No More NDA? Well then... First Impressions

Now that the NDA has been lifted, it’s time to actually talk about SWTOR.

Since I have an 18 month old, I can only really play after she goes to bed (usually around 8pm). That means over the playtest weekend, I really only logged on in the evenings and during her Sunday nap. I learned something important about myself too… I can’t game until 3am anymore. God, I’m old.

Well, onto the game. I’ll hurry up and get the only complaint out of the way. A little laggy at times. This was a common complaint that I heard from, well, a lot of people. Ok, now with that out of the way…

SWTOR is friggin’ awesome. EPIC even.

I started out with a Jedi Consular. I wanted to try out a Jedi/Sith class and from what it looked like on the server I was on, so did about 75% of everyone else. I mean, who didn’t want to be a Jedi after watching Star Wars when they were a kid? Ok, so some of us wanted to be Han Solo, but really, none of us are ever gonna be that cool. I also started a Sith Warrior, but I didn’t play it past level 4. Of course, I only got to level 10 with the Consular too, but like I said, I have an 18 month old.

In all, it was like playing KOTOR, but with hundreds of other people (dammit, I said that in my last post). You know what? It bears saying again, because KOTOR was a great game. This is just the next step, and what a step! The quests follow a personal storyline that lets you flesh out who your character is and what effect they have on the galaxy. It doesn’t feel like you’re just doing the same old “go gather # of this” or “go kill # of that” and run back and forth like a simple errand boy. The quests are basically one long chain of events that comprise your early Jedi training. Cool, right?

Now, I said before I only had one complaint, and it is only one. What follows isn’t complaints, just observations and such.

I would love to see a few more non-storyline quests thrown in to give you a little more to do while you’re traveling from point A –  point B. Yeah, these may be the gather/kill quests that I just knocked, but I’m talking about just some extras to throw in around the storyline ones. The difference is that in games like WoW, DCUO, Rift, FFIX (which are my MMO experiences), the gather/kill quests are the norm with a few chain/storyline quests thrown in here and there. So, kudos to the storyline quests, but I like to be kept busy too.

I will say that anything else that I found a little off was so minor that I didn’t notice it unless someone pointed it out. But then, after they did point it out, it was like it was screaming at me. For instance, the map seems like a series of tubes connecting hubs. You go to one spot on the map, then follow a path to the next spot on the map. It doesn’t leave much to exploring a world (At least this is the way it was on Tython, so if it’s different on other worlds, don’t jump down my throat. I told you I only got to level 10.)

I’m looking forward to the next beta weekend. Even more, I’m looking forward to the launch. But I’ll hang with beta for now. Looking forward to my first flashpoint. I decided to go with the Sage for heals which hopefully will make it easier to get into that flashpoint. I’ll have my thoughts on healing after that.

Love and chowMein,

-Roguewind

Out With The Old - In With The New

So, I quit playing WoW a few months back. (See a lot of my old posts for why. I thought Cata had changed things, but I was wrong.)


Then I heard that BioWare was working on Star Wars: The Old Republic. I have played their previous offerings, which were quite honestly AWESOME. The KOTOR games were great. I played both of them multiple times through. So, when I heard they were making an MMO... yeah, I had to change my pants.


Then I got my playtesting invite. Damn... another pair of pants.


I don't want to violate any part of the confidentiality agreement, so I won't say much other than EPIC. It's like playing KOTOR with hundreds of other people. No idea if I'll be playing Republic or Empire when it goes live, but I've got another PT weekend or so to decide.


December 20 (or sooner if I get early game access) can't come soon enough.

How to Heal in Cata

So, I've been back about a week now. I'm enjoying playing again, especially since I dinged 84 and switched back to healing (leveled as kitty, but I need to get my tanking geer and skeelz up to snuff). And I must say, healing is WAY better.

It was so BORING in WotLK to heal. Spam a bunch of HoTs on everyone and relax. Don't worry, you'll never run out of mana. No cares about overhealing, mana consumption or anything else. Faceroll haelz! I love that I can actually run out of mana. So, I've developed two rules for healing in Cataclysm. So simple.

1) THINK before you cast!

Sounds simple enough. This means actually knowing which spells do how much healing and take how long to cast. Actually, this can be tough for some people, but I guess if you don't want to take the time to read a tool tip, you probably aren't taking the time to read this post either, so I'm not talking to you people. I don't want to go into any class specifics because if I did that, there would be more than two rules, so you're all gonna have to do the thinking for yourselves. *GASP*

2) If you do run out of mana, BLAME THE TANK for not having enough mitigation/avoidance!

I cannot stress this enough. It is NEVER your fault! Healers are just too f-ing awesome to be blamed for anything. And remember, tanks can take abuse... especially the bears because they tank with their faces. No one likes tanks. They're the bass players of MMORPGs.

-Roguewind

P.S. If you're a tank and you're reading this... I'm just kidding guy! All in fun right?  Love you! You can stop reading here......





Everyone else: seriously, tank's are sooooooo dumb.

God Help Me!

I'm back...
Dear God, help me... I'm back

I'm a fan of the talent tree specializations. Pick a tree dammit!
I love that tree form isn't so silly looking anymore. I'm a giant!
I miss group quests to kill elites. Can't have everything.

Well, 2 days down. Level 83. Gotta get my bear tank set up proper like and start my non-tree haelz!!!11!1

Kisses.
-Roguewind

Scumbags (and how to not fall prey to them)

I'm sure I'm not the only person who has been seeing an increase in spam emails from "wowaccountadmin" or "noreply@blizzard.com" or any other number of bullshit addresses claiming to be Blizzard. The amazing part for me is not that I'm receiving these emails, but that a) they're being sent to an email address that was never associated with any WoW/battlenet account and b) that people still fall for this. So, for those of you who haven't already learned how to spot the fakers, I give you the following:

1) Look for typos. I know... seems silly, right. I mean, these guys are going to all the trouble (not really) of spamming tons of people with their fake email, you'd think they'd catch a few typos, right? Wrong. While these scumbags may be good at spoofing and creating fake login sites, they've got poor English skills. So, read the whole email and look for English Fail!

2) Read the entire link. http://www.blizzard-account-notice.net/account...(blah blah blah) is not a valid address for Blizzard or WoW. Some aren't as blatant as this, so pay attention. Also, look for typos in the address, such as www.worldofwarrcraft.com or similar typos. The guys trying this are really just too lazy or unskilled to do #3. Don't give them the satisfaction.

3) Don't fall for the spoofed link! Pay attention to what link you click. If you're using Google Chrome, mouse over the link or with IE, just right click and the address you're being directed to should pop up in the lower status bar. If the link says "www.worldofwarcraft.com" but the mouseover bubble or status bar shows the link as something else, then it's safe to say, you're about to be duped. If you don't have this mouseover bubble thingie (like my technical terms?) when you click on the link, look at the address you've just been directed to, then see #2 above.

I'm sure there are all sorts of other things to pay attention to, but these are the most obvious clues. Don't give scumbags the satisfaction. Don't fall for this crap. If you're ever unsure, go directly to the source and check with Blizzard (type in the correct address, don't use a link unless it's YOUR link). They're pretty good about responding. Don't just assume that an email that claims that blizzard is going to delete your account if you don't respond immediately is legit. The worst thing that happens is that your account gets deleted until you can correct the problem with blizzard over the next few days. If you click on the link and give these scumbags your info, your account gets hacked and you lose a lot more.

If you have more tips, please post them below.

Cata Raid Changes: the End of the 25

Many moons ago, raids were 40 man affairs. You had to really have your shit together as a guild to pull off the organization required to run one of those. It did mean that many people never got to see 40 man content unless they dumped their friendly/laid-back guild in exchange for a hard core raiding guild that while may have some nice people in it, was more worried about raiding than maintaining online relationships. So, for this reason and many others, Blizz dropped the 40 man raid in favor of a 25/10 setup.

Some raids were 25, some 10. You were introduced to raids in 10 mans, then moved up to the harder 25 mans. Great. If your guild was just starting raiding, you had a place to get your feet wet while recruiting more people to progress into the harder content. Sometimes, two 10 man guilds would join to form a 25 man guild. Whatever worked.

Then Blizz started this whole all raids are both 10 and 25. Ok, fine. If you like 10 man, or your guild is just starting raids, you could do 10 man, but if your guild wanted to take the time to bring together 25 players you would get better gear. They also added heroic versions of each so people who really wanted a challenge (and better gear) had something to move up to regardless of the size of the raid. Of course, what's the real annoyance is that heroic mode is on a per boss basis. Blech!

This new changes offers no reason for anyone to do 25 man raids. Why would anyone want to take the time to gather up 25 people to do what they could with 10? So what if you get a few more drops per boss? You could just run two 10 man raids (or 3 if you add a 5 more players) and get even more drops per week per guild. This notion of a guild running 2, 3, or 4 10 man groups per week defeats the whole "10 man is harder to gear" argument. Sure, you have less drops per player per raid, but as a guild, you can progress faster since more players (and alts) have access to better gear.

This is especially true if you have the lockouts on the same timer. If you have to choose between spending an hour gathering up 25 people to raid or just go with the 10 that are there, you're going with the 10. And if it's a multi-night raid, waiting for the same 25 people to show up on time just doesn't always work. Now, some people would say that with multiple 10 mans, you need more tanks (or specific class tanks) and healers. But blizz has already started the blanding of tanks/heals. No longer is one type of tank or healer preferable over another for certain fights, so you can form 10s easier.

Another thing that Blizz announced is that they plan on the first tier of raids to be designed for people geared in some blues and crafted/heroic purples. That's all fine and dandy; however, with t9/10 gear being given out like candy and the cap going up only 5 levels, are blues even going to be an upgrade? Plenty of people with t5/6 in BC wore that same gear right into Naxx and that was a 10 level cap increase!

As far as multiple, shorter raids per tier, I'm all for that as long as it doesn't also end the long raids. I loved that in BC you could do Mags and Gruul in a short time and felt like you accomplished something, but if you wanted a full t4 set, you had to do Kara which was long. I like that you had to go to multiple raids to gear up, not just farm the one place week after week. I especially liked attunement, so you had to do the previous tier raids at least once before moving up (yeah, this is long gone to my dismay).

As I read other people's blogs and tweets regarding this topic, I see the for/against crowd made up of 10/25 raiders respectively. People who love doing 10 mans get the epic win. Do the same thing they have been doing because they don't like to spend all their time gathering up 25 people to raid now get all the benefit of a 25 man (gearwise). People who have spent the last year nurturing a steady group of 25 people to raid so they can get the top-notch gear are now being told that all that recruiting was a waste because they can just run 10 mans for the same drops.

Basically, this is the end of the 25 man raid.

And this really doesn't surprise me in the slightest. All of the changes that have been made in the past 8-12 months have had the effect of making a game that was about taking the time to experience an online world/community into a bland console game. It's becoming a game that is about "winning" or "beating" the game rather than experiencing it. It's about leveling the playing field so that everyone can "win". It's become a race to the end rather than enjoying the ride along the way.

These changes to raiding are just another step in the wrong direction.

Tuned Down

I originally started this line of thought while commenting on a BBB post. After reading some further remarks, I realize I have more to say.

Short story is this: WoW is, in my opinion, the best mmorpg out there. Hands down, end of story. This, of course, doesn't mean that blizzard always has it right and everyone else has it wrong. Usually, even the poorly executed games have a gem or two. Such is the case with Final Fantasy XI.

Because of low server population, FFXI allows for high level players to group with low level players by "tuning down" the high level player. This means that their gear and level are decreased to a point that they are comparable in level to the player they are grouped with. In their execution, I think Square didn't do that great of a job, but the concept is something I think Blizz could work with. Here's how...

First, let me preface this whole notion as a "going forward" plan. Until Cataclysm, the damage has been done. I'm only going to use current tier numbers as points of reference which of course would be adjusted to reflect future content.

The main argument behind offering T9 badges for running heroics is to allow new players to gear up and do endgame content. The whole "why make this awesome raid dungeon that only a few people will ever see" argument. I get that. No one wants to spend all that time for nothing. The problem is that people skip over some really great content. What incentive, other than an achievement, is there for someone to do Kara or TK or MC (especially before level 80)? Most people rush past all of these dungeons just to get to endgame. I don't really blame them, and Blizz shouldn't stop them. People should be able to play the game how they want. The question becomes: how do you get someone to run these lower level dungeons and raids without forcing them to do it? The easiest answer is incentives (emblems).

At the moment, badges are just too easy to get. A new 80 can have full T9s without ever raiding. Seems a little silly if you ask me. Why not encourage them to go back to some of that old content that they skipped to earn those badges? Enter "tuning down".

You hit level 80, you join "random raid". You pop into MC at level 63 (yeah, 63, why should you have to be only 60?) with gear that has been tuned down to the correct level. Other 80s might be in there at 63 or there might be an actual level 60. As you kill bosses, you get T9 emblems (level 60s get gear drops). Blizz could even make it so bosses load 3 emblems, who knows? At the end, you get 5 (or more) T10 emblems. This is a system that benefits level 80s who haven't experienced old content and level 60s who don't feel the need to rush to level 80. It also benefits the poor guys who spent countless hours working on a raid dungeon that no one ever goes to anymore.

This same concept can be carried over to regular daily dungeons except you'd earn T8 emblems for bosses and T9 for completion. And for just running a heroic, you'd earn T7s. Each raid you ran, the bosses would give the corresponding emblem (naxx=T7, uld=T8, ToC=T9, ICC=T10). Of course, if you got one of these raids through random queue, your gear would be tuned down and you'd earn emblems as described above. And new 80s have someone to raid with in naxx and os, etc.

Obviously, this wouldn't work now, but after the expansion and with further expansions, why not? So you don't get to endgame content at level 85? When Blizz ups the level cap to 90 with the following expansion, you get to see that level 85 endgame content as a level 90... err, 85/86?

It's not perfect, but I think it's better than what we've got now.