New Class comes to Neverwinter!

I've had an off and on relationship with Neverwinter lately, but the new expansion released this week, Shadowmantle, has dragged me back in with an introduction of a class I've longed for, the Hunter Ranger.

The class plays like a dream, awesome ranged power will the ability to hop backwards to put more space between yourself and the enemy, this actually plays better than my favourite class in Lotro, the Hunter!

I've not played through any of the new content yet, but for the release of this class alone (and Free to Play!) I hail Perfect World for a job well done. If you haven't tried it yet, give Neverwinter a go. It's a blast!.

http://nw.perfectworld.com/

Guess what I'm patching?

Well, as if I didn't have enough games on my plate, listening to the Contains Moderate Peril podcast, I was inspired to dive back into this excellent game. Be nice to play something modern to get away from the fantasy of Neverwinter and LOTRO and sure it will take me ages to understand the thing again.

To min max or not to min max....

Today I got into a heated debate with my guild leader in Neverwinter. Now this guild has always been described as casual, which fits my play style, however today the leader was suggesting he would be basing recruitment on people's stats, suggesting that if they didn't know how to build a character 'correctly' he had no wish to 'carry' them.

This stuck in my craw no end. I have never been a fan of min maxing. I have no interest in researching a cookie cutter build, especially to satisfy another player who does not contribute to my game playing budget. For me it removes all individuality and if The game designers wanted me to play the game like that, they'd just set my stats and skills as most solo games of ten years ago used to.

I also made the point that not everyone is in a game to play its hardest content and what he was doing was essentially discrimination. he didn't like my opinion at all.

Sadly if this is the way the guild will go, I'll be forced to look for another home. If all you recruit are hardcore gamers, then that's the kind of people you'll socialise with in game and I have no interest in that at all.

What are your thoughts on min/maxing? Leave a comment below.

Neverwinter - Masquerade of Liars Event

Neverwinter have released a very interesting event for the Halloween season. Running from 10th October to 4th November it consists mostly of collecting tokens to convert to cosmetic gear with a Skeleton Warrior companion up for grabs for the most dedicated of grinders.

What impressed me most about the event though, is the makeover they've given to the main city hub.

Introducing Pinestro of Landroval

Recently I read on Lotroplayers that there will be a Hobbit Warden 21 spear salute in honour of Pineleaf, a veteran player on several Lotro servers, including my own, Windfola.

Pineleaf, if you're not aware, has written a number of excellent skirmish guides for CSTM which you should definately check out. As part of the start of this years Fellowship Walk, a charity event on the roleplay server, Landroval, there will be a gathering of hobbit wardens to line up and salute in her honour.

So I rolled another toon...

Pinestro of Landroval, a distant cousin of Jestro, has taken up spear and shield and become a warden to join the festivities! My original intention was to get to minimum level required to get through the intro but it's been so long since I played in the Shire, I got hooked in. I decided I would take my time, do all the quests and deeds in the zone before moving on, I even had my eye on the Undying title, a deed for surviving to level 20 without dying.

 I went AFK at level 16 in Bindpole Wood and you can guess the rest.

Not put off though, I intend to continue levelling him. It's refreshing to be on an RP server and as much as I love my kinnies on Windfola, it's nice to be able to play from scratch without the backup a ton of crafting alts affords.

Ode to Skyrim

Oh Skyrim, how I love thee, and how you frustrate the hell out of me.

I have now been playing Skyrim on the PS3 for over a year. Access to the PS is limited compared to PC games, so it's slow going, but sometimes I get so frustrated with a quest, I don't touch it for months at a time, despite it being an amazingly beautiful game.

To me, Skyrim is an MMO without having to deal with other players. Questing, crafting, levelling all standard fayre for an MMO player but allowing you to not only go at your own pace but not being forced to group to complete content. On the downside, get stuck and you're on your own (unless you can be bothered to confer with the million and one walkthroughs online)

My character, a kind of warrior mage (gotta love those self heals in the middle of a combat) has just hit 25 and I finally got through the maddening part of the main storyline quests, to find the Elder Scroll. I am so satisfied now I've completed that quest, I am keen to throw myself back into the game as much as I can. 

LOTRO - Running content with the Kin

Over the last few weeks we have, as a kinship (Defenders of the Right, that is) set aside Friday evenings/nights as 85 group night. We rarely get more than three show up, which is fine but now we are getting more to 85 the interest in increasing.

Tonight I was reminded of why I love the group aspect of Lotro which I have missed for so long. We started as three hunters (Jestro, Canas and Swiftflight) which was awesome in itself, failing Ford of Bruinen then triumphantly burning through Danneglor. Then we were joined by our resident minstrel, Celestirrh so I hopped to my (albeit rusty) Tank, Saxlang.

As there is no 4 man content we ran a six man skirmish, Thievery and mischief, and managed to clear everything only to fail at the final boss's ( three of them)

Despite our failure, we had done incredibly well, and bonded further as a unit (Swift is a new 85 so this was her first adventure with us) and it makes me look forward to more fun runs hopefully with a few more kinnies along for the ride!

Inifinite Crisis Beta is a blast (and now I can talk about it!)

The NDA has now been lifted so I can now reveal that I've been a part of the Beta testing for Turbine's new MOBA, Infinite Crisis.

Set in the DC Multiverse, it takes characters from every corner of DC and pits them together in teams to PVP it out. 

Now I'm not a huge fan of MOBA's having played DOTA 2 and still am not sure I understand this one but the IP is enough to keep me interested, even though every battle I join I feel like the weakest link.

My clear favourite champion, just based on looks as I still haven't a clue how to play him well, is Gaslight Batman.

Founder Packs have just gone on sale the Basic Pack ($19.99) also gives you three Champions (Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern), a buddy key for a friend, and $10 worth of Crisis Coins (the in-game currency).

The Standard Pack ($49.99) gives you all of that, plus three more Champions (The Flash, Gaslight Batman, Poison Ivy), a second buddy key for a friend, an exclusive costume for Gaslight Batman, and $35 worth of Crisis Coins.

The Elite Pack ($99.99) gives you all of the above, plus guaranteed early access to the next map (Gotham Divided), four buddy keys for friends (enough to form a full team of five), an additional six Champions (Gaslight Catwoman, Gaslight Joker, Cyborg, Nightmare Batman, Shazam, Zatanna), an exclusive costume for Batman, and $80 worth of Crisis Coins.

For more info: http://www.infinitecrisis.com/en/news/announcing-founders-pack

Steam Sales!

As the Summer hits, along with it comes the annual Steam Sales, which I've decided is the bane of most MMO's as it drags regular MMO gamers away to play single player games offered at massive discounts. I have been victim of this and three games in particular have dragged my attention from LOTRO and RIFT. If you are in either of these games and are missing my presence, blame Steam (and feel free to send me a PM)

Civilization V

I've always been a fan of Civ but have not tried this latest incarnation. I do love strategy games but can't play them over and over so it's a nice title to dip into. The graphics are naturally better than ever and with a ton of options to play with, including multiplayer that I've not yet delved into.

My first run through has been as the might Montezuma. So far I'm 27 hours in and have wiped out 4 other civilizations so far with more to go!

Borderlands 2

An odd choice for me, as I'm not a huge fan of shooters, but this was recommended by so many friends, I just had to try it. Plus it was dirt cheap! An amusing game that blends Mad Max and Fallout 3 for an exciting edge-of-your-seat game. Three hours in and I've taken down the first boss. Not scratched the surface yet and there's a multiplayer option to boot!

XCom - Enemy Unknown

Seeing this one reduced from £30 to £7 was a no-brainer. I was a huge fan of the original series, giving me the right blend of strategy and killing aliens (a favourite pass-time of mine) I suspect it's fairly big and I'm barely two hours in.

LOTRO 4th level 85 character

Today I finally hit 85 on Storri, my Dwarf Champion, making my 4th capped character in LOTRO.

Now begins the grind of getting him geared up and maybe even start running some group content.

Next to level to cap will be my Burglar, Jonhah, but I might delve a little into my lowest non-bank toon, Brandenhelm the LoreMaster. It's a class that still fails to grab my attention though a kinnie offering to level with me might be the incentive I need.

A Casual Stroll to Rift

After playing Rift for a couple of weeks, I really started getting into it. I found the Warrior class much more fun than the ranged pet class I'd tried previously and I reached the giddy heights of level 12 on Storri.

 I'd learnt the basics and the more I understood, the better I liked the game. Then I realised my friends from Casual Stroll to Mordor, Merric and Goldenstar, had also got the Rift bug and not only were playing but had started a CSTM guild on the Faeblight server. I'm sure many fans of the their podcast followed them as they have now stopped podcasting and I wanted to do the same, so searched for the Faeblight server, but couldn't find it.

It was then it dawned on me. I was logged into the EU servers, Faeblight is a US server, so I saved my settings and low and behold, I found it. Logging in, I was surprised to see my original character, Jestro! I must have been on the US server back when I tried it before, so I jumped in, made contact with the Guild and joined up. The hunter class wasn't for me though, so I rolled another Storri, exactly the same build (though different cosmetically) and started levelling again from the beginning.

The quests were a lot smoother second time round and as I knew what I was aiming for and where I was going, made for a better experience. The community in the Guild is great so I decided to leave old Storri behind and stick with the new improved Mark II. He's up to level 11 already and I feel not only have I found a fun new game, but some great people to play with.

To Rift or Not to Rift...

Over the last couple of weeks there has been lots of chatter in the Twitterverse about the launch of Rift as a Free To Play MMO. I did play a little when Trion first offered a trial version but my initial reaction was "Meh" however I realise I didn't give it enough of a chance and the game has always been raved about by some of my favourite commentators so when a F2P option came along I thought I'd give it a go.

So, I downloaded it (or at least part of it - the game has a beautiful option of playing as it downloads) and jumped in to roll a new character, Storri the Dwarf Warrior Guardian on the Zavier shard (server)

Storri The Warrior Guardian (Rift)

The game uses a "soul" system to define its classes which I'm still not sure I've got my head round, but I fully intend to spend at least a couple of hours a week levelling him up and seeing how the game pans out.

New (re)discoveries

So I've been a veteran of Lord of the Rings Online for a few years. It was my first proper MMO (I played the Realm, a precursor to MMO's before the term was coined) and of course, like any first love, it's the one I always fall back on. However, with the recent shift of games going Free To Play, I've taken the opportunity to dip into a number of others. Star Trek Online, Secret World, Star Wars the Old Replublic, Rift and even WoW (which stayed on my hard drive for all of 20 minutes!)

So I decided to start a blog to record what I've been trying out and what I think about those games. This is that blog...