SWTOR: Inquisitor/Consular Main Tanks

So the forums were abuzz with chatter from a Q&A session with community manager Stephen Reid where he indicated that the game would have 4 classes as a main tank (Sith Juggernaut, Jedi Guardian, Bounty Hunter Powertech, and Trooper Vanguard) and 2 as off-tanks (Sith Assassin and Jedi Shadow). This, of course made potential Inquisitors/Consulars quite irrate and people hoping that Mr. Reid misspoke or was simply mistaken.

As it turns out he was (see the related quotes below) mistaken and all 6 advanced classes are designed to main tank. This leads to an interesting situation where we have a total of 16 advanced classes (8 per faction) where 6 can tank, 4 can heal, and everyone can dps. Also interesting to note that none of the classes can do all three, so there are no jack-of-all-trades classes.

Now will this make me want to play an assassin rather than a juggernaut. At this time, not really. At least, not until I get get my hands on to test them out.

Quotes start here:

StephenReid General Discussion -> [VIDEO] Interview with Stephen Reid @ NY Comic Con 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calimwulf

Yep, this also contradicts what Zoeller was saying on class philosophy design. I wonder who was wrong, or if something has changed or was misinterpreted.

 I was wrong in this instance, sorry folks! I was

As I said in another thread on the topic, I got myself mixed up - a combination of my limited experience as a tank (generally) and my time spent playing a Sith Assassin specc'ed to be an off-tank.

Again, apologies for the confusion... don't blame Ed for the question, blame my lack of sleep. And lack of tanking.

I guess I should level a tank to 50 in live now to make up for it. 10.17.2011 05:29 PM


StephenReid Jedi Consular -> I *Really* Hope SR Misspoke Here :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by torsjn

In this interview, SR calls the Shadow/Assassin an "offtank".. wth??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6gtNCQPDmk tank part starts at 2:00.. he clearly says Shadow/Assassin are "offtanks".. Taugrim sums up and says something like "so there's 4 main tanks and 2 offtanks?".. and SR again says, "yes, that's right".. and then he also specifically calls the Shadow/Assassin "evasion tanks"

SERIOUSLY disappointing if this is not just SR misspeaking

As you'll see from Georg's latest posts, I did mis-speak. My tanking experience is limited (in MMOs generally; as I said in the interview, I'm a DPS lad) and I did point that out in the interview.

I think my confusion came from playing a Sith Assassin in our Eternity Vault demo many, many times, who was specced to be an off-tank, not main tank. However, as Georg has now corrected me on, that's not a limitation of the AC, it's a choice on the part of the player.

Sorry if I confused everyone for a minute. This is what happens when you ask questions of the Community Manager that are better suited to the development team. It's not their fault that they can't make it to every show, we want to keep them hard at work on the game. 10.17.2011 05:25 PM


GeorgZoeller Jedi Consular -> I *Really* Hope SR Misspoke Here :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by CriticalMass

Things change, apparently this has too. With MMO developers you can only go on the last thing that was said.

So apparently they've changed their thinking on the matter and now we are off-tanks. Which blows and goes against what they've been saying for a very long time, but whatever.

Nope.


By design, all tank capable ACs can spec to be fully capable main tanks.


There are no 'off tanks' unless you intentionally spend your skill points into different trees. 10.17.2011 04:19 PM

GeorgZoeller Jedi Consular -> I *Really* Hope SR Misspoke Here :(

All tank specs in the game are designed to function as a main tank. There are no 'off tanks' by design in the game, that would involve players intentionally choosing such a role by speccing hybrid.

SWTOR: A Never-End Game Story?

Ok, that was a terrible title, but I like it somehow so I'll stick with it.

The developers of Star Wars: The Old Republic have repeatedly touted that it's MMOs "story driven" gameplay will set it apart from all others. Story has indeed been a huge part in many games. World of Warcraft decided to focus on the story of the game with Wrath of the Lich King and had implemented technologies (e.g. phasing) to make the game more immersive. RIFT's dynamic environment does something similar and they have been releasing stories relating to the game's lore - something I wish they had done before the game was released. There is no doubt that the more attached the player is their character(s), the more they would want to spend time playing.

But then, in RIFT and WoW, the story is little more than a diversion from the daily routine. Once the story has 'ended', i.e. finished all the plot quests, it's back to the grind. I barely do any daily quests anymore and queue up for random dungeons only with great hesitation. Then again, it did take me a few years to get to this point in WoW so that's saying something about how the game keeps me engaged. Sadly, I got to this rut in RIFT after only 4 months.

SWTOR, on the other hand, supposedly brings the story at the forefront and is supposed to take a good chunk of time to do. Now this intrigues me in good and bad ways.

First off, I have played Bioware RPGs and the story elements are mostly top-notch. I have rarely played a Bioware RPG where I did not end up immersed as a result of the story. My favourite was Dragon Age: Origins. The story of the game did feel epic and it made up for a number of shortcomings. In the end, it gave my character great depth and I felt proud for his great achievements in the game world (also, he died). I played through a few more times, but none of the other characters felt as epic.  If SWTOR has a story element as good as this, I would be extremely happy.

But that brings me to the other side of the coin: stories have an ending. In my Dragon Age: Origins example, the game ended leaving me in awe and amazement at how good a game it was. Even all other playthroughs ended at some point. MMOs in general are not designed to end. When a player reaches max level, the game does make a change, and not always for the better. How will the character's story cope with the grindiness of the end game? If the story is about my Sith Warrior's rise in power and becomes a Darth at level 50, what now? Will the story be to go from system to system to kill x number of Jedi Knights on a daily basis? If there is more to it, how much more can there be until more can be added through patches or an expansion?

As excited as I am with getting my hands on SWTOR (subtle hint to get a beta invite), I have to wonder how the story element can hold up in the long run. MMOs are games to be played over a lengthly amount of time and there has to be something to do when logging on. Will the story provide sufficient longevity so players will keep playing this game over others?  Or will the story elements while leveling (which is said to be quite substantial) be enough for players to have such an attachment to their character(s) that they would invest more time in the game even if there is no longer a story to do?

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to answer that question. With the current NDA, there is no more info than what Bioware/EA has released or allowed to be seen. We need to have faith in the force (i.e. Bioware) that they can pull it all off.

Itemization Changes and Re-gearing

I still browse RIFT forums mostly to see what is going on. Not to mention that a lot of good topics from that game and WoW can be applicable to other games in the genre.


One of the bigger topics going on recently are changes to how stats work for warriors. For those unfamiliar to RIFT, warriors are currently stacking Dexterity rather than Strength (supposedly their primary stat) simply because Dexterity scales better. Most warrior abilities work so much better with higher critical strike chance than higher attack power and, while I won't go into specifics, it is certainly understandable when a lot of abilities/talents give extra benefit with critical strikes.

The downside is that warriors are preferring leather items or things with high dexterity over plate or anything with high strength. Trion attempted to stem this behaviour by providing a lot of critical strike chance to plate gear but the leather counterparts were still simply supperior. Trion's latest attempt on the test shard was to half the effectiveness of Dexterity for warriors. It has since been reverted due to, as Trion said, not being the right time to make such changes, but the furor on the forums was hard to ignore.

The same thing was done with clerics and Intelligence/Wisdom and the response and result were the same.

What interested me was not the actual changes, but the reaction. The main complaint I've seen was that people are forced to take time to re-gear. I'm not saying that that is not the case, I'm just saying wondering why it is a problem.

If you are a raider, hardcore or otherwise, you would be doing this anyway. Gearing has never been really static. Everytime a patch introduces changes, raiders will always see how it affects them and make changes appropriately to maximize their effectiveness. This is the same reason raiders will endure the grinds to get best in slot enchants or patterns no matter how long it takes. Recent memory in RIFT brought dual-weilding warriors to the top of the DPS charts and had them scrambling to get two good weapons to the chagrin of rogues. Changing the stat weights won't be any different, and you'll end up doing it no matter how much you complain.

If you are not a raider, it's not like they would be removing the stat's usefulness. There is no need to min/max stats if the extent of your play is solo or the occassional dungeon run. With this kind of pace, re-gearing will come naturally in the process of your daily routine and, like I mentioned, your current gear would be far from useless.

There are no MMOs that promise nothing will change from launch. In fact, the changes are what helps keep the game fresh, even if it does get inconvenient for players. When there is nothing new to learn, or no new goal to reach, games will get stale and players will move on. Change will happen, no matter how loud you complain. Best options are to deal with it or move on.

World of Warcraft: 4.3 - Back to the Story!

MMO Champion has posted some really interesting info on the upcoming 4.3 patch. It's already known that the patch is a big one, but I guess it's only recently that we can grasp the full scope of this update.

This also is very interesting to me because, despite being jaded with WoW and MMOs in general, I am quite excited about this patch. Yes, it's a new tier of gear, more profession recipes, and a set of dungeons to set up the raid's story just like at the end of Wrath of the Lich King. Same old recycled concepts, right?

I guess my main excitement comes from knowing that closure is at hand. One of the reasons I was so hyped up about Cataclysm was that the world was going to change and is on the brink of destruction. With the epic changes in the world would come an epic journey to defeat the Aspect of Death.  Several months later, Deathwing has hardly been seen. For max level players, you only get to see him twice as part of a quest. More if you get breathed on during one of his zone excursions.

Deathwing's absence left a huge gap when it comes to immersion in the game. While the level 80-85 game had several references to him and the Twilight Hammer is rampant, we do not actually get to feel his presence. After being able to survey the changes, the impact becomes increasingly muted as it becomes a normal thing. 

 In order to get a feel of how dangerous Deathwing really is, one would need to go back to do low level quests and not everyone is willing to do it. Heck, I would not have even known about the story of the pure black dragon if my guildie did not link what she got from the quest chain.

It was completely different from Wrath of the Lich King where Arthas was practically everywhere. You see his involvement in many quests and culminating in direct confrontation. It was a story that was paced well and a villain with clear motivations. Even if the methods were not at all that clear, we do see Arthas at work. We also get to see Arthas at his points of weakness and strength, a villain that has a personality. Hate him or love him, he needed to die.

Deathwing, in contrast, is a dormant villain. We do not have any clear idea of what his main goal is. Sure, it could be the complete destruction of Azeroth, but then again, it could not. The damage to Azeroth has been mostly collateral. As far as we can tell, he broke out and headed to Stormwind to ... torch the park? Other than perceived insanity, we have no idea of what his motivations are.

He does not even appear in any of the 4 raids that are currently live. Not even a quick cameo. Sinestra is probably the closest thing to Deathwing's involvement and she can only be accessed by top end guilds. Not exactly how you would imagine a story around a world destroyer.

So I look forward to see how they get Deathwing back to the forefront and our climactic battle to beat him. Lets hope it is as epic a journey as it is hyped out to be.

SWTOR: How Long is too Long?

Star Wars: The Old Republic (or SWTOR) is arguably the most anticipted MMO right now, with Guild Wars 2 being the other game out there making the MMO fans wait excitedly. But news for SWTOR has been relatively light considering the potential release date window closing in. I say "potential" because EA/Bioware has so far refused to give out their target release date. The best they have offered is "holiday 2011".

Considering that, as of September 2011, the game is still in closed beta, that likely means a December release, but that is only speculation at best. Now there is news that the game might be pushed to 2012.  Naturally, online comments about this haven't been too kind.

But it hasn't really been so long since the game was announced, only a mere 3 years. World of Warcraft took that long from announcement to live and it grew to be the biggest game of it's time. Wouldn't it follow that SWTOR would go down this same path? Is it wrong to say that this waiting has gone for too long?

The biggest problem I have with SWTOR and the wait is that the hype machine is not exactly doing it for me. Somehow, I feel it is simply lacking. Anticipation for the game was high when it was announced but there has not been any increase in activity since then.  Videos and announcements seem to have been released in small doses. If one is not lucky enough to have attended PAX, E3, or similar expos, there is no chance to even get a feel for the game other than short glimpses.

Beta weekends were the biggest thing to happen to get anticipation high about the game and probably the biggest news since it's annoucement. Not only did it get the fans all excited about getting an invite, but it provided a sense that the game is just around the corner. Finally, we had thought, the waiting is coming to an end.  Then, after what EA/Bioware indicated was a successful beta weekend, they announced the next weekend would be cancelled. While I know they probably have a good reason for it, it certainly does not bode well for the fans and slows anticipation to a crawl, if not stop it in it's tracks altogether.

Coupled with the news article linked above, one has to wonder what is really going on. If release is slated in 3 months, getting more people into beta would make perfect sense. There should be an increase in anticipation for the game, not more of the same small stream of videos and art previews. Whatever happened to things like the timeline videos or webcomics? Anticipation built up just from the IP is strong, but it will not just be the IP that will keep it strong for the game.

Maybe I'm just impatient. Maybe I'm just reading too little in between the lines. But right now, Guild Wars 2 is becoming more and more interesting with all the info they are putting out and, if EA/Bioware don't do anything soon, may eclipse SWTOR even before either game is released.

When Copying is a Good Thing

I've said this before, but I guess it does need it's own post : a game being like World of Warcraft is not a bad thing. Many times, a game is labeled by people as a "wow-clone", and usually as a derogatory term. To me, this does not make much sense. World of Warcraft is a nicely designed game. It has it's faults for sure, but so does every other game. To not look at what made it a huge success would simply be foolish.

Of course, World of Warcraft itself used to be coined as an EQ-clone, and again as an insult. But because of it's resemblance to EQ, people did flock to the new game. It was familiar, intuitive and, most importantly, accessible. While one can argue that the extreme popularity of the Warcraft RTS is what really boosted the MMO, the fact is that the games do not have much in common other than the intellectual property they are based on. There had to be something that went from launch to being the behemoth that it is today, and that's what the competitors are looking at.

RIFT is a fine example of taking another game's ideas and molding it to their own thing. There are many things RIFT has that WoW doesn't, but at the core, they could be considered the same game. And there's nothing wrong with that.

That was the amazing thing about RIFT. On first playing it, it was incredibly familiar and new at the same time. Considering the target of RIFT's advertizing (hint: We're not on Azeroth anymore), they wanted to get veteran MMO gamers in and hooked. I still hold to the theory that their beta tests were a mere marketting ploy to get people to pre-order the game. And it all worked. It is one of the most successful MMO releases in a while and one announcement indicated that RIFT hit the "1 million customers" mark.

It will be interesting to see where the games of 2011/2012 will take us. But one thing is sure, if one or more ends up being called a "WoW clone", that is going to be a great compliment.

Rift: A Fond Farewell

So after six months, I have finally ended my RIFT subscription for good. I did unsubscribe once, but came back soon after to give the game more time to make me love it. I have to say, I did, but it was just not enough. 




In my beta review, I did mention it was hard to justify pre-ordering the game, but some friends ended up playing so I decided it would be fun to join them. The game had several good moments in the leveling process and I did enjoy myself immensely. 


The first blow to my enjoyment was when my friends decided to quit Rift. Names in my friends list stayed grey as no one bothered to log on anymore. But I was a different breed of player and I stuck it out to make friends in the game. I did want my cleric to be the best it could so I vaulted to 50.  


The next blow came with the notoriety nerfs. In one patch, the time it will take to grind faction rewards tripled. And since the runes are pretty much the only thing I would want from the quartermasters, i would have to go all the way to glorified. It started going downhill from there. 


RIFT is a great game, no one can doubt that. But it just ended up not being entirely compelling. I still play the gorilla that is World of Warcraft and there's just a lot of time and effort invested in my character and I do still have fun in that game. Because I am not at all disgruntled with WoW, RIFT just had no lure for me to switch and set aside time to raid there. This long at 50, there is just nothing that would make me give up other games. Heck, days when I'm bored with WoW, I just play Dragon Age 2 and not RIFT.


The content patches also did nothing for players like me who are past the expert dungeons but don't raid. The first event was actually kind of fun, then the next event was fun, but looked the same as the one before. By the third event, I just didn't bother doing the dailies or try to collect the "currency of the month". There is only so much you can do to recycle this kind of content. 


It came to the point where I would log on, but don't feel like doing anything. I did try PvP, got a ton of achievements, then got bored. I tried hunting for artifacts, which got so tedious I just gave up and played Dragon Age 2.  It's one grind after another and I simply do not have the time or will to do all that. 


So thanks Trion for the great experience and my time in RIFT is certainly not wasted.