Wednesday

World of Warcraft

Cool game. I am glad I chose to play a Warrior, instead of a Druid.

Taking a break from Guild Wars is good - while being a good game and all, it was incredibly intense. Fighting against top ranked teams is exciting for sure. But sometimes I just want to get together with some friends and enjoy a game or two. I have no idea when Guild Wars stopped being fun. Perhaps when there stopped being things to achieve : Guild Wars is definitely not about yourself, it's about the team. Your performance is trivial (a single player out of eight) and there is little to no chance of personal glory. Few will notice if you do well or do badly, but your team will suffer if you suck. Teamspirit. If that dies, then there's nothing left.

Guild Wars is all about skill being more important than hours played. World of Warcraft is almost purely about number of hours played. In WoW you know that if you put in X amount of time into it, you will get something out of it. Some money, some items, factions, etc. In Guild Wars, you can be an instant star if you're good, but if you suck, you're in a tough spot. Depends which one is your cup of tea I guess.

Playing a Warrior is exciting business. Warriors will usually have to direct and lead groups, and from a position of highly limited visibility and awareness as well.

First time playing a Warrior was rough : I was taking a side tank / support / DPS role instead of being maintank and leader. But now I'm usually the one to start parties : I am getting better : more compliments on play are coming in from random strangers, and I am building up a large list of contacts. Many people think I've been playing level 60 warriors on other servers =p

My inspiration for playing a Warrior : watching an experienced Warrior play for us once, with over a year of experienced, and then I fully realised what you can achieve. I abandoned my Druid and started a Warrior instead. I don't want to be support - I want to lead, whether to doom or to victory. As a Warrior class I will be absorbing about 80% or more of the total incoming damage, and very frequently I am rated highest on outgoing damage as well, so it never gets boring.

It is such a pleasure playing with a team of players that knows what they're doing, what they can achieve, and they do it without needing to be told. It is even better playing under a leader who knows what YOU can achieve - how best to use your abilities. I feel it is a nod or acknowledgement to each player if I personally use them at least once in the game : calling upon each player for some special contribution, and then complimenting each and every one of them at the end. Even if I don't need them, I'll try to find a way to use their abilities just to make them feel useful. Hah, this is sounds worse than it is. But calling upon someone to perform some task exposes their abilities, and allows them to show the group how good they really are are, and also gives me a chance to observe their skill. I am very familiar with the feeling of being a good player, and making a significant but invisible contribution to the team without any acknowledgement.

That being said I'm also pretty harsh on people that suck. But strangely enough only on people I know and care about, and that I will be playing with again. Stranger that suck, I just stay silent, and then never play with them again. I knew a particular Rogue sucked in my group : even though I didn't need to, I asked him to do something for me - stealth in and stun an enemy in a group of 3. It's a really trivial task, that Rogues do on a constant basis but he failed anyway as I expected. Then the whole group now knows he sucks, and people in my group sent me private messages saying so =p

3 comments:

Ash said...

hmmm... As a hunter, I also seem to be the one starting groups and leading them. The irritating part is people who like to do their own thing. Especially when they want to be the ones leading the group and running into enemies (like this %*^^*(& pally today)

Hunters are fun being that I can take lead or fall into support. Hanging back with the mages and warlocks I also do a lot of aggro redirection. With the newer skills I have acquired, aggro redirection is great with a hunter (feign death ftw), taking it off the casters then transfering it to the tanks.

Haven't met a great hunter player yet. Would love to see what is achievable though. The later skills promise a lot of variability in tackling each battle scene.

aetherfox said...

yes of course : hunters can act as really good peelers, controlling stray aggro from the backline, because they have the best view of the battlefield. warriors have a very restricted view and will often not be aware of incoming adds.

good hunters? i always thought hunters were defined by their DPS, so just go check the DPS charts at the end of combat to see who comes out on top. like warriors, rangers are a class which can DPS their hearts out without worry, unlike rogues or mages.

Wolf-bones said...

WoW most definitely isn't just about numbers of hours played. I've partied with people who'd played for much longer than I had, that had no idea what they were doing.
The only thing worse is those really patronising players. The one's that try to "personally use" everyone in their party. So that they can "feel useful" to their leader. God I hate those fucking egotists.