dmanlong
-
Posts
193 -
Joined
Content Type
Forums
Blogs
Events
Articles
Downloads
Gallery
Posts posted by dmanlong
-
-
Without Recount, developers set the enrage timer at 6 minutes - giving leeway for less efficient specs and rotations.
With Recount, developers end up setting the enrage timer at 4 minutes to preserve the challenge because a small number of players have spreadsheeted their combat rotation and spec down to a science and are running at 99% efficiency. While this may seem awesome to you, this essentially means that all players that want to beat the content now have to work/invest more into their character to achieve the new minimum bar for efficiency, whether they want to deal with addons or not - they will now have to. If they do not - they will be labeled a noob and left on the sideline.
At that point - it's no longer a game of just having fun while killing internet krayt dragons, it's a battle of numbers on an excel spreadsheet. I don't know about you, but I don't play MMOs to be an accountant or mathematical analyst. I play for fun. Damage meters are not required to have fun in a MMORPG.
Normal modes are for casual fun and not min/maxing your character. What you are saying is that you do not want to do any research and invest any time into perfecting your character - which a lot of players like to do. This is why difficulty levels exist.
Hard enrage timers that are tightly tuned do not exist in normal modes for this very reason. If you are complaining that the developers supertune hard mode bosses because we have the ability to see maximum rotations with combat logs, then you are doing it wrong if you don't spreadsheet your character.
Play how you want, but don't be angry if all the content is not dumbed down and you can't beat it with your laissez-faire approach to gaming.
-
From the OP, it seems to equate killing/grinding with leveling. I've had good success doing minimal killing whiles stealthing objectives to either kill the boss or grab the clicky. I can zip through quests really fast. There are tons and tons of quests to do, and I have found leveling to be really easy and insanely fun.
This is doubley so for my 31 point sawbones because I can solo through harder stuff that others might have to group up for (just got through the Voss Trial chambers -non heroic one- last night while killed off strongs and elites left and right).
Anyway, I'm not sure if you're unhappy with doing the same combat sequence over and over (which will happen with any class) or that you don't think you're killing fast enough (to which I'd say, find a way to get xp that doesn't involve a pure reliance on killing speed).
I tried this strategy for a bit and then found that I was completing areas while hardly not gaining an XP or leveling. It seems much of the xp comes from completing bonuses which are tied to killing x amount of mobs. I found myself on planets 3 levels early because of this and had to go back to killing all the mobs.
-
Then I don't understand why you're using Corso, when you're clearly annoyed by the Harpoon bug, and you have better companions anyway.
I also don't understand why you don't simply respec for grinding then. Respec for free, grind out the last 6 levels, and the respec back for a few pennies.
As far as I can tell, you're mad that a pure healer spec doesn't put out as much AoE damage as some other classes? That's absurd.
I am not mad about anything, I am just bringing up an opinion in an open forum.
I am leveling as a pure healer because the option exist to play with a tanking companion. The time it takes to clear a pack of mobs and then heal up after the kill should be comparable because I am utilizing the roles that counter-balance each other - or so I thought.
A DPS playing with a DPS companion should kill mobs extremely fast but also take much more damage than a tank and healer. Why would I use a non-tank and play as heals when I could just go double dps if a tank companion give me no benefit?
The only reason I bring this up is because I watched a guardian with a healer Companion go into a cave and clear out all the mobs after I had just gone in there previously. It was a very noticeable difference. There was almost no downtime.
Also, if I re-specced out of heals then who would heal all the heroic 4 quests and FP early on? There should be incentives to level as a support role not barriers.
-
Well I don't think it is fair to expect overall damage output to be the same as what you would get with a full DPS spec character. You trade DPS to get greater survivability with better healing.
Are you keeping the companion you are using is the most up to date gear? Since most of your DPS comes from you companion this helps kill stuff faster.
Yes, both my and my companions gear is fully upgraded. I also run a bit of FP so my gear is superior to most of the quest gear. I also use the planet commendations to mod out my orange gear.
I understand that I will be a bit slower then a pure dps but with a tank companion and me healing it should equal itself out. As an example: Ask a JK Guardian after he gets Doc how much down time there is. A Guardian with a healing companion can just about chain pull.
-
From the sound of his post, he's stuck in that 10-25 range, which I agree is the least fun part of the Scoundrel class. You only have stupid Corso as your companion, and you haven't gotten a lot of the real hard hitting smuggler powers (Shoot First, Cheap Shot, Flyby).
My advice is to hang in there. Bail on Taris early (it's a boring planet anyway), and plow through the class quest section of Nar Shadaar to get a replacement companion for Corso. Things will get more interesting after that.
In my OP I stated that I am level 44. It is not an issue of not being able to kill the mobs. It is an issue of it being a repetitive time consuming process that makes it Un-enjoyable.
And of course I am using all those abilities that people have posted about like shoot first
, back-blast, dirty kick and everything else while keeping up pugnacity. It feels slow. It might just be that as a ranged healer, moving in for close quarter combat seems to be flawed.
-
People cried about waiting in Ques and now they are sitting on empty servers. I picked the highest pop server I could find and sat in 1.5 hour Que the first week or so. Now I log on with no Que and go to the fleet and see tons of people and have no issues getting a group.
Be careful what you ask for.
-
Vital shot spam could be hurting you. What I like to do is CC, then pull mobs around some form of LOS (or just out of range of the CCd mob) and that allows me to use my grenade and Corso's AoE as well at much more efficiency than vital shot.
How do you do that considering Corso harpoon's the first non-CC mob to where ever he is standing. Turning off Harpoon is not an option because he turns it back on.
-
I leveled a combat medic and seer in beta and decided to make sawbones my main because I really like the synergy of the heals and how well the talents worked with each other.
Leveling feels like a chore and while I am really enjoying the story, I dislike the entire process.
I am leveling as a full sawbones and I find it so slow and tedious to deal with each pack of mobs.
Standard pack of 5 mobs with 1 or 2 harder mobs in the pack:
Cloak then sneak up behind hard mob and CC. Next CC pull if another mob is a Robot. Let Corso grab aggro, while I throw in a Frag ( if safe) otherwise I vital shot all non-cc Mobs and then kill off mobs by who corso has aggro with. I then attack harder CC mobs while Corso tanks them. I open with a few stronger abilities usually leaving the harder mob at half health. I can then DPS the mob or heal corso - both take about the same amount of time for the mob to die.
Repeat on the next 1000 packs of mobs.
Does anyone else find this entire process to be boring? I am sitting at level 44 and it is not fun.
-
I'd rather have the game be aimed at the casual gaming majority, not balanced for the "competitive gamers". Nothing ruins a game faster than balancing content for the tiny minority of "professional raiders".
Lotr Online is a fantasic game but does not allow add on and has a very small professional gaming end game.
This game failed even though its amazing because people don't want to play a second class game. People want to play the best and they want to strive to be the best and play with the best players.
No one watches the WNBA even though those women have amazing talent. Why? Is it because they would get destroyed by NBA players. People want to emulate the best.
Don't allow add on and you wont get professional gamers. No professional gamers and this game is dead in 6 months. Its a neccessary evil.
-
The biggest issue most people have is with a add on like Deadly Boss Mods where it tell you when to move and calls out certain mechanics. I am fine without this add on as long as the boss is not so tightly tuned that you can't beat it without a add on.
For example when working on Heroic Ragnaros - you had a single global cooldown to move as a group in phase 2 or you would die when the seeds spawned. There was a countdown that told everyone when to move. If someone didnt move it was a wipe. This fight has a zero tolerance for failure mechanic and you need everyone alive to win. The encounters themselves were created knowing a add on would be needed.
-
still not as epic as a wookie with a flame-thrower.
-
will you be a little more specific?
How is this game a Vanilla clone opposed to a Wrath or even WoW clone?
How is end game raiding like Wrath end game raiding opposed to Vanilla WoW end game raiding?
-
I played wow before pugging any form of raid was even possible, due to its difficulties. If you werent in a good guild, you wouldnt see end game content. If you were bad, that was the reason.
You had to have x amount of stats before raiding and you had to do your job really well. You couldnt be carried.
WoW is a complete joke in standards of difficulty now.
If you played before the massive nerf midway through TBC You'd understand. After the nerf and change of engine... illidan was able to be tanked by a void walker at level 70 which was max level. Thats a joke. Wrath was a joke and too easy too. I cleared the whole game with my guild of friends in less than 3 months. That was before ICC was available, so we took a few months break. ICC came out and we had it on farm pretty much after a few attempts to learn mechanics.
Tell me that you played before The big nerf mid burning crusade, and that you found it ridiculously easy... and I will salute you.
My personal opinion though on this matter of add ons...
I'd prefer not to have meters telling me everything. It removes a sense of skill, since you learn that x combination does x amount of damage, so you turn into a mindless drone.
Sure having damage meters encourage people to reach for top dps. Sure it also helps tanks judge the threat on mobs with ease... but this also takes away the challenge. You have something telling you everything with minimal effort.
You have add ons telling you when phases are about to start, how long it is until a boss casts a certain spell. Markers placed on people with debuffs to make it extremely easy to see.
The sense of challenge goes out the window. I miss the old days when you didnt rely on meters and warnings. It added an extra depth of player awareness and challenge.
Disagree all you want. Thats my view.
Totally wrong. All content pre-nerf is unpuggable, they just have hard modes now. Firefighter in Ulduar pre-nerf was as hard or harder than any other content released.
Sorry, the same people that I play with in the game now are the same people I raided hardmodes ICC with and the same people years ago in BC. The fights are actually more difficult in mechanics now but access is easier.
Karazan was brutal when first released but was totally puggable along with Grulls and SSC after 6 months. T6 and Sunwell were not but they had massive gear checks. Gear is the only reason those later fights could not be done.
-
Yes, the fact that people are pugging Cataclysm's hardest content reflects well it's difficulty.
This information is entirely false. LFD is not real raiding. All of the mechanics are mostly removed. Very few guilds have killed any of the bosses on hard modes.
-
Early raiding content was about finding enough people to actually do the raids and having the time to spend 30 hours a week in a raid due to the massive amount of inefficiencies that existed. The content difficulty level was very low.
A 40 man guild had 20 good players and 20 afk players. Tank and healers only spammed one button over and over until he boss was dead. The hardest part was having mages spend an hour before raid making food for everyone.
You could get away with a stock UI and no add ons because the encounters were simple and bad players were allowed to play simply because they had the time. If the philosophy is let the encounters be easy because we we have a bad UI and no add ons the so be it, but I would rather face a dynamic and difficult boss and need add ons to make life easier.
-
My first question is this,
Given that the number of people participating in raids over the last few years have dropped (going by my experience) why should BW be bothered to allow 3rd party addons that will effect the entire community when they will only be used by a minority?
Blizz even intoduced a raid finder very similiar to their dungeon finder with watered down raid content just to encourage players to get involved.
If guilds currently doing heroic operations in Swtor can do so without addons why do other players feel compelled to have them? Part of me believes that its a habbit. If you used them for the last 7 years then you will naturally want to continue to use.
BW has already buckled under the pressure and said they are developing their version of a damage meter. My suggestion is for players to just have a go, trying running operations without the addons and you may realise that in this game they arent necessary.
I am going to assume you are talking about wow here.
Why would you say that the number of people particpating in raids had dropped? If anything it is the exact opposite. With raid finder and different difficulty levels more people than ever are raiding. Back in the day, it was a very small amount that saw end game content.
As some one who played the game for the last 6 years, I can tell you the reason it seems like there is less people is because the game is old. Nothing can fix that. People tire of doing the same thing over and over again.
Add on's fix quality of life issues. You might be able to raid just fine without add-ons in normal modes, but I bet they are needed in nightmare mode. Having to click something 3 times for a single heal is not fun.
-
Honestly they should just put the battle on a timer and have a boss that is only available for the faction that wins. It has been done before but at least we know it works.
Correct and we all know what game you are talking about, but honestly, this formula has proven to be the most effective and it is a lot of fun if designed correctly.
Nothing wrong with taking proven effective game mechanics and making them your own.
-
You may change your tune when healers are rare at end game. I went into beta fully prepared to heal my way through many flashpoints.
I left beta completely disgusted that the healing portion of the UI is still 6 years in the past.
No mouseover targeting/click casting + No debuff highlighting + tiny buff/debuff icons = me very resistant to healing. I guarantee that I'm not the only healer friendly player to feel this way.
Same. I leveled a smuggler healer up to 44 and after healing many of the FP I have decided to re-roll for the time being until they make the UI more healer friendly.
At the very minimum:
Mouse over healing and macros are needed.
Customizable buffs and debuff I can actually see.
The ability to lump in companions with the raid frames.
I would prefer some sort of power auras proc so I can see when necessary buff proc but that is more of a want than a need.
-
So three mouse clicks per heal?
1st click - target the player, be it a mouse click or one of the F1-F8 keys.
2nd click - cast the heal.
3rd click - retarget the enemy.
Repeat this each time someone else needs a heal.
Opposed to mouseover targeting where I click one button and the UI automatically grabs the target my mouse pointer is hovering over.
It's about efficiency man. There's no tank in the world (or dps for that matter) that would put up with having to do that same routine for each attack they made on the boss.
Totally agree.
Healing is beyond annoying right now. Can it be done? Sure, but why would I want to heal like this?
-
As a guild leader and raid leader, I know how my raid members are performing without the aid of addons. I've been raid leading for 5 years now and its never been an issue. The only thing that not having addons means is that the conversation with the underperforming player is more uncomfortable because you lack proof.
I totally disagree. You were not able to properly assess your players without add ons. This might have been okay for a semi-casual guild, but it will not work for players who are performing at the highest level.
Not standing is stuff and doing your rotation properly is par for the course, not what makes an exceptional player. A top-end player is the best of the best and they are evaluated on so many different things. Damage output, interrupts, damage taken, positioning, what mobs they attacked and countless other factors.
Add-ons are an absolute necessity for this game to be taken seriously by competitive gamers. Anyone who says different has not played at the highest level.
-
MMO's are time-sinks. This is by design. It should feel like a journey to get from one place to another.
I like the fact that you have to make active choices about traveling somewhere. They have also provide emergency fleet pass and many flashpoint shuttles to help get you to places quicker.
This sounds like a bunch of needless complaining.
-
I have died about 8 times trying to do the "Paladins Quest" on Alderaan. I am main specced as a healer but the sith apprentice burns corso down in a very short amount of time even with me healing him.
I am able to interupt some of the abilities but most require me to be in melee range as well and I am taking a ton of damage.
I am level 30, the quest is green and the mobs are 28 elite. I am getting my butt kicked. I am a sawbones.
any advice?
-
Anyone know of a way to turn up the sound when you receive a whisper?
"Addons are stupid and WoW is easy."
in Flashpoints, Operations, and Heroic Missions
Posted · Edited by dmanlong
you are missing what he/she is saying.
He/she wants the developer to not put in damage meters but also make the encounters very easy, so everyone can win.
Trophies and gold stars for everyone. We all win and live in happy fun land.