Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Weekly Character Updates

Airholen the Explorer
     So, Tortos finally was kind and dropped the Shattered Tortoiseshell Longbow, This is THE weapon for a Beast Master Hunter. SO I have it all decked out with all the mods and upgrades that I can stuff onto the thing. Now I just need to get the Quakestompers from Tortos and the Legendary Cloak. My efforts to complete the Celestial Challenge has so far been an EPIC failure. No real good way to complete this has showed itself to me as yet.

Brewmaster Asmodea
     Making her way through the quests. She is now 36% of the way from 89 to 90. This has only been slow going because I just haven't dedicated much time to her.

Airholen of Balder's Gate
      He is now level 38. I have joined the Ruins of Judge Guild. I also did two runs at PVP and did very well. I even had a lot of fun. So I think I will be trying to do it more.

Blue Adept
      I have been trying to finish up the lower level missions this guys has. I have completed all of the level 13 and 14's and working on the level 15 quests. This effort has leveled my guy up to level 19. I am having fun with this so I probably will need to look up some more about this game and find a supergroup for him.

Grell, Zombee, Danic and Sisteric
      Grell got some new ships and continued the Storyline. All of them are working on the Reps to get the better things that are out there. Otherwise there just isn't much to write about them.

      So that's what I did this past week in MMO's. I also played some XCOM. I have been trying to stream it on Twitch TV under the name of ZombeeDan. Come watch me play.

      I have also suffered a loss on my computer. My desktop computer's motherboard has died. I now am doing things on laptops, and working on building a new system. Hopefully, I will get a new updated technology put into the system to allow me to do more than what I have been doing. 

      Tune in next time to find out what next I have to write about.

Monday, July 29, 2013

PTR 5.4 and Rogues

      So I am going to give my Hunter treatment to Rogues since I am leveling Asmodea.

Evasion
       Dodge now increased by 100%, instead of 50%. This will increase our survivability, Combat should really like this since we are supposed to be able to be good head to head.

Eviscerate
       Deals 10% less damage. This sucks for me. It's my second most used finishing move. It doing less damage may well mean I have to switch moves. I have yet to run the numbers on this to make the point valid, but I think that it will slow my dps a bit. This I think is more a move to lessen it's effectiveness in PVP than in PVE.

Recuperate
        Restores 4% of maximum health every 3 seconds instead of 3%. So now we may well have a good reason to use the recuperate finishing move as it will give us a significant amount health back without making it OP.

Sinister Strike
         Deals 190% of weapon damage for 50 Energy, up from 145% weapon damage for 40 Energy. Not a bad trade off. It will make it harder to get this off alot, but it will up the DPS.

Daggers
        Assassin Rogues will only get daggers for automatically assigned loot situations. This means that Assassin's will only get Daggers from LFR and Scenarios. It will also apply to Bonus Rolls and Scenarios. End result is that Assassin's will gear faster because they will only get the weapons that they can use for their spec abilities. Good for the Assassin's but doesn't impact anyone else.

Ruthlessness
        Combat Rogues get this new ability at level 32, It's a passive ability that will give you a a combo point after a finishing move is used. This is at 20% per combo point used on the finishing move. Since I only use my finishing moves at 5 dots, this means I get a free combo point every time. Allows us to keep the DPS up and use the finishing moves more often.

Killing Spree
         Hits only the target 7 times unless you have Blade Flurry active. Works normally if Blade Flurry is active. I hate this. I use this only when I have multiple targets around. It's fun to watch me jump around when using this ability. I don't think this change is necessary.

Backstab
         Now does 315% weapon damage, up from 275%. This will make the initial burst damage good. And can give better overall damage to the Subtle Rogues in raids and Dungeons if they have good tanks. It's a good start to make these guys viable again.

Hemorrhage
        Deals 160% weapon damage instead of 140%. Also, it does 232% with a dagger instead of 203%. Again some nice mid fight burst damage to get these guys up into the charts during a raid or dungeon.

Burst of Speed
         Reduced Energy cost in half. Now 15 Energy. This is good, increases the survival of the rogue with this talent. And makes it more attractive as an option.

Cheat Death
         Damage Reduction is 85% instead of 80%. Always nice to have this increased, but will really mean more in PVP than PVE with this small of a change.

Cloak and Dagger
         Now can use Ambush, Garrote and Cheap Shot from 40 yards. So now I don't need to get as close to use these moves, but again it's more for PVP than PVE.

Nightstalker
          Increased damage dealt by abilities whiled stealthed by 50%, up from 25%. This one is made for PVE. This initial burst damage so helps the soloist player that it might warrent a talent change for me. This is also good for PVP initial burst. This is one of those rare good for both realms of play without actually being OP.

Paralytic Poison
         Now stuns the target after 4 applications instead of 5. Big Deal. Not used in PVE generally. In PVP this might be an issue because it's one less application, but with all the ways that poisons can be removed from players now, I don't think it's that big of deal. Now if this was moved down to 3 applications it would be a real threat in PVP. Still not a big deal in PVE.

Shadowstep
         Cooldown is now 20 seconds instead of 24 seconds. This helps the backstabbers alot, more so in PVP than PVE, but it's still a good move for PVE too. I use this Talent, and having it available more often is good. Helps Subtle Rogues the most.

Glyph of Adrenaline Rush
          This is now a baseline ability. Most Rogues had this Glyph so this seems like a good move.

Glyph of Redirect
           Redirect no longer has a cooldown. Replaces Glyph of Adrenaline Rush. This will probably be what every Rogue will have too. We shall see.

Glyph of Blind
           Removes DOT's that will break Blind. If you have Dirty Tricks Talent then Poison and Bleed effects will not be removed nor break Blind. This gets a little more selective and probably will be a Assassin Rogues favored glyph.

Glyph of Crippling Poison
           Removed. Replaced by Glyph of Sharpened Knives. Never used it.

Glyph of Sharpened Knives
           Causes Fan of Knives to also damage the armor, applying 1 application of Weakened Armor effect. Nice, but I don't think I will be chasing this glyph down. It doesn't do enough I think for PVE. It may be more useful in PVP but I am not sure.

Glyph of Debilitation
            Replaced with Glyph of Recovery. Didn't have have it, didn't try to get it.

Glyph of Recovery
            Increased healing while Recuperate is active. Nice if the healers target you. Not useful for Soloists.

Glyph of Recuperate
            An additional 1% to the Recuperate rate. Up from .5%. Also a good thing. Gives us an even better chance to survive an attacker in PVP. And helps soloists to keep their health up.

Glyph of Sap
           Replaced by Glyph of Hemorrhaging Veins. Probably wasn't get much use. I wasn't using it.

Glyph of Hemorrhaging Veins
           Causes Sanguinary Veins ability to damage done to Targets affected by Hemorrhage. Helps Subtle Rogues output damage, but not useful for Assassin or Combat Rogues.

Glyph of Shiv
           Reduces Shiv cooldown by 3 seconds instead of 2. Nice, but 5 seconds would have been nicer. Still, it will help increase damage, more so for Assassin's than any other spec.

Glyph of Improved Distraction
           Summons a decoy at the target location. Will give the distractee a little more time to sneak by if that is his goal.

Glyph of the Headhunter
          You now throw axes instead of knives. A visual change for those that care about. Probably will be gotten by Trolls and Dwarves for roleplaying purposes.

The above is purely my opinions. Please review them in that light. Enjoy your game. And tune in next time to see what I have to write about next.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

PTR 5.4 and Hunters update

Since my last post on this subject there have been a couple of changes. So let's take a look at them.

Murder of Crows
       Now deals 40% more damage. We get a buff to a talent. An actual, effective buff. This is a good thing. It helps in the DPS and will make the talent appear more attractive. I use this talent because of the graphic attached to it than the damage it dealt.

Glyph of the Lean Pack
       Reduce the range of Aspect of the Pact by 7 yards. Why? How is this an issue? I don't see any need for this glyph. I would like for someone to let me know if there is any good uses for it. I am at a loss on this one. Especially for a MAJOR glyph.

Glyph of Enduring Deceit
        Camouflage reduces spell damage by 10%. Now we have a reason to use Camouflage. So I may start using this skill again.

Tune in next time to see what I might write about next.


Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Weekly Character Update

Airholen the Explorer
        Made a run at Tortos but he still only hands out gold to me. Also made a few attempts to complete the Celestial Challenge, but not successful yet. I can't seem to out run the adds. Nothing else is happening to this guy till Tortos drops the two pieces of gear or 5.4 comes out.

Brewmaster Asmodea
        Worked on leveling her. She is very close to 89 but not quite there yet. Otherwise nothing new with her.

Grell
         Completed the Risian event to get the Corvette. Collected it and then headed out back to New Romulus. Grell will get back to completing the story arc and catch up with the rest of characters.

Sisteric
          Completed the Risian event and got the Corvette. Returned to Qo'nos and had to complete the Klingon naming ritual for the ship. This started a quest chain to start fighting some rival Klingon House. The House of Torg  tried to ambush me but I won and made a name for myself. Also worked on my Reps.

Zombee
          One more day to complete the Risian event. So should have the Corvette tonight. He has also been able to do some of the Reps too.

Danic
          Still working on the Reps. Making progress but still need to run more missions to get all of the resources.

Airholen of Baldur's Gate
           Been working on the professions only. Also joined a guild, so hopefully I can progress on the mission with help.

Blue Adept
            My computer has crashed. With the money being tight, it is going to take some time to rebuild the computer. In the meantime, I have been able to borrow a laptop to hold me over till the new unit is built. But this meant I had to re-install all of my games. Cryptic has changed it so that all of their games are now loaded through a universal client called Arc. Champions Online was the first of their games I used to play. It is a Super Hero MMO. I had gotten that character up to level 17 before I had hit a wall on my progression. I haven't played the game in over a year. Since it was on Arc, I chose to load it up and see what changes have been made. They have refined their FTP model and brought it inline with STO and Neverwinter. I had to completely rebuild the character powers because they revamped that part of the system. After doing that I tried playing the missions I had yet to complete and I was able to complete them and even progress further along till I got to level 18. I haven't gone back to it yet, but I will because they have made it fun again.
             Blue Adept is a human male spell caster. His power structure is called The Grimoire. He does ranged blasts of energy, summons mystical defenders and can now cast AOE healing spells. I travel by teleportation. He is not part of any supergroup. So we will have to see where this will take us.


Tune in next time to see what I may write about next.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

PTR 5.4 and Hunters

PTR is doing a major overhaul of the Hunter class. SO major that talents and skills are getting moved around or dropped. This will effect our overall shot rotations and changes which spec will be bringing the most utility to the group.

Arcane Shot
      Damage and Focus Cost increased by 50%.   As a BM I have 120 Focus. Right now that means I get 6 shots off without having to recharge focus. This will mean I get 4 shots for the same amount of damage. As an MM or Surv you get 5 shots off now or 3 shots off for 4.5 shots worth of equivalent damage. While BM's can maintain the same amount of DPS, Marksman are Survivlists will take a loss. This weakens MM's and Surv's and strengthens no one.

Counter Shot
      New baseline ability learned by all Hunters at level 22. SO everyone gets a 3 Sec interrupt. But this is useless unless they are casting a spell. Which means we can't stop instant cast spells.

Deterrence
       So the cool down goes up from 2 minutes to three minutes, but you can use it twice. Like the Monk Barrel Roll. This is more of a boon than you might think. In a 6 minute period of time, the old way you had 3 uses while the new way gives us four uses. It's a change for the good for all specs.

Disengage
       Has 20 Sec cool down, down from 25. Being able to use Disengage more often is a very good thing for all specs. This is a good change.

Hunter's Mark
       Last 20 seconds in PVP instead of 30 seconds. Not a big deal. I don't see this as being an issue since the Mark gets auto applied with various shots. Not sure why this change is even being done.

Explosive Trap
       Overall damage decreased by 30%, mostly taken from the initial damage. This weakens this trap. If they are trying to make traps go away, this is a good start to make Explosive Trap not worth the click.

Readiness
      Removed from the game. We get no way to up our burst damage or make effective use of the Bestial Wrath. So our DPS is basically halved for the initial burst damage which is where we did a lot of our damage at. This will make it hard for us to compete in various DPS checks and add burns. We also will not be able to do a lot in PVP initial clash damage or have any decent way to over come healing with our damage. This also will completely change our initial rotations. We will actually have to rethink how we open our attacks beacuse of this. And PVP and Bestial Wrath will not be an opening move any more. We will have to save it for when it will protect us from effects rather than use it to increase our DPS. It changes how BM's will feel and play in all styles.

Revive Pet
        No longer requires line-of-sight to revive pet. This is a good thing. It means we can hide and still revive our dead pets. I like this change.

Stampede
        Deals 75% less damage in Arenas and Battlegrounds only. This will help with our DPS, But I still think it's to little of a help to compensate for the loss of all but auto-attacks from it.

Aspect of the Iron Hawk
       Damage reduction is now 10% instead of 15%. So the the Iron Hawk has rusted a bit. We loose some protection from this Talent. Makes a bis difference in PVP as we end up taking more damage. This makes it harder for any healers to keep us alive. In PVE, this change should not be a big change as we are not supposed to be taking damage.

Narrow Escape
        The Talent is a Nature spell instead of physical. This makes those webs dispellable. Which means this Talent just became easy to get out of for those classes that have anti-spell capabilities. This hurts this talent, it's not taken as often as some other talents at that level. Hidden Chimera being the most popular amongst the top players it seems.

Silencing Shot
        This will be removed from Talents. It becomes an ability for Marksman that replaces Counter Shot. This takes the only blanket counterspell from BM's and Surv Hunters and gives it only to MM's. This reduces the utility of two out of three specs. In fact, this makes MM's the class to play in PVP, making BM's and Surv's the poorest option in PVP. And most of the raid utility will be in the MM spec too.

Spirit Bond
        So now we get 3% of health back every 2 seconds, instead of 2%. This works as long as our pet is alive. This helps all specs, it gives us a small amount of regeneration.

Wyvern Sting
        Range is now 40 yards instead of 35 yards. I don't see what the big deal on this change is. Your going to stay within range no matter what. 5 yards is not that big of a deal.

Glyph of Mend Pet
      So now Mend Pet will cleanse 1 Curse,Desease, Magic or Poison effect for every tick. This is up from 50%. This makes it possible for us to take care of pets since healers wont do anything to help them. This is a quality of life upgrade for us. It doesn't effect anybodies DPS though. It's nice, but we have been dealing with this for so long that it's not a change.

Glyph of No Escape
      Ranged critical strike chance against target in the Freezing Trap is upped from 20% to 100%. So the scatter shot/freezing trap tactic now gets a big boost to damage. I guess Blizzard wanted to promote this style of play, so handed this buff over to us. All specs benefit from this change.

Binding Shot
      This will no longer be a Marksman only ability. It will replace Silencing Shot on the Talent choices. This will not make up for Silencing Shot. But it does give another option to interrupt/stun someone if combines with explosive shot or explosive trap glyph.  But if you can't get the guys to move far enough, this is a waste of focus.

Explosive Shot
      No longer shares cool down with Black Arrow but no longer activates Lock and Load. This should make Survivalists happy. They can get off these two shots with out killing the other. This change has no effect on the other two specs.

Glyph of Explosive Trap
       So now this will share diminishing returns will other classes abilities that does area effect knockback. Since all classes are getting affected with these type abilites it's a wash. Just annoying for PVE. In PVP, this will suck for those that use these abilites for thier standard tactics, but will be nice for those players that had to suffer through these stacked uses.

For the BM spec, these changes look more harmful than good. Utility is taken from us. Damage is going to be reduce due to Focus Starvation from Arcane Shot. In PVE this means that people will less likely want a BM along for the ride. This sucks in the long run.

The only bright light in this dim patch will be the fact MM's will be more versitile in what they can do for a raid or PVP team than ever before. And that may alone get them more leeway for thier lack of DPS output.

Only time will tell how all of this will shake out in WOW live. Tune in next time to see what next I may write about.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Weekly Character Update

Airholen the Explorer
      The Titan Runestone quest has been completed. Took the Twelve back to Wrathion. He ATE it. He had some visions and then told me go meet him at each of the Celestial's. So I met him at each of them. He had his little convo with them and each gave a blessing. But finally, at Yu-Lon, I have to complete a challenge. Beat up Wrathion while he is blind folded. Not as easy as it seems. He has area effect spells and adds that he summon. And those adds are killers. I have yet to beat him. Otherwise, I have upgraded all of the gear that I am keeping. Tortos hates me and hands out only gold to me. Two rolls and nothing but gold. Tortos is the only boss that has stuff I need to get now. And he holds two things I need still, the Quakestompers and the Shattered Tortoiseshell Longbow.

Brewmaster Asmodea
      So Asmodea is now level 88. I got her iLevel up to 410. but she is not progressing much because of my efforts on Airholen the Explorer. Still, though, progress is being slowly made.

Airholen of Baldur's Gate
       Still level 35. I have only been working on his professions through the Gateway. I haven't had much opportunity to play him recently.

Grell, Zombee, and Sisteric
        Grell and Sisteric are at 72% complete towards getting the ships. Zombee is only 68% done. Zombee is behind because I had a computer failure that knocked me offline for the day. I am back on using someone else's computer while I work on getting my system back up and running.

Danic
        I have been running Danic through mission to build up Omega rep. I want to get every character all the way through each of the reps. Danic is working on the MACO/Omega reps in the hopes to get the best gear from them and really advance further. I actually have a plan of outfitting each of their best ships with one of the top tier gear from each of the reps. With the Idea of having each ship available for the runs that work best for their setups. And switching between the ship as necessary. In this way I hope to keep all my ships relevant and viable for most any mission I may wish to do. The other reps are Nukara and Romulan. There are also the fleet top tier gear and ships so they are part of the mix too. But my plan is to out the Tier 5 with the rep stuff and the lower Tier ships use the fleet gear. But that may change if it's too hard to get the fleet gear.

Tune in next time to see what else I may have to say about WOW, Neverwinter and STO.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Weekly Character Update

Airholen the Explorer
         I now have 11 of the 12 required Titan Runestones to progress on the Legendary Quest. I only have the Gear Soaked Gear to upgrade on current equipment. Once I have the boots and Bow from Tortos and the legendary cloak then I can upgrade them and be done with gearing. Or at least done till 5.4 comes out, when the next tier of gear comes out.

Airholen of Baldur's Gate
        So I have been leveling him. He is now level 35. I also have my Leadership at Level 10, Leatherworking at Level 7 and Mailsmithing to Level 2. I also have become a Paragon and now advancing along those skills too.

Grell, Zombee and Sisteric
         Working on the Risan Summer Event. All three are 44% done towards getting the racing corvette. In about 2 week I should have them and get back to Missions. Sisteric has the added bonus of having found a egg and so is raising the bird to full maturity.

Tune in next time to see what I have to say next.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Weekly Character Update

Airholen the Explorer
      So I continue to try and get the bow and boots from Tortos. But I did get the Voice of the Quillen from Iron Qon. I am also at 8 out 12 for the Titan Runestones for the Black Prince Legendary Quest. I figure in another 2 weeks I will have the all the Titan Runestones at this pace. I am thinking of decking out the Quillen Gun and use it in place of the Micorian bow I currently am using. Ask Mr. Robot seems to think it's a good move.

Asmodea
      So I actually played her this week. Got her to level  88 now. Still working on the Tillers rep. Haven't done anything else but questing with her.I think I will get her to 90 before 5.4 comes out.

Airholen of Baldur's Gate
     So Neverwinter has gone live. They added a new profession, Alchemy, but UHave done barely anything with it. I have been pushing Leadership, which is now at 10 out 30. He has also leveled to 29. The fun I am having doing the quests on this game is high. And it's not that it's new, but that it is a story with a pattern. And this story is unfolding in ways I hadn't considered.

Grell, Zombee and Sisteric
      There is a summer event on Risa going on in STO. These are sitting at the events coordinator on Rise to do the daily Jetpack mission. Once I have this for each character for 25 days I get a fast small ship. So Grell's advancement down the story lines is halted till the 25 days are over. 4 days have passed so far.

Tune in next time to see what I might have to say next...