The first part of the beta phase I was a bit late getting into... I had just finished my finals before my official summer break and I was ready to just dig in.
Sunday afternoon was spent downloading the client. Evening time came, I finally booted it up and proceeded to create my very first toon through the start of the phase. But what to roll? In terms of race I knew there would be no question. I had originally wanted to roll a Mithra in XI but changed at the last second to Elvaan for some... odd reason I can't even remember now. I did ended up regretting it because I got the charming moniker of being the shell's "Chewbacca" being the only Elvaan female of note in the group.
Race was set but now was the dilemma of which class.
Playing to Win vs. Playing for Fun
My sister is also a gamer, and while one day over discussing how I was unsatisfied with my lack of group participation in WoW, she summed it up for me. She told me that in all my play history I have always picked a class that I wanted to play rather than just think about what could be more useful. In the end she told me that perhaps I should look into playing to win because if I don't, I would end up not being able to participate in the content I wanted to and not having fun anyway. So the question after some re-evaluation is... which class... still?
Support vs. Damage
I never was one to roll a straight tank or healer. Dragoon/Lancer despite my extreme desire to play it still felt like it had a negative connotation due to it's lack of popularity and utility in XI, so Marauder, Conjurer and Lancer were choices I set aside for now. Immediately I stuck out between Thaumaturge and Archer. At the time I didn't know you'd have to roll an Archer to become a Bard which ultimately would later become my final choice to max out first. Bards no question I think would always be needed (being a support class) and that would help the final decision I would make later. Black Mages I knew seemed like the one I had a feeling would be desired at least one of the first choices in DPS. Thaumaturge being the only DPS casting starting class seemed like the way to go for this phase. I could be blamed for not doing my research but eh, better to learn now. I suppose I could say I wanted to enter the game "fresh" for the most part, but I had to keep my past mistakes in mind as well.
Opening Scene
While it's great the first time, it certainly wasn't for me afterwards (I would liked to have been able to skip it then). I got to see the texture mapping up close though and I could tell they made extensive use of Zbrush. And rather well I might add. The only criticism I have about these is that maybe I would (if I had the means to) adjust and tone down the specularity maps on leather and perhaps matte out the reflectivity of all the materials (except on metal) overall more.
In other words, sometimes the look of everything seems "too shiny". Maybe it's a light adjustment, or maybe it's textures on the materials. Did it mar my overall experience? No, it's just personal adjustments I would make.
Thaumaturgy - Astral Fire/Ice
So I went caster for this phase. Certainly it was out of my comfort zone but I was definitely willing to see how a caster DPS would feel playing. Astral Fire/Ice was a big confusing to grapple at first but after understanding the dual buff role, I managed to resort to a simple rotation that I thought would be effective, especially after gaining the ability to be able to switch between Ice/Fire buff on the press. I personally opened with Blizzard on mobs that tended to hit hard and then switch over to Astral Fire to stack on the damage, but for the most part, just spamming Fire would do the trick.
F.A.T.E.
This was super cool to participate in. I had never played an MMO that utilized a similar system but I was pleasantly surprised by this. Do I like that it weighs your overall contribution keeping in mind every level that participated? Absolutely. I especially enjoy the choice of being able to temporarily bear a level cap appropriate to the mission to get a bonus on the reward. You don't have to participate at all even. But you really should, especially if you're leveling. The rewards are great, and the experience is fun. Anyone can join, it's a matter of finding one and participating effectively. They reset after a while which is pretty awesome while leveling through the initial quests given to you at the start of the game.
There are more subjects I want to touch into but for now I think this will be ok. I'm trying not to upload every opinion on everything ever. What I would like to do is in the next post touch on immediate negative points and the character creation process.
Overall though I have to say that in my first initial thorough play through I was immediately enchanted by the amount of nostalgia generated by the overall ambiance of just first logging into the character selection screen. The music helped greatly. It just resonated all so nicely. I guess I am a total sucker for the nostalgia feels because I felt like I had logged into something potentially special.
Until next time.
insert clever yule log pronunciation quip, g'hohoho
Opening Scene
While it's great the first time, it certainly wasn't for me afterwards (I would liked to have been able to skip it then). I got to see the texture mapping up close though and I could tell they made extensive use of Zbrush. And rather well I might add. The only criticism I have about these is that maybe I would (if I had the means to) adjust and tone down the specularity maps on leather and perhaps matte out the reflectivity of all the materials (except on metal) overall more.
In other words, sometimes the look of everything seems "too shiny". Maybe it's a light adjustment, or maybe it's textures on the materials. Did it mar my overall experience? No, it's just personal adjustments I would make.
gworl even dem choneys be zbrushed.
Thaumaturgy - Astral Fire/Ice
So I went caster for this phase. Certainly it was out of my comfort zone but I was definitely willing to see how a caster DPS would feel playing. Astral Fire/Ice was a big confusing to grapple at first but after understanding the dual buff role, I managed to resort to a simple rotation that I thought would be effective, especially after gaining the ability to be able to switch between Ice/Fire buff on the press. I personally opened with Blizzard on mobs that tended to hit hard and then switch over to Astral Fire to stack on the damage, but for the most part, just spamming Fire would do the trick.
F.A.T.E.
This was super cool to participate in. I had never played an MMO that utilized a similar system but I was pleasantly surprised by this. Do I like that it weighs your overall contribution keeping in mind every level that participated? Absolutely. I especially enjoy the choice of being able to temporarily bear a level cap appropriate to the mission to get a bonus on the reward. You don't have to participate at all even. But you really should, especially if you're leveling. The rewards are great, and the experience is fun. Anyone can join, it's a matter of finding one and participating effectively. They reset after a while which is pretty awesome while leveling through the initial quests given to you at the start of the game.
There are more subjects I want to touch into but for now I think this will be ok. I'm trying not to upload every opinion on everything ever. What I would like to do is in the next post touch on immediate negative points and the character creation process.
Overall though I have to say that in my first initial thorough play through I was immediately enchanted by the amount of nostalgia generated by the overall ambiance of just first logging into the character selection screen. The music helped greatly. It just resonated all so nicely. I guess I am a total sucker for the nostalgia feels because I felt like I had logged into something potentially special.
Until next time.
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