10:14AM, August 6, 2008
Gerald: I played in my second scenario today, invited to join this higher level battle by Delsyn's character Ilyana who still has a few levels on me. At this point I was experiencing my first serious issues with latency. My attacks were delayed a couple seconds from the point where I hit the buttons. Lag hasn't been an issue thus far during my playtesting, so I'm hoping this clears up.
The new Scenario is a "king of the hill" setup, where opposing warbands charge for a natural circular staircase leading up to a giant tree in the middle of the map. The objective is up top -- a flag that needs defending once your side is able to capture it. Even with my horrible lag, I was still able to get more kills and experience than Ilyana, but that may be because the forces of Order seemed to have been adhering to the brilliant plan of "kill the one in the dress." We won, though, so that was good. I just wish that I could have played it without being frustrated by the latency issues.
11:00AM, August 6, 2008
Delsyn: Ilyana was 13 when she teamed up with Gerald's Unicorn (and doesn't that sound the plot summary for a Disney movie?). That put Gerald and I in an interesting position -- opposite sides of the level break that would keep me out of the Tier One RvR battles and scenarios. That meant that we had a difficult time playing together until Unicorn reached 11. This seems like an inelegant solution when there's a much more sensible one that seems more obvious -- debuff higher level players to the zone mean and deny them access to any powers or abilities above that level when they enter these scenarios or zones. The game already buffs lowbies, how difficult could that be?
It would also help out the problem Fargo noticed -- players outlevelling the PvP content. The lower Tier scenarios and RvR zones are still fun even after you've surpassed them and I'd be happy to take a temporary power reduction to play them as long as I was still contributing to my side in the overall war, helping my friends and still getting Reknown. Still, no flies on Mythic. Stonetroll Crossing was a blast and the reason Gerald outscored me is because I got disconnected (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).
11:45AM, August 6, 2008
Delsyn: I think I've started to get a handle on the Magus class. I haven't spoken much about the specifics of playing Ilyana because I wasn't entirely certain how I felt about her. I found the early levels kind of slow going because I couldn't quite figure out how to play the class. Is a Magus a traditional DPS/Nuker? No. Her spells hit pretty hard but they also require a long build-up (some as long as three seconds). She's not really a pet class because her pets (a ranged Pink Horror, an AOE Blue Horror and a hybrid Flamer so far) can't move, making them more like turrets. She has a powerful debuff and a nice AOE root, but she's not really crowd control either. Based on my experience thus far, it seems like the Magus is a pure support character. She doesn't kill stuff. She helps other players kill stuff faster.
Everything all started to come together at Stonetroll Crossing when I started using Ilyana like a sniper. I hung back behind the tanks (especially Chosen and Marauders) and watch the battlefield for opportunities. When a Marauder is hitting a particular target, a little "Glean Magic" (drastically reduce all resistances) and my Marauder buddy can move on to another kill a little faster. I always make sure to drop a Blue Horror on the flag. It can't really kill anything on its own, but its AOE can sure make enemies fighting around the flag (and there's not much room at the top of that stair) awfully uncomfortable. At odd moments I can throw out a root or use Demonic Lash (a tentacle that does AOE damage) against anyone looking to manhandle the Magus.
