Yesterday, I woke up at 5:45 a.m. (about an hour before I normally do) and decided to get ready for work, then write an early morning blog post like Belghast, since I had the time. Because I didn't want to drag out my laptop (no permanent desk set-up at home for me) I decided to write it on a steno pad. I've done this a couple times before, and it actually works pretty well, especially for avoiding internet distractions. (Like the five minute fruitless "research" I just went through trying to find one article of many I read yesterday.) However, I never got around to typing what I'd written in the Blogger interface.
Having defeated the Gatekeeper's DPS Challenge, I now kind of wonder what's next for me and TSW. Unlike some other games, it seems like there's still plenty to do. I haven't finished the main Storyline missions on any character, and still have yet to even get the Ability Wheel half-complete on any character. There's lore to gather, regional missions to complete, etc., ad nauseum. And Nightmares. And the Issue #8 is expected to drop next week. Whew! So the Gatekeeper really isn't the end, or even really the signal of endgame.
Am I really ready for Nightmare mode? Magson offered helpful advice about getting into noobling Nightmares. But I think you know, Dear Reader, how I feel about PUGs. Luckily, Galactrix and the rest of Beyond the Veil have been chomping at the bit to group up and do some Nightmares. I am willing to run them, but the urge to complete another gear grind just isn't there.
Interestingly enough, Belghast posted this morning about a great PUG analogy he came across yesterday that reflected an experience he had last week in FFXIV. TL;DR: no le fue bien.
Am I really ready for Nightmare mode? Magson offered helpful advice about getting into noobling Nightmares. But I think you know, Dear Reader, how I feel about PUGs. Luckily, Galactrix and the rest of Beyond the Veil have been chomping at the bit to group up and do some Nightmares. I am willing to run them, but the urge to complete another gear grind just isn't there.
Interestingly enough, Belghast posted this morning about a great PUG analogy he came across yesterday that reflected an experience he had last week in FFXIV. TL;DR: no le fue bien.
I agree with you on the gear grind it is not for me either, so I have changed my outlook a little as I just want to be able to complete each NM at least once without being hand-held through them.
ReplyDeleteYeah, my main reason for repeating them would be to get Master Planner. Galactrix and I have already started discussing how we might accomplish that.
DeleteAs a matter of prespective... I have run end game nm s in tsw for over a year. The thing I believe that keeps me running them is that I personally get better as a gamer, as a tsw player, and as a group player. Each run is different for good or bad. Each group dynamic is unique. It is not about gear any more...or bb s. Its literally like last night about seeing how far our gfoups can stretch.
DeleteHow we can push our builds and the fun that aroses out of those situations such as last night. our healer asked our tank to strip out tanking passives with the exception of agitator and go down to 3500hp...
We did sh in that manner...last boss the tank had go 4500hp oh well. Essentially the tanks dps went from 1k tonearly 2k and our.. dps was augmented drastically...
All in all it was a fun night not becuase of bb s but rather the trust you gain when in a group of team members willing to push each others limits and ... Play.
Is nt that what its all about?
Dui
It is great to run with a tight group of friends. I'm kind of glad Funcom went with the Nightmare scheme instead of a ton of Raids, in that respect.
DeleteOne of the things they have been doing is through the various issue quests rewarding a piece of purple entry level nightmare gear. I think eventually you will be able to completely outfit a character and have them ready for nightmares/raids just by doing these quests. I think there are 2 slots now, with a third on the way with the next issue.
ReplyDeleteYes there is a choice of 10.1 head talisman at the end of the Issue 6 storyline and a neck at the end of Issue 7, plus head and neck pieces available from the Ca'd'oro vendors. I don't know about Issue 8; Joel Bylos said just yesterday on MMORPG.com that there is no real storyline for the issue. The big things are the introduction of Scenarios and the Augment system.
DeleteHaving said that, getting outfitted in almost all blues of the appropriate type should get you enough power to beat Oscar and run at least a couple Nightmares. Plenty of people had done it long before purples were available outside NM modes. And I'll wager that even being decked out completely in purples would not save you from your own folly in facing Oscar. His one-shots (including the circles) in the DPS challenge hit me for like 100k HP. I think Tanks top out at less than 20k.
Most "experienced" tanks seem to run around 8500-9000 HP, in my experience. If upgrading a health talisman would take them over 11K, they'll often drop that and put an attack talisman with tanking glyphs on in its place, since then they'll hold aggro easier if they're doing more damage and "nobody needs more than 10K HP to tank in TSW!" Gotta love forum quotes/paraphrases, no?
DeleteI did Oscar in all blues. I'd imagine that's how most people do it, really. Sure, issues 6 and 7 give a couple of custom pieces, but that's only 2 pieces, out of 7, and doesn't take your weapons into account either. I also did the whole story line and all of Transylvania in greens. Didn't start doing elites for blues until after I'd finished all of that up, and then once I had the blues, took on Oscar, then I was in a fun cabal that generally did a run of 18's each night, so even though I didn't get on every night and also didn't necessarily make it into a run each night either (I often played with friends working their way up the QL ladder too) I still managed to get enough dungeon drops and bullion to get myself "decently" outfitted. Sure, to a hardcore 10.5.4 player I'm probably a joke, but I have fun, so that's all I care about.
As it is, I've completed my wheel now, done the issues, explored for every side quest, so. . . seen it all. And since I'm not big on gear grinds either, I'm very interested in the release of scenarios for something new to do. The NM's are fun the 1st few times, but I still haven't ever been big on repeating the same content over and over ad nauseum either.
Yeah, I saw a comment somewhere that level 10 greens are sufficient to finish the Story Missions and basically do everything but the later Elites and NMs; and that blues really aren't any better than greens, they're just more focused, requiring the player to make sure their Attack and/or Healing is balanced with HP. I have this to be the case. But I also find it easier to swap in a couple pieces, than to find my extra HP spread across several talismans.
DeleteBut you're right, I have noticed tanks like Mogsy and Antida end up swapping extra Attack for the hate-generation and relying more on the Healer to keep them healthy.