While working on my DPS rotation post, I came across what is potentially the most accurate and well thought out diagram for Cat damage cycles on the Elitist Jerks forums. Originally authored by Epilogue of Arygos.
Please click here for the entire flowchart.
Tonight, all across the country, closet-gamers and WoW enthusiasts alike will lurch from their warm homes and claw their way into electronics stores—all for the chance to be there when Blizzard flips the servers on at midnight. As mentioned in a previous post, I certainly will, but the details have changed.
GameStop called yesterday and gleefully informed us that they’ll be opening their doors at 10 p.m. EST for the Wrath of the Lich King special event. You’ll actually be able to pay for your purchases ahead of time, participate in a few goofy raffles, and then do whatever until the awaited hour of 12 a.m. The perky associate also mentioned that there’d be a costume contest! I’ll be dressing up as a WoW blogger, complete with a Resto4Life “Shift Happens” t-shirt…and pants, probably.
Clearly, this meant that my clutch plan of getting hammered with geeks at the Claddagh Pub needed to be rewritten. Thus, the evening will go as follows:
10 p.m.
Approximately 10:30 p.m.
11:00 p.m.
Approximately 11:45 p.m.
12:00 a.m.
We hope to see you there!
Most of you probably don’t know that I was an accidental candidate for state representative in New Hampshire two years ago. It’s a long story, but it comes down to the fact that I cared enough about my state that I inspired enough write-in votes to fall 11 short of winning. I want change. I want to see everyone take an active interest in bettering their world. Idealistic? Sure.
I’m sure many of you are already sick of negative campaigning, roundabout debates, nonstop election coverage, and quibbling pundits, but November 4th is Election Day in the United States, and I strongly recommend you get out and vote. “Oh, but it’s so busy, Runy! I don’t want to wait in line!” There are very few excuses to not vote. Don’t care about politics? Sure you do—how’s your stock portfolio looking these days? Paying $600+ a month to keep yourself on COBRA? Watching the decline of many public school systems? Struggling to figure out how to keep your home or put your children though college?
As Americans, we’ve been given the right and the privilege of casting our vote in a general election. People in many countries die trying to exercise that right. If you remember the 2000 Election, the Presidency came down to an incredibly narrow margin of votes. Your vote DOES count. Whether or not you follow “politics” (and here, I’d make the argument that everything is political), take a stand, read the news, and get to your local polling station—you might even get a rad sticker out of it*.
*Additionally, if you wear your little sticker out and about, many foodtype institutions (such as Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, and Ben & Jerry’s) will reward you for your patriotism.
I haven’t always raided on a druid. I mostly have. There was, however, a brief span of time soon after Burning Crusade’s release in which Awen’s guild leader decided we didn’t need a Feral Druid—we needed more Warriors. You know, those losers who stand around with cool weapons and shields. This, of course, necessitated that I bring my Fury specced Level 52 alt up to raiding standards in about a week and a half’s time and somehow become a tanking champion in less than that (that process, of course, was how I met Lycentia, and that is another story altogether). Obviously, I’ve since picked my Druid back up with a certain sort of zeal and never looked back. Until now.
I think raiders like Kalon, who have played every tanking class in the game, would agree that part of the fun in tanking on different characters is that they’re each inherently different. We all know that Warriors have primarily occupied the Main Tank role, that Paladins are the Kings and Queens of AOE tanking, and that Druids are pretty much the sexiest beasts to hit the scene. We all have our niches. Despite the obvious differences—Rage v. Mana, Giant Bear v. Corpsesled—each class has abilities that function with similar purposes. “Similar” is really the key word there: close enough to get the job done, but different enough that each has a class specific perk. Want examples? Sure!
How do tanks address issues where aggro has been transferred to a ranged player (whether by pulling or inadvertent proximity)? While certain stupidities warrant standing by and letting a retard or two die, there are reasonably quick ways in which tanks can get their shiny asses over to the errant mob in question:
Warrior
Intervene
Has an 8-25 yard range and enables the Warrior to “run at high speed towards a party member, intercepting the next melee or ranged attack made against them” and has a 30 second cooldown. 10 Rage.
Paladin
Righteous Defense
Has a 40 yard range and enables the Paladin to “come to the defense of a friendly target, commanding up to 3 enemies attacking the target to attack the Paladin instead” and has a 15 second cooldown. 4% of base mana.
Druid
Feral Charge
Has an 8-25 yard range and “causes you to charge an enemy, immobilizing and interrupting any spell being cast for 4 seconds” and has a 15 second cooldown. 5 Rage.
While Paladins clearly have the easiest job here—LOL I PUSH THIS BUTTON AND MONSTERS RUN OVER—each ability allows the tank to gain control over enemies at range to varying degrees of effectiveness. The Paladin and Warrior variations immediately remove a friendly player from harm, and Feral Charge gets you over there, potentially interrupts, and then requires a little finagling. Tanks might grumble a little about who has what, but ultimately, I think that most are fairly happy with what they’ve got. They chose their class, afterall.
Fast forward to Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard seeks to homogenize the tanking classes, level the playing field, and make sure that no one chooses a tank based on their class rather than their ability (which begs the question of why you’d roll one over another, but that’s another story). Druids clamored for a Last Stand ability because they essentially had no oh-shit buttons to push save trinkets and the woefully poor Frenzied Regeneration ability. They got it in the form of Berserk, and Blizzard tossed in the ability to use potions and items in animal forms. Great, right? At first glance, that starts putting us on even footing with the other tanks. But what did Warriors get?
Warbringer
A 41 point talent in the Protection tree that allows Charge to be used in combat, and in any stance. It’s basically Feral Charge—except it doesn’t cost Rage, it generates Rage. Warriors have thus gained an ability to increase their mobility outside the 30 second Intervene cooldown.
Enraged Regeneration
A level 75 Fury spell, Enraged Regeneration costs 15 Rage, operates on a 3 minute cooldown, and regenerates 30% of your total health over 10 seconds. The ability requires an Enrage effect, consumes all Enrage effects, and prevents any from affecting you for the full duration. Activate Bloodrage and win. Sound a little familiar? I thought so.
Improved Thunder Clap
This base Warrior ability “blasts nearby enemies increasing the time between their attacks by 10% for 30 seconds and doing 300 damage to them. Damage increased by attack power. This abilities causes additional threat and will affect up to four targets,” and can be augmented with 3/3 Improved Thunder Clap, which “reduces the cost of your Thunder Clap ability by 4 Rage points and increase the damage by 100% and the slowing effect by an additional 10%.”
I firmly believe that TC will become a staple damage ability for Warriors in much the same way that Swipe and Consecration work for Druids and Paladins respectively. We Druids were tickled by the idea of Infected Wounds, and here comes an improvement to the original that makes ours look pretty pitiful. Compare to the level 77 Swipe and Level 80 Consecration.
While there are precious few new Paladin abilities that even remotely resemble current Druid abilities, Paladins have picked up a familiar spell:
Shield of Righteousness
A Holy spell, Shield of Righteousness is learned at level 75 and “slams the target with your shield, causing Holy damage equal to 240% of your block value. This spell causes a high amount of threat.” Not only can Paladins chuck their shield ala Captain America, they can now punch people in the face with it. Warriors might recognize this as a spell damage based Shield Slam.
I haven’t even taken Death Knights into consideration here, and the above abilities are just a sampling. What’s your point, Runy? While on the surface many of these spells seem like welcome additions to any tank’s arsenal, I’m left wondering what modicum of uniqueness we’ll be left with. I stare at my outdated Warrior and wonder why I’m trying to play my Druid in the expansion when my Warrior will be given my Druid’s tools—and then some. I carefully examine the Paladin Protection tree and marvel at the solid base of talents to choose from, and find myself mentally transforming my Holy Paladin into a tank. I’m not excited about any of the Druid changes anymore, and I think it’s because some of them feel so familiar.
In a move that will likely bore raiders to tears and appease the raving masses, Blizzard seeks to make tanking more accessible by increasing damage dealt and handing each class a similar skillset (with Druids currently holding the short end of the branch…er…stick). How difficult will it be when we can all push the EZ buttons and win? Will tanking really require any sort of acumen anymore? Are Druids going to be the biggest challenge? I wonder. Think about applying Blizzard’s approach to sex: everyone gets the same moves and you’ve got to choose the best one when they’re all doing the same thing. Do you really want the Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’am-One-Trick-Pony every day? It sure gets the job done, right? Does that make it good?
Streamlining doesn’t always make things better; sometimes it’s just “efficient.”
If you ever bothered reading the “Why” section of Unbearably HoT, you probably know that I created this blog for a very specific purpose, and since then, we’ve seen a slew of great sites with similar drive emerge. I’ve incorporated a few posts about Writing 101 and my engagement, but beyond that, I’ve made a strident effort to stay focused on my original intent: providing information and perspective from a feral druid’s competitive raiding POV. Thus, there are very few things that will derail the druidstravaganza—except for THIS.
That’s right—The Force Unleashed demo was out yesterday for downloading purposes on XBOX Live, and you can bet your ass that I played it as soon as I got home from work. I do play games (and have a life, surprisingly) beyond the scope of WoW, but there are very few that I’ve looked forward to with as much youthful exuberance as this one. Earlier this year, I wrote an article for another website detailing how the game was presented and what we could expect, and I’d like to share it with you before I go ahead and briefly review the demo.
~
Lock Consoles in Attack Position: Looking Forward to The Force Unleashed
There’s a certain sense of inevitability waiting at the end of the corridor. The young man’s parade boots echo sternly on the grated floor as he strides purposefully toward the blast doors. After a theatrical pause, the blast doors fly open and the snap-hiss of a lightsaber ignites the air with a sharp tang of ozone. With a nod, the TIE fighters in the hangar swerve into motion and systematically crush the scrambling stormtroopers clinging to each other for dear life. I’ve dreamed of this before.
Since early childhood I’ve been compelled by the darting lasers of interstellar battle juxtaposed with the serene mysticism of the Force–and I’m certainly not the only one. LucasArts has created a veritable empire, no pun intended, from the interest garnered from a simple desert farm boy’s destiny. Obviously the screaming TIE fighters, Mandalorian armor, wookiees, wry robots and promise of planetary destruction helped too, but since the spawn of Star Wars in the late seventies, we’ve seen three more (admittedly lukewarm) movies, PEZ dispensers, action figures, bed sheets, lunch boxes, over a hundred books, Legos and, more pertinent to this discussion, over seventy five video game titles.
I’m entirely stymied attempting to produce another franchise that has spawned as much collective hype and merchandise as Star Wars has–and I am totally a part of it. I have admittedly read almost all the expanded universe books, dressed up as Obi Wan Kenobi on one particular occasion, played both Rebel Assault 1 and II and TIE Fighter, obsessed over a mint condition Boba Fett action figure and own a lightsaber replica. So perhaps one can thus understand the intense anticipation I feel when looking toward a title like Force Unleashed that promises to trump the Force experience like “never before”.
After cleaning up the scratches on the film, fleshing out a few previously impossible to shoot scenes and completely upgrading the original trilogy to digital media, the next logical progression seems to be blowing the gaming industry out of the water. I haven’t missed any of the previous Star Wars titles, though I haven’t quite been sucked in. Most recently, Star Wars Galaxies emerged at a point in time when I was focusing exclusively on studies, Knights of the Old Republic was unplayable on a Macintosh computer, and Battlefront seemed best experienced when slightly under the influence with a group of friends. Force Unleashed, however, promises a fulfilling story line with an extraordinarily high level of interaction with the environment.
The player assumes the role of Darth Vader’s thus-far anonymous apprentice, a serious business young man with a penchant for stylish lightsaber handling. Yes, I was checking out his sword. The game aims to fill the gap between the third movie and the fourth at a point in time when Darth Vader sought to systematically destroy all Jedi in the galaxy. You, as the player, control his wayward apprentice as he hacks, Force throttles, and powers his way on a path toward self-realization, likely dismembering more than a few original characters on the way. Unfortunately, decent story line doesn’t make a game anymore.
In a world of “next generation” gaming where graphics and physics engines are being pushed to the extreme on new platforms like XBOX 360 and the ill-fated Playstation 3, a new title needs to look as good as it reads. LucasArts, however, was up for the task. To create Force Unleashed, LucasArts partnered with NaturalMotion (famous for Dynamic Motion Synthesis technology) for a chance to integrate “euphoria technology” with their Force experience. This new engine makes full use of the processing power of the newer platforms, essentially simulating real nervous-system responses for humanoid characters. What does this mean? Each play through will be a dramatically different experience; you have no real way of predicting how a foe will react. In a single scenario, a stormtrooper might A) run B) duck behind a stack of crates C) call for help or D) scramble to hold on to anything within his reach as he’s levitated. The entire idea is that game A.I. will function as a dynamic entity to interact with, which, of course, moves games away from the previous learn-the-encounter-and-move-on strategies.
Clever stormtroopers, however, weren’t enough to get LucasArts excited. In addition to the aforementioned A.I. changes, LucasArts teamed up with Pixelux Entertainment to take advantage of the physics engine they developed called Digital Molecular Matter, or, DMM. In most normal video games, items do not break, bend or stretch the same way they would in real life; this lends itself for an unrealistic and occasionally cartoony experience. DMM relies on Finite Element Analysis (FEA), a structural mechanics technique that assigns certain numeric values to physical elements–engineers might use it in a computer simulation to predict how steel girders will react under stress. Developers establish set values for each physical item in the game and, miraculously, the simulation engine translates those numerical values (I can only imagine how much calculus this requires) into real-world actions. Essentially, glass shatters like real glass, wood splinters, and rubberized items retain the same sort of elasticity as you might find in a rubber band.
Both of these systems will run simultaneously with the Havok physics engine, responsible for allowing realistic interaction between people and objects and made famous for developing ragdoll physics.
LucasArts seems to be giving players a chance to embark on an immersion journey through the Force, encouraging them to embrace the Dark Side and later, seek redemption. While Force Unleashed will be available on every platform under the sun, it’s pertinent to note that Euphoria technology and DMM will not be available on consoles such as the Wii or Playstation 2. Before I hear a collective groan from all the folks who haven’t gotten their $600 incentive check from the government yet, take heart: Force Unleashed will include a variety of extras on what are considered nonstandard consoles. This may include taking part in the original Jedi Trials or (my favorite) dueling your friends with motion sensitive lightsabers via Wii remote.
Will the play actually live up to the hype? I’m banking on it, and I’m trusting in LucasArts’ ability to deliver surprising and groundbreaking new content. I’m slightly disappointed that I’ll be missing out on all the “original content” available in the PSP, PS2, DS and Wii versions of the game (which, incidentally, delayed the game from releasing in May of this year), but am content knowing that, by the time the game actually releases in September of 2008, I’ll be swinging my lightsaber on a 360.
~
After waiting expectantly for the demo to download, you’re given the option of delving straight into the demo or working through a brief tutorial. Erring on the side of wisdom, I went through the Force Grip tutorial, which essentially teaches you how to levitate and manipulate objects. In layman’s terms, pick shit up, throw it through glass/people, and hope you don’t move the left joystick back at the last second and have it explode in your face. Having been playing WoW for so long, the controls initially took a few minutes to get used to, but once you’ve mastered the basics, there’s a cornucopia of Force tricks you can use to defeat your…enemies.
Eager to use my new set of Sith tools, I exited the tutorial and chose “Apprentice” mode. After an intro with Darth Vader and a few strands of vague plot strings, we’re set loose with one objective: kill the Jedi Rahm Kota and bring Vader his lightsaber. Oh, and eliminate anyone who might have seen you. Darth Vader’s apprentice is dropped off into a TIE fighter hangar, and this is where we come in. Visually, the demo is stunning: graphics haven’t looked sharper and there’s dizzying detail. Force lightning looks better than it did in the original movies, crisp and crackling; objects break, bend, and explode in a very convincing manner; stormtroopers act and react in surprising ways; and the depth of “battle” is enhanced by the visualization of your destruction: scorch marks, fires, lightsaber gouges, dead bodies. In fact, different injuries to your person are reflected by torn clothing, burns, and rivulets of blood.
If you read my article about the graphics/physics engines, the level of visual immersion is understandable, expected even. But the point of the game, the title, the whole marketing phenomenon, is that you’re supposed to feel like you’re “unleashing the power of the Force”. Do you? After destroying an entire platoon of stormtroopers and Empire militiamen, blowing open blast doors with a “gentle” Force push, and tossing around TIE fighters, let’s just say it’s a little like giving a kid an espresso and a sledgehammer and setting them loose in a room full of Swavorski crystal. Even if you’re a retard, you can blithely hack and slash your way through most of the level by mashing buttons—but the real joy is how you stack your moves and manipulate your own environment to your advantage.
No, seriously. The demo necessitates multiple playthroughs, if only to master the controls’ nuances. The “Options” menu offers a helpful controller diagram when you have understandable “WHAT DOES THE LT BUTTON DO!??!?!” moments, and even lists a few introductory combo moves you can try. Don’t be wary of the word “combo”, which for many brings up angry memories of getting beaten by button-mashing siblings through Street Fighter or Tekken 3. The right combination of abilities produces immensely satisfying results and doesn’t look like a canned move that happens regardless of where you’re situated in the environment.
I immediately mastered the ability to levitate objects and sling my lightsaber (a whirling beam of death) at them; this works with items AND people, much to my delight. Similarly, you can use your Force lightning power to charge your lightsaber and electrify your enemies as you slice through them. You can even just stand in front of them like a champ, using your lightsaber to neatly deflect all of their blaster bolts right back at their faces. Oftentimes, I picked up any moveable object (like a TIE fighter) and Force pushed it through an entire group of troopers, eliminating any need for hand-to-hand combat at all.
Though you can waste a lot of time literally destroying every single room (Force ripping cables and circuit breakers from walls), the demo ends a little quicker than I would have liked—and I won’t spoil the Cloud-esque Braver Limit Break finale. But despite my utter joy, there were a few glaring issues. With the kind of visual and physical detail you’re provided with in game, it doesn’t make sense that there’s no dismemberment as your lightsaber whirlwinds through a group of people. Additionally, the targeting system is hardly as intuitive as they tried to make it. A simple corridor often has a multitude of moveable objects all within close proximity to one another, and unless you’ve somehow situated your Sith self right in front of it, the targeting function will nearly always try to lock onto the wrong target. In “Apprentice” mode this isn’t critical, but in any sort of harder difficulty (and surely later on in the game), locking onto a passerby rather than say, a landspeeder likely increases your percentage of fail.
Do you remember how you felt after the first upswelling of Episode 4’s fanfare? The demo offers the same grandiose nostalgia, but this time you’re stepping into the movies and wielding unspeakable power. Careening through a shipwide hurricane of blaster bolts, it’s difficult not to recall the epic, landscape battlefields—and quickly realize you better get your situation under control. If the gameplay in the demo looks and feels this spectacular, my anticipation for The Force Unleashed’s promised complex environments, characters, and storylines (including what looks to be makeouts and possibly high fives) only grows stronger. New recruits will not be disappointed, and longtime fans will be invigorated. Still not convinced? I find your lack of Faith disturbing.
