A Threesome It Is Then

I've been following Ysharros' altoholic article series on Hammerofwar for a while now. And they're great! This week his publication date coincided with the fact that I'd been busy with both my tank (Obersten) and my little dps git (Preben). The Black Orc and the Squig Herder plays quite differently - as could be imagined with them being 300 punds and six inches of steel apart. I really enjoy the AoE grinding and battering that the Black Orc offers as I've adressed in a former blogpost.

What I really find hilarious about the Squig Herder is more the pvp aspect. So far I've levelled him almost to rank 11 by doing scenarios and it carries some remarkable benefits. The most obvious is that my renown rank follows my actual rank and thus nets me some of the really nifty renown vendor gear as well as the good loot from enemy players. Apart from my less than stellar bow I'm top of the line geared and the bow will be replaced in half a level (doubling the dps of the weapon). By doing PQ and scenarios at the same time I can stick around for PQ should I get a good group and just join the scenario if I'm grinding phase one trash mobs. This way I'll get influence, renown and xp up the gazoo - and I'm quite fond of that tickling feeling.

Another benefit is that the skills are used somewhat differently in PvE and PvP. PvP can include a quite steep learning curve, but by constantly be involved in it I've found that the knowledge of when to root, when to knock and when to run comes fairly fast. Not overnight - but fast enough for me :)

The final goodie I'll highlight is the social aspect. When levelling up at alt-speed the world can be somewhat desolate even on a med-high population server as Karak Hirn. By entering the scenarios you're automatically paired with other people playing and after a few rounds you'll get to see some friendly faces. I normally try to kickstart the /sc-talkings as it seem to help inspire teamwork and also increases the fun factor. You'll eventually run into people that'll swear at you for chatting in the scenario channel, but as long as its about the game and focused on teamwork (as in "There's Order inc at Fort", "I'm taking Lighthouse", "Need healer at Barracks") I can't be arsed to care about their splutterings.

What this has lead to is that I'm fairly certain that I'll be levelling three characters at the same time. My Shaman Chefen is resting at rank 20 at the moment and the Black Orc Obersten is at 23. Preben is only level 10 so far, so has some road ahead, but I expect to move on with Chefen once he hits 20 - depending on the fun I'm having with the Squiglet. So, in relation to the blog I expect it to turn into a threesome. Taking turns I'll report my experiences, succeses and downfalls with all three toons and see how it works out on the way to rank 40. As for my gameplay I hope to get a better understanding of each of the aspects of the game - though I'll most likely just suck harder at all three instead :)