Tank

An embarrassingly long time ago I wrote:

I've had good runs through difficult dungeons, where the team moved as one and nobody died, and the difference is largely due to the tank. A good tank makes a good run, and a bad tank makes a bad run, whoever else is on the team. It's that simple.

Well it's not quite that simple, but the basic point remains valid. Since writing that I have spent a lot of time as a tank, and am enjoying it enormously. I started with a warrior, but am now power-levelling a "tankadin" (paladin tank). She will probably be my first level 85 character — after nearly two years of playing WoW. This is possibly a record for slowness.

Paladins are a great class for naturally curious (or indecisive) people like myself, because they can fill every role in the game more or less well. They can heal and revive (but not as well as a Priest), deal damage, and take it in too (but not as well as a warrior); they can run up to a mob and beat the stuffing out of it with their hand weapons, or stand back and throw damage spells at it (but not as well as a shaman, mage or a warlock). I'm finding the combination of tanking plus being able to bless, heal and revive teammates to be great fun.

They do have deficits compared to more specialized classes (intentionally so, else everyone would just play a paladin and the game would become monotonous). Warrior tanks are much better at holding the attention of groups of mobs, and have instant long-range attacks in case they need to persuade a mob to leave their healer alone. I'm not sure whether I will stick with the tankadin; for now my plan is to level her up to my warrior tank and play both side-by-side for a while, to see which I prefer.

I think what I like about tanking — and this was true of healing as well — is the responsibility that it carries. The tank and the healer are responsible for the safety and success of the party, and bear all of the risk.To my mind there is no significantly less challenge in DPSing, because nothing bad can ever happen to the DPSer if the tank and the healer do their jobs well (assuming that the DPSers don't stand in the fire*). The only way that a DPSer can endanger the party is by getting carried away and pulling new mobs into an already complex fight, overpowering the tank and depleting the healer's mana. If they avoid that mistake, and it's easily avoided with a little common sense, the worst trouble they can cause is to slow the team down.

This is not to say that the DPSers are unnecessary! The role of the tank is not to kill mobs, but to make them hate him more than anyone else in the party. Without good damage-dealers even low-level fights would soon be lost, as the injury to the tank would slowly but surely drain the healer's mana dry. No DPS = healer OOM** = dead tank = wipe.

If I say so myself, I am a pretty good tank. In many of my runs, nobody dies — which is as big a boast for a tank as it is for doctors. Updated In the interests of truth and keeping my ego in check, I should mention that tonight's trip to Gnomeregan wiped once and lost two players in single incidents.

* WoW shorthand for "doing something incredibly stupid."
** Out Of Mana, unable to cast any healing spells.

Title.

Introduction.

Declarations of tiredness, frustration and exasperation.

Wry comment.

Exogenesis

I seem to have become a roleplayer in SL. I went to see the Exogenesis "dark sci-fi" RP sim created by Aloxis Bellman, Rin Tae and others, intending only to have a look at the design and gameplay aspects, but got caught up in a storyline and have decided to stay and play it out.

What happened was this: I had introduced Rin to Tarmel, who is researching RP and immersive gaming, and Rin took Tarmel to Exogen to have a look. Tarmel then offered to show me around, but forgot to tell me a crucially important piece of in-character information: leaving the central zone (where new characters arrive) is free, but it costs you a power cell to get back. Now, new players can collect a free power cell for the asking in that central zone, but I didn't know to ask and Tarmel didn't think to tell me. So we went off to an outlying station, where she left me.

At that point, I was stuck. TPing is severely frowned upon within Exogen, to the point that repeat offenders are expelled from the game. As an observer, I could of course have simply TPed back to the starting point and ignored the in-world sanctions. I could even have had one of my alts sign up and fly out to rescue me.

But for some reason, I didn't do either of those things. I decided to join the RP and remain stuck on the station until I could find a "proper" way back. To which end I seem to have signed up to become a medical technician.

I'll keep you posted.

Playing

It's been a busy month. I have joined a meditation/discussion group called Play as Being and have been quite caught up in the conversation. And in working there too: I am Ringmaster of a small team that is implementing an automatic recording and publishing system, to simplify and speed up the process of logging discussions at PaB on their website.

I will probably have more to say about PaB in future, for now I am still feeling my way in and learning the peculiar ropes of Taoism- and Buddhism-based existentialist debate. (A recent example: "There is no 'I'." — followed in the next breath by "I'm reading the notes." How droll.)

The biggest perk of being a Guardian at PaB (impressive title which means that once a week I am greeter and recorded of notes for a discussion) is that one may claim a parcel of group land to build on. I found a lovely little sandbar with some palms and a few large rocks at the shoreline, and have built a tent there.

That will have to do for now, my dears, it's feeding time and after that is my exercise hour. I hope you are all happy and healthy, and that your collars do not chafe.

Busy

My buddy Lorac has been making skins to sell in her shop Pulse, and Corvi and I have been up late every other day for two weeks "test-driving" them for her. Curse the round world and its timezones!

They are lovely skins, quite beautiful, handpainted in a great range of skin tones* and makeup styles — and different appearances of nipples too! Some will be available with freckles, which I like, and she has promised to make a few with the appearance of real lived-in skin: moles and marks and little scars. They are still prototypes so I can't post photos yet, but they should be in the store this weekend!

[Update: they are indeed up, and Eidolon blogged about them, with pictures. (Warning: virtual nakedness. I don't know why it should be necessary to say that, but apparently it is. Sigh.)]

In other news I have also been working on my Cushicle, and it too is progressing quite well as far as appearance goes. The body is made, and has working canopy and propeller; I still want to improve the inside fittings though, to make it softer and more comfortable. I want it to feel more like a living room in a holiday house, than a vehicle. Unfortunately, there is a maximum of 31 prims in a vehicle! I have only three more prims with which to complete the interior furnishings. /me muses quietly.

The Cushicle's flight script is still terrible, though. It will not fly straight up or down, but always moves forward or backward at the same time — randomly! And while flying it changes attitude, its nose sometimes points quite steeply up or down. Ah well, at least I will have something to do this weekend.

* Clarification, to avoid confusion and unhappiness: Pulse released one skin tone last weekend, a lovely light tan in sixteen makeup variations; Lorac is now working on the second tone which will be a Nordic type, a healthy pale-pink skin.

Happy

I have been in a good mood all week, without any particular reason to tell. Or perhaps with many tiny little reasons that all add up to happiness. One thing that makes me happy is simply being busy, I like having things to do and people to do them with.

I am starting to make good friends in SL, to my surprise and pleasure, and have begun to prepare a home of my own where we might meet — and dance! One of the first things I did was to set up a tango dance animation pair. Watching myself dance in SL has made me want to begin dancing again in RL too, I should join a tango club and take some more lessons this summer.

Corvi and I are in the process of starting a kind of literary magazine in SL, loosely modelled on the New Yorker magazine: our desire is to present good, interesting writing which will be in but not about SL, as the New Yorker is not actually about Manhattan. This is still in very early stages, we are talking about what we would like to do.

My buddy Eidolon has started a business making skins and jewelry, and will open a store soon with a friend of hers, an artist who makes clothes, accessories and furniture. It's been exciting and quite amusing to see them working together, preparing the store; Corvi and I have been advising them on prices because they just have no idea, Lorac had set everything out far too cheaply for the quality of her work. Their store has a blog of its own, and is found in-world at Nip Tuck Island.

And I am working on a little building project: making a very slow vehicle. It will be a kind of flying sofa with cuddle and sitting poses, sleek like an airplane on the outside and satiny on the inside, with wood grain and soft furnishings and cut flowers, something like a mobile gazebo. I will post some photos here as it progresses.