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Some DAoC questions
Forgrimm
Member EpicPosts: 3,059
Hey all, I just wanted to know some things about DAoC. Here is a brief background: I've been playing MMO's since EQ back in 99. Since then I've played bunches of them, including EQII, WoW, Vanguard SoH, CoH, LoTRO, and many others, you get the point. For some reason, I just never tried out DAoC before. So recently I've been looking for something different and decided to give the 14 day trial a shot. I definitely started liking it right away. I can usually tell in a short amount of time whether or not I'm gonna like a game. And this game seems like it has some good points. I just wanted to find out some stuff before I invest more time in the game.
The first thing is spellcasting. I was completely caught off guard when I found out that it's almost impossible to cast while in combat unless it's an instant cast. Because there is no spell pushback, only complete spell cancellation upon taking damage. Does this mean that unless you are a pet class, that you basically have to kite everything in order to kill it?
Another question, how is the leveling progression in the game. I'm not interested in leveling super fast. I'm more interested in playing a fun class. I've been thinking spiritmaster, wizard, or shaman. If anyone has any info or tips on those classes I would appreciate it. My last question is regarding the grind. I know that in the long run, basically all MMO"s have at least somewhat of a grind to them, but some are worse than others. Are there a lot of quests and stuff to do in DAoC, or is it basically a grinding game?
Comments
yep Daoc Spell system is the dorkiest ever and thats all I have to say about that.
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
Lao-Tze
Well its been a long time since I've played DAOC. But your right, spell is canceled if your a caster. And kiting is really the only thing a caster can do if there is no pet you have. The grind, well if I recall the grind wasn't too bad. There are alot of tasks and quests to do and most of the time you'll be quest grinding rather than standing in a field and killing the same groups of things for 10 hours. Daoc was a very fun game. It has alot of content in the 5 years it's been out.
Unfortunately not many people play on the normal servers. The classic non Trials of Atlantis servers is where you get the majority of the populations. The artifacts and Master Levels really made it impossible to compete if you didn't dedicate alot of time to raids. Try to make it out to the battle grounds every time a new one opens up for your level, I think its every 5 or 10 levels theres a new BG, then you get to play with the big dogs at 50.
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Played (In order of favorite first to least): DAOC, EQ2, EVE, WOW, Vanguard, AC2, City of __, Guild Wars, LOTRO, EQ, Sword of New World, FFXI, Lineage 2, Second Life, DDO, Anarchy Online, RF Online, Archlord, Uru, Ragnarok Online, Shadowbane, Planetside, Auto Assault, Ryzom, Matrix Online, Horizons, Entropia, Sims, Runescape, Lineage 1, AC1, Dungeon Runners
When killing with casters, most people get out to max range and start nuking whatever it is you're trying to kill. As mobs get lower and lower in HP they will move slower and slower until they are practically walking or standing still. They will start at you at full speed but will begin to slow as you do damage. Most casters have a root, or a stun or some kind of snare that will help you slow them down even further if you get a resist.
Most of the people at least on the classic server level through the bg's while participating in the pvp aspect of the game. Killing other people will yield more exp then mobs. And the mobs in pvp zones give you 200% exp, main land gives you 150%. There are task dungeons for you to use to level if you can't find any pvp action. Just talk to the task master in the town you're in, and he/she will either tell you which city to go to for your level or just give you a task that you can do right there and then.
Spiritmasters are one of the Midgard pet classes. Depending on which way you spec you get different results. Specializing in Darkness will give you Life Tap, some mezz and a few debuffs. Suppression will give you PBAE nuke. It is point blank so the closer you stand to your target the harder it will hit as well as it will hit multiple targets. Summoning will give you pet buffs, a Damage Return shield you put on your pet that returns the damage delt to your pet multiplied by a certain %. Most people that want to be PvP viable go Darkness spec for the single target life tap, Suppression for groups and rarely ever do they spec summoning.
Wizzard's 3 spec lines are Ice,Earth and Fire. Fire will give you 2 Bolt spells, the longest range damage dealing spell, as well as some targeted AE spells that explode upon and around your target. Ice is your PBAE line. PBAE nuke, ae Snare-nuke, and a single target nuke. Earth gives you 1 bolt, a dot, and if I recall correctly Ground Target AE. Basically you get the earth bolt and follow it up with the base fire bolt to do some good damage. You can follow that with a nice dot and use your ground target AE to unstealth sneaks and hit people that may be hiding on the other side of a wall.
Shaman is the Midgard Buffing class, or that's what most people use them for. The 3 spec lines are Mending, Augmentation and Cave Magic. Mending gives you your heals, as well as some heal over time spells. Cure Disease and Cure poison. Augmentation gives you all the buffs such as strength, constitution, dexterity, Quickness, armor, and 2 of the buffs where it's a combination of str/con and dex/quickness that stack with the single ones. Also you get the ability to shear buffs from enemy targets. This means you strip them of their enhancements and thus make them weaker. Cave magic gives you all the damaging abilities that the shaman has. You get 1 bolt, one DD that you can cast over and over as of the latest patch, and a single target dot, as well as an area version of the dot. You also get Disease, PBAE disease, as well as root and AE root. It's an interesting class to play and one of the ones I enjoyed while I played camelot. Most Shaman spec augmentation with leftover points in mending and play the support class while others who only play for the lower level battle grounds spec Cave and ae dot the hell out of everybody. It's tons of fun to see your dot spam in your chat
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Hope that helps. In one of the other posts I left a bunch of links you can use to get to know the game better.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
cool, thanks a lot for the info. I will go and check out the links that you posted in the other thread.
With pure spell casters you only train one spell line. In combat you nuke the target from as far of a distance as possible. Bolt casters can easily drop targets before they get hit and other casters might have to kite a bit.
You should have some form of CC. This is not as much help at lower levels though. The reason that you loose the spell when getting hit is a balance issue. Casters do a huge amount of damage and if they could do that close up then they would be unstopable. Their character design is terms of spell functionality is a lot like AD&D. You start off weak and squishy, but you grow to insane power and squishy. At the upper levels you will be droping targets on most casters without the need to kite.
Of course there is also the BG to go play in because those give XP and you do not have to worry about mobs hitting you in combat.
Leveling is easy. Depending on what you do you can reach level 50 in 72 hours-8 days played.
I still have an account and play on the Bossiney cluster. I have been playing this game since it came out off and on. Like you I have played other games starting out with UO up to Everquest 2 plus trying out a few of the Free games some are ok I will admit. DAOF has had class balance issues from day one. I try to deal with the changes the Dev dishes out. When the changes are implemented it is a major nerf. Go to http://www.camelotherald.com under game news and read about the last patch which made the Heretic god like. Just a group of Heretic running around and three hits your dead. Now some are going to post they own the heretic when they fought after the 1.90 patch: YEA RIGHT!!!! I am leaving DAOC because as you can see the population is going down on the Bossiney cluster just look at the state of the realm. The bgs are not as fun as they use to be. I play a hiberian; for example in Molvik there may be 21 Hibs but 50 mids, just not fun any more. If the populations was up there it would still be a nice game. I do like the RVR ! After the 1.90 patch I noticed more people may have left because the population has dropped 200 or so more. In addition DAOC has dropped the bring a friend from 3 to 1 to get a free month. So, I would think again on buying any upgrades to this game.
To be honest, I really don't care about class balance issues, as long as its not OVERWHELMINGLY overpowered, or any class underpowered.
When it comes to class balance, all I care about is that NO class is underpowered, and no class is god-like. A few overpowered classes are the least of my worries. DAoC caters to spell-casters, plain and simple, especially with New Frontiers. Mercenaries are underpowered and sucky, vs spellcaster, vs melee, and vs group. The fact an armsman can do as much damage is ridiculous, since mercenaries suppose to be the DPS tank class.
What makes DAoC have the worst RvR and thus gameplay ever is the unbalanced POPULATIONS. I could care less about class unbalance as long as nobody is underpowered or godlike, but when the populations are 21hibs, 50 mids, and 10 albs, the game isn't fun. It is NOT a game where player-skill overcomes player-number. In any fight, unless you're RR7++ and they aren't, you will LOSE a 2v1. In a larger group, it's POSSIBLE, but not PROBABLE to win when you're outnumbered x2. Now, when half your side is soloing, you have 1 FG, and they have 3 FG's, the game isn't fun: it's over.
50 mids vs 21 hibs. Anyone can guess who will win, hands down.
The RvR is fun, the classes IMO are NOT balanced enough (Some are too powerful, although I don't care about that. There are A LOT that are underpowered and forgotten, like the light tanks.), but the populations of 50v20v10 is NOT fun.
It's like that EVERYWHERE you go.
In order Midgard/Hibernia/Albion in # of FULL GROUPS:
Thid: 4v3v1
Molvik: 6v3v2?
New Frontiers: something like 300v200v100?
To be honest, I don't know the numbers, because I always played on Albion. In all but ONE battleground, Albion was always underpowered in population by a LARGE amount. Whenever we had 1 FG, they had 3-4. Whenever we had 4 FG, they had 500 man army.