I have a confession that I’m a little embarrassed about. Yes, you guessed it, I’ve been playing WOW. I haven’t been spreading that around too much, because of the stigma associated with it. I imagine the next time someone yells at me to “Go back to WOW”, it might actually sting a little. But that’s not what this blog entry is about. Really, this is about someone reacting to me purchasing gold.
Category: World of Warcraft
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.rand(Two Step)
Welcome to rand() week at Kill Ten Rats unknowingly sponsored by Leala Turkey of Spouse Aggro fame. For those sane enough not to have scratched much of the surface of spreadsheet programs or number intensive programming, rand() is a random number generator. And this week, I will be talking about randomness, choosing random topics, and generally throwing things to the whim of the all-conquering RNG. Sound boy, proceed to blast into the galaxy. Continue reading rand(Two Step)
The end is the beginning is the end
(yup)
If you haven’t heard, WoW is reworking its mechanics and stats a great deal when Cataclysm comes around. Take a look. Nice post.
It’s silly to generally judge all these changes as a whole and form an opinion right this second about them, because no one outside Blizzard has seen these new mechanics at work. Of course there are people who don’t like it already, but I guess that’s just the logical reaction when your cheese is being moved around. System shock and all that. I’ll wait and see how it works myself.
But what I think we can say is…
The Explorer’s Conundrum
A big reason I fear I will never play Mass Effect 2, or similar games, is that the story is personalized. I don’t like leaving paths unexplored. What if I killed the Texas-talking lizard? What if I ignored their water supply? I hate those “what ifs.” It leaves me the feeling that I did not get the best story as if I skipped a few chapters and then tore out a few pages. The last thing I want to do with my precious time is replay the entire game just to read a few different chapters.
As a quick aside, this is largely why I don’t alt. My main has a rich history and story that would take any alt months and months of dedicated play (and player wrangling) to match. Playing an alt, in my opinion, is even worse than replaying a game like Mass Effect 2 because most often the alt experience will be a shadow of the main read. I’ll leave that thought now for another time. Continue reading The Explorer’s Conundrum
Happy State of Grind
Last weekend I dug away at a repeatable quest for Guild Wars Wintersday Redux, which ends this weekend with a finale for those having hat problems during Wintersday 2009. The quest is a fun one called Snowball Dominance, where the denizens of the Eye of the North go outside for a massive snowball fight. Players can bring one other person along. The quest can be a bit challenging for casual players that stroll in to the chaos, but with a few “exploits,” like waiting for the scrum to finish by standing outside of agro range on the left side then mopping up the remaining mobs, it becomes manageable.
Of course for farmers there is a different tactic. Take a necromancer Hero, and run it into the middle of the enemy group before they turn red. Pop Holiday Blues (AoE well degen), Snow Fort (temporary invincibility), and Snowcone (heal) to ball up the mobs. The mobs waste their good skills on the sacrifice, and players and the AI allies can easily take out the clumped up enemies. The rewards are very good for something that can be run in under 2 minutes. Continue reading Happy State of Grind
Baptismal Learning Curve
Via Chocobo at RPG.net:
Funny story that predates LFD: When I first did Old Kingdom, as a healer, the tank asked if we all knew the fight. I said, “No, what should I know?” He said, “You’ll find out when it happens,” then he charged in.
Reminds me of a TV Trope… like Wanted where its The Only Way They Will Learn. Hopefully Chocobo also shot the wings off of flies.
–Ravious
Welcome… to the Fraternity
An ode to the random stranger picker-upper tool
It was a triumph.
I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction.
I pugged an instance.
I went as a tank
because I could.
After four years as a ‘lock.
But then the paladin left.
Now there’s no sense crying over every mistake
You just keep on trying till you run out of rage
And the killing gets done
And I’ll finish the run
With the people who stick by my side.
Continue reading An ode to the random stranger picker-upper tool
The Group Recipe
World of Warcraft (further) obviates a group recipe with the new random grouping mechanics: 3 DPS, 1 healer, 1 tank. While the issues regarding population imbalance caused by the DPS majority can slow down group matching, the groups and challenges are made so that the five random people are not impeded by guessing what the group make up should be.Â
Zubon points out that the group recipe in Lord of the Rings Online can be much more varied, and Berath comments that the favorite classes in Lord of the Rings Online are the straightforward DPS classes. Sure a Captain, Loremaster, Burglar, or Warden can cover multiple roles (even without retraitting), but the purity of the Guardian as Tank, Minstrel as Healer, and Champion, Rune-Keepers, and Hunters as DPS are hard to overcome.
DPS Population Imbalance
Step back from what you know about how popular certain classes are and reconsider the acclaimed LFG tool. The slots are for one healer, one tank, and three DPS. From a naive perspective, the non-DPS classes are getting screwed here. It looks especially absurd coming from City of Heroes, where support stacks nicely and groups are often more than half support classes, or The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢, where an ideal six includes an off-tank, secondary healer, and/or controller/debuffer. Cap the group at one, while the DPS classes get three slots? It would seem like you’d have a much easier time finding a group as DPS.
But no, the population is so absurdly slanted towards DPS that they are waiting. Tanks and healers queue and instantly get groups. This is still true even now that people know they can skip the queue by switching talent trees, and few groups are going to kick you for having lousy tank or healer gear. Granted, if you are a Mage or Rogue, you are stuck as DPS, but that Paladin could spec and queue as any.
A system that explicitly favors a preponderence of DPS is de facto the largest buff to tanks and healers ever. This mostly comes down to what I said about static groups: anything that makes grouping easier makes group-friendly classes and builds more viable. As the population has time to react, group-friendly classes and builds will become more popular.
The upcoming Star Wars has a different approach: the Jedi/Sith classes are the tanks and healers. If you want a shiny lightsaber, you don’t get to play DPS. Yeah, right, I say that, but you can already hear the forum wars mockery of all the Jedi/Sith that focus on damage. “DPS Sith lol. Can we get a tank that can tank?” Or, as DK tanks currently say, “But Blood Stance heals me!”
: Zubon
In the Future, We Will All Be Hybrid DPS Classes
One positive incremental change in the MMO world is the introduction of different character modes. That is, you can hit a button and switch the focus of your character. You can fulfill multiple roles, but not all at once, with a way to switch between them. Examples include Champions Online and DC Universe (no classes, just modes), dual talent specs and Druids in World of Warcraft, and the Minstrel and Rune-keeper in The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢. If you have the skill points and cash, you can also switch ships in EVE Online easily enough, which would be like hopping classes in another game.
These vary in their ease or extent of switching between modes. The two main LotRO healing classes need about 10 seconds to switch modes fully mid-combat. My WoW Paladin lost all her mana when switching. Other games might require you to go back to town to switch, which is still nice although certainly not the one-click, mid-adventure thing I am talking about. The effectiveness of doing so depends on how flexible other aspects of your character are. In LotRO, you must visit town to change your traits, and I know how I hate it when our healer is traited for damage. In WoW (late game), you would want to be carrying a second set of gear if you switch from Retribution to Holy.
Another way to implement modes is to switch focus within a role. A Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Hunter has solo and group DPS modes, the former with higher threat and mana costs, the latter decreasing them but losing bonus damage. (Solo mode: good for pulling targets off the healer, not worth much else post-Siege of Mirkwoodâ„¢.) Switching your Warcraft Mage from ice to fire is probably a less dramatic change.
While I love my alts, I am in favor of anything that will let you stick with one character. Let me stack all my options on one guy and switch which option I use, rather than switching between Zubon, Zuba, Zoobown, and Zupwn. While that will make hotkey management interesting, it saves me from having separate friends lists, guild rankings, vaults, key bindings… (You could also implement saved (and importable) or account-wide friends list, guild affiliation, shared vaults, key bindings…)
: Zubon
[Update: I see that Tobold just hit this theme from the POV of a DPS class in the post-LFG WoW world. Yeah, dual-spec does not seem like a huge boon for them. Having played ranged DPS in quite a few games, while I cannot address how WoW is this week, we are generally doing fine and soloing brilliantly, even if we are over-competing for group slots. I feel more for my healers, like my poor CoH Controller who fought bosses by putting his damaging hold (“stun” for WoW folk) on auto-repeat while I went AFK and waited for the pitiful DPS.]