Back at launch, I had a lot of affection for playing a Warrior with Alchemy in World of Warcraft. Sure, I missed out on some cool weaponry along the way, but it was worth it just to have access to some nifty healing tricks at a time when that was hard to come by. It also made me appreciate consumables quite a bit as something to actively use, not something to squirrel away endlessly until a hypothetical rainy day showed up to really require every healing potion I’d ever found.
Of course, this was in stark contrast to my first MMO, Final Fantasy XI, where healing items like potions were rare and expensive, but food was almost mandatory for every single activity. It was also in contrast to City of Heroes, where consumables were dropped for everyone and in constant demand. And the original Guild Wars barely even had consumables as I thought of them.
Lots of games do different things with consumable items, and I fondly remember Star Wars: The Old Republic’s always-usable stims in its launch version. But today, we want to see the best of the best. Which MMO do you think has (or had) the best consumable items? While you’re on the topic, what sort of features do you see as important for consumables?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
