Wrath of Heroes: So, My Wrath Then

"You have been asking whether you can post about your beta impressions. We asked, and here is the official statement:

At this time, we are no longer enforcing the confidentiality provisions set forth in the Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes Beta Agreement. Players in the beta are still bound by all other aspects of the Beta Agreement to which they agreed when they signed up and installed the game.  

So, it ‘s good news! We look forward to your videos, blogs, or other impressions from the beta!"

 So says the Wrath of Heroes Facebook page. So be it then.

These impressions are ALL from WELL before today and WELL before the game is released.

I was there the second time the closed Beta opened it's flood gates, me and a bunch of people I know, all of them WAR vets. Funnily enough, I haven't seen them there since. I haven't asked why, partly because it's none of my business but mostly because I don't care.

Wrath of Heroes is, in a shell casing, WAR scenarios non-stop. If you played WAR but never got much into closed oRvR then WoH isn't for you. Until I (unwillingly) gave the Beta a rest, which was roughly a month ago, there was no progression system whatsoever. There was a level indicator but there was nothing you gained from it and you couldn't rub that shameful excuse for an epeen on anybody's face. There was a Tactics screen with a "Coming Soon" over it so I'm guessing that's what you'll end up spending your money on. I sincerely hope that the first things they introduce aren't new costumes though. That would surely turn me right around shouting "go suck sick donkey cock" over my shoulder.

The lack of a progression system wasn't a problem for me, though, and it certainly didn't stop me having a blast with the game. Because I did, I had loads of fun with it. The hours would fly by as I laughed manically at the corpses of foes. Good times. As it stood, the outcome of the game depended solely on the wits and skill of the people playing it and not on how long they'd had to grind for their awesomely shaped bow and exquisitely sharp arrows.

So what's it like? Well, I never played LoL so I can't compare but I've heard say it's LoLish. Let's take Mourkain Temple as an example. At start you choose which hero you would like to start with. The choices range from Shadow Warrior and Sorcerer for ranged dps to things like Witch Elf, Slayer and "Vampire Chick" as melee dps. There are more but I'm not in the mood to get into it. Each has 5 skills to use with the most powerfull ones with longer cooldown times. There is no AP and, hence, no restriction apart from cooldown on what to use. 

The two things that took me longer to get acclimated to were there not being a friendly target and... well, targeting. It all feels a bit random at first, especially with all the closed beta subscribers eager to up their kill count and shouting at everything with less than 90% life. Healing is strictly AoE centered on your location or melee healing.

After I got tab-targeting to work properly, or me working it, everything went smoothly and my Shadow Warrior soon became a force to be reckoned with. My record is a 13 kill streak. The game is kind enough to stroke your ego by plastering on the screen how many spawns you've ended without getting spawned yourself.

Word has it that they "learned from DAoC" and decided to go for a three faction game. A lot could be said on this topic, including that they learned this not from DAoC but from WAR winging, but what's the point at this time? One could even compare them to the government: they promise, procrastinate on delivery and then congratulate themselves on a late and non-inspired response.

Now, now, I'm not getting my panties in a bunch. As stated, I quite like it. There's a scenario where the one purpose is to kill as many of the opposition as possible in the middle of the Saccelum arena. How much fun is that? Plenty.

As far as F2Ps go, I'm no expert, but I'm hoping it'll do well enough that I can play it regularly against more than just the same 20 people over and over again.