f13.net

There's a copy sitting at a nearby EB, and I have an itch for a fantasy MMOG that needs to be scratched.  I don't want to play EQ2, and I wouldn't touch Lineage 2 with someone else's Cursed Longspear of Worthlessness.

Rapidly tap A button to convince me to buy this game!
Rapibly tap B button to convince me to skip it!

Or put up some arguments either way.  Whatever.

I like playing Rogue-type characters, but I mean that in the more traditional D&D sense than the MMOG sense.  I like having a lot of utility that makes other players say "Damn, that makes life so much easier."  Will I find that?

I also like dual wielding.

I usually don't care for crafting, but I sometimes find myself tinkering around.  Can I do this as a hobby and not worry about being required to keep my crafting skills at a certain level?

I don't like farming/camping for equipment.  How high is the power-ceiling for this, and how much time does it take to reach it?

I don't like mindlessly running around, assaulting things that happen to be standing nearby.  In my experience with the beta, I had tons and tons of quests.  Does that continue all the way, or does the flood stop and will I find myself stuck without much to do but walk around and hit things?

I prefer soloing and small groups.  I like that the group maximum is 5.  I like that a lot.  How solo-friendly is the rest of the game?

I like to be immersed in the world.  How are the roleplaying servers?  Are there PvP roleplaying servers?  Anyone play there?  Do they suck?  Do they rule?  Overpopulated/underpopulated?

I remember when I'd see a game with a neat cover and go "Oo, I'll buy that."  Now it's like buying a house.

Rogues have a ton of fun abiilities- Stealth, Vanish, Pickpocket, Lockpicking, plus a bunch of combat moves like Sap, Ambush, Garrote- they are quite entertaining to play. Not terribly durable, but they dish out DPS in a big fat hurry. They can also dual wield.


Crafting is entirely voluntary. If you want to do it, you can, or you can opt out. If you don't want to craft, I would suggest taking 2 gathering skills instead- you can sell all the ingredients to the crafters. Easy money.


I have had to delete quests from my log continually- I end up with more than 20! I also tend to kill time waiting for friends by farming for XP and loot and save a lot of questing for when my buddies are on, so I advance outside of pure questing.


All classes can solo- some are easier than others. Rogues are exceptionally easy to solo IMHO.


I think the RP is dependent on guilds or who you play with regularly. There is a lot of bad pidgen English on the Horde side of Earthen Ring (RP server), but it is not too bad. Most likely you will get what you give.

If you play, come see us Horde side on Earthen Ring.

If you're a compulsive catass, come to Shadowsong. I'll give you money they can't compete with!

And you don't want a rogue, you want a priest. So stealthy those holy specced priests...

That's the other thing.  I'm torn about what to play.  Including f13, I've got 3 different possible communities I could join up with.  One is a guild and group of friends to which I still belong and have for a couple years now in DAoC and CoH.  A lot of them moved to WoW.  However, they are playing alliance.  Hisssssssss.

I've got a casual friend who wanted me to pick the game up and join him in the Horde.

But if Earthen Ring is an RP server, and F13 is playing Horde, I'll have to seriously consider that.  Is it PvP?

Usually I have a grouping character as well.  My first character is usually a damage dealing melee of some sort (Nightshade in DAoC, Scrapper in CoH) and my secondary is usually a grouper (Mentalist in DAoC, Controller in CoH).

And yes... I do catass sometimes.  Is the server RP?  PvP?  These are abnormally important things to me.

Earthen Ring is a RP server.

Heck, if enough people start playing maybe I'd re-subscribe. Too bad I got awful pings to Earthen Realm, though.

Ha!

Get your catass over to ER as well- you can blow through the early levels and get caught up with us in a hurry. Then you can use your 60th level char for battlegrounds when it comes out...

WoW is a fun game, if you aren't completely and totally burned out on the DikuMud forumla. It's better than EQ2 by a long shot, and I'd put it right under CoH and right above DAoC for fun factor.

Shadowsong is plain vanilla.  No RP or name nazis, just plent of plain vanilla idiots. No gankage hassle either. 

It's rather relaxing when you can avoid the idiots.

I probably would have gone over to Earthen ring, but my group is all west coasters (pings there were a bit higher).  And we didn't want to bother with the higher pops (initially) of the RP servers.  Plus, it's an RP server and we're not RP folk.

The only people on the server who roleplayed were trolls.

Stupid rastafarian jerkoffs.

I am farther West than you are! I haven't noticed any trouble. It has been perhaps the most trouble-free of all the servers judging from the foaming at the mouth complaints I see when I dare venture onto the official boards.

As for RP, about the only RP I do is not naming myself something fucking retarded. Which is my pimary reason for choosing RP servers in general.

Early on, it was noticable.  100-200 higher ping standard.  I usually have sub 100 or even sub 60 on Shadowsong.

Anyhow, if I was allowed (if they ever, ever implement that and I fit the rules for a transfer), I might move a character to Earthen Ring.  Otherwise, not a chance (unless my friends quit).  I've already got my new baby up to 28. 

That's what I wanted to hear.  I have a fair shot at enjoying myself.

What I /really/ want is to have a group of roleplayers and a fantastic DM available at my beck and call to play Dungeons and Dragons, but I don't see that happening so I'm looking for something to act as a nicotine patch until the urge goes away.

Hey, while I'm asking questions, do Night Elves get those double-sword glaive thingies that I've seen in some screenshots?  I can't tell if those are NPCs or players.

You know, if I could be a Blood Elf Spellbreaker I'd have bought the game and would be level 60 already.

Please, enjoy your stay on Earthen Ring.

Oh, yes, I should point out- though I want to play Horde, I am an elf fan.  Not so much for the Night Elves... they're just a bit too hippy-ish for my tastes.  I'm a bigger fan of the "Yeah, that's right, I AM better than you.  I'm an ELF.  I will live for thousands of years.  I'm everything humans wish they could be.  Stupid mortal." attitude.

(http://www.blizzard.com/war3x/images/units/spellbreaker.jpg)

You can't go wrong with Rogue. The class is incredibly addictive, and it's obvious that the dev team put much tender loving care into this class. The utility abilities are top notch.

Depending on talent build, you can approach battle in completely different ways. Some players go with stuns and high, steady damage irregardless of positon.  Other players go for the high burst damage of a dagger-based ambush and backstab build.  Either way, it's fun to tinker with different strategies.

My pings from AZ were 100-200 to earthen realm as well. One of the reasons I stopped playing on the server. The other reason being time which is actually code for my wife mocked me for saying "Zug Zug" all the time.

Blah. Elf = Pansy no matter the color of his skin. Ill take my "Ill jump out of the shadows sitck a knife in your back, then procceed to eat you" undead rogue.

This one time at band camp, my elf totally pwned an orc and a troll at the same time and then stuck his flute up...

Nevermind. Elves suck.

I wish I could make a Blood Elf Spellbreaker and make you all regret those words.  Yeah, call me a pansy when I'm eating your fucking spells for lunch and carving you a new one!

Maybe in an expansion.

You have a Drizz't plushy doll at home, don't you?

Warren Zevon is an elf, you know.

I don't like "Let's hold hands and feel good about ourselves" elves.  They don't do the race justice, imo.  :x  That's why the Night Elves don't do it for me.  Arrogance and grace are what elves should be.

I thought he was a corpse.

There are plenty of night elves who play in the manner you prefer. On ER, the most famous is Vermillion. He attacks the bankers between trips from the graveyard. You could be his Robin.

Nock is another- he spends the vast majority of his time in Tarren Mills ganking lowbies who come to defend.

I don't think anyone could argue that WoW won't give you enough gameplay to justify the purchase. The world is interesting, well realised and the classes are more varied than those in most MMORPG's. Tradeskills are quite enjoyable and mostly happen naturally while you level, that's why they had to limit you to two after all. It's a quality game, you can tell the developers really cared about what they were doing. Although there are, mostly high end, weaknesses that make it clear they weren't finished when it shipped (but which MMORPG is?).

Rogues are insane fun, quite possibly overpowered. However you won't be getting anything like that picture because that's a blood elf, and they're not exactly on the best terms with the night elves who are in the game. In fact the only quest I (as an orc) got from a blood elf was to hunt down night elf forces. If blood elves are introduced they're most like to be their own faction, but they'd probably be more friendly to the horde than the alliance.

Ok, was.  Your pedantical airs are plaguey.

If you make a rogue, prepare to solo alot post 40.

I could've gotten to 60 in half the time if I had just solo'ed the whole time.  Plus, about 40% of my server is rogues, so it's a nightmare to get a group at the high end.  Ah well, now that he's 60, I log in for 10 mins, spam my friends list looking for an instance group, then log my mage on for some AE goodness.

Also starting up a priest after being wtfpwned by a duo of them in Hillsbrad. If you are going to make a horde rogue, make it an undead.  Will of the Forsaken is an uber ability and don't let anyone tell you differently.  It is the difference between killing a priest in 4 seconds and fighting a priest to a stalemate over 4 hours.

On the subject of blood elves, I wouldn't be surprised if the first or second expansion (1yr) includes Bloodelves as playable.

I would absolutely expect them to join the Horde.

Blood Elves hate humans due to a perceived slight against them (the destruction of their homeland and their treatment by the alliance afterwards).  They hate the Lich King, which makes them somewhat likely to work with the Forsaken in hunting down as many of the Lich King's undead as possible.  They hate Night Elves, because Illidan sort of came along and saved them as the Night Elves were hunting him (plus there's the whole highborne, etc backstory... Blood Elves use magic that Night Elves believe should be left untouched).

They shouldn't really have any quarrel with the Orcs, Tauren or Trolls.  They're about as good a fit for the Horde as the Forsaken were.  They definitely don't work in the Alliance.

I should point out that I don't mean to go out of my way to grief.  However, I will treat it the same way I did in DAoC.  It is a war.  If I see you, and you are an enemy, I am perfectly within my rights to kill you.  If I do not, it is merely whim.  But there's a difference between that and actively hunting low levels.

The day they add elves to the horde, I will cry.  I may quit. 

Disturbing thought. 

Worse than tubgirl.  I'm not sure yet though, still trying to reclaim the lost bit of my humanity over that one...

I would submit that the Horde already has Elves after a fashion.

Undead appeal to the same people.  It's the lack of mortality and the feel of being human-like, but more.  They want to play Elves, they just don't know it yet.

Don't question me, it's psychological.

Actually, I would expect a third faction with Blood Elves and playable Naga.  But then again, they did give us GNOMES instead of goblins so who knows.

Bought it, installed, finishing up the patching.  I'll be Llava on Earthen Ring.  Probably start with an Undead Warrior just because I already tried Rogue in beta.  Will probably end up switching to Rogue, though.  Just want to give Warrior a shot.

That's insulting.  I played undead and I despise elves so much it is part of the reason I cancelled, too many elves running around in those lvl 30-40 areas. Not most of the reason, I'm not insane, but maybe 20% of it.

I almost went on a rampage after I went into the Undercity's royal quarter to find the undead leader Sylvanas.  Why was I not told she was a God-damn night elf?!?

It's in teh lore.

Couldn't you tell after it was already spelled out for you? Sylvan-as. Treehugging-ass.

He is.....Forsaken.
Heh. He just went off on me on the official board for mocking his pvp tactics, because he was attacking remote smaller horde outposts (camp taurajo, freewind post) and getting driven back by defenders or leaving before they got there...and bragging about it. He got into the whole 'who the hell are you, anyway' thing, which exposed his ego, so I let it go and remembered why I don't read official boards. Of course, he wants to fight me, despite being +13, heh. Funny guy.

But I guess the official ER board is useful....for finding out who are the most egregious jackasses...so you know who to gun for ingame...

Link, please? :)

Becasue being a androginious fairy and a corpse eating sociopath are so very close to the same thing.

She's not a Night Elf, actually, just a regular elf.

And if you don't think that a good portion of the people playing undead don't have this in mind, you're fooling yourself:
(http://www.public.iastate.edu/~garden/films/lestat.jpg)

There are a lot of similarities between Elves and Vampires, and while the undead aren't quite vampires, they're close enough to attract the same people.

Now, is EVERYONE thinking of it this way?  Of course not.  Probably not even the majority.  But I'm guessing it's more than a couple dozen.

Goth kiddies want to be undead.

People who like synthpop want to be undead.

Eurotrash wants to be elves.

There's quite a difference. It's not about looks. It's about the whole shebang.

If you want a comparison, undead types may also choose nymphs. But Elves, no, definately not.

The whole shebang is more similar than you might think.

Immortality- neither group ages.
Inhumanity- they're similar enough to humans to be familiar, but different enough to be "sweet."
Arrogant- these undead think their suffering makes them better than everyone else. Ditto for Blood Elves.
Chip on the shoulder- Ditto for Blood Elves and Forsaken Undead.
Forbidden- The undead and Blood Elves both do things that would make them considered abominations by the general public.
Grim-  Neither group is really known for a sense of humor.

Really, I'd say the biggest difference between the Forsaken and the Blood Elves IS their look.  Otherwise, they have a lot in common.

It's really a silly argument.  I mean, clearly I can't /prove/ it, same way you guys can't disprove it.  I stand by my belief that it's a more general attraction to inhumanity, something just beyond our reach that makes people go undead- same reason they would go elf, if the Warcraft night elves had a bit of edge to them.  If/when they introduce Blood Elves, they'll get what they want.  Only reason they would deny it is the reactionary "Jesus, not Elves AGAIN.  I HATE Elves." attitude we've seen here.

Assuming you're going by dragonlance/d&d mythos, they do age. Just about 10x slower than humans. They being elves.


They were sweet in the first few online games, now they're just elves and pretty gh3y!1!


Blood Elves are a different story than Dark, High, Wood, and just plain vanilla Elf.


There's nothing to disprove, blood elves are more modeled after the undead while all the other elves are modeled after this guy:

(http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/TV/9908/02/tv.syndication/richard.simmons.jpg)

 :-D

Edit: BBcode. Oh, and for being in this conversation, I feel pretteh dirteh.

Several things:

First, you were going to buy WoW no matter what, if you have a fantasy craving your going to have to play something and this is the best world to waste some cash and time on at the moment.

Second, elves are gay...  Night elves in particular, not only are they ugly but they will make you want to murder the guy who created the character concept of Drizzt.  The only acceptable reason to be an Elf is if you are playing hunter on pvp server because aimed shot while stealthed is fucking a wonderful thing to watch, other then that please just no.

Third, you strike as the type of person who might not want to play the same character as EVERYONE else.  Might want to stay the fuck away from rogues, staying extra far away from the FotM undead or night elf rogues..  They are like 60% of the population on some servers.  I'm sure its not nearly as bad on PvE servers but sweet god PvP servers are stupidly overpopulated with rogues (I blame daoc).

Finally:

Dont play on a PvP server, unless you crave pvp at every turn.  Thanks to blizzard's complete incompetence with all things PvP all of a sudden there is abso-fucking-lutely no reason to play on a PvP server esp this late the level race.  Unless you feel like being sodomized by Undead or Night Elf rogues 24/7 from level 20 on...

Seriously though, I play on a PvP server, and I would never encourage anyone else to roll on it because PvP servers are fucking stupid if contested zones are going to stay the way they are now (all towns have infinate npc defenders, graveyards are used by both factions, no bonus to killing players in your level range, no pvp rewards/titles, no looting, no durability loss in pvp, non-stop bind rushing pvp unless you camp a person's corpse which is possible even more boring then camping a mob spawn) just stay the hell away.

Looks like elf, bounces like elf, smells like elf, and I'm not putting it in my mouth for a taste test.

I like the PVP servers, though I concede alot of it comes from being a duo. There's something satisfying about being able to beat up ?? players, and more powerful groups that don't have the same co-ordination. We also totally trash anyone around our level if we have the inclination. So for us the ganks are very much a rarer event. Sometimes we go in to help someone avoid a corpse camp and we're luck "wtf, the guy's the same level" before we remember that we are a duo and thus practicly immune to equal level gankers.

About the aimed shot from stealth... last week I was kicking myself when I realised Mind Control from stealth would kick several kinds of ass. Oh well, hopefully they will nerf that greif tactic 'cause it is about as lame as it gets. I've already drowned an AFK horde who was a little close to water, and thrown someone off the Thandol span, so I've had my fix.

Ended up joining up with my old guild.  A lot of them moved from CoH to WoW, and it was nice to see some of my friends again.  Unfortunately, that means alliance.  I just cannot play humans, dwarves or gnomes.  Especially not gnomes.  So Night Elf it is.  Got a rogue to 15, really don't think I care for it.  Liking Warrior better so far.  Combat flows better.  I like "next melee" better than "instant".  Easier to keep a rhythm and feels less buttonmash spammy.

In a pvp server too. When I started theres already lvl 60s in both sides, and plenty of others close on the way to the cap.

Don't really feel its that bad though. Most people paint the pvp servers as a-gank-a-minute and largely unplayable... but I dont get disturbed anywhere that often.

One interesting thing I noticed is that in the 30-40+ theres actually alot less pvp/ganking than in the 20s. The 30-50s chars I meet are mostly too busy lvling/questing to fight. Or maybe my male gnome warlock with the bat-winged bitch and flaming horse just looks too sexy.

Diplomacy tends to vanish when the other side outnumbers you too. Firstly its low hassle and no risk for a group to gank anyone anywhere near their lvl, second you get attacked so long as anyone of the group members want to kill you - the rest will almost always join in once the first blow goes out.

Most solo players leave me alone, minus the rogues, who seems to be alot more aggressive than any other class solo.

Register:  It's the mount.  Most people won't take the time to dismount you.

On that front, are there any general purpose ways to dismount players you know of? All I know about is polymorph. Other than that you have to try and slow/stop the mounted player long enough to kill them. Mine and my brother's duo can do it sometimes with charge, intercept, hamstring, mind flay, and fear... but it isn't easy.

What's up with that? A friggin lowbie mob can knock me off my wolf.

Mobs seem to have the upper hand. Even a pet doesn't have the magical truss rod of dismounting parked up their arse like everyother critter does.