Time and Tides

I have a very cyclical life; part of the year, I have a lot of free
time, hanging out with practically no money, I play a lot of computer
games, watch TV, and do some work I won't see any money for for months.

Part of the year, I'm away, working in locations where there are no
phone lines, with a cell phone plugged into my computer giving me
roughly double dial up speeds at best, but unreliable; I might get
disconnected three or four times an hour. Not crippling for Usenet or
the like, since I tend to reconnect within half a minute, but pretty bad
for EQ purposes.

And then there's now; I'm at home but work picks up, I'm managing a
dozen employees, two (soon three) businesses, helping my wife with her
two businesses.

My time in front of the computer drops, and a bunch of it turns into
bookkeeping and so on rather than gaming.

Even when I can game, I'm a lot more tired, and less interested in
challenges or constant action; I want something more laid back.

What I'd normally do at this point as far as EQ goes would be to create
an alt and play the low level game some; always less stress and pressure
at the low end.

BUT I'm sitting here with an opportunity, I have an MT class who's the
highest level MT in his guild. I'm in demand for groups, I'm prefered
as MT on raids.

I'm playing an SK, which means that all things being equal, a warrior is
going to get the MT nod over me; only because I'm several levels higher
than the closest warrior am I getting picked for the job.

That won't last, though, the level cap on Combine is 60, even if I level
up, eventually I'm going to hit the wall, be unable to level, and the
warriors are going to catch up.

I was hoping that by then, I'd have performed brilliantly as MT often
enough that I'd remain a likely choice for all but the rare "must use
defensive" type encounters.

But I didn't reckon with this part of my work cycle. SK MT is a busy
busy thing, unlike the classic perception of the tank, where you just
hit autoattack and relax, I'm forced to cast and taunt, wriggle the mob
around for position, nearly every second of a battle I'm doing
something. I swear I'm doing more clicking than I did on my bard!

Even in groups, half the time I end up as puller as well as MT; I might
not be the best group member for the job, but I'm the most willing, and
that really counts for more than you'd think. Trouble is, now I'm less
willing, I want to sit on my butt for the few seconds it takes before
the next mob arrives and just chill!

Maybe I should take this opportunity to make an alt even though I'll be
giving up on my MT dreams. After all, I did get there, I've MT'd raids
and groups... all I'm really giving up is more of the same, and in a
way, less of the same, by quitting now I won't have to face those
warriors muscling me out of my slot!

Whats a nice relaxed class? Cleric I've done (plus, sadly, I know
enough about the class to realize that there are tons of things I could
be doing rather than just sit on my butt and heal occaisionally... I
probably wouldn't be able to relax). Mage I've done. Necros seem like
a decent choice, but I've done mage -and- SK recently, Necro seems like
a combination of the two.

How about Wizard? That was one of the classes on my short "I haven't
done this" list. And it seems to me that it involves a lot of sitting
around, not a lot of choices.

Another thought, I could just sort of coast for a little longer, and
then start over on a normal server with the new race from the new
expansion. I love Combine, love the idea of lower level limits, of less
level 70 "junk" on level 20 toons, love the fact that we'll be swarming
into Velious in serious numbers so it won't be a ghost zone like it was
whenever my other characters decided to go play in CC or Kael.

But a new race will mean lots of low level start over people too, and
new zones will mean decent crowd levels in those zones. It could be a
Combine type experience all over again. Except for the twink gear and
the high level PLers, and Temp. Bleh.

Berg, 57 SK, Combine

Lance Berg <emporer.RemoveThis@dejazzd.com> wrote in
news:EeydnW8iX-lw13HZnZ2dnUVZ_tadnZ2d@dejazzd.com:

> Another thought, I could just sort of coast for a little longer, and
> then start over on a normal server with the new race from the new
> expansion. I love Combine, love the idea of lower level limits, of
> less level 70 "junk" on level 20 toons, love the fact that we'll be
> swarming into Velious in serious numbers so it won't be a ghost zone
> like it was whenever my other characters decided to go play in CC or
> Kael.
>
> But a new race will mean lots of low level start over people too, and
> new zones will mean decent crowd levels in those zones. It could be a
> Combine type experience all over again. Except for the twink gear and
> the high level PLers, and Temp. Bleh.

W00t! Alts do, in fact, rock.

The new race does interest me as well, but the one sticking point, as you
mention, is the presence of insane twink gear on the normal servers. Remove
that (hell, take it from my own moderately twinked alts in the process) and
I'm back on Stromm faster than a dwarven warrior can chug a mug o' mead.
It's just no fun when you're only motivation is to grind out levels to
catch up with the gear you've been using since you rolled, or to farm money
to *buy* stuff that will put you in that very same boat.

The Combine is awesome. It truly is a return of when I started playing EQ
with much of The Vision's (TM) dark side improved. Each class is still able
to make meaningful contributions to encounters without the inflationary ill
effects of high-end class progression and itemization.

I have seen the future of EQ, and it is it's past - at least for me,
anyway.

--
Richard Carpenter
"Write something worth reading, or do something worth writing."
-- Benjamin Franklin