Discuss Vanguard’s Rogue class and this review in the forum

In my ongoing effort to try out each of the classes post release/patch changes I rolled Halfling Rogue and was not disappointed. As always I played the toon to level 10, played a bit solo, and some grouped to check out the classes strengths, weaknesses and overall group role.

Rogues are a lot of fun and I am incredibly impressed with the Vanguards version including their DPS and game play. Soloing Rogues can do some fantastic damage - togather wityh a tank to hold the mob in place, rogues destroy mobs. Dual wield from the start (another thing I like about Vanguard) blads are whirring and blood is flying from the opening attack to the satifying thud of the mobs carcass falling dead at your feet.

Stalking/In-Combat Stealth
The stalking element is a fantastic idea that has been well implemented. Essentially, you approach an enemy cloaked, and begin your attacks, if the mob is focused on another attacker (IE a tank) you continue to remain cloaked and build up higher damage attacks - on the other hand if you are ‘percieved’ you break stealth and continue to attack normally.

Backstab/Ravage
As one would expect when playing a Rogue, they do a lot more damage in surprise open attacks and in-combat attacks on mob flanks. As a level 8-9 Rogue I was often able to stealth behind same-level (or higher) 2 dot mobs and one shot them (using the Keen Eye buff and Ravage attack) - Tremendous!

The Rogue & Solo Combat
Through-out my 1-9 leveling last night if the mood struck me, I was able to rush headlong into combat and take out same-level mobs (or even 2-3 levels higher) pretty quickly with no real problems. Preferably using Stealth > Stalk > Ravage > Attack tactics made battles almost instantaniuous with mobs of the same level and still really quick for mobs 2-3 levels higher. I was able to solo same-level or 1-2 levels lower 3 dots mobs, with some difficulty and it took a bit long (as it should).

The Rogue & Small Group Combat
With a Paladin tank as my comrade I was able to  annihilate same-level range mobs (+1-3 levels) as quickly as we could pull them in. Against same-level (and even 1-2 levels higher) 3 dot mobs staying in the in-combat stealth/Stalking mode augmented my damage -  the longer we battled, the higher my damage output, and being able to fit in multiple backstabs brought down the normally problematic 3 dots fairly quickly.

All in all I was extremely impressed with the Rogue class and look forward to playing this alt more than my others…what can I say - I’m addicted now 

Discuss Vanguard’s Rogue class and this review in the forum

Discuss Vanguard’s Psionicist class and this review in the forum

In my ongoing effort to review each of the classes post release/patch changes I took a stab at the Psionicist class. As I haven’t had a Mordebi character since Beta I thought it was time to give one a run - besides I thought the racial ability would come in handy (8sec mex + 100% deaggro)

The Psionicist turned out to be a lot of fun - as always I played him up to level 10, soloed and grouped for a bit to get a better idea of the classes strengths, weaknesses and overall group role. Although the Psi can punch out some decent DOT and direct damage, I’d say his best trait is some great CC. looking ahead to the spells available a few levels higher it becomes even more appearant.

Psionicist DPS
Soloing - You start out with a weak, but effective mental lance - its a quick cast that does direct damage and can be spammed on enemies as they close in on you - it has a suffecient range to make kiting a good idea, you’re definately not built for a fist fight. Grouping - Soon you’re equipped with a nice DOT which is quite effective once you have something/someone to hold the mob in place

Psionicist CC
Soloing - you’re never solo as long as you’re a Psi - your enemy becomes your best friend since you can replicate any mob and create a copy capable of holding aggro for a time - pleanty of time for you to take out the first of most 2 pulls. As you level up you can hold enough aggro in this mirror to get off a DOT with-out pulling aggro to you.
Group - the Psi is a must have in dungeons and heavy mob fighting - controlling the flow of mobs is the difference between a tough pull and a complete wipe. Even at lower levels the Psi seem perfectly adept at CCing one mob and delivering decent DPS to the others - at higher levels you can begin to control even more mobs through mind control (suggestion), mirrors, mezzes, timeshifts etc.

Psionicist Buffs & Debuffs
As a Psi you share a connection with other Psi’s around the world increasing yourmana/energy regen mana/energy rate, additionally you expand your mind and the minds of your companions adding a decent amount of intel & wisdom increasing the casters damage output and manapool.

As a Psi you should be able to solo fairly well, and be a great add to any dungeon bound group. As alwasy this is just a review of my expierience (short) with the Psi class, share your experiences with us - strengths, weaknesses, likes dislikes etc.

Discuss Vanguard’s Psionicist class and this review in the forum

Discuss Vanguard’s Shaman class and this review in the forum

In an ongoing effort to check out all the classes (again post release/patch changes) I rolled myself a Lesser Giant Shaman and I’ve had myself a blast so far. For the record I know a Vulmane has better racial stats for a shaman, but my wife was trying out new races/classes and wanted to start in a new starting area so we hit up Halgarad and made a pair of Lesser Giants, complete with matching last names 

As with all my class reviews, I played my Lesser Giant Shaman up to level 10 to get an idea of the classes strengths, weaknesses and central group role.

I’ve started a number of class/race combos and first impressions of the Shaman class were a bit mixed. I was trying to wrap my mind around what the shaman’s central purpose/strength might be in a group, but it seemed rather vague. My shammy did decent (but not overly impressive) in all areas - melee dmg, DOT & direct spell dmg, CC, buffs and healing- and has a resurrect. I came to realize they are purposefully versitile - jack of all trades, master of none it seems - which makes them a decent add to any group or guild.

Shaman Healing
The first heal you get is a realitivly short cast (1.5 secs) heal that ‘does the job’ in self healing or when healing your newb Dread Knight tank/wife   
Soloing - multi-pull mobs can become challenging since the bigger heals take a bit of time to cast and can be interupted multiple times (3.0 secs). (thankfully one of your early buffs is a 20% reduction in casting time)
Grouping - if called on to do so shaman can be decent main-healer in grinding groups (not certain about dungeons/instances), but energy consumption seems to be less effecient than other healing classes, so you’ll want to give them plenty of time to regen after each altercation.

Shaman Melee
Although at early levels it’s nothing to write home about, shaman can deliver a bit of melee damage - in fact one of your level 4 spells is an insta-cast melee attack. 
Soloing - never being one to like being hit, I prefer to get close enough to use my melee only as a finisher, or a low-on-mana option
Grouping - you wear leather armor so you don’t have to worry about casting from the outfield, with a tank holding aggro you can get in the middle of it all and drop some melee damage while you watch your group for healing needs.

Shaman CC
Soloing - the 2 roots and one ’slow’ you get by level 10 are suffecient to keep many single pulls at bay long enough to destroy them with-out getting a scratch and with-out needing to kite too much.
Grouping - Shaman won’t take the place of a Psi but can help mitigate the chaos of adds, healers getting aggro, or ‘oopsie’ 4-5 pulls.

Again, as always, this is just a look at Shaman up to level 10 - most classes really start to shine post level 10, so I’d love to hear about your Shaman, or shaman that you’ve grouped with.

Discuss Vanguard’s Shaman class and this review in the forum

Discuss Vanguard’s Druid Class and this review in the forum

In my effort to try out all the classes again post release/patch changes I rolled a Half Elf Druid (played him up to level 10) when my wife tried out a new Kojani Bard (< <...meh )

My first impression was - “Wow, I stomp mobs before they ever touch me”, my Second impression was “a mob touched me and I crumbled into a million pieces”

I’d gotten used to playing Melee & Tank classes who can take a few hits. Turns out newb casters cannot. I’m sure that after a while with some decent gear you can take a few hits, but early on it seems casters are paper missle launchers - delivering heavy firepower, but quickly going down in a blaze of glory.

Then I got in the caster groove and started to kite (you’ve GOTTA love Vanguards ‘cast and walk at the same time’ situation) thats the ticket - once you start to kite a bit, you’re unstoppable.

By level 10 you have a decent root/DOT, a DOT, a timed cast direct damage, an instant direct damage, a DPS/Aggro ‘pet’, a weak HOT and a decent insta heal

I saved my pennies from quests and mob trash until I got to Tanvu and hit the Exchange Broker where I spent 4 silver on some decent cloth gear (nothing fancy).  On my main, I crafted 2 basic low level focus items for my alt Druid (Usually available for 1-5s each at the exchange broker) these made a decent difference.

At this point I can pull and crush any near level 2 dot mob with-out ever getting touched.  I can chain pull (pull1 kill1 > pull1 kill1) 4-5 single mobs or a couple sets of 2 pull mobs before I run low on mana. Some ‘energy’ gear would help tremendously, but I wasn’t prepared to twink this alt just yet.

If you’re coming to VG from WoW, you’re sure to notice the distinctly different focus of the Druid class - while you can heal a bit, your primary role (unlike a WoW Druid) is pouring on DPS

Druid Healing
HOT - The first heal you get is a pretty weak HOT (heal over time), and not much help if you’re already struggling in a fight - it heals about 12-20 HP every 2-3 seconds (guess) so generally it won’t save you if you’re already below half health against a decent melee combatant. It is however a great post combat heal getting you back in battle ready by the time you find another mob to pull.
Insta-cast Heal - The second heal is decent insta-cast hitting you up with 150-200+ HP - enough to save you from doom in a pinch, or to back up a tank partner (or a Bard who thinks she’s a tank), but it’s not going to make you main Tank Healer in a raid. (leave that to the heal Spec Rangers  

Druid CC
By level 10 you have some decent soloing CC - a DOT/root, a solid/slow root, and an aggro/damage dealing pet of sorts. The pet is really more of a quick cast DOT that keeps a bit of aggro and does a bit of damage nice for those 2 pulls against melee mobs that otherwise interupt casting. The DOT root you get early on is decent and allows for a nice long 2nd cast before you start getting interupted by melee attacks - it gets the mob with-in looting distance just before you unleash the insta-cast beam o’ death

Druid DPS
At level 10 I’m doing some decent DPS, but then again I’m double fisting 2 focus items now   - 
Grouping - be careful about over aggroing in a group, make sure the tank has suffecient aggro then unleash the elements & burn ‘em down
Soloing - I have a developed a decent little system for combat that generally keeps me unscathed. I open just inside casting range with the long cast DOT, followed immediately by the short cast root/DOT which generally holds long enough for me to lay down at least one lighting strike (sometimes 2) before the mob is released (very angry at me) just in time for me to pierce him head to toe by a beam. Again, generally a same level 2dot mob (or even 1-2 higher) is dead before making it to me, falling politely at my feet to be looted and or skinned.

Kiting - Solo Casters Best Friend
For heavy hitters (guys who interupt long casts) or most 3 dots I prefer to kite them since it generally takes a few extra casts to lay them out. Again for former WoW casters you’ve GOT to love the cast AND move system of Vanguard - you movement is slowed, but you don’t stop casting. I find myselfs constantly moving as a caster, staying engaged with my surroundings and always looking out for mobs I might otherwise aggro. With a Root that also slows attacker movement speed for a time you can generally kite mobs for quite a while before they make it with-in reach. If you run low on health and mana early on re-rooting & kiting is generally more effective than your HOT. with decent armor at higher levels this may not be the case.

Again, as always, this is only a look at my experience with a Druid up to level 10. Generally the classes really srtart to shine post level 10, so tell us about your Druid, or Druids you’ve grouped with. Strengths weaknesses etc

Discuss Vanguard’s Druid Class and this review in the forum

I’m sure by now many of you have read this on Silky Venom or other sites who have reprinted it from it’s original post on the FoH (Fires of Heaven) site, but a few fans asked about it so I thought I’d make sure we linked to it here.

 SilkyVenom.com discussion  -  Original FoH post and discussion

Q. Who exactly made Vanguard ship early? Was it Brad that made that decision? Or was it Smed and SOE telling him to launch or else?If SOE ordered him to release it early, I’d have to give Brad a small break. If not, then he’s getting what he deserves.

A. Had I had the financial resources, ability to place the product later, etc. I would have given us about 3 more months to get more polish in, more high level content in, and to distance ourselves from the WoW expansion.That said, we knew the launch date for many months before we released. And we made a promise and we stuck to it. I understand why that date was given and why we had to stick to it and I don’t blame anyone.

We made our own share of mistakes that took up time that in 20/20 hindsight would have made up for those 3 months perhaps. I do believe, again in hindsight, that we entered beta too early because of the release date we had with MSFT — otherwise it would have been held off quite a while and a lot of time getting things working first operationally with MSFT and then again with SOE could have been avoided (e.g. would have only had to do all that once). Much of the roughness of our systems would have been worked out before people from outside Sigil and our publisher would have been able to have been addressed under that scenario as well. I’ve mentioned the pain in learning the hard way how different it is to manage a company of 100 people vs. a team of 23 was. We had a very experienced team, arguably the most, but it was still a team, from the designer all the way up to me, that had only made MMOGs that had lasted 3 years and taken 23 people, or expansions that had lasted one year.

Had I a time machine, I would go back and do a LOT of things differently, but then life doesn’t work that way. We didn’t repeat a lot of mistakes we’d already made, but made a lot of new ones given the team size, how ambitious the game was, and the fact that it took 5 years, not 3. Switching publishers, while necessary, also took a lot of time. It also took a lot more effort running the company from a non-creative standpoint than I had thought it would. With EQ, Smed and others handled the business side of things and I, my managers, and my team were able to focus on the game.

As Kendrick posted, we did scale back several times and significantly, but again looking back I probably would have scaled things back more so.

I do take issue with the assertion that I promised a bunch of stuff we didn’t deliver. I do fully admit my writing style is verbose and I made a significant effort to hype the game, but at the same time I also made a huge effort to manage expectations and let people know what might not make it in release, what was an expansion idea, etc. Sure, that changed as we got farther along with development. You can look up my posts and look at old copies of the FAQ and see the scaling back that took place (both what Kendrick mentioned and other stuff). And thinking back on it, while I posted a lot of these changes, the FAQ should have been kept more up to date.

I will say I think we did a pretty darn good job overall. We released a game that is probably 80% of what we’d originally planned outside of sheer landmass. We did not completely re-design major systems in beta other than diplomacy — we revised crafting and harvesting and made some tweaks to combat in terms of pace, how complex it became at what level, etc. But the notion that we threw a bunch of stuff out just isn’t accurate — again, some of the perception likely comes from starting beta when the game was really still in alpha. Probably the biggest features that didn’t make it in that I think would have been very cool (or some variant thereof): AES fully realized, fellowships, caravans.

Again, had we a few more months I think the game would have been more polished. That is one of the biggest things WoW taught us, the importance of polish, AI, general accessibility, etc. Launching near TBC was nuts, but again something that couldn’t be avoided. Switching publishers also took time, but we would have had a LOT less time to make the game had we not done so. MSFT underwent a lot of internal changes and had to focus on getting out the Xbox 360 — switching to SOE was simply another change that reality dictated during this long 5 years.

I think the biggest things that are hurting the game right now are:

1. Performance. We simply asked too much of the engine. Tech becoming faster and cheaper will help us with this issue over the next 6 months, but that’s 6 month’s that *might* have been avoided. That, and we would have had more time to polish and fix bugs and get better and more complete high level content in (and maybe even a more workable AES). We did run into this a bit with EQ 1 being one of the first hardware only games, but not to this extent. Ideally, you launch with both a flexible engine that grows with you and also in a tech window that doesn’t mean that a lot of your players feel the need to upgrade their machines significantly. Failing that ideal, however, I’ll take the more flexible, planned for the long term tech, and bite the bullet for overshooting in terms of tech than the former (undershooting and/or launching with inflexible MMOG tech that isn’t easily upgraded over the years to come).

2. Underpopulated servers. The reason we are enhancing the LFG system (other than it’s always a good idea in general) is because it’s too hard to find a group. One of the biggest reasons it’s too hard to find a group is that we were overly worried the newbie yards would be over populated the first couple of weeks post-launch that we opened with too many servers. That’s why we are working on better LFG tools, having to seriously consider overland teleports, etc. If a world at peak hours had 4-5k people on it, this wouldn’t be nearly the problem it is.

3. Launching so close to TBC. I never thought we were going to, but Blizzard’s launch date was a moving target and things could have worked out better there. Again, though, I think a decent percentage of WoW players are going to want a game like Vanguard (or any other MMOG this year) once they are burned out on the WoW expansion, so I think in the next 4-6 months this issue will become less and less as painful.

4. Marketing. There are two groups of ex-EQ 1, UO, DAoC, etc. players out there: the ones that look back fondly on the years they put into EQ 1 and those who don’t — either they’re upset or, more often, they simply have had their lives change and they don’t have the time to play another EQ 1. So when they heard about Vanguard and all of the EQ 1 people working on it they didn’t even give it a chance — they simply assumed Vanguard would be as hard core as EQ 1 (when it absolutely isn’t). We totally underestimated that second group, and I think if we had got the message out that Vanguard was not just another EQ with all of its time sinks, tedium, leveling times, necessary raiding, need for contiguous time commitments, and somehow got that message clearly and strongly through to that second group we would have launched more strongly. This is another issue, however, we will survive, not just by changing the marketing message, but mainly through viral marketing. Those ex-EQ 1 players who *do* buy Vanguard, and enjoy it, *will* slowly but surely let that second group of people know that Vanguard does *not* equal EQ 1 with better graphics in the ways some people look back, sigh, and mutter ‘never again’, but that it *does* have the elements in it that made EQ 1 a great game (as well as many of the cooler UO/SWG elements, new systems like Diplomacy, greater immersion, etc.)

So a lot happened in the almost 5 years it took to make Vanguard. We made our share of new mistakes, we were a bit too ambitious in terms of world size and feature set, we were definitely too ambitious in terms of performance, we lost some time switching publishers, we still could have used another 3+ months of dev time, the market changed in general, we did lose some time learning how to organize and manage a 100 man team, and it would have been damn nice to have not launched almost right on top of the juggernaut that is WoW’s expansion.

Certainly none of the above mistakes were planned for. Many/most were unexpected. Some of the mistakes were directly our fault, and some more indirectly and some totally beyond our control. I could write another one of my missives going into a lot more detail and maybe one day I will, but I will spare you my verbosity tonight. No matter what ,however, I was CEO and the buck stops here. None of the above do I use as an excuse as if life was unfair to us. We made some bad calls and were put into some bad situations. But I should have known better, planned better, and reacted better, so I take full responsibility. Most assuredly I cannot stress how proud I am of the Vanguard team, past and present, and all of the hard work, sweat, and tears that were put into the game. The team was and is incredible and it was an honor working with them. So regardless of screw-up or mistake, I take responsibility and apologize. The team should feel nothing but pride and a great sense of accomplishment.

That said, I still believe very strongly that we planned many or even most things correctly and that we launched a game that was 80+% the game we had planned to launch (again, other than totally reworking Diplomacy, tweaking some systems later in beta than I would have liked, and shrinking the world a LOT). And again I humbly but strongly stress all of the hooks and stubs that are in the engine, gameplay code, tools, etc — they *will* pay off. While Vanguard stands on its own as a fun game, despite the bugs and performance issues that we all know exist and have been talked about in this thread and others, it’s also set up such that we have years and years of cool features, content, land masses, etc. planned out in detail that will make the Vanguard of 2007, as cool as it is, pale in comparison to the Vanguard of 2008, 2009, etc. Relatively quickly, player run towns with an RTS element, ship and mounted combat, Diplomacy expanding to become more integral with factions, organizations, etc., user generated content, and so much more are really going to make this game shine. That, and even though it does require a lot of horsepower in terms of tech today, those issues will become less and less relevant as time goes by, with PCs getting so much faster and cheaper, RAM and bus speeds getting so much faster, graphics cards getting faster, physics cards, DX 10, utilizing Unreal 3.0 tech more and more, going into expansions with tools and tech that while still could use a lot of improvement are finally at a point where a lot of R&D won’t be necessary and that time will be much more efficiently spent putting in content, features, etc.

And finally I still feel very strongly that going seamless will really pay off as the live team adds efficiently to the existing world, databases of items and such can be updated en masse to slow MUDflation and at the same time refresh the world and make it feel more dynamic, ship travel and exploring vast archipelagoes becomes more integral, planes with unique physics models appear miles up into the sky, non-Euclidean Portal technology is used to build unheard of dungeon layouts, Underdark-style ‘chunks under chunks’ are added, the ability to load any art asset anywhere is more fully realized, and yes even the controversial ‘unibody’ system allows us to create *that* many more item & armor sets, adding even stronger visual variety to player characters in such an item-centric economy… I still feel firmly that even if we were early and our system specs initially high that all of this tech will pay off big time, especially in the mid to long term, given a genre that thrives on newness and patching, that demands a game world that remains interesting and compelling for year after year.

Anyway, the pages and pages that I posted promoting Vanguard, to get the word out, was the truth as best as I knew it at the time and I updated it as soon as it was obvious something would work differently or not make it in by release. And anything I did miss was unintentional, but the buck still stops here. Where I wasn’t clear, or where I failed to manage expectations — all of that was my responsibility. So while apologetic wherever and however we failed, overall I have no regrets looking back at the 5 years Sigil has been around and look to the next 5 years with even more anticipation. A lot of new mistakes were made, but we took notes and have long memories.

In summary, had a lot of the above not occurred then I think Vanguard would be nearing 300k or 400k and not 200k. A lot of the above caused the game to start out more slowly than I had hoped, anticipated and planned for. But still looking at both sales and retention, the game is doing well, even if in a more ideal world it could be doing even better. The team continues to work their butts off, fixing bugs, optimizing, putting in content, tweaking and balancing, and we have our first expansion and where we want new live content to go planned out for when the timing is right to begin that endeavor. So while all of the above, this post-mortem of sorts, may come across as critical and looking back negatively (and not by accident — much of this thread is doing just that, so this post is certainly not off topic), Vanguard is still far, far from a failure by any means. Few PC games, MMOGs or otherwise, do more than 100k units, and we surpassed that in a couple of weeks. So even with regrets, some kicking myself, and a lot of ‘dammit, if only…’ coming out of part of me, the rest of me is damn proud of what we have accomplished, and what we will and are accomplishing, and most importantly extremely honored to have worked with such a team and that so much of that team continues to march onward. Ultimately I am very grateful to God, MSFT, SOE, EQ, and so many other people and products for the opportunity to have been able to do this again. Few get to make even one successful MMOG, much less two. And fewer still given $8M to make the first one and over $30M to make the second.

*humbly bows*

Latest Vanguard MMORPG Posts
Vanguard Updates (GameTrailers Interview)
Secondary markets feeling the heat in Vanguard?
Raiders Digest : Vol 1 Issue 2
SOE Buys Sigil Games Online
Brad McQuaid “a mind blowing game by the end of the year”
Vanguard Rogue Review : Watch your Back!
Vanguard Psionicist Review : Who ordered extra Crowd Control?
Vanguard Shaman Review : Front Line Healer & Swiss Army Knife
Vanguard Druid Review : Lightening in a Bottle (er…paper cup)
Brad McQuaid on the state of Vanguard and Unrealized Expectations
VG Combat : Creating & exploiting weaknesses
Raiders Digest : Vol 1 Issue 1
Raiders Digest : Announcement
Vanguard Founders Awards
Temple of Dailuk : Vanguard Dungeon Review
Vanguard Game Update #1
Sigil Rolls Out a Test Server
LOTRO Vs. Vanguard SOH
A Guide to the Vanguard Crafting Skill Grind
Stonesmashers Enclave : Vanguard Dungeon Review
Gulgrethor Fortress : Vanguard Dungeon Review
Gardens of Xia’Liu : Vanguard Dungeon Review
Karrus Fahrel : Vanguard Dungeon Review
Staying Alive! : Vanguard Kill on Sight Quick reference
Kill on Sight : The Vanguard Faction Low Down
Buy Vanguard Saga of Heroes
Vanguard Crafting Guide Released
Ksaravi Hollow : Vanguard Dungeon Review
Arcanium : Vanguard Dungeon Review
Vanguard Beta tweaks paying off - Looking GREAT!

RSS Feeds