Gaming Break So to Speak

It's been quiet from a gaming perspective for me so far this year and this has been due to a number of factors, notably:

Dun, dun, dun.....

I will become a father for the first time on or before April 24th! I cannot tell you how excited, but also apprehensive I am about this. I mean on the one hand I'm fulfilling my biological purpose, but on the other I don't want to drop her :). 

No more gitface ;(

Warhammer Online shut down, /sadpanda. I was sad when I heard this news, but it's not like we didn't see it coming - I just hope EA/Mythic get their come-uppance for screwing up such a great IP.

Nice horns.

SW:ToR isn't very good. I did play this on and off during 2013, but always found myself with reasons to not play, whether that be playing some free DAoC or just going to watch telly. Not a good sign.

How many daggers?

Neverwinter isn't very good. I picked this up as a bunch of my e-friends were playing it, but I just couldn't get in to it. It reminded me a lot of LotRO for some reason, but with less appeal and not much fun.

Where my Pen!

World of Tanks lost it's vavavoom and just felt like a massive grind. I played this religiously towards the end of 2013 and did enjoy it, but as the time passed I felt more like a robot than a player just mechanically grinding the EXP to unlock that next tier tank. At that point I lost interest, but I may pick it up again, depending on how good/bad War Thunder: Ground Forces turns out to be.

I hope I can find some time with the new arrival pending to indulge in a little Elder Scrolls Online, Wildstar or next year, Camelot Unchained but we'll see what happens.

Ish

Hmm, Back in SW:TOR Am I.

Well, well, well we've been on a break for 5 months or so but we're now back together - I'm playing Star Wars: The Old Republic again and oh how things have changed.

The biggest of these is that it's now Free to Play**, which I'm sure has brought a good few people back to the game after the shinyness of release wore of and players left in their thousands after the game was left wanting on broken promises. With a F2P account however you are limited to what you can do, see this comparison table to get an idea of how limiting it is. That being said if you really are limited in your available game-time then it may be ideal for you.

I decided, with a few e-friends to pick up things on Empire as after playing the Republicans (I gave them that name!) we found the character story-lines much more enjoyable on the baddy side, and hey, who doesn't like electrocuting people...

Crackle, crackle!

I'm currently getting to grips with gearing up my Juggernaut in the new kit that's available post the F2P transition. I've nearly completed by War Hero set and once that is done I'll begin the "Elite" War Hero set (must have taken ages to come up with that name) as you can't get the Elite without first obtaining the lesser set.

Sithage.

I have subscribed for a month and will assess the situation after that to see if I'm still enjoying it, but as things stand I am. They have added a little more PvP content to the game, albeit a sole new warzone but it is enjoyable and there's always something to do when you're playing an MMO with friends or have to grind out gear....

Ish


** In my eyes you're severely handicapped as a F2P player only.

Realisation - eFriends Are Key

Frwends!

At this moment in time I have not one, not two, but three MMO accounts currently open. These are Warhammer Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Dark Age of Camelot.

The predicament I find myself in is that my Warhammer guild up-rooted and moved to SW:ToR when it released as it was quite obvious that BioWare had decided to cut WAR loose and let it fester in the abyss until it either dies or the electric bill for the server room becomes more than the active subs. Seeing as my guild moved on I followed , however I have realised that blasters and Jedi aren't really my cup-o-tea and I much prefer the sword, shield and sorcery MMORPG.

This has fueled my re-enlistment in my second favourite MMO (DAoC) and the once-hoped successor Warhammer Online, to try and re-ignite the enjoyment I used to have in those games before they became hindered by either lack of players and/or lack of developer direction. I have found however, that it's one thing to jump back into a game and find PUGs to run with or go it solo, but the fundamental requirement to having a good experience in an MMO in my opinion has to be friends, be them e-friends or otherwise.

My experience after jumping back into DAoC was OK, notably as I did not venture out into the level 50 open RvR lakes, instead I stuck to the lower level Thidranki Battleground. I found it relatively easy to find a group and when that group included half-savvy players we tended to kill more than we were killed.

Warhammer was more of a mixed bag. In tier 4 I spend a good 30 minutes each night asking in regional chat if any groups required a RR80 Choppa, but it seems that I was either too low for the elitist swines, or no-one understood my English on a European server.... I'm not sure, /meh. On the flip side when I dropped down a few tiers to T2 I managed to jump into an already open warband or could put together a group in no time at all and there were plenty of fights to be had, which makes me want to log into the lower tiers much more often.

In all of these games if I have my e-friends with me I have had no issues forming groups, getting help with quests or running premade groups, all of which takes the hassle out of LFG'ing and adds a huge amount to the enjoyment of PvP as you can stomp more people if you know who you're grouped with, their ability and are on comms ;).

What I'm trying to say is don't bother retuning to an MMO's unless you have pals that will come with you or if you're certain to be able to easily find a group/set of new friends.

Ish

Dark Age of Camelot.... Take 26 ;)

Doesn't look THAT dated to me

So I've only gone and done it, renewed my Dark Age of Camelot account - again.....!

Recently I've found that I've had zero, nil, nada interest in logging in to SW:ToR and that's because I find it a tad dull. I mean it's not that it isn't a good game, because I think it has a lot going for it but it hasn't grabbed me like DAoC, SWG or Warhammer Online did all those years ago (god I'm old).

New Frontiers, good for some

That being the case and the fact that there's a shiny 14 free days awaiting any returning player that hasn't logged into their account for 90 days, I thought why the hell not. My only issue, which I've tweeted rather a lot about recently is the idiotic account system EA have devised, I mean by the time you've finished creating this account, then linking another account to that account and made sure you've linked the right one you may have either lost the complete bloody will to live, or have decided to go out in the sunshine instead. It is THAT stupid.

After fighting with EA and deflecting all their attempts to make me not play one of their games, I downloaded the client from the website, patched it up and logged into a random character to try and remember how to do stuff. At the moment I currently have, char wise on Ywain 1 Midgard:

1. 50 Norse Healer
2. 50 Dwarf Warrior
3. 50 Kobold Hunter
4. 50 Norse Shadowblade
5. A 24 Runemaster & Savage

From what I can remember my SB was my main and then I tended to either go for my Hunter or Healer when the group required it. However I can't remember a bloody thing when it comes to skills/spells/macro's etc so I hope it comes back to me quickly.

At the time of writing this I did a quick /who on my Mid realm (one command I remember!) and there were 702 players, which for Mid isn't too shabby, considering you have the realms of Albion and Hibernian, both of which tend to be considerably more popular for some unknown reason. That being the case I'd guess that there was approx. 3,000 people online @ UK prime-time, which is promising.

I'll hopefully have more time to get back to grips with DAoC in the coming days, but to try and refresh myself I've also been reading these sites:

FreddysHouse DAoC Forums

Etaew's Blog 

See you in the Frontiers!

Ish

Smuggler Warzone Fun - 41 Scoundrel

Clips from a Warzone I ran the other night. I've been testing out a few new effects in Vegas, notably the zoom in/zoom out element, hopefully it's not too bad!

I'll hopefully have some more footage once I hit 42 and can use a better weapon, but also when I'm 50 and running guild groups in Ilum.

Ish

Scoundrel Tips

Superhawkins

Whilst roaming the tinterweb in-between Warzone queue's in Star Wars: The Old Republic I came across a blogger by the name of  blackrabbit2999, who posted some good pointers in regard to PvP play on Scoundrels, notably:

Stealth

1. Stealth doesn't work in this game like it does in others. If you engage a target and kill it without attacking or being attacked by another enemy, you are instantly considered "out of combat" on the kill blow. This means that, as long as the cooldown is up, you can restealth immediately after the killing blow. A large portion of our damage comes from Shoot First, so having a strategy that involves restealthing a lot is advantageous
2. Stealth detection is also different than you may be used to. With the +3 stealth talent, an enemy can see you in their frontal cone at around ~10-15m, behind or beside them it's more like ~5m (just outside melee range). This is where Sneak comes in. Use it when you need to pass by a group of players or pass in front of one before attacking them from behind as they will have nearly 0 chance of seeing you with this talent active
3. Use sneak pre-emptively when you know or think there may be other stealth characters nearby. It can give you the edge that is needed to open with a shoot first on them.

Combat

1. Know when to burst your energy and when to conserve it. If you find yourself at ~10 energy without cool head up, you will be quite useless for a long time. For this reason, use cool head strategically to slam out a lot of DPS, but when it's not up be cautious. Use some flurry of bolts if you are getting close to 60 energy
2. Use the fact that you can run through your opponents to your advantage and try to stay behind them so they miss skills. This also makes it easy to land back blast. In the same respect, if you know they are going to knock you back try to put your back to an object or at least aim yourself in a safe direction while attacking so that the knockback doesn't ruin your day
3. Don't be afraid to kite lightsaber melee classes a little. Snare them when they charge, then kite them at ~10m as needed
4. When a player is being guarded, any CC which also does damage that you use on that player will affect the guard as well. Double knock back from a shoot first can be pretty funny when you knock the tank over on a fire pit because you attacked the guy he was guarding
5. Interrupts! Getting spammed by tracer missiles? Use your kick and they have to wait 4 seconds. Remember your flashbang can be used for an interrupt in clutch situations when your stun and kick are down
6. When you Flashbang someone, go into cover and throw a sabotage charge on them. It can hit as hard as a Backstab.

Some great tips I'm sure you'll agree, and as I've recently started playing my 36 Scoundrel again I will certainly be looking to follow a few of these. I particularly like Combat #4 as I didn't know that and I think it will come in very handy and annoy lots of people :P.

For more of his posts, guides, tips etc head over to his blog @ blackrabbit2999

Ish

Alt Alt Alt Alt

Crackle, crackle!

If I had to come out and say it, I’d admit to being somewhat of an altoholic – but I don’t so I won’t….

Now I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing, infact I think it’s a good thing as it allows you to experience a wide variety of characters, classes and builds. Take my current array in SW:ToR for example, I am levelling 4 different classes at the moment, these being a Commando, Shadow, Scoundrel & my personal favourite at the moment a Sorcerer. The Sorc being my current favourite for the sole reason of it being relatively easy to pick up, and me finding it rather enjoyable, if not a little sadistic to fire lightening out of your hands and hurt people.

I agree that if you level just 1 character you’re probably going to be able to experience more of the game sooner than A N Other player who rotates between 4 different toons depending on their mood. However I feel you miss out on a lot if you just focus on 1 or 2 characters. It’s inevitable you will, eventually hit the level cap so why not test a plethora of different characters before choosing one for the long end-game haul?

Plus, if you do manage to get 2, 3 or 6 characters to the level cap, you’re going to be as valuable as Unicorn Tears to your guild, as whatever their need you will be able to deliver so yes, that raid will go ahead even though Gobby Steve hasn’t logged in tonight even though he said he would – way to go you!

I don’t actually have a character that I would call my main at the moment, instead I have my alts that I am levelling with the determining factor for which to play being how I am feeling at the time of logging in. Some lend themselves easier than others, for example I find the Sorc the easiest to play at the moment as I find myself just DoT’ing and frying stuff, however my Scoundrel can be a little more troublesome as I use lots of different abilities and also throw in some heals too.

That's why we have so many character slots afterall......

Ish

Bat of Nerf Incoming for the Smuggler

So Star Wars: The Old Republic may have been out a matter of weeks, but we've seen one patch already which gave us some goodies including a new Flashpoint. However ANNOYINGLY plans are on paper for a quite substantial nerf incoming for my beloved Smuggler class with patch 1.1.1.

Taken from the official forum, these changes include (yes there's a few):

• Flechette Round: Now provides 30% armor penetration while active.
• K.O.: This ability now knocks the target down for 1.5 seconds.
• Shoot First: The damage output of this ability has been decreased by approximately 20% to control burst damage and because it was enabling significantly faster than intended kills in PvP.

Now on the face of it they seem very world-endingly game changing, but particularly the nerf of Flechette Round from 50% down to 30% and the reduction in damage of Shoot first by 20% seriously reduces the overall burst output of a mid-tree Smuggy.

I'm not going to say that this nerf will ruin the class for me, as it's too early to tell and you never know they may amend some of the numbers (wishful thinking) but it's certainly going to make a certain demographic roll alts or quit all together perhaps in protest/annoyance.

P.S. as things stand I still plan on playing my Smuggler over my Shadow for the foreseeable future.

Ish

 

Consular Shadow PvP

So I Fraps'd myself doing a SW:ToR PUG Warfront the other night. It's about 9 minutes long and hopefully shows what the Shadow can and can't do, although it can probably do a lot more than I show :p

As I progress through SW I'll try and put a few more together, possible with some premade groups and some PvE runs too.

Ish

SW:ToR So Far, Far, Far....

I've now been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic for about 2 weeks now, taking into account the early access and I must say I'm enjoying it. I have worked my way up to level 21 so far on my Consular Shadow and although I've not grouped with my guild-mates as much as I'd have liked, I'm happy.

You made me get this out!

The levelling process has been nothing knew, in regard to the usual go collect this or these and this guy needs to be squished, however the voice overs do work very well and you do actually find yourself more interested in the actual dialogue, instead of just hitting accept after 0.3 of a second.

I have also found the item modification options in the game to be well done too, which has allowed me to not only keep my favourite saber colour (see above pic), but also means you can keep those top mods you come across or craft and slot them into each new weapon you receive. 

It's mine, allllllll mine.

At level 17 I got a hold of my starship too, which I was very much looking forward too. This has allowed me to travel the galaxy (well to my next set of quests anyhow), store some of my crafting materials and also given me additional companions that I can order about!

All in all I'm enjoying the game so far and I'm looking forward to seeing what end-game PvE/PvP is like in 29 levels, as for me that will be the game maker or game breaker.

Ish

Hey, SW:ToR Next Week!

So I managed to get in on a little SW:ToR beta before its official release next week, although I still planned to buy the game and give it a go regardless of whether or not I was invited to test it. However now I have played it I want more, I don't want to have to wait until the 15th December, which in my case will no doubt be more like the 18th or even 19th due to when I entered my pre-order code, doh!

My beta experience went pretty well I thought, I mean I didn't get to test out all classes into the teens like some people managed to do, but I did have a good play with the Consular and Smuggler. I was and still am quite torn between which of these I'm going to have as my main come release, but I'm sure something will swing it for me as the time nears.

On the one hand the Consular can cover both ends of the spectrum really, by either going down the healer route (Sage), whilst still being able to dish out some damage with ze force. Or I could choose the DPS route (Shadow) and slice and dice people from stealth but rely more on my cunning and friendly healing allies to save my ass. It's a tough one as during my escapades in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning I went for the stealthy DPS'er, but on many an occasion found myself wishing I'd rolled a healer type whilst running with friends.

I don't believe you can go back once you've made your path choice, which if true seems a little harsh but on the flip side also quite interesting as it will stop people being able to do everything, which is one element of Rift that I didn't particularly like or enjoy.

As if that wasn't giving me a headache, I then stumbled upon the enjoyable Smuggler class which seems like a jack-of-all-trades straight off of the bat. They can do range and melee damage (OK a crotch kick!), some AoE and I didn't even play the lass that far into the levels so I can only assume they continue down their path of awesomeness into the later levels.

If I don't roll a Smuggler as my main, I am 99% sure that it will by my first alt, but then I don't plan to have many (if any) alts as I don't have as much time as I'd like to put into the game, so I'm going to spend the majority of it on the one char (he said as a recovering Altoholic).

Funnily enough I've found that the nearer the game gets to launch, the less I've been reading the forums or watching beta videos. I think that's just down to wanting to get in and play now and not wanting anything or anyone  to put a downer on my experience or spoil any aspect, if I can help it ....

P.S. I've no idea what server my guild Fallen Legion will get thrown on at launch (although it will be EU and PvE as I don't want to be ganked in starter zones...) but we are recruiting :).

Ish

Invited To Beta, I Have Been

Now that the SW:ToR beta is ramping up as they obviously want to get a good number of concurrent players logged in, I received my invite (Yey!). However it unfortunately wasn't an invite telling me to get cracking with a client download, but one stating I've been invited to a future beta weekend. This will no doubt be this coming weekend, or the one after but it didn't stop me getting exciting when I read the email title :P.

I'm expecting a follow-up note this week so I can get the client downloaded and installed ready for the weekend, if that happens and I'm good to go for the weekend I plan to try out as many characters as is possible, ergo testing as many classes as is possible for BioWare but also giving me a taste of the different classes.

Either way, as long as I get to test it for a few hours I'll be chuffed.

Ish

Ah, Sweet DAoC Memories

It's just sad that nothing has been able to beat it, here's to hoping that SW:ToR can pull something out of the hat.

Ish

Favouritism? Nope!

So it seems that original idea that the Americans would get to play SW:ToR before us Europeans has been stomped. The yanks are getting retail access on the 20th December and we were told that we (EU) would get access on the 22nd, which was apparently down to logistical issues and a call centre...

However, rejoice as it would now seem that we too will be able to dive in on the 20th with our friends from across the pond.

For more info see here

Ish

SW:ToR Pre-order Available

It's here, we're now available to pre-order our very own copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Although there's no release date detailed as of yet you can get a number of different flavours depending on what you want from a pre-order, these being:

1. Star Wars: The Old Republic COLLECTORS EDITION
2. Star Wars: The Old Republic DIGITAL DELUXE EDITION
3. Star Wars: The Old Republic STANDARD EDITION

There are the 3 flavours to fit 3 different depth of pocket it seems as the Collectors edition is ~£60, which is a LOT to pay for a PC game, in my opinion. The other two are more reasonably priced, if not a little more expensive than you'd expect, but I guess Bioware are cashing in on the hype that surrounds the game.

For more info about each of the boxes see HERE

Ish

SW:TOR Release Date; Arghhhhh!

Why is it that people get in such a aggravated state over the likely or unlikely release dates of games?

I mean I'm looking forward to the games release as much as the next guy and with the next guy also holding high hopes for a brilliant MMO. However, there comes a time in every gamers life when you think to yourself "what am I getting so exacerbated about, it will be released when it's ready to be released!". This being said though, I've had a dig around and the most reliable fact I've found is:

1. The target release date is Spring 2011, which means the window is between March 20th and June 21st respectively - [Source]

The cynic  in me wouldn't be surprised if this was missed and we overflowed into Summer so this could see the date moving back to a window of June 21st to September 23rd, but let's hope not :).

Ish

SW:TOR Bounty Hunter Reveal - Death Mark anyone?

I do hope that they lean towards the Star Wars Galaxies (well before it was ruined) way of the BH, which involved a console that gave you rough locations of your 'targets', player or AI and you then went of and hunted them down. It was great fun, until you found yourself against a Jedi player and you'd decided to do this mission on your own :).

Ish