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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Scrappers
We're in a small lull for City of Heroes at the moment, and truth be told it's well-deserved. After several months of invasions, updates, previews of the upcoming issues and so forth... it's nice to finally have a chance to just lean back and breathe a little bit. Of course, said breathing will involve a fair bit of superpowered antics, but as involved as that might be for the characters, the players don't have to be constantly looking to the future. So while we technically should be working through the Incarnate System, the odds are better than even that we'll all be rolling alts over the holiday season. We play City of Heroes; alts are in our blood. So in a move that can only have been brought on by an almost criminal overdose of liquor, I've decided to start taking a look at the powersets of the archetypes, starting with the alt-friendly Scrapper. This should be of benefit to those who have never played a Scrapper, including players who are starting the game for the first time and who by definition haven't tried one before.
The Daily Grind: Are you buying Final Fantasy XIV?
In the relative drought of new releases for 2010, Final Fantasy XIV may look to some like a shining beacon. Beyond even that, it might look like a beacon even if the year was filled to bursting. Crafting classes, active combat, and the unique flavor that Square-Enix puts into a game all wrapped up in one system-intensive package. Of course, there are several people who look at the indisputably uncommon control scheme, early-game bugs, or even just the flavor of the game and see it as the exact opposite of a beacon. Today isn't the full release of the game, but anyone who purchased the collector's edition will get to log in starting today with an eight-day head start. Whether or not you decided to spring for the pricier edition, we have to ask -- are you planning on buying Final Fantasy XIV? Are you going to buy at launch, or do you plan to wait until more of the kinks have been ironed out? Or are you holding out for the PS3 release early next year?
Defining Playstyles: Beyond casual vs. hardcore
In a recent Totem Talk post, I made a loot list for enhancement shamans that have access to ICC but are not progression raiders, because they are either alts or they are -- drum roll, please -- casual. That's right: I used the c-word without context. Casual. There, I said it again without context. Excuse me while I duck from the rotten vegetables being thrown in my direction. The use of that c-word in relation to an Icecrown Citadel loot list sparked a very interesting comment thread. Most comments were well thought-out, added value and furthered the discussion. Some were, to borrow Adam Savage's favorite term, vitriolic, because of my heinous misuse of the term "casual." I said it again without context. I'm just casually throwing around "casuals" here. Given the reaction that post received, I started doing some research into what exactly "casual" and "hardcore" actually mean. What I found was not surprising at all: They mean completely different things to absolutely everyone. The MMO population of players, across all games, is estimated at over 61 million people. There are as many variations on play time and playstyle as there are players in the game. Do you really think we can divide this many people simply into two groups of just casuals and hardcores? I think it's time we move beyond the polarizing definitions of casual and hardcore and come up with some definitions of our own.
Call for Submissions: What do you want from your next MMO?
The world of MMOs would be a very different place without the monumental presence of World of Warcraft. At this point, WoW has shaped an entire world full of gamers, setting expectations, conventions and precedents that other games will be struggling to meet (or dodge, or surpass) for years to come. What is WoW's legacy to you? Once you've logged out for the last time and are eagerly preparing to dive into the next big thing, what will you be looking for? WoW.com is accepting article submissions on what you crave from your next big MMO experience. From playstyle to game features, community and social features to casual/hardcore balance, what do you want out of the next MMO you'll play? What has WoW whetted your appetite for that you'd like more of? What would you like to explore in areas WoW never ventured? Your article will clearly relate how Blizzard and World of Warcraft's legacy has shaped your ideas on what you'd like to play in the years to come.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The replacements
Hey, guys, did you know that Going Rogue is launching in less than a week? That's crazy. It feels especially strange to me, since this was an expansion that had barely been announced when I started here, and has since become pretty personally important. But we're not here to talk about my vague feelings about the impending launch, we're here to talk about its larger implications for City of Heroes -- namely, the obvious systemic changes that might well be coming when the expansion goes live. Now, some of you are doubtlessly going to point out that we're not even getting our first Incarnate slot, the expansion isn't changing any part of the system, and so forth and so on. But you forget that there is an interesting change to the system coming that we all know about: the fact that archetypes will no longer be allegiance-locked. That's right -- whether you're in City of Heroes or City of Villains, you'll no longer be limited to five different archetypes. And considering the fact that the archetypes are roughly analogous on both sides now, this might have just a bit of an impact.
Exclusive video diary of the souls of Rift: Planes of Telara
You could be forgiven for not catching it immediately from our E3 hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara, but there are some unique things going on with the game's class system. It's hardly the first game to allow you to change classes, but the game also goes into combining them, shifting aspects, interplay between multiple class types... it's a maze of inter-relationships. Luckily, we have an exclusive video developer diary from the staff at Trion Worlds that discusses the whole setup at length, giving future players a much clearer overview of how the system works. When players start, they choose one of four Callings -- Warrior, Rogue, Mage, or Cleric -- which determines the player's core playstyle. As they level, they gradually acquire Souls, and it's there that the bulk of a character's abilities come from. It's a fusion of the talent tree system popularized via World of Warcraft with something much more interesting, and the possibilities for mixing the different Souls together can give rise to all sorts of interesting theories. But don't take our word for it -- watch the exclusive developer diary just past the cut.
Breakfast Topic: What is your leveling style?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Are you a loner or a social butterfly? A turtle or a race car on a demonic speedway? There are as many ways to level as there are races and classes to play. With the release of Cataclysm drawing near, I am beginning to feel that old excitement of leveling up my toons to new heights. You know that feeling, right? The excitement you feel when delving into quests never done before. The rush of seeing your XP bar move up and up. The elation of dinging a new level. I love leveling up through new content. I think we all do -- otherwise, why are we playing this game, right? But here is the real question: How do you like leveling up? Are you a solo leveler? Do you prefer to take your time and read each quest and then carefully plot your course of action? Or, like me, do you pick up all the quests you see and then later figure out what the heck you are supposed to do? Do you like leveling with a buddy, or in a group? My own personal style is a mirror of my personality: a bit crazy, more than a little compulsive and headstrong to the finish. I go to a new area and pick up every single quest I can find. Then I read them all and figure out where to go for each one (this last bit having been made much easier with Blizzard's implementation of "Questing for Dummies" and the placement of little markers on your map where each quest can be completed).
The Daily Grind: What attitudes can you not stand?
Blizzard has always been known by the fans for going all-out with their jokes on April 1st, and this year was no exception. The entire Equipment Potency Equivalence Number was funny in its own right, but especially as an attitude prevalent not only among World of Warcraft players. No matter what game you play, you know people whose sense of ego and importance at in-game achievements drives you up the wall. For some people it's a minor irritation; for others, it's the sort of thing that is so insufferable it's not worth even trying to work with them. There are no shortage of helpful and friendly players in games, but there's also an abundance of arrogant gear worshippers, socially inept trolls, die-hard PvP grognards, ineffectual PvE carebears... you get the idea. Almost everyone agrees the extreme cases are bad, but we all think some are worse than others. So what about you? What sort of outlook makes you just quit a group in frustration no matter how the player performs? Is it something hugely removed from your own playstyle and approach, or something that's close to how you normally run and becomes more obnoxious as a result?
The Daily Grind: How do you like to play?
We complain that MMOs are getting narrower and smaller as time goes by, with terms like "themeparks" being thrown around without much affection. But there are still a lot of ways to enjoy yourself in pretty much every game under the sun and games that cater to a wide variety of playstyles on top of that. There are games focused on a strong PvP game (Warhammer Online, EVE Online), games with a focus on PvE content (City of Heroes, Lord of the Rings Online), and others with a split between both (World of Warcraft, Guild Wars). Even within that wide spectrum, however, there's a fair variety of options. You could focus on the PvE game in EVE Online if you wanted, or even just head off into another direction like roleplaying if you so desired. With all the different ways to enjoy yourself, we ask you today: how do you like to play? Do you prefer PvP, PvE, a mix of both? Or do you prefer alternate progression like crafting or exploration, eschewing the rails that are set down for you by the development team?
We're missing something in our MMOs
Game design has certainly come a long way from Ultima Online, the first real example of what we now think of as the MMO genre. We've gone from games with no restrictions on behaviors to games where it's almost impossible to be truly horrid to other people, from ones without any real structure to a clean path of progression, from obtuse game mechanics to transparent and clear information. So with all of these changes, asks Brian 'Psychochild' Green, why are we feeling like there's something missing? Why do we find ourselves less than satisfied in our cleaner, better-designed, and well-built virtual worlds? The article asks the interesting question that if leveling and gear were removed from the games we play, what would we do? In most current games, he argues that there isn't a whole lot left once you take away the achievement axis, and that leads to a sense of hollowness in many -- achievements only fostering further achievements. He goes on to argue in favor of a greater sense of adventure and more options for exploration without requiring a strict advancement path. Whether or not it's a truly viable theory is up for debate, but the core concepts should prove interesting to anyone looking for an answer to the question "why am I doing this?" We've seen a rise in prominence of goal-focused games following the success of World of Warcraft, and perhaps it's time to start moving to the other end of the spectrum.
An opportunity to change Retribution
As embarrassed as I am to admit it, the truth is that Retribution has a pretty low skill cap. This is an old accusation, but one that has quite a bit of weight in it. Although it used to be primarily an auto-attack class in PvE, things changed with the introduction of Divine Storm and now Exorcism in Patch 3.1. Still, many Retribution Paladins can faceroll their way to good DPS because, well, the class design is really easy to play. There are buttons that you press to do damage, you wait until cooldowns are up... rinse, repeat.Because you can pick up all talents that contribute to DPS even before you hit Level 80, it becomes a matter of gear scaling after that. In most cases, similarly geared Retribution Paladins in a raid will put out nearly identical numbers with few exceptions. Unlike other DPS classes where the spread can be wide owing to particular talent choices, differences in rotation, gear, and play style, Retribution Paladins have the relatively simple task of resolving priority when an ability comes off cooldown. There are no combo points, no freeze effect bonuses, no procs to wait for.This isn't to say that Retribution is one-dimensional. It's not. Particularly in PvP, Retribution can reach deeper into its bag of tricks with stuns and incapacitate effects, instant Turn Evil, and a plethora of survivability and anti-cc abilities that you often won't bother with during raids. That said, there isn't anything particularly creative about how Retribution Paladins kill their opponents. It pours on damage. Prior to 3.1 that meant quite a lot of burst. For one glorious week, that meant ranged burst with Exorcism, too.
Behind the Curtain: The role you play pt. 2
I haven't looked back. I've had a lot of ups and downs on my journey to level 80. I haven't always stayed true to my original goal, and ended up skipping more than my fair share of groups at level 70 – can you believe that I didn't actually visit one Heroic dungeon in Burning Crusade? I've been in groups where the run was smooth as silk, and the chat had be holding my sides from laughing too hard. On the flip-side, I've had groups which made me want to claw my eyeballs from their sockets, and break my fingers so I couldn't play ever again. Seriously, Barrens General had nothing on some of these people. I've discovered that a lot of the things that make me a good healer in WoW also make me a good tank. Situational and tactical awareness, an eye for detail, the ability and willingness to communicate and the ability to make decisions quickly are necessary for success in both roles. Don't get me wrong – I'm not the best tank out there, I'm far from perfect, but I'm bloody good at it, and you could do an awful lot worse. Tanking is a role that puts a fair amount of responsibility on the player's shoulders. Whether you like it or not, whether you even realise it or not, a lot of the wipes that happen in an instance will be your fault. Yes, that Warlock/Mage/Shaman shouldn't be pulling aggro, but you should be watching Omen and warning them about it. Mobs running around one-shotting your healer? You should be picking them up before bad things happen. You might not agree, you might say that aggro is each player's own responsibility – that they should be checking their own Omen, and making sure they're behind you in aggro. That's fair enough, I just calls 'em the way I sees 'em. I never expected to enjoy tanking as much as I do. I've found a role that I never thought would have suited me, but by the same token, might not have enjoyed as much if I'd gone into it earlier in the game. Maybe I was wrong about the other classes I considered, and I'd have ended up feeling as much at home being a Mage or Shaman. Most of us play games for some small amount of escapism, to get away from our real lives and forget our stresses for a little while if we can. But are we drawn to certain classes because they reflect something within ourselves? Do I enjoy tanking and healing because of some personality quirk? Does that mean I enjoy smoothing over people's concerns and keeping them happy in real life? My family would beg to differ. Are Mages running a heavy Fire spec all secret Pyromaniacs? Are those of us with a Druid secret hippies? The analogy doesn't really hold much weight, I'll admit – but there may be something in it. Feel free to comment below, share similar stories of you finding your niche, or even stories of you not finding it. Let me know if agree or disagree with my theories – I'll try not to delete the ones that disagree. No promises though. Back to Part One
Behind the Curtain: The role you play
This week, I'd like to talk a bit about how taking a look at how you play a game, and which class you play, and maybe choosing to change one or both can pay dividends. Before I do that though, I would just like to mention that I did finally manage to get hold of Baron Rivendare's mount after 68 runs - my thanks to all of you who shared similar stories in the comments of last week's column. Or at the very least, my thanks to whatever Blizzard GM read my whinings and took pity on me, if that's what happened. Apart from Keith. Ten runs, two mounts and one sword? Keith, I'll be hunting you down to kill you in your sleep, I just wanted to give you fair warning. If you've been paying attention to any of my columns of late, you'll have noticed that I'm playing a level 80 Protection Warrior in World of Warcraft just now. I may not have Matthew Rossi's deep, rather touching, love for the Warrior class, but I do love being a tank. Which is something of a surprise, because it was never something I thought I would enjoy being. My first character in WoW, away back around patch 1.9 was a Tauren Druid. I won't lie, the whole idealized Native American feel of the Tauren sucked me right in. The serenely beautiful rolling plains of Mulgore certainly didn't hurt my choice either. As for the Druid class itself, I can't quite remember what drew me there. I imagine it was that the theory and lore behind the class match up well with that of the Tauren race itself – they seemed to go well together, so I guess I just went with it. Levelling up, of course, I specced Feral. I knew the Balance and Restoration trees were there, but I avoided them. I avoided Balance because it didn't suit the way I wanted to play, and I avoided Restoration because I wasn't yet comfortable speccing into a tree which required regular PUGs to get the most out of it.
Breakfast Topic: Has the upcoming release of Wrath changed how you play?
We've had a lot of talk here on WoW Insider about what you can do to prepare for Wrath of the Lich King. Stocking up on consumables, clearing out your bank, stuff like that. Some people have really drastically changed their play style to prepare for the expansion which is coming in just a few days.Me? I've actually stopped doing things on my main, more or less. I stopped farming gold, I stopped worrying about consumables and gear. Just about the only thing I do on my main is raid since we're still doing Sunwell Plateau once or twice a week hoping for some weapon drops from Kil'jaeden. What I've been doing with the rest of my time in WoW is actually power leveling a new character to 70 as quickly as I can. Why am I doing that, so close to Wrath?
Forum post of the day: Simple pleasures
I've long said that once the game becomes more like a job than a diversion, it may be time to reconsider your choice of hobbies. True, to get to the top it takes lot of work, knowledge, and time. But when it comes down to it, what is the game really about? Vagh of Kil'jaeden sent out a shout out to those who aren't the best of the best, but are still enjoying the game. He tipped his hat to: A person who is happily running around a main city with greens and blues A person who is so happy to kill a boss in a 5 man instance A person who gets a blue off of a non-heroic mode boss for a badly needed upgrade and floods the party channel with "Woot!" or "I'm so happy!!!" A person whose arena rating hovers in the 1400s but still enjoys the game A person who doesn't complain endlessly on the forums about imbalance
To click or not to click?
Flipping through the forums I came across a post by Taithleech where he was asking why everyone seems to think clicking is bad. It's only been recently that I knew about this debate, but I can't really call it a debate if it's one sided, can I? A lot of players seem to believe that using keybindings is the only way to play. When I started playing World of Warcraft I was actually taught by a friend to use the mouse to click on my spells as a way of improving my speed in the game. Since hearing about the keybinding argument I have recently tried using them more than my mouse in instances, and I do find that my speed has greatly improved. Now, being the frost mage I find I spend a lot of time spamming Frostbolt, so that's a situation where I don't think clicking the spell with my mouse hinders me in any way. There are even fights, such as Warlord Kalithresh, where I use a combination of keyboard and mouse to maximize my speed. Many of the posts on the forum thread made reference to something I hadn't considered. They say that in order to play WoW properly, you need to approach it like an FPS. I guess this argument is particularly valid if you spend a lot of time in the arenas. I personally have little FPS experience, and so this viewpoint makes me a bit uneasy. I see the advantage of working your keyboard to its full advantage, but I'm just not sure I've got the reflexes to play like that. In the end I will have to agree with one poster who said that clicking isn't wrong, it's just slower. Where do you side on the keybindings/clicking debate?
Breakfast Topic: Certain death
I think I have an addiction to dying. Especially on characters I don't really care about. I was recently playing on the test servers and decided to run my orc all the way to Stormwind (not so bad with an epic mount!), just to see how far I could get. Mage District, in case anyone's interested.A week later, I was passing some time fishing in pleasant solitude -- just me and the rod -- when an orc ran past me. Again, this was in Stormwind, but this time I was playing as Alliance. I admired his guts, but then moonfired him to death after a guard had softened him up a little. It's karma.Ever since these oddly similar orc incidents, I've tried to get my alts into strange and dubious places to die. Jumping off tall rocks -- check. Seeing how many fast-running mobs I could kite before they overwhelmed me -- check. PvP flagging in Hillsbrad -- check. The unnerving thing is that the deaths of all my alts combined are outweighed by the deaths of my main character -- PvP and raiding on a new boss all combine to make so much mincemeat of me. Have you an addiction to death? Do you enjoy death, see it as an inconvenience, or try to avoid it altogether? Are you attached to the happy smiling face of your wisp or ghost more than your flesh-and-blood character?
Breakfast Topic: I tank, you tank, she tanks
Quote of the evening last night: "we need war druids cant tank". (Of course, two druids proceeded to tank, presumably confusing this particular group member.)What defines a 'good' tank? What do you look for when selecting which group member should take on the onerous duty of being hit a lot? As a tank, what do you look for in a group?Having spent much of my time until level 60 in PuGs, I have something of a fear of tanking. Despite being a feral druid (for the most part), my experiences with random people have been universally dismal. To give you some idea, the best run I'd had for a long time was the Stockades, an instance which is loathed by many players.From the tank's point of view, it really helps to have group members who understand -- and listen. Those who realise it takes time to build up aggro, and don't rush in immediately with killer DPS. Those who realise that sometimes the squishies shouldn't do all the pulling. Those who appreciate the problems of adds -- or too much to handle -- and yell if they're in trouble. I've encountered everything from crazy DPS shadow priests to tanking mages, and most of it puts me off tanking with strangers -- but it's a dirty job, and someone's gotta do it.
