beta testers.....

[Amit]

when open beta starts i will have a bit of time to play each class to see which i want to do in release. for those of you who played, how many levels do you think it would take to get a good feel of what the class is like? right now im thinking....


mage/priest but if i dont like casters im thinking
warrior/assassin

most of the hybrids arent really calling me too much and ive played pet classes in daoc and ao and didnt really get into em

[Sirion]

The mage was fun from the start for me, everything extra they get just makes them seem even better off. Alot of people like to say that mages suck, they have no purpose, no utility, but the bottom line is, they can CC, they can put out nice damage, they can summon food and drink, they can port you to capital cities, and they do great AE damage for killing trash mobs that tend to come in with elites.

I also enjoyed both my Warrior and my Rogue from the get go; however, as you progress with the Rogue more opportunities open up to you with the gain of sap, pickpocket, better stealth, and poisons. Warriors were always pretty fun, but they didn't really get any MORE fun as I played them. They were just always more fun than DAoC's version of the Warrior.

As far as priests go, they seem to get alot of their fun stuff later on, be it via talents, or levels (such as level 20 for shackle, and higher than that for the full version of psychic scream). The priest is much more fun to play than DAoC's healer was, especially if you have the desire to solo, but personally, I didn't find it very appealing at lower levels. It was fun to play, but nothing even remotely close to the Rogue (which is the class I would say I have enjoyed the most, especially since I have alot of direct experience with the DAoC version of the Rogue and can make direct comparisons between them).

[Amit]

i leveled 1 ns, 1 inf and 1 minstrel in daoc, how do they compare? how does stealth work? can you actually sneak up on people?

[Sirion]

The Rogue of WoW is superior to the Rogue of DAoC. The first MAJOR difference, is that Rogues are actually sought after in PvE groups because they are one of the best DPS classes in the game. Stealth works very similarly; however, you have a variety of styles that you may prefer to use from stealth. For various styles you get combo points, and by building these you can do higher damaging finishers, similar to Diablo 2's Assassin. The Rogue can use sap on humanoid targets which is a type of CC. The target stands still dazed, similar to a mezz, the stipulations however, are the target cannot be in combat, the Rogue must be stealthed, the target must be humanoid, only one target can be sapped per Rogue at a time, and the duration will last up to 35 seconds, but has a chance to break early, and will break upon the target taking damage.

WoW Rogues can also blind targets, which will force them to wander around in a 4ish yard radius confused for up to 10 seconds. This works on both NPCs and PCs and Undead are not immune. The poisons work like weapon procs having something like a 33% chance to fire. You apply the poison one time, and it can proc up to a certain number of times, or it will last a certain length of time (whichever comes first, if you run out of charges before the time limit, you will lose the effect as an example). There are a few types of poisons, Mind numbing which increases casting time, Instant which is basically like a typical DD proc in DAoC, DoT like the typical poisons in DAoC, and Crippling which is a snare.

Rogues have several combat "abilities" aside from their normal styles and blind as well. Two others are sprint, which increases run speed by xx% (based on the level of the skill) for xx seconds (also based on the level of the skill), and Evasion which increased the chance to dodge an attack by 50% for xx seconds. A Rogue can also use flashpowder to perform Vanish, which is a limited duration "super stealth." A nice get away free card.

Through talents you can get a few other combat attacks and abilities such as Cold Blood, Adrenaline, Riposte, Blade Fury, Hemorrhage and Ghostly Strike. Cold Blood is a 3 minute timer ability that ensures the next strike of a certain list of strikes will have a 100% chance to crit. Adrenaline increases your Energy restoration rate by 100% for 15 seconds (basically you will never run out of Energy, which is the medium Rogues use to perform their styles, rather than Rage or Mana). Riposte works off of a Parry, and it does xx damage + disarms the opponent for 5 seconds. Blade Fury makes your attacks Area Effect for xx seconds, and Hemorrhage adds up to 7 damage to every melee attack delt to the target for up to 30 attacks or 15 seconds (it works much like a Poison, and can be spammed like an attack, this style also gives a Combo Point). Ghostly Strike is a style that does xx% weapon damage instantly and increases your chance to evade by 15% (I believe) for 15 seconds it also gives a Combo Point.

So yea... the WoW Rogue is totally different from the DAoC Rogue. I can't really compare it to a Minstrel because they aren't really parallel classes.

[Amit]

so can you stack talents, like use the AOE one and stack with 100% chance to crit and take out 2 people at once?

[Sirion]

You can stack talents like Adrenaline and Blade Fury, but there are only a limited amount of Talent Points that your character will get in the course of it's life. Also, I'm not sure if Blade Fury lets your attack STYLES hit multiple targets, or if it just lets your attacks (base attacks) hit multiple targets. However, as a Rogue (especially with Improved Sap 3) you can simply Sap one of the characters (as long as they aren't Undead) then obliterate them one at a time.

You can find a talent calculator for each class at http://wowvault.ign.com

[SuperHelix]

Great info. I am still stuck on a mage as a class.

[Mourningblade]

What about hunters?

[Vog]

What about hunters?

Atm Hunters are under-developed and are currently without talents... Personally I believe this class will stink until blizzard gives it a lot more attention.

Pets currently have weak melee dmg and lack in a number of useful skills. I am hearing that it is a pretty decent solo class, but sucks in PvE groups...
It's also being dubbed as a crappy PvP class... I'd really wait to see what the talents bring to this class before even concidering playing it...

[Zoidmeister]

I think it's really hard to get a good feel for a character in WoW until level 25-30'ishish when you have a baseline on most of your skills.

As a mage 1-20'ish is very basic in terms of spell variety. After 20 it really opens up.

I've only played a mage but assume most characters don't really full develop until playing to 20+.

I'd highly recommend picking on and sticking with it to 30 at least. The other benefit is your knowledge gained on quests/zones for higher level content will translate into retail.

At least that's my plan.