<span style='font-size:3pt;line-height:100%'>piccy of Amy from City of Heroes too <a href='http://www28.brinkster.com/geminosity/cohamy.jpg' target='_blank'>=3</a></span> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> <span style='font-size:27pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:red'><b>PANCELESS</b></span></span>
Basically you target the enemy you want to attack. Now all characters start with 3 combat abilties. The first is brawl which is your last ditch attack, it's very very cheap energy wise and recharges fast and it's basically a punch in the face, the other 2 abilities depend on how you set your character up. What you do next is you select the attack you want to do and it does it... for the next little while you wont' be able to do that attack again until it's timer is up, but you can still unload any other attacks or abilities you have on it. The further into the game you are the more abilities you have and the more hectic/interesting it gets =D
But at no point does your character take energy off a baddie without some direct action from you. It honestly doesn't feel like normal MMO combat, it's a lot more fast, furious and interesting... feels very 'actiony' ^^
<b>edit:</b> each ability can be tweaked to heck and back too so you can focus on making it recover faster so you can pummel the enemy with your favourite poison attack or whatever more often, or you can make it cheaper so it doesn't drain your stamina so much, or up it's damage or so-on. Every fighter, every character tends to be unique in it's own way thanks to this fidgetty little system =3
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
edited May 2004
[Edit] Gem is faster and more eloquent then me... BAH[/edit]
/me pops head in.
CoH Combat:
There are a total of 3 things in the game you have to wory about. Your skills (you get a new one every other level for 40 levels) Your enhancers (these directly buff your skills, you just stick em in) Inspirations (potions, scrolls call em what you will)
Combat: You have your skills set up bound to the # keys (though the bind/macro system is very good, you can bind powers to any key, I have my sprint power bound to c, my teleport ally power bound to v along with a little message of who I am teleporting).
So, target your victim, and press key coresponding to power. Each power drains endurance and has a recharge time before you can use it again.
even your 'basic' attack power (brawl) has to be activated by pressing it.
So The first group of strategy comes from timing your powers properly, handeling endurance etc (often you will nto want to just spam attack on a single target. You will be fighting a few badies and want to spred different effects in there. So slow the melee badie, knock down the realy powerful guy, lower the one guys attack, and just beat on the last one.)
technicaly you can set up an auto attack (but it is not auto attack as in 'default attack you keep doing untill you think you wana do something else ala Diablo, or GW). you can set it up so that it will automaticly use one power as soon as it can (you have enugh endurance, its recharged, you have a valid target selected)
Most people don't use this as it causes problems <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> If you are running through Paragon City looking for badies, and you have an auto attack on, you will attack any one you target, this is not exactly desierable if you are guaging the level of a mob, and accidently pull a group that is 5 levels higher then you.
only time I used an auto-ability is when I needed to go to the toilet... I stuck 'healing aura' on auto and ran XD
One other difference to CoH over most other games including GW is amount of enemies you'll face... I've walked into rooms with my team to stare in awe at rooms packed wall to wall with the undead. Some of the fights are more like wars than your standard cruddy MMO fights ^^;
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
then again she put auto heal on like 1 sec before we all left he mission <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
and yah, on another note:
Who dosn't want to kill hordes of cyber nazis that are jumping down from upper levels to get in on the thrash fest?
NarfwakJoin Date: 2002-11-02Member: 5258Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Playtest Lead, Forum Moderators, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica PT Lead, NS2 Community Developer
Back on track with GW here . . . anyone else having trouble getting the friends system to work? I got into the same district of the same area as a friend, stood right next to him, and the damn thing still didn't display him as online.
I have played as a monk/ranger, elementalist/monk, ranger/warrior and a warrior/monk.
First off, the key to this game is teamwork. Secondly, there is ALOT of strategy. Have you looked at the skill gems? For monks there are at LEAST 3 different resurrections, All of them to complement different playing styles.
I HAVE NO IDEA why they decided to release an E3 demo. It was a retarded move in my opinion. The whole point of the game will be playing with a team you know and like. In the demo you play with random people and little cohesion. Allthough I personally am happy they did. I think it was a poor business move ultimately.
-Necromancers can not raise dead in the demo -Rangers can not tame nor can they stealth in the demo -Mesmurs Don't have many skills in the demo
So 3 classes really won't even play how they are intended.
I don't see how anyone can just say this is a mindless slasher, Warriors even have a large skill base to choose from. I know the demo only has a few skills you start out with and a few, hell more then most games any ways, that you can buy.
No, this game doesn't involve many twitch skills. It does however involve alot of tactics and thinking. Just imagine an 8 vs 8 guild fight with your friends. Customize your skill set and armor so that you go into battle to maximize your team play.
It does however have the nesecery twitch skills. Lets take the warrior for example, yes I am choosing a hard example on purpose. You take the skills Distracting Blow which interrupts skills, Sprint which does what it says, Hamstring which slows them, For Victory which refreshes your skills faster. You have chosen monk as your subclass so you choose Healers Scourge which causes damage to the healer when he heals someone and a heal spell. Since you have a heal spell you replace your inferior heal signet with it. Without the signet toughness is near uselss so you respec those points into a weapon skill. You will probably not want an AoE heal spell as a melee unit.
Since you are a melee fighter and not a good focus fire unit you get assigned to their monk. Little does your team know that if you screw up the person they are focusing on will not only receive mend, a health regen spell, but several heal spells while they pick you your team off.
So the battle begins and you rush through their line and start hitting their monk. He is a mesmur subclass and adds immagined weight. He then begins to run from you a short distance and promptly starts a heal spell up. A bit faster and you could of cut his hamstring. Immagined weight slows your moment speed by the way. <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Now you have a few options, but your brain needs to work fast or its over. Healers Scourge on the target, or sprint to the healer and use Distracting blow. Seeing as Healers scourge wouldn't stop the healing on the target of fire, only hurt the monk letting him just heal himself right after, you decide to use sprint and distracting blow. Getting there just in time you stop the heals and and your team drops their target before he has time to kite.
The monk now trying to get away and cast imagined weight on you yet again, not liking being slowed once again you hamstring him before he gets out of range, a second too late would of been another miss. The monk is now running(more like walking at this point) with you inches behind and starts up another heal spell. Now is the time for healers scourge. As the heal goes down on himself so does damage since he is the healer. Unable to heal and you right behind him the chase begins. Whatever you do, do NOT auto follow. If you do he can evade you forever. This is all about how fast you can react when he turns, cut him off. He can't go in a strait line forever and "juking" left to right will only slow him down. If you can catch up you can hamstring him again and wail on him.
My point is, is that if all you do is attack you lose. There have been so many warriors trying to kill me by just hitting me its pathetic. They use bash some times, but at horrible places that does nothing.
Just thinking of playing with my friends in a nonpreasure PVP MMO makes me salivate. I never could play with any of my IRL friends because they never put enough time into the other mmos, though UO was bearable. Because of the way the levels work in GW I can. Also, since PvP does not harm you I can actually PvP all day. Well, and not spend the next 4 paying for it.
Thank God there is finaly a game that you play because its fun, not because you have invested so much time into it.
Just look at all the skills and drool <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><a href='http://www.guild-hall.net/' target='_blank'>DROOL</a></span>
NarfwakJoin Date: 2002-11-02Member: 5258Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Playtest Lead, Forum Moderators, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica PT Lead, NS2 Community Developer
The E3 demo release was probably just so people on the floor would have other people to play with and/or kill. That's it, really - the game obviously isn't even close to being done yet.
bob... I played practically every class in the game except elementalist... I know what the skills are like. The PvP by the way is a chaotic mishmash where your targetting keys on the keyboard won't work so you end up trying to work out which warrior it was you were healing/cursing/mezzing/arrowing/smacking by looking at all the swirling tabbards then someone will shout 'get their monk!' at which point you realise not only can you not tell your team apart in the tangled mess but you can barely make out the classes and then either your team wins or loses and you realise you don't actually give a damn. Add to this the vast majority of PvPers seem to be impatient jerks who like screaming 'noobs' when anything doesn't go their way and you've got a lipsmackingly good recipe for 'fun' and 'depth'.
PvE is worse... there's no chaos even to make it interesting just a minor fighting that can be won without a heck of a lot of strategy... I was even chatting in some of the fights we got involved in =/
Sorry CoH spoiled me with combat that makes me care.
<b>edit:</b> actually my example is from the tombs which is 8v8. the 4v4 was less confusing but I still didn't give an aerial simian about the outcome whether I won or lost... it just didn't grab me at all ~shrugs and sighs~ but then again I'm not a PvPer at heart: never have been.
I am stunned by your reply, you seriously couldn't tell your team apart from the enemy?
I hope this helps.
If attacking Press CTRL(SHIFT for friendlys) to bring up enemy names while they are out of range. When you click on the names their health bar will appear at the top. You can click on their names even out of your LOS. By the health bar will be something that looks like this.
Mr Floppyz II E/M 15
E stands for Elementalist M stands for Monk
15 is their current level
If you start attacking somone by clicking CTRL then their name will AUTOMATICALLY be messaged in team chat.
I can't help you with your stereo type over PvPers, thats a personal thing. I can refer you to what I allready said. I think it was a poor choice to release the game demo. Playing with your FRIENDS is what the game is all about! Wether it be fighting monster or other groups of friends.
As for PvE, the missions are MUCH more controlled then other MMOs. You can have events that most other mmos wouldn't have because of the system they use. Like somone said something about a catapult. I love the fact its like a co op for baulders gate or something. I mean its like you have your own DM making missions for your friends by the hundreds every expansion. Its way better then camping the same mob. Of course thats just my opinion and I can't compare it with CoH as I havn't played it yet.
My main beef with the game is zones though, but its not as bad as I thought it would be. And you can still walk from place to place for all those RP nuts out there.
I'm not trying to change your opinion, just give you the facts before you dislike it. And if you still do after that its fine with me. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>oops</b> Looks like you edited this while I was typing. I didn't realize you where referreing to the 8v8. It was silly of me to assume because I have been playing arena all day thats what you where talking about.
Yeah, the 8v8 is a bit confusing when you have 32(four teams) people on a single map. I personally like the 16(two teams) player maps. For me its not unbearable because the classess look very distinct and the colored flags are good enough to know who is who. In combination with the f1-8 keys thats enough for me. Then again I have played DAOC and SB. SB had some 200+ people battles. I mean compared to that this has kind of been a step down in having to track alot of people at once.
I mean I don't think your crazy for wanting to have more controll over the win and loss. Maybe thats why you don't care if you win or loose? Perhaps you would like PVP more when you are with a group of people you know and feel can rely on also? Like I said I think it was not smart to have released the demo.
I think in many ways CoH has spoiled me... if I hadn't played it then perhaps I'd have been more accepting of some of the flaws. I keep feeling there must be something i've missed that makes everyone rave about this game (I raved about it too before it came out and i finally got a shot.) The main problem is I see most CoH players don't care much for GW either so once again I'm inclined to think it's a "great until you've seen better" kinda thing.
For what it is, it's almost impressive.
I've played it for around a day and a half now but I just can't seem to grab that little 'something' that makes people like it. I just keep coming away frustrated and bored. It's like when there was a craze at school you couldn't get into; no matter how hard you tried you just couldn't see what they were getting out of it =s I caught a glimmer when I noticed dying inside a mission drops your health and mana and it has to be fought back to full again but you heal up once the mission is done... that intrigued me. Outside of that, gameplay wise, it's like it's trying to do a lil bit of Phantasy Star Online and City of Heroes but it forgot the best parts that made them fun =/
The devs told me quite a lot that PvP was where you really saw the game come alive and i can see some strategy to it but I can't say I'm all that keen on PvPing in it for some reason... something auto-attack doesn't increase my happiness about ^^;
NarfwakJoin Date: 2002-11-02Member: 5258Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Playtest Lead, Forum Moderators, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica PT Lead, NS2 Community Developer
You have to admit, Gem has a point about the whole auto-attack thing, especially when it comes to PvP. Given that Guild Wars is described as a "skill driven" game, auto-attack seems totally out of place.
What also helps CoH is not only the lack of auto-attack, but the variety and number of skills players have; not only do players have to manually attack, but they have to attack with several different abilities, and they must balance and use them all correctly. You don't want to waste energy using a big AoE attack on one boss, or waste too much energy firing lots of abilities at a group that the rest of your party is dealing with. It's pretty simple stuff, really, but it helps the gameplay a lot.
By skill based I believe they mean more of a mental thinking skill then twitch based skill. The first guy to hit the A key isn't going to win. The guy who thinks out his strategy and uses his moves when most benificial will be the victor. The team that uses their skills and works best together will be the victor. Not the team with the people who sunk the largest ammount of time. Its an RTS kind of skill which I would have thought applied to most of this board. So your right, in a sense, it doesn't involve much skill on a hand/eye coordination level.
I don't think they intended by skill based that it would have no autoattack. I would go as far to say autoattack is needed because of all the things you have to keep track of. Most MMOS only need to really keep an eye on the enemy or the tank if you are the healer.
In this game you have to keep track of at most I have seen so far 32 other people and all the variables AT ONCE. Not just them either, Their Health, Status, Distence, Class, Team and any other varible you yourself can think of. That is 160 different things to keep track of. On top of all that you need be be stratizing a counter to them all. Enemy almost dead? Kill them. Friend Almost Dead? Heal him. Ahh but as my pervious post said it gets tremendiously overcomplicated from that when trying to accomplish this task.
Now granted you will never be tracking all those things at once, another skill comes into play. Recognition. Since it is not humanly possible we have to learn different visual ques when to start tracking things. And explosion means this, a flash of black on the bottom of the screen means someones health is going down. I personally am glad I can be shooting an arow at an enemy across the screen my team is <i>FF</i>ing on and heal a team mate.
<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Skip here if you want to spare your eyes.</span></b> With the current system a bunch of level ones would allways, well nothing is allways as they could have read alot about the game and been better strategists but you get the point, beat a bunch of level 50s if the level 50s have not played prior to the engagment(like they ebayed their account or something). Try and think of another MMO that can boast that? I am pretty sure that that is their current canon, or guage, of if the game is skill based or not. I am just giving you my perception their view point, I wouldn't waste effort in a debate about it. Personally I find the game mechanics very satisfying.
And Gem, what do you find frustrating? Perhaps I could help?
<b>Edit</b> I forgot this part.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->What also helps CoH is not only the lack of auto-attack, but the variety and number of skills players have; not only do players have to manually attack, but they have to attack with several different abilities, and they must balance and use them all correctly. You don't want to waste energy using a big AoE attack on one boss, or waste too much energy firing lots of abilities at a group that the rest of your party is dealing with. It's pretty simple stuff, really, but it helps the gameplay a lot.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Out of the hundreds of skills availible I would say GW has a pretty wide range also Unless you are not aware of the subclass feature. Of course I don't know much about CoH it could have skills in the thousands. As far as editing those skills you get attribute points in GW that you can spread around in different skills. I don't know how that stacks up, I am simply trying to spread information.
The Fact CoH does everything you just said but with even more enemies onscreen, no auto-attack, more geniunely different abilities which also happen to be more distinct so they're easier to tell apart and better character customisation so combat isn't anywhere near as confusing all wrapped up in a proper MMO environment and instanced missions? =/
CoH isn't a twitch game, it feels hectic and fast but it's definitely not a twitch game and yes CoH has an easily comparible list of skills in number to GW, though many of the skills are less orthodox resulting in far more interesting combat ('KITTY YARN BALL ATTACK!!!' aka 'Repel' for an example =3 )
It kinda goes in CoH's favour that it's using a new setting (non-fantasy urban) and that it's 'complete' and the user interface seems more polished too. Dear heck how guildwars needs speechbubbles that's one thing I'll say ^^;
Meh, remember it's not even officially beta, things might change a lot, things may not. I don't think it'd be too much trouble to change it to a more CoH style of combat. I hope they do...
I must say, I almost never notice autoattack using my Monk/Elementalist. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I'm keeping that in mind bacon so no worries; that's why I'm not really complaining about any bugs. I'm just not so convinced that the company will change their minds so easily over rewriting their combat system; after all they've got plenty fanboys throwing their praises at them ("omg this game is so cool it reminds me of diablo yuckyuck").
=P
<b>edit:</b> and I'm still trying to desperately find whatever it is in this game I'm missing out on... I want to love it but I just keep thinking I'd be having more fun playing CoH. The irony being that I'd really just got CoH to fill the time in while I was waiting for GW ^^;
Well no idea what game gems playing, it ain the one I am!!
Ziggy Black Ranger/Warrior
I must say that the hero arena (no the regular arena) is pretty cool(I played a game where 6 teams were fighting to the death, eventually we won (after about 30 minutes) and I was rewarded with... 2 fame points... wooh <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> ) as far as low scale high alcohol pvp is concerned its the kind of game you could imagine *craft players playing at 3am, which is great. Salvaging items for resources? Thats a nice twist, as for its longterm appeal I cant say, I think its pretty cool, if you want a total d2 clone you should play Knight-Online.
I was lying in bed last night comparing CoH and GW, when I realised I was getting in the frame of mind that this limited demo=full game. I quickly got myself out of that frame. Now if I'm not the only one slowly getting this point mixed up, this demo could be a very bad move indeed as it will put people off.
Atm, Coh beats GW in PvE, simply because the AI fights in GW seem tiny compared to CoH. You haven't lived until you've had your group of 8 heroes spill down a street absorbing one mob after another in a mass melee. Also the targetting system in CoH seems to much intuitive. I find it easy to target to enemies I want to target (tho this may be in part due to the fact I'm hoverng above them all most of the time <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->) were as in GW I have had a hard time getting the monsters I want to.
However, Gw beats CoH in PvP, not simply because CoH doesn't have one yet, but because Gw PvP fights are <i>more</i> hectic and frantic then CoH's PvE fights. There are definite tactics and strategies that can be deployed, countered and changed in mid-battle, given all the options available with classes, sub-classes and skills. GW PvP fights are too deep for me to even think about just how many possibilties there are.
Besides, whos ever heard of CTF in a mmorpg? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> I certainly haven't.
However, CoV will probably be out before GW, so we will have to see. Which reminds me, there was supposed to be an announcement about that at E3.
<!--QuoteBegin-Aldaris+May 13 2004, 11:06 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Aldaris @ May 13 2004, 11:06 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> in GW I have had a hard time getting the monsters I want to. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> press control (edit: shift if you wanna see allies also)
I got stuck in that PvP arena last night, we had a sweet team going for a run of 24 wins, really good fun, we only lost when one dropped out and we were a man down aswell...
BizZy_9mm_MessiahOld School MemberJoin Date: 2003-07-25Member: 18411Members, Constellation
My character's name is Scrotom Saggins. I know, I had to think of something though..
Monk/Elementalist (Forrester is a poser who copied me <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
<!--QuoteBegin-BizZy | 9mm Messiah+May 13 2004, 11:30 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (BizZy | 9mm Messiah @ May 13 2004, 11:30 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> My character's name is Scrotom Saggins. I know, I had to think of something though..
Monk/Elementalist (Forrester is a poser who copied me <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
Is there a website for this CoH and is it free? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> <a href='http://www.coh.com' target='_blank'>http://www.coh.com</a> and no its not free. It follows the standard mmorpg economy ie buy the game and then pay monthly.
I'll GW yet another shot... Name is and always is 'Jemma Galbraith'. I'm not really a huge PvP fan but that's where the fun seems to be for this game so I'll probably entrench my Necro/Ranger there =/
<b>edit:</b> ok, I'm KINDA getting into the whole PvP thingy... the strategy can be interesting but to be honest the warrior with whatever secondary seems to rule the roost if he keeps a bow handy as his 2nd quick switch weapon =/
I also had an evil experience where my whole team was attacking one warrior... this is 4 characters hitting him, he was diseased (constant health drain), health-syphoned (even more constant health drain) and the others in my team had cast stuff on him too but <b>he would not die</b>. A whole team wailing on one guy who's been debuffed to heck with all kinds of nasty curses eating him and we couldn't even get the jerk under half hp!!!! it was unbelievable! We continued to assault him until the end of the match which we lost without ever killing the frigging guy... a whole match!!! o.O
you suck gem <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> Anyways, its over, I miss it, *sniff*
Comments
<b>edit:</b> wha? why's it not showing my picture? o.O
<a href='http://www28.brinkster.com/geminosity/gwjemma.jpg' target='_blank'>linky</a>
<span style='font-size:3pt;line-height:100%'>piccy of Amy from City of Heroes too <a href='http://www28.brinkster.com/geminosity/cohamy.jpg' target='_blank'>=3</a></span> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<span style='font-size:27pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:red'><b>PANCELESS</b></span></span>
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b><span style='font-size:17pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:red'>OMG KITTY!!!!</span></span></b>
Basically you target the enemy you want to attack. Now all characters start with 3 combat abilties. The first is brawl which is your last ditch attack, it's very very cheap energy wise and recharges fast and it's basically a punch in the face, the other 2 abilities depend on how you set your character up.
What you do next is you select the attack you want to do and it does it... for the next little while you wont' be able to do that attack again until it's timer is up, but you can still unload any other attacks or abilities you have on it. The further into the game you are the more abilities you have and the more hectic/interesting it gets =D
But at no point does your character take energy off a baddie without some direct action from you. It honestly doesn't feel like normal MMO combat, it's a lot more fast, furious and interesting... feels very 'actiony' ^^
<b>edit:</b> each ability can be tweaked to heck and back too so you can focus on making it recover faster so you can pummel the enemy with your favourite poison attack or whatever more often, or you can make it cheaper so it doesn't drain your stamina so much, or up it's damage or so-on. Every fighter, every character tends to be unique in it's own way thanks to this fidgetty little system =3
/me pops head in.
CoH Combat:
There are a total of 3 things in the game you have to wory about.
Your skills (you get a new one every other level for 40 levels)
Your enhancers (these directly buff your skills, you just stick em in)
Inspirations (potions, scrolls call em what you will)
Combat:
You have your skills set up bound to the # keys (though the bind/macro system is very good, you can bind powers to any key, I have my sprint power bound to c, my teleport ally power bound to v along with a little message of who I am teleporting).
So, target your victim, and press key coresponding to power.
Each power drains endurance and has a recharge time before you can use it again.
even your 'basic' attack power (brawl) has to be activated by pressing it.
So The first group of strategy comes from timing your powers properly, handeling endurance etc (often you will nto want to just spam attack on a single target. You will be fighting a few badies and want to spred different effects in there. So slow the melee badie, knock down the realy powerful guy, lower the one guys attack, and just beat on the last one.)
technicaly you can set up an auto attack (but it is not auto attack as in 'default attack you keep doing untill you think you wana do something else ala Diablo, or GW).
you can set it up so that it will automaticly use one power as soon as it can (you have enugh endurance, its recharged, you have a valid target selected)
Most people don't use this as it causes problems <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
If you are running through Paragon City looking for badies, and you have an auto attack on, you will attack any one you target, this is not exactly desierable if you are guaging the level of a mob, and accidently pull a group that is 5 levels higher then you.
One other difference to CoH over most other games including GW is amount of enemies you'll face... I've walked into rooms with my team to stare in awe at rooms packed wall to wall with the undead. Some of the fights are more like wars than your standard cruddy MMO fights ^^;
and yah, on another note:
Who dosn't want to kill hordes of cyber nazis that are jumping down from upper levels to get in on the thrash fest?
First off, the key to this game is teamwork. Secondly, there is ALOT of strategy. Have you looked at the skill gems? For monks there are at LEAST 3 different resurrections, All of them to complement different playing styles.
I HAVE NO IDEA why they decided to release an E3 demo. It was a retarded move in my opinion. The whole point of the game will be playing with a team you know and like. In the demo you play with random people and little cohesion. Allthough I personally am happy they did. I think it was a poor business move ultimately.
-Necromancers can not raise dead in the demo
-Rangers can not tame nor can they stealth in the demo
-Mesmurs Don't have many skills in the demo
So 3 classes really won't even play how they are intended.
I don't see how anyone can just say this is a mindless slasher, Warriors even have a large skill base to choose from. I know the demo only has a few skills you start out with and a few, hell more then most games any ways, that you can buy.
No, this game doesn't involve many twitch skills. It does however involve alot of tactics and thinking. Just imagine an 8 vs 8 guild fight with your friends. Customize your skill set and armor so that you go into battle to maximize your team play.
It does however have the nesecery twitch skills. Lets take the warrior for example, yes I am choosing a hard example on purpose. You take the skills Distracting Blow which interrupts skills, Sprint which does what it says, Hamstring which slows them, For Victory which refreshes your skills faster. You have chosen monk as your subclass so you choose Healers Scourge which causes damage to the healer when he heals someone and a heal spell. Since you have a heal spell you replace your inferior heal signet with it. Without the signet toughness is near uselss so you respec those points into a weapon skill. You will probably not want an AoE heal spell as a melee unit.
Since you are a melee fighter and not a good focus fire unit you get assigned to their monk. Little does your team know that if you screw up the person they are focusing on will not only receive mend, a health regen spell, but several heal spells while they pick you your team off.
So the battle begins and you rush through their line and start hitting their monk. He is a mesmur subclass and adds immagined weight. He then begins to run from you a short distance and promptly starts a heal spell up. A bit faster and you could of cut his hamstring. Immagined weight slows your moment speed by the way. <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Now you have a few options, but your brain needs to work fast or its over. Healers Scourge on the target, or sprint to the healer and use Distracting blow. Seeing as Healers scourge wouldn't stop the healing on the target of fire, only hurt the monk letting him just heal himself right after, you decide to use sprint and distracting blow. Getting there just in time you stop the heals and and your team drops their target before he has time to kite.
The monk now trying to get away and cast imagined weight on you yet again, not liking being slowed once again you hamstring him before he gets out of range, a second too late would of been another miss. The monk is now running(more like walking at this point) with you inches behind and starts up another heal spell. Now is the time for healers scourge. As the heal goes down on himself so does damage since he is the healer. Unable to heal and you right behind him the chase begins. Whatever you do, do NOT auto follow. If you do he can evade you forever. This is all about how fast you can react when he turns, cut him off. He can't go in a strait line forever and "juking" left to right will only slow him down. If you can catch up you can hamstring him again and wail on him.
My point is, is that if all you do is attack you lose. There have been so many warriors trying to kill me by just hitting me its pathetic. They use bash some times, but at horrible places that does nothing.
Just thinking of playing with my friends in a nonpreasure PVP MMO makes me salivate. I never could play with any of my IRL friends because they never put enough time into the other mmos, though UO was bearable. Because of the way the levels work in GW I can. Also, since PvP does not harm you I can actually PvP all day. Well, and not spend the next 4 paying for it.
Thank God there is finaly a game that you play because its fun, not because you have invested so much time into it.
Just look at all the skills and drool <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><a href='http://www.guild-hall.net/' target='_blank'>DROOL</a></span>
Add to this the vast majority of PvPers seem to be impatient jerks who like screaming 'noobs' when anything doesn't go their way and you've got a lipsmackingly good recipe for 'fun' and 'depth'.
PvE is worse... there's no chaos even to make it interesting just a minor fighting that can be won without a heck of a lot of strategy... I was even chatting in some of the fights we got involved in =/
Sorry CoH spoiled me with combat that makes me care.
<b>edit:</b> actually my example is from the tombs which is 8v8. the 4v4 was less confusing but I still didn't give an aerial simian about the outcome whether I won or lost... it just didn't grab me at all ~shrugs and sighs~
but then again I'm not a PvPer at heart: never have been.
I hope this helps.
If attacking Press CTRL(SHIFT for friendlys) to bring up enemy names while they are out of range. When you click on the names their health bar will appear at the top. You can click on their names even out of your LOS. By the health bar will be something that looks like this.
Mr Floppyz II E/M 15
E stands for Elementalist
M stands for Monk
15 is their current level
If you start attacking somone by clicking CTRL then their name will AUTOMATICALLY be messaged in team chat.
I can't help you with your stereo type over PvPers, thats a personal thing. I can refer you to what I allready said. I think it was a poor choice to release the game demo. Playing with your FRIENDS is what the game is all about! Wether it be fighting monster or other groups of friends.
As for PvE, the missions are MUCH more controlled then other MMOs. You can have events that most other mmos wouldn't have because of the system they use. Like somone said something about a catapult. I love the fact its like a co op for baulders gate or something. I mean its like you have your own DM making missions for your friends by the hundreds every expansion. Its way better then camping the same mob. Of course thats just my opinion and I can't compare it with CoH as I havn't played it yet.
My main beef with the game is zones though, but its not as bad as I thought it would be. And you can still walk from place to place for all those RP nuts out there.
I'm not trying to change your opinion, just give you the facts before you dislike it. And if you still do after that its fine with me. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>oops</b>
Looks like you edited this while I was typing. I didn't realize you where referreing to the 8v8. It was silly of me to assume because I have been playing arena all day thats what you where talking about.
Yeah, the 8v8 is a bit confusing when you have 32(four teams) people on a single map. I personally like the 16(two teams) player maps. For me its not unbearable because the classess look very distinct and the colored flags are good enough to know who is who. In combination with the f1-8 keys thats enough for me. Then again I have played DAOC and SB. SB had some 200+ people battles. I mean compared to that this has kind of been a step down in having to track alot of people at once.
I mean I don't think your crazy for wanting to have more controll over the win and loss. Maybe thats why you don't care if you win or loose? Perhaps you would like PVP more when you are with a group of people you know and feel can rely on also? Like I said I think it was not smart to have released the demo.
I think in many ways CoH has spoiled me... if I hadn't played it then perhaps I'd have been more accepting of some of the flaws.
I keep feeling there must be something i've missed that makes everyone rave about this game (I raved about it too before it came out and i finally got a shot.)
The main problem is I see most CoH players don't care much for GW either so once again I'm inclined to think it's a "great until you've seen better" kinda thing.
For what it is, it's almost impressive.
I've played it for around a day and a half now but I just can't seem to grab that little 'something' that makes people like it. I just keep coming away frustrated and bored.
It's like when there was a craze at school you couldn't get into; no matter how hard you tried you just couldn't see what they were getting out of it =s
I caught a glimmer when I noticed dying inside a mission drops your health and mana and it has to be fought back to full again but you heal up once the mission is done... that intrigued me.
Outside of that, gameplay wise, it's like it's trying to do a lil bit of Phantasy Star Online and City of Heroes but it forgot the best parts that made them fun =/
The devs told me quite a lot that PvP was where you really saw the game come alive and i can see some strategy to it but I can't say I'm all that keen on PvPing in it for some reason... something auto-attack doesn't increase my happiness about ^^;
What also helps CoH is not only the lack of auto-attack, but the variety and number of skills players have; not only do players have to manually attack, but they have to attack with several different abilities, and they must balance and use them all correctly. You don't want to waste energy using a big AoE attack on one boss, or waste too much energy firing lots of abilities at a group that the rest of your party is dealing with. It's pretty simple stuff, really, but it helps the gameplay a lot.
I don't think they intended by skill based that it would have no autoattack. I would go as far to say autoattack is needed because of all the things you have to keep track of. Most MMOS only need to really keep an eye on the enemy or the tank if you are the healer.
In this game you have to keep track of at most I have seen so far 32 other people and all the variables AT ONCE. Not just them either, Their Health, Status, Distence, Class, Team and any other varible you yourself can think of. That is 160 different things to keep track of. On top of all that you need be be stratizing a counter to them all. Enemy almost dead? Kill them. Friend Almost Dead? Heal him. Ahh but as my pervious post said it gets tremendiously overcomplicated from that when trying to accomplish this task.
Now granted you will never be tracking all those things at once, another skill comes into play. Recognition. Since it is not humanly possible we have to learn different visual ques when to start tracking things. And explosion means this, a flash of black on the bottom of the screen means someones health is going down. I personally am glad I can be shooting an arow at an enemy across the screen my team is <i>FF</i>ing on and heal a team mate.
<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Skip here if you want to spare your eyes.</span></b>
With the current system a bunch of level ones would allways, well nothing is allways as they could have read alot about the game and been better strategists but you get the point, beat a bunch of level 50s if the level 50s have not played prior to the engagment(like they ebayed their account or something). Try and think of another MMO that can boast that? I am pretty sure that that is their current canon, or guage, of if the game is skill based or not. I am just giving you my perception their view point, I wouldn't waste effort in a debate about it. Personally I find the game mechanics very satisfying.
And Gem, what do you find frustrating? Perhaps I could help?
<b>Edit</b>
I forgot this part.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->What also helps CoH is not only the lack of auto-attack, but the variety and number of skills players have; not only do players have to manually attack, but they have to attack with several different abilities, and they must balance and use them all correctly. You don't want to waste energy using a big AoE attack on one boss, or waste too much energy firing lots of abilities at a group that the rest of your party is dealing with. It's pretty simple stuff, really, but it helps the gameplay a lot.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Out of the hundreds of skills availible I would say GW has a pretty wide range also Unless you are not aware of the subclass feature. Of course I don't know much about CoH it could have skills in the thousands. As far as editing those skills you get attribute points in GW that you can spread around in different skills. I don't know how that stacks up, I am simply trying to spread information.
CoH isn't a twitch game, it feels hectic and fast but it's definitely not a twitch game and yes CoH has an easily comparible list of skills in number to GW, though many of the skills are less orthodox resulting in far more interesting combat ('KITTY YARN BALL ATTACK!!!' aka 'Repel' for an example =3 )
It kinda goes in CoH's favour that it's using a new setting (non-fantasy urban) and that it's 'complete' and the user interface seems more polished too.
Dear heck how guildwars needs speechbubbles that's one thing I'll say ^^;
If you need a monk, call out for Kazak Arhiman!
=P
<b>edit:</b> and I'm still trying to desperately find whatever it is in this game I'm missing out on... I want to love it but I just keep thinking I'd be having more fun playing CoH. The irony being that I'd really just got CoH to fill the time in while I was waiting for GW ^^;
Ziggy Black Ranger/Warrior
I must say that the hero arena (no the regular arena) is pretty cool(I played a game where 6 teams were fighting to the death, eventually we won (after about 30 minutes) and I was rewarded with... 2 fame points... wooh <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> ) as far as low scale high alcohol pvp is concerned its the kind of game you could imagine *craft players playing at 3am, which is great. Salvaging items for resources? Thats a nice twist, as for its longterm appeal I cant say, I think its pretty cool, if you want a total d2 clone you should play Knight-Online.
Atm, Coh beats GW in PvE, simply because the AI fights in GW seem tiny compared to CoH. You haven't lived until you've had your group of 8 heroes spill down a street absorbing one mob after another in a mass melee. Also the targetting system in CoH seems to much intuitive. I find it easy to target to enemies I want to target (tho this may be in part due to the fact I'm hoverng above them all most of the time <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->) were as in GW I have had a hard time getting the monsters I want to.
However, Gw beats CoH in PvP, not simply because CoH doesn't have one yet, but because Gw PvP fights are <i>more</i> hectic and frantic then CoH's PvE fights. There are definite tactics and strategies that can be deployed, countered and changed in mid-battle, given all the options available with classes, sub-classes and skills. GW PvP fights are too deep for me to even think about just how many possibilties there are.
Besides, whos ever heard of CTF in a mmorpg? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> I certainly haven't.
However, CoV will probably be out before GW, so we will have to see. Which reminds me, there was supposed to be an announcement about that at E3.
*runs off to the CoH website*
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
press control (edit: shift if you wanna see allies also)
warrior with staggering blow owns all
Monk/Elementalist (Forrester is a poser who copied me <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
Is there a website for this CoH and is it free?
Monk/Elementalist (Forrester is a poser who copied me <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
Is there a website for this CoH and is it free? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href='http://www.coh.com' target='_blank'>http://www.coh.com</a> and no its not free. It follows the standard mmorpg economy ie buy the game and then pay monthly.
I'll GW yet another shot... Name is and always is 'Jemma Galbraith'.
I'm not really a huge PvP fan but that's where the fun seems to be for this game so I'll probably entrench my Necro/Ranger there =/
<b>edit:</b> ok, I'm KINDA getting into the whole PvP thingy... the strategy can be interesting but to be honest the warrior with whatever secondary seems to rule the roost if he keeps a bow handy as his 2nd quick switch weapon =/
I also had an evil experience where my whole team was attacking one warrior... this is 4 characters hitting him, he was diseased (constant health drain), health-syphoned (even more constant health drain) and the others in my team had cast stuff on him too but <b>he would not die</b>. A whole team wailing on one guy who's been debuffed to heck with all kinds of nasty curses eating him and we couldn't even get the jerk under half hp!!!! it was unbelievable! We continued to assault him until the end of the match which we lost without ever killing the frigging guy... a whole match!!! o.O
Anyways, its over, I miss it, *sniff*