Friday 29 November 2002

Pic of the day: Hunter with his kind and loving companion. "Aww, can daddy get a hug?" "Snrrrl!" "AaaAAARGH *gurgle*" "*chew* *chew*" (The screenshot is once again from Dark Age of Camelot.)

Assassin nerf, hunter love

Nerf! Nerf! If only the English language had more words like this, it would be more fun to speak. (It isn't all that bad to begin with, but it is better for puns than for the sheer fun of trying to pronounce the words.) Anyway, I have no idea where the word "nerf" comes from, despite repeated attempts to find its history. I suspect it has meant something entirely different from what it means in Dark Age of Camelot.

In DAoC, to nerf means to power down a class of player characters. It is always something that must be done carefully, because the players of that class are less than happy about it. If possible, Mythic has chosen to upgrade the other classes (I don't think there is a funny word for that, except "love" which I saw used in the latest main patch). But you can't upgrade all the classes just because one of them is slightly over the top. And so a couple days ago, they nerfed the assassin classes. (There is one in each of the three realms, slightly different, but less so than many other classes. Basically they rely on sneaking, backstabbing and poison.)

There are two reasons for nerfing them. The role playing reason, which was the official one, goes that an assassin should not be able to kill other classes in a fair fight, if they fail taking them by surprise. The unofficial reason is found by looking at the chart of top players: They kept hogging the top of the lists. I'm pretty sure Mythic watches those lists, and players sure do. (I discovered them by accident a week or two ago. As the "eternal newbie" I don't expect to ever make it to the top 50%, much less the top 25 players!)

So all of you who stopped playing because of the über assassins can come back now. ^_^ In addition, they gave the hunters some long deserved loving. Not least a loving pet.

***

I almost never play sneak classes. I played a scout (bowman) to level 6 or thereabout in Albion, and now I've done the same with a hunter in Midgard. The reason was that I wanted to see how hunters fared after the upgrade. I have to say that this must be one of the best classes for solitary people, who play an online game just because it is a good game and not to meet people. This class has some solid role playing background.

The hunter starts his life as a rogue. In Midgard, this means he cannot use hammers and swords, the weapons of strength. He can only use spear and staff. I think most non-mages would rather not be found dead with a staff, even though it is actually a good two- handed weapon. I certainly did not consider it when, at the start of level 4, my training sword had turned green (almost useless). I bought a bronze bastard sword instead. Not the most sneaky weapon, but then again the shadowblade (assassin) is the other side of rogue classes. I wanted to become a hunter.

Hunters are rogues who love the bow, and this is a love they share with the Norse goddess / giantess Skadi. Originally a giant but loved by the gods, she is the goddess of the ski and the bow and ruler of the wilderness. Such was her love for the wild that even though she married Njord, one of the gods, she could not abide in his home by the sea. She is also a goddess of revenge, but that's not played out in this game. I guess revenge is taken for granted here ...

The hunter gets the ability to use and train with the bow, and also a magic skill named beastcraft. With this magic, he can charm wild animals to do his bidding. There is a limit to how powerful animals he can charm this way ... if they are much more powerful than the hunter himself, the charm is likely to fail. They don't take kindly to the attempt, so it's a good thing the hunter also gets a speed spell ...

And for those occasions when there is no local beast to charm, the hunter can call on a companion provided by the goddess, a wolf that will fight for you to the death and never turn against you. The downside to this is that the wolf will always be slightly weaker than yourself, while you have a chance of charming beasts as strong as yourself or more. On the bright side, you can call on your wolf even in the middle of civilization. You can now even shout for your companion to come to you in the middle of a battle. That's something to move a role player's heart. ^_^

(Wanders off to make fan fiction.)