The majority of my interest in WAR’s Chosen class is that, on paper, it reminds me of the Dread Knight from Vanguard. I haven’t spent time with Dolndruth since March, so I thought I’d see what has changed since my last adventure in Telon. GU6 is scheduled to arrive this week, and it looks to be a Big Deal, so I wanted to get some last-minute time to see what GU5 brought to the table, and eventually snap some “before” body-shots of Dolndruth to compare with the “after” shots once GU6 goes live with its brand new character models. [Side note: Does re-subbing to VG with WAR so near say something about my overall interest in WAR itself? Possibly...]
I had damn near forgotten how to play the Dread Knight! I’d left Dolndruth somewhere in the early stages of the Coterie Infineum Sanctuary (CIS) quest line, which is dungeon difficulty group content. Seeing no sense in wasting other player’s time while I’m remembering how to play the class, I scrolled through the quest log and remembered he’d just picked up Part 3 (of 10) of the quest chain to eventually get a Shadowhound mount. Dolndruth was camped in Lomshir and after a lot of riding around, finally found the quest NPC nearby to get started on this phase.
He first asks me to travel to the Tiberian Wildwood, which is located in Hathor Zi, the next chunk directly south of Lomshir. However, after much riding in circles I was unable to find a direct route to the destination so I ended up traveling in a semi-circle through four other chunks to arrive in the fifth chunk of Hathor Zi. Of course I realize once I’m finished here I’ll have to ride back through all those chunks again to return to the NPC in Lomshir… Just last night a few of my LOTRO kin-mates were complaining about some of the quests in Forochel and Book 9 (which Arwellyn started last night) having “too much running around.” With the various means of travel available so far in Middle Earth, I chuckled to myself at just how mild that is compared to Vanguard’s “meaningful” *cough* travel.
The story behind the current phase of the chain is that Dolndruth needs to attract the attention of Ghalnn, the god of warfare and slaughter, who is favored by orcs and goblins. Shadowhounds, often called the “hounds of Ghalnn” are said to be extensions of the god himself. The hounds thrive only on violence, death and destruction so to make them, as well as Ghalnn, turn their eyes to Dolndruth he must engage them in combat! Classic implementation of the Kill Ten Rats quest though after being so accustomed to other games — especially LOTRO where most Kill Ten Rats quests quite literally ask you to only kill ten rats — I wasn’t exactly prepared to be required to kill 35 shadowhounds! Completing that, riding five chunks back to Lomshir, the NPC then says I have to ride to the eastern edge of the Lomshir chunk (thank you, short ride at least) to kill 40 dark elf ghosts! Aahhhhhhhh! Christ, did McQuaid outsource Koreans to write these quests? In any event, Part 3 is complete and tomorrow I’ll get Dolndruth on his way to starting Part 4. Destination: Camp Dhanrak in Thestra’s Spider Bluffs.
On the plus side, these 75 mobs were the extent of Part 3 to the chain, and gave me ample opportunity to re-learn many of the Dread Knight’s abilities as well as refreshing myself with Vanguard’s combat system. Despite being slower-paced (but so is LOTRO and WAR) it’s actually a fun system and I find it far more truly interactive than Age of Conan’s melee combos. AoC’s melee combos are nothing more than applying the standard casting system to fighters. The difference is rather than waiting on a progress bar, where your movement or an enemy attack will interrupt the casting, AoC puts up a DDR-esque UI to press certain key at a certain time. It’s still a timed “progress bar” mechanic, only it’s the player’s own fault if he presses the wrong key at the wrong time rather than a mob interrupting the combo. By comparison Vanguard has four different type of combat reactions — chain reactions, counter reactions, rescue reactions, and sympathetic reactions — in addition to the standard MMORPG convention of abilities and skills littered all over our hotbars. Triggering a specific reaction type means we have to choose which of the reactive abilities would be most useful to the current situation. Sometimes more than one type will trigger simultaneously. Which would be best right now? If I react quickly enough, I can use at least one reactive ability from each type. Suddenly, we’re having to think and react quickly and combat doesn’t quite seem as slow as it did a moment ago. Back in AoC I’d still just be staring at the DDR UI waiting to press a key when it lights up. /yawn I will give AoC some credit that at least it rewards the player for playing DDR with some very cool, visceral animations complete with blood sprays and dismemberments! However, cool as those can be, they are still just canned animations that we have to wait for and can take no part in, so my /yawn stands.
I’ll spend more time in the mornings this week prior to GU6 getting a small feel for GU5’s enchancements. The one thing I’ve noticed already is the new particle effects. Like much of Vanguard, they are still subtle, but without a doubt more bright, splashy, and cool-looking. For all its faults, one of Vanguard’s strengths has always been its portrayal of the characters we play. In just about every MMO, we start off as some wimpy schlamile who eventually gains power and gear to become a badass. In Vanguard, there are no schlamiles. A level one character is a level one badass and his badassery gloriously increases with each new level. The new particle effects serve to enhance the portrayal of your character’s badassness, albeit subtly.
Tags: Vanguard
Loading ...
on 
on 
Entries (RSS)