The truth about War and WoW IMHO
Posted On Monday, October 13th, 2008 By Jay
I’ve been struggling since release to communicate anything revolving a comparison between these two games. Is it the game mechanics? Maybe. Is it the newness of Warhammer? I doubt it. Here’s my take.
The pure game mechanics of Warhammer Online as a healer are more fun than WoW. I always feel tough. I always have 4 or more abilities to use during an encounter. I can help out during any situation, offensively, defensively and support. War doesn’t need to do an itemization change (spell damage/healing to spellpower) to make items work for healers. Each stat provides both an offensive and defensive boost. For example, Willpower increase my healing output and increases the chance that all my attacks will interrupt a spell caster. Since character damage or healing output is linked to a stat and not an item, doesn’t prevent nor encourage any specific play style. That’s a breath of fresh air.
In addition to the game mechanics, I also have the freedom to level however I want. And the best part is that I can join a scenario (BGs in War) and will have my level adjusted to 3 levels below the max for that tier. This means I can ALWAYS PVP COMPETITIVELY. I am never limited by my level to participate in any activity Warhammer has to offer. My survivability increases as I get better gear, that has stayed the same, but overall I can enjoy and level while playing the game that I choose, pvp or pve. Now that’s a great feature.
So the last two points are REALLY great for Warhammer. Let’s talk about WoW, because no matter what, I just spent 4 days playing World of Warcraft. More then 30 hours since last Thursday to get my toons to 60. And I’ll keep coming back for more. Here’s what WoW does awesomely.
WoW has 24 different classes. Yes, there’s only 8 when you make a character. As you level there is a distinct difference as you spend talents points. I recently changed my paladin from prot to ret at level 60. They play completely different.
WoW looks better, period. There’s more to see in WoW. The environment design, from a landmark and viewing distance stand point, is years ahead of Warhammer. Every new area feels like a different experience. If you don’t believe me travel from Hellfire Peninsula to Zangarmarsh to Terrokar Forest. Notice how your screen went from Red to Blue to Green? Yeah well your brain noticed! In War, I’m tired of looking at forests and trees. Really tired.
WoW gets the community. Having years more experience then Mythic, Blizzard is standing on the shoulders of Battlenet, Online Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft play experienced professionals to create the community of World of Warcraft. When Mythic fixes the community and social mechanics of Warhammer Online, then we’ll start to see some really interesting cross over.
Finally some quick notes about character development and customization. Being a purchaser of Collector’s Edition versions of MMO I play here’s the different between the two.
WoW gives me a title and a non combat pet. The title isn’t even in the game yet. Tomorrow it will be!
Warhammer gives me 3 titles to choose from, a unique head for my character based on gender and race, unique trophies to attach to my armor that SHOW UP IN GAME and… a 3 day head start.
Winnar Warhammer for collector’s edition.
Summary:
I’ll be playing World of Warcraft as my main mmo of choice. No matter what Warhammer does, it cannot compete with playing World of Warcraft with 15 of my closest friends.
I’ll be maintaining and playing Warhammer Online because it really IS a step up in MMOs. I want to follow it because I want to see what happens in the end game and how the community works together. I believe Warhammer created the next iteration on PVP design in a traditional MMORPGs. I just know, and it breaks my heart, that it takes competitors and a competitors compelling feature set to force Blizzard to innovate on its flagship title. If Blizzard ever decided to light the fire under its own butt and truly force itself to innovate, it would… what? Dominate more? LAWL!
