Why MMORPG's Are Like Dogs

Via Tipa's daily blogroll post is a post from We Fly Spitfires comparing MMORPG's to dating stereotypes of women. Pete of Dragonchasers fame found an even better response comparing MMORPG's to menfolks. I don't have any new and amusing dating stereotypes to add, but my wife and I are in the process of hunting for a dog.

Here are some dog comparisons that are sure to offend fans of the games and the dog breeds in question, as well as anyone who doesn't like the badly mixed metaphors that are about to ensue.

World of Warcraft, The Labrador Retriever
The world's most popular dog for a reason, WoW is exceptionally friendly to all sorts of players and seems to be able to do a little bit of everything (solo, raid, PVP, etc). Detractors point out rightly that there may not be a ton of variety or depth - your Black Lab (Gnome Mage) is going to look a lot like hundreds of others in your neighborhood.

As it gets older, WoW isn't doing as well at keeping up with the kids in the yard, which is a disappointment to the teens who used to run along with it when it was a young dog. However, the slower pace suits some of the younger kids, who couldn't keep up with the dog in its prime. Still, even the folks who swear that they've outgrown their parents old lab seem to have a bit of nostalgia, occasionally stopping to give a lab a scratch behind the ears from time to time.

Lord of the Rings Online, The English Springer Spaniel
You can't look at this dog without recognizing its impressive heritage. Other breeds may aspire to this faithful companion of Kings and Presidents, but only this one has the history from The Shire, Rivendell, and the other locations of Middle Earth. The springer may not be the best at hunting (PVE, Raiding), but it's worth watching that distinctive springing through the underbrush, looking to flush out birds, just because of the history behind it.

Warhammer Online, The Border Collie
This is a very intelligent breed, which turned out to cause some problems for Mythic. The trainer thought they could train Warhammer to be a game that prized open field RVR over all else. The problem was that the Collie was too smart, a natural bred herder, not a herd-ee. She quickly learned that scenarios offered a better ratio of treats to time than the other tricks Mythic was trying to teach her. The problem is that sheep dogs only have something to do when there are sheep and dogs around and in reasonable numbers (proper ratio of sheep dogs to sheep, etc). Mythic is apparently still working on that.

Everquest 2, The Husky
EQ2 has retained some of the look and behavior of its wolf ancestors (EQ1), and is arguably bred for running in packs (PVE groups/raids) as sled dogs. Everyone knows of the breed - it's a common University mascot - but many of those don't actually know that much about the breed, even though it's been around for a pretty long time. Under that thick coat of cold-weather fur is an intelligent, friendly dog that can carry its owner further than they might have thought possible.


I'll call it a day there, since those are the games I've got the most /played experience with. Your additions, flames, and MMORPG's Are Like [x] followup posts are welcome.

Argent Achievement Spam, And Yet More Alt Updates

I finally completed the last of the current Argent Tournament rep grinds last night, setting off five separate achievements and two titles. Cosmetic fireworks aside, this achievement will be needed in patch 3.2 to unlock new daily quests for more champion's seals. The seals, in turn, will reward players with a tabard that offers teleportation to the tournament grounds (where the new dungeons are located) and with the ability to check your mail or bank remotely via your squire non-combat pet.

If you too would like to spam your /guild chat with five achievements at once, Spinks has coincidentally posted a guide on the tournement earlier today.

Ding 40 x 5(6)

In other news, Cheerydeth the Third, the rogue who inherited the name I was saving for my beta Death Knight, only to decide that the released version of the class might seem underpowered compared to its beta incarnation, hit level 40 this morning.

Cheerydeth marks my 5th level 40 character in WoW, behind my Pally (70), Mage (80), Hunter (50), and Warrior (62). If you count the beta version of the Death Knight (80), that gives me significant playtime on six of WoW's ten classes. Of the other four, my Warlock sits at 24, my Shadow Priest is parked at 23, and I played a Druid through level 22 or so in the very first stress test before WoW went into open beta (no talents, since they weren't yet implemented for druids - I have also occasionally taken my wife's level 50 balance druid for a spin). I think my last attempt at a Shaman failed somewhere in the mid-teens, but I deleted that character for some inexplicable reason - I should probably give it another shot at some point, just so I can say that I've taken all ten classes through level 20.

On a whole, it speaks well of WoW's classes that I've found it worth my while to try out each of them. That said, the mage is far and away my favorite - I think I actually have more /played on the mage POST-80 than I do on all the other characters put together. The mage offers a very delicate balance; too little damage and they become very squishy, while too much damage (which is what I've got right now when tackling dailies in ilvl 213 gear) makes fights trivial. When you're actually in the sweet spot of doing just enough damage to beat foes using all the various tools at your disposal, though, you'll never want to go back to hiding behind a pet or under a suit of armor.

To some extent, that may be what appeals to me about the rogue. Having done all three plate-wearers in the 60+ range, I've had a number of opportunities for the stand-and-fight style of melee. Thus, I opted to go with a pure subtlety build - more commonly associated with PVP - that really focuses on my ability to sneak around, try and split pulls, and burst down an unsuspecting foe or two before I can be overwhelmed by a larger group. I can definitely see why the leveling guides all recommend more versatile builds (generally Combat), but my various heirloom items make Cheerydeth tough enough to compensate for the bad situations where a murloc goes running off and returns with a bunch of its friends. (In particular, having a permanent set of scaling daggers makes a huge difference since Ambush requires them.)

Holding Pattern Until the Patch?
Overall, I'm in an odd sort of holding pattern at the moment due to upcoming patch changes. I technically can be farming Champion's Seals on Greenwiz now, but it will be much quicker and more convenient when the patch hits. My Paladin, Rogue, Warrior, Hunter, Priest, and Warlock alts all qualify for mount upgrades when the patch hits (as would any new Death Knights hitting Outland). I could make the attempt at a Shaman, but I'm not really that excited about it; they'd have more available heirlooms next patch, and there are vague hints that the next expansion will offer new races rather than new classes.

It's not bad timing personally - I'm moving next week and expect a large number of home improvement issues for the remainder of the month that will cut into my gaming time. It's just a bit odd that I honestly can't tell you what I'm working for in the game at the moment. I keep doing random PUG 5-mans when the opportunity arises because I have fun doing them, but it's not as if I'm chomping at the bit to actually spend all the shards and emblems on heirlooms. Ah well, the patch will probably be good to go in a month or so, and I'm almost morbidly curious about how Brewfest will unfold.


Incidentally, this game really desperately needs a new title interface. Having a pulldown menu made sense when there were like three titles in the game, and it just starts looking stupid at this many.

What If You Could Pick Two Classes?

When I'm checking out a new RPG, online or offline, video game or pen and paper, the first thing I take a look at is the class system. Historically, I've been pretty bad at predicting which class I'd actually prefer in MMORPG's - invariably something about the pace and timing of combat, or the relative strength of players and enemies doesn't work out quite the way I'd intended in my head. Still, I check out the class section first, because I'm curious about the tools that are available to players in the game.

Anyway, while researching yesterday's post on Runes of Magic, I could hardly resist at least taking a look at their class structure. The game's dual class feature makes reading the spell list a little tricky. If you take a look at the Curse database list for scouts, you'll see a ton of tabs. There are:

• "Primary only" spells, that can only be used by characters who are currently using Scout as their primary class
  
• "General" lists for skills that can be used when the Scout is either your primary or your secondary class
  
• Five additional tabs, one for each of the possible secondary classes for so-called "elite" skills; these skills are only available to scouts with that paricular secondary class
  
• In addition to the three tabs (Primary, general, class), a level 10+ Scout ALSO gets access to the general skills of their second class, which you'll need to go to that class' page to find.

It's an interesting way of providing a fair degree of variety and customization without having to create an indefinite number of individual spells. Looking over the lists also got me thinking about the logistics of playing a game that offers dual classes.

Dual Considerations
ROM's system has some similarities to FFXI's system, but also some important differences. Though FFXI does expect you to level a secondary job (and the community may expect you to level a tertiary job, if your primary job is not an appropriate subjob for leveling your subjob), players can freely switch between all the jobs they have unlocked at any time. This largely relieves the developers of the need to make any given job combination viable - if a combination does not work, the player can (and will be encouraged to) switch to something better.

By contrast, ROM class and subclass choices cannot be reversed, even through RMT. It will be interesting whether they eventually offer this option because sales would be good, or whether they would rather have players re-roll in the hopes of selling the new characters more stuff. Either way, there's some degree of pressure on the developer side to have both sides of each class combination work in some way, simply because the system is a major feature of the game.

The intriguing part is the decision making process for the actual player in choosing their permanent combination. Do you go with a secondary class you're not so fond of, knowing that you will have to level it separately from time to time, because it is the best fit for your primary class? Do you go with something completely different, even if that technically hampers your effectiveness, because it offers you the chance for a real change of pace when you swap out the jobs? Do you want to be able to swap into tanking and healing roles, or are you so opposed to healing that you'd rather NOT have the option and wait longer for group invites than be asked to switch to a role you don't like?

Looking at my current games
What would I pick if the other games I've played recently offered ROM-style dual classing?

Greenwiz (Level 80 Mage, WoW):

I think I'd go Rogue here. I've tried just about every class in WoW at some point (my last Shaman stalled out in the teens, every other class has reached at least level 22), and I've never been able to get into any of the other ranged classes. I always get frustrated that they aren't mages. So, I'd be looking for a change of pace, and rogue fits the bill nicely.

Allarond (Level 50 Champion, LOTRO):

My guess would be Warden. The Champion is a heavily armored melee DPS character with some self heals. I haven't played the Warden yet, but it's also a melee character with even more of a focus on self-healing and buffs. Seems like the two would complement each other nicely.

Lyriana (Level 67 Dirge, EQ2):

Shadowknight if there weren't alignment restrictions, or Berserker. Lyriana is a little squishy, and has very limited ability to damage more than one mob at a time. Either of the two AOE plate tanks would fix those problems up nicely, and both would benefit from the Dirge melee buffs.

Of course, when you're building a game for dual-classing, you're not going to build in as much hybrid capacity in the first place. You don't make off-the-rack combinations like the Champion or Shadowknight that do tanking, self-heals, DPS, and AOE, you achieve that collection of abilities through combining less complex classes.

ROM Class Speculation
Finally, my guess at Runes of Magic class combinations, so I can look foolish if/when I get around to playing the game and hate them:

Scout/Warrior: Combines Archery with melee DPS and a bit more durability, while giving the warrior some more range and precision damage skills. On paper it sounds like a way to lessen the traditional dependence on kiting for ranged non-pet classes. No danger of being asked to switch to heals.

Rogue/Priest: The Rogue gets more survival via heals, the Priest gets a DPS/manastealing side that might make soloing more fun.

I'm less interested - on paper anyway - in the Mage and Knight classes. When I try mages in other games, I'm almost always disappointed that they aren't as powerful as WoW mages. Also, I'm told that Mage/Priest is the most overpowered and overplayed combination in the game. As to the Knight, it's apparently your typical heavy tank with poor DPS, and I don't think I would enjoy having to level that side of my character.

Of course, it'll probably be mid-fall by the time I have the time to consider playing ROM. By that point, the new classes will be out, and perhaps this preliminary list will look completely different. Either way, it's fun to speculate.

Developer Incentives In RMT Item Shop Games

Darren, the Common Sense Gamer spent the weekend on a one-blogger crusade against the $10 horse in the Runes of Magic item shop. Personally, I didn't link to the flurry of posts at the time because my contribution is not terribly original.

I would be outraged if we were talking about a subscription game, but Runes of Magic is Free to Play. The developers need to pay the bills somehow, which means either charging for content (as Darren favors) or charging for convenience. Personally, I'd rather have the option to keep playing, spending money as I need to, than be presented with a financial decision at every quest hub. (E.g. is it worth X money to unlock the next quest hub?) The $10 price (it was higher the last time I examined the game) is not that bad if you imagine that you will actually be playing on that character for a large number of hours. Still, something about this potential transaction bothered me, and it took a few days to put my finger on what it was.

Player Satisfaction in the Subscription MMORPG
At the end of the day, players want to continue to be rewarded for doing whatever it is that they enjoy doing. Whether it's soloing, daily quests, tradeskills, PVP, or raids, pretty much everyone asks for ways to continue their progress. It is not possible for the developer to fill all these requests at once, but their financial incentive is to take the course that keeps the largest portion of the playerbase happy and continuing to subscribe.

In short, as Sanya Weathers explains, the developers don't hate anyone's playstyle. They will occasionally hit you with things you don't like, such as gear resets, because that is the only way they can think of to continue to provide onwards and upwards progression. At the end of the day, though, they get paid when the incentive structure they have put in place is enough to convince you to keep on doing whatever it was you were paying them to let you do.

Different Incentives in RMT Item Shops
By contrast, the devs of a pure item shop game like Runes of Magic get paid when players buy items. Broadly speaking, ROM is in the business of selling mounts, bonus exp potions, and item enhancements. Sure enough, their next major patch will include:

- A new race and two new "classes" (more on this in a minute), to encourage players to make new alts that will need exp, mounts, and gear.
- An increased level cap, so that existing characters will need exp and gear. (They are also releasing new mounts - so far all have had identical stats - on an approximately monthly basis.)

On paper, these actions sound no different than what subscription games do. The difference is motivation.

When Blizzard adds additional mounts to the Argent tournament vendors, their goal is to provide players with a reason to continue participating in the tournament. The fact that I might now be disappointed that I spent my 100 seals on the current mount when I would have preferred the newer model is incidental to the goal of providing me with a reason to continue playing the game.

When Runes of Magic adds additional mounts to their cash shop, the fact that I might rather have had the one that's on sale today instead of the one I bought yesterday is INTENTIONAL. If I don't look at the shiniest new mount (in the last seven months, the game has added rhinos, ice beasts, ostriches, lions, and various other critters) and wish that I had it, someone in the item shop dev department has literally failed at their job, and I will not be paying the company as a result of that failure.

Power Inflation and the RMT shop
What's the problem, if I'm willing to pay $10 for a mount and there's a new one that I think is better than my current one? The issue is that the $10-20 is a relatively reasonable price for the FIRST mount. As Darren points out, I'm not really getting any more content when I buy a mount. I'm effectively paying to be relieved of some of the travel time that the developers have put into the game to make me want a mount. Paying another $10+ for a second mount that looks different, leaving the first mount uselessly bound to the same character, would not make sense. Perhaps a sale on an especially cool-looking mount might be the deciding factor in buying it for an alt, but players only need so many alts.

This makes it almost absolutely certain that ROM will eventually offer mounts that are superior to the current 60% ground model. They can't cut the prices without giving up revenue from new players, and they will eventually reach the upper limit of various creatures that players will pay to ride on. When that happens, the only way to continue to sell new mounts to existing players will be to offer faster mounts. Moreover, the improvement has to be noticible. WoW's prestige flying mounts move at +310% instead of +280%, an increase of approximately 10%. In context, that's not a number you're going to notice unless you're running a race. ROM's faster mounts will need to offer a much larger boost in order to catch the eyes of veteran players.

The Balance Nightmare of Rapid Power Inflation
This brings me back to the new classes. ROM describes themselves as having six classes, which could be thought of as archetypes (tank, healer, ranged dps, melee dps), but all characters are actually dual classed. For instance, a Mage/Knight gets added defense and holy-based nukes while playing as a mage, and a Mage/Rogue gets shadow damage/lifedrain attacks. Effectively, the game has 30 character class combinations, each of which plays in two separate ways (i.e. you can swap which of your classes is the main one - each class needs its own exp and gear, opening the door for yet more exp potion and gear enhancement sales).

The new Elves will have Wardens and Druids in place of two of the existing classes. This will effectively add 10 new character class combinations to the game.

Obviously, the new classes are just announced. We don't know how different they will be from their human counterparts, or how they will affect balance as secondary classes to the remaining classes. What we do know is the motivation. If the new classes are not sufficiently good compared to the existing classes to make players consider starting new characters, buying those characters new mounts, exp potions, and gear enhancements, the developers have failed.

I cannot imagine a subscription game adding 33% more class combinations - even if they are only subtle variations - to the game in a single shot. This is a potential balance disaster. Subscription games will not do this kind of upheaval because it is almost certain that there will be broken flavor of the month classes that will have to be nerfed later. As Saylah experienced first hand, sometimes balance changes will turn your impressive "Battle Monk" into a "Magus Gimpus". When you're in the business of making money when your players re-roll, however, that's a bonus, not a drawback.

I'm not entirely fond of the all-or-nothing choice forced by a monthly fee. I don't have time to play multiple games on a daily basis, but sometimes I like a little variety in my week. I'd much rather have a non-fee alternative for part-time use than pay full freight for two games. Perhaps the ROM model is the answer I'm looking for. I'm just not sure if I trust the developers to hold the game together when their incentive pressure will always be for more - better races, better classes, faster mounts - until the day I quit or the servers come down.

Desperate-Sounding Turbine is Desperate

It must be a month that has at least 28 days in it, because Turbine is rolling out yet another LOTRO welcome back event for former subscribers. I've lost track, but this makes at least three free-retrial so far in 2009, and that last one ended up running for well over a week due to server issues. (Why they want to repeat that situation by increasing server loads right after a patch AGAIN is beyond me.)

Seriously, guys, this is getting embarrassing. I've already decided that I'm waiting for Rohan. Keep this up and you'll start to scare me into thinking that your numbers are so bad that you're planning to pull an AC2 by launching the expansion box to cash in one last time off of your remaining faithful before pulling the plug. As I already discussed a retrial or two ago, I can't even take advantage of your retrial right now if I wanted to, because my character is level capped for not owning the current expansion.

If you're really interested in luring me back into the game, here's a deal I would snatch up without hesitation:
1. Wait until one month before Rohan launches.
2. Re-offer the $30/3 months deal.
3. Offer a free Moria key (currently $10) with a paid Rohan pre-order.

Yet another chance to resubscribe at full price (worse than the deal you were offering last month) with the expansion so far away that you haven't even announced its existence yet is just not going to cut it.

Time-Consuming Is Not The Same As Difficult

There is an entire genre of blogpost these days grousing about how Blizzard is dumbing down and trivializing World of Warcraft, removing all difficulty from the game to cater to those stupid casuals who won't get off of the poster's digital lawn, etc. Well, Cheerydeth hit level 38 last night working on the old classic quest Mudrock Soup and Bugs, a basic kill 15 or so turtles quest located just outside Theramore. I first did this quest on my Pally sometime circa January 2005, again on my mage back in August 2005, and yet again on my hunter sometime in early 2006, so I'm relatively familiar with the then and now comparison.

2005 (The Good Old Days)

A level 38 character would not have a ground mount at all. They also may or may not have all of their spell upgrades currently trained, as 100G was a lot of money back in those days, and I definitely remember passing on upgrades for spells I wasn't using as I tried to save up. Once you got the mount at level 40, it would kick you off and force you to spend 3 seconds (and a non-trivial chunk of mana for Pallies and Warlocks) remounting if you set hoof in shallow water.

The best way to reach Theramore was to fly from Ironforge (the likely home of your 1-hour cooldown hearthstone) to Menethil Harbor and await the boat. If you were coming from Booty Bay anyway, you could take the boat to Ratchet and physically run south on foot - there was no neutral flight path in Ratchet at the time, and I'd guesstimate that the un-mounted run took about 10 minutes, assuming you didn't try to go through the middle of the easily avoidable Murloc camp. In principle, you could also spend some massively long time on the auto-bird from Auberdine. However, the only way you would have gotten there would have been by taking the wrong boat from Menethil, unless you were for some reason fond of grinding Centaurs in out-of-the-way Desolace.

Present (WoW Patch 3.1)

The basic ground mount became available at level 30 about a year ago, and learned to tread water (same swim speed as an unmounted character, but you don't have to wait to remount when you emerge). The advent of the minor glyph means that my rogue can now sprint across the surface of the water at mounted speed for 15 seconds at a time, which significantly decreases the time it takes to get out to the rock where Nat Pagle lives.

Getting to Theramore is substantially easier. Mages have a direct portal. There is a flight path from Ratchet. Anyone can bind their 30-minute cooldown hearthstone to Dalaran (extra teleportation for Cheerydeth courtesy of the Inscription profession), take the portal to the Caverns of Time, and make a brief ride through the Tanaris desert to fly to Theramore.

Soon (Patch 3.2)

The originally level 40 mount will drop from level 30 to level 20, and the faster epic ground mount will be available at level 40. The casting time will also be reduced to 1.5 seconds, which adds up if you're mounting and dismounting frequently enough.

The thing is, I don't see the supposed challenge that has been taken away from the next generation. What was harder about spending more time watching your character auto-run? The one additional mob that you might decide to stop and fight after it dazed you? Does that outweigh the dozen additional mobs you will be able to fight during the time you will save in transit by being on a 100% ground mount at level 40? What was more challenging about a 10-minute quasi-AFK autorun from Ratchet? The chance that you'd be distracted by the baseball game you were watching and forget about the one camp of murlocs? (Ironically, Blizzard actually added some aggressive mobs amongst the non-aggro turtles, extending the portion of the beach where the player needs to pay at least some minimal attention.)

Access to content
The fact is that the actual content in old world Azeroth isn't as bad as people think it is. The old quests lack the custom scripted eye candy events of Northrend, but the underlying gameplay is the same as anywhere else in WoW. The difference is that the developers didn't think twice about putting the followup to the quest I did last night in Dustwallow Marsh all the way on the other side of the world in the Swamp of Sorrows. There isn't really any added challenge in taking a boat, no fewer than three flight paths (you couldn't queue these up either, so you had to dismount and talk to the flightmaster at each stop to take the next leg), and a run across a zone patrolled by aggressive, PVP-flagged orc guards to kill a dozen spiders either. However, old school WoW's exp curve required that players clear out a much larger proportion of the game's total content, and the hope was no doubt that players would stumble across some of the handful of Alliance quests in the Swamp.

Personally, I think the move to level 20 ground mounts is a good change (try running across Ashenvale without one sometime), and the move to level 40 epic ground mounts is unnecessary but largely harmless. I would have instead added more of an emphasis on regional teleport hubs (e.g. adding Theramore and Stonard portals to Dalaran) with players using local travel by flight paths and mounts to reach their final destination. I would also add a requirement, present in EQ2, that players actually visit a given location before being allowed to teleport there in the future.

Some bloggers, often ones who proudly declare that they don't like WoW anymore (sometimes backing that statement up by actually not playing WoW anymore), argue that players need to be forced to spend time watching their characters travel places, even though that time is largely non-interactive, in order to see how big the world is. I would argue that it's the content of the world, rather than its sheer size, that is really impressive. Cutting down on travel - not eliminating it entirely, but streamlining the process of returning to locations players have already reached - allows players to retain a sense of the scale and layout of the world while putting more of the content front and center.

EQ2 Bonus Tradeskill Commentary

It was a busy offline weekend (all of them are these days), but I was able to harness the power of EQ2's bonus exp weekend to significant effect. My various characters picked up over 30 crafting levels, and there were other members of my guild who were trying even harder - the guild gained a level from all the crafting activity.

• Lyriana was finally able to hit level 80 Jeweler, starting from level 72. (Thank you shout out to Ysh for reminding me that some of the veteran reward exp potion packs include tradeskill bonuses.)
  
  What did I do to celebrate? I ran out and did three more tradeskill writs. Ironically, the last few levels were unusually quick due to an abundance of new recipes (spells that get one last upgrade before the level cap). I ended up hitting level 80 with a number of first pristine combines bonuses remaining, and three writs shy of 40,000 rep with my city's tradeskill faction.
  
  I finished filling up the rep bar to claim the "Master Liason" title, and the ability to craft my own AA mirror (EQ2's version of dual specs). The mirror can be comissioned from another crafter, but I felt strongly about making my own, since it was obvious that I was going to pick up most of the required reputation during the course of leveling.
  
  
• Kreejak, my Sarnak Warden, jumped from crafting level 10 (fresh out of the tutorial) to level 28, having chosen to specialize as a Tailor. Here was where the combination of vitality, first pristine bonuses, and the bonus weekend became slightly absurd - I think I averaged about 2 combines per level for the entire 10-20 range. Crafting takes slightly longer at lower levels (your abilities add more progress at higher levels, while the total progress required to complete an item remains constant), but this was still insanely quick. I suppose it has to be, since players level past that level range so quickly, but I was pretty shocked.
  
  It seems like the most beneficial profession choices if you're not in it for the money are the jobs that craft either your character's spells or their armor. (Weapons are a major performance upgrade, but you only need 1-2 of them every 10 levels.) I'd just done spells on Lyriana, so I decided to go the other route on the Warden.
  
  Tailoring seems like a great deal - though their overall market is smaller (more than half of the classes wear mail or plate, which is crafted by armorers), tailors get to make a variety of non-armor goodies. These include hex dolls (the EQ2 equivalent of crafted trinkets), backpacks, throwing weapon sacks, and even fistwrap weapons for the unarmed Bruiser and Monk classes.
  
  
• Speaking of my little Ratonga Bruiser (who I intend to turn into a good-aligned Monk someday, if I ever actually get around to playing her), I dusted her off as well and launched into the tradeskill tutorial. I went from level 2-8 in a handful of combines, significantly ahead of the pace that the tutorial is intended to run at. I would have pressed onwards if I had any idea what I wanted to do with the character. I guess she'd become an alchemist by default, since Lyriana and Kreejak have literally all of her gear covered.
  
  
• I also dusted off my provisioner for a single level (27->28) before deciding that I was right to drop that character the first time. EQ2's provisioners are limited to cooking two servings at a time as a stopgap measure to keep already-flooded markets from getting even worse. Unfortunately, the status quo means that you're going to spend 10 minutes to cook a stack of food. I'm prepared to live with crafted goods being worth less than the materials I used to make them, but I'm not prepared to spend 10 minutes of crafting time on the project.
  
  (In fairness, a single serving of food in EQ2 generally lasts for about an hour, so you'll outlevel that stack of food before you finish eating it. The problem is that you're still going to have to cook SOMETHING to gain the experience levels needed to have better food available when you hit the next tier.)
  
  At this point, I'm strongly tempted to give up on the profession outright and hit the reset button (which would revert the budding chef to level 9 and let him pick a new profession). The main hesitations are deciding what profession to replace it with, and, indeed, if I want to just delete the character outright. EQ2 currently offers a mere seven character slots for the standard monthly fee, and most of mine are spoken for by current or planned characters. I'm not sure that it makes sense to tie up one of those slots on a character that I'm unsure that I'll want to play in the non-crafting game.

Though I have hit the tradeskill level cap, there is a lot of tradeskill content remaining in EQ2. I have not started on the various tradeskill reputation grinds of the most recent expansion, one of which leads to an epic tradeskill item. That said, it might make more sense to tackle some of this content on alts who still need tradeskill exp (or to wait for the higher level cap in the next expansion), especially since some of the rewards are account-bound.

Either way, Lyriana now has a crate full of spell upgrades and is free to move on all the way to the level cap without worrying about where her next upgrade is coming from. That's not a bad way to celebrate Independence Day, all considered.


Lyriana, looking into her new AA dual spec mirror. For those who are curious, EQ2 mirrors can display very sharp reflections, this particular one is intentionally murky.