and now a gaming update...
They're leavin me. Most of my net friends went to Final Fantasy when that cracked open online. Haven't heard from them since, and that was months ago. Now Lineage 2 is suckin in peeps and most recently City of Heros made the scene and even more people I met in Ac2 are droppin off for new worlds. Can't blame them really. Ac2 is pretty dead yet its like anything where ya got a 60th-ish character, yer godly yet the game content is kinda ending. In my early days I was an elementalist in Ac2 hoping to attain some of goodness i had in EQ as a pet wielder.
Ac2 handled pets better thats for sure but right around 45th lvl or so I respect'd, renamed to Barry and embraced tactdom. Setting up turrets and eating xp was the way to go. I endured hard times as a tact when the class was essentailly broken and very few tacts were out there. I liked that, being something rare. Then tacts got fixed and it was good, we were powerful again and the power leveling consumed a many great people. I rode the levels up and at 57 or so I was gettin bored of standin around mowin crap down. I started to respec slowly, basically tweaking the class a bit, go missile, maybe melee, go magic. That was fun being this odd cross breed of a character. Finally at 59 I switched back to the elementalist, they got a big revamp a few months ago and I was curious what a highlevel elementalist would be like. Being a tact definately spoiled me, its too easy bein a tact, set up turrets lure mob, kill not but sheer power or strategy but because yer pets have 6k in health and will eventually eat a mob with 10k in health. Now bigger mobs 40k in health and upwards you still could die to fairly easily.
The real joys of the tact for me were mowing down multiple sub 5k hp mobs. I loved that. Most solo mobs are geared around typical hp that players have, so 1.5k max typically. Those are fun. Yer turrets got 6k, and you have 2 of them. It just works, but its boring as hell at times, and u'll never move, you cant yer not meant for mobile groups.
So enter the elementalist. Pets have 1-1.5k in health and are varied, some melee, some ranged, some weather related, thunderstorms, volcanic rifts, hurricanes and fiery clouds of doom, options galore and alot to manage. Its been down right a mess lately attempting to adapt. Mess with the class some more has caused me to totally rethink how i should play vs solo and groups and power leveling bridge action.
Oh ya the bridge. In my guild we have the bridge like 3 or more times a week we share a bridge with other guilds on the server. Located in the Chaos Plane, the bridge is an area where non-summonable turrets can be summoned and it rests just on the outskirts of 70th lvl mob groupings. The bridge is about one thing, power leveling. All the tacts go there to set up guns and sleep heh. Its mind numbing xp. I can only take it in short sessions really, its one of the things take killed me as a tact. That plus levels 60+ and higher in game really have no place to go no need to go higher other than u can. Sure higher lvl u can hit mobs a little better but still, theres no 60+ bad ass skill to get. Its just going and going and going, actually there is the lore issue, more xp more lore, so ya ok theres that. Still overall tacts rule the wastelands.
Anyways the elementalist is much harder, is it more fun? After I broke away from how I thought gameplay was supposed to work ya. Great in groups, really do some nice damage in groups. Solo just isnt fun regardless of what class ya are 58+, mobs even if they are soloable per say still can kick the utter crap outa ya.. i mean they're 58th lvl and all. Its doable but its like the game sits there and reminds you 'oh ya u can solo but we'll make sure you hate it..',
Lastly theres the bridge. On the bridge I do fine but lately i dunno its like "yer not a tact any more get out" again its the power levelers creedo, do whatever you can to level, whatever you can. People in yer group are just suckin yer xp, even if they contribute, they're not essential, not like tacts are or sorcs to debuff or rangers to pull. Waste is bad, cant express lvl like mad, get rid of it. Luckily its ok cause i cant stand the bridge other than to burn an hour or so for some xp and then i wanna get back to messin around, questin, and doin groups.