What was WoW like in beta and immediately post-launch?

[Viscoe]

This is really interesting. What were paladins originally like? Battle-mages?

Buff slaves. "Healer"s.

[Deleted]

Monks, you have to remember when WoW was released.

Huh. Well, alright.

I saw you in the W* thread so I assumed you'd be on that. xD My bad.

Well either it's hard to detect sarcasm on the web or I can't detect yours back, but yes it is wildstar. I didn't mention it because I didn't want to derail this thread. I'll save my opinions and worries about wildstar for that megathread.

[schwank05]

Tauren didn't used to have mounts they had an ability called Planes-striding, which had a ramp up time and if you took damage the speed reset.

[Deleted]

I played from the EU open beta and noticed little change from that into launch. I was still learning most of the concepts (it was very different to dark age of camelot) so it was hard to put forth a judgement on the game whilst learning it. At launch it was just busy, people were everywhere and some stuff wasn't implemented yet like battlegrounds and weather effects.

Generally a game will go through a rough period after launch with server issues and then the population will die back, content releases all depend on the developer as if they can't see hiring the staff to develop then it will be slow for new content to come out. As WoW just kept selling and selling more and more resources were put into it and that's what made it into the game it is today.

Intersting. So it got a lot better post launch. But was it great at launch as well? Just a case of refinement

[Viscoe]

Well either it's hard to detect sarcasm on the web or I can't detect yours back, but yes it is wildstar. I didn't mention it because I didn't want to derail this thread. I'll save my opinions and worries about wildstar for that megathread.

That'd be a case of me not detecting your sarcasm. ;P

But yeah, if you're honestly worried about the combat system and movement in W*, we have a few people on the megathread that were having big huge conversations about it a couple of pages ago. People can't actually tell you too much though because it would break the NDA.

So all I can say is that from what it looks like, the basic mechanics of things are really so deeply embedded in how the rest of the game works, that I wouldn't think they'd drastically change at any point other than altering the mechanisms of blink-like spells (like the one that spellslingers do when they drop under the earth and port to another location. That will probably require some tech to work on rocks/uphill slopes.)

[Bythedar]

Your questions can only be answered in the context of the timeframe of when WoW was released. It was laggy, full of bugs, horribly balanced, and relied a bit too much on an improved EQ model of leveling (ie. GRIIIIIIIND). But it was miles better than anything on the market at the time. Hell, I came to WoW from a MUD. That's right, a MUD.

If WoW were released today, in the same exact shape it was released in 2004, it would be a colossal failure. Why? Because the market has shifted and changed. People expect more from an MMO.

But when it was released in 2004, it was a complete eye-opening experience, which I for one, am glad I experienced.

[Deleted]

nogg-aholic.blogspot.com/2006/02/why-wow-is-bad-game-reason-8.html an interesting look at wow from noggaholic the famous wow explorer~ (can't post links yet)

I was actually thinking about why wow is good recently.

Imo, it's because it got the bread and butter absolutely dead on right. It's not an innovator, it just did the basics of mmo to the best you could and then over time made the game accessible to everyone. But it did not innovate.

So if this other game I'm looking at hasn't go the basics right then I'm a bit worried seeing as it appears wow nailed it very early on in beta :S

[Deleted]

It was fun, but it had its problems. The ones that bothered me the most was the poor itemisation for class armors and the fact that a lot of specs were horrible compared to a select few that weren't.

Other than that, it was new and exciting.

[tuesday the paladin]

Constant server crashes, login queues, unable to create characters on some servers due to population size, excitement and adventure where everywhere (when I first hit level 10 on my hunter and got a bear was amazing)

[Pugbot]

Some very interesting replies!

I guess I should have been more specific. The kinds of things people are talking about that were changed seem quite minor like forsaken being able to talk to alliance or plainsrunning.

What I meant was, the fluid movement and especially the deep and rich combat system - were they like they are now from the beginning? Or was it quite stiff and shallow and progressively got better?

Essentially, was it obvious that this game was a cut above the rest even in early beta?

It was obvious this game was a cut above the rest from Beta.
However, there was really no other game like this at the time. Even when this game came out it was a huge step in the direction of making things easier in MMORPGS as every other MMORPG before it with any success was absolutely brutal to play if you were a casual.

[Deleted]

Monks, you have to remember when WoW was released.

The MMO market wasn't really big and booming. You could play, like, Runescape or EQ or GW or WoW. Or UO!

As well as the fact that "greatness" is subjective. If you want to measure by subs, then WotLK was when it was "great." if you want to measure by enjoyment, you're going to get wildly varied answers. YOu just have to test the game you're curious about yourself and DECIDE if you like it or not.

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Huh. Well, alright.

I saw you in the W* thread so I assumed you'd be on that. xD My bad.

Oh yes, I remember the mmo market back in 2004

I was still young and pre-job and at that time the thought of paying a monthly fee for a game was just absurd so I played Runescape and another mmo, which was free for a while, and was fairly decent called Helbreath - a random Korean mmo.

Yes I agree with what you're saying but as far as i'm concerned, the most important thing is the combat system for both pve and pvp - everything else is just filler.

[Vaalyn]

I started playing in April 2005 - about 6 months after initial release.
WoW was vast and the journey to 60 was long and an achievement unto itself.
The horde and alliance were divided and offered unique experiences. There was a "horde" way of doing things and an "alliance" way (BWL in particular illustrates this on the Razorgore fight)
By the time I hit 60, the world was pretty stable. New instances/raids were released and I don't remember any huge issues other then the plague incident from ZG.
Not everyone raided, and everyone was okay with it. There were multiple progression paths and I spent my frist 6 months as a 60 running dungeons for my dungeon set. Epics were truly epic and you were like a god if you had Hand of Ragnaros.
I started playing Rift at the launch to try and see if the experiences would be similar, but unfortunately it didn't capture the same interest and awe of exploration (not saying Rift is bad, I enjoy it and am still subscribed, but it was not a WoW experience)
I guess in answer to your question, I haven't played anything that matched the magnitude of WoW at launch and thats some of the reason long-time players like my self are still subscribed.
WoW at launch truly was WOW!

[Viscoe]

Yes I agree with what you're saying but as far as i'm concerned, the most important thing is the combat system for both pve and pvp - everything else is just filler.

Have you ever played action combat MMOs?

TERA, Guild Wars 2, PSO?

From what I can tell from the promotional videos, it's a lot like those. Only W* takes more aim than GW2. I think it strikes closest to PSO2 in terms of combat (again, from what I've seen. I have never played TERA and am not in the W* beta so. :P)

If you like those and feel they work, then that's your answer.

[Deleted]

But yeah, if you're honestly worried about the combat system and movement in W*, we have a few people on the megathread that were having big huge conversations about it a couple of pages ago.

Thx for this I'll check it out

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Have you ever played action combat MMOs?

TERA, Guild Wars 2, PSO?

From what I can tell from the promotional videos, it's a lot like those. Only W* takes more aim than GW2. I think it strikes closest to PSO2 in terms of combat (again, from what I've seen. I have never played TERA and am not in the W* beta so. :P)

If you like those and feel they work, then that's your answer.

I played all 3 actually. So what you're saying is the importance of strategic use of abilities (like in wow) is sacrificed somewhat for an increase in the requirements of players' ability to aim and evade spells?

[Lochton]

Aye, would say the first beta = sections of crap. Fighting a blue checkered cube to get [PH] loot.. My first green 2 handed sword was a broom..

[hulkgor]

Some months post launch, when Dire Maul was released, instance servers were under such strain that they were unavailable for several days on a row, with most characters stuck in limbo for the duration... fun times

[Wilian]

Kalgan is still the head dev....

Not in the same manner, no. Ghostcrawler took over that position and after his reign Paladins (starting with WotLK), Paladins actually became a viable class with all of it's specs.

This is really interesting. What were paladins originally like? Battle-mages?

They were far more melee hybrid like with their own combat system that closely resembled DK system at launch. It was often a joke during Wrath Beta that Blizzard took Paladin beta class and renamed it DK. Biggest differences were that in combat, instead of autoattack + seal Paladins had active Strike based system which still exists with some of the old Scarlet Monastery NPCs

Basically it worked like you hit enemy with one strike and it gains debuff, increasing holy damage taken (Original Crusader Strike) and then you had sort of finisher strike after you had piled enough debuffs on enemy.

Lot of the other abilities functioned differently too, being short term large boosts rather than passive long term (relatively, 5 minute blessings heh) shit.

[Nhodjin]

I started playing in April 2005 - about 6 months after initial release.
WoW was vast and the journey to 60 was long and an achievement unto itself.
The horde and alliance were divided and offered unique experiences. There was a "horde" way of doing things and an "alliance" way (BWL in particular illustrates this on the Razorgore fight)
By the time I hit 60, the world was pretty stable. New instances/raids were released and I don't remember any huge issues other then the plague incident from ZG.
Not everyone raided, and everyone was okay with it. There were multiple progression paths and I spent my frist 6 months as a 60 running dungeons for my dungeon set. Epics were truly epic and you were like a god if you had Hand of Ragnaros.
I started playing Rift at the launch to try and see if the experiences would be similar, but unfortunately it didn't capture the same interest and awe of exploration (not saying Rift is bad, I enjoy it and am still subscribed, but it was not a WoW experience)
I guess in answer to your question, I haven't played anything that matched the magnitude of WoW at launch and thats some of the reason long-time players like my self are still subscribed.
WoW at launch truly was WOW!

More or less exactly what you said, it was truly WOW. I've played since korea beta back in 04, and there's nothing like running into searing gorge on lvl 25 and actually being scared because those big ?? Ogres would chase you and kill and doing it with a group of friends. Back then you didn't play a game, you explored a world. That awe of exploration and discovering new places and hiding for those high lvls with mounts, screaming to your friends while laning " OH MY GOD, HE'S ON A MOUNT! RUN !!! "

Doing dungeons for the first time, not knowing anything about the place. What made it so good back then was the fact that nothing had been discovered, not every goddamn thing was known before it got released. The opening of the AQ gates and the rivalry between the guilds trying to do it? priceless! Having my friend that played a gnome sit "afk" in SS and having all of us stealthed just waiting for a horde to swallow the bait. I truly treasure those memories no matter how corny it sounds. No other game will ever provide such an amazing feeling and that's the truth.

[Wilian]

Buff slaves. "Healer"s.

No, that's post launch paladins, he asked about beta paladins.

[Deleted]

They were far more melee hybrid like with their own combat system that closely resembled DK system at launch. It was often a joke during Wrath Beta that Blizzard took Paladin beta class and renamed it DK. Biggest differences were that in combat, instead of autoattack + seal Paladins had active Strike based system which still exists with some of the old Scarlet Monastery NPCs

Basically it worked like you hit enemy with one strike and it gains debuff, increasing holy damage taken (Original Crusader Strike) and then you had sort of finisher strike after you had piled enough debuffs on enemy.

Lot of the other abilities functioned differently too, being short term large boosts rather than passive long term (relatively, 5 minute blessings heh) shit.

So it was kind of like holy combo points that also acted as a debuff? And the class was based around short cds rather than long ones? That makes me sad. This sounds like a class I would really have got into. In fact, it sounds quite similar to my favourite class at the moment - Monks.

You were talking about this?

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=17284/holy-strike#comments