I've started playing AoC the day it was released in europe. My experience is somewhat different from Vyndree's. My guardian is now level 34 and so far I have not encountered any serious bugs. It was a pleasant gameplay altogether. True, the interface and GUI need improvement, but today's patch has already made it better. Surely, once interface addons are out, customization will be possible too. I never got stuck, the game never crashed, and out of the 50ish quests I did so far only one did not work (due to a non-existant questmob).

As for the game mechanics, AoC is different. When I bring to my mind that I have been conditioned to WoW over a period of almost 3 years, it becomes understandable that the first 10 levels or so demand an unusual amount of thinking. Besides my guardian (the def tank in a way), I have played together with a mitrapriest and from what he told me, he does not have to melee to play. No combos for essential healing etc. either. It should be mentioned that no class is restricted to healing or dealing or tanking alone, really. I.e. the priest needs to deal damage in order to heal better. And they deal quite well. Healing appears to be non-targeted, sort of like a cone of cold or area of effect type of spell. At least from what I have learned so far. I have played solo most of the time and most of that was in defstance and using a tactical buff called "enduring defense maneuver". It is still quick and a lot of fun.

With today's patch I noticed a couple of little buttons that appear when in a group. One of those reads "follow" and one reads "assist" when mouse-hovering over them. I will look into that in a while. I have no information whether macros are or will be possible.

I'm excited and optimistic about how the game will develop.

Regards,
George