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A tour of WildStar's upcoming Black Focus area
The next update for WildStar has some pretty big shoes to fill. Arriving on November 11th, it's the first update the game has seen since August, when the game abruptly peeled back from monthly updates to quarterly ones. It comes after a round of server merges. It needs to prove to fans who are still subscribed to the game that there's good reason to keep playing and that more content is on the way in the near future -- that there's a reason to hold out hope. Earlier this week, I toured the Black Focus, the five-person group content releasing in the new region of The Defile in the upcoming patch. Not all of my questions about the zone as a whole were answered since I didn't get to go through all of the quests leading into this particular encounter. However, I did get a chance to form at least some first impressions and see how well this bit of content holds up. And there's a new trailer past the cut if you just want to watch that.
The case for catch-up dungeons
The 'catch up' dungeon was a commonplace design in Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm, one that's fallen out of favor in Mists of Pandaria to be replaced by the Timeless Isle and Raid Finder. It's understandable that this should be the case - designing a dungeon or dungeons is a lot of work, and it means other content (like, say, an open world zone like the Timeless Isle) won't be delivered. And as a catch up mechanic, the Timeless Isle is in many ways superior to a five man dungeon. Art assets were reused and gear randomized - you get a piece for your class and spec, but it's not necessarily ideal for them, so there's benefit to keep farming the zone. Furthermore, there's an upgrade mechanic in place (Burdens of Eternity) that will allow you to make pieces that are much closer in quality to current raiding, giving you even more incentive to keep running it. However, I'm much more a fan of the catch up dungeon. As much as I like exploring on the Timeless Isle, there comes a time when you've explored all that you can, and the Isle stops having any use for you. Even for a dedicated alt-maven, it's lack of weapons (yes, I know you can get some weapons, but even after the upgrade in 5.4.7 they won't be very good) at a reasonable cost makes it less appealing to me. The Timeless Isle trades the random drop factor of catch up dungeons for near certainty - you will get every piece you want, eventually. It's an efficient and workable system and I dislike it. In comparison to Wrath and Cataclysm it lacks in the following areas:
The Elder Scrolls Online shows off group content in a new video
There are ways to interact with other players in MMOs other than via group content, but part of the fun is being able to gather up with your friends and go stomp some monsters for a bit. The Elder Scrolls Online has a new video out with the developers exploring just a fraction of the group content available in the game, ranging from bosses roaming the world to dark cultist rituals, while also offering commentary on the design goals of the various encounters. As the video states very early on, one of the major goals of the game is not to force players to group, but to provide positive incentives to encourage group play. Some of the game's quick-travel mechanisms work on this principle -- rather than simply allowing quick travel to waypoints, players can also teleport to their nearest party members, allowing a group to gather and get moving quickly. Take a look at the full video just past the break.
Guild Wars 2's Tequatl Rising is live today
Any players planning on a journey in Tyria today had better watch their step; Tequatl the Sunless is back and is none too happy. Undead dragons have never been known for taking defeat well, and this one has evolved and returned to devour and destroy all who cross its path as Guild Wars 2's latest chapter of living world content, Tequatl Rising, goes live. This new update offers players a new group-combat experience as they band together to try and defeat this threat again. Victory, however, is far from assured, and failure is a very real option. So to help increase your odds, devs offer the following combat walk-through video from PAX Prime that might just have enough hints to help you hone your tactics. You can also join the devs for a livestream on Friday the 20th at 3:00 p.m. EDT on the official GW2 Twitch channel. [Source: ArenaNet press release]
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's dungeons
My interest in Final Fantasy XIV is not purely about racing to the endgame, but I am well aware there is an endgame. And while I'm easily distracted by the pursuits of other goals such as leveling Arcanist, I'd rather be on the early side to the party. There's nothing wrong with not being the first at endgame, but I'd prefer to beat the rush, if you know what I mean. So my playtime has been focused a bit more toward getting to the end of the story quick-like. This also means going through a lot of Final Fantasy XIV's dungeons. I'm not quite up to the last rush, but considering a lot of people I see are still moving into stuff I left behind a while ago, I'm still a bit ahead of the parabola. So let's take a look at the dungeons along the path from level 1 to level 50 after the initial set (which I covered back in beta).
World of Warcraft's patch 5.4 launches tomorrow
Tomorrow's patch for World of Warcraft will not bring about the end of the Horde. It will, however, mark a crucial turning point in the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde when both sides storm the walls of Orgrimmar to take down Warchief Garrosh Hellscream. It remains to be seen just what will happen after tomorrow's patch, but as the preview video past the break shows, things won't be the same after the walls come down. Not that the patch is just about laying siege to the Orcish home city. It also introduces flexible raiding modes to allow groups of any size to tackle raid content as well as the Proving Grounds, which are solo instances that test your tanking, healing, or DPS skills. There are also currency conversions and new items to be obtained, helpfully explained in a small FAQ on our sister site. Do what you need to do today, and get ready to storm the walls tomorrow.
The Daily Grind: What dungeons do you hate in games you love?
Not every game has dungeons. It would be kind of silly to imagine a group of EVE Online starships traveling through moldy corridors and slaughtering orcs (but also kind of awesome). But the idea of having an area with paced enemy encounters and big bosses certainly isn't novel. World of Warcraft calls them dungeons, Star Wars: The Old Republic calls them flashpoints, Dungeons & Dragons Online calls them lots of different things, and they're all a chance for players to group up and enjoy some content. Sometimes it's not really enjoyable, though. The mechanics don't work or aren't fun. The fights require a lot more luck than skill. You don't have visual cues that are pretty much necessary to understand what's happening. If a game has dungeon, it always has some that aren't as good as the others. So what dungeons do you hate in a game that you otherwise love? Are they agreed by the community to be horrible, or are they usually beloved dungeons that you just can't stand personally? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Mog Log: The mandatory early dungeons of Final Fantasy XIV
You're going to be exploring at least three dungeons in Final Fantasy XIV no matter what, possibly more. Progression in the main story requires a trip through Sastasha Seagrot, the Tam-Tara Deepcroft, and Copperbell Mines. While I've talked a great deal about the ethics of including this grouping experience, what I haven't really discussed are the actual dungeons themselves, even though that's certainly a big deal. Let's be honest here: If this stuff isn't fun, all of the talk about the validity of forced grouping is kind of pointless. Even if you can, there are times when you shouldn't. Fortunately for the long-term viability of these dungeons, all three have more than just nice loot (which is apparently shared between them); they also offer a fun ride through regardless. So as you could probably infer from all of the text up to this point, let's take a gander at the first three dungeons in the game and the ones we know for a fact you have to clear right off.
The Nexus Telegraph: Raiding in WildStar is its own creature
When WildStar comes out, it is going to have raiding. It's going to have the sort of raiding and group content that is meant to be challenging. No facerolls intended here; you'd better bring your A-game on raid night, or you will be facedown in the dirt so often that people will think you're doing a performance piece on the Kennedy family tree. I am not a lover of raiding. This is not difficult to find evidence of on this site because I've talked about the issues with group-only endgame antics on more than one occasion. Heck, I wrote about how raiding turns you into a horrible person. So you would think I'd look at what we know about WildStar's endgame and start facepalming, possibly whilst shaking my head and muttering obscenities. But I'm not. I'm totally cool with what we've been told so far about the endgame because there's much more than just the raiding aspect in the game, and I'm intrigued by how it's working out.
The Daily Grind: What's your ideal group size?
World of Warcraft is introducing flexible raids soon, allowing you to experience major content with any size of group that you want. Assuming, of course, that you want to experience that content with at least nine other people. The flexibility is nice, but it doesn't allow you to run with any group size that you want. But maybe that isn't an issue for you in the slightest. Maybe your ideal group size is a dozen people. Perhaps you'd prefer five people along with you, or seven, or just two. City of Heroes scaled most content to group size no matter what, asking players to bring as many people along as they liked and not worry about having too many or too few. So let's throw the question over to you, dear readers. What's your ideal group size? Are you happiest in small groups, pairs, large groups, or massive onslaughts whose numbers block out the sun? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 1 and 2 - FATEs and dungeons
Do you smell that on the wind, my friends? It smells like June is fast approaching, and more importantly it smells like soon we'll be able to welcome the third phase of testing with open arms. Which is good, since I am currently going through withdrawal. I wake up in cold sweats, try to change my class in other games, start up the Final Fantasy XIV beta client in the hopes that someone "accidentally" turned the servers back on... you get the general idea. To help alleviate this, I'm going to talk about the two pieces of the game from the first two beta phases that are in need of the most polish. While there are places to improve elsewhere, FATEs and dungeons have issues that might need a bit more hammering to fix. Or they might be fine and we just haven't yet seen enough of the game to know everything. Either way, let's get started with the big addition to the game, the system that had no predecessor in Final Fantasy XIV's first version: the FATE system.
Allods posts a preview of the upcoming Pyramid dungeon
Pyramids aren't just for ancient pharaohs or Mayans. In Allods Online, a pyramid is the site of one of the game's newest dungeons coming out with the upcoming Lords of Destiny expansion. Of course, this pyramid is also covered in magical runes and filled with the sort of enemies that require a strong level 55 raid to defeat, but isn't that always the way? Pyramids never wind up being summer bungalows for retirees. All joking aside, the Pyramid is a construction of the ancient Tep, a necromancer who studied the essence of life itself and tried to capture it inside of his stronghold. His work led to the origin of the Arisen, but he still waits within his stronghold as a vengeful shade intent on harvesting more life. Allods Online players can find more information on the dungeon layout and bosses in the full rundown on the official site.
Star Wars: The Old Republic's guide to the group finder
In a perfect world, all Star Wars: The Old Republic groups would be composed of several friends working together. But sometimes your friends aren't online or just have other things to do, and for those times, there's the Group Finder tool. But why is it that you can select a role you can't perform? Why do you queue up as healing or damage but always get picked for healing? How does the whole daily reward work? For answers to these questions and more, production team member Toni Phillips has put together a rundown of some of the Finder's more esoteric features. Phillips explains that daily rewards require you to complete the final step of the Flashpoint mission rather than simply clear the last boss, which usually involves clicking on an object at the end. Role selection, meanwhile, is determined by what your advanced class can do rather than what you're currently able to do, and if you select multiple roles, the finder will tend to pull from the rarer roles first. For more information and a more thorough breakdown, take a look at the full guide.
Choose My Adventure: Exploring dungeons with Higiri
Rielene's poll last week pushes her toward BAMs, but for now we're moving on to focus on our other adventurer in TERA. Higiri is not venturing across sunlit fields and enjoying the open air; no, she was bound for the darkest realms, places where monsters gather and plot the destruction of joy in private. But in order to get her into dungeons, I had to get her through a fair bit of leveling first, enough to enter the first dungeon of the game. I spent a lot of time questing with Higiri this past week, since that's easily the most efficient way to level, and as a result I had some further insights into the nature of questing in the game that build off of my insights last week. But running the dungeon was the centerpiece, and my runs through were... memorable, yes, but probably for the wrong reasons. And no, not in the "crazy, horrible party" sense.
PAX East 2012: Hands-on with Perfect World's RaiderZ
TERA isn't the only upcoming MMO to feature big-ass monsters and action combat. Perfect World Entertainment showed us a demo of RaiderZ at last weekend's PAX East, and producer Mark Hill was pretty enthusiastic about the game's level of polish. He also made a point of highlighting the amount of free gameplay the company will be making available to fans later this year. "We really want to blow people away with how much free content they're getting out of a really top-notch game," he said. Join us after the cut to see what RaiderZ has to offer.
DC Universe Online's upcoming game update is all about easier grouping
If you've been enjoying DC Universe Online ever since the game switched business models, odds are good you're looking toward the endgame by now. Game Update 9, which is coming soon, will make getting into that endgame even easier via the addition of Novice Raids. This new difficulty setting still allows players to experience all the storyline of Fortress of Solitude, Kahndaq, and the Batcave, but the difficulty will be notched down so that players can get a better feel for what they're doing. Of course, if you're not into the endgame rush, you've still got something to look forward to with the new role-optional alerts system. In essence, players will now be able to queue for Alerts without needing to put together a balanced group; in the event that a role is missing, a team buff will be applied to ensure that the area can still be cleared. That means that even with nothing but Damage characters, you can still explore all of DC Universe Online's group content, something that should allow for some novel player approaches once the update goes live. [Update: SOE has also issued a statement about plans for the game's PvP in 2012. The full quote is after the cut.]
Get into a RIFT Instant Adventure faster than watching this promo video
"Players are in for good surprises," Trion Worlds' devs promise. "It's like nothing you've ever seen in an MMO before." What's all this about? Why, it's the upcoming Instant Adventure feature for RIFT, where players can jump right into massive group content without having to sit in a queue or worrying about group composition. This "nonstop excitement" is hyped via a new video diary in which the feature is quickly demonstrated while the devs hit all the talking points in less than a minute. Instant Adventures are designed to deliver quick group quests without having to pull together specific roles or wait for world events to occur. By clicking on the Instant Adventure button, players are brought to either Stillmoor or Shimmersand and a special encounter is launched that scales up and down with your group's size. Give it a look and see if this is as good as the devs' word -- the adventures start (instantly) after the jump.
Wasteland Diaries: PvE like a boss
Fallen Earth PvE can be anywhere from laughably easy to downright frustrating. I guess that's a good thing since you get a gamut of difficulty levels, but much of the leveling span leans toward the easy end of the scale. I tend to get bored with PvE combat fairly quickly in MMOs (not just Fallen Earth). Other people love to struggle against the environment. Some even refuse to do anything remotely akin to PvP. I'll only throw the term "carebear" at those who think all PvPers are maladjusted psychopaths. I'm not talking about them; I'm talking about regular hardcore PvEers: players who would rather play against the NPCs than against other players. Many of my posts center around PvP. If I didn't PvP (and since I'm not a big roleplayer), I doubt I would still be playing Fallen Earth. That's just what I spend most of my time doing in the wastelands. So I tend to write a lot about it. But all PvPers have to PvE. PvE has its own set of challenges for the player. Granted, these challenges are quite static, and once you find a way to overcome them, you are done. But they are challenges nonetheless, and knowledge is power as much in PvE as it is in PvP. In this post I will give you some tips and tricks that might help you get through that next tough mission. Much of this stuff is common sense, but it may not occur to you until it's too late. So click past the cut and let's get started.
The Soapbox: Groupthink
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. I can pinpoint exactly the moment that the luster of World of Warcraft's big old-game-changing expansion wore off for me. And it didn't take very long, just long enough for me to pick up a quest named It's Raid Night Every Night for my Dwarf. It was an unremarkable quest in every way, with the only really clever-ish bit being the title that slyly winks at players about one of the game's criticisms. Except that it's not exactly an unfair criticism. If you were at the level cap and wanted to keep playing the game with anything approaching forward motion, it was raid night every night. The joke left a bad taste in my mouth. Of course, this isn't an article about WoW except in passing and by association. It's about the temptation and tendency to have group content as the panacea, as the overwhelming focus of any new content. It's about why we get so much content that focuses on large group efforts, and why that isn't necessarily such a good thing -- for the players or even the developers.
The Daily Grind: What was your favorite experience as a healer?
If you're going to play a game in which your allies will rush forward into their imminent death despite your best efforts, someone's going to need to take the task of keeping them from death. Sometimes the healer is up on the front lines like the Warrior Priests of Warhammer Online, but most often your job in the healer is to stand back and keep everyone alive in spite of their determination to stand in fire. It's not a glamorous job, but boy is it ever important. From games like World of Warcraft that require a dedicated healer to games like City of Heroes where your "healer" may have no direct healing spells, the third part of the holy trinity sees the least direct action but still tables a lot of responsibility. So what's your favorite experience from taking on the role of the walking band-aid? Were you stuck in a group with members who couldn't keep themselves alive at all if not for your healing? Or is there a particular game that always made healing feel more fun than any other task in the game? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
