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Quick Pro's AND cons of DAoC.
Hybrid-Lord
Member Posts: 110
Well, i've been looking for a game to stick to for quite some time now, DAoC never really hit my eye till i started searching for more games to play, i've been reading alot about it, alot of good info (pro's) so i am getting the demo (14 day trial).
so far, i'm really excited on trying it out, but, of all games, i like to see both sides, pro's and con's.
truthfully, con's make a game good aswell, it's how you cope with them that makes em great.
so please, spill the beans, pro's i've heard loads of, i need some con's lol
Comments
the trial requires a CC#, so...
Cons are often dependent on what someone wants out of the game or their perspective. However I will go ahead and tell you the most common complaints.
The biggest issue is 'class balance.' Depending on the class you play, how good you are at it, your equipment will all effect how you view the situation. Someone will say one realm/class is too weak another will say it is too strong.
If you want the latest expansion you must have bought the previous ones. It is not a mix or match deal. They do not force you to ever buy more than the basic game, but some people want the latest expnasion but not last years.
Crafting is long and boring. It is a huge grind and you really get no benefit out of doing it at low levels. You really need to be max or near max in a trade skill in order to be of use in making items. The economy isn't bad, but it isn't great either. You will never have problems equipming your character so do not worry about that. However there is supposed to be a huge patch coming late this year working on crafting and economy issues.
Some people think you need a second account to buff your player in order to compete. It is a common belief but one I think that is totally false.
There is something called Master Levels that give extra abilities. You have to wait until 40 to start those. That an really powerful magicla items called Artifacts people do not like. They think they need this items and abiliites in order to compete, but they do not want to spend the hours it takes of killing mobs and doing quests to get the items.
About the only thing that most people can agree on if the population issue. There are very few people playing character below level 20. This makes getting a group at low levels very dificult. After 20 it gets easier. You will find people below that level but they are people new to the game, playing it for the fun of it, or those who started a new class. This would really be the only thing that would effect anyone furing their first 14 days or month of trying the game.
...I downloaded 1,7 gig for nothing
hmm. well i can do the "paybycash" option, but then i have to pay 3 months right away, and that would kill the whole reason i wanted to play the trail. sigh, and no i dont have a CC... 19, work part time jobs, i dont need one lol
If you are still going to try this game out i have 2 cons for you, the 1st one which has already been said is the balancing of classes espicaly in RvR. My 2nd is that some sears and realms arent very newb friendly as far as the the people who play the game go, not all the people are unhelpfull but in some servers you can find a lot that aren't.
P.S. if you are looking for someone to help you out when you start i play lance and mid my chars name is merhib and im usually olny online on the weekends send me a tell if you decide to go to that server/realm.
Pros:
probably the best PvP out there
Cons:
Leveling is a boring grind
After 3 years it is defintily not too easy to get into this game anymore
PvP in parts unbalanced
PvP requieres a lot of PvM in advance to be competible (several months, if you dont have a guild that helps u with it)
on most servers gank groups with top gear, high realmranks against which normal players (less then 30h online / week) simple cant stand a chance
Publisher releasing sucky rip-off add ons with unbalanced classes and more boring PvM crap where DAoCs' strength is the PvP
For a PvP group of 8 usualy 1-2 Buffbots (extra accounts with a char completly skilled on enhancing other palyers) are standard
Leveling quite frustrating because of buffbots and other tricks a new player has no access to
Used to love this game, but after three years and 2 totally messed up expansions...^^
wow...
okay, so in order for me to get into PvP quick, you guys are saying "get a guild to power lvl you fast" ? lol
sounds neat..
thank you all for your input, i got the demo, so, i'll be trying it out myself.
(got a CC from a friend so i can play ^_^)
If you want to rush to 50 then you will need a lot of help. You can start killing other players at level 1. They have a place called the battlegrounds that you can go to. It is based on your level usually about 4-5 levels limit on each BG. That goes until level 45. It just happens to be that on almost every server not all of them are active. Generally it is level 20-24, 35-39, 40-44 are the most active BG on all of the servers. So you really just need to get to level 20. Level 20 takes about 10-12 hours in game played to get. Maybe since you are new and will be going some other things it will take you up to 20.
If you want to avoid bad players do not play an Alb. If you do play an Alb and you want a high pop server go to Lancelot instead of Merlin.
To level quickly do the tutorial, quests, and then kill tasks. Click on a named guard in your starting town. Hit the "enter" key and type task and then hit enter again. He will tell you to go kill this creature. Kill it and come back. You get money and a lot of exp. Then repeat. It lets you learn where things are, what to kill, and is usually better than just sitting in one spot and killing.
Con on the mobs - grey easy kill so no exp, green very easy and very little exp, blue slightly below level you should be able to kill it and you get decent exp, yellow means at your level and you get good exp for these kills - you actually have a slight chance of death here, orange is what most people kill - it is higher level than you but once you learn what to do you can take these down just as easy as a yellow and give the best exp, red is way above your level and is unlikely you can solo it - if you can you really won't get any more exp than an orange, purple means look to be killed very easy - almost impossle to solo.
So only kill red and purple in a group and remember that not all purples are the same dificultly.
When you click on a mob it will say if it is agressive or not. If it says it is, then it will agro on you if you get close enough.
Well this has also given allot of new ways to level. Now there are enought quest and task to get a level in a day or so without having to find a group or a guild to level you up. You still have to learn how to play the toon though.
Three years is a long time to play anygame. I think there are many people who have been playing DAoC for 5+ years and still like it. Thats testimate that no other game has.
yeah i think poepl having the need to get two accounts for one game is wrong. Need to put more presure on Mythic to allow for better stat buf pots.
Further as far as needing to play 30+ hours a day getting the artifcts and having a high RR as the only way to enjot PvP its just not true.
You can still have fun opayign witht he zerg provided the lag doesn't drive you crazy.
I think the battlegrounds are a blast from lvl 30-45 now. But I always wait til my toon id a couple levels from the max level of each BG. Its also important to get yourself a RR during the 34 or 39 BG. Makes the PvE game easier down the road.
Hehehe, what planet do you live on? on Earth we only have 24h days....
Pros-
-Great gfx with all expansions
-Cheap
-PvP king
-Tons of items
-Tons of classes
-Armor dye
-Fun gameplay
-EXP for killing enemy players (tons of it too) oh and gold
Cons-
-Rather slow combat
-Solo at higher lvls is slow
-Lot of downtime when you die
-Feels dull if you dont have at least the TOA expansion
-
Pro's:
-Best PvP of any game out. The RvR warfare in this game is lightyears ahead of anything I've everplayed. Battlegrounds allow players of all levels to enjoy the RvR aspect of the game. You could just start the game and a few hours later be duking it out in Lion's Den.
-Graphics. They've done a great job of updating the visuals over the years and it's still one of the ebst looking mmorpgs out.
-Tons of classes to choose from. Blows away games like WOW in the class selection department.
-Newbie friendly. The recent changes to the game have made it very friendly to new players.
Cons:
-Buffbots. Still a problem.
-ToA. Trials of Atlantis ruined the game. Though Mythic just conducted a login poll to see what new server type players want and it appears a no-ToA server will be created soon, hurray!
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Introducing FUN, a new guild which will be residing on the upcoming new server!
http://daocfunguild.bravehost.com/index.html
My assessment of the game after 3 years. This game started out as a completely unique experience. They had the best PvP system of any game i had ever tried, and that is one thing i am safe to say has not changed. However there have been several bad adjustments to the game.
Cons
There are some balance issues when it comes to classes, there is no denying that. Mythic has pretty much illed off tanks in RvR with powerful casters. Granted tanks can still compete, just no where near as good as they once could. people also hated the New frontiers expansion pack because it adjusted the focus from map domination to siege warfare. they applied teleporters to get people into the battles faster, this in turn banished much of the ganking that went on, and in a sense ticked off a lot of people simply because they got their jollies off of killing people who didnt have a chance.
The grind to get into RvR is pretty attrocious. as others have said not only do you need your levels and gear, but to truely compete you also need your realm ranks, which add+ 1 to all skills per level. so that realm rank 10 has +10 more bonus skill points in each skill then that level 50 realm rank 1. On top of that mythic released by far the WORST expansion ever, ToA. They claimed it was too add more quests but reallm it helped unbalance the world more. On top of the levels and RR, now you have to also go through your master levels, which are massive quests that require some huges groups to complete at time, in the beginning it was fine there was always someone doing it, but now most of the higer ups have them so the raids dont happen often. On top of those abilities there are artifacts. those are overly powered equipment that a person obtains via hunting for the drop gathering the scroll and completing a quest. after all then you must then level up the weapon. sounds like a lot of work, but once those artifacts get up there in level they become very powerful andmake those who dont have them easy work.
Crafting S U C K S, god it has got to be the most B O R I N G crafting i have ever seen, granted i dont like crafting much, but DAOC has the worst craft i have ever had the unfortunate honor to play, and yea ive tried EQ2, that ones pretty mean too. Basically you spend all your money on materials, there is no gathering. its fine until you get to the higher levels. low levels your pretty much guaranteed to gain a skill point for making the product, but after 500 that stops, and only gets worse. my highest is a 600 fletcher, and after spending TWO HOURS crafting the same product OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER i would end up with a whole 1 skill point. and as it gets higher the costs go up. its not that you dont make the product, you often can fail and not lose materials, its more you make the product, and dont get any experience for it.
Buff bots are a serious problem, and those didnt exist until SI was release.
Housing is boring, every house is a carbon copy really, and gets to be REALLY expensive. personally i was one who looked forward to foundations, and then upon release REALLY hated it. there is no interaction with furniture like there is in wow.
The BIGGEST problem with this game, is the fact that low levels are non-existant. all new comers have a long hard road ahead of them, I used to remember my days of running around albion. there were ALWAYS people in muire, and at shale, and grove nymphs. now those places are pretty barren since they are below level 20, and with a majority of the population at 50, and getting the free level 20s, all new comers have a long hard road, unless they have a guild to powerlevel them, but then they dont learn how to play their character. As much as I myself love and use my level 20s, i really believe that is one feature that needs to be abolished, since it kills the game for any new comers. this is partially why the populations on servers have been so low. There are not enough new players coming in due to the lack of low level community.granted things pick up well after 20, and the catacombs quests help but still a hard road
There are a few more, but they are not really big enough to be a huge impact, these are the more serious issue.
as far as pros.
graphics are pretty decent for a 3 year old game, there are some interesting sound effects, check out the heretics spell sounds. There is a ton of content. after 3 years you would hope. Some of the classes are truely unique, bonedancer warlock vampiir. The most that can be said is to try it, and if you dont like it make sure to cancel
Just wanted to translate this so it would be a little easier for others to understand. This person likes to play tanks. Tanks used to dominate the battle field and used to all hand out in one area in Hibernia called Emain. Hibs used to be forced to walk all the way out there trying to avoid mobs and the enemy realms. Now the focus has changed from meaninless open combat in Emain and ganking of defenseless casters on the way to Emain and instead focuses on the taking of keeps and towers. So tanks can no longer simply charge into a group and kill the casters off and then turn their focus to the tanks. They have to use strategy which is something sorely lacking in all three realms. So everything is focused on distance now. This means archers and casters. This has little to do with any class balance issue, but more because Mythic changed the zones and people are like rats in a maze they've been doing for years - they have failed to adapt. The point is that Mythic did what people asked and it had consquences that a certain aspect of the player base didn't like. You will find that with almost any patch or change that does anything else other than fix bugs you will have someone that complains. Needless to say the classes are pretty much balanced. Maybe some minor tweaking here or there, but that is it.
There is no grind to level anymore. Or maybe I should put it this way, grinding is in the eye of the beholder. If your entire focus is on killing other players at level 50 then anything that keeps you from doing that instantly is considered a grind. To such people I recomend that they go play a FPS. You can find posts of how long it takes. It often depends on how familiar you are with the game and what class you play. But there is an example from another board: 5 days to get to level 50, ML4, RR2, 4 artifacts. I have a character that just hit level 42 last night and is almost to 4 days played. Once you get the hang of the game you can level a character from level 1-50, have a couple ML, RR3, and a couple of artifacts in about 6 days played for most people. This is not unreasonable at all unless you need immediate gratification.
ToA is an expansion that I find proves the irony of the game. People complained about having nothing to do after level 50 except earn money or go do RvR. Mythic realized that and also took into account EQ success at having large scale epic raids. So they tried their own version of all of that. The problem is once you add that into the game then it changes things which pissess people off again. But further in that if Mythic gives a reason for people to do something after level 50 then this means people who do not want too do anything else other than RvR feel the need to do more. This in turn upsets them because instead of killing defensless casters in Emain with their tanks, they are forced to spend more time in PvE. This is one of the casses of the developers being damned either way. If they add it a large amount of people will be upset, and if they didn't they would be ignoring and possibly upseting another large aspect of the player base that has been asking for more to do at 50 besides kill other players. ToA has changed things and is something you should spend a little time in, but it is hardly the balance killer people make it out to be.
Buffbots are not that much of a problem. Buffbots are a symptom of a problem - namely fewer people and no one playing support classes.
The reason there are not a lot of people running around below level 20 is not because of the level command. Why do people assume that simply removing the command will solve the problem? Will people who now make a level 20 all of a sudden make a level 1 and then start group with all of the new people? That is not going to happen.
If people have to start off at level 1 all that will happen is those people will solo or get powerleveled. Just look at the new classes. Very few times do I ever run into them being in a group at low levels even when people were hunting right next to each other. As the game has gotten older people are not as active as before. There is not enough new blood into the game. People are either soloers or they only group with their guild/alliance most of the time. People use their guild and alliance chat to find groups, they almost never use the lfg command. People are now so spread out you usually do not run into people and form groups. This is a population issue. If you move to a larger server the issue is less of one than on a smaller server. There will not be 100+ players running around all looking for a group under level 20 if the command is used. Instead you will kill the action in one of the BG, you will have a few more people playing level 1-19, but you won't have any more groups.
For those that really think that level 20's are bad for the game. Here is an idea - go solve the problem without Mythic's help. You can make a level 1 and level so go do it. Get everyone in your guild to do it and alliance. It would be a great way to help out new players. You can all group up. And honestly it is very fast to get through those 20 levels. I have created toons just to help people out at those levels so maybe more people should.
Just to clarrify i do NOT play tanks. Could never deal with the horrendously long downtime with PvE battles with them, i DO not play buff bots NOR do i go around getting powerleveled. EVERY level i earn on EVERY character i have was earned fair and square. I DO NOT take hand out so i dont have a guild giving me everything to get me into the game. the only thing i do use is the /20 ONLY because there is never any groups below 20 anyway so why not. when 3/4 of the population is 40-50 and the other 1/4 is 20-40. at any given time there is MAYBE 10 people under 20, and how many of them are just there to /level.
I do agree that power leveling is a problem, and it really does kill the enjoyment for some, but there is no way to curve that one since mythic seems to want to make it easier with the skill upgrade for younger players who group with older players.
No one plays support classes simply because they are BORING. my first toon when i started, well after i failed in hib the first week, never start off with an archer haha, was a cleric. i played him as a cleric not a bot not a caster a cleric, i had some heal i had some buff had some spells, but after 33 level i was bored out of my mind. after a year of him i deleted him out of hatred. moved to hib guin, there i took another year to reach my first level 50, an enchanter. then i worked on my ranger. went back to alb made a necro, and a friar... so as you see tanks are NOT my thing. i prefer ranged combat. melee combat i dont like because melee sucks, its boring. all the styles are basically a rehash of another style with a different color tail.
So to say that you can make 50 in 6 days is false, unless your being powerleveled, or atleast have a buff bot. personally i take enjoyment in playing a game, i am not in it to be the best, i am not in it to dominate, i am playing to have fun, and that is something people have forgotten. It is fun to meet new people and just play.
i would like to regal you with a story from my cleric.
The light has faded, it seems that god has forsaken us. here we are stranded in this forsaken keep. no reinforcements, and low morale. The mids have us surrounded they out number us by atleast 3 to one. In this battle, i know i will be busy. Here i am, in a castle of a mere 8 defenders, and am the only cleric. Give me strength lord.
The battle outside raged on, the mids continually attacked the keep. luckily the defenders had managed to destroy the battering ram placed upon the door 3 times. For hours they fought, it was a long bloody mess. finally after 7 hours of the siege and getting no where the mids had become disheartened, and their troops began to betray their forces and leave. The mid numbers were dwindling fast, and if that was not bad enough for them, the defenders had just recieved a pigeon with information of a reinforcements on route. This was truely a wonderous thing.
The battle was over, the reinforcements arrived, and routed the remaining midgard forces. Blanford Moyer, the cleric to whom this battle was based around fell to his knees. Completely exhausted. and began to think:
How was this possible. how did we survive. their numbers were far superior to ours, yet they failed and we succeeded.
Thinking about this Blanford looked towards the heavens and realised what it was. despite what he had felt in the start, god had not forsaken them. He had heard the plea for strength and assisted. Upon realising this blanford quickly began to pray.
Lord, forgive me forever doubting you. I do not know where my head was at the time. I was scared, but i should have known that you would never betray you children. Thank you lord for the astrength you gave me. Please bless all the souls lost here today. Forgive and accept those dead. Even those lost to our light, for everybody deserves your blessing lord.
News spread quickly about the exploits of albion, but this battle was only the start. more would follow, and many more would die. Blanford Moyer himself was kiled when he was on a reconassance mission near Castle Excaliber. Upon hearing the new his wife went insane, and his son found god. He would follow in his fathers footsteps, but he would not have his weaknesses.