DCUO Holidays And Endgame

This week's patch introduced DCUO's Christmas event. 

The event is not especially deep - the heroes must literally Save Christmas (tm) from the greedy Orange Lanterns, who want to steal all the presents and trees from the decorated cities of Gotham and Metropolis.  In exchange, you get three holly leaves per day for your currency tab.  Leaves can be used to purchase the eight pieces of a Holiday Elf outfit, cosmetic weapons named for candy canes, rings (which actually have stats), and some consumables.   What is interesting is how it fits in DCUO's endgame.

DCUO uses its feat system - similar to achievements, deeds, and similar systems in other games - to dole out skill points.  These are used to unlock special attacks, additional weapon types, and stat bonuses.  The stats aren't that high - I have around 950 Might in basically the gear I had on when I dinged 30, and might get as much as 20 Might from an additional skill point - but they can eventually add up.  The raider who skips PVP, outdoor race courses, collecting cosmetic armor, and, yes, holiday achievements will eventually fall behind the player who does everything.

Meanwhile, DCUO also has a relatively linear gear progression.  A new stat called "combat rating" is effectively your gearscore in other games, determined by the average level of your gear and used to determine entry into content (including the new DLC).  Once I complete the last few normal quests, I am expected to move on to solo "challenges" (effectively heroic versions of solo dungeons), followed by 2-player duos (with auto-grouping), 4-player alerts, some combination of "hard T1/T2" versions of the above, and eventually raids, each with its own CR requirement. 

In other words, a holiday event that sounds repetitive is, for better or worse, what this game is about once you reach the level cap.  The system tells you where you can go, you go there and get tokens, you buy stuff from the vendor, and eventually you unlock new skill points and new things to work on. 

It sounds bad, and I suppose it is if that's not what you're looking for.  Then again, DCUO is ultimately as much about the fast-paced action combat as the story behind why established heroes need your help. It's good to have the occasional change of scenery and tactics, but they seem to know what their core game is and they're sticking to it. 

Meanwhile, the game has quietly rolled out its second new DLC in three months, with another new powerset - lightning powers with a ward-based healing option that sounds intriguing.  For the first time I'm starting to see something that resembles a reasonable path where I might eventually contribute to the upkeep of this product.  I won't be playing this thing each and every day to grind out tokens or buying every powerset just to see what it does.  Still, $10 per DLC and maybe $5 for a character slot once I run out is not a bad price for a new powerset and a slightly different path from 1-30 under a different mentor.  I still think this game has a tough path, but perhaps they at least have an idea of how to approach that challenge today. 

Features of LOTRO's Update 5

LOTRO's Update 5 rolled out this week, containing a number of new features and the new group content for the expansion (which was technically launched in September).  The update reminded me that I haven't been in to check out the new Enedwaith and Isengard content I picked up on super-sale for Black Friday, and I'm been impressed with what I've run into so far.

The big feature is the new instance group finder, which does approximately what we've come to expect out of this feature.  Probably the biggest innovation in the system is the decision to include solo skirmishes in the queue.  This may seem funny - you get the message that you have entered the queue and then are presented with a ready check to jump into a solo skirmish you could have started yourself - but it's actually really clever. 

Because content for larger groups award more marks, I might be tempted to click the higher group size buttons.  If there's no tanks or healers available, no harm, it can just dump me in the solo skirmish I would have done anyway.  If it happens that there are players available, it's an easy way to lure solo players into group content, in a game where frankly I've done very little group content.  Not a bad trade in exchange for using this system to mediate the old daily rewards for running skirmishes. 

Fourteen different rep items that had been cluttering my bank

Elsewhere, the update features good quality of life improvements.  Items whose sole purpose was to collect 10 and turn in to an NPC for reputation have been changed into consumables so you can use them immediately to get the appropriate amount of rep (e.g. 30 rep for an item that used to give 300 for a stack of 10).  This allowed me to clear 14 different types of tokens out of my bank, all of which were there because I either needed more for a complete turnin or did not want to travel back to the NPC who wanted them.  LOTRO still has way too many currencies that don't go in the currency tab - e.g. tokens for Lothlorien, the Malledhrim, the Grey Company, and probably more in Isengard - but at least this is one type of item that's not taking up space. 

In another change that Doc Holiday posted, old Moria class quests that required group content no one does anymore are now optional.  Previously, you had to run a dungeon or do without the capstone class trait for your class.  Now, the trait is automatically granted for the second to last stage of the quest (the final solo step), and I immediately received 20 TP for the deed upon login. 

One unfortunate Uruk got stuck between my Champion and most of the Grey Company

These changes aside, I've been forging into the content of Enedwaith - a zone added during the free to play rollout last year which I declined to purchase at the time because I was already level capped.  I definitely do not need this content for the exp - I'm already level 67 having barely started the zone - but I'm glad I decided not to skip it (as I was considering).  I play LOTRO for the story, not necessarily for pushing the envelope on gameplay difficulty (though LOTRO supports that too, with the option to scale Skirmishes up above your level).  I've been enjoying the content greatly, and it would have been a shame in hindsight to waste it.  Meanwhile, I'm also likely to complete a few deeds for TP and traits while working on the epic storyline in the zone, and I would not have received credit if I had not purchased the content pack. 

In any case, things in Middle Earth seem to be going pretty well.  There is an argument to be made that they should have held the expansion until this update was ready, but it does seem that longtime players have gotten good use out of the portions of the expansion that were done in the mean time.  This game has never been especially competitive on quantity and that does not look to change, but the quality remains superb.  If they can keep making small but steady improvements to quality of life, coupled with the superb storytelling the game is known for, LOTRO will likely continue to hold down a niche for a while to come. 

Triumph of the Loyalty Reward Mount

Of the reasons why I signed up for WoW's annual pass, the Tyrael's Charger mount was pretty much negligable.  That said, the mount arrived with this week's patch 4.3, so I suppose you can make an argument that I now own a mount that I obtained with real money. 

Visually, it's a very nice mount - typical horse but the ethereal wings/tail are striking and unique (not entirely so, obviously, but far less common than the original sparkle pony was in my limited experience).  On the downside, I'm not entirely thrilled with the flight animation.  Viewed from the side or the front it looks fine, but from behind (which is the default perspective after all) the horse moves his legs as if he were pushing off against the ground.  It looks a bit odd in mid-air, in a way that the Headless Horseman's flying horse did not.  

Like all other mounts, the horse requires the appropriate level and riding skill to use - my level 5 bank alt can loot the mount from her mail but cannot use it.  The two perks this mount does get (which have been on previous cash store mounts) are the ability to scale to player riding skill level and the ability to make a seamless transition from flight to ground travel if you enter a no-fly zone. 

I'm not sure exactly what the rules for this are anymore now that so much of the world is flyable - I have seen people riding on gryphons on the ground - but I was able to fly the charger into the cave for the Pebble daily quests and continue on the ground, where a traditional flying mount kicked me off when I tried this last week.  This air to ground ability is not common - as far as I'm aware, there are only two mounts (the horseman from the Halloween event and the Valentine's rocket) with this capability that can be obtained through normal in-game means.  It's not a must have and I wouldn't pay $25 for it (the going rate for mounts in WoW's cash shop), but it's a nice account-wide perk.

Meanwhile, because my luck runs that way sometimes, my egg from the Oracles finally hatched into a Green Proto-Drake when I logged into game to pick up the new mount from the mailbox.  Go figure.

Capped In DCUO

Green Armadillo hit DCUO's level cap (30) on Wednesday. 

He's currently got 31 skill points, 15 from levels and the rest from feats, the game's version of achievements.  I'm not sure exactly what the cap is on this, but realistically most characters are going to want a melee and a ranged weapon with 6-9 points each in attack combos.  Beyond that, you're just picking up additional weapon types and/or passive stats. 

One thing that struck me about the experience was how much of the content I used on the way to the top.  Solo missions are automatically granted when you reach the appropriate level, and I have completed most of them.  There is one level 23 quest instance I skipped due to a massively over-tuned final fight, and two level 29 questlines that I have advanced to the final story instances but not yet completed.  There may be some sidequests that I have missed - I don't know if the ones I have yet to complete are for level 30 or earlier ones that I missed - and there is also exp to be had for completing race courses in the world.  That said, there will be almost no new leveling content for future Hero alts, and the Villain content generally mirrors the Hero questlines. 

On the plus side, there is a fair amount of additional content at level 30, including "challenge modes" of lower level solo instances.  There's also the DLC, which I will probably partake of eventually (either via subscription or paid unlock).  In the mean time, DCUO is now the fourth MMO where I have owned a max level character, so I guess that speaks to the quality of the leveling experience (at least once). 

The Content of DCUO

After two weeks of DCUO, my main hero, the Green Armadillo, is sitting at level 18, out of the cap of 30.  I've also run two villain characters through the first story arc for their respective mentors on the PS3 side.  The content has been high quality, but I'm somewhat surprised to find myself running out of level-appropriate quests.

If the intent is to force me into group content to round out the exp curve, that is a potentially interesting design decision, albeit one that will leave me with no content to use on alts.  If the issue is that the game simply doesn't have enough content to go around, that would probably explain a fair amount of why it did not do well as a subscription title. 

A Tale of Two Cities

The non-instanced world of DCUO consists of the cities of Metropolis and Gotham, which, in the view of this biased Batman fan, is one city too many.  Catwoman has more personality than Wonder Woman, and Superman is such a generic boyscout that I thought a voice actor portraying a vendor was mocking me when they sneered that they could sell me stuff to help my fight for truth, justice, and the American Way, until I realized that Superman actually says that.  It's also not clear to me why the three Villain mentors would want to team up, other than defense against the Justice League, maybe there's more lore for this at higher levels.  Again, I am biased, but the Metropolis content is the stuff I do to try and get the exp I need to get back to Batman Universe Online.

Speaking of exp, the outdoor quests (all of which are effectively semi-public quests) go quicker than they sound (20 kills per objective is common) due to the fast paced combat, and the likelihood that other players are around to help.  That said, I am not receiving enough exp to be the listed level for the next questline when I finish each story arc.  I doubled back and completed all of the low level content that I have access to (each mentor has one exclusive questline for levels 3-5 that other characters can't get), and it looks like I will be up against higher level mobs very shortly unless I go digging for sidequests or start running PUG dungeons. 

Each quest arc ends in an "iconic" fight against a DC character.  Judging from the "feats" panel, I have completed 8 of 28 solo iconic fights, which was surprising given my level.  That said, it may be a bit concerning that I'm already more than halfway to the level cap, burning through all the content in the game on my first playthrough.  Moreover, it appears based on storyline and presence of opposite faction players in my quest areas that all of the content beyond the newbie area is mirrored for both factions - even switching sides may not help. 

Overall, I'm definitely not dissatisfied with what I've gotten from this game for my payment of $0.  That said, I'm not sure when that number will become non-zero; I have taken to hitting the cosmetic appearance vendor to sink excess cash so that I don't hit the currency cap (which is apparently very low), but it's not like I need the money for anything else thus far.  I would care about the character slot limit if I wanted to do more alts, but it looks like the unique content for each mentor is limited.  Perhaps I will pay for DLC eventually?  In any case, the content may be limited, but at least it's good, which is more than some games I've tried can say. 

Useful feature - the quest log can be sorted by quest type.

DCUO Powers, Weapons, and Roles

The first week of DCUO is in the books, and the game now has some of the longest, but fastest moving, queues I've seen.  On the lone US PC server at 9:30 PM Eastern on a Thursday, my queue number was  2600, but I was in game within 17 minutes.  I'm not sure what's going on here - is the bottleneck the login/zone server, or are there really 150+ people logging off or disconnecting every minute? 

I spent the queue time writing the below, intended it to be part of a longer post, but it's long enough that I decided to hit publish as is. 

During the first week, I have advanced Green Armadillo to level 14 as a Sorcery character with Flight.  I also have a level 6 villian mentalist on the PS3 side.  Here are some more details about the game's character building options.  DCUO source has the only character builder I'm aware of, and it hasn't been updated since the Green Lantern powers were added, but it has the six powersets that free players will have access to, so it will do for the purposes of this discussion.

Powers and Roles

One of the two trees for Sorcery characters.  Yes, that is the entire tree, not just a portion. 

Characters gain one power point every even level, for a total of 15 at the game's level cap (currently 30).  You can spend these points on one of three trees - two specific to your class with a dozen points available in each, and an "iconic powers" tab with 22 choices that include generic powers and and passive stat boosts.  These choices apply to both of your two roles (damage and one of tank/heals/crowd control), but some powers have different functions depending on which role you are currently using.  For example, I have several spells that do AOE damage in my DPS role and AOE healing as a healer.  You may only have six powers on your "loadout" bar (there's a separate one for your other role), so beyond level 12 you are either picking for versatility, your off-spec, or you can just dump the points in passive stat boosts.

Powers drain your energy bar, and do not appear to be designed to be spammed indefinitely, though I see horror story posts of how much healers spend on "colas" (the game's version of an energy potion).  There's also a "supercharge" bar used to run or enhance certain powers.  I assume this is the thing thermometer-like line on the bottom of the character health UI, but none of my current powers consume supercharge and thus I have yet to figure out how this works. 

Weapons and Feats

A standard looking achievement page... but what's that meter on the top?

All characters start with one of three travel powers - speed, acrobatics, or flight - and one of the ten types of weapons.  You get skill points on your odd numbered levels, and additional skill points for completing the game's version of achievements (yes, this is the first game I've played that actually uses your number of achievements for advancement). 

Skill points can be spent on special attacks (either from your weapons or your travel power), passive stat boosts, or unlocking new weapons you don't know yet (starting at level 10).  There's a core path for each weapon type that grants both some baseline attacks and passive stats.  Personally, my plan is to unlock most or all of the weapons first and then go back to pick up more specialized attacks. 

The bow skill tree.  The top point unlocks the weapon and a passive stat boost, the next three below it unlock both an attack and some stats.  The panel on the left is the tooltip, and also depicts how to activate the highlighted combo attack.  Each tree has four places to sink three points each (the four that say 0/3) for passive stats. 

Weapon attacks, including "combo attacks", do not cost any resource other than time.  All attacks are executed by some combination of clicking and/or holding the melee and ranged attack buttons (L/R click on your mouse, two of the buttons on a game pad).  You will be spamming these, even as a healer, because the number of hits you have in your attack combo (which is lost after a few seconds, or if you use a power) determine your power regen rate. 

All weapons have some form of both ranged and melee attack - your bow can be used to beat people, and your sword can be used for an unspecified form of energy attack.  They also differ in terms of speed of attacks and how click-happy that combat style is.  My first selection was the hand blaster, which is very clicky, with rapid but weak attacks that build combo counts quickly.  This is good for a healer because I frequently stop attacking to heal.  I decided to go with a bow next because I'd looted one and it had a good reputation as a DPS weapon.  It does indeed seem to do more DPS, with slightly slower and more reasonable attack click commands.  On my villian, I have dual wielding, which also seems to be click-heavy, but fit with the more agile concept I had in mind.  I need to try something bigger and slower - e.g. the rifle or the two-handed weapon - to see how that feels. 

Overall, the system is fun, but I am a bit disappointed that I'm suddenly carrying around a bow (and apparently infinite supply of arrows).  This type of choice is pretty big from a cosmetic standpoint, and it's unfortunate to be forced down specific paths based on what archetype you want to play. 

F2P DCUO Day One

DCUO has finally gone free to play, and the Green Armadillo - yes, finally an MMO where my pseudonym is actually appropriate - has hit the streets of Gotham to investigate.  A few early impressions after a few hours in game:

Controls
I was dreading the attempt to play this thing with a keyboard and mouse, because the PS3 beta made it feel tailor made for a controller.  On this front, I've been pleasantly surprised.

The control scheme is definitely different - your character (hopefully) turns in whatever direction you move the mouse (no keyboard turning), and if you're extra lucky the camera turns with you.  Your melee attack is the left click button and your ranged attack is the right click.  You generally will only hit stuff that is in front of you at the time you click, and combos are executed by various combinations of left and right click/hold.  WASD handles forward, backwards, and strafing.

You have one hotbar that you cannot click - you have to actually push the number keys to use your non-basic-attack powers, and I believe you're only allowed eight total active powers at a time.  The "e" key is bound to interacting with objects, the "f" key is used to toggle "fast" mode, and there are other keys for various menus, as is par for the MMO course.

I'll have to take the PS3 version for a spin over the weekend, but after trying this on the PC I'm wondering if the less popular PC version isn't the better choice after all, if for no other reason than to let players type.  One aside, though, I think you probably need a real mouse - I don't hate my fingers enough to try and play this thing on a laptop trackpad. 

Costumes and Customization
I last attempted to play COH sometime circa 2007, but that game then had way more options than DCUO does now.  There are only three body types - muscular brute, almost as muscular but not quite so brute, and kid/sprite (i.e. disproportionately large head), each of which comes in small/medium/large and both genders.  You do have relatively broad discretion to change the color of your skin textures, but it's nothing like the more powerful character generator in COH/Champions.

Likewise, your power options are limited.  Everyone gets one of three travel powers - speed, acrobatics, or flight - and one of 6-7 powersets.  (The seventh, from the Green Lantern DLC, is a paid unlock for non-subscribers.)  Each of the powersets comes with a dual spec option - DPS and something that is actually useful for groups (tank, heal, or crowd control) - as well as two "trees" with something like 10-12 powers on each one.  There are supposedly respecs, but the variety does not look that impressive.

The style panel contains all the loot textures I have ever equipped.

One thing that is very different in DCUO compared to other MMO is the way cosmetics are handled.  Every time your character equips an item, they receive the permanent option to use it as cosmetic armor.  All of your armor is automatically recolored to match the three colors in your palette, though it may be possible to change this somehow.  Either way, it's an interesting feature that lets you keep your preferred superheroic look as you get gear.

Gameplay
Overall, the game feels a lot like a console superhero beat-em-up.   There's a lot of button mashing, a combo meter that I've already run up to 100 hits, and plenty of mobs to beat down.

The combo counter in action

Interestingly, every quest in the game that I've seen so far is effectively a public quest - you don't get credit for everything that happens around you, but most times I do get credit for a mob kill if I did significant amounts of damage, and most times I get credit for helping the beleaguered cops of Gotham if I damage something that is trying to stop them.  

There's also a dungeon finder equivalent that automatically throws together groups.  The only group quest I've gotten so far is a Halloween event against the Scarecrow, and it appears to be way too hard for a group of newbie F2P players of appropriate level, but at least the thing works in principle.

On the plus side, the feel of the world and the lore is alive and well - it's always fun when a new iconic character makes their appearance. 

The Business
As a free player, I didn't feel that badly limited.  There are some unfortunate quirks - NPC's send me mail that I'm not allowed to receive because free players can't open attachments.  In principle, I will eventually care about my bagspace.  I get only one weekly trip to "the vault" - effectively a slot machine for more cosmetic appearance unlocks.  I am completely banned from receiving items from other players in any way until I upgrade to premium, which is okay because I wouldn't have any cash with which to trade due to the game's escrow account - non-subscribers must pay real money to access their currency.
I'm clearly supposed to want to spend $5/500 SC for the permanent upgrade to "premium" status, which increases my character slots from 2 to 6, adds more than 50% to my total bag+bank slot inventory, and opens up the broker.  I just don't see precisely why I do want this, since I'm not feeling that I lack anything. 

If you are looking to spend the 500 SC, there are cosmetics and consumables in the cash shop, but probably the most attractive options to meet this quota are character slots (500 SC per, though I'm not sure if I need seven slots with only seven powersets in the game) or inventory and bank slots (300-400 for additional slots, unclear whether this is account-wide, and the numbers do not add up to a convenient way to spend exactly 500 SC).  If you're prepared to spend a bit more, there's the Green Lantern DLC, which costs 1100 SC but actually includes a decent chunk of content along with the Green Lantern powerset.  Alternately, non-Green Lantern fans could wait for future DLC, which will probably run in the same price range, and possibly snag a double Station Cash weekend for a hefty discount in the process.

I'm not at all hostile to the cash shop as currently organized, I just don't see anything that I really want in it either.  If this does turn out to be a good game that I'd be willing to support, this is unfortunate. 

The Outlook
If this game had come out as a single player game with paid DLC and optional online multiplayer, it would have likely been a huge hit - as it is, the game is reportedly three times more popular on the PS3, and that market is willing to pay $60 for a box and $10 for the occasional DLC.

Instead, SOE went for the monthly fee model and came up short.  Now the game is in the unenviable position of having gone Free to Play ten months too late, after having effectively failed to make it as a paid game and dwindled to the smallest number of servers the payment platforms allow.  (PVE and PVP rulesets are two phases on the same server, with shared queues for instanced PVE and PVP content.  It sounds like world PVP is problematic in any case, because apparently people who want to be Batman greatly outweigh people who want to be Killer Croc.)  Like many games that have had to retrofit their payment models, I'd argue that this one does not make a ton of sense. 

On the plus side, there's definitely some interest in the game, and I suspect that it will get many more players on the PS3 side - PS3 players will download anything they can get for free off the PSN store.  This may even translate into some additional money for SOE, though clearly much less than they were hoping for.  That said, I can't help but wonder that this game won't be around in a year - the only games SOE ever cancels are licensed IP's, and this one probably is not cheap.  The fact that there's little doubt in my mind that I can finish the content in the game before the lights get turned off doesn't do much to reassure me about the game's outlook. 

P.S. Two additional potential losers in this deal - the Marvel Universe online MMO, which will now arrive in a marketplace where all three previous superhero MMO's have gone F2P inside of about a year, and anyone else who thinks putting a subscription MMO on the PS3 is something the PSN customers will tolerate.  (I half feel bad for FFXIV trying this, they've already been through a lot.)

A Lesson In Pay To Win

I spent most of the last few evenings working on Runes of Magic's triple exp weekend.  (Yes, the high end exp curve is set in a way that you can literally triple exp awards.)

My primary class (Druid) had been sitting at level 53 for some time while I worked on my secondaries (first Rogue, then Warden).  As I pushed on past level 55 - occasionally called the start of the real game due to increased exp requirements and steeper gear curves - I decided I was willing to spend $5 to see what the game is like for the pay-to-win crowd. 

What I got for my money was disappointing, and the way in which Frogster delivered it makes me seriously question whether I should trust them with my money in the future. 

Note the exp curve - 5.3 million exp for level 50, 11.6 million exp for level 53, and 25.5 million exp for level 57.  Exp gains for content do not increase nearly so quickly.

A Bad Purchasing Experience
I had about $5 in diamonds left on my account from a sale last summer, in which I had deliberately left myself a bit of spending money.  That money had not been spent since for lack of anything that I wanted to spend it on.  Other than permanent mounts, the entire contents of the cash shop are either time-limited rentals (e.g. storage) that don't make sense for infrequent players or pay-to-win consumables. 

The one thing that would genuinely improve my quality of life would be permanently expanded storage.  I'd willingly pay $5-10 to buy an extra tab outright.  Unfortunately, the only way to obtain permanent storage tabs is to gamble - you purchase a lottery ticket called a Gasha with diamonds (that cost real money) and you get some consumables along with an undisclosed chance of obtaining the item you want (in this case, a backpack).  My back of envelope math based on the forum thread about this weekend's gashas puts the drop rate around 10-15%.  Readers with an understanding of probability can probably see how this can end very poorly.

Despite a semester of statistics in grad school, I decided that I was willing to spend precisely $5.50 - the existing credit on my account plus a chunk of an additional $5, which would leave me with enough diamonds to buy a horse for an alt later - on some daily quest tickets with the low chance of getting a backpack.  Frogster's touted new payment provider ended up muddling this plan, by taking something like 36-48 hours after my purchase to deliver the diamonds. 

This delay, allegedly for a manual review for fraud, is unacceptable in a business model that routinely runs sales for a single day at a time.  This particular sale was still going when the diamonds finally arrived, but Frogster's EULA and Customer Service are very clear that there are no refunds given for situations in which their payment provider fails to deliver the promised currency before the end of the sale.  Effectively, they can deliver your pizza two days after you wanted to eat dinner, and you still have to pay for it because they eventually delivered you something you can use later. 

I had heard rumors of similar issues with delivery in the past, but I did not have issues over the summer (when I paid through a third party provider, Zeevex).  If these are the terms of doing business with Frogster America, there is a very good chance that I have done my last business with them. 

What I got
So, I ended up stopping at 3 daily quest ticket gashas, which turned into four daily quest reset tickets and (as is predictable) no backpack in exchange for roughly $4.12.  I redeemed three of these over the course of the weekend, obtaining as much exp as I could have earned by doing ten dailies per day for nine days straight (or some smaller number of quests over a longer period). 

The ROM exp curve heavily biases quest completion over mob kills, in part because there is no stopping players from grinding mobs.  I don't tend to play ROM every day, and I have routinely ended a play session with two or more days' worth of backlogged daily quests to turn in.  Where daily quest tickets suddenly become very valuable is when exp is tripled for one weekend only.  With each level 50 daily in Xaviera suddenly awarding over 750K experience, the three tickets that I used during the weekend translated into at least one level for my Druid, just as she hits the point where the exp curve starts to get really steep.   

Butterfly raid

As an aside, there was a very interesting subculture with these dailies.  Though the content is soloable, the quests can be completed in a raid group.  This becomes necessary because there are not enough spawns to go around.  The result was that all weekend long there were one or more raid groups farming butterflies in Xaviera, presumably burning daily quest tickets all the while.  (Some players were financing this habit by looking for players to gift them tickets in exchange for gold.) 

Unfortunately, I have to rate the actual gameplay experience as a disappointment.  For one long weekend, the rate of advancement in high level ROM was accelerated to a rate that I would consider reasonably fun.  I would gladly pay some amount of money to have that same experience on days that aren't triple exp bonus weekend.  I'm less impressed by the opportunity to spend $4 to spend more time stomping solo butterflies in a raid group for unreasonably large amounts of exp towards an even more unreasonable exp curve. 

What I did instead

Out of a small army of alts, I was able to find a female character who is actually wearing something that passes for clothing.

In the mean time, I ran a fair amount of the non-repeatable content on my main, advancing from 53 Druid/50 Warden/50 Rogue to 57 D/53 Wd/50 R on the remaining quests of Xaviera and the Weeping Coast.  This was fun. 

I also leveled five different alts, most of which had been parked around 10/10/0 from when I was trying out classes, to 25/25/25.  Coast of Opportunity is very good for this on bonus weekend - I'd say it took about 60-90 minutes per alt, a bit longer for the one alt I rolled up from scratch.  This was fun, and it positions me to test drive a ton of dual class elite skills I haven't had access to previously, as I try to see which one, if any, I'd like to stick with for another long term character. 

(Interestingly, permanent mounts have actually been reduced in price since last I checked, perhaps because it is the one thing in the cash shop that you really should have for all characters.  Because I spent fewer diamonds than I had planned thanks to the payment provider snafu, I can probably buy horses for two different alts the next time there's a sale, if I'm so inclined.) 

All of these things were reasonably fun, and ironically did not cost me any real world money.

The Irony of Pay to Win
The end result of this deal is that I basically purchased 1-2 levels' worth of exp. I don't look at my character as tainted or feel that this transaction was morally wrong.  It also clearly is not imbalancing to the game, to the extent that grinding the dailies was so popular. 

Even so, I'm extremely unlikely to ever do this again.  Not because I'm ticked at the company for customer service issues or because of moral outrage on behalf of the purity of the game.  The problem I have with pay to win is that, to the extent that the game is fun to play, paying to get out of playing the game is pointless.  On the flip side, to the extent that the game is NOT fun to play, paying to win is equally pointless. 

50/50/50 ROM Class Updates

Earlier this week, I hit 50 on my two "secondary" classes in Runes of Magic, Warden and Rogue.  Combined with my Druid levels (53), this means that I can finally have all of the 50/50 dual class elite skills for all three combinations.  (These previously required a lengthy group quest, but are now awarded by easy repeatable quest certificates as part of the game's accelerated catch-up zone.)  Here's what the six pairings do:

1. Druid/Rogue (D/R): My original class pairing, this one is a DPS caster that uses the Rogue energy bar for spells.  This leaves your mana bar free for self-heals (slightly debuffed by your shadow damage form) and utility.  I really like how this class plays, finding this combination was a big part of what got me to stick around in ROM.
   
2. Druid/Warden (D/Wd): This class is a hybrid-ish healer that also has some buff abilities, including a highly coveted buff to base magic damage levels.  Unfortunately, this pairing is nigh unusable because most of my skill points on my Druid are sunk into DPS abilities (in particular D/R elites, which I can't even use as D/Wd).
   
3. Rogue/Druid (R/D): This was the pairing I had to take originally in order to be allowed to play D/R, because you had to get the Rogue levels somehow.  It's great at low levels when mobs die quickly and then you can heal the damage from a mana bar you don't use in combat.  Unfortunately, at higher levels mobs live longer and deal more damage.  Though Rogues do get to wear leather armor, the Druid casters actually feel more durable with cloth plus a shield and self-heals.  Because the R/D wants melee stats, the self-heals aren't going to be impressive enough to increase survivability or offset the reduced DPS for not having a more offensive secondary.
   
4. Rogue/Warden (R/Wd): This build is a bit of a glass cannon of melee DPS, but it's a ton of fun.  Rogue energy regen is balanced assuming that you will be able to supplement your damage from your subclass (which the R/D cannot, since their general and elite skills are heals and buffs).  The Warden fits the bill perfectly, with a full blue mana bar to power additional melee attacks.  The 50/50 elite skill actually spawns a pair of Warden pets to do extra DPS for 15 seconds.  Unfortunately, there is very little in the way of survival, which hurts in a game that still boasts a healthy exp penalty on death.
   
5. Warden/Rogue (Wd/R): This is an offensive Warden pairing that can burn mana very quickly for major damage, or throttle back and rely on the Rogue energy bar for more sustained DPS.  This was definitely the way to go for levels 1-32, as the Rogue secondary allows you to dual wield.  After level 32, Wardens can use 2H weapons, and their abilities are a bit more geared towards that approach. 
   
6. Warden/Druid (Wd/D): This is a more hybrid approach to the Warden.  At low levels, the class is borderline painful to play because Wardens already burn through mana very quickly, and adding Druid spells only exacerbates this weakness.  Once you hit the mid-30's, things turn around very quickly. 
   
   To compensate for not being able to spam attacks, Wd/D's get a buff at 30/30 that turns their already impressive 2H autoattacks into massive magic-assisted strikes at no ongoing mana cost.  At 35/35, a newly revised elite skill turns one of the general purpose Warden melee attacks into a substantial AOE heal.  This allows me to choose the most offense-oriented pet/buff combinations (generally sacrificing the support Nature Crystal for more crit and then letting the Rogue-like Oak Walker add to my DPS), knowing that I still have my general purpose Druid heal available if needed.  The Nature Crystal, which provides buffs and cannot aggro (or be killed by) mobs is also a good choice in groups. 

Overall, the two pairings I enjoy the most are the D/R and the Wd/D.  I may or may not continue to level the Rogue, but I don't feel a ton of pressure to do so since I'm not planning to do much with the Wd/R and additional Rogue levels aren't going to upgrade skills I actually use on the D/R pairing.  The big issue is gear. 

My three classes span three of ROM's four armor types, and theoretically the Druid could use separate armor for DPS or healing (if I were playing D/Wd, which I'm not planning to thanks to the skill and gearing issues).  They also all want different weapons, which are the single slot (or slots) that has the biggest effect on DPS/healing levels.  Some gear can be shared, but the game supposedly gets increasingly gear dependent at higher levels (which I am going to hit very shortly). 

One one level, I do respect the idea of having players spend effort to specialize their characters.  I also think that the new third class option is still a huge improvement, since it gives more options to avoid a specific pairing that you do not enjoy (like the R/D).  Unfortunately, this all may mean that I'm going from six choices, half of which I enjoy, to maybe one that remains playable in a few levels.  It would be nice if there were some more middle ground. 

Triumph of the Leaping Lizards

In principle, I don't spend all my time earning raptor-related mounts, but that happens to be how things worked out this week.  There were two time-sensitive things going on in EQ2 at the moment - the always clever annual Halloween event, and the second part of an expansion prelude event that seeks to concoct a lore explanation for why we're suddenly getting Beast Lords. I'm not currently paying for an EQ2 subscription, but this is precisely the scenario where an EQ2X account comes in handy.  So, I dusted off my Inquisitor and got to work.

The Saliraptor, which comes in black for crafters and white for adventurers.

The events I came for were basically what I expected, but the visit reminded me that I had yet to obtain the game's new "leaping" mounts.  SOE promised that flight would remain an exclusive perk for high level Velious expansion owners, but they did also just spend a fair chunk of time redecorating most zones in the game to allow flying mounts.  The compromise was a new set of leapers for characters in their 30's, and "gliders" for characters in their 60's.  I never bothered to do these quests because Lyriana can already fly under her own power.  My mid-30's Inquisitor, on the other hand, was in the right level range, and promptly completed the questlines for both the adventuring and crafting forms of the leaper.

On the ground, including in areas that are not yet flight-enabled, leapers are slower than regular ground mounts.  The difference, in flight-enabled areas, is that they can jump.  Really high.  Like on top of buildings and up sheer cliffsides high.  The leapers also come with immunity to falling damage, which means that you won't kill yourself by leaping off a cliff or jumping towards a bridge and missing. 

It's an interesting mechanic - the jump is high and long enough that you can basically avoid combat almost as well as if you were on a flying mount, but this method takes a bit more attention to ensure that you don't fall off narrow landing spots, get stuck under terrain, etc.  Touching down on the ground also helps spot quest items, some of which aren't visible from too high above the terrain.

(The level 60 version supposedly adds a slow-gliding option that increases your travel distance and control.  I can see some value in this - when the leaper hits the end of its forward momentum, it basically drops straight down like a rock, in a way where a slow-falling mount would manage to coast across.) 

I've never been that fond of player-controlled flying mounts - I think that what we give up in terms of avoiding/trivializing content is not worth what we get from the experience of flying over the world, and I think that 99% of the benefits can be achieved with either NPC-controlled flight or player-controlled flight in specific constrained areas where being able to steer actually contributes to gameplay (e.g. airborne bombing runs).  As far as compromises go, the leaping lizard is not bad.   

Triumph of the Rift Raptor

It's been another few months in the life of Rift, which means time for another World Event, and the game's third Welcome Back weekend.  Telhamat made good use of the time, advancing from level 43 to 48, collecting a complete set of the (conveniently green) rare Transplanar armor, and completing the world event's Raptor mount.

Disapproving raptor disapproves.

World Events
I haven't been present for all of Rift's world events, but the three that have happened during free retrial weekends have all been very similar - one easy daily in town, a couple of quests to close rifts in the world (with event-specific rift invasions which open in zones that might not ordinarily be invaded by that elemental plane), and a token vendor in town with various goodies.  This time was only unusual in that a single weekend was enough time to snag the tokens I needed for the mount, the non-combat pet, an epic hat, and a larger backpack off the event vendor in some future phase. 

As Chris points out in pictoral form, the bad guys don't seem to be catching on that a couple of invasions aren't going to turn the tide and let them win.  Then again, this may be the point.  NPC invasions function as an extremely tame substitute for RVR - unlike enemy players, the devs can be sure that the NPC's won't throw matches, and won't get upset that they always lose. 

Invasion population

In one weekend, I earned more than enough Rift currency to collect all six pieces of the Transplanar gear set, plus a "synergy crystal" to provide a choice of set bonus options.

I'm finally high enough in levels to do zone invasions in the well-populated endgame zones.  This also means that I'm high enough to partake of greatly increased reward ratios that were recently implemented to draw players back into the Rift content.  The high level rare and epic currencies have been merged, and it's not uncommon to obtain 5-10 tokens for a single zone invasion.  This has brought down the prices on the previously costly mid-40's armor set down to a single event per piece, but is apparently meant to encourage purchases of consumable endgame essences.  

Unfortunately, the resulting zerg experience is much like it was in the newbie areas during launch - massive. lag-inducing crowds of players, and mobs that either melt under insane DPS or have ridiculously high HP totals to try and keep them alive so that players who have to ride across the entire zone can get there in time to hit the boss a few times. 

If feels like there is an extremely limited middle ground between too deserted to actually complete rifts at all (mid levels) and so crowded that you spend more time traveling from rift to rift than fighting.  Trion is apparently working on a new endgame zone, and I can only imagine how overcrowded this area is likely to be, even though it will reportedly be twice the size of one of the game's current larger zones.

Meanwhile, in Telara
Fortunately, I've been pleasantly surprised by the non-dynamic portion of the game.  I just wrapped up Iron Pine Peak, and there will be large amounts of unused content I can complete for Planar Attunement/Alternate Advancement after I hit the cap.  I also healed a dungeon finder Lantern Hook PUG without a single death, and I genuinely enjoyed the experience. 

It does seem like the game may be falling into the same mudflation cycle that all MMO's are stuck in these days, with entire tiers of content falling by the wayside as new on-ramps emerge, but I might not mind taking a slower sight-seeing approach that lets me learn to heal in content that may be technically a bit below my level.  Whether I actually get around to paying money for the game again before another retrial weekend gets me to the level cap is an open question. 

Another bad guy who thinks he has a chance of winning.

Mopping Up Mirkwood

The rollout of LOTRO's Isengard expansion is a bit unusual in that the level cap increase in included for all players.  As a result, all of the left-over content that I never finished in Mirkwood was now worth real live exp towards my next level (66, which I snagged tonight).  In the process, I also capped out the Malledhrim faction (the reputation of Mirkwood), which snagged me some Turbine points, a title, and the right to purchase a skill that teleports me back to Mirkwood once I earn enough daily quest tokens to do so. 

In an earlier post about the expansion pre-order plan, a commenter asked what the point would be of obtaining the ten additional levels in the expansion if you were not going to purchase the content that you would experience with these levels.  My answer would be to see the epic story, which is open to all players (provided you can attain the appropriate level).  The finely crafted story instance content - which does occasionally pop up in regular quests, but is primarily seen during the epic story - is one of the places where LOTRO shines.  The regular quests, which had my Champion greatly exceeding Legolas and Gimli's combined kill counts at Helm's Deep through sheer grinding, is less inspired. 

Ironically, I might enjoy the new portions of Middle Earth more if I did NOT have access to the epic story, so that I would just leave the uninspired kill ten wargs/goblins/orcs quests behind their paywall and only do the quests that matter.  Unfortunately, this does not look like the most practical option.  Turbine originally announced a cap increase of five levels, and doubled that to ten levels during the development of the expansion, I'm guessing in part to deter players from doing just what I'm suggesting. 

Detour to Enedwaith?
As an interesting side note, I'm faced with a choice of what to do next in game.  There was one new zone prior to the expansion, Enedwaith, which I declined to purchase as a non-subscriber because I was already at the level cap.   Now that I'm at level 66 and halfway to 67, there is a case to be made that I should just skip the entire zone, other than the epic quest line that runs through it, so that I don't hit Isengard content even further over-level whenever I decide to pay for the new expansion.  Then again, this would mean skipping a large chunk of content - the only content that was added in nearly two years between Mirkwood and Isengard - and missing out on deeds that I could be getting credit for as I work on the epic story anyway. 

If I did choose to stop in Enedwaith, there'd be a second choice - how to pay for it.  I could pay for a permanent unlock as a Premium player, which would cost me 695 Turbine Points ($7) before sales.  This would allow me to experience the content at my leisure, including the right to go back and complete kill deeds (though I haven't done this for large amounts of older content that I can currently access, because it's more boring than it's worth).  Then again, I have no intention of ever getting a second LOTRO character high enough to do this zone a second time.

As a result, this may be one of the cases where paying for a single month of LOTRO's subscription might actually be a better deal.  For $15, I would get rental access to the following for one month:

• The Enedwaith zone, including the ability to complete any kill deeds that I start but do not complete. Unless this zone is much bigger than I'm expecting, a month should be plenty of time.  (Value: 695 TP)
• Crafting Guild progression.  I currently have enough crafting rep to reach the new tier, and I would be able to keep the recipes after dropping back down to non-subscriber status - as the system currently stands, I wouldn't need to get access again until the next crafting cap increase.  (Value: 295 TP for "permanent" access to something that I may not need again for years)
• 20 slots of cosmetic wardrobe storage.  If I understand the system correctly, things I put in the wardrobe would remain there until removed, even after my subscription lapses.  This would clear a fair number of items that I don't expect to need again anytime soon out of my bank and house vaults.  (Value: 495 TP grants permanent access to 10 slots worth of cosmetic storage, but the real value is getting this stuff out of my bank without permanently destroying it)
• Rested exp - I had some on my character for some reason and was allowed to "spend" it, but my understanding was that ONLY subscribers are allowed to earn additional rested exp.  (Value: unclear, I guess I'd have to price it versus some sort of exp boost potion?)
• +500 Turbine Points (monthly stipend)

As I've discussed at length, the Turbine point option for the expansion purchase is not that attractive, which raises the question of why I'd want Turbine points if they aren't useful for opening content.  That said, there are some decent permanent quality of life improvements, such as teleports to cities, additional hearthstone locations, additional legendary item slots, or even a trait that halves the cooldown on the hearthstone, all on sale in the 295-495 price range.  Less time traveling has a definite cash value, especially with LOTRO's emphasis on Fed-Ex quests.   

I don't think this is something I'm going to do in the short term until I'm ready to pull the trigger on Isengard, but it's interesting that there is a scenario where the subscription may still be useful.  I still think that LOTRO's subscription is not a great idea for long-term players, because you're re-paying every month for stuff you could unlock just once, but apparently even a high level player can find some value out of a single month of VIP every now and then. 

Fewer Choices, More Impact

I was debating what to play last night, and Blue Kae suggested that I try logging into different games until something stuck.  The winner was Runes of Magic, where I finally got around to picking up my third class.

Halanna and her Oak Walker

Expanded options
Until the most recent Chapter update, Runes of Magic characters were effectively two classes in one - my character spent most of her time on her Druid/Rogue (a shadow DPS caster) and a bit of her time on her Rogue/Druid (a normal stabby rogue with moderate self-healing but poor DPS).  Under the new system, characters can still only use two classes at once, but you are now choosing from a list of three instead of a list of two, which means six class pairings.

I opted to pick up the Warden, a generally melee-based pet class.  Paired with the Rogue, the Warden is a dual-wielding (or 2-handed fighter if you prefer) flurry of blades, with additional damage skills powered by the rogue energy bar (a trait it shares with the Druid/Rogue, which was what really sold me on this pairing in the first place).  Paired with the Druid, the Warden gets a nice heal and some buffs, but noticeably lower DPS.

(I haven't used the Warden as a secondary yet because it still needs to be leveled.  Rogue/Warden will likely have the same offense for survival trade-off compared to the Rogue/Druid.  The Druid/Warden could be good for buffs and off-heals, but I won't really be able to use it that way because all of my skill upgrades have been spent on damage spells, and there is currently no dual-spec option for skills.) 

It's not everyday that the list of stuff that is broken is "everything".  (I'm only slightly bitter that I took several exp death penalties before giving up for the night because "everything" includes "emergency health potions".) 

Limited Flexibility encourages tradeoffs
As a solo player, it would definitely be easier to play if there was more of a compromise position where I could have some of each.  My first impression was that it was almost like a Rift soul tree with only three points to spend - two on my primary class and one on one of the two secondaries - when I'd prefer to spend one point on each of the three.

As I've gotten into the system, though, I actually find it interesting. Wardens have three basic pets - the Spirit of the Oak (a giant plant tanking pet), the nature crystal (a passive buff pet - specialty of the Warden/Druid), and the Oak Walker (a melee DPS pet.  (Warden/Scouts get a fourth pet, a Centaur archer.)  As you get to higher levels, you can have one pet active and a buff from "sacrificing" one of the other pets.  This means that I can make trade-offs between DPS and survivability per fight if needed. 

Sacrificing the tank grants me a massive boost to armor, which lets me off-tank mobs while the oak walker stabs them to death (very quickly) - on the Warden/Rogue, I'm finding that faster kills and improved durability more than outweigh the downside of tanking mobs myself.  The other two pet buffs grant offensive bonuses, so my Warden/Druid may be able to run more aggressively, knowing she has healing when she needs it.  (That said, the Warden/Druid ends up relying a bit more on autoattacks than I prefer, as Wardens abilities burn mana very quickly, even if you aren't also using the same bar for your secondary/elite skills.) 

Overall, I suppose the bottom line is that sometimes more limitations isn't a bad thing, if they present you with interesting tradeoffs and choices that are worth considering.

Merits of Intermission

One of the biggest lessons I've learned as a MMO tourist is to never finish your to do list.  In general, the fun goals - e.g. run every dungeon at least once - get done early, while the less fun goals tend to get put off til later.  When I stick around "too long", I find that I walk away from the game with less positive feelings and stay gone for longer as a result.

I'm at one of these crossroads in EQ2 at the moment - a bit over halfway through the non-raid dungeon progression, nearing the AA cap, and approaching the maximum on most of the current expansion factions (most of which I don't really need for anything, other than a passtime while I look for groups and some free AAXP).  Groups are getting a bit harder to find as I move away from the easy dungeons of the expansion, and the side projects I can do while I try to get a group are getting less interesting (e.g. grinding Desert of Flames factions for an additional housing option, now that we can have multi-housing). 

My subscription happens to be due, and now is about the time to cancel if I want to take advantage of the "winback" promotions that will most likely follow November's expansion - this year, the same amount of money spent on EQ2 would have netted me $20 worth of station cash and a vulture mount if I had planned my gaming schedule around EQ2's marketing promotions.  In and of itself, that's not necessarily reason to re-arrange my schedule.  Then again, if it happens to encourage me to take a break at a time that makes sense anyway, a little EQ2 intermission might not be a bad thing for everyone concerned.

Specifics of this case aside, I wonder if there is a niche for a game that actually plans on players wandering off every few months.  A Tale in the Desert is notable for doing something almost like the season finale of a TV show, actually bringing down the servers at the end of a "telling".  Obviously, no developer wants to not get paid during the "season break", and perhaps the effect on the community would be disruptive.  Then again, there could be long-term gains in avoiding player burnout, and I could see the new trend of story-driven MMO's - SWTOR chief amongst them - being well positioned to taken advantage of a tourist-driven playerbase that will naturally wax and wane as content is released. 

Perils of AA Inflation

Lyriana, my EQ2 main, first hit the game's level cap (then 80) in 2009, with 127 out of 200 possible AA points.  Two expansions since have increased the level cap once and the AA cap twice, with a third increase in a two year period slated for November's expansion.  Right now, Lyriana has 264 out of the current cap of 300 AA - when she gains thirteen more, she will be able to access the expansion's final ability (a two-point cost, which requires 275 spent elsewhere).  Raiding guilds that advertise on Crushbone generally include this 277+ point ability as a pre-requisite for would-be recruits. 

As it now stands, the daily quests that I do routinely while waiting to see if I can find a group get me enough experience for one additional AA.  I don't mind the system, since it rewards me for stuff that I'm doing anyway, and it's not keeping me out of content - I'll have the AA's well before I meet the gear requirements.  I could see how someone who had a guild waiting on them might feel differently. 

That aside, there is one significant aspect of the way in which the AA cap has risen - each time it has done so, there has been a free respec, and additional respecs are available for a price.  Meanwhile, in Telara, Trion apparently plans to increase Rift's not yet launched Planar Attunement cap at least once, if not twice, to unlock the second and third tiers that are currently sealed on the UI.  Trion's system controversially does not allow respecs even though the game's entire class system is balanced around players changing roles at a click of a button. 

I'm not entirely opposed to the lack of respec, especially since no one really knows how the system will play out.  However, it does beg a philosophical question - when those additional tiers open up, will there be a respec?  If not, should players who have cherry-picked the best abilities out of the current trees save up their planar attunement points to buy future abilities, rather than picking up less desirable abilities now?  Bear in mind that we have no indication whether attunement point costs will be higher on future trees - higher costs would slow power inflation due to the system, but could leave players regretting a spending spree on filler points today. 

At the end of the day, it is kind of fun to get the occasional new ability, whether it's through an increased level cap or alternate advancements.  It just seems that the consequences - power inflation on the high end and an ever steeper curve for newbies on the low end - bear some watching. 

What I'm Working On: EQ2

EQ2 marked Labor Day with a double exp weekend, and I took advantage by finishing off all of the solo content I had yet to complete from the current expansion.  As a result, my AA count shot up from 241 to 258, finally entering the new ground from the current expansion, with a mere two months to go until the next one.

Having 10 points on the third tier of the DOV AA tree means that one of my default buffs now offers a 10% boost to the coveted Crit Chance stat.

After picking up the new AA abilities and trading in some more shards for Ry'Gorr shard gear (now including the gloves, bracers, hat, and boots, along with the T1 chest), Lyriana is sitting about midway through the heroic instance progression.  Her stat sheet includes 118% Critical Mitigation (with a few empty adorn slots I could fill if I wanted to spend shards on adornments), 205% crit chance, 125% crit bonus, and 164% multi-attack.  Instances in DOV are strictly gated by these types of numbers - especially the Crit Mit and Crit Chance - but I've got the gear to get my foot in the door of the KD instances. 

Overall, EQ2 is generally the game I go with given the choices amongst all the MMO's in my stable, and that's usually the criteria I go by when deciding what games to pay for and play.  Unfortunately, SOE is consistently testing my resolve on this front. 

Unfortunate updates and decisions
The last Game Update brought in a messy revamp of every item in the game - Arkenor has been covering the ugly and unpredictable details.  The mere fact that there were some issues with items that pre-date the current design might have been forgiveable if the current design was good.  Unfortunately, it's hard to recommend the itemization plan.  A Scout like Lyriana requires a specific amount of crit to auto-crit all mobs in a given zone, and a corresponding amount of crit mit to avoid being one-shot by AOE attacks.  Once you're at that number - if and when they get the itemization progression in the order they plan, this will be a highly regimented progression from tier to tier - you're just after multi-attack and crit bonus to improve your DPS.  It's neither creative nor interesting. 

Meanwhile, the weekend featured SOE's latest Winback promotion.  If only I had let my account lapse no later than August 2nd, I would have received three days of free game time, an exclusive mount, and $5 worth of Station Cash just for resubscribing.  As someone who routinely comes and goes between MMO's, the message is really clear - when my EQ2 subscription runs out, I should not renew it until the next time SOE offers me a bribe to do so. 

Between this promotion and another one that was carefully designed to exclude players who came back voluntarily for the expansion earlier this year, I have missed out on $20 worth of Station Cash that I would have received had I been willing to schedule my gaming time around SOE's marketing gimmicks.  That's half the price of an expansion, which would have done wonders to soften the blow of having SOE ask me to open my wallet for a second paid expansion box in nine months come November.  This goes doubly when the allegedly feature-focused expansion consists of a bunch of features I'm not that interested in bundled with an AA cap increase that will presumably be mandatory. 

Outlook
Amidst all these adjustments, cross-server grouping is en route to EQ2, possibly as early as this month.  This could have a major impact on my EQ2 play.  As a Dirge - a class that provides crucial and arguably overpowered buffs to melee party members - I have routinely enjoyed quick group invites which have made it possible for me to spend time in Norrath's heroic dungeons.  Depending on how the automated system plays out, it is very possible that this gravy train will be derailed shortly. 

Beyond this milestone, and the expansion, lies an interesting thought experiment - how long can an otherwise enjoyable gameplay experience remain so in the face of what I see as major issues with the game's itemization, mechanics, business model, marketing, and general development direction?  I suppose I'll keep y'all posted. 

What I'm Working On: Round-Up

I'll come back to EQ2 after the bonus exp weekend wraps up, so for the moment that leaves me with the games that I haven't done much with recently to round up my MMO update tour.

WoW is simply not a high priority for me at the moment.  I will, in principle, want to clear out all of the level 85 heroic dungeons sometime before the next expansion, and there are some new features, including cosmetic items, to be tried whenever 4.3 happens.  What I'm really not interested in is signing in on a daily basis to earn a few more tokens towards Firelands dailies that could someday award me gear that I'm not even going to use before the next gear reset.  At least in EQ2 (and soon Rift) I can earn AA exp that will stay with the character beyond the next patch if I do spend time on daily quests.

LOTRO has an expansion launching this month, and I have yet to make plans.  It's not entirely clear to me how the thing will work with the business model, which currently includes the level cap, physical access to zones, and the epic questline for all players regardless of payment.  If this is the case for Isengard, I don't see why I'd want to pay $30 for the "expansion pre-order" instead of $5-15 for the content I need a la carte.

(I'm not sure if the world of Middle Earth isn't slightly more atmospheric if I make a point of NOT owning all the generic quests so that the only quest available to me at a new camp is the Epic story, rather than having the wilderness campfire lit up like a Christmas tree with quest icons.  I still have a bit of Mirkwood content that I have yet to finish, along with epic storyline in Enedwaith and scaling skirmishes, so there is, in principle, content I can use to earn exp if I don't buy all of the new stuff.)   

My current plan here is to wait and see how much content I actually end up needing, rather than rushing to pre-order now and ending up with content that I don't bother to use.  DDO has basically fallen off my plate, leaving me with about $30 worth of unspent Turbine points and a fair number of quest packs that I paid to unlock but have yet to play because my characters are not high enough level.  Because it's a free to play game with no real time limits, it's possible that I will still come back one of these days and get good value for that money.  Even so, this situation is what I don't want to have happen in LOTRO - no matter how much of a "better deal" the pre-order is, the money is still wasted if I buy it before I plan to play it, and don't end up using it once I do so. 

What I'm Working On: Runes of Magic

Runes of Magic is a game that I sign into every other week or so when I remember, run a daily or two, and sign out.  Probably the biggest decision I've been pondering is which class to take as a third option to accompany my Druid/Rogue. 

The optimal min-max solution would be to go with either a scout or a warrior, as either class can be used as a secondary class with the Druid to heal, and in some combination with the Rogue to do DPS (melee as a Warrior/Rogue or Rogue/Warrior, ranged as a Scout/Rogue).  The more I've considered this approach, the less interested I am in pursuing it. 

The primary role of the character as I'm currently playing it is to do ranged caster DPS on the Druid/Rogue combination, and try to somehow scrape together the bare minimum Rogue levels needed for stats, skills (and Elite skills), etc.  In principle, given indefinite time, I could earn enough TP to allow the Druid to also pursue healing with the alternate subclass, but it's really not likely that I'm going to invest the time needed to make that happen. 

Instead, I'm strongly inclined towards picking up the Warden, a melee pet class (when used as a primary) that contributes mana-based melee attacks when used as a secondary.  I've always enjoyed pet classes where the player fights alongside the pet, rather than hiding behind it.  I would have the option of leveling as either Warden/Druid (allowing the Warden to heal herself, rather than just her pet) or as Warden/Rogue with more DPS and the option of dual wielding.  It's possible that I will enjoy Rogue/Warden more than I enjoy Rogue/Druid (a melee class that just feels lackluster because its other half does not melee), or that the Rogue will continue to be something I level as much as I have to. 

If I ever attempted endgame, I suppose this would leave me as a character that does two flavors of DPS (ranged on the Druid/Rogue, melee on either combination of Rogue and Warden).  That said, as I wrote about Rift, I'd rather have two roles that I enjoy - even if they don't earn me group invites - than many roles that are useful on paper but that don't make me want to log in to use them. 

What I'm Working On: Vanguard

Tell that tree that I've had enough of its amateur shenanigans!

My "what I'm working on" update for Vanguard is less of a current work in progress than something I got done on the way out of town for vacation.

I was finally able to get off of the newbie trial island, hitting level 11 in both adventuring (Disciple) and Diplomacy.  The last quest area would have been very tough to solo, but was fine with a second person - fortunately, there are people running around the temple during peak hours.   

The Lucky Charm bracelet, for completing the newbie adventuring line.  The item is much prized because it goes on your diplomacy outfit but gives you adventuring stats, and cannot be earned in any other way besides completing the newbie island as a new character.  Also note that it will be sent into your diplomat bags automatically if there's room - I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out where it went when I obtained it. 

As I had anticipated, getting into the game's real world did indeed make a big difference.  Unlike the generic lore of the starter island, the game's original starting areas have lore that is tailored to each race.  Meanwhile, parts of the game begin to make sense than they did while staring at page after page of UI's - for example, the equipment tab for your mount allows players to swap in different colored barding on the same mount model, where every other MMO just has the player buy multiple mounts that are pre-outfitted.  

Triumph of the horse that let me choose the color of its saddle-blanket equivalent.

For me personally, the thing that really stands out about Vanguard is the variety of non-combat quest options - the crafting and diplomacy quests are a refreshing change from the normal MMO world where violence solves everything.  That said, this area bumps into the area where my impression of the game and its older UI is the the weakest, namely travel.

Intercontinental travel is handled by a system of teleport crystals - for a very small fee, players can teleport to the location of their choice, and the NPC's will even offer breadcrumb quests to all the level-appropriate locations in the game.  Once you're actually in the zone you want, though, your only guide is a compass that does not indicate altitude, or even whether you're on the right continent. 

The second diplomacy quest once you're off the newbie island points players at one of the game's major cities, which I had never heard of and was not located on the continent I was on.  First, I went to the correct coordinates, which were clearly indicated on my map even though they were on the wrong continent.  Then I somehow missed a turn and ended up in the city docks, trying to figure out why I couldn't get to the coordinates which were up above on top of the cliff.  A few steps later, you're sent off to another city on yet another continent, and again it took me a while to figure out that the new location was not actually in the place the compass seemed to be pointing to. 

Fans of the sandbox and immersion may argue that this system is realistic (real people may assume that you know approximately where famous cities are) and leaves more for the player to figure out on their own.  Fair enough, and perhaps this would have impressed me back in 2005.  Today, the fact that it takes 5-10 minutes to ride my horse from the teleport point on the outskirts of town to a Fed-Ex quest objective that I actually know how to find (and will immediately leave for the next mission) is a dealbreaker by the second or third time it happens. 

A shiny flight beacon, for a "how to use the rental flying mount" tutorial.

Overall, I liked Vanguard better than I expected to, despite some arguably unfortunate design choices (such as sending free trial players to the highly generic newbie island).  On some level, complaining about sandbox in one of the last sandbox-like MMO's standing is like rolling on a "PVP" server and complaining about being ganked - if you don't like it, you picked the wrong place to play. 

And so, I wandered off without much fanfare.  Not because I was out of things to do, or because I hated the game, but simply because there were other things that I would rather spend my time on.  I guess that's a mixed review, but I don't especially fault the game for it, and I hope it sticks around for people who enjoy it. 

What I'm Working On: Rift

Sitting about three quarters of the way through the year, Labor Day has often served as an occasion to talk about what I am (or am not) doing in MMO's and why.  Given the recent "half-birthday" welcome back re-trial in Rift, I figured I might as well start there.

My cleric, now level 43, with her DPS cabalist build in action, numbers flying every which way.

My Rift subscription initially lapsed with my cleric at level 36 at the end of the first month.  I wasn't sure exactly why I wasn't too keen on continuing, but I figured that there was no hurry, because the game would only get better until I felt like picking up.

Re-role-ing
In hindsight, it's possible that I over-thought my class selection.  If Rift had asked me to pick one of 32 classes, instead of 32 souls organized into 4 callings, my choice would almost certainly have been some sort of DPS Warrior.  Given a system that prizes role flexibility and that I am no fan of tanking, this seemed like a bad idea.  Instead, I went with the Cleric, secure in the knowledge that they can do everything (tank, heal, melee, and ranged DPS).  A big part of my lack of motivation with the game may well be that it's better to have one role that you actually enjoy than eight that you're ambivalent about playing. 

Over six months and two re-trials since, in which I advanced from 36 to 40 and then from 40 to 43, two things have changed.  The first is that they have done some work on the Cleric DPS souls, which are always going to be my default option for soloing.  In particular, I enjoy the newest iteration of the Cabalist caster soul better than previous attempts at the Cabalist or Inquisitor. 

Second, it turns out that there is a role that I actually enjoy - healing on the Purifier soul.  I didn't have much of a chance to actually do this while leveling, because neither solo content nor small scale rifts/invasions require that much healing.  On the most recent retrial, though, I used the cross-server group finder to land myself instance groups as a healer, and the groups I was in were able to survive Runic Descent (even level for my Cleric) and King's Breach (which I am a bit over-leveled for).  Having basically instant queues as a healer makes this role far more accessible as something I can do on a regular basis.

Looking ahead
I remain skeptical of whether the new alternate advancement mechanic - which appeared for testing this weekend - will be a good thing in the long run, but the fact is that it's coming as soon as this month, and I see no reason to push on to 50 until the dust settles and I can get credit for all the stuff that goes on at the level cap.  That aside, I think my decision to hold off on leveling has paid off, as I will reach a much more mature and polished endgame than I could have if I had continued back in April. 

Overall, I expect to be spending more time in Telara by the end of the year, so perhaps this is a case where the advice we always give each other about waiting six months on a new MMO was the right call.