Gamer LFG

Haters be hatin' on zombabiez.

2011-03-14T19:04:00.002-04:00

Zombies happen. It’s never pleasant when they do. They smell, they walk on the grass in spite of signs instructing the contrary, they jay-walk, they burst through walls and windows like the Kool-Aid Man, and they eat people. So it stands to reason that a game about zombies would be equally unpleasant in one way or another.

A trailer for Dead Island came out recently (http://youtu.be/lZqrG1bdGtg), and has garnered some negative attention. In it, a young girl dies at the hands of her father after she turns zombie and attacks him. However, the trailer is told in reverse and forwards at the same time, rewinding back from the moment of her death while playing forward from the beginning of the attack. The trailer ends with the father pulling away from his daughter, followed by footage of them arriving at the hotel prior to the outbreak.

The trailer is horribly depressing, and honestly, it’s terrific, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic.” This trailer lends itself to that quote, showing the intensity and tragedy of this moment in time, instead of giving you a look at the larger carnage surrounding them.

But really, kill a little girl?

Yes really, she was a flipping zombie.

Firstly, killing child zombies (or getting killed by them) is absolutely not an original concept. Night of the Living Dead (1968), the quintessential zombie movie which pioneered the modern zombie genre, contains a scene where a young girl turns and murders her mother with a cement trowel. Pet Cemetery (1989) revolves almost completely around the concept of a child murderer needing to be stopped. Dawn of the Dead (2004) depicts a child zombie as the first one on screen, who proceeds to kill and turn the protagonists husband. Later in that same film, the protagonists kill a newborn zombie baby. Most recently, AMC’s The Walking Dead (2010) opened the first episode with the main character headshotting an 8 year old zombie girl in a dress carrying a teddy bear. I could go on and on, citing less and less mainstream films, but it becomes redundant.

Killing zombies isn’t new. Killing children isn’t new. Nor is killing zombie kids.

The difference here is that we’re talking about a video game, and that the scene in question is from the trailer. If this was a movie, people wouldn’t care as much. If this wasn’t from the trailer, but from a cutscene, people wouldn’t care as much. But being the worlds first glimpse into this, the thought is that somehow the game will simply repeat these events and glorify killing children. But really, both of those things miss the core point.

Zombies and the idea of a zombie apocalypse should always upset people.

With the exception of films like Fido (2006) (Hey look, another film where we kill zombie kids!), the zombie apocalypse represents one of the most final ends to our world possible short of nuclear holocaust or annihilation via meteor. It is a bleak, dismal world where you live under the constant threat of a gruesome and painful death. It is not a snow day with guns, it is a way of life. The trailer for Dead Island reminds us all of a thing we’ve chosen to forget in the current ‘zombie age’; zombies suck, death sucks, and this isn’t the only family that will implode once the grey meat comes knocking.

Honestly, they got off easy.

For example, in Resident Evil (1998/2002) the game, a scientist infects his daughter with a version of the T-Virus to purposefully mutate her into a monster. In later volumes of the graphic novel series The Walking Dead (2003), you meet characters that keep their zombified relatives as pets. Is anyone here really going to argue that a dad tossing his zombie daughter out of a third story window onto grass is really so horrific as to warrant a reprimand to the creators?

I want to thank the developers at Techland for unnerving us, upsetting us, and making our days gloomy with a mere three minutes and eight seconds of CG. Imagine what they can do with 40 hours of gameplay.

House Rules

2010-04-01T10:47:00.004-04:00

Thanks to the wonder that is Google Docs, I've been able to quickly and painlessly put my rules up online. Huzzah.

They lack polish, and new much fine tuning and testing. Specifically, the races are not balanced. Some are rather weak, and some are rather strong. I do not like ECLs, so ideally I will be able to level out the races some.

I'm actually quite pleased with how some of the classes turned out (Samurai in particular). I'm fond of classes gaining unique abilities at levels 5, 10 and 15 respectively (as you'll see). I'm also fond of classes triggering abilities off of daily usage powers (like turning, smiting, stunning, etc). As such, healers, monks, hexblades, and a few other had some of their signature abilities changed to incorporate this. This allows for a player to use abilities more times per day, while still focussing on resource management, not unlike a spellcaster (for example, now a monk can dimension door more times per day, at the cost of stunning less).

I'm certainly happy to get some feedback on these rules. I haven't applied 95% of it yet, and won't until I'm certain I'm happy with them.

The Prodigal Blogger.

2010-03-29T09:21:00.005-04:00

So, two days ago, I call Danny to see if we'll be playing D&D that night. He quickly interrupts me to tell me that he stumbled upon a blog where someone was recounting details of our campaign. He seemed bewildered, and almost scared, that some stranger knew who Haldir was, and asked me if it was my blog.

However, Danny being Danny, he paraphrased what he had read, then quoted it back to me. This confused me, making me think that he had read someone else's blog, so I immediately started denying that it was my blog. This caused Danny to go from almost scared to legit scared.

Good times.

Since my last update, I've gone from exclusively DMing to being a player character as well. I've also undertaken creating my own set of house rules, which hinge around "balancing" all base classes, and some prestige classes. I've also joined the Starcraft 2 beta, canceled my City of Heroes subscription, and created a Dungeons and Dragons Online account.

However, as an update to the campaign I'm DMing:

Danny was able to get his hands on a fate chip, allowing him to reroll his fortitude save. This time he made it, and he was able to prevent himself from crashing into the ground. However, in the ensuing battle, Merrick Praetor (NPC Cleric/Prestige Paladin) died, taking the dragon with him. The players returned to Basilicatta, where they were attacked by demonic retrievers searching for La'Travius (NPC Paladin). In the battle to drive them off, Haldir showed up with a young girl who allegedly broke him out of jail, and then proceeded to help them fight off the demons. Lucia attempted to sense the young girls aura, and was nearly overwhelmed with the power of her evil aura. This lead to Raphael Esposito (NPC Fighter/Ranger/Dread Commado) killing the young girl in cold blood, with a single gun shot at point blank. Later that same day, Lucia was approached by a man who offered to resurrect Merrick, if she would sign a magical contract forbidding her from ever setting foot in Merkail (ill-intentioned militaristic nation across the sea that has outlawed all arcane magic).

While this is occurring, Victor, who has been raised from the dead, has taken her leave of the party, only to have La'Travius follow her. She quickly finds that La'Travius managed to recover the Shield of Prator from the abyss, and now he is hounded by demons set on recovering it. So, they are now journeying north to Karvayne (secluded and walled off nation to the north, famous for being plagued with undead, and protected by necromatic knights) in search of a portal to the abyss, so they can take the fight directly to whichever demon prince is behind the attacks.

Unfortunately, that campaign is seemingly on hiatus, since the person who plays Lucia can't/won't decided whether or not she'll accept the offer to bring Merrick back (there may or may not have been a romance subplot there).

Well, at least now I have actual rules for massive damage!

Death and Dying (or just getting messed up in general):

Rather than dying when a subject reaches -10 HP, a character dies when they reach a negative number equal to their constitution score, or ¼ their maximum HP, whichever is higher. For example, Lucia Di’Mato is a paladin with 220 HP. She is dying between -1 and -54 HP, and dies at -55.
The feat Diehard still only allows someone to take actions until -10 HP.
The heal DC to stabilize a dying character is 14+Hit Dice. For example, Lucia Di’Mato is a 14th level paladin. She is dying after being mauled by a paragon dire bear (Don’t laugh, I’ll do it). The DC to stabilize her is 28.
Each character has a unique massive damage threshold. The massive damage threshold is (Con Score*3)+Hit Dice. Whenever they take enough damage from a single attack to meet or exceed this threshold, they must make a Fortitude save (DC15+1 for every 5 points of damage above the threshold), or be reduced to -1 HP instantly. For example, Lucia Di’Mato is a 14th level paladin with Con 20, so her massive damage threshold is 74. She takes 112 damage from an evil cavalier’s unstoppable charge. She now has to make a DC 22 Fortitude save or be dropped to -1.
A character receives a bonus or a penalty to their massive damage threshold based on size. For every size larger than medium, the character receives a +10. For ever size smaller than medium, it’s a -10. For example, Gia the 15th level halfling barbarian rides Wiggles, the 22 HD wyvern into battle. Her massive damage threshold is 69 ([18*3]+15), while his is 118 ([32*3]+22+30)
A character with the racial or class ability “Powerful Build” counts as one size larger than they actually are for calculating massive damage threshold.
If a character takes enough subdual damage to exceed their massive damage threshold, the are at risk of being knocked unconscious for 1d4 minutes. The save is handled the same as if it were lethal damage.

I'll start posting larger swaths of my house rules (all of which are based on 3.5 D&D), or better yet, find someplace to plop down all 17 or so pages of it. I'd love input from those who have it. As a side note, I'm applying as few of these changes as possible right now, to avoid confusing or stressing my players (the above listed rules have been applied, since those situations come up time and time again).

(Points to anyone who gets the M:TG reference.)

Player Death, again

2009-12-07T12:22:00.003-05:00

Haldir Halith, Warmage 12/Knight Phantom 1 died in battle with an ancient green dragon last night. He and his party had tracked the dragon to it's lair, after skirmishing with it in mid-air aboard their elemental galleon, The Nirvana. Upon reaching the lair, the party engaged and slew most of the dragons guardians, and skirmished with the beast again, scoring a crit with the Nirvana's heavy cannons. After pursuing it into it's lair, the group withdrew, knowing their spells and ammunition were sorely depleted. The group then maintained a position flying 1800 ft above the forest canopy, sleeping in shifts to prepare for battle the next day.

Six hours after the initial confrontation, the ancient green attacked the ship, having first warded himself with spells. This ambush culminated with Haldir being snatched off the deck of the ship, and flown off with, only to be thrown down to terra firma, first being subjected to a point blank breath weapon. Haldir was slain instantly as he failed his fort save against massive damage.

This is the second time that the players have withdrawn midway through a siege, only to camp out within sight of the area being sieged. Both times, this resulted in them being attacked while some or all of them slept. Both times, this resulted in player death.

Seriously guys, stop it.

"'City of Heroes' character 'Twixt' becomes game's most hated outcast courtesy of Loyola professor"

2009-11-18T09:12:00.004-05:00

Bullshit. I know I'm a little late to the party on this one, so be it:

Dear Professor David Myers,

Hi. You don't know me. We play on different servers. As such, I had no feelings for you one way or the other. So, I immediately take issue with this article that portrays you as some sort of infamous celebrity in the world of CoX. You're not.

Having seen a few dozen videos on YouTube of you getting killed in Siren's Call and Recluse's Victory, I take issue with the article portraying you as a good PvPer. You're not. Also, the article neglects to mention that you also posted on the forums of this game, purposely stirring up ill will. We call that trolling, dear Professor. The act of intentionally upsetting people to cause a negative reaction.

I'm sorry that you became a social outcast on the Freedom server by TPing into Drones. We both know it was more than that, but that's not the issue here. Droning people isn't particularly skillful, but at the same time, it's entirely the fault of the people being Droned. With how large the zones are, you have to be fantastically close to the enemy's base to ever risk it happening, and decent players rarely fall victim to it. So, in my opinion, anyone you ever Droned had it coming, cause they were base hugging.

I've received plenty of nasty tells from other players in my time. Most of them while PvPing. I've never Droned another player. I've killed people within their own bases. I've hidden inside their hospitals and killed them when they respawned. I've hidden atop high ledges and swooped down on them without warning, killing them in mid-air. I've hounded Heroes and Villains alike within multiple zones and inside the Arena. I've stalked players that gathered launch codes or meteor shards, and robbed them of their hard won treasures just when they were sure they would reap the rewards of their efforts.

But I've never Droned.

I've even gone so far as to lure the "robotic firing squad" away from an enemy base, with the help of my SGs sniper unit, to leave an entire Villain base undefended, so that my group could swoop in an occupy the whole base, preventing any players from entering on that side. Safely at least.

So, when I read this article, about how you are universally hated and reviled, when the worst thing you've done is Drone some players, or break up some Fight Club in SC, it makes me want to laugh. You're not grieifing anyone. You never did anything that good or bad. The real crime here was the trash talk and mockery that you lent to this conflict, that the article neglects to mention.

I guess the crux of my issue is this: There is nothing inherently wrong with Droning. The Devs, from day 1, have established that nothing save from trapping someone within the geometry of a map is griefing. So, when you TP someone into a Police Drone or Arbiter Drone, you're not breaking any rules. Once someone tells you they have a problem with that action, the dynamic changes. If you TP someone, knowing it will upset them, you are 100% responsible for their reaction. I'm not justifying how they act, most of them sound like very immature people, but you still knowing act in such a manner to cause that reaction from them.

For instance, when in Warburg, I ganked many, MANY other Heroes. It was even the subject of discussion on the Justice forum (that's my server). People talked about whether it was right or wrong for me, roleplaying a biped Police Drone, to kill other Heroes. So, at that point, I changed how I addressed other Heroes in Warburg. I would still attack and kill any player I could, regardless of faction. However, if any Hero ever asked me to leave them be, I would after the first kill. I took responsibility for the consequences of my action, regardless of whether or not what I was doing was wrong. Why? Because that's how all adults should act, online or offline.

Also, I should point out that my SG, the Paragon PD, was the subject of much hate and griefing, simply by existing. We were a top 10 SG for several years, with hundreds of players. Our mere presence spawned rival SGs (Anti-Drones, Rouge Isles PD, etc), our players were subject to constant griefing and harassment, and some (including me) were even kicked from teams for being who we were. On more than one occasion, I've had whole zones of players turn against me just for my name and uniform. Feel free to read my blog, Professor David Myers. I've fought massive battles against both Heroes and Villains simultaneously, outnumbered as bad as 4 to 1.

And not because I intentionally upset players as part of a study on small group dynamics or how the anonymity of the internet emboldens people. Just because I was me.

So, I hope you book is a success. I hope it's more honest and truthful than that article.

-Police Drone TH, lvl 50 Assault Rifle/Energy Manipulation/Munitions Mastery Blaster, Justice Server, Circa Issue 3, proud owner of the 400 Rep PvP badge, and server FFA Arena Champion for 7 Issues.

PS- Zone PvP wasn't introduced until Fall of 2005 with the release of Issue 6: "Along Came a Spider", not Spring of 2004 like the article would have people believe. Issue 6 is also when City of Villains was released. PvP didn't exist until Spring of 2005, and that was limited to the Arenas. The social environment that fostered peaceful interaction between Heroes and Villains existed for a year and a half before zone PvP was a factor, and 90% of the Villains that were created with the advent of CoV were initially Heroes. Again, something the article failed to mention. Furthermore, from Fall of 2005 till Spring of 2006, the PvP zones were the only place where Heroes and Villains could meet face to face, making the only zone where social interaction was possible between the two factions. Pocket D, Cimerora, and the Rikti War Zone didn't exist at that point.

Save vs. Awesome!

2009-11-17T12:44:00.004-05:00

Another house rule has favored the players strongly.

Last session, we experienced our first meaningful character death: the bard entered melee with a foe that possessed a vorpal weapon. She was decapitated on the very next action of said enemy. A small outcry arose, and the party's warmage declares an attack on the bard's killer. The warmage lands a crit of his own (thanks to his choice of Improved Critical: Ranged Touch at lvl 12) on a Sudden Empowered Orb of Fire, and ends up doing 40d6+24 damage to the target. That's a damage range of 64-264 fire damage. The warmage then roles all 40d6 at once, being very dramatic, and totals a modest 153 damage. Factor in fire resistance, and the target took 148 damage, 2 hp shy of being dropped in one hit.

However, I run rules for death from massive damage. Each creature has a threshold based on size, and if you exceed that threshold in a single attack, you must make fortitude save of 10+damage over threshold. For example, a medium creature has a massive damage threshold of 50 damage, for a large creature it's 65, for huge it's 80, etc.

So, the target of this Empowered Orb of Fire was subject to a DC 108 fortitude save.

Good job Danny, you killed the bad guy.

Set the pace.

2009-11-06T06:35:00.003-05:00

Normally, the success of a group isn't measured by how many enemies they beat, or how good the XP per hour is; merely how fast the team perceives itself as moving through spawns.

Don't get me wrong. When I'm gaining multiple bars of XP per mission, leveling more than once with the same group post lvl 20, yeah, that group is badass. However, in general, the teams I remember most are the ones on which I felt like I was unstoppable.

Now, as awesome as my Blaster (Police Drone TH) is, he is made stronger by good teammates. Specifically, Tankers and Defenders.

Now, this isn't some post extolling the virtues of the "Holy Trinity" (Tank/Healer/Mage). Instead, I'm saluting the people who control how fast the team rolls. In CoH, it's the Tankers and Defenders. Tankers who eat alphas and manage agro, and Defenders who buff (not heal).

Tankers get a bad rep sometimes. They can be regarded as glory hounds, or seen as trying to do all the work just to show off. However, the real strength of a Tanker is in his ability to embolden the team, and make them strike harder and faster, having faith in the Tanker to keep the agro off them while they rain hell. This applies equally to all classes, not just "Mages". It's safer to debuff once a Tanker has moved in. It's safer for a Scrapper with a mandatory agro aura to engage the foes. Additional agro is less of an issue if the primary spawn is being adequately managed. Tankers, when performing their job properly, help set the pace at which a team does it's job. The better the Tanker, the faster the pace, without team safety being sacrificed.

Any player can tell you that they feel much stronger when an Empathy/Thermal/Pain Manip/Kinetic/etc buff is cast on them. The very nature of buffing powers in CoH lends huge strength to a team. Strong characters are bold ones, and a buffed team is more confident going into battle. While they may still be numerically inferior, they will most times still press on, putting faith in that extra +18.5% def the Defender gave them, or the extra +500% regen the whole group has. Knowing that they are backed by a vigilant Defender (no pun intended), a team is more likely to stand it's ground when people start to fall. More likely to keep fighting when they would otherwise run away. I've seen more team wipes resulting from premature retreat then from failing to run away fast enough.

When solo, I know my own limits. I can ride the razors edge, and tackle odds far greater than most other players. Most players perform better when solo, as they only have themselves to consider in any given situation. When teamed, everything changes, because up to seven other people can be impacted by what you do. When teamed, I have to exercise restraint, since more than my own fate rests in the balance (and usually, the odds are vastly stacked against me). However, when teamed with the right people, when there is the right combination of agro management and buffing, I can once again become the engine of death that I know I am. And this applies to the rest of the team as well.

MMO Manners

2009-10-26T09:45:00.004-04:00

People online are notoriously rude. Whether or not one is actually being rude, it is usually how they are interpretted as acting anyway.

Two days ago, I was running some RWZ (Rikti War Zone) missions with my friends. We had a team of heroes and villains, are were doing the story arc where Longbow (think S.H.I.E.L.D.) tries to steal Vanguard's (think an even more badass S.H.I.E.L.D.) thunder. One thing leads to another, and much to the delight of the villains on the team, we start busting Longbow skulls. Fun.

Eventually, our battle takes us head to head with a Longbow Hero (Archvillain), who could make Chuck Norris's blood run cold. He smashes into our group like an angry bull, and we wipe. Once. Twice. Three times.

Finally, we re-order our team a tad, trade one or two of our players, and lower the difficulty. We go in for round four, and we start to win, but then our tank panics, jumps into the backline, right as the Hero fires an AoE at him. The result is a lot of dead support characters, and a fifth wipe. We rally, and keep the fight going. The tank runs back in, then gets knocked back into us. Again things get hairy, when I realize that our tank has no KB (knockback) protection. I try to get him to stand in a corner, in order to negate the KB, but he won't listen. As a result, he keeps getting bounced back into the team, who then eat AoEs in the face.

It doesn't take long before I flip a monumental shit, and start screaming at the guy. A few moments after my tirade, he falls in line, and we are able to take the Hero out.

We exit the mission, get ready for our next run, and I apologize to the guy. It turns out he was brand new to the game, so I took the time to explain what was going wrong, and what could be done in the future to fix it. As it turns out, he did have KB protection, he just failed to use it. I give him some slotting advice, as does the scrapper. As I wrap up with our tank, one of the villains chimes in:

"Wow, that's the first time I've ever seen someone apologize for something like that."

And that bothered me, because he was right. Online, far too many people are not accountable for what they "say" or how they "act". I play games, online and offline, in order to relax, not to yell at people. I don't enjoy acting like that, and it's important to me for people to understand that.

That's why I apologized, because I meant it.

0.0125%

2009-10-21T09:47:00.003-04:00

As long as my incredibly simple, done with a calculator math is correct (funny thing, it was wrong the first time, but I fixed it), then that is the chance on any given attack that it results in an instant kill (That is, rolling three natural 20s back to back). It's a rule variant from the 3.0 Edition DMG, one that I've used in every game I've run.

I've actually, as a DM, rolled trip 20s three separate times, twice against player characters, once for an NPC attacking a Slaad. Both times it resulted in player death, and much endless bitching. Sorry guys, player death happens. No character is invincible, and sometimes as a DM it's important to remind the players that they are mortal.

But last night, my wife's Paladin 5/Pious Templar 4/Griffon Rider 2 rolled trip 20s on a smite against a mature adult dragon (CR 13), slaying it instantly. Now she's a Griffon Rider 3.

Um, what should I call you?

2009-10-18T10:24:00.003-04:00

One of the things that I've always found fascinating about playing MMOs, or any game with online multiplayer, is how people choose to interpret the names of others. That is, how a persons name, or the name of their avatar/character/toon is changed/shortened/altered to make it more convenient in conversation.

Now, character names break down into five rough categories:

Actual names
Long multisyllabic names
Statements as names
Plays on words
Other
Actual names are easy enough to work out. Guild Wars requires you to have a first and last name for any of your characters, so usually you simply need use a player "first" name. I have a Warrior named Roland Dresden, a Paragon named Rook Enassi, a Mesmer named Freya Dresden, etc. Whenever I played them, people simply addressed me by my character's first name.

Longer names pose a small problem. When I played WoW briefly (Up to level 33), I had a Troll Warrior named Alavatus. While not a huge name, it is four syllables, and in general, people addressed me as "Ala" or "Al". Then, you have other names I've used like Kammorremae, which people shortened to "Kamm". I know people like Quatermain, or Abraxxus, who's names are shortened to "Quat" and "Brax" respectively.

Statements as names is where is gets weird. If you hook up with a mage named "Fase Pwner", what do you call him? "Fase"? "Pwner"? Generally, people will just use the first part, and call you "Fase", but every once in a while you get someone who recognizes "Fase" as the adjective, and "Pwner" noun it describes, and then everything goes to hell cause the whole team except the smart ass healer is calling you "Fase", while he is calling you "Pwner". Ass.

Plays on words sometimes overlap with Statements as names. For example, my Defender is named Combative Medic. My old friend Patrick had a Defender named Apathetic Empath. I have no idea what people called Patrick (other than asshole, cause he was one, not that I'm not), but people refer to me as "Medic" or "Med". Why they shorten it to "Med" is beyond me...

Finally you have Other. And honestly, most names these days are Other. My sisters-in-law ran characters named "Super Funky Peach", "Snuggle Bunnies", "Gorgeous Tsurugi", "Panda Mei", etc. My most recent Guild Leader in GW had characters like "The Devil Himself" and "The Devil Herself", while a friend of mine from CoH has toons like "Molten Slowa", "Insane Slowa", or "SWAT Drone SL-OW".

And frankly, that's the best way to go; having a common theme amongst your names that allows people to use the same moniker for all of your characters. These was an asshole from my old guild who had the name "Cangzhen" as a preface to all his character, with their. profession following it (Cangzhen Monk, Cangzhen Warrior, etc). Of course, that naming convention can defeat the point of some MMOs, like City of Heroes or Champions Online, where the point is to create a truly unique avatar that represents precisely the type of character you want to play.

RMTs

2009-10-15T13:26:00.005-04:00

Real Money Traders (RMTs) hurt games. So do the players who buy from them. They cause inflation, they harm drop rates, they generate underskilled players. In extreme circumstances, they hack and steal players accounts.

Don't be a dillhole, don't buy in game cash (or gear, or runes, or powerleveling, etc).

Crab Battle!

2009-10-12T09:35:00.005-04:00

Firstly, I squandered yet another Double Xp Weekend, having fun instead of religiously powerleveling my toons. How dare I? All told, I gained a scant 16 levels across all characters (and that includes a Brute I soloed to 12 on Virtue). I even teamed with Icey Pants 2 again. During my absence, the ability to "rate" players was introduced. I currently have it set so that all my personal rankings are displayed above a players head, and the game tracks these ratings across the player's account (So if someone rates me a well deserved 5 Stars, that rating is reflected on all of my other characters). So, upon joining a team with Combative Medic, I saw that my team leader was ranked 1 star with the comment "Hates tankers and scrappers". However, I then saw that there was a lvl 28 Martial Arts/Regen Scrapper on the team (and better yet, the Scrapper was a brand new player!). Icey Pants 2 certainly had her rating go up after that.

Regardless, last night, I decided I wanted to take one of my mid-40 characters up to 50. After a brief debate, I settled on Police Drone TH-01, my human-form Peacebringer. In short order, I was teamed up with the Vampire's Coven SG (none of whom seemed to be vampire themed, oddly enough), saving the world.

No, literally, the name of the mission was "Save the World".

After a lot of fighting, and I mean a lot, we finally reach the +4 AV. After a pitched battle, waves of ambushes start spawning and attacking us while we're still engaged with the first AV. Once he drops to 1/3rd HP, and cutscene triggers and we get to see a second +4 AV approach, promising much doom. The battle continues, we defeat the first AV, and engage the second. This AV, not to be outdone, also triggers ambushes on us.

After much gnashing of teeth, and player death, we finally work him down to 25% of his HP. So he triggers Personal Force Field.

A collective groan issues forth from the team, as we watch him regenerate much of the damage we dealt, but then the force field drops, and we start working him over again. And again, at 25% HP, the field goes up.

Such is the battle for the next hour. Whittle whittle whittle, shield, regenerate, whittle whittle whittle, shield, regenerate, whittle whittle whittle, shield, regenerate, whittle whittle whittle, shield, regenerate, whittle whittle whittle, shield, regenerate, whittle whittle whittle, shield, regenerate, whittle whittle whittle, shield, regenerate, whittle whittle whittle, shield, regenerate, whittle whittle whittle, shield, regenerate, whittle whittle whittle, shield, regenerate...

You get the idea.

It reminded me of the fact that City of Heroes is functionally very similar to dozens of other RPGs, in that at the beginning of each fight, either you are, or aren't, strong enough to win. Where as, in some games, pure skill can overcome a statistical disadvantage, it usually cannot in a game based almost purely on preprogrammed percentages.

So, despite the fact that we were all very competent players, with powerful characters, our team was mechanically insufficient to handle the task at hand (we needed either massive regeneration debuffs, or large amounts of stacked holds to prevent him from casting PFF).

It's a shame really. For 95% of the game, a group can get away with having an unbalanced team, since competent play wins battles, not powersets and ATs.

"We don't team with your kind here."

2009-10-08T09:37:00.009-04:00

With the release of Issue 16, Defenders were given access to the Assault Rifle secondary set. My heart leaped with joy when I found out I could finally roll up an Empathy/Assault Rifle Defender, so first chance I got, I did.

At the time, I had been trying to find a way to turn this picture into an outfit, as a way to lure a friend of mine into playing CoH again. In the process, I fell in love with the idea of playing a medic from a Warhammer 40K or Starcraft scenario, so I rolled up Combative Medic (and I changed the outfit, along with color scheme).

Combative Medic is now level 26, blasting and buffing his merry way through all manner of task force, AV battle, and general tomfoolery. I'm still trying to find my inner Defender, but having a Council Assault Rifle to blast my way to said inner Defender with helps.

So, yesterday, after having some trouble finding a team, I end up grouped with two Controllers, whom we will call Icey Pants 1 and Icey Pants 2. Both were Ice Control/Cold Domination 'Trollers from the same SG. Upon joining them, the leader (Icey Pants 1) laments how few people are within our level range, and how none will join. I comment that I have a friend who will join us, to which the leader reacts favorably. After a few minutes of plowing through Sky Raiders at +1, I mention that my friend is now ready, with his Tanker.

And so it starts.

Icey Pants 2: Oi vey.
Icey Pants 1: No tankers, no scrappers.
Combative Medic: As a policy?
Icey Pants 1: SG rule. We don't allow them.
::After a few moments of politely testing the waters of the issue (while
still performing my job admirably), I address it directly::
Combative Medic: So do you also exclude Brutes, Stalkers, Blappers, and
Kheldians?
Icey Pants 1: No, just tankers.
Icey Pants 2: And tankery storm defenders,
Combative Medic: Why?
Icey Pants 2: We deal with enough of it on PUGs, so we don't allow it when
our SG runs a team.
Icey Pants 1: Chasing a tank around as it runs blindly into spawns get old
fast.
Combative Medic: Why not ask them not to, and boot them if they refuse?
Icey Pants 1: Have you ever asked a tank to listen to you?

The rest of the conversation is more of the same, but you get the gist. Rather then exclude all melee or melee capable classes, they simply exclude the two ATs most suited to deal with the damage they will inevitably take (I love my blapper to pieces, but anything less than perfection when I play him at +4 results in bloody violent death for moi). And this exclusion isn't truly against the ATs, simpley how some people chose to play them. But rather than having 30 seconds of patience with a player to see if they will play nice with others, they discriminate against a large portion of the player population, then lament that there aren't enough people around to join their team.

In the end my response to them was this: I will give almost any player and any AT a chance. Unless my team absolutely does not need, or will be hurt by the presence of a particular AT (a team with 6 blasters doesn't need a 7th), there is no reason not to include another player. If said player causes issues via their play style, I speak with them. If they adapt to the needs of the team, they can stay. If they refuse, I politely ask them to leave, and failing at that, I simply boot them myself. Conversely, when I play my Tanker, or any other AT for that matter, I almost always defer to the judgement of the team leader. If he has a problem with something I'm doing, I'll stop. Sometimes this means I end up doing stupid shit cause the leader sucks, but other times it means that I help the team running better by accepting the fact that my way isn't always the best way. Maybe I should be corner pulling on a Nemesis map, or maybe I should be on the opposite side of the AV from the team to protect them from melee cones (these are things I already do, btw, but that many Tanker neglect).

However, at no point can I ever expect another player to accommodate to my wishes if I refuse to do it in turn. Icey Pants 1 & 2 refuse to play with 40% of the available ATs, based on what they perceive as an issue with the classes, when in truth it's an issue with play style (one that can be found in every AT, Red or Blue side). I have no time for people who discriminate, but at the same time, to their credit, Icey Pants 1 & 2 were very polite, and answered all of my questions. So, rather than leave in a huff, I finished the mission with them, politely excused myself, and went off to team with my Tanker bud who had been left out.

This applies equally to all classes, ATs, professions, in any game, MMO or otherwise.

Level Cap=/=Fun Cap

2009-09-30T13:54:00.002-04:00

I don't play World of Warcraft, for many reasons. Almost all of them are personal preference; as much as I don't like WoW, I can't say that it's bad. Far too often, people mistake their own opinion as fact, and I want to go ahead and put that out there before I go on.

Now, there is one thing that Blizzard has done, that I hate, and it's the repeated increase of the level cap in WoW. Also, by proxy, how this practice has lead to droves of people carrying over a faulty logic to other MMOs that, in increasing the level cap, one can make a game more fun.

Firstly, why I dislike increasing the level cap in an established, persistent online game. It tends to invalidate the work and effort of a player. If I've spent the last two months raiding with my guild, to complete my Tier # armor, I'd feel pretty shitty when the developer of the game decides that everything my character owns (and that I thought was good) is now worthless junk, because there are ten more levels for me to grind out, and each one has gear more powerful than the last.

Now, increasing the level cap certainly isn't bad for newer players, or ones who haven't dedicated depressingly large amounts of time to pimping out a character. It sucks for the hardcore players. Of course, they are also hardcore enough to suck it up and grind out those ten new levels, and work up to the newest Tier of gear. I sit somewhere in between casual and hardcore, where I care enough and play just enough to be well equipped, but I haven't religiously cleared the same instance dozens of times to earn a particular set of gear (this doesn't exactly translate into CoH and GW, but close enough).

This brings me to the crux of my rant; I'm tired of hearing people suggest upping the level cap as the best way to make a game better. Wrong, bad, fail. Firstly, not all games revolve around high level play. Secondly, not all games have an endgame the involves endless grinding for loot. For example, City of Heroes is more about the (admittedly downplayed) story of a world recovering from a massive invasion, and your role as a fledgling hero trying to save it. You start as a scrub fighting riots and taking down low level drug dealers, to traveling between dimensions, defeating evil super-powered despots and liberating entire worlds from tyranny. The scope of such an evolution is hard to appreciate if you blast past low level play to get to high levels, and it's completely lost when you replace one plateau of power with another one.

Guild Wars is another great example. While Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall vary greatly in their PvE application, it's undeniable that the endgame in Guild Wars is PvP. Lots of PvP. Coordinated, uncoordinated, pro, scrub, hardcore, softcore PvP. Wanna do small scale? Arena. Large scale? Alliance Battle. Ultra cut-throat internationally competitive? Guild vs Guild or Hall of Heroes. Increasing the level cap offers absolutely no benefit here.

What can make a game better? What can extend it's life? Additional content, not at the expense of the effort players have already invested in the game. City of Heroes publishes a new issue of the game every three to four months, adding more content each time (including but not limited to: New Powers, New ATs, Inventions, New Zones, Power Customization, New Villain Groups, etc). Guild Wars released an expansion meant almost exclusively for max level players. Additionally, they added (early on) the ability to play all the low level areas as elite lvl 20+ zones.

Invention Origin enhancements: The mandatory option.

2009-09-17T09:44:00.003-04:00

You ever found a really sweet free to play game online? Maybe it was a simple 2D flash game, or a really badass 3D freeshare FPS, but either way, it was way more fun than it should have been.

So you play this really sweet, free-to-play game for a few weeks, at which point you find out, "Hey, there is a whole 'nother level here I've yet to touch!" But then you find out that level comes with a $15 price tag to it, or that you can buy in game money (which takes forever to earn), or that in order to access a certain realm, where all the good items are, you need to purchase a subscription?

Yeah, IOs are like that.

They don't cost money (real money, at least), but the principle is the same. You don't NEED them to play. Quite the contrary; most players have been dominating in City of Heroes/Villains for years without them. However, the gulf of power between a Hero without IOs and a Hero with them is staggering. Furthermore, you can see exactly which bonuses a player possesses by looking at their powers tab. If you click on a Scrapper and find out he has 3 Ultimate Recharge Bonuses, you know that this Scrapper is filthy rich, as he probably has billions of influence worth of IOs slotted into his powers (::cough::Karou Non' Drak::cough::). Using this, people are able to pick characters which are seemingly more powerful, or at least wealthy, based on how many IO bonuses they have (Within SGs, this practice is nearly unheard of. In PUGs, in can be, at times, rampant.).

Now, I have no problem with IOs. They add a new level of depth to the game, and allow a person to make their unique Hero (or Villain) even more unique. However, I think it's a tad misleading to say that IOs are completely optional. By that same logic, all gear is completely optional. You don't need it, it just helps.

And I think we can all disagree with that (barring Vow of Poverty).

Issue 16: Power Spectrum

2009-09-17T09:27:00.003-04:00

Powers Customization:

Hundreds of powers have been updated to allow new color selections and customization. Players can now pick new Themes for each powerset, adjusting colors, appearance, and even animations for some sets.

Key Features:

Thousands of Tintable particle and geometry effects for powers, such as Energy Blasts and Stone Mallet colors.
Customizable Primary and Secondary colors for powersets, with color choices themed to match the selected powerset.
Powerset Themes selectable for a complete set, or individual powers.
Powerset Themes selectable at character creation, as well as in the tailor screens.
Independant Theme selection for each character costume.

New Theme selections:
New Themes of Spines and Thorny Assault available, including themes of Thorns, Metal Spines, Crystal Spines, and Slate Spines. New Animation Themes for Super Strength and Martial Arts.Huge variety of customizable powersets, including Cold Domination, Dark Armor, Dark Blast, Dark Melee, Dark Miasma, Devices, Earth Control, Earth Melee, Electric Armor, Electric Assault, Electric Blast, Electric Melee, Electricity Manipulation, Empathy, Energy Assault, Energy Aura, Energy Blast, Energy Manipulation, Energy Melee, Fiery Aura, Fire Assault, Fire Blast, Fire Control, Fire Manipulation, Fire Melee, Force Field, Gravity Control, Ice Armor, Ice Assault, Ice Blast, Ice Control, Ice Manipulation, Ice Melee, Illusion, Invulnerability, Kinetics, Mental Manipulation, Mind Control, Necromancy, Plant Control, Psionic Assault, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Radiation Emission, Regeneration, Sonic Resonance, Sonic Blast, Spines, Stone Armor, Storm Summoning, Super Reflexes, Thermal Radiation, Thorny Assault, Traps, and Willpower.
_______________________________________________

New Character Creator:

* The Character creator and Tailor screen have been updated to be easier to use and even preview the animation and color choices for powers!

Key features:

Tabbed Character Creator: Jump between Archetype, Power Sets, Costumes, and Character ID in any order without losing progress.
New Powers Customization screen, for adjusting powers and previewing animations.
Select colors and themes for each individual power, or apply it to the entire power set!
Preview live animations of all powers, showing the selected Theme and color choices.
Save and Load Theme settings for each powerset, saving colors and selections for all powers.

Costume slots: Your active costume slot is stored when you log off will be the costume slot used when you log back in. It will also display that costume in the character selection screen. _______________________________________________

Powerset Proliferation:
More power sets are now in the hands of Archetypes who couldn’t use them previously!

Archetype - Blasters * Radiation Blast
Archetype - Brutes * Claws
Archetype - Controllers * Cold Domination
Archetype - Corruptors * Archery * Trick Arrow
Archetype - Defenders * Assault Rifle * Traps
Archetype - Dominators * Earth Assault
Archetype -Masterminds * Thermal Radiation
Archetype -Scrappers * Electric Melee * Electric Armor
Archetype -Tankers * Electric Melee * Electric Armor
Archetype -Stalkers * Broadsword

_______________________________________________

Enhanced Difficulty Options:
The old notoriety system has been removed and replaced with a new difficulty system of independent settings. You can now fine-tune the difficulty levels of the missions you play by telling the game exactly how you want to be treated:

* Choose to fight monsters between a -1 to +4 level difference from the player's level.
* Choose to set your personal team size (1-8).
* Choose if you want bosses to scale down to Lieutenants when soloing or not
* Choose to have AVs scale down to EBs.

The difficulty settings of the mission owner dictate how the mission is handled. Actual team size overrides any difficulty setting, so you will always get Arch-Villains if the team has 6 or more members. The difficulty setting is per task, so personal team member sizes do not add together. You can change your difficulty settings at any Hero Corp.’s Representative in Paragon City or Fateweaver in the Rogue Isles.

_______________________________________________

Sidekicking Changes: Super-Sidekicking! One player can now sidekick or exemplar the whole team, everyone can always play together!

Each player in the group's level is set to the level of the owner of the active team task. If no team task is selected, everyone in the group's level will be set to the level of the team leader.
When the team level changes, players will be notified via a dialog and have the option to quit the team or immediately accept. The dialog will time out after 30 seconds at which point acceptance is implied.
While in the pending state, players cannot receive rewards and any critters they damage will be worth no experience.
Players can choose to auto-accept team level changes 0 to 50 levels above or below their current level.
Exemplars will now earn XP and a level capped person will get XP converted into influence like exemplars used to.

_______________________________________________

New Badges: Last issue we announced our future plans and design direction for new badges. Here’s a list of the new badges that can be obtained in Issue 16:

Master of Reichsman Strike Force
Master of Reichsman Task Force
Master of Imperious Task Force

_______________________________________________

Epic/Patron Powers Pools:

The balance between the Epic/Patron power pools has been revisited. Now all Epic power pools have 5 powers to choose from.

Force Mastery (Blaster) Existing Powers * Personal Force Field * Repulsion Field * Temporary Invulnerability * Force of Nature New Powers * Repulsion Bomb - Ranged (Targeted AoE), Moderate Damage(Smash/Energy), Foe Knockdown
Flame Mastery (Blaster) Existing Powers * Bonfire * Char * Fire Shield * Rise of the Phoenix New Powers * Melt Armor - Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe -Res, -Def
Fire Mastery (Controller) Existing Powers * Fire Blast * Fire Ball * Fire Shield * Consume New Powers * Rise of the phoenix - Self Rez, Special
Psionic Mastery (Controller) Existing Powers * Mental Blast * Indomitable Will * Mind Over Body * Psionic Tornado New Powers * World of Confusion - PBAoE, Minor DoT(Psionic), Foe Confuse
Dark Mastery (Defender) Existing Powers * Oppressive Gloom * Dark Consumption * Dark Embrace * Soul Drain New Powers * Soul Transfer - Self Rez, Special
Power Mastery (Defender) Existing Powers * Conserve Power * Power Build Up * Temp Invulnerability * Total Focus New Powers * Force of Nature - +Res(All but Psionics)
Blaze Mastery (Scrapper) NEW Existing Powers * None New Powers * Ring of Fire - Ranged, Moderate DoT(Fire), Foe Immobilize * Char - Ranged, Minor DoT(Fire), Foe Hold * Fire Blast - Ranged, Moderate DMG(Fire) * Melt Armor - Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe -Res, -DEF * Fire Ball - Ranged (Targeted AoE), Moderate DMG(Fire/Smash)
Body Mastery (Scrapper) Existing Powers * Conserve Power * Focused Accuracy * Laser Beam Eyes * Energy Torrent New Powers * Physical Perfection - Auto, +Regen, +Recovery (50% of the values offered by Stamina and Health)
Darkness Mastery (Scrapper) Existing Powers * Torrent * Petrifying Gaze * Dark Blast * Tenebrous Tentacles New Powers * Nightfall - Ranged (Cone), Moderate DMG(Negative), Foe –To Hit.
Energy Mastery (Tanker) Existing Powers * Conserve Power * Focused Accuracy * Laser Beam Eyes * Energy Torrent New Powers * Physical Perfection - Auto, +Regen, +Recovery (50% of the values offered by Stamina and Health.
Soul Mastery (VEAT) Existing Powers * Gloom * Soul Tentacles * Darkest Night * Dark Obliteration * Summon Widow New Powers * Darkest Night - Toggle: Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe -DMG -To Hit
Leviathan Mastery (VEAT) Existing Powers * Spirit Shark * School of Sharks * Bile Spray * Summon Guardian New Powers * Arctic Breath - Ranged (Cone), Minor DoT(Cold), Foe -Speed, -Recharge, -DEF -Res, knock down
Mace Mastery (VEAT) Existing Powers * Mace Blast * Web Envelop * Disruptor Blast * Summon Blaster New Powers * Shatter Armor – Melee, Superior DMG(Smash), Foe –Res
Mu Mastery (VEAT) Existing Powers * Mu Lightning * Electrifying Fences * Ball Lightning * Summon Striker New Powers * Static Discharge - Ranged (Cone), Moderate DMG(Energy), -END Mu Mastery (Brute) Existing Powers * Mu Lightning * Electrifying Fences * Ball Lightning * Summon Striker New Powers * Static Discharge - Ranged (Cone), Moderate DMG(Energy), -END

_______________________________________________

Mission Architect:
Check out the improvements made to the Mission Architect:
Custom Critter XP Scaling

Custom Critters with Custom powers now reward XP proportional to the number of powers added to the critter.
Critters with no powers are allowed, but they are worth no XP.
Standard and hard critters are worth less than extreme critters.

Mission Browser Improvements

Author Hyperlink: Author names are now hyperlinked and will underline on mouseover. Clicking on the name of the author in the Mission Browser will do a search for all the other arcs that author has also published. Clicking it will search for arcs by that author only

Mission Creation Improvements

Runaway Boss Dialog: The boss now has dialog when he runs away.
Health Dialog on Allies: Allies and Escorts can be set to say things as they lose health.
Betrayal Options: Allies and Escorts can now be set to betray on any normal objective. They can also say something when they betray.
Drag & Drop Mission Goals: Goals in Architect missions can now be dragged and dropped to change their order.
Objective Counts: A count is listed on each detail creation button of the number of details that can still be placed.

Custom Villain Groups

If a player has all three basic critter types in their CVG, they will receive full rewards for the mission. If one critter type is missing they will receive 50% rewards. If two critter types are missing they will receive 25% rewards, and if none of the core critter types are in the CVG, there are no rewards. o This applies only to critters auto-spawned by the mission, not specific bosses called for by objectives XP Curve Adjustment

To go along with our new changes to sidekicking and exemplaring, we've made some adjustments to the experience awarded from minions, lieutenants and bosses in the level 5 to 24 range. In short these enemies are on average receiving a 20% experience and influence increase. This will slightly speed up the pace at which heroes and villains advance through the 5 to 24 range

September 11th, 2009

2009-09-11T08:14:00.001-04:00

"'Burailion' Red!" or "I dream of heroes"

2009-09-08T06:50:00.004-04:00

Last night I had a dream, in which I came into possession of a decoder ring. However, it matched up catchphrases in addition/instead of keycodes. As I examined the ring, I saw that one of the movable options was "'Burailion' Red!"

Needless to say, this stopped me dead in my tracks. I then spent the rest of my dream trying to get in touch with NCSoft or someone from Paragon Studios, so that I could collect my royalties.

Good times.

<---Original outfit, sans Piston Boots

Police Drone TH

2009-09-04T08:01:00.005-04:00

Posting pictures in this blog is always a crapshoot; either I screw up royally and it looks terrible, or everything fits together supremely well, and it looks like a work of art. Anyway...

Police Drone TH, level 50 Assault Rifle/Energy Manipulation Blaster. He was my second character to hit 50, and by far my favorite character. Even with the PPD long gone, and most likely being one of the last "drones" patrolling the City, I still feel proud to wear that outfit.

As you can see, TH has been fully outfitted with IOs (on his primary build). Among other things, he has Sting of the Manticore 5-slotted, three sets of Positron's Blast 5-slotted, two sets of Thunderstrike 6-slotted, three sets of Mako's Bite 6-slotted, Gaussian's Synchronized Fire Control 6-slotted, Essence of Curare 6-slotted, and a few other unique IOs tossed in for flavor.

I specced him for ranged defense, and I succeeded. With Combat Jumping on, he has +32.88% defense to ranged attacks. Math time!

Base accuracy for an even con minion is 50%. With my defense applied, an even con minion has a 17.12% chance to hit me (effectively, I take 66% less damage than other blasters, at range). Of course, it's always important to understand the difference between positional defense, and typed defense.

All attack are classified by "position" and "type". An attack can only have one position (ranged, melee, area of effect), but it can have multiple types (smashing, lethal, fire, cold, energy, negative energy, toxic, psychic). For example, if a Council mech fires an energy blast at you, it's a ranged attack that deals energy and smashing damage. Resistance is applied separately to each type, however, only one defensive value is applied. If I have 30% ranged defense, 15% energy defense, and 10% smashing defense, the game will roll to hit against me using the highest relevant value (in this case, ranged defense). If the same mech runs up to me and tries to back-hand me with its' gun arm, the game then rolls to hit against either my melee or smashing defense (which in this case, my smashing defense is probably higher).

This is more important for melee characters, because different sets run different defenses. Super Reflexes is all positional defense, while Invulnerability is mainly typed defense. Knowing which you are when slotting is paramount for making sure IO set bonuses synergize with your character.

Battle Suit Justice Burailion

2009-09-03T08:35:00.002-04:00

An insane anime mecha, Burailion has almost no IOs slotted up, but is still one of my favorite characters. I went Invulnerability/Energy Melee because I wanted him to be a PvP character, but interest in him PvPing gave way to mild RPing with him.

This isn't his original outfit, but it's my current favorite (mainly because most of the pieces didn't exist when I stopped playing). It's a combination of Cyborg (arms, legs, shoulders, belt, hat, face plate, and chest plate), Enforcer (gauntlets, chin piece), and Techbot pieces (torso and head), with Piston Boots tossed in for good measure.

I'll be adding some binds and macros to him later, fleshing out the whole deluded crazy robot angle. Such catchphrases to be added:

"Burning finger!"
"Battle Suit Justice beatdown!"
"I've seen this episode; it's the one where I kick your ass!"
"Last time on Battle Suit Justice Burailion: I was awesome!"
"Battle Suit Justice Burailion has high insurance premiums."
"You are a fly in the soup of justice!"

That last one seems more in the vein of what the Tick would scream out, but you get the idea.

Oh, what's that you say?

2009-09-02T18:03:00.002-04:00

Rather than apologize for months of inactivity, and pledge to remedy my ways, I'll just act like there was no sizable gap in my posting.

Sup.

So, not only has Blizzard announced a fourth class for Diablo 3, but NCSoft has released a trailer for Guild Wars 2. Huzzah! The trailer depicting the new D3 class, the Monk, was very reminiscent of Fist of the North Star. I was initially skeptical of introducing such a decidedly eastern flavor to D3, but given the art I've seen, he fits quite nicely. Meanwhile, the trailer for Guild Wars 2 may or may not have turned me on (just a little). Z-Axis, Norn-bears wearing armor, Charr with guns, Asuran mechs. Let's just say, I hath been sated.
---------------

But forget all that, I have real news to share:

I renewed my subscription to City of Heroes.

BOOYAH. I never really realized how much I missed that game. It's been almost five issues since I last played (I stopped in I11, and I16 is nearing release). But now I'm back, many of my gripes have been addressed (Invul balancing, Kheldian performance, etc), leaving me with less room to bitch, and more things to enjoy.

Starting tonight, I'll be posting character bios for everyone I still play, to give some reference to everything I babble about.

My wife, the Semi-Gamer, Redux

2009-04-27T18:43:00.001-04:00

My wife is still a pansy girly gamer (no offense to macho girly gamers out there). We recently started playing Phantasy Stay Online: Ep 1&2 Plus, again. The game is damn near a decade old and it's still fun to play it and get some split screen monster slaying/loot whoring in once and a while. However, once again, a performance gulf appears between my wife and I.

-Cortez, RAcast, Lvl 34, completed chapters 1-4 NM, completed chapter 1 on HM, 350k Meseta banked
-Denicia, FOmarl, Lvl 13, completed chapters 1&2 on NM, 3465 Meseta banked

We made the characters together, but one cannot complete quests in mutliplayer mode. So, we were forced to play separately in order to progress through the game. Needless to same, I got ahead of her. I beat the game, beat all the quests, and started again on Hard Mode (there are four difficulties, each unlocked by beating the one below it, Hard Mode is only the second). Fortunately for her, being a RAcast, I can't use spells, or increase my mind stat. So, whenever a high level uber-spell or mind boosting item comes my way, I tuck it into my stash, to give to my wife at a later date. As a result, she already knows every spell in the game, and has quite a few shift mod for her armor.

However, it's unlikely that we'll have a chance to play together anytime soon. In PSO, you only receive and XP reward if you deal damage to an enemy, even if it's only one hit. Because of the level difference, I'm liable to kill most enemies in one hit, preventing my better half from gaining any XP.

Vanquishing with Warriors

2009-04-15T20:00:00.006-04:00

I've bitched and moaned in the past about how difficult it is for a Warrior to get a team, or to be useful to one, many times in the past. And I've bitterly muttered to myself about it far more often. Sad as it is to admit, Perma-Sins, Cryers, and Old School Ursans are and were simply more useful to teams, leaving little to no room for Warriors to join in the fun. However, today, my Alliance and I had a little fun in Melandru's Hope, an area within Echovald Forest, home of the Kurzicks.

"Vanquishing" is the act of killing every single last enemy in a zone, while in Hardmode. The game tracks how many foes are present, versus how many you have killed. When you kill 100% of the enemies present, the area is considered "vanquished". The area on the map goes from red to gold, and you get another point in the title track to Vanquish all of a particular campaign. In Factions, if you vanquish a zone while under the effect of a blessing (Kurzick or Luxon respectively), you receive a very large bonus in the form of both money and alliance faction. In short, it's a way for PvEers to earn lots of faction for their Guild and Alliance.

So today, we went and vanquished Melandru's Hope. With four warriors.

I can honestly say, it's been a long while since I had that much fun PvEing, much less with 50% warriors. Myself, Noble (Officer within [CoF]), Cloud (Officer within [HELL]), Tam (Officer within [HELL]), and Travis (member of [HELL]), plus three heroes (monk, elementalist, and necro respectively), cleared the zone in less that one hour. All told, we each earned about 14k faction, which isn't bad at all, especially given how fast one earns it in PvP (1.5k-2.5k per battle, each battle taking 10 minutes or so).

But to me, the best part was how efficient we were. We killed fast, kept our back-line safe, and suffered only a handful of deaths, always at the hands of bosses. I ran my Imba-War, while Cloud was gracious enough to run a Tactics spec and keep the back-line covered with Protector's Stance. Meanwhile, Noble and Tam ran more offensively oriented Warriors, giving us a good mix of mitigation and single target DPS (Although Noble just ran my build with "Save Yourselves!" swapped out for another attack).

It went so well, in fact, that everyone involved is eager to vanquish in other areas of the Echovald Forest, to earn more faction, and in general have more fun.

(this post will be prettied up with links once I get home, the work computer is now blocking Guild Wiki)

Kongregate: Social Gaming Site for the Masses

2009-04-07T14:13:00.004-04:00

Back when I was in high school, flash games sucked for the most part. Aside from 3D Pong (which is still badass) and Spank the Monkey, there wasn't much worth playing that wasn't an interactive flash video or stick-figures doing stupid crap.

However, a while back, I read an article about a flash game called "Desktop Tower Defense". The concept interested me somewhat, because I had played many tower defense mods for Warcraft 3 in years past. Eventually, I googled it, and tried it out. Was great fun, and I wasted many, many hours trying to stave off my inevitable suckage. Through this game, I learned of a flash portal known as Kongregate. Always leery of words that needlessly start with "K", I visited it to find the most amazing and diverse collection of flash games I had ever seen.

Using a format similar to youtube, the site lets you play games, upload games, rate games, favorite games, and links all games together with a series of mutual chatrooms, so you can make and talk to friends while you play. Not bad. But even better (or worse), the people who manage the site saw fit to not only integrate tech for scoreboards hosted on the site, but to add XBL style achievements and points to some games, allow players to amass badges and points, to increase their rank (which means literally nothing). Even better, Kongregate actually publishes a few games of it's own, most of which are multiplayer. One such game, Kongai, is a cross between MTG and rock-paper-scissors. You collect cards that are offered as rewards on a twice weekly basis, and use them to play.

Now, all of this is fine and good, but the most important aspect of this site is the games that it hosts and offers. Games are divided up by category, and ranked accordingly. Among my favorite games are shooters like Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar!, intrusion, Bubble Tank 2, Last Stand 2, Luminara, Endless Zombie Rampage, and Areas. Even with a premise as simple as "shoot some shit", each one has a very amusing and unique flavor too it. No two play alike, yet all have simple, and sometimes very similar, controls.

The people who develop these games can win cash prizes based on how well their game is ranked, both on a weekly and monthly basis. Furthermore, tech was implemented that allows players to directly donate money to a developer, with a system that somewhat resembles paypal. The incentive to create and release games on this site seems solid.

I'll probably be ranting and raving about games from this site more and more as time wears on, so look forward to some very entertaining flash games in the future.

Crossfire: Ghetto Counter Strike, or something better?

2009-04-05T18:58:00.003-04:00

A couple of my guildies introduced me to an online FPS called Crossfire. It's currently in open beta, and free-to-play. I downloaded and played it for a few weeks, and I'm both impressed and underwhelmed with the game.

Firstly, let me prove that I've played it enough to voice an opinion. I have a KDR of 2.15, average 20 kills a game over 222 matches, and just over a third of my kills were headshots. Frankly, I don't count honor for much, but for what it's worth, mine is good. Had I not wasted so much time in "Ghost" matches (explained below), my KDR would be much more impressive. Unfortunately, Ghost mode is the favored match type of one of the guildies who got me into this (meaning I got talked into playing it, a lot). Moving on.

Pros

Persistent Stat Tracking
Persistent Character Inventory
Functional In-Game Clans
Multiple Games Modes

Cons

Weak Graphics
Poor Hit Detection
Poor Weapon Balance
Hyper-Inflated Weapon Prices/Minimal Money & XP Rewards

I want to like Crossfire. I really do. I enjoy that it takes the CS formula and tries to build on it. While it doesn't have the CS equivalent of Hostage Rescue (which I think everyone is thankful for), it has Search & Destroy (bomb map), Team Deathmatch, Elimination, and Ghost Mode. Team Deathmatch and Elimination both play out mostly the same; each team tries to kill as many opponents as possible, the only difference being, one has rounds (Elimination), while the other has players constantly respawning. Ghost Mode has much potential, as it's a bombing variant where all the Black List players (Terrorists) are armed only armed with knives. However, they are completely invisible when motionless, and almost invisible when moving (It's quite nerve wracking to play as Global Risk [Counter-Terrorist] in that game-mode). It also offers a much wider array of weapons to the playerbase, without restricting players from owning certain firearms based on which team they are on (In CS, CTs get M4s, while Ts get AK-47s). Also, the idea of having a persistent character inventory is novel, especially for this type of game. I like being able to pick what weapons I'm going to fight with each game, and be able to start with them (as opposed to CS, where I have to earn money to buy them, and I lose them if I die). In the same way, I like the ease with which I can find and view my own and other players persistent stats. Rather than assuming a player is good because he is a higher rank than me, I can look at this profile and find things like his KDR, number of headshots scored, number of knife kills, and how often he leaves a match before it's finished (the last one is tracked as a players "Honor").

However, in as many ways as Crossfire impresses me, I'm very disappointed with it. Firstly, I've been fed up with one-hit kill sniper rifles since CS 1.6 (I hate the AWP, and will only play on servers where it's banned, if I can help it). No amount of arguing or debating will convince me that having such a weapon in a game makes it better. It doesn't. Allowing players to forgo accuracy with a sniper rifle by virtue of sheer firepower cheapens the game. Maybe if the sniping mechanics made zooming in a greater risk (drifting crosshairs, more severe movement penalties, etc), I'd be ok with it, but as is, it's merely a way for poor players to beat better ones, purely on the basis of who's using what gun. Since players have persistent weapon inventories, you really can't prevent someone from joining a game and using one (you can votekick them, but that's a horribly un-reliable function).

Also, there are vast amounts of server-side lag. I've died hundreds of times by foes, who on my screen, are on the other side of a wall or corner. In reality, they killed me before I hit cover, but the server doesn't process fast enough to display that on my screen. Instead, I get pasted after I'm out of view (on my monitor). This also affects aiming, in a small way, because every so often, an enemy is displayed as being a few in-game feet away from where he is actually located in game. Accuracy is further fouled by firing from a crouched position. Certain weapons have more kick than others, and thusly cause your character to recoil more. Rather than simply have this affect accuracy, the devs made it so it physically makes your character recoil, affecting his body placement. Translation: if you're using an SG-552 or an AUG A1, and fire while zoomed in and crouching, the hitbox for your head will rapidly move up and down, making it very, very hard to score a headshot on you. Quite lame.

Money and XP rewards aren't based as much on kills or performance as they are on time spent in a map. A player with a KDR less than 1 can earn far more than a player with dozens of kills and no deaths, provided the first player has been in the map long enough. Giving people extra XP for things like most damage dealt, most kills scored, and last kill, is nice however. But, it doesn't make it for the majority of matches where a decent player gets dicked over by a poor rewards system.

And then there are ignorant quirks about the game, like a target hit in mid-air ceases moving forward, the just drop. I've died far too many times while leaping for cover, just to get tagged once, drop, then get lit up in the .5 seconds I'm perfectly still. Maybe this is another defect due to server-side lag, but it's still completely lame.

The game is still in beta, but progress made here will carry over to the live version of the game. So if, down the line, I decide to go back to it, I can, while retaining everything I've earned. I appreciate that. However, if things stay more or less like they are now, I'll be content staying with the five years young Counter Strike: Source.

Taking 103: Warrior DPS and IAS

2009-03-24T16:04:00.007-04:00

Most warriors I encounter within the game, alliance, and my guild, seem to think they must choose between dealing damage, and taking it. They either spec into what they feel is an overwhelming offense, or into something they hope is a faultless defense (sadly, despite their specialized builds, quite often neither is true).

However, it is quite easy to deal damage and take it while on the front line. Now, you may not be as tough as someone who devotes all eight of his skill picks to survival, and you'll never outshine your teams Ele; but you can contribute substantial and vital DPS to what your team is already generating, allowing you to quicker deal with things like bosses, enemy casters, or loose agro.

IAS: IAS stands for Increased Attack Speed, and it's the easiest way to jump-start your DPS. Even though the stance says it increases your attack speed by only 33% (which is the cap), that translate to you attack 50% more. That means you do 50% more damage (and gain 50% more adren, steal 50% more life with a vamp weapon, etc). If you were doing 30 DPS before, now you're at 45 DPS, by simply using one skill (which also helps you generate more agro, since you've now become a bigger threat to the NPC).

Attack Skills: The place most warriors go wrong. You don't need six attack skills, ever. Even assassins, who are dependent on chaining attacks skills, don't need that many. In general, don't take more than three. If you're tanking, your elite should be tailored to that end (Gladiator's Defense, Defy Pain, Obsidian Flesh, etc). Too many warriors use elite attacks cause they're OMGWTFBBQ awesomesuace on the battle field. Too bad your dead teammates don't agree. If you have to use an elite attack, use one that helps you tank (Dragon Slash is a good example, as it can feed skills like "Save Yourselves!"). Less is more with attack skills. Simply adding Power Attack to your skill bar can give you a boost of up to 14 DPS (which, plus the 45 you already have, give you 59 DPS, which is actually quite good considering). Being able to add you damage to that of your team against tough targets can create shorter battles, meaning that your team has more resources left when it's over, making the next battle that much easier (if you help end a fight even 5 seconds faster, consider how much energy your monk or ele didn't have to spend casting).

Conditions: Warriors have the ability to apply almost every single condition in the game, with the exception of Cracked Armor, Poison, Disease, and Burning (and all of these can be found from a secondary profession). Degeneration can be a great boon, especially against high armor targets, or ones that ignore damage (Mist Form, certain PvE only boss skills). Each pip of degen equals two HP a second lost, meaning Bleeding adds 6 DPS, Poison 8 DPS, Disease 8 DPS, and Burning 14 DPS (degen caps out at 10 pips, or 20 HP a second). A W/R running Power Attack, Flail, and Apply Poison could easily net 67 DPS. Deep Wound is even more fun, as it reduces your targets total health and ability to heal (a valuable and often overlooked feature). It will reduce a targets health by 20% (maximum of 100 HP). What most people don't realize is this not only affects maximum HP, it affects current HP. That means an attack that adds Deep Wound can deal up to 100 damage over the listed value, that ignore ALL damage reduction and armor.

Warriors shouldn't ever be relegated to the role of meatshield. Warriors should be mobile little tanks that run around slicing, chopping, and smashing everything in their path, while their team rains down holy hell on their foes. A warriors high armor gives them the unique ability to go deep into the enemies backline and raise hell; an ability that is all to often overlooked. Just today I was running Eternal Grove with a guildmate. Each of us took up defense of a separate ramp. While he engaged the foes with his minions and heroes, I flagged mine to stand guard by the tree, while I ran out and played with the Luxons. At one point I found myself holding agro against a Siege Turtle, three Luxon Rangers, two Luxon Warriors, and two Luxon Elementalists. I killed them all in time to run off and catch the next turtle. All in all, we only lost a single Tree Singer, even when we experienced half a team wipe and Afflicted flooded into our base.

In my opinion, every warrior should be able to do what I did and more.

Two-Fisted Monkey Style

2009-03-20T17:22:00.003-04:00

I would apologize for not posting recently, but I spent the time gaming, so I have not regrets. I'll be trying free-to-play MMOs and FPSs, and relaying opinions and feedback about them here. Figured it would be a nice change to me babbling about GW PvP and Counterstrike.

In other news; Youtube has a nasty habit of putting entirely unrelated junk into the "Related Videos" box on the right hand side of the screen. Because of this, I quite frequently end up watching horrible videos I have no interest in. To make matters worse, once I've watched these videos, they end up getting factored into my suggested viewing tab, further flooding me with bad and undesirable options.

le sigh

While browsing MMA videos, a video was suggested to me by the title of "Shaolin vs Ninjas". Ever the ninja fan, I clicked the video, and watched as a single monk owned a dozen or so ninjas, sometimes with their own weapons.

Well, let's ignore, for the moment, that we have ninjas fighting in the daylight. Or, that they are fighting at all, in a head to head contest. As everyone knows, the effectiveness of a ninja in combat is inversely proportionate to the number of ninjas present. 100 ninjas will fail where one would succeed (Ninja Scroll vs Ninja Gaiden). The same holds true for Stormtroopers. 200 Stormtroopers will get their asses kicked by Han and Chewie, but it only takes five Stormtroopers to capture the whole gang.

Damn you Youtube, damn you for spreading these lies.

Guild Wars Update: March 5th

2009-03-06T01:10:00.002-05:00

Some changes came down the pipe today, and frankly, ANet hates Rangers. Taken directly from the Developers Updates page:

Read the Wind (PvP Only): functionality changed to: "For 24 seconds, your arrows move twice as fast."

Flail: decreased duration to 1..15 seconds.

Rangers had been outshining spellcasters at dealing damage and could do so while being much more resistant to pressure damage. This made them ideal for spike builds. By removing the damage bonus on Read the Wind, we're cutting the damage they do with each attack, and by dropping the minimum duration on Flail we've made it harder for them to get an attack speed boost without any real drawbacks or costs. (Rangers can't put points into the Strength attribute, so they can never increase the duration on Flail. Warriors who use this skill should be unaffected by this change.)

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Ok, saying that they "hate" Rangers in an embellishment to say the least. However, this is the second time they've nerfed key skills in Ranger spike builds (in recent memory). Skills like Sundering Attack and Experts Dexterity have already been nerfed to the point of near uselessness in PvP (they still retain their PvE shine, in all fairness). However, it's kinda obvious what the meta will shift to now (Favorable Winds anyone?).

There is one change that makes me happy:

Disciplined Stance: decreased duration to 1..4 seconds; decreased armor gain to +10.

Defensive Stance: decreased duration to 1..5 seconds; decreased armor gain to +10.

Soldier's Defense: decreased duration to 1..5.

Shield Stance: decreased duration to 1..6.

These stances were originally balanced with 8v8 combat in mind. In 4v4 play, where there are fewer attackers and enemies cannot have as wide a range of utility skills on their team, Monks using these stances have become a problem. We've lowered the durations and armor bonuses to help 4v4 teams fight through these defenses.

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I hate stanced Monks. Nothing pisses me off more than a Monk who uses Disciplined Stance and Shield Bash to fuck up melee spikes (granted, while I was pissed, I always conceeded it was legit, since they sacrificed team support for self protection). Granted, my plans to start playing PvP Monks have now been backburnered, but playing Saru just got more fun.

Oh, and finally, a handful of skills that just got buffed:

Shadow Refuge: increased duration to 6 seconds.

Ether Feast: increased Health per Energy drained to 20..65.

Aura of Restoration: decreased Energy cost to 5; increased recharge to 12. Functionality changed to: "For 60 seconds, you gain 0..1 Energy and are healed for 200..500% of the Energy cost each time you cast a spell."

Healing Signet: increased Healing to 82..172.

To split effectively, characters typically need more self-sufficiency than they do when fighting in a big group. With that in mind, we've made a selection of self-healing skills more powerful.

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Interesting, I might stop running dual-attunement now, since Aura of Restoration now gives a smidge of energy back (we'll see). Also, a whole new reason to run Tactics again, Healing Signet is now a healing nuke. Protector's Stance+Healing Signet=ftw?

Call of Geneva

2009-03-03T13:58:00.003-05:00

I recently read an article where a kid is made to read the Geneva Convention, and adhere to it when playing first person shooters (specifically Call of Duty).

Firstly, I want to applaud his parents in taking an original and unorthodoxed approach to proactive parenting, in the realm of violent video games. Too many parents take a hands off approach to this, and hold the game developers, not themselves, accountable for what their kids play. Kudos.

That being said, other than being a nice historical footnote in the kids daily gaming regiment, the Geneva Convention applies almost solely to the treatment of PoWs and civilians. I fail to see how, if at all, this will impact their sons gaming experience (maybe I simply haven't played the same iteration of Call of Duty that their son plays, and that one allows him to abuse civilians and PoWs). Now, if the article had discussed the boy playing Civilization or Fable, I'd see a direct correlation between the parental concern and the response.

In my opinion, this idea is ultimately a failure, because it does not impress any change in the childs "behavior" towards this video game. Perhaps if their son pick up Turok for the PS2, they'll be pleased to see that he doesn't execute the surrendering bi-ped dinotroopers. Huzzah.

My suggestion; if you're child is entering the realm of online multiplayer first person shooters, focus on his behavior, not gameplay. Place rules on how he talks to others (some of the most vile trash-talking I've ever heard came from 13 year olds). Forbid him from having insulting or vulgar sprays (images a player can paint temporarily onto a surface in game), forbid him from teabagging, corpse humping, or firing his weapon into other dead players.

Other than that, the best parenting option, when it comes to first person shooters, is to not let your kids play them.

Tanking 102: Builds and Skills

2009-02-26T19:12:00.004-05:00

At the request of Greg (my guild and alliance leader), I'm adding some more specific info on tanking. There are several key skills that can assist the playing of a tank, depending on whether or not you spec for Strength or Tactics, and whether you spec for energy or adrenaline use:

Strength/Adrenaline: Defy Pain (+hp, +AL, -DR), Lion's Comfort (self heal, +adren), "For Great Justice!" (double adren gain)
Strength/Energy: Warrior's Endurance (+energy), Flourish (+energy, skill rech), I Will Survive (+regen), Endure Pain (+hp), Dwarven Battle Stance (+IAS, interupt)
Tactics/Adrenaline: Auspicious Parry (100% block, +adren), "Watch Yourself" (+AL), Bonetti's Defense (75% block, +energy), Riposte (100% block, +dmg), To the Limit! (+adren), "For Great Justice!" (double adren gain)
Tactics/Energy: Gladiator's Defense (75% block, +dmg), Protector's Stance (75% block), Deadly Riposte (100% block, +dmg), Victory is Mine! (self heal), Bonetti's Defense (75% block, +energy)

Signets were not listed because they don't cost adrenaline or energy. Dolyak Signet and Healing Signet are the two most common signets you'll use as a Warrior. Keep in mind both have very serious draw-backs. Dolyak Signet makes you nigh-immoble, so make sure you won't need to move once you use it. If you feel you will need to reposition after casting it, bring along a shadow-step skill (Death's Charge works). Running Warrior's Endurance, Dolyak Signet, and Death's Charge will turn you into a teleporting infinite energy tank. Healing Signet causes -40 armor. For those who don't know how armor works, that means it doubles the damage you take while casting it. Makes sure you're running a block stance while casting it (and make sure that it won't end on skill activation).

Skill synergy is paramount too. Consider running a hammer tank, with Gladiator's Defense, Protector's Stance, and Renewing Smash. Now you can keep up near infinite block, and protect your team too (requires you to stand with the backline, so it's better as an off-tank, or when facing enemies without AoEs). Running Brawling Headbutt and Steelfang Slash in any adrenaline fueled build will give you a constant boost in adrenaline gain, and give you a solid interupt on nasty enemy skills. A Warrior/Paragon build that uses Spear of Fury along with Barbed Spear and Blazing Spear can jack up the teams DPS, while being able to spam "Save Yourselves!", with either a Strength or Tactics spec.

For tanks that run energy intensive builds, the use of a Zealous weapon is highly recommended, especially if you are using an IAS stance (keep in mind, you can only activate one stance at a time; you'll need to decide whether or not attacking faster is more important than blocking). Even though most IAS stances list an increase of 33%, that translates to 50% more attacks. Blunty, if two identical warriors, without attack skills, auto-attack the same target, the warrior under the effect of a 33% IAS stance will do 50% more damage. So, for terms of DPS, no skill is more important to a warrior than one that provides IAS.

I prefer to run Strength/Adrenaline builds. I'll run Flail, Enraging Charge, Lion's Comfort, Defy Pain, "For Great Justice!", "Save Yourselves!", plus two attack skills, either energy based, or the Brawling Headbutt/Steelfang Slash combo, to increase the rate at which I spam "SY!". In my opinion, Defy Pain is the best and most versatile warrior primary tanking skill. With a 20 second duration, it's easy to keep in up indefinitely durring combat. At 16 Strength, it gives +314 HP, +20 AL, and -11 DR. All from one skill. This puts the average tank at 120 AL vs physical, 100 AL vs Elemental. Math time:

NPC deals 100 physical damage with attack 1, and 100 elemental damage with attack 2 to Tank A, who is wearing max AL armor. Tank A takes 50 damage from attack 1, and 70.71 damage from attack 2. The same NPC then attacks Tank B, who is wearing the same armor, but is also running Defy Pain at 16 Strength. Attack 1 does 24.36 damage, while attack 2 does 39 damage.

Now, “SY!” is also, in my opinion, one of the best ways to protect your team:

An NPC boss hits your team with Searing Flames, at 20 Fire Magic, dealing 230 damage (130 base, x2 for boss damage, and we’ll pretend the whole team is on fire because you’re in lava). You monks, mesmers, ritualists, and elementalists all take it on the chin at the listed damage. You assassins and dervishes get hit for 193.41 damage. You paragons and fellow warriors take 162.63 damage, while the rangers laugh it off at 115 damage.

The boss hits you team again, but this time, you’ve cast “SY!”. The monks, elementalists, ritualists, and mesmers all giggle as they take 40.66 damage. The assassins and dervishes tell knock-knock jokes while they take 34.19. The paragons and warriors have an arm wrestling match while they take 28.75 damage, and the rangers shed a single silent tear for the boss as they take 20.33 damage.

The above assumes that no one wears a shield or has native damage reduction, and doesn’t use insignia that boost AL. “Save Yourselves!” is a warrior PvE skill gained from either the Luxons or the Kurzicks. It’s +100 AL for your team, for 4 to 6 seconds, at the cost of 8 adrenaline. It’s pure hotness.

I’ll add more tidbits as they present themselves.

Dual Attunement Air Spike: Bringing the Thunder

2009-02-22T10:48:00.007-05:00

I've tried to think of some catchy names to attach to this build. 'Da Hammah', 'Air Hammer', 'Thunder-Fucked', stuff like that. But frankly, names don't matter when it comes to how well something works.

I don't play casters, it's not my schtick. However, I rolled up a PvP Elementalist (codename: Cripslashin Kittens), and took it to Jade Quarry. I'd actually never played in JQ, but one of my guildies wouldn't shut up about it, so I decided to join him. Not having many Elementalist elites, I went and capped Elemental Attunement, and threw together a generic air spike build:

It works great. It fell out of meta with the increase of enchantment stripping (Rend/Rip Enchantment being high up on that list), however, in JQ, most necros are fond of running Weaken Knees builds, to target NPC carriers. So, for purposes of RA, AB, JQ, or AW, this build is perfectly viable. It hits for 160+ dmg consistently, and never runs out of energy, provided you maintain both attunements. But, I still didn't feel like the build was doing as much damage as I wanted, so I opted to go Ele/Me, and run Arcane Echo:

This was fun too. Echoing Lightning Hammer makes for some insane DPS. Either build is capable of taking out a carrier turtle in 6 seconds or so, making it a tad faster than Necro/Assassins running Weaken Knees and Shameful Fear. However, running an echo build in the middle of a frantic PvP scenario is annoying to say the least. As much as I liked it, I ended up echoing the wrong skills on more than one occasion. Regardless, I was looking for a bigger and more effective spike. So, I added Energy Blast, which worked well, especially since it's armor ignoring damage. The downside is that I regain no energy casting it, and it doesn't benefit from Glyph of Elemental Power.

But that doesn't matter. The build does a sickening amount of damage, and most of the spells don't require line of sight to use. This allows me to attack relatively unseen, a tactic I've been fond of ever since my days with an AR/Dev in CoH.

Non-Consensual PvP: Intro to World/Zone PvP

2009-02-19T20:30:00.004-05:00

Non-consensual PvP can ruin a game for some people. While I'm an avid PvPer, and I support a players right to attack another without permission or provocation, I acknowledge how my actions can impact my opponent (or victim). My old roommate John refused to play games online for this very reason. Quite blunty, he told me that he didn't want to deal with other players that would try to force him into a PvP engagement. Despite my trying to convince him that there were easy ways to avoid such a fate, or to prevent it entirely, he merely responded that he shouldn't have to alter his behavior to avoid being targeted by "douches".

One of the most common arguments I heard against this type of PvP (or, simply against people attacking others without warning), was the analogy of dodgeball. You shouldn't be allowed to force someone to play dodgeball with you; it needs to be their choice. Honestly, I see merit in this argument. It's not fun to get killed. It's not fun to get killed by another player. It's even less fun getting your ass kicked by another player when you had no idea it was coming, or intention of fighting back. I am aware of these things, and I understand.

I'll still probably kill you.

And it's not cause I want to be a bully, or because I giggle to myself as I gank you. Firstly, there is usually a tactile reward for winning. Faction, renown, honor, gold. If an NPC asked you not to farm him, would you listen? To those who would listen, I applaud your compassion, but suggest you leave the warzone. Secondly, I don't know that you aren't a threat until one of two things happens:

1. You leave the area.
2. I leave the area.

Remember when I said it's not fun getting killed? PvPers don't like getting killed either, that's a big part of why we are so hard up to kill you first. Nothing is as harmless as a corpse.

However, a distinction arises here. World PvP=/=Zone PvP. They are similar but hardly the same. World PvP can, in some instances, mean that nowhere is safe. Danger of PvP can be around any corner, and everyone could be spoiling for a fight. In this situation, the "dodgeball" analogy holds water. The PvEer can't help to cross paths with the PvPer sometimes, and only one will walk away from that encounter (guess who).

But then there is Zone PvP. Imagine a place 100 times the size of Warsong Gulch, or Grenz Frontier. A place where there are plenty of places to hide, plenty of hidden treasures to earn, and a place where you are meant to fight other players. If you're here, you're meat. Period. In this place, the counter analogy is "Why are you on the court if you don't want to play?", and you'll get held to it. Cries of "Why does my gameplay experience have to suffer to benefit yours?" gets thrown back and forth between players on both sides.

My policy is to shoot first, ask questions later. But please believe, I will ask afterward, and I will listen to your answer. If I find you're not here to fight, I probably won't bother you again. But I will not let you pass untouched, on the premise or chance that PvP might not be your schickt. I will kill you. I will remind you of why this place is dangerous, why you need to be prepared, and why you need to tread lightly. I'm sorry if your gear is expensive to repair, I'm sorry if you respawn miles away from here, I'm sorry if I fuck up your quest.

You should have been more careful. PvP is srs bizness.

Guild Life

2009-02-19T10:31:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been a crazy week.

I've been made an officer of my guild. Since it's full to capacity, I'm not required to recruit, but they expect officers to organize and help with events without being directed to do so. So far, I've raised interested in structured PvP, and have helped host a few 8v8 matches within the alliance. They've been fun, and I'm impressed with the overall skill level, despite their lack of experience.

Our home map is Burning Isle, which is a bitch to navigate, but it makes for some interesting matches. I'll probably suggest we host the next set of matches at a "friendlier" guild hall.

Hopefully, I'll be able to lead a GvG team to victory before the end of spring. I doubt it will take that long, but my schedule in real life makes it hard to coordinate events on a regular basis.

Guildmates, love 'em or hate 'em

2009-02-13T06:57:00.010-05:00

Recently, I left my guild.

There was no conflict, there was no bitterness; I just needed a guild with active players. I was an officer in a guild founded and run by my sisters-in-law, whom I have nothing but good things to say about. Other than they're inactive as fuck (sorry guys).

However, joining a new guild is like finding a new job. The first rule is don't quit your current one till you find a new one. So, I went guild hunting. There are many ways to do this. Look on the forums for your respective MMO to see who's recruiting. Some MMOs, like WoW, have sites entirely dedicated to people looking for guilds. A more laid back approach is to seek out guilds in game, either by soliciting yourself (r5 Warrior Looking For Guild!) or looking for people who are actively recruiting (Wicked Tough Fighters [WTF] is now recruiting! PvP/PvE/AB/HM/Vanq/Kurz/1.5 mil fac, pst!).

I took the latter approach.

However, when I look for a guild, I have more questions for the recruiter than they do for me. How big is your guild? How big is your alliance? Do you PvP? What kind of PvP? Does your GvG team have spots open, or do you have multiple GvG teams? Do you run dungeons? Do you vanquish? Do you use voice chat? Do you have a website? How active are you? What's your officer to member ratio? (That last one is a biggie, imo)

So, after some searching, I found a Kurzick guild that was recruiting. After finding out there were almost no requirements to join, other than not being a tool, I hit the guy with my list of questions. Most were answered to my satisfaction, but I had one last demand: Lemme see your cape. Capes are make or break. I much prefer tabards ala WoW, but capes are neat in their own way. However, they can be gaudy and ostentatious, so as a result I end up being picky about them. The cape wasn't all that, but the recruiter struck me being a solid guy. So, I went ahead and joined up.

It's been a while since I logged on to an active Ventrillo server. And I can't remember why I missed it. People talking over each other, feedback, audio loops, and my mic shutting off every 15 minutes. But I still missed it.

Anyways, as complicated as joining a guild may or may not be, actually integrating into one is a different story. There are two types of guild mates; the ones that treat you like family simply because you're guildies, and the ones who treat like a stranger who isn't welcome in their house. All the people I met fell into the first category. Score.

Even better still, my new guild is the head of the alliance, meaning my guild leader is also alliance leader. Double Score. We ended up teaming right after I joined. He started out treating me like any other noob, which I didn't mind really. I provoked this by admitting I didn't have any good ranger builds for my NPC hero. As a result, he ended up explaining a lot of things I already knew, but in a way that I didn't care or feel like I was being talked down too.

Sarutobi is doing the Asuran quests in EotN, which from what I hear, are the most annoying of the three racial factions. My GL agreed with this sentiment, and showed me a different route to take to get to Gadd's Encampment, entirely avoiding the Shards of Orr. After we reached our destination, he stayed on to help with the quest, Finding Gadd. Is so doing, we ended up fighting a lot of dinosaurs. On the way to Gadd's Encampment, he gave me a rundown on the different dinosaurs:

GL: "Raptors are assassins, which makes them nasty, but manageable, don't get mobbed. Angorodons are necros with nasty degen and lifesteal, be careful. Tyrannuses are warriors, and hit hard as hell. Triceratops... Just don't fuck with them, they're bad news."

So, after completing most of the first quest, we come upon a trio of Ceratadons, milling around. I suggest we attack, and while the GL mulls over it, I blitz them. He runs in after me, and we end up almost wiping after killing two of the three (it was just us and six heroes). While we rez the fallen...:

GL: "Who's bright idea was it to attack?"
Me: "Yours."
GL: "Um, no?"
Me: "Uh, yeah? You were totally like 'I've seen Jurassic Park! These guys ain't shit! All they do is get sick and die! Let's take these bastiches!' and I was all like, 'Uh, ok' and them you died."

The GL ended up laughing his ass off, and tells me that I'll fit in just fine with his guild.

The good news didn't end there. The next day, I ended up scrimmaging with a guildie who shared my same affinity for FoW farming. After a few battles, I looked in the vent channel to find out five other had joined us in the Fow Farming (solo) channel, and realized that all five were in the same GH as us, deciding who as going to fight who with what build. I'm glad to see so many players chomping at the bit for PvP, and I'm really looking forward to helping in the organization of a GvG team or two.

Guild Wars PvP: the Z-Axis Advantage

2009-02-09T19:48:00.006-05:00

When I hear people talk about Guild Wars, the first complaint I hear is how Guild Wars lacks Z-axis movement: you can't jump. The game is 3d, there are plenty of stairs, ramps, mountains, valleys, gulches, ditches to navigate, but you can't so much as vault a fence. You can jump in WoW, which is handy when exploiting NPC behaviors, or trying to out-maneuver another player in melee. You can jump, fly and teleport in CoH, which for the longest time contributed to fast paced PvP. But there's no jumping in GW.

That doesn't mean it can't be used to your advantage in PvP.

Not only does Guild Wars lack an accessible Z-axis, it completely fails to recognize it for purposes of spell and attack range. If an enemy is a relative 100 ft above you, but within the maximum range or you attack or spell horizontally, it can still be executed.

But what's really different is how this affects melee in PvP. If I stand under a bridge, and an opponent stands directly above me on said bridge, we can attack each other in melee.

How is this an advantage?

Imagine that you're under the bridge, and don't have time to get up there to stall enemy advance during an AB (they're travelling from the West Equipment Shrine to the Northwest Resurrection Shrine). A warrior can instead stand under the bridge and attack foes who are passing above (which gives warriors with Bull's Strike, Enraged Smash, or Crippling Slash a great chance to shut down an attack).

I've used this on many occasions to score kills on targets oblivious to my presence.

Also, remember that elevation increases range. Combine the two together, and this allows Rangers and Paragons on high elevation to not only exceed their horizontal range, but ignore any Z-axis impact on range (a great example is firing from the walls of a base on the Ancestral Lands or Kaanai Canyon maps).

Double Faction AB Weekend, results

2009-02-09T15:43:00.004-05:00

I went ahead and condensed my weekend updates into one nice summary post.

---------------------

Day One:

In my corner of the world, the AB weekend opened up strong with a total domination of the Luxons in Kaanai Canyon. Went on to win the next three matches by virtue of points, and lost the fourth in the same manner.

Kurzick 4, Luxon 1

However, I heard from others that the Kurzicks weren't doing so hot. But, if the battles are being held at Kaanai, that means we've been kicking enough ass to keep it there (of the five maps, Kaanai is the Luxon home map, meaning we've pushed them back as far as we can). The best part, this was at 3 AM EST, so plenty of people have come out of the woodwork to do battle this weekend. I'm so looking forward to this.

Day Two:

Logged in today to find the map had shifted to Etnaran Keys, which is considered "shallow luxon" territory. Fought the first match, won, and the map immediately shifted back to Kaanai Canyon ("deep luxon", as they call it). In the end, I only ended up winning 2 out of 5. Lack of coordination and bravery did the most damage to the kurzicks. Too many people won't attack unless someone else leads the charge, or they have a vast numbers advantage. I got very tired very fast with being the first one into battle, and the first one dead. There were many instances were even having a single ally would have won the skirmish.

Kurzick 6, Luxon 4

I ended up bringing out Reya, and it was worth it. Her range ended up being enough of a deterrent for most luxons that I kept a handful at bay at any given time, while liberally applying Burning Arrow+Poison Tip Signet. I only got to spend about an hour or so playing, as my employer called me up to inform me that I need to cover a four hour gap, leaving a mere 8 hours between the end of this shift and the beginning of my next one. Oh well, I'll be able to fight plenty tomorrow.

Day Three:

Sunday was horrible. The map had changed to Ancestral Lands (deep kurizck), and the wait times were obscene. After 20 minutes, finally got into an AB, which we won. After spending another 45 minutes in queue, decided that I'd rather shoot people, so I went and played some Counter Strike.

Kurzick 7, Luxon 4

All in all, this was a poor weekend, given how much I could have fought, versus how much I did. It didn't help that I was called into work on Saturday, my day off.

----------------------

I ended up earning around 55k in Kurzick faction this weekend, which translated into 110k faction for purposes of title tracking and my guilds ranking. Earned about 15k in Balthazar faction, which was spent (or wasted, based on what the Z-Chest dropped for me) on Z-Keys. Not bad, given that I wouldn't have earned nearly that much on a normal weekend, but I could have earned two to three times that much faction had I played for more than two hours a day this weekend.

Oh well, at least I have tomorrow off.

Double Faction AB weekend.

2009-02-06T19:44:00.003-05:00

You better believe my ass will be planted for many hours.

I'll keep a tally and post results of the battles to come this weekend. Might be fun to track to shift of power as it happens. I'll be limiting myself to Saru only, and will stick with my hammer. In the event that Minion Mancers come to play, I'll go W/P and get my spear on.

See you there.

Taking a little break...

2009-02-05T16:13:00.002-05:00

brb yo

Warrior PvP

2009-02-02T16:06:00.005-05:00

Warriors in Guild Wars are unique compared to most MMOs, in that they are the main damage dealers for high level, organized PvP.

In City of Heroes, the maxim for a long time was "lolmelee" (which has changed as of late), and in WoW, a pair of hunters usually means instagib. However, in Guild Wars, a single Warrior can require the attention of half the team to manage. Simply being a warrior isn't enough, you need the right build and playstyle to rock it as a PvP tank. But, there are still a number of advantages that come inherently to a warrior.

Warriors have the best armor, and frequently use shields, so attacks against them to drastically less damage than they would against other professions. Because of this, a warrior tends to be targeted less, and will take less damage by virtue of simply being attacked less.

Most people who PvE with warriors feel that they don't do good damage, when in reality, that perception is caused by high armor NPCs. Caster armor caps out at 60 AL, meaning you attacks will do double the damage they would do against another warrior.

Warrior attack skills look weaker than Elementalist skills on paper, but actually do equal or greater damage in application. The damage from an attack skill is added to the damage dealt with the warriors weapon. If I hit you with a sword for 27, but then add +38 from Dragon Slash, that's 65 damage. Also, remember that warriors have inherent armor penetration when using attack skills, so it will do even more damage than the sum of base damage plus bonus damage. The main advantage of Elementalist spells can be found in their range, and the fact that many are area of effect.

Even with these advantages, a poorly built or played warrior will die and fail like anyone else, you'll just look stupider than others in so doing. A good warrior balances attack skills, utility, self preservation, and mobility. Take for example this warrior. The shock-axe warrior is one of the most iconic warrior builds to run, be it GvG, AB, HA, RA, TA or competitive missions. Variations of this build have been used for years, and it's rarely fallen out of favor in the PvP meta (and if it did, it never stayed out for long).

Depending on the environment, you can expect different levels of support. In GvG, HA, or TA, one can expect consistent and competent support from one or more monks. In this situation, a warrior can focus less on keeping himself alive, so long as he can trust his backline. However, in AB, RA, or competitive missions, one cannot usually control who your teammates are. In these situations, a warrior has to be able to keep themselves alive, and that means altering ones build. That can mean bringing along a self heal, including a block stance, or having a way to boost HP to counter a spike. A warrior that brings Lion's Comfort and Defy Pain, with a high Strength spec, will be very difficult to kill, especially 1v1. A warrior running Shield Bash can completely negate an enemy assassin's attack chain, saving himself from a nasty spike.

The most important part of being an effective warrior is target awareness. A battle can be won or lost based on who the warrior attacks, or doesn't attack. A well timed knock-lock can prevent the monk from saving an ally, prevent a rez, or snare a foe long enough for the team to attack en mass and kill it. A sword warrior running Crippling Slash can make a monks like hell by applying cripple, bleed, and deep wound to multiple targets, slowing an enemy teams advance or retreat. Sometimes, rather than going after casters and playing a game of monk stomp, you have to lineback and run interference against enemy warriors. It all depends on the situation, and the situation can change rapidly and often.

Rage, the great motivator

2009-01-29T19:44:00.004-05:00

A long time ago, I had an encounter that affected how approach people, goals, and possessions in Guild Wars and other MMOs.

At the time, Sarutobi wasn't level 20 yet. I hadn't even reached Yak's Bend yet, much less capped any elites, tested out PvP, visited FoW, etc. The game was still very fresh for me, and all I owned of it was Prophecies (to be fair, at the time, that's all that existed).

I joined a team that was attempting the Nolani Academy mission, and on the team was a level 20 female warrior, who was helping a friend complete the mission. She was an arrogant bitch, who immediately took control of the team, and started ordering everyone around. However, the orders summed up to:

"Stay back, I'm fighting"

If we tried to help, if we got too close, or even if we ran in to try to pick up drops from fallen foes, she'd yell and scream, threatening to drop team and make us finish without her.

At several points during the mission, my teammates fawned over her, asking about her armor and gear. She blatantly refused to answer any questions about them, stringing them along, only telling them how expensive they had been, and thusly, how rich she was. I know now that she wore Obsidian Armor, and wielded a Flamberge (No clue what the shield was, the warrior pictured left isn't her).

Needless to say, she pissed me off. After shitting on us for 20 minutes or so, she left talking about how grateful we should all be, that she did us this amazing favor.

Because of this player, I've always made sure that if I can, I take the time to assist others. I try to be generous with my time and resources, and when possible, will give people better gear. I visit lower level areas on occasion and offer to run missions and quests with player, and give advice on character builds and playstyle if it will help. This is true of Guild Wars, and of City of Heroes back when I still subscribed.

I also wanted to prove how powerful and self sufficient I could make myself. I wanted everyone to know that I would work with them, not for them, that I would cooperate, not follow orders.

Most importantly, when I PvP, once in a while, I hope that the bitch from Nolani Academy, with the Obsidian Armor, I hope that she's there, as an opponent. And on this rare occasion, when I remember her when I fight, I hope that she's one of the people I bring my hammer down on, and that she recognizes me, with my retarded name, as I rip her apart and leave her broken before me. I hope she sees me when I start to play that violin ever so softly, after each win.

Of course, this wasn't the first time I'd felt such a burning desire for "revenge".

A long, long time ago, even before this, I used to play Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. At the time, I was almost solely focused on PvP, especially lld (low level dueling). I ran a level 18 assassin named Solaki. I found a forum created for LLDing in D2, and I started to visit it, trying to pickup tricks and tips that would help me. I came across this thread (which I'm amazed that I found again so easily after all these years), where an open challenge was issued to all level 18 east coast duelists.

Being the idiot I am, I messaged the guy, and set up a meet for a duel. He beat me hardcore. He started talking mad shit, over and over again, pretty much insulting me every way a person could be. I later found out that he was hated by everyone who dueled in that bracket, and that no one respected him.

I almost stopped PvPing all-together after that fight. But I was too pissed to stay away. That's when I made Slice_O_Rama. I figured I wasn't cut out for the lld bracket, so I made a mid-level assassin, who I geared and built to be the best and most powerful at her level. I succeeded, and reveled in the glory of being called a hacker and causing countless level 80+ mages to rage-quit from matches against me.

But I wasn't like HackX. I didn't shit on the people I beat. I talked trash, but not to people who were just there to have fun. I fought for fun, not to bully others. I existed in a happy medium where I only fought those of higher level than me, where I sat in on duels, ready to cream anyone who dared interfere.

It's really weird, that anger motivated me to drastically different paths.

Know your role.

2009-01-27T17:04:00.003-05:00

I'm currently very excited about my lowbie warrior, Roland Dresden. He's the one I posted about before, wearing E-platemail. Anyways, as a result, I've been playing him more than Saru, even though buying his armor made me broke again.

Roland is level 16 at the moment. His armor and weapons are max, fully runed and fitted with insignia, and using both normal and elite warrior tomes, I've taught him a few powerful skills he would have been otherwise unable to learn for quite some time. So, quite obviously, when he team with with people his level, and runs quests and missions at his own level, he kicks huge amounts of ass, and dominates his foes.

So, a few days ago, I ran a mid-level mission, D'Alessio Seaboard. Ended up on a team with a lvl 20 Monk (the leader), plus his two heroes (lvl20 splinter barrage, lvl20 minion mancer), a lvl 12 Monk, and a lvl 14 Necro (I'm lvl 15 during this mission). As soon as I accept the invite to the team, the leader asks me to ping my build. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. He's being aware of how his teammates work, but he's also trying to make people alter their builds. I thought about griping at the him, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. I ping the build (basically the same thing I run FoW with), and the leader finds it acceptable. Meanwhile the low lvl necro pings his build, and it's abysmal. I mean, I usually don't tell people what to run, but why the hell does a necro run a build with Rain of Fire, Phoenix, and Conjure Flame, with 0 ranks in Fire Magic. To my surprise, the leader tells him the build is fine.

So, we enter the mission, and I immediately start to like the leader less, cause not only does he start ordering me around, he's calling me "war". It's not like "Roland" is hard to type. Even worse, when he's ordering me around, he ends up saying stupid things that aren't helpful, like "stop moving". How can I tank, or even fight, if I can't move to follow a target or engage a new one?

This particular mission has almost exclusively undead foes, among them, Skeleton Sorcerers. They tend to spam blinding flash, rendering me useless. After fighting several battle where the monk fails to remove it from me, I start to ping it to remind him. He responds with, "don't have rest con". Dude. You're going to tell me how to play, and double check my build, but you're not going to bring any condition removal? What the fuck? Guess what, you're splinter barrage ranger is useless too when she's blinded! Apparently, I run monk heroes more competently than you play your own monk.

We keep going, and once we reach the 90% mark, the leader starts to talk to me directly:

Asshole: Do you know what to do?
Me: Um, pretend I don't.
Asshole: Run ahead of the minions.

DUDE, SHOVE IT! I'm sorry the NPCs minions are dying. Minions were a shitty choice to run against undead, since you can't exploit undead corpses. Even if you could, I'm out DPSing the whole damn minion army, Flesh Golem included. So don't tell the lvl 15 Warrior (with Elite Platemail, wielding a Deldrimor Sword and Deldrimor Shield) what to run, don't tell him how to tank, and don't tell him how to play. I could have soloed that whole damn mission, if only I had had condition removal (Mending Touch, Antidote Signet).

So, we complete the mission, get the bonus, skip the cutscene, and hit the next town. The leader asks who's going and who's staying. At this point, I very politely, and with proper grammar and spelling, decline to join them in the next mission. He promptly kicks me from the team.

...

I don't know who beat you as a child, or raised you in such a manner that you consider any of your behavior socially acceptable, but you're a tool, plain and simple. You lack the common sense to adjust skills based on the foes you'll be fighting (notice how I swapped out Sever Artery and Gash for the mission, since we were fighting undead, while you kept the MM), you run a prot monk but don't include a single skill for condition removal (as much as I like getting bonded by a monk, it's kinda pointless against lvl 14 foes in NM), yet try to order the team around like you know shit.

I has a fan-club!

2009-01-24T20:44:00.006-05:00

Ok, not really, but you'll see what I mean.

So, I tried to organize a FoW clear team today. Got my sister-in-law, plus 6 strangers together. It started out rough, but then went a lot smoother for 30 minutes or so. Then we enter the forest of the Wailing Lord, and everything goes to hell. Classic Saru-style, we wipe and I'm the last one alive, fighting against 2 1/2 spawns. I had a few scrolls of resurrection on me (I craft and keep a few on hand so I don't have to bring a rez skill in PvE), and I try to position myself to where I get the whole team, but I keep having Iron Mist spammed on me, and I get pinged to death.

Good times.

So, we reform, my sister-in-law leaves, and I give the reins over to a Necro named Tangram Soultheif. We get new players, and right before we're set, someone enters Underworld, not FoW. We zone in, and wipe, cause the Perma-Sin is a douche, the other warrior is a complete tard, and no one is listening to me or Tangram.

So, Tangram and I meet back up for a third time, and form a third team. We're more careful this time, Tangram emphasizes that I'm the tank, I lead on agro, etc. We go in, and we do much better than the first run. However, people keep DCing, and eventually, we're down to 5 people left, with no monks for healing or protting. I suggest we hit the beach to clear out the cave for what little loot we can score. Everyone agrees, not realizing that I'm serious, just thinking I wanna dick around on the beach before we resign.

Next thing they know, I've explained to them how the beach is laid out, and how the enemies fight, and we're clearing it, skales and all. At one point, we wipe again save for me, and this time I do get the rez scroll off, bringing all of them back to life mid-battle. Not long after, we reach the cave. Try as we might, I can't keep them alive through the hail of poisoned arrows being fired from the spiders, and they wipe. That leaves me, alone to face the cave. Easy. However, I'm not running my dedicated farm build, so killing is taking forever.

Well, I'm thinking about just resigning, since I'm out of scrolls, then I notice that the team's bitching cause a few shards have dropped for them, but they can't get them cause they're dead. So, I offer to clear the cave, snag the shards once the timer counts down, and hand them back out to the people they dropped for, while continuing to clear the cave, in hopes of more shards. Everyone stop for a moment, then thanks me, dumbfounded by my offer.

Eventually, I reached a point in the cave where I was far enough away from the group that they weren't getting drops, so I try to lure the spiders closer to my team. No dice. Feeling defeated, I break agro and head back to the beach, picking up the shards that dropped. We resign, and meet back at ToA, where I hand them out. Then, Tangram sends me a URL through teamchat.

Huzzah.

Tangram told me he had taken those pictures, explaining that most people don't get a chance to take good pictures of themself mid-battle. Everyone added me to their friends list (I was solicited to join another guild), I gave my FoW build to a couple peeps, and talked them through it's usage. All in all, a great time.

Except for the fact that I spent 2 hours in the Fissure without getting a single fucking shard. DAMN YOU RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR!!! A POX UPON YOU!!!!!!1111!!

------------------------------

Things like that were common for me back in the day when I played City of Heroes. There was a much better sense of community, and I felt eager to help out other players, and foster good will. Not so much in Guild Wars, so I'm thankful for what happened today. Even though I failed to clear FoW three times in a row, I feel good about what we did as a team today. I wish I had more days like that.

Get to da choppa!

2009-01-23T14:36:00.008-05:00

Erm, I mean, portal...

It's not often in games that you're forced to retreat without the aide of a cutscene. Most of the time, when you need to run away, they just have a cutscene where you run away. I figured it was because gamers can be fairly strong willed, and have been known to go against the grain if it suits them.

Guild Wars, contrart to popular belief, has only one expansion, Eye of the North. It has three campaigns, Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall, but each is it's own game, and you can play any one without the other two (or you could own all of them like I do). To get to Eye of the North, you have to do a mini intro, where you meet two of your new allies, plus the enemies you'll be facing, the Destroyers.

Destroyers are badass.

So much so, that when the NPCs run off screaming, you join them. Last night, I found myself deep beneath Lion's Arch, with my humble level 15 Warrior, Roland Dresden (who has a shiny set of Elite Platemail, :P), fleeing for my life with my personal golem in tow. Not the first time I've brought a character to EotN, but it always strikes me how unique that segement is. You, the hero, who's deeds include but are not limited to defeating the Mursaat, sealing away the Titans, casting down the Lich, unifing the factured factions of Cantha, banishing the spirit of Shiro the Betrayer, facing down Warmarshall Varesh, rallying the Elonian princes, and casting down a forgotten god, you are now running for your life from gigantic, hulking, magma filled warrior beasts whom wield weapons forged out of their own flesh.

Good times.

Personally, I still think Titans>Destroyers, but apparently Anet disagrees.

Fantasy Armor, where style murders functionality

2009-01-21T11:36:00.007-05:00

Armor in RPGs is usually the defining part of any characters design. It defines many aspects of a character, be it a potential for strength or speed, limits to mobility or reach, or the ability to complement a fighting style. No one expects a hulking giant of a warrior clad in steel plates from head-to-toe to start tumbling into melee with a rapier, parrying and lunging.

For the longest time, the only set of armor I had for Sarutobi was the 1.5k Templar armor (pictured left, undyed, full set costing 7.5k+materials), dyed silver. I crafted it so long ago that when I got it, it was still called "Knight's Armor", and the silver was closer to white than it is now.

I loved this armor so much for two reasons. Firstly, it was functional. It protects nearly everything I'd want it too, rather than leaving my mid-drift, cleavage, thighs, etc exposed to attack (ok, this leaves the tatas a bit exposed, but not nearly as much as most).

The second reason I liked it was because it was symmetrical. Not a huge deal really, but sometimes it really bothers me how they have their armor sets designed. The art department that worked on Guild Wars deserves plenty of kudos for creating a beautiful game, but seriously, why can't I get armor with two pauldrons? Is it really too much to ask for equal protection of both shoulders?

I crafted this set so long ago, at the time, no elite version of the "Knight's" armor existed. Because of that, I never felt like my character was lacking or inferior, because I was perfectly happy with what I had. However, after I spent a few weeks farming FoW and selling Obsidian Shards on the player market, I noticed that I was getting lowballed by most people who were buying shards. Generally, market price is gauged off what NPCs offer. If the NPC Rare Materials Merchant is selling shards for 3.5k, but buying at 2.5k, the market settles at 3k flat, thus letting the seller turn a profit, and the buyer saves cash in the process.

However, when trying to sell shards, people would lower their offers too me after a face to face meet. Over time, I concluded that since I was wearing cheap armor, people assumed I was poor, so they could still make a buy off me since I'd be too broke to turn them down. After a while, I got fed up and "upgraded".

While it wasn't available for some time, the elite version of "Knight's" armor (now called Templar) came out about two years after launch. Elite Templar, like almost every other set of armor with 'elite' attached to it's name costs 15k per piece. So, I dropped 75k+materials on the new set of armor, which functioned identically to my old set. Not content with that, I went and dyed it black (Black dye is the most expensive, costing 6k-8k, depending). So, that was another 35k or so. And, like I expected, I stopped getting lowballed by every buyer I met. I don't know if it was worth the 100k+ I spent, but at least I don't get 'lolmad' at them anymore.

But now Sarutobi's boobs are exposed. Same with her thighs. And, wait, now she only has one pauldron.

DAMN YOU ARENA.NET! WHY DOST THOU HATE ME SO?!

Sure, my elbows are covered now, cool beans. But now I can't even walk through a bush without getting scratched up. How is that considered effective armor? All I'm doing is encouraging my foes to target my weak spots.

And where is it written that exposing cleavage makes armor more effective in a melee situation? If anything, it ensures that not only will I die faster, but my corpse is liable to be violated. Joy. The worst part is that other than that, the armor is actually really neat. The detail is great, I like the texturing, and it keeps the style of the 1.5k version while being something relatively original unto itself (I really like the gauntlets and the greaves, I felt those were the weaker aspects of the 1.5k version. The helmet is weaksauce though).

However, as you can see from my post about farming FoW, I found an elite set of armor that suits me fine for the most part, Elite Kurzick armor. It makes Saru look a little thinner than I'd like, but more than makes up for that by being the medieval gothic version of Storm Trooper armor. Currently I have it dyed silver, and I'm toying with changing that too white (silver has a distinct blue-ish hue to it, despite making the surface shiny).

I'm considering getting a new set of armor. I'm seriously considering Ancient Armor, and I always talk about getting Obsidian Armor, but I don't know how serious I am about that. Obsidian Armor just seems like such a headache to craft, and I don't like dealing with the FoW PUGs that seem to abound in lieu of actual teams.

I'm open to suggestions.

Powerpuff Girls 10th Anniversary!

2009-01-20T09:40:00.006-05:00

I love the Powerpuff Girls. Back when I still lived in my mother's house (which was long ago while I was still relatively young) I had a poster of them up on my bedroom door, looking as menacing as three kindergarten girls can.

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary marathon of Powerpuff Girls on Cartoon Network (which is odd, cause I thought they debuted in '98). I was lucky enough to catch a few episodes before my wife walked in and questioned my sanity.

In most movies, shows, and to a lesser extent, comics/games, I find that too many female characters fall within a stereotype, of being either too emotional, or too butch. Take, for example, almost any role that Michelle Rodriguez has played. In movies or on TV, she's always the same person. Mean, bitchy, alpha-female wannabe badass (well, to be honest, most of the time she isn't a wannabe, she is badass). Back when she did Girlfight in '00, this was something that was fresh for her. But then she did it over and over again, in things like Resident Evil, SWAT, and Lost.

Now, look at Jennifer Garner in Alias. She manages to balance a cold-blooded ingenious badass with a caring a loving civilian life. She plays a character with amazing depth, that doesn't need to be sexed up to be appealing, doesn't need to be a bitch to be badass, and doesn't need to be heartless to be scary (heartless=/=coldblooded). Quite obviously, it's not impossible to play the female lead in an action/drama scenario without having to fall back on the female equivalent of Schwarzenegger.

And that's the big appeal of Powerpuff Girls to me. One moment they're firing eye lasers and upper-cutting Godzilla, the next they're at home having a bedtime story read to them. It sends a message to young children, especially girls, that you don't see often; you can be the badass hero by just being yourself. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have no secret identity, no lair, no double life. They're the Powerpuff Girls from the moment they wake up till the moment the fall to sleep again, and every second in between.

The action in the show is ridiculous, to say the least. There is blood, both villain and hero end up pretty banged up, and the city is quite literally reduced to ruble on what seems like a weekly basis. Each one is even as strong as Superman. In fact, they manage to fly so fast they went back in time without having to circle Earth, I'd like to see the Man of Steel do that.

But even beyond the message it sends, or how strong they are depicted as being, the writing of the show in of itself is amazing. If you watch enough, you can find references and direct quotes from such films as The Big Lebowski, Taxi Driver, and This is Spinal Tap. They also poke fun at other super-heroes, like Wonder Woman and Spawn, or show the political dynamic explaining the motivation for all the random giant monster attacks (that was all one episode, actually). The show was even featured in the movie Blade 2, being the only show that ever came on when they flipped on the TV (the vampires dig that show, apparently).

If I had to compile a list of what I thought was the best animated features of all time, Powerpuff Girls would go on it. It's really that good.

Sarutobi, in the flesh

2009-01-18T06:46:00.007-05:00

I've spoken about her before, but now you can see her, Sarutobi Sasuke, my warrior.

She's wearing her Elite Kurzick armor in this picture, armed with a Mursaat Hammer (I have three, Ebon, Sundering, and Vampiric). I guess it would have better to take a picture with the helmet off, so you could see what she looks like, not her armor.

The Elite Kurzick is outfitted with Sentinel's Insignia (+20 AL vs Elemental), and she has Elite Templar armor with Knight's Insignia attached (-3 physical dmg). I have a set of Elite Platemail that also has Sentinel's on it, and I'm debating what to do with it (salvage, refit, etc).

My current goal is to find a build for solo farming Underworld that I'm comfortable with, so I can start farming Smite Crawlers for Ecto. I already have a bitching build I use to farm Armored Cave Spiders in Fissure of Woe for Shards, but it's not suited for UW. But, with recent buffs to Hundred Blades, I think I'll be able to head there pretty soon and start farming up a good number of Ectos (I need 120 Ectos and 120 Shards to make a full set of Obsidian Armor, while a good run in FoW for me only yields 5 shards, meaning I'll need at least 24 runs to be halfway there.)

This single target version of my FoW build can run the beach and cave in under 30 minutes (which is fast), and can survive agro from Skales, while out-healing their degen (which is great). I currently use this same build, with Body Blow traded for Whirlwind Attack. I prefer Swords to Axes; I know that I could get better AoE is I used an Axe and switched out Counter-Attack for Cyclone Axe, but it's my opinion that having superior single target damage lets me cycle through targets faster, and makes the run go quicker. Either way, here's the rundown of the build:

Strength 12+1+3
Swordsmanship 12+1

Max Zealous Sword (+def mods are kinda pointless, go with +hp)
Max Shield (-2 in stance is pointless for this build)
Max Armor with Knight's Insignia & Superior Rune of Absorption

Otherwise, it functions like any other version of a warrior beach build, but it takes no damage from spiders, meaning the only threat they pose is via degen. Since you'll have over 800 HP near constant, losing 8 hp a second is trivial, especially when you'll heal for 114 about every 10 seconds (Meaning you still post a HP gain of 34 points). Since it takes so little damage, there is little need to pull spiders, you can just dive right in, and start killing. Even if you pull Skale agro, you can live through it, as long as you're actively engaged (Skales can still damage you, and they cause a 20 hp a second drain).

As far as variants, the only skills you have to have are Flail, Enraging Charge, Defy Pain, and Lion's Comfort, and even then, it's really Defy Pain and Lion's Comfort that do all the work. I'm sure more effective variants can be created, but most other builds hinge on using Dolyak Signet, while spamming every Axe AoE they can find (not my style).

Take for example, this build, claiming to be the fastest solo beach run build on PvXWiki. You can see that my build and this one are very different in their approach. Even with the +38 AL granted by Dolyak Signet in this build (giving it 154 AL vs Physical), the -2 stance shield, Knight's Insignia, and a Sup Rune of Absorption, it still takes damage from the spiders (that's -8 physical damage), while mine doesn't (my build possesses -17 physical without the shield, while Defy Pain also gives me +20 AL, for 136 AL vs Physical). Also, notice how it's only direct healing option, Patient Spirit, can and will get interrupted. Lion's Comfort won't, as they don't attempt to do so. Lion's Comfort by itself provides enough healing to cover you, making it you sole source of healing, while the PvX build needs two sources.

It's glaring strength over my build, however, is it's three AoEs to my one. However, as proved by my screenshot, I can still complete the run under 30 minutes, so it's apparently not that much of an advantage. I've posted faster times, but have yet to upload them to photobucket.

The hardest part of farming FoW is learning how to get to the beach. The actual combat is ludicrously easy, given the nature of the instance, but getting there can prove fatal if done poorly. Luckily, many videos exist documenting the safest route to get there, in the least amount of time possible.

Obsidian Shards sell for anywhere from 2.8k to 3.5k, depending on the market. Rubies and Sapphires drop with relative frequency (4.5k to 5k), as do Obsidian Keys and Scrolls of Passage. Standard drops (salvage items, collector's items, white/blue weapons) will earn you a consistent 2k to 2.5k. Less the cost on entry (1k to enter FoW or UW), you'll earn on average 9.4k to 12k, but more than likely, you'll pull more than just 3 shards, and more than just standard drops, earning you anyway from 15k to 27k. Not bad, but not amazing. The real value, to me at least, if not having to pay for shards (If you bought the shards needed for Obsidian Armor, it'd cost anywhere from 336k to 420K).

The PvP is weak in this one...

2009-01-16T09:35:00.010-05:00

Jumped on Guild Wars for the first time in a week or so and got trounced in an AB.
Jumped on Counter Strike: Source for the first time in a week or so and ended up with a negative KDR.
Declined to have an argument even though I knew I was empirically correct.
Had a staring contest with an 8 year old and lost cause he kicked me in the shin.

Needless to say, things aren't going well for me right now.

My work schedule is doing me in. I don't dislike my job, and what I do, so much as how often I do it. I've been working 65 hour weeks lately, and it's wearing on me. Now, I don't mind a long work day. I worked 13 hours yesterday without complaint, other than the extra 3 hours shouldn't have been sprung on me the day of, I should have had prior notice. This week, even with all the extra hours that got tacked on (at least of them 10 of them) I only worked 58 hours, and next week is looking like a liesurely 45.

I need a full nights sleep, which isn't liable to happen anytime soon. I was planning on getting it tonight, but Leyna and I are getting up (relatively) early in order to meet someone about a litter of rat pups (I'm building a cage at the moment, and she wants to raise some rats from infancy, rather than buy an adult from a store).

Anyway, due to my inability to compete with the living, I've been playing a lot of of console games in place of my PvP fix. Metroid Prime 3, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Shining Force Neo, all pretty good games. Shining Force Neo is pretty much 3d Diablo, with how gameplay, loot, and avatar are handled. Voice acting is pure shit. I mean really, I thought that Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders (also a good game) had the worst voice acting of any console game, but I was dead wrong. Even worse than the fact that the voice acting is bad, it's pervasive and they won't shut up. Every time dialouge starts, you have to slog through at least 5 minutes of it. Even worse, every character you've recruited thus far, even ones not currently in your party, contributes. I fear building my party, and shudder to see what 11 characters worth of dialougee will be like.

But Disgaea, still one of my favorite games. It's a tactical RPG. Rather than facing off with randomly spawned monsters, taking turns whacking each other as both you and the enemy simply stand there waiting for the other to act, a tactical RPG is played out on a grid of sorts. While still turn based, you have the ability to move units around the battle field, as you try to out manuver your opponent and gain the edge on them. Think chess with Final Fantasy characters. Because of it's free moving nature, team size isn't limited to 3 characters in Disgaea. You can field up to 10 units per battle, and can have as many as you want in reserve, as part of your "army". This allows you to custom pick your team for each battle, after seeing what you are facing, and how they are deployed.

What really makes Disgaea cool is how it handles character classes and leveling. With a level cap of 9,999, and damage capped at- well, I don't know if there is a damage cap. Anyway, as you level different classes up, you unlock stronger versions of the same class. This in itself is nifty, but then you have the option of transmigration. This allows you to take a character and revert it back to level one, while retaining a percentage of it's original stats and skills. Even more, you can make it a level one of any class. So, your lvl 93 Ninja can become a lvl 1 Shinobi (Shinobi>Ninja), with anywhere from 30-95% of his original power. That, and if you transmigrate your Priest into a Warrior, he'll keep most if not all of his healing spells, same if you transmigrate your Mage/Skull into a Warrior (0MFGT4NKM4G3!!!1!).

Quite obviously, I'm having fun playing around with my units (that sounds dirty), creating quirky, powerful soldiers.

So a bishonen, a futanari, and a catgirl walk into a bar...

2009-01-15T10:00:00.005-05:00

In addition to the live action domestic TV we watch, my wife and I watch a lot of anime too.

Before we got involved, it was a passing interest of mine. I didn't go out of my way to see new things, and was pretty much limited to Escaflowne and Dragon Ball Z. Then, I did a five year stint as a movie store employee (three years at Blockbuster as a clerk, two at Hollywood Video as a manager), and I saw more anime than I can recall. Ninja Scroll, Akira, Ghost in a Shell, Metropolis, Trigun, Princess Monoke, Spirited Away, Howle's Moving Castle, Record of the Loddoss War, Vampire Princess Miyu, Dark Stalker, Spriggan, Now and Then-Here and There, Voices of a Distant Star, Millenium Actress, Beserker, Tokyo Babylon, anything that I could get my hands on, I checked it out at least once.

From there, I progressed to japanese live action films, like Ichi the Killer, Full-Time Killers, Deadly Outlaw Rekka, The Returner, Princess Blade, Audition (best horror film ever). Leyna never shared my entusiasm for japanese film, prefering to stay with anime herself. Once we moved in together, I ended up being exposed to a slew of anime I had either never heard of, or never been interested in, like Last Exile, X, Gravitation, Peacemaker, Tsubasa Chronicles, Full Metal Panic, Tide Line Blue, Orphan, Gance, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Vandread, Saiyuki, Shinesman, plus many others that I've forgotten.

Obviously, I've been exposed to a fairly decent cross section of anime.

Of course, there are still, literally, hundreds of other OVAs, movies, and series I haven't seen, much of which I'm looking forward to seeing. I'm open to suggestions, fyi.

My wife, the Semi-Gamer

2009-01-13T09:41:00.005-05:00

Looking at our PS2 game saves expresses a stark contrast in my wife and I, as far as gaming goes. Take for instance, Disgaea:

Save Slot 1: Chapter 5, 40+ hours, level 19
Save Slot 2: Chapter 7, 29 hours, level 44

Or Resident Evil 4:

Save Slot 1: Chapter 2-3, 15 hours
Save Slot 2: Chapter 4-1, 9 hours

To be honest, the rate at which she completes a game is mostly immaterial. Everyone plays at their own rate, and you can't quantify "fun levels" from person to person. However, the conflict isn't' so much from me poking fun at her once and a while; it comes from her ranting about how broken everything I do is in any game I play.

For instance, in Disgaea, I named a character after my wife, a warrior named Claire. Leveled her up into the 30s, then transmigrated her into a Ronin. Last night, while my wife watched, I leveled her up from 18 to 46 in the span of two battles. She immediately has a spaz attack and demands to know why it's necessary powerlevel someone like that. Honestly, seeing as the max level is 9999, I don't see how going up 38 levels in two battles is a big deal. Then again, I've barely scratched the surface of the game so far.

Another "conflict" that arises is our policy our strategy guides. I try not to use them. If I end up stuck in the same place for more than an hour or so (trust me, I'm stubborn enough to try the same failing tactic or method a dozen times in a row before adapting), I'll look it up. Or, I'll check to see how powerful a current item I possess is in comparison to end game ones, to see if investing money to upgrade it is worth it, stuff like that. Meanwhile, Leyna is playing the game with the strategy guide in her lap. If she misses a treasure chest, she'll re-load her game so she can get it on the second try. That being said, it's no surprise that when I backtracking down a path for the 3rd time, trying to find a passage or switch that I missed, Leyna starts griping at me, telling me to load up the GameFAQs page on the game, to read up on what I missed.

I guess opposites do attract.

You must die, I alone am best!

2008-12-30T18:11:00.002-05:00

I've been obsessing over 2d fighters lately. Loaded up some old ROMs and started playing games like Garou and KoF 97-02, plus a half dozen random fighters that apparently never got imported. My wife, in her infinite wisdom and compassion, bought me a limited edition Halo 3 X360 controller, and a wireless adapter for my PC. So, I've been playing these ROMs with it, and it's been quite worth the effort (I love my wife).

Using money from the holidays, I was able to buy two copies of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core; one for myself and one for my sisters-in-law. A while back, the watched our cats for us when we were out of town, and spent the night there playing Guilty Gear X2 for 7 hours on end. Megan and Kelsey are probably bigger gamers than I am (currently, at least, I am working 60+ hours a week), and I've seen them become scary good at games in the past. I'm looking forward to seeing how skillled them become at this.

The only reason I was ever good at Guilty Gear is that I lived with John Hogrefe. He was a tournament worthy Guilty Gear player, with near flawless timing and execution. In the time we lived together, I only was ever able to beat him 33% of the time. Even then, that includes times where he wasn't playing his most proficient character, Baiken.

I remember once, John over-slept a tournament, and played it off with "Tourney players are cheap little pricks, who try to trap you into infinite hit combos cause they can't do a real 1v1". We arrived after the tourney was over, and started milling around, playing people who were still there. John broke this one guy's 23 win streak. He asked why John wasn't in the tourney, and John repeated what he had told me. The guy pauses, then says "Well, I was the one who won that tournament, so..." Meanwhile, on a different terminal, I ruin a 17 win streak, absolutely crushing Potemkin, and leaving everyone slack-jawed from my blistering assault (30 some consecutive non-special move hits in a row, the bastard never touched the ground).

I never really realized how good I had become, because from my perspective, I was getting my ass handed too me, day in and day out. But losing to John for two years in a row did more for me than I could have ever hoped for. After all, you only become stronger by facing a stronger opponent.

Music for the Slaughter

2008-12-26T06:53:00.005-05:00

I listen to different music when I PvP than when I PvE.

If I'm PvEing, my media player is usually on random. Everything from William Shatner to Tatu to Kompressor. If I'm feeling particularly epic, I'll put on Vanessa Mae and put her best of album on repeat. Other times, I'll put on Justice Radio or Woot Radio, and listen to whatever the hell their DJs pick.

If I'm PvPing, it's a whole new ball game. I have a special select few MP3s that I whore while PvPing, sometimes I'll listen to the same song on repeat for hours on end. I once spent five hours in the Random Arenas listening to "Oh No You Didn't" from the Mercenaries 2 commercial. On another occasion, I pimped out "Dance Commander" by Electric 6 while fighting in 13 consecutive ABs. "Bitches" by Mindless Self Indulgence is a little to short to cycle for that long, but it usually finds its way into PvP oriented playlists, as do songs by the following artists:

Disturbed
System of a Down
Drowning Pool
Godsmack
Linkin Park
Jay-Z
Three 6 Mafia
Dynamite Hack
Burning Airlines
Various hawt techno

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T15:44:00.003-05:00

"Last year, on the Justice Server" or "Hollow Words pt 2"

2008-12-22T19:19:00.007-05:00

Last year, on the Justice Server, myself and about 30 other players engaged in a 5 stock Domination Match, to celebrate Wintereenmas. Basically, a standard FFA Deathmatch type game, but each player only has 5 lives.

I faced Broad Sword/Regen Scrappers, Radiation/Psi Defenders, Ice Armor/EM Tankers, and one very stubborn SWAT Drone SL-OW, who brought an AR/Dev, and made it into the Top 5.

In the end, I faced WWII, a Stone Armor/Super Strength Tanker. He couldn't even begin to damage me, and I couldn't beat his regen. So, we both turned off our toggles, took our mezzes off the power bars, and faced each other as Statesman intend; like really stupid men. I triumphed, and not only was the last man standing, I claimed the most kills of anyone in attendance.

It's rare that I PvP for so long without taking a brief respite (drink, snack, bathroom, etc), but this kept me glued to my seat for almost 1 1/2 hours. It's things like this that makes me miss CoH the most.

Good times.

Cheater McCheaterson

2008-12-22T18:56:00.005-05:00

It usually doesn't bother me if people cheat in video games. It's their choice if they do, and it's more important for a person to enjoy a gameplay experience than to abide by my gaming "code of morals". Infinite ammo, infinite money, infinite health, whatever. Gameshark, secret codes, glitches, it's all the same.

That being said, don't fucking brag about something you cheated to achieve. It's that simple. If you haxxored your way into victory, it really doesn't count. If you used aimbot to crush someone in CS:S, you didn't win, the aimbot did. If you use a glitch to make yourself invulnerable to enemy attacks in the Eden Trial, you didn't actually participate in the Trial, you were just kinda there. If you use gameshark to do god knows what in pretty much any game, it means nothing.

It's like watching the demo video of a game and talking shit about how good you are, like you're actually playing. No, you're not, someone else enabled you to live vicariously through them. You're letting another entity give you victory, whilst you claim the credit, as if you helped, or your presence mattered.

I've run into a lot of people lately to whom cheating is like a creedo or a maxim. It bothers me that they will boast of their accomplishments, or tout their victories, when in the end of the day, they're the kid who plays Duck Hunt 2 inches away from the screen, nothing more.

HA!

2008-12-20T01:54:00.004-05:00

On a completely unrelated note to my previous post, an excerpt from the I13 patch notes:

"Peacebringers damage adjusted
Increased Melee Damage to 0.85 from 0.75
Increased Range Damage to 0.8 from 0.625
Increased Melee Dwarf Form Melee Damage to 1.0 from 0.85 "

The rubberband is on the other claw now! I'd been lobbying hard for a change like this for quite a while. The post was lost in a forum purge, otherwise I'd transcribe it here.

For those unfamiliar with CoH game mechanics, I'll explain a little.

Let's say we have a Defender, a Tanker, and a Blaster, all with the power Total Focus. Despite the name, this is a melee attack, and it's one of the top 5 most potent in the game. Let's also assume, that the base damage for this attack is 100, at the heroes current level. The Defender has a melee dmg mod of 0.625, the Tanker is set to 0.85, and the Blaster is 1.00. Translated:

Defender=62.5 dmg
Tanker=85 dmg
Blaster=100 dmg

Simple enough, right? You multiply the intended damage of the power by the ATs modifier, and you get the damage. The intended damage is called "damage scalar." The scalar for Total Focus is 3.56, which is very high.

The scalar on Kheldian ranged attacks is abysmally low. The three single target ranged attacks they possess (in human form), rank in at 0.6, 1.0, and 1.64. Compared to a Blaster using the Energy Blast powerset, who's three single target attacks rank in at 1.0, 1.64, and 2.12. Obviously, the Blaster will do more damage hit for hit.

Now factor in the fact that the modifier for a Kheldian used to be 0.625, while for a Blaster it's 1.15 (Blasters have a different modifier for ranged attacks than the do for melee attacks). A huge performance gap appears, as the Kheldian has to deal with a low modifier, and a low scalar. My argument against this was that even set to an equal modifier to the Blaster, a Kheldian at damage cap would always underperform to a Blaster. Thusly, it was more than fair to at least adjust the modifier to let them outdamage a Defender under normal mission conditions (standard +96% dmg from slotting, +40% dmg from Cosmic Balance, and a misc +15% from team buffs).

I was accused of trying to turn Kheldians into Tank-Mages, and that I wanted far too much.

Guess the Dev team didn't think I was that wrong.

City of Heroes PvP

2008-12-19T04:38:00.002-05:00

Before I begin, everything and anything I'm about to say might soon become completely irrelevant, as major changes are soon coming to the City of Heroes PvP system. Anything I say below is referring to PvP from Issue 4 to Issue 12.

The most fun I've ever had PvPing has been in City of Heroes. It's also some of the most imbalanced PvP, but that doesn't mean it wasn't fun. However, those imbalances are really most glaringly obvious in high end, competitive PvP. I'm talking about zone PvP. The middle ground between Arenas and World PvP. In zone PvP, everyone has a chance to win. A skilled player can take a very sub-optimal powerset combination and make it shine. A lot of avid PvPers disagree with me on that, but hear me out:

Through a combination of usage and general skill, a good PvPer can take an underperforming character and win consistently with it.

Consistently being the key point. Not always, not most of the time, but consistently. Now, the immediate response I tend to get is, "An AR/Dev will NOT beat an Ice/Nrg, it's just not going to happen." Sure, in the Arena 1v1, I agree 110%. But this isn't the Arena, it's a zone. It has NPCs, multiple exits, huge expanses of terrain, with the chance of outside interference at any point, for either side, whether you want it or not, and most fights start with one person ambushing the other. There are too many variables to make blanket statements as to the outcome of a fight. Police Drone M8 and I used to tear a bloody swath through Warburg, wrecking anything in our way. I played an AR/Nrg, he played a Stone/Emp. Not exactly FOTM power builds. I can recall times where we steamrolled Ice/Rad and Ice/Dark corrupters, as an afterthought. If either of us had fought them in the Arena, we'd have been toast. But we outplayed them in the zone, and trashed them repeatedly before they left.

Prime example: I was playing my Invul/SS tanker, King's Rook, in Warburg. Super Strength is a great choice for Siren's Call, or even Bloody Bay, it is not a top performer in Warburg. Energy Melee, even after the nerfs, is still way to strong hit for hit for SS to compete in higher level PvP. Same with Invul. Solid against spikes, but in a sustained fight, every other Tanker primary is liable to outperform it in sustained combat.

I found myself fighting a EM/Stone brute, and an Ice/Dark corrupter, near the villain base. I was losing, and the ice blasts were destroying me. I spotted a pair of Zeus Titans in the distance, +5 to myself and the villains I was fighting. I queued up Hurl, and pegged a Titan, then moonwalked behind a piece of rubble, positioning the Brute in line-of-sight with the Titans. They came running to attack, but hit the Brutes aggro aura first. They turned on him, causing the brute and corrupter to shift focus. I pulled back, let the debuffs fade, then rushed the corrupter, taking her out why the brute was distracted. I then turned and finished the brute off with the help of the NPCs. Got full credit for both kills, and saved my own hide. It was more luck than anything else, but unorthodox and underhanded tactics can level the playing field.

And that's what made PvP in CoH so unique and appealing to me. It wasn't cause I wanted to pull NPCs onto people in PvP, but that I had the option. Ambushes were a possibility, almost anyone had access to stealth powers, giving them greater freedom of movement in a zone where others hunt you. You could stand atop a sky scraper, looking down on others, and leap down to instantly join the fight, or merely steal a kill. You have foes flying, leaping, teleporting, or just plain super speeding around in a mad craze, trading blows and firing at each other.

I scored countless kills in Warburg by resting on ledges, looking down over the zone, waiting for a target to fly by the blind corner, unaware of my presence. I'd target them, leap over them, fire a beanbag into them to stun them and drop their flight toggle, then free fall with them to the ground, where I finish them in melee while their helpless. Done properly, they don't realize it's me till I land next to them on the ground, already attacking them. A prepared player breaks the mez before impact, might even retoggle flight to pull out of the dive. But usually not. I'd hit them with Power Thrust to knock them on their ass, and use my melee attacks to finish them fast. Again, it's underhanded, and doesn't even allow them a chance to fight back, but that's zone PvP for you.

Despite playing AR/Nrg, I was considered the top PvPer in my SG. The SG leader put a bounty out open to anyone who could beat me in the Arena, in part to encourage newer players to PvP with us. We'd do weekly Arena FFAs, with everyone exemplared down to the level of the lowest Drone participating. Even then, I almost always came out on top. Most weeks we'd take a team of Drones into Siren's Call, and dominate the zone for an hour or two, until the villains got tired and called in their own SG mates.

However, the few times I participated in a high end, organized PvP event, I received a hot ass-whipping. It's just how it is.

That being said, one of the other aspects of Zone PvP in COH was that everyone could try their hand at it. They certainly weren't guaranteed, or even likely, to win, but they had a shot.

Kaiser's movie quote mania

2008-12-18T23:57:00.003-05:00

On the City of Heroes forums, there is a subforum for each server. My home server was Justice, and in the Justice forum, we had a game, "Kaiser's movie quote mania."

Take a quote from a movie, change it to fit CoH and the Justice server, then make other try to guess it. If you guess it correctly, you get to post the next quote. So on and so forth. It started in February of '07, and it's still active. Non-active accounts can't post in those forums, but we can still read, so I combed through and picked out a few quotes, mostly PvP related.

-----------------------------------------------

Police_Drone_TH:

Police Drone TH: [paces back and forth on the deck of the Paragon PD King's Row HQ as he addresses his new recruits] "Greetings. Police Drone X9 has chosen you to serve your server in Warburg. Those of you who continue to profess a belief in "badging" will receive the standard substandard training that will result in your eventual ganking. Those of you who renounce this superstitious and hysterical belief will be eligible to join the warrior elite of the Paragon Police Department. Each of you will be given a Paragon City Registration Card."
[Displays his own card to the crowd]
Police Drone TH: "Whatever you do or whatever you learn will be imprinted on this card. If you lose your card or fail to follow commands, you will be subject to immediate ganking. That will be all."
--

Folonius:

Kaiser: "I've done far worse than kill you, Folonius. I've trapped you. And I wish to go on trapping you in inescapable places. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her: marooned for all eternity in the hotdog stand with no way out, buried alive. Buried alive."
Folonius: "KAAAIIISER!"
(echo)
Folonius: "KAAAIIISER!"
--

Mender_Frog:

"Give up, just quit, because in City of Heroes, you can't win. Yeah, you can try, but in the end you're just gonna lose, big time, because the world is run by the Gnome. The Gnome, oh, you don't know the Gnome. He's everywhere. In the White House... down the hall... Katfood, she's the Gnome. And the Gnome ruined base raids, he's gankin' folks in Warburg, and he threadjacked the Prophet's thread and turned it into PWNZ! And there used to be a way to stick it to the Gnome. It was called PVP, but guess what, oh no, the Gnome ruined that, too, with a little thing called Recluse's Victory! So don't waste your time trying to make anything cool or uber or awesome 'cause the Gnome is just gonna call you a fat washed up loser and crush your soul. So do yourselves a favor and just GIVE UP!"

Bubble: "Man, why don't we just do his job, so we can do our job and get the [censored] out of here? "
Frog: "What do you mean, "do his job?" What am I, a cold-blooded stalker? I'm not a cold-blooded stalker."
Bubble: "Now, wait a minute..."
Frog: "No, you wait a minute. You want to gank the hero but not be the villain. Doesn't work like that. You have to wait until the villain ganks the hero, then when you gank the villain, you're the hero. "
Bubble: "So - just to clarify - if we do his job we're the villains, and if we do our job we're the Heroes. "
Frog: "Yes."
Bubble: "That's... great."
--

Emma Peel:

"Plasma Warrior: All right, listen up. You heroes will not die on me in game. You f’ing noobs will do everything you can to prove me wrong. You'll ask for bio breaks in the middle of combat, give sbs when they’re not wanted, pull agro you can’t handle, eat cheetos and diddely-bop through Paragon City like you were back on the block. Or when you’re supposed to be healing and rezzing in combat you'll send tells, play with your mouse, and think of your girl who’s playing WOW. Forget her. Right now, some Orc has her on her back and is telling her to play WOW for peace. This is Emma. Those of you who are foolish will think of her as 'ditz,' 'bimbo,' 'twit' or 'bleeptch.' She is your enemy. She came over on the “Let a Crazy Person Out of the Psych Ward” Program, and after she fattens herself on Cabernet and Dark Chocolate she will be hunting your young butts in Siren’s Call. Now forget about this noob PvPer stuff. What you'll encounter out there is hard core PVP, Player Versus Player. Highly motivated, highly trained and well equipped. If you meet Emma or her cousins, you will give her respect and refer to those little beastards as 'Echo Papa.' Meet her twice, and survive, and you will refer to her as 'MISS Echo Papa.' Now people, I am sick and tired of filling body bags with your dumb f’ing mistakes.Emma is super jumping in on your position. It's night... Look at me! I'm gonna save your life and your gonna save mine. It's night, it's raining. While your thinking about Salvage, cheetos and whether or not we should be watching Heroes on NBC, Emma is going to crush your f’ing gonads with her Gravity powers. And your afk. You've been playing this mission in Peregrine for hours. It's your turn for a bio break, you're allowed to pee. What do you think Emma is going to do? Is she going to wait for you to come back to the keyboard, TJ? And smile? And talk about men? MISS Echo Papa gets all wet watching you die. Some of you think you have problems because you're against the in game advertisements coming up. You demonstrated in Atlas Park... you wear Statesman symbols on your costume, and you have attitudes. I'm a noob, my brother plays SWG, the RWZ got the clap from my sister, Mom drinks, Dad coughs blood, I have ringworm, imersion foot, the incurable crud and COH ruined my chances of being a brain surgeon. People, you are in CITY OF HEROES. You have no problems. Except me. "
(points to Emma who is summoning her Singularity and grinning)
"And her."
__

Bohmfalk:

"Oh, the reason I called... Could you find out who else is in Warburg? I've made two Tanks and a Stalker already, so if they've double-booked the mish, and/or they're going to ambush me, I'd like to know. If you could find that out, that'd be great."
__

Kaiser_Soze:

"In the year of our Lord two thousand and seven, patriots of Justice, low on endurance and outnumbered, charged the fields of Siren's Call. They fought like hardcore PvPer's, they fought like heroes, and won their server, forever."

Police Drone X-9: "Shall...we...play...a...game? How...about...a...nice...game...of...pvp?"

Powergaming Part 3

2008-12-12T05:15:00.005-05:00

I had originally intended to simply transcribe Jameson's character sheet, rather than talk about how cool I thought he was. Then I found out my wife recycled him. Sorry.

Anyways...

For various defensive and offensive reasons, I started taking levels of Monk with Jameson. My DM allowed me to take the feat "Ascetic Mage", despite my being a Wizard. Normally reserved for Sorcerers, this feat allows you to use Charisma towards AC, stacks your Monk and Sorcerer levels for purposes of the Monk's unarmored AC bonus, lets you convert spells into +to hit/+dmg equal to the spells level on all attacks for a single turn, and lets you freely multi-class between the two. In short, a damn good feat. By spending much time and resources in game, I was allowed to use it on my Wizard, using my Intelligence score for AC.

I also took "Arcane Strike", a feat the also lets you drop a spell for a +to hit/+dmg bonus. However, rather than +1 per spell level, it gave +1 to hit/+1d4 dmg per spell level, for every attack you make until the next turn. The best part was the feats weren't mutually exclusive, so I could drop two spells a turn, if I had a mind to (and I often did).

Then, after finding out that a pre-existing magical item could be permanently augmented, I took a pair of Ogre Gauntlets and turned them into a Frankenstein worthy monstrosity. After I was done with them, they went from simply granting +2 st, to the following: +4 str, +4 AC, +1 to hit, +2 dmg, Flaming Burst (+1d6 fire dmg, +1d10 extra on a crit), and they were acid proof (courtesy of the scales of a green dragon I slew while separated from my party). I would have added more, but alas, Tom made sure to keep my party VERY busy, not giving me the chance to tweek them.

I made the mistake of teaching Tom how to beat a powergamer. I explained to him that rather than trying to contest with the strength of their character, you simply need to force them into situations where, a.) Force of arms doesn't matter. b.) They must make choices they hate. c.) They are relatively powerless.

Simple enough, really. Some DMs get so caught up in literally trying to beat the players, they miss easy ways to take them down a notch.

Armed with this knowledge, Tom almost succeeded in shutting me down completely: He made me king.

I hate leading groups. I'm not bad at it, but I lack patience when it's most crucial, and if I'm in charge, it HAS to be my way. So, to avoid conflict, I let others lead. Of course, I still want to do things my way, so quite often, I end up separated from the group. Sometimes I'm right, sometime I'm wrong. In this case, going my own way turned into a nightmare.

After fending off a siege by the lich, and routing his army of undead, the city was in shambles. We stayed to try and rebuild, and offered the money and resources we had to the effort. However, the city's council felt that we were solely the blame for the attack, and it was our fault (I agreed). So, their answer to the destruction was to leave, and plead their case to the king that we were evil and left the city in ruins. I felt that being labeled as brigands by the king wouldn't help us beat the lich in the slightest, and that we needed to reach the king first, and take responsibility for what happened. That way, we could avoid his wrath, and solicit his help in fighting the lich.

After much agony and conflict (myself and the two NPCs I traveled with, Galin the half-dragon, and Lady Cross the Paladin, were ambushed by the green dragon I mentioned, which left one of them permanently scarred), I reach the king, and tell him everything that happened, leaving nothing out. He sympathizes with our plight, and absolves us of guilt for the fate of the town. To celebrate our victory in driving back the lich, he invites me to a banquet. At said banquet, an assassination takes place, which Galin, Lady Cross, and myself vainly try to stop (Draco-liches are tough customers, I'm afraid). With the king's dying breath, he gives me the royal signet ring, and leaves me his throne.

What. The. Fuck.

That makes absolutely no goddamn sense. I've known the king for all of one day, and he makes me his heir. So, I immediately try to seek out his closest blood relative. There are none. I seek out other royalty within the kingdom. None are present. So, I spend much time agonizing over how to not be the king anymore, and how to hide this from my party. Before I left, we had discussed petitioning the king to make John, our fighter, the mayor of the city, which we could then use as our base of operations against the lich. John had spent the entire game bitching about how my mage rendered him useless, so I supported this idea, to give him a stronger sense of purpose within the group. And Tom knew this. Bastard.

So, as I return to my party, having found a proper steward for the kingdom in my absence, I receive word that the nation to our south is poised to invade, after hearing the former king had passed. So now, I'm faced with letting this country fall, or trying to save it. As I mentioned earlier, I lost my soul to a demon. It was the price I paid for it saving my life. In addition to fighting the forces of the lich, I was fighting a personal war for my free will. In order to keep the trust of my party (which ended up with multiple Paladins), I continued to risk personal safety for the greater good, despite my Lawful Neutral alignment. So, for me, it was more than a simple invasion, it was a test to see how far I would go to prove that I wasn't secretly evil, and that I wasn't a puppet of the demon.

So, I travel south to parlay with the invading nations king (again, with Galin and Lady Cross, no real players). I end up being so frustrated with the whole situation, that once I enter the throne room, I launch a one man assault on the royal guard. I reasoned that I was a higher level than the other king, and his guard, and that I could intimidate him into withdrawing from my border. I was half right. I tore through his guard, with Galin and Lady Cross covering my flank, to find that the king was an epic level rouge, and that he could sneak attack me even if I wasn't flat footed (which isn't even really possible, I found out later, given the rouges build).

I was completely outplayed. Tom was able to manipulate the actions of my character, alienate me from the group by playing us against each other, and waited until the last minute to bait me into fighting a superior foe, so that my defeat would be complete. I have to admit, I never saw it coming, not like this.

However, I ended up having the last laugh. Do to the sheer overwhelming power of the foes we faced, we died a lot. A lot. But Tom allowed for frequent resurrections, even in the absence of divine healing. It annoyed me, but what broke the camel's back was when we got ambushed by a Hell Wurm. It flew over the city, hit us with it's breath weapon, then left. I was taken to -14 HP instantly, from full. When Tom found this out, he kinda blinked, then said I was only at -9 HP, courtesy of the demon that owned my soul. So, I told him that I was at -14 HP, and that I wasn't going allow myself a 7th extra life, for the sake of accommodating his unbalance encounters. I told him my death was final, and that player fatality needed to be taken more seriously, otherwise there was no point in playing.

Doing this seemed to rally the party, and they all agreed with me: our deaths would be final, and meaningful, not just hiccups in our campaign.

Which to me, is the heart of the issue with powergaming to begin with. When something ceases to be a challenge, what's the point? If all the enemies in the world only provide you with resistance equal to that of a cardboard cut-out, why play? Likewise, when every battle you fight offers crushing defeat, why play? A balance must be struck. Where the outcome isn't certain before conflict begins, where defeat and victory are both equally real options. That's what makes gaming fun. That way, if you lose, you still want to try again, cause you can do better. If you win, you still want to come back and do it again, if only to try and outdo yourself.

I think that Tom forgot that he was tasked with challenging us, not beating us. I think he treated DMing like he did playing a character: He was in it to win.

Powergaming Part 1

2008-12-08T18:18:00.003-05:00

When it comes to pen & paper RPGs, I don't like powergaming.

In video games, victory and loss are usually binary. Winning is good, losing is bad. Winning lets you progress, losing makes you start over. In this environment, powergaming is fine, since you're only dealing with the computer, and it's feelings won't get hurt when you give every stat up and new sword to that same warrior. The game doesn't care if you skip content, use cheat-codes, neglect character story developement, etc.

Not true of pen & paper RPGs (for the purposes of this rant, we'll use D&D 3.5, but feel free to substitute whatever works for you). In D&D, you're playing with your friends, or at least, people who share a common interest. Age old lessons of sharing and taking turns come into play, as you work alongside these people to achieve party goals. Powergaming hurts players in this environment, because one player can quite literally overshadow the whole campaign, and ruin everyone elses fun. Powergamers can skew challenge level, party rewards, even negate the need for certain party members to exist. When the warrior has AC 27 at level 3, it makes it hard for the DM to present the party with a challenge that doesn't crush everyone else. Likewise, a party of varying levels can run into similar trouble.

However, in D&D, winning isn't always good, and losing isn't always bad. A player can be tricked into fighting or killing the wrong people, can take the wrong quest or not pay enough attention to the details, getting everyone into a heap of trouble. Having the ability to retreat from a battle, and quite literally live to fight another day, can create incredibly dramatic sequences within a campaign, and give players a chance to display great depth with their characters.

That being said, I'm one of the biggest offenders when it comes to powergaming in D&D.

To be continued...

Powergaming Part 2

2008-12-08T00:11:00.004-05:00

Those who have played games like D&D know that good DMs/GMs are in short supply. Far too often, you get a heavy handed DM who tries to force the players to follow the plot. Or, he simply doesn't pay enough attention to gauge monster encounters to the party's true strength. I feel I don't fall into this category, but that I still suck as a DM, so I try to put that duty on someone else if I can.

Not too long ago, my wife and I lived with two roommates, John and Cassie. Both of these people played D&D at one point or another in their lives, and were eager to play again. Being the pack-rat that I am, I still had my books tucked away, so I pulled them out. Feeling that four people wasn't enough, well called in two more people, my friends Tom and Drew. We talked it out for a bit, and we all decided that we'd play a standard fantasy campaign, and that Tom would DM.

After my wife gave me a metric fuckton of shit about wanting to play yet another Fighter, I opted to play the party Wizard. My wife was our Rouge, John was the Fighter, Drew played a "Priest" (Priest is to Cleric as Sorcerer is to Wizard). Cassie didn't come into the campaign until later. My wife proceeded to give me even more shit for the name I chose for my wizard:

Jameson Flamesmith

It's a stupid name, I know. However, most everyone in a fantasy scenario has a retarded name (Elminster, Gandalf, Drizzt, etc), and I felt accomplished actually having a first and last name, unlike most of the party. And it fit, being as I focused on fire magic, so I had no qualms with it.

So, I mentioned how some DMs can be very heavy handed with how they run a campaign.

Tom is a VERY heavy handed DM.

By the end of the first dungeon, our fighter had be gender-swapped via polymorph (and he lost all his gear), I had lost my soul to this worlds version of Satan, and we had horrible offended a lich, by stealing it's phylactery, without realizing that's what it was. Said phylactery was bargained away by us so that we didn't have to fight an NPC rouge thrice our level.

The lich proceeded to hound us across the continent, killing anything around us indiscriminately. We ended up evacuating two separate villages, and leading the refugees to a third city, where we had to fight off a siege against thousands of summoned undead. At this point Cassie had joined us, along with her boyfriend Mike (Cassie was another wizard, while Mike played a Paladin).

It continues in the same manner, fighting elder dragons at level 8, contesting greater demons, yadda yadda yadda. Constantly getting beaten, chased, sieged, betrayed; I decided I'd had enough.

My wizard multiclassed.

To be continued...

Soloing

2008-12-01T22:10:00.003-05:00

Ah, soloing.

Be it forced or chosen, it's almost a completely different game from teamed content. However, soloing isn't possible in most MMOs. At least, not soloing story based content. One can easily farm, or grind out a few levels solo, but eventually, you'll end up needing a team to tackle high level instances or end game missions.

Not in City of Heroes though. With the ability to adjust the difficulty of your game on a mission by mission basis, you can crank up the difficulty to where the spawns are double sized, and +3 your level, or turn it down a notch, making them even con (the five difficulties in order being Heroic, Tenacious, Rugged, Unyielding, and Invincible). Even in story arcs, turning it down to Heroic causes Arch-Villains to spawn as Elite Bosses, allowing everyone a chance at solo glory.

But where's the fun in that?

Let me introduce you to my scrapper, Pale Tiger. He solos AVs. Not solo as in "Lemme use 15 temp powers, and summon a billion allies", I mean solo, as in, just me and the AV. And this is post ED, pre claws buff. Huzzah. In fact, he soloed his first AV at level 24, without IOs. He's been pimpin' since been pimpin' since been pimpin'. You wouldn't think that such as thing is so easy, after taking a spin in the Scrapper forums.

I had planned on attempting every AV in the game. My subscription ended while I was on the story arc to fight the Envoy of Shadows. I was slowly IOing him, and even with what little he had, you could feel the bonuses. Definitely wanted to get some inherent +acc on him, it's painful fighting +3 Devouring Earth with only one accuracy IO per attack (Terra was worth 44k XP solo at level 37, that's almost twice what a level 50 hero gets for completing a mission on Invincible).

I don't like soloing in Guild Wars. I use that term, even though I'm technically teamed. I don't consider doing missions and quests with seven NPC teammates being "teamed", I call that solo. However, I'm forced to do it most of the time, since PUGs are a dying breed, at least from what I've seen. Maybe I should try looking for groups in the International dist, or European dists. I hear that you can find high quality teams that way, and that there are more people willing to PUG with you.

I guess what I'm really lamenting is that my guild is sorely inactive, and that my alliance has one too many douche bags in it. I'd drop guild and solicit myself to a mid ranked PvP guild, but both of my sister-in-laws are in the guild, and play constantly. The three of us comprise 60% of our active members. Although, honestly, even if 100% of our members were everyday active, we'd still have a small ass guild with only 13 people.

Le sigh.

Tanking 101: Playstyle and Aggro Management

2008-11-27T05:11:00.007-05:00

Playing a "tank" in any MMO is pretty simple. You aggro first, you're expected to hold said aggro, you take the majority of the damage for the team, you're not expected to put out massive DPS. However, simple does not always equal easy. The specifics vary from game to game, but I'll be talking about Guild Wars for the time being. I'll touch on City of Heroes later.

1. Aggro Management

Tanking in Guild Wars is one of the most challenging tanking scenarios I've dealt with in an MMO. There are no clear aggro guidelines to be found in game. The only thing you really know for sure is your aggro radius, indicated by your compass/minimap in the top right corner of your screen by the transparent white circle center on your character.Any enemy that enters earshot of you will be aggroed. However, this doesn't necessarily mean they will attack you. The AI in GW evaluates targets, and picks them based on priority. At the top of that list are players with low armor and low HP. Essentially, the very people you're trying to protect get attacked first. Certain actions on your part will move you up that list. Body-blocking an enemy, quite literally getting in their way and becoming an obstruction increases your own aggro. Attacking, and activating skills against an enemy increases your aggro. Thusly, a good tank (in most, but not all situations), should always be moving and attacking, getting the enemy's attention. Beware, moving too much can cause the enemy to re-evaluate aggro, moving you back down that list. This is especially true is you're under the effect of an IMS (increased movement skill) skill, you will lose aggro very fast.

2. Surviving Aggro

Now that you can better manage aggro, you need to survive it. Either you're keeping yourself alive, you're receiving support from your team, or a combination of both. Don't feel that you can't do your job without a monk, but learn to trust them when they support you. Breaking from a fight for fear of dying will get your whole team killed. Think about it: if you with your high armor and high HP can't take that aggro, how is your team going to hold up when it gets put on them? Be willing to die on the front lines, rather than run away and draw the aggro into your backline. If you need to run, side step your enemies. Run to your left or right, not backwards. This way, when the follow, you're putting more distance between your team and the enemies.

Whatever you do, make sure that your antics on the frontline don't attract the attention of other enemy spawns. Careless side stepping or repositioning can cause you to aggro neighboring spawns, making the situation drastically more dire.

3. The Informed Tank

I had considered writing up a section on gear and skills, but I decided against that. Being aware of what you enemies do and how they do it should dictate what gear and skills you set your tank up with before each mission and quest. When facing large amounts of physical damage, go with blocking stances. When facing large amounts of elemental damage an spell casters, go with +AL and +DR. When facing large amounts of degen, or armor ignoring damage, go with large amounts of HP.

When in melee, sometimes you'll be expected to call targets for the rest of the team, so they can target through you. Try to target especially dangerous foes, or annoying ones, like enemy Elementalists or Monks. Knowing which enemy caster is spamming Empathy on your versus knowing which enemy caster is summoning minions can be the difference between victory and a teamwipe.

4. Tank DPS

As I mentioned earlier, you're not expecting to generate huge DPS. This doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't. Bringing attack skills can not only make managing aggro easier, it will help the team kill faster. Remember, killing a foe gives your team 100% DR to that target.

Conditions allow most warriors to add large amounts of DPS to a team. Even if you're only adding a skill that inflicts bleeding to your skill bar, consider the fact that this negate the inherent regen most bosses have.

It helps to bring attack skills that don't use the same "fuel" as your tanking skills. For example, if you're running Gladiator's Defense, plus one or two other stances that cost Energy, bring attack skills that run off of adrenaline instead. If your tanking skills run off of adrenaline, it's not as bad having attacks that do the same, but attack skills will slow the rate at which you can activate them (Adrenaline skills "charge" as you attack. They all charge at the same rate. Once you have built up enough to activate a skill, the icon lights up, allowing you to click it. Using an adrenaline based skill deducts one point of adrenaline from each other skill, requiring you to connect with another attack, to replace lost adrenaline before activating another skill. Spamming adrenaline based attack slows the rate at which other skills recharge.). Just be aware. For example, I have a build made to spam the skill "Save Yourself!", a PvE only shout that grants my team +100 Armor for 5 seconds. At a cost of 8 adrenaline, I bring Power Attack and Counter Attack, so that "Save Yourself!" charges faster, giving my team more protection (also, since it keeps my teams armor so high, it helps me keep aggro).

None of these are hard and fast rules, but keeping them in mind can allow a novice warrior to preform admirably on the frontlines.

Sincerest form of flattery

2008-11-26T03:25:00.005-05:00

Each game over time creates terms, phrases, and mannerisms uniquely generated by its playerbase. Some stay unique to that game, others spread to different games. For example, did you know that "woot" stands for "Warrior out of Targets"?

Leeroy Jenkins, lern2play, lolmad?, "in ur base, killin ur doodz."

Likewise, each game has it's own version of a sincere compliment, even if not intentional.

In Diablo 2, it's usually taken as a compliment when your opponent in PvP leaves the match an returns with a character 30 to 40 levels higher than you, and then demands a rematch. Anyone who's ever PvPed in D2 has probably had this happen. They rage-quit cause you won, and now they've skewed the numerical equation of combat so far in their favor, they feel they can't possibly lose. And it always seems like the bring a Hammerdin, or a FoH Pally, someone to whom there is almost no defense. Then they go hostile, and gate camp, taunting you to come out and fight them. If this happens, you should be smiling, cause no matter what, you've won.

In Counter Strike, or almost any online FPS, it's usually taken as a compliment when you get called a hacker. Score a headshot at 80ft with a shotty? Hacker. Score a headshot in midair? Hacker. Scored multiple headshots in rapid succession with a deagle? Hacker. Score a kill while presumably blinded by a flashbang? Hacker. Never mind that your score is 17-23, or that they killed you the round before while you helplessly sprayed an AK-47 at them, dealing no damage. Never mind that you were blind, but you were spraying with an M-60. And hacker can be such a buzz word with some people, that when they hear it, they don't bother to spectate the person in question to see, or check the "hackers" score. Nope, they just type "voteban" in chat and goad others into doing the same. But hey, put a smile on, apparently you're that good.

In City of Heroes, if someone files a petition against you for griefing in a PvP zone, you've just been handed a virtual trophy. Don't worry, the petition will be deleted by the GMs, as PvPing in a PvP zone isn't griefing. It's just some kid who's angry that you killed them while they were badge hunting, and how you didn't ask if they wanted to fight before attacking. Or someone who's mad that you interrupted their "duel", even though they're fighting in the open, and made no attempt to say over broadcast "Hey guys, we're dueling, just let us finish before attacking the winner." At least if they do that they have the right to be annoyed, even if their request was silly. I've been petitioned more times than I can count, but most were filed by other Heroes that I killed in Warburg, not by Villians. Free-for-All PvP ftw.

In Guild Wars, it's a little different. In Guild Wars, if someone takes the time to learn and copy your build, you should take pride in that. As in most MMOs, there are favorable skill sets and tactics for various enemies (a Druid has to tank in the instance, kill the Nemesis Lieuts last, spread out to avoid AoEs, etc). In Guild Wars, while popular builds exist that dominate certain aspects of PvE and PvP (Imbagon, Shock Axe, Bunny Thumper, Toucher, etc), a person can be plenty powerful and effective with a unique skill selection and attribute spread. So much so, some people covet their builds, and refuse to divulge any details of them to others, for fear of having them made public and popular. For example, last August, I made myself a new hammer build for my warrior, centering around the elite skill Backbreaker. I used it with Pulverizing Smash, Protector's Strike, Mighty Blow, Flail, Enraging Charge, Lion's Comfort, and Grasping Earth. Pulverizing Smash was picked to make the build more energy efficient, Protector's Strike was put in to help spike a KDed target, and recover adren faster after using BB+PS. Nothing fancy, a lot of core elements (IAS, IMS, self heal, snare), just a different spin on a hammer warrior. I ran the build exclusively in AB, RA, and TA for two months, and received some praise from teammates for it. When running in RA and TA, I'd sub out either Grasping Earth or Mighty Blow for Rez.

By the end of September, my build was on PvXwiki.

http://www.pvxwiki.com/wiki/Build:W/any_Pulverizing_Backbreaker

Edited slightly to put it in line with the PvP meta, but with the same usage and reasoning. I highly doubt that I'm the only person in all of GW to have ever ran that build, but the timing is too perfect. I might be paranoid, but I'd put money on one of my teammates copying it and putting it in the wiki.

But it doesn't bother me. If indeed it was taken from what I used, I'm flattered that they found it effective enough to borrow (saying they stole it implies I can't use it anymore, which isn't true). It even scored a 4.52 out of 5 in overall effectiveness. Thanks guys, I love you too.

It doesn't stop there. My builds have been used by almost every warrior in my Guild, and in my Alliance. Mine certainly aren't the only ones being borrowed (a fellow warrior by the name of Jak Chain created a nifty little W/A build that quickly got borrowed), but it's kinda funny seeing so many people running around with the same skills and gear as me. Sometimes I encourage it, like with my FoW Beach build. I like taking all warrior teams into FoW and farming certain areas. And frankly, my FoW Beach farming build kicks the shit out of the ones on wiki. I might get around to posting it in there someday, unless one of my guildies beats me to the punch.

But then again, it's really not that earth shattering of a build. It's not like I discovered that Cyclone Axe+Ebon Dust Aura=Profit, or that I created a 55 Warrior. But I don't see anyone else using it, and I don't see it on the wiki. Who knows, maybe I did split the crust just a bit.

However, I am prone to being stubborn, using what I'm comfortable with over what's better. For the longest time, I ran this abysmal W/R build. I also refused to use Bull's Strike, with the reasoning "it's hard to time it."

Lame.

Alliance Battles: In depth(ish)

2008-11-25T02:19:00.003-05:00

During most of my posts, I assume that you the reader have an equal or greater knowledge of the things I talk about. This is in part because it saves me time, and I figure that if you read my blog, there's a good chance you share my interests, be it Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Counter Strike, or whatever (for the record, people who share none of these interests, yet still read this blog, I salute you).

However, even if you play City of Heroes, you may have never heard of the Paragon PD, or ever played an Assault Rifle blaster. Even if you play CS: Source, you might not have heard of CS:2d. And, even if you play Guild Wars, you might not partake in Alliance Battles. Maybe you don't like PvP. Maybe you find vanquishing in Hard Mode gives you better faction. Maybe you're an elite GvGer, and ABs just don't do it for you. So, I decided to explain a few things about ABs, just in case. In any case, enjoy (And as a warning, the word "faction" gets used a lot. It's not my fault, I didn't make the game).

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In order to join an Alliance Battle, you must own Guild Wars: Factions. This seems obvious, but it's more complicated than that. You must also be part of a guild, where your guild leader also owns GW:Factions, and has chosen and allegiance for your guild. You can pick the Kurzick faction, or the Luxon faction. It's mostly an aesthetic choice, but your guild can only form or join an alliance with guilds that hold the same allegiance. There seems to be a consensus that Kurzicks are immature, while the Luxons play cheap. I don't really notice a difference, except I see many more R/N touchers on the Luxon side than I ever do on the Kurzick side.

So now that you belong to a faction, you can go fight in Alliance Battles. Visit the NPC contact for your faction located in your guild hall, and you will be taken to the staging area of one of five maps. Two maps favor the Kurzicks, two maps favor the Luxons, and one is neutral. Winning on a map favored by your enemy grants you bonus faction points. Faction points are used to increase you, your guild's, and your alliance's standing with the faction you belong to. Alliances with enough faction points can have entire in game towns given to them, granting them special bonuses and perks (that, and everyone who enters that town or outpost gets reminded who's house their in). You can also buy crafting materials and PvE only skills. The more faction you transfer into alliance, the higher your "rank" gets. It's tracked in the form of a title, letting everyone know that you've toiled away. That, and it's easier to get a team for an AB when you're known as "Hero of the Kurzickz" rather than "Kurzick Supporter."

In this staging area, you join a team. You have control over who you team with, but quite often, you're teaming with strangers, which isn't that much of an issue, to be honest. Each team has four players, and each side in a match has three teams. On a good day, you'll be teamed with three friends, playing with eight strangers, competing against twelve other strangers. On any other day, you're playing with eleven strangers, against twelve strangers, one of which might have a grudge from a previous match and try to make your life hell.

Each map has two bases, and seven shrines. You respawn in your base, or in a rez shrine. Shrines are captured by moving within range of them, which causes a gauge to fill or deplete. If you completely deplete the gauge, you've stolen it from the enemy. If you fill it, you've captured it. The more people present, the faster it empties or fills, but the speed is capped at four people, so anymore is a waste. Because of this, you are constantly on the move, trying to capture more shrines, as the ones you already control are being captured by your opponents. When you capture a shrine, it spawns up to 3 allied NPCs, which will stay and defend it. The type of NPC (warrior, ranger, monk, etc) is consistent, and based on the type of shrine you've captured. Every 7 seconds, your team gets 1 point for each shrine is controls. Every kill you score earns your team 3 points. The first team to reach five hundred points wins. In the event that either team captures and controls all seven shrines for one full minute, they win automatically.

Upon winning, you receive 1000 faction, plus one point for each point your team scored. Since it takes 500 points to win, you usually receive 1500 faction for winning a match. There is an underdog bonus for teams that win on a map favored by the enemy; +500 for a slightly favored map, +1000 for a deeply favored map. So, a Luxon winning in Ancestral Lands gets 2500 faction simply for winning on that map. In addition, in the course of the match, you earn 10 faction for each kill. You also earn 10 Balthazar faction per kill (PvP only faction, earned in any form of PvP). So, you can earn 500 to 1000 extra faction by virtue of kills alone.

I'm sure you knew most of that, and could have phrased it more concisely or at least, in a more approachable manner.

But for those who didn't, now you know why I disagree with the "don't fight cap" crowd.

lol u mad?

2008-11-23T07:47:00.004-05:00

Yes goddammit, I'm mad as hell!

Alliance Battles aren't hard folks. Not at all. Even if you're horribly outmatched, it's not difficult to stretch out a match and force the opponent to score 500 points. Better that, than folding two and a half fucking minutes into a match, allowing the luxons to capture and control all seven goddamn shrines, forcing an auto-win!

I mentioned earlier that in order to win, you have to balance capping with fighting. I still stand by that, but I feel that I should explain my seemingly cryptic message (Implying that somehow, you the reader are at fault, and I must educate you. I apologize, because I highly doubt that is the case.).

Fighting is approved in the following scenarios:

1. Ganking a lone foe, preventing them from joining up with their team. You should not do this if it requires you to run halfway around the map, spamming your IMS stance.
2. Ganking a lone foe who is solo capping, properly. You should do this especially if they come for one of the rez shrines your team controls. Rez shrines only reduce the time it takes for your team to rejoin battle. If you're losing, this is important. If you're winning, it's more important, because you want to force the other team back into their own base, making it easier to stem their comeback.
3. Defending a shrine. If you have a shrine advantage, keep it. Even if you die protecting a shrine, you can earn your team points simply by keeping it in your control that much longer. That, and the longer they have to struggle for a single shrine, the less time they have to cap other shrines. A single human player can make a shrine stocked with NPCs a tough nut to crack.
4. Pinning them in the base. If you have a shrine advantage, and the rez shrine(s), camping a base exit is extremely effective. Most bases have a Ranger shrine in front of them, making such camping much easier. If they can't get out of the base, they can't cap. If they can't cap, you win.

Fighting is a bad idea in the following scenarios:

1. The enemy is mobbed up. Unless you're holding a choke-point, and have a shrine advantage. this is a bad idea. Certain exceptions exist, like when facing a Minion Master. Just because they have a numerical advantage, doesn't mean they count as a "mob." When facing a Minion Mancer, ganking them can give you the advantage, or at least, create enough chaos to escape.
2. You're losing. If the match is close, and you're going to lose by a dozen or so points, forget fighting and skirmishing, steal their shrines! Stem their point gain, buff your own.
3. They're going to score a win by full shrine control. Dammit, take a side exit out the base, and take any shrine you can. Most times, people pinned in the base get hung up on capping the closest shrine, even if it's swarmed by all 12 enemy players, plus minions. Sending three people out each side, you can force a split, and break the mob.
4. You suck at PvP. If you can't spike, support, play smart, call targets, consider battlefield conditions, communicate with your team, etc. If you want to spam auto-attacks with Frenzy, while hexed with Spiteful Spirit, if you brought heal area on your frontliner, if you brought Ursan Blessing, etc. Don't fight, just follow your team leader. You can at least help cap shrines.

These are not rules, so much as good guidelines. Skirmishing with the enemy team is almost inevitable, even if you're one of the "omfg don't fight just cap" folks. Depending on your profession, skirmishing can actually be a great way to contribute in an AB. A ranger that liberally applies Cripshot or Pin Down on the other team can hamper their progress, splitting teams up. Likewise, tossing degen on someone and then leaving also helps, causing foes to arrive at a shrine wounded, or with key skills recharging. In fact, why not do both? When on my ranger, I make sure to harass others, crippling them and gifting them with -10 degen. Elementalists and Mesmers, along with certain Ritualists and Monks, can have fun doing this too.

To be honest, if my team is losing badly, and I don't think a comeback is possible, I break from these guidelines. I don't pull a bitch move like leaving the battle, I just stop worrying about points. I start worrying about my Balthazar faction, and start killing as wanton as possible. Every target, any target. Aside from blatant suicide, I disregard enemy numbers, or pleas from my team. I just start ganking Monks, Elementalists, whomever crosses my path. When on my Warrior, I have a deep desire to seek out and humiliate enemy warriors (During one of my killing binges, I engaged a Wammo that was using Heal Area. I miss him.). Otherwise, it's all good.

Points is points, and those Z-Keys aren't going to buy themselves.

Prophecies is the original Hard Mode.

2008-11-20T23:15:00.007-05:00

You know it's true. Don't lie, don't argue, don't make excuses.

Prophecies is the ultimate test of PvE dedication. How far are you willing to go, how much are you willing to put up with, and how underpowered are you willing to be just to earn that statuette that declares "Eternal Hero of Tyria"?

Hurdle One: Learning Curve
It'll give you whiplash, then charge you for it. Enemies go from being mindless and uniform, to mindless and diverse, to ruthless, diverse, and rather intelligent. From Yak's Bend on, expect every NPC enemy to be higher in level than you, and in greater numbers. Expect them to have very balanced spawn composition, meaning that they can support each other, and cripple you. Many first time players find the northern shiverpeaks to be a place of constant and brutal defeat. This issue is compounded by many of the hurdles I list below.

Hurdle Two: Attributes
Let's talk attribute points. Every fully powered level 20 character has 200. However, simply leveling up to level 20 isn't enough, that only earns you 170 points. You need to complete two quests, for 15 points a piece, in order to reach full power. In Factions, you can do these quests before you leave the starting island. In Nightfall, you can have both quests completed as early as level 7.

In Prophecies, you will spend much time without these points, as the quests to get them are at the end of the game. You have to make it to the 14th mission in order to be in the general area where the first 15 point quest is. Even then, you've got to brave hordes of Hydras, all level 22 Elementalists who love to chain KD you, with your crappy armor (more on that later), to even meet the NPC who hands out the quest. Then, you get to travel your ass off to the most remote portion of the southernmost portion of the desert, with no waypoints near it, and fight against tons of life-stealing necromancer foes, some of which are immune to KD, all the while, negotiating a map that's inaccurate, because the geography changes in order for you to reach the NPC that completes the quest.

Then, to get your next 15 points, you need to been in the general area of the 20th mission (keep in mind, missions are story-point milestones, not simply quests, they can be spaced quite far apart). At this point, you can craft adequate armor, but in order to earn the points, you have to defeat a level 28 Necromancer boss, who not only attacks relatively without warning, but can steal almost your whole HP bar with a single skill. How fun.

Hurdle Three: Armor
Players need NPC assistance to craft armor. The armor level of the craft depends on location, and is always consistent. In Factions, you can craft max AL armor before you reach the 3rd mission. In Nightfall, you can craft max AL armor in the outpost that leads to the 4th mission. In Prophecies, you can't make max AL armor until after the 19th freaking mission!

Now, this isn't a problem by itself, but you're fighting enemies that are level 20 or higher, as early as the 14th or 15th mission (discluding spawns you must contend with to do simple quests), so you spend a decent chunk of time with weaker armor. This is especially a problem when you enter the Crystal Desert (containing missions 14-19), since everything there is level 20+. Many players find themselves hitting another wall, unable to forge ahead.

Hurdle Four: Team Size
The maximum team size in Guild Wars is 8, with the exception of some elite dungeons, where it is 12. Factions allows for 8 teammates before the 3rd mission, Nightfall by the 4th. Prophecies does not give you an 8 man team until the 19th mission.

Hurdle Five: Mursaat
Spectral Agony-For 5 seconds, target foe moves, attacks, and uses skills up to 80% slower; suffers -24...1 Health Degeneration; and loses 81...3 Health each second. Damn.

Hurdle Six: Titans
Killing a Titan spawns another Titans. Titans spawned in such a manner do not drop loot. Standing next to most Titans sets you on fire. Most can't be knocked down. Most are not 'fleshy' creatures, so they can't be poisoned, diseased, bleed, or subject to corpse exploitation (so sword warriors, necromancers, and some rangers can all fuck off). All Titans are at least four levels higher than you, in Normal Mode, provided they aren't spawned from defeated Titans. Titans spawned from a defeated Titan are eight levels higher than you. They are nigh immune to fire damage, and can turn all physical damage into fire damage (again, warriors and rangers get to fuck off).

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Other complaints are minor, or affect more than just Prophecies (Neither Prophecies or Factions has inscriptions, while Nightfall and EotN do). To be fair, I should point out that Prophecies has a longer (not larger) story mode, comprised of 25 mission, while Nightfall has 17, and Factions only has 13.

It's for these reasons that when I remade Reya, I made her a Nightfall character. Prophecies being an arduous campaign isn't entirely a bad thing. How the campaign kicks off caught most first time players off-guard (it's called Pre-Searing for a reason). The role your hero plays in the story of the campaign is nothing short of epic, and in completing all 25 missions, you victory is nothing short total domination of everything and anything remotely evil. You fight armies of evil bi-ped cats; you cut a swathe through undead hordes; you join a rebellion and fight an evil cultist dictatorship; you destroy an ancient race so powerful they are revered as gods; you destroy the only monsters strong enough (other than you) to defeat an ancient race so powerful they are revered as gods; you defeat the only being strong enough to enslave the only monsters strong enough (other than you) to defeat an ancient race so powerful they are revered as gods.

The Lich and Titans are so epic and powerful they get recycled in Nightfall (How do our leftovers taste?). Even in being the 'worst' campaign, it's easily the best. A player that completes Prophecies is equipped with the skill to tackle the other campaigns, and show everyone else how a real hero does it. It's a trial by fire, almost like a bootcamp. It's ruthless, to weed out those who are not worthy. And I hope it stays that way.

Pew Pew!

2008-11-20T22:34:00.005-05:00

A long time ago, I decided I wanted to roll up a Ranger and try my hand at long range engagement. Less damage than an Elementalist, but more armor, longer range, and tons of nifty little tricks. So, I rolled up a Ranger in Prophecies and dubbed her "Reya Dawnstrike." Ground her up to level 7 in pre-searing Ascalon, then let her collect dust for a year and a half. Then, two or so months ago, I decided that I wanted to play a Ranger again, but that I couldn't bear to go 90% of the game with only 170 atribute points. So, I deleted her, remade her as a Nightfall character, and within 5 days, she was level 20, with a fully runed set of Norn armor (she looks like medieval Russian special forces), plus a few sweet bows, three of which were end-game rares from Prophecies (Deldrimor bows).

Capped a few novel elites, and tooled around Eye of the North for a while. I took her to a few ABs, but I felt that she wasn't pulling her weight, and I stopped using her so much. Busted her out again, capped Glass Arrows, and had some fun running a Glass Conjure spiker, absolutely creaming foes. But that build had energy issues, and got kinda boring, as far too many people use Stoneflesh Aura and Defy Pain these days. Again, she was shelved.

Then a week or two ago, I was watching Stealing Society and Rebel Rising (two top ten guilds), duke it out in a tournament match. Each GvG team ran two rangers, and all four rangers were using Expert's Dexterity plus Read the Wind (+25% IAS, +2 Marksmanship, +10 dmg, double speed arrows). In short, they were high caliber turrets with auto-fire, smashing the opposing team. The next update after this match, Expert's Dexterity got nerfed (+15% IAS, +1 Marksmanship), and the build fell out of favor.

Kinda.

Now, rather than being interrupt heavy midliners that use degen for the bulk of their damage, the idea of a "turret" ranger is popular. Some people still run ED+RtW, some use RtW+Flail for the same rate of fire, etc. Keeping this in mind, I specced Reya into a similar build, using Burning Arrow (which I capped this morning) as my elite. I didn't have any IAS in my build, but I had a few attacks with short cast times, so I used this to compress my damage in a spike.

Goddamn.

Hot knife, and butter. We won nine battles in a row this morning, and two more when I woke up. Not only was the damage sickening, but I had far less energy issues than with my Glass Conjure build. RtW made using my longbow feasible (I normally favor Expert's Focus, as it lets me spam Needling Shot for 1 energy, with instant recharge on the attack), and on any of the cliffs and peaks of the Grenz Frontier map, having a longbow means you get to reach out and touch somebody. A lone warrior? Snared, burnt, and bled. Next? It was nice to overextend so freely, and be able to disengage a fight almost on a whim. Not nearly as brutal (or tough) as my warrior, but that's a given.

My next project is to level up a Dervish, and to find some use for my level 20 Paragon that I never seem to play...

Mah petz

2008-11-19T03:17:00.010-05:00

I briefly mention in my profile that I have three pets; a fruit bat, a polar bear, and a dairy cow. Quite obviously, I don't have such animals in my two bedroom, 2nd story apartment. However, each one resembles in appearance and personality one of the above mentioned animals. Let's start with our first pet.

Meet Isabelle (Izzy), our fruit bat. She is a domestic short haired, and that's all I know about her breed. We adopted her when she was a few weeks old, as a stray rescue. She was obviously the runt, and going on two years old, she's still pretty small. Of any cat I've ever known, she's the only one who would play tag. She would run after a person, slap their ankle, then run, expecting you to chase her. If you did chase her, and slap her tail, she'd whip around and return the favor. Playing tag with her was good exercise, back when we got her. However, she stopped playing a long time ago, and is now fairly prissy, as far as cats go. She loves attention, on her own terms. Doesn't like to be picked up, and makes some very bizarre sounds when angry. She was dubbed a fruit bat, in part because it makes a nice play on words, and her ears are frickin' huge.

Meet Alexander (Xander), our polar bear. Xander, like every cat that's been in our care since getting Izzy, is a feral rescue, born in the wild, raised in our home. I found him after he and his litter-mate took a spill off of a 30ft drop onto some concrete. His litter-mate needed medical attention, so I had Animal Rescue take him. However, Xander seemed more or less ok, and since his mother had since fled, I felt it was right for me to keep him. This picture was taken right after I brought him home, last November, before Thanksgiving. He has since grown, dramatically. As it turns out, Xander is a Maine-Coon mix (1/4, I believe). He now weighs almost 18 pounds, at a little over a year (pictured below, he's only 6 months old). From what I've read, I am to expect him to continue growing until age three, and expect him to live for twenty years, easy.

Xander was raised with Izzy, and eventually, nine other kittens, eight were feral rescues (caught by myself), and one was a stray rescued from the median on I-95 Northbound (Dubbed Jersey, she later died of an infection that the vet missed. She was the first and only cat to die in our care, and it was hard watching such a young cat fade like that.) Because of this, he is very comfortable around people, and greets most visitors at the door. He is also the only act I know of to play fetch. And much like a dog, he'll enter the room and wake me up, so I can play with him. He will still rough-house with me, and is very animated. But he still sounds like a kitten, and his meows and chirps do not fit his robust frame. Quite often, when watching TV or using my desktop, he'll jump into my lap, look up and my, and whine till I scratch him. And whine loud, while trying to maintain eye contact. I've never cared for a pet more than I do for Xander. My sister-in-laws started calling him a polar bear, after watching him lumber around our apartment.

Lastly, we have the most recent addition to our family, Benny, the dairy cow (in need of orthodontic work). Benny was one of three kittens captured, the last full litter I recovered last spring. His brother and sister were adopted by a very loving couple, who dote on them constantly (we got some nice picture back not long after the adoption). Benny, is small for his age, and heavy for his size. When his baby teeth fell out, something shift wrong, cause his upper and lower canines to overlap wrong. While his ability to eat has not been impaired, and his demeanor is still incredibly upbeat, it caused him to droll for about two weeks straight, and now his canines are seemingly inverted (the upper canines rest in between the lower canines, rather than the other way around). He doesn't meow, he moos. That, combined with his girth and coat, earned him the nickname "dairy cat." He's most likely to pick on Izzy when in the mood to play, even though he refuses to play with me.

As I'm sure you noticed, I mention several times that I had rescued/captured many cats. My place of employment has many wild cats that roam around, and sometimes it causes problems. The county I live in stopped trying to control the feral population, so I got permission from my Sgt to place live traps. With a little luck, and a little poking around, I was able to live-trap seven kittens, and five adults. I also performed a manual capture on one kitten, and there was also Jersey, but finding her was pure luck. The kittens received medical treatment from a local clinic, to verify they were healthy, and treat them for any parasites found. They were all spayed/neutered at this same clinic. Of the eight kittens that lived, seven were adopted, six of those by people I work with. My Aunt-in-law adopted the seventh.

The adults were spayed/neutered, were given rabies shots, and had their left ears 'tipped' (a small portion of each left ear was removed, so that we could identify, at range, cats that had already been captured, and been given treatment). These adults were then released back where I had captured them. One of the adults needed surgery, to treat a latent wound. All of this was paid for out of pocket, although we were fortunate enough to receive some money back from the people who fostered kittens, which covered the shots and surgery each one received.

In a funny twist, one of the litters was actually related to Xander. The kittens, pictured left, have the same mother as Xander (unsure about the father, but I read that a female cat can have kittens from multiple fathers in a single litter). Pictured here are Bubbles, Scrappy, Fuzzy, Tibal, and Shy Guy. Tibal was a manual capture, Bubbles and Shy Guy were caught in the same trap, while Scrappy and Fuzzy were caught individually from the same area. Scrappy earned her name by ripping up my right forearm, and having my boss send me to Patient First (thanks Scrappy). Initially, all the kittens we rescued were hostile, but this is mainly a result of them being scared. Luckily, none of these cats were alone, and it helped them a lot to be with familiar creatures. Many people I've spoken too want more cats, but are concerned with how the animals they already have will react to the visitor. The first few weeks are always rough, but if you are patient, and give it time, they will acclimate to each other. Just because they hiss at first, or try to hide, doesn't mean it will never work. Many people sabotage themselves by expecting the first encounter to foreshadow how they will get along for the rest of their lives. This is not true.

For example, Tibal (Tai for short), was adopted by my Aunt-in-law. They have a golden retriever named Chance, that's huge. Tai, at the time, was about 6 pounds, still very small. At first, Tai was terrified of Chance, while the dog wanted desperately to play with the act (Chance kept bringing Tai his toys). These days, not only do the dog and cat rough-house with each other, but when Tai wants to go inside, Chance will walk up to the door and bark till they open the door, just so Tai can go in. If a dog and cat can do that in a matter of months, please believe your pets can do it too.

Expanding Horizons

2008-11-18T02:54:00.003-05:00

One of the things I enjoy most about Guild Wars, over World of Warcraft, is the ability to change skills and attribute points on the fly. I love the flexibility of it. I especially like being able to save builds, and access them at will. It makes it so much easier to change up between missions and quests.

However, for the longest time, whenever it came to a hammer build, I'd only use the elite Backbreaker. Frankly, Backbreak is brutal. Unconditional knockdown, pair with solid bonus damage, and the longest knockdown in the game. However, in order to put my warrior in line with some more effective builds, I brokedown and capped Devastation Hammer.

Damn.

What gets me is how cheap the skill is, only 7 adreneline. Backbreaker is 10, while Earth Shaker and Magehunters Smash are 8. Unconditional, and it applies weakness. I had been using Backbreak with Pulverizing Smash, for the same effect, giving me better energy management, as opposed to using Crushing Blow for my KD follow up. So now, I'm running the standard hammer bar, Devastation, Crushing, Hammer Bash, Bull's Strike, with four wild-card picks (self-heal, IAS, IMS, rez, etc).

Well, I can certainly see why it's so popular.

I ended up having to craft a new set of gauntlets with Stonefist insignia, which was a bitch, cause ever since the last patch, the material merchants have been out of Amber. Luckily, I found a guy who had been hording some, and I only had to pay 300g a pop.

Due to the fact that I had been using Backbreaker for so long, I never had to learn how to 1/4 lock an opponet. For those who don't play warriors much, this is when a hammer (or anyone with multiple KD skills) times a KD to strike the foe right as they stand, leaving them a window of less than 1/4 of a second to act. It requires me to be a bit more active when PvPing, but durring an AB today, I locked down a poor Wammo for 12 seconds, while the rest of his team was scrambling around (we ended up losing, 492-501, but it was damn fun). Normally, I'd have planted him down for 4 seconds, then had to build adren for a while before I was able to do it again.

Yes, I know, I'm a noob for getting all excited and worked up over something this stupid. Sorry. Late bloomer and what not.

Electric 6

2008-11-16T07:38:00.004-05:00

I don't know if you know this band, but it might be worth your time to check them out at www.electric6.com

I like them, in part, because they possess that same attitude that Tenacious D does. For example, take this excerpt from their website:

'Show business is often referred to as “the last frontier of Communism”. Think about it. Performers are beholden to the common interests of a faceless collective who demand more for less. In the advent of technology, the ability of the artist to make massive profits has been destroyed. Artists, performers, midgets, musicians, jugglers, magicians, deejays – everybody – all of us – we’re all fucked now.

The result? I’m not going to bring out your hamburger and fries in a timely manner. I’m going to take cigarette breaks every 5 minutes. You’ve made me wait in a bread line, and I’m going to rest my aching dogs while your white ass salivates over that burger just sitting there, taunting you under the heat lamp. And I’m not going to bring it over to you until I’m good and ready.

That was the Soviet Union then and this is Hollywood now.

But even in the belly of despair, there is always hope. We know of a small town, north of Star City, in the woody fields of evil Mother Russia. The town, Gorchakovagrad, officially never existed. But we know it was there and we know how they danced. They danced around a fire created not by accidental nuclear disaster, but a fire fueled by their own desire – a desire to once again be entertained. And to sell the entertainment at a high price so that they and their families might once again live as higher beings with swimming pools shaped like Mickey Mouse.

Gorchakovagrad made Ibiza look like Houston, made Vegas look like Newark. Men dressed as neon gods. Women dressed as lizards. Dancing was cutthroat, dangerous. Music was loud, sensual, sexual, brave, sexual and sexy. The deejays were Italian. Money changed hands. Fashion conquered all. The girls, though reptilian, were hot. They were sexy capitalist pigs that knew their way around a deck of turntables…..and they liked to fuck.

There were no iPods, no computers, no websites. No file sharing. No intentional neutering of America’s teens. There was only 100% pure entertainment created by humans….for humans. And love.

This happened in the Soviet Union. And this will happen again on Oct. 21 when Electric Six releases its fifth record entitled Flashy.'

That's so hawt.

Hollow words.

2008-11-08T03:36:00.006-05:00

I mentioned a 3 vs 11 skirmish in a previous post, and was able to dig up this screenshot. One of the stalkers started talking smack over broadcast, so I gently reminded him that I'd already killed him, three times. He denied my claim, so I took this screenie, as proof.

Huzzah.

My teammates in this battle were Police Drone M8, a controller, and Shadow Man, a scrapper. Good times.

PvP is srs bizness yo

2008-11-07T03:21:00.006-05:00

One of my greatest pet peeves about PvP are the stupid PvP music videos people post on youtube.

Don't get me wrong, I like to watch PvP. I like to observe high ranking GvG and HoH, see what builds are in, what team compositions do best, etc. Sometimes I'll log on and watch matches while I wait for guildies to show up for missions and dungeons. I find it constructive, and I think a person can learn a lot by watching skilled players compete against each other.

What I don't like are videos that are put on youtube featuring a single person, edittied by that same person, depicting nothing but victory, to the tune of Scatman and Linkn Park. Anyone can be epic if they cherry pick footage that shows nothing but success.

Take for instance, this vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFPDjJ7JVzA

This is Counter Strike: 2D. It's fun, and free, and a nice way to waste time if you feel jaded by your normal routine. This video shows Circa, the clan leader of Killcrazed, kicking ass. However, notice how almost half, if not more, of the kills are against bots (names prefaced with [b]). Not real players, but bots. Secondly, they show him knifing an AFK CT in slow-mo. What. The. Hell. You stabbed someone who wasn't playing. Do you record yourself knifing the wall too?

Now, I play on their servers a lot, and they're good people, and good players. But I've gone 107 and 17 on their server, against their players. I've had them reset the server on me half a dozen times in a row to wipe my score, while they were filming. After every kill, Circa (or whomever they were recording) would ask "got?" to make sure they captured the kill. I ended up getting slapped by the admin a few times cause I started asking "got?" after each kill too.

Now, I might end up being a hypocrit, cause I'm fixing to download the program "gamecam", and start recording ABs. I figure rather than continuing to tell stories in this blog about cool moments, I'll just post them. Maybe I'll just make sure to finish each vid with me getting owned, to keep it fair.

Police Drone, Leading The Way Into A Brighter Tomorrow!

2008-11-06T00:23:00.002-05:00

Back when I played City of Heroes, I was a member of the Paragon Police Department, on the Justice Server. The PPD, or PD, as we were known, has seen many iterations, on multiple servers. Virtue and Freedom have seen chapters form, and there was once a Paragon City Police Department, PCPD.

What attracted me to this super group was the theme. To be a member of the PPD, at the time, you had to roll up a Police Drone. NPC Police Drones guard zone entrances, and certain buildings, but those are little more than hovering tasers.

I loved the uniform from the first time I saw it. All Drones were the same height, wore the same outfit. Only variances reflected level and rank. Pictured above is my Drone, Police Drone TH. We all used the same Police Drone "xx" naming convention, until they increased the number of characters allowed in ones name, then we extended the rules to Police Drone "xx-xx". All my subsequent drones were named TH-01, 02, 03, etc.

We were technically a role playing SG, but we never took it that far. We only had rules above talking in public channels. After all, we were portraying mechanized law enforcement robots (one of our leaders drew up a nice background for the group). We all tried to speak in a dispassionate, flat tone. And it worked. People often thought we represented in game GMs, or developers, some people thought we actually had in-game authority. None of this was true, mind you, but it gave us this mild mystique. At our peak, we had over one hundred active members, all acting in strict accordance with our rules, and we were a top 50 SG. We actually had fans, and of course, enemies.

At one point, a SG named the "Anti-Drones" formed, and frequently and publicly challenged us. Quite often, when PvPing, we would find ourselves the target of every possible player in the zone. In fact, this led to a very dramatic 3 v 11 battle in a free-for-all zone, where we won (it gave us a reputation as avid PvPers, even when our membership dropped off).

However, these days, you'll be hard pressed to find a Drone an any server, much less Justice. When I stopped playing, there were only four other active members. It was disappointing, for me, as many of the members were close friends of mine. At one point, I had plans to leave the state and move in with a friend that lived in Florida. His name was Patrick, but when we played CoH together, he was Police Drone PT. I knew him before that, to be fair, but we spent a lot of time in Paragon City. Another gentleman, Police Drone R4, I knew simply as "Bob". Bob lived a hard life, and was handicapped by medical error (lack of action, really, due to mis-diagnosis). When he stopped playing, it was a hard blow to our SG. He was our leader, the foundation on which we carried our group. He went from playing 8 hours a day to not playing at all, with only the occasional post on our forum. Police Drone X9, on the other hand, never left, never stopped. He was actually one of the roots of the entire Justice community, and his staying did a lot to carry us through the time when we had single digit membership.

I miss that group, and that game. I met a lot of great people, who I like to think of as friends. I know lots of people who think that friends made playing a game online are inferior to ones made in real-life, but I disagree to a point. I had actually conversations with these people, thanks to voice-chat programs like Teamspeak and Ventrillo. I recognized their voices, could hear the emotion in them when they spoke. I may have only been able to see a virtual avatar that represented them, but I might as well have been sitting next to them.

People like Patrick, and his girlfriend Tiffany, good people, who I miss.

I just took a moment to visit the SG site, a very bittersweet feeling. Maybe I do get too invested in gaming.

Kids, protect your backline.

2008-11-05T23:18:00.001-05:00

Alliance Battle, at Grenz.

A minute or so in, my team went out the front door of the spawn, captured the resurrection orb shrine, crossed the bridge, and captured the central resurrection shrine. We cut left, towards the elite warrior shrine, as the team to my right heads for the elite elementalist shrine. A group of luxons head to my left, towards the mesmer shrine, and is met by the four of my teammates, who try to stall them.

They're losing.

Seeing that the warrior shrine is clear, other than NPCs, I break from my team, and rush the luxon flank. I soon find that what I initially took as the entire luxon team was actually only half of their team, plus a minion mancer and his army. Next to him is a monk, in front of them are two elementalists, and past that, their frontliners are pounding my teammates. My attacks are already fully charged, so I pick a target. I opt for the necro, who's already wounded from sacrificing health. I run down my skill bar, left to right. Backbreaker, Pulverising Smash, Protector's Strike, Mighty Blow. The necro dies faster than the monk can respond, and the minions go wild, attacking everyone. I alternate between Lion's Comfort and Enraging Charge, and charge my attacks back up, this time turning my attention to the depleted monk, whom I spike down in similar fashion. By this point, the elementalists have noticed me, and I start getting pounded by Liquid Flame and Rodgort's Invocation. Even still, caught between me and the minions, they don't live long enough to finish me off (I hit one for 120 with Protector's Strike, as she tried to retreat).

By this time, I've gotten backup, and, the four teammates who engaged initially have managed to finish off their frontliners. We take the shrine, double back to capture the rangers shrine, and pull off a 507-174 win. Granted, the map was in our favor, but it was decisive.

Pulling off a 4 person kill streak, without support, under pressure from multiple elementalists, is insane, and I should never have pulled it off. I could have been easily stopped, in multiple ways:

1. The necro could have stopped trying to summon, and moved up to the midline, while flagging his minions on to me. I would have been trapped, and picked apart, while I tried vainly to create and exit for myself. This very thing happened to me yesterday on my ranger, when I over-extended myself.

2. The elementalists could have paid more attention, and started attacking me before I killed their monk. Even with Sentinel's insignia on my armor, I only have 100 armor to elemental damage. Liquid Flame should have been hitting me for at least 105 a pop, after armor, and Rodgort's would have done around 60, but set me on fire (14 hp a second degen). Both of them could have killed me before I was able to build up enough adrenaline to kill the monk, and with monk, they would have survived an attack from me if I changed targets.

3. The frontliners could have paid attention to their support. Granted, I was only one target, but as soon as the necro went down, at least one of them should have broken off and come to attack me, if only to bodyblock me and try to keep me away from the monk.

4. They could have had more than one monk for that many players. Alliance Battles are one of the most casual PvP environments you'll find in any game, but not being prepared is still not being prepared. Furthermore, the monk they had should have had Guardian, or something similar like Disciplined Stance or Shield Bash, to relieve melee pressure. Even an offhand Blinding Surge could have shut me down.

Fought a lot of Alliance Battles today (dumped over 15k Kurz faction before work), but this moment stuck out in my memory. More so than the warrior that was using Lava Arrow and Flame Storm, at least. God bless him, he certainly fought his ass off with that build, as badly as he did.

I swear I don't watch Naruto!

2008-11-03T23:33:00.002-05:00

Once in a while, I hear someone say to me, via whisper or local chat:

"Lol, narutard"

Firstly, I love that term. My wife (who at the time was my girlfriend) was the first person I ever heard use that word, years ago. I think is accurately describes the type of person who normally enjoys Naruto, and rolls up an assassin named "xX Naruto Xx". Secondly, I don't like Naruto, I haven't even seen a full episode.

Keeping that in mind, why would someone say "lol narutard" to me? Well, my main in Guild Wars is named (wait for it):

Sarutobi Sasuke

Yes, my level 20 Warrior is named Sarutobi Sasuke. I created her at launch, and I've had her since day one of Guild Wars (all you Narutards who wondered who got the name before you, suck it). Sarutobi is a female warrior, mind you, and when I named her, it was in no way a reference to anything Naruto, or anything from Shonen Jump, for that matter. Of course, this doesn't stop people from insisting that since I named my warrior Sarutobi Sasuke, I must read or watch Naruto (as one perceptive player pointed out, "OMFG, SASUKE IS A JAPANESE NAME!1!"). To be honest, I simply couldn't think of a name, and this was the first thing to come to mind. I always envisioned my warrior as being akin to a Valkryie, so often I wish I had picked a different name, and I find myself wanting to delete and remake her from time to time.

But, I'd lose all her gear then. Her sexy, sexy gear. Not that equipment plays as big a role in Guild Wars as it does in Diablo 2 and WoW, but it certainly helps flesh out a character. And with the amount of money and time invested in her, it would be an epic waste to delete her.

Now, having all the campaigns that A-Net has released, along with it's expansion, Eye of the North, I have the luxury of having character names reserved for me, once Guild Wars 2 comes out (all you Narutards who hoped that this name would be available in GW2, suck it again).

Of course, when I politely inform people that Saru (as I am called by guild and allaince members) isn't a homage to Naruto, the next question is, what is it a reference too? I've kept that one a secret so far, but if someone guesses it, I'll probably give them a prize.

Alright everyone, let's go counter-clockwise, ok?

2008-11-03T22:12:00.001-05:00

I like to PvP.

It's fun, it's dynamic, it's an ever evolving facet of most games.

In Diablo 2: LoD, I ran a pair of assassins, level 18, and level 42. Each was a powerhouse made to fight characters much higher in level, and win. The level 18 assassin, Solaki, was pretty vanilla; tons of +max damage gems, Twitchthroe unique studded leather armor, Luna Pelta unique buckler, and a few other unique set items. Go hostile, cast Burst of Speed, spam Tiger Strike till I have 3 charges, then unleash over 1700 dmg on my targets candy ass (average HP of a normal level 18 character is around 200). My level 42 assassin, Slice_O_Rama, was more original, and much nastier. Using the Martial Arts skills Dragon's Talon and Dragon's Flight, I tweaked her build to deliver 3500 dmg a hit, with 4.5 swings per second (almost 16k a second). Furthermore, I gave her ranks in Venom, giving her a 2500 dmg poison DoT, over 0.6 seconds, re-applied every time she hit. In order to catch those pesky Sorcerers who like to teleport around, I used Dragon's Flight to teleport attack foes, stunning them for a precious split second, giving me the window to tear into them. I was particularly proud of Slice_O_Rama, to my knowledge, she was unique.

In City of Heroes, I loved using unorthodoxed, seemingly underpowered characters, to relentlessly pursue and engage other players with. In the Invention Origin Era of CoH, I ran an AR/Dev Blaster that was stealth capped, perception capped, with massive inherent acc and rech buffs, with the ability to gut a targets defense and resistance. I'd, literally, fly around the zone, snaring Villains and revealing Stalkers, being a pest to everyone. People like to poke fun at me for using Assault Rifle in PvP, but I found it very useful. Unable to deliver a spike like Ice or Fire, and without that hard hitting 3rd single target blast, AR lags behind other sets. However, most of its attacks are instantaneous (no striking animation, once the bullet is fired, the target is hit immediately). That meant that any time I sniped someone, or blasted someone with a few rounds, they had no idea where I was. I could follow foes for a few minutes, confounding them, till they had the sense to simply look up, and see me hovering above, chambering another round. That, or I'd run my Invul/SS Tanker. Not nearly as many bells and whistles as my Blaster, but he was relentless and hit hard. Given that I mainly PvPed in Siren's Call, my Tanker hit harder in melee than almost anything else other than a /EM Blaster.

I didn't get to PvP much in WoW, but I did enjoy Warsong Gulch. I enjoyed the team based, objective emphasized combat, and I liked the feeling of storming into the enemies base. I enjoyed, more so, the knowledge that at any given point, I could encounter other players while questing, and be forced to fight them. In particular, I was questing, alone, in the mountains northwest of Ogrimar (can't remember their name, been too long), when I came upon an Elven Rouge, 2 levels higher than me, in the same area. I ambushed an defeated her, only to have her track me down and try to return the favor (final score, Horde 2, Alliance 0).

Then there is Guild Wars, in which I love to PvP with my Warrior. I prefer Hammers to Swords or Axes, I prefer the elite Backbreaker especially. I think that 1/4 knocking someone is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, and requires very good timing. I like the Arenas, I enjoy Alliance Battles, and I hope to storm Heroes Ascent soon.

However, I've found Alliance Battles troublesome lately. I can't tell you how much I hate to hear, at the beginning of a match, "don't fight, just cap." I understand how important it is to capture and hold shrines, I probably capture more than anyone on my team. However, you HAVE to fight. You can't just ignore the enemy and hope they don't kick your ass, while you're trying to take their shrine from them. You need to be aggressive, and balance killing with capping. You need to know when it's a good idea to stop for a second to beat someones face in, and you need to know when fighting is a waste of time. The idea that fighting is always a waste a time is ignorant at best. I mean, you get points for killing enemies. What do you get from shrines? Point. Know what makes it easier to cap shrines? Killing enemies. It may just be me, but I see an odd synergy there.

Besides, you know it's epic lulz when I kill the Minion Mancer, and his minions turn on his team. You know it's awesome when I spike a monk and kill it while his Dervish ally tries desperately to stop me. You know that every time you kill them, it breaks them a little. You know how many times I've seen the other side leave the match after getting smashed during the first 45 seconds of an AB? Or how often I have players simply avoid me and run away at all costs, after I beat them in a 3v1?

Or course, it works both ways. Can't even begin to tell you how many times I've been Michael Jackson'ed to death by R/Ns, or worked over by Elementalists that actually know how to play.

Anyway, I digress. Point is, it's call Alliance Battles, not Alliance Real Estate. Fighting and Capping should be balance, and the team that does so wins.

Tank LFG

2008-10-31T01:18:00.001-04:00

In MMOs, Warriors, or their equivalent, are a dime a dozen. There are always too many Warriors. Everyone loves to play them, apparently. We love to pretend that we're hulking, armored behemoths of war, wading into battle without heed, cleaving/smashing/slicing our way through legions of foes. We like to be tough, we like to look it too.

But, in most MMOs, a team of all warriors doesn't cut it. Some MMOs don't require more than one Warrior per team. To fill the rest of the slots, you need someone to heal or buff. Someone to deal damage, at range, usually with AoEs (area of effect, for the uninitiated). Teams need support, need versatility, things that the bum in plate-mail can't offer.

Then what is our job?

To take the hit, to occupy the baddies while you work your mojo with fireballs, arrows, energy blasts, or whatever is it that you use to make things dead. Of course, more and more in MMOs, the "squishie" support classes can find ways to match or exceed the needs of a team for a Tank.

So, a few weeks back, while I was playing Guild Wars, I talked to a friend who mentioned that he was taking a team into the Underworld (one of the most difficult instances in Guild Wars). I offered to assist, and was turned down, since having a warrior would on serve to slow them down.

That kind of hurt.

However, having played Warriors in Guild Wars and World of Warcraft, Scrappers, Tankers, Brutes, and Stalkers in City of Hereoes/Villians, Fighters and Monks in Dungeons and Dragons, and Barbarians and Assassins in Diablo 2, I'm used to having people assume that since I heft steel and fist online, I fit into a certain niche of usefulness on a team, one that they don't need.

So, while he took a team into the Underworld, and wiped three times, I took my Warrior into the Fissure of Woe (sister instance to UW), and solo farmed there, making large sums of money, which I didn't have to share with seven strangers. Score one for the bums in plate-mail.

But honestly, I understand most peoples reluctance to invite a Warrior to the team, especially one they don't know. A bad Warrior can spell instant doom for a team. He can agro too many enemies, fail to hold their agro, die to fast and let agro transfer to the team, try to flee battle and lead the enemies into the backline, etc. And with such a large portion of newer players going to Warriors first, there are plenty of bad ones out there. Who wants to gamble on a player when they can fill the role with a different character class? But, this is turn leads to Warriors who have little experience teamed, and only know how to keep themselves alive, leading to more people who suffer due to their lack of skill.

So, I have a request: Gamers of the world, every once and a while, be nice and let a Warrior join you. They might make your life tough, but you'll be doing the next person down the line a favor, cause even when you fail, you learn something.

Headshots

2008-10-30T23:58:00.001-04:00

Headshots are the great equalizer.

David defeated Goliath with a headshot (A bullet from a sling does 1d3 damage. Blesses by God, the bullet was obviously a +5 Holy bullet. Scoring a headshot, he would have dealt double damage [(1d3+5+2d6)x2=16-40 damage]. Most likely, this isn't enough to have killed him, so it must have been a critical hit, giving it an additional doubling [([1d3+5x2]+2d6)x2=28-56]. Assuming that Goliath was at least as strong as your typical D&D ogre, this would have slain him in one hit, even if David rolled poorly). Headshots are what assassins and hitmen use to guarantee the kill. The concept of a headshot has been ingrained in video games for years. It allows for a player to defeat a foe with a single bullet. They are violent, messy, and finish a conflict fast. In first person shooters, performing a headshot, especially while the player and target are both in motion, is one of the truest testaments of skill. In fact, the weaker the weapon, the better.

A while back, I was trying to do laundry while playing Counter Strike: Source (doesn't work, don't try). I would dart between my desktop and the laundry room down the hall, sorting colors and changing loads in between respawns. I returned to my chair just in time to miss my 30 seconds window to purchase gear, and to see that my team had failed to hold the garage on CS_Office, and that half of the Terrorist team was bearing down on me. Behind the cover of the dumpster I spawned next to, I quickly side-stepped and fired twice from my USP, clotheslining the Ts rounding the corner. The flat, metallic screrch that resulted from my shots told me that I scored a headshot. Hoping to repeat this, I popped out again, only to be cut down by a hail of fire from his three surviving teammates. I had neither armor nor hope.

But I can't score one at the moment.

Not because I lack the skill, but because I'm reduced to playing Counter Strike: 2d, rather that Counter Strike: Source, which is on my desktop at home. I'm stuck on a midnight shift, due to staffing problems, and there is nothing to do. Even if I was to bury myself in my work, at best, I'd spend an hour on menial tasks before finishing, and still having 5 hours of nothing to endure.

Of course, I say reduced, implying the game isn't that good. On the contrary, it's pretty fun, for what it is. Like the title indicates, the game is two dimensional, top down. So, the ability to target the head of my opponent doesn't exist. Graphically, it's like playing a more violent version of Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, where the Moblins have AK-47s and C-4. Cute, chibi looking Terrorists and Counter-terrorists jog around the map, firing weapons that match their diminutive frames.

But, CS should never be cute, and I think that's why I feel the tiniest bit embittered when I play it. That, and I want my screrch.

That, and I want my David vs Goliath moment. I want to be able to face down a superior number of foes, whom possess superior firepower, and defeat them purely by merits of marksmanship and reflex. A victory that doesn't exist on a two dimensional battle field.