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Good Things About the Rikti

I have announced my annoyance with the Rikti and Issue 10 for bring us more. What is good about having Rikti in the game?

First, they are the backstory. Before we turned to immortal spider-kings, nazis cum other fascists, and interdimensional duplicates, the original interdimensional attackers were the Rikti. The whole story behind the City is that the Rikti attacked. I like getting back to that story.

Second, there are some good Rikti stories. The Dark Watcher story arc (“The Horror of War”) is excellent, one of the best in the game. “Division: Line” and “The Organ Grinders” are fundamental arcs in getting the CoH backstory. Lady Grey’s Task Force does not have a great story, but it has interesting ideas and a great twist at the end.

When Rikti AttackThird, in terms of gameplay, they bring a lot to the table. There is something there for everyone, which is to say that there is something hard there for everyone. Their drones see through stealth. They have every type of crowd control, which is rough on squishies. They have lots of psychic damage, which is hard on most non-squishies. They have hordes of little monkeys to fight. They summon portals that are worth ridiculous amounts of experience. They have Guardians, who will give you nice buffs if you land a confusion power. The ideal anti-Rikti PC is probably a Spines/Dark Armor Scrapper: status protection, psychic resistance, PBAE damage toggle for the monkeys, and a single-target ranged attack to aggro without disrupting the portal summoning. That could explain part of why it is the flavor of the month.

: Zubon

Recent Searches

Previously

Due to popular demand after the last batch of search results, we hereby present more. As a note, if you are worried about your odd search being tracked back to you, do not worry. I have no idea how to do that with Google Analytics, if it is at all possible. This is purely anonymous mockery, combined with useful answering of questions. The five of you who came here searching for “zubon is my hero” can rest assured that your secret is safe with me. Such as it is. Also, you are not alone.

Again, let’s push this off the main page, since we will probably have a few naughty words.

Continue reading Recent Searches

LOLpocalypse

I stated before that lolcattery is a sign that this is the best time in history to be alive. Teh Holiez Bibul is a sign that perhaps history has come too far, and these are the end times. That is a thin line to cross.

: Zubon

Hat tip to Language Log. I am debating whether this is a new frontier in “bringing the word to them” or an ally of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I am waiting for the schism, as competing translations have spoke of “Invisible Man” and “Ceiling Cat.” lolheresy?

Best Crafting Ever!

Ok, I’m curious…what MMO has the best crafting system ever? What do you like or dislike about the various systems out there? Tell me what you think from gathering resources and components to selling (or using) the final product of your hard work!

I’ve been in a few discussions lately and the responses have been all over the board…What do you guys think? What would you do differently? What really annoys the hell out of you?

Low Level Changes Coming to WoW

The 2.3.0 patch notes have gone up for the test realm and there’s some doozies in there.  Of particular note:

  • Experience: The amount of experience needed to gain a level has been decreased between levels 20 and 60. In addition, the amount of experience granted by quests has been increased between levels 30 and 60.
  • All old world dungeons have had their loot revisited. Players will now find that all loot dropped inside instances will be of Superior quality.
  • Elite mobs outside of pre-Burning Crusade dungeons have been changed to non-elite.
  • The level ranges of pre-Burning Crusade dungeons have been adjusted to a narrower range.
  • Dustwallow Marsh
    • Many new quests have been added to the zone.
    • The Steamwheedle Cartel have just completed building the new town of Mudsprocket in south west Dustwallow Marsh.
  • Level 1-60 dungeon quests have had their experience and faction rewards increased.
  • Many elite creatures and quests in the level 1-60 experience have been changed to accommodate solo play.

    • It looks like they’re gearing up to make it easier for folks to get to the 60+ content in time for them to grind to level 70 for the beginning of the new expansion, and also answering people’s complaints about alt leveling.  So, how long until the first, “I made 60 when it meant something” elitism posts start?

    Character Contemplations 1: Frosta (Ice Blast/Devices Blaster)

    In Case of Emergency, Call FrostaMy first level-capped hero was Frosta. It is the same character I made in beta, when my wife said I should name her after a She-Ra character. (I am far enough away from the namesake to be safe.) After playing a War Mace Tanker for a while, it was nice to have some real damage. At the time, I was in a supergroup with an Earth Controller named Heaven’s Hold, and I usually had someone keeping the enemies pacified. That makes it much easier to freeze the Hellions.

    I played carefully to see as much content as possible. Whenever possible, Frosta completed every story arc available. I was quite bitter about the arcs that were bugged, but Issue 11’s Ouroboros will let me get back to them. This meant a fair amount of time soloing, which let me get through all the arcs without out-leveling them running others’ missions in teams. Conveniently, almost everyone from that original supergroup quit a couple of months in, leaving me lots of solo time.

    Continue reading Character Contemplations 1: Frosta (Ice Blast/Devices Blaster)

    Bridge over uncanny valley

    If you’re (still) unfamiliar with the uncanny valley theory, you can get familiar here.

    With that out of the way, now you can take a look at Trusim and see the stuff they got going over there. Very, very neat. As it was pointed out to me while discussing it elsewhere, this is not very much new tech, but rather a very good amalgamation of a few existing techs that are out there now, along with very good tools to get the juice out of those techs.

    Still, it’s a little glimpse at the kind of thing we’re gonna be seeing in the years to come in many of our games. Which, yet again every time one of these little leaps comes along, will reopen the whole uncanny valley debate.

    Brief thoughts follow.

    Continue reading Bridge over uncanny valley

    Marginally On-Topic Music

    At any given time, my wife has a musical addiction of the month. I will get a contact buzz or more, then try to figure out how to work it into a gaming-related post. I often give up, but this month’s is Rilo Kiley. Perfect: the lead singer is the girl from The Wizard, so keep your power gloves off her. (I was going to link to a song here, but the Portions For Foxes video distracts from the song a bit. That is the song my wife recommends, and you can play it at the Rilo Kiley link above.)

    : Zubon

    Residual self-image

    An old WoW partner of mine was thinking about getting back into the game, and soon we were talking about playing together again. We both had level 49 Night Elves on Dark Iron which we naturally figured we’d take out of retirement. This 49 is the most advanced character I have. My main had recently been a level 25 Blood Elf on Sargeras. (I couldn’t transfer the 49 over since he’s Alliance, and my Sargeras crew was Horde.)

    Now, my life has been crazy for the past several weeks, with lots of travel, an unexpected move out-of-state, and my computer out of commission for a week to boot. With free time being scarce, and my ambitions about actually experincing the endgame one of these days, I was really looking forward to the 24-level boost.

    So last week, we brought out the old guns — our 49’s. I logged in and materialized in Ironforge, which I hadn’t seen in years. Spent a while re-speccing our talent trees and re-organizing our action bars, since we hadn’t logged in since the talent wipe. Then it was a quick griffin ride to Burning Steppes, and there we were, ready to go.

    We picked a quest and started marching across the map, dodging elementals and worgs on our way. And after about a minute, something strange happened.
    Continue reading Residual self-image