So, here is Part 2 of the walkthrough for Age of Wulin’s Closed Beta phase 1. As this phase lasts only 1 weeks with data being wiped, I will not really go indepth into certain features as I am pretty lazy myself. In this post, I will be talking more about Life Skills and a little about combat and skills, which is one of the most confusing part for me.
First, a look at the life skills available during this phase. There are 4 different categories, with players only able to choose one from any. It will be best to pick something similar, for example hunting or fishing with cooking.
The combination example given above might seem flawless, but there is a catch. When I first chose crafting (accessories etc) as my manufacturing discipline I found out that I need items from which can only be produced by a player who chose blacksmith. One way or another, each manufacturing discipline will depend on one another. Some cooking recipes will require fish, some other meat (from hunting), hence players will have to trade each other. Speaking of cooking, the Cook trainer has a Bejeweled kind of mini-game as well…
As you can see below, I settled with fishing for my gathering discipline. I was kind of disappointed that there are fixed fishing spots in Age of Wulin, as I was thinking I could just fish as long as there is a lake or river. All players have to do will be clicking on the flashing mouse sign. Since the fishes here are low levels, the fish symbol is quite near to the ending point.
Different spots require different level of fishing skill (1, 10, 15, 20 etc), even up to over level 200. Each attempt at fishing decreases the stamina mentioned in Part 1 and minus 1 off the fishing rod’s durability. Here is the map which displays fishing, woodcutting, mining etc spots. The function can be turned off manually.
I also had begging under the Market discipline, and it is not easy, trust me. I have to really, really beg players to literally buy the sack off me. Not something I really enjoyed though, but I am guessing those players who bought will have positive karma points added.
Ok, here is the part where most people will get slightly pissed. Remember about me saying that the China server has a monthly point card which no one really know what it does? Well, being a VIP premium member will give players access to various benefits, including faster skill upgrade while offline, able to buy exclusive stuff from the Cash Shop, better rewards from Miracle Encounters and more.
From what I read above, the Fortune Teller life skill will only be able to such paying players. I am not sure how this system will work in the English server though. I am thinking of the premium member package just like in Silkroad Online and Cabal Online.
Ok, now to the part I am loathing to post about, combat. Let me keep things simple and let you guys find out more when the English Closed Beta begins. First, there are 3 types of skills. They are known as (roughly translated) Emptiness (blue circle), Stance (green circle) and … erh… Solidness (red circle).
Blocking – Blocking mode can be activated during a battle by pressing the right mouse click (default). There is a limit as to how many times a player can block attacks, as the “blocking shield value” will decrease and eventually be smashed after several attacks. It is wise to use this together with moving about during PvP.
Stance (green circle) – These are buff skills to be used when players are in the defense position. Everytime a player successfully blocks an attack with a Stance buff active, the player will gain some bonuses. From what I tried so far, only 1 Stance can be activated.
Emptiness (blue circle) – Skills under this category are used to counter Stance/ block, dealing slightly lesser damage than Solidness as its true purpose is to break the defense value and block position of opponents.
Solidness (red circle) – These are the “normal” attack skills, some using MP while others use up the Fury points (fire symbols under MP bar). If I am not wrong, this is to counter players who are casting Emptiness skills. There are different combos as well, with special effects occurring at the end if chained correctly, like the part where I knock the target back in the video above.
Normal buff skills – These are normal biff skills which increases attack, defense etc. All buffs, including the Stance buffs so far, have no duration. They stay activated permanently until logged off. No more looking at the countdown timer!
Even if PvE is rather stale (I have not entered the instances yet though) and there is no mob level, it is still wise to check the color code beside a mob’s name before battling it, with green being the most suitable. Once again, Age of Wulin is not a mob grinding game, but focused more on living the martial live and killing mobs only when needed (quests, materials). Combat is more interesting in tactical PvP.
The combat system above is like a Scissors, Paper and Stone game, with each countering one another, leaving players to decide which move is the best. Button mashing on any skills will just be your downfall if fighting against skilled players with a proper tactic. The system so far is kind of redundant on the normal mobs though. Perhaps bosses which I have not met will make players think carefully on their moves. You can actually see 2 players having a PvP match in the video below.
Just to add on something, the game world might seem small on the map, but it is really quite extensive. There are no teleporters, portals or anything near which will bring players from one map to another. The most there is will be a boat service ferrying players across the map, if there is a river. Running from Shaolin to the beginner town took me nearly 20 minutes!
Speaking of Shaolin, Part 3 of this walkthrough will be focused on Shaolin (some teaser screenshots above) with some of the basic Shaolin skills, and hopefully Wudang will follow next. Since this is a data-wipe phase and only 1 character slot is allocated, I guess deleting characters will be just a norm.
