Thursday, May 24, 2007

Dedication & Commitment

Its been a slow week for Galo and will be till the weekend. With a 12 hour daily work schedule not much focus time to play daily even if i log in just pretty much checking on things AH or a quick buy or make some pots for selling.

Galo been playing WoW for 4 months now and have learned a tremendous amount of things in that time about WoW, been a Blood Elf and playing a Paladin. Much of what i've learned I either learned playing solo or doing research which lead me to many other people's blogs. Learning to be a better player was a personal commitment as a player than just fumbling around World of Warcraft in the begining. Its the same approach i took in learning to play Secondlife to become a great builder of architecture and sim landscaping & developement in Secondlife. Dedication to learn something or constantly get better at it over time.

When i started playing WoW i bought both the TBC Strategy Guide and the World of Warcraft 2nd Edition Strategy Guide same time. First week i completed reading both books front to back. I had picked Paladin class. Though it took a little while to understand what a specilization was i choose to spec Protection. Realize later that as that spec it took longer to level, but i was ok with it. Been like a turtle in a shell had a appeal to it, hard to kill vs been high on burst damage. I picked both Alchemy and Herbalism as profession and Fishing as secondary. I work in Chemistry in Biotech in real life so they both had a appeal i understood.

Since that time i'm still a Protection Paladin, i've reached 60. In the begining lvl 60 seemed ungodly to reach. I've never really had to respec to change my spec. I did had to respec the the talent point once because i placed points unattentively in wrong area one time. I have the same 2 professions i've always had and all close to been maxed skilled. I've gotten better as a player because people much smarter people than myself write blogs of the game and figure out all the math. I just come along doing research and stop by and read which informed me of what i was unaware of and allowed me to become a better player. Don't make me great in anyway, but i guess even if its just a game i took the time to learn to be a better player.

3 comments:

Sylvina Solaris said...

I am a huge believer in picking something and sticking with it in the beginning. I stumbled around and half-assed a lot of talents on my rogue at first, then I got more serious with my spec and it hasn't changed since. Sometimes I dream of being a Retribution Paladin or whatever and such, but I'll roll an alt before I change my spec. I feel deeply rooted in things like that, mostly because I'm a roleplayer. I'd need very strong character motivations/changes to switch from one spec to another, a friend's character I inherited went from arms to fury, and it was simply because his character was in a fit of rage over the loss of a loved one, and so I went down the berserking/fury route. I'm weird like this, I know.

Kaziel said...

From an almost pure player's (non RP I mean) perspective, playing just one class, even a hybrid, really limits you. Not in the sense of you don't get to experience everything, but by having a more rounded out playing knowledge you can better play your class. For those who never play in groups (the Dark Mattter of WoW) this is fine, but if you ever plan on doing 5-mans, having an understanding of other classes though having played them helps a ton.

Take warriors for example: Warriors generate rage though two methods: dealing damage and receiving damage. A tanking warrior will generate most of his rage through the latter. If a priest puts a PW:S on him, he's starting off the fight not taking damage, so he's not getting rage. It's little things like this that go against common sense which are where problems arise.

At this point I've played up to 70 each major archetype: DPS (mage), Tanking (prot pally), and Healing (holy pally), and played at least a little of each job, and in some cases upwards of 30s or 40s. I will admit an incomplete knowledge of certain classes (specifically hunters and druids), but by having a well rounded knowledge base you can best work with your allies when you need them.

Ardent Defender said...

Dedication and Commitment can mean alot of things. Dedication to one's accepted class or role or profession. I'm dedicated to been a Paladin more so a Protec spec. I like what i choose and staying protec spec is what i have chosen to become a master/specialist of if in the sense one can master their role or becomming the best at their accepted role. Thats dedication to something in idea. I have dedication to my profession in craft. Dedication is choosing to get good at it understanding my craft and supporting others with it if need be.

I find in WoW more often than not people can be flimsy at their chosen class/profession and jump classes at the drop of a dime. My DPS sucks gona roll something else, i can't sap people, no fun, re-rolling. Leveling taking too long, whats a easy class i can level, re-roll. Hey i want to do burst DPS like that, re-roll. Gee i re-rolled and its not what i though, going back to my deleted character. Ahh No dedication. Everybody seems to wants what's easy or popular thats how lots of people seem to play. Hey, my profession not cool enough, i'm dumping it and starting all over that other one seem more cool. Duh??

Very little Dedication or Commitment to even when the going is tough to stick with it and keep going. If its no fun its no fun! That seem like a lot of players in WoW. I don't play paladin because its cool or easy, Paladin is far from easy. I know i can be a exceptional good paladin and help out where i can if i can even in my spec, because i know i can be good at it. That's Dedication to my Class.

There are not enough good serving Paladins. I'm just trying to be a good one. Even if i solo alot. Yeah i'm one of those players that play in the DARK MATTER of WOW also.