Allods Online ‘Tidbits of Interesting Info’

Astral Ship UI
Astral Ship UI

There is very little information floating around (in English, anyway) about Allods Online.  The official website gives a very brief rundown on what the game is and who is making it, but then offers very little about the actual mechanics, features, and so on.  Since the weekend is turning out to be very relaxing, but at the same time slow, and a couple of us from the K&G community are without a mmo to immerse ourselves in, we decided to start collecting tidbits of interesting info.

You’ll find information about which class is the best tank, charts showing when classes get what armor and when they can use weapons, links to previews about the Astral Ships, and lots more, especially as it continues to grow.  My goal is to create one single thread with lots of information that people wanting to know more about the game will find interesting and useful.  You can find this thread on the K&G forums.  Feel free to contribute to it if you wish.

Here are two tidbits of interesting info:

“At lvl 23 you WILL(no exceptions if you wanna lvl) be sent to Holy Lands. In Holy Lands you get to quest with the opposing faction and most quests involve killing their soldiers/players or taking over strategic points or sabotaging their stuff.
One of the first places you will be sent to is Spider Hill.
Atop the hill is a place of power that gives you a 10min buff if you stand on it. Thats ofc is a good thing to have. On either side of the hill are Liga and Imperia camps.
Let me tell you something. When I got to that Hill….I had the most fun I have ever had in the game. PvPing with Imperia was wicked fun.
Alas, it didnt last too long. After about an hour of awesome combat a lvl 40 Imperia Mage came over and ruined everything(that [I Am A Potty Mouth]!).
But in conclusion: Yes you will be sent to a place where you quest and PvP at same time.”

“Paladins are best at SINGLE TARGET tanking, ie: boss fights.
They cannot hold agro on more then 2 mobs effectively due to limitations on how fast they can apply marks + Anaphema(dunno whats it called in English sry)(The one that inc the threat from strike x5).
How ever once they get that combo up on a mob then its almost impossible to agro from them not to mention that if the Paladin is not a noob and knows how to operate barriers effectively then you will see that he takes almost no dmg.(Exceptions being chain criticals)

Warriors are best at MULTIPLE TARGET tanking ie:trash.
That doesnt mean that they fail at tanking bosses it just means its a lot harder for them to do so not to mention that it is hard to heal them while they are tanking a hard hitting boss. Where a paladin can shrug off 1 million dmg (YES IT IS POSSIBLE, paladins have an ability that allows them to remove any dmg from their 1st barrier no matter how big the dmg is) a warrior will most definitely bite the dust.
The reason why they are great at tanking multiple mobs is that they have many melee abilities that hit Everything in front of them, thus, generating a ton of agro if repeated enough times.”

You can also ask any questions here and I’ll do my best to answer them or point you in the direction of the best answer.  I’m hoping that as the game enters CBT#2 that we’ll be getting more information released to us.  The sneak peeks seem to be coming steadily at least once per day revealing a bit about each of the classes, some zones, and different mobs.  While the sneak peeks are interesting, they don’t offer that perspective a player can share.  Hopefully the Allods Online community will continue to translate from the Russian/EU version.

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  • what was the last mmorpg you played for more then, i dont know lets say 3 months ?been reading your blog for sometime now keen. it just seems you hype these games up to yourself and everyone else, but never stick around long.

  • @Stan: Tad offtopic, but I’ll bite. Played WAR for more than 3 months. Before that would be… PotBS for ~9 months (counting beta). LOTRO for ~6 . “Maxed out” in terms of gear/leveling in all 3, save for a few pieces of gear i couldn’t get in WAR. PotBS and LOTRO I “finished” the game and WAR… well, everyone know that story.

    I wouldn’t consider this hype. I’m not saying “OMG this is going to revolutionize the industry!” or that it’s the best MMORPG I’ve ever played or that I’m SOOO EXCITED for it. I’m simply saying look, there’s little info out there. I want to collect all the info I can about it. I played for 5 days in CBT#1 and enjoyed it because it had an oldschool (Read: first 3 months of WoW) feel to it. I just know so little because there is so little, that I want to collect the info for myself and others.

    Hyping =\= talking about games.

  • That game does look interesting, got a key for cbt 2, my question is, what are the melee classes? are there any spiffy mechanics? Any hybrids?

  • @Wonderwyrm: The “Melee” archetypes are Paladin and Warrior mainly, but the Warden and Scout can melee. I know that the Warden has a way of specializing points to be a “Melee spec” type. My Warden uses Claw-type weapons.

    Hybrid would depend on what you consider hybrid. I think many of the classes are hybrids to a certain extent. The Warden is a pet class, HoT healer, melee, caster all in one. The Summoner is a pet class, AoE healer, nuker. Some do fall into a more typical role though, such as the Warrior, Healer, and Mage archetypes.

    Most classes have a class mechanic. As a mage you have one hat resembles Warhammer’s caster mechanic. The more you cast, the greater the chance to crit or insta-cast next spell or even backfire and hurt yourself or heal yourself. Some classes use a build up and expend mechanic and some a reverse build up and expend. Wardens don’t have a mechanic that I saw.

  • What is the unique class for those little gerbil guys? I was planning on trying them out since they are pretty unique (you play 3 guys instead of one for crying out loud haha). Can they play a tank class? Figured I would throw it out there.

  • Have lore sorta question please.
    Is there any class in game that casts nature plant like spells? Or any other class with that orientation?
    E.g. something like the WoW druid restoration tree … but doesn’t have to be similar – just plant like oriented. For any purpose as well … heal, dmg, buf, etc. 🙂

    Odd question – I know!

  • @Killer

    Actually after reading the background of the “gerbil” guys I have to wonder if they aren’t more “otter” than anything else(coastal background, love the sea and fish). 😀

    For the League the Gibberlings are the only race to get Psionisist(Seer). It’s a caster type class other than that I am not sure what exactly it’s strength and weaknesses are.

    Yes they do have the ablity to be a tank. Gibberlings can be a Brawler(Warrior). Quote: “Judging by their appearance, the Gibberlings are not the most suited creatures to be warriors: they are short and cannot boast well developed muscles. The Gibberlings warriors are known condescendingly as “brawlers”. Their weakness is successfully compensated by their agility and their unusual vitality. Gibberling brawlers are excellent with blade weapons and prefer short swords and spears.

    A creature that can bravely fight off a polar bear with only a spear can also kill an orc, and there are numerous examples of it throughout the Gibberlings history. A brawler is like a bee stinging a bear. The best way to save yourself is to run away, especially when there is not a single bee, but the whole swarm.”

    @Were

    There are druids(human warden) in the game which makes them a pet class(warden: human males get bears, human females get lynx, gibberlings get sabertooth squirrels, make orcs get warthogs [and it shows a goblin at creation] and female orcs get wolves). Their description does mention the whole hermit, nature lover additude but I’m not sure of the actual spells.

    Quote about Human Wardens: “The order of druids is an informal and ancient organization. It originates from ancient paganism, weird and insufficient studies of magic and the natural powers which are difficult to control. The basic rules of druid magic are taught in Kanian schools of magic, but only at an elementary level.”

  • Hey keen and Graev, i was wondering, how is the combat system set out, im quite sure its your basic MMO right click then 1,2,3,4 etc, but ive noticed in the videos i have seen there aren’t too many Hotkey tabs and i read (im not sure if this is true) that with a few spells you kind of aim it. For example, a mage fireball the mouse will trun into a circle and it shoots where you aim.. that would bee kinda cool if it were true

    Thanks

  • Also, to stan, Keen is writing this blog to inform people like you and me about games, if he thinks its fun game, of course its going to sound kind of “hyped”, because otherwise no one would want to read the blog, alse he does say games are bad, for example, Age of conan, Valuable lesson learnt, graphics dont make a game, and the fat guy that lied and said the combat was revoultionary is an obease retard which is why someone else took his job

  • I still have keys for the Closed Beta! Come over to bit.ly/6rshry before midnight the 29th – at the moment everyone is guaranteed to win 😀

  • Heyas,
    Like you I’m waiting for, and loving, Allods, but I do have some questions. Even after playing in the American closed beta (no European giveaways QQ) I still don’t understand what the Paldin archetype actually is, specifically the Xandagarian one, Avenger I think it is. So..

    1) Can they be played in a dps, healer AND tank role (much like WoW Pallys)?
    2) Where do “Canons” come from? I got a healing spell at level 5 but it required Canons and there there was nothing to tell me how to get them.

    Cheers 🙂
    -Dril

  • Hmmm what I’d completely overlooked was that game was going to be FREE. Obviously though this is where micro-transactions like the Cash Shop (and maybe in-game adverts?) come in.
    Now that I know I won’t have to buy and subscribe I will probably take a look.

    There’s a lot of Keen-bashing going on in recent threads – remember this is his Blog not a commercial site and if he gets excited and hopeful about future MMOs; then has much of that hope dashed on the rocks of reality then so be it. He’s not getting anything for running this site doing it, beyond maybe a guaranteed supply of Beta test slots!.

    Actually if Keen ever does settle into another MMO for a very long haul this place might get boring!

  • @Dril

    Paladins in Allods are much like Paladins in that OTHER game. Very flexible depending on how their built.

    Canons are basically like charge points. By casting certain “Prayer” spells, you gain charge points. Your heal spells cash in on this by using the points to be cast.

    “Heals target for ### of life. Requires 3 Canons.”

    Stuff like that. From what I saw, only heal spells use Canons. I think?

  • @heartless

    Melee all depends on how you build your character. Warriors and Paladins are definately melee. Keen has posted somewhere that the Wardens can be specced for melee as well as I would assume the same can be said of the “scouts” since they are the most rogue class the game has (and the images we see of the Imperial Scouts make them look like rogues).

  • Like someone else has already mentioned, if Keen were to stay in the same game for a long period of time, this site would get very boring. I enjoy his enthusiasm for multiple games. Why should someone be required to play the same game for a long period of time in order to have a “good” opinion?

    Anyways for those of you looking for easy to get beta keys – hit up this site… The only requirement is to register with the website. http://www.mmorpg.com/giveaways.cfm?bhcp=1%2E&offer=124

    I think they still have about 4000 keys left (yesterday they started with 7000 though, so the keys are going fast).

  • With all due respect, I found this site since it is about upcoming games. There are enough WoW sites and enough Eve or CO for that matter too.
    Its good there is someone who sorts the upcoming games, pick the one with most potential and let us read about it.
    Honestly playing 6+ months some games is a long time. I start lots of games for 3 months and move on.
    Only games I really played for years and years were EQ and WoW. And again those games don’t need Keen or others much.

    Keep up the good work. thanks for spotting for us the most promising ones! there are about 15 new games coming soon and half or more are crap.

    Werewood

  • Thanks a lot Keen. Due to your hype I have cracked and giot a key from MMORPG.com and installed the game. So much for waiting til launch.

    See you in Closed Beta 2 🙂

  • Stan: I agree with Keen. I’d hardly say people here are hyping the game. We’re pointing out things that looks attractive to us in the game (i.e. exploration) and also things that could be an issue (i.e. game store). For the most part, people seem reserved, yet are hopeful, since aspects of the game look promising and different from previous MMOs (i.e. Astral ships & combat).

    Keen: Cool info regarding Paladins and Warriors, basically the opposite approach to WoW. Since I was a warrior tank, this kind of caught me off guard and made me upset a bit. Yet in thinking about it, I can see where their logic pushed them in this direction. Most warriors in books usually are standing atop a hill fighting off a swarm of enemy, making huge cleaving cuts into them as the fight onwards. In comparison, paladins have the protection of the gods and thus are able to stand toe to toe against mythical creatures that might cleave a mere mortal in two. That said, I’m actually excited about trying out a warrior again because of the different approach (but I’ll probably give the paladin a test drive as well). Oh, with regards to a guild, you guys going with the “good side” (i.e your Gerbil character)?

    Rigar: Thanks for the additional info! Didn’t even know Allods was primarily PvP focused. This is good to hear. Maybe this is why the PvE combat seems slow to people because the game is primarily balanced for PvP combat right now. In effect, always balance for PvP first, since it’s usually the more difficult to achieve, then balance for PvE afterwards, as it’s usually easier to achieve. Believe the team for Global Agenda took this same approach.

  • @Werewood (#7): The Warden archetype resembles a druid more than any other class. My Gibberling Animist (Warden) has spells that revolve around nature. I feel like a WoW druid that has a pet instead of transforms into one.

    @Tay (#9): The combat is extremely traditional. It’s exactly like WoW was at release (and still is today but people forget about that since stats have made combat so fast). The only difference is that there is no auto attack. You use abilities (including an ability that is a general attack) and they have a global cooldown and individual cool down built in. I have heard about the aiming of spells too, but I have not experienced it yet. Hotkey bars expand above what is seen in the videos/screenshots.

    @heartlessgamer (#11): I hear that warriors can be great melee DPS as well as the Scouts. Scouts get to dual wield and can specialize to be melee. Warriors get to use 2h weapons.

    @Dril (#18): For question 1: I read that they can do all 3, but they’re more suited for a tank/melee dps class than a healer. They won’t do the damage of a warrior in melee dps, but they can single target tank very well, whereas a Warrior can multi-target tank better.

    For question 2: I did some research and found this quote from the forums: “”Canons” are expendables similar to Summoner`s Blood Drops. Some skills generate them, other ones consume them.” So it sounds like you have to use abilities to generate canons, then you can expend them to use your ability. (Bartlebe answered this already though in #20)

  • Ah right, thanks Bart ‘n’ Keen. Looks like I might roll a warrior then, I originally thought pallys were a melee dps class since the background info seems to indicate that and the fact that on character creation they start with 2handers but hey ^^. After two years of being a healer and tank in the game everyone loves to hate I need a change of pace.

  • @Dril: Here is a quote from the Paladin forum:

    “Comment from RU player INC!!
    ATM my pally(25) is DPS with a 2 hander. I gotta tell you that nothing is more fun then to drink a potion of luck and watch crazy numbers fly out from the mob.
    In PvE I usually kill the mob before the 5 second stun from charge is gone.
    In instances I don’t know my DPS compared to others but I keep stealing agro…
    Alas, I couldn’t tell you what happens at lvl 40 because no body has a ship yet so raiding hasn’t been tested by anyone.
    Oh and PvP vs clothies is also fun”

    It appears that if you build your Paladin to use a 2h’er and put into melee dps stats that you can be successful in the mid levels. If you like the feel and style of a Paladin, it looks like it can work. Bottom line though, the class will always be designed to take damage and support its allies as well, so this means you’re not going to be the #1 melee dps out there.

  • Uh oh. I just noticed something and I hope I didn’t screw up my beta signup. I got my key from MMORPG.com. I then created an account and activated it at the allods.gpotato.com site because that’s where I assumed you did it. Yet if I go to the en.allods.gpotato.com site and try to log into it, it says my account doesn’t exit. So I can log into allods.gpotato.com but not en.allods.gpotato.com.

    Are these two different beta experiences with different servers? Where did other people activate their beta keys? Which site? en.allods.gpotato or allods.gpotato?

  • It seems if you click the “Closed Beta Register” link on the top right of en.allods.gpotato.com, it says “Apply below to be among the first European players to discover Allods Online”. So maybe en.allods.gpotato.com is for European people and allods.gpotato.com is for people in North America? Not sure.

  • Hey keen i listened to all the chaoscast’s you have done i know that its been a long time since you have done it and i play WAR now i actually just started to play it about a month ago so i looked up your blog you snaf and syp i think u 3 should get back together i found it on itunes and i think you did a great job explaining the game when you read this get back to me im on the Iron rock server and my shamans name is Greegar if you want to contact me there please do i want to talk about all the war stuff you guys know thank you.

  • @ Greegar: I think you missed the boat by a couple of months or so 😛
    Don’t reckon Keen is playing WAR anymore and judging by his recent blog activities I don’t think he will be playing anytime soon either ^^
    Personally I resubbed a month ago after having been gone for bout 7 months from the game. It has improved and is by far better now, but there’s still some pressing issues that MUST be solved if the game is to have a future in 2010.

  • WAR T1 is one of the better MMO experiences out there. It would take a relaunch for me to try it again, unfortunately. 🙁

  • Interesting. I’ve played f2p MMO’s for 2+ yrs now, and to me, they all have likes and dislikes as far as style, graphics, and community go.

    The one thing that most of them all have is the same core mechanic that every other aspect of the game is built around- non-situational grinding.

    I mean grinding in that there are no quests or quests aren’t the best way to level. And non-situational meaning you end up just going to an area of level appropriate sheep-mobs that just stand there and you attack, maybe using a predetermined hotkey pattern that you will continue to use everytime. No need for running or moving at all. You basically double click the mob, and maybe hit a few spells. Rinse and repeat for about 10,000 times until you reach a new level.

    So in those terms, does Allods seem situational to you, like WoW, or Runes of Magic? Will you be finding a need to switch up your spells and skills based on what your doing or what situation confronts you at any given time? On top of that how much re-working of your spells could you get yourself into. It’s always fun to find new better or different skill/spell combos depending on your level, the skills level, and the situation you find yourself in.

  • @Nollind Whachell

    I have talked to the Allods Community Manager. She gave me 10 North American keys, but she also stated that it shouldn’t matter who uses them, or where they live, as the Allods Beta is not region locked.

    I’m sorry I can’t elaborate, as I don’t understand fully myself, but that’s what she told me.

  • @Jeremy S. This is nothing like other F2P MMO’s and the non-situational grind. This is a quest-centric game that plays like WoW. Allods also plays a lot better than Runes of Magic, in my opinion. Allods Online is very solid — in fact, I’d pay a subscription for it. I’m still waiting to see if the Cash Shop is like the Russians claim and not about buying your way to the top but buying conveniences like bigger inventories and respecs. The Cash Shop will be one of the only blatant ways the devs could turn me off the game from what I have seen.

  • I am glad someone else is trying these games out as I am far too jaded to keep running disappointing betas ever since being traumatized by AoC. I am simply looking for the best possible game that never will exist, possibly SWTOR, is that too much too ask. It does get tiring trying out new games and realizing that picking up tin foil and plastic scraps out of refuse piles is only so fun no matter how unique the concept…

  • @Keen I would agree that this game reminds me of an incredibly polished First 3 Months of WoW, I definitely plan to play at launch, based on what the shop seems to be selling the only way that the shop can kill the game is if they try to compete with Gold Farmers rather than straight stomp them out. That could drive the prices down for gold in the shop and make the Auction House ridiculously inflated.

  • KEEN: Thanks for the reply, The manuel attack may seem a bit of extra fun in my opinion, but then again i havent played it. Hopefully the rumors of a few aimed spells such as fireballs etc are true. To me, that would make combat fun and diverse

  • @Tay

    Actually I kinda like the fact that you have to manually attack.. not sure why but it is different.

  • Thanks keen for answering.

    I myself love RoM also for it’s own unique systems. I love their aggregator, arcane transmuter, and exp debt systems.

    I know there exists a near infinite amount of opinion on micro-transaction, but I also feel RoM has the most congenial Item Mall I’ve ever seen(out of like 30 games I’ve tried). Everything in it just speeds up progression of game play. The only actual item I see is the permanent mount, that, for now, you can only get in game-and rent for limited times at that.

    I think these 3 things are something that would benefit all MMORPGs. But that’s just my opinion.

    There is one other thing that I dislike about RoM and every other F2P I’ve tried(which is most of them). It’s immersion level.

    Basically there’s never any up or down or building you can go into(whether functional or just eye candy). RoM has both but very limited.

    I like that simple word “solid” I use it a lot myself. Actually that’s how Allods looks to me, as far as the world graphics go. I would also say, initially the graphics look very bright, crisp, and clean.

  • Sorry for double post(I think I’m becoming the double post king:P)

    Also, this is nothing against you or anyone. In general though, I am so burnt out on hype, it isn’t funny. After 2+ yrs of reading massive amounts of MMORPG forums and blogs and trying all these f2p games, I’m starting to feel like I’ve read/heard it all.

    No offense, I just can’t put much stock into all this praise. I will however take it into consideration when I get into Allods 2nd closed beta.

    Even RoM, I was like, “Hmmm, a new fantasy MMORPG, eh, I’ll wait and see”, and didn’t really get into it till about 2 weeks of game play.

  • I don’t think it’s hype so much as that we don’t have many real MMO news sources that cover F2P games exhaustively. I think the reason Allods is getting interest is that it tends to get more press from sites like Massively, and that diffuses into the bloggers, who create feedback. I’ve never seen any of the bloggers I read talk much about F2P games that are and will be bigger than allods, like Pangya or Combat Arms, mostly because they never get covered seriously on those sites.

    I don’t see keen as hyping, I think it’s just many times we all (myself included) get news and hype from limited sources. So it seems like it is hype, but it just really is limited coverage.

  • The thing to know about me is that I talk about whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want. I do try to talk about all current games worth talking about, but some do sneak past me. In terms of F2P games, I have spoken a couple times about them and how I feel that most of them are a waste of space and manpower. I think 95+% of them are trashy. Allods Online totally defies that from a gameplay and production quality standpoint. How they handle the Cash Shop/Micro-transactions will be everything.

  • Hey Keen – Does Allods have 5-6man dungeons? Any “PvE” raiding? This probably sounds kinda silly coming from me since I prefer a PvP based game, but nevertheless I was curious if they had dungeons in Allods.