resurrection
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Druids may be getting a res in Wrath
A healer in WoW basically has one job: keep people from being dead. Ideally, you would keep people from ever becoming dead in the first place by healing them, but sometimes people do die and you have to resurrect them. WoW has four classes that can heal, Druid, Paladin, Priest, and Shaman, and three out of those four have more or less the same spell to bring people back to life, whether it's called Resurrection, Redemption, or Ancestral Spirit. There are slight variations in mana cost and the amount of HP and mana the target resurrects with, but they're all 10-second casts and all only work outside of combat. Then there is the Druid's resurrection spell, Rebirth. This spell is often known as "combat res" or "battle res," since it is the only targettable resurrection spell that can be cast during combat (Shamans can also self-res in or out of combat with Reincarnation). It's a great spell, but it has a 20-minute cooldown, meaning that if you're in a 5-man with a Druid healer and no other resurrecting player, and people die more often than one every 20 minutes (which happens frequently in heroics), they're not all going to be able to be ressed. This is not enough to keep me from wanting to run instances with only a Druid healing - I still love trees. But it is an obvious hole in a the Resto Druid's spell lineup. Fortunately, it looks like this hole may be closed in Wrath of the Lich King. According to the newly-relocated Wrath alpha wiki, Druids will be receiving a regular, no-cooldown, out-of-combat resurrection spell, entitled Revive. It has a 10-second cast time, and seems to bring targets up with about the same amount of HP and MP as Priest Resurrection. No word on mana cost yet. All I can say is "it's about time." Sure, it does homogenize the healing classes a little bit more, but Druids really ought to be able to fully serve as sole healers, and that means both keeping people from dying and bringing them back up if they do fall. Spell not found :(
Barrens Chat: The shocking truth
Engineers frighten me. Mostly because I tend to be the guinea pig in anything and everything I find myself involved in, and because of the things they do when we're not looking. But also because I don't understand a single thing they're trying to tell me.I don't know about you guys, but anyone who thinks a good time involves playing with dangerous things with electrical charges, and trying to outrun explosive sheep is a little bit on the crazy side. %Gallery-22361% Every week, Barrens Chat drags its readers through the clutter-filled, cobweb infested mind of Megan Harris, and exposes the readers to her decaying sense of humor. So if you're interested in soft, fluffy delights, or are more into a quick and tasty snack you... wait. Why are all these comics focused on food so far? Maybe next week our starving artist will be a little more well fed and provide less food-for-though, and more funny.
All the World's a Stage: Class is in session
All the World's a Stage is skipping class (gasp!), and playing with roles every Sunday evening.Our spells are shiny and bright, well worth using in more than just combat situations! Last time we talked a bit about this idea, as well as how druids, hunters, and mages could use their spells to entertain their friends. Today we turn to the remaining classes: priests, paladins, rogues, shamans, warlocks and warriors. Each roleplayer would do well to sit down and examine his or her action bar to pick out those spells which can be used outside of combat, and think of whatever opportunities imaginable to make good use of them. Chances are, if you put your mind to it, you can come up with some really creative ideas.Buffing, for instance: You've got these beautiful abilities that can benefit anyone around you, no matter what class or level they are. If you're going to bless them with such a neat thing, why not say something about it while you do so? You can say, "<Deity Name> guide you, sir!" or, "you look pretty dumb -- have some extra intellect!" or whatever expression sounds right for your character.
The Daily Grind: Are death penalties overkill?
This is one topic that never fails to wind up as a huge discussion any time we get together with gamer friends. Some of us who have been around since the early days of MMOs remember the harsh death penalties that many of these games included. If you died in EverQuest, you would lose experience -- lose too much, and you could lose levels. You also had to run back to your corpse either without any gear on unless you could find a friendly player to rez you. Ahh, the memories. Nowadays, death is disposable in games like World of Warcraft. You get killed by another player in front of Karazhan? No big deal. Just rez and head back. In games like WoW, death is less of an impact than it is an annoyance. It represents a whole 30 seconds you're going to have to spend running back from the conveniently-placed graveyard. Of course, you also resurrect with all your gear on you. And then there are they hybrids like City of Heroes; you don't ever lose enhancements or inspirations, but you do lose some experience when you die. Some people feel like this is a good solid trade-off. It teaches you to be less of a loose-cannon since death does have some impact on your character. On the other hand, it's fairly easy to work off debt in CoX, and you never have to chase down your corpse to either resurrect, or to retrieve your items; you just start in the hospital or your SuperGroup's base. So what do you think? Are the newer no-guilt, no-penalty deaths best, or were the older ones the best? Do you think death penalties teach players to think over strategy before rushing in, or do you think they'd do that anyway? What do you think of the hybrid systems that cause you to lose experience, but not gear? Which game has the best system in your opinion?
An argument for permanent death
I'm all about good ideas to improve the game we all love. I've even been known to toss them out to you folks on occasion. This morning though, in my morning perousal of the internets, I found a blog entry that just about made my eyes pop out of my head.Our good west-coast friend Cap'n Jack posted a couple of ideas yesterday that certainly had the benefit of being novel, if not extreme. While I don't think my head can completely wrap itself around his first PvP-themed suggestion, I'm really intrigued at his second idea: Permadeath.That's right folks. The Cap'n is suggesting that once you die, you're dead. If you can't find a benevolent druid, shaman, priest, paladin, or an engineer with a set of jumper cables within thirty minutes of death you're toast. Game over. Thanks for playing. We'll see you at the character creation screen momentarily. Jack further proposes that if the grim reaper does defeat you, that you would be allowed to start the character over at Level 1 naked and without skills, but retaining your name, your race, your class, and -- most importantly -- your ignore list.While even my wildest imagination cannot fathom the amount of hate comments I'm going to get over this article, I should state that I don't agree with 100% with John, I'm just presenting his idea for discussion. As a longtime MMOG player, I've seen the penalty for death gradually diminish from year to year and game to game. While I might not be entirely in John's corner on this issue I can agree that some more "serious" penalties for death might be refreshing. What are your thoughts? I'll be hiding in the WoW Insider bomb shelter. Let me know when the coast is clear.
Breakfast Topic: Top 5 reasons you die in WoW
I love the forums on Tuesdays. That's when you tend to find a lot of really silly and fun threads about the most mundane aspects of the game. Several of them have become "Tuesday topics" on my guild's forums. Most are the most simple things that oftentimes you don't even think about, like this thread from yesterday... Fortuna from the Zangarmarsh realm started up a thread titled "Top 5 reasons you die in WoW." It made me stop and think, because over the last couple of years, I think I've died just about everywhere, and in a myriad of ways. There was the first time I walked into the Cathedral in Scarlet Monestary when we pulled Mograine before we cleared the whole place. Oops. Then there was the time when I learned that the undead in Stratholme can see through stealth very easily. Not good. But then I got to thinking about the reasons I tend to die, and that was a whole other ball of wax.Here's what Fortuna's list had to say:5. Stupid Fel Reavers4. I didn't know that using a gnomish shrink on Rag was going to do that.3. It's only a rare mob. How hard can it be?2. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww1111111113333333333333. O crap.1. Girlfriend walked into the room nekkid.I have to admit, 5 and 2 have happened to me too -- a lot! Just for the sake of amusement, my list (across all of my highest characters) comes up something like this:5. Playing crazy games with my guild mates (there's a post coming on this)4. Falling off Aldor rise ( I swear, I can be on a flying mount and I'll still run off and miss that elevator. I just don't die anymore.) 3. Mage grinding: *aoe* *aoe* *aoe* *aoe* oom uh...2. /cast wasteareagent Vanish1. [ Disconnected from server ]How about you? If you had to rank the top 5 reasons you tend to die in game, what would they be?[via the general forums]
Raid Issues: Out of Combat Resurrection
If you've done much end-game raiding, then you've heard about this tactic - out of combat ressing involves having a player stay back from a fight and remain out of combat so they can resurrect players killed in the fighting. And this week Blizzard confirmed that players were never intended to do this - an interesting move, considering that their own tips page once included the tactic - and modified combat mechanics to make it impossible.The implemented fix causes everyone in a dungeon to be flagged in combat whenever anyone attacks a boss, which has had interesting side effects for rogues vanishing and hunters feigning death, though Blizzard says this is as intended. How has the fix effected you, or has it?
