Taugrim's MMO Blog

This is my first Allods Online (AO) video. I dinged level 18 and wanted to show how effectively a Melee Healer (MH) can burn down mobs while maintaining high HP through HoTs and heal procs.

In the video my MH generated heals through 2 mechanisms:

• Perpetual Healing HoT (95 on a non-crit)
• AOE heal ticks (49 on a non-crit) generated by Brilliant Faith whenever the Fanaticism buff procs

Here are my thoughts on the mechanics of the spec:

• 2h is the way to go. 2h weapons in AO inflict excellent crit damage, e.g. the Verdict crit for 938 on the 2nd gargoyle. As you can see from the footage, there isn’t much point in wielding 1h + shield given how I am able to keep my HP consistently high
• Don’t over invest in Devoted Plea. So far I’ve been able to solo heal groups with just the 1st rank of Devoted Plea. Healing groups should be even easier now that I have Brilliant Faith and Perpetual Healing 1. At some point this spec may not be viable for solo healing groups but I haven’t run into that wall yet
• When Fanaticism procs you get 1 or 2 stacks of the buff, and each stack generates an AOE heal with Brilliant Faith. It’s important to note that even at max Fanaticism (10 stacks), you can still proc Fanaticism, which in turn generates the AOE heal
• As with all healing, the HoT ticks and AOE heal ticks are subject to the Faith and Luck mechanics: i.e. some of the healing can be resisted and they can crit or anti-crit (glancing blow)
• The Dodge buff from Divine Instincts is under-rated and the points are not a waste of rubies. I dodged about 5 of the elite mob’s attacks

Update (26 February 2010):

People have been asking about my stats in the video, so here they are:

• Luck 68: 22.7% crit, 7.99% glancing
• Intelligence 56: 8.96%
• Perception 73: 17.4% resist
• Faith 78: 13.4%
• Wisdom 54

In the video I have the Gibberling (level 16-17) blue rep gear pieces and the level 17 Darkwater blue quest staff (30-62 damage, Luck +10). This is a very different mix of stats compared to what I have been leveling with. Previously I had enough Perception to be well under 10% resist. With the gear in the video I had boosted my crit rate from 5% to over 22%, and it seemed worth the tradeoff of suffering an increased rate of resists to get ~4 times as many crits.

Allods Online (AO) started its Open Beta last week, and the playerbase is irate over the initial pricing of Item Shop virtual goods and the changes announced for version 1.0.07.07. Keen has written an excellent summary of the concerns of the playerbase.

AO’s Closed Beta was a very positive experience for many players. So what happened at the start of Open Beta? To understand the situation, let’s discuss the basics of a F2P (free-to-play) game from a player perspective:

1. you don’t have to pay for the game client
2. you don’t have to pay for game account(s)
3. you can play the game without having to pay, or you can optionally pay for virtual goods and/or in-game “buffs”

The success of a F2P game depends on the game’s ability to acquire new players and convert some of them into paying customers without alienating the non-paying players, who are advocates for the game and may eventually convert. Typically 10% or less of the playerbase of a F2P game spends real money on the game and the other 90% of the playerbase plays it for free.

An Example of Savvy F2P Core Game Design: KnightOnline

There is a lot of cynicism among players regarding F2P games, but I have played a game, KnightOnline (KO), that had a savvy design for its “item shop.” Let me first state that KO had some major game design and implementation flaws – notably the game was very hackable and exploitable. I’m not here to say that KO was a “good” game, but KO elegantly supported its item shop via two game mechanics:

1. the magic anvil for upgrading items
2. the buff scrolls for PVP

The magic anvil was usable by anyone, and you could upgrade any gear piece or weapon to +1, +2, etc up to +8. Each plus rating granted a significant improvement to the item’s performance, and typically players tried to get gear up to +6 (very good) or +7 (excellent) or even +8 (amazing). And for the cool factor +8 weapons glowed! However, there was a catch: when you attempted to upgrade an item, if the upgrade failed the item was destroyed, and as you tried to upgrade the item to higher plus ratings, the probability for an upgrade to fail increased. KO’s item shop allowed you to buy an item called a “trina” for $15 USD which would increase the success chance of an upgrade by ~20%. This may not sound like a good deal, but consider that upgrading from +6 to +7 had a ~25% success chance, so a trina brought that up to ~45% or almost double. For some players, the risk of having a very rare weapon or item burn in the upgrade process wasn’t worth the time it would take to farm it again, so they would purchase trinas (in my case mostly through a monthly subscription) to use when upgrading very rare items starting from +5 and up.

In KO, you could get equivalent buffs from either a player priest or from buff scrolls. Enemies could place a debuff on you that would cancel out a priest buff or scroll buff. But here’s was the catch: when you removed the debuff, any priest buffs would need to be re-applied, whereas if you had a buff scroll, once the debuff was removed you still had the buff effect. Simply put, buff scrolls were simpler and more reliable from a playability standpoint.

So when I played KO back in 2005 you didn’t have to pay to play the game, but I and others in my guild eventually signed up for the optional $15 USD monthly subscription because we felt it was worthwhile to do so. And that’s how the F2P model should work – you get hooked, you see the benefit of paying, you become a paying customer. Some of our guildees paid more than $50 USD per month – more than triple your typical P2P monthly subscription – to buy virtual goods such as trinas. One guildee, a business owner from Brazil, was paying $100+ USD per month.

KO’s game developer made some F2P changes after I quit playing in 2006 that I thought were poor ideas, such as login queues for players who didn’t pay. But I saw firsthand how the trina concept and buff concept successfully motivated players to pay real money for virtual goods. It was incredible to witness from a business perspective.

The Paradox of Allods Online Planned F2P System

Now that I’ve described a functional F2P example, let’s talk about the game mechanics in AO at endgame and the implications for the players. When you die at endgame you get a debuff, Fear of Death (FoD), for 51 minutes that lowers your stats by 25%, and the debuff can stack up to 4 times.

Currently you can remove the debuff by getting resurrected by another player. However in version 1.0.07.07 resurrection will not remove the debuff so your options are:

1. spend in-game coin, or
2. wait until the debuff wears off, or
3. use an Item shop consumable called Perfume, or
4. some combination of the above

Perfume costs $13.50 USD for a stack of 20, and they last 30 minutes each. Therefore if you die 20 times a month and decide to use Perfume to remove the debuff each time, you’ll be spending $13.50 USD per month, which is conspicuously close to the industry-standard monthly sub of $15 USD. The FoD / Perfume mechanic effectively turns AO from a F2P game into a P2P game because the game experience of not paying will be lousy. The game operator and developer are not going to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes about this.

The kicker is you get the FoD debuff if you die in PVE or PVP. This is more harsh than the item repair costs incurred when dying in PVE in WoW. The FoD mechanic has major implications in terms of growing the playerbase and the extent to which players will participate in activities such as PVP where death is part of the experience. I was hoping to see robust, active PVP in endgame for AO, but with the FoD mechanic, it’s not going to happen.

Who is to Blame for the Allods Online Situation?

Some players are claiming that the game operator gPotato is pulling a  “bait and switch.” Certainly, gPotato has culpability in terms of the initial outrageous Item Shop pricing, e.g. $20 USD for a backpack with 24 slots instead of the 18 you start with.

However, the situation may go much deeper than just the game operator. Check out the following comments from a Russian player regarding the game developer:

Guys if u r really do not understand what is going on, i will explain to you from Russian point of view. Firstly – original developer team stopped developing Allods Online at CBT1-2 at Russia, because Nival – company developer, merged with astrum and mail.ru, main game designer left this project because he had another point of view on this game before he could finish it, new director came, after that Allods progress stopped almost completely, mail.ru bought AstrumNival so at this point game was destroyed, because mail.ru is the most greedy russian game service platform.That explains why they cannot fix music and sounds easily, why it tooks so long of them to fix bugs, why animations are partly ruined and Kanian fem for example run through ground, and explains why there are bugs in game that were already fixed before, they just do not know the code well, and they are not capable of further Allods creation. Allods original developers and designer are working now on project that has Dota like gameplay, and that explains why you have a feeling of unfinished good game,because allods creation was stopped at Closed Russian Beta. But however they see the situation so they r trying to make the maximum profit out of game until it will be too late, because they r not capable of programming anything really new, because they have not developed this game, period. even russians not happy with shop, not even game not finished but i found myself not able to afford stuff

If that information is correct, the game changes in version 1.0.07.07 are being designed and implemented by people who were not part of the original development team. Yikes.

When a game has contuinity in the development team’s leadership and staff, it’s reasonable to expect the following positive outcomes:

• there is clarity on the game’s business model
• there is consistent alignment on the game design: the core game mechanics, the direction for content, and how to improve and evolve the game over time
• there is consistency in the quality of implementation because the development team has learned over time how to architect, design, develop, test, and scale the game, and they know the code base inside and out
• there is a consistent feeling of ownership by the people working on the game – it’s “my game” as opposed to “someone else’s game that I’m working on”
• there are strong relationships between the game developer and its customers (the game publishers and game operators) and they collaborate to create a compelling player experience that drives revenue

However, as noted in the comments above, there may have been significant turnover in the AO development team at both the leadership and staff level. It’s unclear to what extent there is a development team that is continuing to work on the game.

I truly hope gPotato and the game developer can sort the situation out in a way that makes sense from a business perspective and from a player perspective, because AO is an excellent game property.

Update @ 8pm PST, 22 February 2010:

There is a great thread by galethbg regarding the ownership structure and history of the companies involved in AO’s development. This at least gives me some hope that there may be some stability and continuity on the AO development team. Hopefully the game developer will heed the worldwide player feedback on the upcoming changes and adjust them in a more reasonable fashion.

In addition, gPotato is now solicting feedback about the Item Shop on their forums, which is a step in the right direction.

Update @ 1am PST, 23 February 2010:

gPotato has posted an article that communicates the development team is intact and that gPotato is evaluating the Item Shop prices based on the feedback thread listed in the previous update.

Update @ 3 March 2010:

gPotato has reduced the prices in the Item Shop to what I consider reasonable levels. Good news for fans of AO!

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.

Here is footage of my 33 Chanter and 33 Sorceror in PVE, fighting against the same 34-35 Klaw mobs.

This is as close to an apples-to-apples comparison that I could get between different classes, in terms of having the same level, comparable gear, and fighting the same mobs.

For Chanters, there are a couple things to be aware of in terms of our CC:

1. you can’t knockdown a mob already on the ground, but you can knockdown the mob as it starts to get back up
2. if you stun a target and re-stun it while the previous stun effect was still in effect, the 2nd stun will overwrite the 1st stun. An example of this is getting a stun with Infernal Blaze, then stunning with Parrying Strike. Depending on the situation, you may want to allow the 1st stun effect to complete before trying another stun (e.g. so that you can interrupt your opponent when they start casting after the 1st stun wears off)

Here are a few Chanter tips that I didn’t mention in the video:

• In PVE, you can tell that I allow auto-attacks (AAs)to weave in during abilities for my Chanter. Even at level 31, I don’t have enough melee abilities to spam non-stop without having to wait for either Meteor Strike (MS) or Hallowed Strike (HS) to come off cooldown. So I basically time abilities with some AAs so that I can use MS and HS whenever they are up. I tend to favor opening with MS over HS, because I want to get as many Pentacle Shock procs as possible and MS-IB do better damage than HS-BS. One could argue though that it makes more sense to open with HS to use Infernal Blaze as early as possible. You say po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-toe. In PVP I would spam abilities, because you have to get as much damage in bursts as possible (and before you get CC’d)
• For PVE, do not use Booming Assault, the 4th skill in the HS chain. It is an evil MP hog and does not debuff the target or have any useful effects
• It’s important to get used to watching the chain / reactive icons to the right of your character in the middle of the screen, instead of looking down at the skill bar. You want to keep your eyes on the action as much as possible, and having to look down can be a distraction

Here are a few Sorceror tips that I didn’t mention in the video:

• The Curse of Roots stigma ain’t cheap, but it’s worth it’s weight in gold, for solo and group play. You will save yourself a lot of deaths by investing in it, so over the long haul, it will more than pay for itself.  It’s always sad to see Sorcerors who haven’t purchased it yet; not having CoR severely affects a Sorc’s ability to CC, especially when pulls get messy
• Did I mention how great Wind Cut Down is? Oh, of course I did, but heck, it’s worth saying again. And the 16s cooldown is short enough that you’ll use the ability every pull. So go out and buy it, if you haven’t already

I forgot to record flying; I wanted to mention that the easiest method I’ve found for steering while flying is holding both mouse buttons down. This allows you to make very fast turns mid-flight, which can cause problems for keyboard turners trying to keep up with you.

I’ll be traveling for work and holiday for most of this month, so my leveling will slow down quite a bit in December. I’m hoping to get my Chanter to 42 in January.