Misadventures in Gaheris

I have been absent from the blogging scene too long. This has been due to heavy work hours this spring, but I suspect with my summer vacation fast approaching, I will be logging in more frequently and updating all of you on what I have been doing mmo-wise. Do you play DAoC? Chances are that you are not playing it, perhaps busy sampling Tera or some of the other shiny new mmorpgs out there, maybe even indulging in some Diablo 3.

For me, I have had the most fun playing Camelot the past few weeks, first leveling up my Midgard Berzerker to 50, then I switched over to doing "glass" questing on TOA, but to be honest, I did not like it as much as running b.g.s, and I dreamed of leveling another class altogether to see how the pve side matched up to the pvp.

Well, I rolled a Bonedancer on the Gaheris co-op server. For those of you not in the know, Gaheris is DAoC's co-op sever, meaning there is no pvp. The battleground NPCs are all there, but I don't think they port you anywhere, and the factions can all work together towards defeating bosses and doing pve questing. Even though I am not big on raiding, I just wanted to try it out and found it lacking, that is until I found the great Gaheris forum. An entire forum dedicated to a specific DAoC server in 2012? And not even one dedicated to pvp! Go figure! (click on graphic above to check it out)

This should convince EA Mythic to continue developing resources for the game, the population may never be what it once was, but there are still dedicated members and subscribers alive and well in this forum.   

So how's it been leveling the bonedancer on Gaheris so far? Well pretty slow going to be honest, and not as much fun as leveling in the pvp servers. The xp gained from doing b.g.s is actually substantial and fun, but here on the pve side of things apparently you gotta join a guild, find a friendly soul to pl you, or take hours to level up on your own. It can be a daunting task if you have a caster or a squishy class, and it can get pretty lonely as you may feel you are playing an RPG, because most won't group with you until you are closer to max level. Is it as much of a grind as wow? No, but in some respects, wow might be  better because with the Dungeon finder, you can pretty much get a lot of xp by running instances as soon as you hit level 15.

So the jury is still out on how far I can go leveling my BD. As much as I love the atmosphere and old school feel of DAoC, wow has a bigger advantage at the moment: more of my mmorpg loving friends are running through Azeroth still and  I know I won't have problems joining the PUGs. It may all be academic anyhow, as summer rolls by and I have less disposable income to spend on games, I may be playing DDO's new expac or LOTRO, or even LOL and Dragon Age 2 as they say, stay tuned!

battling harpies in Atlantis, not as much fun as b.gs.  IMHO

Well, after spending nearly a month and a half leveling my Berzerker in DAoC, I can honestly say this has been one of the best mmo games I have experienced, I am hooked on this game, and rarely have a desire to play any other, which is rare for me because I usually jump from game to game.

My goal was to max level my toon, and I am almost there, I have heard of people doing it in a couple of days which is crazy to me, but then again, I have no one that will PL me and I only play about an hour to two each day, except on weekends when I have a bit more time and I stay on longer. Today I will try to analyze or tell you some of the things which have made DAoC a great experience for me, and you can decide whether you want to try it out for yourself. (Assuming you haven't and are reading this on the fence..)

What I have discovered from playing in the pvp b.g.s is that with the exception of the last b.g. which is called Catha Valley and is only for 45-50s, the others are all populated at peak times. C.V. probably has people too, but I haven't had the chance to explore much of it. I don't know how accurate are printed reports about the server populations, but regardless, I found no problem most of the time finding a group if I posted LFG after my /region command in the chat. Eventually people will add you on for x.p. or for RvR./advice is also a great command, the blue letters are your friend, you will see what I mean.

X.P.ing in pvp goes waaaay faster in a group than it does individually. You grab the pve quests from the NPCs and then you go do then with your group, they are usually fun, unless you get ganked, or you get jumped by the other faction (which in my case was always Hyberia or Albion because I always played Mids)  but even then, this can be fun. I remember being out in one of the b.g.s I think it was Wilton or Molvik, when some joker tried to gank me on a hill after I was engaged with some mobs, the group I was with came by to blast him, and I guess he was by himself or separate and it was sweet to see them make short work of him.

b.g. are also soloable, but unless you have a lot of patience, or can't find a group, I do not recommend. The problem is, if enemy are roaming around a zone, you will die a lot unless you can tank or can heal yourself.

Bounty scrolls are nice, they help you get good gear, but remember to buy the appropriate gear for each b.g. and don't worry about dying, as long as you go back and pray at your grave or visit a healer outside the b.g. to regain constitution, it is no big deal. Praying at your grave restores your lost xp but you only lose xp if you get killed by pve battles, not during pvp, if I am not mistaken.

I was told that going to Atlantis, doing the extension trials and doing the ML was faster than leveling in the last b.g. but so far it has been hard to find consistent groups in Atlantis, and I don't like the zone as much as I did the b.gs. although battling there, without a template (whatever the heck that is) can be difficult.

As for games coming out, I am keeping my eye out for Tera, which looks kinda cool, but not sure my ancient rig can run it, may have to upgrade for that. I will probably make DDO my go to alternate, because the expansion is due out this June.

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!

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!