PW+
September 7, 2008
As Preview Weekend+ sails on out of modern history and we usher in the fabled Open Beta (see its claws, how it slavers!), I wanted to comment on a couple notes from my Saturday evening experience:
- For all of the bugs and issues that 4.1 fixed, there are still a hefty assortment of problems, including, but not limited to: the “target not attackable” bug, crashes to desktop (I had two and a guildie reported at least one), much much slower leveling XP curve that has players rankled, and a weird little renown trainer bug where it wouldn’t refund me points I put into tactics.
- I’m also getting some nasty frame rate/lag at times, which really shouldn’t be.
- Some of the Tome entries/unlocks are bugged and don’t click through the way they should.
- Got a huge variety of titles to choose from — I went with Syp the Green for a while, then Syp the Stonewalled.
- The Black Orc has grown on me, the big fella. I’m not sure if its his commanding stature, his awesome assortment of armor bits, or his growly excitement at being in the midst of battle. He genuinely feels like a real character to me, not just an avatar. I might have to roll one of these again. I got him up to rank 7 RR 7, a net gain of two of each ranks on Saturday.
- Good laugh — I saw a goblin cooking something in a pot, and there was a foot sticking out of the liquid, swirling around as he stirred.
- Dyes are terrific fun! I put a sort of metallic powder blue on my armor.
- I got into a lot more scenarios, which was terrific (Gates of Ekrund). Healers are almost impossible for a lowbie tank to take out, but I gave it an honest shot. If nothing else, I felt good knowing that I kept him from healing someone else.
- Some of the battles got incredibly chaotic in a visual sense, when you had 4-6 people packed together, casting spells and whatnot. Sometimes it was incredibly hard to see, aka “The City of Heroes Effect”.
Waaagh! A Warhammer Online Blog 
I’m pretty certain that the slower XP curve is what they intended for release; fast leveling is a beta-thing for many games.
Look at it this way: it’ll give you more time to fill tome unlocks while you’re not chickened =)
As much as i’d love to see the good, the bad and the ugly side of war, the european website is bugged, a good potion of us can’t make OB acounts or download the update…very disapointing start for a game that launches 11 days ><
On not being able to kill healers as a tank – don’t really expect that to change. You’re not a melee DPS, and so your damage is not likely to be good enough. Your main job when it comes to killing healers seems to be to apply a whole heap of snares and then hope some clued on melee DPS comes and pushes you over the threshold to killing the healer.
I’m pretty sure that once people figure out their roles in the game, the tank’s place is usually going to be in the centre of the battleground – keeping all the melee DPS away from your squishy healers, throwing challenges and taunts, and just generally being a nuisance. If your team are clued on, you can probably leave killing the healers for the DPS to handle, maybe just throwing a knockdown into the works.
I’ve been in the beta for awhile and one of the most distressing things I have witnessed was the crash to desktop problem. It really worried me. I haven’t had that problem with 4.1 so far. *Phew*