More stuff from my labor day roundup, this time featuring Rift and other stuff that I'm not playing now. EQ2 should have happened before this, but I was working on the bonus exp weekend over there and I finished writing the below material first.
Rift
Much as I like my level 50 Cleric on paper, I'm
thinking I may have chosen horribly in terms of class. Cleric melee is
slow and plodding. Cleric casting is powerful, but includes so much
passive healing that the content feels trivial. I actually enjoyed
Purifier healing, but it seems you don't actually need that level of
healing power, and could have gone for something paired with Justicar
that does more damage instead. Ironically, the game's relatively open
soul system just leaves me wishing I could pick from ALL the souls,
instead of merely a quarter of them.
If there is
indeed a new parallel leveling path in the expansion, the best bet to
hold my interest would be to re-roll with a different calling. The
downside would be fifty levels just to get back into the the new
expansion endgame content, and there's limited evidence that I actually enjoy
soloing in Rift that much.
Others
Ironically,
my next major new release may be Borderlands 2. I don't ordinarily
play first person shooters, but I got a free copy for purchasing a new
nVidia 660 Ti graphics card. I may or may not like the game, but at no cost to
me I think I'd at least give it a try to see how it looks with the new
hardware.
Guild Wars 2 is a question mark - I
like some of the things I've been hearing, but I wouldn't mind seeing
how the game holds up as people get out of the newbie areas. Access to
the game's beta was unusually structured in terms of how much of the
content players could see and how often they'd be allowed online, so I
don't think we have any information to judge the game's longevity yet.
If I had time, this would be a tougher call, but I don't have time. Ironically, being an MMO tourist makes it EASIER to sit out a major launch, because it isn't GW2 versus "same old" in one game, it's GW2 versus "same old" in eight different games, at least one of which I'm not going to be done with at any given time.
Amongst other MMO's, in principle I can sign back
onto Vanguard, but I don't know that the monthly fee was what was
keeping me away from that game after trying it out last year anyway. Allods remains vaguely on the list of major non-subscription MMO's I
have yet to try.
Finally, the console roundup - I'm
currently working on Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Other games on my
radar if/when I replace the console due to broken disc drive include
Infamous 2, Uncharted 3, FF XIII-2, and possibly the two remaining Assassin's Creed games that will be out by then.
If your cleric melee is "plodding" then you're doing it wrong. Shamicar or Druidicar are both excellent high-dps melee solo builds that can really dish out the hurt. I prefer Shamicar myself, but ymmv.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I quit Rift last December, so who am I to be giving advice about in anymore, right?
It has indeed been a while since I played Rift as well - if memory serves, I felt the Druidicar was the really slow choice, Cabalicar trivialized the entire game by letting me pull four mobs at a time and passive self heal through the damage, and I was never fond of Shaman for some reason - so I stuck with Inquisicar.
ReplyDeleteMore generally, I usually only play ranged in games where mobs die very quickly (e.g. 10 seconds in WoW). It's quite possible that I should have played Warrior to begin with, but I do not ever intend to tank, and I was concerned about picking a calling where I am unwilling to ever use the only non-DPS role I can fill.
I must be doing it wrong too. If my cleric wasn't the group healer for our dungeon group, I am not sure I would have the fortitude to solo a cleric up to 50.
ReplyDeleteOf course, that may be related to the fact that I already soloed a rogue and a warrior and am now working on a mage. There is a balance between the joy of efficiency (one my personal likes) and the idea of doing the same damn quests for the fourth time.