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The name’s Degana. Deg’eldari’oned Degana
After completing my Sage, that left two advanced classes before I had all 8 stories completed. After completing the Nightmare mode raid I talked about in my last article, I logged on to my Operative (a Chiss named Deg’eldari’oned) to start leveling him, since he was the next on my list.
He started about level 22 and has since been rocketed up to level 50. Let me tell you why I moved so fast on these characters I had been avoiding for so long.
Sage “Completed”
Ding!
About a week ago, I finished up my Jedi Sage (my 6th level 50) that I made the first day of pre-launch early access. Almost exactly a year later, but I finally got around to doing it.
At first, the Consular story dragged on Coruscant in the Prologue. I thought that the Consular story would be consistently boring, but apparently, it was just saving the best for later. Every chapter was more interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Up to this point I would’ve ranked the stories like so:
- Knight/Warrior
- Bounty Hunter
- Smuggler
- Trooper
Now with the Consular, taking into account all of the story, not just the Prologue (which is by far the worst Prologue of any I have seen), the rankings like this for me: Read more…
Game Math and Redefining “Happy”
From http://xkcd.com/138/
Games are math.
Whether you play a logic game like Sudoku, an MMO like Star Wars: The Old Republic or Lord of the Rings Online, or CityVille on Facebook, you are using math to solve problems designed by developers.
I have mentioned before that I consider combat in MMOs to be like a problem of rates. All combat can be broken down into percents, coefficients, and factors. In the simplest terms, if ratedamage(me) * mitigation(you) > ratehealing(you), then I kill you.
Things like buffs, heals, shields, and debuffs all swing the rates one direction or another. The experienced raid leader looks at the field of battle and sees the rates shifting and swelling, and makes decisions based upon them. In PvP, this is also added to the issue of seeing when points are being captured, where the Huttball is, etc. Everything about the game becomes math, whether we realize it or not.
So two things today. One is a really neat article I found on Massively that has James Ohlen talking about some PvP formulae and their ramifications, as well as his approach to healer Sage/Sorcerer nerfs. The second thing I found was a website run by former Dev of Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online, Raph Koster. He shows his understanding of game theory and math in numerous articles, presentations, and Powerpoint slides. Read more…
Beginner’s Guide: The Odd Man Out – Support Classes
Which one does not belong in the Trinity of kittens?
Most of you now know about the MMO Trinity, which is Tank, Healer, and DPS classes (if you don’t click here, here, and here, respectively)
There is another type of class that has seen very wide use, and that is the class role of Support. Technically, Healers fall under the umbrella of “Support,” but I am going to talk about the classes that aren’t really Tanks, Healers, or DPS, but fall under a special sub-category all of their own.
Support classes are usually good for buffing, debuffing, utility skills like cures, off-healing, and power-healing. My ideal group in LOTRO for example has two Healers (one of which can be a Support class), one Tank, one other Support specifically for that purpose, and two DPS. For easier content, one healer can be swapped out for DPS. But what does a Support class actually bring to the table? Read more…
Beginner’s Guide: The MMO Trinity – Healer
Most of you probably know about the MMO Trinity, which is Tank, Healer, and DPS (Damage Per Second). However, with this blog swinging towards a new MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, some people may be looking around for information on classes and not know what they are looking at when it comes to their class role. So I have decided to take it upon myself to explain the MMO Trinity as if my audience has never heard of it.
Hate it or love it, most MMOs are built with the idea that there will be someone to take the big hits, someone to heal back up the big hits, and someone to dish out the big hits. That is just a fact of life. There have been other class roles defined by different games, such as Pullers, Support, and Chippers (only know this last one from Rappelz, was kinda like Debuffer). Support is the only class-role besides the Trinity that has seen wide usage.
Healers are the most in-demand class role around, and good healers are worth their weight in gold. Healers are responsible for keeping everyone in the group alive. Being a healer means that boss-fights aren’t that memorable, since most of your time is spent watching green health bars. It has been described as “reverse whack-a-mole with the green bar.” You see things go down, you turn them around. Read more…
The Fanatical Swordsman 