PolyMMOgamy: LotRO

Post soundtrack: “Feelin’ Good” by Nina Simone

My ears perked up when I heard about the f2p changes coming for Lord of the Rings Online (hereafter LotRO), and I decided to give it a try in that special way I have.  Namely, I bought a copy and started paying for it.

I know, I know, I could have picked it up for free if I’d only waited…  But this way I’ll have access to all the content come launch day – and get a stipend of turbine points on top of that, for the subscription paid until f2p launch.  And, I get to play it now.  (To top it all off, I was able to pick up the Mines of Moria collectors edition for only slightly more than purchasing the digital edition, and I loves me my boxes)

What about the game itself?  It’s actually pretty fun (and on the whole, less dependent on outside help while you level than Warhammer was).  There are some differences in mechanics that I’m still getting my head around (such as the tiered levelling system for crafting, and the way you choose a pre-set vocation (essentially a trio of professions) instead of WoW’s à la carte selection, and don’t get me started on the lack of bag space), but on the whole it’s proving familiar enough that the transition has been pretty easy.

For the time-being I’m focussing on my first character, Opalinna, a hobbit hunter (who hit level 30 this evening, incidentally).  As far as professions go she is an Explorer, which means she has access to Forester (harvesting and processing animal hides and logs into leather and planks respectively), Prospecting (mining and smelting) and Tailoring (crafting light and medium armour).

Hunters in LotRO are primarily ranged damage-dealers, but without the support of pets that we’ve come to know and love in WoW – incidentally, there are two pet classes, the Lore-master (who has a pet bear or raven) and Captain (who has a buff-bot in the form of a herald, like an adult version of the squire you get from the Argent Tournament in WoW), but I haven’t had experience with either one at this stage.  It’s a pretty simple class to play, but very satisfying when you can kill your target before it gets to you.

I’m also still dabbling in both Wizard101 and DDO.  With the expectation that with LotRO to distract me enough that I wouldn’t spend enough time playing Wizard101 to justify a subscription (an accurate forecast, it turns out), I put the money into crowns instead.  At least this way what I pay for, I keep.

I also bought some turbine points for DDO, and have bought my first Adventure Pack for the game, The Sharn Syndicate.  It’s only a short series of dungeons, but entertaining (especially the one where you get conned into taking the fall for a bank robbery).  I’m playing a dual-class Barbarian/Rogue, and the combination of stealth and backstab-with-great-axe is quite… visceral.  It’s handy to be able to hire an npc (usually a cleric, for me) to help out in some tougher instances – I guess my antisocial nature is shining through.

Last but not least, WoW.  I’m barely bothering to log on to do transmutes and post cut gems (and crafted ICC cloth gear) on the AH.  My enthusiasm for the game is at an all-time low, and the Ruby Sanctum isn’t even making a ripple.  I doubt I’ll be picking up another game-time card before the Cataclysm pre-launch event at this rate. 

WoW is in an odd space for me; I tend to solo-play my MMOs (although I’ve joined a guild for LotRO), but I’m finding WoW is something that I get a lot more pleasure out of when I’m in a guild of people I know (and, ideally, like).  But I just don’t have the energy to put into finding a guild that has that just-right vibe to it, possibly because I’ve run out of ‘new’ things to do in the game at the moment, and it’s easier to just fade away (at least until something new is introduced – and a new raid doesn’t count, when I’m not raiding).

I did briefly considering trying to put some cosmetic gear sets together – about the only thing I was able to think of that caught my interest.  (The rogue T7.5 set is actually pretty appealing, especially when teamed up with the Shattered Sun Offensive tabard.  And for priests, you really can’t go past the T5 set from SSC/TK.)  The downside, of course, is that as these only drop from raid content, which means they can’t be solo-farmed.  Well, four items of the T7 can also be purchased with (lots!) of down-ranked emblems of triumph, but it’s all too easy to get sick to death of re-running random heroics.

So where does that leave me?  Pretty much in the same space I’ve been for the last couple of months: playing less and less WoW, and more and more of everything else.  Fortunately there’s no shortage of not-WoW to keep me amused.

/wave

MMOing Kid-Style: Wizard101

Post soundtrack: “Cellophane” by Ashley Slater

Well, last week I was not playing WoW because I was playing Dragon Age: Origins.  This week I’m not playing WoW or Dragon Age: Origins because I’m playing kiddy MMO Wizard101.  You know what they say:  “Look! A distraction!”

I’d read references to the game on Escapist Scrawl, but something in her last post caught my attention and convinced me to give it a try.  After a day spent installing and cursing and reinstalling and waiting (and more waiting), it was installed.  (Reading the forums, I didn’t really get the impression my experiences were typical of the install process – I guess I was just lucky)

As far as the game itself goes…  Well, let’s just say you don’t play because of the intricate plot and well-defined characters.  Anyway, the game itself looks like a cross between Pokémon and Harry Potter, as designed by Disney.  Where my interest has been caught is in the gameplay mechanics, which brings to mind a simplified version of collectible card game Magic: the Gathering where combat is played out in 3d like a low-fidelity version of the Final Fantasy special attacks.

Combat is handled in a very casual manner, and isn’t instanced – it’s quite possible to see someone in combat in the street, and you can walk onto that section of the street to join in.  If there’s another enemy mob close enough, it will also join the fight, keeping things roughly equal.  Apparently this changes at higher levels, where you may be out-numbered if you attempt to attack mobs solo – I’m still doing introductory content, but signs point to an increasing level of challenge at higher levels.

The starting zones seem fairly well populated during the day – I haven’t been reading the chat much, but there’s far less of the trash-talking you see in WoW (helped to no end by the limited vocabulary that the chat system supports – if a word isn’t recognised in the systems dictionary, it just comes up as “…” in game).

Now, the game is a pay-to-play title, but it’s a lot less offensive (personally speaking) than Allods Online was.  In that game they manipulated the game mechanics to require purchase of in-game items (perfumes) to avoid some fairly awful death penalties.  Wizard101 is more like DDO, in having either a subscription or RMT transaction to unlock locations, and use of the in-game store (and their currency, “Crowns”, not to be confused with gold which is the standard game-world currency) for other purchases.

Unlike DDO, however, there are no free areas after the initial starting zones – you have to pay for all of the areas you wish to access (including the central hubs), either by subscription (with access that ends upon termination of the subscription) or purchase with crowns (giving permanent access for all areas that you buy on that account).

The only real benefit of a subscription (besides free PvP) is instant access to all areas ingame; outside of that, everything else in the store is purchased with crowns.  This means the usual: gold, elixirs, rare and unusual pets, mounts (both permanent and ‘rentals’ that last for a week), player transformations, limited-duration ‘henchmen’ (good for a single fight, as best I can tell), player equipment, player housing, and ‘booster packs’ of treasure cards (single-use cards for use in combat).  (Some store items can be purchased with gold, not needing crowns, but the prices are usually quite steep.  Most permanent items are crowns-only, however)

There are normally four purchase sizes, ranging from 2500 crowns for US$5, up to 30,000 crowns for US$50.  (At the time of writing there’s a special on, 60,000 crowns for US$60, but the offer should have expired by the time you’re reading this)

And on that note, let’s see how much it costs to unlock the existing areas, using the in-game store.  (This was calculated from the breakdown of areas as listed here on the Wizard101 site)

Area	Total Crowns	$5/$10 Buy	$25 Buy	$50 Buy
Wizard City	3000	$6	$5.45	$5
Krokotopia	11895	$23.79	$21.63	$19.83
Grizzleheim	9975	$19.95	$18.14	$16.63
Marleybone	12000	$24	$21.82	$20
Moo Shu	10800	$21.60	$19.64	$18
Dragonspyre	10800	$21.60	$19.64	$18
	Total $ cost:	$116.94	$106.32	$97.46

Grand total: 58470 crowns, best price (when not on special) is US$100 to buy 2x 30k bundles.  For that $100 you could also purchase two 6-month subscriptions (or one 12-month subscription and buy 10k crowns on top of that).

(Incidentally if you’re not on a subscription, rated PvP is also for-pay.  It costs 80 crowns ($0.16) per match or 240 crowns ($0.48) for a 24 hour Day Pass.  ‘Practice” PvP is free, however.)

I purchased 2500 crowns on Weds, and powered through Cyclops Lane, Firecat Alley and Colossus Blvd yesterday and today.  I’m divided about whether to sink so much money into purchasing areas permanently (as I do like the idea of having permanent access to the game content), or to simply subscribe (as my power-leveling play-style usually doesn’t really lend itself to long-term play of a game, and that’s a lot of money).

I’m probably going to take the responsible route, and subscribe for a month and see how it goes – the game is quite fun so far, but after only a few days I’m up to level 15 (the maximum is 50) and the second major area of Krokotopia (having picked up the feeder quests after finishing all the Wizard City quests outside of Sunken City).  But I’ve managed to dig up a little more money to put on my credit card, which I’ll put into buying crowns to purchase the Krokotopia hub and the first couple of areas – hopefully that’ll tide me over until payday next week (although I’ve a second wizard rolled and ready to level up if the need arises).

I’ve also been playing the Wizard101 tie-in game on my ipod touch, WizardBlox.  It’s a nifty (and free!) match-3 title that’s based on one of the mini-games playable within the MMO.  The MMO version suffers from not scaling with screen-size, so you’re left with a small game window in the middle of your screen (not a great look on a big screen with aging eyes).  The app version, however, is very nicely put together and benefits a lot from the touch-screen interface.  And the tie-in aspect comes from being awarded codes after each game which you can redeem in Wizard101 for gold, elixirs, and other useful (albeit randomly chosen) items for your characters.

Incidentally, if you have an ipod touch or iphone and like free games, you might like to keep these three pages bookmarked:

• TouchArcade has a page that lists new games and games discounted (often free, although sometimes the free games are simply the trial versions).
• OpenFeint has a free game of the day (quite often good ones).
• FreeAppADay also features a free game each day, but the quality sometimes varies.

Aside from MMOs, I’m looking forward to the release of Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers on Steam sometime this month.  I’ve been a fan of the card game since not long after it was released, but my interest waned as the game collapsed under the weight of its many, many expansions.  However this looks to be a ‘good parts’ version, which looks to be approachable for a new player (or returning player, such as myself) while still sufficiently deep to retain the challenge of the larger game.

Well, it’s getting late (and cold), so I think it’s time to wrap this up.

Discovering Dragon Age And eBook Readers

Post soundtrack: “My Favourite Waste of Time” by Owen Paul

Fortunately I didn’t rush into looking for a guild, as I discovered Dragon Age: Origins this week.  Needless to say, it’s taken a noticeable bite out of my WoW playing time.

Warhammer Online has been and gone (I’ve cancelled my sub), and while it was polished and fairly entertaining it was just too empty outside the free-to-play starting zones.  I only got to the first zone after the free-to-play trial areas on one character, and there was usually no-one else levelling, leaving the big-reward group quests impossible to do.  In other words, it’s a fun game but not fun for PvE-focussed players (such as myself) with the games’ current population.

Dragon Age, however, has proven much more appealing (and more importantly, less reliant on other players for progress –  although that is kind to be expected from a single-player rpg).  The combat, although the multiple-character micromanagement really isn’t my preference, is a little entertaining (although I’ve dropped the difficulty down to ‘easy’ after having my party repeatedly stomped into the ground too many times), but the real appeal of the game (at least for me) is in the plot and characters (most notably in the interactions of your party members).

I’m enjoying my first character (a dwarf commoner rogue), and if the other origin choices are as well put together I’ll likely have more play-throughs after I complete the game.  It won’t probably be for a while, however, as even with all the time I’ve invested in the game so far, I’m told I’m only 10% of the way through.

As far as WoW goes, I’m currently just logging in to do gem transmutes at the moment.  However, I’m beginning to consider the possibility of levelling up either a shaman or a mage in order to get a feel for the classes pre-cataclysm (because guess what classes dwarves will be able to roll then?).  I’m also tempted to put together more gear-lists along the lines of my Disc Priest PvP guide – I guess it will depend on whether or not the spirit moves me (or if I’m given encouragement).

In unrelated news, I was briefly really interested in the dedicated ebook reader (I quite enjoy a good book, and BBB’s recent book posts here and here have given me a great deal of new suggestions) being launched here in NZ, the Kobo.  However, it’s finally been unveiled at the annoyingly high price-point of NZ$295, which is especially irritating compared to the same product being available to our friends over the ditch for AU$199, which works out to be about NZ$248.  For further comparison/irritation, consider the upcoming US release of the Kobo, where it’s priced at US$150, or NZ$225.  Bah.

I guess that’s the downside of there not being an ebook reader market in NZ currently – it’s the first product to hit the market, so they can name their price.  However, I’m not impressed (or planning on buying one, now) – maybe there will be a new ipod touch to go with the new iphone expected in June.  But for the time being, I guess I’ll be sticking with my ipod touch and copy of Stanza.

Ah well, those darkspawn won’t kill themselves.

/wave

There’s No Server Like Home

Post soundtrack: “Sorry (I ran all the way home)” by The Impalas

Sometimes you just can’t fight the siren call of an old server – especially if you have a lot of characters there, as I have on Dath’Remar.  So I’m seriously considering leaving SAN (or at least putting it on the back burner) while I spend some time back on Dath and investigate future options.  (The fact I didn’t really start considering this until after reading Skeleton Jack’s post about his thoughts on Dath after moving there to join Insurrection is purely coincidental. Probably.)

I started back yesterday, doing a pug VoA with disc priest Mingle, and followed up with some time on rogues Pringle and Ringle (including the raid weekly on Ringle).  It felt oddly strange to be back on my dwarves after so much time invested in my gnome – I’m beginning to suspect it might be time to branch out into the other races, possibly even replacing a dwarf or two.

I’ve also been having a look on the official forums to see who’s recruiting – no-one seems to be after a disc priest, but I might be able to apply on Ringle.  It’s tricky though, as most guilds are well into ICC25, and I’ve so little experience with my rogue – when I went in, it was healing (either semi-effectively as disc or badly as holy) on Mingle.  Time to catch up on strategies, I guess.

I’ve also been exploring yet another MMO, having picked up a cheap copy of Warhammer Online while my interest in WoW was wandering.  Curiously enough, I was able to pick up a cheap copy of the collector’s edition for just over half the price of the (not currently on special) normal edition – it well worth the price of admission for the art book, but the accompanying hardcover graphic novel wasn’t quite as appealing for me, and the accompanying unassembled figure will remain unassembled.  (The main reason I bought a boxed copy was because the additional of 15gb of traffic to download the full client effectively killed any savings from buying a digital copy)

I have to say, the game is visually quite appealing, being both more stylised than WoW and yet less cartoon-ish.  It’s just a pity that for a PvP-based game that the player density is so low, even with the game reduced to a only four servers.  (I might write some more in another post, and maybe add some more shiny screenshots – feel free to encourage me)   Unfortunately it looks like I’ll have to cancel my sub after the 30 days ends – I’m saving for a new monitor, and my budget for the next few weeks will be challenged enough covering the cost of groceries without the extra expense of another MMO subs on top of that.

Anyway, that’s pretty much where I’m standing right now: pugging whatever I can find while I considering which guild to app to first.  (The tricky part, of course, is trying to accurately gauge whether I’m good enough to app to a progression guild, or if a more casual guild that just happens to raid would be a better fit – not an easy task with as much insecurity about my skills as I have)

And now that it’s nearing raid-time, it’s probably as good a time as any to see what’s happening.

/wave

Real ID? No Thank You.

Post soundtrack: “Close The Windows” by Subroc from the Flatout Soundtrack

Real ID has been turned on in the 3.3.5 PTR, and I’m beginning to wonder if Blizzard really likes things in binary – all or nothing seems to be a common theme in WotLK.

Consider previous examples: raid size for a start.  You could have it easy (10-man with at least some 25-man gear from running both versions, which leaves you over-geared for the instance) or hard (25-man, where you’re at the correct gear level for the difficulty level at which the content is tuned).  Raid difficulty:  normal modes (easy, once you’ve acquired gear from that tier) vs hard modes (aka the raidwide-who-stands-in-fire detector).

Just don’t get me started on the lack of a ‘medium’ difficulty setting for WotLK raids.  But I digress.

Continuing this philosophy with Real ID, you either share everything, including your real name from your account, or you don’t use it.  (Yes, I know it’s opt-in – shhhh, you’re ruining my rant.)

Now, I’d love to be able to allow ex-guildies to keep in touch this way, but I don’t use my real name in-game.  Ever.  (Even with online friends outside of WoW, only a couple of people know my RL name, so it’s not something specific to the game for me)  And regardless of the (substantial!) appeal of things like cross-realm and cross-faction chat, the price just isn’t acceptable.

I have a single identity I use with WoW (KiwiRed, the name I write this blog under), and if I was able to use that instead of my name from my account, I’d be fine with Real ID.  But until that is offered as an option, it’s just not a service I’m willing to use.

/wave

Gearing A Dual-purpose Rogue

Post soundtrack: “Yunowhatislifeez (jazz mix)” by Metropolitan Jazz Affair

Gnome rogue Pringle is gearing up nicely, and I’ve been experimenting with a different gear acquisition theory:  badges buy PvP gear first.

The theory is, starting with blue gear (crafted PvP items where possible), buy non-set items with honor and spend triumph badges on the arena PvP items (apart from the shoulders, which will be purchased with honor + arena points).

The reasoning for this is, the upgrade of blues => ilvl232 PvP epics is sufficient to give a rogue decent dps in heroics where most of the PvE upgrades will be coming from, while PvP survivability will be substantially greater given the extra resilience from the purchased items.  After enough upgrades, the LFD will start to offer the ICC heroics which will provided more PvE-specific upgrades.  And once all five emblem-PvP items have been purchased, badges are available to buy the T9 set.

Admittedly, the process would have been more realistic if I’d thought of this before buying the T9 gloves and shoulders, but…  well.  My timing often isn’t the best.

Also, I’ve been woefully distracted lately by numerous tower defense games on my ipod touch (Pew Pew Land is the latest) so by my reckoning my intermittent posting schedule is all Apple’s fault.

Oh, and who else is looking forward to racing along the Azshara highway that’s come to light in the Cataclysm leak?  Seriously, I’ve downloaded all the MMO-Champion screenshots and cycling through them as desktop wallpaper.  Impatient for Cataclysm?  Why, yes I am.

/wave

Rumours Of My Demise

…have been greatly mistaken.  Rumours of my laziness, however, have been right on target.

Post soundtrack: “Still Alive” from Portal

It was nice taking a break from writing and just levelling up my shiny new gnome rogue, but I guess enough is enough, time to get back to it.  So hello again, I’m back and…  well, still lazy.  But I’ve managed to level a character to 80 who isn’t a dwarf, which is something of an accomplishment.

Meet Pringle, mutilate rogue.  Although still under-geared (she’s only been 80 for a couple of days, after all), she’s well up to the task of taking names and kicking errant posteriors.  (Incidentally, I discovered this wonderful collection of rogue levelling tips after Pringle hit 80 – my timing is, as always, superb)

Today she managed to finagle her way into both VoA-10 and VoA-25, and performed to an admirable standard for someone who was (at the time) still wearing 7/8 pieces of crafted blue PvP gear.  In fact she managed 3.2k dps in 25-man, and 3.3k in 10-man.  Sure she was only in 16th place in the meters for the 25-man, but for such low-level gear I’d say she’s right on track to definitely not suck.  (On a side note, it’s the first time I’ve been in there since before Toravon joined the throng in there – that would have to be the most underwhelming boss fight I’ve seen)

I’ve also been doing a few battlegrounds (in between LFD heroics) and a couple of Wintergrasps, and Pringle’s now not only wearing two pieces of T9 (shoulders and gloves) but also has the relentless PvP boots (saving for a PvP cloak next).  It’s proving pleasantly fast to earn badges, and the honor from running random battleground is also not bad (apart from Strand of the Ancients, which I find to be even less fun than I remember WSG ever being – oddly enough, I’ve yet to have WSG come up so far).

I’m undecided about what to do next – continue gearing Pringle up as an intellectual exercise (with no idea of whether there any raids in her future), or move on to levelling my other priest or my shaman.  However, after the length of time I spent with Pringle, it’s a lot more tempting to put together the badges to buy heirloom gear before much levelling is likely to occur.

I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by the lack of drama in the LFD dungeons I’ve run through – no loot drama, and players who are new to a dungeon have been open to explanations of fights and suggestions on how best to get to the end.  But then thanks to the way LFD assembles groups I suspect I’m the notional under-geared nub who’s supposed to get carried by the other, much better equipped and more experienced players.

I’m tempted to start looking for a guild to join, as I’ve been feeling nostalgic about raiding after remembering back to my old Tempest days after writing my previous post about the changes coming to Cataclysm raids, but the difficulty in finding a suitable guild along with the possible (probable?) cost of character transfers if it requires moving server are quite discouraging. 

But I guess at the root of it, I’m just afraid that Tempest was a case of the right group of people at the right time, and isn’t something that is likely to reoccur.  (Hopefully that’s just me being pessimistic)

On the off-chance that one of my readers know of a mature (I’m not looking for drama) yet easy-going guild (ideally professional in their approach to raiding) which is either looking for a disc priest (I’m only average as Shadow, and was pretty dire at holy for the brief period I was an involuntary holy priest in early ICC) or a rogue (currently Mutilate, but raided as combat-swords back in TBC from TK/SSC into early Sunwell) on Dath’Remar-US (where most of my older characters are) or Argent Dawn-US (where I’ve been lately), drop me an email.

For now, though, I’m just taking it easy.  Gearing up is (still) kind of fun, but I can’t help but wonder if somewhere out there is a group of people who need me but just don’t know it yet.

/wave