I enjoy my Zealot- can heal and deal damage (a lot better than a Disciple of Khain), but I think they lack a class mechanic? i.e. the WH has combo points, BW has combustion points, Zealot has nothing?
<!--quoteo(post=1689094:date=Sep 29 2008, 04:17 PM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sherpa @ Sep 29 2008, 04:17 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1689094"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Surely not those buffs that grant you an additional spell?
Not exactly something you need to be mindful of in the heat of battle ala combustion...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> magus seems to lack a class mechanic as well... unless demons count, but that's sort of half-assing a class mechanic =p
I still hate witch elves with a passion. That being said, I am very satisfied that I managed to stand up to a marauder (me being an archmage). Sure, I couldn't kill him, but by focusing on defense, I managed to last for over a minute until some ally FINALLY came over and got him off me. I swear, they're all too eager to complain that they get no healing, but they don't seem to realize that healers can't heal if they're busy clinging to life with everything they have.
<!--quoteo(post=1689208:date=Oct 1 2008, 04:59 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lolfighter @ Oct 1 2008, 04:59 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1689208"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I still hate witch elves with a passion. That being said, I am very satisfied that I managed to stand up to a marauder (me being an archmage). Sure, I couldn't kill him, but by focusing on defense, I managed to last for over a minute until some ally FINALLY came over and got him off me. I swear, they're all too eager to complain that they get no healing, but they don't seem to realize that healers can't heal if they're busy clinging to life with everything they have.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> well I'm glad Order isn't the only side that has physical dps that totally pisses off the other team's casters =p if a witch hunter so much as looks at my magus, I'm dead in about 3 seconds...
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1689212:date=Oct 1 2008, 05:45 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DiscoZombie @ Oct 1 2008, 05:45 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1689212"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->well I'm glad Order isn't the only side that has physical dps that totally pisses off the other team's casters =p if a witch hunter so much as looks at my magus, I'm dead in about 3 seconds...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Yah, that is about the whole of it.
I am given to believe that MDPS can't really do much about tanks. The tanks' defenses are primarily geared towards physical attacks, leaving MDPS impotently stabbing away at them without doing any real damage.
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
edited October 2008
<!--quoteo(post=1689224:date=Oct 2 2008, 01:20 AM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lolfighter @ Oct 2 2008, 01:20 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1689224"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I am given to believe that MDPS can't really do much about tanks. The tanks' defenses are primarily geared towards physical attacks, leaving MDPS impotently stabbing away at them without doing any real damage.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If you can catch a tank flat footed you can off them (the level 5 WH skill ignores armor if hit from behind iirc)
whaaaaaat? the white lion needs a target to pounce now? Why??? Half the coolness of the ability was it's utility but making it target based kinda kills half that :/
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1689235:date=Oct 2 2008, 06:29 AM:name=Geminosity)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Geminosity @ Oct 2 2008, 06:29 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1689235"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->whaaaaaat? the white lion needs a target to pounce now? Why??? Half the coolness of the ability was it's utility but making it target based kinda kills half that :/<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> That is kinda unfortunate (for you), though I have to wonder why I haven't seen white lions pouncing all over the place prior to this (20 feet, instant cast, no cool down?)
I admit I kinda wish that more of the AoE spells could be cast on areas instead of targets... (like the BW Fiery Blast)
turns out some players were actually exploiting it. Using it to climb mountains, get ontop of buildings, ontop of NPCs, get in hard to reach places and in one scenario they could use it to clamber up a mountainside to get the objective before Destruction could. Bleh... silly exploiters ruined it for those who just like to hop. That said I doubt using it to avoid taking fall damage was intended either :p
<!--quoteo(post=1689230:date=Oct 2 2008, 11:47 AM:name=Thansal)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Thansal @ Oct 2 2008, 11:47 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1689230"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If you can catch a tank flat footed you can off them (the level 5 WH skill ignores armor if hit from behind iirc)
I find myself playing my warrior priestess more and more... there's something quite fun about her flexibility: I'm pretty hardy so it takes focus fire to kill me really, I can heal, I can rez, I can get stuck in (I may not do a ton of damage but I do enough to kill people eventually) and I can solo stuff like equal level champions or mobs 5 levels above me pretty easy if I can be bothered to take the time :p
I suspect the fact I'm stacking Toughness makes me just that bit more annoying for bad people too... especially combined with stuff like my absorb shield tactic (25% chance per hit I take to generate a 10sec damage reduction shield) and my healing from my AP/Fury cycle.
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
So, how are people doing as far as leveling goes?
I am finding my self repeatedly in the position that I have no quests to do and have to grind on something (generally a random PQ) until I can get the last bit of XP to level and get new quests (the worst was this morning where I needed about 2K xp to get to level 21 so new quests would show up).
I am not skipping content, I am just getting shafted as far as PQs and RvR go due to low server population and odd playing hours.
I haven't made it that far yet, so maybe that's why I haven't hard that problem. I do feel I'm getting shafted on PQs though (I have hardly looked at open world RvR yet, it's been all <strike>battlegrounds</strike> scenarios for me). Many of them seem very empty, often to the point where they're virtually impossible to complete. This is probably because I haven't been leveling very fast, so the bulk of the population has probably moved ahead of me to later PQs, but I wonder if this is going to be indicative of the state of the game from now on. I'm sure those of us who played WoW remember those annoying group quests (and dungeons) that'd wedge themselves into your solo leveling, and then you'd have to run around trying to scrape together enough people to get it done, or beg higher level friends for a boost.
Of course you may be thinking "what are you doing solo in the first place? This is a multiplayer game!" But part of the glory of PQs (when they work) is that they're such a great way to pick up groups. Go in, join the group, kill stuff, grab loot. But that doesn't work if nobody is even doing the PQ in the first place.
I have to say I'm surprised to hear that there are gaps where it's hard to find enough quests to level. Are you staying entirely in one pairing? I've gotten 2 toons to 18 - one entirely in Chaos territory and one entirely in Elf territory - and neither ran out of quests. In fact, I've had my quest log full a few times. and each character has 2 other continents to explore if need be... but I believe you if you ran out of quests. it wouldn't be the first game with a content gap (*cough*aoc*cough*).
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
edited October 2008
Yah, I did all the quests in EvC T2 by level 16.
got lucky and hooked up with another guy who did the same and we headed over to DvG T2 and cleaned out all of those quests (got us up to lvl 18/19ish). I then headed back to EvC T3 and did quests there, hit lvl 20 shortly after I went from one side of the map to the other. Did all those quests and was just at the cusp of 21 and went and killed some random stuff in a PQ too hit 21 which unlocked a slew of new quests.
In all that time (lvl 16 -> 21) I did 2 PQs (one of them we did twice b/c we just missed finishing it 4 man the first time), and about a total of 4 or 5 scenarios.
Oh, and no world RvR. I tell a lie. I did some awesome stuff in Altdorf (did Did the bar brawl PQ 2 times and the Saleneesh daemons one twice), And I did all the quests I could as a lvl 20 in rank 2 Altdorf (the sewers are fairly cool)
There isn't a lack of content, there is just a lack of players my level on my server ;(
</whine>
It is kinda distressing, I still love the game, but I am sad that I am missing all this content which includes the parts I like the best about the game World RvR -> PQs -> Scenarios)
I've always said that level-based games segregrate the playerbase, but does anyone listen to me when I'm right? noooooooo :p
lol, that said I'm still enjoying warhammer. It's kinda annoying actually... I'm playing warhammer yet I've got megaman 9, Warioland shake it!, Phoenix Wright 3 (trials and tribulations) & 4 (apollo justice) and sonic: the dark brotherhood sitting here begging to be played too. So many games @.@
Oh, good news about the white lion... while it now requires a target it now flies you at them and has an insane range of 65ft... yes, that's right, if someone is on a fortress wall 65ft or less away, you can leap up into their face :p Once they fix the crazy pet AI (it's gone haywire for some players since this patch I hear) I might level my white lioness up lots to try and get fetch... I want to see what happens if I use leap at high up targets while my lion is attacking someone else and then use fetch... could be fun :D
I still can't settle on a character... I think I may have to give up my magus until they're rebalanced a little... I love the concept of the class but it's just too gimpy in practice as it stands now. less damage than a bright wizard, and only from point blank range.
my disciple is fun but it's hard to be a jack-of-all trades and split your attention between DPS and healing. maybe the targeting fixes will make it easier.
started a zealot and I love how many of zealot spells are instant cast - but it doesn't seem to make up for the lack of versatility. my disciple can do almost as much healing as my zealot, while chopping people up too. the zealot pretty much has to be a full-time healer because you heal and dps out of the same pool (unlike disciple). I know i was just complaining about having to split my attention as a disciple, but I think that if a class is supposed to be a full-time healer, its heals should at least be considerably better than a hybrid. also, what is up with the lack of a class mechanic. they could have at least half-assed it and copied the archmage's class mechanic over to the zealot so at least they would have *something*...
squig herder should be brought up in DPS potential to witch hunter levels... but squig hunters seem pretty gimped. don't think I've seen one in the top 10 people in scenario damage meters yet.
enjoying my Chosen and Marauder, though they make me feel like I'm relying on other people... when I'm a healer in a scenario, I can keep tanks up with like 5 people beating on them... but when I go into a scenario as my tank, I never get any heals -_- but it is definitely remarkable how fast cloth wearers die to my marauder. at level 6, I killed a level 11 bright wizard from full in like 6 seconds.
few notes though... first off the Zealot/Rune Priest aren't really dedicated healers: they're hybrids. They should get these big rituals/runes they can place in areas that do buffs/debuffs to anyone standing in them but I've not played either so I don't know if/how they made it in... that and their runes/mark thingies that you can stick on your team mates to give them new abilities (which most people don't notice :p ) are the mechanics. If you check the trees all 3 are hybrid boosting both healing and damage.
The closest thing to a dedicated healer in the game is an archmage/shaman fully specced in their heal tree which do far better than the others at keeping people up.
Oh and the archmage's mechanic is a copy of the shaman's except not quite as good (due to some abilities not matching up like AP draining which helps keep the shaman going when the AM is out of juice).
As for the classes... I love my White Lion! I go in behind enemy lines and things die. Orrrrr I go after the people attacking our healers... and things die!!! Her strength is through the roof and most people don't seem to realise how quickly she can fell them. Combine that with my awesome pet micromanaging skills and my targets are usually snared, armour debuffed and DoTTed before I even reach 'em :D I'm a fairly crucial aspect of battle as I decimate their healing and ranged ranks and can even cut down tanks fairly quickly. Only thing I can't do is take focus fire for very long so for actually holding points against a horde I'm no good but I'm so suited to everything else it's easily made up for :3
My swordmaster is a rear-kicker! Admittedly she has lots of shields and crazy stuff that protects her HP so while she excels with healing she's extremely hard to kill even without it. I do usually get heals though but I'm usually planted on the point or ripping MDPS off our healers so I suspect they remember to keep me standing for their own good as much as anything else XD
My warrior priest is a jack of trades and I cannot emphasis how stupendous it is being able to solo champions. In RvR, I can scout out and take unguarded points without any backup. Obviously this'll become less awesome as I move onto keeps and stuff but it's darn handy. I can also step in as a semi-tank in PQs if none are around: I only really lack the aggro skills to be honest :3
I've not really touched my archmage in a while. I don't like running out of AP :p I might give her another go sometime if only to relive moments like my 3 v 1 defence of a point versus sorceresses (I'll never ever shut up about that XD ).
Oh... yeah.... I have a shadow warrior. I keep forgetting about her. Again, love the look, hate the gameplay of the class. Oh well :/
It's definitely heating up between those 3 classes though: Warrior Priest, White Lion and Sword Master. Which will be my main? who can tell!!! I certainly can't for now, but I'm having a blast :D
<b>edit:</b> I gave the Marauder a quick try and was really impressed. I can't see myself playing one in the long run unless they add female variants but the class itself is nifty. I sooooo want to drag people off keep walls with giant tentacles... that's just breath-takingly awesome :p
<!--quoteo(post=1689367:date=Oct 4 2008, 03:59 PM:name=Geminosity)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Geminosity @ Oct 4 2008, 03:59 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1689367"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I've always said that level-based games segregrate the playerbase, but does anyone listen to me when I'm right? noooooooo <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />[...]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Other flaws aside, Planetside pulled that part off PERFECTLY. Although the game DID have "levels," they didn't make you more powerful, they did something else for you. A newbie could join a squad of experienced maximum level players and bring something useful all the same: Another gun to the fight, healing equipment, drive or gun a vehicle... having the levels was of course helpful, but not having them didn't mean you couldn't play with the big boys.
One thing that can help in this regard is having a fast level grind, like Guild Wars. It quickly gets everyone up to max level, where people are on equal footing. WAR seems to be different in this regard: It may "only" have forty levels to cover, but getting there seems to take a very long time if you're not absolutely powering through. I can see the reason for this - the game effectively locks you out of low-level content as you gain levels, so you need to have time to experience it all before you advance past it. But it also makes the process rather long and slow. Also, I'm an archmage. I need that goddamn knockback to keep the MDPS off me, and I still have another twelve levels to go to get an ability that is essential to my survival. Twelve painful, rape-filled levels.
The game is starting to feel eerily empty at the lower tiers. Seeing other players at a PQ is rare. And this is with a full server, mind you.
At this point, I can't help but bring in a WoW comparison: At least that game acknowledges that after the initial leveling frenzy, the low-level areas will be relatively empty. As such, most of the content that requires a group is situated at the top levels. It seems like a LOT of work has gone into the PQs in WAR, but much of that work is now wasted because there is rarely a group there, and PQs can't be soloed. The players who haven't kept up with the bulk of the population are effectively locked out of the most important part of the PvE content (and some of the best gear).
<!--quoteo(post=1689074:date=Sep 29 2008, 05:33 AM:name=RuBy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RuBy @ Sep 29 2008, 05:33 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1689074"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->How's the world itself? Is it big enough? Warhammery enough? Fun to explore? I hope there's plenty of fun details for the fans of the original game. What are your experiences in that regard?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
I thought I had said something on that....
apparently not.
Basically, it seems to have lots of random links to WH:F, lots of lore (you run into a number of the major world forces), and if you are into it, just sit down and read the ToK and there is a crap load of stuff in there.
Exploring is fun (and rewarding with random ToK unlocks), and still worthwhile as there is a mess of stuff out there to find (I still haven't managed to get into a Lair yet...)
Comments
on the Rune priest they are runes, on the zel I think they are potions?
Not exactly something you need to be mindful of in the heat of battle ala combustion...
Not exactly something you need to be mindful of in the heat of battle ala combustion...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
magus seems to lack a class mechanic as well... unless demons count, but that's sort of half-assing a class mechanic =p
Magus's class mechanics were supposed to be the Demons.
:p
well I'm glad Order isn't the only side that has physical dps that totally pisses off the other team's casters =p if a witch hunter so much as looks at my magus, I'm dead in about 3 seconds...
Yah, that is about the whole of it.
MDPS trounces on anything they get close to.
RDPS trounces on anything they can keep at range.
Tanks just don't ######ING DIE!
And healers make everything better.
If you can catch a tank flat footed you can off them (the level 5 WH skill ignores armor if hit from behind iirc)
PS:
<a href="http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=338" target="_blank">Patch Notes!</a>
No clue when the euros are getting this
Oh, right, that page doesn't say when NA is getting it, but it is today.
That is kinda unfortunate (for you), though I have to wonder why I haven't seen white lions pouncing all over the place prior to this (20 feet, instant cast, no cool down?)
I admit I kinda wish that more of the AoE spells could be cast on areas instead of targets... (like the BW Fiery Blast)
PS:
<a href="http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=338" target="_blank">Patch Notes!</a>
No clue when the euros are getting this[...]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href="http://www.war-europe.com/#/news/?id_news=en191〈=en" target="_blank">Tomorrow</a> apparently.
I suspect the fact I'm stacking Toughness makes me just that bit more annoying for bad people too... especially combined with stuff like my absorb shield tactic (25% chance per hit I take to generate a 10sec damage reduction shield) and my healing from my AP/Fury cycle.
I am finding my self repeatedly in the position that I have no quests to do and have to grind on something (generally a random PQ) until I can get the last bit of XP to level and get new quests (the worst was this morning where I needed about 2K xp to get to level 21 so new quests would show up).
I am not skipping content, I am just getting shafted as far as PQs and RvR go due to low server population and odd playing hours.
Of course you may be thinking "what are you doing solo in the first place? This is a multiplayer game!" But part of the glory of PQs (when they work) is that they're such a great way to pick up groups. Go in, join the group, kill stuff, grab loot. But that doesn't work if nobody is even doing the PQ in the first place.
got lucky and hooked up with another guy who did the same and we headed over to DvG T2 and cleaned out all of those quests (got us up to lvl 18/19ish). I then headed back to EvC T3 and did quests there, hit lvl 20 shortly after I went from one side of the map to the other. Did all those quests and was just at the cusp of 21 and went and killed some random stuff in a PQ too hit 21 which unlocked a slew of new quests.
In all that time (lvl 16 -> 21) I did 2 PQs (one of them we did twice b/c we just missed finishing it 4 man the first time), and about a total of 4 or 5 scenarios.
Oh, and no world RvR.
I tell a lie. I did some awesome stuff in Altdorf (did Did the bar brawl PQ 2 times and the Saleneesh daemons one twice), And I did all the quests I could as a lvl 20 in rank 2 Altdorf (the sewers are fairly cool)
There isn't a lack of content, there is just a lack of players my level on my server ;(
</whine>
It is kinda distressing, I still love the game, but I am sad that I am missing all this content which includes the parts I like the best about the game World RvR -> PQs -> Scenarios)
lol, that said I'm still enjoying warhammer. It's kinda annoying actually... I'm playing warhammer yet I've got megaman 9, Warioland shake it!, Phoenix Wright 3 (trials and tribulations) & 4 (apollo justice) and sonic: the dark brotherhood sitting here begging to be played too. So many games @.@
Oh, good news about the white lion... while it now requires a target it now flies you at them and has an insane range of 65ft... yes, that's right, if someone is on a fortress wall 65ft or less away, you can leap up into their face :p
Once they fix the crazy pet AI (it's gone haywire for some players since this patch I hear) I might level my white lioness up lots to try and get fetch... I want to see what happens if I use leap at high up targets while my lion is attacking someone else and then use fetch... could be fun :D
my disciple is fun but it's hard to be a jack-of-all trades and split your attention between DPS and healing. maybe the targeting fixes will make it easier.
started a zealot and I love how many of zealot spells are instant cast - but it doesn't seem to make up for the lack of versatility. my disciple can do almost as much healing as my zealot, while chopping people up too. the zealot pretty much has to be a full-time healer because you heal and dps out of the same pool (unlike disciple). I know i was just complaining about having to split my attention as a disciple, but I think that if a class is supposed to be a full-time healer, its heals should at least be considerably better than a hybrid. also, what is up with the lack of a class mechanic. they could have at least half-assed it and copied the archmage's class mechanic over to the zealot so at least they would have *something*...
squig herder should be brought up in DPS potential to witch hunter levels... but squig hunters seem pretty gimped. don't think I've seen one in the top 10 people in scenario damage meters yet.
enjoying my Chosen and Marauder, though they make me feel like I'm relying on other people... when I'm a healer in a scenario, I can keep tanks up with like 5 people beating on them... but when I go into a scenario as my tank, I never get any heals -_- but it is definitely remarkable how fast cloth wearers die to my marauder. at level 6, I killed a level 11 bright wizard from full in like 6 seconds.
few notes though... first off the Zealot/Rune Priest aren't really dedicated healers: they're hybrids. They should get these big rituals/runes they can place in areas that do buffs/debuffs to anyone standing in them but I've not played either so I don't know if/how they made it in... that and their runes/mark thingies that you can stick on your team mates to give them new abilities (which most people don't notice :p ) are the mechanics.
If you check the trees all 3 are hybrid boosting both healing and damage.
The closest thing to a dedicated healer in the game is an archmage/shaman fully specced in their heal tree which do far better than the others at keeping people up.
Oh and the archmage's mechanic is a copy of the shaman's except not quite as good (due to some abilities not matching up like AP draining which helps keep the shaman going when the AM is out of juice).
As for the classes... I love my White Lion! I go in behind enemy lines and things die. Orrrrr I go after the people attacking our healers... and things die!!! Her strength is through the roof and most people don't seem to realise how quickly she can fell them. Combine that with my awesome pet micromanaging skills and my targets are usually snared, armour debuffed and DoTTed before I even reach 'em :D
I'm a fairly crucial aspect of battle as I decimate their healing and ranged ranks and can even cut down tanks fairly quickly. Only thing I can't do is take focus fire for very long so for actually holding points against a horde I'm no good but I'm so suited to everything else it's easily made up for :3
My swordmaster is a rear-kicker! Admittedly she has lots of shields and crazy stuff that protects her HP so while she excels with healing she's extremely hard to kill even without it. I do usually get heals though but I'm usually planted on the point or ripping MDPS off our healers so I suspect they remember to keep me standing for their own good as much as anything else XD
My warrior priest is a jack of trades and I cannot emphasis how stupendous it is being able to solo champions. In RvR, I can scout out and take unguarded points without any backup. Obviously this'll become less awesome as I move onto keeps and stuff but it's darn handy. I can also step in as a semi-tank in PQs if none are around: I only really lack the aggro skills to be honest :3
I've not really touched my archmage in a while. I don't like running out of AP :p
I might give her another go sometime if only to relive moments like my 3 v 1 defence of a point versus sorceresses (I'll never ever shut up about that XD ).
Oh... yeah.... I have a shadow warrior. I keep forgetting about her. Again, love the look, hate the gameplay of the class. Oh well :/
It's definitely heating up between those 3 classes though: Warrior Priest, White Lion and Sword Master. Which will be my main? who can tell!!! I certainly can't for now, but I'm having a blast :D
<b>edit:</b> I gave the Marauder a quick try and was really impressed. I can't see myself playing one in the long run unless they add female variants but the class itself is nifty. I sooooo want to drag people off keep walls with giant tentacles... that's just breath-takingly awesome :p
Other flaws aside, Planetside pulled that part off PERFECTLY. Although the game DID have "levels," they didn't make you more powerful, they did something else for you. A newbie could join a squad of experienced maximum level players and bring something useful all the same: Another gun to the fight, healing equipment, drive or gun a vehicle... having the levels was of course helpful, but not having them didn't mean you couldn't play with the big boys.
One thing that can help in this regard is having a fast level grind, like Guild Wars. It quickly gets everyone up to max level, where people are on equal footing. WAR seems to be different in this regard: It may "only" have forty levels to cover, but getting there seems to take a very long time if you're not absolutely powering through. I can see the reason for this - the game effectively locks you out of low-level content as you gain levels, so you need to have time to experience it all before you advance past it. But it also makes the process rather long and slow.
Also, I'm an archmage. I need that goddamn knockback to keep the MDPS off me, and I still have another twelve levels to go to get an ability that is essential to my survival. Twelve painful, rape-filled levels.
At this point, I can't help but bring in a WoW comparison: At least that game acknowledges that after the initial leveling frenzy, the low-level areas will be relatively empty. As such, most of the content that requires a group is situated at the top levels. It seems like a LOT of work has gone into the PQs in WAR, but much of that work is now wasted because there is rarely a group there, and PQs can't be soloed. The players who haven't kept up with the bulk of the population are effectively locked out of the most important part of the PvE content (and some of the best gear).
I figured this out by poking around at the maps and seeing that T3+ are all contested, where Ts 1 and 2 periodically swap between order and destro.
<!--quoteo(post=1689074:date=Sep 29 2008, 05:33 AM:name=RuBy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RuBy @ Sep 29 2008, 05:33 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1689074"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->How's the world itself? Is it big enough? Warhammery enough? Fun to explore? I hope there's plenty of fun details for the fans of the original game. What are your experiences in that regard?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
apparently not.
Basically, it seems to have lots of random links to WH:F, lots of lore (you run into a number of the major world forces), and if you are into it, just sit down and read the ToK and there is a crap load of stuff in there.
Exploring is fun (and rewarding with random ToK unlocks), and still worthwhile as there is a mess of stuff out there to find (I still haven't managed to get into a Lair yet...)