- The Empire newbie instance is a lot more compelling that the League one. The set scenes where you are one the deck of an astral ship in the middle of the ether are especially impressive.
-The 1-10 quests on the League side are played pretty straight for the most part (not a lot of humor), and are set in an very typical fantasy setting (save for the oddball races, and the idea of allods). You could very well be playing Runes of Magic or World of Warcraft in the human starting areas. The 1-10 quests on the Empire side are set in a much more unique fantasy steampunk setting, and have a lot more humor in them. You could almost be playing different games the two factions feel so different.
-The Empire 1-10 area seems to have a lot more to it than that League side. However, the two sides seem to be aiming for such vastly different narratives that it may be entirely intentional on the part of the devs. An odd side effect of this is that the early League quests are actually generally a lot easier to get done than the early Empire quests.
-All that said, I don't mean to imply that there aren't some interesting sights on the League side:
-Dear sweet mother of god do summoners suck at first. When you hit level 5, in the name of all that is good in this world, put a point into the pet summoning skill. I was hating the class until I got it.
-Pets in this game seem to be nearly overpowered, at least at low levels. Based now on both a pink squirrel and a steam powered scorpion, they seem to pretty much massacre anything near your level. You can cast a spell or something if you like, but it's not really necessary. They are roughly as effective as a Beastmaster specced Hunter pet would be in WoW, if that frame of refence means anything to you.
- I believe Spelljammer (the AD&D setting) is the original fantasy source for the idea of magical ships sailing through the ether that connects worlds. Since then, at the very least, Allod's Online and the Chronicles of Spellborne have run with the idea. It's interesting to see an entire fantasy subgenre be borne in the PnP RPG fantasy realm and jump straight to MMOs without analogues in fantasy fiction being invlolved as ancestors or intermediaries.
-Oh yea, and here is my Empire chick with her pet:
It's not a giant pink squirrel but I'll take it.
I've only played one character so far, and she was on the League side. I was enjoying that so much that I wanted to same the Empire for my eventually burnout. :) Glad to hear I have something to look forward to. That is if I can bring myself to log in again.
ReplyDelete@Anjin: I'm actually a bit stuck because I like both sides. It may come down to the simple fact that my Animist (League) is a stronger character solo, and thus easier to learn the ropes of the game on.
ReplyDeleteI really like both as well, so I have a Psionicist League side and a Paladin Empire side. That way, instead of having a Psion on both sides (like I thought I'd do initially), I get more out of each side since they play differently on a lot of levels.
ReplyDeleteOoooo the Arisen Summoner was the class I enjoyed the most really, it was just neato to run around a gal and her scorpion... hehe
ReplyDelete@tishtoshtesh: After making it to the League city, it's no longer any contest for me. Empire all the way. I'll miss my Gibberlings.
ReplyDelete@CreepTheProphet: summoner seems to be my new main. Once you actually get a pet, they are a solid class. It's the first four levels where you are forced to either use spells that get interrupted a lot or do feeble damage with your 2-handed beat stick that I didn't enjoy.