For those thinking of trying DAoC... A review.

KnightofGoth

First off let me say this is in no way a flame of this game. But yes, it is definately a negative review.

I have played EQ/EQ2/WoW/GW/SWG, and have spent a couple of years in each game.

I decided to give DAoC a try based on the game rating of various websites. (Goes to show never listen to the critics.)

This game is dead. History. Past tense.

The amount of people playing during prime time is horrible. The RvR servers of course have the best population, but even that is dismal at best. I started out playing two months ago on the Co-Op server to get a basic feel for the game, as well as a feel for each realm.

Here are the good points:

1. Great graphics.

2. Good character design.

3. Good races/class selections.

4. Nice quests.

5. Nice crafting system.

These few good points will likely overwhelm you at first, and make you think...hey, this game is great. It did me. Play it a bit, and you will easily come to the bad points. Which in my honest opinion out weigh the good points, and show why no one is playing the game anymore. (Besides the age factor.)

1. No world map. Have a feeling constantly of being lost or the 'where am I?'.

2. Interface has quirks. Using a custom doesn't help because it is just mainly the standard interface regraphiced. A lot of the quirks show up as poorly thought out design.

    2a. Like I'm going to setup my bars. Standard click and drag. Wait, I don't like the order. Have to redo them ALL pretty much. There is no click and drag off an established button onto a different one.

   2b. Or... I've got 20 quests, and have finished 3 of them. Hmm...which three was it? Have to open and examine each quest to see, THEN have to manually find the person who gave you the quest because they are no longer marked in any way on the map. Talk about a pain.

  2c. Try selling the cash loot drops. Oh that is...not fun.

I could go on and on about the various little things that make life much easier for the online gamer that has to do with how the interface is designed. This one is just horrible, and there is no getting around it.

3. Way too easy to level. I mean why even have levels? Why not just make everyone 50. I leveled a necro to 50 in 2 days. And if you are slow, they will basically every 2 days give you a level, so you only have to make every other one to 48th. Have to make the last 2 yourself. And once you get that first character to 50, you can /level the others to 20th if they aren't Catacomb classes. Woot! Joy of joys. Ok, not really. This is probably the one largest drawback in the game. Making it far too easy to level up reduces available grouping options at lower levels. Shocking I know.

  3a. Powerleveling. Yeah and if a day or two to 50 is just not your style, any 50th leveler will pretty much powerlevel you to it in record time. Hoping of course you will think that is cool, and stick around for longer then a couple of weeks. Oh yeah, s/he will probably want you to join the guild too, since there are like nearly as many guilds on each server as their are players with only 1 or 2 people left in each.

4. Grouping options. Hahahaha. Play a well balanced solo class. Because even at server peak, you'll be lucky to find anyone to group with.

  4a. Bots. Oh yeah. Multi-accounts and people running their healing and buff bots. Removes them from the group option pretty much.

Pretty much the only people left on the servers are people who have several 50's and are hoping against hope their game will not get canceled.

 

I could just go on and on and on about everything negative with the game. Play inbalances introduced as 'upgrades' to the archers. The stealth inbalance, etc. I bought the game and its various hintbooks for two friends and myself, hoping of course to get away from WoW and the grind/toon look. This game goes completely in the opposite direction. The character's look good, and there is really absolutely no grind in it at all.

Sadly, this game shows a lot of potential. UI quirks can be overlooked. But play inbalances pretty much killed it for the vets. And anyone new to it is so annoyed by the UI quirks, and the constant lost feeling, they seldom stick around even long enough to realize there really is no one else on the server to play with.

Suggestions for those still wanting to try it:

1. Do the 14 day trial.

2. Borrow your friend's hint guide as well as Catacomb map guide. (Why bother wasting any money at all?)

3. Check server populations throughout your normal play time and pick the one with the LARGEST. (I know...isn't THAT a bit backwards?)

4. Make up a strong solo class, that is more then capable in RvR. Leave any group niceties as a secondary priority.

5. Bet you are bored before the 14 days are up and don't buy it.

Currently: Looking for that game that is the happy medium.

P.S. Almost forgot. I got the Epic edition. Which comes with ALL the expansions. Well 'comes with' is a bit of a subjective comment. You have to download and install each of them seperately. Takes hours. Of course the instructions do not match what you have either. Which of course just adds more to the joy of anticipation. I mean if you mess it up and have to redo it and spend even more hours installing. Did I mention this is the least user friendly game I have ever played?  Good luck, and happy killings.

Varlok91

Originally posted by KnightofGoth


First off let me say this is in no way a flame of this game. But yes, it is definately a negative review.
I have played EQ/EQ2/WoW/GW/SWG, and have spent a couple of years in each game.
I decided to give DAoC a try based on the game rating of various websites. (Goes to show never listen to the critics.)
This game is dead. History. Past tense.
What server did you play? The US classic server is pretty populated getting over 2000 people on a night. Thats enough to make the game feel alive.
The amount of people playing during prime time is horrible. The RvR servers of course have the best population, but even that is dismal at best. I started out playing two months ago on the Co-Op server to get a basic feel for the game, as well as a feel for each realm.
Read above. Classic has a fine population for RvR and I see the low levels areas pretty populated.
Here are the good points:
1. Great graphics.
2. Good character design.
3. Good races/class selections.
4. Nice quests.
5. Nice crafting system.
These few good points will likely overwhelm you at first, and make you think...hey, this game is great. It did me. Play it a bit, and you will easily come to the bad points. Which in my honest opinion out weigh the good points, and show why no one is playing the game anymore. (Besides the age factor.)
1. No world map. Have a feeling constantly of being lost or the 'where am I?'.
Theres a mini map and a world map. Its not very detailed if you don't have a custom UI. Maybe you mean mobs aren't listed, but all towns/dungeons are listed.
2. Interface has quirks. Using a custom doesn't help because it is just mainly the standard interface regraphiced. A lot of the quirks show up as poorly thought out design.
    2a. Like I'm going to setup my bars. Standard click and drag. Wait, I don't like the order. Have to redo them ALL pretty much. There is no click and drag off an established button onto a different one.
A minor annoyance yes, but why don't you just move the icon you want in that spot over the icon in the wrong spot? It will place the correct icon in the right spot while giving you control of the wrong icon.
   2b. Or... I've got 20 quests, and have finished 3 of them. Hmm...which three was it? Have to open and examine each quest to see, THEN have to manually find the person who gave you the quest because they are no longer marked in any way on the map. Talk about a pain.
This is true.
  2c. Try selling the cash loot drops. Oh that is...not fun.
Look at you keyboard configuration. It has a selling hot key that you can use, makes selling much faster.
I could go on and on about the various little things that make life much easier for the online gamer that has to do with how the interface is designed. This one is just horrible, and there is no getting around it.
3. Way too easy to level. I mean why even have levels? Why not just make everyone 50. I leveled a necro to 50 in 2 days. And if you are slow, they will basically every 2 days give you a level, so you only have to make every other one to 48th. Have to make the last 2 yourself. And once you get that first character to 50, you can /level the others to 20th if they aren't Catacomb classes. Woot! Joy of joys. Ok, not really. This is probably the one largest drawback in the game. Making it far too easy to level up reduces available grouping options at lower levels. Shocking I know.
Necromancers are known for being very easy to level, not that leveling is really hard for any class, but necromancers are incredibly easy. /Level doesn't exist on the classic servers. Most of your problems seems to come from you not rolling on the classic servers which are the most newbie friendly.
  3a. Powerleveling. Yeah and if a day or two to 50 is just not your style, any 50th leveler will pretty much powerlevel you to it in record time. Hoping of course you will think that is cool, and stick around for longer then a couple of weeks. Oh yeah, s/he will probably want you to join the guild too, since there are like nearly as many guilds on each server as their are players with only 1 or 2 people left in each.
Yes, powerleveling is fairly common. Again the dead guilds though are pretty much a result of not rolling on the classic servers.
4. Grouping options. Hahahaha. Play a well balanced solo class. Because even at server peak, you'll be lucky to find anyone to group with.
I have always found a group to be honest when I am looking for one. Even on regular servers if you have an alliance its pretty easy to get a group.
  4a. Bots. Oh yeah. Multi-accounts and people running their healing and buff bots. Removes them from the group option pretty much.
Bots are far less common on classic servers. Why mythic doesn't implement the classic server buffbot rule on regular servers is beyond me.
Pretty much the only people left on the servers are people who have several 50's and are hoping against hope their game will not get canceled.
 Yes, but this is also largely due to lack of advertising. Its mythic's mistake, they were to focused on getting old customers to come back and not new customers.


I could just go on and on and on about everything negative with the game. Play inbalances introduced as 'upgrades' to the archers. The stealth inbalance, etc. I bought the game and its various hintbooks for two friends and myself, hoping of course to get away from WoW and the grind/toon look. This game goes completely in the opposite direction. The character's look good, and there is really absolutely no grind in it at all.
Yes there are some imbalances, but overall when you look at the game it is pretty balanced. This is not WoW with less than 10 classes. DAoC has over 45 classes. Mythic probably shouldn't have made so many, but when you look at their overall job its pretty good.
Sadly, this game shows a lot of potential. UI quirks can be overlooked. But play inbalances pretty much killed it for the vets. And anyone new to it is so annoyed by the UI quirks, and the constant lost feeling, they seldom stick around even long enough to release there really is no one else on the server to play with.
Currently: Looking for that game that is the happy medium.

Overall, the source of most your problems was choosing the wrong server. Classic servers (ector, lamorak and gareth) solve quite a few of your problems.

The game is old, but is still fun. Just my take on it. Good luck finding another game though.

Cartography

I just started a trial 5 days ago and am playing on Gareth. Over a 1100 people playing on that server every night, and plenty of people to level up and group with. I'm not sure why you chose a dead server at the start. The interface is OK, definately not the best and it can be pretty klunky at times...  but once you get used to it, it's fine.

For world map, you hit the "M" key, it's basically like wow's world map... it shows you the zone you are in, and you can zoom out to the region using the pull-down menu at the top of the map window. The zones are a great deal smaller than other MMO zones, so I have not felt lost yet, but that would be just my opinion.

I love this game so far, and I'm kinda pissed I didn't experience it a few years ago during it's prime. The PVP/RVR is fantastic and extremely fast-paced. The only thing I don't like about the RvR are stealthers, sometimes it's not even fun trying to fight them... compare it to fighting a warlock in WoW lol. It gets old.

You definitely bring up a lot of problems that many people who play the trial agree with, but this game is great once you get used to it (like EVE maybe haha).

 

KnightofGoth

Originally posted by Varlok91


 
Originally posted by KnightofGoth


What server did you play? The US classic server is pretty populated getting over 2000 people on a night. Thats enough to make the game feel alive.
Actually I played on several different servers. I merely started on the Co-Op to get a feel for the classes and realms. However, if I *have* to restrict myself to a classic server to get the alive feel of the game. The game has problems.
2. Interface ha
Theres a mini map and a world map. Its not very detailed if you don't have a custom UI. Maybe you mean mobs aren't listed, but all towns/dungeons are listed.
I was using a custom UI. Derida's. And it does NOT contain a 'world map'. It merely gives you your Realms's map OR the zone you currently are in, or another zone within that realm. If you are a different area, such as the frontier, it switches to that. So that added with the overly complex travel system (oh yeah, didn't mention that mess) adds to the 'lost' feeling. Not to mention, I'm 28th level...hmmm...where do I hunt? Good luck finding that information even online.
Necromancers are known for being very easy to level, not that leveling is really hard for any class, but necromancers are incredibly easy. /Level doesn't exist on the classic servers. Most of your problems seems to come from you not rolling on the classic servers which are the most newbie friendly.
Necros are easy to level in pretty much every game. They are usually the prime solo class. Thus it is why I picked that one first. Gives you a nice gauge as to what the rest will more or less be like.
 Yes, but this is also largely due to lack of advertising. Its mythic's mistake, they were to focused on getting old customers to come back and not new customers.


Going to have to STRONGLY disagree with you on this. It looks to me, being a new player and all that they are pandering to the new players. Which is a mistake. They made it a lot easier from what I have read to level up then what it used to be. Bad idea. There is no real challenge. They made housing lots free up for new players from dead accounts. Doesn't look like they want those old players back doing that to me. The only challenge in this game is: 1. Finding your way around. 2. Dealing with the horrible UI. 3. Finding where to turn in that quest you finished. Things of that nature. The reality is, don't bother with the quests, just kill yellow and orange creatures till you ding 50. Next game.
Yes there are some imbalances, but overall when you look at the game it is pretty balanced. This is not WoW with less than 10 classes. DAoC has over 45 classes. Mythic probably shouldn't have made so many, but when you look at their overall job its pretty good.
Problem with PvP (RvR) style gaming. All it takes is one or two serious inbalances to kill it. That's it. Really just 1. Yes, overall, they did a great job no only on the classes and races, but as well as general design, and the RvR idea adds into the overall flavor nicely. Problem is again, server population due to a few flaws they introduced. But of course will not fix. That would be admitting to a *cough* mistake.
And as far as playing on a classic server. Will say it again. If I *HAVE* to play on a specific server type to have a good time...the game has issues right there. And 2k population at peak is laughable. Do the math... 2K pop/3 realms/50 levels...potention 13 people of my level. (Unlikely since 10 of those are really going to be in the 45+ range, and half of them will be likely bots grouped with the other half. So that really leaves you around oh...10 people maybe 20...in a 10 level range to group with, and most of them are already grouped with a 50th level bot.
Think I'll pass. Will just try Warhammer when it is released. If I wanted to play a game solo, I'd go back to playing one of the many offline ones I have.
Which brings up... It is amazing how many people just logon and do that. Look, send me your 15 bucks per month and you can rent any of my offline ones. 

.

 

Varlok91

Problem with PvP (RvR) style gaming. All it takes is one or two serious inbalances to kill it. That's it. Really just 1. Yes, overall, they did a great job no only on the classes and races, but as well as general design, and the RvR idea adds into the overall flavor nicely. Problem is again, server population due to a few flaws they introduced. But of course will not fix. That would be admitting to a *cough* mistake.
And as far as playing on a classic server. Will say it again. If I *HAVE* to play on a specific server type to have a good time...the game has issues right there. And 2k population at peak is laughable. Do the math... 2K pop/3 realms/50 levels...potention 13 people of my level. (Unlikely since 10 of those are really going to be in the 45+ range, and half of them will be likely bots grouped with the other half. So that really leaves you around oh...10 people maybe 20...in a 10 level range to group with, and most of them are already grouped with a 50th level bot.
Think I'll pass. Will just try Warhammer when it is released. If I wanted to play a game solo, I'd go back to playing one of the many offline ones I have.
Which brings up... It is amazing how many people just logon and do that. Look, send me your 15 bucks per month and you can rent any of my offline ones. 

.

 

I never said it was a good thing that you had to play a specific sever, but it is an old game. I was merely pointing out you would have had a better time playing that server as it solves a lot of your problems.

One or two serious imbalances don't ruin the game. You comment on archers, well to be honest it was better for them to go melee ( at least for a ranger/hunter) before the archery patch. I don't consider the archery patch a huge deal to be honest. Archers are meant to be dangerous at range.

On classic servers again I tend to see less power leveling. When I leveled up my last character I had no problems finding groups at my level. Your problems are coming from the low population of ToA servers.

You can't really expect the game to be hugely populated going on six years old. Sure if mythic did certain things there might be a higher population, but refusing to play on the server with a decent population is illogical. If you give the game another shot I suggest you try the classic servers.

KnightofGoth

Originally posted by logicbox9


I love this game so far, and I'm kinda pissed I didn't experience it a few years ago during it's prime. The PVP/RVR is fantastic and extremely fast-paced. The only thing I don't like about the RvR are stealthers, sometimes it's not even fun trying to fight them... compare it to fighting a warlock in WoW lol. It gets old.
----
Yeah that is the one thing I felt too. Wish I had played it years ago. Between the stealthers and the archers. Which gets old very fast. Again, inbalances introduced and need fixing. My honest opinion is I think EA is going to just move on to something else. The game reminds me strongly of Star Wars Galaxy. Dead. But hey, you want to send them your money every month they will gladly take it. I had six accounts in SWG, then they changed it to a first person shooter.... Think that has to do with the statement: Online Gaming Experience May Change. IMHO...usually not for the better.
If you look at either EQ or WoW, they have such strong player bases because they Test, and Test, and Test, and did I mention Test?, then make 1 or 2 very minor changes. And if they mess up, they fix it and add a nice 'sorry you got nerfed' in the patch message.
I'm an adult. I'd rather the game be fun and nicely balanced. Nerf me if you have too in order to get it done. If it isn't balanced, you might as well throw up a Neverwinter's Night server, logon as the GM and run around randomly killing people who are playing. Will have the same affect on server population for your game as it does on these.
Anyhow. My original point, which may have gotten entirely lost was.... Don't waste you money. The game is dead.  You missed it. Just logon to the Mythic site, buy the T-Shirt and tell everyone you played it back when.... And move on to something else.

 

BadSpock

I tried the 14 day trail of DaoC and had zero luck.

I kept being disconnected from the server after a minute or so. The game was also very buggy. I have a dual core processor, 2gb of ram, ATI 1900 video card.. all updated, and i would get a lot of very strange graphical errors, characters would constantly twitch.. it was totally unplayable.

It's really too bad, I'm really hyped for WAR and really wanted to try DaoC to get a taste for Mythic's style.... it's kind of got me scared if they can't refine their 6 year old game.....

 

 

Rodzilla

  Its the only mmo........  that has a FUN END GAME

Rodzilla

Originally posted by heerobya


I tried the 14 day trail of DaoC and had zero luck.
I kept being disconnected from the server after a minute or so. The game was also very buggy. I have a dual core processor, 2gb of ram, ATI 1900 video card.. all updated, and i would get a lot of very strange graphical errors, characters would constantly twitch.. it was totally unplayable.
It's really too bad, I'm really hyped for WAR and really wanted to try DaoC to get a taste for Mythic's style.... it's kind of got me scared if they can't refine their 6 year old game.....
 
 

 played it for 5 years and never had  any of the trouble that you posted.  

Werppa

So basically it's a good thing if you lvl to cap in like 4-5 months? :P

And, every reviewer of daoc should try RvR and not just concentrate on PvE aspects of daoc.

Rodzilla

Originally posted by KnightofGoth


First off let me say this is in no way a flame of this game. But yes, it is definately a negative review.
I have played EQ/EQ2/WoW/GW/SWG, and have spent a couple of years in each game.
I decided to give DAoC a try based on the game rating of various websites. (Goes to show never listen to the critics.)
This game is dead. History. Past tense.
The amount of people playing during prime time is horrible. The RvR servers of course have the best population, but even that is dismal at best. I started out playing two months ago on the Co-Op server to get a basic feel for the game, as well as a feel for each realm.
Here are the good points:
1. Great graphics.
2. Good character design.
3. Good races/class selections.
4. Nice quests.
5. Nice crafting system.
These few good points will likely overwhelm you at first, and make you think...hey, this game is great. It did me. Play it a bit, and you will easily come to the bad points. Which in my honest opinion out weigh the good points, and show why no one is playing the game anymore. (Besides the age factor.)
1. No world map. Have a feeling constantly of being lost or the 'where am I?'.
2. Interface has quirks. Using a custom doesn't help because it is just mainly the standard interface regraphiced. A lot of the quirks show up as poorly thought out design.
    2a. Like I'm going to setup my bars. Standard click and drag. Wait, I don't like the order. Have to redo them ALL pretty much. There is no click and drag off an established button onto a different one.
   2b. Or... I've got 20 quests, and have finished 3 of them. Hmm...which three was it? Have to open and examine each quest to see, THEN have to manually find the person who gave you the quest because they are no longer marked in any way on the map. Talk about a pain.
  2c. Try selling the cash loot drops. Oh that is...not fun.
I could go on and on about the various little things that make life much easier for the online gamer that has to do with how the interface is designed. This one is just horrible, and there is no getting around it.
3. Way too easy to level. I mean why even have levels? Why not just make everyone 50. I leveled a necro to 50 in 2 days. And if you are slow, they will basically every 2 days give you a level, so you only have to make every other one to 48th. Have to make the last 2 yourself. And once you get that first character to 50, you can /level the others to 20th if they aren't Catacomb classes. Woot! Joy of joys. Ok, not really. This is probably the one largest drawback in the game. Making it far too easy to level up reduces available grouping options at lower levels. Shocking I know.
  3a. Powerleveling. Yeah and if a day or two to 50 is just not your style, any 50th leveler will pretty much powerlevel you to it in record time. Hoping of course you will think that is cool, and stick around for longer then a couple of weeks. Oh yeah, s/he will probably want you to join the guild too, since there are like nearly as many guilds on each server as their are players with only 1 or 2 people left in each.
4. Grouping options. Hahahaha. Play a well balanced solo class. Because even at server peak, you'll be lucky to find anyone to group with.
  4a. Bots. Oh yeah. Multi-accounts and people running their healing and buff bots. Removes them from the group option pretty much.
Pretty much the only people left on the servers are people who have several 50's and are hoping against hope their game will not get canceled.
 
I could just go on and on and on about everything negative with the game. Play inbalances introduced as 'upgrades' to the archers. The stealth inbalance, etc. I bought the game and its various hintbooks for two friends and myself, hoping of course to get away from WoW and the grind/toon look. This game goes completely in the opposite direction. The character's look good, and there is really absolutely no grind in it at all.
Sadly, this game shows a lot of potential. UI quirks can be overlooked. But play inbalances pretty much killed it for the vets. And anyone new to it is so annoyed by the UI quirks, and the constant lost feeling, they seldom stick around even long enough to realize there really is no one else on the server to play with.
Suggestions for those still wanting to try it:
1. Do the 14 day trial.
2. Borrow your friend's hint guide as well as Catacomb map guide. (Why bother wasting any money at all?)
3. Check server populations throughout your normal play time and pick the one with the LARGEST. (I know...isn't THAT a bit backwards?)
4. Make up a strong solo class, that is more then capable in RvR. Leave any group niceties as a secondary priority.
5. Bet you are bored before the 14 days are up and don't buy it.
Currently: Looking for that game that is the happy medium.
P.S. Almost forgot. I got the Epic edition. Which comes with ALL the expansions. Well 'comes with' is a bit of a subjective comment. You have to download and install each of them seperately. Takes hours. Of course the instructions do not match what you have either. Which of course just adds more to the joy of anticipation. I mean if you mess it up and have to redo it and spend even more hours installing. Did I mention this is the least user friendly game I have ever played?  Good luck, and happy killings.

  If you didnt play this game during its hayday 01 to 03  then you missed out.  End game pvp ( rvr ) experience was like no other.

JulianDracos

Varlok has pretty much summed up what needs to be said.  Of all the problems you mentioned only a couple of them are real problems.  I think if anything can be learned from your review it is that there needs to be a good guide because many of the things you listed as complaints were taken care of in the games years ago. 

I will say that "I played multiple servers" is rather vague.  What realms, servers, and times did you play on?  If you play at 8 am eastern time then things are going to suck for you.   On the Classic servers it shoudl not have been that much of an issue to get a group.  Yes you do level fast although I find it hard to believe that you reached 50 solo in 48 hours as a new player - maybe 72 hours.

Why didn't you go play in the BG while leveling?  What guilds did you belong to?  How large where they?  What alliance were they in?  Did they have a webpage set up for raids and communication? 

If anything I think the last archer patch shows that there is some balance with them because I have seen just as many people complain about them being OP as those saying they are now "nerfed."

You get out of a game what you put into it, maybe DAOC just required you to put too many things into it.  The older the game then more effort is going to need to be put into it. 

Werppa

Originally posted by heerobya


I tried the 14 day trail of DaoC and had zero luck.
I kept being disconnected from the server after a minute or so. The game was also very buggy. I have a dual core processor, 2gb of ram, ATI 1900 video card.. all updated, and i would get a lot of very strange graphical errors, characters would constantly twitch.. it was totally unplayable.
It's really too bad, I'm really hyped for WAR and really wanted to try DaoC to get a taste for Mythic's style.... it's kind of got me scared if they can't refine their 6 year old game.....
 
 

Never had those problems. There's something seriously wrong with your computer...

cerr

Originally posted by Werppa


 
Originally posted by heerobya


I tried the 14 day trail of DaoC and had zero luck.
I kept being disconnected from the server after a minute or so. The game was also very buggy. I have a dual core processor, 2gb of ram, ATI 1900 video card.. all updated, and i would get a lot of very strange graphical errors, characters would constantly twitch.. it was totally unplayable.
It's really too bad, I'm really hyped for WAR and really wanted to try DaoC to get a taste for Mythic's style.... it's kind of got me scared if they can't refine their 6 year old game.....
 
 

 

Never had those problems. There's something seriously wrong with your computer...

Same here, i have been playing Daoc from 2001 up till now with a multitude of pc's configurations and videocard and have never seen anything like that at all.

 

 

Vistaakah

This game is NOT dead. Well Trials of Atlantis servers are but they started dieing A LONG time ago.  The classic cluster * Bossiney* is always booming. More then to my liking alot of times. If your into large numbers *zergs* battles this server has more then it share. I played for the first 3 years of the game and quit for 2 and started up again a few months ago. I rolled a few 40s and 50s and  I'm coming close to calling it quits again not because its a bad game but  it don't  hold my interest much anymore.

Game wise this is the best thing out there still if your looking for a PVP MMO.  I've played them all and given a vote this is still the best thing out there regretfully. I will say if WAR has the flavor of WOW by any means at all it will fail. If anything WAR better require more thought and tactics then DAOC which is like i say pretty much about he who has the largest amount of players wins. If i could make any suggestions it would be to play the realm of Hibernia as it's the underdog population wise as Midgard and Albion have far superior numbers. This doesn't mean Hibernia is a sleep realm it just has fewer numbers mainly because Hibs really don't have cool classes like Alb and Mid do well cool can equate to OP=overpowered classes.

If you have never played i think you will find leveling pretty much painless if you do it in PVP zones because that is where the largest bonuses are. Again you fight for keeps and towers which can be alot of fun at least your fighting for something right? Otherwise it would be totally pointless PVP like World of Warcraft has.

This game rates at the top of  all the other games i have played. If WAR doesn't do it in a big way my MMO games in this D&D time period will be over.. I want to see a MMO that requires stellar teamwork and tactics to win.. This game has those tools in place but nobody uses them.