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Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - PA Guild on Flamehammer!
mantis23
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Registered User regular
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
To anyone unaware, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is the latest MMO from Sigil games; the team responsible for the original EverQuest. It comes out tomorrow. There was apparently enough interest to generate 20-some pages of people playing to level 4 and declaring it a WoW clone in G&T, so hopefully, there's enough interest to, you know, actually play it now that it's being released.
PA Guild
The unofficial Penny Arcade guild is on Flamehammer and goes by the name Penny Arcadians. More info a few posts down.
What's the game like?
While the early levels are the usual faire - packed full of newbie-coddling and rat-bashing - the ultimate goal of Vanguard is to make a game that is similar to a modern Everquest. That is to say, a more difficult, less forgiving, more demanding, more group-based MMO.
What can I play?
Vanguard has no dearth of playable characters. As it is now, there are a total of 19 different races spread across three factions and 15 different classes (with two more coming post-release).
What are the system requirements?
Official FAQ wrote:MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
• Windows® 2000/XP/Vista
• 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible computer
• 100% DirectX compatible keyboard or input device
• Processor 2.4 GHz Intel processor or 2400+ or higher model AMD processor
• 512 MB RAM
• Vertex and Pixel shader 2.0 compatible hardware with 128MB of texture memory
• 100%DirectX compatible sound card
• 56K + Internet Connection
• 16X Speed DVD-ROM
• 20 Gigabytes Hard Drive Space
RECOMMENDED SPECS
• Windows® 2000/XP/Vista
• 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible computer
• 100% DirectX compatible keyboard or input device
• Processor 3.0 GHz Intel or 3500+ AMD processor
• 2 GB RAM
• Vertex and Pixel shader 2.0 compatible hardware with 256MB of texture memory
• DirectSound compatible audio hardware
• Broadband Internet Connection
• 16X Speed DVD-ROM
• 20 Gigabytes Hard Drive Space
Factions
Each faction in Telon (that's the world's name) has unique geography and racial variants. Thestra is largely European in feel, and is closest to what would be standard fantasy fair. Qalia is more Middle-Eastern, and Kojan is Asian.
Races: The following - except the descriptions - is basically ripped out of SilkyVenom's Vanguard Wiki. I take no credit.
Eeeeeeeeeeevvvvvuuuuuuuuullllllll. Seriously, this is your EverQuest dark elf. The only thing they like more than magic is kicking puppies.
Faction: Qalia
Classes: Dread Knight, Rogue, Monk, Bard, Cleric, Disciple, Blood Mage, Sorcerer, Psionicist, Necromancer
Dwarf
Nothing particularly surprising here. Dwarves are short, stocky, tough, and favor the sort of classes that punch monsters in the face and make a *clank* noise when they walk.
Faction: Thestra
Classes: Warrior, Paladin, Rogue, Cleric, Sorcerer
Gnome
Vanguard's gnomes are smart, quick-witted tinkerers who favor magic classes and whose cool, nonchalant exterior belies their burning desire to fiercely hump your leg.
Faction: Qalia
Classes: Warrior, Rogue, Cleric, Blood Mage, Sorcerer, Psionicist, Necromancer
Goblin
They're tough little buggers with a predisposition towards magic. They're also evil, and bear a strong resemblence to Gremlins.
Faction: Kojan
Classes: Warrior, Rogue, Monk, Shaman, Disciple, Blood Mage, Sorcerer, Psionicist, Necromancer
Half-Elf
hay guyz i m haf humen and haf efl!!1
...yeah that description sucks, but what else is there to say? They're balanced in stats and class selection, and... not particularly interesting. I'm fairly sure they don't hump your leg like those little gnome perverts, though. Fairly.
Faction: Kojan
Classes: Warrior, Ranger, Rogue, Monk, Bard, Disciple, Blood Mage, Sorcerer, Druid, Psionicist, Necromancer
Halfling
I think that's a chick.
If you tip them over, they also have a sticker. It reads: "Warning: May attempt to steal lucky charms."
Faction: Thestra
Classes: Warrior, Ranger, Rogue, Bard, Cleric, Druid
High Elf
What they didn't tell you in the book or the movie is that Legolas and Gandalf made sweet man-love and produced these guys. They like magic as much as they like telling you how superior they are.
Faction: Thestra
Classes: Paladin, Ranger, Bard, Cleric, Blood Mage, Sorcerer, Psionicist
Kojani
The Kojan variant of humans. They're well-balanced, like all the other humans.
Faction: Kojan
Classes: Warrior, Paladin, Dread Knight, Rogue, Monk, Bard, Disciple, Blood Mage, Sorcerer, Psionicist, Necromancer
Kurashasa
Yeah, these guys will be popular. They look badass. They have good stats. Their racial is quite nice. The only down side is that they're evil, and to start they're KoS to just about everything.
Faction: Qalia
Classes: Warrior, Dread Knight, Ranger, Rogue, Disciple, Sorcerer, Psionicist, Necromancer
Lesser Giant
THUD SMASH!
Faction: Thestra
Classes: Warrior, Dread Knight, Shaman, Druid
Mordebi
The Mordebi are the Qalian take on humans. They're well balanced as you'd expect.
Faction: Qalia
Classes: Warrior, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Monk, Bard, Cleric, Shaman, Disciple, Sorcerer, Druid, Psionicist
Orc
In Vanguard, Orcs camp you!
I apologize, that was horrible. Basically, those guys you old EQ players used to pick on in EC are playable, now.
Faction: Kojan
Classes: Warrior, Dread Knight, Ranger, Monk, Shaman, Disciple
Qaliathari
It's like Sigil made an entire race of creepy uncles.
The Qaliathari are yet another human variant, and hence, well-balanced.
Faction: Qalia
Classes: Warrior, Paladin, Dread Knight, Ranger, Rogue, Monk, Bard, Cleric, Disciple, Blood Mage, Sorcerer, Psionicist, Necromancer
Raki
Fox people. They're short, and they're rather magical in nature.
Faction: Kojan
Classes: Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Monk, Disciple, Sorcerer, Psionicist
Thestran
Another take on humans, this time from Thestra. Well balanced, yada yada yada.
Faction: Thestra
Classes:Warrior, Paladin, Dread Knight, Ranger, Rogue, Bard, Cleric, Blood Mage, Sorcerer, Druid, Psionicist, Necromancer
Varanjar
A race of barbarians from Thestra. They're like humans, but bigger. Not quite as brutish as the Lesser Giants, they nonetheless enjoy smashing.
Faction: Thestra
Classes: Warrior, Ranger, Rogue, Shaman, Druid
Varanthari
Another barbarian race, this time from Qalia.
Faction: Qalia
Classes:Warrior, Ranger, Shaman, Druid
Vulmane
Wolf people. These guys are damned cool. They make great tanks.
Faction: Thestra
Classes: Warrior, Dread Knight, Ranger, Rogue, Shaman, Druid
Wood Elf
We end with another elf variant. These guys are just like the Wood Elves from EQ, or the Night Elves from WoW. They're a bunch of granola-eating, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-clad proto-hippies. But you'll be less likely to want to bitch slap one than the other elves in the game.
Faction: Kojan
Classes: Warrior, Ranger, Bard, Shaman, Druid
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Protective Fighters: Protective fighters are your tanks. They take damage, manage agro, and function as the backbone of the game's crowd control. As melee combatants, they have a ton of reactive abilities and attack chains at their disposal.[list:5d1b3242d1]
Dread Knight: Dread Knights are similar to the Shadowknights from EQ, but... better. They still focus on debuffing, but one of the key differences is their new passive ability, Dreadful Countenance. Dread Knights debuff everything they hit. And no, not some shitty stat debuff; the increase the mob's chance to be critically hit (by everyone), reduce resistances, reduce mitigation... they're awesome debuffs that benefit the whole team for free.
Inquisitor: Inquisitors aren't actually in the game yet; they're one of the two classes still under development. The idea behind them is that they'll function as anti-magic tanks. If the paladin is a warrior-cleric hybrid, the inquisitor is a warrior-psionicist hybrid.
Paladin: Paladins make a return in Vanguard, but are a whole lot meaner this time. In EQ, they were half-assed tanks with hopelessly outdated healing magic. In Vanguard, they skew more towards the WoW-style paladin; lots of buffs and support abilities, auras, and some extremely powerful heals (which are on timers, preventing them from stepping on the healers' toes).
Warrior: Warriors are your standard defensive fighter. They're definitely a no-nonsense class. They put on heavy armor and hit stuff with big sharp things, and occaisionally big blunt things. Hard. Warriors deal the most damage of the protective fighters.
Offensive Fighters: Offensive fighters are melee DPS (for the most part). They often provide buffs and have other ancillary effects that make them useful to groups, but have no doubt: these guys are really about beating the living crap out of everything in reach.
Bard: Back from EQ, but changed. No more twisting. Bards can now create their own songs, and have multiple effects within a song. They also do some serious melee damage, but as before, can concentrate on buffing their group by using instruments if they choose to do so.
Berserker: Along with inquisitors, this is one of the upcoming classes. They aren't available yet. People seem to expect something along the lines of the DAoC berserker.
Monk: Monks are a martial arts-oriented melee class. They have what are perhaps the most involved combat chains in the game. Also, each monk can specialize in a combat style: dragon (AoE damage, magic), harmonious (redirection, debuffing), drunken (evasion, counterattack).
Ranger: While not an archery class per se, the ranger is the game's premier bow user. They have some natural magic, stealth skills, and heavy melee damage as well.
Rogue: These guys are more WoW rogue than EQ rogue, but otherwise what you'd expect; stealth, backstabbing, posions. One interesting twist is how rogues work well together; they have a system similar to WoW's combo points, but it's shared amongst all rogues on the same target. The class designer at Sigil has been quoted as saying "It will take a higher level of class knowledge and skill to fully utilize the capabilities of the Rogue.â€
Healers: This is pretty self-explanitory.
Blood Mage: The blood mage is a pretty different kind of healer. One part necromancer, one part WoW rogue, one part cleric. Blood mages use a lot of lifetaps and drains, and build combo points (of sorts) on their targets, which they can use to make certain spells more powerful, and use special abilities.
Cleric: Clerics are exactly what you think they are: heavily-armored healers. They have one really cool ability, though: the ability to recover energy by meleeing. It leads to some pretty epic fights.
Disciple: Another interesting healing class. Disciples are a sort of monk-healer hybrid, and they heal by dealing melee damage (they do have direct heals, but that's only a small part of their abilities). The closest class I can think of would be DAoC's friar.
Shaman: Shaman are similar to EQ's implimentation; hybrid healer-buffer types with some nice DoTs and decent direct damage. At level 15, they choose a patron spirit; a wolf, bear, or phoenix. The spirit determines their spell progression for the rest of the game, with the bear granting melee abilities and buffs, as well as a bear pet (very soloable). The wolf offers some stealth, and buffs that are geared towards offensive fighter buffs, as well as a pet wolf, and the phoenix is a nuking pet; not very soloable, but they have some good caster buffs.
Arcane Casters: These guys use magic to blow shit up. Some have some utility, but mostly they're about big, flashy explosions, impaling people with flaming spears, and so on.
Druid: Druid are back, and they're full-blown nukers, now. They also heal, but don't rez. Yes, they still have SoW. They also have abilities called calamities and wonders; rarely-usable uber-abilities that are said to be able to turn the tide of any battle. Never seen one, though.
Necromancers: If you played EQ: they're baaaaaaack. If you played WoW, think Warlock. If you played DAoC, think Cabalist/Spiritmaster. For anyone else, they're a debuffing, DoTing pet class.
Psionicist: Imagine someone took the EQ enchanter, and made it a badass damage class with fewer crowd control spells. That's what the psionicist is. They're a true blue nuker with mana recovery buffs (sure to be popular) and some nasty, nasty attacks. Psionicists also have access to the only global chat channel in the game. Whether or not this is a good thing I leave up to you, but it's interesting fluff, nonetheless.
Sorcerer: The sorcerer is your typical magic nuker; fire, ice, magic force. They blow shit up. They're the premier AoE nukers, and still have wicked single target damage output. Not quite as soloable as a psionicist, though.
Penny Arcadians is the unofficial Penny Arcade guild. We are on the Flamehammer server and are primarily on the continent of Thestra. We do have some members on Kojan and Qalia as well, and as we grow in size and in level we expect to be able to cover all 3 contienents.
Currently we have around 50 members from levels up to the thirties. We try to group as often as possible and organize guild events on weekends. Our roster of board people is:
PA Name - Vanguard Name -Lvl
Mantis23 - Esarios - 31 *OFFICER*
Chrpnk - Quelin - 30 *OFFICER*
Dreaven - Kregnok - 27 *OFFICER*
Tal - Taelus - 14 *OFFICER*
Fellhand - Eledridan - 15 *OFFICER*
Trevor Goodchild - Loras - 31 *OFFICER*
Foomy - Fooms - 30
Electric Boogaloo - Poppen - 14
Strato - Drodei - 13
Dachish - Dachen - 13
Warhed - Ots - 13
Pb - Anneliese - 13
Liquid Ghost - Raivotar - 10
Mephianse - Xan - 8
Jdarksun - Krenoad - 10
The Sneak! - Cyre - 10
Selner - Seldren - 8
Plus a bunch of people that are either board lurkers or just recognized the PA name.
If you need an invite to the guild send any of the officers a /tell and we will be glad to send you an invite.
I'll try to keep this as up to date as possible, both with additional members and guild news.
See if I heal you anymore.
There, you are now on the list. I was too busy following you lowbies around, mezzing your adds, and keeping you buffed.
Gotcha, I'll update the list.
I'm sorry Sir.
I can now make 10 slot Jute bags. So send me jutes and I will send you bags. it's 3 jute bales/bolts for 1 10 slot bag. I have some jute which I can use to make baggages too but my supply is limited.
I do believe I have decided on my harvesting profession (although I'll probably check the auctions first).
Just that it's limited to 10 days.
I'd also like an answer to this beyond someone *thinking* something might or might not be. I'm contemplating on buying this game come next pay day and one of the key factors will be whether or not I can play with my fellow Penny Arcade folks, but as a European I'm afraid I'll be stuck with European servers with a bunch of Germans and Frenchies. Goddamn Germans and Frenchies, go learn some English why don't you!
(Many thanks to LG for the trial key and saving $52.49 of my cash)
Well thanks again for all the help getting the guild up and running. Hopefully we'll see you again down the road!
I'm not planning on quitting WoW anytime soon though, at worst I'll just focus on my Warlock.
However, I will be making a Wood Elf Berserker alt when the class goes live.
Edit: and I'm on Flamehammer.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
I'm torn between Shaman, Druid, and Monk, I have no idea what I want to play...
Healer... Nuker... Fighter... pretty disparate roles, at least.
I enjoyed Druid, but Shaman had some sweet buffs that I loved having cast on me. Monk sounds like an in-depth chaining class in groups.
I'll be damned in Druid Cloudwalk isn't the most fun spell I've ever experienced though.
Id suggest druid for high dps and a side of healing. shamans are good for healing but we got like 3 + clerics in the works.
and where the hell does vanguard put the screen shots at ? i cant find a folder in my vg folder oh well, got a cool looing bp tonight.
Don't make the mistake of thinking PRINT SCREEN takes screen shots, even though it pauses the game for a moment. It's actually NUMPAD - that does it.
Eyes forever focused, on the sanguine, metal dawn.
the quote of the night: "Oh look there's Kregn-AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
and a screenshot of Fooms, Quelin and myself goofing around before we killed the Houndmaster guy.
Started a darkie necro named Sindarin on Flamehammer, but there are some bugs that make that class damn near unplayable, at least solo. Pet aggro that works when it wants to, pets vanishing when chunking or evacing... plus, the dark elf starting area is a pain in the ass. So I started a wood elf ranger, name's Zavijah, and I like the class so far. At 55 diplomacy now too, that's a damn fun minigame with some nice rewards (already got a 12 slot bag and 8 or 9 silver from it).
Servers are down right now for a hotfix, but I'll look for you guys when they come back up.