It's Over! Sept 12, 2004, 9:10PM EST
Nintendo Guru reporting in just minutes after the end of the World of
Warcraft stress test. We had a gigantic party in Stormwind in the last
half hour of the test. Alcohol was flowing, blizzards were crashing,
fireworks were flying, clothes were being shed, and there was much
dancing and dueling in the street. What a blast!
I can now give my impressions of the game. Since this is my first MMORPG,
I and many other people had to get used to the whole concept of aggro, so
there was a learning curve, but it's manageable if you learn to play
conservatively instead of throwing everything you have at one monster and
then having an add come from behind and kill you.
The Classes!
Warrior: The primary damage dealer, tanker, and aggro handler. I found
him quite boring to tell the truth. I don't want to be the one who
handles the aggro and tanks the monsters. I want to deal damage and kill
stuff! A must have in your party, as long as I'm not playing him.
Rogue: Now this is my type of guy. The rogue couldn't care less about
aggro. He's focused on one thing: Getting monsters dead as quickly as
possible. It's possible to play him two ways. You can use heavy hitting
moves that sap a lot of energy but end a fight very quickly (great for a
party), or you can play like the Assassin from Diablo 2 - doing charge
and release patterns with combo point builders and finishing moves (great
for soloing). Personally I love to backstab things. I'm definitely making
one of these guys come retail.
Paladin: Party is this guy's middle name. Most of his skills are tuned to
assisting teammates, so he should be played as such. He's also a very
solid melee dealer and tanker, making him a great solo class as well.
Mage: The ultimate burninator! Since he can make his own food and water,
a mage can stay in the field indefinitely. He can deal massive amounts of
damage over long periods of time, but if you do it constantly, you're
going to draw mad aggro and get squished for lack of defense. A great
character to solo with, just be careful in parties.
Warlock: Probably the hardest character to play. Like the mage, he's
fragile yet powerful, but to make it more of a challenge, he can only
sustain himself with the help of soul shards. Having a pet is a must.
More likely to be better in a party than solo.
Hunter: I only played this guy to level 7, so I didn't get to experience
his pets, but I can say this about him. He excels at ranged attacks, but
sucks at melee range. This groups him with the warlock and mage as a
nuking class - a character who stands back and deals long-distance
damage. A nice addition to a team.
Druid: Lots of people dislike the druid, but I think he's one of the most
balanced characters there is. He's a jack of all trades, but a master of
none. He can heal like a priest, tank like a warrior, sneak like a rogue,
and nuke like a shaman, however every one of those classes can do a
better job than he can. Still, this doesn't make the Druid useless, as
his versatility makes him able to fill any spot in a party's needs at a
moment's notice. He's also a decent solo player.
Shaman: The paladin of the Horde. This guy is good with melee, good with
nuke spellcasting and healing, and his totems provide ample team support.
However he can't wear plate mail, which gives the paladin an advantage in
defense. A good soloer and good party member.
Priest: Saving the best for last. This is my favorite class. Why? At
first I was skeptical, thinking the priest is only good as a healer and
can't deal the damage. Turns out he CAN deal the damage with some pretty
powerful nuke spells, making him a viable soloer. Combine that with the
best healing spells in the game and you get a must-have party player.
Healing an entire party takes some micromanagement skills, including not
overdoing it such that you end up drawing aggro. But if you can do it
well, your group can take on monsters a few levels higher than you
without much difficulty. This will be my main character at retail.
The Graphics!
Absolutely gorgeous. You have to play with every race just to see the
variety in the landscapes. Even then, you get more eyecandy when you go
exploring. Griffon rides are a treat.
The Quests!
The meat of the game is questing, since you get lots of money and most of
your experience this way. This is where I have some gripes. Too many
quests involve killing a certain number of a monster or collecting a body
part of said monster. Sure it gives you XP, but it gets repetitive and
boring quickly.
What's worse than that, though, is that when you're not on a quest,
you're usually wasting time. If you kill 10 of a monster and then wander
into town and talk to yonder guard, he'll tell you to kill 10 more, and
your previous effort meant nothing but some copper pieces and paltry
experience. Case in point. I had to kill some troll whelps in a cave in
Coldridge Valley. I wiped out the head troll while I was at it. When I
walked triumphantly back into town, NOW he tells me that the head troll
has a precious item that he needed. So yep, I had to go back in and kill
all the whelps and big bad troll all over again just to get the quest
item from him. It would be nice if quest items popped up outside the
quest but you wouldn't know it was a quest item if you didn't have the
quest. That way you can simply sell the item for cash, or walk up to
yonder guard, get the quest, and say "What? You want 10 Whipplemire Hawk
Earlobes? I've already got 20 of em in my bag!"
Also, none of your quests have any visible impact upon the game. As a
taruen druid I had to wipe out a Venture company invading the land, with
their headquarters in a mine. After routing the entire company and their
leader, you would think that you can walk away victoriously and the land
would be free of the company. Nope, they just respawn and wreak more
havoc. I realize that it would be impossible to customize the game for
each individual player depending on what they have or have not done and
still keep it a MMORPG. But you can always wish for a better answer.
Overall!
I've been waiting for three years to get a hands-on glimpse of this game,
and after a week and a half of play, I'm satisfied. It's still buggy in
the state I saw it in, but you can see the sheer amount of content that
is there and all you have to do is go out and get it. And get it I will.
Current Mood: 
satisfiedCurrent Music: Tenth Planet - Ghosts 
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