Scenerios need no introductions. Their queued up for; and entered. Each scenerio has their own objective (capture the flag, hold the territory etc) and are usually in groups of 15vs15. Brackets are every 10 levels or so (with the possibility of a low level entering the tier 2 zone.. so it is possible for a level 9 to go to a tier 2 game which is 11-20) (however it is not possible for a level 12 to goto a tier 1 (1-11). Games are fairly balanced. Yes some games but be outweighed in terms of who has the most healers and support and whos better; but generally; if assuming that everyone in that game is good; the game is fairly balanced out.
Keep wars; the famed Open Realm Vs Realm. This isn't server vs server, just Order vs destruction. Scattered across the map are Keeps(castles) in which each side can claim. This keep war goes from storming the front, battering down the gate, to killing to the lord of the keep and capturing the keep.
Keep advantages? Well, you get a renown trainer and seller there. And you also do your country good overall (explained later)
(renown trainer and sellers explained later too)
Keep wars would be fun; but they are often deserted and also often deemed "musical keeps". Lose one, Keep one. Just a circle that doesn't seem to be getting anywhere. (also explained at the last part)
These are fun... Also your main source of renown leveling.
And last but not least; territory wars. This sums up everything basically. Order and Destruction are fighting over land in which you gain through everything you do. for every quest you finish, every public quest, every scenerio and every keep captured; this contributes to the global status of the territory of the map. If Destruction wins over a land, it will mark it on the map. The overall goal of this is to reach the opposing team's main city to kill the Emperor/Chaos Lord. (which hasn't been done yet so sorry, nothing on that =\ It's pratically another keep war on a more massive scale apparently).
Alright so I summed up basically everything you do in warhammer online; quite different from WoW right? settles your uneasing minds and doubts.
Now let's explain what I said I'll explain.
Renown Training and sellers? Renown leveling? WTF?!
Alright guys; so there are 2 levels. Your rank (your general level you find in every game) and also your Renown rank (your PVP level basically). Both levels contribute to stats. Although there are 40 Ranks, there are 80 Renown ranks to obtain in which the grind is tremendous (but also fun since its through PVP)
Every level you get in your renown you also get a renown skill point in which you can invest at any Renown Trainer. For the first half of your levels also you get renown gear; in which you need to hit a particular renown and rank to get.
Renown rank is grinding pvp practically and is also the bane of everyone as it is also massively slow...
So will this end up being a good long-term game?
In my view; Yes. yes it will. I'll explain it in the end in modern thoughts section.
Clans: It's bloody alive! DEAR GOD!
Yes, even your clan has a level. But it's fun. Everytime you contribute/pay for it, you get skills for your guild which is activated throguh a standard. There are about 3 standard in a guild in which someone holds a damned flag up and rush into battle with your guild (disabling their ability to use skills mind you). These skills in the standard range from increase healing to increased xp; it's really useful when you find a sacrificial lamb willing to do it :P
Standards can also be plopped down on the ground and still have its aoe effect on your group; however it can also be stolen by the enemy player... it's a pain to steal back, trust me... They don't want you to have a flag. :P
Controls and Interface:
Ah the good ol control and interface. It's not as flexible on all the interface as WoW; the addons are strictly tight-assed at the moment (Mythic plans to release a more open community to addons... but its only a thought)
There's a built in UI interface modifier in which you can move your portrait, enemy portrait, etc to wherever you like. So yay; you dont need total dependency on addons. There are addons to change the way numbers fly out of the enemies and so forth though (since the warhammer gold default bothered me to hell; i loved it...)
Controls have full flexibility with keybindings. You have 5 bars that you can utilize and there are addons to make these bars vertical and so forth.
Morale skills (promised to be fixed) do have some major delay; sometimes even the animation would spark but you dont atually use the skills.
Modern Disturbing thoughts that personally pulled be away:Despite the long title; this is actually pretty short...
Alright.. Sigh. So I quit warhammer gold I admit it. But why if It's as fun as I make it sound?
Well. First of all. A good 25-50% of the community died from warhammer gold because of WrathOfTheLichKing(Damnit!!!)
This is also bad timing because Mythic has finally fixed the queue problems of getting in the server (had massive wait times).
Basically; The servers were cut in population due to pop fixing; and then cut again due to another popular game.
Queue times for scenerio's went from FRIGGIN GREAT, to Alright 5 minute wait, to WTFISTHIS 30minutes ZOMGWTFBBQ?!?!?! ***K!!!!
It's really bothersome, especially for a pvp freak like me. Others argue you can quest while you wait for the scenerio to pop. That doesn't make me hot at all; I play War for the pvp; and they stole that away from me (unintentionally I think)
Well I can't say completely unintentionally; they are now making a limiter to the scenerios to balance out the overall territory war. (Since each scenerio is specific to a map and only contributes to that map's territory) which kills queue times more on specific scenerios (which is fixed by queueing on scenerios instead of just one specific one)
So great; the pop is gone. That's one thought that pulled me away
Then there was the lack of cross-server interaction (that WoW featured in their bgs). I think everything would be alot faster if they just crossed the servers; yeah we might have to tweak some things so that it balances everything out but geez =\
There are currently many glitches yes; most of them are promised to be revised around december (the big patch). Honestly; noone knows how much they'll fix nor how little... but much is promised in that month. I can't say much else about that.
Additional Thought:
Well... Overall a good game. I quit because of my time restrictions and unability to pay for the darn game. It's 45$ to buy and 15$ a month. There are obviously many glitches in the game; but they will all eventually be fixed. It's the bane of all mmorpg's, and if you think WoW is better just because it has less glitches; just think. When woW first started, they were just as glitchy as any other game you all might have played.
Overall!
Score
Graphics: 6 | Sound: 6 | Gameplay: 8 | Controls: 9 | Replay Value: 7
I would have loved to play this game... However, I couldn't grasp the look at all. The lore is quite accurate (some tweaks in it but eh) and would make me stay just for the lore.
Gameplay is 'smooth' to the sense that I love pvp, but there is still many flaws in it in terms of flow.
That's my two cents :P
-Keishirou