State of the Alts

After several months of inactivity, I have decided to give this blog some love.  I figure the best place to start is a What am I doing now? kind of post.  This is that post!

Let’s start with games!  At the moment, due to my internet situation (Australia’s internet is metered – my wife and I get 15gb a month, before they lower our speed to unusable), I have curtailed my play on always-on connection type games.  The notable exception is WoW, which has been where most of my free time has went recently.  I’ve also went back to playing several of my older games on steam and a few new ones (mostly small footprint games that don’t take my monthly allowance of bandwidth to download).  In addition to WoW and the steam games, I reinstalled WC3, D2, D3, and SC2.  I downloaded all of them before I left the states, and just had to update them.  I haven’t devoted much to them.  It’s mostly been a level/quest or two at random intervals on them.

WoW, on the other hand, has gotten a lot of my attention recently.  I have been spending more time on alts than doing dailies.  Have I mentioned I hate dailies?  Guess what?  I HATE dailies!  I would much prefer to run dungeons, new quest areas, raids, etc. than do dailies.  It shows pretty well too. My ~main~ has two reputations (Golden Lotus/Klaxxi) at revered and another two (tillers/cloud serpent) at exalted.  The rest of them, well, I haven’t devoted much attention to them.  Shieldwall got a week or two devoted, but that’s about it.

As for the characters themselves, my ~main~ is a Blood DK.  The only other 90 that I have is my rogue.  Those two are on different servers from each other.  As a matter of fact, I have 3 servers that have chars at 80 or above.  That count (chars above 80) is somewhere around 15 (most of them are 85+). The most recent being a priest that I’ve been leveling as Disc.  He’s also the next character I plan to hit 90 with. I’m going to test smite healing in a LFR environment.

If you’re looking for the breakdown of my WoW characters, here it is:

Death Knight: 90, 80

Rogue: 90, 82

Shaman: 85 (x2)

Warrior: 85 (x2)

Paladin: 85, 82

Hunter: 85, 80

Mage: 85

Druid: 85

Priest: 80

I don’t have a warlock or a monk at a decent enough level to consider them for the list.

Guild Wars 2 – A Beginning

Guild Wars 2 BWE3 has come and gone, and now we wait for the release.  I spent quite a bit of time in game for this event.  I participated in BWE1, but was less enthused by some of the issues plaguing it.  This time, though, I played and enjoyed all weekend.  I spent most of my time in PvP with a side of crafting.

PVP

In the first beta weekend, I tried several classes.  I stuck with a (greatsword) Mesmer for most of the event, and really enjoyed it.  I played a (mostly) water Elementalist as well.  I think the healer effects in a game without healers (and tanks) is quite effective.  I tried out a warrior and found it was one of my least favorite classes, which is a problem for me.  I play warriors in every game.  I am a meat shield, it’s what I do!

Fast forward to this beta event.  I decided to try a warrior again.  I needed to figure out what I didn’t like about them and fix it.  Of course I picked Asuran.  Who wouldn’t pick an Asuran Warrior?!  Tiny li’l guy carrying a HUGE weapon = WIN!  It seems that I was doing something wrong in the first beta weekend, because I loved playing a warrior this time around.  Maybe I was using the wrong weapon (I used a 2h Hammer the first weekend vs a Greatsword this weekend).  Maybe I was just too big (Norn vs Asura).  Whichever is the case, I ~really~ enjoyed the warrior this weekend.

I also spent some time on a Guardian.  When I was 20 on my Warrior, I ran across a level 20 Guardian in a world event. He was some kind of psychotic whirlwind of death (and life, since he got to heal too!).    I can definitely see the class as one of my alts.

I checked out a few classes (again) and found that I still don’t enjoy the Thief or Ranger, Necromancer might end up as one of my alts, and I haven’t spent any significant amount of time on an Engineer .

It looks like my starting five will be:  Warrior, Mesmer, Guardian, Elementalist, and Necro.  This is, of course, assuming we get five (and only five) character slots.  I am assuming we’ll be able to buy additional character slots through the micro-transaction system.

Crafting

I spent quite a bit of time and most of my money on crafting.  I picked up Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing and spent a fair amount of time researching them both.  Judging by the way that these two work, I assume the rest of the tradeskills will be the same.  There are tiers of materials that will get you through 75 levels of the skill before you swap to the next.  The biggest departure from any other MMO I’ve played is the discovery pane.  It is a VERY important way to level your tradeskills.  I will be posting a generalized crafting guide “soon”.   I managed to get my Armorsmithing up to 125+ and Weaponsmithing up to 75+ during this event.

Dailies

Dailies in Guild Wars 2 work differently than most other MMOs.  There are four different dailies with multiple tiers of completion.  Each tier on each type of daily rewards some experience, and when you complete them all, you get a chest that gives XP and a small sum of silver.  There are two key differences with dailies in GW2.  The first is dailies are account wide.  This is actually a concern for me.  Since the dailies are account wide, with experience rewards per tier, there is little to stop you from accidentally acquiring daily XP on a low level alt.  Since the XP is percentage based, that means you could lose out on considerable amount of XP by playing a low level alt before you finish your dailies.  The other thing that’s different with GW2 dailies is they reset a day after you complete them.  I didn’t time them, so they might not be 24 hours.   I hope that they follow Blizzard’s lead and put the dailies on a set reset timer to prevent players from finishing their dailies later and later every day.  There are also MONTHLIES, btw.  I will have more information about those when the game goes live.

Diablo 3 and a Timely Vacation

In the last couple of months I have spent very little time playing SWTOR or WoW (beta or live), and with a couple of good reasons.  As you can see by the shiny new image on the left, I’ve been spending some time playing Diablo 3.   Of course, by some time, I mean a lot of time.  In the first ten days after release, I spent about four full days (100ish hours) in the game.  I have deleted a few characters and leveled a bit since then, but this is the result of those 100 hours (+20 hours spent since that point).

The results of 5 days (120 hours) of Diablo 3.

After the first 10 days, I started a vacation that just recently ended. I spent a couple of weeks in Australia visiting my wife’s family, a couple of days introducing my family in California to my wife, and ended with a few weeks spent with my kids here in Alabama. Each part of the vacation was enjoyable and had some form of notable event (birthdays and a wedding).

The one thing that none of the parts of the vacation had was gaming, or not much anyway. Now that everything is back to normal, it’s time to change that.  In the next few days/weeks/months, I plan on spending time playing Diablo 3, experiencing the Guild Wars 2 beta (when it’s up), PvPing (and maybe finishing another 50) in SWTOR, and even some raiding in WoW (if we can coordinate everyone back to it, at least).  Another thing that’s definitely on the list is some upkeep on this blog (including new content and correcting URLs in some of the previous posted pages).

SWTOR Professions – Optimization (2)

In a previous life (another post), I covered which crewskills to choose based on factors that were important (to me) at the time.  While the information contained therein is still accurate, there have been some changes to the game, and the way I play it, that make my previous decisions less ideal.

A quick recap of the key points of the last post:

1. I chose 4 characters per faction per server (4 crafting crewskills).
2. I valued mods over gear (moddable gear is a part of the leveling process).
3. I wanted my characters to compliment each other and provide for each other through the leveling process.

So, what’s changed? 

Legacy:

1. Legacy changed my process in a couple of ways.  The first thing it changed was how many characters per faction I have.  The current number is 3 per faction.  The number was reduced to allow for creating a character on both sides that utilizes the unlocks I have from my legacy.
2. Legacy allows for the mailing of (non-bound) gear to any character that’s part of your legacy.

Crewskills:

1. Synthweaving and Armormech have been given the ability to crit on moddable gear.  A crit on moddable gear creates gear that has a slot for an augment.

These three changes in my playstyle and game mechanics have forced me to rethink my original choices for characters per faction per server and my choice of crewskills to complement them. 

My proposed class and crewskill list (on one server) is:

• Jedi Consular – Artifice
• Smuggler – Armstech
• Trooper – Armormech
• Sith Warrior – Biochem
• Sith Inquisitor – Synthweaving
• Bounty Hunter – Cybertech

The reasons for the changes are:

1. The new setup allows me to have every crewskill on both servers I play on.  This is the overarcing point of the changes.
2. Synthweaving and Armormech both have become valuable to make gear as well as sell gear.
3. Instead of losing one character per faction, I have gained 2 characters per server (due to the mail change). I don’t have to choose 4 out of 6 crewskills.  I can have them all!

How did ~I~ do it (or how will I do it)?

1. I play my Trooper first.  The character that’s unlocking my legacy on every server I play on is the trooper.  This allows me to use Armormech to create both moddable and normal armor for the Bounty Hunter. 
2. Since the Bounty Hunter can use Cybertech create armoring and modifications for himself he can utilize both types of armor.
3. The armoring and modifications from the BH combine with the enhancements & crystals that the Consular creates with Artifice to allow him to be fully decked out (weapon & armor).
4. The Smuggler is up next and uses Armstech to provides his own barrels to go with the mods and armor coming from the rest of the characters. 
5. The Inquisitor is the next one up for his Synthweaving armor to go to himself and to the Warrior.
6. The Warrior is last, but he gets the benefit of every other character that came before him.  The medkits and stims from Biochem are a nice addition to the rest.

A key point to this is you don’t have to level each character to 50 in sequence.  As long as you can make the appropriate gear/mods for the next (and all subsequent) character, the setup works. 

SWTOR – Powertech/Vanguard PvP Leveling Guide (2 of 2)

Now that we have the abilities and level builds out of the way, it’s time for the fun part – How to win at PvP!

The Early Levels :

• 14 – From this level until you hit 16 you’ll mostly focus on guarding other players, specifically healers.   There are 3 medals that you can gain from doing just that.  2k damage prevented without dying, 5k total damage prevented, and 10k damage prevented without dying.  That last one isn’t an easy task.  Having a healer buddy DEFINITELY helps.  In order to finish off your 4 medals I’d recommend shooting for 75k total damage, and if you can’t get the 10k without dying medal 1k defender medal (stand around an objective that your side owns and wait).
• 16 – Adding your taunt to the rotation helps get the 3 damage prevention medals quicker.  Instead of having to have all of the damage redirected to you to get the prevention medal, you can just eliminate 30% of the damage.  Taunting a target that’s currently attacking your shielded target will put reduction at 65% total.  If, on the other hand, you taunt an enemy going for another target you get both a 50% reduction on your shielded target and a 30% reduction on another target.
• 20 – Gut will completely change your rotation and will encourage you to get into melee range more frequently.  Gut -> High Impact Shot -> Stock Strike  can eliminate a large chunk of an opponent’s health, but requires you to be in melee range for 2 of the 3 abilities.

The Mid Levels:

• 22 – The ability to yank someone to you starts here. 
  • Huttball: 
    • At the start of the match, run to your edge of your acid pit.  Once your opponent grabs the ball, step one foot into the acid, yank him to you, and stun him.  If you’re feeling lucky, stock strike him for good measure.  Chances are, you just killed the enemy ball carrier and got the ball yourself.
    • Yanking enemy ball carriers into fire, back a platform (or 2), and jump yanking him into a pit (this one doesn’t always work) can stop an opposing team from scoring very effectively.
  • Voidstar:
    •  The most frequent use of this ability is pulling an opponent that is capturing an objective away from said objective.
    • An equally important functionality is pulling an opponent away from LoS/out of range of your team’s capture. 
    • An infrequent use of this only works near the bridge, and is dangerous.  Standing on an edge and yanking someone to you can drop them off.  It doesn’t always work and is difficult to line up.  I don’t recommend actively pursuing this usage, but if the opportunity presents itself go for it!
  • Civil War:
    • Just like Voidstar, yanking someone away from capturing a node is a key use of your harpoon.
    • Separating healers from other enemy players at capture points is a great use for this WZ.
    • Players usually perch around the central turret, dealing damage and healing from afar.  Harpoon can eliminate that threat.
• 30 – At 30, your mobility greatly increases.  Storming targets is a great way to cover long distances quickly.
  • Huttball:
    • Storming enemy ball carriers stun them for 3 seconds.  You can use this to stun opponents in acid or fire.  Follow it up with a traditional stun, and you can keep an enemy burning (in acid or fire) for longer than it takes for them to die.
    • As a ball carrier, storm will allow you to skip traps.  No one wants to run through an active hazard, so most players will perch close to, but not in one.  Storm a distant player and you don’t have to wait for the trap any longer.
    • Recovering from a knockback into a pit is another great use for Storm.  Any player that is shooting you from above can be stormed.  In addition, newer players will perch on their end of the map allowing you to storm them and take 5 steps for a score.
  • Voidstar
    • Storm should be used for general distance closing and avoiding bridge knockbacks. 
    • Like Harpoon, Storm has a limited functionality of bypassing the bridge.  In the center of the area, the distance between each side is short enough that you can Storm an opponent on the other side and cross the gap without using a bridge. 
  • Civil War:
    • Storm is still going to be best used to close distances.  A well timed storm can interrupt a Turret capture, but otherwise standard rules apply.
• 30 to 50 – From this point on, the skills you choose and class abilities just get stronger.  There are no specific changes to your playstyle at this point (except the usage of both Storm and Harpoon at 41).

Max level PvP (50):

The biggest change you’ll notice when you hit 50 is you will die VERY quickly and VERY often.  The main reason for this is your opponents have better gear than you.  There is supposed to be a mechanic in place to keep gear levels mostly equivalent, but it won’t prevent matches from being started because of gear disparity.  Just like level 1-49, stick with it and you’ll get the gear yourself.

General Play Guide/Commendation Spending/Etc –

Now that the specific Vanguard/Powertech information is complete, there are some things that I think are important through the leveling process.  A lot of this information is going to be basic to some, but combined with everything else the information can turn you into a true PvP powerhouse.

The first point I’d like to make is I don’t recommend PvP as the only way you level your character.  The further ahead of your class story you get, the less value per quest each quest gives.  If you outlevel your main storyline quest too much, you end up getting 5 XP per quest.  It’s definitely not a good time versus reward ratio.

Along the same lines, have a plan for your commendations.  When I started PvPing on my Powertech the goal was to have 1 Champion bag and 1000 WZ/1000 Merc commendations (1.2 will change the caps on these, I recommend doing research on caps and purchasable gear) before I hit 50.  As I progressed in that goal, I noticed 2 things:  1. I ~really~ enjoyed PvP and would play way less than I intended if I stopped at that goal.  2.  There were other things I wanted as I went through the leveling process.  By the time I hit 50 I had a full set or moddable gear for one of my companions, a few weapon upgrades, enough valor for rank 30 (and the Gladiator title),  and my original goal.

Abuse the Bolster mechanic.  The formula is hidden in the background somewhere, but through it your low level character can have better stats than their high level counterparts.  The most important thing to keep upgraded is your weapon, or more specifically the barrel.  The difference between an upgraded barrel and one that’s 4 levels old is significant.  Add to that the difference between a green barrel and a purple barrel and the difference becomes huge.  For comparison, a level 41 green deals 126-235 damage while a level 45 purple  that deals 211-392 damage.  The difference carries over to the bolster mechanic making those shots deal huge damage.

PvP gear isn’t PvP gear until you start buying level 50 gear.  Everything on the vendor is itemized for PvE.  While that doesn’t sound great for PvP, keep in mind that before level 50 noone has true PvP gear.  If you spend 525 WZ commendations at level 20, you can get a set of blue implants and an earpiece.  I recommend picking the implants (175 WZ comms each) up at least since the earliest you’ll get them otherwise is level 25. 

At level 40, if you find yourself enjoying PvP enough that you’re going to have more commendations than you need, buying a set of moddable gear for a companion is great.  Mako will love you forever if you give her the purple (color, not rarity) level 40 gear (1505 WZ commendations).  Elara might like the PvP gear too, but you can just give her your hand me downs instead.  Other purchaseables that you might want to pick up include moddable weapons  (for your companions), PvP case/boxes, and WZ Medpac/Adrenals.  I recommend saving medpacs/adrenals for after you hit 50, except in emergency situations.  They are percentage based, and you’ll get more use out of them at 50.

That should do it for the basics.  I will be keeping this post updated with any major changes (specifically the 1.2 patch).  Now get out there and kill someone!

SWTOR – Powertech/Vanguard PvP Leveling Guide (1 of 2)

This guide is a primer on leveling a Powertech/Vanguard from 1 to 50 through PvP and PvE.  The guide will be laid out in a way that focuses on PvP play and the ability to stay PvE viable. There will be a few basic tips that are valuable for any class/spec as well as specific skill choices throughout most of the leveling process.

General Recommendations (not specific to class or level):

1. Queuing for PvP takes time.  Do not waste the time between matches by solely idling on the fleet.  Send companions on crewskill missions, shop the GTN, spend commendations (PvP/Planet/Space), etc.  It will make the time go quicker.
2. In line with the first recommendation, make your companions happy before you start sending them on crewskill missions.  20k credits can get most companions to 4k affection without any conversation turn ins.  If you’re not sure how, reply at the bottom and I’ll explain it.
3. Do not leave a PvP match early.  Losing a PvP match sucks.  Waiting for 15 minutes to lose a PvP match sucks even more.  You can still earn a good amount of commendations, valor, credits, and XP.

PT/Vanguard specific information:

PT/Vanguards are a medium range heavy armor class.  They have abilities that require melee range in addition to the normal ranged abilities of their primary class.  They are a well rounded class with high marks in most categories.

While you can PvP before 14, due to sprint and a couple of class abilities I recommend holding off.  Abilities will be listed as their Vanguard versions.

14 – Sprint, Ion Cell, Guard:  0/5/0

• Sprint – 35% movement speed while not in combat. Combat in PvP is fairly constant, but those times when it isn’t make this ability invaluable.
• Ion Cell – This is your tanking cell (stance).  While it’s active your armor, shield chance, and threat are increased, incoming damage is reduced, and ranged abilities are given a chance to deal additional damage.  This is the Cell to keep active at all times in PvP.
• Guard – This is a friendly shield.  While it’s active on a target, the target takes reduced damage, and 50% of the damage taken is redirected towards you.  This ability can/will get you 3 WZ Medals if used appropriately.

16 – Neural Jolt:  0/7/0

• Neural Jolt – This is your taunt.  In PvP the target of your taunt deals 30% less damage to any target other than yourself.  Combine this with Guard on a healer/ball carrier and that person takes 1/3 of the damage (s)he normally would.

18 – Riot Strike: 0/9/0

• Riot Strike – Interrupt with a 4 second ability silence on an 8 second cooldown.  A well timed interrupt can be the difference between a dead enemy healer and a mob of angry fully healed enemies.

20 – Gut:  0/11/0

• Gut – Inflicts initial damage and a bleed.  This ability will allow you to use High Impact Bolt without relying on someone else to inflict the appropriate condition on your target.

22 – Harpoon:  0/11/2

• Harpoon – “Get over here!” – Scorpion.  This ability pulls your target to you.  It’s great to pull someone into an acid pit in Huttball, off a wall in Civil War, or (if you position it right) off an edge in Voidstar.

30 – Storm: 21/0/0  (note: respec required to get to this point.  7/11/2 is what I recommend at 29.)

• Storm – Charges a distant target inflicting damage and a 3 second stun.  This ability should be used almost on cooldown.  The mobility this ability allows has many uses in PvP.

41 – 21/11/0 – This phase of the build has Storm and Gut.  Storm -> Gut -> High Impact Bolt -> Stock Strike is a good way to deal some heavy damage in few GCDs.

50 – 25/14/2 – This is the final build of the spec.  I learned about this build from Taugrim ( @taugrim & taugrim.com ) without the benefit of the order of skill points taken.

Part 2 of this guide will cover tactics and tricks of playing a Powertech/Vanguard in PvP at various levels.

SWTOR Professions – Optimization

With SWTOR just coming out, there are a lot of information that people haven’t found yet. One of the earliest things you do in the game is pick a set of “crewskills” (SWTORs professions). There are plenty of guides out there that lay out how to level the skills or the synergy between the skills, but I haven’t found one that explains the optimal set of crewskills for the average, self-sufficient player.

Some understanding of SWTOR is needed to follow this post, so I’ll post the quick generalities here:

1. There are 4 classes per faction in SWTOR, with each having 2 sub-classes (total of 8 per side). There is no functional difference in mirrored classes.

2.Starting very early in progression (end of the first planet) you will receive from quests, purchase from NPCs, find on the GTN (Auction House) moddable gear.

3. There are 3 types of crewskills: Crafting, Gathering, and Mission.  There are 6 crafting, 4 gathering, and 4 mission crewskills.  You can only have 1 crafting skill per character.

The six crafting professions (and quick descriptions) are:

1. Armormech (crafts non-force user armor); 2. Synthweaving (crafts force user armor); 3. Armstech (crafts non-force user weapons); 4. Artifice (crafts force user weapons); 5. Biochemistry (crafts consumables – similar to alchemy for WoW folks); and 6. Cybertech (crafts Droid gear, ship components, bombs, mounts – similar to Engineering for WoW folks).

There are synergy skills that match each of those crewskills (I used this information for synergy and more).  I will not be covering the non-crafting skills in-depth.  I will be covering the crafting skills and my justification for taking/not taking them.  The four skills I chose to take (for both factions) are; Armstech, Artifice, Biochemisty, and Cybertech.  I chose not to take/drop Armormech and Synthweaving.  The reasons are listed below (staring with those that I chose to take).

Armstech – The main reason I kept this skill is the barrels.  Barrels control the damage output of the moddable weapons non-force users find on their trek to level 50 (weapons are the first pieces of moddable gear you get).  If you keep your barrels (and other mods) up to date, your first weapon can last you up to level 50.

Artifice – Very similar to Armstech, Artifice provides hilts.  Hilts are the barrels for force wielders.  They control the damage output of moddable weapons force users find on their trek to level 50.  Again, keeping hilts (and other mods) up to date can make your first weapon last until level 50.  In addition to hilts, Artifice creates Enhancements for both armor and weapons.  Enhancements are another mod slot that usually focus on stamina and secondary stats.

Cybertech – This was the most important crewskill I chose to keep.  This skill provides Armoring (mods that control how much armor you gain on a piece of moddable armor), Modifications (very similar to enhancements, but it focuses on primary stats [aim, strength, cunning, and willpower]), and moddable “armor” for droids.

Biochemistry – Biochemistry’s major advantage (for me) is the healing kits it provides.  A standard (green level) medkit is ~50% more effective than a vendor purchased one of equivalent level.  In addition, there are blue level kits (same benefit as a green +~60% as a HoT) and kits that can heal you and your companion (for +30% of a normal medkit).  In addition to the healing kits, biochemistry also provides implants.  Implants are another armor slot (similar to rings in WoW).

The two skills I chose not to take were Armormech and Synthweaving.  Neither skill creates mods of any type, and with the lack of armor swapping (due to modding) I found there to be little reason to take either skill.

This is my breakdown of characters and their crewskills (on both factions):

Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior – Biochemistry – Bioanalyst – Diplomacy

Jedi Consular/Sith Inquisitor – Aritfice – Archaeology – Treasure Hunting

Trooper/Bounty Hunter – Armstech – Slicing* – Investigation

Smuggler/Imperial Agent – Cybertech – Scavenging – Underworld Trading

* Armstech and Cybertech both utilize Scavenging as a gathering profession.  Due to the overlap, I have chosen Slicing as an additional skill.  Slicing (even after the nerf) is (one of) the only profitable mission skill(s).

An alt of a different kind

It’s been 9 months since Cataclysm’s release, and interest is fading.  From my own perspective, I haven’t logged in to do much more than raid in the last month or more.  It seems the rest of the “old timers” in my guild are the same.  At any given (non-raid) time, you can log in to see zero to five people logged on in the guild.  Though, with the announcement of 4.3, I’m sure people will start logging in again. 

What am I doing in my non-WoW time?  I’m glad you asked!  I’ve been playing other games of course.  It started with Dragon Age (the original, yes, I’m months behind) and some inexpensive games on Steam (Terraria has been a go to since it’s release).  I progressed into Guild Wars (23 HoM points!) and even more Steam games (if you don’t have/haven’t played Bastion, go, now, get it).  Again, those games are not what this post is about.

This post is about an MMO that has been around for a while and is still (imo) one of the best games to grace the genre.  That game is Asheron’s Call.  What?  You’ve never heard of it?  Of course not, it got no press, it was released in the infancy of online games, and was overshadowed by it’s biggest competitor (Everquest).  So, why make a post about a game that’s 12 years old (release date: Nov 2, 1999)?  Because 12 years ago, the game was an innovator, and today the game is still doing things that other MMOs have never done.  That’s what I’d like to point out with this (and future) post(s).

Starting with character creation, you’ll immediately notice a difference.  Choosing a race is first.  There are no pansy elves, or burly dwarves, or any other fantasy races for that matter (unless you count humans, of course).  The original three race choices were all humans.  Their cultures mimick three of our cultures (Asain, African, and Caucasian).  Since that point, there have been several races added:  Another human race (warlike, not indicative of our societies ~AT ALL~), undead, shadow, empyrean, and gear knights.  The total number of races to choose from:  nine (shadow actually have two racial choices).  The significance of the additional races, only one was added in an expansion.  The other five were just content patches (more on content patches later).

After selecting a race, you choose your “class”.  There are a couple of pre-baked character templates, BUT they’re only initial creation and there is a “custom” template, as well.  This is where it gets interesting.  See, in AC you choose where your stat points go.  You have a list of 6 stats (typical to fantasy games: Strength, Endurance, Coordination, Quickness, Focus, and Self).  You have 330 points to spread between the stats (10 is minimum in any stat, 100 is maximum).  Min/max’ers will find themselves with 3 stats at 100 and 3 at 10.   Most others will find themselves with 100 in 2 stats, and a spread with the other stats.  In addition to the primary stats, there are 3 secondary stats that are your pools for actions:  Health – pretty straight forward, if it reaches zero, you die; Stamina – stamina is used to swing weapons and in some magic spells; Mana – pool for magic abilities.

After you select your stats, you select your skills.  Another striking difference between AC and more modern games.  It does not use the trinity of tank, healer, and DPS.  For each character you create, you choose what skills to use.  There are four skill states:  unusable, untrained, trained, and specialized.  You are given 50 points (skills take various amounts of skill points to raise from unusable/untrained to trained and even more to raise to specialized) to distribute how you see fit.  Most characters, not necessarily on creation, will have at least 3 (of 5) magic skills.  In addition to those, melee classes will select a weapon skill (sword, mace, etc) and melee defense.  Mages will choose between the other 2 magic skills (war and void magic).  Archers will pick up the same as melee except their weapon skill will be bow, crossbow, or thrown weapons.  Tradeskills in AC are not secondary, though.  They actually take (a small amount of) points.

Between the stat and skill choices, you can make any type of character you want.  There are, of course, optimum choices, but you are free to create any character you’d like.  You can create a fun character to play with skills that others don’t usually take, or create that min/max build that (once completed) allows you to destroy everything in your path.

After you choose your skills, you choose you appearance and your starting city.  These two choices have limited lasting effect on your character as looks are unimportant, and there is a system in place to move your character from city to city (and anywhere in the world, for that matter).  After you click the “Enter World” button, you are instantly transported to a tutorial dungeon.  The starting dungeon has two options, run through it as you normally would, or speak to a different NPC and instantly exit the dungeon with the rewards you would have gotten had you completed the tutorial.  Once you have done either option, you will take a portal/be teleported to the starting city that you chose.

Thanks for reading, if you’re interested in more information about AC, stay tuned.  There will be more posts with information soon!

My (WoW) Week(s) in Review (28 Sep – 18 Oct 2010)

Yep, it’s been 3 weeks since my last WiR and, again, it’s due to laziness.  There have been some big changes in WoW since the last post.  4.0.1 dropped, Cataclysm’s release date was announced, and there has been much rejoicing (and QQing too).  What’s been happening for me?  Well, let’s get that together in the format that’s easily understandable.

Raiding:  Most of the recent past has been spent staring at Sindragosa.  We dropped her on HM on the 4th, but due to a slight issue we have to do it again.  We had a great night when we did drop her (she went down on the 12th attempt), but the second kill hasn’t happened yet.  Tonight will be the first night with the new mechanics.  I hope that it doesn’t hinder our dps.  The indication is caster DPS is increased and melee DPS is lowered.  Since we have more casters this might actually be a good thing for the raid. As a hunter, though, I’m not happy with lower DPS (I like being on top, sue me!).  They did announce that receiving skele-drakes no longer awards a 310% speed.  I am not happy about that either.  At this point, with the changes being made and my character change in Cataclsym, my drive to get the drake has been minimized.  I’m not anti-drake, but I’m definitely not enthusiastic any longer, either.  At least there’s only 2 more things to do to acquire it.

Non-Raiding:  There hasn’t been much on this front in the last few weeks either.  I recently transferred my rogue to Terenas to become my new (old) main.  Recuperate makes rogue levelling way too easy to pass up.  I made a(nother) DK on Terenas, picked up Enchanting and Jewelcrafting (for the gold, mmmm GGGGGOOOOOOLLLLDDDD!).  I got him to level 65, pushed JC to 430, and Enchanting to 325.  I did all of that in a day or two.  Not much of an accomplishment for some, but for me to focus that intently on one character/goal … let’s just say it’s not normal.  I might continue the levelling process with him in order to have a tank, but that is still questionable.  The gold making with him has already started.  1k overnight, only 999 more days of the same profit to hit the new gold cap (I think there’s a new gold cap, anyway).

Beta play:  Because 4.0.1 hit live during this time, my play of the beta has been severely limited.  I did level the Cow Paladin a bit, but I’m still not liking it.  Honestly, look at the new list of abilities for Retribution and see if you can guess why.  He’s got two, count them T W O, abilities to use to attack.  His next will come at level 44, and it’s only usable at 20% or lower mob health.  (There is a level 29 talented ability (Divine Storm) which uses Holy Power.)  I suppose the plus side is everything dies in 2 swings anyway (Arcanite Reaper, HOOOOOOO!), so more abilities might be worthless.  I did test the Goblin starting area, but a broken quest to get off the first island put a stop to that.

That’s all there is this time, folks.  I suppose I should be less boring next week (time).  We’ll see how that goes!

Come for the Puppy, Stay for the Quests

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Since I got into the beta, I’ve complained about hunters.  I don’t like focus.  In addition to my distaste for the new mechanic, there were/are also bugs plaguing hunters to a point that I felt it was unplayable.  That subject, and my newfound love for my rogue will be the subject of another post.  This post is regarding my response to being called a whiner due to voicing my opinions about hunters.

I had two options when called a whiner.  I could have taken it personally and gotten angry, but I didn’t.  I went with option two.  I went back to testing the hunter.  I actually did one more, and copied a premade hunter.  When I logged in with said hunter, I saw that my pet was a bat.  Really?  A bat?  Who uses a bat?!  My first step was to locate a new pet.  I figured the best place to go was a high level zone.  I chose Twilight Highlands.  Hey, there should be beasts out there, right?  Well, not exactly.  Wolves and owls weren’t tamable.  Again, I had the “you have got to be kidding me” moment.

Always a quick thinker, I came up with a solution.  I’ll check Petopia!  When I got there, I navigated my way to the Cataclysm content.  I found that dogs are now their own pet type (they and foxes were originally wolves).  There were a total of 4 different varieties of dogs, and most of them are found in Gilneas.  I decided on the Red Mastiff from Scarlet Monastery.  And that’s where the story begins …

I knew the puppy I had chosen would be from Houndmaster Loksey, so I went into the Library portal.  Imagine my surprise when I see a few NPCs decked out in their Scarlet gear that didn’t attack me.  No, they’re friendly, and the one in the middle has a quest for me!  Joseph the Awakened wants me to kill Arcanist Doan because he’s corrupting the order and Loksey, well, because he’s there.  After a few twists and turns in, I stumble upon another friendly NPC.  This time it’s an undead rogue named Dominic.  He wants me to steal “Compendium of the Fallen.”  Of course, at 85, both of these quests (as well as every mob in the place) were easy.  After I killed Doan, I did notice that there was no longer a chest to acquire a key from.  I turned in the quests, and went ahead to the next instance.

I got to the door for the Armory, and unsurprisingly, it’s no longer locked.  Not only that, but our good friend Joseph is there.  Although, this time, he’s Joseph the Crazed.  Also, this time he’s going on about Herod not being the true champion, and that he is the true champion.  The quest is to kill Herod, of course.  In the middle of the training grounds is a stealthed undead rogue, again.  This time Dominic wants you to kill the slaughter their top soldiers.  The quest is to kill 3 of 4 different mob types in the instance.  Again, you don’t do anything out of the ordinary, and end up with gold/blue quest rewards.  Time to move on to the Cathedral.

Just like the Armory, the Cathedral isn’t locked.  This time, Joseph has got full blown nutters.  He’s now dancing in the fountain with the title Joseph the Insane.  It seems after killing Herod, he tried to implement himself as the new champion.  Of course Mograine and Whitemane said no.  As such, him and his boys attacked the entrance to the Cathedral.  The quest you get this time is to kill Mograine and Whitemane.  Of course, you can see the tell tale signs of a quest just above on the top of the fountain too.  Dominic wants you to kill Inquisitor Fairbanks.  There’s nothing remarkable about this place now, except the entrance being in a struggle when you get there, and the Cathedral seems to have less guards.  On the way out, I turned in the quests and got some more blues and gold.

Because curiousity got the better of me, I went ahead and went to where the story should have started, the Graveyard.  Sure enough at the entrance, you find Joseph the Awakened and he wants you to kill Vishas and Thalnos.  When you turn in the quest, you tell him that Thalnos was undead.  I think this is the point where he starts his scheming.

After all was said and done, I gathered 4 new blue quest rewards, a few gold (5-10) and had done 9 quests that were previously non-existent.  Compare that to today’s quests for SM, that have you running around all of Azeroth to kill X mobs of Y type and in the end, there are only 2 alliance quests and 5? horde quests.  These changes are outstanding!  To note, the drops remain roughly equivalent with the brass knuckles being a blue level item, and the drop from Fairbanks being blue as well.

Oh, and on the subject of the puppy.  Their special move is the Lockjaw, which holds the target in place for 4 seconds.  In addition to the nearly useless (in PvE) special, their talent tree seems to be missing dash/dive/whatever and that makes the puppy a no-go for me.