Comments Off Written by
Anna on
January 20, 2012 – 11:04 am
So my as yet nameless raid* is going through another reset cycle. We’ve lost a few people, are raiding on a new night, etc.
One of the people we lost was our paladin healer.
As such, since I like my raid and want to keep raiding, I offered to swap Annorah over to healing (and Yva will be swapping to paladin healing).
To put this into context, the last time I healed anything other than myself while questing, I was running LFD at the end of Wrath with my priest. Which means it’s been more than two years since I healed, closer to FOUR years since I healed as a Shaman (though I may have healed a Naxx run or two, I don’t remember…)
My healer instincts are, hopefully, still around, but I’m pretty sure the skill is gone. Thankfully, shaman healing doesn’t seem too terribly different than it’s been in the past, especially for raid healing, so I’m hoping that transition goes well. (Also, what would we do without EJ? Their resto shaman thread has a “Help! I’m elemental and need to fill in for our missing healer in 5 minutes!” section that was a total lifesaver toward getting me started.)
Also thankfully, my gear is pretty balanced with +Spirit on it (since elemental shamans convert spirit into hit), so other than picking up my 2 piece Tier 12, which I should be able to do with little difficulty running heroics, I’m not in bad shape gear wise. This is primarily why I didn’t switch to Aely – as much as it would mean only one character having to switch, Paladin healing is both a) more difficult and b) would require a /complete/ gear up. Aely’s got about 348 ilevel ret gear, and that’s it.
I feel a little sheepish that I’ve gotten so out of practice, to be honest, but mentally I really needed a break from healing. So now I have until next Thursday to figure out how to push buttons again.
Just keybind everything to chain heal and roll my face on the keyboard, right?
*When TRI splits down into 10 mans, we’re no longer just Totally Raids, Inc. We’re TRI *something*. The Saturday 10 man is TRI Hangover (since they raid in the morning and are, occasionally, hungover). Our raid now runs Thursday evenings – at the same time as the third TRI 10 man raid. Both Thursday raids are working on Ultraxion, which is kind of cool. Anyway, we don’t have a name yet. Because we’re bads and haven’t thought of one. Suggestions are, of course, accepted.
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Healing, Shaman
5 Written by
Anna on
January 20, 2012 – 7:26 am
For my own use as much as anyone else’s:
Wookieepedia – Star Wars Lore Database. Enormous, but good for getting answers to lore questions. Also good for sucking up your afternoon without you noticing.
SWTOR Wikia - Star Wars: The Old Republic wiki – specific to the game and game environment/lore.
TORHead – Growing database of missions and mission items.
SithWarrior.com – forum of discussion about class mechanics, specs, and strategy
Jedi Tank – discussion of class mechanics, particularly tanking and healing
SWTOR Crew Skills – just what it says. Crew Skills information and skill leveling guides
SWTOR Life – news and guides. Good blog about RP specifically. Especially the post about setting game preferences for RP.
True Galaxies SWTOR Guides - particularly their companion guides
SWTOR Strategies – news website with lore and strategy information, as well as game updates
SWTOR Hub – news website with new player, lore, and other info, game updates, skill calculator
And a couple of blogs I’m enjoying that cover SWTOR and related info: Inquisitor’s Roadhouse - A New Dope - All for the Wookiee – Hawtpants of the Old Republic
I’m sure as the game solidifies, some of these sites will disappear and new ones will appear, but for now these are the websites I’m using to keep up with new stuff in SWTOR. And to look up answers to my eleventy billion questions, since this is a relatively new lore environment for me.
What other websites (including blogs, which I don’t have many of yet) should I be reading?
5 Written by
Anna on
January 19, 2012 – 8:14 am
It’s the little things.
I want to sit on the couch, dammit.
There are lovely chairs all over. Bar stools, benches, couches. I want to sit on them.
I’d also like to sit in such a way that I am not flashing my character’s delicate bits at the world.
Also, I’d like the emotes to not make me stand up for all of them, even the ones that don’t have an animation. And when I /bow, I really only need to bow ONCE. Not repeatedly until I jump to stop the emote.
I’d especially like a way to tell who is in a chat channel with me. Something like the old /chatwho command would be fine.
Really, it’s all little things. But sometimes they can add up to be a big headache.
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Roleplay, SWTOR
3 Written by
Anna on
January 18, 2012 – 8:25 am
I share a lot of the same reservations as A New Dope about the linear questing styles of WoW and Star Wars.
Linear questing is not my favorite. While I’m not going to say I love being trekked around the world every five minutes, I like it when there’s a feeling of connectedness between zones (though that’s more a criticism of WoW, where the zones are actually next to each other, than it is of Star Wars, where the zones are actually PLANETS, and as such don’t really have a lot in common).
And while the linear style of questing does add a lot to the “big hero” style of play, it’s rough on replay value and rough on RP. Not everyone can be a big damn hero, and not everyone wants to be. If I have to suspend my immersion to be part of a great heroic quest chain, that’s time I’m not feeling lost in the atmosphere of the game and the mind of my character.
And frankly? That gets boring, fast. I don’t think you have to be a big hero to be connected to a zone or a world, or to feel immersed in a game.
I generally think Blizzard did a good job with Northrend’s zones. There were several hubs within each zone, and you could progress through them one at a time if you wanted. You didn’t need to go to Borean Tundra to finish quests in Howling Fjord. You could also skip areas you hated (the undead part of Zul’Drak comes to mind) or entire zones altogether. I’m pretty sure you can level without setting foot in Zul’Drak or even Sholazar Basin… or Icecrown, for that matter. There’s enough duplicate leveling content that you can pick and choose what makes sense for each character.
While the Cataclysm zones are somewhat like that, in that there’s enough content to be able to skip certain zones, the zones themselves are entirely linear. You can’t skip ahead and do only the Harrison Jones quests in Uldum or just the second half of Hyjal. The zones are linear, and they’re setting you up to be the big hero every time.
The new leveling zones have this same model, so it’s hard to skip areas or pick and choose. They’re also geared towards fewer levels per zone, meaning you get to see more zones as you level, but there are fewer to choose from (unless you’re leveling in heirlooms and with guild XP bonuses, where you’ll outlevel almost all the content very quickly). Combine that with the chronology issues that WoW currently struggles with in their leveling progression, and it makes even a die-hard altoholic like myself struggle with leveling new characters.
Star Wars is very similar to this model so far, and I’m told it doesn’t change much. While each character has their own class quests, which is nice, Coruscant goes from Merchant’s Gang to Black Sun to Justicar, no matter what class you are. I can’t speak to upper level areas that overlap, but I’m pretty sure the progression from planet to planet is pretty well secured.
And the Big Damn Hero complex is there too. It’s a little disconcerting, to be THE BEST at everything, instead of just part of a group. My Jedi Knight is THE MOST SKILLED Padawan, not just a skilled one. She’s also the second character I’ve pathed through Tython, and I can’t say it felt all that new and exciting, beyond the class quests.
So the jury is still out, for me, on the replay value of Star Wars. I like immersive rather than linear style questing – and I’ve always seen two as mutually exclusive. The use of class quests will hopefully help with replay value, but there are 4 sets of class quests and 8 classes, so perhaps I’ll have to explore the Empire side of things.
(I didn’t intend to be playing Empire side, but I do somewhat have an idea for a Sith Sorceror rattling around in my head.)
