Hybrid Theory

I came to an epiphany the other night and realized why I prefer dedicated classes over hybrids. It's as simple as specialization, in that, a hybrid is locked down in his/her specialized talent tree once gear is achieved.

I have a Druid friend that now wants to dip into the cat-tastic world of the feral tree, but all his gear, including epics, are catered towards healing. It's not a matter of a simple 50g respec fee, it boils down to the fee + days upon days of achieving new gear.

As a dedicated DPS class, I can use my current gear regardless of spec. There would be some minor changes needed, but nothing that goes beyond re-geming certain pieces.

So why bring this up, you ask? It's simple, why should hybrids be corn-holed into a specialization? I would like to see, on PvP gear for example, an exchange system that would allow you to exchange a piece for an equivalent piece. There could be a fee associated with the exchange, or maybe just the cost of losing enchants + gems would be enough. In any case, this would greatly increase my appeal towards playing a hybrid.

I understand that hybrids are suppose to specialize to avoid being awesome in any tree at any time, but the cost of re-geming / enchanting pieces, added to the cost of the respec should be enough to keep a person in check, but not corn-hole them out of months of gear achievements.

I would like to get some hybrids opinions on this, do you think something like this could work, or does it not bother you either way?

Rating: 1833

My 2v2 team is still a point farmer for friends & family that don't have higher ranked teams. We still teeter in the 1600's.

On the other hand, my 3v3 & 5v5 team both topped out at 1833 this weekend, but dropped back down after a couple loses. I don't mind dropping back down, as it shows that the teams are capable of the 1800 range.

I spent most of the weekend playing tennis & catching up on some reading. I have a ton of books I'm reading, and I would like to start finishing them one-by-one. I haven't given up on WoW yet, but I have to admit, it would be awesome to get into the level grind again, and alts are out of the question as I've already played every class to level 30, and going beyond that for a class, such as a warrior, would be worse than watching paint dry. I can't wait for WoTLK to come out!

Anyone else planning on trying Tabula Rasa? The reviews sum up the game as fun to play, but not enough depth. I wouldn't mind that, as sometimes I just want to have fun and not worry about stats, enchants, potions, repairs, classes, & gnomes. I'll give the game a chance, and surely write my individual review, but who knows if the game will stick.

We plan to get our 3v3 team back into the 1800 bracket before point tabulation tomorrow - I'll keep you informed.

If you like art, then check out this article, I found it interesting...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20533287/

EQII - First Impressions

I downloaded the 7-day trial for EQII the other night and was able to spend only a few short hours in the game, so when I say first impressions, I mean it!

I'm not sure why, I assume because it's a trial, but you cannot create certain races when making your character, which is fine as there's many to choose from. I ended up picking an Arasai, the dark version of the Fae (think tinkerbell, but macho).

You then get to pick your class, name, appearance, and server. I chose the highly populated PvP server, Nagafen. I went with the Wizard class since it most resembled a WoW Mage, and I love caster DPS.

The game drops you in a starting outpost with plenty of NPCs to talk to, and trust me, they have alot to say. If you're interested in story, the NPCs will talk your head off, but it's entirely optional in most cases as you can select your responses to them. You could easily select something like, "I'm not interested in that, where's the work!?"

One thing I really liked about the game is there's no need to visit a trainer, and you get new spells every level. The new spells will automatically fill a spot in your toolbar if there's an empty space, otherwise you access your abilities book.

The combat seemed interesting enough, but I was lagging badly. I don't blame the game for this, as I hope it's my older system causing the lag. The controls are similar to other MMOs and can be figured out quite easily. I haven't run into the extensive learning curve other bloggers are talking about - yet.

All in all I like EQII and I might continue playing it between Arena matches while waiting on WoTLK. The free trial doesn't even require a credit card, just a Station ID, which is just registering with SoE. Also, if you've ever played an SoE game, then you can use your old Station ID, which is what I did.

PvP Rant!

This is the response I left to Tobold's post on the future of PvP, I would recommend checking it out if you have any interest in Player vs. Player combat...

http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2007/09/future-of-pvp.html

I don't understand how people have a problem with gankers. I play on a PvP server in WoW, and I have to say that every class has abilities to get away, and if you combine those abilities with potions, it's not hard to escape. I mean, do you sit there and not move when you get ganked? I usually carry Swiftness + Invis potions and I never have trouble escaping.

The occasional 70 might one shot me, but you can bet your bottom dollar he won't kill me again after I res and chug some escape centric potions, or use an ability.

I'm tired of fair fights being based off numbers. I want more skill based PvP with less of gear & numbers being the deciding factor.

Back when I played Ultima Online I could take out a group of 3 badly skilled players by myself - in WoW those 3 players could beat me in full epics while drooling at the keyboard. I'm not saying I was the greatest in UO, as there were players that could eliminate a whole opposing force of 5 or more people. Bring back skill-based PvP!

I think the problem with ganking is the system in every game supports the gankers. There should be a penalty system that encourages people to kill the said ganker. What if an epic dropped off a player after he ganked 10 or more people? Do you think a group would gather to squash that person?

I just hope devs take an interesting approach to the future of PvP instead of throwing a set number of people on a small map. If I wanted that I would play an FPS - I play MMOs for the immersion of a world, not a small map.

AV Weekend Update

Ok, so AV weekend fell on a holiday, thanks Blizz! I decided to spend more time with the family than playing WoW, but I did get in a few matches.

We snagged a few 3v3 matches with out mage, war, pally combo. We went 7-3, and the teams we lost two both had a priest, shaman, x for the lineup. The priest was the healer, but I can only do so much to lock him down. The shaman was the DPS target and would heal himself while the priest was locked down. A few times the shaman was low with a heal and would get countered, but the priest would pop out of sheep and get the heal. It's hard locking down 2 healer teams. I think next time we'll DPS the priest and force the shaman to primary healer to sink his low mana pool.

We ended the night with a 1758 rating. If we could all stay on for more than 10 games at a time we could rise above 1800.

I haven't PvE'd, farmed, or did any BGs in about a week. I see myself only logging on for arenas now. I for one am looking forward to the expansion - and it's about time they add more snowy environments!

Not much else to report; we're looking to get some 5v5 in tonight, so I'll let everyone knows how that goes!

Arena Update

2v2 - 1688
I've turned my 2v2 team into a point gather / intro-to-arenas team. I currently have my brother on it, and he already mastered arenas, but he can't find a good 3v3 / 5v5, so he relies on the points from this team some weeks. I also have a Druid friend that just hit 70 and is learning arenas, and he already shows good potential. He hasn't dropped below a 50% win ratio yet.

3v3 - 1725
Our 3v3 team has dwindled down to just the starters, we don't have any backups. I like this because we can focus on our play-styles and cohesion. We're running an MS Warrior, Holy Pally, and Frost Mage (me). This setup works well, and I think the team has potential.

5v5 - 1782
This is where the majority of my arena points come from, and I think this team has serious potential. We have some backup players, but we focus on 2x Holy Pally, Hunter, Warrior, Mage. We've been going 7-3 the past few weeks, and I'd like to see us break 1800 soon.

Eye of the Storm

Every weekend a certain battleground is featured to attract interest. There's additional honor gains for playing a battleground during it's "holiday" weekend. This last weekend was for EoTS, so I thought I'd post our premade strat that easily went undefeated this weekend against pugs, and even other premades.

I was the leader, so I set up the groups as fast as possible when we enter the BG. As soon as the groups are set I will make an announcement so people can start their group buffs and take note of their group number. I then spam the macro that says the strat, which consist of...

/bg Group 1 = Draenei Ruins
/bg Group 2 = Mage Tower (Floats between FR / DR incs)

/bg Group 3 = Fel Reaver Ruins (Rush at start, do not stop on bridge!)

I usually call for a couple from group 2 to assist in the Fel Reaver push since it can get hairy if most of the Horde have stationed themselves there. If it looks like we're overwhelming them, then I'll call for group 1 to push Blood Elf Tower, and group 2 to push middle to Fel Reaver.

I'll make sure to leave 1 person from group 2 at Mage Tower / Draenei ruins to avoid the ninja.

By this time we usually have them pushed back to their graveyard, or just heavy defense at Blood Elf Tower. In any case, our strat *never* involve running the flag. We either hold 3 tower until we win, or we 4 cap. In rare instances I'll have 1 person running flags to speed the game up on a 4 cap, but it's never the means to an end.

On a side note, I would recommend getting the Cartographer map mod for the simple reason it shows when a player in in combat on the map. This helps since not all players are skilled at calling incoming. I also have macros set for "/bg Inc ". If you are the caller it is vital that you pay more attention to the map and direct traffic than it is to stay in combat and keep on the move.

As the caller, I usually leave myself at the Mage Tower and just direct traffic over vent while watching the map the whole time for players in combat.

These are just the tactics we use in our guild premades, and I'm sure there are other successful strats, and I would love to hear them! If you're looking for general EoTS advice, then head over to Out of Mana to check out one of Megs latest post...http://outofmana.blogspot.com/2007/08/10-tips-for-eots.html

Collision Detection = Better PvP!

I've been playing graphical MMOs since Ultima Online's release in 1997, and the one feature I miss the most, other than housing, is the collision detection.

If you've never heard the term, or don't know what it means, let me quote Wikipedia...

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_detection)

"In physical simulations, video games and computational geometry, collision detection involves algorithms for checking for collision, i.e. intersection, of two given solids. Simulating what happens once a collision is detected is sometimes referred to as "collision response", for which see physics engine and ragdoll physics. Collision detection algorithms are a basic component of 3D video games. Without them, characters could go through walls and other obstacles."

The collision that I'm referring to from Ultima Online is between two players. If you've ever played WoW, or a similar MMO, then you know when two characters collide they walked through each other. This is great in a candy-coated world of non-realism, but the strategy & tactics available in PvP from this feature are endless!

The melee characters would be given new roles, landscapes could be put to use, no longer would you be able to train DPS on a healer before killing his tank standing in the doorway blocking your path.

I remember my first strategical PvP encounter in Ultima Online that revolved around collision detection. A couple of friends and I were getting mauled by more experienced players outside of the Britania Bank. I decided to barricade the room inside the bank with our Mace / Shield user blocking the door and the other two of us, archers, would stand behind him and cross heal with bandages. We held our ground firm and were unable to be killed. We even took a few people out, and it wasn't until we broke formation to go loot that we all died.

This is just an example of how landscape, formation, and strategy can add a whole new level to PvP. It's because of this that rooftop camping should not have been banned, instead they should have made rooftops easier to access for guards and other players!

Now before the comment is placed, I'll address the main concern now. I'm sure you're wondering about the grieving nature of not being able to walk through players. What if you get pinned in? Well there would be spells, abilities, and items to get out of that situation, but they would only take you so far, so there would still be occasional case of getting circled.

Would you like to see something of this nature in WoW, and if so, which zone in do you think would make the most use out of collision detection in PvP?