Taugrim's MMO Blog

This is my second PVP video for Allods Online (AO). This video includes the following fights:

• 26 Melee Healer vs 26 Warrior + 25 Healer
• 26 Melee Healer vs 26 Caster Healer
• 26 Melee Healer vs 26 Paladin
• 27 Melee Healer vs 27 Warrior
• 27 Melee Healer vs 27 Summoner

I’ve heard a lot of concern from players about fighting Paladins and Warriors, so I included several clips and talked about the matchup mechanics.

Level 26 Spec and Stats

http://allodsbase.com/en/talents#_2oxv3mc1xyc718a20nvy

My stats with green Asee-Teph rep gear

• 8691 HP
• Luck 89: 13.9% glancing
• Intelligence 94: 15%
• Perception 125: 16.5%
• Faith 114: 22.9%
• Wisdom 97

Level 27 Spec and Stats

http://allodsbase.com/en/talents#_2pxv3nc1xyc718a28nvy

My stats with blue Asee-Teph rep gear

• 10380 HP
• Luck 85: 17.8% glancing
• Intelligence 101: 16.2%
• Perception 153: 8.65%
• Faith 136: 15.4%
• Wisdom 122

Here are tips not mentioned in the video:

• When fighting ranged DPS classes, you don’t have to conserve mana as there will be times when you are out of melee range and therefore regenerating mana

Based on my experience so far in Holy Land PVP, I am going to continue filling out the Verdict ruby tree. Getting  3/3 Holy Avenger should provide an excellent boost to survivability – not only will I get crit less, but when I do get crit, I’ll get 3 Fanaticism stacks which equals burst healing to offset the damage taken.

Life in Asee-Teph has gotten much better since I hit level 26. I still get run over by ?? (high-level) players, but overall my survivability has gone up a lot compared to 25.

If you have any comments / feedback / questions please post ‘em.

This is my first PVP video for Allods Online (AO). I dinged level 25 today and captured footage of League players attempting to gank me 1v1 and a dynamic 1v4.

This video includes the following fights:

• 26 Melee Healer vs 26 Mage
• 26 Melee Healer vs 27 Summoner
• 26 Melee Healer vs 4 opponents

Here is my current spec:

http://allodsbase.com/en/talents#_2oxv3mc1xyc718820nvy

• I’ve earned 2 World Quest rubies in addition to the rubies available when leveling, so ignore the calculator saying this is a level 27 build
• I picked up Divine Prayer 1 (DP) instead of Holy Rage. DP is an excellent instant-cast burst heal
• I have 2/3 Condemnation, and this reduces the cooldowns for Blind Faith (disorient/snare) and Banished Words (ruby silence ability) to 24 seconds. Both are superb abilities in PVP, and BF is highly valuable in PVE. At level 26 I will take the 3rd Condemnation ruby to reduce their cooldowns to 21 seconds

Overall, I’m really enjoying the playability of the Melee Healer spec. The PVP mechanics in practice have matched or exceeded what I was hoping for when I wrote the Melee Healer Guide.

Here are some comments not mentioned in the video:

• Always make sure to pre-cast Heavenly Smite. Having an instant-cast AOE knockdown rocks in PVP (and PVE)
• I didn’t call out when I used DP, but I used it in each of the fights, and you can hear and see the spell animation (it looks like the green shimmer like Devoted Plea)
• Don’t underestimate the power of the self-healing from 3/3 Brilliant Faith. I talked a lot about PH in the video but when you watch the footage you can see the Brilliant Faith heal procs as well
• If you use the Kanian racial bubble and Holy Shield, after Holy Shield wears off you’ll still have the racial bubble up – so you have unbroken damage absorption. You can see that in the fight against the Summoner
• My gear in the 1st fight was from Darkwater, which is two zones before Holy Lands (HL). Yes I know that’s pathetic. I skipped the Elf rep gear because I didn’t want to do the repeatable quest 18 times. That’s simply not my idea of fun. My gear sucked until I was able to acquire the green HL rep gear. In the last two fights I had the green HL rep gear. I haven’t been able to run the repeatable rep quest in HL due to the lack of level capping/balancing mechanics

The PVP action in Holy Lands has been fun at times. However, there is no mechanic to prevent or discourage higher level players from ganking lowbies. I have watched a single level high-level player wipe multiple groups of under-30 players with ease. A lot of players I’ve chatted with are very frustrated with getting 1 or 2-shotted and not having a fighting chance. AO will lose players if the game mechanics are not changed, because life in the Holy Lands in the mid 20s can be pretty rough. A simple level cap would suffice, e.g. Asee-Teph PVP is only for players level 30 and under. This design flaw exists in both Aion and Allods Online and I am surprised that game developers haven’t figured out that level capping/balancing mechanics make for a much more enjoyable and competitive PVP experience that will result in higher player retention.

I’m still playing AO because gPotato adjusted the Item Shop prices to reasonable levels and I wanted to experience the PVP system firsthand. I’m still waiting to see what gPotato does about the 1.0.07 patch, which contains a lot of negative changes and is rumored to have caused many Russian players to quit playing Russian AO. Hopefully gPotato can work with the game developer to not implement those changes in gPotato’s AO.

If you have any comments / feedback / questions please post ‘em.

I finally got back from a 3-week business trip overseas. I played Aion very sparsely in January, and the sad thing is I didn’t really miss it.

So after only 4.5 months of playing Aion, I’ve de-subbed.

The reasons are pretty simple:

1. the leveling was boring and very time-consuming. Fundamentally Aion felt like work to play based on its design
2. the main PVP zone, the Abyss, was largely empty. This was nothing like WAR, WoW, or LOTRO, where it was easy to find opponents to fight

The funny thing is my Chanter is only just over a level away from 42, which was my original target level for making PVP videos – Chanters get a ranged stun at 42. But the main thing is I simply don’t believe in Aion. I would not recommend Aion to a new player who is used to “Western” MMOs (e.g. WoW/LOTRO/WAR). So I figured it didn’t make sense for me to invest the time to level up and make videos.

I think some of the good qualities of WAR really set me up for disappointment with Aion. WAR was fun from level 1 all the way to 40, aside from the game instability issues. Aion was incredibly stable but consistently boring.

A YouTube subscriber sent me a PM back in September 2009 about Aion, and he was right about the game:

Not a big fan of aion, knowing the principle is Korean mentality based, it’s going to get old fast.

I myself been hooked in so many same type mentality game design and they all ending up a disappointment.

I work in the gaming industry, and I know how Aion is build as. [Aion] makes it more efficient for people who has time to waste, then instead of people who actually has the skills to show off. Quite imbalance approach, but then again, that’s their mentality of designing video games. (The american version is based off the asian version, same set of rules will apply.)

Hope you won’t spend too much time on Aion, you might setup yourself for a disappointment in the long run.

I’ve been following Keen’s posts about Allod’s Online so I might check that out.

The 3-man clearing of FT, as shown in my previous video, was surprisingly easy, so I decided to try duoing the instance with a Templar named Chalen.

We had no problems clearing the instance, and I was able to help DPS Kromede in between heals. Granted, we were both level 38 against Kromede. But the tank was using a 2h (so more damage taken), and I’m pretty confident we could have done this successfully at level 34.

The footage of this Kromede fight is fun to watch from a Chanter’s perspective because I am moving and shifting roles the entire fight, which is what Chanters do best.

Templar tips from Chalen:

• Use IJ to interrupt Kromede’s AOE. You have to back up a bit from Kromede for the interrupt to work
• You can switch between 1h and 2h weapons during pulls to rotate cooldowns to maximize DPS

Chanter tips

• the L37 skill Word of Quickness is incredible for burst healing. I should have used it when the tank’s health dropped to 25%
• Word of Protection is one stigma you’ll use from mid-game to end-game (unless you go heavy MC/DPS spec). It is a tremendous bailout ability in tight situations, because the extra avoidance and mitigation can be the difference between people dying or just surviving

Thanks Chalen for not just being willing but being interested in doing stuff like this. It breaks up the monotony of leveling.

It can be fun and educational to run instances with non-standard class compositions. Players sometimes have rigid perceptions of what will and won’t work, and in my experience, those (narrow) perceptions are often inaccurate. I enjoy trying different specs and group compositions to see how they perform.

Thankfully this morning I PUG’d with two very skilled and open-minded players and learned a lot in the process.

I joined a Templar’s Recruit Group for Fire Temple on the LFG channel very early this morning, so there weren’t many players online. After a Ranger and Sorceror joined, the Temp said “OK let’s go” and I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. I wasn’t sure whether my 35 Chanter could handle solo healing duties but I was certainly willing to try.

The Sorceror went LD on a pull when we had a couple adds and didn’t come back. From a cynical point of view, I don’t think that was an accident. The Sorc gave up instead of even trying. Fortunately, that didn’t affect our ability to clear the instance twice and get some nice blue mat drops in the process.

Here is footage of the 1st time we downed Kromede.

I went ultra-conservative on this attempt…I

1. didn’t melee
2. spammed Healing Light non-stop
3. chain MP potted most of the fight
4. stacked the deck in our favor by using the awesome group DP buff Word of Wind

Turns out it was a very easy and smooth fight. As you can tell from the footage, the tank (Inlove) used great positioning. He and the Ranger Maddux were very skilled players and it was awesome grouping with them. We handled some multi-mob pulls that I’ve seen wipe full groups.