Epic and Rare Abilities - Now there's a thing
Sunday 19th November 2006, Eastern Plaguelands
Whilst continuing my now laughably protracted quest to gain the Darkmoon Amulet (I think I'm in month 6 now!), running through the fetid and torn Eastern Plaguelands; slashing my way through Plaguebats, the monotony got he better of me and my mind wandered.
As with previous ideas I have posted here I use WoW as my template, simply because this is the MOG I have most experience of. The ideas put forward are more generally aimed at all MOGs.
Obviously the intention behind my single handed attempts to erradicate Plaguebats from WoW entirely is to gather enough of their juicy eyes to turn in at the Darkmoon Faire for an Epic reward. As I cut down the 100th bat or so of the evening and my mind began to wander I couldn't help but wonder if this obsession over obtaining ever more elaborate gear in WoW was missing a trick.
Why not mix things up a little by including, much like recipie drops, talent/ability drops?
We can all, in WoW at least, customise our characters to a degree by our selections in the talent tree. However we are all able to do this in equal measure, that is we all have the same number of points to spend at the same level.
We also all have the same abilities (for a given class, and assuming you've spent the Gold on learning them). What seperates us in the biggest way (as far as I see), is the gear we wear.
So how about allowing players to stamp that bit more individuality into their characters by providing rare drops from mobs (probably bosses) which give class specific, and perhaps general, abilities. Like quests for Epic or Rare items these abilities would obviously not be easy to obtain - reserved only for those who dedicate the time and/or effort.
You could also impose a level bracket outside of which these abilities where unavailable. So if you were to decide between level 40 and 45 you didn't have the time to get the level 40 ability for your class, this would be lost to you forever. So even at 60 players of the same class would not necessarily have the same abilities.
I suppose WoW begins to implement this kind of idea by providing buffs for completing epic quests such as handing in Onyxia's head - but these are short lived.
That's just my 2 cents of course. What are your thoughts? Once again do other MOGs implement this kind of system already?
Whilst continuing my now laughably protracted quest to gain the Darkmoon Amulet (I think I'm in month 6 now!), running through the fetid and torn Eastern Plaguelands; slashing my way through Plaguebats, the monotony got he better of me and my mind wandered.
As with previous ideas I have posted here I use WoW as my template, simply because this is the MOG I have most experience of. The ideas put forward are more generally aimed at all MOGs.
Obviously the intention behind my single handed attempts to erradicate Plaguebats from WoW entirely is to gather enough of their juicy eyes to turn in at the Darkmoon Faire for an Epic reward. As I cut down the 100th bat or so of the evening and my mind began to wander I couldn't help but wonder if this obsession over obtaining ever more elaborate gear in WoW was missing a trick.
Why not mix things up a little by including, much like recipie drops, talent/ability drops?
We can all, in WoW at least, customise our characters to a degree by our selections in the talent tree. However we are all able to do this in equal measure, that is we all have the same number of points to spend at the same level.
We also all have the same abilities (for a given class, and assuming you've spent the Gold on learning them). What seperates us in the biggest way (as far as I see), is the gear we wear.
So how about allowing players to stamp that bit more individuality into their characters by providing rare drops from mobs (probably bosses) which give class specific, and perhaps general, abilities. Like quests for Epic or Rare items these abilities would obviously not be easy to obtain - reserved only for those who dedicate the time and/or effort.
You could also impose a level bracket outside of which these abilities where unavailable. So if you were to decide between level 40 and 45 you didn't have the time to get the level 40 ability for your class, this would be lost to you forever. So even at 60 players of the same class would not necessarily have the same abilities.
I suppose WoW begins to implement this kind of idea by providing buffs for completing epic quests such as handing in Onyxia's head - but these are short lived.
That's just my 2 cents of course. What are your thoughts? Once again do other MOGs implement this kind of system already?
5 Comments:
Actually, World of Warcraft already provides several skills that drop only from instances. For example, rogues can get a new rank of Eviscerate from Upper Blackrock Spire assassins. Mages can get better conjured water from Dire Maul and better bread from Stratholme. Improved skills are available for all classes in Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj. Druids, paladins and shamans can get idols, librams and totems to be used in the ranged weapon slot, which improve their abilities.
In addition, the useable trinket system of WoW argueably implements completely new skills for all classes. For example, there is a trinket that grants you temporary invisibility. There's a trinket that allows any class to Sprint like a rogue. There are shields, combat pets, deathrays, nets, bombs...
Finally, there are several wearable items that provide an extra skill, like a helmet that lets you Charge, a set of boots that lets you Sprint, a shield that grants you Slow Fall..
i agree with shalkis; trinkets are where the individuality is at for now.
it would be nice, however, to see more items in other gear slots with "use:" abilities like he mentioned.
as a protection warrior, i would love a shield that did something as mundane as boost armor temporarily, or even something quirky like reduced fall speed; anything to play with during downtime, you know?
these kind of abilities could add even more depth to gearing for certain encounters in the future.
My Warrior had to do a bunch of quest to get Defensive and Berserker stance.
My Pally had to do a quest chain to learn Resurrection.
My Warlock had to do quests to get her Infernal.
And I know Hunters have to catch their own pets (ala Pokemon) from the field.
Don't get me wrong here. I am all for customization and making the game a unique experience and not just a grind it out hack and slash fest.
But consider this, would you want to have to kill a million more bats to get that "Epic" spell? And besides, the game already is so gear dependendant in PvP. Could you imagine if players could get Epic spells and abilities that basically trumped other players.
Can you imagine the whining that would occur when people get out geared and out spelled.
How many people complain about epic'ed out players just basically destroying them over and over in PvP. These epic spells would only increase the gap between newbs and vets even further.
Might I suggest farming the scorpids in Silithus for your Amulet of the Darkmoon grinding. They drop Glowing Scorpid Blood and can also be skinned for Rugged Hide for Rugged Armor Kit Darkmoon turn-ins as well. If you're not a skinner, then well, happy bat-slapping.
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