The RoM Rollercoaster

Note: wrote this a couple of weeks ago, and felt that it gave some insight into RoM and thus might as well post now.

Playing a free MMO is kind of like riding a rollercoaster inspired by a yo-yo on speed. Over the past few weeks my experience of RoM has been all over the place, ranging from great moments, to appallingly awful moments, until it ends up pretty depressing at the time of writing. Right now I am sitting in my player house, as I have been for the past 10 hours, doing absolutely nothing for a stupid reason. But lets not get ahead of ourselves...

Right now I am sitting at 45/35, and only 5 levels away from reaching the level cap in a free MMO for the first time, and in any MMO for the second time. Once again, a lot of time was spent grinding out monotonous daily quests in order to level, occasionally sped up by the quick burst of new quests offered as I hit a new level. I did a run of Mystic Altar with some guildmates which is a 45 instance, and that was quite fun, but aside from that most of my time has been taken up just trying to hit the level cap. When I hit 45 on my Scout I moved into the next zone called Ravenfall which has mobs level 46+.

I did a couple of quests before running into an empty zone, got disconnected, and found out I was dead when I logged back in. Death in RoM means a 5% xp debt (5% of the total amount you need to reach the next level) and just one death is extremely annoying. When I logged in the next morning I died twice more due to an elite mob which I hadn't seen and some glitchy healing spells. Not long later after that I died a fourth time, and that's when I decided to level my priest.

Because of the new elite 35/35 abilities the P/S combination has become one of the best healers in the game and I plan to have a go at it. I bought some good gear cheaply off the AH and gave it to my priest and set off on my merry way. As I was trying to get my 20/20 elite ability for my Priest I realized that there was one item that I needed which wasn't on the AH. I asked my guild if any of them had any, and one guys says he can get me one if I help him out. Turns out he had been pking a bit of late and had bad reputation. This means that he was unable to go near cities as the guards would kill him. According to him if I pked a couple of people and got my rep down then we would be able to kill each other and together get our rep back up. (As killing pkers gives you good rep) Unfortunately this didn't work out leaving me with -125 rep with no way to get rid of it other then wait.

Turns out it takes 20 minutes to gain 1 rep point and you also have to be logged on. Great. So that's what I'm doing now, sitting by myself and waiting for my rep to reset. This pk system is truly terrible and I can't understand why anyone would willingly go through this, because it nearly pushed me to quit. I gotta go study now. :P

That looks painful

Scouts nerfed again

Well everyone who plays one knows that the Scout is the weakest class in RoM at the moment and has been ever since the hard nerf they got shortly after release. Our damage is nothing compared to the rogues and mages, we have to spend a fortune on arrows, and we have to upgrade far more abilities to make certain skills decent or even usable at all. (See my previous post, as well as the posts on the RoM Scout forums, where people clearly outline the Scout problems) So the Scout has been broken for some time now, and it has been clearly broken. With the new patch being released today many hoped that Runewaker would get their act together and finally fix the Scout class and nerf the insanely OP mages. Guess what? They didn't.

Turns out Runewaker hates Scouts more then anything and completely overlooked all their faults and decided to nerf them a bit more, with the distances of most of our abilities being shortened. Now, as I have rarely done instances on my travels in RoM I haven't got a clear picture of how useful I actually am, but I'm assuming that when I hit 50 then few groups are actually going to want me. I am starting to think about making my Priest my primary class at least until Runewaker wakes up and does what they should have long ago. Sadface

Ability Combinations

I'm actually beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. For a long time I have felt that that for my scout I have a very linear type of combat. I had three main abilities which I basically spammed until they were dead. If my health dropped too far then I would simply pop a HoT on myself using my priest's ability. And for a long time I thought that this was all there was, and all there ever would be, but today I realized I was living in a bubble.

I feel quite stupid now because all that time I had never really had a close look at the abilities on offer, once or twice I had glanced over them, but never really considered what they did. But today I took the time to have a closer look and what I found really excited me, now I'm beginning to think tactically about what I am going to do with my skills.

Combinations...that is what its all about. I discovered an ability that increases my critical points (Critical points translate to your critical chance) by a certain percentage, but to activate it and keep it going I would have to pay 3 focus points (Like a rogue's energy) every few seconds or so. The ability stops when I run out of focus points. This means I have to closely watch my abilities to make sure I don't run out of focus. In something like a boss fight, however, I also have another ability that could come in handy. This ability increases my focus regeneration rate by 100%. This combination will be pretty powerful in the endgame where I effectively increase my critical chance by a significant amount for little payment.

The second combination I discovered is similar to the one above in many ways. An ability I activate increases my ranged damage by a certain percentage in exchange for paying a certain percentage of my entire health every few seconds. This is even better then the one before because I'm so going to have two abilities that make up for this health loss. The first I already have, and that is the basic Priest HoT, but I am soon going to gain a new elite ability. (Elite abilities are unique to your class combination, and are gained when both classes are at specific levels such as 15/15, 20/20 etc.)This new ability will cause one of my strongest damage dealing abilities to give back life equal to the amount it dealt. Awesome, to say the least.

So with my discovery of these two combinations, my interest in the combat has significantly increased and now I'm looking for even more powerful combos.

WARNING: This post may contain some bizarre and nonsensical elements

Finished. Done dusted. The End. Exams are over but I begin school again on Monday so... :(
Yesterday while I was minding my own business and not doing any study I chances to hear some eerie music emanating from the study. I go and investigate and behold I find my little brother playing Runescape in all its wonder and glory. With. My. Dad.
Yup, my little brother playing Runescape with my male parental figure. Just thought I would share that as a little insight into my personal life.

But onto what I really want to talk about. If I had to draw a 'fun graph' of my time in RoM it would be like a kid on a trampoline who had drunk far too much red cordial. That is to say, big highs and big lows. And lots and lots of them. The reason for this is that the leveling system in the game is severely stuffed. As you level you will often hit huge leveling walls where you are simply forced to grind out daily quests until you level and more normal quests are made available. It would be alright if this only happened occasionally but, unfortunately, this happens continually in RoM. Almost every level now I get a massive boost as there are plenty of quests to do and the xp comes easy, but before long they all run out and I'm sitting halfway through a level with nothing to do. Then I have to spend the next 5-6 days grinding to the next level before I get another big xp boost.

The reason for this is easily explained: the developers want to make money. By slowing the player down they are encouraging them to buy some xp pots from the shop and hurry it all up. The longer the player plays the game, the greater the chance that they will buy something. However, there is a slight upside to all this; daily quests do give tokens which are essential in the end game. All the top players will tell you that you need to do as many as you possibly can to be prepared for the raiding and such. But while doing this daily quests may give us a benefit in the endgame, personally I would just like to actually reach the endgame before I die from smashing my head against the wall in frustration. Mum is already beginning to complain about the holes.

And in conclusion to this bizarre and convoluted post I leave you with another skull picture!

Im dying inside

I'm sorry, but in any balanced game should you see a guy 10 levels below the mobs lvl 2-shotting them? And should that one person be able to 1-shot a toon 14 levels above them? Class balancing in RoM is so obscenely wack its gone from funny to not funny and has been bouncing between mindbogglingly fail to Alt+F4 for some time now. RoM makes WoW's PvP look like class perfection and ti doesn't look like its going to get better any time soon.

Twinking in RoM

The other day I was running back to a large town in RoM just to see whether I could pick up any more quests when I ran into a big PvP fight. I jumped into the fray and at first only saw one PKer a 31/31 knight/priest, and naturally I thought there would be at least one more PKer running back or skulking around somewhere. About 4-5 other players were attacking this one toon and so I thought we would easily take him down. But the longer we kept hammering on him we began to realize that this guy wasn't just some random trying out PKing for the first time. With around 6 guys whaling on him he would never die. I checked out his gear and lo and behold he had insane gear, gear that I didn't even know was possible at that level. He obviously knew how to play his class as well as he never ran out of mana despite my mana draining shot, and his health kept on being replenished. As he got kill after kill after kill I decided that this really was a waste of time but it really killed me a little inside. You shouldn't be able to be that good.

In WoW I played numerous twinks, and even though I could take down absolutely anyone with ridiculous ease but that didn't stop me from being vulnerable, I could still easily die. With the two class system in RoM this prevents this from happening, and the gear plays an even greater part in your survivability. This guy able to tank and kill 6 other players at least his own level without a doubt spent real dollars to get his toon to that level but it still disappointing that you can be that powerful at that level. The balance between the classes is wildly out of line. Rogues have no competition in PKing for the most part while few can beat a mage in the endgame instances. The Scout used to be one of the top damage dealers but after a major nerf a few months ago, they are probably the lowest. PvP is completely wrecked with stuns playing a huge part, most of the time you will have no real chance to do anything before you die. However, I do still enjoy the game, so I'll keep on playing but when I hit the end game I might change my mind. Hopefully this stuff gets fixed in the near future.

Powerleveled by new 'content'

Despite the fact that I should honestly be doing nothing fun and/or interesting at all at the moment besides studying for the exams I have been playing a tiny amount of RoM. I went through one of those stages where I lacked a lot of motivation to play but funnily enough, now that I have no time to play my interest in the game has shot up. A little while ago I was sitting at 36/26 which I had been at for some time, when I decided to level up my secondary class the Priest. I did this through daily quests which I would collect and complete on my Scout before changing to the Priest and handing it in. This worked out fantastically as there was one daily which everyone does where you need to kill 15 ferrets. Its generally really easy to get a group for this daily and the time it takes to complete it with a couple of people is very small. One time I ran back after just finishing a quest and getting a new one and probably within 1-2 minutes I had finished the quest really without doing anything. However there is the problem of other people going AFK while you kill the ferrets and then handing the quest in without doing anything at all.

So very quickly I was able to get my Priest up to level 30 before the daily quests were contributing less and less. After a couple of days I went back to RoM and tried out my Scout, desperately trying to level him a bit more. Luckily I did have a bunch of quests to do and so was easily able to hit level 37. Then the best thing is the world happened to me. A while ago it was announced that the devs had released a whole bunch of new content for the 30-40 bracket, and just today I was able to experience it first hand. I received a quest where I had to simply run to someone close nearby and I received a very nice amount of xp. Turns out this simple quest turned into an epic chain where all I had to do was run around gathering experience. Obscenely quickly I rushed to 38 before those quests finally run out, but it was incredible to just be powerleveled through that. I mean, its nice to just be able to do nothing and get an insane amount of experience for it, but surely they could have just adjusted the amount of experience needed rather then have added a ton of quests which require no effort and give the world.

New ping high score!

It hit 7 million ping before I got tired of waiting to be disconnected and thus exited.

In review

Well, looking back at my previous posts yesterday I reckon I was getting pretty mad towards the end of it. I didn't manage to play for 24 hours, in the end it was less then 20, but nevertheless it did seem to take a millennium. By the time I went to bed I had gone 40 hours without sleep and when I woke up this morning I felt even more tired then when I went to bed. 40 hours may not seem like a huge amount, but I got to bed at 9 most nights and sleep for at least 10 hours every night, so it was quite a long time for me.

But lets talk about the game. I never really got bored of RoM as nearly the entire time I had some quests to do, likely thanks to Frogster adding a whole lot of content to the 30-39 bracket. At one point I just dedicated a few hours to grinding out 100 pieces of meat for my 10 daily quests. Towards the start I did pretty well for myself and didn't die once, and then all of sudden they came fast and furious. A few times I was killed by lag, once I was killed by an elite guy in a quest which I didn't realize was meant for a group, and I was also killed by an area with an INSANE amount of mobs. I'm talking about having to kill about three mobs to move a tiny distance, and these mobs were tough, very tough. As quests get sparser it grows more important to be able to hand them in without 70% of it going to your experience debt.

Throughout the whole time I completed innumerable amounts of 'kill x' 'collect x' quests but there was a good variety of mobs which kept it relatively interesting. I've said it before, but I must be different to a lot of other people because I prefer the 'kill x' quests to any other. I'm starting to think that I have already developed a habit of thinking that these quests will give more experience. At the moment mobs about two levels above me give approx 200xp, with mobs my level giving 100xp. This is tiny compared to the quests which require me to kill these mobs which doll out 8-13k experience. I enjoyed my time a lot, when I got utterly tired I put on an audio CD which got me through the tough times, and overall I went from 29(almost 30)/25 to 34(almost 35)/25. If it took that long to level that much, then I'm pretty apprehensive about 40-50 :P

Oh and:

My record is 22k :D

Its done (8.15pm)

After its ups and downs, distractions, and hallucinations I can now finally lie down and relax. I am done. Nothing else matters now. It was fun most of the time, at others utterly frustrating but ultimately rewarding. (???) OK, I can't write any more, I will talk more with more elaborate explanations of the goings-on, and expect a video soon. Lastly, you know all those people who tell you not to do this kind of stuff? Listen to them. And then do it anyway.

Rprtng n (2.15pm)

WAIT! Its not over yet! Only six hours to go. Unfortunately RoM decided to work again so once again I was drawn into the game. I'm really beginning to feel that the deep plot and storyline that follows the quest-lines are what keeps me coming back, and perhaps had a hand in forcing me into this stupid decision. I'm also finding the combat is incredibly varied, even if you only press THREE BUTTONS FOR HOURS ON END.

Soemthing, something, fail (11.00am)

Just got back and logged into RoM. Was immediately hit by 5k ping and a Cyclop monster on steroids. I helplessly hit a few buttons and waited to see if anything registered. I got my answer a minute later when I caught up with time and found my poor self once again KBL (Killed By Lag) something that is becoming all too frequent in this game. RoM is just getting unplayable for me during any time when other people are playing. Weekends are unplayable, and the holidays are likely to be unplayable and this is just ridiculous. Something needs to be done about the stability of the servers and there certainly should be more to accommodate the large interest in the game. I picked 'International English' as my ideal server type-thing but all the servers available to me are located in Europe....???
The amount of times I have been KBL is obscene and what makes it worse is the experience debt which is just getting bigger and bigger and taking longer to burn off. /rage
Thus I am abandoning my 24 hour vigil of RoM, and widening my horizons ie. playing Stronghold with my brother. Ah well, finally I get to play something that I am good at :D

reportign in (sometime around 9)

OK, taking a break to go to Church on Easter Friday. RoM was getting ridiculously laggy to the point where it was unplayable so hopefully by the time I get back it will run smoothly. Don't worry, I'll make up for it.

Repoorting in (7.15am)

Gone is the cold, cruel dark of the night as the sun rises and life begins once more. Have spent a lot of time riding around on my 1-day mount which is a life-saver. I think the problem is now enduring the game for another 12 hours, rather then the actual sleep deprivation/tiredness. Stupid impulsiveness and sibling rivalry. Going to have brekkie now, and strive forth again. Ah the wonders of sleep deprivation. Oh, I dinged 33 in the past while and about to ding 34.

Reporting inners (5.15am)

Ah, the joys of an early morning start. I recently finished grinding 100 pieces of meat for 10 daily quests ready to hand in later in the day. I'm feeling pretty samey once again, although I am barely halfway through this. Man, this isn't so hard! I thought being a hardcore gamer meant dedication, sacrifice, and stuff...doesn't seem that hard. Hmm, I feel slightly let down now, I thought this was going to be tough, but I am starting to wish that I had picked some other game then RoM. Time to make meself some brekkie. My marathon seems slightly tame now because some of my guildies have been on a lot longer prior to when I got on and they are still playing. *sigh*

Reporting in (3.15am)

6 hours. Sort of. Wireless didn't start working for quite a while so only played an hour or so since my last post. Feel pretty much the same as last time. Nothing to report. Began to listen to my audio book. Wow, this sounds like a space ship captain's log, or someone on twitter. :(

Reporting in (1.15am)

Well, leveling has slowed down a lot, as I finished that massive bunch of quests. I've been listening to a bunch of Garrison Keiller CDs which has kept me going. I don't feel too tired, just a slight headache. I have found a great daily quest to do, so will probably farm that one over the next hour and a bit ready to hand in when the dailies reset. I'm starting to yawn a lot. Also, my wireless connection is stuffing up, so it is taking a bit of time off playing RoM, so hopefully it will fix itself soon.

Reporting in (11.15pm)

Four hours down. Last few hours have gone pretty quickly, but am already starting to feel quite tired. I've turned the gamma on the computer down as low as possible to avoid killing my eyes. I haven't been listening to a lot of msuic as I don't want to get a headache, so att he moment am just playing in silence. I do have, however, an audio book which I'll pop in when I start to go mad. I might have a hot cup of tea now, and quickly put some washing in the machine before I get back to it. Have leveled 3 times so far. (Mind you, was about 1% off a ding when I started.) :D

Reporting in (9.15pm)

Two hours in and not feeling too bad. I had to wait a while a sthe game needed a couple of patches and so started an hour after I intended. Have had a good supply of quests so far and just then picked up a massive amount as I reached a new quest hub so hopefully levels will roll past fairly quickly. Too bad I don't like coffee because this is going to be a long night. :P