After listening to an episode of The Instance, I decided to bring 2 more of my characters along for the Garrison ride. Turpster discussed how he was casually leveling other characters he might play at some point later via garrison mission quests. It also afforded him the opportunity to take advantage of garrison buildings that were different than the ones he’d constructed in his main character’s garrison. Hmm, sounds like a good plan to me.
I had a hard time deciding which of my characters to boost to 90 when I purchased WoD but ended up using a Shadow Priest. I figured I’d choose a melee hybrid for a change of pace and access to other crafting professions for the next character. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out as I’d hoped.
Weightless
I’ve played many new MMOs since my heady days in WOW. Some of which have introduced new classes and combat mechanics I love. In particular, GW2, Terra and ArcheAge utilize more active combat styles and weighted weapons. This is especially evident in melee combat. Your weapon appear to have weight. They're heavy. You feel the concussive reverberation of blows. It feels like melee combat should feel. I’m swinging this bag ass sword and when I hit shit or ram you with a shield, I bloody well know it!
Conversely, WOW combat feels lighter than air to me. I only know I’ve hit something because damage text is flying and animations are flickering. But I don’t feel any of this. I might as well be hacking with a feather for all the difference it makes. There’s also a sluggishness in movement which feels very pronounced to me if I’ve recently been in AA. The characters don’t feel as responsive as what I’ve become used. These two issues combined played havoc with selecting a second character.
No. No. No!
I just knew I wanted my Druid in the mix. She is the last character I made in WOW 5 years ago and the one I’ve used each time I’ve come back to see a bit of an expansion. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t like her in bear or cat form. The combat felt off. Initially not understanding why, I thought maybe I don’t like Druid anymore after playing Guardian in GW2 and Paladin in AA.
I switched to my Paladin and the same thing happened. I was like WTF and jumped on my Deathknight which didn’t feel any better. That’s when I decided to step back and think about why I wasn’t enjoying any of those classes and that’s when it hit me. The same way I’m no longer accustomed to standing still as a caster, I’m not accustomed to weightless melee combat. To test the theory, I hopped on my Warlock and it was fine. Didn’t like standing still but the combat at least didn’t feel awkward or alien. Hrm, another caster it is then.
Garrisons for 3 Please
Oh well, I really wanted a melee hybrid but I wasn’t feeling any of them so I used the paid boost service to jump my Warlock, a class I haven’t touched in 5 years at least, to level 90. I liked many of the class changes. While other options were a bit overwhelming all at once and I need to read more about the when/why of using them. She was at least fun to play and might – just maybe, unseat the Shadow Priest as my main character. I’ve gotten her to Shadowmoon Valley and am working my way to where I left off with my Priest before deciding. Regardless, I make sure to do missions, resource gathering and other daily tasks inside both of their garrisons a couple of times a day.
As for a third character, it will be my Druid. She was already level 88 and even though I don’t enjoy the way the combat feels, I can do it enough to get her to 92 and then park her inside her garrison. For the alts I’ll only do the daily profession tasks, gathering and missions. This will level them slowly and let me experiment with lots of different combinations of building types.
Off to play for a bit. I’m thinking of parking the other two characters in order to race my Druid into her holding pen – err, garrison.
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