[Silynn]

Blade and Soul has officially released for NA/EU. It is a Korean fantasy martial arts MMO based on the artwork of Hyung-Tae Kim. It is F2P with the usual things you find in MMOs. Questing, Crafting, Dungeons, Raids, etc. Yet, a few things makes this game stand out in my humble opinion (for the time being). Combat, Story, and customization.

The combat is just amazing. It is among the most fluid I have experienced in a long while. Fast-paced, combo-oriented, dances of death. It is a highly mobile combat system, where if you stand still, you likely will get beaten (rekt’d for you L33T players). Positioning is important, and the combat system not only encourages, but demands it. Simply, after playing BnS (Blade and Soul), I find it hard to enjoy my other MMOs fighting systems. Even my beloved FFXIV… shocking right?

PvE/PvP. The game is PvE for the most part, with arena and faction (PvP) dailies to spice things up. The PvP system is pretty well designed in the sense that one does not enter PvP unknowing. In a sense, the PvP system is enabled when you decide to wear your ‘uniform’. Once you put on your faction costume, you are flagged for pvp to only the opposing faction of that costume. If you get killed and want to get out, you have to option to resurrect with your uniform off (ie in your underwear). Thus, in the open world, PvP is an option.

The story grabs you right away the moment you hit “Start” to enter the world. From that moment on, you are the focus and your journey through the levels are given some meaning. Some elements are not as good as FFXIV… but some elements are better. I won’t say more than that, as I do not want to ruin the magic for anyone who tries to play. Talk to me later once you do.

Character Customization. For those who like STO’s customization, you will absolutely *love* Blade and Soul’s. It is all about the sliders. The multitudes of sliders and options will cause you to potentially spend *hours* upon *hours* in the creation lobby. (Yes, I’m looking at you Mayrheane! And possibly others…<cough>Mazoue<cough>). There are four races. Yet, with the sliders, your imagination and desires dictate how you look. Whereupon, in the open world, you will see such a varying degree of looks. Super tall, Super small, super skinny, super round, and everything between. It is quite exhilarating and a memorable moment once you enter the world as your custom avatar.

PvE/PvP. The game is PvE for the most part, with arena and faction (PvP) dailies to spice things up. The PvP system is pretty well designed in the sense that one does not enter PvP unknowing. In a sense, the PvP system is enabled when you decide to wear your ‘uniform’. Once you put on your faction costume, you are flagged for pvp to only the opposing faction of that costume. If you get killed and want to get out, you have to option to resurrect with your uniform off (ie in your underwear). Thus, in the open world, PvP is an option. Of course, the PvP faction costumes (uniforms) are quite nice and sometimes you just want to look cool.

Anyhow, I figured as I’m not alone with playing, that I will throw this out here for others who may be interested.

NA Server: Poharan
Faction: Crimson Legion
Members Playing:
Mayrheane
Silynn

NA Server: Old Man Cho
Faction: TBA
Members Playing:
Gunges

NA Server: Mushin
Faction: The Cerulean Order
Members Playing:
Alexandria


EU Server: <?>
Faction: <?>
Members Playing:
Tatchi

[Mark Okuda]

Right now the queue times are 3000 deep. I would give it more time to allow NCSoft to address the long queues before giving it a try. Although you can get a student signature bundle that gives you 7 days of premium service for $5 USD and get priority queue service.

[Mayrheane]

meh gots lotsa templates even fer races I won't end up using~ close beta was fer testing stuff after all~!

[Silynn]

BnS is quite a popular game at the moment. When I got on this evening, the Premium (Subscription) queue was 50 and the Non-Premium (F2P) was at 4200. It only took like a minute to get logged in at 50.

Thus, yes, like any new popular MMO with a large fan base... the 2nd day of release is going to see those numbers. Definitely wait a week or two if sitting in the Non-Premium queue is killer. Or the $5 bundle is a good option. The items in it are pretty useful.

Just trying to organize folks here if they are interested but don't know anyone else playing.

[Bar'ol]

I've been playing on Old Man server.

[Alexandria]

I've been keeping an eye on the game. I am waiting for mine to finish downloading. I will probably be on either old man or Mushin. It depends on which one I can get on. I will probably be going with the other faction though, but we will see

[Droxy]

I'll probably wait before checking this game out myself. Besides the fact it's probably getting swarmed with new players, I've also don't got a lot of faith in Korean MMO's considering the other stuff out there. x_x

[Tatchi]

Interesting. This hype is very similar to that of Archage. Although not many seemed to play that anymore a couple of months after the official release, it was a lot of fun while it lasted.
Heck, even some pro Halo players I was watching on Twitch couldn't shut up about BnS and that they were going to all get premium...

Next to Sci-fi, I've always had a soft spot for martial arts and I'm totally digging the theme. So I've downloaded this now and have played around for quite a bit with the character creation system and it's pretty good.

As for actually playing on a server and faction, would be nice if the EU members could pick one of them and roll toons on there so we could possibly play together on occasion.
I haven't really started playing yet, so any of the servers is fine with me.

[Silynn]

Here's a sample population from the initial head-start data (5-6 days old) with server population and class breakdowns. I'm highly certain these numbers have go way up, as at head-start it was only those who bought the founders packs (Premium). I was online during release on my server and in the starting zone, the sight of F2P players pouring out of the 'starting house'...was incredible. And that was only one channel of 20+ channels.

Data from 1/15/2016

Server NA:
Mushin: 19639
Poharan: 4211
Jiwan: 4223
Master Hong: 2183
Iksanun: 1670
Hajoon: 1194
Yehara: 1432
Juwol: 666
Soha: 2005
Old Man Cho: 2745
TOTAL: 39968

Class NA:
BM: 8016
KFM: 5612
DES: 3907
SIN: 6438
SUM: 4569
B 4823
FM: 6658


Server EU:
Windrest: 8312
Ebon Hall: 1834
Starfall Crater: 2050
Cardinal Gates: 836
Wild Springs: 1467
Hao District: 735
[DE] Frostgipfel: 5028
[DE] Bambusdorf: 1300
[DE] Windweide: 1045
[FR] Dokumo: 2780
[FR] Ogong: 997
[FR] Hogdonny: 316
TOTAL:26700

Class EU:
BM: 5362
KFM: 3522
DES: 2727
SIN: 4374
SUM: 2925
B 3263
FM: 4553

-Source

Nevertheless, I'm certain some of the numbers have doubled or tripled. Considering that there was a queue of 4000 for non-premium on Poharan last night.

[Alexandria]

Update. I managed to get my characters on Mushin.

[Mayrheane]

Update. I managed to get my characters on Mushin.

Alex join us on Poharan~ and join the commie side (Crimson) T_T


and I found tis very enlightening Lore post~

http://www.insomnia-clan.com/forum/m...post/102572881

[Alexandria]

Nah I want to start on that server since I have some friends over there

[Silynn]

Update. I managed to get my characters on Mushin.

How are the queue times?

On Poharan, premium gets through in about a minute to 15 minutes. Non-Premium (F2P) sits at 3300-3500 with a two hour wait judging from last night (second day of release).

[Alexandria]

I was on last night at about 11pm and finally got in game at about 1am approximately. I'm on the f2p queue at the moment. The most I had seen was 3 in the premium queue. The servers were down today so when I get in again, i'll let you know.

[Silynn]

The queue times have certainly gone down since the 'initial rush week' for release. Last night, the premium queue at prime time was around 12 to 50, with at most a 2 minute wait. Non-Premium (F2P) was anywhere between 500 and 1000.

By next week, I'm sure the queue times will go down even more, as a lot of people are at level cap. Which means only dailies and dungeons to grind, which most are not interested in doing. Reaching level cap (45) is 'beating the game" for most.

Anyhow, if you have been on the fence about starting, you may want to check it out in the coming days/weeks.

May (the amazon) and I run into one another at Mirage (lvl 30 town hub)