No, the title of this post does not refer to my faction grind with the Minmatar Republic. Over the weekend I managed to draw two security storyline missions and a mining storyline mission and my standings are now at 9.79. While getting a mission to gather 8,000 units of kernite was disappointing I'm happy overall with my progress. What I'm starting to wonder is if my selection of characters in MMORPGs has hindered my enjoyment of the genre.
The heretical thought that I could possibly make a mistake came up while I played Neverwinter over the weekend. In EVE I'm heavily concentrating on the grind so I head over to Neverwinter for some easier, more relaxing play. Neverwinter is a pretty good game. The combat is more action oriented with no tab targeting or click targeting but I'm able to bumble through the fights okay. The multitude of currencies in the game lead to some interesting possibilities that I haven't fully explored because Neverwinter was originally intended as a second game to play while waiting on EverQuest Next and Wildstar. And the crafting mechanic is much like Star Wars: The Old Republic's except it doesn't serve as big of a money sink. Did I mention Neverwinter has a website that you can do in-game transactions and manage your crafters from outside the client? Pretty cool stuff, although I do wonder about the security.
But the biggest difference was when I deleted my Trickster Rogue, a DPS class, for a healing spec Devoted Cleric. The Devoted Cleric just feels right. For those who don't play, the Devoted Cleric does ranged DPS and healing is done, at least up to level 23, using heals over time and placing debuffs on mobs that heal anyone who attacks them. In combination with my NPC tank companion I'm having a lot more fun than I did with the Trickster Rogue.
That got me to thinking about the way I play EVE when I decide to run a security mission, which I generally hate doing. I dual-box, with my combat main Rosewalker providing DPS against big targets in a battleship while my industry pilot Wandering Rose provides fleet bonuses/gang links and anti-frigate support. Over time I've started to prefer Wandering Rose over Rosewalker, even to the point of doing the faction grind with her.
I then thought back to all the games I spent any significant time in (sorry Warhammer). In World of Warcraft I played a paladin, which involved a lot of healing. I still remember one fight when I was grouped with a rogue in the Plaguelands that probably lasted 5 minutes because a houseful of mobs respawned on us in the middle of a fight. That was a satisfying fight and he was impressed. In EverQuest 2 I got off the support wagon when I was invited to a guild on my ranger and so that became my main in EQ2. I leveled the ranger up to 80 and just played DPS for over 3 years.
I've spent some time in other games since moving over to EVE Online as my main game 4 years ago, most notably Star Wars: The Old Republic. In SW:TOR I played a Smuggler up to level 37 and an Imperial Agent into the high teens before abandoning the game. Both of those are DPS classes. I'm beginning to wonder if I had played a healing class, even if the story wasn't as good, if I would have actually stuck with the game. Sure, SW:TOR has problems, but was the tipping point that I'm just not a damage dealer trying to play damage dealing classes?
Right now I'm having so much fun in Neverwinter that I'm considering joining a guild. I probably won't because in a couple of weeks I plan on starting my new character PvP experience in EVE and that will involve joining a corp. Joining two player guilds/corps at the same time is probably not a good idea and EVE takes priority. But I think on my EVE mains I should move Logistics V up in the skill queues just to feel more comfortable.
