Further to my post a few weeks back, I just finished playing a monk on the two day playtest.
I am continually blown over by how good this game is. I cannot state how enjoyable it was to play a new game where things were unknown and there was little to no hand holding. We had to figure things out for ourselves, and it was a great social and gaming experience.
M&M completely captures the spirit of EQ from the P1999 era, while updating some systems in a way which seems sensible and does not detract the authenticity of the classic MMO experience.
Changes
Monk has more buttons to press. We have a jab on a short cooldown which interrupts casting, and AOE stun which is on a 150s CD which also interrupts casting. A celestial punch which gave a buff which increased regen
Combat seems faster, there are many mobs in a zone and they have a short respawn time. We're talking 5-7 minutes. Regen is faster. Named mobs in dungeons seem to be a big deal relative to their placeholders and surrounding mobs. Yes, the Orc Trainer is higher level and harder to kill, but he is effectively just another Crushbone mob. The named ghosts which were level 8-10 in Wyrmsbane Tomb could heal, gate etc.
Corpse Runs are harder. Casters need their spellbooks to mem their spells and without this they are unable to cast anything. I heard the devs talking about buying a second spellbook and keeping it in your bank, or asking a rogue to drag the corpses for you. We were quite deep in Wyrmsbane Tomb and I was having to flop my way while dragging four corpses on a macro, and mending the damage I'd taken. Took about 30 minutes.
They have added a campfire system which from what I could tell, gave the group breeze as well as being a large light source. This is a profession of sorts, so any class could gather wood and build a campfire which gives the group vision and also MP5. There will probably be better campfires which provide different buffs etc.
Vision is really important. It's dark in the dungeons. Torches and candles and firebeetle eyes all have fuel which expires, so you have to use them sparingly.
NPCs do not give you quest breadcrumbs [like this]. They speak without square brackets, and you have to figure out what they want you to say if you want to progress a quest. There is a quest Journal which seems to capture any important conversations so you can remember what you have to do.
My initial thoughts of vendors who won't indiscriminately buy your gear was that it could be bad, but having played with the system for a bit, it really was not a problem at all. You quickly figure out who the Rusty Weapon merchant is and everyone was close together.
There is a navigation trainer/ skill but this was not working AFAIK so not sure what the system would involve.
All in all, this game is shaping up to be something special which I know fans of P99 would love.
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