Everything Matters

I had the chance to revisit Mass Effect thanks to a friend of mine. I forgot how much fun that game is. The open-ended storyline where all of your choices affect the game, the ability to pick and choose what you want to do and where you want to go, and the ability to choose what skills you want to learn and when you want to learn them all make for great gameplay.

If you have not yet had the chance to play Mass Effect, I encourage you to do so. There is a whole wide universe awaiting your explorations. Also, the storyline, while sometimes odd, is pretty cool overall.

The only drawback to the game, in my opinion, is the fact that there is not a lot of help in some of the missions. They tell you to go do something, but don't really give you much information on where you need to go, or what you need to do in order to complete the goal. While I don't mind puzzles or exploration, there is a limit to how much I can take in a game. Also, there are things you have to do in specific order, even though you can do them out of order. This will leave you with assignments that you can no longer finish. That annoys the hell out of my completionist psyche.

[Wizard 101] - Deck construction tips

[Introduction]

I meet a lot of different people in my travels in the various worlds of Wizard 101. I have met people who have many different and varied abilities when it comes to the combat system. I like to think of myself as a fairly hardcore gamer. I love to play games. I love to beat everything up. I love to min-max my attributes, prioritize my skill queue, and generally create havoc for an enemy unlucky enough to stand in my way.

That being said, this blog post is about helping players construct their decks. I meet a lot of people who just put in any old thing, and then wonder why they die all the time, or are always asking for help because they have a difficult time killing their enemies. Much of what I write here is going to be from personal experience with Wizard 101. Additionally, many of my thoughts on deck construction come from my experiences playing other TCG's, like Magic the Gathering. These basic concepts hold true in those games, and many of them have even more power in Wizard 101.

[Tip #1: David vs. Goliath]

I am pretty sure we all know the story of David versus Goliath. If you do, please skip the next paragraph. If you don't, please continue.

There was once a guy named Goliath. He was the largest, strongest, and fiercest warrior. He helped conquer cities and kingdoms. One day, he was challenged by a guy named David. David was a tiny lump of a man, hardly worth a second look. Goliath, in his most infinite wisdom and figuring there was no way he would lose, agreed to take up this challenger. David kicked his massive arse. Moral of the story: Large is not always the way to victory.

The idea behind this tip is to cut your deck size down as much as possible. I know there are plenty of spells in the average player's deck that rarely see use. I hear this line all the time: "Wait a second, I need to discard to get the card I need." Seriously? I almost never have that problem. Then again, I run a pretty small deck. In fact, I don't even need all the space in a starter deck. And I can kill most everything. In fact, I have killed the Jade Oni with my deck.

The most important thing to remember here is that if you have fewer cards in your deck, you will come across the ones you need far more often, and far sooner. Here is my general purpose deck (I am a balance wizard, in case you were wondering.):

1x Judgement

1x Hex

1x BalanceBlade

1x Feint

1x Power Play

1x Reshuffle

1x Healing Hands

I get the following spells from my equipment: 2x Guiding Light (Troll Ear Pendant), 5x Wrath (Oyotomi's Jade Blade). I have been farming Kagemoosha and Death Oni for Kagemoosha's Citrine Blade(5x Crusade, a balance spell) and the Headress of the Sylph(1x Dryad, a very powerful heal). If you'd like to join me for the loot drops, please feel free to contact me. I can run the instance in about 15 minutes solo.

When I fought the Jade Oni, I added Spectral Minion. This is a 4-pip spell that is either a very reliable damage over time spell, or a nice tank. Either way, it's a good use of 4 pips against a boss with 7500 health.

When I go into special dungeons, like Tomb of the Beguiler, I will double my Hex, Feint, BalanceBlade, and Judgement spells, if only to increase the speed with which I get them. As an aside, I have hit for over 4k damage with Judgement. Not many creatures can survive that. And even fewer can survive two of those.

[Tip #2: Waste Not, Want Not]

This tip kind of goes hand-in-hand with the previous tip. It will help you reduce the size of your deck. The most important thign to remember here is: Get rid of anything you don't plan on using. As a Balance wizard, I used to keep a couple of lower pip spells, like Scorpion and Locust Swarm in my decks in order to use fewer pips for some of the fights I was in. However, on a pip-by-pip basis, Judgement is far more reliable at 100 damage per pip, unlike the other spells which can vary from 60-105 per pip damage. This same thign holds true for all the other schools as well. Get rid of cards that aren't as useful to you. Death has Dark Sprite. Sure it is only 1 pip, but for 2 pips you can use Ghoul, which not only does a decent amount of damage, but heals you as well.

There are many spells which you can remove from your deck. Some have a use, some don't. My life wizard never uses the 0-pip heal spell. There is no real point in it unless I am doing nothing but healing, with healing bonused gear equipped. Dryad is far more effective than any other heal spell. Especially when combined with Guiding Light.

Again, I urge you to consider every card in your deck. Remove the ones that are not as useful to you. There is no need to keep a card in your deck that you only will use 10% of the time.

[Tip #3: Reuse, Recycle, Reduce]

This tip will also help you lower the number of cards in your deck. I urge every single player to go visit Colossus Blvd. Go to the little house there, and speak with the vendor. Reshuffle is possibly the best spell in the game. It will go into every deck you make from this point on. You only really need to put one of these in your deck. You can put in two if you want, but if you have a small enough deck, you will only need one.

This spell is a Balance spell. You can get it in treasure card format if you don't want to put it in your deck, but it is always better to put a few pixies in your sideboard. Nothing like a heal on demand to help you out. This spell reshuffles your discard pile into your deck, basically giving you an endless supply of cards to use. Additionally, after it is used, it goes on the bottom of your deck, so you will always have one available.

Seriously, this spell will save your life. Over and over again.

[Conclusion]

In conclusion, these three tips will help you succeed. Keep your decks small and lightweight. Remove the trash you don't need. Reshuffle to give you an endless supply of death-dealing goodness. If you keep these tips close to heart, you will find your game play far more enjoyable, and at the same time increase the number of friends you have in the game. Everyone loves an effective wizard, especially at higher levels.

Cute Overloaded

[Introduction]

I was over at Addicting Games yesterday, and I somehow got suckered into trying the free-to-play game Wizard 101. At first, I thought I was going to be sorely disappointed. The game was not really intended for an older audience, of which I belong, but rather for teens. I was expecting a lot of childish antics (which there was a little bit of), crude behavior (of which there was not much), and horrible gameplay.

[Childish Antics]

Yes, there are some younger players around. Most of them can't chat because they don't have their parents permission. This is a godsend. There are still some that can chat, and do so both openly and with a lack of tact. There are plenty of limitations to the text chat. If you type something in that is not on the acceptable chat words list, it gets posted as "..." instead of what you wrote. This can be a pain in the ass at times, but generally makes things a lot easier on the eyes. In the end, it also makes the game far more enjoyable.

There is a lot of one-upmanship in Wizard 101, which brings me to my next point.

[Crude Behavior]

I must preface this next section with the fact that the people that play Wizard 101 tend to be younger. By younger, I mean in their teens. They like to show off their pets and their mounts and they "glam" outfits. If they don't like what you are wearing, they will boldly tell you and everyone around you how much it sucks. They pick on people who do not have mounts, at least a little bit. Lower level players don't get picked on as much, but higher level players have this de facto standard applied to them, and if they don't fit the standard, they are outcasts.

Outside of these couple of things, however, people are generally friendly and willing to help each other out. If you are clearly not doing well in a battle, other players jump in to help out. If you need to do a quest that is a bit more difficult, you need but ask, and a number of players will be glad to assist. The older players know where everything is, and are more than willing to show you around if you only say the words. There are even players who shout out in the streets that they are looking to assist the newer players with their quests. All-in-all, the community is far better than I had imagined.

[Horrible Gameplay]

I was really, really, really, really, really expecting the gameplay to be substandard at best. In fact, I was expecting to stop playing within about 10 minutes of loading the game.

Much to my surprise, the gameplay is fairly decent. The quests make sense and move smoothly from one to the next. The combat system takes a little bit to get used to, but has a lot going for it, from pre-fight set up to in combat tactics that need to be done. The fact that anyone can join your fight, seemingly without loss of experience or loot gains, is a godsend when you accidentally pull too many mobs. The spell system has a lot to offer, from the ability to choose which paths you would like to take, to the ability to customize your character's effectiveness in many situations.

Items, and their associated bonuses, don't always make sense, and will take some searching google to fully comprehend what specific things do or are for. Everything stat-wise, has a symbol associated with it. Once you know what the symbols are for, you can quickly choose the gear that is most beneficial to your current situation. Some gear adds bonuses to combat offense, some to defense, some give the ability to use spells in combat that you normally would not be able to use.

In the end, I played to complete all of the free-to-play quests. Took me a couple of hours, and I may at some point in the future decide to continue on my journey and subscribe to the game. It seemed pretty fun at first, and I definitely enjoyed the time I spent there. I would have liked to have a couple of friends with me that I knew, but otherwise, it was a nice little ordeal.

Oh, Holy Night

I decided to play some Killing Floor again, just because I have not played that game in quite some time. To say that they have made some changes would be an understatement. They have redefined quite a bit of every class, and have added loads of new achievements.

In addition to that, they have added the Twisted Christmas event to boot. Running through January 4th, players will face off against hordes of zombies in Christmas attire, from the Santa Patriarch, to the Gingerbread Gorefast, and everything in between. I think the funniest thing is when a Bloat dressed as Santa comes within range of you and says "Cookie?"

Anyway, fun little game. Kill loads of zombies on any number of maps. With a wide range of classes. Be prepared to spend some hours doing this. It is well worth it.

Genie in a Bottle: Three things Guardians wished everyone knew.

Introduction

I play Lord of the Rings Online. My main character is a Guardian. I find that many people don't fully understand what a Guardian does. Sure, they all know that the Guardian is a tank. Most know that Guardians can do decent damage these days (thanks to Turbine for actively developing the class as something more than just a tank.)

But, here are three things that Guardians wished everyone knew about them:

Number One - Narcissism

If we are not getting hit, we can't generate threat. Most of our threat skills are reactive based. Sure, we get things like Vexing Blow, Engage, and Challenge, but those skills don't generate enough threat to be able to control the flow and pacing of a fight. We need to use things like Whirling Retaliation (in the parry chain), Litany of Defiance and Shield-Taunt. None of these are readily accessible without being attacked by something, and preferably multiple somethings.

One of the biggest pet peeves of mine is when I run in, hit Challenge, and then the Champion comes in right behind me and hits their horn. Sure, the stun is nice, but while the mobs are stunned, the Champion is happily throwing down massive aoe damage while the Guardian is sitting there with nothing hitting them. Then, the healer complains about why the Champion is taking so much damage. Obviously, it is because the Guardian was unable to generate threat due to an untimely stun.

Number Two - It all Boils Down to One

While I am all for balls-to-the-wall DPS in many situations, there are plenty of times when the DPS classes need to just chill the fuck out. This is especially true when there is only one mob to fight, be it a boss or the only mob in the area. If you remember from the first point, Guardians need things hitting them in order to generate threat. With large numbers of mobs, this is very easy. With only a single mob, it is much harder, as you have fewer block and parry responses. This means we generate less threat overall. A lot less. In fact, with fewer aggro generation skills against single targets, the Guardian is less effective at generating threat than a Warden against a single mob.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when the DPS classes decide they are going to just go all out against a single mob, and then complain about why the tank can't hold aggro.

Number Three - Taking the Bull by the Horns

Should we be moving faster? Should we be moving slower? This should be something the tank controls directly. While there are times when other people need to step up and take charge of pacing in an instance, most of the time, the Guardian's role is to make sure that he or she can hold aggro over not just the course of a single fight, but over the course of the entire instance. I can't speak for other Guardians, but I keep a close eye on the rest of my fellowship's morale and power. I know how much they are going through, and how quickly. I know when I have to take a break. I know when they have used skills which have a longer cooldown and we will need for future fights. I keep an eye on everything going on around me.

This generally means I do not stop unless I feel we need to. Sometimes, a fellow will tell me that they need to stop for something, be it a cooldown, some regen, or something outside of the game. I don't mind stopping if asked to, however, I do mind people just stopping because there is a lull in the action. Many times, I have a reason for not stopping. Maybe I got a lucky block at the end of a fight, and it gives me an advantage in threat generation in the next fight. Maybe my Guardian's Pledge is up and ready for use, and the healer doesn't have to work as hard. No matter the reason, it is important to let the tank lead and set the pace for the group. Successful groups let the tank do this. Sure, you can succeed when you take it nice and slow, but I love the action. The more the merrier.

Conclusion

I likely don't speak for all Guardians in Lord of the Rings Online. Maybe I don't speak for any of them. In my experience, however, I find these things to be important to the game, and important to the success of many a fellowship. Guardians need to be the center of attention. Guardians need time to generate threat against single targets. Guardians need to be able to set the pace. Well, maybe not the last one as much as the other two, but all three are valid points.

Shmups FTW!

There is nothing quite like a good shmup. And by good shmup, I mean a game that offers fast-paced action, unending waves of enemies, and so many bullets on screen that it makes your eyes hurt. Seriously. There are plenty of shmups out there. There are even plenty of really good ones.

Then, you have some really excellent shmups, although not nearly as many of those. Following those are the really good ones, the ones that can keep you playing for hours.

And then, you have the greats. Games that can have you playing for days and weeks. Games that will keep you coming back day after day, month after month, year after year. There aren't many of these. You have games from the past, like Galaga, that are classic hits that will keep you coming back for the rest of your life. Sometimes, however, you just can't get to an arcade, and even when you can, you are lucky to find a game you want to continually throw quarters into.

This brings me to games you can play either in your web-browser or install on your computer. Games like Warfare Forever bring plenty to the table when it comes to good shmups. It's something fun to do. Tonite, I had the pleasure of finding something fun, exciting, and altogether my idea of a great shmup: Death vs. Monstars. You can find it here: http://armorgames.com/play/3307/death-vs-monstars

I suggest you check it out.

Bubble Tanks Tower Defense

I love Tower Defenses. Ever since I player my first one in Warcraft 3, I have found them to be fun and exciting. I have played hundreds of them, and created dozens of my own. I love finding new tower defenses based on interesting concepts, from the Bloons TD franchise to Anti-TD, I like them all and find them to be for the most part enjoyable.

I found Bubble Tanks Tower Defense this past week on Addicting Games. I loved the Bubble Tanks franchise for its near open-ended gameplay, its interesting upgrade system, and its replayability factor. These things are present in BTTD as well, and they have not skimped in any of those things. The game is fun, as is any tower defense. It can be pretty hard. It also comes with an FML setting. FML is pretty much impossible. I have only been able to beat the easiest of levels on FML mode so far, but have only been playing for a couple of days. We shall give it a few more before I make any firm commitment to the FML setting.

That being said, the game is exceptionally balanced. It also has a pretty unique upgrade system. It upgrades towers similarly to the way the tanks upgraded in the Bubble Tanks games, but it also allows the player to make Mega Towers and Mega Mega Towers if you play on the main website. The game also has a bunch of extra content available on the main site as well.

All-in-all, the game is a great change from the standard fare of tower defenses. I hope they continue to make these types of games in addition to their normal games.