Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
WAR, AoC or Lotro?
Sorril
Member Posts: 8
Oh, where to even begin with this post.
I've been playing WoW for 3 and a half years. Before WoW I played Runescape, D2 and Phantasy Star Online intensively, aside from that I don't have the MMORPG roots that a lot of people have. Although I don't dip my chalet in WoW wine and act like it's the founder of the basis of all MMORPG games. I know better, it's common sense really where the success has come from.
I really don't think that WoW is a bad game. Don't get me wrong, Wrath has been pretty bad ass so far, but after nearly 4 years, I just can't sit down and play that game any longer. Every day after school or work, for over 40 months. I just can't do it anymore. I need something new. I need a game that I look forward to play after work, something that's a great past time on those boring days. With winter here now, there's a lot of those.
I have Lotro, WAR, and AoC. I played Lotro for a week, but found it to be very similar to WoW, and at the time I didn't want to play two copies of the exact same concept, so I stuck it out with WoW. I found AoC was very refreshing. The graphics, combined with the new combat system had me on edge for 2 or 3 weeks, but at the time the amount of bugs, combined with the fact that raiding/questing at 50 seemed completely undoable, I just decided to throw in the towel on it and it treated it like a lost cause.
WAR followed a similar path, though I simply found that WAR seemed unfinished. The interface settings were poor, the PvP system seemed really unbalanced, and the questing/dungeon system wasn't that great. Maybe I didn't try it enough, all I know that in the late level 20s I just couldn't take it anymore.
I was wondering how these games have changed, and if any are really worth looking into and why.
Thanks,
Mark
Comments
TABULA RASA!
This game is very different than all what you said. I play WoW myself and LOTRO and tried WAR. They were all good but felt very alike. When I tried Tabula Rasa though, it was very refreshing. The main and only difference is the combat system. It's defantly different and I recommend it. You can get the game for under $5 off of ebay, so give it a try before it shuts down.
You won't have to pay any monthly fees because we're less than a month away from going F2P so if you buy it new and get a free month you won't have to pay anything.
[charsig=http://lotrosigs.level3.turbine.com/032020000001a0f62/01007/signature.png]Altineen[/charsig]
Havent played LOTR ,more than the trial so I would not be able to give a fair judgement on that. Like you it did seem similiar to WOW, but most do these days I just didnt play it longer for the lack of any real pvp. From what I hear the PVE is really good though
AOC I played at the beginning and its a mess. LIke you I found something nice about it at first but to me even if you look past the bugs I cant stand how instanced the game is, its really spoiled the fun for me.
WAR is better than when it started. They are patching the game furiously and unlike AOC I see it making it longer because the company dont seem to be a sketchy as FUNCOM. Theres nothing ground breaking with WAR, but to me its a nice casual MMO with nice RvR,,,,,
If I had to pick 1 of the 3 I would pick WAR, but if I was a PVE man I might try LOTR again,
BTW the classes are getting more balanced as we speak in WAR.
Yes, start playing a game that is planned to shut down, great idea....
LOTRO is the only one of the three that is reasonably finished .WAR and AOC are still "becoming".
If u are EU, i would advice u not to play war, empty game, all servers are on low, expect 2 med servers... ghost eu game
LOTRO is in the best shape of the three currently. Full content, quite well done game and most polished of these three by a significant degree. The main downsides are (1) forced grouping for key questlines, (2) funky classes compared to other MMOs, (3) funky PvP system.
AoC -- getting better in terms of higher level content, but still basically the same game. Population is now stable, but small. I think AoC is one of those games that you like or don't, based on how addicted you get to the combat system and the graphical quality.
WAR -- getting better as well in terms of getting more people into oRvR, more client stability, two new classes. Main issues here are continued population issues on many servers, continued population imbalance between Order and Destruction, and continued perception of leveling past 25 being a slog.
I would say the choice comes down to whether you like mostly PvP or PvE. If you prefer PvE, LOTRO is the best of these three, whereas for PvP it's WAR. AoC is there if you really like the combat system and can't stand playing the GCD combat system that games like WOW, WAR and LOTRO all have.
AoC has undergone huge changes since launch and is starting to shape up in many respects. Quite a few has noticed this and there is a constant stream of returnees to the game theese days. Quite a lot of them have posted their findings in the AoC section of these boards.
Why limit yourself to just those 3?? I played LoTRO after I left WoW also....I found it too much like WoW for my liking....Felt like I was still playing WoW but with LoTRO lore......LoTRO has some good features but I found the game boring after a month......I didnt like the market much, tradeskilling seemed like a waste of time, and it felt like all I did was run bak and forth between NPCs all the time....... AoC is supposedly getting better and maybe a destination but you may want to wait a couple more months....... Warhammer seems to be at the crossroads and no one is quite sure how it is going to turn out...... You could sign up today and in a month or two it could have no subs or it could have a million.....The game has potential but it seems to be falling away...... The game needs less instanced PVP, more world PVP, and much better PVE to keep people interested.....If they dont work on those 3 areas then the game will never take off and it will just keep declining.
those games are all so different, AoC is a mix of raids and open PvP, WAR is faction PvP with not the best PvE and LoTro has great PvE.
I was in the same spot as you.
Resubscribed last week to AoC. Got in a new guild, my old booted me because I was gone for 2 months. The game is stable (I have zero performance issues) and my computer isn't top of the line (32bit Vista / 8800gt vid card / 2gb ram). Knocked out the new Ymirs zone, and the dungeon in the zone "Amphitheatre" is awesome.
Bought my son a copy of the game to play with me. Pop is reviving but still scattered over too many servers the merge will help it. It's going for $9.99 at Target in clearance section (if you can find it, and you get the 100 gold Snow Mammoth as a new subscriber)
I posted some screenshots in the ONRPG screenshots thread a day ago.
I'm 69 and still have quest chains in Ymirs, The Thunder River prison quests (dungeon), Atzels Approach, Crafting quests, Keshatta and other dungeons Onyx I think, and those group zones off the gathering zones. So I will not be grinding to 80, just questing and pvping when attacked. Plus the mini-games are in, and the seiges.
I'm happy with AoC.
People dismiss AoC and jump on the hate band wagon even though the game isn't even bad, I mean it isn't amazing but I'd put it up on the same level as Lotro, EQ2 and all the B class mmorpgs. It does some things really well like character creation and the combat system but it just fails for me because I hate how linear the world felt and all the loading screens you hit. I'd put AoC above WAR for sure but I think Lotro would be alot better if they changed the retarded character models.
Try the trial for Star Wars Galaxies.
Costs nothing. I would expect you will be impressed by the depth and variation in play.
You have classes which are different, levelling is pretty quick, you have space and you have crafting - just for starters.
I have tried all the games you mentioned and wouldn't waste my time with them.
Are you EU or NA by the way?
I kind of felt the same way and I played all 3 games above level 30. I thought AOC had the most promise but the populations on the AOC servers are pretty low right now. It felt like I was playing a solo mmo which totally defeats the purpose of playing mmos to begin with.
Lotro was ok but was highly disappointed you can't play on the Mordor side. The character models are very dull looking and for a game that is set in Tolkiens world it seems very slow paced which is really the opposite of what Tolkiens world is supposed to be.
Warhammer had some nice ideas but I think overall they were implemented very poorly and I just can't see paying a monthly fee just to run around smacking people with your weapons all day.
I kind of felt the same way and I played all 3 games above level 30. I thought AOC had the most promise but the populations on the AOC servers are pretty low right now. It felt like I was playing a solo mmo which totally defeats the purpose of playing mmos to begin with.
Lotro was ok but was highly disappointed you can't play on the Mordor side. The character models are very dull looking and for a game that is set in Tolkiens world it seems very slow paced which is really the opposite of what Tolkiens world is supposed to be.
Warhammer had some nice ideas but I think overall they were implemented very poorly and I just can't see paying a monthly fee just to run around smacking people with your weapons all day.
The problem with Warhammer Online is that well I'm not into Warhammer because there hasn't been a game that has come alogn to make it interesting. People say Warcraft ripped off Warhammer but when Playing Warcrfat 3 it was a much more amazing experince than anything Warhammer has put out and really apart from being fantasy I never saw the comparisons between the two franchises.
I was hoping Warhammer Online would come along and make me care about Warhammer but the game was souless and generic. It lacked any kinda of greta Lore that WoW has with Arthas and all that and the art style was just a bland boring WoW. I thought the world was made poorly too and nothing really to explore or of any interest. Because of that I didn't care for what I was fighting for and didn't care if we won or not. Specially if you play the empire...
Warhammer felt like being in a old folks home.
On top of that character customization was poor, RVR wasn't very fun, combat system sucked and I couldn't find a class I liked to play... most of the classes ine ach archetype felt the same anyways.
OP, I will keep my reply simple. I have played all 3 extensively and easily recommend LOTRO (graphics, lore, community). However, if you want something different (like most of us do), check out the sandbox games coming out in the future. Darkfall is suppose to release Jan 22nd. Then there is Earthrise, Mortal Online and Fallen Earth.
If you can't stand any current MMOs, then play a fantasy based Sandbox RPG game like Morrowind or Oblivion. Play them on the PC and you can mod the hell out of them, giving you content and variety for a longgggg time. Plus, they will prepare you for the Sandbox MMOs I mentioned earlier.
Regards,
Ltldogg
i hate to bring this up but if you have the comp for it, Vanguard has come a long way, and there is a trial out now. ..
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
George Washington
WAR's got quite a different feel since patch 1.1 came out. I's all about open RvR now and it seems folks finally started playing scenarios as they were meant to be played - a sideline. This combined with server transfers means that open world is quite populated now and there are no problems whatsoever with finding a group for almost anything - IF you're playing on a well-populated server.
If you're into spectacular mass PvP then I'd suggest giving WAR another go. If you like "competetive" PvP then you might get disappointed - it is not about being "the best" on some leaderboard but pwning the opposing faction, by any means necessary. In addition I've been exploring some of those high rank dungeons and they really are fantastic though there aren't enough of them to provide a 100% PvE endgame.
In short, if you're in for more of a massive game where you're a part of a huge host and people are running around all over the place then WAR is for you. If you're more into "intimate" group/story stuff then AoC and Lotro may be better. I like WAR precisely because the whole server is basically my guild - we're all in the same boat together and elitism has almost completely disappeared (an unfortunate throwback from those other mmos). I can log in, have a lark with my guildies, meet some new interesting people and kill them, and log off after an hour or so feeling satisfied.
Remember to reroll/transfer to one of the recommended servers though. There is not much point or fun playing on a low pop server. I play on a med/med (occasionally high) one and it is great.
.. and as for stability and polish... it's been quite improved lately. However it is still not 100% rock-solid. The last patch radically improved stability and performance for most people but some unlucky ones started experiencing crashes they never had before. It is still "work in progress" in that regard and it changes almost daily with regular hot-patching.
All depends on whats most impotant to you as a MMO player, some indication of the importance of pvp, quests, end game etc would be useful.