Starting Tempest Keep: The Eye
March 19th, 2008 |
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My World of Warcraft guild is progressing onward from raiding Karazhan and Gruul’s Lair. We’re moving on to tackle The Eye in Tempest Keep, a 25-man raid that is the starting point for Tier-5 raiding. It marks an exciting step for our raiding group because we are maturing quite a bit and starting to work together well.
To learn the first couple of bosses and to become more cohesive as a group, we’re raiding The Eye on two nights. Tuesdays and Saturdays. Tuesday nights we are working on learning to fight the first boss, Al’ar, and on Saturday we will work on the second boss Void Reaver.
The reason we are doing it like this is that there aren’t as many trash mob pulls to Al’ar so it fits well with our limited play time during the week. Yes, most of us have real life obligations to consider. But the weekend isn’t as limited on time, so we can spend more time on the arguably harder trash mobs to the second boss.
I know a lot of people focus more on Void Reaver first. You can actually get to him and skip the first boss, and Void Reaver is easy to the point that people call him “Loot Reaver”. But really the mobs you have to fight before him require a LOT of coordination we’re finding.
Anyway, last night we made our first attempt at Al’ar. People telling us that “oh you don’t have the DPS for this” and “he’s so hard, let’s just skip him”. I am happy to say that while we didn’t get him down, it wasn’t because of a lack of DPS or healing. We wiped because we’ve never faced him before and don’t know the fight very well. Our tanks were struggling to keep coordinated so we kept getting Flame Buffets hitting the raid, and some tanks couldn’t get away from the Flame Quills . Nothing that practice won’t solve even if we don’t change up our gear too much. It was pretty exciting.
I had the privilege of being the Warlock to stay on top of the threat meters. I removed the Blessing of Salvation buff, changed up some gear to output more raw DPS, and threw everything I had at Al’ar constantly. The reason behind this is that in Phase 1 you can’t pull aggro from the tanks but in Phase 2 the main tank needs to build up a lot of threat. So the idea is for me to get as much threat as I can, and as Phase 2 starts and Al’ar makes a beeline for me, the main tank Taunts him and I Soulshatter, dumping all my threat. It basically slingshots a ton of threat to the main tank. Quite a neat idea!
Doing that gave me the honor of easily topping the damage meters for that fight. I was quite pleased by that and look forward to continuing our progress in this raid.
World of Warcraft: Guild Promotions
February 13th, 2008 |
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Last night our guild held a small event to honor people who have shown they have what it takes to be promoted. We had a lot of people ready to be promoted from our lowest rank, Recruit, to a full-fledged Member. We also had two people promoted to the coveted Veteran status (grats, Yoshimie and Banemalor!). Additionally, we created new ranks for Class Leaders and added a few profession Artisans (points of contact for various crafting professions) to the ranks.
The officers (of which I am one of three) work hard to come up with fun activities and events the guild can participate in to commemorate such events. I feel it is important for team building, and helps make the promotion something special.
So last night we had a lot of fun. I came up with the idea to do a scavenger hunt. Each of the officers hid at a location around the map. We disabled mapping addons such as Cartographer so our exact location couldn’t be easily pinpointed, and gave out clues. We encouraged people to travel in groups and figure out the clues together. The prize would be 10g for each member of the group to get to our Guild Master, Hariel, the fastest. To prove they had reached the officer we told them to retrieve a particular item to give to the next officer.
The first clue was this: “Your search begins where the Titan’s sword had sundered the Old One’s skull.”
For lore nuts, this is an easy question to answer. The location is the Master’s Glaive, in Darkshore. It is the site of a gigantic sword sticking out of the skeleton of (presumably) one of the “old gods”.
I hid behind the mound, and as groups came to find me, I gave them this clue:
“In the feral lands twins stand tall and proud; inspiring awe of their majesty. Seek the Wishrunner and journey down.”
This clue led our groups to The Twin Colossals on the western side of Feralas. When I was questing through Feralas I was always impressed by the scenery in the area, and thought it would be a great place to send people.
The final clue was given by Seastorm, giving the location of Hariel: “Your journey ends where druids slumber, an emerald sleep in an emerald dream. In the sacred den in the glade of dreams your prize awaits you there.”
The clue is a reference to the Stormrage Barrow Dens, located in the druid haven of Moonglade.
Ending at this location is of significance because right now World of Warcraft is celebrating the Lunar Festival. During this time of year, an evil, large puppy named Omen can be summoned, and he destroys everything in his path. As our group assembled in Moonglade, we formed a raid and took on the beast. Last year at this time we tried and failed. But this year, we had a sweeping success and killed Omen!!
Congratulations to everyone, and thanks for making this such a fun event.
Tabula Rasa
January 22nd, 2008 |
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Because I haven’t had enough new games to play here lately (heh), I’ve started playing Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa. I’ve been following the progress of the game since it was in Beta at the end of last year, and while intrigued by the idea of a Sci-Fi MMORPG that doesn’t suck, I’ve been too addicted to World of Warcraft to really make the plunge into another game.
So after reading some reviews here and there, last weekend I decided it was time for me to give it a try. And surprisingly, I am very impressed by the game.
Tabula Rasa is your standard MMORPG in many ways: You create a character and it has basic abilities and attributes. You have to complete a variety of quests from random NPC’s in the game ranging from “kill x number of these mobs” or “get x number of these items from some mobs” and even “escort random NPC loserbutt from this place to somewhere safe by traveling through a very hostile area.”
The differences between Tabula Rasa and other MMORPG’s are quite numerous, however. Quests often contain elements of choice in them, which can (supposedly) drastically change your standing with various factions in the game. It introduces a bit of morality that while not as in-depth as some games like Fable, adds a nice touch that games like World of Warcraft lack.
You don’t pick a class at the very start of the game. Instead, you start off as a Recruit (the Tier 1 class), and once you get to level 5 you can choose between becoming a Soldier or a Specialist (Tier 2). At level 15 you can choose your Tier 3 class of Commando or Ranger (if you are a Soldier), or Sapper, or Biotechnician (if you are a Specialist), and at level 30 you can choose your Tier 4 class, which is either a Grenadier, Guardian, Sniper, or Spy (for Commandos/Rangers), or Demolitionist, Engineer, Medic, or Exobiologist (for Sappers/Biotechnicians). It’s a neat tree that lets you choose as you go so you can make choices that fit your gameplay style a lot better.
After leveling your character, if you decide you want an alt, you don’t have to start over from scratch. As you level you gain a number of “clone credits” you can use to create a clone of your character. That clone is the same level of your main character, has completed the same quests, etc. You can then decide to change the sex and class of your clone (and in the next major patch, splice in alien DNA to create a hybrid, woot!). This way you don’t have to start completely over. The downside is that your clone won’t have any good gear or any money to speak of, so save and plan in advance!
Combat is a lot different. You don’t lock onto one target and spam different abilities. Instead, you have to actually aim at your target before you fire, make strategic use of cover, and react to enemy AI that is more involved than in other MMO games. Enemies will attempt to flank you if in groups, and they will come to the aid of someone in need a lot more intelligently than others. Crouching while aiming improves your chance to hit and the amount of damage you can do. Also, if you kill a mob and move on to another one within a few seconds, you will get an XP modifier, making quick grinding an attractive option.
Another neat feature is that instances are scaled based on the number of players in your group. So you can actually solo some of the instances at low levels if you are having trouble finding a group. This feature alone has really kind of thrown the traditional “gotta have a tank, healer, and DPS to run this” paradigm out the window in a lot of cases until you get into considerably harder content.
My main character is currently a Specialist named Charlie Ashwell on the Cassiopeia server. I plan on making him into a Medic for his Tier 4 class. So if you feel like trying it out, look me up!
Uberhealer
January 16th, 2008 |
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For a little while now I have been bored with my Warlock on World of Warcraft. He’s level 70, has tons of epic gear from Karazhan and from crafting, and our raiding progress, while steadily improving, is kind of slow, so getting better gear won’t happen very often. I can only do the daily quests available to me so many times before I want to beat my head into something.
So I’ve been leveling a bunch of alts trying to figure out what I really enjoy playing. DPS has been fun for me so far but I want to be more useful to the raid than that. So I rolled a tank and leveled to 30 and I really enjoy that. After getting to 30 I decided it was time to seriously try a priest, so I created Aidyssa, a female priest with the goal of being a healer.
Now I realize what I’ve been missing in this game, and I am in love. Healing is by far the most fun I have had in the game since I started playing a few years ago. The exhilaration I get from thinking quickly and reacting to the group’s actions really gets me going and I’m finding a lot of the content I was bored with is now fresh and exciting.
I think I’ve found a new main toon.
So I scoured the net looking for healing resources, and found several good ones, but nothing quite as in-depth and cohesive as The Warlock’s Den does for warlocks. So I decided to create one myself and see if I could put together a community of like-minded individuals who are totally obsessed with healing. At the same time I want it to be as free from trolls and spammers as possible. So now I am proud to introduce the world to a new set of forums:
Uberhealer - forums for World of Warcraft healers
If you are reading this and are interesting in learning more about healing in WoW, or if you want to contribute and spread your knowledge, feel free to join us and become an Uberhealer yourself.
First Thoughts on Burnout: Paradise
January 2nd, 2008 |
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For those not familiar with the series, Burnout at its core is a racing game. You get cars you can modify and race, etc. But the twist is that this game focuses more on creatively crashing cars and causing damage than actually racing. In this way it is the exact opposite of games like Forza Motorsports with is a racing simulator. My favorite event in Burnout is the Crash Party, where you launch your car into a busy intersection and try to cause the most amount of monetary damage possible. It’s quite a form of stress relief.
I was really excited to play the latest incarnation of the game and downloaded the demo as soon as I could.
This game is kind of a departure from previous versions. At first I was a little underwhelmed. Instead of getting a menu where you can choose the event you want to do, you are thrust into a city where you have to find different areas to change your paint scheme, refill your boost meter, or repair damages to the car. You also have to drive around to find different locations for your events. So in a way it feels like Burnout meets GTA. Not exactly what I was hoping for.
One neat feature though is that if you have a camera you can take a picture of yourself and it becomes your driver’s license photo. That becomes more fun if you are playing online and you can see who you took down, or who took you down. It adds a little more personality to the game.
Another cool feature is that even though this is a demo, you can play online! So people on Xbox Live, download the demo and let’s try out some of the online stuff.
The thing about this game is that I want to drive really fast. I want to beat up other cars. I want to crash in spectacular ways. I don’t want to have to drive around looking at a mini map to find an intersection for a particular event, slow down enough to hit the keys necessary to start the event, and then go. At first I was thinking I wouldn’t like it and would skip this version of the game.
However as I played the demo, I started to warm up to the idea of the city environment. While different from previous games, I don’t think it is a bad idea. Just different. I think once the full version of the game comes out and there are actually more than like 3 events you can do it will be a lot more fun. So right now I’m taking a “wait and see” approach to the game and will re-evaluate it after playing the full thing.
Call of Duty 4
December 26th, 2007 |
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One of my Christmas gifts from my loving wife was a fresh new copy of Call of Duty 4 for the Xbox 360. While I like first person shooters, I’m famous for being terrible at them, and I usually stay away from war-based games and prefer fantasy settings such as Halo or Half Life.
So I was pleasantly surprised when I started playing Call of Duty 4. The gameplay is actually something I can understand and grasp easier than a lot of other shooters.
First off, let me say that the game itself is incredibly beautiful. The textures and details and use of technologies such as HDR make the experience pretty darn immersive. Along with the visuals you have the addition of a great physics engine that gets shown off early in the game. The first mission puts you on board a sinking ship with pipes exploding, water and gas coming at you, bullets flying, and bodies stacking up. You can shoot through walls and explode cars, so you really have to think when taking cover.
While the gameplay is very similar to previous Call of Duty titles, this time the developers have really perfected things and added neat little twists (such as shooting baddies on the ground from an AC-130 in one mission! How cool is that?)
Another thing that really impressed me with this game is the fact that the plot is actually very interesting. The opening credit sequence is stellar for a video game, and I’ve been on the edge of my seat more playing the game than I have been watching a lot of recent action movies.
My only complaint about the single-player game is the same complaint I had about Portal: It is too short. On the easier settings you can beat it in under 5 hours, although I’ve heard the hardest setting can take close to 10 hours.
I can’t comment on the multiplayer part of the game as I need to run cat 5 cable to my game room to be able to get on Xbox Live, but it looks very promising and a lot of fun. I’ll post more when I get a chance to play.
Star Trek Online
December 13th, 2007 |
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Ok, so I’ve been checking out information on the new upcoming game Star Trek Online by Perpetual Entertainment. They claim to have veterans from EA, Blizzard, LucasArts, Activision, and Rockstar on their team to create an impressive MMO “unlike all others”.
The game’s web site has a “dev log” where the developers post random blog updates telling about the development process and explaining technical details of the game. It sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun, and I hope to get in on the action once they have something available (hey Perpetual! Throw me a beta invite when you have them! I’ll give thorough reviews and test like mad!).
I have to say that being a long-time fan of the Star Trek universe, this game has me really excited. To get a chance to pilot a ship for the Federation, to boldly explore new worlds, oh man I can’t wait and I sincerely hope they don’t mess this up.
Here are some screenshots that have been floating around on the web: In space | On Land
Raiding and Loot Drama
December 11th, 2007 |
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Admittedly I am not as well-versed in raiding in MMO’s as some people are. My raiding experiences start with running Karazhan in World of Warcraft and not with the epic 40-man raids such as Molten Core or the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj. I never had the joy of getting my dungeon set 0 or getting to roll on Onyxia’s head while it was still relevant to endgame content. So when I start handling the administrative details of leading a raiding team into Karazhan it shouldn’t be a big surprise that my mind is completely boggled at how normal, fun-loving people are turned into brutal loot monsters when a boss is defeated.
People complain about how much time we take distributing loot, how the fact that HordeSlayerMacDaddy shouldn’t have received the some epic-quality shield because so-and-so needs it more. Instead of bringing up discussion during loot distribution, they talk behind the raid leaders’ backs and complain and cause dissent. Or they hop guilds thinking the grass is greener on the other side. It happens to the best of guilds, but it was a shock to me to learn that raiding turns people into loot monsters.
People really take these kind of games too seriously and I see why and how people can get burned out quickly on raiding. The prospect of improving your character and seeing new content is wonderful, but dealing with the stress and drama of coordinating 10, 25, or 40 people to all work toward a common goal is a daunting task that can drive a person insane.
Some guilds try to solve these problems by implementing DKP–Dragon Kill Points. An individual player accrues points (as determined by the raid leader) for attending certain fights, showing up on time, and so forth. These points can be used as a currency to bid on items that drop. So if the Samophlange of Doom you have been drooling over drops off a dragon you can bid your points like an auction to make sure you get the item. The plus side is that those who work hardest in the raid get rewarded quicker, and those who show up randomly for a few fights don’t get to “steal” someone’s epics.
There are variations on this, and they all have their upsides and downsides. Being in a guild that is a casual raiding guild at best where there are no attendance requirements, DKP isn’t something that makes the most amount of sense. Our groups are fluid, and if we wish to improve the guild as a whole we need to be able to gear up everyone. So we basically use Blizzard’s built-in “need before greed” system.
It boils down to this: If you participate in a boss fight and he drops loot that you can use for your character (not an alt, mind you) then you can roll for it if you need it. If no one needs it, then you can roll for greed if you want the item for an offset or for an alt (if it is Bind on Equip). If still no one wants it, the loot is assigned to an Enchanter for disenchanting and the mats go to the guild bank. Before ANY loot is assigned or disenchanted, we open up the distribution to discussion, to make sure everyone is satisfied with the results.
Even with that approach there is still drama, and it gets very frustrating. We have people who won’t speak up before the loot is assigned, but they talk behind the leaders’ backs about how unfair the loot assignment was or how poorly the raid leader or loot master performed their duties. Stuff like that has had us make things even more structured by relying on a “guild approved” loot guide (from http://www.wow-loot.com) to determine which classes are the best fit for a piece of gear.
People need to realize that acting petty and getting upset over gear in this game just causes the raid leaders to not want to organize raids anymore. It does not solve anything to get upset over this sort of thing. If you can’t be constructive in your comments and actions, then sit down and shut up. I mean, World of Warcraft (or any MMO for that matter) is just a game and if you start getting pissed off over a piece of gear you didn’t get, you need to step back and analyze your priorities. Pixels on a screen do not equate to happiness.
New Hunter Pet - Ghost Saber
December 7th, 2007 |
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So I decided to tame a new pet to go with my monkey Xabbu: I tamed a Ghost Saber which I named Stormy. This is my first kitty, so I had to go around to various places and tame random cats to get various levels of Dash and Prowl. But getting Stormy was pretty easy. You have to go the the north of Darkshore where the Naga are, and look for little kitty figurines on the ground. Right-click those and when they open sometimes they will spawn a random level 19-20 Ghost Saber that can be tamed. The cool thing is that the pet is permanently translucent (without having Prowl active), making it pretty unique.
Focusing on alts
December 6th, 2007 |
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Playing World of Warcraft, I have decided to stop focusing as much on my Gnome Warlock (Bratta) and instead focus more on some of my lower-level alts and try to get them up to level 70. I kind of miss the fun in gaining experience, completing quests, exploring, and whatnot. Raiding constantly is kind of a drain due to all the stress involved in coordinating 10-25 people, fairly distributing loot, dealing with complainers and people who don’t care, and so on.
I got to the point where I just wasn’t having any fun, so i said to myself, “self, either quit playing if you aren’t having fun, or make a change so you WILL have fun.”
So now I’m going to level my three alts and put Bratta on the back burner for now.
My “main alt” is a level 47 Draenei Hunter named Borattan. The pet I use most right now is a monkey named Xabbu (taken from the Otherland series by Tad Williams). I feel very comfortable playing this character and I will most likely level him to 70 first. But he’s considered another DPS class (damage per second, or a class who sits there and beats really hard on the enemy), and so finding a raiding spot for him (if that is what I decide to do) will be a little hard. In PvP I am very comfortable with Borattan and can hold my own against most opponents. With Bratta, even though people consider Warlocks overpowered, I struggle in PvP.
My next alt to focus on is my level 27 Warrior. I decided to roll a tank (i.e. the character who is supposed to take all the hits from the enemy monsters so the DPS and healers don’t die) but I wanted there to be a bit of irony. So I created a female gnome (the smallest race in the game) with cute pink pigtails and wearing as much pink gear as possible. Her name is Improbable. It’s a lot of fun playing her.
Finally I decided to create a Draenei Shaman and named him Leitmotif, after an album by a progressive band named Dredg. Alternatively, a leitmotif is a recurring musical theme that is associated with a particular person, place, or idea. Coming from such a musical background that I do I thought it very appropriate. I created a Shaman in order to fill the healing roll but still be flexible so I can adequately DPS and even tank in some situations if I needed to do so. And as I tell my friend Heathe, Shamans are just Druids that don’t suck.
Between those three characters, I have plenty to keep me busy for a while. Since Blizzard decided to lower the amount of experience points needed to level, it shouldn’t take too much time to get them all to level 70. Let’s see if I still remain interested in the game to get them there!
