Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

2009, december, of, the, and, wednesday, november, monday, thursday, tuesday, sunday, for, pros, cons, soloing, in, an, player, versus, developer, 30, 29, saturday, 24, 23, 22, friday, popular, posts, this, eq2, lotro, do, you, game, torchlight, skirmish, mirkwood, 31, 28, 27, 26, 21, 19, 16, 15, 13, 11, 10, 25, subscribe, about, my, characters, blogroll, podcasts, news, sites, blog, archive, labels, month, all, time, new, year, resolutions, 2010, wow, how, kill, that, which, has, no, life, thrice, over, preview, upcoming, happy, holidays, from, pvd, melee, dps, learning, curve, monthly, fees, dlc, accountability, blizzard, encourages, marathon, half, off, weekend, minor, victory, additional, horse, ancestor, snap, judgements, age, conan, free, trial, does, launch, rush, hurt, atmosphere, experiences, privacy, implications, soe, facebook, push, pranking, lich, king, other, impressions, stargate, latest, solo, prototype, mmorpg, optimal, use, leveling, content, onyxia, plus, four, years, can, npc, teach, to, group, with, players, tweets, day, two, trips, down, memory, lane, cost, console, gaming, hardware, five, features, thankful, reflections, moria, late, comer, we, need, friends, more, than, groups, warhammer, retrial, verdict,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (799), and (290), that (239), for (168), you (119), with (118), game (108), ago (86), content (80), this (74), players (73), have (71), years (68), lotro (66), more (64), from (63), wow (63), but (61), are (60), was (59), eq2 (58), can (58), time (57), not (56), level (56), one (55), all (52), your (52), will (50), new (47), they (47), solo (46), has (42), group (42), some (41), even (40), than (37), green (36), out (36), there (35), like (35), their (34), armadillo (33), #player (33), actually (33), would (33), about (32), get (32), expansion (32), other (31), labels (31), 2009 (31), games (31), also (31), may (30), year (30), comments (30), posted (30), two (29), december (29), into (29), been (28), who (28), when (28), which (28), characters (27), quest (27), travel (26), pvd (26), what (26), quests (26), character (26), mmorpg (25), just (25), over (24), any (24), mmo (23), don (23), them (23), experience (23), off (22), how (22), things (22), dungeon (22), raid (22), world (21), where (21), play (21), gaming (21), best (21), very (21), having (21), moria (20), mirkwood (20), blizzard (20), system (20), take (20), probably (20), cap (19), now (19), random (19), had (19), few (18), leveling (18), single (18), through (18), patch (17), make (17), only (17), going (16), skirmish (16), dps (16), kill (16), complete (16), first (16), its (16), most (16), turbine (15), item (15), non (15), warhammer (15), use (15), launch (15), while (15), back (15), keep (15), see (15), though (15), want (15), items (15), three (15), perhaps (15), business (14), november (14), down (14), well (14), crafting (14), levels (14), same (14), before (14), way (14), free (13), loot (13), day (13), february (13), does (13), blog (13), many (13), last (13), doing (13), rewards (13), might (13), still (13), much (13), worth (13), alts (13), version (12), away (12), another (12), different (12), expect (12), could (12), gear (12), after (12), lore (12), good (12), because (12), work (12), server (12), post (11), cataclysm (11), torchlight (11), pve (11), need (11), getting (11), won (11), able (11), try (11), overall (11), these (11), repeatable (11), line (11), those (11), hit (11), far (11), limited (11), feature (11), week (10), allarond (10), interesting (10), then (10), enough (10), healer (10), point (10), makes (10), current (10), end (10), large (10), got (10), class (10), options (10), thing (10), pre (10), man (10), better (10), old (9), whether (9), posts (9), console (9), models (9), september (9), groups (9), onyxia (9), weekend (9), happy (9), soloing (9), too (9), set (9), start (9), own (9), trying (9), lyriana (9), numbers (9), next (9), zone (9), fight (9), instead (9), second (9), his (9), every (9), daily (9), look (9), offers (9), rather (9), really (9), slots (9), ever (9), weeks (8), did (8), mounts (8), june (8), july (8), august (8), october (8), january (8), late (8), cost (8), npc (8), half (8), dlc (8), melee (8), chance (8), early (8), here (8), again (8), fun (8), playing (8), long (8), epic (8), spent (8), being (8), dozen (8), number (8), fair (8), amount (8), were (8), tokens (8), problem (8), already (8), each (8), contrast (8), without (8), guess (8), offer (8), lot (8), skirmishes (8), soldier (8), times (8), run (8), monday (7), 2010 (7), seems (7), model (7), killing (7), process (7), stargate (7), events (7), april (7), march (7), features (7), trial (7), top (7), access (7), think (7), night (7), days (7), find (7), finally (7), unfortunately (7), quickly (7), looking (7), come (7), since (7), bottom (7), particular (7), previous (7), everyone (7), place (7), variety (7), such (7), almost (7), reputation (7), finish (7), especially (7), middle (7), something (7), part (7), cosmetic (7), greater (7), else (7), instances (7), ranged (7), least (7), account (7), soldiers (7), classes (7), bit (6), used (6), order (6), subscription (6), comes (6), era (6), month (6), wars (6), worlds (6), battle (6), wrath (6), retrial (6), five (6), soe (6), experiences (6), age (6), victory (6), additional (6), monthly (6), fees (6), pros (6), cons (6), show (6), months (6), space (6), based (6), sometimes (6), buy (6), real (6), people (6), ten (6), dirge (6), greenwiz (6), developers (6), reward (6), until (6), various (6), head (6), behind (6), took (6), lack (6), done (6), someone (6), made (6), today (6), includes (6), grind (6), between (6), isn (6), paid (6), basically (6), major (6), always (6), both (6), allow (6), wednesday (6), rep (6), supposed (6), twitter (6), never (6), mobs (6), endgame (6), genre (6), dungeons (6), weapon (6), minutes (6), mob (6), waiting (6), detracts (6), swtor (5), challenging (5), online (5), third (5), pay (5), guild (5), rift (5), friends (5), hardware (5), latest (5), king (5), facebook (5), minor (5), life (5), view (5), episode (5), podcast (5), forward (5), actual (5), perfect (5), little (5), small (5), slot (5), test (5), money (5), challenge (5), mythic (5), full (5), hours (5), elf (5), champion (5), schedule (5), versus (5), instanced (5), exp (5), pretty (5), either (5), production (5), spending (5), myself (5), right (5), become (5), available (5), happens (5), incentive (5), generally (5), know (5), him (5), create (5), horde (5), past (5), apparently (5), entire (5), anywhere (5), planning (5), mount (5), low (5), later (5), doesn (5), put (5), armor (5), foes (5), case (5), feel (5), appears (5), option (5), wanted (5), tank (5), using (5), needed (5), necessarily (5), said (5), wing (5), ability (5), installment (5), unless (5), 2008 (4), promo (4), pvp (4), win (4), heroes (4), war (4), quality (4), preview (4), housekeeping (4), comer (4), four (4), lich (4), impressions (4), privacy (4), learning (4), holidays (4), massively (4), com (4), reporter (4), gamer (4), side (4), points (4), book (4), city (4), fan (4), team (4), company (4), kind (4), open (4), why (4), hunter (4), analysis (4), name (4), heirloom (4), house (4), brief (4), aoe (4), final (4), rats (4), sense (4), tobold (4), death (4), given (4), developer (4), during (4), learned (4), managed (4), beat (4), otherwise (4), friendly (4), ones (4), including (4), straight (4), values (4), local (4), heal (4), siege (4), easy (4), spend (4), market (4), healing (4), sunday (4), via (4), enemy (4), rare (4), short (4), seen (4), interface (4), change (4), expansions (4), polished (4), switch (4), longer (4), several (4), cash (4), legendary (4), somewhere (4), question (4), development (4), hard (4), earth (4), matter (4), tuesday (4), storage (4), currency (4), taking (4), separate (4), bank (4), meanwhile (4), buff (4), minute (4), reasonable (4), amounts (4), majority (4), reason (4), seem (4), often (4), nothing (4), anniversary (4), tuned (4), scaling (4), mini (4), holiday (4), nearly (4), arrived (4), thursday (4), promptly (4), attacks (4), seven (4), happened (4), decided (4), huge (4), sounds (4), recent (4), amongst (4), skip (4), possibly (4), say (4), certainly (4), moment (4), raiders (4), title (4), drop (4), upgrade (4), obtain (4), station (4), type (4), future (4), instant (4), anything (4), zero (4), around (4), named (4), sequence (4), cover (4), housing (4), fee (4), difficulty (4), per (4), simple (3), revamp (3), questline (3), thrall (3), nagrand (3), credit (3), former (3), ddo (3), popular (3), called (3), realms (3), specs (3), cheerydeth (3), magic (3), social (3), alt (3), star (3), reflections (3), thankful (3), memory (3), lane (3), plus (3), prototype (3), push (3), hurt (3), atmosphere (3), conan (3), horse (3), accountability (3), curve (3), upcoming (3), resolutions (3), mordor (3), raiding (3), news (3), azeroth (3), rock (3), critical (3), main (3), should (3), save (3), lasted (3), update (3), dragon (3), unlimited (3), edition (3), rpg (3), above (3), black (3), needs (3), mind (3), live (3), warcraft (3), blue (3), keen (3), tier (3), pug (3), syp (3), goals (3), break (3), inventory (3), rogue (3), high (3), call (3), found (3), personal (3), issue (3), decisions (3), activity (3), subscribe (3), home (3), rank (3), rvr (3), catch (3), touted (3), relatively (3), zerg (3), objectives (3), substantial (3), went (3), attack (3), tried (3), public (3), bosses (3), damage (3), reasonably (3), previously (3), beyond (3), leave (3), stone (3), changes (3), heavy (3), grouping (3), style (3), aside (3), minipets (3), provide (3), afk (3), entertained (3), putting (3), arrives (3), came (3), approximately (3), higher (3), pace (3), standard (3), saving (3), increase (3), craft (3), cooldown (3), skill (3), personally (3), similar (3), delivers (3), gets (3), drive (3), form (3), collect (3), certain (3), spells (3), deed (3), swift (3), routes (3), solution (3), tend (3), send (3), adds (3), hobbits (3), fact (3), completely (3), members (3), outfit (3), allows (3), great (3), less (3), vendor (3), area (3), bags (3), randomly (3), display (3), list (3), race (3), keeping (3), friday (3), cable (3), extra (3), sink (3), retail (3), designed (3), plan (3), downloadable (3), present (3), received (3), pet (3), visiting (3), instance (3), norrath (3), rest (3), yesterday (3), ran (3), range (3), lothlorien (3), areas (3), interest (3), anyone (3), running (3), generated (3), significantly (3), tanking (3), aggro (3), enemies (3), somewhat (3), stuck (3), date (3), saturday (3), left (3), her (3), largely (3), repeating (3), attention (3), revenue (3), launched (3), trivial (3), factions (3), gain (3), multiple (3), stuff (3), kunark (3), wrong (3), return (3), goal (3), advance (3), pulling (3), situation (3), modern (3), lives (3), party (3), ironically (3), mans (3), downside (3), map (3), tell (3), setting (3), prizes (3), pages (3), individual (3), existing (3), alive (3), spell (3), types (3), appearance (3), trouble (3), teleport (3), once (3), chunk (3), gameplay (3), click (3), story (3), popularity (3), close (3), sequel (3), core (3), add (3), she (3), below (3), fairness (3), none (3), walking (3), target (3), compared (3), finder (3), impressive (3), zones (3), requires (3), limit (3), races (3), rundown (3), 2004 (2), haven (2), removed (2), cause (2), reinstalled (2), apply (2), generous (2), pandemic (2), codes (2), expi (2), onboarding (2), original (2), trammel (2), monetizing (2), nuisance (2), vote (2), brew (2), duration (2), knowing (2), rules (2), hearthstone (2), vanguard (2), diablo (2), marvel (2), beta (2), runes (2), 152 (2), 232 (2), verdict (2), trips (2), tweets (2), teach (2), optimal (2), pranking (2), implications (2), rush (2), snap (2), judgements (2), encourages (2), marathon (2), thrice (2), 266 (2), peril (2), casual (2), stroll (2), tales (2), leadership (2), shut (2), talking (2), radio (2), project (2), official (2), interview (2), killed (2), ootinicast (2), republic (2), idea (2), ancient (2), stat (2), alpha (2), match (2), welcome (2), cold (2), breaking (2), 1st (2), poor (2), inside (2), dreams (2), notebook (2), christmas (2), meet (2), design (2), ark (2), absurdly (2), thoughts (2), hello (2), note (2), bonuses (2), bards (2), falls (2), spotlight (2), keys (2), girl (2), adventure (2), common (2), progress (2), dragonchasers (2), broken (2), blogroll (2), gnome (2), knight (2), human (2), ranger (2), druid (2), mage (2), details (2), focuses (2), older (2), heavily (2), read (2), sieges (2), door (2), hold (2), equal (2), fights (2), army (2), larger (2), smaller (2), joined (2), keeps (2), failed (2), vale (2), perspective (2), decent (2), occasionally (2), felt (2), simply (2), tanks (2), faster (2), ended (2), minimal (2), repeat (2), drops (2), required (2), willingness (2), remove (2), racial (2), ensure (2), population (2), decrease (2), attempt (2), encourage (2), barriers (2), outright (2), eventually (2), working (2), easily (2), reset (2), effective (2), enjoyable (2), merits (2), traditional (2), entertainment (2), evening (2), itself (2), generator (2), fine (2), ways (2), technically (2), spare (2), expecting (2), expected (2), goblins (2), storylines (2), terrain (2), tolkien (2), alliance (2), essentially (2), watch (2), ingredients (2), fail (2), yet (2), purchasing (2), broker (2), wade (2), timesink (2), therefore (2), deal (2), accomplish (2), task (2), deeds (2), reputations (2), reading (2), invincible (2), goat (2), missed (2), turns (2), success (2), patches (2), zubon (2), bad (2), honor (2), thanksgiving (2), monster (2), parts (2), store (2), allowing (2), places (2), cloak (2), breaks (2), clever (2), town (2), true (2), principle (2), creative (2), attempting (2), uniqueness (2), peaceful (2), packs (2), weapons (2), understood (2), capable (2), screen (2), systems (2), jump (2), cannot (2), narrow (2), dyes (2), check (2), trip (2), dye (2), appropriate (2), journey (2), traveling (2), determine (2), sell (2), wish (2), choice (2), argent (2), give (2), eye (2), price (2), ps3 (2), remote (2), control (2), machine (2), sony (2), expensive (2), gamers (2), worry (2), subscriptions (2), saying (2), band (2), publishers (2), somehow (2), brand (2), mention (2), 5th (2), revamped (2), added (2), sitting (2), campaign (2), whatever (2), versions (2), forums (2), believe (2), figure (2), provides (2), stay (2), cycle (2), thought (2), promised (2), didn (2), card (2), inclined (2), told (2), 400 (2), files (2), draw (2), graphics (2), notably (2), allowed (2), notice (2), legacies (2), initial (2), grinding (2), basis (2), improved (2), badly (2), busy (2), suppose (2), serious (2), companion (2), supposedly (2), instantly (2), scale (2), controlled (2), scales (2), storyline (2), picked (2), traits (2), noticed (2), stance (2), effort (2), drag (2), attacker (2), foe (2), attacking (2), force (2), hour (2), address (2), offered (2), goes (2), finished (2), hadn (2), ride (2), determined (2), balance (2), healers (2), respective (2), irrelevant (2), odds (2), contribution (2), format (2), whelps (2), polish (2), remember (2), tedious (2), foundations (2), likely (2), originally (2), lower (2), burning (2), plenty (2), constant (2), risk (2), stick (2), suck (2), path (2), purpose (2), continue (2), repeatedly (2), happen (2), usage (2), legitimate (2), build (2), engine (2), begun (2), room (2), thanks (2), biggest (2), servants (2), our (2), reserved (2), marking (2), executed (2), encounters (2), boss (2), insert (2), convenient (2), geared (2), clear (2), under (2), earn (2), willing (2), caster (2), manager (2), possible (2), mail (2), cross (2), faction (2), partially (2), share (2), camp (2), heirlooms (2), feeds (2), raffles (2), making (2), hand (2), eq1 (2), reach (2), attainable (2), strong (2), double (2), button (2), declaring (2), association (2), potential (2), possibility (2), job (2), specific (2), strange (2), answer (2), customize (2), aren (2), abilities (2), depending (2), chosen (2), finishing (2), suddenly (2), offensive (2), alternately (2), role (2), purchase (2), materials (2), starting (2), orc (2), seeing (2), deserted (2), max (2), played (2), however (2), log (2), combat (2), front (2), dialogue (2), addition (2), key (2), hurry (2), adventures (2), wrap (2), default (2), fixed (2), entirety (2), highly (2), complaint (2), relevant (2), hoping (2), quantity (2), sale (2), mentioned (2), pick (2), crowded (2), hitting (2), easier (2), 200 (2), soloers (2), link (2), release (2), realize (2), move (2), potentially (2), worse (2), recurring (2), opened (2), silver (2), stargrace (2), fabled (2), chat (2), sebilis (2), luck (2), strangers (2), survive (2), member (2), improvement (2), cast (2), usually (2), attempted (2), tight (2), throw (2), pull (2), fighting (2), means (2), stab (2), dead (2), roles (2), harder (2), lizard (2), facts (2), slowly (2), course (2), haul (2), route (2), permanently (2), crafters (2), accessibility (2), slated (2), support (2), archetype (2), sub (2), remainder (2), edit (2), sign (2), insult (2), lengthy (2), terms (2), across (2), length (2), takes (2), concept (2), care (2), soloable (2), included (2), earlier (2), accessible (2), action (2), survey (2), entry (2), unreasonably (2), betray (2), shared (2), servers (2), playable (2), unique (2), unlike (2), permits (2), brought (2), appeal (2), tiers (2), speaking (2), overgeared (2), intend (2), massive (2), bring (2), neglected (2), fit (2), books (2), theme, powered, blogger, lively, discussion, quote, longasc, tweeted, heard, officially, visits, unfortun, farewell, pondered, issues, ear, unlock, resales, alternate, ultima, permit, victor, shops, worried, against, binary, brews, brewfest, club, modera, changing, drake, midway, pokemon, kol, storm, fiction, wizard, 101, coh, building, aion, tsw, league, legends, blizzcon, wintergrasp, poll, economy, achievements, service, silly, logic, dcuo, cryptic, baseless, speculation, philosophy, 187, 226, 373, 532, 687, 176, anc, 219, 185, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2020, archive, contains, moderate, watchers, ddocast, riftwire, ddococktailhour, tyria, eq3, kickstarter, chicken, multiverse, big, machinima, film, starring, anna, chancellor, jack, davenport, joanna, lumley, brian, blessed, melting, pot, taledraft, junkies, fansite, eq2wire, aug, 2017, wire, 321, thomas, 290, destiny, panels, promotions, geoff, casinos, 2023, torwars, sending, smiling, accident, 749, enter, soul, saga, 503, làm, sao, quyết, định, nhanh, trong, tình, huống, lực, diplomat, subnautica, requirements, punishing, paper, shotgun, podcasts, sites, cuppytalk, bullet, ratonga, warlock, belong, pink, pigtail, inn, snaffy, horriftic, intentions, kaja, grudges, verge, greedy, services, relms, relmstein, sidekicking, straw, fellow, field, scumming, perverse, optimization, terrible, ardent, defender, notes, hypergate, inquisitor, roadhouse, dogma, fool, statistical, argument, squish, vagabond, wod, rylaks, mania, arcania, hacked, jones, elder, rebels, unknown, regions, brewing, sucked, windfury, bloggy, xmas, communities, spinksville, mortem, bone, steve, nightbane, box, socal, regionals, male, physical, intimacy, yomi, sanctuary, water, reflects, sky, troll, racials, overpowered, quarter, everton, season, fm16, docholiday, commenting, nils, fishie, stylish, corpse, waypoint, toy, kid, werit, pokémon, tradeskill, perspectives, cara, melihat, skor, akhir, maxbet, mobile, stropp, cursed, child, nerf, cat, legion, marksmanship, yngwe, bible, paralysis, geekery, norton, wifi, android, pearls, unwisdom, road, heretical, pantry, shame, curry, herding, cats, updates, psynister, merry, mmoquests, lenya, gnomedepot, net, review, finders, seekers, slant, themed, armagon, rants, classic, stabbed, parting, blaugust, psychochild, west, karana, zip, ties, kae, graev, immigration, eating, bees, vengeance, demon, powerhouse, wowhead, mistakes, overwatch, vicarious, existence, 213, fantasy, xiv, endwalker, chick, flat, mystic, 2024, convention, plans, ardwulf, lair, videogame, soundtrack, gypsy, mellow, rose, g33kg0dd3ss, checking, blessing, kings, genie, prompt, yeebo, fernbottom, love, etiquette, unwritten, info, sentinel, shadow, hawtpants, apex, abroad, rome, guide, artists, coral, island, report, finis, omnia, rerum, toys, retroid, pocket, nostalgia, horizon, 2026, bio, badgers, bears, pearl, abyss, sheds, ccp, hilmar, buys, 120, million, noob, ryloth, commando, longevity, survival, retired, ascensions, kingdom, loathing, valgarde, monk, halanna, warden, vice, admiral, engineer, sorcery, hero, gotham, telhamat, cleric, fae, jeweler, gondor, violet, deepshadow, trickster, 1000, aldabaran, cyborg, tourist, dealbreaker, ducking, exploits, meta, response, maximize, reached, grnarmadillo, gmail, atom, newer, concluded, leveled, zealot, mechanically, warfare, protect, battering, ram, stairs, lord, nature, reared, devolved, fests, neither, waited, hide, retreated, warband, battlefield, rarely, ideally, balanced, participate, simplistic, damaged, cases, sure, frustrating, forced, search, noted, longtime, veteran, impressed, unturned, improve, fortress, pairing, continuing, rehashing, glad, peace, delivered, promise, state, keriak, vegas, distribution, walked, empty, handed, logistical, filler, states, harm, gentle, prodding, failing, land, bag, placing, agree, incentives, rely, motivate, works, genuinely, valuable, stops, readily, dozens, replaceable, cease, mates, raids, quip, leader, anecdote, mistake, amusing, annoying, hindsight, dose, mayhem, waking, morning, becomes, sole, efforts, disservice, camaraderie, accompanies, friendship, zizlak, raises, cave, orcs, dwarven, ruins, firey, pits, watery, depths, snowy, mountains, value, crafted, altering, phasing, turret, vehicle, nails, execution, weaving, fwiw, counting, picture, bars, confusing, mix, vendors, subcombines, consuming, reagents, eliminated, recipe, grinds, produce, jewelry, wear, saved, food, cooked, buying, cook, radiance, pete, supports, tying, shortcuts, painful, blogs, rode, arriving, debacle, avoid, fate, henceforth, regardless, experiment, prepared, backed, rich, visit, effectively, charge, describes, concedes, irritating, discussed, downsides, notch, wouldn, copied, obligated, stores, panel, sorely, lacking, token, inconsistent, classified, others, tab, thus, sent, encouraging, trend, toward, runspeed, opposed, compromise, totally, distance, punish, crime, innovation, flavor, stubbornly, argue, forbids, combinations, practice, overwhelming, agrarian, folks, swinging, helpless, silent, village, handle, threats, themselves, vitally, important, justify, limiting, generation, dispensable, slap, cliffs, shortcut, definition, exceptional, societies, exceptions, restrictions, looks, unusually, cooler, quick, trophy, color, realized, collected, preserve, navy, forested, locations, inexplicably, declined, significant, improvements, accumulate, scan, icon, individually, alphabetically, sorted, lists, safety, lock, accidentally, touches, streamline, clearing, adventuring, borrow, text, assisted, sales, outfits, tabard, tradeoffs, written, sleeker, retails

Text of the page (random words):
leting low level content you will even continue to gain experience at some reduced rate which might do a fair amount to patch the hole in solo content in the game s 60 70 tier solutions for everyone don t get me wrong there are problems with expecting players to complete all the solo quests in the game just to level having to chase down every single quest can start to feel like a chore especially if you re stuck in one area for too much time see kunark you also run the risk of having to return to the same area repeatedly which is when even the best travel systems start to drag finally players who are trying to make their way to higher levels so they can escape the solo quest grind need to have a way to make that happen i m just saying that it would be nice to have a good mechanism for using all the content before you out level it if that s actually your goal as a player posted by green armadillo at 8 40 pm 6 comments labels eq2 lotro pvd wow onyxia plus four years green s most recent onyxia raid december 5th 2009 i ve apparently been away from wow for long enough to be offered seven days of free retrial time in honor of the anniversary i cashed in this trial on saturday so that i would beat the deadline for the minipet and still have an active retrial going for the rest of this week in case patch 3 3 goes live wow s endgame is basically how i left it lots of daily quests most of which i have finished and players looking for more companions almost always including a healer to try and burn through some dungeon i ve completed half a dozen times as it happened my guild decided to organize an impromptu onyxia 10 raid at the exact time i poked my head into azeroth with an hour or two to kill after warning them that i hadn t killed her since 2006 greenwiz came along for the ride the more things change green s first onyxia raid november 21st 2005 from crawling through my screenshots folder i determined that greenwiz went on his first onyxia raid over four years ago in my limited experience with the new version the fight seems to be much polished and improved then and now dps players have an odd balance of importance in raiding if the tanks and healers don t have their respective activities down the presence and or competence of the dps is often irrelevant meanwhile in a 40 man raid with two dozen dps the odds are that success or failure will be determined by a greater margin than any one player s contribution by scaling the onyxia fight down to the 10 man format blizzard has actually managed to make dps matter if i fire off aoe too early and get eaten by whelps as is traditional that represents a huge amount of the raid s dps lost there are also decisions to be made what portion of my time is to be spent on whelps versus the new warders who spawn in the middle of the fight versus actually killing onyxia in a timely fashion even with the added polish though raiding is still largely like i remember it it s still a question of farming up upkeep costs i d guesstimate that i spent 50g on a flask plus repair bills on the brief raid for largely repetitive content the eventual victory if it happens is supposed to make the tedious learning process worthwhile tobold critiques solo players for diminished willingness to run the same content over and over again but i d read the same critique as an admission that the content isn t worth repeating that many times on its own merits in an era where players have many other options for their gaming time that s a problem if the increasing use of npc henchmen calls attention to the problem and forces developers to address it with their revenue stream on the line that sounds like a good thing to me posted by green armadillo at 7 23 am 2 comments labels pvd pve wow friday december 4 2009 can an npc teach you to group with players keen syp and tobold have got a little debate running on whether npc companion characters in the upcoming kotor mmo push the envelope too far away from grouping and towards solo play in supposedly massively multiplayer games no one knows how this will play out in kotoro yet i will offer a random observation from my early experiences with lotro s new skirmish system skirmishes are instantly generated pve instances that scale for various group sizes players are given an npc soldier who is significantly less intelligent than a player or normal player controlled pet to fight alongside them only in skirmishes the pet can in principle tank heal buff or do ranged dps the skirmish system scales to a certain extent with the number of players in the group and is supposedly used to allow players to solo otherwise group based content in the game s epic book storyline my character is a champion a melee dps with off tanking capabilities and minor self healing so i promptly picked the healer traits for my soldier i ran through two actual skirmish battles using the healer and i noticed something interesting my champion has a defensive stance and a taunt that i have never used because i play 99 of my time solo and don t need to worry about keeping aggro when there s no one else for the mobs to fight i also promptly noticed that when we get attacked by several enemies including at least one with ranged attacks i needed to take an effort to drag the melee foes to the ranged attacker so that i can hit all of them with aoe attacks if i failed to do so the ranged foe would promptly start attacking my somewhat defenseless healer as i would not be doing any damage to it or generating any threat when i m soloing i m generally more inclined to use line of sight to force the ranged attacker to come to me and it s not necessarily a bad thing if it gets stuck in anti exploit mode instead of finding me in the skirmish that foe would promptly switch targets and kill my healer in short i probably learned more about how to off tank in lotro in a single hour of playing skirmishes than i did from soloing 61 levels to date i find it puzzling that keen and tobold think this feature is detrimental to grouping it seems like the first serious attempt i ve seen to address the problem of players getting to the level cap and not knowing how to play their class in groups posted by green armadillo at 7 46 am 13 comments labels lotro pvd thursday december 3 2009 the tweets of mirkwood i ve been a bit busy with actually playing mirkwood to blog about it but i suppose that makes this as good a time as any to unveil my new twitter feed http twitter com pvdblog twitter seems like as good a way as any to keep track of what i m actually doing on a daily basis while saving the more serious analysis for the blog it s basically an open notebook of sorts and may or may not be of interest to anyone but hey what s a social media tool if not occasionally of questionable use posted by green armadillo at 11 16 pm 0 comments labels housekeeping lotro wednesday december 2 2009 mirkwood day 1 yesterday was the launch of lotro s mirkwood mini expansion as promised i received the expansion for free in exchange for having my billing cycle set to 30 3 months i didn t actually pay for my current time card because best buy wanted to get rid of their moria inventory that badly and it appears that i will have the option of canceling before i m actually billed for that subscription if i m so inclined the patch was done in about two hours and i m told it ran in the 400 mb range for reference wow s 3 3 patch has downloaded nearly 1 gb of files so far so you can draw your own inferences about the amounts of new graphics and sound files in this mini expansion on logging in i got spammed with half a dozen system notices i automatically gained several rep levels and transportation routes notably it appears that they retroactively increased the rep reward level for the introductory quests in lothlorien so that players do not need to do repeatable quests to be allowed into the woods a pre requisite for access to the new expansion areas though i did get a notice that the changes had refunded the customization points on my legendary items i don t get the sense that the legendary item system was changed as dramatically as turbine s marketing would have us believe i identified some new items and they appeared to be as random as ever and i also got one of the good legacies that are supposed to be rare beyond initial identification on a reforge of an item i was about to break down to free up its slot it appears that the slot machine time sink is still the point of the systen galadheru one of the members of my kinship told me that he had been grinding out the item exp bounty experience quests on a daily basis so that he could try out a bunch of new items when the revamp arrived and that he also felt that the improved legacies still resulted in some lackluster weapons there ll be time for more commentary later when i ve spent a bit more time in the expansion for now if nothing else turbine can declare victory on the relatively smooth expansion launch posted by green armadillo at 7 34 am 1 comments labels lotro pvd monday november 30 2009 two trips down memory lane wow players got their 5th anniversary present early a revamped version of the original onyxia raid tuned for level 80 players and today s smaller scaling raid groups players who logged in this week also received a mini whelp pet they also added mr t to the game after all allowing tauren mages would destroy the lore but having a friendly night elf sitting in the middle of horde territory putting night elf mr t heads on everyone is fine as long as it coincides with a cable tv ad campaign eq2 players for whatever reason had their anniversary presents arrive a week or so late besides a few in game festival quests the real treat was a one week only questline that had players visiting scaling solo instance versions of one dungeon from each of the game s expansions the lore forums believe that the mysterious figure who sends you on this quest is norrath s missing god of dreams overall wow s version probably took more development time and work to accomplish it also provides a timesink another level 80 raid dungeon that will stay with the game for the rest of the expansion cycle even so eq2 s little trip down memory lane seemed more genuine and enjoyable sometimes it actually is the thought that counts my sarnak with the various souvenirs from the holiday on display in his home posted by green armadillo at 11 00 pm 1 comments labels eq2 pvd world events wow sunday november 29 2009 the cost of console gaming hardware having written on the cost of pc gaming hardware in the past i feel it s only fair to give console gaming hardware equal time i ve been keeping an eye on the price of the ps3 over the black friday weekend the new sleeker version of the console retails for 300 and includes one controller and a component video cable if you want a remote control for the machine s much touted blu ray playing capacity that will cost you an extra 20 if you need an hdmi cable to plug into your hdtv that s going to be an extra 10 if you get a generic one 40 if you buy the official one from sony or from most retailers in short you can expect to sink two years worth of mmorpg subscription fees into hardware which is a very expensive hood ornament for your entertainment center until you spend more money on something to actually use with the system games retail for 60 and often can t be counted on to last more than 10 20 hours is it any wonder that at those prices gamers are renting or re selling games in greater and greater numbers console gaming has numerous advantages players don t have to worry about their system specs because every game was designed to play on the same device the variety of gaming experiences you can expect with a console and an all you can rent plan is far greater than you re going to get out of 1 2 mmorpg subscriptions i m just saying that the cost is nothing to sneeze at even before you get into expensive peripherals hello rock band and not so microtransactions which gaming publishers have somehow managed to brand as dlc downloadable content an acronym that deliberately does not mention cost posted by green armadillo at 9 28 am 6 comments labels business models wednesday november 25 2009 five game features i m thankful for in honor of thanksgiving a few game features that i m thankful for and wouldn t mind if other games copied currency mount and quest item storage basically all of the major games offer some form of out of inventory storage for items players are obligated to collect in wow it s mounts minipets keys and currency tokens in warhammer it s currency tokens and quest items lotro also stores certain quest items monster parts not items players use on something and will be getting a mount panel but is sorely lacking in token storage eq2 has a very inconsistent system with some mounts and minipets classified as spells and others taking up space eq2 tokens do not get a separate tab but many are heirloom and thus can be sent to bank alts either way developers are learning that if they expect us to collect things they need to provide some way to store them travel with tradeoffs between lotro s reputation deed based swift travel routes and wow s argent tabard there s an encouraging trend toward allowing players to get to places where they have already been through the local quests more quickly meanwhile i got an interesting item from the low level hunter s vale dungeon in warhammer a cloak that offers a 50 runspeed buff that breaks on any damage with a 5 minute duration and a 20 minute cooldown this cloak is a clever low level travel time solution for getting back to town that does not take the place of a true mount for later in the game overall i m not always opposed to in game travel on principle i just think that the travel needs to be limited to reasonable amounts of time in my view this kind of solution offers a creative compromise that doesn t totally remove distance from the game but also does not punish players with large amounts of travel time for the crime of actually attempting quests which tend to send players places any race any class this is an eq2 innovation that adds a flavor of uniqueness to the game s characters turbine and blizzard stubbornly argue that their lore forbids certain class combinations though it s true that tolkien s hobbits don t practice magic the overwhelming majority of hobbits are also peaceful agrarian folks who do not put on heavy armor and wade into large packs of foes swinging two large weapons it is understood that player characters are not part of the helpless silent peaceful majority if every npc in the village were as capable as the players they would be able to handle all of the local threats themselves the fact is that the lore is vitally important to the developers when they re trying to justify limiting options on the character generation screen but completely dispensable when they want to slap mr t s head on player characters or set up their t...