Beta Status?

Desolet · Post by **Desolet** » May 5, 2004, 5:55 pm

How is the beta coming along for you folks that were lucky enough to make it in? I haven't seen any recent posts in awhile - hope thats not a bad sign....

Ravvenn · Post by **Ravvenn** » May 6, 2004, 11:06 am

It's not a bad sign! I think most people have been playing rabidly and working/sleeping in their spare time.

I went Druid this time around after playing a Priest in Alpha each push. I'm finding it to be one of the most versatile classes out there so far. As a Druid you have a lot of options for how you want to play depending on the situation.

In a group with no tank, I can use Shapeshift (Bear) and turn into a gimpy Warrior. As long as you have your Growl (Taunt) and Shapeshift maxed for your level, you aren't very gimpy. Taunt works very well, and I also have an AE taunt plus many other abilities while in Bear form. It isn't very often I have problems keeping aggro on all mobs that are in 'camp'.

Cat form I don't use much. Anyone playing a Druid will tell you buying spells sucks. You have your Druid form spells, plus your Shapeshift abilities to purchase, which gets terribly pricy. Next push they should be half the cost, or so I hear!

:D YAY --Anyways, Cat form turns you into a gimpy Rogue. You can use this forms in groups that already have a healer for added dps. I don't use it, but others do. You can use it for stealth mainly. (Sneaking) It helps for getting past a lot of stuff that you don't feel like screwing with while going somewhere.

Travel form, which is the best thing ever! Increases your run speed big time. This is good for long runs, or getting out of a bad situation. I plan to see a refresh added to this because you can do a lot with it atm that you probably shouldn't be able to.

Aquatic form increases swim speed and gives you eb for the most part. Turns you into a big fat seal/walrus looking thing. I've used it twice.

Then as a Druid you can do a lot of things. You have heals, hot's, dots, dds, root, poison/curse cures, group heal/chant thing (pretty neat to watch), buffs, debuffs and whatever else I'm forgetting.

Tons of fun, I'd say people who get bored easily should try Druids out. On beta forums you see a lot of whining that this or that sucks, but I don't see a problem yet with what anyone bitches about.

I'm having a blast still and I'm pretty sure the others are too.

Just very sleepy!

Cotto · Post by **Cotto** » May 6, 2004, 3:26 pm

Waiting for U.K Beta....-taps foot-

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » May 7, 2004, 12:16 pm

Played a rogue & warlock so far...

Rogue...fun, but I started to notice I was not really out damaging warriors I played with. Backstab didnt do as much as I thought it should. Then again I only got to level 8, and a total noob. I stopped playing him, and went with the Warlock....but I'll go back to him for sure.

Warlock...funner (for me) At level 10 now, and just got the new pet (Voidwalker). The previous one (the imp) was usefull...but was a caster, and couldnt tank any better than I could! As time went on, this became a problem. Now with the voidwalker, who can tank, life is better. Its very EQ Necro-like right now. Send in pet, DOT, & fear.

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » May 7, 2004, 1:01 pm

Ravvenn wrote:It's not a bad sign! I think most people have been playing rabidly and working/sleeping in their spare time.

I went Druid this time around after playing a Priest in Alpha each push. I'm finding it to be one of the most versatile classes out there so far. As a Druid you have a lot of options for how you want to play depending on the situation.

In a group with no tank, I can use Shapeshift (Bear) and turn into a gimpy Warrior. As long as you have your Growl (Taunt) and Shapeshift maxed for your level, you aren't very gimpy. Taunt works very well, and I also have an AE taunt plus many other abilities while in Bear form. It isn't very often I have problems keeping aggro on all mobs that are in 'camp'.

Cat form I don't use much. Anyone playing a Druid will tell you buying spells sucks. You have your Druid form spells, plus your Shapeshift abilities to purchase, which gets terribly pricy. Next push they should be half the cost, or so I hear! :D YAY --Anyways, Cat form turns you into a gimpy Rogue. You can use this forms in groups that already have a healer for added dps. I don't use it, but others do. You can use it for stealth mainly. (Sneaking) It helps for getting past a lot of stuff that you don't feel like screwing with while going somewhere.

Travel form, which is the best thing ever! Increases your run speed big time. This is good for long runs, or getting out of a bad situation. I plan to see a refresh added to this because you can do a lot with it atm that you probably shouldn't be able to.

Aquatic form increases swim speed and gives you eb for the most part. Turns you into a big fat seal/walrus looking thing. I've used it twice.

Then as a Druid you can do a lot of things. You have heals, hot's, dots, dds, root, poison/curse cures, group heal/chant thing (pretty neat to watch), buffs, debuffs and whatever else I'm forgetting.

Tons of fun, I'd say people who get bored easily should try Druids out. On beta forums you see a lot of whining that this or that sucks, but I don't see a problem yet with what anyone bitches about.

I'm having a blast still and I'm pretty sure the others are too.

Just very sleepy!

I noticed that about the boards...everyone has gripes about there own class. Especially the Warlock board...so far, I like the warlock, and generally dont agree with the complaints. Then again, once more, I'm level 10.

I love all the questing in the game..I especially liked the quest for the Voidwalker pet! Instead of just running to the Warlock trainer and buying it ala EQ style, the Warlock trainer made me go retrieve a necklace that was stolen from him by some bitch who lives at the pumpkin patch in Elwynn Forest. I find her there in a small house, glaring out at me. So I just say screw it, and pull her....and out comes two "bodyguards" who start beating on me & my poor Imp pet (who says to me "You're not doing anything...help me out here!!" LOL) while she sits there & nukes me to oblivion. Shit. So much for that approach. Run back to my corpse, res, and start looking for help to take her & her two friends out. Spawn an Imp, get myself all ready to go while looking for a couple of people to help when some other Warlock come by, and tries the same exact thing I just did. He immeditaly sees the mistake he made, and runs for it. The two bodyguardsa are right on his ass....but the gal (Sunera is her name) stays behind, and casts on him. So I jump her...DOT & nuke while my pet blasts her as well...and finally she goes down. I run to her body to loot, and see the two body guards are coming for me. ah shit oh shit!! Loot as fast as I can, and make break for it. They get a few good hits on me before I break away, and make my way back to the trainer with his necklace so I can get my new pet! I get to him, hand his necklace...and the bastards decides that I need to summon the new pet, and defeat in battle before he deems me worthly of having the new pet! Luckly, he isnt too tough, and beat his ass down. and Viola, my new Voidwalker pet is mine!

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » May 7, 2004, 1:52 pm

Ravv - how fast is Druid travel form versus Shaman ghost wolf. I think the ghost wolf icon says it gives +100 to speed.

BTW, anyone notice that like every Night Elf you see is a druid? Even when that Kali Irvine bunch of gimps came to XR, like all the NEs were druids.

Fesuni Chopsui · Post by **Fesuni Chopsui** » May 7, 2004, 4:00 pm

When and how are they planning to open the next set of beta? And are they planning on letting more folks sign up? I've been checking blizzard.com periodically and getting nothing

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » May 7, 2004, 4:12 pm

They are adding more as they go along....they'll send you an email telling you that your are on the list of people that are to be added the next time they are adding people in....and at that time they will email you the deets on downloading the client & setting up an account. Right now all classes/races are playable barring the Hunter. My guess is when they patch for that, they might let more in. Just a hunch.

Fesuni Chopsui · Post by **Fesuni Chopsui** » May 7, 2004, 5:07 pm

Skogen wrote:They are adding more as they go along....they'll send you an email telling you that your are on the list of people that are to be added the next time they are adding people in....and at that time they will email you the deets on downloading the client & setting up an account. Right now all classes/races are playable barring the Hunter. My guess is when they patch for that, they might let more in. Just a hunch.

I never actually signed up for the initial beta sign up - I was wondering if they were going to allow more folks to actually sign up as opposed to wait for emails assuming I had already signed up

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » May 7, 2004, 5:17 pm

Fesuni Chopsui wrote:I never actually signed up for the initial beta sign up - I was wondering if they were going to allow more folks to actually sign up as opposed to wait for emails assuming I had already signed up

Ouch. I doubt they will have a shortage of applicants to work with from the previous signup...

See you in release?

Fesuni Chopsui · Post by **Fesuni Chopsui** » May 7, 2004, 5:36 pm

Ashur wrote:
Fesuni Chopsui wrote:I never actually signed up for the initial beta sign up - I was wondering if they were going to allow more folks to actually sign up as opposed to wait for emails assuming I had already signed up
Ouch. I doubt they will have a shortage of applicants to work with from the previous signup...

See you in release?

Well if I'm unable to beta test, chances are yes you will!

Although I have signed up to beta EQ2

Ravvenn · Post by **Ravvenn** » May 7, 2004, 6:22 pm

Ash -

100 Mana
Instant cast
10 second cooldown
Transforms the druid into a travel form, increasing movement speed.

That is all I know. And yes about the NE's. I didn't want to make a Druid for that reason, plus with us going Horde I didn't want to be a cow.

I like it a lot now and have gotten into the whole Horde and Alliance rival thing. I try to make it a habit to do some sarcastic gesture to those in Alliance that I pass.

I just got the FD aka Play Dead and Mantracking. Those are lots of fun. If you go to the Druid forum that Elena ign person posted a link to all Druid Spells and Abilities if you want to check them out. I'd like the range on mantracking to be boosted some but it's still a cool ability.

Once PVP comes along, I see mantracking to be a wonderful thing to have. I can't count the times we have been intentionally trained. People literally walk up to us, /slap or /rude and then you see them run off. Moments later they come back with a train. Siren, Sylvos and two of our friends were all grouped and trained by the same person(s) a good 10 times in a row. I almost started to feel sorry for him because he was doing nothing but pulling for us.

I'm getting the feeling we aren't very liked!

Still having tons of fun getting no sleep.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » May 10, 2004, 12:46 pm

Ravvenn wrote:People literally walk up to us, /slap or /rude and then you see them run off. Moments later they come back with a train. Siren, Sylvos and two of our friends were all grouped and trained by the same person(s) a good 10 times in a row. I almost started to feel sorry for him because he was doing nothing but pulling for us.

I'm getting the feeling we aren't very liked!

Prolly some of Sylvos' discarded boytoys. He's a maneater!

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » May 10, 2004, 1:13 pm

I'm lagging behind the guild in general because I'm still dealing with "the-new-baby-that-won't-sleep" and don't get on until 10PM-1AM or whenever she goes to sleep. She's sleeping LONGER now... I just need to get her sleeping SOONER. Most of the cast-offs folks have from upgrades are 10 levels higher than I can use. Next push hopefully the baby will be in bed much earlier.

That being said - if you only have an hour or two to spend in this game, you have a lot of choices. Unlike EQ where you spend an hour looking for a group. Most quests can be soloed, although many you'll need or want a group. Tradeskills alone can provide hours of entertainment - I've spent time just running from Thunder Bluff to the Crossroads just collecting herbs for alchemy and enchanting and killing things for hides for leatherworking.

This game totally makes me forget EQ... which reminds me I still need to cancel my EQ account.

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » May 13, 2004, 4:29 pm

You're not nearly as lagged as me though, working fulltime sux, go home and try to solo a few quests since I can't find groups easily :/

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » May 14, 2004, 11:51 am

Ashur wrote:I'm lagging behind the guild in general because I'm still dealing with "the-new-baby-that-won't-sleep" and don't get on until 10PM-1AM or whenever she goes to sleep. She's sleeping LONGER now... I just need to get her sleeping SOONER. Most of the cast-offs folks have from upgrades are 10 levels higher than I can use. Next push hopefully the baby will be in bed much earlier.

That being said - if you only have an hour or two to spend in this game, you have a lot of choices. Unlike EQ where you spend an hour looking for a group. Most quests can be soloed, although many you'll need or want a group. Tradeskills alone can provide hours of entertainment - I've spent time just running from Thunder Bluff to the Crossroads just collecting herbs for alchemy and enchanting and killing things for hides for leatherworking.

This game totally makes me forget EQ... which reminds me I still need to cancel my EQ account.

that's what I love about it...I have very limited time now since my EQ days, when I was single. In the glory days of EQ, I would come home from work, and spend the next 6 hours on EQ. Those days are gone!! Marriage....the wife gets home about 2 hours max after I do, so having a wide range of options in that little time is the primary draw for me to this game now. I think I can finally retire Battlefield 1942, which has been great as a "jump on, play, jump off"
I problem I ran into last night ws...my quest log is full! I decided to do some exploring, and picked up a bunch of new quests....so tonight, I have a myriad of options!

Gemily · Post by **Gemily** » May 25, 2004, 5:39 pm

Much hate for the forced rest periods. I like to grind experience. In WoW I'm forced to play a couple of different characters during my all night binges

*grumble*

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » May 26, 2004, 12:15 pm

Fear not, changes are a comin' for the rest state next patch. Unfortunately, the Hunter probably won't make it until next time *sniff*

Mort · Post by **Mort** » May 26, 2004, 3:13 pm

Anyone have an update? When will they open more people to beta? Release date guess?

Are all that are in Beta (Non FoH) hanging together?

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » May 26, 2004, 3:47 pm

They seem to come in waves....one wave just hit a couple of days ago it seems, judging by posts from new players on the beta board, and bumping into them with my newly created Mage in the newbie areas.
The next push is probably a week or so away...with class tweaks, a possible PvP server, zone tweaks, new high-end zones, rest state changes, new guild management tools, the new talent system (maybe)and the level cap raised to 55. No Hunter class though ((((.

Release? Who knows!? I do here the month "Novemeber" going around though.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 26, 2004, 4:43 pm

Skogen wrote:
Release? Who knows!? I do here the month "Novemeber" going around though.

By that time the beta peeps will be tired of it. We need more Blizzard beta games...they take so long, if you get into the beta, you have plenty of time during beta to wear out your interest.