General Discussion

I'm thinking of playing one of these again. Both are installed and ready to go. I remember really enjoying DAoC. I have a 50 Warden there but will be starting another class and just playing the Warden for RvR or to support my new character (will be Hib as a result). I have the epic version of the game so I should be up to date release wise but I think I heard something about an expansion. I also remember really enjoying WoW world. Didn't have a high level character there though and would be starting out as Horde or possiblly Night Elf since I've heard I don't have to travel to Ironforge anymore for the auction. Due to being in Gradute School at the moment and looking for work in the next month or two I'll be pretty casual and that's a big factor and why I picked these two titles to possiblly return to.

How have they improved in recent months, the last year?

Anything big planed for them in the coming months?

Population growth (more towards DAoC then WoW clearly)?

Anything else you can add about the two would be great. Thanks.

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Originally posted by Effect

I'm thinking of playing one of these again. Both are installed and ready to go. I remember really enjoying DAoC. I have a 50 Warden there but will be starting another class and just playing the Warden for RvR or to support my new character (will be Hib as a result). I have the epic version of the game so I should be up to date release wise but I think I heard something about an expansion. I also remember really enjoying WoW world. Didn't have a high level character there though and would be starting out as Horde or possiblly Night Elf since I've heard I don't have to travel to Ironforge anymore for the auction. Due to being in Gradute School at the moment and looking for work in the next month or two I'll be pretty casual and that's a big factor and why I picked these two titles to possiblly return to.

How have they improved in recent months, the last year? In recent months DAoC has implemented new class changes to existing gimper classes. Most people are pleased and the less desirable classes are desired once again. In the last year-Classic servers have been implemented. These servers allow you to play without ToA and no buff bots. They also took the /level command out of the classic servers. The most populated server in the game is Gareth, which is a Classic server. I play Hib on Gareth and have played the other 2 realm previously on Gareth. This server always has people on it to compete against or to do raids. It is best to join a guild in the largest alliance you can find. Changes to ToA have been made to make getting artifacts easier and the ML's faster.

Anything big planed for them in the coming months? DAoC has an expansion that will be released this fall. No one knows any specifics, but they are implementing a new race for each realm and a new unlockable class. The next large patch will be improving crafting so that it is more desirable to do so. They are also adding a new BG for those 45-49.

Population growth (more towards DAoC then WoW clearly)? Population has dropped in the past year, but has become more centralized also. All the servers but Gareth, the classic server, and the Co-op and PvP have been clustered with 2 or 3 other servers. This leaves about a population at peak times of 3k per server, which meets the server population cap anyways. There is a steady flow of new players that are replacing the old, but mostly on the Gareth server.

Anything else you can add about the two would be great. Thanks. I'd recommend subscribing to DAoC for 1 month, since you have the DR expansions, which is the latest expansion already. The best content in the game is from the Catacombs and DR expansions. Try out either Hibernia or Albion, since they are the two most active Realms on Gareth. Make sure you join a 'good' guild fairly quickly so you can get into the game faster. You will know within a month of dedicated play if you will enjoy DAoC more.

Both DAoC and WoW have a casual friendly leveling system, but both require a lot of time to play at the end game. RvR in DAoC requires at least an hour to get anything done and WoW takes several hours to get a raid done. The difference is the rewards. In DAoC, you gain RP's through RvR to improve yourself. In WoW you gain gear through Raids to improve yourself. DAoC offers the greatest satisfaction sooner, because you gain RP's everytime you kill someone. WoW offers the least satisfaction, because you have to join a huge raid guild that puts you on a waiting list for the gear you are grinding for. So you may have to do the dungeon 30 times before it is your turn to get 1 piece of gear out of 8 or more pieces.

If you choose DAoC and want to go Hib again and choose the Gareth server...look me up. I am an officer in a mid sized guild and we are part of the largest and most active alliance of all three realms.

Ziathan (character name)

Sacred (guild name)

Hell's Minions (alliance name)

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I think it can be summed up very simply and others have kind of done this.

If you want to RvR (pvp) then I would suggest DAoC.

If you enjoy PvE (nothing wrong with that if you do) or Raids I would say WoW or even (gasp) EQ2 (and yes I know you didn't include it).

Gareth is where I play DAoC still and it has a good population.  Of course that being said 99% of the time you will wonder where all those other people are.  Right now Midgard has all the reroll people and thus about the combined population of Albion and Hibernia in RvR.  A few months back it was Albion and before that it was Hibernia.

So if you came to Gareth keep that in mind.  Whatever realm you go to will have a population shift based on the time of the month or who has the Relics.  If you play a ToA server I wouldn't have much advice.  You'll not only have to catch up on Realm Ranks to compete but master levels and artifacts as well.

On the classic server you pretty much either follow the zerg till you are a sufficient realm rank or get lucky and join an 8 man or guild earlier.  You won't find much if any solo RvR and even if you run in a group you will most likely be hit by multiple other groups while in fights.

Just trying to let you know what its like there.

As for PvE in DAoC with Catacombs came the Task Dungeons.  There is very little pve outside of them and many people almost never see the light of day or actual groups.  You can find groups if you camp the TD's but it can be very slow at times if you can't solo or two box.

WoW...

I liked the PvE and most people I met on the two servers were rather friendly on average.  The game has just never held my attention for long.  When it launched I played a Warlock to 50 in about a month and quit because my guild broke up.  Moved servers and got Hunter and Paladin into the 50's and just couldn't take it.  Not sure why I can't stick with WoW as I like the game overall.

Basicly I play DAoC until I get bored quit for 1 or 2 months then go back and have done that since the game came out.

Other than that I play EQ2 which oddly has kept me around.  Maybe because I like to torture myself and I think its amazingly considering how much negative SOE stuff I post.

That's my 2 copper with a 10 copper ramble added on.

I heard there is going to be an update were they fix tanks to be more desirable in pvp or something. I don't know if Kunou can say if it is true or not, but that is just what I heard.