Ravens Forums
World Of Warcraft => WoW General => Topic started by: xann on September 30, 2009, 06:51:59 pm
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http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/media/?autoplay=true#video (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/media/?autoplay=true#video)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/faq/ (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/faq/)
They sure can squeeze a game for all its worth :) Tho the vid does look pretty cool :P
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zomg playable goblins ! ;) ...tempting! Interesting to see deathwing too. But ultimately this looks like a makeover for the original content?
As for milking for all it's worth i think they have a while to go yet, the original everquest game has had 15+ expansions and is still going :)
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As for milking for all it's worth i think they have a while to go yet, the original everquest game has had 15+ expansions and is still going :)
wow 15 xpacs :o i didn't know that. Blizz prolly have xpacs planned till 2030 :P
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Part of it seems interesting (playable goblins!, a rework of Azeroth!), but other parts (guild levelling, some other way than talents to progress your char + underwater level) make it feel like ToA. But unless they can really add more story-driven quests (phasing does provide an option for it, it's used pretty well in Icecrown) we'll do the same quests yet again. Hardly playing WoW as it is and there's not a whole lot tempting me to play more in the x-pac. Just back from 2 weeks of vacation in Turkey and haven't even logged on to WoW yet :P.
Played the Brutal Legend demo and it was a lot of fun, it's so silly and over the top it's actually funny (and besides it's being worked on by Tim Schaeffer (Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle & other games), so it has to be fun). There's a huge preview up atGamespot (http://www.gamespot.com/shows/today-on-the-spot/?event=now_playing_brutal_legend20091009&tag=topslot;thumb;1) showing off single player and multiplayer. Kinda looking forward to that & Dragon Age: Origins.
Put off Champions Online by the apparently massive nerfs on the first day :P.
Aion is out I saw, you playing it Sax? Though I think the next MMO for me will be SW:KOTOR, at least Bioware is looking to do something special & not just a WoW rehash.
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Hope you had a great hols eko. Thanks for the tip about Brutal Legend - I'll check out the demo (ps3 yep?)
I'm playing Risen atm, recently released but a bit of an old school type RPG. Kinda refreshing to see an RPG that doesn't treat you with kid gloves, Risen chucks you right in at the deep end and is very challenging combat wise (though gets easier as you progress). not every puzzle or quest is handed to you on a platter and things like secret doors are actually secret (they don't show up on the HUD you have to go actively looking for them). Ignore the terrible xbox360 reviews it got as that must be a horrible port, the PC version seems pretty stable to me and looks nice enough with everything turned up to full. Nothing immensley special btw but managing to hold my interest well (and doesn't have stupid level scaling like oblivion did!). Download the demo for a looksie if interested - http://risen.deepsilver.com/blog/pages/en/news/news.php (http://risen.deepsilver.com/blog/pages/en/news/news.php)
Also looking forward to Dragon Age - i hear it's massive and will take a ton of hours to complete!
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Yup, on the PS3.
Combat in Risen realy isn't easy, I get killed by stupid birds :P. Seems like a nice game though, will play the demo some more to see if I think it's good enough to go buy. The PC version gets good reviews, so must be an horrible xbox360 port (it's usually the other way around, heh).
Looks like quite a few good games will come out this year & early next year (Brutal Legend, Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, Starcraft 2, Assassin's Creed 2 (hopefully less repetitive than the first one), Dante's Inferno could be good, certainly looks great, but might also get repetitive).
Hols were great, good weather the whole time & 2 weeks is ideal imo. Saw lots of Turkey the first week & then had another week to rest & just be lazy :).
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Good list you made there, am especially looking forward to Mass Effect 2...can't wait for that one. Only other one you missed that I've been watching is Alpha Protocol by Obsiden (KOTR II and NWN 2) - single player secret agent type RPG on all formats (though for RPG's i still much prefer PC to PS3, depends if its a port from console to PC though as you say!). Release date is confusing as i think it was scheduled for about now(ish) but seems to have been put back to early next year.
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I moved again, so don't have internet at home and am breaking work regs by looking at this stuff o.O
I have Aion but obviously can't play it atm. Borrowed DoW2 but need an internet connection for Steam, almost bought Majesty 2 but need an internet connection :(
I like the look of WoW Catalysm from a PCGamer mag I read, but I am only about 70th and 72nd lvl ... meh ... Think I might port one of my toons back to Skullcrusher if I did start playing again, prolly the Warlock.
Sax.
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meh, moving sucks, hope you get settled soon.
Let us know how you get on with Aion?
Cern/Brigh what are you guys up to atm?
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Fifa on the Xbox and Planetside on the PC - since the merge activity levels have risen - there is talk about making Planetside 2 but doubt that will happen.
Been installing some old games like Unreal Tournement and Star Wars Battleground so just mucking about with them.
Will keep my eyes open on other online games as they get released though so keep us all informed if you start playing something which is good :)
Brigh :D
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I'd love to see Planetside 2, would be really interesting. Though I'm still not really convinced theres an appetite in the FPS community for subscription based persistent worlds, they seem to be happy enough just playing maps on Battlefield which is a semi similar experience.
I've played fifa 10 also, still a pretty good game.
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Cern/Brigh what are you guys up to atm?
I gave up on Warhammer US after playing Destruction over there for a while. Greenskins are fun, as is T1 and T2 but in T3 and T4 the same problems rear their head as we found playing WAR EU. Problems too fundamental to ever be fixed, so time to let go.
So back to WoW. For the first time ever I've focused on one toon and one toon only. I moved my hunter back to Skullcrusher and did a rename in the process (now named Cernok). Currently raiding Ulduar 10 and Trial Of The Crusader 10 (next step up from Ulduar) with Legion Inc who are still going strong. If any of you decide you want to come back to WoW and Skullcrusher, Legion Inc would love to have you back I'm sure.
Also having a look at Aion EU. Early days, but it looks interesting. It is very polished indeed, but then I guess it was out in Asia for a year or more now. PVE is much harder than WoW, with harsh death penalties, heaps of mob aggro, a need to grind as well as quest. It reminds me a lot of Daoc's PVE. PvP doesn't start until 25 but there's no instanced PvP (a major plus). Instead there's temporary rifts (portals) that take you into the enemies homeworld (imagine a portal from Hibernia into Albion's PVE zones). These are level limited (to prevent lowbie gank squads) and have a set number of uses which makes for some interesting forays. There's also a full on PVE and RvR zone called the Abyss which you can access at level 25 (think Darkness Falls without the control mechanism). There's fortress fights at the endgame too, though no idea how these compare to Daoc or War. Aerial combat is a big part of PvP, but you can only fly for a limited period (a few minutes) and then can't fly again for a period, which makes for a fair bit of strategy.
Aion feels rather old school. But that's not actually a bad thing, it's a refreshing change from the ezmode everyone has gotten used to with WoW. Whether players (myself included) can cope with an old school MMO with all its time and money sinks remains to be seen. It'll be a huge culture shock for anyone who had WoW as their first MMO but Daoc'ers would feel more at home.
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So back to WoW. For the first time ever I've focused on one toon and one toon only. I moved my hunter back to Skullcrusher and did a rename in the process (now named Cernok). Currently raiding Ulduar 10 and Trial Of The Crusader 10 (next step up from Ulduar) with Legion Inc who are still going strong. If any of you decide you want to come back to WoW and Skullcrusher, Legion Inc would love to have you back I'm sure.
Think i am Cern, but only gonna take 1 back to Skullcrusher gotta choose betweem Warrior+Rogue...
How are the BG queues on SC?
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How are the BG queues on SC?
I don't do much PvP in WoW these days, I can't afford to keep throwing keyboards out of windows :) But I think the queues are quite healthy as whenever I have queued for any BGs I usually get straight in. Wintergrasp is always well populated every time it pops too. And of course there's always Arena and the option for some ganking if that's your thing. So I think PvP on SC is as healthy as any other server, if not better than most.
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gotta choose betweem Warrior+Rogue...
Some things never change eh ? :)
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gotta choose betweem Warrior+Rogue...
Some things never change eh ? :)
Thats exactly what i was thinking when i posted that.. :)
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Well i'm back on Skullcrusher, can already tell its a MUCH better server than Wildhammer, that place is dead.
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So, fed up yet then Xan ? :)
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:D Not quite, give it another week or so ;)
Honestly tho i've always enjoyed logging on and doing 2 or 3 BGs, mabye with a couple of characters, then logging off. The problem is thats not worth the subs
Gonna try Fallen Earth, got a 15 day trial
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I have internet again!! But dunno if I cba starting Aion, or even getting back into WoW, will see how I feel. I made the mistake of starting a game of Civ 4 the other day o.O
I wanna finish Dead Space as well and play Doom 3 again, got to scared last time ><
I also like the look of Dragon Age and wanna try Majesty 2, given that I only get about 7-12 hours a week to game, I am a bit busy for a mmorpg ... meh ...
Sax.
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Well my inclusive month of time expires this weekend in Aion and I don't think I have the stomach to renew. It's not a bad game, it is very polished and has some interesting features. But it is a real old school grinder and I just cba with sinking that much time into a MMO anymore.
The grind permeates every corner of the game. You grind to level (very slow levelling curve especially post 30), you grind to craft (huge mats requirements and success is a total lottery so all your hard gathered mats often amount to nothing), you grind the currency because everything in the game is designed to be a huge money sink, you grind the PVE gear (bosses in instances very often drop no loot at all, nada, so you need to run the same instance over and over, in some cases dozens of times), you grind the PvP points needed to buy PvP gear (and PvP is 90% ganking, 10% zerging), you grind until your fingers bleed.
If you have limited time for gaming Sax I don't think Aion will suit, it's designed to be a massive time sink and because of how linear progress is, you can't decide to focus on one aspect of the game at the expense of another. But if you do decide to take a look, roll a ranged class and save yourself a lot of grief. Currently melee classes are badly gimped in PvP especially in aerial combat which is a major aspect of the game. Roll a ranged dps or a healer.
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Prolly give it a miss, might give WoW another going over in time for the new expac though, if I do will prolly move back to Skullcrusher with the 'lock. I like the idea of carrying on with it a I spent so much time on it previously, despite my other vents! Any idea of when the expac will be out?
Sax.
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Prolly give it a miss, might give WoW another going over in time for the new expac though, if I do will prolly move back to Skullcrusher with the 'lock. I like the idea of carrying on with it a I spent so much time on it previously, despite my other vents! Any idea of when the expac will be out?
Sax.
General concensus on the various rumourmills is that Cataclysm xpac will be out about this time next next year.
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According to play.com they have the date down as 24/09/2010 and I've always found them accurate in the past
Brigh :D
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I expected it alot sooner than that tbh, more like 1st 1/4 2010.
Sax.
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Yeah I thought the same, hasn't it already been a year since WOTLK ? Wonder what happened to the idea of releasing 1 expac a year which I remember them stating a long time back?
Oh well, thats along time to collect epics until they get reset again ! :)
Aion seems like its had some reasonable success, I mostly was hearing about the PvPvE concept which sounded interesting - these are the portals you spoke about cern? Sounds like a cool concept but I do hear its the most abysmal grind. Apparently some people like it that way !?!
What the most casual friendly MMO anyone thinks they've played then ? I'd prolly have to say City of Heroes, although after a while it got repetitive (but not necessarily a 'grind'). WoW has to be up there also tbh, compared to daoc WoW was a cakewalk really.
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The rifts (portals) in Aion work as temporary access points into normally safe enemy homelands. These rifts spawn on a timer and appear at a location chosen randomly from a list of about 14. There's between 2 and 6 up at any given time, they are one-way and remain for around 30 minutes. There's a limit on the level range that can go through and there's a cap on the number of uses the rift has, to prevent zerging through it. On the other side you arrive in one of the enemy's PVE zones, where you are sometimes greeted by a welcoming party, sometimes not, it depends how quickly word spread about the location. From there you can fan out and maraud around the enemy's homeland until you are killed. It's quite fun, but generally the PvP style is ganking players who are engaged in PVE so it's not much of a challenge. Sometimes though some interesting hit and run and chase fights can develop.
The other PvP zone is the Abyss. Which is like Darkness Falls but without any control mechanism. Because it's a PvPvE zone, its full of mobs and so most of the PvP action that goes on there also involves ganking players engaged in PVE. And because there's no level restrictions and the mobs are grouped onto different floating islands with tight level ranges (which you can fly to without engaging any mobs) it is all too easy for high level players to know exactly where to go to kill lowbies. And they do, 24/7.
And that's Aion PvP in a nutshell, a gankers paradise. If you didn't much like the ganking on WoW's PvP servers, Aion is much much worse. There's no sandboxed PvP (along the lines of DAOC or WAR) of any kind. And because players can easily and quickly look your character up on the web via the Aion Armoury, you can be sure that when someone does gank you they already decided they can beat you. Zzzzz.
Add to that the huge grind and the fact that the game is currently totally dominated by bots and gold sellers who are killing the economy and I would say Aion is a game to currently wait and see how it pans out before jumping in. If they fix the grind, ban the bots and widen the appeal of the PvP then the game could have potential. But there's seems no committment from NCsoft to do any of these things.
As for casual friendly MMOs, CoH and WoW are the two that spring to mind. As for Daoc, these days levelling is a breeze, they've made it much much faster (probably faster than WoW even). I've just re-opened my US DAoc account because they've made all expansions free for download and merged all the servers into one single mega server which currently has 4k users prime time. I started at the weekend and it was a real blast, lots and lots of RvR action everywhere, feels like everyone is having one last hurrah because of disappointment with WAR, Aion, WoW etc. And actually with all the expansion packs installed the graphics aren't half bad either. The UI is showing its age though. I've got a 10-days 'come back for free' period. I'll let you know how it goes and if I decide to subscribe at the end of it.
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ahh thats the problem really, these concepts sound cool on the marketing blurb but then the reality is very different and it's just high level players kicking your ass all day.. zzz. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that I simply don't like open pvp concepts, they do sound cool at first but that reality always sinks in - and i get no enjoyment from going around and killing other players who are obviously just trying to level n stuff - still don't understand how people get 'fun' from that, it's just legitimised griefing tbh. I think sandboxed pvp is far cooler really, but each to their own - some people love getting ganked and doing the ganking (eh xan? :)).
I didn't know they'd done that for daoc, I never even experienced frontiers so I suppose there's allot of stuff that has changed since I've played. But frankly I just can't forgive TOA.... still I wonder what on earth they were thinking with that one!
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Yeah I don't get the ganking thinking either, never have. I think it says a lot about human nature that sufficient people do seem to enjoy ganking and griefling that games designers keep building it into MMOs as a feature. Sad really.
Sanboxed PvP is far superior, it means everyone involved is up for a fight and broadly on the same playing field. Such a shame that WAR had so many problems and Daoc went off the rails because no other games seem to offer this format, which is puzzling really. Probably just goes to show that people would prefer to give defenceless players a kicking than step up to the challenge of a fair fight, though even in sandboxed PvP players will do all they can to avoid a fair fight. Sad really.
When I played US Daoc previously it was on a TOA-free Classic server. So now being merged onto a single server which has TOA enabled is a bit of a culture shock. Plus there's also Champion Levels which come from the Darkness Rising and Labyrinth expansions, both of which are new to me. I hear that Champ Level abilities aren't very powerful and they've dumbed TOA down a lot and also lessened the power and importance of all the abilities you gain from it. But will have to see if my TOA allergy flares up again :)
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some people love getting ganked and doing the ganking (eh xan? :)).
I never killed lowbies, or "ganked" players at 50% engaged in pve. I mainly killed players that didn't WANT to pvp, just trying to run the guantlet of BRM ;) And fair fights are fun, but i always preffered the odds stacked against me, more rewarding if i win, and got an excuse if i lose :)
ps. I've downloaded DAOC, patching up now, 14 day free trial might aswell have a look... Whats TOA? :)
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Cern, is it easy to start up the DAoC stuff again? I meant to go back to AC but never got round to it, maybe I'll have more luck with DAoC.
Sax.
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Xan: TOA = Trials Of Atlantis, one of the Daoc expansion packs. It's the one everyone agrees broke the game because it introduced overpowered PVP abilities from grindy PVE 'trials'. But they've toned it down these days and since there's been other expansions it's less relevant than it was (and you only need to bother with TOA if you do the high/elite endgame RvR, it can be ignored before then).
Sax: It's very easy to get started up with Daoc again. Just download (http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/trial/) the 14-day trial from Mythic, it includes all the expansions for free. Note that EU Daoc is dead, there's only US Daoc now and it's all on one single mega server called Ywain. You'll see Ywain is divided up into 10 shards (Ywain1, Ywain2 etc) but they only did this to accomodate the housing zones so there would be room for everyone. For PVE and RvR everyone is on the same server, same zones.
So you would be starting afresh of course. But they've streamlined the starter levels, everyone starts in a specialised starter zone now. And levels come fast these days and you can level pretty exclusively in RvR if you want to by playing the battlegrounds.
What side are you both thinking of playing? I play mainly on Midgard (have a 40x Valkyrie and a 40x Runemaster). I also have a few toons on Alb (though don't play these). I don't have any Hibbies but could start on Hib if you wanted to do Hib. But if you come to Midgard I can set you up with some starter gear etc, plus I have some lowbies to group with. I don't have a guild since returning as the one I was in disbanded long ago, so I'm looking around for a new one.
Let me know once you're all installed and what side you're on and I'll hook up with you.
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It makes sense to come to the same server your on, feels weird not going to Hibernia though, I love Connla, will have to make at least 1 Hibernian toon just to check the place out with its funky background music! :)
I doubt I'll play a Dwarf Skald again, maybe a Kobold archer or assasin, or warrior or or or ... :)
I'll let you know when I am hooked up.
Sax.
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It makes sense to come to the same server your on, feels weird not going to Hibernia though, I love Connla, will have to make at least 1 Hibernian toon just to check the place out with its funky background music! :)
I doubt I'll play a Dwarf Skald again, maybe a Kobold archer or assasin, or warrior or or or ... :)
I'll let you know when I am hooked up.
Sax.
Yeah I miss Hib too, so can make a toon there if you want. But Hib is the underdog on Ywain, just like it was on Pryd. Alb have the zerg, Mid are pretty balanced, Hib are the underdogs with good guild groups. Sound familiar? :) All depends if you want to play the underdog again.
Well we could make a Midgard stealth team with the three of us. I don't currently have a stealther, but could make one. I have a buffbot (sadly still essential for stealthers).
Edit: because it's all one server now, you can make toons on all three realms. There's a five minute cooldown between switching, I guess they had to give up worrying about x-realming.
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I'll try and get hooked up, the stealth team sounds alot of fun, am sure there are many other stealth teams out there though :)
Is the 1st BG still a blast? Might not make it to 50th but can defo have a laugh from 20-24th :)
Sax.
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Yep Thidranki (20-24 BG) is a blast. It's always been a very active BG and that's still the case.
There's BGs for 10-14 and 15-19 too, but they aren't very popular. The other really popular one is Molvik, 35-39 which is always busy. The reason my Valk, Runie and Shammy are still only 40x is because they spent a long time in Molvik. I actually turned xp gain off so I wouldn't ding out until they hit the realm point cap - of the three my Shammy did - aoe dots ftw :) It's only on returning that I've decided to take them to 50 now.
Stealth team should be good fun. Most stealthers seem to duo or trio these days it seems. Shadowblades are allegedly the strongest assassins now, apparently Perf Artery with a 2h axe/sword is the business. I say allegedly because that's what I hear, I've not played one in a long time.
I have a stack of lowbie gear spread across several ex-Thid toons, I'll see what I can dig out.
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Finaly finished patching, rolled a Norseman Thane just to have a run around, get used to the ui/feel. I like how many different classes there are, prob is i'll wanna try a few of them... :)
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Quick guide to Midgard classes:
Tanks:
Warrior: high melee dps, great defense, main tank, can climb keep walls.
Thane: med-high melee dps, med ranged aoe, good defense with shield.
Valkrie: medium melee dps, good defense with shield, decent heals (point blank aoe and casted single), insta rezz, aoe snares.
Skald: the midgard speed class with top run speed buff, medium melee dps, limited ranged dps, mediocre defense, single target mezz.
Melee dps:
Berzerker: very high melee dps, can dual wield, mayhem, best in class.
Savage: same as berzerker but with short duration self buffs that are hard work to maintain. Zerker is better.
Mauler: no idea on this one, was an expansion class. Almost never see them about, so probably gimped.
Stealth:
Shadowblade: very high melee dps, can dual wield, can climb keep walls, uses poisons, reliant on evasion for defense.
Hunter: high ranged dps, bow for ranged and spear for close combat, also has a medium useful pet.
Casters:
Runemaster: very high single target dps, mediocre aoe, roots, bubbles, run speed buff. Solid class.
Spiritmaster: high single target dps, very high point blank aoe, has a very useful pet, mezz, basic rezz. Solid class.
Bondancer: high ranged dps, good survivability, relies on a myriad of pets to function, never quite worked this class out but apparently powerful.
Warlock: high single target dps, high point blank aoe, ranged dots. Uses a wierd system of pre-charged spell chambers. Gimped. Avoid.
Healers:
Healer: does what it says on the tin. High heals, great crowd control (mezz & stuns), gimp damage. Popular class, hard to level solo.
Shaman: can either be played as a healer and buffer, or as ranged dps with aoe dots, roots and diseases. Fun to play as Cave, usually relegated to a buffbot otherwise.
Note: all Midgard melee classes can swap freely between 1h and 2h weapons, or between dual wield and 2h in some cases. All casters get a quickcast ability (very useful given the interupt code in this game). Healers don't get quickcast.
All the Midgard classes are fun. Only ones I'd stay away from are Warlock (nerfed and has a horrible mechanic) and Mauler (seems a hated class). Everything else is good for a whirl.
Other realms have a similar spread of classes, though not mirrors (which is the beauty and the beast of Daoc).
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I've played a bit of DAoC recently but on the free shards (instant lvl50 classic server) but I will download the 14 day free trial and have a blast at it
Brigh :D
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Yay, nice one Brigh. Any more for a bit of nostalgia?
For those rolling on Ywain, my main toon names are in my sig. Give me a shout if you see me on.
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Good to hear that music again when loading :)
Created a Spiritmaster today and he is currently level 6 called..... Brigheiss - original eh?
Will be on for most of the night I suspect
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I've made a Kobold Shadowblade level 4 atm, Xanik :)
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Servers are offline for a few hours it seems. Mobs have been really buggy since yesterday's patch so there's maintenance to fix it. If it's back this evening hope to catch up with you later.
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ok - is there a website which tells you when they will be up again?
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Yep, server updates and lots of other stuff at Camelot Herald (http://www.camelotherald.com/news/index.php)
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servers look to be back up btw
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Yep server is back, see you on there then.
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i've been having a fair few diconnects so far, just freezes up and times out
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Any more for a bit of nostalgia?
hehe, maybe I'll think about it. Problem is I want to remember daoc as the awesome game my memory has implanted in me, and to play it again might spoil it by finding out it was actually a bit crap... :)
Also... I have dragon age:origins to play now !! (yipppee)
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Hehe, I'm in the same boat as Las, got terrific memories of DAoC & all those MMO's I've played meanwhile might have spoiled me.
And yeah, Dragon Age: Origins is out :).
Champions Online had a free weekend last weekend and while it looked nice & played ok, it was overly complicated, hard to grasp fully what powers do just by their description and the stats + how powers are affected by them aren't greatly described either. It also felt like a single player game (only levelled to 11 though) where some other people also run around in doing their thing. Didn't look a bad game at all, but kinda prefer the relative simplicity of CoH (though they have added crafting into CoH now as well). Of the oh so many MMO's I've played CoH is the only one I'd return to if I could find people to play with, mainly because it was so different (no autoattacks, more action based, superspeed/superjump!, the character creator! ;D fighting multiple mobs all the time instead of the 1v1 most MMO's offer, etc). Unfortunately it still had lots of the boring missions in the same few environments last I played.
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tbh it is much how I remember it, of course I've not reached the dizzy heights of the frontiers but I popped into thid earlier and it seemed the same.
I'm just happy playing another game I enjoy which isn't WoW :)
Had great fun last night with Cern, just like old days
Brigh :D
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What surprises me is Daoc doesn't feel that crap or aged at all. With the bundled expansions the graphics arent half bad and actually stand up surprisinglyy well against more recent games. I still love just exploring Daoc for the scenery. Perhaps it's because Daoc feels like a world not just a load of theme park zones artificially stapled together (ToA being the exception of course). What lets the game down most is the UI which is clunky by modern standards. That said, it's only really WoW which has raised the UI bar a long long way. WAR, Aion, Lotro, AoC, CoH etc all have pretty nasty UIs that should be a lot better.
As for the gameplay, I still prefer Daoc's mechanics. Combat whether melee or caster just feels so much more immediate and snappy. I think all the fancy animations in WAR and Aion etc just give an impression of lack of connection with your character. And the interupt code in Daoc is still better than any other system tried since and keeps casters from being totally OP (imagine if Bright Wizards in WAR had to deal with interupts).
What has surprised me is there's actually people still joining Daoc for the first time. A trickle of course, but a steady one and I'm amazed there's any at all tbh. But perhaps it shows that people want something they're not getting from other games out there. Mythic should get their act together and shoehorn all the existing content into a brand new game engine and UI and relaunch it as Daoc Reloaded or something. There's been some amateur efforts which have actually migrated the Daoc scenery inside the Crysis engine, with pretty nice results, so it can be done.
There's no level grind anymore. Brigh and I went from 8 to 18 in a few hours of Warrior + Spritmaster pbaoe mayhem (admittedly with a buffbot) and my Runie is level 46 with 2.5 days /played on the clock (its a lot quicker to the endgame now than WoW).
Of course I'm not trying to be a cheerleader and gloss over the fact that ToA and to a lesser extent Champ Levels still hang over the endgame like a dark cloud. Plus after so much time the endgame is dominated by some seriously hardcore players, as you might expect. And you still need buffs (though there's now npcs you can get buffs from that are almost as good as a buffbot). But that doesn't mean there's not some fun to be had.
But I can also understand about keeping memories as just that. We ran a pretty successful 8-man team and so this influences things. There's no way of getting back to that, so you have to lower expectations, and I can understand how this might alter some good memories.
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I doubt I'll ding 50th again but will dl it soon. Am busy till Tuesday/Wednesday but will dl and be ready for a few hours then. Problem is I lurve Civ4 so much all over again!! :) I wanna try Dragon Age as well, how is it Las?
Still if it's that fast I'll get to Thrid as I never really played in their very much last time cos I was always playing my Champ or lvling the Midgard team that never quite made it! o.O
^
Sax.
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Downloaded DAoC anyway and started a Shadowblade (Keaira) & Valkyrie (Zhora). Preferring Valkyrie for now, but if you're going for a stealth team I guess I'll level the Shadowblade as well ;).
For such an old game the gfx is indeed ok still, but jeez, the UI is crap :).
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Downloaded DAoC anyway and started a Shadowblade (Keaira) & Valkyrie (Zhora). Preferring Valkyrie for now, but if you're going for a stealth team I guess I'll level the Shadowblade as well ;).
For such an old game the gfx is indeed ok still, but jeez, the UI is crap :).
Yep the UI is pretty horrible. If only they could re-skin the game with a fresh new UI it would bring it right up to date because actually the graphics are pretty good for its age.
The stealth team hasnt got off the ground yet as Slaxif is yet to download and join us and I think Xan has some connection problems? If we're more than 2 or 3 then a stealth team would be a bit of a stealth zerg, so we're probably better off on non stealth toons anyway.
So Brigh and I started a team with a Warrior (Sproutacus) and Spiritmaster (Brigheiss). So a Valkyie would fit in nicely and give us some backup heals and dps with spear (warrior can do the tanky thing). Brigh just hit Thid I think and I'll get my Warrior up to Thid as well and then wait as I don't think Brigh can play over the weekend.
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Not installed it yet Sax though I'm told its very long (about 100 hours play) so should keep me busy for a while, I'll let you know what i thhink in a couple of weeks i guess. I know what you mean about Civ IV its very easy to get back into it ! (but about time for Civ 5 now really isn't it?).
Mythic didn't get rid of the buffbots then so they could take cash for 2nd accounts still ? Thats a shame really, but i guess money rules!
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Mythic didn't get rid of the buffbots then so they could take cash for 2nd accounts still ? Thats a shame really, but i guess money rules!
Well they made some half-arsed attempts. Classic server was buffs on a range and a being grouped requirement. This stopped the stealther buffing and hampered powerlevelling, but didn't stop PVE farming or indeed some groups dragging one along in RvR. Ultimately Classic server didn't prove popular with the players though. More recently they've created special buff NPCs which will give you all the buffs you want for some gold. But since these buffs are about 75% of the power you could get from a full blown bot, they don't appeal to the min-max'ers, though for most people they are fine (any bot I've ever made was never full buff spec as I like to be able to play them actively). But yeah, Mythic have never tried too hard to remove the need for buffbots and I think their use is just too ingrained in the game's community now.
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I'll prolly start a Thane and a Hunter. Am kinda excited about it tbh :)
Sax.
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I've "started again" made a Norse Bezerker, and yes the UI is giving me problems, especialy being totaly new to it :P
how do u add ppl to ur buddy list?
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/friend <name>
But bear in mind that the person needs to be online when you add them (silly I know). Also, if they aren't on the same shard as you then you need to put in their name with shard extension., eg /friend Legolasthelame-Ywain1. Same goes when sending tells, if they aren't on your shard you need to type the full name, eg /tell Legolasthelame-Ywain1 you suck.
The Ywain1, Ywain2 in names is only temporary while the cluster settles down and everyone transfers in. Names are actually unique (eg there can't be Legolasthelame-Ywain1 and a Legolasthelame-Ywain2). At the moment it's like it is to get everyone used to what login lobby and housing zone they belong to. In the future the Ywain1, Ywain2 etc will be dropped from player names.
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Since you wanted my Valk to be spear I rerolled (don't laugh Las) and now my Valk is Katsui & my SB is Zhora, both on Ywain1. Valk is level 12 now and has horsie, full set of chain armor + valk helm and glowie weapon, weee :). Where to go now? Quested a bit in the catacombs, but it feels weird. And how do I join a BG again? ;D
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Heh, you get a free respec at 20, but nvm - rerolling ftw :)
I've not found anywhere better than Catacombs for lowbie levelling, at around 12 theres those antechambers full of various wailing spirits and things, and after that you can progress onto the big boat thing. You get a single target DD in Odins Will line as Valk which you can use to pull mobs out of the pack.
There may be better places to level sub 20, it's a long time since I did it myself. Brigh and I just pbae farmed the boat, but that's OP Spiritmasters for you :)
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I got AoE as well, like that cone AoE thing that draws aggro like mad! :)
Walked around in the Mid capital and got a free respec stone as well, dunno if I can get more or not, didn't try ;).
Saw that boat yeah, but only ran underneath it, though got a quest to go up there I think. And yeah the single target DD is handy to pull, though I'm dissapointed that warping mobs still exist after all those years (had it with the escort quest, mob warped all over the place with the escort guy in tow aggroing everything) & lagghosts as well (mainly pets it seems). Ok they're probably a limitation of the gfx engine/path prediction, but it's stupid to come back and still finding such bugs/quirks in game. And the UI is a total mess, thought they'd have streamlined it by now, but it looks like UI design stopped after ToA (Hell, even AO which exists even longer has had an UI overhaul).
PvP prolly is still fun, but solo PvE isn't really, though at least levels come relatively quick.
Of course I'm also playing DA:O which is really great, so the faults in DAoC seem even bigger.
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Since you wanted my Valk to be spear I rerolled (don't laugh Las) and now my Valk is Katsui & my SB is Zhora, both on Ywain1
lmao :)
To be fair in the last couple of games we played i was the reroller ! Making you wait whilst I changed to engi in WAR felt very odd, normally it was me doing the waiting :)
I am really enjoying DA Origins also, first impressions are very good. Looking like a sweet game so far.
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The mob warping and lag ghost stuff is something that got a lot worse with 1.99f patch. It was never this bad before. I've no idea how they apply a relatively minor patch and somehow break mob pathing throughout the entire game. But that's MMOs for you, stuff gets broken in patches that don't seem to have any connection to the things 'fixed' in the patch. For a day or so after 1.99f it was far worse, then they did a maintenane shutdown and it's been better, but it's still not right and seems to be getting worse again.
Agreed on the UI, its far from great. It doesn't bother me so much because I mostly only play MMOs and to be frank the UIs suck in pretty much all of them with WoW being the only notable exception.
Daoc's UI get's marginally nicer if you install one of the better mods out there. I like Derida's Mod (http://www.nsaney.com/download.htm) which has been kept up to date.
Might take a peak at DA:O, is it multiplayer?
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Might take a peak at DA:O, is it multiplayer?
No, single player. Plays allot like Mass Effect actually (except in a more fantasy surrounding rather than sci fi and without the fps elements) or KOTR - unsurprising though as it's bioware, perhaps crossed a little with NWN (again bioware) as you control a party (though it isn't d&d rules). I'm pretty sure the engine is the same as they'll use in Mass Effect II coming out in the new year.
Essentially if you've enjoyed any of those bioware games in the past I think you'll like it, am not disappointed so far but admitedly haven't got very far yet !
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No, single player. Plays allot like Mass Effect actually (except in a more fantasy surrounding rather than sci fi and without the fps elements) or KOTR - unsurprising though as it's bioware, perhaps crossed a little with NWN (again bioware) as you control a party (though it isn't d&d rules). I'm pretty sure the engine is the same as they'll use in Mass Effect II coming out in the new year.
Essentially if you've enjoyed any of those bioware games in the past I think you'll like it, am not disappointed so far but admitedly haven't got very far yet !
Sounds good, long time since i played a game like that, whats the reccomended comp specs like?
The adverts for Flashpoint and COD:Modern Warfare 2 really worked on me :P soooo want to play them but i think they'll melt my computer :/
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Have a look here - http://dragonage.bioware.com/game/#1.05 (http://dragonage.bioware.com/game/#1.05), on the right hand side of the page spec's for xp/vista.
Not seen the flashpoint ad, COD looks really awesome though yeah
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Have to say that DA:O is simply awesome, have played for almost 20h now and only just completed the first of 3 quests you get after completing the tutorial/introduction :). It's a great mix between KotoR/Mass Effect and their D&D games (Baldur's Gate/NWN series). I'm mainly playing in the over-the-shoulder view and just switching to the isometric view for large battles. I find the difficulty fairly high (stupid mages can do some extremely high AoE damage), but it makes the game challenging and more strategic, you really need to prioritize targets and flanking is rather important as well.
Character interaction is also improved from KotoR/ME and does wonders for replayability. The origin stories are well done (those few I've played) though they are relatively short, but I can see how some tie in with the main story.
All in all it really deserves all the praise it gets imo, ok the gfx aren't next-gen, and some textures are flat, but it's still a good-looking game and gameplay > gfx :).
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Yeah i agree eko, but haven't played as much yet. Have only done a couple of origins stories and trying to pick a class to play proper, think it will be mage as looks like you can have some intersting specs (toying with a lich type spec, though i know you aren't undead and can't actually be a lich, looks like you can do a proper frost/necromancer type spec, think I'll maybe go elf/blood mage to make everyone really hate me too ! :))
I imagine the fact there's no 'nohelm' option is annoying you ? I suppose you're just not wearing headgear?
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Hehe yeah, no 'no-helm' option is irritating, especially since it gets removed automagically during cutscenes already :P. I'm wearing a helm anyway even though I hate it, but being melee dps (DW Warrior) means I need the protection unfortunately.
Mal asked about DA:O yesterday evening and think I convinced him to get it ;).
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Made a Norse Thane, will get to grips with it a little tomorrow. Also gonna make a Ranger on Hibernia to go visit all my old haunts :)
It does look dated now but am still looking forwards to it, only logged in so haven't done anything yet. Called myself Saxif.
Sax.
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Nice one Sax. Brigh and I have been making some Thidranki toons. I have a Warrior and Brigh is levelling up a Skald. So now we'll have your Thane to break Brigh's mezz with your aoe hammers :D How's your Valk coming along eKo? A Valk would complete the gang nicely.
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Level 15 now (got a free level), but haven't played much lately, solo PvE is zzz ;).
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Brigh and I should be on this evening and have toons around level 15. We can level them together in a normal manner or there's also the option of a spot of powerlevelling to boost up to Thidranki level.
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Not that bad last night - all made level 20 then got steamrolled in thid :) should be around tonight and tomorrow daytime so will try and get my skald to level 24 along with the buffbot :)
Brigh :D
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I am in the process of skilling up a spellcrafter and can already make gems suitable for Thidranki gear. So if you want anything spellcrafted let me know. Obviously full templates get expensive quickly (mostly because of the armour you need to buy) but player crafted boots and gloves are usually cheap on the market explorer as these are what people skill from. So these could be spellcrafted and used as a way of filling in any gaps in your resists. Key resists for Thid are slash, thrust, crush, body (for assassin poison), spirit (for mezz) and heat (alb and hib nukes). You can wear red con armour without it deteriorating too quickly, purple con armour will degrade very fast and isn't worth it. I recently found out that purple con accessories like bracers etc are viable on Thidranki toons because once they deteriorate they still boost stats and resists, the only thing that breaks on them is +skills. High level accessories usually sell cheaper than low level too. Just make sure that any high level accessories you buy don't have a level requirement.
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Picked up my armor this morning, thanks Cern :).
Will have to look for better rings/neck as the ones I have now aren't exactly great.
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What you folks up to? I made 19th now, just over 7 hrs played :)
You all still gonna be knocking about or did I miss the boat?
Sax.
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I'll be around as I decided to subscribe for a month. Despite all its warts and wrinkles I'm enjoying Daoc more than I did Aion or WAR and I need a RvR fix as WoW's PvP is just horrible these days and I completely avoid it. Have had some great fun in Thid last couple of nights. Get your Thane to 20 and then hopefully Brigh and eKo's trials haven't run out yet and we can do a group run one evening? I should be able to get online a bit earlier tomorrow (Wednesday) if anyone else will be around?
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One of my accounts has ran out (my SM account) but I've transferred everything to my Skald and Shadowblade account which still has a week left on it - I also have my buffbot account which is still active.
I won't be on tonight but hopefully tomorrow and Friday
Brigh :D
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Brigh you account whore ! ;) Where's your Warden then ? And did you get Cern to level him whilst you were asleep ?? ;)
I thought about it guys and just don't have time right now, and I'm enjoying DA:O a bit too much when i do get computer time. I may take a look at christmas when i have more free time.
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Brigh you account whore ! ;) Where's your Warden then ? And did you get Cern to level him whilst you were asleep ?? ;)
Only played mid so far - although on my buffbot account I have created a Hib and Alb buffbot ready :)
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and I'm enjoying DA:O a bit too much when i do get computer time.
Know what you mean, only got it yesterday, it rocks pretty hard
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How do I stop my lvl going up in Thid? I am about to log in to make another couple of lvls but given how much xp you get from killing albs and hibs you could lvl from 1 good evening.
Sax.
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If you don't want to cap out of Thid too quickly use:
/xp off (to stop you dinging level 25)
/rp off (to stop you dinging 750 rps)
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What happens at 750 rp's? They kick you out for being so totally ubar!!?!?!
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In most cases, yes, in your case it's for leeching too much rps ;).
Seriously though, just like there's a lvl cap (24) there's also a cap on RR (1L5). You won't get kicked out, but you also won't be able to reenter.
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If you exceed the level or real rank cap in a bttleground you can stay until you logout or die and release (if you get a rezz you can continue to stay). You can even ding multiple levels in there. Last night in Thidranki there was a Shar Mentalist who was level 28 (so red con to level 24). We eventually nailed him close to the keep and a number of us watched over the corpse until he had to release (there were several attempts to rezz him which we fought off).
Best thing to do is get up close to the cap and turn your xps and rps off. Then when you feel you're ready to move on, turn the xps and rps back on and see how long you can last after dinging (best time to do this is when your side owns the CK, then you can keep close to there and stand a better chance of getting a rezz if you die).
Alternatively, there's a npc at the portal keep who will scrub your rps if you prefer.
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Think the recent sun has got to me but I have a very strange urge to log into WoW again! anyone else still play?
Brigh :D
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No, but i've been having the same urges...
Think i might just wait for Cataclysm, see what its like then.
Who else is even contemplating getting Cataclysm? or most of u WoWed out?
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Not sure if I am WoW'd out but my toons are only 71st and 73rd, so I'd have to lvl 12 or 14 lvls dunno if I can do it tbh. When I get bored of DAoC I'll prolly play some single player titles tbh. When is Cataclysm out though?
Sax.
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I think I'm all WoWed out, really don't miss it at all. If Cataclysm turns out to be a great expansion then I might try it, as playable Goblins sounds fun and exploring new content is always good. But if it's just more levelling grind, badge grind, raiding grind, rubbish PvP and ever moving goalposts like the last two xpacks then meh.
Since the cataclysm itself looks set to radically alter all the original Azeroth zones it means that vanilla WoW as we once knew it will be gone forever, and perhaps it's a good time to walk away remebering it as it was. I think the only thing that could save WoW for me is if they somehow found a way to make the PvP fun again, but given the gear arms race that has happened over the years I don't think that's even possible anymore.
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When is Cataclysm out though?
Dunno, probably xmas time, late in the year anyway.
If i play it i'll prolly start a new toon anyway. But i think Cerns got it right... should prolly just let it lie. Tho i am hungry for a mmorpg
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All wow'd out here also, can't see a return here for Cataclysm for me either, though never say never. I know eko is playing again though, maybe he is the true addict of us all ;)
Xan - new character? Warrior or Rogue or *INSERT OP NEW CLASS IN EXPANSION HERE* ? :)
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Hey Las,
Dunno if you drop in on the Awakening forums but I did the other day. Xanatos finally hung up his spurs and left the game, he did however say he'd come back when you or TM came back ;D
Get on it!
Sax.
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Xan - new character? Warrior or Rogue or *INSERT OP NEW CLASS IN EXPANSION HERE* ? :)
How dare you :P
Anyway, you know when i roll any class it instantly becomes the most OP ... ;) :D ;D
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Hehe yeah I'm still playing, did a faction change+transfer on my pally to Thunderhorn though and only playing there now. Not doing very much outside of the 2-3 raids per week, got enough other games + RL stuff keeping me busy at the moment. only PvP I do is the Wintergrasp zerg for easy honor to buy gems with :P.
On the one hand Cataclysm looks cool because of the whole Azeroth reshaped thing, but behind it all is still the same old game which, admitedly, can still be a lot of fun. Goblins as playable race is great, but unfortunately they're Horde and I couldn't care less about Worgen (besides I have no character slots left on Thunderhorn).
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didn't you already have a pally on thunderhorn ? :)
Yeah Sax I saw it, i figure i should PM Irya and see how much she'll pay me to come back ;)
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All wow'd out here also, can't see a return here for Cataclysm for me either, though never say never. I know eko is playing again though, maybe he is the true addict of us all ;)
I'm not an addict! I can quit anytime! honest! :P
Nah, I only had a lowbie pally which I started levelling with Brigh untill he disappeared. And I had to delete it to make room for the transfer.
Yggy plays again on Wildhammer after a break (no he's not addicted either!) and told me Xan quit playing. Dunno why he quit though.
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well reactivated my subs for a month, I'm also on thunderhorn playing with the rogue - I think a few Roses of Dawn still log on as well
Brigh :D
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Tempting, i could x-fer my Gnome Rogue Xalice (aka Horde Bane, Scourge of BRM :D) to Thunderhorn too waste some time and money for a laugh ;)
Roguecraft days were fun. Shes still got the highest amount of kills on all my toons ;D
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cool - currently in the process of buying as many upgrade items I can :)
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I'm guessing no ones playing WoW atm?
I've been playing again on SkullCrusher.. as Alliance! My Horde toons are on Vek'nilash
Enjoying it again tbh, and setting up waiting for Cata to come out
The last patch they've brought out implemented something called Real ID. Its a battle net community thing, you add a buddy by using their e-mail address ingame and lets u chat cross faction, realm and even different battle net games (starcraft etc).
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I'm still sorta playing (mainly just logging on for raids lately) WoW. Still have to kill the Lich King, but we've only just finally managed to kill Sindragosa (we were stuck on her for weeks). Hope we can get it done before the expansion + the new patch also brought a new (shortish iirc) raid instance so there's still some challenges left.
Not too fussed about the new expansion, seems they dumb down the game with every expension anyway. Will most likely still get it as I'm curious about the whole Cataclysm event and how Azeroth will turn out, even though levelling/questing will just be more of the same, but we'll see. I'm trying to keep most of it a surprise so I'm hardly reading up on it :).
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Xans playing again, so does that means rogues are OP again ? ;)
Nice to see your still raiding eko, amazed you've stuck with it ! How far away from the litch king are you then ?
Not tempted to get the new expac myself, still trying to stay away from MMO's tbh (though I will be tested when the old republic comes out!)
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i'm playing my Warrior :P ... and Rogues have always been OP ;)
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We just started on the Lich King, but it's a fight with 3 phases & also phase transitions, so it'll take some time :P. First phase is easy really and the transition isn't too hard, but phase 2 is silly: LK is tanked in the middle while you have Valkyrs spawning on people and dragging them off to be dropped from a cliff and there's black spots that grow bigger every time someone stands in it and they can cover the whole platform extremely fast. Haven't seen phase 3 yet ;D.
Isn't the Star Wars MMO still ways off? Looks kinda nice though the classes seem to be the standard fare. On the other hand it's a BioWare game, so you can be sure it will have their attention to detail.
Finally replayed ME2 with my imported char and it's even more fun that way, lots of neat little touches from the first game that creep in: some people you meet again, others send you mails on how they're doing now it's nicely done really. Still find the game rather easy so might try a higher difficulty sometime, but got enough games to pay still. Got Valkyria Chronicles finally and it's really nice and not very easy either. Still have FFXII to finish as well as Red Dead Redemption, so I'll be busy for a while.
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Amazing how many times they use the 'don't stand in the black spot' trick.... and it still wokrs every tiime :)
Not been keeping up with the development of the old republic so no idea on release, but yeah it's the bioware bit that really tempts me as I reckon they'll do an awesome MMO.
Valkyria Chronicles is still one of my favourite games on the ps3, really original mix of all sorts of genres, but yeah also quite unforgiving (you can spend a good hour on a battle and then lose it all in one turn ! yet strangely i don't find this annoying as if i made tactical mistakes the AI really should punish me !)
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I only just read that EA merged Mythic and Bioware, not so sure about the old republic now........ :)
I see also that GOA lost the WAR contract!
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Keep up! ;)
I only just read that EA merged Mythic and Bioware, not so sure about the old republic now........ :)
I see also that GOA lost the WAR contract!
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Are you sure you even played ME2? The EA logo is shown and Mythic was taken over ages ago. You do know we're in the year 2010? :P
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hehe, well ofc I knew Mythic were bought by EA. And I also knew they bought Bioware. But didn't know they had merged the individual Mythic and Bioware teams, that was news to me! makes me think the old republic might stink if Mythic designers get their hands on it.
Did everyone else know GOA lost the WAr contract? Again news to me :)