Warhammer Beta, Tales of the Sauce.

So as you may or may not know I am in the Warhammer beta, which is almost worthless as the "open" beta opens up in two days, but I plan to bite the bullet and play as many diffrent intresting looking classes as I can manage. Last night I logged on, and went straight for the monster arm chaos guy, because it's about as close to a tentcle face as I can get. I wasn't dissapointed when it game to idea, and so let me introduce the first of many valiant heroes/heroines in this story! Say hello to Soupsauce!

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SoupsauceM_004.jpg

 

Now first off lets get purely into the looks. The game doesn't look so bad, the closed beta is locked at a weird mix of low and medium graphics, and looks entirely diffrent then the screenshots on the WAR page, which is fine. The icons for the abilites are very fitting to what they do, and that's nice, it's better then alot of games can say, but the clothing is very lame. As you can see Soupsauce is a naked barbarian and his only claim to fame way from other naked barbarians is fruity light blue dye kit, which makes me believe this game was made for Stang. You pretty much start out naked, and from the looks of it, it doesn't ever get any better for these poor guys. ON THE OTHER HAND. The monster arm (Of which there are three types) is WICKED awesome. Not only does it have abilites, but the arms change randomly each time you put it on. I'm not sure if this true for the very LAST arm, but I do believe it is. Most of my fun came from changing how my arm looked randomly between pulls.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SoupsauceM_007.jpg

"Please ingore my nudity, and lack of inspiration in clothing and weapon design, I MEAN I HAVE A FRIGGIN WEIRD MONSTER ARM!"

 

In terms of gameplay the PvE is similar to WoWs. It's easy. rediculously easy, quests follow the same pattern that they do in WoW. Kill this, loot this, interact with this, yatta yatta, nothing awesome. In the middle of all this there are the world wide quests. Now THIS was actually fun. The first one I did required you to murder a bunch of attacking empire soliders as your ally warlock type guys summoned something from thing big eyeball in the middle of a hold. Each time you killed a soldier a tombstone appeared on the floor, and you had to kill 25 soldiers. Next you had to release spirts from the tombstones while fighting off more soldiers to fuel the warlocks evil....stuff. This was the fun easy part of the encounter. Once you release 25 spirts a little event takes place to let you finsh off the invading soldiers, and prepare for the real showdown. An empire mage appears that you can't attack and smites the eyeball with fire, since he can't stop whatever it is the warlocks are summoning he corrupts it/summons his own evil creature. You then fight, and slay the evil creature, and everyone that took part gets to roll on the stuff involed, people who played less of a part get less added to the role, so it encourages you to own face with everyone else. The events reset ever 2 minutes in the beta though, but it allowes you to get the lowbie fame rewards easier, and what's better then a beat stick?

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SoupsauceM_006.jpg

"THIS IS MY BEATSTICK!"

 

But as we all know, no one that's sane is playing this game for PvE, though there is enough to do with the world wide quests, It's all about the PeeVeePee baby!

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SoupsauceM_003.jpg

SOUPSAUCE IS COMING PEPARE YOUR SOUPCANS TO TAKE THE LOVE!

 

As I was charging into my first instance based pvp encounter, I realized that this seemed very familar. Imagine that it's a baby version of Arathi Basin. 3 nodes, hold the nodes till you rack up enough points to win, fight for the nodes yatta yatta. So I already understood how this should work, it was a good thing really, plus I didn't have to guard the flag, I just had to make sure I had more dudes there, then you had dudes there! DUH. Pvp though lacked something, maybe it's from the low level, but all the ranged and caster types had scapes, where as I didn't, nor did I have a way to do anything but an offensive version of spamstring to most targets. Healers are even more crippling at that level because they ALREADY don't friggin die unless you put two and a half and a midget people on them, and even THEN they pretty much just punted you and your midget pal into yester years. Also the chaos seems to have the mentality of the allies WoW side, more then half of them have downs where as Order have all their pigs in a barrel, needless to say I will be rolling the underdog order today. Moving on to actual PvP it was slow, lacked stuns, fears, cc, or any skill beyond button mashing, but AGAIN I am only level 8 or something. Everyone has their role, but it looks like Healers and Ranged are going to take the cake in pvp. If you expose your back to a target the attacker gets an increase in damage, which makes alot of sense in theory, but in practice it means that you can never get involved in a big skirmish if you plan of surviving, because there's always going to be some ranged class waiting to lick your butt.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SoupsauceM_000.jpg

"I didn't die, shut up."

 

All in all, the game reminds me of a free mmo in terms of pvp, and a decent pay2play everywhere else. Atm PvE actually is the most intresting thing I've found, but like I said I don't think I'm high enough to judge pvp. Also I was under the impression that I'd be able to kick butt and take names from level one, but this turns out to not be the case, as I am in a pure PvE zone for like 10 levels. I'll try to play enough to get into all the world pvp, as that's what I'm looking for, today, but I make no promises.

 

Untill then Soupsauce says goodbye forever more then likely!

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SoupsauceM_001.jpg

"GOODBYE I HAVE TO SAVE THE LIGHT HOUSE WAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

 

OH one more thing. Everytime you do something that you can't do this BIG SON OF A B text floods your screen similar to the light house warning, and you can't turn it off. So don't spam abilites unless you enjoy feeling retarded when the game yells at you for being an impatient prick. I saw that ALL last night because well...I'm an impatient prick.

 

 

It's cool that the gameplay is a little different because seriously the UI is almost identical to WoW... Like not even trying to be different.... AT ALL...

It's cool that the gameplay is a little different because seriously the UI is almost identical to WoW... Like not even trying to be different.... AT ALL...

And you're surprised by this? IF you're going to be stealing customers from WoW then it's a good idea to give them something that they're familiar with. Also most of the big money, in software or computers for that matter, isn't made in original ideas, but in ripping those ideas off and twisting them just enogh that you can say you did something.

Edited August 14, 2008 by Ecthelion

Actually I was surprised for all the hype and promises it was making, I guess I just expected something different.

Actually I was surprised for all the hype and promises it was making, I guess I just expected something different.

lol

Why should they change it. Don't fix what aint broke shad. Every famous fantasy mmo has a UI that looks like very similar to WoWs. It's VERY functional. Also the game has a UI customization feature built into the game that allows you to move everything stock. It's sweet but I haven't moved anything yet.

 

Wrath of the Lich King will chew Warhammer up and spit it out. There is nothing in the foreseeable future that will stop the WoW machine.

 

I do, however, think that you kids and your endurance for new MMOs is pretty amazing. My MMO days are done, I can't stomach another one.

That looks really awesome. Marauder is the class I intended to roll at launch, but I'm worried that Chaos will be massively overpopulated (and you did state that they have the Alliance mentality...)

 

As you said, the low level PVP (while it does matter) probably isn't the most balanced/ extensive combat. I mean, if we had a 1-10 AB here in WoW, warriors would have what? Heroic Strike, Rend, and Charge? I'm interested to see how healers play in that game (Warrior Priest ftw?). More than likely the issue of healers/ranged pwning face can/will be adjusted as time goes on, just as balancing with classes occurs in all MMOs.

 

Thanks for the post!

thanks for the post sauce,

 

i plan to play it at launch

 

.................

Yesterday I had alot to do, but in the middle of my busy busy schedule of playing madden. UH. I MEAN DOING ALOT OF IMPORTANT THINGS! I found the time to make a Warrior Priest thing. I really wanted to make an Order guy and most of them look lame, save for you know the guy with the BIG HAMMER with heals. Naturally I thought retpaladin, but I didn't think of ecthelion because I was not a good retpaladin I was a bad one. I guess now that I think of it I still thought of Ecthelion. Anyways <3 Welcome to the adventures of Sauceheals!

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SaucehealsM_001.jpg

"PREPARE TO GET SAUCED!"

 

So the fighting was diffrent, and the healing was intresting, so I suppose I'll point those out. These guys have a special type of "mana" it only recharges when out of combat, or when attacking in combat through a system of gaining charges. Similar to that of Fury's gaining charges, but to a bigger number basically. The fatal flaw is that you have to ATTACK to actually heal, so you can't stand in the back and just enjoy yourself like a Shaman on the chaos side can, but at the same time you hit decently hard, and you have some cool abilites on your attacks. Later on with gear I feel like the War Priest is gonna be nuts, but at low levels, you're just a caster in cloth with a big hammer when it comes to taking hits. Your heals are similar to that of bandaids, and if you've ever tried to put a normal bandaid on a GAPING HEAD WOUND FROM MISTER DOUCHEBAG'S MISTER BIG AXE, then you can see the problem that I ran into while attempting to be a good healer. I still ended up topping the healing meter from time to time, which in itself is impressive.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SaucehealsM_000.jpg

"MY ROBE IS FOR PROTECTION, INTIMIDATION, AND SO I HAVE SOMETHING NICE ON ALREADY WHEN THEY PUT ME IN MY FUTURE COFFIN."

 

I tested leveling in PvP, I did some pve but on a person with heals, PvE is pretty slow and mindless though you are nearly impossible to kill unless a big centuar DOUCHEBAG stomps on your chest and pins you to the floor and has his big half horse way with your now exposed and vunerable butt. Anyways they didn't lie you really COULD level in PvP the only problem I saw is unless there's renowned awards at each level of renowned then you're not going to get ANY gear in your adventure in leveling in pvp content. Which is like bringing scissors to an AK-47 fight at later levels.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SaucehealsM_002.jpg

"You know what the diffrence between me and you is Ecth? You make that healing/dps thing look good"

 

Also War Priests, along with most other classes look like crap. This bothered me last time, it bothers me now, I want a fantasy game to see fantastical things, I don't want practicalness. Most weapons look very practical and they make sense, wtf is the fun in that? I want a big ass sword with dragons and diamonds and demons and a dude punching a baby, and the baby explodes into the blade of the sword. The hammer they gave me reminds me of like some regular viking in the middle of his pilliaging, it's kinda boring. The guards and stuff look AWESOME though so I'm guess gear at the end of the game is gonna be snazzy! I suppose that evens out the eyevomit you have to eat till you get there.

 

PvP is also still slow, though you feel ultimately more important as a healer. Also I played Order, and the queues are faster, but we actually suck too. I went 1-7 and on chaos I was only able to go 0-3, but I think I got really unlucky as Chaos. I think they might have the advantage. Or maybe I got REAAAAAALLY unlucky as Order. Eitherway Order is going to be the less populated of the bunch no matter what, because if nothing else Chaos (Or Destruction I should say actually) has this.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SecretsauceF_000.jpg

"Hello I got drafted from the red light district."

 

This is my next adventure probably unless I mess around with the shaman which is a ranged healing class, but THIS I must play at some point as it pays homage to david and his love for making his chick look like a hooker. They also come stock that way, that's all the clothes the little witch chicks get, trust me I tried my hardest to add more.

 

Anyways my opinon on the game remains the same. I do not think it is prepared for release, but then again WoW for sure wasn't either. I'm probably going to watch it, hope it evoles while it's out, and pick it up a few months in at this point assuming they fix the problems.

 

Also amazing, for a popular beta, it doesn't crash alot, and there's not alot of bugs or clipping areas so I suppose it's winning in terms of being well put together, but not well excuted imo.

 

Anyways goodbye untill tomorrow!

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SaucehealsM_003.jpg

"FEEL MY WRAITH YOU DIRTY MOUTH BREATHING MOO COW!"

Edited August 15, 2008 by Sauceboss

"You know what the diffrence between me and you is Ecth? You make that healing/dps thing look good"

I laughed sooooooooooooooooo hard at this while I was at work today. Which was kind of awkard .... to the guy on the other end of the phone ....

 

 

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I only wish that were true.

This post is a bit earlier as I just got home. Incase anyone is curious I'm probably just gonna keep doing this untill I get bored of the WAR beta, or get a chance to point out every flaw I can find. I have alot of fun writing this, and though I don't really do it with the intention to make people laugh, if I got Ecth to make someone on his phone wonder if he had mental problems, then I must be doing something right. Anyways I'm going to be pointing out some of the flaws gameplay wise this time around. Enjoy the adventures of SMALLSAUCE!

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SmallsauceM_000.jpg

Snippity snipe snipe.

 

First lets get into Shaman. Shamans in this game are amazingly fun. They can DPS and they can heal. As they dps they basically rack up yellow "haste" to put it in WoW terms. It goes all the way up to 6 I believe, and once it's at 6 your heals become insta-cast basically. If you use heals that are ALREADY instant cast it increases their effectiveness by a nice amount. Personally this would be enough, but the reverse happens when you heal. You rack up red "haste" and at 6 it makes your dps spells instant cast or makes them more effect. This is really fun, and it's relatively easy to get the hang of it.

 

One example was an adventure I had in one on one pvp. I was against the dwarf tank class and we went toe to toe. I only at the time had a spell cast, and a dot for dps, and a casted heal and a hot for healing. He was higher rank then me so by then he had a bleed, a normal attack, and a slow atleast, I haven't played a dwarf tank so I'm not sure all what they get. Needless to say he hit me pretty hard. Anyways I was able to stack up 6 damages, once I got there I would heal to 6 before returning to dps. I lived, and BEAT HIM by myself this way earning my first ever solo kill in this game, on a class ment to heal/dps. It was pretty awesome lemme tell you.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SmallsauceM_002.jpg

"Oh man my AB just ended! WAIT."

 

This is the score chart that is currently ingame for instanced pvp. Strangly familiar? With the class icons on the side too? Daaaaang. This game is KING of don't fix what aint broke, but in the middle of making fun of all the stupid WoW stuffs I realized they did something, that WoW should have done.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SmallsauceM_001.jpg

 

As you can see in this picture I am attacking an enemy, but under the enemy's healthbar there is another bar with a peekture of a bird thing. This is your DEFENSIVE target window. The way the defensive target window works is, if you click on say yourself, then move to attack your enemy the window, almost like a focus window, auto-tacks on to you, so that when you go to heal, it will heal you. There are also defensive abilites that allow you to attack something, and the damage dealt is returned to your defensive target. This works on ALL allied players so you can effectively spam heal someone while never losing your target without the aid of a macro. You can also ALWAYS easily watch the health of your friends, and or switch between healing your buddy or dpsing without having to search out your other target. It's not a MAJOR important function but it's REALLY handy in the middle of DPSing. It also allows you to fully enjoy your hybrid classes because you can easily do both without knowing about macros or commands.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SmallsauceM_013.jpg

"I GOTZ DA HOPS! BRB NBA"

 

Another thing is the circle around your dood. It's VERY useful. It always shows you were north is when you're not targeting someone. When you ARE targeting someone it makes a red arrow to constantly show you in which direction you should be facing to attack him so that he doesn't get at your back. This is SUPER handy for hunting down the hiding tardos. Everyone also has a targeting circle that looks like that, though I guess it's more of a looks then then, which ultimately does look cooler then WoW's circle.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SmallsauceM_018.jpg

"NO MASSA NO NOT THE WHIP PLZ MASSA I'LL PICKZ THE COTTONS I SWURZ"

 

So as many of you may or may not know WAR announced that they would NOT have a /dance function in game, because people don't dance in the middle of a war. It breaks the setting or whatever, but FEAR NOT idle lovers, there is still something retarded ingame you can do to pass the time, BUT IT IS NOT DANCING AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT.

 

It's called /special. It varies (LIKE DANCING BUT IT'S NOT! GOD! TOTALLY DIFFRENT) from race to race, and the greenskins is basically an attack of red evil.....smoke...I guess, before they fall on their side and spin around in a circle, almost like a messed up headspin in break dancing, except it's not cause people in war don't have TIME TO DANCE. They do though, have time to flex, have seizures, collect booze for giants, collect mushrooms for what can only be explained as drugs, and dye their clothing diffrent colors so that they have some blue to show they're leet skeet. BUT DAGNABUT WE AINT DANCERS IN THESE HERE PARTS! THIS IS WAR SON! Now pass me the banjo I'm gonna /special.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SmallsauceM_023.jpg

"Don't make me angry, you won't like me when I'm angry! No really I have serious anger problems, and I tend to punch children so please just can we not talk about my height problem? Thank you."

 

This game also has a problem with stupid abilites like this one. I can't even remember the name but for now we will call it Gamma fists. Gamma fists is a an ability that gives you a chance to deal 33 extra damage on your next attack.....for 5 seconds. It costs energy points, it has a 10 second cooldown, it actives your global 2 second cooldown (that is admitedly more like a 1.5 second cooldown) and it's a CHANCE and it goes away on your attack no matter if you miss or if it procs. It is just the dumbest ability ever. To make matters worse your fists don't even stay green for the entire time so it's not even worth it to look at. It's a waste, and waste abilites need to die.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SmallsauceM_025.jpg

"THAT'S RIGHT! WE CHEER! But we don't dance!"

 

As you may or may not know Warhammer has achivements, it's had them since they started talking about it, because they realized that people are stupid enough to play a game to get achivements. This can be seen in the xbox 360 community with all the retarded gamers that beat games just to stroke their e-peen with your 120309139103995482394871024 gamer points, that is really just a wager of how much of a life they have. THE BIGGER THE E-PEEN THE SMALLER THE SEX LIFE YES! Anyways from achivements there's a chance to get titles and such for example if you click on yourself 100 times you get a title called "Ow my Eye." THOUGH Warhammer did someone unthinkable. They give you rewards in the form of EXPERIENCE for getting achivements, and it's not even a pat on your butt good job cowboy amount that just degrades you and makes you feel like a whore. OH NO it's the kind of XP you get for working your butt off collecting the chest hair of 12 donkey humans.

(I hit the stupid picture limit so here's the second part!)

 

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SmallsauceM_027.jpg

"I KNOW I LOOK SO AWESOME CHECK OUT MY SWEET DYE JOB ON MY LOINCLOTH! UNQIUE RIGHT!?"

 

I know I complained about everyone looking so practical and awesome, but really I didn't even bring proof, and because of that I made sure to do EVERY quest, collect EVERYTHING I could from renowned stuff and Public quest stuffs just to show how much you change in terms of looks in 5 or 6 hours of gameplay. The picture above is me at almost level 7. I was like one quest away, and decided to go have a life and party.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SmallsauceM_004.jpg

 

This is me at level 4, after getting my FIRST piece of gear since I started playing! Gloves! Which as you can see are just wristband things. I actually looked MORE like a shaman caster guy at lower levels then when they gave me......what can only be described as Arnold's old outfit from the OG Conan. Also my staff which I traded it for a WAY more leet staff that had 7 more DPS +7 int and like something else, basically got a second skull. I went from like a grey you can't even sell to a green worth like 1 silver 50 copper. The staff is also from public questing and requires you to earn and INSANE amount of renonwed stuff. I pretty much spent atleast a good hour and a half getting that thing redoing the same quest over and over again.

 

I DO realize it's just like me being low level, but even people in FULL gear, looked EXACLTY like the guy standing next to them and looked very plain and dull. No one had anything need or awesome looking. Atleast in WoW you could have pink goggles and like a farming outfit at level like 5 geeze.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SmallsauceM_021.jpg

"BUT HE'S GOT THE BIGGEST...BALLS OF THEM ALL!"

 

All in all I do admit WAR is growing on me though, as I get closer and closer to playing all of the classes I've come realize that they put alot of thought behind the names of abilites. All the orc/greenskins names are VERY much like how they talk (the HoT is called "Quit yer bleedin") and honestly it does go a long way. All the quests are very much fitting to the class they're for, and I like that too. The instanced pvp, while VERY much like AB, is entertaining, rewards xp, and is quick, so the AMOUNT of exp you get from them makes it worth queuing in between questing, and DOES make it a valid way to level.

 

The PvE content is still my favorite part, which is part of the reason I won't be buying it at release. I don't want another game for PvE.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/flemownsme/SmallsauceM_019.jpg

"I'M NOT DANCING I'M JUST /SPECIAL!"

Ze captions! They make me rofl! <333333 Smallsaucebby!

I know it's just beta, and it will probably change, but have you seen some classes that are overplayed/underplayed? I just got my pre-order in so I'll be doing the open beta once that opens up and I'm trying to decide what class I want to try out. What I'm thinking so far:

 

If order: witch hunter

If destruction: marauder

 

Is the combat itself fun? I've heard it's "just kinda weird" coming from WoW players, but I can't imagine it being to different.

 

Thanks for the posts Sauce! Keep 'em coming!

Well it's the beta so I'm guessing everyone is trying out everything, but there's ALOT of melee. Basically the most common class I ran into were melee classes. The open beta is also online so once you get your key you can play~. The combat is basically just like WoW's it's not really anything new, but it means the combat is familar and thus not bad.

I like AB.. so when open beta starts I might have to go find my WAR preorder info.

The fatal flaw is that you have to ATTACK to actually heal

 

The "fatal flaw" is a purposeful game mechanic. WAR has melee healers that are meant to be at the front lines dishing out melee pain while healing their comrades. The battle priest is one of them. It's an interesting take on the healer that not only makes the class more fun to play, but makes them much more useful. It's a bit of a paradigm shift from the way WoW treats healers that I think is very welcome. Afew phases back I played one for about 10 levels and liked it.

Tim didn't believe me when i said very little customizability. He cried later.

 

My toaster is faster than pvp or even pve on Warhammer:

 

I doubt many Warriors, Rogues, Druids or Warlocks will be very interested in playing a game that is as fast as Holy Paladin Soloing.

Edited August 18, 2008 by Atrus

The "fatal flaw" is a purposeful game mechanic. WAR has melee healers that are meant to be at the front lines dishing out melee pain while healing their comrades. The battle priest is one of them. It's an interesting take on the healer that not only makes the class more fun to play, but makes them much more useful. It's a bit of a paradigm shift from the way WoW treats healers that I think is very welcome. Afew phases back I played one for about 10 levels and liked it.

 

I realize that, hence why along that post I pointed out the fact that they're probably gonna be insanely good later, but at low levels you're basically a retard melee with heals. In pvp you get eaten faster then you can keep up by any dps class. Which is fine it's what I expected of a healer, but not of a healer that is also a melee dps class. Just because it's purposeful doesn't always make it good all the time.

 

Also ed that video is MOSTLY PvE and it's from a boring class perspective. PvP on a shaman for example was actually way more fun then I expected.

Also it was the weekend so I took an RL break from WAR and a get SB his pants break when I was at home.

 

With S4 pants now in tow I will return to my beta testing/playing of madden when Tibbits isn't on my account.

Also it was the weekend so I took an RL break from WAR and a get SB his pants break when I was at home.

 

With S4 pants now in tow I will return to my beta testing/playing of madden when Tibbits isn't on my account.

You had better be around for 2s later this week ....

dude you need to get msn or something and just spam me when you want to do 2s.

Daniel and I have been waiting for this nukka to call us on vent to do 5s ever since S4 started.

I'll be in beta for this weekends event.

 

/excite.