Tag: Gaming (page 19 of 41)

The Hunter in Cataclysm: Marksmanship

November 4, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Courtesy Blizzard

Last week I kicked off an examination of the talent builds for the Hunter class in World of Warcraft since the class changed radically. I started out with Survival, my primary tree for most of the last expansion. This week we turn our aim to Marksmanship. This talent tree has also been re-balanced to have tools for both raiders and gladiators willing to invest in it.

Spoiler

The Marksmanship Tree

It’s signature ability, Aimed Shot, delivers powerful damage to a single target at a high cost of Focus and a casting time. At first, it might seem like too much risk for too little reward, as standing around dumping Focus into a single attack might be inconvenient in certain situations, but the tree has a lot of ways to make it worthwhile. Artisan Quiver increases the damage of our auto-attacks and ties nicely into the Mastery buff of Wild Quiver, which procs an additional ranged shot based on RNG, increased by Mastery of course.

Go For The Throat
Every time your auto-attack crits, your pet gains Focus. The more Focus your pet has, the more often they can smack your target around. This means greater overall DPS. In the end, this is a great talent to pick up for just about any build, even if you’re only investing 1 point in it. Combined with Bestial Discipline, your pet will be contributing a lot more to your damage with this talent, making it a great place to plunk a floating point for Beast Masters.

Efficency
Hunters are all about Focus management now that they have the mechanic. This talent makes that management a bit easier as it reduces Focus costs for some of our tools – our Arcane, Explosve and Chimera Shots. If you find yourself struggling with Focus in other trees, a point or two of this might help but you’re probably better off spending your “floaters” elsewhere. As for Marksmanship, grab this. Even though we only use Arcane Shot occasionally, reducing its cost along with Chimera Shot will mean more of those shots more often.

Rapid Killing
I’ve always been a bit lukewarm about this talent. Sure, additional damage is great, but this talent makes the damage buff a bit situational. For levelling and dealing with multiple groups, say for example the oncoming zerg rush in a battleground, this might be more useful in replenishing our Focus when paired with Rapid Recuperation later on. Even in those cases, one point in Rapid Killing should be enough, but I can’t recommend it for a raiding build.

Sic ‘Em!
Investing 2 points in Go For The Throat gives access to this talent. When you critically hit with Arcane, Aimed or Explosive shot, your pet gets a free basic attack at 2 points in Sic ‘Em! A crit from us plus a free attack from our pet yeiled a mess of damage. Raiders should definitely grab this. PvPers may benefit from it as well, but there are other talents down the tree for which you may want to save a few points.

Improved Steady Shot
This talent changes the way Hunters use Steady Shot. In addition to replenishing Focus, casting Steady Shot twice in a row now grants a buff to our attack speed. By the time you finish that second cast, you should have enough Focus for something more interesting and there will be auto-shots in-between for sure. Pretty much a must-have for any Marks build.

Careful Aim
All of our cast-time shots gain an increased critical strike chance with this talent. There’s great synergy here with a lot of talents, like Sic ‘Em! and Piercing Shots. Definitely worth the investment as we head down the tree.

Silencing Shot
Hunters hungry for an interrupt should snatch this as soon as it’s available. For no Focus and a 20-second cooldown, this shot silences the target for 3 seconds and interrupts their spellcasting. It’s a PvP no-brainer. Raiding Hunters may also want to snag it, if they’re going up against bosses who need to have their abilities interrupted. Most raids will have at least a few other classes with interrupting abilities, like a Rogue’s Kick or a Death Knight’s Strangulate, but if you know your party’s lacking the interrupts, a point spent here will increase your utility.

Concussive Barrage
Dazing isn’t really a big deal in raids. Sure, it’ll slow down some of the damage the tank is taking, but most bosses are immune to daze effects and trash is going to die so fast it won’t be an issue. Now, other players? They HATE being dazed. This is a great PvP talent. Not only can it slow down a zerg rush, it can mess up a single player for 4 seconds allowing a team mate to set them up for a deadly combo. It makes a Hunter in a 2v2 arena team a one-stop shop for crowd control. Silence one enemy with Silencing Shot, daze the other with Chimera Shot. Gladiators, grab this one.

Piercing Shots
Remember how increasing our crit chances with Careful Aim was supposed to pay off later? Here’s a good example. Unlike daze effects, bosses are not often immune to bleeding. The more points you put in this talent, the more the enemy bleeds. This is a good talent for any Marksmanship build.

Bombardment
Since Multi-Shot is our most efficient way of contributing to quick trash pulls, we’ll want to use it often before we reach the boss. A couple points in Bombardment ensures we’ll be Multi-Shotting more often meaning trash will drop more quickly. It also means more damage dealt to groups of enemy players. A solid utility talent.

Trueshot Aura
A straightahead buff to attack power. A noteworthy change since Patch 4.0.1 is that this will get overwritten by several other buffs. If a Paladin is in your party and you’re bringing Trueshot Aura, ask them to bless the raid with Kings instead of Might. An Enhancement Shaman’s Unleashed Rage and a Blood Death Knight’s Abomination’s Might will also overwrite this, but you can’t exactly ask them to switch it off. Still, it’s definitely worth having.

Termination
Everything you shoot at is going to run out of hit points sooner or later. When they get close to Kill Shot range, Termination gives you additional Focus from your Steady & Cobra shots to speed the process along. Worth the investment no matter what the build.

Resistance is Futile
Unfortunately, this talent does not give your Hunter cybernetics or introduce you to Seven of Nine. Instead, it gives you the chance to have a free Kill Command whenever your target tries to run, flee or even move. Its benefit to PvP builds should warrant no explanation, while raiders may find it useful in certain situations if they have floating points they do not wish to invest elsewhere.

Rapid Recuperation
This is an interesting talent that shows its worth when other talents and abilities are used. It’s great for levelling as getting Focus when you gain Rapid Killing means you can blast mobs more often. For raiding and PvP, the use or Rapid Fire means we not only shoot more quickly but get Focus back every 3 seconds while we have that buff. Provided you pick up Readiness – and why wouldn’t you? – this means you can hit Rapid Fire, hit Readiness when it expires and then hit it again. This means we sustain high DPS longer in raids, and unload our utility & crowd control shots in PvP much to the chagrin of our opponents. Smart hunters will find lots of uses for this talent’s permutations, so grab it.

Master Marksman
This talent is the definition of synergy. Every time you Steady Shot – which, given previous talents, increases your ranged attack speed, replenishes Focus and crits more often – you have the chance to gain the Master Marksman effect. Gain it 5 times, you get a free and instant Aimed Shot. This talent also unlocks two more talents further down the tree, making it easily worth the 3 point investment.

Readiness
If you’ve been in a raid before, you’ve heard the raid leader call for everyone to “pop cooldowns.” Readiness allows you to pop your cooldowns TWICE. Now, this means we can hit Rapid Fire, Chimera Shot, all of our other big damage dealers, and then after Rapid Fire fades and we’ve done a little Steady Shotting to replenish some Focus, we hit Readiness to do the same dance again. And in PvP, popping Deterrence means that your foes are just waiting for the chance to actually hit you and buys you time to escape. Follow it with Readiness and another Deterrence, and they may ignore you entirely out of sheer annoyance, opening up all sorts of opportunities for you to ruin their day. And it’s one point. Only one! Grab it.

Posthaste
Remember what I said about popping Rapid Fire more often? Posthaste makes it even more viable to do so. Also, you move faster after you Disengage, meaning you can open up even more distance between yourself and whatever mob or player wants to bite or smash your face off. Definitely worth its 2 points.

Marked for Death
Surprisingly, we have a talent on the second-last tier that is not a must-have. Marked for Death has the chance to apply a debuff like Hunter’s Mark that does NOT stack with Hunter’s Mark but isn’t dispellable. Huh. During a long boss battle where we’re not switching targets, there’s no need to hit this when we should be opening with Hunter’s Mark anyway. However, when we engage multiple targets we can hit an off-target with Hunter’s Mark while our primary target gets Marked for Death. Most Marksmanship builds, I think, can get by with 1 point in this talent.

Chimera Shot
This shot does a lot of things all at once, hence the name. Direct damage, refreshing Serpent Sting, even granting us a heal. Not to mention applying Marked for Death, inflicting a bleed and possibly dazing the target. Pop your point in here and start assigning your floaters. Oh, and don’t let the cooldown put you off of it. Between the glyph for the ability, your other shots and Readiness, you’ll have plenty of chances to make your enemies suffer with Chimera Shot.

And now, the prerequisite pontification:

Aspect of the Fox

Here is an interesting specimen. There are a lot of fights & situations where staying mobile is preferable to standing still. This is true for boss fights as well as PvP. Two of the key abilities Hunters do and will be using, Steady Shot and Cobra Shot, have casting times that are interrupted when we move. Aspect of the Fox changes that. By sacrificing the boosted attack power we get from Aspect of the Hawk, we gain the ability to shoot on the move. What’s odd about Aspect of the Fox is that it comes very late in our leveling process. PvP may seem like a struggle to some before this ability shows up at level 83. Also, some configurations and keybinds may make strafing and shooting difficult for players, at least for those who haven’t mastered moving with the mouse. I get the feeling this will be one of those “Your mileage may vary” abilities.

Next: Beast Mastery and Camouflage.

Into the Nentir Vale: Part 4

November 2, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Logo courtesy Wizards of the Coast

The Nentir Vale is a campaign setting provided to new players of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. It’s present in the Red Box and most of the starting materials. For a party almost all completely new to D&D and a DM re-familiarizing himself with the latest edition, it’s a great place to start a campaign. This will be an ongoing recollection of what happens to the party as they make their way through the Nentir Vale. Enjoy.

Previously: Kobolds play in old tombs.

They took time to rest. Melanie reflected on her spells, Lyria sharpened her daggers, Andrasian practiced his swings with the axe and Krillorien recited his prayers. When they were ready, they delved
deeper into the so-called Kobold Hall, wary for trouble and unnerved by the caverns’ growing chill.

They walked into an open chamber with pillars and a frozen pool of water. Guttering torchlight cast dancing shadows along the stone walls. The party kept their eyes on the darkness for any potential danger, with the exception of Lyria.

“Oh my, is that a hangnail?” – Danielle as Lyria, getting surprised by Szartharrax

From behind the largest pillar in the room, a large winged shape pounced upon the party. Covered in snow-white scales and fixed on its prey with beady eyes, the white dragon Szartharrax announced his presence with a blast of cold breath and a palpable miasma of fear. The party was quick to respond, Krillorien blessing them with his prayers as Melanie assaulted the dragon with the vision of an imposing ogre. The dragon seemed unimpressed, however, and swiped at the humanoids with its massive claws.

“Why do we roll shit when we get all these bonuses?”
“Because RNG hates your guts.”
– Eric & Danielle

The dragon did not have the advantage of surprise for long. Lyria, forgetting all about her apparent hangnail, sank her blades deep into its side as Andrasian kept it at bay. Krillorien’s sword sang the battle hymn of Pelor as Melanie conjured the terrifying image of a mind flayer. Set on its scaly heels by the assault, Szartharrax struck back, only to overextend its reach and leave itself open to a counterattack by the cleric, who unleaded a brand of righteousness upon their foe.

“It misses like a champ.”
“Then I kick it in the balls.” – DM & Ben

The dragon quickly found itself on the defensive. Another flurry of blows from the halfling sent it into a mad frenzy, causing it to breath cold once more. This time, the sellswords were ready for it. Spells and strikes meant to shatter bones and cleave limbs came into play, even if every blow did not land as intended.

“RIGHTEOUS BRA- oh, a 7. Nevermind.” – Eric, on Ben’s Righteous Brand roll

Szartharrax had begun by attacking Lyria and Melanie in an apparent bid to rob the party of its lighter-armored members. Now, it focused all of its attention on the elf in scale mail. Perhaps the metal scales reminded it of some metallic foe of its past. Perhaps the elf’s blows were the most telling. Whatever the reason, Szartharrax lashed out at Andrasian, first with its claws and then, unsatisfied, snapped out to bite the elf. Andrasian felt the cold teeth sink deep, but struck back at the dragon with all his might.

“It’s okay, I still have Elven Accuracy just in case. *rolls a 4* …I use Elven Accuracy…” – Mike

The dragon was clearly beginning to feel its wounds. Its movements slowed but were still deadly. Melanie reached deep into Szartharrax’s juvenile mind, pulled out its deepest fear and made it real with her phantasmal force. The metallic dragon that suddenly appeared roared at Szartharrax, giving it pause. That was the opening Lyria had been waiting for. With a running start, she sprang onto the white dragon’s snout, somersaulted behind its horns and bent to bury her dagger in its eye up the hilt. The white dragon squawked in surprise, then toppled to the ground.

“YAAAAAY WE DID IT! *claps like an infant*” – Ben

Among the dragon’s hidden belongings were the bit of dragon hide Teldorthan had asked Andrasian to recover, a sum of gold along with a decent-sized pearl, a longsword with a handle wrapped in black leather with a small silver skull for a pommel, and a letter written in Draconic offering an alliance to the kobolds from Irontooth, the goblin warlord wishing to conquer the Nentir Vale. It spoke of taking the long-unoccupied dwarven manse south of Fallcrest and using it as a staging point for the invasion of the town. Krillorien realized that was why the goblins kept attacking his house.

The party left Kobold Hall, returning briefly to Fallcrest before making their way south to Winterhaven east to Harkenwold. While they had ended the threat of Szartharrax and his kobold minions, the ominous portents of the letter and word of a death cult beyond the southern hamlet eastern barony meant their adventures were only beginning…

Next: Your cultist is in another castle.

All locations, NPCs, spells and equipment copyright Wizards of the Coast unless otherwise noted.

Ghoulish Games III: X-Com UFO Defense

October 31, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Courtesy MicroProse

The first game I discussed for this holiday dealt with the experience on a personal level, free of monsters. The second focused on a particular monster. Now, let’s talk about an overall game that actually captures an atmosphere of dread. The situation in X-Com: UFO Defense is as follows:

Aliens are attacking human cities. They land in the town, blast civilians and leave. The multi-national community has created X-Com to investigate and prevent these attacks. They get a couple jet fighters with missile launchers, a transport to carry a squad of around a dozen troopers, some scientists to research alien technology and a workshop to build new equipment based on those discoveries. If X-Com does well, the nations of the world will keep giving them money. All you have to do, as the leader of X-Com, is at least keep your soldiers from dying.

It’s turn-based squad combat, and mechanically it isn’t bad. Every solider has a set amount of time units to use every turn, and if you’re out of time units when the enemy turn comes around, you can’t shoot back at them when you see them. So you need to plan the moves and position of your squad carefully. Add to this the fact that you start with just over a half-dozen volunteers with the combat experience of a weekend’s paintballing, armed with weapons purchased on a budget and multi-pocketed jumpsuits for armor, and the result is a surprisingly tense scenario in which a wrong move will have the aliens blasting your so-called professional alien hunters with glee.

The idea of putting humanity at an initial disadvantage worked in Independence Day and it works very well here. With limited funds, there’s only so much you can do when you start out. To get ahead, and gain any sort of tangible advantage on your foes, you need to meet them in combat, disadvantage or no. The combat in underscored by a minimalist, menacing theme that captures the tension perfectly, and night missions are particularly terrifying.

Stopping a terror attack means landing in the city and hunting building by building, room by room for the aliens. On their turn, the aliens blast any civilians they see, but you can’t see it. Their movement is hidden unless your soldiers can see what’s going on, so for the most part you’ll hear the fire of plasma weapons and the screams of the dying. Not only is it chilling in and of itself, it reinforces two key points of the scenario. If you don’t hurry, there won’t be any civilians left to save; and if too many of them die, you’re going to piss off your investors.

The terror in attack an alien craft or base is a different sort. Sometimes you shoot down a UFO over land, sometimes it lands on its own for some unknown purpose, and on occasion you’ll find a base they’ve established on Earth. In all these scenarios, you’re taking your team into an environment where you are at an even more severe disadvantage. In the case of a crash, they know you’re coming and are waiting for you. Just getting off of the transport can be punishment, as the aliens helpfully assist you in reenacting the Normandy landings. Even if you survive the initial encounter, getting into the UFO or alien base means going into a confined space with which you’re unfamiliar but the enemy knows intimately. Be prepared for ambushes, booby traps and unforeseen consequences. You might have your squad kitted out with flying suits, repeating plasma blasters and remote-controlled rocket launchers, and you still may find yourself biting your nails in nervousness as they open a new door in an alien stronghold.

This is why X-Com: UFO Defense holds up after many, many years of innovation and progression in the realm of game design. It’s straightforward presentation, atmosphere of dread and unrelenting challenge make it a lot of fun to play even today. It’s also pretty damn scary, to the point where you can almost find yourself sympathizing with the stereotypical swaggering platoon leader who freaks out when the soldiers actually come into contact with the enemy. In other words, you almost feel sorry for Gorman from Aliens. Almost.

Ghoulish Games II: System Shock 2

October 30, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Courtesy Irrational Games

I mentioned in my previous post on games that’ve unnerved me that the level in question had no monsters. It’s a great example that the setting and design of a well-crafted atmosphere doesn’t necessarily require direct antagonists to be effective. That isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with monsters, and in this second game I’d like to talk about one in particular that disturbed me when I first fought it, and stuck with me since then. The creature in question is the hybrid, from System Shock 2.

Now, the game has a fantastic overall atmosphere, well-written villains and effective set pieces that hold up despite the advances in graphics. But the hybrids stick out in my mind because they’re very well built creatures. They shamble and move like zombies but manage to say coherent things. Instead of the typical, savage war-cries of mooks in a first-person shooter, hybrids moan things like “Run…” and “Help me!”

The basic premise of Body Horror is one that messes with our self-image on a basic level. The idea that an outside force can overtake our bodies and transform us into something hideous while we remain conscious of it is a chilling one. The hybrids are this idea writ large, antagonists that attack the player against their will, still conscious of who they were and what they have become, powerless to change their state or escape the horror, praying for death.

This sort of foe crops up in later games. The Splicers in the BioShock games, people overtaken by headcrabs in Half-Life, the hellish creatures in Dead Space, even the zombies in Doom qualify. But for the most part, they aren’t quite as effective. The headcrab zombies do manage the occasional plea, but their overall incoherence defangs the horror somewhat. Most of the others are relatively interchangeable and the sort of shambling if somewhat generic grotesque creature best dealt with using automatic weapons fire.

It’s one thing to gun down a nameless foe when they’re screaming for your blood. It’s quite another when a tearful former human is begging you for death even as it struggles not to hit you. I mean, sure, the improvised weapons they carry still hurt, but the impression I got was that if they were given a choice, the hybrids wouldn’t be trying to kill you. But they’re not given a choice. They were victims before the player showed up. This tragic fact underlines the horror of the creatures and, for my part, has stuck with me even though it’s been years since I’ve played the game.

Is there a particular opponent in a game that’s unnerved you? An encounter that’s left you shaken, made you think in a chilling way or just freaked you the hell out?

Ghoulish Games I: Bloodlines

October 28, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Courtesy Troika Games

Halloween is right around the corner, despite the tendency of retail outlets to forget the holiday as quickly as possible. You can’t milk consumers for as much cash with costumes as you can with guilt-induced gifts for family and co-workers they don’t like. Anyway, since horror is interesting from a variety of standpoints and I missed talking about it in last night’s Classholes podcast, I’m going to talk about three games that really get under my skin when it comes to giving me the creeps. The first one is the most recent, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.

The Ocean House Hotel is the setting for a task you can undertake early in the game. Unlike the other two games I’ll be discussing, this setting is unique in that it doesn’t contain a single enemy encounter. That’s right. No shambling zombies. No bloodthirsty vampiric rivals. It’s just you and the hotel.

Of course, the hotel’s haunted.

The horror comes from some brilliantly simple set pieces and the building of atmosphere. The dilapidated, aging building already has a creepy air about it, the sort of building you might think of tearing down or fixing up if you could bear to get anywhere near it. Once inside, it’s even worse. The peeling wallpaper, stained carpets and flickering light fixtures all point to something being very wrong, and that’s before the clock chimes on its own and light bulbs burst without warning.

Add the chilling sound design, from the rather subtle music to the quiet whispers to the peals of thunder, and you’re bound to be on the edge of your seat for the entire time you’re in the hotel, provided you can even step foot into it. I know of people who turn their sound off and wait for a bright morning to tackle this place, and still struggle to get through it with their hearts at a calm rate.

I would love to talk more specifics, but I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who haven’t played it. Seriously, beyond the hotel, Bloodlines is a game that holds up pretty damn well despite being buggy and a bit dated in aesthetic. It’s available on Steam.

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