After hammering away at the login screen at 11:30pm last night, I was one of the lucky few that actually managed to get in and give the game a try.
While I was only able to play for about an hour or two before passing out and shooting off to bed, I currently have a Level 8 Monk and I can't wait to give it another bash tonight after work.
Initially I think I felt a little bit underwhelmed, I'm not quite sure why, but the more I played it, the more I realised how much more I want to carry on playing it. Came away thinking 'Yeah this is okay', and suddenly realise I've not stopped thinking about it all day... I was playing Tera pretty much immediately before and loving that, so I suppose that's the transitional period in action!
It's great fun. Things are different to Diablo 2 this time around, and a LOT of the stuff they've learned from World of Warcraft has been transplanted over.
Instead of different skill trees, optional skill paths and setting stat points, things are simpler now. You now have a clear path of skill progression from 1 to 60, and your skill points are automatically assigned. Just like WoW.
This is all done very cleverly though. You have 4 skill slots, as well as your left click and right click abilities. These 4 skill slots are very specific - 1 is defense, 2 is technique, etc... So you have set skills for set slots.
You also cannot quick switch between these skills in battle, as they get automatically put on cooldown. This effectively means that you end up with a Guild Wars style situation. You have all the skills there at your disposal, but the build and configuration of these skills determines how you play your character.
An early example of this - My defensive skill at Level 8 can either be an AOE heal, or an AOE stun. I can play healer or crowd control. I can't do both simultaneously.
You can also change how these skills behave. Just like you unlock skills, you also unlock skill runes, which change their behaviour. For example, I have one skill for my primary fist attack that allows me to teleport to their location on attack. You unlock roughly 4 or 5 skill runes per skill I believe, and can only have one equipped at any one time. Once again, you set a build, set how your attacks work, then roll with it.
More information when I've had more of a chance to play it, but so far so very good.
While I was only able to play for about an hour or two before passing out and shooting off to bed, I currently have a Level 8 Monk and I can't wait to give it another bash tonight after work.
Initially I think I felt a little bit underwhelmed, I'm not quite sure why, but the more I played it, the more I realised how much more I want to carry on playing it. Came away thinking 'Yeah this is okay', and suddenly realise I've not stopped thinking about it all day... I was playing Tera pretty much immediately before and loving that, so I suppose that's the transitional period in action!
It's great fun. Things are different to Diablo 2 this time around, and a LOT of the stuff they've learned from World of Warcraft has been transplanted over.
Instead of different skill trees, optional skill paths and setting stat points, things are simpler now. You now have a clear path of skill progression from 1 to 60, and your skill points are automatically assigned. Just like WoW.
This is all done very cleverly though. You have 4 skill slots, as well as your left click and right click abilities. These 4 skill slots are very specific - 1 is defense, 2 is technique, etc... So you have set skills for set slots.
You also cannot quick switch between these skills in battle, as they get automatically put on cooldown. This effectively means that you end up with a Guild Wars style situation. You have all the skills there at your disposal, but the build and configuration of these skills determines how you play your character.
An early example of this - My defensive skill at Level 8 can either be an AOE heal, or an AOE stun. I can play healer or crowd control. I can't do both simultaneously.
You can also change how these skills behave. Just like you unlock skills, you also unlock skill runes, which change their behaviour. For example, I have one skill for my primary fist attack that allows me to teleport to their location on attack. You unlock roughly 4 or 5 skill runes per skill I believe, and can only have one equipped at any one time. Once again, you set a build, set how your attacks work, then roll with it.
More information when I've had more of a chance to play it, but so far so very good.
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