The new kid comes to town, but doesn't solve the fundamental MMO problems.
MMOs are very difficult to give a rating to only because it is difficult to explore every single facet of their world in a short period of time. It took me a few years of playing before I could even rate WoW for all it was worth. You may understand, then , that I make any kind of player review with a lot of hesitation. I've played a lot of WAR, but I don't think I really came close to seeing it all.
First off, WAR is a great game and most certainly makes some major improvements in the world of the MMO. Though the character classes fit into the same archetypes that have been around since the stone age, each feels like a very well rounded class with the ability to be self-reliant to one degree or another. Some classes, though, are more self-reliant than others, as always. Healers, most of all the DoK and WP, are probably the most self-reliant for their higher armor, melee damage, and survivability. This is, and always, will be true in any MMO.
However, the wonderful feeling you get form you unique class ends when you play a character that's mirrored in the opposite faction. WPs are mirrored by DoKs, KoTBS are mirrored by Chosen, and so on. It becomes painfully apparent that there's not a whole lot of difference between you and the enemy. In fact, a lot of the mirrored classes share the same exact set of morale abilities and have very similar skills that essentially do the same thing with different names and descriptions. This makes the appeal of rolling a character class in the opposite faction drop dramatically. I rolled a WP to begin with and dabbled into the DoK, for example. When I learned that the DoK functioned in basically the exact manner, all appeal to have two of the exact same healers that just looked different... well it was gone. I think it's worth to call Mythic out on the fact that they advertise (now) 24 unique classes that aren't really unique.
They do this for balance issues, of course. They want every player to have the same ability as their adversaries and have the same shot in winning Mythic's prize feature, RVR. In theory, yeah! But, as is and forever shall be, destruction drew in the best players and order is continuously tromped. Into the ground. Constantly. I mean the only time you can win against Destruction on many servers is in the middle of the day when all the Destruction players are at work or at school, and only a few stragglers are logged in. This was true with WoW too and the horde. This is true with any PvP or RvR game. Bad guys always win! I have to admit, I'm a really good player too. There's no doubt in my mind, I definatly rank up there with skilled players who consistently side with the good guys. I'm surrounded, however, by fools. Fools are always drawn to the 'prettier' races and fail at life miserably! I hate them all!
Some of the credit for this falling goes to Mythic, however. My god, they plugged the awesomeness of the Destruction army like there was no tomorrow, glorifying it into godhood. The same, throughout the game's development, was not done for Order. Paul Barnett, though I think he's fantastic, was the face for this failing and even though he called much of the Order classes "cool", Destruction classes got "they're cool and they're better than everyone else and I think they're fantastic". Who do you think more people will be inclined to play as? The better promoted ones. Exactly.
WAR also doesn't solve one of the fundamental problems of an MMO: GRINDING. It's no so much the levels in this game, because I honestly thought they were fast and easy to get through, but the other aspects like gear grinding, renown grinding, and infamy grinding. Infamy grinding is a prt of the loot system set up for PQs. If you want the best loot available, you gotta get the infamy for it. I will say PQs are WONDERFUL things that add a lot of flavor tot he game, but they are often empty of players and interest, making the solo player grind on his own for the first few stages. Gear grinding will ALWAYS be a problem, I don't know how anyone will ever get beyond it, but renown grinding is by far the WORST. Holy crap. Some of the greatest gear is in obtaining higher renown ranks. To get there is an absolute chore. It's terrible. It takes forever. It's the same maps, with the same players, with Order losing all the time, and a crawling forward to getting one piece of gear every few levels.Did I mention it takes forever? Oh, I'm sure there's plenty of Destruction players who just zoom through it, given that they win all the time, but the Order guys are left with 100 renown out of a possible 3000 after every battle. I couldn't stand doing it. The alternative, however, was Infamy and dungeons, which was just another form of grinding. Ouchers....
Back to the PQs, I do want to say that I adore them despite their faults. The PQ is an open world dungeon, basically, that anyone can join in at any time and take part in very cool plot and boss battles. A lot of the time you can pull out some nice gear as well, and of course the infamy rewards back in town aren't too shabby. Again, you gotta grind the PQs to get there and many times you're gonna be doing it on your own as many people are ranking up so fast that they don't stick around for long.
I just want to point out also, as a matter of personal preference, the LONG text descriptions of simple quests are really annoying. I mean, WAR has some main story-line quests that are really fun and interesting and tie into the next zone or chapter and are worth reading, but they are also mixed in with a lot of little grab and run quests that are pure nonsense to read through. It makes the game drag a bit and, personally, turned me off from reading anything at all.
RVR is a magnificent thing as well. Taking keeps, when you can take them, and fighting it out is a hell of a lot of fun. It's probably the aspect of the game I enjoyed most. However, it has its drawbacks, especially since you can sloe a keep moments after you claim it if you and your war band just happen to walk away when an enemy war band comes riding by and many times... well... Destruction armies outnumber Order and trump attempts to take keeps and zerg any defenses. Eh...
Another great thing about WAR are the live events. These events provide a chance to get together with just about everyone, take part in dungeons, PQs, and other fun, and get rewarded for it. The themes are original and typically lead to some sort of expansion in the game. There's been an event for the addition of the KoTBS and BG, there's going to be one for the Slayer and Choppa, there was a Halloween one, a new years one.... all sorts of stuff. Very fun.
The crafting system... sucks. There's no other way around it. However the economy is super strong and there is very little emphasis on money and auctioning. You won't be dependent on people making potions or enchanting items, and there's not a whole lot of long term value to items players make anyway. Therefore, there's no one hording money and even if there was there wouldn't be much to buy that a player soloing couldn't afford anyway.
Overall, though the game is great, it feels unfinished. It feels like it was released a year too early and I think the fault of an early release really falls on us as players NAGGING Mythic to death. There was a lot of polish that could have been added to the game that wasn't, but even more that was. My gut feeling is mixed in this regard. My life lesson here is to avoid buying an MMO until a year after it has been out and polished with thousands of players already entwined. This might also be my last fantasy MMO. I can only do this so many times before getting bored, after all. Grinding is no longer a luxury I can afford.