A Question of 'Builds'

[Bordolaf]

I personally despise the mentality that you have to have X piece of armor or Y weapon or you are somehow considered odd. I don't often have time to run through the 4-6 hr dungeon to have a chance at the best stuff. I enjoy playing a character and getting by on what I find in the world or what I can afford to buy. Occasionally, my guild, which is not that large, will get together on a Sat or Sunday afternoon and run through a dungeon, but that is about it. If we get good stuff, great, but I think we enjoy the fun of getting together and beating a dungeon as much or more than the stuff we get.

I've rambled long enough, rip away.

 

[Luciro]

So you guys really think having non combat builds will be some sort of .. fix for the build problem?

I can disagree and cite example.

"Group looking for Healer / Cleric build, must have at least 2 Weird Al's Blessed Uber Healer Healing wyr slotted and at least 1 Daax's Wondrous Buff Extension Expander item for instance requiring constant healing and buff life."
If anything I see dual classing hindering this process. Some folks will expect certain builds to compliment one another for certain 'jobs'. Hopefully tho' the RP server will have more folks interested in your role. Maybe? Hopefully?

Not much a company can really do about this other than give everyone the opportunity to play as they wish and play it well. It's up to the community to just make due with what they get and enjoy it.

 

[Evran]

So you guys really think having non combat builds will be some sort of .. fix for the build problem?

Non combat builds as you describe are still builds. Of course it won't fix the 'build problem.' What I, and I think others, mean is giving more options for playstyle outside of combat will lessen the need to have a build. No matter what you do, howver, people will still manage to make 'ideal' builds out of any system based on numbers (i.e. any computer game). Just give both types of players ways to succeed.

Not much a company can really do about this other than give everyone the opportunity to play as they wish and play it well. It's up to the community to just make due with what they get and enjoy it.

Exactly. Fun is what we the players make of it, not what the developers decide it is. This is what I've been saying all along.

 

[HJ-Navarre]

Not just non-combat builds... non-combat classes. ie: The Cleric or Healer who spends their time in the town Church or infirmary. Resurrecting, healing, leveling, and having fun there, as the dead and injured are brought to them, and not on the battlefield as part of the 'classic' mmorpg combat group. I'm sure there will be the 'perfect build' for that situation, too, but, in that senario, you never suffer from the LFG blues, because there is no need to group in the warped-classic sense.

 

[Trillian_CinVin]

If such a scenario were possible, I'd probably play a healer for the first time in years. Nothing more annoying than the constant need for grouping with people who are never satisfied with your healing ability.

 

[Evran]

DR has this. The empath (healer) is one of 2 classes that can advance without once ever entering combat. Though I remember you saying you have trouble with text-based muds, it may be worth a try. The formatting of DR is much cleaner and easier to read than most traditional muds.

 

[Trillian_CinVin]

I did actually have a look at DR - the problem is the directions: saying "Go north, go east" or what have you in order to get where I need to go requires me to actually, physically try and draw out a map while playing. When I'm being attacked by something nasty because I've look a wrong turn, I just don't have the time, and find myself frantically just going "North" into things even worse *chuckle* it's amusing the first 50 times you do it, then it gets tiresome...

So give me graphics! But yes, what I saw of Empaths did look quite brilliant, though granted it still seemed to mean you need to go out into the field and heal.

 

[Evran]

Trust me, you can pretty much camp out in the guild and advance to the highest circles as an empath. Healing is almost exclusively done outside of combat. Just it gets boring if thats all you do, so most empaths do combat just for fun. I don't think HJ will be quite this non-combat oriented, but its nice to hope there will be more than in the current selection of games.

And yes for directions in DR, it is a bit disorienting until you get the hang of the layout of an area. Then you can just fly through using the num-pad as a compass for directions. There's also a lot of player made maps out there that are very handy to have and they save you the trouble of making your own. Don't leave home without Ranik's maps imo.

 

[Thaos Nightwind]

If such a scenario were possible, I'd probably play a healer for the first time in years. Nothing more annoying than the constant need for grouping with people who are never satisfied with your healing ability.

Oh ain't that the truth!!!

 

[Thaos Nightwind]

Healing is almost exclusively done outside of combat. Just it gets boring if thats all you do, so most empaths do combat just for fun. I don't think HJ will be quite this non-combat oriented, but its nice to hope there will be more than in the current selection of games.

That rememded me of one of my Doctor characters in SWG. Used to sometimes like running 'buff lines' in front of the Starport in the city of Coronet. You'd get some great conversations goin' most times with peep goofin' off whaile waiting in line etc.