(By the way, EBgames just shipped Guildwars... .... :P)
Concept is fun. It gives an immersive factor. It gives a uniqueness factor. MinMax is fun. Fun because one can handle what the game throws at the toon. For some people, concept does not come into play at all because being Uber by MinMaxing gives them lots of fun. For others, all they care about it the concept, and RP, it doesn't matter if they fall over everytime a hellion pokes them.
I'm a bit of both, with both roleplay and powergaming roots. After all I did spent a lot of time in rp. Then again, I also invented Telescan which was a game exploit if I ever saw one :p, and got Kinux asking me how I got so much glory on a level 2...
The question is where the balance is.
Recently I respeced Contrition with the free anniversary respec. I've always wanted some flight pool after dying from overjumping and other problems, and certain nifty powers that I could not fit in. Being the stingy fellow I was, I didn't want to use my Freak respec until I could get the level 44 one.
Out went jumping pool and leadership. In came the obligatory squishy flight pool and various powers I did no have space for.
Heh, suddenly the defender is more 'useful'. Now I could disorient one group of Nemesis while debuffing the other in those nasty left/right ambush t-junctions. Or short-circuit Rikti drones. Or hover in the air avoiding nasty footstomps or quicksand effects.
But somehow, it didn't feel "fun". I felt like a cookie cutter squishy. Efficient yes, fun no.
Before, I stood on the ground and held my group while stuff missed left and right. Nothing could knock me down. Me and my fluffies buffed by circulating little shields and crosshairs fought till we dropped! It felt tanky and heroic. Tankfenderish.
I was also hoping to get the electric epp. More sparks are always good. I wanted to be a walking Science Center exhibit with charged armor.
Something feels wrong when I click a button and a rainbow glow comes over my head. Rainbow effects for a deathbot feel so wrong. Little white and blue bubble circling me feels so...gimpy. Floating in the air feels so...squishy. I don't feel like an electrical deathbot anymore.
Short Circuit is fun though. Sparks are fun. But I miss moving around projecting all sorts of electrical effects in my fluffy clouds of smoke and blue sparks, and occasionally, throwing a giant thunderbolt of Boom at things.
Even though nasty little packs of Rikti bots wipe the floor with me. Or I become AoE fodder for big teams. Which was why I avoided all those big teams. I didn't want to feel inadequate when it becomes just "Big Invul tank charges in, tank tank tank, Healah heals other from distance, fire blaster tosses AoEs in. God bless you if you want to do it another way cos YOU ARE SQUISHY NOW SHUT UP AND HEAL/BUFF from a distance". Emm no buffs. Emm aura heal. Dunno omg I'm teh gimp!!! Jack of all trades, master of none, after all.
But being the same cookie-cutter (and also minmaxed and efficient) squishy is so not-fun.
Nothing can quite replace the feeling when the tank was running back to "save the squishies" from the runaway gewehr jaegar, and my 300hp snipe suddenly wiped it out and it went "boom"... There was a moment of silence. I hadn't been shooting before, just debuffing and healing AoE, and defenders aren't supposed to deal damage...so duh, suddenly that defender just shot for 300hp. Finally, the tank went "nice shot!".
Or when a bunch of Rikti ported into the pod during the sewers trial, and all the blasters and kheldians were flopping around and getting slapped willy nilly, and I waded in tankfenderishly munching my inspirations until the Rikti were all meekly cowering or frozen in a sea of black tentacles.
Or while cleaning a map of CoT, I suddenly decided to throw a thunderous blast, and a giant sea of numbers went up, and then a long moment of silence when people tabbed around trying to find that last mob while staring at a giant pile of corpses. Finally, the scrapper went "hmmm...that was effective"
I'm not sure what I'm complaining about. I can still largely do all that except for the thunderous blast part. But it seems almost like a concept gripe. I want to be an electrical, smokey fortress of protection.
Nevermind that there's just about no way to really achieve this for this AT/powerset. But not going to build a tank. Tanks are boring. They can't die, and that defines boring.
But it could be that having played a controller I'm grumpy I can't get as much control on a defender.... go figure. A funny thought occured to me -- if I ever end up in a Hamidon raid, what group will I be put into? The "healing umbrella" that spam buffs/heals the scraptank (harharhar, me?) or the "holding group" that spams Hamidon with holds? Supposedly I'd have a blue shield, but I can't buff at all, and only aura heal, while I have two holds, and pets that hold... :P
4 comments:
Me, I'd go for balance, and efficiency within the concept. I like min-maxing to a certain extent, but the point of min-maxing is not to end up with a build you don't enjoy playing, it's to make the best of the chosen build.
Look at all the stoners out there who have thrown away all armors except rock, mineral and granite. And -need- the teleport pool.
Maybe I'll make a stoner one day who'll do the TP thing.
But Ragnarl is a leaper. I like to see the dwarf bouncing from rooftop to rooftop and the occasional jumpkick. That said, I have a choice of other things to fit in. Hard decision, but teleport had to go to squeeze leaping in. I needed hasten because I wanted a faster attack cycle - efficiency as well as concept - I do like the ability to scrap if need be.
And I like all his armors. I like being able to pick and choose which to turn on, as and when needed. I like seeing everything miss completely in the defensive armors. I like seeing tickles of 21 hp in granite. Less once I get it slotted, no doubt. I'm not getting rid of any of them.
I will, no doubt, have major problems with slotting later on, but that's what the respec is for, once I count all my slots and figure out what should go where.
Engaging the enemy has to change in strategy depending on your build. I can't TP into a clump of mobs, and waiting on a TP generally takes too long. So that means I have to run in with the initial armors, and if it gets too bad, then switch to granite. Can't be permanently encased in it like some stoners, but that's just a matter of style. I can't turn on Rooted too early, else it's annoyingly slow, keep it off too long and I'm in major trouble. It kinda adds a little spice - not the universally safe tanker, but who cares? Stone still has that little initial gamble that Inv used to have from Unyielding Stance, but it's just the style of the Stone tanker.
I haven't died in forever. Even if I almost came close a few times and needed rescue from teammates. But that's what they're there for, right? Not just standing at the entrance waiting for the min-maxed fire tank to BURN the map away.
Couple questions for you, Keli, that I forgot:
What's that funky rainbow glow thing anyhow? It looks cute, but yea, not in concept to a electric deathbot.
And would you be terribly upset if I asked you to keep the GW box and the retail key?
(GW is in today, and I'm trying to fight the urge to go get a retail key today, now, after work, and it's failing badly. :P)
Then you could also play GW. :)
Then I could play GW too...Atrin the Ranger still needs to hunt for other dye kits:P
Rainbow glow is Power buildup, part of the power epp. It's pretty useful, but really ugly. Sort of like your atttitude towards EM pink sissy glowy hands.
And the number of times I have to SAVE YOU?!?! when you get mezzed out of root is funny. :P
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