So far, the classes are very well balanced, though the best PvE groups(player vs monsters) are the ones that include a priest, warrior, and mage. You can have a decent group without those, but it's harder.The Gaijin wrote:Tell us some of the ingame shit. Any gimped classes, any way-too-popular ones? And more importantly: how gay are the Night Elves?
PvP is quite balanced. For instance, I'm a Priest, and it's harder for me to solo PvE than, say, a Paladin. However, in PvP I always beat melee characters my level in a fair fight (I cast shield on myself as they close in, then spam direct damage/healing spells). Though I get raped when they catch me off guard.
The race really doesn't matter unless you care about which continent you start on. BTW, the game world is fucking huge, with a ton of locations, and lots to do. In the stress test, it took a week for PvP to actually become something you need to be careful about while soloing. By then, many people were lvls 20-30, so the Horde had started expanding into Alliance territory and vice versa.
The stress test is now over, but right at the end is when raiding was becoming possible. There would usually be 40-60 Alliance members, and we would march into Horde territory and attack various towns. We usually got killed because the guards are powerful, but in Retail, after a few weeks there will be a good balance between high and low level characters, so the guards won't be so uber-powerful, and towns will actually be able to be sacked. You can read raid reports on the Blizzard Beta forum, where they actually kill all players and NPC's in the main cities. It sounds fun, even more so when you've played in the stress test and know how great the game is.
As to the gayness of the Night Elves.... I didn't see very many night elves until the final few days, because they start in the northwest-most corner of the continent, and humans (me) start across the ocean and southwards. But by the end, high-level Night Elves started showing up in various Alliance towns. They're much taller than humans.
So.... yeah the game is incredibly immersive and enjoyable. Previously I was worried that Blizzard, in an attempt to bring the MMORPG into the "mainstream market', would make the combat and experience-gaining much too easy, but the fights take skill (at least for a priest, cause I have to keep track of my party member's health and mana, and be aware of who the mobs are attacking, as well as making sure I don't cause too much aggro and lure the mobs to me, etc.) And you can level up at a decent rate just by playing a few hours a day (And believe me, you won't want to stop playing). I'd say Blizzard struck the perfect balance with regards to the pace of levelling. Gaining a level is not too tedious, and yet it's still very rewarding.
Visually, the game is beautiful, and the music/sound is high quality and adds a lot of atmosphere. The quests are surprisingly interesting and engaging. The only thing I don't think has been implemented very well are the Trade Skills, but Blizzard has been focusing mostly on the classes (they're not all finished... warlocks, paladins, rogues, and one other class don't even have "Talents" yet.) Additionally, I read on Blizzard website that they're implementing a huge Trade skill over-haul on the next beta patch, though of course I won't be able to test it.
Overall, I would say the best thing about the game is that it lacks the usual Blizzard trademark: idiot pre-pubescent fanboys (see: Starcraft, Diablo, Battle.net). Most of the people were reasonably mature, intelligent, and generally aggreable. I suspect that it will stay that way at retail, considering the monthly fee will keep a lot of the kiddies away.
