I preordered and got in the beta. Basically if they can convince at least a quarter of a million people that this is a good game then it has a good chance to dethrone WoW, because the game clearly needs very large number of people for certain things to work out (i.e. zonewide invasions). The quests appears to be purposely not enough to get you to level so you have to do rifts at some point, though it's really hard to not run into a rift even just while traveling. The problem is that it's not trivial to take back a quest hub that's been taken over especially if there's a Major invasion force sitting there so it really sucks for the soloer. Does this mean people will actually start working to each other or get mad that you can't solo your way to retake a quest hub remains to be seen. Again here is where the game needs a lot of people because if you've a large number of people then chances are much better someone else is also nearby and help out.
Gameplay-wise it's pretty similar to WoW. The Major rifts are probably comparable to a dungeon in difficulty but you get to luxury of very large numbers of players and places to run away to. It's actually pretty hard to take out 10 elite mobs in a Major rift without someone dying in the process. I think the soul tree might be turnoff for some people who are too stupid to understand how it works. Since there are something like 32 classes there are obviously a lot of redundant abilities because in theory there are 4*(8 choose 3) classes which means there has to be a lot of overlap in basic abilities, and I'm seeing a lot of people who want to hotkey 25 abilites that do basically the same thing and then complain the game is too spammy. So far I think I have at least 20 abilities but I only use about 5 of them, and looking at the tech tree you'll have a toolbox of at least 60 or so abilities by the time you hit level 50. But it's supposed to be a toolbox for you to choose and there's a reason why you'll see 10 things that do 'taunt-like' effect because they don't want you end up with a Warrior with no taunt capabilities for some weird reason. It doesn't mean you're supposed to hit 10 different buttons that does taunt when you can use just the most effective one.
This appears to be a very difficult game to get anywhere by yourself, at least if you're not a healer. There's just no way you can even try to work on a Major rift or a Major invasion without heals. You only need 2 people to beat a Major invasion, and most Major rifts can probably be beaten by 2 people that knows what they're doing but that's easier said than done. I don't think it's possible to get to the bonus stages in a Major rift with anything less than 10 people, but it seems like getting to the bonus stage is just a bonus, as opposed to mandatory.
Gameplay-wise it's pretty similar to WoW. The Major rifts are probably comparable to a dungeon in difficulty but you get to luxury of very large numbers of players and places to run away to. It's actually pretty hard to take out 10 elite mobs in a Major rift without someone dying in the process. I think the soul tree might be turnoff for some people who are too stupid to understand how it works. Since there are something like 32 classes there are obviously a lot of redundant abilities because in theory there are 4*(8 choose 3) classes which means there has to be a lot of overlap in basic abilities, and I'm seeing a lot of people who want to hotkey 25 abilites that do basically the same thing and then complain the game is too spammy. So far I think I have at least 20 abilities but I only use about 5 of them, and looking at the tech tree you'll have a toolbox of at least 60 or so abilities by the time you hit level 50. But it's supposed to be a toolbox for you to choose and there's a reason why you'll see 10 things that do 'taunt-like' effect because they don't want you end up with a Warrior with no taunt capabilities for some weird reason. It doesn't mean you're supposed to hit 10 different buttons that does taunt when you can use just the most effective one.
This appears to be a very difficult game to get anywhere by yourself, at least if you're not a healer. There's just no way you can even try to work on a Major rift or a Major invasion without heals. You only need 2 people to beat a Major invasion, and most Major rifts can probably be beaten by 2 people that knows what they're doing but that's easier said than done. I don't think it's possible to get to the bonus stages in a Major rift with anything less than 10 people, but it seems like getting to the bonus stage is just a bonus, as opposed to mandatory.
