03-25-2004, 05:17 AM
Just a few 'newbie' tips, particularly for you Bolty - as your opinion will likely carry the most weight with the vast majority of loungers :-)...
Control the aggro - or attention/attacks of monsters is absolutely critical in groups, particularly as you move further and further through the game. Control of the aggro of "mobs" of "critters" or "creeps" or whatever the heck they're called in WoW usually revolves around a "tank" character, one with a lot of hit points taking the brunt of the attack and the healer type character healing the "tank". Once attacking and aggro has been established upon the tank, other characters typically join in the attack on the monster. The control of that mob's attacks is a very advanced concept in MMORPG's that leads to much greater efficiency as less heals are needed to be doled out, and it helps dramatically with mana consumption later on in the game.
In EQ, aggro was typically a number on a list that depended on a few factors. Damage, number of hits on the "mob", healing a character who is damaging the mob, "buffing" or giving a protective spell to a character currently on the aggro list. When the numbers add up, the mob attacks the character highest on that list. The Taunt skill in EverQuest was given to the warrior type characters, and allowed them to immediately jump to the top of the aggro list. I'm not sure of an equivilent option exists in WoW as I'm not in the beta, but I imagine something similar would exist for most of the "tanking" classes.
In MMORPG's, the reason to love the game is the people that you meet and enjoying the immersion in the vast world. In the high end game, raids, or massive groupings of people allied together in an effort to bring down the biggest and the baddest mobs take up the vast majority of free time - and while most lurkers likely would not be big fans of raiding, as it is more of a power-gamer aspect of MMORPGs, one of the most enjoyable experiences that I have had gaming is pushing my limits in a group of friends in terms of number of monsters we can take off, speed we can take them on, the power of the monsters we're beating, and all that sort of thing.
Having a guild of sorts, similar to a surrogate family, was one of the things that kept me involved in EverQuest for so long - they were just a ton of fun to talk with, but there was also the stranger factor. While there will always be pompous arses and morons abound in all games in EverQuest I found that the percentage of impolite people were much, much, much lower than that of b.net. I also found that the percentage of people willing to learn, to go for a challange, and to just chat when you need it were much higher than b.net. This was on a server of approximately 2000 people at any one time - instead of on a server of 30,000 or so.
Keep with it Bolty - there is always a very steep learning curve for the first few days, or even weeks of MMORPGing, but if you find that the genre works for you, and you enjoy the game - you may find it difficult to go back to something else :-).
The (apparent) local expert on MMORPGs
Baylan
P.S. - preemptive apologies for my probable poor grammar and incoherency, its late and I should be in bed, in fact, I'm skipping on previewing it because of that :-)
Control the aggro - or attention/attacks of monsters is absolutely critical in groups, particularly as you move further and further through the game. Control of the aggro of "mobs" of "critters" or "creeps" or whatever the heck they're called in WoW usually revolves around a "tank" character, one with a lot of hit points taking the brunt of the attack and the healer type character healing the "tank". Once attacking and aggro has been established upon the tank, other characters typically join in the attack on the monster. The control of that mob's attacks is a very advanced concept in MMORPG's that leads to much greater efficiency as less heals are needed to be doled out, and it helps dramatically with mana consumption later on in the game.
In EQ, aggro was typically a number on a list that depended on a few factors. Damage, number of hits on the "mob", healing a character who is damaging the mob, "buffing" or giving a protective spell to a character currently on the aggro list. When the numbers add up, the mob attacks the character highest on that list. The Taunt skill in EverQuest was given to the warrior type characters, and allowed them to immediately jump to the top of the aggro list. I'm not sure of an equivilent option exists in WoW as I'm not in the beta, but I imagine something similar would exist for most of the "tanking" classes.
In MMORPG's, the reason to love the game is the people that you meet and enjoying the immersion in the vast world. In the high end game, raids, or massive groupings of people allied together in an effort to bring down the biggest and the baddest mobs take up the vast majority of free time - and while most lurkers likely would not be big fans of raiding, as it is more of a power-gamer aspect of MMORPGs, one of the most enjoyable experiences that I have had gaming is pushing my limits in a group of friends in terms of number of monsters we can take off, speed we can take them on, the power of the monsters we're beating, and all that sort of thing.
Having a guild of sorts, similar to a surrogate family, was one of the things that kept me involved in EverQuest for so long - they were just a ton of fun to talk with, but there was also the stranger factor. While there will always be pompous arses and morons abound in all games in EverQuest I found that the percentage of impolite people were much, much, much lower than that of b.net. I also found that the percentage of people willing to learn, to go for a challange, and to just chat when you need it were much higher than b.net. This was on a server of approximately 2000 people at any one time - instead of on a server of 30,000 or so.
Keep with it Bolty - there is always a very steep learning curve for the first few days, or even weeks of MMORPGing, but if you find that the genre works for you, and you enjoy the game - you may find it difficult to go back to something else :-).
The (apparent) local expert on MMORPGs
Baylan
P.S. - preemptive apologies for my probable poor grammar and incoherency, its late and I should be in bed, in fact, I'm skipping on previewing it because of that :-)