A Pixel Nomad

Yes, that’s my rogue, and yes, she is a halfling riding a giant ant.

In almost all MMOs the first ‘trinity’ type character I make is a healer. You know, the holy trinity? Healer, tank, dps? Right. That one. Well I’m most comfortable playing healers, so that’s what I stick with at least the first time around. Healers are pretty boring. You spend all of your time watching other peoples health bars and making sure you’re not stepping on something you shouldn’t be. It’s rare that you get to move from that role, even when EQ2 added dps stances through alternate advancement it was still pretty boring.

Vanguard took a different approach to healing; at least for two of its classes. I can’t confirm on the other two because I don’t play them. First, the blood mage. This is my main character and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The blood mage is a cloth wearing healer who acts more like a necromancer then a healer. That is to say that unless you’re doing damage to the mob, you’re not doing a lot of healing. Your heals are tied directly to your nukes. The more damage you’re doing, the more you’re healing. This presents some good things and some bad. One bad would be that if the mob is too high level for you chances are you’re being resisted and there for having a difficult time healing. On the plus side, you’re having a lot of fun ganking agro from your tank with your uber dps, and it makes things a lot more fun in the long run. Blood mages are also the only healer class who gets counter, which is a reaction that can cancel the mobs spell casting. An amazing thing when you’re fighting mobs that silence, stun, or heal. Blood mages also create hand crafted items called symbiots (may have spelled that wrong). These little creatures are created from live body parts that you rip out of mobs, a different body part depending on which dot you’ve placed on it. They’re used to create ‘attachments’ to players with a timer. Basically a temporary buff. There are a lot of them and they’re all useful. Some are hastes, some give levitate, some allow you to cast spells with reduced energy (mana) consumption. Not only that, but blood mages have a huge amount of buffs, at level 47 I’ve got at least 10. The down sides, being cloth, they’re squishy.

Then there’s the disciple. This is a monk healer class. They get feign death, and stuns and do their healing through dps combos on the mob. Again if you’re getting resisted a lot you may find yourself having a hard time healing but it’s a lot of fun to play. That doesn’t mean that you’re not still watching health bars, but at least you’re also doing something else at the same time.

I love Vanguards approach to healer classes. It’s nice to know there’s more for me to do, and that I’m not restricted to dps OR healing, that they’re both tied together. What game has your favorite class? Is this something that would appeal to you?

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, I’ll see you in Telon!

Diplomacy is yet another sphere in Vanguard that levels up much like crafting and adventuring. While it doesn’t have quite as large an impact on the game as the other two spheres, it is a nice break away from doing the usual, and has some incredibly detailed stories. When the Artisan’s Saga was added to game there was also a diplomacy saga added, and though I haven’t gotten to working on it yet I’m incredibly excited.

This is one of the main pull factors for me, the fact that there is OTHER stuff to do when I don’t feel like crafting or adventuring. In Eq2 I can hunt for shinies, work on my house, mentor and explore lower level zones and any other number of things. In LotRo there’s crafting and harvesting, and a plethora of older content that I had out leveled that I love exploring. In WAR and WoW I found it difficult to find ‘things’ to do if I was not constantly moving forward in character progression through adventuring. In EVE there’s so much stuff to do it would take me all day to list it all.

What you choose to do in game is of course always up to you, the player. Games give us the guide lines for these things and then we run with them. Diplomat’s have the ability to put up outpost and city buffs through civic diplomacy which is one of the main reasons I enjoy working that sphere. Not to mention they get some pretty awesome perks like being able to help purchase guild halls, and helping on raids.

I’m hoping to start the diplomacy saga before too long, but it depends on how tied up I get in crafting and of course adventuring.

Last night I worked on more swamp armor upgrades. I’ve finished off the robe, legs, hat, and gloves. These pieces of gear will last for quite some time and I’m happy to have gotten the upgrades. Now to decide what to work on next!

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in Telon!

Vanguard crafting is as complex as any of the other spheres, and perhaps a bit more. There are literally thousands of items players can make, all of them different then the next item. This is done through materials like crystals and dusts that allow you to imbue particular properties to each piece. Some times multiples. Not only that, but each continent has it’s own style, which also affects the stats on an item. That’s a lot of combination options. A thestran style bow made with precision won’t look or act the same as a qalian bow with precision – and then instead of precision you can add something else. The possibilities are virtually endless.

Like all spheres, it’s perfectly acceptable to work on crafting and NOT be an adventurer or a diplomat. There are quests unique to the sphere, and a gear tab just for it. Players are not restricted by their adventure level. Because the game allows players to level up through quests and the completion of work orders, there’s no need to be a high level harvester to obtain levels. Work orders have two options, you can use your own supplies for a small boost in grade – or you can use supplies the NPC provides (except for fuel, which players must supply).

Crafting in Vanguard also differs from games like EQ2 in the fact that it’s not a timed process. You are able to step away at any time during the creation of an item to deal with real life. The basics are quite simple. You have a table. You load it with fuel and the basics for your combine. The table is pictured above. The ‘point’ is to get to the final stage before running out of action points – making it as high a grade as you can. Seems simple, right? Except complications pop up on the right hand side that also take fuel and action points to solve. Each stage has a choice of methods, they will either increase your grade, or your progress (within the stage, so you can move on to the next) or both. Each one takes different tools, and different fuel, and as you level up more choices open up to you. Above is a 5 stage item, and each stage has 2-5 choices that cost action points / fuel to move through them. If you run out of action points before you get to the final stage and complete your item, you fail the combine and lose your raw materials that you’ve placed on the table. Any fuel consumed is also lost.

Each player has a tab of crafting gear. The gear and its stats determine things like how difficult it will be for you to use your reasoning to solve a complication. How much your grade will improve by using a tool. How much you’ll work through a stage with the crafting machine you’re standing at. There are a LOT of skills involved, and thankfully there’s also a lot of quests that reward players with the supplies needed in order to make the crafting tasks a little easier.

Not only that but because each continent has its own style of craft that also means each tier has three quests for players to complete, one for each continent to learn the style for that continent. Last night working on the Artisan’s Saga I managed to move my blacksmith (weaponsmith) from level 16 to 21 – at 21 the apprentice style quests opened up to me so I was off to Martok to see what the npc wanted me to do.

Confusing? Sure is. That’s why there’s wonderful sites like vanguardcrafters.com that lists all of the quests, where to go, what NPCs you need. Crafting in Vanguard WITHOUT a guide of some sort is almost going to guarentee frustration right there.

I won’t even start getting into the crystal choices.. or the deal with sigils.. or yeah.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in Telon!

A few people have spoken to me now about how they’d like to play Vanguard – but are weary of playing a game that may not last all that long. Or rather, are not keen on the idea of getting emotionally involved in a game that may or may not be on its last legs. I’ve always had an issue understanding this perspective because when you look at things long term, ALL games are on their last legs. Nothing lasts forever. We either move on, the games close down, or real life happens, or the next shiny comes along. To be reluctant of trying a game because this process may be quicker then we had expected just doesn’t compute in my mind. If you see it as a ‘waste of time’ to play a game that may shut down – why do you not see playing video games in general as a waste of time. Eventually, they all will shut down in one manor or another. There is an upside! You’ll be left with the great memories of that particular game, and they will always last. Do I spend time thinking about the state of the game when I play Vanguard? Nope. I don’t. I’m too busy having fun. It is not until afterward, when talking to others that I give it some thought. Will I be sad if the game shuts down? Of course I will. I’ll also be incredibly happy that I played it while it was around, and got to enjoy some wonderful memories of a game that is (in my opinion) one of the best out there. Even with the bugs. Besides, no one but the developers and folks actually working on the game know whether or not it’s close to shutting down. It’s all just speculation on the players side.

Anyhow!

I didn’t do any adventuring yesterday, I worked on the banisher series of Artisan’s quests. I’ve done about 10 quests so far, and they’ve just hit the level 15-20 crafter range. Being a level 47 crafter means the combines are quite easy for me and the rewards are a little under what I’m already wearing for crafting gear. I’ve also gotten a lot of other useful items though while I work on the chain. I’ve gotten a few clickies (one being a gate to New Targonor), some diplomacy gear (all of it upgrades since I never had the luxury of starting on the Isle of Dawn), I’ve gotten a title (“Banisher”) and a lot of coin. My last quest rewarded 1g which is a LOT of money in Vanguard. As an indication, I’m sitting on roughly 1p 63g which is the most money I’ve ever had in game. The quests are all fun and have a unique story behind them. They reward a lot of experience despite my higher level in crafting (200,000 for the last one) and they’ve sent me from New Targonor over to Qalia. Yesterday I spoke with the Sultan and met his 12 wives. Now I’m doing missions for his engineer.

I do plan on creating a post just about the crafting aspect of Vanguard, since it’s complex and would make this post a lot longer then I had intended, so look for that later today. There’s also a large patch going in today. It’s to help resolve some of the lag that the server has been experiencing since the merge, as well as implement LiveGamer back on the server (remember, all servers started allowing RMT a year or so ago). Some people have asked if RMT has affected the game negatively. If you’re someone who pays more attention to what everyone else is doing, as opposed to what you are doing yourself, you may find a change. However, in all my time playing I have not. Guild mates openly talk about spending $20 for 20 plat in game, and since it’s not breaking any rules I have no issues with it. They’re entitled to play as they wish, just as I am. I haven’t purchased anything myself from LiveGamer, nor do I see myself doing so. That’s a personal choice, and not one I really have any strong feelings over one way or another.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself. Lately, I’ll see you in Telon!

Pictured above, the blood mage just after she hit level 47. Now, the old cap in Vanguard was level 50, and when I think about it that way I’m pretty close, which is great. However the new cap is now 55 in Vanguard and so by that number and the amount of experience it takes I’m quite far away. Not in a rush, but still far. In order to level through 46 I decided to do repeatable quests in Afrit. This is quite a popular area for a number of reasons. The main quests have you collecting these little gems in stacks of 50. Once you gather 50 you combine them into a bag. These bags of gems can be turned in to NPC in Afrit for any number of rewards ranging from gear to jewelery to food and drink. You can even purchase a merchant to summon who will repair your gear and act as a vendor when your bags are full and you don’t want to gate out of your quest area. All very handy items.

The quests are great because once you’ve completed one you’re automatically given the second one in the series, and the locations of each quest are quite close together. On the down side this means the areas are popular – and it’s common to see a level 55 sorcerer (or other aoe class) “helping” a friend by rounding up every single mob in the area and aoe’ing them down. Not a bad thing if they’re the only one at that particular quest area but when others are around it makes sharing quite frustrating (as I found out last night). One of the quest areas also has a great collection of stone mobs that you can quarry for granite and obsidian, something I can never have enough of.

Thanks to Greth (awesome newtfish) I am also now sporting my swamp armor robe. I haven’t managed to upgrade any of the pieces because they require an item called phytotoxinous which is 50g each on the broker and there’s no way I’m going to pay that much – but even the basics were a huge upgrade to me and eventually I will upgrade them fully.

I learned yesterday that there is a diplomacy saga line that I am just incredibly excited to start. I worked on the artisan’s saga some more (the crafter version) and completed two more quests, granting me a toolbelt upgrade and an awesome necklace that allows me to port to New Targonor. Love those clickies!

Now that my crafting level and adventuring level match up again, it’s time to work on more crafting. The cap for diplomacy is still 50, but crafting was also raised to 55 along with adventuring and I’ve a lot of levels to make up. Excited? Yes, I am. Just a little.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!