Friday, October 31, 2008

I'll expand you!

For a long while, I've been thinking 'I'm sure I'll buy the Wrath expansion and level my mage or warlock to 80. Why not?'

Then I realized...'Because it will work out like BC -- all gear outdated and replaced with quest greens in no time. PvP will reset. Everyone will race to 80 and I still won't end up seeing the really cool instances.'

Now, this same statement has been made by many different people in many different places. It just didn't sink in until I actually thought about *playing* WoW. The idea just no longer appeals to me. I think I would be a lot more likely to go back and play WoW if there *wasn't* an expansion.

I never raided enough to see the cool stuff (didn't spend enough time in game for that), although I loved instances when I had an opportunity to get into them. I loved PvP as a member of an organized group before BC...but I can't handle PuGs or Arenas with both myself and my partner being undergeared and rusty.

No...I think that WoW has taken everything I've accomplished in game and said 'Well, that actually doesn't mean anything now. Have fun doing it over.'

They've done it a couple of times now. It all started when they changed the PvP system. I worked freakin' *hard* to get to rank 11. A few months later...the whole system changed. Don't get me wrong. The initial PvP/honor system was seriously screwed up, and it needed fixed -- it's just that Blizzard really killed my faith in them as an MMO company by changing a niche of the game to appeal to the masses.

Great business strategy...but eventually people are going to tire of having their favorite aspects of a game wiped out so that it will appeal to a larger audience.

I don't hate WoW...it's just that I don't love it anymore.

I'm sorry. This hurts you more than it hurts me.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Multitasking Healer

When I got my first mastery point as a DoK, I immediately put it into the melee focused path. After all, the zealots and shaman are the *actual* healers, right?

I played a few scenarios in which I was one of two healers. Coincidentally, I also died a LOT. Not because I healed so much that the other team deemed me worthy of focus fire. No...I died because I charged into the fray, determined to get the killing blow on that bright wizard that killed me 15 times over the previous 2 games. (of Tor Anroc. Of course.)

It's just really hard to remember to heal when you are a DPS-minded individual in the middle of melee combat.

I decided that I would better serve the purposes of Destruction by healing as my healer.

Don't get me wrong, I had as much healing as I had damage in virtually every scenario I played from ranks 1-23. The problem is that both healing numbers and damage numbers take a big hit when I spend all of my time dead.

I changed my spec. I am now strictly healing...I've played several scenarios in which I had *zero* (that's right, zero) damage. It is a completely different experience. I barely even notice when a half-dead bright wizard looks at me funny. (Before, that was grounds for ... permanent...termination.)

The games seem to go better, my girlfriend stays alive longer, and I'm not spending 3/4 of the game watching that stupid rez timer.

So I'm leaving the damage to my alts, and I'm taking on the healing role!

...But a word to that bright wizard that keeps looking at me funny. If you happen to walk up near me...I *do* still have swords, and I *do* still know how to use them. (Pointy end towards the enemy.)

Pumpkin WAR


WAAAGH!

An early 'Happy Halloween' to all the peoples.

We spent some of tonight carving pumpkins (and watching horrible movies...Duel and Hawk: The Slayer. *Shudder*)

We came up with our characters (Vlad and Sycorax, by name) and this nice little gem. Knife wielding done by yours truly, and the design and drawing done by my girlfriend. Bless her for participating.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Thanks for the group! Now please die.

My main alt is a witch elf. She is very similar to my first character in WoW -- A rogue I created at release.

My ALT alt (can you have an alt alt? I do, apparently) is a sorcerer. There's something to be said for getting your hands dirty and stabbing people in the face, but there's also something to be said for exploding that same face from 60 feet away.

When I'm playing my witch elf, groups of people create problems for me. It doesn't take much for them to figure out that there's a portable blender working on their back line healer...so they turn around and kill me.

When I'm playing my *sorcerer*, those same groups of people provide the perfect target for some ranged AoE. It's a great feeling when you see about 10 crits all at once, and you *know* that the healers just can't keep up.

Scenarios with choke points are my new favorite thing. (The temple in Tier 2, for example...)

So I just wanted to say 'thanks!' to everyone who groups up in front of the artifact. You save me the trouble of having to call out a focus fire target, because I can just death hug your whole group! (Seriously. My girlfriend was on her sorceress, and I started a lot of scenarios trying to coordinate our targets. Eventually I ended up saying 'that large group right there'. That seemed to work out.)

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Public Queuests

One of my favorite features of WAR is the Public Quest system. I'm pretty sure that most of the people who renewed their subscriptions past their first month of play would agree with me.

Mythic is adding some new PQ's for Halloween, and I think that's great.

I now have a dilemma. Do I focus on the new PQ's, influence, and random (likely just cosmetic) loot? Or do I continue on my quest to be a halfway decent healer in scenarios, earning me much renown (both the purple number type and the 'fame within game' type) and experience (both the yellowish number type and the 'learn to not suck' type)?

Because it always happens like this:

1. Enter a public quest about halfway through Stage 1.
2. Slaughter my way through hordes of [Elven Women, Ballistas, Lost Puppies, Elven Warriors, or Dropouts from the 'High Elf Academy of Special Swordmasters'].
3. Work with my girlfriend to kill several champions in Stage 2.
4. SCENARIO TIME! AND IT'S FINALLY NOT TOR ANROC!

Well crap. See the problem?

Maybe I'll keep track of how many times this happens during the Halloween live event...


Gamers R Me

I like games.

That's the easiest way to describe my favorite hobby. I've had many on again off again relationships with MMO's for the past five years or so (including a brief but torrid affair with LOTRO), but I don't discriminate. I love all sorts of games.

I ended up in a committed relationship with WoW, even though I had my suspicions that it was seeing other gamers.

After the expansion came out, WoW and I had a fight about PvP. I told WoW to call me if it could really commit to the PvP aspect of our relationship. WoW still has my number (credit card number), but it hasn't called yet.

So...I've moved on to Warhammer Online. I decided to take a break from the DPS classes, since I have never really played a character that didn't stab things, explode things, or ... um... stab things in a slightly different way.

I almost succeeded. I ended up creating a Disciple of Khaine on Bechafen. For those of you not familiar with this type of character, it's essentially a stabby healer. (Unfortunately, that provides us with a great excuse to get ourselves killed. "Whaaaaat? I HAVE to stab that bright wizard in order to heal you. You want heals, right?")

Mission accomplished! I have a healer.

My girlfriend is a different matter.

I let her play WAR a little bit during the open beta. Given that she had no previous MMO experience (and doesn't really like RPG's in general), I suggested that she pick a straightforward and fun class to take for a test drive.

1 witch elf later, she asked when she would have her own WAR account.

That was quite a pleasant surprise. Hot girl gamers only exist in the imaginations of deluded guy gamers, right? Right? Nope.

Of course, she did inform me that if I told her family that she was in a guild, she'd kill me. Still have to work on the whole 'guild pride' thing. Baby steps.

I expect most of my posts to be WAR-centric, but we'll see. I'm fairly easily distra