[WoW] I Was a Teenage Alpha Tester

Lots of people compare the shaman to a bard also. The totems reminds some of songs. Each shaman can only place one totem of that particular element such as a strength totem adding strength to the party members so another shaman might cast Stoneskin totem to decrease dmg taken by the group. Shamans can heal, nuke and rez though also. Currently shamans are being reworked, last I heard. They were during alpha very difficult in my opinion and seem to be good at a lot of things but not strong in really anything. They also had the ability to train in a different weapon, the axe(like vash mentions). I enjoyed the class but not sure where it will end up and I may have to revisit it later. Would love to fill in more on this one since it had a lot going on with it at the time but work is calling my name!

hugs
savvy

Great write-up, i don't want to try to top it, so i'll just answer some questions along the way, then i'll get to my own bit about the mage, probably during their darkest days (played mine to 26 in Horde push)

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Originally Posted by Mudsquirti

how does it perform, is it a system hog, or does it have a good solid engine.

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I had an athlon 1.2, with 384mb ram and a Geforce3 ti4200 vid card (or something like that) and lost my cable for about a week and had to resort to dialup through aol. I didn't have any problems playing the game whatsoever.

The shaman looks REALLY neat. While I'm planning to play a warlock, my friend wants to do a troll shaman (imitating the new Troll hero in the Frozen Throne)... so I've heard more than I really wanted to know about them.

I see how you're getting that comparison, Savanna, especially the "good at a lot of things, but not really strong in anything" bit! That's how I remember EQ bards anyway. They definitely incorporate more than just the totems though, like you said, with nukes and heals and such. Tell us more if you know more! And, does anyone have shaman screenshots? What the totems look like, maybe?

--tenarius (is being called by work too, but is temporarily very hard of hearing)

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Originally Posted by Ruldar

Is there any class in this game that will be at all similar to the play style of an EQ bard

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I actually seem to recall reading somewhere...

found it

http://fohguild.org/forums/showthrea...ighlight=bards (Samurai/Bard Hybrid)

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Originally Posted by Furor Planedefiler

I've commented about this myself in various chats over the years. This[The Samurai] is one of those classes that if done properly, would be simply awesome. The problem with a class like this in EQ is the 'hybridization.'

The bard in EQ is already a very problematic class. It is THE class that has led to more headaches for the developers (in EQ) than any other combination of classes combined. Had they simply not HAD a bard class at all and instead taken the 'song' aspect of the class and broken it up and given several classes different portions of, for example, the current bard song lineup, we'd have a much, much cleaner game and far less class balance issues. This would have allowed for the true utility and 'fun' factor that the pure melee classes need(ed). This is something that you see being done right now in World of Warcraft. There is no Bard class, but there are 'song' like effects - i.e. shouts from warriors, or auras from paladins, etc...

A very, very long time ago (this was probably even Pre-Kunark) the development team for EQ wanted to actually give the Warrior class battle chants. I think at that point they realized the issues it would cause with Bards and the game at large and scrapped the idea entirely.

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imo he has a point. Bards are really the only class in EQ with an entire major design concept all to themselves. It makes much more sense in an MMORPG to split up those abilities.

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Originally Posted by Xuakal

They do not poof. There are still some alive and well. There is still a full fledged community of them. They didn't exactly sell their souls, just broke their ties with the alliance. Err... something like that. Play the game damnit! The story is great and the gameplay is actually some of the best I've ever experienced. To say you've given up on it after only playing a couple of the early single player missions is closing out a whole lot of what made that game as great as it is.

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I may just be clinging to futile hopes in my desperation, but I'd say that might get me a real elf in an expansion. And sadly I prefered the game play in the first 2 games. The third had a ton of neat tricks I loved, but it had more pains than challenges.

Mordlu-

Night Elves can be tailored to look like High Elves should you want one to look like it. You can change the skin tone, hair color, etc. at character create to make it look like your favorite pasty high elf.

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Originally Posted by Telegareth

Night Elves can be tailored to look like High Elves should you want one to look like it. You can change the skin tone, hair color, etc. at character create to make it look like your favorite pasty high elf.

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I can make dwarves look like gnomes too... It's just not the same.

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Originally Posted by Mordlu

I can make dwarves look like gnomes too... It's just not the same.

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Never! They are fundamentally different.

I think that Night Elves are way more interesting than High Elves anyways.

Alpha people: were any of the underwater zones available? What were they like? How was the swimming interface?

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Originally Posted by Mordlu

Sounds fun, I'll definitely give it a try once its live, but I do have a few concerns.

Minor:
I have no desire to wear a pointy hat. Mind you, I don't like 90% of the helm graphics in EQ either. I certainly hope that it isn't too detrimental to not having a pointy hat. (Or any hat graphic for that matter.)

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I hope the ONLY hats are POINTY and that YOU have to WEAR YOURS IN YOUR PANTS!!!!!!

DAMN YOU TO HELL YOU EEEEEVEEEEEL BLIND EEEEEGNORANT FOOL!!!!!

p.s. Blizzard if you are reading this, I am not like this at all... no no no I am a diligent hard working beta tester who wants only to help and assist and wash your cars and love you and hug you and be your friend... no I am NOT INSANE OR ANYTHINLY LIKE THAT.... do not listen to them... they are WRONG I am a beta tester of the gods pleasepleaseplease... i HATE YOU HATE YOU HATE YOU PLEASE LET MEW IN OOOOOOHHHHHH HELP ME HELP MEMMMME

I started my alpha during the end of the undead push, and really didn't get heavily into it until the Tri-Horde push. I played a troll mage and an Orc warrior. Both classes were fun to play, but the warrior at the time had at least 10x the survivability that the mage had when frost nova was taken away, then given back as something not quite the same.

One thing that has to be said for the mage class is that it's not nearly done. The incarnation i leveled up to 26 (mostly in AE groups, ;) ) was fun to play in a group setting, but the soloability really was diminished at around lvl 20ish and when frost nova was changed from a stun to a root. They can fill a role, but they aren't that versatile at the moment. Mages are a work in progress, and i'm confident that they won't be the weakling that they were in the Horde push forever.

The warrior was a hoot to play during Horde. Warriors were nearly unstoppable, i could solo just about anything with the exception of multiple casters. The choices of attack moves and the battle or defensive stances made the warrior a really fun character to play in just about any situation. You can't press 'a' and eat a sandwich, there are so many things you can do during the course of a fight as a warrior as long as you have sufficient rage built up. Just learning what everything could do, then setting up strings of attack moves for different situations was really fun.

During the alliance push i primarily played a human paladin and a night elf priest. The priest class was an eye opener for me, was a surprise to see all the abilities available to them and learning how to use them so i could survive much better. Paladins have some very interesting abilities as well, but they have been covered to much better extent by others.

I don't think anyone who has experienced their first griffon ride can adequately express the feeling. It is the most amazing single event of the entire alpha, by far.

tele~
don't know your name this push :( u disappeared!

will post some screens of shamans later from my tauren but atm my web hosting went to shit so they are moving me to a faster server.

sav

Tenarius,

I didn't see any underwater zones, however there were some quests where you had to go swimming. The only thing different from swimming and running on land is that you are underwater. You can stop, cast, start swimming again with no problem. Vision is almost as good as it is outside, you will be able to see where you are going way far in advance.

Sav-

I'll look for you. I've been kinda busy lately and haven't been on in a week or so, that and i'm experimenting with all the different classes. I'll be back on the troll soon, i really want to dig into the mage changes.

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Originally Posted by Telegareth

I didn't see any underwater zones, however there were some quests where you had to go swimming. The only thing different from swimming and running on land is that you are underwater. You can stop, cast, start swimming again with no problem. Vision is almost as good as it is outside, you will be able to see where you are going way far in advance.

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Groovy, no pollution in the waters of WoW. Sav, check your PMs =)

One last question before I go back to work for a while. Has anyone seen / screenshotted the big summoning rituals?

--ten

EDIT: *drool* ... never mind that PM, Sav, it looks like you got them hosted already. Awesomeness.

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Originally Posted by Tenarius

Never! They are fundamentally different.

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So are elves and night elves. ;)

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Originally Posted by Dmitry the Wizzy

I hope the ONLY hats are POINTY and that YOU have to WEAR YOURS IN YOUR PANTS!!!!!!

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Well if it makes you feel better it LOOKS like I have a pointy hat in my pants, but I'm blessed.

Hello Whiz and others that I know from back in the day. Incredible write up. I have taken a break from MMO's for about 6 months now but I will definitely be giving this a try out.

Verbalsabre

Here are some more pics of a few cloth headpiece options from the last push:

http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dking3/Glut1.jpg http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dking3/Glut2.jpg http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dking3/Glut3.jpg

Another Undead:

http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dking3/Undead_Cave.jpg

Another goofy pic of my Tauren:

http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dking3/Bovus3.jpg

There are more head options available now, such as how the cowls look -- I'm pretty sure they're a bit more shaped looking now, not just so "lying there on your head" like they appear above.

More! More! I can almost pretend I'm playing, now!

awesome pics, Vash, I love the orc with the... fedora thing.

Oh yah, goggles can be worn by anyone with high enough Engineering skill, and a couple of them add Stamina -- very nice for Warlocks. :D

I must confess - I have not been at all interested in it up to this point... After reading Whizbang's (and other's) excellent writeup I'm going to have to play this when it gets released.