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Don't waste your money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you are looking for additional stuff for DAoC for the casual gamer, don't waste your money. The only thing that makes this expansion even remotely worth it is the new graphics. The content stinks, Master Levels are impossible for small groups and if you don't have a level 50 char, don't even bother going. Most groups won't take chars lower than 50.

All in all, if I had it to do over, I would not buy this expansion.

So bad, it ruined the original game...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing DAOC since it was released, and considered it the best MMORPG to be released so far.

Then comes TOA. Very EQ-like PvE, there's no more flexibility that made classic DAOC so good, you need to do all these trials and equipment hunts with very demanding group requirements. If you don't like it, maybe you're just not interested in zerging these super mobs, or play offpeak, on an underpopulated server, or too briefly to be able to find good solid balanced groups or small armies... too bad.

What really makes that terrible though is that it ruins RvR. Now, if you're the unfortunate type not to benefit from TOA's rigid progresssion system, that's depressing enough, but also, your character won't be up to par anymore. You can still do fine running with zergs, that's a great equalizer, but it's not much consollation for those of us who just hate feeling gimped like that. It really killed the game for me.

Unfun. Unenjoyable. Too late for me to get a refund for it.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: November 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Visually stunning...but this is as good as it gets. It gets very downhill from there on in.

From a substance standpoint it took everything you HATED about Everquest and dumped it into the quests for Trials of Atlantis. Matt Firor assured players that the Master Levels would not unbalance RvR in DAOC and it would only be an "horizontal" instead of "vertical" strengthening of characters in RvR. Whatever that means. But as witness the furor over the level 2 Master Level, Prescience Node, it had stealthers up in arms..and I'd admit that it was an overpowered "master level" But the *single* greatest turnoff about TOA is that you have to kill more and more mobs just to progress up the Master Level tracks which detracts from DAOC's main selling point. Hello Mythic ? We came to RvR not to PVE some more after that 1-50 leveling grind and yet another grind to get effective Realm Abilities to compete in RvR. This is simply another grind that we can do without.

Simply put, in the last year or so, Mythic has devoted nearly all of their attention to the PvE aspect, slowly turning DAOC into "Everquest Lite" and basically ignoring RvR and it's associated issues.

Suffice it to say, there's been a significant jump in cancellations as a result of this poorly thought out expansion..if you don't believe me, go to www.palomides.net and see for yourself just how many people cancelled their accounts as a result. Then go to www.camelotherald.com and see how many "mea culpas", patches has been posted for TOA alone. What's especially insulting is that Matt Firor assumes that it's because we can't tell the difference between an "complex problem" and a "bug". *snort*

I can not honestly recommend this "expansion" to anyone.

And lastly, all of my accounts were cancelled as a result of TOA after playing 2 years of DAOC.

This should tell you something about TOA and I'm not alone in my sentiments about TOA.

Has convinced a hardcore fan to quit

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This expansion was a terrible mistake and a drastic departure from mythic's previous game plan. It is essentially a massive, 1000-hour time synch to aquire equipment and abilities, without which you cannot even remotely compete with your realm adversaries. If you do not have 1000s of hours you will be a second class citizen. If you have more than one character, you cannot play them both effectively, no matter how much time your have. If you do not enjoy mundane tasks and losing a lot, you will not like this game.

Please do not buy this game. Wait for World of Warcraft or something else.

-Retired R7L5 Paladin et al.

When did they add the fourth realm: Verant?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

DAoC player for over 2 years here. Cancelled due to ToA.

Basically introduced camping, massive PvE raids requiring long hours, hundreds of hours spent farming and XPing artifacts, MLs that are buggy, and increased the gap between the haves and have-nots.

DAoC separated itself from the other MMORPGs with it's outstanding Realm vs. Realm setup. It's more than just crude playerkilling. It's a very compelling end game. ToA threw it out of balance due to many of the items and ML abilities that weren't easy for average players to attain. Effectively extending the PvE grind hundreds/thousands of hours post level 50. ouch.

If you like PvE, you probably weren't playing this game in the first place and were playing EQ instead. This expansion is a poorly attempted ripoff of EQ that fails on so many levels, the worst being that it actually hurts Camelot's defining feature; RvR.

Stay away from this one at all costs.

p.s. not n00b friendly. If you aren't an existing DAoC player, this expansion offers no reason whatsoever for you to join up.

really horrible

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: December 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

i'm very disappointed. the design of TOA goes 100% against what has made DAOC such a good game - it's tedious and only interesting to the most addicted / powergaming 1% of the population. avoid at all costs.

Great Game with Frustrating Endgame

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 29
Date: October 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing for two years now and will have my third level 50 in a few days and I like the realm of midgard the best and I have tried all three. If you want the easy win, play Albion, if you want a dark, snowy environment that is melee oriented choose midgard, and avoid Hibernia like the plague unless you're up for a challenge. Each expansion makes the game look even better - and it wasn't that bad to start with. I highly recommend researching how to spec your new character before you even install the game! You'll save yourself a lot of grief. And if you want to play the most overpowered classes possible be sure to make a mana chanter(Hibernian caster with a pet that is stronger than their fighters) or an infiltrator (a stealther assasin that can out mellee a tank - ridiculous!) And whatever you do do not roll a champion! The player versus environment aspect is a lot of fun, meeting nice people and grouping to kill huge monsters and seeing a wide variety of environments. What is also fun is the Battlegrounds where you can face enemies of your own level on an equal footing (ranges are 15-19, 20-24, and 30-35 - for some reason noone goes to the 25 -29 battleground). It's in the high end Realm versus Realm battles after level 50 where the game is no longer fun and its very frustrating leveling a character to 50 that even performs well in the battlegrounds only to find out that you are completely useless in the end game. This is where over the top class imbalances become apparent. This is where the power gamers who have saved up staggering amounts of gold to pay crafters to make them the best gear can kill another level 50 character in two blows while being completely immune to everything the hapless loser throws at him. They also get realm points for killing enemies and with enough realm points a player gets realm skills that give the power gamers an even more unfair advantage in battle. Succeeding in the end game requires a large amount of time doing things that aren't a lot of fun, like repeatedly killing the same mobs to "farm" enough money to buy nicer equipment and then you have to "farm" realm points very slowly at first in a large group of people until weeks and months or even a year later you have enough points to get the realm skills to to become competetive enough to face the other elite players in 8 vs 8 battles to go even further over the top in realm skills. I have no problems paying Mythic for the fine work they have done in providing a beautiful online game world that works, I just don't like how you have to get ripped off for imaginary money in game by other players to get the gear you need to be competitive and the amount of tedium involved in farming money and then having to lose obscenely more battles than you win in hopes of getting realm skills required to play the endgame and have it be fun. A game that has held my attention for two years because I have tried many different classes in all 3 realms would normally deserve five stars if the end game werent so frustrating. So i had to remove a star for the horribly unbalanced endgame, but I hope this new expansion adds a lot of fun new quests and areas for us level 50s who don't want to participate in realm vs realm combat.

Very fun game with awesome graphics but....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 29
Date: October 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have been a player of DAoC since release and are still playing. Ofcourse to all the games there's the positive and negative. Let me start with the positive. Of all the mmorpg games i've played and beta tested (i've played alot from Ultima Online to Everquest to Asheron's Call etc.) this have by far the most beautiful graphics gamewise. And with all the expansions that came out it gets even better. Trials of Atlantis will just make you go in awe seeing the Underwater City of Atlantis and it's surrounding inhabitants. The second great part of the game is the PvE or player versus engine. It's basically where you participate to kill or confront the NPC's (non player characters) in the game. Be it by questing or just roaming with your friends in groups to find riches and treasures. I have tried and played all known characters from all 3 different realms in the game and i have stuck with Albion because i believe they are the most fun for me and are more balanced in terms of magic and melee. I think people who have lots of patience like me will like the "tradeskills" part of the game. One of my character is a Legendary Tailor and I like the idea of being able to make profits from my crafts and sell it to my consignment merchant or vendor that is placed outside my own house in the housing zone.

The part i cannot recommend this game for is the PvP (player versus player). PvP in this game pretty much goes for Realm v. Realm in which you run in massive groups and just "zerg" everyone. It's very repetative and it's so not fun at all. When you get zerged you just trample people and the battle usually lasts in about 1 min or less. Quick deaths or quick kill. I find this game to be very imbalanced when it comes to PvP. Alot of people have exploited the fact that they can use another account to set up a "Buffbot" to magically enhance their other characters for battle and have a massive advantage that those who don't have one. It's pretty much whoever can afford to keep another account for a buffbot are the ones that usually wins in PvP. I shy away from this part of the game and it's very frustrating. I don't believe Mythic will ever fixed this imbalance since alot of people have voiced their concern about this and for 2 years now it has never been fixed or talked about by the developers.

Apart from that negative part of that game I would recommend this game for the fun PvE, great graphics, quest rewards, house ownership and player interactions. Too bad the PvP really lacks balance otherwise I would give this game 5 stars but im leaving one out.

Death of my Pass time

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: November 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing DAoC since the day it was released. I've never jumped servers or realms. Always played the same character and have one of the top guilds in the DAoC world. DAoC was due for a change. It needed something to shake up the game and add a new facet to it. Whether it was Mythic's intention or not, DAoC has become a RvR focused game. Everyone drudges through the PvE as fast as they can so that they can partake in the RvR environment. Well, Mythic delivered a great looking flop. True, the graphics are beautiful, that is when you can see them through all the lag. I run a top end machine with a top end graphics card and I still have serious lag issues since installing ToA. Mythic has created a huge PvE environment and has tried to correct some of its time issues by adding port stones, but in the end, I have not come across a single person who is having fun playing the expansion. Everyone is just trying to get through it as quickly as possible so they can get back to the RvR, and they have to do it like it or not, because if they don't they will no longer be competative in RvR. Mythic should have expanded on it's RvR environment and left the PvE nightmare for another game. Many, many long time DAoC players are calling it quits. Mythic may have cut their own throats with this one I'm afraid. I for one will be moving on to other forums.

Beauty and the Beast

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: December 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Although this expansion brings out a whole new world of zones, quests and items, the way that Mythic handled it was not the best approach.
Dark Age of Camelot had one unique PvP feeling and still has, but now, if you dont actually own this TOA expansion, sooner or later you will get gimped on RVR battles.

Worse than that, some quests you actually can solo (or even duo if you can afford 2 accounts with a "bot" of somekind), but the majority and most rewarding of the quests (example: Master Level quests) you simply cant solo.

Now you could say, if you want to solo, go and play a non-online game. Not quite right. Like in real life, sometimes you want to wonder alone, sometimes you want to be with friends. A true mmorpg should allow both, without letting people who like to solo here and there gimped in the future of the game.

That said, TOA brings great graphics, great underwater feeling (and general Greek / Atlantean feeling), great sound and unique zones. The problem is that you are very group dependable (and it aint easy to find a group many times) and item drops can be a pain (countless hours of camping this or that creature).

I left Everquest for 2 reasons: hard to find a group at higher levels and camping of rare items spoiling the game.

DAOC is following the same path that may lead to many players quiting the game. If only they made item drops more common, more soloable quests and a balanced game for people that dont own TOA or cant PVE that much, this would be a much better Expansion.

Lets hope the free RVR expansion in 2004 brings a new life and hope to non-campers or non-TOA players.

Anyway, taking in account all the work theyve put in this expansion and all the beauty in it, i would say this is the best expansion for a mmorpg out there ever.

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