WOLCEN : Lords of Mayhem (Indie ARPG)

[FlubberPuddy]

Snip

That screenshot of D3 makes me glad Wolcen exists. Couldn't get into PoE (there's just something about F2P quality in F2P games that doesn't rub me the right way), and it kinda sucked that D3 would be the only alternative in sight until D4.

Thankfully Wolcen is here and playable. Hope they fix the server issues soon, but I've definitely been having 2nd thoughts on my tanky-tank build, just because my caster build has been killing shit so fast and that actually makes me wanna try a Child of Fury build (just going balls to the wall big dick melee / fire dmg).

[Crissi]

the similar assets really dont bother me tbh. Theres enough unique in there for it to distinguish itself. Certainly better than the drabness that is PoE.

Had to cheat a little bit to get past act 2 boss because my fireball wasnt doing enough dps before I would start to get overwhelmed, but I think I know what I'd do better on my next build. Stasis looks OP.

[Grimbold21]

If bad and shaky releases are a bad thing for customers, why did WoW become a giant

[Coldkil]

Wolcen is fantastic. I've had a blast playing it.

Of course, very few ARPGs can beat Diablo series (I'm biased because me and Diablo go back to the '90s), Grim Dawn was fun (got over 120h sunk into it) but you actually putting Path of Exile in the same basket with these great games?
Lol, Path of Exile took the best part of ARPG and monetized it. Every piece of gear that drops in that game looks like shit because the store has the best looking gear you have to pay for.
Fuck F2P.

PoE i tend to put it in a separate category - it's way more hardcore as a game, with no easy respecs, punishing mechanics and not really easy to get a grasp on. It's a fantastic cgame but doesn't try and doesn't want to make a super first impression, many people i play with tend to avoid it because it's overwhelimg at the beginning.

Wolcen is much simpler, but you have a pretty deep gearing and skill system, plus having all the freedom in building. May be not the supreme ARPG and we're just at the beginning, but for now the base is solid.

Still there's polishing to be done and bugs to be fixed. And the goddamn servers, now it's starting to take a lot until they're redoing the whole thing.

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That screenshot of D3 makes me glad Wolcen exists. Couldn't get into PoE (there's just something about F2P quality in F2P games that doesn't rub me the right way), and it kinda sucked that D3 would be the only alternative in sight until D4.

Thankfully Wolcen is here and playable. Hope they fix the server issues soon, but I've definitely been having 2nd thoughts on my tanky-tank build, just because my caster build has been killing shit so fast and that actually makes me wanna try a Child of Fury build (just going balls to the wall big dick melee / fire dmg).

Tanky builds are definitely viable, but they kick in later on when you start to get all the "convert block/toughness/etc" into damage. I plan to do a support tank for online, since you can put out decent damage but also debuffs on mobs that everyone want.

EDIT: the xmog system omg. Coupled with the nice models, it's insanely cool.

[deenman]

Wolcen is fantastic. I've had a blast playing it.

Of course, very few ARPGs can beat Diablo series (I'm biased because me and Diablo go back to the '90s), Grim Dawn was fun (got over 120h sunk into it) but you actually putting Path of Exile in the same basket with these great games?
Lol, Path of Exile took the best part of ARPG and monetized it. Every piece of gear that drops in that game looks like shit because the store has the best looking gear you have to pay for.
Fuck F2P.

Blows my mind how popular poe is,is it because of the f2p?the combat felt clunky(its better these days),the gearing and progression just feels wrong to me,and like you said,the gear looks like crap if you dont pay,grim dawn is the pinacle of arpg in the modern era,hopefuly torchlight 3 will deliver,also i have recently tried titan quest again,its basicaly an inferior grim dawn in almost every aspect,but i simply ADORE the seting its in

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If bad and shaky releases are a bad thing for customers, why did WoW become a giant

wow had zero competition in the casual mmo genre at the time,however arpg's today have a few big hitters to compete with,and more and more are coming out

[Mojo03]

Honestly, the backlash could actually be a good thing because it's getting people to talk about this game.

I had never even heard of it a week ago and now I constantly hear about it because of all the backlash. I ended up looking at a couple videos of it and thought it looked intriguing and ended up buying it. I'm just playing the offline (obviously) so far, but I have to say its impressive in a lot a ways. It's a little rough, with some dumb bugs, but has a lot of potential.

I'm excited to get into it more when the servers are back online. I haven't said that about a new game in a WHILE.

[Tang0]

Basically the way people are acting are as if WoW released a patch where the raid is somehow massively broken and people aren't allowed in it, yet every other function of the game works. Then going around saying "the new WoW patch makes the game unplayable."

Sorry, but that’s a pretty dumb analogy, having nothing to do with what’s happening and trying to spin the tale in defense of your argument. If it’s only possible for you to understand in WoW terms - i’ll Give you one.

You have a character on some server in, say, EU. Friends, guild, etc. A new expansion comes out. You start working through that expansion, by yourself or with your friends. Servers shut down, and your only alternative is to go to US servers and start from scratch, waiting for the servers to come back online. Also imagine you could never play with other people on those us servers too.

While technically the game is playable, i’m hard pressed to see how that’s a valid argument to push for.

[KrayZ33]

The combat and skills in Wolcen feel really great, so much better than in PoE or Grim Dawn.
It's close to D3 level of refreshing.

If they add more items, which I'm sure they will, this is going to be the ARPG I like the most for sure.
Extremely cool sound and skill design, nice graphics, chunky combat... love it as far as that goes.

The game is plagued with small bugs and some missing qol features are really weird, considering the game has been in production for so long.

Loot doesn't display long enough for example. It's so weird, obvious and easy to fix, I'm sure they've known that for years.
And I feel there is a mismatch between my mouse cursor and where the stuff on the screen is (related to coordinates or something)

[Grimbold21]

Blows my mind how popular poe is,is it because of the f2p?the combat felt clunky(its better these days),the gearing and progression just feels wrong to me,and like you said,the gear looks like crap if you dont pay,grim dawn is the pinacle of arpg in the modern era,hopefuly torchlight 3 will deliver,also i have recently tried titan quest again,its basicaly an inferior grim dawn in almost every aspect,but i simply ADORE the seting its in

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wow had zero competition in the casual mmo genre at the time,however arpg's today have a few big hitters to compete with,and more and more are coming out

There were already pre established mmos at the time.

[Sarethion]

I've found some legendaries and uniques, but this beauty...



I just love. And I have to say, that +41% magic find bonus does make a difference It's not D3 level of crazy, but ever since I equipped that belt I've noticed a lot more quality drops. Feels good man.

[Coldkil]

Unfortunately i died at last boss and thus the deathless run ends here Not that i cared but it would have been awesome to do that at the first try.

Damn, end boss fight. DAMN. Yet to beat it but i think i reached the last phase. Hopefully XD Only thing i'd say is that there's way too much running and multiple things just overlap, so it's overwhelming the first time you see it.But in the end it's all about looking at things.

[Sarethion]

Hopefully XD Only thing i'd say is that there's way too much running and multiple things just overlap, so it's overwhelming the first time you see it.

That's why I've specced heavily into the turret and a rain-of-fire type skill for my ranger - there's a lot of dodging in this game, so it really helps to have something that can deal damage while you try not to die.

Also, you've asked about end-game... there's A LOT, but it doesn't feel tedious. For starters, you're going to finish the campaign somewhere between level 30-40, which means that you still have 50-60 more levels to obtain and each gives you attributes and a passive point, so you're still progressing your character. Moreover, item level of your drops is equal to monster level, so as you build up your character you're going to be able to face tougher mobs and thus unlock higher item level loot. Then there's the city building thing - it's a bit hard to describe, but I absolutely love it. It's a massive gold/primordial essence sink, but the best part about it that the way you build stuff or complete missions - outside of the upfront resource cost, you also need productivity and you get that by completing dungeons, so outside of playing just to get more loot, experience or resources, you also get to constantly progress your buildings. And some give really nice bonuses, like extra magic find or another skill slot.

I have to say - it's really well designed. And yes, it's going to take months of grinding to unlock absolutely everything, but... it's not like for instance D3, where you can run 10 rifts and don't get anything outside of some crafting mats or gold (which you already have a lot of) and +5 mainstat from paragon - here you're constantly really close to getting something, be it a level, skill level, new building, completed mission, enough resources to start a new building or getting item upgrades, so you always have this classic aRPG feeling of "just one more dungeon".

Obviously, I tasted only a fraction of it and perhaps it will become more grindy as time goes on, but honestly - so far it feels really amazing.

[PACOX]

The dodge and breakbar are the coolest features. Also the auto dash.

[Mamut]

well this is certainly going to have a massive impact on the longevity of this game. Most hype is vanishing due to the game being unplayable. RIP.

Dont be silly. Theres more than 60k people playing atm and the hype is not vanishing, its even increasing. Just look how many comments there are on twitter, do they look like uninterested people in the game? All those complainers spamming Rip, refund and memes will be right back when servers are online.

[Sarethion]

The dodge and breakbar are the coolest features. Also the auto dash.

If by breakbar you mean the thing that causes enemies to get stunned then yeah, it's amazing - it feels so good to fight a tough mob, where you have to dodge, run or kite a lot only to get that brief window where you can dispense some ass-whooping and see the boss healthbar melt.

[Tang0]

If by breakbar you mean the thing that causes enemies to get stunned then yeah, it's amazing - it feels so good to fight a tough mob, where you have to dodge, run or kite a lot only to get that brief window where you can dispense some ass-whooping and see the boss healthbar melt.

Sounds like you would both really dig the lost ark combat system. It is what wolcen’s would look like if they ever polished it up really well.

[thilicen]

The dodge and breakbar are the coolest features. Also the auto dash.

Certainly adds a lot of mechanical features to boss fights and harder enemies, hope they maximize the potential of this stuff going forward.

[Mamut]

Right, so you picked one specific thing out of the list of tens of things they straight up ripped from D3 and decided that was enough to say "nope not the same at all". Just be honest - you know the game is almost entirely plagiarized, but you personally enjoy the game, so you don't care.

Every ARPG is "plagiarized" then because every arpg game have inventory, skill bars and character screen that did not change in more than 20 years. Wolcen have totally different itemization, different skill and talent systems, different endgame mechanics, combat feels totally different but that does not matter because some buttons looks familiar, right?

[OBM]

Sounds like you would both really dig the lost ark combat system. It is what wolcen’s would look like if they ever polished it up really well.

Playing Lost Ark is just a headache. You either play on Korean servers and you need to jump through hoops like buying a Korean account, then using VPN.. Or play on Russian server. You can't read anything because you don't understand the language. I have played Lost Ark and the combat is really cool, but I got tired of my accounts constantly getting locked because I'm not in Korea or Russia. Lost Ark doesn't seem to be coming to NA any time soon.

[Tang0]

Playing Lost Ark is just a headache. You either play on Korean servers and you need to jump through hoops like buying a Korean account, then using VPN.. Or play on Russian server. You can't read anything because you don't understand the language. I have played Lost Ark and the combat is really cool, but I got tired of my accounts constantly getting locked because I'm not in Korea or Russia. Lost Ark doesn't seem to be coming to NA any time soon.

Not being able to read Russian is only a plus, trust me. The cesspool of the global unmoderated chat was staggering. People reported fairly smooth play with and english patch though.

It’s a great shame that Russian publisher drove the game to what it was a month and a half after the start of obt, when I quit.