Despite my fond memories, I find myself hating this game sometimes.
Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 9:31 am
I came back to it months ago after coming down with a bad case of 'Member Berries. I played RoR some time ago, before T4 opened, but ended up drifting away due to various reasons. I got an itch and decided to check it out again late last year, reading forums and watching videos/streams of people playing. I always liked the Warhammer Fantasy universe, and I enjoyed the larger RvR scale of the game. Taking keeps, roaming, the notion of a world of PvP that lacked in World of Warcraft for me and no game had really captured other than Dark Age of Camelot.
At first, I tried returning to my old characters. My Marauder, 40/28 was a disaster. Absolutely getting creamed everywhere; RvR, scenarios, everything. I tried my Witch Elf, which was 40/36 or so and is now 40/38. Same story; my damage is pitiful, my survivability is even worse. I've watched so many players show off their skill with Witch Hunters and Witch Elves, jumping someone and just murdering them without pause. I watch and think "Hey, I could do that". But then I try to emulate and I just can't make it work for me. So, I thought maybe melee dps isn't my thing. Maybe I could try tanking.
Collateral was very polite and patient in giving me advice with playing a Black Orc, which I managed to hit 40/40 with. I followed his advice through 99% of my BO career, spec'ing and gearing purely for tanking. At 40, I decided to give the dps BO a try and, as my thread on the Greenskins forum showed, that did not work well. My damage was awful. My survivability was awful. Even geared as pure tank, I don't feel tough enough. And, I don't particularly like just being a brick wall standing there. I like being a threat. I understand that I need the dps gear to play a BO that way, but in the meantime I feel stuck playing as a pure tank that doesn't feel particularly tanky and isn't the playstyle I wanted anyway.
So, for the past few days I've been bouncing around trying to find something that can work for me. I tried my Marauder again, but that hadn't gotten any better. I thought I had found a bit of success on my Witch Elf, hitting 1k+ punctures, but I guess I was hitting targets that weren't wearing any gear or anything because since then I've been hitting around 450. I have a 28 Witch Hunter that I've played, and I haven't been able to get that to work for me. I thought maybe if I could get enough mastery points to pick up Burn Away Lies, the fun would kick in but getting there is like dragging my tongue over broken glass. I also have a 28 White Lion that I tried. I thought, surely as much as people say this class is over the top, I could make it work. But no. Still no damage, still can't take any hits. I tried messing around with a 2H Black Guard in T1, but if anyone looks at me I melt faster than even my BO without a shield and as a tank I kind of have to be on the front line. But, what if the front line isn't that place for me? I switched over to Squig Herder and Shadow Warrior, both I had around rank 15. Still can't make it work. Every career seems so easy and fun when I see others play it but the moment I try it out, it turns into hot garbage. I know that's not the fault of the class and that responsibility is purely mine, but it's still a bitter pill to swallow.
I know it's not the actual case, but I can't help but feel like my combat log always looks like this after my death:
You attack Enemy with your Attack and deal 0 damage. Actually, less than 0. Your attack somehow healed him.
Enemy looks in your General Direction. He deals 100000000000000 damage to you. And to your family. And to their pets. And to everything you've ever loved.
You have died.
Scenarios feel like such a chore, beating my head against a wall for ten minutes at a time to maybe get 1 emblem. Mostly I pug, and I know the game isn't designed for that but my hours of playtime make it difficult to really coordinate with a group. My BO does run with a guild group when I can, but I often feel like I'm something of a seventh wheel. I don't know why I can't make it work. Collateral and ragafury and others have taken a lot of time and given me a lot of helpful advice. I just... I don't know. I can't figure out what I'm good at in this game and it drives me up the damn wall sometimes. Open RvR is fine if I'm zerging, but then I feel like I'm just riding other people's coat tails. Usually I just end up standing around not doing anything. Standing idle at a battle objective watching ticks go by, spamming Hold the Line, meandering about trying to find some stragglers to pick off, standing on a wall trying to look threatening.
I always sort of had it in my mind that I'd have this career I'd have a lot of fun with and get good at and I'd join groups and people would be like "Oh hey, it's Darrell, awesome. Things are so much better now." Like I'd be a valuable tank or dps or whatever and I'd feel like I was contributing in some meaningful way. But that hasn't happened. The only attention I've ever managed to draw to myself is being called out for being hot garbage. And I know I'm hot garbage but I'm trying to make something work.
This isn't a rant about anything in the game, or a career, or the other people playing it or anything like that. None of that is a factor here. The devs have done a great job bringing this game back to life, the game has a lot of great people playing it and I've been fortunate enough to speak with a few of them. It's the fault of no one and nothing but myself that I've been plagued with so much frustration with the game. I want to love it so much, I want to enjoy it so much, but every time I log in it's like the game is just kicking me in the balls for hours on end. Streams and videos and forum posts make it seem so fun and I just want to grab my monitor and scream "WHERE IS THE FUN? TEACH ME YOUR BLACK MAGIC, WIZARD!". I just have this constant feeling of dread over me like unless I'm Rank 40, Renown Rank 70, BiS geared, with full talis, fully potted, with two guards and two healers welded to my limbs like some bizarre Voltron that I can't be of use. Honestly, I suspect that if I had a class that had infinite health, did infinite damage, with infinite number of attacks per round, I'd still botch it somehow. I don't know how you people do it, I really don't.
I just wanted to get this off my chest. It's been a rough time. But I appreciate those of you who do make the game look fun. I enjoy watching your streams and videos, and reading your forum posts.
TL;DR: I want to love this game but it's like a drunk lover that beats me and keeps asking why I make it hurt me.
At first, I tried returning to my old characters. My Marauder, 40/28 was a disaster. Absolutely getting creamed everywhere; RvR, scenarios, everything. I tried my Witch Elf, which was 40/36 or so and is now 40/38. Same story; my damage is pitiful, my survivability is even worse. I've watched so many players show off their skill with Witch Hunters and Witch Elves, jumping someone and just murdering them without pause. I watch and think "Hey, I could do that". But then I try to emulate and I just can't make it work for me. So, I thought maybe melee dps isn't my thing. Maybe I could try tanking.
Collateral was very polite and patient in giving me advice with playing a Black Orc, which I managed to hit 40/40 with. I followed his advice through 99% of my BO career, spec'ing and gearing purely for tanking. At 40, I decided to give the dps BO a try and, as my thread on the Greenskins forum showed, that did not work well. My damage was awful. My survivability was awful. Even geared as pure tank, I don't feel tough enough. And, I don't particularly like just being a brick wall standing there. I like being a threat. I understand that I need the dps gear to play a BO that way, but in the meantime I feel stuck playing as a pure tank that doesn't feel particularly tanky and isn't the playstyle I wanted anyway.
So, for the past few days I've been bouncing around trying to find something that can work for me. I tried my Marauder again, but that hadn't gotten any better. I thought I had found a bit of success on my Witch Elf, hitting 1k+ punctures, but I guess I was hitting targets that weren't wearing any gear or anything because since then I've been hitting around 450. I have a 28 Witch Hunter that I've played, and I haven't been able to get that to work for me. I thought maybe if I could get enough mastery points to pick up Burn Away Lies, the fun would kick in but getting there is like dragging my tongue over broken glass. I also have a 28 White Lion that I tried. I thought, surely as much as people say this class is over the top, I could make it work. But no. Still no damage, still can't take any hits. I tried messing around with a 2H Black Guard in T1, but if anyone looks at me I melt faster than even my BO without a shield and as a tank I kind of have to be on the front line. But, what if the front line isn't that place for me? I switched over to Squig Herder and Shadow Warrior, both I had around rank 15. Still can't make it work. Every career seems so easy and fun when I see others play it but the moment I try it out, it turns into hot garbage. I know that's not the fault of the class and that responsibility is purely mine, but it's still a bitter pill to swallow.
I know it's not the actual case, but I can't help but feel like my combat log always looks like this after my death:
You attack Enemy with your Attack and deal 0 damage. Actually, less than 0. Your attack somehow healed him.
Enemy looks in your General Direction. He deals 100000000000000 damage to you. And to your family. And to their pets. And to everything you've ever loved.
You have died.
Scenarios feel like such a chore, beating my head against a wall for ten minutes at a time to maybe get 1 emblem. Mostly I pug, and I know the game isn't designed for that but my hours of playtime make it difficult to really coordinate with a group. My BO does run with a guild group when I can, but I often feel like I'm something of a seventh wheel. I don't know why I can't make it work. Collateral and ragafury and others have taken a lot of time and given me a lot of helpful advice. I just... I don't know. I can't figure out what I'm good at in this game and it drives me up the damn wall sometimes. Open RvR is fine if I'm zerging, but then I feel like I'm just riding other people's coat tails. Usually I just end up standing around not doing anything. Standing idle at a battle objective watching ticks go by, spamming Hold the Line, meandering about trying to find some stragglers to pick off, standing on a wall trying to look threatening.
I always sort of had it in my mind that I'd have this career I'd have a lot of fun with and get good at and I'd join groups and people would be like "Oh hey, it's Darrell, awesome. Things are so much better now." Like I'd be a valuable tank or dps or whatever and I'd feel like I was contributing in some meaningful way. But that hasn't happened. The only attention I've ever managed to draw to myself is being called out for being hot garbage. And I know I'm hot garbage but I'm trying to make something work.
This isn't a rant about anything in the game, or a career, or the other people playing it or anything like that. None of that is a factor here. The devs have done a great job bringing this game back to life, the game has a lot of great people playing it and I've been fortunate enough to speak with a few of them. It's the fault of no one and nothing but myself that I've been plagued with so much frustration with the game. I want to love it so much, I want to enjoy it so much, but every time I log in it's like the game is just kicking me in the balls for hours on end. Streams and videos and forum posts make it seem so fun and I just want to grab my monitor and scream "WHERE IS THE FUN? TEACH ME YOUR BLACK MAGIC, WIZARD!". I just have this constant feeling of dread over me like unless I'm Rank 40, Renown Rank 70, BiS geared, with full talis, fully potted, with two guards and two healers welded to my limbs like some bizarre Voltron that I can't be of use. Honestly, I suspect that if I had a class that had infinite health, did infinite damage, with infinite number of attacks per round, I'd still botch it somehow. I don't know how you people do it, I really don't.
I just wanted to get this off my chest. It's been a rough time. But I appreciate those of you who do make the game look fun. I enjoy watching your streams and videos, and reading your forum posts.
TL;DR: I want to love this game but it's like a drunk lover that beats me and keeps asking why I make it hurt me.