Monthly Archives: May 2014

#WildStar – Getting Started

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So WildStar is up on Saturday.  I won’t be able to actually play on Saturday, what with being a parent and it being the weekend and all but that’s another topic.  Maybe I can find time to create a character.  Bah, best not to get the hopes up.

That said, I do know the following.  I’ll be on Evindra.  Twitter world seems to have picked that one and being an RP server, experience has taught me that’s my kind of crowd.

I’ll be rolling an Esper too.  My beta time really pushed me down that path for some reason.  I like healing, so I was stuck with Spellslinger and Medic as other options.  The former isn’t bad, it’s just has an odd Spellsurge mechanic that I’m not too fond of.  Medic is too melee for my tastes.  Nearly 10 years of playing a rogue in WoW has taught me to avoid melee.  Oh, and the Esper is seemingly the most borked of all classes and massively under-represented. I like me some underdogs!

Race and faction are a slight bugger though.  Twitter is running Exile, though I know the Alliance of Awesome (not sure if this is on Evindra though) is running Dominion.  I don’t like the Aurin personally and when you don’t like a race and have to stare at it for a few hundred hours – meh.  And I’ve never been a fan of the humanoid races either.  I did play Chua in the beta and I’ll be honest, playing as a Mogwai is a lot of fun.  I guess we’ll see where that ends up.

Random Thought – Multi-lingualism

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A thing I’ve realized lately is that I am constantly in a state of translation and interpretation.  My job deals mostly with integrating business and tech solutions so I need to speak both languages.  Then I need to brief VPs on the matter, yet another language altogether.  So while I am fluent in English and French, I think I actually know a dozen languages.  For example.

“But Captain, the warp coils in the dilithium chamber need to be realigned with the phase inducers manually with a tricorder inside a Jeffrey’s tube.”  That makes no sense outside of the context of Star Trek (and probably even less in that context).

“Ahhh, Jeez. He banged the blower.”  You need to be a gearhead to decode it.

“But the API doesn’t allow routing to the kernel, we need another low level hook.”  Real technobabble.

“Alignment of key strategies to the governance framework is required for sustainability”.  Executive speak.  I am, oddly and sadly, very proficient at this.

“Ok, so the DPS need to throw a pile DOTs and debuffs, while the tank keeps aggro and the healer just HOT.”  It’s like herding cats that one.

“Oh, did you see that dipsy-dangle toe-drag, what a beaut!” Got to love hockey.

 

I think this is one of those life skills that people develop over time and through experience.  I look back just 10 years and I’ve certainly more than doubled my vocabulary and context set.  As an introvert, I always had issues finding the right words for the right time for the right people.  Tons, and I means thousands of hours here, of listening to people talk, reading notes and watching videos (TED talks are awesome) have seriously expanded my abilities.  Today, I actually feel comfortable talking to nearly anyone about any given topic.  Young, old, a specialist or a generalist.

The downside to this however is that I use visual cues to help guide a talk.  Face to face, no problem.  I can read a person or a crowd and adjust as necessary.  Over the phone is tough.  I really need to pay attention and I can get flustered.  Written messages are the worst and I’ve resigned myself to a simple rule.  Don’t include the words “My, myself or I” in anything I write for work.  Personal stuff, no problem – but at work, I use “Us, We and It” instead.  It forces me to remove all emotion from the message and makes the issue a group issue rather than just me saying something.  Try writing something like that, it’s far from intuitive.

I know this is more of a random thought than anything else but as I grow older (and hopefully wiser) and look back some, I’m honestly impressed by the progress and motivated to achieve more.  Not obsessed mind you, just fascinated that when I was younger I thought I knew a lot.  When in reality, I have a better appreciate today for what I don’t know.  It’s actually quite liberating.

Life Tips – Getting Noticed

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This is a bit out of the blue but a few recent events at work have really brought this to the front of my brain.  Today’s youth, say 18-25, really are in a complete social clash with the rest of society.  When you haven’t ever worked a job and your first interview is at 25, then you’re going to have issues.  So this post is dedicated to those folks and maybe a few other people with curiosity peeking through.  This applies mostly to a non-labour intensive job (e.g. not a miner).

And it’s for guys cause you girls have way too many rules.

Like it or not, the visual impression is the one most people get stuck with.  What you wear and how you present yourself speaks many so much that many people, right or wrong, have made up a decision about you before you even have a chance to open your mouth.  Being smart about it puts you at an advantage, and it’s one you really should be taking.

Buy a suit and a jacket

Ok, you’re poor. I get that.  You have parent/grandparents or some family member.  You have a birthday or Christmas.  Collect gift certificates, anything really.  And then go buy 2 things – a tailored suit and a jacket/blazer.

A tailored suit is not normal for a young person.  You typically only see people with grey hair or power execs.  The thing is, that you’re fresh out of school and look like you know nothing.  Coming in with jeans and a golf shirt is like everyone else.  Come in a suit and you will make a good impression.  If you work right now, come in to work one day with a suit and I guarantee people will ask if you’re going for an interview or some such.  A jacket/blazer is something you can just throw on with any pair of pants and shirt.  It makes you semi formal with 1 piece of clothing.  And when you buy it, find the best dressed salesperson in the room.  They will try to fit you in clothes that you already think are neat.  Ask questions too, they are there to help.

The most important part though, is that it makes you look older.  I cannot stress how massively important that is to a young person.  You’re at a distinct disadvantage without grey hair but a suit suddenly evens the field a bit.

Find clothes that fit and wear a belt

This one sounds simple but look around you.  Most people are wearing clothes that are either too tight or too lose-fitting.  Pants that fit have a hem that goes to the floor when you’re not wearing shoes.  People should be able to see your belt, not just the belt buckle.  You shirt shoulder hems should be vertical, not half-way down your bicep.

If it has a hole, a stain don’t wear it to work.  If it’s wrinkled, 5 minutes in the dryer usually fixes it.

Facial maintenance

If you don’t have a beard, shave daily.  If you don’t shave daily, create an outline of the stubble.  If you have a beard, learn to comb it and keep it trimmed.  Again, this sounds obvious, but the days of not shaving for a week and having a neck beard are gone.

Find your own style

Everyone has a personal style.  What I mean by this is that you need to find what makes you feel comfortable and make it presentable.  There are hundreds if not thousands of styles out there.  Some people like hats, some mustaches, some unique belts or shoes.  Your physical stature has a lot to do with this too, so dress to your strengths.

You don’t have to be a sheep – just be clean and neat.  Mustard stains is not a style 🙂  A good suggestion is to read Reddit’s MFA thread.

Style evolves

I don’t think I’ve seen a 30 year old goth or a 40 year old skater (outside of the XGames).  Styles evolve over time and you should too.  If you try the baseline advice above, you can always try changing a couple items at a time and see if it still makes you happy.

The most basic and simple advice is this.  Pay attention to what you wear because other people will.

Social Aptitudes and Outlets

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So, Jewel had an interesting post yesterday.  There are a few (and update) more out there.  And a twitter hash to boot.  Social issues and our ability to connect with other people about them is challenging when you’re face to face.  Let alone of the vast spaces of the interwebs.

I’m a white male, 6’1, Canadian, educated and aside from some words of encouragement, self-made.  I do well for myself and my family.  I am lucky in that my upbringing was in a more white-collar environment (though tinged with a decade-long bitter divorce between parents), which certainly gives a different view on, well, everything.  My wife’s family is very blue collar and while some are educated, I would not assign that to school or reading but to life experience.  One is uncomfortable with change, the other doesn’t even want to think about it.

And these are the people who are related by blood and within an hour’s drive!

Now imagine the social differences I have with someone in another country, someone who went through hell and back (and may still be there), or someone who lives in a more “socially advanced” culture.  Doone has a recent article that focuses a fair bit on that.  It’s really hard to empathize with someone half a continent away, with a different upbringing and set of values.  What might seem minor to me might be a massive issue for them, and vice versa.  Until you walk in their shoes, it’s damn hard to pass judgment.

And we get to the more recent blogo-deddon around a clearly disturbed individual who took the subject to the extreme.  The messages are all over the place, but most boil down to the objectification of women.

Now, looking back before the interwebs, the message has pretty much always been there.  The 50s are notorious for keeping women in the kitchen in their ads and Mad Men reflects that pretty damn well.  Today though, while the message is perhaps less oppressive, it is massively more sexual.  It is also incredibly more pervasive.  What I mean by this is that 15 years ago, you could shut off the media.  Today’s youth (and let’s be honest here, the issue is largely there) is constantly bombarded by these messages.  There’s no relief.  It’s one of the reasons I cut cable TV and why I personally select the media my girls consume.

I am seriously glossing over the topic, but I am ill-equipped to debate it.  What I can do however, is include that mindset in my active conversations and postings.  For example, I’ve mentioned that I like Bioshock Infinite and while Elizabeth is not the main character, in a way, she is.  The Last of Us’ Ellie is pretty much the same.  Lara Croft is a powerful woman, with a more rugged approach than sexual.  Red in Transistor is friggin’ awesome.  There are plenty of gender neutral games as well.  That’s a message I can transmit, not only to the people reading but to my kids.

I can also discuss this topic openly with my wife.  It’s not a 5 minute conversation, granted.  It’s an entire culture shift.  But it has to start somewhere and it might as well be here.

The Ebb and Flow of Game Time

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If you were to follow a release schedule over any given year, you often see the fall spike, winter lull and spring/summer oddities.  I am sure most people have the most free time in the fall but the other months are a good question.

Being a Canadian, our dogsleds and igloos don’t get much use in the summer.  Then again, they don’t get much use anytime.  But the summer months, as short as they seem to be, as a prime time to take advantage and step outside.  I think if I lived in a more temperate climate I’d have more options but as it is, I have snow season, rainy season, bug season, 2 weeks of ok time, then the fall which is also pretty neat.

Scree brings up an interesting/sad story about the death of a guild.  After 10 years, people have simply moved on.  Looking back 10 years, I was in the WoW beta prepping some guides.  Funny side story actually, I was posting on wow.net forums doing what eventually became known as theorycrafting.  I had 3-4 offers to write guides for it and took it up.  Considering I was making ~$15/hour at the time, it seemed like a great deal. Over the years, it’s paid for every piece of tech in my house.

So, 10 years ago I was in a relationship, living on the cheap in an apartment.  I had a fair amount of free time outside of my shift work.  A year or two in, and I got a new job doing some tech support for a pretty decent chunk of change.  Without shift work and with more money, I had more free time.   Eventually that relationship ended while I was starting a new job with a rather huge time commitment.  If I recall, I dropped most everything to do some 7-7 days, along with some overtime on the weekends.  Gaming really fell to the side but was used as a de-stressor.

That job evolved into something else and I found a new relationship.  Eventually got married about 5 years ago and I guess you’d say I grew up then.  I still found time to game a fair amount, while the S/O watched TV or did her own thing.  I did however ensure I put some focus on RL commitments as she didn’t share my passion for gaming.  A few kids along the way cut even more out of my schedule.  I think the largest impact was while playing Rift.

I was in a fun guild and we were trying some of the public raids (big rifts).  It’d be 10 at night, they were rather pick up and play, but with a baby crying you’d need to get up and take care.  It really changed my priorities.  I haven’t really raided in a focused mindset since then, since the call of RL typically trumps any gaming moment.  Heck, most social settings require this and I’ve always found it weird to hear about people holding kids and giving bottles while raiding/grouping.

Reading the previous paragraph, I think that’s the core of the issue with people who grow up.  While I can set away a few hours to play a game of hockey or a night out with the guys, it’s quite hard to do the same when you game in the same building as your family lives.  There’s still a social stigma, as they see it more like TV, where you can just “poof” stop and don’t see the people on the other side.  It would honestly be easier to leave the house.

Today’s gaming time is an odd mix of an executive career’s time commitments, juggling kid’s expectations, finding time with my wife, exercise and then finally getting some downtime to game.  I could, and have, gone 2-3 weeks without 15 minutes to myself.  I’m still working on finding balance and perhaps, once the kids get a bit older, I can share some time with them in a game or two.  Until then, it’s best effort.

#NBI – Motivation

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No two ways to shake it, blogging takes commitment.  The ability to just write a sentence really is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to it.  If you want to know why the NBI is a good idea, then here are a few things I’ve found of benefit.

Blogging is a social circle

Believe it or not but most bloggers read other blogs and use them as inspiration or for dialogue.  Very few people live in silos and blogging is a non-physical way to get to know new people.  It also helps expand horizons.  Gevlon, Tobold and Syncaine are all on my list of reads because they somehow manage to play complete opposites to each other and each has a valid point of view.

Blogging is cathartic

Back when we were kids often times we were told to keep diaries or journals.  You often here of war veterans who kept them during battle, as a way to keep grounded and provide a version of the story if ever they didn’t make it.  Blogging is a way to write down, publicly, your thoughts for the internet to host forever (until it becomes sentient and enslaves us). It allows you to get those troublesome ideas out of the head and put them on (virtual) paper.  This is incredibly therapeutic and has helped me tremendously in organizing my ideas.  Plus, it’s something I can show my kids later on.

Blogging improves communication skills

The more you practice something, the better you get, simple adage.  There are two ways to go through this.  Either you type and correct before posting or you type and go “I can’t believe I wrote that” after you posted.  I aim for the latter.  My career path involves a lot of writing, either technical, executive or through briefings.  It also involves a lot of public speaking.  Over time, I’ve found that my writing voice has changed due to a combination of “practice” writing through blogging and real-world application.  Word diversity, thematic representation and overall sentence structure has improved (or evolved I suppose) over time.  While it seems fairly non-evident here, I have a profound appreciation for the semi-colon (;), the dash (-), parentheses, and the oxford comma.  Blogging has also changed the way that I speak and vice-versa.  Sentences are typically succinct, or spread out with apostrophes for dramatic pause.  There’s a cadence/rhythm to my ideas that makes them easier to digest.

Blogging is excellent for introverts

I am one.  My wife is not.  Blogging allows, by some stroke of luck, for my wife to see inside my mind and get a better appreciation for my thought process.  Because it takes longer to type a sentence than to say it, you end up putting more weight to the thought.  This is a core concept of being introverted – not wanting to say the wrong thing.  Blogging also can lead you into breaking out of the shell, either through gaming guilds or podcasts or a bunch of other social vehicles with other bloggers.  I’m not saying it’s a cure for introverts because that simply does not exist.  Instead, I am saying that it’s a great tool to compensate for some of our more social inhibitions.

Blogging can be done anytime, anywhere

Posting requires an internet connection, blogging does not.  I write posts on my phone on the bus, or on my tablet in bed, or on the laptop in front of the TV.  I have 3-4 posts going on at any one time, sometimes just to collect ideas for future posts (I have 1 app to collect those).  Sometimes it takes me a week to finish an idea, sometimes 5 minutes.  There’s nothing wrong with getting a streak of ideas, just schedule them for posting every day or so.  That way, when you think about potential updates, you have time to go back and edit. Plus, you’re not spamming the world to read 5 posts in one sitting.  It’ll give people a chance to comment on one stream, then come back for another.

For all those reasons and more, blogging is something that’s a fair amount of fun and provides a fair amount of return on investment.  Much more than is likely apparent at first.

#Transistor – A Solid Indie

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I will start with a clear message.  Go and buy Transistor.

From the same folks that brought you Bastion, comes Transistor.  You can watch a ton of YouTube about the art and flow of the game, which really is only a portion of the fun.  The real meat and potatoes is the strategic combat.

Background first.  You start in media-res, with little explanation as to why you have a talking sword (the game’s namesake).  He points you around and explains things briefly but the core story is like reading a book, gently exposing more and more story as you move along.  The game is set in a virtual world, where the Program determines people’s outcomes.  Your sword can absorb people’s essences or you can acquire them through choices in the level up process.

Purty

These essences are the skills used in combat.  Each has 3 functions, either as a primary attack, as a boost to another primary attack (2 per), or as a passive boost (4 max) to your character.  Each has a set “value” and you can only equip a certain total amount of values at any given time.  As you level up, you get the choice of adding more to that cap, or unlocking more boost and passive slots.  You also get to unlock Limiters, which drastically increase the difficulty of the game but also increase your experience rewards.  You could enable enemies to deal double damage and respawn quickly for example.  It adds a serious level of challenge.

The core skills are varied enough.  Some are direct short attacks, others long range of over time.  Combining the skills provide additional lore and can make a heck of a difference in combat.  I use a long range DoT attack, that also has a front end damage spike and an AE effect upon contact.  Combined with a Stealth-get-out-of-dodge move, I play a more defensive/stealthy game.  I’ve also tried a brute force attack, which was a combination of a “vacuum” pull attack combined with a big AE and knockback.  I think I’m at about 15 skills now, so the options are pretty wide.

Combat also runs in two distinct modes.  First is the regular active combat in real time.  You also can pause time and use “Turn()” to plan out attacks.  Each attack takes up a portion of the meter but you move so fast that sometimes it’s better to use it defensively.  After you send the attack, it takes a while to generate more Turn and your skills are locked, so you’re pretty defenseless.  You need to really think things through!  If you do end up losing your hit points, you lose access to one of your active skills.  Lose them all and it’s game over.  You can restore skills at save points.

You do get a “home base” of sorts, with challenge rooms.  Some are pretty darn hard but once you complete them, it really changes the way you look at the game.  The game proper is only about 6 hours but there’s a New Game+ option.  The dynamic combat, quick pickup and play and system flexibility certainly give it a lot of replay value too.

I will end with a clear message.  Go and buy Transistor.

#Wildstar – Getting Ready

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To the surprise of no one, I have a rather large hankering for some Wildstar.  Given that the game’s approach to classes is akin to SWTOR (every class plays DPS and either Tank or Healer) and that time has shown me that I have no tolerance for tanking, I am going heals baby!  That and telegraphs in your face aren’t so much fun thanks Neverwinter!  That leaves 3 classes, Esper, Medic and Spellslinger.  I have played all of them to about 15 in the beta.  They play drastically different from each other.

Side note, Wildstar has a “tiered” difficulty setting, per zone.  The starter zone and the tutorial (once you actually land) get you to about level 7-8.  They are cake and meant to show you how all the systems work together.  The next zone (2 per faction) gets you to level 15-18 and shows you every other system but mounts.  It is quite a bit larger than the previous and a fair chunk harder.  The next zones…those ones are where the real difficulty starts.  Multiple enemies, you have access to all core skills, lots of telegraphs, new quests, lots of exploring.  So, tutorial ‘til about 7, learner’s permit ‘til about 15, meat and potatoes after that.

Back to classes, I have to say that I’ve found more fun in the Esper than the other two.  Medic has to get into near-melee range and the Spellslinger’s mechanics with Spell Surge don’t particularly jive with me.  The Esper is a pain in the butt to start, given that their core attack skill requires you to stand still, but the payoff later is a lot of flexibility.  The upside is that they are by far the least played class in the game, which means that if I stink, there’ll be less people to compare to!  I do plan on running Dominion too, just because I like their storyline a bit more.  Unfortunately, the race selection or rather restrictions, mean that I can only really run a Chua Esper.  Not so bad but I was hoping for more choice than Human and hamster.

I also reserved my name.  Even with the tech issues, no one is getting Asmiroth but me.  Dibs for sure!

But that’s the core of a themepark MMO.  The framework.  What really makes a difference is playing the game.

UI – I like the UI.  It’s a combination of MOBA action with tab-targeting for some other skills.  There’s a lot going on but the simple UI keeps it tidy.  Movement is fluid, telegraphs are very visible, effects are clear, graphics are solid.  The extra bits, lore and whatnot, are in additional UI elements that are hidden from the core set but still accessible.  Even the Path UI elements work well.  The only thing that doesn’t is costumes, as you need to be in the capital city to access it.  I expect that to change.  I also like the art style, which I think is going to be the #1 thing for most people.

Combat – Things work.  Check YouTube for a ton of streams that show how combat actually flows between the various skills.  Resource management works.  Priority skill management too.  Active combat does have some hectic parts but it isn’t so overwhelming.  You aren’t tasked with doing 8 things at once.  If you have to avoid stuff, then that’s all you need to do.  The good part is that you need to pay attention and the bad side is that you need to pay attention.  The days of face-rolling and standing in the fire are done.  Red stuff will kill you, which is going to make for a very steep skill wall for most players.  I think that FF14s success has shown that players are ready for this.

Lore & Flavor – This part is often overlooked but is the heart of the game.  How the various pieces interact and the reasoning for moving forward.  The storylines aren’t throwaway, they are consistent across the entire faction.  While SWTOR set the bar on story delivery it lacked a fair amount of cohesion.  ESO lore is excellent and I can easily compare Wildstar to that.  Lore pieces are everywhere.  Each nook and cranny holds something new.  All the paths except Solider also provide a fair amount of insight into the lore.  I do like that NPCs consistently appear between zones and mean something.  Hemmit Nesingway resounds with people.  I expect to have dozens of those examples within Wildstar.  Plus housing.  I could write an entire post on housing.

Social – The grouping tools were pretty smooth, guilds too.  You can downlevel to play with friends and instances use a Rally system to level you to the correct level for dungeons and PvP zones.  There is little phasing that blocks grouping too and since there are so many open quests that you can re-run, there’s plenty of opportunity to find other folk.  Downside is the spawn rate on some of those open quests.  I think that GW2 and FF14 use this system very well and it seems to work here too.

Economy – This one is a bit different.  Auction house is similar to GW2 with buy and sell orders.  It also separates commodities from items, which is pretty neat.  Beta was not a good example of how this system will work, just due to poor volume and low level characters.  It’s a solid thought but I’m curious as to how volume will “bottom out” the market as it is in GW2 currently.  Crafting is solid though, with 2 separate streams, similar to the AH.  Consumables use a hot/cold mini game to craft.  Items can be mass produced or customized.  They are also generated every other level like ESO, which avoids the “item gap” present in most other games.  A talent-like system is also there, which provides some customization.

 

Now I know this comes off as very fan-boi and there’s a whole lot of truth to it.  You basically have to like the art style, the “theme” of off-the wall zaniness (which I personally find closer to irony than otherwise) and the combat model.  If those 3 click for you, then you’re in for a fun ride.  If they don’t, then there really isn’t a point in trying.  For me, I’m really quite looking forward to a new take on the themepark model.

#Wildstar – Music

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So, while I am rarely a OST fan I think WildStar might be doing me in.  Here’s a quick (super quick) video of the 2nd starter zone for Dominion – Ellevar.  When I say starter zone, I mean the level 7+ zone.

While this is more gregorian chant, the music actually changes to a more instrumental violin affair after about 5 minutes.  While my wife is not a gamer, she was highly impressed by the music – which is the complete opposite normally.  I have earphones on all the time but this one is a likely exception.

Hats off Carbine.

Neverwinter – Devoted Cleric at 60

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Apparently, I’m still near the top of the Google index for Neverwinter search terms I wanted to add a couple more posts on the game.

Getting to 60

There really isn’t much strategy here.  Follow the sparkle path in each zone.  Do your incantation every hour (ctrl-I) for buffs and experience.  Take Leadership as your Profession and focus on maximum XP per hour per task.  Try to get some Astral Diamond rewards too, that way you can upgrade your minions through the AH rather than wait 18 hours multiple times.  Make sure you do the Neverwinter Graveyard (I think that’s it) as the final quest (Clockwork Tower) gives you your final free bag.  You can’t miss the one before that.  Also take the Artifact quest in the mid-teens, it’s a stat boost.  Do run skirmishes during the bonus hour, the queue times are super short.  Don’t run dungeons.  Do run the Foundry during the bonus hour.  Slot +exp enhancements.  Don’t do any of the above if you want to “experience the game”.

My DC did everything by the book, saw every skirmish and dungeon along the way and I had a ton of fun.  My Guardian Fighter did the first 2 zones and has been leveling through incantations and professions since, and is 42.

At 60 – Gearing

The first thing once you hit 60 is to head over the the auction house.  Search for rare (purple) level 60 equipment.  Try to get a set bonus, doesn’t matter much which for now.  Use level 4 enhancements and slot a 2:1 ratio of Power/Crit across the equipment.  Utility is +movement.  Defense is +defense.  Slot your companion with level 4 enhancements that give you a stat boost from their stats (6% each I think) and give them blue-level gear.  Use all the enhancements you’ve acquired from leveling to refine your offensive enhancements to level 5.  Once all are at 5, work on getting them to 6.  Weapon enchants can wait.  Refine your artifact to level 29 but don’t upgrade.  With everything at level 4 your gear score will be around 9000.  Level 5 plus a boosted artifact will have you above 10,000 gear score, eligible for 99% of all content.

Now you can worry about getting gear improvements through dungeons and raids.  Try to aim for 3000 power, 2000 crit, 2500 recovery, hopefully in that order.  Defense is useful, as is movement.  Lifesteal, to me, is superior to regeneration based on skill usage.

At 60 – Skill Set

I will make this somewhat generic as through play you’ll likely find more options.

Dailies: Hallowed Ground and Flamestrike

Hallowed Ground is great for group play, heals for a chunk and has a great boost for players.  There really isn’t a better option that I’ve seen.  Not as useful for solo play.  Flamestrike is for when you need to deal damage/knockdown, pretty much any non-boss encounter.  “Saving” dailies is rarely useful.

At Will: Sacred Flame / Astral Seal or Lance of Faith / Brand of the Sun

Sacred Flame and Astral Seal are the group based at wills.  They don’t do any damage but do provide some hit points to the team.  Astral Seal should always be up on the boss.  Lance of Faith and Brand of the Sun are solo skills.  The latter does ~75% damage to a normal enemy at 60, so I tag everyone.

Encounter: Sunburst, Astral Shield, Forgemaster’s Flame or Daunting Light

Divine Power is needed for most of these.  Sunburst gives you breathing room and a small heal.  Astral Shield gives a buff plus healing if you use DP.  Forgemaster’s Flame with DP heals nearby targets, which is oddly super powerful.  Daunting Light I use in solo play as it will kill 3-4 normal enemies in a single shot.  Great for bosses who summon friends.  Plus, no need for DP.

Some people will use Bastion of Health but that requires aiming, which is pretty hard to do consistently.  Healing Breath doesn’t get you much further as the regen is offset by damage.

Passives: Healer’s Lore and Foresight

Healer’s Lore is a decent boost for healing power and Foresight gives a defense boost to everyone.  Divine Fortune is an option if you find yourself DP starved.

Feats:

This is my selection.  You can move stuff around if you like but it works for me.

neverwinterdc-feats

At 60, Targetting

The biggest challenge in any action-rpg is aiming.  Wildstar is going to have the same problem.  Neverwinter doesn’t have fixed targets, everything is soft lock or aimed on the ground.  Soft-lock attacks, mostly the at-will skills, will require you to move to avoid hitting something else in front of it, due to line-of-sight.  As most bosses are taller, you can always aim up too.  Ground aiming is a bit tougher.  For buffs, I aim the center of the buff slightly behind the tank, unless I have people attacking the rear of the boss, then I move it around 180 degrees.  For damage attacks, I use the edge of the area on my primary target as hit boxes are pretty darn big.  This means you hit the big bad guy + a couple minions.  This takes a ton of practice to do while running around.  The good news is, that if you’re aiming and hitting an at-will attack, the AE attack will auto-center on your target.

The other thing to worry about is threat.  There’s no easy answer here, as threat is a weird beast in Neverwinter.  You don’t want to land a huge heal at the start. You’ll never be able to keep everyone at 100%.  In fact, the only person you should be directly healing is the tank, everyone else will be hit by AE effects or your at-wills.  Knowing where to place AE heals so that you can stand close enough to heal but far enough to not get hit is through practice.

Lastly, running away is a valid tactic.  As the game is heavily based on timers, a second or two of running away is likely going to save you.  HoTs and AE heals will work while running away.

Your best bet is to run a few skirmishes to get a hold on how to triage healing and aim.  Then when you have a solid feeling, move to dungeons.  They are more complex due to walls and corners and bosses with tons of adds but you should have enough basics down to move forward.  And don’t be afraid to take a lower level dungeon to practice.

The good news is that as we’re the only healing class, there’s a massive demand.  Yay.