Realm of the Mad God

[existential_elevator]

Is anyone else playing Realm of the Mad God (The game - autoplays | The wikipedia page | The Wiki ) at the moment?

I've picked this up on Steam, though you can also play in-browser. It's free, and an MMO.

I'm playing on Steam server EU North 2 as Nyinia.

I find that this is a pretty fun game to play in short bursts (say, half an hour or so). I accidentally found myself in a realm facing the end boss and it was pretty neat. I'm a new player, just cut my first level 20 character, and I'm pretty interested in getting to do some of the higher-level stuff.

[Izawwlgood]

When it first came out I played for about a week, unlocking a couple characters. It's too repetitive and pointless ultimately I feel. Most of the classes are identical to one another in every way but their animation.

Still, it's fun getting on an xp train.

[Jesse]

Playing this tonight, it's a really fun thing to play for an hour or so.

[EmptySet]

I also played it when it first came out, and like Izawwlgood I found it shallow and repetitive. It was fun for a little while but I wouldn't go back to it.

[Jesse]

I play it when I'm taking a break from Starcraft, I'm just as active and clicky, but without having to think, so my body stays warmed up but my mind can rest.

[JudeMorrigan]

I played it something weekend. It's fun, but I suspect it's going to be really easy to burn out on. Right now I'm working on unlocking characters. I'm uncertain whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that I've discover the whole "train" concept. It'll make those unlocks easier, but talk about a mindlessly grind-y activity.

[Izawwlgood]

I mean, there's nothing really to unlock. There's gear, but given the rate and ease of dying, one should get accustomed to losing gear. There's bosses to kill, but those are really only taken down by mobs of people, the majority of which will die due to lag or random bullet spreads. Xp trains (I refuse to call them what they were being called when I played) are grindy, but nothing in the game isn't really. I did like the variable land scapes and the first few times running through each dungeon type.

One of my favorite things in game was people who where vulturing off boss fights. Higher level players would run in and pewpewpew, then get killed, and lower level players would rush in and hope for a good grab. They'd typically just die, but sometimes they'd make off. So you end up with this ever thickening ring of tombstones, which makes people more desperate to try and grab stuff... Hilarious.

[JudeMorrigan]

Yeah, I was not particularly pleased either by what the "trains" term is "really" short for. I'm just going to continue thinking about them as plain, simple trains. Choo. Choo.

And there are the various class types to unlock. I'm not sure how much of a difference it *really* makes playing as, say, a sorcerer vs a wizard, but the completionist in me wants to unlock them all. Which means running lots of characters to 20 then heading to god-land, making no effort to actually survive.

[New User]

I've played this game quite a bit, off and on for the past few months (first heard about it on Kongregate). I think it's fun if you like to play a hard game, which I like to do every so often. The problem I have with the classes is that there are some which seem to clearly be better than others. Wizard, Priest, and Necromancer are by far the most popular classes, because Wizard can deal out the most damage per second and Priest and Necromancer can heal themselves/others, and therefor delay death. There used to be a lot of talk of Rogue being overpowered but I don't see many people playing as rogues anymore. Just like any MMO game I've played, the only point of this game is to... well, to play the game. It's nothing but a grindfest, just like every MMORPG I've ever seen. You get more experience points, you get more gear, you kill more enemies, whatever; there is no end. The point of the game, I guess, is to get as much fame as possible before dying. In that way, and what with the high difficulty, it's a lot like old arcade games where the only point was to get a high score and put your initials into the leaderboard (the players with the most fame get onto the leaderboard in Realm of the Mad God).

[philsov]

Death comes too swiftly for me.

I'm still in the process of unlocking classes (yes, trains are a blast) but every so often my realm will kill some gods and then we'll all get transported to the mad god's castle, and despite being level 20 with moderate armor -- still manage to die in the space of a second by a single mob. So right now the pertinent strategy would be to either be the decoy to run in, grab attention, and immediately sprint the hell away or be the artillery who kills said decoyed mob before the decoy dies. The progression is quite... wall-like.

If the goal of the game is fame, I'm better off just sticking to xp trains despite being 20 so I can get party level ups and mob kills for the vast majority of my time.

[Jesse]

It's always obvious when the realm is going to go into the final fight, so you can Nexus out. The whole point of those fights is to require a ridiculous amount of people, all high-levelled and skilled. Kinda feels like those ridiculous Everquest bosses you weren't supposed to defeat, but people did anyway (Until they shut down the servers because they were booing about us almost killing them). I love it.

[Ruggles]

While the game works okay with mouse and keyboard, it's a shame it doesn't have built in controller support. That game would be so much better if you could play it like a dual stick shooter. Joy 2 key helps a lot, but it still ends up being fairly clunky.

[Diadem]

I played this game quite a bit when it first came out, and I recently restarted trying to get all the badges on Kongregate. I love it! I hate it! I love it! I hate it! I love it! Permanent death is so awesome, and so frustrating.

I did not find the game very repetitive. Having to level up to 20 is a bit boring, but once you have some decent gear (always decide in advance what your next char is going to be, and safe gear for it. You can use everything at level 1) you can quickly and safely level up to 20 in a very short time.

Soloing in godsland is a lot of fun. Dungeons in small groups are a lot of fun too. Doing the major bosses, or minor bosses in large groups, is less fun if you are just starting, because you'll hardly get any loot. I suspect the game will be even more fun with a group of friends, especially with skype, but I haven't so far found such a group yet. I guess I should join a clan someday soon. I would stay away from Onyx or other really end-game content as a new player. You hardly get any loot, and you run a high risk of dying. Working in small groups or solo is, I found, the most fun.

Some classes are definitely better than others. Go wizard, archer or priest if you are relatively new. Archer is very very good early on, but not as good later. Use one to have fun, don't buy the most expensive equipment, don't use stat potions but safe them for your next char, and move on once it dies. Priest is nice because you can heal yourself, but the low dps, especially without the best equipment, makes him bad at getting loot. So go wizard. It's your best bet.

Wizards can keep their distance (which is good), have very high dps and even better huge burst dps. So in godsland for example you can pick one god, burst him with your special, and get loot, without others ninja'ing you. They are a bit squishy, but if you make sure to keep your distance it's ok.

Not that I'm very good myself. I keep dying. Meh ;-( I had such a beautiful wizard, 20 hp and 15 mp above average, and the other stats just above average too. Now he's gone Guess I'll start again. Got some nice gear in reserve still.

[Gelsamel]

I love games with permadeath but death in this game is way too random and luck based for my tastes. Dying doesn't require making a mistake in this game, it requires just lagging a bit or having monsters spawn behind you or something equally stupid.

It wouldn't be as bad if you had a decent amount of storage so you could slowly slowly save up a lot of potions until you get enough defense that you can survive the random and luck based damage, but you really don't get enough space without paying real money and even then farming up potions takes AGES even when soloing. I had been soloing for hours and hours and only getting one or two speed pots (the most worthless pot).

This is coming from someone who plays Touhou quite a bit and who is (I think) pretty good at dodging bullets, so it isn't a question of skill. Hell half the time I'm the only person daring to go into the mess and slaughtering multiple gods without getting hit... it's a lot less bullets than I'm used to in a shootemup.

It's just that this game is way too much of a grind, not to get to 20 but to get to the point where you won't just randomly die for no reason.

[Diadem]

I... I think I'm done with this game.

I had spent a long time rolling the perfect wizard (27 HP above average), I had +120 HP ring, magus robe, in short quite good equipment. Also drank 10+ def potions. Pretty much the perfect char, and a good way along the road to maxing it.

We were doing Onyx. He died. I waited a few seconds to run forward so all stray mobs would be gone, then went to pick up my loot. I was picking up my loot in the middle of a huge group of people, at near full health, and suddenly I instantly die. From absolutely nothing (an anti-spectator according to the game, whatever that may be).

Stupidity like that just totally ruins the game.

[headprogrammingczar]

The anti-spectators explode into bullets that pierce through other people. There's 4 all right next to each other in the center, so you got hit by all the bullets from all 4 at once. Don't rush in to get loot next time. Purple bags and up only spawn for you, so there's no need. Next time don't run into the middle of things, even if other people are there too.

[Diadem]

I never run in. Boss had been dead for like 10 seconds already. It's just stupid and random. And randomness is bad in a game with permanent death.

[omgryebread]

A mystic probably used stasis on the antispectators. When it popped out of statis, it killed. It's really stupid.

[Diadem]

It's a shame though, because the game really had potential. Also, finally a game micro transactions that can be played fully without having to pay. Most games give ridiculous in game benefits for paying players, which sucks.

The randomness is just a bit too high though.

[Magnanimous]

I played this about a year ago when it was in alpha(?), and now it's pretty fun. But repetitive. But fun. But repetitive.

[MasterOfAll]

I've been playing RotMG since it came out on Kongregate. It is really quite awesome for a free game (although I did break down and spend some money on it to be able to have multiple characters and to increase vault storage, as my number of mules, aka extra characters created solely for their storage, was getting kinda silly; still considering the amount of time I have spent enjoying the game, it has been totally worth the few dollars I spent.).

The main thing I wanted to say is that you haven't *really* played the game until you have played with a character with at least 4 maxed stats (Def being most important stat) and good equipment. Suddenly, with your potted character and a little bit of experience, you realize that you can kick some serious ass. Soloing dungeons and godlands and events and Oryx becomes easy. You can more quickly kill tougher monsters than you previously thought possible, and you will have to quickly revise what equipment is worth picking up and keeping.

I highly recommend having at least 2 characters (if you don't want to pay, just create a 2nd account) so that you can use the 1st to play and get Stat Pots, and the 2nd to eat those Stat Pots. And, yeah, when you finally do play that 2nd character, sooner or later it will die. Hopefully you will have had a chance to feed Stat Pots back to the 1st character by then . . . but eventually you will die, and you will be sad/angry/confused/whatever. And then you will get over it and enjoy the game some more.

My ign is Dramastic, so if you see me online feel free to /tell Dramastic hello from a fellow xkcd fan.

[Vieto]

I tend to switch between the Archer and either Wizard or Sorcerer, and I've been getting good at staying alive for a bit (until an inevitable lag-spike causes my character to randomly die in a situation I can normally easily deal with, in which case I rage-quit for a few hours). I've gotten rather good at the Godlands.

[headprogrammingczar]

I have an easier time at level 1 in godlands than in "hardlands", because I have gotten so used to their firing patterns.

[Magnanimous]

I've decided I like this game, so I pitched in $5 for a second character. Right now I have a 20 Huntress as my main, and a 20 Priest for farming stat potions... I may switch to a Necromancer though, since they're more offensive and can still heal.

What server do people play on? I'm Magnax in-game, on USWest2.

[New User]

I play on USSouth. I typically only go to other servers to trade. I'll probably start playing again soon, I haven't played in quite some time now.

[MasterOfAll]

What server do people play on? I'm Magnax in-game, on USWest2.

USWest2 is my 'best server', so that is where I usually play. I'll keep an eye out for you.

[Vieto]

I'm sorry, I just have to post this:

[MasterOfAll]

how many times did you go around that loop before finally getting bored?

[Vieto]

I wasn't counting, I was giddy at first, then I posted that screenshot (while still in the loop), then I went and had a snack, got giddy again, and finished the dungeon