I would probably pay real money for a double XP potion, but I'm also one of the players least in need of one-- the Monk is likely to hit 90 in the next week, and that once again will leave Rogue as the only class I've yet to get to max level.
As an aside, if anyone who reads this blog "gets" what makes a Rogue fun to play, feel free to point me in the right direction... to me it seems like a class built around a mechanic that just isn't that relevant to PvE group content. "You can gank people" isn't a big selling point for me.
But anyway, I wanted to talk about microtransactions.
Basically, I don't care about microtransactions. If I feel like a virtual item/currency is worth the money I'll usually buy it, if I don't then the point is moot. I used to say that this kind of thing would create a biased development schedule, where it's more "important" to create small new things to sell in the store than actual game content, but I don't think that's true unless the developer is really sleazy to begin with. Blizzard is still for the most part a developer I trust, if only because they are clearly so obsessed with their corporate image that they will let their fans keep them in line. Group mentality has its downsides, but following a crowd is a great way to avoid being marginalised.
Blizzard currently has eight million reasons not to make their game suddenly free, but I have to assume they are investigating any possible future revenue streams. I'm sure they're also looking very, very closely at all the other MMOS which managed to increase revenues by making the game free to play (or "Free2Play" as dumb people call it for some reason). For Blizzard, figuring out whether this might actually be true of their eight-million-subscriber MMO as well is a question worth literally billions of dollars.
As an aside, if anyone who reads this blog "gets" what makes a Rogue fun to play, feel free to point me in the right direction... to me it seems like a class built around a mechanic that just isn't that relevant to PvE group content. "You can gank people" isn't a big selling point for me.
But anyway, I wanted to talk about microtransactions.
Basically, I don't care about microtransactions. If I feel like a virtual item/currency is worth the money I'll usually buy it, if I don't then the point is moot. I used to say that this kind of thing would create a biased development schedule, where it's more "important" to create small new things to sell in the store than actual game content, but I don't think that's true unless the developer is really sleazy to begin with. Blizzard is still for the most part a developer I trust, if only because they are clearly so obsessed with their corporate image that they will let their fans keep them in line. Group mentality has its downsides, but following a crowd is a great way to avoid being marginalised.
Blizzard currently has eight million reasons not to make their game suddenly free, but I have to assume they are investigating any possible future revenue streams. I'm sure they're also looking very, very closely at all the other MMOS which managed to increase revenues by making the game free to play (or "Free2Play" as dumb people call it for some reason). For Blizzard, figuring out whether this might actually be true of their eight-million-subscriber MMO as well is a question worth literally billions of dollars.
Regarding the rogue, I felt the same way, my rogue was my one toon that was never going to get leveled... I'm not into stealth, I don't PvP, the whole class felt wrong for me.
ReplyDeleteThen I failed on my druid kitty. I'd tanked on my druid, even done some boomkin and resto, but I finally got around to trying kitty... and failed miserably. Horribly.
Even worse... I failed in public.
I tried to fix it, had friends who COULD kitty help out... no luck.
So, out of sheer desperation, I turned to my other toon who uses an energy/combo point mechanic, my rogue. I figured I'd play him until I learned enough to translate to kitty and that would be that.
Well, not so much. 2 months later, that rogue became my raiding main, shortly before the legendary was announced in Cat (yes, before, it was just a very happy coincidence). I became very good on my rogue and quite enjoyed the playstyle.
And, ironically, I got exactly zero better at kitty, so while I discovered a new, enjoyable, viable raid toon, my original premise failed completely.
What do I like about the rogue? It combines the best aspects of other melee classes (minus the monk, who I think is better) and minimizes the worst.
The thing I like most is that it's not a cooldown-based rotation. Paladins? Everything's on a CD, procs aside. Shammies? Pretty much the same thing. Warriors? Similar, although less so, I find warriors a bit less stuck behind cooldowns... stuck behind lack of rage is common, too. DKs? Rune tetris. Just another type of cooldown, one that you can't really make better, you can only screw it up and make it worse.
Rogue, though? No cooldowns in the normal rotation, if you have the energy or combo points for it, you can use it. It reminds me quite a bit of a melee version of the fire mage rotation. Hit 1 a bunch, keep a "DoT" up, after a certain period of time you hit the big bang button. The rotation is almost entirely within my control, not determined by arbitrary "okay, you pushed that button, now you can't push it again for 8 seconds" rules.
Would everyone enjoy a rogue? I'm sure not... the spam nature of the rotation would probably feel odd/simple to someone who's a master of the paladin, although they'd see some synergy with banking combo points and releasing a finisher.
For someone coming from a mage or warlock, though? I can see the rogue being a pretty smooth entry to melee combat.
Maybe I just like playing a little dude with little weapons who rapidly chops away at boss ankles or knees or ... lower ooze region, as the case may be.
Either way, I enjoyed it a lot when I was playing him. He's mostly been set aside because...
... I find monk to be similar but better in nearly every way... less annoying DoT to manage and the finishers seem to hit a lot harder than they do for the rogue, it just feels like a more dynamic, active rotation. But for someone who doesn't have a monk but does have a rogue, rogue is the next best thing.