Saturday, March 31, 2012

Adventures in the battlegrounds


Another friday night run in the Dark Age of Camelot RvR battlegrounds, another successfull and fun experience. I had to chuckle a bit after reading this week's edition of massively's Choose My Adventure column. The writer is taking cues from his readers and playing his toon on DAoC, but he's a total noob. I laughed because I encountered similar growing pains upon rolling my warrior, but I am pretty sure it didn't take me three weeks to reach level 9.

User Gramaw has good advice for tackling the b.g.s when he writes: I would recommend doing quests in the level 10-15 zone until you're 15, then hitting the BG's. When you're in the BG's you should keep doing the PVE repeatable quests until you are the highest level for that BG. Once you are that level, then you can try to do some RvR. You should ALWAYS try to get a group for the PVE quests in the Battlegrounds because the kills will come much faster.

In my own experience, I found that once I was 15, I immediately ventured out to the Lion's den and had fun. Usually these b.g.s are hit or miss from what I read, but when I went in I joined groups doing runs and xping, I leveled up pretty fast on my way to Thid.

Thid was by far the most fun b.g. to date, I have since moved on to Braemar, but that one seems less populated in the RvR sense, but we will see. I was in there one night and alternated between doing pve quests there and exploring the instances.

Here are some noobish mistakes I made which others should avoid:

  • use your b.p.s to buy the corresponding gear appropriate for your class and for that b.g. otherwise, you will not fare as well, unless you get lucky and you get a group to run with you who will either trade/give you some equipment, or help you get b.p.s for you to buy some from the merchant.
  • don't assume that if you see a group of players running around they will want to group with you, but if you message using /tell or /region and chat with them, they might be inclined to. Sometimes they need muscle to RvR or to take the ck, so you might as well join if asked
  • RvR deaths do not give you experience debt, but dying against mobs will, so don't aggro too many if you are soloing in the b.gs. because that will lead to you having to port out to see a healer and that can get expensive if you are low on gold. And you should avoid soloing to begin with, in a pvp server, that's just a sure recipe for being ganked by the other realm, if there happen to be any about.
  • Thid should be fun and a breeze to level if you find groups and if you do the pve quests. Also make sure you clear your quest journal from lower level quests or those you did not complete, so you have room to get new quests in the b.gs.

That's all for now folks! I will be back with more advice and commentary as my level 29 Berserker moves through the world of DAoC. Happy hunting!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

My love affair with a classic mmorpg continues


Hello fellow gamers I am back! Finally updating my very first gaming blog ever on a consistent basis. Who could have forseen it? With all the available mmorpgs out there and f2p options, the one game which has captivated my imagination the most of late has been Mythic's classic pvp Dark Age of Camelot.

There are few gaming experiences as rewarding as doing RvR in DAoC. It is a truly unique and satisfying thing, which is hard to explain to those who have never tried it. It took me a long time to accept the fact that a decade old game would be the most fun grouping experience, outside of DDO, but that is a fact. So I rolled a Berserker Warrior in Midgard and leveled him up all the way to 25 in a short time, which is pretty damn good for me, that's halfway to the level cap on a game I didn't really care for at first, but only because I had not given it enough of a chance.

I have extolled the virtues of this classic mmorpg in the past, and vets won't disagree with me. Recently a contributor over at massively made DAoC the subject of his very entertaining "Choose my Adventure" column. I must say I found his experiences as a DAoC noob to be similar to mine, except I seem to have progressed more in RvR thus far.

Don't get me wrong, there are some fun mmorpgs out there which may be different than DAoC, such as the aforementioned DDO, and STO. I have been also playing Cryptic's f2p Trek game, but that game is more story driven and missing driven,whereas DAoC, especially in the chaotic pvp b.g.s is more of a frenzied free for all. I like both games, but I find I have a little more fun playing DAoC.

There are some very compelling things which a game with dated graphics has over a more modern game like wow. 1. b.gs. are more fun. As fun as one may find b.gs. in a game like wow, they don't compare to the RvR bedlam found in DAoC , especially running with a good group. A lot of wow's b.g.s depend on gear and degrade into sad gankfests, there is a lot of ganking in DAoC as well, but there is a lot of team work which to me makes it more fun to group, if you find the right group, which is easy to do. Also, you don't have to queue for a DAoC b.g. unlike wow, where there is a lot of waiting around.

Here are some things I didn't understand first but which I now have a better handle on: Realm ranks in DAoC RvR. My toon is now L14, which means he is done adventuring in the b.g. appropriate for his level (level 25.) I look forward to the next b.g. which I have not really explored at all.

DAoC also boasts of an incredible array of classes to choose from in the 3 realms. Some people think because it is an older game with lower population, it is deserted, or lonely to be a low level player. This is not the case, if you play on the ywain servers, you will find plenty of players to run group with. I have found this to be the case, especially on weekend and late nights when people have the most time to play.

Lately I have been very tempted to try an alternative way to level in DAoC, and to try out some pve play, perhaps even roll a toon in the pve co-op server, but when in Rome...DAoC was voted best pvp game of the decade for a reason. Plus I think I would dislike having to team up or not being able to attack Albion and Hibernians, since as a Midgard players, I have grown to hate the other two factions, and isn't that what war is supposed to be about? See ya in the frontiers!