Templar

Alrighty.

After some hours I made it finally to my next class choice in Aion! As a warrior I could chose between the Gladiator and the Templar.
The Gladiator (http://aion.ign.com/wiki/Aion_Classes_Gladiator) seems to be the damage dealing tank. Like the berserker in Everquest 2 he is more offensive than the Templar and is also able to deal a lot of damage to more targets at the same time.
The Templar is the counterpart (http://aion.ign.com/wiki/Aion_Classes_Templar ) The typical tank as I would say. More defence skills and even healing spells and buffs make him to be the raids first joice as maintank and perfect meatshield.

So far I can tell you that I use a sword and of course a shield. By the way: Aion is the first mmorpg where you can see the effect of a shield. That means your toon holds the shield in front of its body to protect itself! Quite nice!
As a Templar I can use my shield as a "weapon" for stuns/dazes shieldrushes and knock-downs. I for sure deal less damage with the Templar compared to the Gladiator but I can handle 2-3 mobs same level quite easily. And I like the fact that Templars can improve their flight speed and airtime! (Not yet at level 11 but with higher levels)

Talking about flying: My chickenwings are just looking great and I really love to fly around and explore the places from high up in the air! It is even nice to take shortcuts from one npc to an other. Great idea and works fine!

Oh and I am so glad that I chose Kahrun server! No waiting time so far before logging into game! Although I got kicked out during the prime time - still no waiting! 2 thumbs up!

I also created an alt already...a priest on Castor server named Hammerfaust (but I can hardly play him because of the waiting) and a mage on Kahrun named Flameheart. Cant tell anything about the classes yet - no experience.

Aion

So I got Aion yesterday.

First of all: It is great!!

Alright. Installing and getting an account wasnt that difficult, patching worked fine for me. So I was ready to play after about 1 hour doing all the boring business.
Intro video was just awesome and really made me excited!! Nice story and great graphic! Quite catchy. But still I wasnt sure if to like it already or not but then I had to create my...
...character!! And I was just overwhelmed by all the tools and choices one has!!! I think like 37 (or more!!) different faces!! Almost as many beards, eyes, noses, mouths, ears and so on!! That is so great! Plus you can make your toon really big or small like a gnome!! A lot of different colours for your skin - green to violett or do you prefer grey or brighter?
So I guess you might already recognized I really loved the game from that point!! I could spend hours only creating different looking toons!!
Well, I created a Hulk of a warrior and was ready for my first steps in game!

So when I got in the game I was totally confused! So many toons of people who started in the same time like me. Quite a mess! But soon I was able find the first npc (who was just 2 steps ahead) and got my first quest! Awesome! If I remember right I had to kick some butts.
I really had no problem to get familiar with the interface so I could enjoy the lovely graphic!! I just love it! There is just too much to say about the beauty of the green grass or the colourful sky! Even the water is just perfect!!
Also nice effect: when I first drew my weapon the quite arabic music of the background changed to a battle chant I really like! Nice stuff!

Well, I am lvl 8 now after playing 3 hours. I guess I havent seen enough to tell if the game is really that great as it seems to be. But the story line is as far as I can tell good! The quests arent just grinding! It is also about stealing fruits or kicking some ghosts out of their graves by shacking their tombstones! (Really loved that quest).
The combat system is like the one of Everquest 2 (so far as I can tell) and seems to be good to me! Easy to handle and nice effects.
I also like the fact that you get quite fast good gear. Like I got a sweet shield, nice blunt weapon and good money! Also one can upgrade his gear with special stones which power up your health or parry changes!! Nice tool to be honest!!

I guess there are a lot of more things I could tell you already but I dont want to...Aion is waiting!!!
Oh and by the way: My name is Hammerfall, mighty and already feared warrior of the Asmodia. (Kahrun server)

Nightfall - Guild Wars

Last evening I decided to buy the latest expansion pack of Guild Wars - named Nightfall!
Since I could not get it in any shop, I had to order it via internet shop. (NCsoft - creators of Guild Wars and Aion) I expected the same (if not worse) conditions like I had to experience lately with SOEs Everquest 2 after I bought the "The Shadow Odyssey" pack. Talking about endless patches and so on.
After I finished my order the game asked me to restart it. So I started it again and very surprisingly there was NO patch, NO download not even an other click to do! Just entered password and I already had access to the Nightfall features like the two new classes, new starting area and so on!
That was a very shocking moment for me! Hey, I do not have to pay monthly fee of like € 15.-to play Guild Wars but get better costumer service than in other online games?! That is the way I want to play computer games!! No loss of time because of 12 GB patches! No loss of time because the game cant handle Vista! It is just awesome!
Hurray for NCsoft!!

In game I already tried the two new classes. First the dervish who is really not my type of playing so far because I have to keep up all the buffs and to me it seems that this class has way too many buffs...but maybe it is just at the beginning and after some levels I am quite comfortable with that brute warrior!
Then I tried out the Paragon. His weapon of choice is a spear which he throws. Seems very uncool to me but so it shall be. So my first impression wasnt that good as you can guess. But some foes later and a lot of "This is Sparta" battle-shouts in my head I really started to like that class! Anybody who didnt play Diabolo 2? Well, imagine the Amazone of that game and the paladin of Everquest 2 in one toon and you get the Paragon of Guild Wars. Quite funny to be honest!

So at the end I was really happy and pleased with my investment and will for sure stick quite longer with the new classes.

Shops

What I really do not understand is the fact that you hardly find any other MMORPGs beside around 100 World of Warcraft CD/DVDs/Prepaid Cards in most game shops.

I just checked out my local game store because I was about to buy an expansion pack of Guild Wars. Unfortunately there was not even one pack of GW. Nor of Everquest. I found 1 (!) LoTR online game, 1 (!) EVE online, 5 Warhammer online and about 10 Champions packs. And that's it. Thats it! Quite frustrating to me. The online world isn't just about WoW.
Well, I know that shops have to show an amount of World of Warcraft packs because of a contract with Blizzard as far as I know. But still there should be enough space for other games of that sort.

But even more annoying was that they weren't even able (nor willed) to order EQ 2 TOS or an expansion pack of GW. Thats quite a poor customer service.

So I got home and tried to order EQ 2 TOS on Amazone - same problem. "The game to want to order is not available."
Whats is going on with SOE? Dont they want to get new players? Or even keep old players like me? Downloading the game isn't possible (and for sure not my favourite style since I want to have the game as a DVD at home...hey, I grew up with the good old disc!) as far as I recognized the last 1 week. (Game kept patching and downloading endless data...)
ebay was my last chance and I am glad that I got the TOS there.

Hopefully I will get GW expansions easier...anyway I am going to shot some zombies in L4D...

Thinking about the problems I got with the installation of EQ 2 on my new PC, I am at the moment quite often playing Guild Wars 2. For sure its a nice and entertaining game. Thinking about the story line and the missions I have to master. I also really like the idea of playing with an NPC group instead of seeking players who are on the same mission as I am.

But still that is the biggest problem I got with GW (beside the old graphic engine and the lack of any race to chose). I play MMORPGs to meet and interact with real players. To get to know them and master the game with their help. Since I am a quite noobish player in GW still I dont care about the skill others have because for me its always more fun in a real group. Up to now (beside grouping with my RL friends) I grouped only one time for about 10 minutes with an other player...

I also really dont like the lack of a broker / auction house or however you would like to call it where players can sell their items to others. Such an economy system is for me a "must have" talking about MMORPGs.

What I definitely like about GW is that you can have a primary class (in my chase a warrior) and a secondary class (like I chose the monk). Its a great idea in my opinion since the primary class gives you the look (armour, weapon etc.) and you can still chose between a huge variety of skills you would like to use. And there are a lot! As far as I recognized I could have 6 different playing styles with my Warrior/Monk toon. That just awesome! At the moment I am deciding what would be the better combo. Paladin like: with a lot of self/group healing skills beside my warrior slashing skills or more like the Shadowknight of EQ 2 with his damage spells.
It is also a nice idea to combine the Paladine/Shadowknight skills what gives me a all in one warrior who is quite capable to deal with every situation but still weak thinking about the skill points I have to deal with...

Anyway, I guess I have to meditate about that while walking with my dog.

Blog startet

Teifl.

Jetzt mach ich mir doch die Mühe und starte einen Blog...
Keine Ahnung warum ich das mache. Vermutlich da ich zu feige bin und nicht die körperlichen Vorraussetzungen erfülle um als Stripper zu machen, da bringts vielleicht ein Innenlebenstrip auch. Wer weiß.

Nun, als Ziel setzt ich mir vor allem über meine Gedanken bezüglich PC-Games speziell MMORPGs und meine ganz persönlichen Entdeckungstouren durch Wien zu schreiben.
Mal sehen was daraus wird.

Greetz