healing

The class choice dilemma

somebodysmum, , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

For a long time I’ve been trying to decide which class to play in Star Wars: The Old Republic.  And the decision-making has flagged up, yet again, one of the dilemmas in playing MMOs.   I’ll be playing what is a group game, but for the great majority of the time I’ll be playing it solo.

My ideal class in a group is one which has a clearly defined role, is useful and wanted in groups, and isn’t too hard to play.   My ideal solo class is one which is tough, fast, fun and versatile.  The difficulty doesn’t matter too much as I’m only letting myself down if I get it wrong.

In groups I love playing (in order of appeal):

  1. a straightforward tank
  2. a straightforward healer (I’m OK at healing, but bad at doing healing along with something else)
  3. a support class, with crowd control and tricks
  4. ranged dps
  5. melee dps

Solo, in order of preference, I like to play:

  1. First equal, hybrid classes and pet classes.   I love to be able to self-heal and to have a pet act as tank/support
  2. Ranged dps
  3. Melee dps
  4. Healer
  5. Tank

Of course, it depends on the game.   I’ve put tank at the bottom of my solo list because I got so bored grinding my guardian through LOTRO.  Never again.  Meanwhile, I’m sure my WoW paladin tank would have been fun solo.   But then, I see a paladin as more of a hybrid.

I was very excited about Rift because the classes were so customisable.  Given my choices above, a rogue was ideal.   I could tank or do a bit of healing in instances, along with the ranged dps (and melee dps if I wanted a change).   I could just switch to play whatever role was missing in the group.  Solo, I had my choice of pets.

Although I still think the Rift class system is great, in practice, it didn’t work the way I’d hoped.  Changing spec was like learning a whole new class.  I tried soloing with the riftstalker (tanking) tree, but I couldn’t get to grips with it, and wouldn’t have had the confidence to try it in a group.  And when I did instances with my guild, we always had a tank, so there was no need.

Now, I’ve been trying to work out a ranking system for the different classes, to help me decide.  For instance, I could give points to a class that can tank, because that’s my number one choice in a group.   However, I suspect that the reality is that I’m not going to tank.   There are others in my guild who might like to tank, and have more time to commit and are, frankly, better at it.  And I could give points for a pet class, but in a way, I feel that all the classes will be pet classes because of their companions.    Then I thought that perhaps the most important aspect was versatility: the ability to try out different roles and change when I find the one that suits.   But from what I gather, at some point with any class I would have to specialise and would lose that versatility.

What I’d planned to do, in this post, was work out a formula which took account of the advantages of each class for me as a group and solo player, and decide, through a points system, which was the optimum choice.  But I know that it’s not going to go like that.  I know that Bounty Hunter would probably win.  And yet, I’m not particularly drawn to Bounty Hunter, even though I think it looks fun.

In the end, I’m probably going to decide on the basis of less quantifiable things.   Things like the look of the character, the voice acting, the starting story, the companions. For instance, I’d like to play an Imperial Agent simply because I like playing less popular classes.  And “Bounty Hunter” just doesn’t sound as good as “Sith Inquisitor”, does it?

I haven’t been playing the beta, so it’s only now that the NDA has been lifted that I’m starting to get more of a feel for the different classes.  But even things like talent calculators don’t get me to the nitty-gritty of “Will I love this class?”.  It’s a gut feeling, and I think I can only find out by playing.

And the solo/group dilemma?   Two things.   First, because I will be solo so much of the time, it’s probably best for me to find what I love playing solo and then adapt to make that work well in a group.  Roll on dual specs.   Second, I have a cat who likes to walk on the keyboard, catch my mouse and sit in front of the monitor.  Whatever class I play, I’m going to be a liability in a group.   As a mum, I’ve been used to working game time around a child’s sleep times.  To my consternation, it turns out that cat sleep times are not quite so predictable.   Cats are like children in one way, though.   They are able to sense when you’re doing something engrossing that doesn’t involve them and then do their best to be the centre of your world again.

The class choice dilemma

Discipline … and the rudeness ratio

somebodysmum, , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Wouldn’t it be nice if this blog was just about one character, and I could discuss the issues facing, say, mages in WoW, I ask myself?  I answer myself ‘No, it wouldn’t, necessarily’.  There are plenty of fascinating blogs there dealing with a single class in a single game, and written by much more competent players than I.   Meanwhile, I don’t see many blogs written by people’s incompetent altaholic, game-tarting parents.

I have three priest characters, so I’m not obsessed.  My highest level is in the 70s.  She leveled as shadow, then dual specced to holy at 40.  I thought I could use shadow for soloing, and holy for dungeon healing.  It worked OK, but not as well as I’d hoped.  I’m mostly out on my own soloing.  The minute I hit a dungeon I have to get used to a new setup.   If I wanted to level as a healer, I would have done better to stick to holy and queue for the dungeon finder, over and over.

A day or two ago, I decided to experiment with discipline on one of my other priests.   I had tried it for soloing before and it seemed terribly slow.  Now it seems much improved.   As a shadow priest, I always felt it wasn’t right that healing was sidelined.   I’m a priest, you know?  My low level discipline priest seems much more of a healer-killer.

I thought I would queue for dungeon finder and give it a try.  I explained to the group that I was new to this, and that they’d have to bear with me, giving the opportunity to kick if they didn’t want an inexperienced player.   Everything went fine until right at the end.  The tank ran ahead and engaged the boss in a different room while I and one of the others were catching up.  By the time I’d got round the corner, he was at half health.  I healed like mad, but sadly, it wasn’t quite enough to keep him alive.  Never mind.  I healed the rest of the team and we finished, then I ressed the tank, who blasted me for being a ‘noob’.  ‘Yes’, I said, ‘I explained that at the beginning’.

Now, who’s to say who was in the wrong?   He would probably argue that I was in the wrong for not keeping up with the tank.  I could argue that he was in the wrong for not waiting for the healer.  But in the world of Somebody’s Mum, ultimately, he was in the wrong … for being rude.  I honestly don’t care whether people I group with play well or not.  (And actually, with everybody except me using heirlooms, it’s difficult to fail even if the players aren’t that great).  I do care about them being polite.  I had explained at the beginning that I wasn’t competent.   Perhaps, given that, he could have spent a few seconds waiting for me to catch up at the end, or even doing a ready check (whatever happened to those?).   Or he could have acted exactly the same and just said nothing at the end.   I wouldn’t have minded.  But I did mind him being rude.

Does World of Warcraft bring out the worst in people?  I don’t encounter rudeness in real life nearly so often as I encounter it in game.  Is that because the fact that it’s online rather than real life encourages rudeness – it’s not like being rude to “real” people, to their face?  Is it just that I’m lucky enough to work, live and socialise with fairly polite people, and I have too rosy a view and too high expectations?  Still, although the rudeness seems a lot more common than in real life, it’s nowhere near across the board.   Out of that group of five running that dungeon, only one was rude, so 20%.  Nobody was rude in my next dungeon run, which brings the figure down to 10% rudeness.  And so on.  Perhaps only 1% of people in WoW are rude, but of course, it’s the rudeness that makes an impact, and not the quiet co-operativeness of the rest of the group.

The trouble is that I have heard people cite the attitude of other players – the rudeness – as a reason for leaving WoW.  I don’t blame them.  I can remember rude incidents from literally years ago, that have made me lose interest in the game for a while.  It’s not a case of stomping off in a huff because people aren’t playing nice.   It’s a case of not having the motivation to log in to be insulted – while paying for it.

I’m still here, off and on, paying for the occasional month and happily being rather antisocial.  I think that’s because the rudeness ratio actually is quite low – nearer 1% than 50%.  I would rather not have an ‘incident’ every few months, but I can maybe cope with that frequency.  I can leave the party, use ‘ignore’, go and get a cup of tea, and maybe, now I have this blog, write about it here.  And be grateful for the 99% of players who are polite, helpful or just silent :).

Meanwhile, I carried on and did another couple of dungeons.   Nobody died, even though we had a hunter with a death wish (who was eventually kicked from the group for incompetency and lack of English.  I didn’t vote.  As I said, I don’t mind how people play as long as they’re polite.  And it added a little extra level of challenge and practice, having to keep the hunter up).   So I did OK, although I definitely need more practice to get to grips with discipline.  I don’t have any add-ons at the moment and don’t intend to get any, so I’m using the default interface, and haven’t yet worked out if I prefer to use the function keys for targetting and the number keys to cast, or to use the mouse for one or the other or both.

Discipline … and the rudeness ratio