Hybrid PVP

My two current main characters in WoW are a feral druid and a holy pally. I play both of them in pvp and pve, but my druid is mainly for pve and my paladin was mainly rolled for pvp healing. In the last month or so I have rediscovered my enjoyment of pvp and the 2.3 patch changes to AV and the start of season 3 arena have just added fuel to my rekindled love. Hybrid classes are strongest in situations where many roles (damage, crowd control, or healing) are needed over the course of a fight. This occurs from time to time in pve, but it is the case in every fight in pvp. So, while I could play my 70 mage in pvp, I much prefer to play my druid or paladin.

My druid is feral specialized and has a hybrid set of epic and blue cat and bear gear, and a couple pieces of gladiator and veteran pvp gear. I have enough points to get a season 3 chest or something next week to replace the 68 blue chest I am still stuck with. He has great damage and stealth in cat form, survivability and charge in bear, and can root, cyclone and heal in caster. I can help with damage, then pop a few heals and crowd control, and then charge in an finish off a fleeing enemy. The hybrid player excels when they can really take advantage of their flexibility. In small groups this flexibility allows me to play in whatever role is lacking.

Last night I was in a fresh AV, I rode up all the way through the battle and then prowled down below the bridge and up to the mine. A Horde rogue had the same idea, so we hooked up and snuck through the mine and killed the boss in it to capture it for the Horde. We came up and found the Horde just taking the Stormpike graveyard. We snuck across the bridge, and stealth captured one of the towers. Then I headed over to the other tower, I saw a few people in trouble there, so I tossed a few heals to top them up and then went cat form to help deal with a few annoying alliance players. The team had taken relief hut by then, so I moved with the group into the lair of Vanndar Stormpike. There was no tanks in evidence, so I switched to my tank set (thank you item rack), and went at that pompous dwarf. With the support of the other players healing and damaging, I tanked him to his death and the Horde victory. It is this versatility of roles and play that I love so much about playing a hybrid in pvp.

I have been playing pvp for over two years at this point, and I long ago realized the power of healing in pvp. I attempted to use my druid to assist healing in BGs and Arena, and quickly found realized how ineffective it was as a feral druid. I was an easy target out of form, and was not using my specialization’s strengths. Since I was happily tanking in pve on my druid, I rolled a new paladin just to pvp and arena heal. I had never really been interested in healing or in paladins, but their survivability and post-TBC healing prowess sold me on the idea. I had no prior healing experience so playing a healer in a group has been heaps of fun to learn. Also, having a healer in my stable of 70s has been great for those times when my group is in that eternal search for a healer to go to an instance.

My paladin is very different then playing my druid in pvp, but he still brings his hybrid abilities to the table and allows me to do the three roles he is good at: healing damage, taking damage and annoying the hell out of his opponents.
I play much more of a support role on my paladin then my druid, seldom dealing damage on my own, but enabling others to do more damage through buffing and healing them. When I am not busy keeping my fellow Horde players up, I am stunning, mana tapping, and generally harassing the Alliance. Since my build has 20 points of protection in it I can take quite a beating and keep on healing and defending for ages. The bubble allows me time to heal unmolested and works as a quite effective short term agro wipe.

Between my two hybrid classes there is a nice mix of play style options and fun to be had. If you are bored with your single role, damage dealing class, give a hybrid a go and see if you can’t find new enjoyment in the game.

Time Blocks, Casual Raids

A friend of mine just reached the big seven zero and was trying to figure out what to do next. I think we all hit that point when we reach the level cap after months of leveling, and feel a little lost on what to do now that our XP bar refuses to increase. After a couple seconds of thinking over the options here is what I came up with to do at 70. (Note: Some these options are not available to fresh 70s.)

70 Activities
• Normal Instance
• Heroic Instance
• Raid Instance
• Grind Reputation
• Grind Gold
• Grind Profession
• Grind Mats for Gear
• Grind for Cosmetic Items (pets and tabards)
• Arena
• Battle Grounds
• Party Quests
• Solo Quests
• Attunement Quests
• Reputation Daily Quests
• Battle Ground Daily Quest
• Heroic Instance Daily Quest
• Instance Daily Quest
• Start over on an Alt


Now the real limit to what you can and can’t do in a MMORPG is the amount of time you can commit in one sitting. Several times this last week I started a heroic instance with 3 hours available to me, and then found the heroic running longer then 3 hours for one reason or another. I had to leave one of these runs before the last boss, missing out on the heroic daily quest and the epic plate item that dropped after I left. Other times I stuck it out and ended up finishing much later, losing sleep and wife rep. So I have found that I really cannot do a heroic instance on a weeknight, because I just don’t have time if everything doesn’t go smoothly.

If we divide up the possible activities by the amount of time they take it makes it easier to see what you can undertake if you have a set amount of time. Of course, if you have 3 hours it means you can do anything in the 3 hour list as well as anything in the smaller time blocks.

3+ hours
• Heroic Instance
• Raid Instance
• Heroic Instance Daily Quest

2-3 hours
• Normal Instance
• Instance Daily Quests

Less then 2 hours Committed
• Arena
• Party Quests

Less then 2 hours Uncommitted
• Grind Reputation
• Grind Gold
• Grind Profession
• Grind Mats for Gear
• Grind for Cosmetic Items (pets and tabards)
• Battle Grounds
• Solo Quests
• Attunement Quests
• Reputation Daily Quests
• Battle Ground Daily Quest
• Start over on an Alt

The committed and uncommitted label has nothing to do with your mental health, instead it means that you have committed to a specific block of time, or not. If I agree to a 5 man party quest then I am committed to the group until it is done, a committed time block. If I instead work on solo quests, then I am uncommitted time wise, and can log off any point. Might be a better label but this one makes sense to me.

I have an average of 3 hours to play on a weeknight, so if I look at my list, that puts me on the borderline of heroics, and able to do most everything else. On the weekend I tend to play for much longer blocks, so I have the entire list of activities available.

Now if you look at this list and compare it your average time blocks to the list you can pick out what your endgame options are. If you do not have more then 3 hours available to you at least a couple nights a week, then it is unlikely you will be able to find a raid that will fit your available time. If you only have 1 hour blocks of time available to you then that limits your play to pvp and questing, and pretty much completely excludes any type of instancing or raiding. So time blocks, not total time, is what limits your end game options. And I think it is also these time blocks that divide the perceived casual and hardcore players.

There has been an ongoing battle mentioned on Tobold’s site between casual players arguing for an easier entry level raid and raiders arguing that casuals wouldn’t play one even if it was created. As I have shown, it is the time blocks a player has available that limit their ability to raid, not their skill or their total weekly playtime. So, as much as I hate to say it, the raiders/hardcore are right, if the new raid was just easier, but not designed with the casual’s smaller time block casuals would no more be able to play it then they can currently play Kara. If casuals truly want a raid available to them it wouldn’t need to be easier, it would need less outside of raid work and require a smaller time block.

How to create a raid with a smaller required time block is up to Blizzard, but would probably be similar to what Tobold envisioned in his comments.

“If I had to build a casual raid dungeon, it would start with about 20 minutes worth of trash mobs, a first boss, and then doors in three directions, leading to more bosses. Thus the raid group can always decide how many wings of the dungeon they want to do in what evening.” -Tobold

I know my guild and I would step up and do a 10 man raid that was designed like that. Make the rewards equivalent to heroics and allow badges to drop, and it would allow a stepping stone into Kara for people who want to raid heavily, and a fun option for play for casuals.

What time blocks do you have available to you? Would you enjoy a raid designed like this? What dangers would it offer to the game balance?

Linkage

I plan on writting something more thoughtful later this week, but today I am just providing some links to great posts others have written.

Dungeon Chaperoning Galo nails the dangers of running lowbies through instances on a 70 character.

Tank Pulling Lale lists some great reasons for tanks to pull in instances. When I started on my hunter I thought I would be able to fill the role of puller, but experience quickly showed that tank pulling made life easier. Of course, misdirection is a nice solution at 70 for some of the harder pulls, remember to make use of it.

Triviality of MMORPGs Tobold perfectly presents a topic that I have been debating with some mates. I actually had started a post on this very topic, but this covers it better then I would attempt. My only additional note would be that I dislike the term "dumbing down" when applied to removing time sinks. As stated, time does not directly equal difficulty. So easing the eternal search for vendors and quest givers doesn't make the game dumber, it just removes the wasted time and allows us to get to the fun quicker.

Hidden Age, Visible Drama

I have been reading the Round Table monthly posts for over a year now. The submitted posts are always well written and thought invoking. Since I am now writing on my own blog, I wanted to contribute to this month's topic: Age & Games. I decided to discuss the issues that the hidden variable of player age brings to MMORPGs, with WoW as an example.

I entered a group yesterday with my mates Lale and Biondi, to help do a low level instance run Biondi needed for an alt. Lale invited a low level hunter friend who also needed the instance. Things were going along well, although the hunter wasn’t using his pet, which seemed a little odd. Then I asked if people could get on voice for easier communication. Lale and I got on, and then we heard a very depressing sound over the channel. It was the high pitched, pre-pubecent hello from the hunter in our group.

One of the amazing parts of playing a MMORPG is the ability to play with people of different nationality, sex and age, people you would never interact with in your normal life. The interactions with people from different cultures and social backgrounds are great learning experiences, and broaden my personal horizons. My experiences with people who are much younger on the other hand, tend to only test my patience.

Age is one of the largest dividing forces in normal social interactions. When my huge extended family gets together, we all eat dinner together and then everyone seems to split up by age groups and do things in those smaller groups. I’m sure there is a theory about why this occurs, but all I know is that it is a fact of life. I think it occurs for a good reason, allowing people to interact with others in the same stage of life and who will understand each other better. MMORPGs manage to break the boundaries of this normal social division by hiding the age of players from each other completely. The advent of voice communications is changing this, but it is still possible for a 12 year old to play along side a 65 year old with neither party knowing the other’s age.

While this can be a positive thing, allowing younger people to learn that their elders are approachable and fun, the trend I have seen while playing is one of frustrating and fruitless interactions. The immaturity of these players interferes with the enjoyment of the game by the older players. Granted not all young players are immature, but age is a fairly reliable indication. This means that if I find out a player is under 17, I instantly trust them less. Experience has taught me that they may be fine and useful as anyone else, but at that time when I have to depend on them most they will break down or blow up, causing drama that is completely unnecessary.

As a guild leader and party leader, if I need to ask them to change their behavior to allow the group to succeed, or request assistance of them for the guild to progress, they are less likely to step up, and more likely to cause an issue then an older player. The level of maturity needed to take criticism and improve isn’t even attained by most adults, so expecting it from a teenager is asking too much.

Due to this experience my guild has a rule that people we recruit have to be older then 20. This rule allows us to have adult interactions, without making unfair expectations on a teen, who doesn’t have the maturity level to handle them. It is better on both parties to have less drama, and this is the easiest solution to lower the chances of it occurring. We have made one exception to this rule so far, and due to issues unrelated to age the player was asked to resign from the guild. Up until that point he had interacted fairly maturely, baring the odd “My mom says I have to get off” situation, but when we communicated our issue to him and asked him to move on, his reaction really showed his age. He argued, then begged and then didn’t respond at all. He eventually left as asked, but it reminded us again why we don’t allow younger people into the guild.

Is it fair to expect adults and teens to interact as equals in a game world where they have equal opportunity to succeed? The goal is to maximize fun for all parties in the game, so do adult and teen interactions lead to fun or drama? I think that the answers depend on the people, what do you think?

Be sure and check out the other Round Table posts below.

Know Yourself

In the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, in ancient Greece, was inscribed a command, “Know Yourself.” The login screen for WoW could rightly have the same inscription. I have learned a lot about myself while playing this game.

1. I will do repetitive, mind numbing tasks for the right reward.
2. I prefer to lead, unless I trust the leader.
3. I am a good leader.
4. I prefer small groups of people over large groups.
5. I cannot ignore perceived injustice.
6. I value knowledge and ability equally.
7. I value loyalty over knowledge and ability.
8. I enjoy teaching, as long as the pupil is trying to learn.
9. I have no patience for those who will not attempt to improve.
10. I have no patience for immaturity.
11. I have no patience for stupidity.
12. I have no patience for drama.
13. I have no patience.
14. The journey is more important then the destination.

What have you learned about yourself while playing video games or MMORPGs?

To Customize, Too Confuse

Many people play MMORPGs because of the customization that you can gain for your character through game play. These continual improvements and social aspects in MMORPGs are the main reasons I play WoW. With the addition of The Burning Crusade, the level of customization on a character has increased a great deal through new stats and gems, as well as reputation requirements for gear and instancing. Are there any dangers with this increase, or is it just more of what makes us play?

First, let’s detail all the ways to customize a character, assuming a level 70 character. I suppose I could get into the numbers, figuring out how many unique options are available through all the customizations, or how many choices are made to fully customize a character, but that would glaze your eyes, as well as mine, so we will just talk in generalities.

When this fictional character was created several important customizations were made. A server, a faction, a race, a name and an appearance were picked before even entering the gaming world. Most of these, with the exception of server, are irreversible. I suppose you can now change your name as well, but with the loss of name recognition by other players. As the character levels talent points are given, and eventually the character has 61 talent points to use to customize his specialization in his class talent trees. Two primary professions can be selected and leveled, with some professions leading to further specialization choices at higher skill level. Three secondary professions can be trained and used as well. All classes have at least a couple choices in what weapon training they purchase, level, and use. Hunters and warlocks have pets to train and customize.

The character then buys, instances, or pvps for gear. There are 18 gear slots, 19 if you dual wield, to gather gear for. Several of these are non-stat slots, like shirt and tabard, but they are still customizations, if only cosmetic. Post-TBC most gear at 70 can now have improvements through gems, enchants, thread or armor kits. The Burning Crusade also additional stats that players have to choose from, such as resilience, spell hit and spell penetration. With the new patch there will also be armor penetration and expertise added. The more stats that are available and the greater affect each other, the more complex the stat customization becomes and the more options a player has in selecting his gear and improvements.

Although it started its appearance in the old world, reputation grinds have come into new dominance with the expansion. This is kind of a stretch to call a customization, but it is a character specific stat that is required for access to gear, enchants, and heroic instances. I think this one ends up being a large hurtle for players trying to play together later in the game.

On top of all of this current complex character customization (bet you can’t say that 3 times fast), we have the upcoming expansion which is supposed to create a new profession, inscription, which will allow you to customize your core spells in certain ways. This will allow similar specialized and geared characters to have different custom spells.

All of these customizations extend the game and keep us playing for these small advances and tweaks in our character power. It’s the next reputation reward, the next gear upgrade, and the gold to pay for it all that keeps us killing mobs, running instances and entertained while we hang out with our friends in the game. I think that most of these customizations make the game better and more fun to more people. Each customization doesn’t make sense or extend the game for each player, but over all we each find something additional that we want to customize about our character and we spend our time doing that.

I would like to suggest there are dangers to the level of customization as well. Blizzard is making the game much deeper, and therefore harder to learn. It was very easy to pick up the original game, create a character, level and learn it, and at 60 gear it up and customize your gear with enchants. There were fewer statistics to keep track of and fewer ways to get them on your gear. There were no reputation grinds to speak of, and what keying was required easy to get through normal game play.

Now, in our post-TBC world, for someone completely new to MMORPGs, picking up the game and getting through all the new customizations is a bigger issue. I have many first time players in my guild, and as they leveled up there was a clear knowledge gap apparent between what they knew from learning in game, and what I knew from my outside reading even about classes I had never played. Increasingly complex customizations are required to be successful in the game, especially if you are looking at the pvp game. Once help and outside resources were offered to guide their characters through these customizations, they were able to work it out and it improved their effectiveness. The biggest problem I see is that they were not even aware they had missed some vital steps in their customization, or hadn’t used the customization to its fullest. They were happily going along with one arm tied behind their virtual back, and only when someone more knowledgeable noticed did they get the information they needed to proceed through these new stages.

I am not saying these changes are bad for people who invest themselves in learning the game, and enjoy learning how to play as much as the actual playing. People like me and you, who read blogs about WoW, and delve into the web for information when we start new characters, instances, or reputation grinds. These games were created by people like us for people like us, the problem isn’t probably so much that the complexity is increasing or changing in MMORPGs in general. The problem is WoW has aimed itself at a more casual sort of player, and that player doesn’t care about the details, they want to pickup their character and have some fun. They don’t want to read for hours and learn that race x had a 3% better racial bonus, not these players. They are most worried about picking the race that looks the coolest to them. This accessibility is the biggest success of WoW, but also root of the so called casual vs. hardcore debate. While these players can level to 70 solo or with small groups, eventually they reach the stage where their lack of understanding in the game begins to affect the players around them. It is at that stage that they need the help and understanding of those of us in the know. We can help them over this customization hurtle that Blizzard has thrown up, and get onto having fun again.

So what do you guys think, has customization in WoW gone too far? Are you looking forward to the new inscription profession as another personal touch on your character, or are you dreading another thing to learn? However you feel about it, make sure you assist those around you who are struggling to learn this game. They might be the players you depend on later, and karma is a nasty piece of legislation.