Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 37

The Mustering of Azeroth: Mager Nostalgia

Next up on my journey through Legion’s class stories is mage, and this was an interesting case.

[image error]Long-time blog readers may remember that my mage was my original main. He wasn’t the first character I ever created in World of Warcraft, but he is the first one I committed to and made significant headway into the game with. He was my first character to ever reach max level, alongside a bevy of other firsts, and he received the lion’s share of my attention for the first year or two at least.

But I started falling out of love with the class in Cataclysm, and when Mists of Pandaria launched, I completely abandoned the character.

That was five years ago, and now suddenly I was playing him again. It was a bizarre feeling. I really don’t know what to compare it to.

Bizarre, but not unpleasant, though. I found it an excellent example of what makes MMOs special, and why I keep playing them despite all their many foibles. The persistence and longevity of them is staggering. There’s something strangely comforting to be able to return “home” to a character nearly ten years old after so long away.

Single-player games cannot offer anything like this.

That’s not to say I’m entirely back on the mage train. While there were times, as I fell back into the dance of locking down and kiting mobs, when I felt some of the old joy return, the fact is mage still just doesn’t click for me the way it used to. I’m not sure if it’s because of how the class has changed, or how I have, but the magic just isn’t quite there anymore (no pun intended).

[image error]The most fun thing about it was actually my combat ally, Archmage Modera. She has a ranged version of frost nova, helping me keep enemies at a safe distance for even longer, and it even allows my spells to benefit from shatter and all those other juicy frost mage passives. And unlike my nova, it doesn’t even break on damage!

This created a great “tag team” playstyle, and I haven’t felt so much camaraderie for a video game NPC since that time Cora and I charged the same Kett at the same time from opposite directions.

It was not a good day to be that Kett.

But while I didn’t entirely fall back in love with playing a mage, their class story proved to be quite enjoyable, maybe the best yet.

One thing I’ve learned from doing these is that the class campaigns aren’t long enough to tell satisfying, self-contained stories. To work, they need to lean heavily on established lore and characters. The Warcraft universe is so vast now that there are oodles of great characters and potential plot threads that are just gathering dust. Class stories are a good way to fill in the blanks, so to speak.

The mage story works well because that’s exactly what it does.

[image error]Interestingly enough, the mage campaign is basically a sequel to the Warcraft comics, focusing on the hunt for the Dreadlord Kathra’natir. Med’an issues aside, I was a big fan of the comics, and I think they’re one of the highlights of modern Warcraft lore, so this pleases me well.

Meryl Felstorm, in particular, could be the poster child for ridiculously awesome yet totally obscure Warcraft characters, so I loved finally getting to meet him in-game. The voice actor they got for him is great, too — exactly how I imagined his voice.

It’s a relief because it doesn’t always work out that way. Valeera’s voice actress is not bad, but her voice just doesn’t suit the character at all, and Thisalee Crow’s new voice has scarred me for life.

As with most class stories, the plot was a little straightforward, and the final quest over a little too quickly, but on the whole the mage campaign tells a very satisfying story.

It did a very good job of utilizing the class’s abilities in interesting ways, too. Among other things, there’s a boss fight where you will be overwhelmed by adds unless you spellsteal them to power them down, and a segment where you evade a small army of demons using invisibility.

[image error]My one significant complaint is that if this is meant to be the final throwdown with Kathra’natir, Valeera really should have been there. I realize she’s already in the rogue campaign, but there’s no reason she couldn’t have appeared in both. Of all (living) people, Valeera probably has the best cause to want vengeance against Kathra’natir.

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, The Mustering of Azeroth, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

Cheating on WoW: Guild Wars 2 Revisited (Again)

It is, in the end, surprisingly difficult to quit an MMO for good. If you’ve invested in something heavily, you may find yourself slinking back now and again even if you get tired of it.

[image error]Such seems to be the case with me and Guild Wars 2. While I stopped playing regularly a long time ago and almost entirely lost interest in it, I nonetheless felt my curiosity peaked when they decided to offer everyone a free preview of the next expansion, Path of Fire.

My full thoughts on the new expansion can be found over at MMO Bro. Overall, it was better than I expected, but probably not enough to bring me back to the game after so much time.

That said, even after the preview ended, I kept playing sporadically for a few days. I revisited my three main characters — thief, warrior, and mesmer. I wandered the maps, did some events.

Although it’s a fairly useless talent, one skill I’ve discovered I have is that I don’t forget how to play video games. I don’t experience the need to relearn things I’ve heard other people report when returning to an older title, or if I do it’s only to a very minor degree. For the most part I was able to jump right back in as if no time had passed. Of course it probably doesn’t hurt that 90% of my thief’s playstyle is just spamming Death Blossom…

On the whole, it was a good time. I found my way to a zone in Ascalon that I’d never visited before — Iron Marches, I think — and it turned out to be incredibly gorgeous, even by Ascalonian standards. Many a screenshot was taken.

[image error]GW2 was always a pretty game. I was also reminded how much I love its armour models. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it probably has the best looking gear of any game I’ve played, MMO or otherwise. I’ll admit a large part of my motivation to revisit the mesmer was just to gawk at how pretty her clothes are.

Had a great time with my warrior, too. Normally I’m not fan of the warrior archetype, but something about GW2 warriors just feels great. They’re a fantastic class. I also love the voice-overs for human males — very charming, very charismatic — and the Simpsons fan in me is still laughing at, “Urge to kill rising…”

And then I just stopped logging in.

This is consistent with the other times I’ve returned to GW2 since leaving initially. I play a bit, I enjoy it all, and then I completely lose interest for another year or two.

We often talk about “stickiness” in relation to MMOs. I think GW2 might be the least sticky game I’ve ever played. It’s the opposite of sticky. It’s slippery.

It’s a strange situation. Guild Wars 2 is a very fun game that I have no desire to play.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: fantasy, Guild Wars 2, writing

Review: Dark Matter, “The Dwarf Star Conspiracy” + TSW TV Series?

Do you remember back in season two when I was joking how if you squinted you could sort of see the Dark Matter universe as a far-future version of The Secret World?

[image error]It’s a bit less of a joke now. I think Dark Matter just walked into empty.

Spurred by one of Suki/Sally/whatever’s recovered memories, Two leads the Raza crew to a secret Dwarf Star facility. Something about the place sets Three on edge immediately, but Two forges ahead, and in the depths of the facility, the terrible truth of Dwarf Star’s plans is at last revealed.

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Rook Dwarf Star wgah’nagl fhtagn.

This is by any measure a strong episode. It’s suspenseful, and it’s exciting, and it provides all the fun of a Dwarf Star episode without any Wil Wheaton (sorry, he’s just not good at playing a villain).

That said, this is definitely one of those episodes that’s most interesting not for what it is, but for what it may lead to. I’ve been developing a growing suspicion for a while now that Dwarf Star is the true Big Bad and meta arc of Dark Matter, and this certainly doesn’t dissuade me from that idea. It’s hard to imagine Zairon or the corporations, bad as they are, ever being as scary as this.

I’ve long enjoyed Dark Matter’s character-driven stories, but I’m not one to ever turn down a good fight to save the universe.

[image error]This is also the second episode in a row that has featured Three as an important and even interesting part of the story. Has the cast’s last remaining weak link finally been shored up?

Overall rating: 8.5/10 Dwarf Stars collide with the mind. Please adjust the pressure. I’m not comfortable.

In other news…

It seems Dark Matter might not be our only option for some Filthy TV, though. Massively has just reported on the utterly and completely unexpected news that Johnny Depp wants to make a TV series based on The Secret World.

Yes, really.

Now, I’m not going to get too excited. Lots of ideas get optioned for movies or TV and then never make it out of development hell. I don’t think the odds of this series actually making it to air are very good.

That said, if it does, obviously I’ll watch the hell out of it. It’d be worth watching just to see Jeffrey Combs reprise his role as Hayden Montag. Maybe this could even be a more worthy end to the story than Legends.

The real question is, what actress is crazy enough to do Lilith justice? She’s probably too big a name for them to afford, but I think Charlize Theron could do well.

Filed under: Games, Misc., Reviews Tagged: Dark Matter, fantasy, review, sci-fi, The Secret World, TV

The Strange Kinship of StarCraft and Mass Effect

From the time I first began learning about the Mass Effect franchise, I’ve seen a strange degree of overlap between it and another beloved sci-fi gaming franchise, StarCraft. At times I’ve dismissed it as the result of an over-active imagination, but they just keep borrowing from each other.

[image error]I thought it’d be interesting to look at the bizarre relationship of these two franchises that increasingly seem to have been separated at birth.

This post will contain spoilers for Mass Effect: Andromeda up to and including the mission Journey to Meridian.

Your StarCraft in my Mass Effect:

It began with my reading a plot synopsis for Mass Effect 1. I couldn’t help but notice that it sounded eerily like the cancelled StarCraft: Ghost game, which was also a third person shooter.

An elite human operative goes on an intergalactic journey to track down and stop a renegade Spectre.

Which game did I just describe?

Of course, once you get into Mass Effect, the two games divulge quite a bit, but by then the connection between StarCraft and Mass Effect had wormed its way into my thoughts, and I kept seeing small similarities here and there.

[image error]The Protheans and the Reapers both bear some vague resemblance to the Xel’naga in their role in the story. Turians look like Protoss with hydralisk mouths. Alliance military uniforms look a fair bit like Dominion naval uniforms. Biotics are not unlike the telekinetics wielded by some of the more powerful ghosts.

Your Mass Effect in my StarCraft:

And it’s not a one-way street. StarCraft II clearly took a lot of inspiration from the Mass Effect franchise.

The basic structures of the games are largely the same. Go to the bridge, pick a location via the galaxy map, play a mission, and come back to your ship to chat with the NPCs before embarking once again.

Wings of Liberty even tried to copy a little bit of Mass Effect’s famous choices by giving the player great control over what order to do missions in, and even some choices on how to direct the story.

This was somewhat of a failed experiment, as Blizzard just isn’t that good at non-linearity. Later games abandoned most (though not all) player choice regarding the story and what order to tackle things in, but the general Mass Effecty structure of missions and conversations remained.

[image error]And StarCraft was definitely the richer for it. Every entry in the StarCraft II trilogy has featured some great core characters, and in both SC2 and Mass Effect, the conversations between you and your crew are highlights, whether you’re talking spirituality with Thane or being simultaneously fascinated and chilled by Abathur’s utter inhumanity.

Then there’s the Covert Ops DLC to consider. To match Nova’s high-tech feel, the traditionally guitar-heavy soundtrack given to Terrans was shifted more towards synth sounds, and the end result is very reminiscent of a lot of Mass Effect’s music. One song in particular that plays in the main menus sometimes sounds almost exactly like the main theme from the earlier ME games.

Plus, if you squint, the Griffin has a pretty similar silhouette to the Normandy.

A new phase:

And then came Andromeda, and things just got weirder.

I kind of blinked when I saw Andromeda was going to prominently feature a ship called the Hyperion. But that’s small fries.

You can also see a bit of the Zerg in the Kett. Their modus operandi is pretty similar. Go around assimilating other species and stealing their best genes. Abathur and the Archon would have a grand old time talking shop, I’m sure.

[image error]

This is concept art for a Remnant Vault in Mass Effect: Andromeda.

There’s still a lot of difference, though. The Kett are still humanoids who rely on technology, and they don’t appear to have any hive mind.

But then there’s the Remnant.

Holy hell.

The Protheans and the Reapers each occasionally reminded me of the Xel’naga in some vague ways, but the Remnant — or, more accurately, their creators — are the Xel’naga. Literally, unequivocally, the Xel’naga.

I remember the first gameplay video of Andromeda I saw. It featured a Remnant ruin, and I was like, “Hey, look, it’s a Xel’naga temple.” Finally playing Andromeda only confirmed the uncanny resemblance between the architecture of the Remnant and the Wanderers from Afar.

Still, that’s just visuals.

But then we learned the Remnant’s creators, the Jaardan, were grand intergalactic biologists who seeded life throughout the cosmos for unknown purposes. Then we learned their civilization was centered around a lost artificial world in deep space. Then we learned they were in the business of creating whole sentient races.

[image error]

This is concept art for a Xel’naga temple in StarCraft II.

In other words, they are the Xel’naga.

And now it’s just too weird. An entire core section of the StarCraft universe has basically been transplanted wholesale into Mass Effect. At this point I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we found out the Kett were created by some renegade Jaardan. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Artanis popped up on the Tempest vidcon.

Not complaining. In a way it’s kind of cool. Damn strange, though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any work of fiction copy another in such an uncanny way. I like to joke that the Krogan are basically Klingons, but there’s vastly more difference between Krogan and Klingons than there is between the Jaardan and the Xel’naga.

Tinfoil abounds:

I don’t really know what all this means. I freely grant that at least a good chunk of this is my seeing patterns where there are none. Lots of these similarities can easily be dismissed as random happenstance.

And certainly there are plenty of differences between the franchises, too. Mass Effect tends to present a relatively optimistic vision of humanity’s future, whereas StarCraft embraces a more dystopic view.

But some stuff, especially around the Remnant/Jaardan/Xel’naga, is harder to dismiss. I mean, I don’t imagine Bioware is sitting around consciously stealing ideas from StarCraft, but the fact remains that if they were they could hardly do a better job.

[image error]I know there has been at least a little cross-pollination between the two development teams. Brian Kindregan has written for both StarCraft and Mass Effect. But beyond that I don’t really know what’s going on here.

I just know it’s weird, and fascinating.

Filed under: Games Tagged: Mass Effect, sci-fi, Starcraft, tinfoil

The Wounding Updated

If you’ve been following Superior Realities for a while, you’re probably familiar with The Wounding, a short story I’ve been pimping at every opportunity. It is the first piece of fiction I released from a setting and a story now twenty years in the making.

I have recently updated The Wounding to take into account the most recent revisions to the setting. As my first foray into the modern incarnation of the universe, it was starting to feel a bit dated.

Now, I’ll be honest: If you’ve already read The Wounding, it’s probably not worth reading again. The substance of the story hasn’t changed. I’ve just added a little more detail and polish. This update was mostly for my own satisfaction.

However, if you’ve never read it before, there’s never been a better time to give it a try, and I’m still very eager for any feedback you may have on the setting.

Filed under: My writing Tagged: because Elves that's why, fantasy, original fiction, Soulcleaver, writing

Review: Dark Matter, “Built, not Born”

In its early days, Dark Matter was focused on slowly revealing the dark histories of the Raza crew before their memory wipe, but by now we’ve learned the backstories for the whole crew, except one.

[image error]Until now.

The android I’ve been calling Sally in lieu of another name receives a call for help from Victor, the rebel android she connected with back in season two. At her direction, the Raza crew rescues him and his companions, and he points the way to a mysterious sanctuary for free-willed androids.

Once they arrive, it’s time for a massive info-dump. This is the long awaited origin story for Sally the android, but there’s far more to it than that. We also get some truly startling revelations about Two’s past that show a completely different side of the woman she was before she was Two, and those past events also have some powerful implications for Three in the present.

“Built, not Born” is a fascinating and powerful episode. I’ve said many times that the greatest strength of Dark Matter is its characters, and this episode capitalizes on that resource brilliantly.

I loved seeing the android grapple with the truth of her identity, and how she truly has become an equal and valued member of the crew. It’s genuinely touching.

I’m also glad to see that there was more to the woman Two used to be than violence and self-interest, and I think it throws her whole character into a new light. The person she is now seems like a more natural evolution in this context. She makes sense.

[image error]I think it’s very interesting that the androids’ backstory is now tied into what I am increasingly suspecting will be the true meta plot of Dark Matter as a series. That could go interesting places in the future.

I even liked Three’s story! It was great. I’ve never enjoyed a Three plot anywhere near this much.

There isn’t much action this time around, but there’s still plenty of humour even with so much heavy stuff going on, and honestly it’s all so good I don’t even miss the fisticuffs and gunplay.

Season three has so far been what I will generously call inconsistent, but it pleases me to say that Dark Matter’s worst ever episode has been followed by one of its best ever episodes.

You have to look pretty hard to find anything to criticize here, but I will say I find it a bit strange that Two’s blood is suddenly a panacea. Why did no one think of that before now?

Also, this is probably the first time I’ve ever had anything bad to say about Five — and it will probably be the last time, too — but I don’t like how she blew up on Chase. I understand and even admire her feelings, but he was only trying to help, and really, it’s not right for Five to be making decisions for her friend. As he said, it would’ve been up to her. In trying to defend her rights as an autonomous person, Five ended up undermining those very same rights.

[image error]But those are some pretty tiny nits to pick in otherwise excellent episode.

Overall rating: 8.9/10

I’m not sure how to feel about us finally having a real name for the android. I wonder if the the crew will actually use it, or stick to calling her the android just as they’ve kept their numerical monikers. And if they don’t use her name, should I keep calling her Sally? I don’t mind the new name, but she does really look like a Sally…

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Dark Matter, review, sci-fi, TV

Diablo III: All Must Serve the Cycle

From the start, I’ve felt very torn about the addition of the necromancer to Diablo III.

[image error]On the one hand, I’m a big fan of necromancers in general and Diablo necromancers in particular. I think it’s a fresh take on the archetype to present them not as power-hungry madmen, but spiritual people devoted to maintaining the balance of nature.

But on the other hand, I remain deeply unhappy that Blizzard has abandoned D3’s story unfinished, and it’s hard to get excited about doing all the same stuff over again, even with a new class.

In the end, it is the WoW Token that broke the deadlock. Thanks to it, I was able to get the necromancer effectively free. At that point there was no good reason not to give it a shot.

On the whole, it’s a fun class. It took me a few days to find a build I really like, but that’s to be expected, and experimentation can be enjoyable in its own right.

Much to my own surprise, I wound up favouring a melee-heavy build, with Death Nova and Grim Scythe as my core attacks. I had initially planned to go for as many pets as possible, but it created too much screen clutter, so I ended up using “only” eight pets: the obligatory skeletons and a bone golem. Plus my follower and some demonic suicide bombers summoned by a ring I found.

[image error]If I were to describe the necromancer in a word, I’d go with “visceral.” Not only does it feel far more physical than any other spellcaster, it feels more physical than even the melee classes. It’s all reverberating explosions, bone-snapping crunches, and wet splashes of gore.

If you’re a fan of ultra-violence, this is the class for you. It is spectacularly gorey. The necromancer’s finest moments come as the entire screen is filled with erupting blood and the constant rain of body parts. It gave me a lot of warm, fuzzy flashbacks to the Myth franchise.

Good times.

On the downside, the necromancer’s resource, essence, has a “feast/famine” feel that can rather derail the flow of play sometimes. Resources that don’t automatically regenerate just never feel right in Diablo III for some reason.

My biggest complaint with the class, though, is how lifeless (no pun intended) they feel as a person.

It’s been a while, I admit, but I seem to recall the D2 necromancer having a fair bit of personality. I recall him seeming curious and passionate.

[image error]The D3 necro is not like that. She speaks in a soulless monotone the vast majority of the time and generally avoids displaying anything resembling warmth, personality, or humanity.

I’m used to playing the cocky, reckless wizard and the wry yet warm crusader. Compared to them, the necromancer is like watching grass grow.

And really, it’s just not that exciting to be playing through all the same stuff yet again.

I love the campaign in Diablo III, and revisiting it reminded me why. Say what you will about Blizzard’s story-telling, but they got it right this time, and I vehemently reject any claims to the contrary. D3’s story is epic, powerful, exciting, and brimming with colourful and three-dimensional characters.

But I’ve already done it so many times. I love chocolate ice cream, but if I had chocolate ice cream for every meal for a year, I’d be begging for something, anything else by the end. I’d also probably end up with diabetes, but that’s neither here nor there.

As it is, my necromancer is currently languishing in the early days of act five, and I’m not sure she’s going to progress much beyond that.

Of course, the necromancer wasn’t the only thing included in patch 2.6. There’s also the new adventure mode zones, Shrouded Moors and Temple of the Firstborn.

[image error]I went into these with very low expectations, but if you ignore the adventure mode trappings and just play through them as linear story content, you’ll actually get a solid, atmospheric, and satisfyingly complete story. This is in stark contrast to the deliberately obtuse Greyhollow Island and the utterly pointless Ruins of Sescheron.

The presence of Obvious-Traitor McSinister-Guy is a bit much, but otherwise it’s a good ride. And the environmental art is gorgeous.

Sadly, it only takes about thirty or forty minutes at the outside to finish, and it has no meaningful replay value. In the end, it’s only a reminder of the kind of great story-telling Diablo III could be doing if they actually put any effort in.

Filed under: Games Tagged: Diablo, fantasy

Review: Dark Matter, “Isn’t that a Paradox?” + MMO Link Dump

Immediately after watching “Isn’t that a Paradox?”, I turned on the radio. Milky Chance was on, and the first line I heard was, “We don’t talk about it.”

That seems an apt reaction to this episode.

[image error]Most sci-fi shows will eventually accumulate at least one or two episodes the fans would sooner pretend never happened. I believe we have come to that point in Dark Matter’s history.

Okay, so, time travel. I’m not in love with the idea of time travel in Dark Matter to begin with. Its strength is its characters, not in its sci-fi elements, and it just doesn’t really seem to fit in with the grittier tone of the universe.

Still, it might be forgivable if it was used to tell an interesting story, but it isn’t. It’s just an excuse for an endless string of fish out of water gags. To be fair, some are pretty funny, but it’s not enough to carry an episode.

We also need to acknowledge the fact that, by all appearances, a blink drive can be used to travel through time as easily as space. This means that from now on either the series is going to solve every problem with the deus ex machina of traveling back in time to fix every mistake, or be constantly raising the question of why the crew isn’t going back in time to fix their mistakes. The latter is preferable, but neither is desirable.

And do not even get me started on the utterly cringey sub-plot about the tweenage boy falling for Five. That was physically painful. I mean, I always say I love seeing Five get screen time, but not like this.

Not like this.

[image error]The requisite end of episode teaser for the next episode looks interesting, at least. We’re overdue for a good Sally episode.

Overall rating: 5/10 I was going to give it a four, but I’m adding an extra point because it references Dungeon Siege III, one of the most criminally underrated video games of recent memory.

I want to believe Five is an Anjali main. Two would play Katarina, of course.

New articles:

I’ve been getting lax about linking my recent articles for MMO Bro, so it’s time for a good old-fashioned link dump.

First, I do a two part series looking at what Western MMOs can learn from their Eastern counterparts, and vice versa.

Next, I run down a list of the best level-scaling systems in the MMO genre. I really do love level-scaling, and the more I play games with it, the more I wish it was universal. It opens so many doors.

Finally, I get a bit more serious and talk about the issue of player toxicity in MMOs. Specifically, some practical solutions for how I think communities could be improved.

Filed under: My writing, Reviews Tagged: Dark Matter, Dungeon Siege, review, sci-fi, TV, video games, writing

The Mustering of Azeroth: Vengeance and Justice

The adventure continues as I work my way through World of Warcraft’s class stories. With three down, demon hunter and paladin are the next ones up.

[image error]The demons within:

I was not impressed by the demon hunter class story.

There’s not a lot I can point to be as being especially crumby about it. It’s there, it exists, and it works, but there’s nothing particularly special or memorable about it.

A lot of it boils down to the characters, I think. Being a new class, demon hunters don’t have the luxury of bringing back a lot of well-known faces. Pretty much everyone is new, and a class campaign just isn’t long or in-depth enough to flesh them out. So I just didn’t much care about any of them. Kor’vas is a notable exception, but she didn’t get enough attention. Actually all her best moments are outside the demon hunter campaign, in Azsuna and Harbingers.

And again, it’s just a very by the numbers experience. It works, but it has no flavour.

The one thing that’s interesting about the demon hunter story is that it actually features a story choice with real consequences. This has never happened in World of Warcraft before. Even if you do get choices, they never have consequences. Not until now.

[image error]I doubt we’ll ever see WoW start offering regular story choices like SW:TOR, but it is an intriguing precedent to set.

I’m still mixed on how the class plays. Vengeance feels fine, but it doesn’t have a lot of unique character. I’m torn on havoc. It felt very mindless at first, but I’ve had a surprising amount of trouble mastering it, so maybe it’s not really that easy.

It is shockingly squishy. I didn’t think Blizzard still did glass cannon specs like this. In theory I like the idea of more challenge in WoW, but there isn’t really any way to overcome Havoc’s squishiness with good play (save pulling less, I suppose). It’s just a lot of slow healing up between fights.

The fix for this is to take Demonic as your 110 talent. It makes a huge difference, to the point where it feels mandatory for playing solo (and usually nothing is mandatory solo). In general Demonic makes the spec feel much, much better by making demon form a core feature of the spec rather than a cooldown to be carefully saved. It should be baseline, if you ask me.

The other main thing I like about havoc is also a talent, Demonic Appetite. This causes your main finisher to spawn lesser soul fragments, and all soul fragments to give you a sizable amount of fury. The end result is you spend the fight watching the battlefield and trying to gobble up fragments as they spawn, while also monitoring your positioning so you don’t leave melee range.

[image error]It forces you to focus on the game world, not just your action bars, and think about your positioning in a way no other class does. It’s a very unique and interesting playstyle. Again, it should be baseline.

Overall, I suppose the spec is growing on me. Finding a good outfit helped, too. I’m getting used to the character.

Ride of the righteous:

I liked the paladin class story a lot better than the demon hunter’s, but it’s still not perfect.

It captures the feeling of the class well. There’s a lot of big speeches, protecting the innocent, and smiting the wicked. Blizzard has always had a real passion for paladins as a concept — Metzen mained a human paladin, as I recall — and it shows.

I also liked the characters. The cast even includes that rarest of unicorns, a Draenei who feels like a real person.

And it needs to be said that the artifact quests are outstanding. I have several classes left to go, but I have a very hard time believing any will top paladins on the artifact front. Every single one is amazing. You should roll a paladin just to do their artifact quests — I’m not kidding.

[image error]But as with many of these, it starts to fall apart at the ending.

It’s not even a bad ending. It’s a very fun and epic ending, more so than any of the class stories I’ve yet played. But it’s the ending to the priest story, not the paladin story.

Now, I haven’t done the priest campaign yet, but I have to assume they get roughly the same ending and this is just a case of reused content (if not, it’s even weirder).

And it does make perfect sense for the priest and paladin stories to be intertwined. Defending priests is kind of why paladins exist in the first place, after all. And again, it’s an enjoyable ending. But I can’t help but feel I was robbed of a real paladin story.

Also, what in the actual hell is the deal with the glowing Dreadlord? Like, what? Just… what? That demands an explanation, but none is given.

So it’s another story that’s decent on the whole, but could be better.

What’s really surprised me is how much fun I’m having playing a protection paladin in Legion. Historically, my paladin has been a healer first, and I thought I’d switch to retribution as a main spec in Legion because of Ashbringer, but I’ve ended up playing prot far more than anything else.

[image error]I’ve played protection off and on for as long as I’ve had the paladin, but it never quite clicked, and I thought the loss of holy power as a secondary resource would make matters worse (it’s certainly killed holy for me). But I’m having a blast.

I think it’s some combination of the changes made by active mitigation and the talent that lets Hammer of the Righteous have no cooldown. The rotation just flows now.

Aside from that, no other spec I’ve played this expansion feels so much like the archetypical tank. I don’t think I’ve died once while playing prot in Legion, be it in a dungeon or the open world. You’re just indestructible. It doesn’t matter if your damage is a little low while questing because you can just pull half the zone and wear them all down at once. It’s actually better to do that because you get more procs of Avenger’s Shield, which is your main source of damage.

On top of that, you also bring some pretty nice off-healing in a group setting. The other day I had a DPS who kept standing in the fire, and the healer was occupied with keeping everyone else alive, but I was able to keep them up until the end of the fight with Lay on Hands and Hand of the Protector.

Prot still has crap mobility, which I’m not fond of, but the abundance of ranged attacks helps compensate for that. And otherwise it plays wonderfully.

[image error]Blizzard’s commitment to “class fantasy” in Legion has been hit and miss, but they nailed it for prot pallies. You want to feel like an unshakeable bastion of righteousness? This is your spec.

On class stories:

That makes five class stories down now, and I’m feeling a bit mixed on this whole endeavour.

Artifact quests remain a delight, but the truth is I’ve yet to be truly impressed by any of the class stories. Most of them have interesting moments, and they’re rarely bad, but none of them have truly blown me away. That makes me wonder if it’s still worth trying to do them all.

On the other hand, it’s also turning out to be a lot less work than I expected. Leveling in Legion was pretty quick to begin with, and with the addition of invasions and heirlooms that scale to 110, it’s a breeze. Once you get to max level, it only takes a couple days of light play (at most) to finish a class story.

So it’s not exactly costing me much to keep finishing them, either. This is nowhere near the grind I thought it would be, and how often do you get to say that where WoW is concerned?

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, The Mustering of Azeroth, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

Secret World Legends: I Hate Myself

I have often said I have far too much franchise loyalty for my own good.

Case in point.

[image error]I think my feelings on The Secret World’s reboot as Legends are known by now. Nonetheless, I can’t say with absolute certainty that I’m never going to play it. I have eight characters in SW:TOR now, after all. No one could have predicted that.

And if I ever play it, I’ll want my loot from TSW. And if I do, I’ll need to link my account now, because there’s a time limit on that.

In theory, all you have to do is click a button on the account page, but I’m paranoid, so I wanted to actually log into the game and make sure it all transferred. Which meant actually playing the game, as you don’t get delivered items until you finish the tutorial and make it to Agartha.

I bring you now the tale of that ill-fated excursion.

I agonized greatly over which character to attempt to recreate. This is one of the biggest things turning me off Legends to begin with. I don’t have enough character slots to bring them all over (which is ridiculous; I paid for the damn things), and I hate the idea of having to choose between them.

In the end, for reasons I have trouble articulating even to myself, I picked Dorothy the Templar as my ambassador to this new/old world.

[image error]Things didn’t get off to a great start. The new character creation is just awful. TSW already had fairly limited options for a modern MMO, and Legends has greatly reduced your choices. You can no longer customize facial features individually. You can only pick a face and then choose from a variety of randomized variations of it. I can’t imagine how anyone thought this was a good idea.

Also, why is everything blinking all the time?!?! Aaaaaghhh.

To be fair, I like the new hair. It’s mostly the same styles, but they’re now higher rez, and there are more and better colour choices. There’s actually a nice green now. I almost made Kamala instead for that reason, but I couldn’t come up with a face that looked at all like her.

Not that I got Dorothy entirely right, either. She wound up in this weird uncanny valley scenario where she almost looked like the character I know… but not quite.

The new tutorial has gotten some criticism, but I actually kind of like it. It’s atmospheric, and it has some interesting hints about the greater lore. It also feels pretty remedial at times, but a lengthy, hand-holding tutorial is exactly what the old game needed. Really that’s the only big change it needed. I think this will be good for new players.

This is then followed by the original tutorials in Tokyo and the faction HQ (each slightly redone), and I did start to get impatient after a while, but I think that’s mainly because I’m a veteran who knew what to expect. Again, I think a new player would probably find it a lot more palatable.

[image error]I didn’t experience enough of the new gameplay to form any clear conclusions. It all seemed as insultingly easy as I’d feared (most enemies died in literally one shot), but that is the tutorial. Maybe things are different once you get out into the world.

A part of me died when I saw the “class selection” section in character creation, and the new skill trees are definitely simplified, but after studying them a bit, they didn’t seem quite as brainless as I’d expected. There are still far more abilities than you can equip at a time, so it seems deck-building is not entirely dead.

I still hate the idea of having to unlock additional weapons beyond your base class, though.

From the looks of it, shotguns are now a true tanking weapon. I really like that. I always wanted to tank with a shotgun as my main weapon.

I’m curious if any other weapons have changed roles, but I didn’t notice any at a glance way to see the roles of various weapons.

The new combat animations don’t seem to have quite as much energy or flair as they used to, at least where firearms are concerned, and there’s now this awkward animation whenever your character stops running. It looks absolutely terrible. I don’t know what they were thinking.

The game world itself doesn’t seem much changed. Temple Hall is still full of cats — I wasn’t sure if that would carry over. I thought maybe they’d run the competition again or just ignore it all.

[image error]

One thing hasn’t changed: Agartha is still weird as hell.

Eventually, I finished the tutorials and made it to Agartha, at which point my cosmetics unlocked. I didn’t go through it all with a fine-toothed comb, but it does seem the large majority of stuff did carry over, including my Panoptic Core.

Deck uniforms are one thing that didn’t carry over, though, so I was not able to put Dorothy in her traditional Puritan outfit. But I did see some people in Agartha with deck outfits, so they must still be in the game somehow. Bizarrely, they no longer seem to be tied to faction. I saw someone in a Templar uniform that had Illuminati colours. It was very jarring.

Unfortunately, upon entering Agartha I also began to suffer from nearly constant disconnects and crashes that made it unplayable. After nearly an hour of relogging, rebooting, and tinkering with game settings, I was unable to solve the problem. I thought maybe if I could make it out of Agartha things might improve, but I was crashing so much even that proved a bridge too far.

At this point, my already thin patience with the reboot reached its end. I ragequit and uninstalled.

I’m still not going to say I’ll never play Legends, but it’s certainly not something that greatly interests me right now. I still see no good reason why we needed to lose our characters and all our progression, and the fact the game is literally unplayable for me right now isn’t improving matters.

Filed under: Games Tagged: epic nerd rant, fantasy, I hate myself, Secret World Legends, The Secret World