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Oh my dear Vanguard, here is my monologue...
zwei2
Member Posts: 361
I happened to stumble upon Vanguard in late 2005. I find the game to my liking, and follow it occasionally. I was oblivious of the storm that was occuring through then.
In Jan 2007, Vanguard gone gold. I bought a hardcopy at a gamestore, and I was like "OMFG! A new mmo!" I created a Vulmane shaman, and customized his looks carefully. When I log in, the screen was flooded with other vulmanes in the starting zone, a small camp just outside the vulmane city, Dahknarg. I was literally trembling with excitement, as the chat is filled with reference to Everquest.
The next thing I noticed, is my character's customization is gone. ZZZ. So I log out, load from a saved copy of customization, log back in, and continue to tremble with excitement. Oh WHAT A FEELING!!!! KEEPS BELIEVING!!! I CAN HAVE IT ALL NOW I'M GAMING FOR MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Running to the first quest giver, I accept the quest of harvesting some berries, and kill some puny gnolls. I was like "WOW! A quest!" After a while I was level 2, and I was like, "That was fast..."
Moving on, at level 8, there is a cave just outside Dahknarg, that requires a group to clear. I invited a dreadknight and a druid. Clear and clear.... the last quest mobs is two 3dot and one 4dot. We were swept off the ground several times. Still, we preserved, and won the challange by using all our mana to root the two 3dots while the dreadknight handles the 4dot.
After this event, I was like, "Ah, f**k it!" And just wander around West Thestha for a few days. I ignore most of the quests, just killing mobs for fun. Eventually, I joined in group contents. I could not remember the names, like that elven ruins where you have to farm those nasty runes, candles and books for a full set of uber armor, and that undead castle to farm enough insignas to kill all the quests boss.
It was the best 6 months of Vanguard, and yes, I stayed for 6 months since i gone gold. Alas, the inevitable dawns on me. Player rate is down to the drains, game is still very buggy after 6 months, and all my friends in list is gone...
Even after the game gone f2p, it just does not give me that magic that was when I first started playing Vanguard. Farewell Vanguard, perhaps the magic may come back again in the future. And no, not supporting that Panthenon thingy.
The possibility of the universe collapsing into a singularity is higher than the birth of a perfect MMORPG.
Comments
Let me talk about playing a disciple. Man, it is sure a fun class, and a distinct way of group and raid healing. Essentially, I heal the team through fighting mobs, instead of throwing heals and wards like my shaman. And if I am not able to get close to fight, I can still heal my team through normal mana heal.
Fighting a mob also will release heals on defensive targets, and if successfully finish a chain action, will release a big heal on defensive target. There are also 2 finishers which will heal the whole group instantly, and all it takes is enough endurance and jin, a disciple's pool of energy. Now, there is a bug in one of disciple's skill, which leech endurance from target. This bug allows the disciple to carry on healing endurance even when the target is dead, and no expiry timer! Naturally, there is no one to repair bugs, so this skill is highly abused by disciples, and endless chaining of melee skills and endless healing...
Disciples are also capable of finishing a 3dot in 10 to 20 seconds, less then 10 if all melee skills crits, which is frequent for a disciple. Compare to playing a psioncist, where I spend most of the time kiting and try my damn hardest not to have the mob in melee range. And against ranged mobs is a no-no for psioncist, even if I can charm another mob to attack it... Heck, disciples have no problem even with 4dots mob, with the endurance bug and endless healing.
Plus the feign death, a skill that lowers mobs' true output melee damage by 33%, a long range shuriken toss that can possibly 1-hit KO 2-3dots mobs and halves a 4dot HP (with a legendary endless supply of shurikens, yes it is a real ranged weapon in game), and still using mana to heal... and on top of that, using jin to heal mana!!! OMFG!
In a team, disciples are natural leaders. Because disciples need to be in the frontline to be effective, skillful disciples can lead the team in dungeons as healers, and if there is another healer in group, a disciple can offtank a mob with his variety of skills like the 33% damage debuff, feint attacks and mez the mobs (the mez is very difficult to pull off, but can be done if necessary).
I have to admit, playing the only healer as a disciple is 10 times more stressful compare to my shaman, where as a shaman I would just stand by the side, scrutinize party's health, throw heals and group wards while exchange health to mana to maintain the tempo. As a disciple, I have to worry just about everything, since a disciple needs to be in the frontline to be effective, but cannot outdamage tanks and incur aggro (which is frequent), and still have to keep an eye on the party's health. Of course, with another healer, I can go all out as dps, while my shaman will still just heal (shaman dps sucks regardless of patron).
The possibility of the universe collapsing into a singularity is higher than the birth of a perfect MMORPG.
Shaman... my first toon I had rolled. Probably because I played a shaman in EQ. The VG shaman can heal as like all healers in VG, but the shaman also can place wards on defensive targets, which act like extra hit points within the duration. There is also a instant group heal and ward combo, which can be spammed if long casting AOE heal is not possible. There is another ward that can instantly heals and grants invincibility to an ally for 6 seconds. And finally, the shaman has one BIG, BIG ward that can be replenished on a defensive target every 10 seconds.
Unfortunately, the shaman lacks an offensive punch. Damage spells are either long duration DoTs, or very low damage direct spells. And it is really, really low, tie in with cleric, bwahahahaha! However, the shaman does have some melee attacks that can help alleviate some of the dps woes, and one of the skill decreases the mob's damage output by 25%. The shaman also can get into selective modes that increases healing or grants more dps output.
When I have to choose my patron at level 15, I choose the wolf first, seeing it is the "melee dps" spec. I remembered I traveled all the way to New Taganor, use the teleporting agent (the ship is apparently broken... EQ Kunark raft anyone?) to travel to some place to get the patron's blessing. However, walking in the road just does not evoke that fearful yet exciting feeling that was in EQ, like running from Qeynos all the way to Freeport, where I have to constantly watch over my back for all sorts of beasties. In VG, I was like "Are we there yet?"
Even with a pet, a shaman's damage is just average at best. A shaman shines in group content, and that is when I joined a guild. It was fun, getting into groups with people in the guild, going to dungeons to explore and fight! But by then I was bored of the wolf patron, which brings nothing to help the group, and dps just sucks. So I changed to the bear patron, and the bear's buff is awesome! And the bear pet and even help offtank a mob if necessary! Awesome!
It seems so fun to recall all the good times I had in VG, but at the same time it feels so sad... All the potential wasted by bad management, company politics and daunting coding... At least it has a chance to sunset, rather than swept into a corner and be buried in dust as the time flows...
The possibility of the universe collapsing into a singularity is higher than the birth of a perfect MMORPG.
I remembered starting the crafting sphere with my psionicist as a tailor, and it was damn frustrating. In the game's first year, the crafting leveling curve is very steep. I could craft tasks forever to just get a level. Normally, only the batched of 5 will award the best reward, and that is only when I am able to craft 5 Grade A items for that task.
Reason for trying to get grade A is because of the chance to drop the ultra-rare orange recipes. That was the only way back then to be able to get them, before the implementation of coins to exchange for the recipes and through diplomacy rewards. And only the orange gears are worth something back then.
Problem comes in the form of complications, where they will reduce the quality and take up your precious limited time to clear each item. Just imagine crafting till almost the end, only to face a complication that prevents you to finalize the product! HOW FRUSTRATING!!! I could not remember how many times my psionicist had kicked the crafting table because of this.
I ended up selling crafted bags on the auction house, since they are easily made and the raw materials are cheap. When the cash flows in, there is this sweet excitement of knowing all the virtual sweat spent give returns as rewards. By reaching the loofy vielthread bags, the best crafted bags ever made, it is like striking jackpot. They were selling like hotcakes, as long as selling within a reasonable range with the competitors. Undercutting is common though.
Even when I returned when it was f2p, it was still selling fast, probably due to the influx of new players. The bags can be equiped at level 1, thus the importance to buy it early for the increased carrying capacity. There will be days specially reserved just for me to craft the lovely bags
Ahhhh the memories...
The possibility of the universe collapsing into a singularity is higher than the birth of a perfect MMORPG.
Let's talk about chain quest in VG. There is a long winded level 28-33 quest which grants a legendary weapon. And I had to say I really, really hate that quest. Unlike most of the casual quest which can be completed with random pugs, this weapon quest requires dedication of several days. So if a player pugs, good luck.
The chain quest, basically, have several bottlenecks. The first part already requires a 6-man group, and a PUG easily get wipe due to no coordination. After talking to the target, suddenly the group will be swamped by mobs, and on top of that the group has to kill the target within a limited amount of time before the target escape and the whole quest failed, with dead team members to boot. Naturally, players already ragequit on the first part of the quest. I remembered the time I tried it with my psionicist, only spell I spam cast is Time Stop, which is an aoe mez, while the team just focus on the target.
Talk about hardcore. The mobs in this quest are 4 dots to 6 dots, which cannot be solo or duo. And since the quest is chained, players had to shout in channel "LFG this quest part 3!". Something so exact! Have you ever encounter such in other MMOs? Provided the chain quest was smoothly followed, the next bottle neck is a key to the tower of the final boss. The key drops randomly, and all the members in the team requires one. Imagine the mindless farming for 6 keys, and if someone left with another came in, the key farming starts again...
The tower itself is quite hard.Upon reaching the last boss, the group requires someone who can cast leviate on group, else the group will be constantly push away from the boss. On top of that, the boss is situated right at the top of a mini tower, and anyone who got push over the edge had to climb up the stairs back to the tower top. Just imagine the tank got push away...
Of course, the shiny reward, which glows beautifully, and let other players envy of your new legendary weapon. The weapon and last until late level 30s, until reaching another ultra-rare weapon that requires mindless hours of farming a quest item that summon the last bosses... well, was fun in some way, whacking the mobs and have fun.
The possibility of the universe collapsing into a singularity is higher than the birth of a perfect MMORPG.
VG was my second mmo after asheron's call. played it since early release as an Orc disciple and had a great time for years. even with all the bugs early on i found that it was a world that kept me logging in nearly every night.
it is a shame that it did not get the input and care it deserved and has been left to die a slow death.
the people who played it were some of the best i've played with, hardly any bucketmouths around and the raids and quests kept you busy. it was also a great game for explorers, you never knew what you'd find just running around.
if teso can keep me interested for half as long as vg did, i'll be happy
i look this wrecked because i've got GIST.
Whats your excuse?
http://deadmanrambling.com/
Consider yourself happy then. VG at launch was down right unplayable. What grinds my gears is I upgraded my pc so that it would be better then the recommended specs. and still pulled only 15-20fps. Now I will admit the game did become fun for me bout year ago or so. Leveled a disciple to 41 or 42. This game wouldn't be on its death bed though if SoE didn't release the game till October of that year. That's when they fixed the majority of the FPS issues and it was playable if u had the computer to handle it.
Teso so far is interesting. I just don't know if I want to commit to it yet. I feel the controls want you to be playing on a console. and since I have a ps4, im in a dilemma on what I want to do. Because getting a moba mouse would solve those issues for me, but that's the same price as buying it for ps4. UGH WTD WTD.(what to do)
The possibility of the universe collapsing into a singularity is higher than the birth of a perfect MMORPG.
Theres not much to write ... my sub is running out today. I had a yearwise sub, though. Havent logged in since over half a year now. Just had some problem with the game that made it impossible to run it, and never found the time to reinstall Windows.
Joined three weeks after the initial start and kept playing ever since except for a longer pause in between.Never did the hardest raidbosses. I did Summoner Physik, but none of the others. I managed to get a Wyven and a Griffon, though. Never the upgraded Griffon.
Never joined a hardcore guild - I'm not that young anymore and these people think gaming is a kind of work.
Never managed to get full Pantheon gear on my tank.
Never leveled out a diplomat. Had 6 tier 5 crafters in the end, though, but there was still work to be done (learning Galleons, learning Houses).
In the end, I think Vanguard could have been like WoW, if only they had not had the disaster with M$ and had to release early.
And in a couple months, it will be gone completely anyway, so - whatever.
Vanguard will shut down Jul 31, 2014
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/403628/Vanguard-Shutting-Down-July-31-2014.html
https://forums.station.sony.com/vg/index.php?threads%2Fwith-heavy-hearts-we-announce-the-sunset-for-vanguard.71211%2F
Yes, it is going to shut down soon(tm), but that will not stop the fans from declaring their love for VG!
Nothing will stop the determined fans! NOTHING!!! BWAHAHHAHAHAAHA!!!!!!!!!!
(need a RP server...)
The possibility of the universe collapsing into a singularity is higher than the birth of a perfect MMORPG.
My humble adobe. I loved this game .I loved the little boats I made that allowed me to roam about freely. I do not recall coming across any place I could not sail to or walk to except that continent teleport otherwise the world was huge. I played from launch and even made some discovery on the server I was on. Sad !!