MMO Gamers

I managed to hit level 20 over the weekend (21 at time of writing) which proved to be a blessing.  Firstly I finally got my mount, the Cold One, which has really sped up travel.  I was getting a bit weary of running around everywhere and I actually surprised myself at how excited I was to get it; a new toy to play with.  But more importantly I got my first group heal (besides Morale abilities).  Why it’s such a big deal is this.

I’ve been really questioning the Disciple class as an effective healer.  I’ve gone the Path of Dark Rites, which is the “healer” spec of the three trees, in the hopes of being an effective and efficient healer.  But I’ve found that not only am I not faring all that well in the healing stats at the end of a scenario, but I’m also not doing any damage either.  I’m finding it hard to kill anyone and in Tier 1 I was not afraid to attack anyone in melee, confident in my ability to kill.  Now I know it’s going to take a while and it’s only a matter of time before their backup arrives and I’m toast.  One of our guild’s other Disciples initially specced for damage, switched to Dark Rites, and then switched back because he just didn’t like how weak the class seemed.  I was considering doing the same,  thinking that the class was best played as a melee damage dealer with a little bit of healing ability, but decided to wait for level 20 and the group heal.

And it’s payed off.  I’m now ranking either highest or second highest in the healing stats, which was previously the domain of the Zealot.  In one scenario over the weekend, Mourkain’s Temple, after it had finished I got a /tell from the tank in our group saying how awesome the heals were and that he never died once.  It’s definitely a nice feeling to have someone give some positive feedback.  As well as the group heal I got a morale ability that breaks roots and snares, which is great for those pesky Bright Wizards (did I mention how much I hate Bright Wizards?).  And I also got an extra Tactic slot which has also increased my characters strengths.  So WOOT! to level 20.

I had a look at my hours played and discovered that I’ve played a total of some five and a half days or so.  We’ve just crossed over the 30 day mark, and while my math is appalling, I think that works out to something like 30 hours a week.  I’m really surprised to see that I’ve played so much.  I did take a week off work during that time and probably got in 40 hours that week, but still, it’s a lot higher than my average 15-20 hours.  You’d think with that sort of game time I’d be a lot higher, but us roleplayers tend to be slow levellers.  And that’s fine with me, I’m not in a hurry.

Cold One