Surfacing for air
No, I’m not back to WoW. I’ve been watching discussion of Beta and discussion of the… interesting release of WotLK elements into BC, and find I have no interest in returning.
I’ve also been watching Warhammer Online. Assuming things come together and I’ve time and will to play another MMORPG, this one is tempting me. It’s tempting me enough that I’ve been doodling with theorycraft.
If I do jump onto the ship, I’m down to a “short” list of characters. Black Orc is the only Destruction side. On the Order side, there are Ironbreakes, Rune Priests, Shadow Warriors, Warrior Priests, and Engineers. If I play I’ll play the one that looks fun. That said, some things I found intriguing that I wish had been in WoW:
Everyone talks of the Public Quests. I’ll add my vote too. Lovely mechanism that brings players into groups without forcing grouping actions ahead of time. And while we’re at it a great way to get some of the big story done. Consider for a moment having had Mor’Ladim as a PQ.
A mechanism I think is huge, though subtle, is “collision detection”. Players can run through friendly players just as WoW. Players can NOT run through opposing players, however. Picture, just for an example, WSG, but a couple of tanks can stand at the door of the tunnel and pretty well prevent any enemy from passing (and getting rear shots or continuing as the case may be.) Let’s make that a more explicit tactic. I grab flag and start running down the tunnel. Three of my bestest buddies stand just down the tunnel in a row. I run through them. Pursuers have to stop and move at least one if not all three of my buddies to continue pursuit. (Note that most characters in WoW WAR have a knockback attack. It just needs to be on cooldown, and you need to activate it before the other guy does.)
Another mechanism I like is that they’ve done something about Taunt in PVP. Now i’m not sure I like that particular mechanism, but at least it exists. Basically, if I taunt you, I hit you at +30% damage until either time is out OR you hit me three times. Now, I’d have appreciated one more thing – a reduction to your damage if you hit anyone else. And I’ve seen some notes saying that used to or does happen. But the only definitive thing I’ve found is that you, the taunted, are more vulnerable to MY attacks. Still, it does make Taunt a PVP skill. And in fact that’s an across the board kind of thing. There are pretty much zero “PVE only” spells/attacks. Yeah, a few things like monsters or animals only exist, but they don’t apply to players because players aren’t monsters or animals.
Will I buy it and play it? Not soon. It’s interesting, but I’m still a bit burned out on the whole MMORPG situation. But it does intrigue me.
Priestly Endeavors - a gaming blog 
That collision thingy sounds intriguing. And thanks fer taking a few minutes ta let us know where yer at – always good ta hear from ya!
I’m afraid I don’t agree with Ratshag, in fact I would say collision detection is one of the turn-offs for me regarding WAR. I’ve seen too many youtube clips of people abusing collision detection in other MMOs to e.g. knock people off a bridge.
Consider also your example regarding the WSG tunnel – what sort of PvP takes more skill, one where a pair of tanks can simply block the tunnel with healers spam-healing them and DPS shooting through, or one where the healers and “soft” DPS also have to be careful about themselves and actively use CC/snare mechanics against the enemy?
Solidstate,
First, most of the “knock them off the bridge” things I’ve seen have been due to knockbacks, not collision detection. CD stops the player, nobody bounces.
As to “more skill” I’ll argue it takes more skill AS A TEAM to have to cope with tanks being tanks – to include tanks learning how to be PVP tanks and effectively block an attacker bent on mutilating your healer. It’s just another use of terrain.
In the end, some will like it and some will not. Me, I was always boggled at how useless “tank” was in WOW PVP, so I really happen to like this. ymmv.