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Back in september, Frogster released chapter two of Runes of Magic. It brought a new race (Elven) and two new classes (druid & warden). Short after release I had tried a druid to level 10 (pro: it heals, contra: it heals). Still on my todo list was the warden. Now I found the time to log on again and add the warden as a secondary to the druid. Soon I realised that the warden should be the main class and that the warden/druid combo burns mana. Further: the warden had no ranged attack. But I knew, that the scout as secondary adds a nice ranged DoT (vampire arrow). So I deleted the warden/druid and instead created a warden/scout.
This combination resembles the WoW-warlock as well as the WoW-hunter. Like the warlock, he has strong DoTs (vampire arrow & thorne vine). The oak pet is as good a tank as the the blue garbage bag aka voidwalker. Like the hunter, the W/S uses bows and wears chain, the oak pet may be comparable to a bear pet in WoW. Anyone having played a necromancer in Age of Conan knows, how valuable a real tanking pet is (In AoC, pet aggro added to your aggro – your pets attacked a mob, mob sees pets, thinks “There must be some necromancer, I’ll kick him!” and attacks you instead of the pets).
I tried the warden/scout on my default low level bosses:
- Hungry Greyce (Things that go bump in the night): with other combos I had soloed this with level 9 or 10 (Greyce at level 8). The W/S can do it on level 8.
- Anglie (Final clue): This was done at level 12 or 13. Unfortunately, when clearing the area from the kobolds, I aggroed Anglie and the fight started with some nasty kobolds around. The combined dmg of vampire arrow, thorne vine and the pet killed Anglie fast enough so I survived with about 25% health – enough to clean up the remaining kobolds.
- Redeye night bear (Blood sacrifice): Quite easy, just let the pet take the aggro and then double DoT.
- Yuri (Scheming Yuri): Now confident of my powers, I tried Yuri (lvl 15) when I myself still was level 14. Unfortunately I was too fast with nuking so I got aggro and had a hard time running around and drinking healing potions. Nevertheless, pet and nukes killed him finally.
The W/S can usually pull 3 mobs of the same level: attack one with the pet, pull a second with vampire arrow, pull the third with a normal shot and dot it with thorne vine.
Little hint: Other than in WoW, your pets don’t remember their active skills. You must remind yourself to activate them whenever you summon your companion.
Conclusion: for the friends of pet classes, the warden is a good choice. I’d guess it shall be a good solo class and some kind of (off-)tank in group play. In the forums, there are voices stating, that it becomes weaker in the end game – but I’ve no patience to try it to that point.
Over at TAGN I stumbled into an discussion on pro and contra RMT. I don’t know, if someone had noticed, but I promised to collect some harder numbers. So I took out the credit card records of the last half year. Here we go:
| WoW | AoC | Eve | RoM | theHunter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| month played | 12 | 3 | 3 (*1 | 4 | 1 |
| Fix | 55€ (*2 | 50€ | 5€ | ||
| RMT | 82€ (*4 | 19€ | |||
| credit left | 17€ (*4 | 3€ | |||
| subscription p. m. | 12€ | 14€ | 15€ | (*3 | |
| total | 199€ | 92€ | 50€ | 65€ | 16€ |
| avg. per month | 16,58€ | 30,67€ | 16,67€ | 16,25€ | 16€ |
Footnotes:
- After some pause I’m back in with a different subscription interval, so I only count the current subscription.
- 20€ WoW-Classic + later 35€ BC.
- I have no subscription but play as a guest player.
- This includes one (already abandoned) toon I started in open beta and two current toons which both have a horse and some enhancement stuff. I do not plan to consume up the remaining diamonds in the near future.
I’m surprised… …how much I’ve spent into digital puppets 
And how close all the games are (with exception of AoC due to expensive launch day price and short play time).
Observation 1: The monthly total of subscription based games (WoW, AoC, Eve) will converge to the subscription fee. On the long term you have very constant costs.
Observation 2: The RMT-games will be more expensive, if you play often and extensive, consuming a lot of item mall goodies. They are cheaper if you play irregularly. As long as you have some self-discipline and as long as the RMT-game is a bit balanced, they are not more expensive as the subscription games. In my opinion, RoM and theHunter do a good job, RMT-wise.
To all the discussions: As Tobold, Saylah and other said: every price is relative. For instance, I do not cook myself, because the pizza at the italian restaurant is cheaper than the time I need for shopping and cooking multiplied with my net wage. Plus, I can read a book while waiting and the food in restaurants is better than my own 
Ten dollar or euro for a horse may sound a lot. But remember your first WoW mount? Guess you played 6-8 weeks for it (unless you have rich friends), making it worth around 15-20€. And as I wrote some days ago, the skill to fly a Covetor in Eve Online costs about 20€ subscription time. Maliciously said, Eve is a RMT-game disguised as a subscription game. You buy time as the item shop currency and exchange it for skills (conspiracy theory: did you note, that time and item are anagrams?). Nothing else you do with diamonds in RoM, but you have not to wait like in Eve.
I think of RMT as a way of deciding deliberately and of my own, how much and what (money or time) I invest into a game. In an subscription system I personally feel pressed to “make the most of the paid time”. A good RMT-system gives you the freedom to play like you want, but also the obligation to use that freedom wisely.
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