Patches, Laundry and Other, Less Exciting, Endeavours

I've been quiet about this patch. I've always said that I'd rather wait and see before I comment.

I've waited. I saw. I am not terribly impressed. Let me split this up in Pros and Cons (Pros as in "damn! he such a 1337 playa"; Con as in "convicted for the crime of sucking").

Pros

- I have a better mount now. No longer have I to consider making a few bogus accounts only to not be left behind during ORvR nights. Well, at least on my main, but I'll leave that part for the cons.

- My renown is boosted! Only, I haven't had many chances to up it...

- I got to change my hair! No longer will I be punishedwith clipping errors for a foolish choice made years ago when I didn't even know what helmets I would come across!

And...

I can't think of anything else...

Cons

- I got a new mount on my alts! Only, none of them is rr65. Good thing I didn't sell my old mounts before I noticed that little catch.

- I haven't really tried ORvR yet because, according to reports, it's terribad. Seems there's no time to do anything because Zerging still works. Maybe it even works better than before.

- Scenarios are... meh. I can't judge them because, in order for me to be able to participate, several conditions have to be met. If we're not in a city siege... and we needn't go any further because we're always in a city siege. Everytime. Even when no one's playing, there's a city siege going on because locking zones is ridiculously easy when there's no one in them. And they'll often be empty because zerging still works.

Or so I heard.

- I've also heard reports that, on certain players, critical hits will hit less than a regular hits or, at least, with a marginal dmg difference from a regular hit. Seems certain renown abilities could use a little revising.

- Speaking of renown training... I like it, for the most part. Some new skills are terribly interesting although most of them seemed (to me) to be tank or survivability related. One thing though: what in God's green Earth have they done to the interface? Why on Earth do you have to buy just one of them at a time from the longest list ever? This is particularly frustrating when you have over 70 points to spend. Looks like they did to that interface what they did to the AH.

- And what of the AH? No changes, I think. Don't think I actually checked but I at least read nothing about any changes. Which is a shame, really. Seems you can search for less things than before, most searched stats aren't searchable, (powers and crits) and you still can't searh for repairables. Plus, I have the distinct feeling I've been purchasing stuff from people I don't much care about.

I have to say, all of this reminds me of Ragnarok.
Not the end of the world or the spaceship. The korean MMO.

Let me explain:

It was my first ever MMO, possibly to your dismay and disbelief. I never played in the official servers, though, we played on a private free server. Drop rates and XP gain were faster there and, for a while, we were happy. But soon the "doner" factor started taking it's toll. You see, like any F2P game, people who chose to donate were quite OP and strut about like they were all that, discarding the best gear on the floor around us, like the french kings of old. We felt left out of the rain and, eventually, we became doners ourselves.

To a lesser extent, I wonder if this is what is to become of those that, unlike the most of us, won't buy the packs. I hope not. But people running around IC with useless two-headed gos between their legs reminds me of those colourful wings RO players could buy to look purty and be imba.

Fret not. I don't see myself dropping the game anytime soon.
No sir.
But I'd love to see some changes, for the feeling of disappointment to go away.
African-descendant person born equal under God and/or possibly other deities of the same religious nature now and for all time, PLEASE!

Nerf White Lions PLOX.... Well, at Least One or Two of Them...

There has always been talk. That's why god (or the devil, depending on your religious inclinations) gave us tongues and a part of the brain specifically designed to understand other people's ranting.

Specifically there's been talk about how gimped some classes' DPS is. I hear about how WLs ain't got shit on a Slayer and whatnot. Or how Magi are the eternal gimps of the world.

I was always a defender that a class is as good as you play it. I've been the best killer on several occasions on my Magus and, if not at killing, at least I've taken satisfaction out of the fact that I knew my role and was keeping true to it, softening the oposing blob so they could be killed more efficiently.

Here's an example: I (on my Zealot, which is currently stacking Wounds because I can't seem to lose enough Willpower to get below the softcap but that's a story for another day) never run from WLs too seriously. I just detaunt and keep spamming and they soon move on to the next, lesser RR healer. There are some exceptions to this. One of them being Phonos. Another one is this.

Forty deathblows in one scenario is impressive. Im sure he had excellent support and I'm sure our setup was far from ideal. Still. Nerf. But just this one player. And maybe two or three more. But that's the thing isn't it? A career can be considered to be working as intended if someone can shine with it like this. And for one person that is good at something there's always going to be 50 others who truly suck at it. Take Zealots for example. I can be rezzing one and taking aggro from 50 Orders while I do but I am still considerate enough to lure them away from the place where I rezed the other one so he has time to recover. But do I always get a counter rez in response? Even if they're just standing over my rotting corpse surveying the terrain? No. I don't always, no.

So if you find a class with which everyone seems to be able to shine with, you think maybe there's something not altogether right with it? I do. Because if everyone can pick it up and rain fiery death on everything there's no reason why anyone should roll anything else.

Aren't you glad we don't have that problem?

Reikland Factory... AGAIN!!#$%&*

Not this crap again, you're thinking. Yes, this crap again.

You know, I thought it was just me and Epikk hating this, seeing as we were fairly good players playing in disorganised pugs. I thought we were just getting the ugly end of the scenario and that it actually had potential.

No. Al llies. Lies and misconceptions. Even on a proper (or almost proper) premade with vent and everyting it's crap. Wtf cares about the flags, honestly? I want to get in the thick of it, keeping people up against impossible odds, not riding around almsot solo trying to cap this or that while the fight is going on somewhere else. And then I get ganked.

Nobody likes this. Nobody I've met so far, anyway. Epikk has even gotten an addon so he can queue for everything but Reikland Factory. That's how much the public loves it. It's a hassle, it's a paaaain, and we all hate it. With a will.

I for one loved that one that only popped during city sieges, Altdorf War Quarters or what was it. And I understand that making them count for the siege thing was ridiculous and unwanted but now that every instance is self-contained and independent, we could have it back. Or for the Weekend Warfront. Just having everyone from everywhere fighting it out on those two small corridors having to worry about nothing else but murder each other was great fun.

Another one of my favourites, as I stated before, is Mourkain Temple. It's small and simple enough to be exciting and the hill and ruins still provide various tactical options. So why not have that? Why have a scenario as big as a Reikland keep (or almost) where you have to roam to find your fights? I want space to roam outside the scenarios, not in them. I join scenarios because I'm guaranteed a fight there. I don't want to cap flags. In the grand scheme of things, what good is that flag anyway? And there's so many of them!

Or if you reeeeally wanna keep it, get rid of the farther flags. The other two, the tunnels and the stairs are enough to keep us guessing and busy.

Something. But I'm not going in there again. Not as is. Not if I can help it.

Have another zen moment.



No, that's not me. I'm much smaller. :)

When Yesterday Comes Back

Today was the first day of "the week that never was" and I decided to dip my toe in the water.

What fun. Really. I even broke my personal record on a scenario. Deathblow and all.

Of course you had your sceptics in advice asking "why is everyone here? just for fun?"
YES! Most definitely. Just for fun. In the grand scheme of things, I don't pay my subscription so that I can have the privilege of being full Sov one day. Who then would I brag about it to? My friends thing I'm weird enough as it is. I pay and play to have fun. And the continuous streak of pops has shown that a lot of people do too. I even found people logged on that I hadn't seen in months. Let's hope they keep playing after the rollback, when yesterday comes back.

So yeah, crazy me had fun today just for the sake of having fun.
Call a doctor.

Reikland Factory

I have no idea why this scenario made it to the permanent list. I have yet to find anyone that actually enjoys it and doesn't go "Oh GOD, not this again...." when it pops.

This scenario can/will/shouldn't play out in 2 ways.

First:

Players head straight for Landing and start the main campfight around one of the spawn points. Meanwhile, a very small force of Order/Destro takes out to capture the far flags. Whoever does this wins, usually.

Second:

Players head out to the far flags while a small contingency goes bravely for landing only to be pummeled by the opposing side who went for the first option. The pummelers then notice the further flags being taken and move out to meet the other faction head on. The farther flaggests are outnumbered because of the ones killed at Landing.

And BTW, how wrong are Manouche's DBs in this here screenie? Especially considering the amount of overall kills he had. And below you have a censured Bruce Willis just because I can.

All of this is a fail to me. Of course, there are times when impossible numbers or an impossible number of healers make a difference and spawn farming becomes a reality, for either side. But I still hate it. Wether I win or lose I absolutely loathe it. For one, the far flags are too far. The middle flag has too much clutter to be of any strategic use. I mean, seriously, when was the last time you actually went up those stairs? Landing is just too close to the spawns. Anyone trying to hold it has to deal with wave after wave of the same people coming to push it. And worst of all: people don't listen. They don't. They don't go for the healers first, they will always hit the tanks and they never listen. So it becomes a great big ball of "Oh GOD, not this again..."

I would much rather have Mourkain Temple up on T4. You go up to the middle, you AoE frenzy and you pick up a Murderball. You then proceed to knocking stuff off the ledge and feast on an all-out campfight. How can anything be better than that?

Funny thing. Today while I was in the shower I had an idea. I often have ideas in the shower. I also come up with lyrics to game music and then sing them for the rest of the day much to the annoyance of my peers. I was thinking "with so many bloggers in Norn out there it's a shame I never see them. We should do like a meet or something and bash eachothers to death." And then I logged on and I found Bootae. For the first time, mind you, he's a sneaky one. So I guess the world once more proved to me that it is indeed a very small place. And Norn even more so.

RvR and Me

I'm not dead, just trying to figure out some personal stuff.

It's been a while since I actively went searching for an ORvR fight, mostly because I can't deal with PUGs. Well, I can because I have to but some recent ones have thrown me off the thing completely. There's nothing worse than 20 people who won't listen. Yes, the person with the party hat can be a dick, but the dick is leading, all hail the dick, follow and die if you must but please follow. Eventually the dick will see the error of its ways and start listening to better ideas as well.

Since I have shun ORvR almost completely (except for a few WC camping sessions. Yes, I'm admiting it. I do it too) I've come to spend most of my time in scenarios. Black Fire Basin is the poison of choice for this weekend and how I love it. It's a healer's dream, for me. A big open space to shoot DoTs in. Although the most I could do so far was hit the 400kish mark, I always come out of that SC satisfied, either we win or lose. Sometimes I'm even bold enough to leave the farm and go around to cap the flag.

Nordenwatch, on the other hand, is starting to lose interest for me. People seem to resign themselves to the farm so easily. I usually just try and bypass the bomb squad and sneak into fortress or lighthouse. At the very least try and lure a lion to the guards.

Reikland Factory is the worst of them, in this aspect. Maybe they've been playing too much Farmville and forgot that the way to win points is by capping BOs. So its up to me to decide to either let them all die and earn little or no renown and cap flags, or join them in their farming/get farmed while Order racks up the points by having a lone tank going around every flag.

Even through all of this fail I managed to get to RR55. Quite a milestone for me. I've been playing for an obscene amount of time and only gotten this far as of yet. And some 10 more rrs to go before I can equip Warlord. Darkpromise doesn't seem to want to drop for me and there's only so much PvE I can stand.

So I'm guessing I might have to give ORvR a new try. The trail of slime I leave as I climb through the ranks is a sore sight after all the money/time I've invested in this.

Never give up!

Today is one of the days - I have no cigarettes, no energy drinks and no money. And yes this is relevant to my WAR expirience. I will function but not without bitching around. Thus it makes it even worse when I enter a scenario and people are giving up 'cause we're too weak. Well it definetly isn't my fault! Watching R40 geared helears throwing around ~30k in the full scenario is just way too sad. Oh and the leading destro DPS was me - Blackguard on sword and board mode, defensive masteries and what not. So not only did we have a bad start and gave up on the middle - it ruined the rest of it. We aren't going to win by giving up - thats why I never do. Even though it does give me a headache - which I now cannot fix with nicotine and caffeine.

Anyway back to my more and less amazing feats of awesomeness - Batlle For Praag - good teams both ways. We're at their doors, we get pushed to the ground. I notice Sara dying on her zealot. And with that the rest of my group and the other group falling too. So I'm alone - a zerg of order comes at me. I think the first reaction of a normal player is either RUNAWAY. Or just lulz and run to them and let 'em kill you. I tried something spontaneous and something very weird. I took my banner out, ran in with the banner shield, bashed 'em. Ran to Ehone and rezzed her. And it worked - I lolled hard even though it was a futile attempt it was a perfect example of never giving up. Theres always something you can do.

In anycase, i'm hungry, grumpy and my mom's leaving to work soon, thus I have to make her a bit of food.