DDO's bard, and WoW's Paladin - the early years

I ended up rolling my Bard and I might even consider dropping some cash in the store, if only because rumor has it that it unlocks a few more character slots, and being restricted to two characters is rather...restricting, especially for an Altaholic like me. But I'm intelligent enough to realize that it saves server/hard drive space by not allowing free-loaders (like me, so I can call us that) to create countless characters...then again, that's what multiple accounts are for ;) I was going to add that it's sort of like WoW's 10-day Trial, except that's a 10-day Trial after which you pony up the cash for a sub, or you create a new 10-day Trial. I wonder about all those Trials and characters I created. I don't delete them before the Trial expires, so, does that mean they're all sitting on a server somewhere, waiting for me to subscribe and bring them back to life? Are Blizzard really not deleting them, at all? That's the big reason why the free version of DDO limits you to 2 characters. That, and they know people who like the game will pay to unlock more slots. It's a smart move because there's a very good chance that strategy will work on me ;)

My Bard plays not unlike my Ranger (or at least that's how I'm playing him), as in I plink away at Mobs from a distance with my Bow, then slice them up with my Fiery Rapier when they get in close. But where my Ranger had a couple of special Melee attacks my Bard has a 4-minute Buff that...does something. I think it helps me make Saving Throws or something. I tend to forget it's there though so last night when I did the very first soloable Instance (the Crypt) it wasn't until right before the Boss's room that I remembered to buff myself.

I also took a look at the FAQ while trying to work out how to sheath my sword because as much as I love hitting Z & taking out my weapons in WoW, it looked odd (I thought) to be running around town with a flame-engulfed rapier in my hand. It's not that everyone (literally) has a Fiery weapon (and they practically all do)...or maybe it was. Isn't that a quote from The Incredibles? If everyone was a Super, nobody would be super? So having a Fiery weapon is a cool trinket to have almost right from the start (after completing the Tutorial), but when you see every single person in town has a fiery weapon...not such a big deal.

I read the FAQ and didn't find any Hotkey to let me sheath my rapier, instead I discovered how to unlock/separate the Hotkey bars so I can have more than just one visible and not have to scroll up through them. Now I have two Hotkey bars in my UI, one above the other. My Bow & Rapier are Hotkeyed on the bottom bar so I can switch between them with a key press, as are my Buff spell and Cure Light Wounds spell. My non-essential abilities went on the other bar, which includes the special weaponless weapon-set ability I made. So I cannot actually sheath my melee weapon, but I can take out a non-existent weapon which replaces my physical weapon. I'm choosing to fight unarmed is what I'm really doing, but it has the effect I wanted such that I'm no longer walking around with 3-feet of flaming steel in front of me. On a side note, I'm sure these two guys would like to know how to magically enhance steel weapons with fire ;)

On the WoW Trial front, after Tobold rolled a Paladin and briefly discussed his initial experiences with the class, I finally decided to give them another try. The Paladin never particularly grabbed me when I first got WoW, probably because I was a Noob! but over the years I'd roll one every now and then, only to delete it to make room for something else. And...it's still not my cup of tea. Zubon (of Kill Ten Rats) describes the early Paladin levels quite eloquently, and very accurately, as the Zero-Button Phase.

A level 1 Rogue starts with Sinister Strike, a Mage with Frostbolt, a Shaman with Lightning Bolt, a Druid with Wrath. Even the Hunter (IMO erroneously) gets Raptor Strike, so every Class gets an attack that they can spam (to some degree) during combat...except the Paladin, who gets Seal of Righteousness (a 30-min Buff) and Holy Light (a Heal). As a former Hunter/Rogue/Mage, combat as a Paladin is almost as interesting as watching paint dry.

Health okay? Check. Buff okay? Only 27 minutes left, better refresh it. Ok, now we're ready to go. Run into position, right-click Mob to enable auto-attack, or press 1 if you didn't remap it to something more exciting (like Holy Light), then...sit there and watch as your avatar and the mob exchange blows until one of them is dead. Which will always be the Mob (unless you get severely out-numbered) because you have a Heal spell.

If you can sit through the boredom until level 4 (trust me, it doesn't take too long) then you'll get your first really offensive Spell, Judgment of Light, a 10-yard ranged attack spell that puts a debuff on your target which gives any attackers a chance of being Healed (it's a small Heal, but any Heal is better than none, just ask your friendly, neighborhood BM Hunter). Finally, something to do other than rebuff yourself because your Seal of Righteousness has just 27 minutes left. Unfortunately, without spending Talent Points, Judgement spells come with a 10-second Cooldown, so it's still not a Spammable attack spell, but at least it lets you feel like you're doing something other than sitting there on your arse watching a cartoon. Not a lot more, but a little bit.

That said, I did put the time in to get my Paladin to 20, at which point I discovered something interesting. When you complete quests while level 20, the Trial acts much like when you complete quests at Cap in full game, that is you get rewarded with moula in place of XP. This was good because never having played a Pally before, I didn't realize that Pally Mounts are like Warlock Mounts and trainable for a mere pittance. So I ran around completing several quests to raise funds then dropped 3g50s on Riding-75 and 90s on a Mount when I only needed to fork over (IIRC) 20s to learn Summon Warhorse. But I'm glad I got my Pinto because I think it's a more fitting horse for my female Human Paladin than the Pally's Warhorse.

I ran into a 23 Spacegoat Hunter in Deadmines and we grouped up to complete the Oh Brother! quest (and the other one the same Dwarf in SW hands out) but when he wanted to head on into the Instance itself I had to beg off. To his credit (or doom) he still went in. I don't know how his Ravager pet handled the Mobs but I never heard from him again. While he would definitely have fared better with my Paladin along, I'm still not sure we could have successfully Duo'd Deadmines the Instance, but the kid and I had a movie to go see so I wished him Good Luck and with Quests done Hearthed out of there.

So once I got my first Judgement spell the Pally got a little more interesting, but it was still not as complex of a character to play as some others. What did make it fun was testing the Paladin class on Hogger, which wasn't much of a test because I ended up smashing his face in at level 14. Bellygrub, however, at 4 levels above my capped 20, was extremely interesting. I tried it at 19 and got crushed, then dinged 20, got my new spells, and back I went for more. I pulled out all stops, even switching from 2H Hammer to Sword & Board while I regained Mana for a Heal, then switched back to 2H for the final few blows. In retrospect, I should have used Blessing of Wisdom for Mana Regen instead of Might, as this really was a battle of attrition, and if I'd had the Mana for a couple more Heals or another Judgement, I might have had more than just 9 Health when I delivered the fatal blow. Yep, just 9 Health. Now that's what I call Living!!!

When I was still a subscriber I soloed the RFK Quests on my level 30 Druid, including solo-killing the Crone. That was a fun fight which, like Bellygrub, also came down to a Sudden Death situation that I won by the skin of my teeth. IIRC I had less than 100 health when the Crone and I got off our final attacks; her attack missed, mine didn't. Nothing like an OMG! That was close! moment to get the blood pumping.

I actually wrote the first part of this entry a week or so back, then finished it now, tonight, and since then the boy and I have duo'd the first DDO dungeon on Normal, which wasn't that tough as I've solo'd it on Normal myself. As he said he'd probably play on his own sometimes, too, we rolled a Paladin for him instead of a Rogue. As I have the Bard who can learn some Rogue skills, including (I hope) Pick Locks and Disarm Traps, we should be fine. DDO is still a fun game, but it doesn't yet have the polish of WoW. Then again, when Blizzard have had years to polish WoW, why would it? I did notice a few things in WoW that I'm wondering if they're new, or if they've been there all along and I just haven't been paying attention. Small things of little consequence, like the way my Paladin's torso actually moved as she breathed. And when she exhaled (and only exhaled, mind you) her breath condensed into vapor in the chill air of Dun Murogh. That was pretty cool to see, and shows just how much work Blizzard have really put into this game. They've set the bar extremely high, not just for their competitors, but for themselves. They've done so much since launch that I'm not even sure Blizzard can create a WoW-killer. I think they've created a monster that they can only kill in one of two ways: by completing ballsing up an expansion, or just calling it quits and pulling the plug. It makes one wonder.