Wednesday, January 30, 2013

January Round-up and February Outlook

With the first month of the year mostly out of the way, what have I been up to?  I previously tracked this sort of thing on Twitter, but it was somewhat cumbersome to review my notes that way, so I figured I'd try a post format instead.

The two biggest shares of my gaming time in January went to the two great financial disappointments of 2012 - SWTOR and TSW.  In TOR I've been leveling my Agent Operative alt with the benefit of numerous unlocks but without the benefits of the subscription - my initial impression is that the penalties to exp as a non-subscriber are steep and potentially problematic, but I'd really like to get to the upper-mid levels before I draw too much of a conclusion on that front.  In TSW, I've cleared out Kingsmouth and Savage Coast and moved on to the Blue Mountains, where I'm finding my build perhaps too effective - I'm almost looking forward to being forced to change to deal with other types of foes down the road. 

I also put some time into pet battles in WoW, which I considered oddly a prerequisite for entering the new expansion because I did not want to go to Pandaria and constantly walk past pets that I could not yet tame.  Actually journeying forth into the new content was something I set aside for when I could clear out some time to dedicate to the task, and that time is tentatively coming up next month.  Blizzard is not confirming or denying whether there are new five-mans in the future patch 5.3, which makes it sound like many of the current endgame activities could cease to be meaningful if I wait too much longer. 

Other things on my calendar for next month include Star Trek Online, which will launch a new featured episode that awards a special anniversary starship reward, and possible Dungeons and Dragons Online.  I've been ducking into DDO from time to time for an evening when I want a change of pace, and the next game update is scheduled to overhaul/improve loot in some of the mid-level content that is next on my list of things to do.  As always, this potentially leaves everything else I could be working on - including my games of choice from this month - sitting on the sidelines, but such is the era we live in.

What are you all looking forward to specifically in the month of February? 

3 comments:

  1. I would imagine that the exp penalty for non-subscribers would be especially punishing for an Operative considering how late they get their healer companion.

    As for TSW, if you're finding the mobs in Blue Mountain easy you should probably go deeper into the zone. Go check out the casino construction site or the solo mission in the haunted mansion. :p

    Blue Mountains were easily the worst part of my time in TSW. The proliferation of solo missions made my life an utter hell since I was optimized for duoing with my friends tankier build.

    On the plus side both Egypt zones are spectacular, City of the Sun God is definitely one of my favorite zones ever.

    As for February events, I have hopes that ANet will wow me with their promised WvW update. And if not, then I can look forward to spending a lot more time with my friends in Planetside 2 I suppose.

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  2. That's a bummer to hear about SWTOR leveling. I haven't really gone back to play my Agent since it went F2P, but the XP grind was already pretty brutal when I was sub. Playing alts meant replaying pretty much every single quest in the game again.

    Haha, I felt the exact same about leveling the battle pets before playing through MoP. It's part of why I was so late to reaching the level cap :P But it was totally worth it grab dozens and dozens of pets while leveling.

    I always meant to play DDO, but never put more than a couple hours into it, because I always had to play something else for a deadline. Maybe I'll go back and try it now. Which class would you recommend?

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  3. @Josh: I'm hesitant to give a recommendation because DDO has such an open class system. Many things aren't as good as they sound on paper, so you're almost always better off going with a well-rated build from the forums. Unfortunately, many of these will assume access to features you would need to pay to unlock as a newbie. The two easiest paths using free options are:

    - In general, it's nice to have a way to heal yourself, and melee with a 2-handed weapon. Paladins (more heavily melee), along with certain builds of Bard (good utility) and Cleric (much more spell casting), fit this bill.
    - Arcane DPS spellcasters (Wizard, Sorceror) are easy to build - max your casting stat and Con (for HP), maybe throw in a few points of STR for early level melee, and don't multi class unless you really know what you're doing. Unless you have the paid Warforged race you won't have spells to heal yourself, but you can and should use NPC hirelings for that.

    Anyway, I'd try one or both of those two approaches first and then see whether it would make sense to pay for other races and classes.

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