th wondering "When". The one part I did really like and still do was keep sieges, being in a mass zerg rush at a keep, while players defend it is good fun as long as you keep keep the hordes on both sides rolling. Keeping it fair and fun for all. Storming a keep with just NPC boss defenders is ok but its far more fun when enemy players come in to spice up the action. Lastly for some fun I did see some Slaanesh priests at the big city of evil... hmm. They looked really cool with their rope whip hairdo's and tattoos. Also in the collectors art books saw more of the same demo art. If they ever add that group as a playable class, that would definitely get my attention for a few months of leveling at least. I was thinking they would be like an enchanter class in EQ1. Buffs, debuffs, brain candy for the casters etc. Being a cloth wearing class they would need illusions or mirage to keep their survivability up. Lastly have them doing some kind of Slaanesh inspired dance with incense lol. Good fun! I will keep my eye on WaR info but in the mean time I reactivated old scratch for WotLK. : ) The old rule still applies... in MMO's content is king. Without it, feels too thin for that amount of time investment.
Also quit playing. The game had so much potential, probably has the worst grind I have had to endure in a game. It is either Grind Scenarios, Grind Influence(since PQs are dead) or Grind horrible quest XP. This leaves you pretty much grinding only Scenarios since the rest of the game is a ghost town. I haven't looked this forward to a game in a long time. Major letdown.
I quited this game, because of the stuttering, the dull pve, low population and lots of bugs. What a disapointment this game was for me... I intend to go back a few months from now, but only when (at least) the stuttering effect is corrected. What a shame...
I don't know about you guys, but I have already stoped playing this game. I think there isn't enough RvR to keep me coming back, and I have to quest and do scenarios over and over to lvl up. It's so annoying when you're heading towards an objective and see one enemy player that's 5 levels higher and you can't do anything, just wait for him to go away. I'm tired of this kind of games. Don't even think about WoW, for me it's a joke. Guess I'll just have to wait for Darkfall.
They should Re-...review games that have major patches. That one patch could change your whole gaming experience, i.e. Dark Messiah.
My beef with WAR, WoW, DAOC, EQ, and the majority of other fantasy based MMO's is the lack of creativity in questing. Kill x (4,8,12), move to a new area, rinse and repeat. It's such a mindless way to play a game. With Burning Crusade it seems like all they really did was slap on 10 more levels, and I was out killing 12x hellboars all over again. I mean, come on!? They honestly think gamers are that clueless? Do they just have a random quest generator that says insert "Boar, condor, bear, furbolg, naga, whelpling, etc." With Kill X= 4,8,12,16 and spit the quest out? Until game creators come up with a varied and less stale formula for MMO's, I think people are going to start seeing through that. Adding more classes that have to grind through the same stuff isn't appealing. Expansions that carry the grind on for 10 more levels don't make me want to come back.
"No, I think you misunderstood, Fexxe. The Empire Knight of the Blazing Sun, and the Black Guard classes will definitely be implemented. The situation is that they'd like to add 1 extra, making it three additions this fall, however this one extra class might be introduced in order to replace one of the current ones. Whether or not they'll add it as a replacement or addition is yet to be decided. So three new classes will regardless be added." Nope you missunderstood too m8ty :) There will be four classes implemented the black guard and Knight of the Blazing Sun this Winter, and then 2 more later one of which will be either a hammerer or a choppa(the one not selected will axed completely) and 1 completely unknown class.
One mark of a great MMO designer is how little you notice the grind. I played DAoC and definitely noticed the grind. I saw through the thin skin to the gears in the machine and that's when it lost me. One reason I've been so impressed with WoW is how little I notice the grind. The low drop rates of some quest items hurt that immersion, but for the most part it's a pleasure for me, not a pain. I tried WAR and once again just saw right through the interface to the gears behind and am no longer interested in the game. IMO, the graphics aren't impressive, the quests aren't immersive, the classes lack internal variety, and it's still unpolished. I know it's not fair to expect WAR to be as polished as WoW, but in order for WAR to get any more of my money, it has to be better than WoW in more areas than it's worse than WoW, and right not, WAR isn't that good yet.
on top of that, Dark Elves are underpowered when compared to say Highelves who have healers, tanks, dps, more dps, rangers, some more dps with a side order of pet aiding halberds...what do dark elves get 3 DPS...one of which heals when he is having a tea break from putting to swords into someones trachea, Tanks are what we need...and we will get tanks...or ill have to prod someone with a poo on a stick
WoW just keeps bringing newer and better content, especially with the WOTLK coming out in less than a month, it's gonna be untouchable, i might try WAR in the future but i can already tell it's not gonna get me hooked like WoW.
I have to say that i was surprised they cut the black guard...they loved them in the interview saying "Black guard, you get a bunch of Elves feed them meat and spinach then give them super cool emo leather and metal armour and the most badass weapon you can find and teach them something like if its not on the floor in 3 pieces then its not dead so keep hacking." Hope you get them back.
If they would have had the black guard at launch I would have bought the game. Too late now!
"I got sick of WoW and it's "grindiness". After 4 days of WaR I was even more disappointed. If all MMO's can do is force players to grind (mindlessly) through PvE or PvP combat, I'm taking a break from all of them. Something actually innovative has to come along eventually." Time sinks are the heart of all MMOs, so I wouldn't expect that grinding feeling to go away any time soon. It'd be best for you to take a long break, if that's really how you feel.
"If they had a class that enabled you to load in less 10 minutes, much less 30-45 minutes I would play it exclusively. Until then...count me out for another 4 months." What, are you on dial-up or something? Does your PC meet the required specs? Even though I chose to stick with WoW, one thing for sure, this was definitely not a problem with WAR.
Glad to see they're dedicated to making each class "great", but in the end I am too bored to come back and play simply because of 2 new classes. This game was fun for 2-3 hours, then I fell asleep because RvR is only enjoyable if it's a secondary part of the game. Then again, I'm biased as all crap.
AncientDozer: I know the dwarves are bound to have something to make them travel faster (like the other races). Why not a long distance running skill? Dwarves have runners in the role playing game (the pen & paper version).
I tried Warhammer, and I liked it and would of stuck with it if it wasn't for the horrible EA Customer Service that I had to deal with.. game kept crashing my entire computer.. only game to ever do that.. the tech support didn't even read my complaint they just cut and pasted like 4 different options to fix a problem that wasn't my problem.. then they never responded again. Cancelled and going back to WoW. =\
I got sick of WoW and it's "grindiness". After 4 days of WaR I was even more disappointed. If all MMO's can do is force players to grind (mindlessly) through PvE or PvP combat, I'm taking a break from all of them. Something actually innovative has to come along eventually.
I can't wait for the Black Guard, which I say every day while playing either my High Elf tank or my Dark Elf healer.
Added content is always nice. Even though I dont play War and WoW those two are still good games. But personally I dont like them.
Ejkoenig, Anyone actually stupid enough to go back to WoW after playing WAR... Well, don't even really need to finish that.
I disagree, Rash. It was the only logical direction they could go. Something mechanical. Dwarfs are not made to ride beasts of burden. Goat, ram, horse, lizard. It doesn't matter. A dwarf's legs are too short. The only things they ride are machines or shields carried by others.
I think that they mentioned hammerer's transformation to slayer. Mohawk! and Choppa is a musr-come back. Didn't play the other two, i wish they also could be in, thou.
I tryed it and after 3 days of playing i just really wasen't satisfied either...Going back to WOW rofl i cant beleave i wasted my money haha.....and has War failed yet haha
I would think they would kill the Hammerer; it just wasn't interesting at all. Slayers are really the only place they can go if they look to replace it, even though playing a Slayer really doesnt make any sense, as Range_Finder pointed out. I just don't see anything Dwarfey left... If they kill the Choppa then they have more options, but everyone at Mythic seemed to like the Choppa, including Mark Jacobs and Paul Barnett. And for HashBrain, at least one Order race has an interesting mount. Sticking to the Warhammer fluff screwed Order mounts with two boring horses, not that they really had options. The only alternatives they had for dwarfs drawn up were a beer tank thing, which is goofy as well, or a more WoW-esque ram or something, neither of which seem preferable...
I sincerely hope they remove all the personal helicopters in the game. It kills the Warhammer feeling. Gyrocopters are experimental not made in manufacturing lines.
Wouldnt it be hard to play as a slayer since they use practically no armour, aren't interested in the usual Dwarf pursuit of gold hoarding or item collecting and spend most of their time looking for something bigger to kill them? Not that slayers arent cool theyre moody and hairy..... kinda like me.
Syzgygy, you misunderstood this article too. They aren't replacing an existing class. They're saying that between the Choppa or the Hammerer, one will not make it into the the game and will be replaced with something else. Nothing is being taken away that we have already.
To tanks back is a godsend for the Empire and Dark Elves, Empire Especially. Also, I am hoping and praying that the Hammerer is getting replaced with a Dwarven Slayer, I want my Mohawk Dwarf DAMNIT!
No, I think you misunderstood, Fexxe. The Empire Knight of the Blazing Sun, and the Black Guard classes will definitely be implemented. The situation is that they'd like to add 1 extra, making it three additions this fall, however this one extra class might be introduced in order to replace one of the current ones. Whether or not they'll add it as a replacement or addition is yet to be decided. So three new classes will regardless be added.
Add as much content as possible, and try to generate as much hype around it as possible, and hope you don't suffer to badly when the new wow is released. I guess that a good strategy.
I will look forward to what classes they choose to put in the game =) I really hope the Black Guard will stay as one of them
If they had a class that enabled you to load in less 10 minutes, much less 30-45 minutes I would play it exclusively. Until then...count me out for another 4 months.
@Swedish Chef Perhaps... but then again, most Destruction tanks are Chosen, which use the same mechanic. And alot of gamers love the human-in-plate-mail characters. The Blackguard will probably look cool, but still fairly girly.
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