Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas!

Try not to eat too much of your chocolate selection box and drink too much of that single malt whisky.

YakUI Addon

I am constantly tinkering with my user interface to try and squeeze every ounce of my meagre PvP skills out. A while back I tried the YakUI release of add-ons, which are excellent. But to try and improve frame rates I deleted them all. I recently just upgraded my graphics card so went back to re-install YakUI.

I was hugely impressed by the installation and ease of use this time round. After you copy the files across the add-on sort of installs itself. It describes what you must do to scale your resolution and fonts then logs you out.

Then when you log back in it gives you a menu of the extra enhancements you might want to make and also gives you a tour of your new swanky UI with little arrows explaining each part. I think Mythic should give the creator a job as the whole installation was excellent!

I moved my war band grid to the middle of the screen in this screen shot as when I play a healer, I like to see what is happening and the little green bars at the same time. I plan to move guild chat in the right space.

Battle Kegs

I was playing in tier 3 today and we were trying to take a keep, the outer door went down and we piled in only to be stopped by a keg in the door way. You can run and jump over it, but the more people get stuck the more congested the door way gets. Some are calling this an exploit, but I love the ingenuity of players and thought it added a little extra to a standard keep siege.

Once ‘Keg End’ is over I wonder if ‘Mythic’ could actually introduce a barrier which can be constructed by players. I think it would still need to be jumpable, and take a good minute to construct and should only be allowed to have 1 in a given distance to another one, but it could add an extra element to PvP.

Maybe they could even extend the idea to have pools of damaging lava, or explosive aoe traps to slow players down. All the above needs to take time to plant and maybe even take the effort of a group of players, but you can imagine it being used as traps in troughs of terrain or at choke points.

I can just picture it now… you’re standing just over a hill with your war band goading the other side, then they charge with a bomb squad only to be slowed down by a snare trap and decimated by your ranged DPS.

12 Days of Mythic - Wrap up!

So they have done the wrap up and the winners get some cool stuff. Every so often I keep my eyes open for a price drop on the collectors edition so I can get the extra stuff, like the comic and figure. I wish Games Workshop would bring out more limited edition figures of the classes in War.

10 days of War

Heartless_Gamer is trying out the 10 day return to ‘War’. He is up to day 2 of his return, and both posts seem balanced and come with some excellent observations. I wish I could write stuff like this.

One observation is copying the Land of the Dead mix of PvE and PvP and duplicating it throughout the game. This works for LotD as it doesn’t attract the zerg because it does not contribute to the main RvR zone locking mechanic.

Would the public quests and small scale RvR still work as well if there were part of the zone locking? Or would the public quests and small scale PvP just get lost in the hordes of players?

Grumpy

To be honest I am a bit grumpy with War this week. I have been trying to play my Squig Herder and Shaman, and they keep getting stuck in looping animations which don’t fix until I change zones. So when it happens at the beginning of a scenario or doing a dungeon it can be very annoying.

The ‘1.3.3 Producers Letter - Bruce Maclean’ didn’t really inspire and spent a little too long dwelling on the past.

My effort to give away a 60 day time card also epically failed with not one entry, so I guess I’ll just use it myself.

I’m off to torture a goblin; I wonder how long its entrails will stretch out, so I can use them for catapult wire to launch a Snotling at a keep wall. Maybe the sounds of TWANG.., "Ouch!", SPLAT! Will put a smile on my face.

Warhammer Alliance Podcast Episode 21: One Shard, One WAR

The latest Warhammer Alliance pod cast is up and I had the pleasure to fill the fourth spot. I would like to say a big thank you to the podcast team for making me feel welcome. I wish I could just put on my slippers and don a bubble pipe and turn up each week and listen to all the chat and murmur agreement.

Listening to my own voice though, makes me want to crawl into ‘The Bile Lord’s stomach and pull his intestines over, so I can hide.

Kiss the rock

For a few months now, Destruction on ‘Karak-Azgal’ has been dominant. But since the transfers from ‘Eltharion’ it has flipped and massive Order war bands are everywhere and it is lots of fun.

This means our guild might not always be able to take/defend keeps but we can always find a good fight. Tuesday was no exception the number of players in ‘Caledor’ was staggering. After a few hours you feel like a ‘Snotling’ being repeatedly smashed into a rock by a ‘Black Orc'. But like the sick ‘Snotling’, I secretly like the attention and violence.

Spin

I have been playing in tier 1 a lot lately with a friend who is trying out the free trial and I have been surprised by the amount of people running about. Even when I played in tier 2 the number of war bands and battles around were the most I have seen.

I know War has seen a decline in the player base, but I wonder how many players the unlimited free trial has introduced to the game. Over the next month or so I could imagine Mythic releasing a press release based on this. DDO did it with announcing the increase in player based by percentage. Lord of the Ring did it with the amount of characters created.

Mythic could spin it any number of ways to percentage increase in people trying the game, new characters created or new accounts. Even when these announcements are just spin, it still creates a positive murmur around the community and gets your games name in the press.

60 days European Prepaid Key Competition

I was browsing in my local Game (UK Gaming retailer) and came across a Warhammer European prepaid 60 day game card at a slightly reduced price. So I bought it and plan to give the code away. So if you want to have a chance at winning the code you need to do the following:

• Write a post similar to this one or this, outlining key strategic points about either a battle objective or keep.
• The post should be around 100-500 words and in English.
• It should also follow a similar layout with looking at its location, terrain, and engagement possibilities.
• Only enter if you don’t mind me reposting it on this site (of course I’ll also state who wrote it.)
• Email your entry to 'oneshard@googlemail.com'.

My favourite will receive the 60 day prepaid code sent by email and have their entry posted on the blog. The next 5 runners up will get there entries posted on this blog over the next few weeks after the winner has been announced.

The competition deadline for entries is 18^th December 2009.

Don't turn around.

Trying to login to my main character of late has been difficult. I have 3 more destruction alt’s on the go. A Disciple of Khaine and a Shaman who are both 20 (I wanted the Cold One and Wolf mounts) and a Sorcerer around level 10. I am also undecided which healer to take to 40 as both have completely different play styles.

A few of my friends are also trying out the endless trial. At the moment they seem to like the accessibility of scenarios. We even rolled order alts on Karak-Norn. So I now have a level 7 Witch Hunter called Thlint (Flint was taken). So if you see me feel free to stand still and give me sweet renown.

The endless trial seems to be working well for tier 1 as most of the public quests have people running them and scenarios are popping like crazy. Last night on our order characters I don’t think we spent more than 20 seconds out of the scenarios. It is good to see how the Witch Hunter class works as well as they have killed my Choppa enough times.

Fight long fight hard all the way from level 1

Thought I would make my own Warhammer Online video showing game footage from level 1 to level 40. It is not to advertise any kind of uber skill but to try and advertise the game. They say player word of mouth can do more for a game than expensive marketing, I was able to capture the game play after the improvements Mythic added in patch 1.3.2. Please watch and add some kind comments and ratings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Re40YJJaI

Third faction and a single vision.

Over at ‘Warcry’ there is an interesting article about ‘World of Warcraft’s’ 5^th year anniversary. The interview comes across as quite honest and open. Something I’d expect from ‘Mythic’ rather than top of the heap ‘Blizzard’ (remember when Jeff Hickman talked about War’s mistakes).

http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/interviews/6773-Five-Years-of-Warcraft-Speaking-With-Blizzards-Rob-Pardo

It was interesting how ‘Warcraft’s’ vision has changed since development in its launch and even up through its 5 year life. This seems to be shifted due to time constraints, player demand and the market.

Even in War’s short life span we can see this in a magnified way, from the loss of cities due to release schedule. Too the inclusion of RvR influence system and players dropping tokens in an effort to entice more players into RvR while they level.

What I think we are yet to see is ‘War’ changing due to other MMO releases. I am not sure how many times it has happened in ‘Warcraft’s’ life cycle. The only contributing effects I think have been the release of ‘War’, (please feel free to point out others) with inclusion of PvP experience and battleground queuing from anywhere.

This might be the fact that when the likes of ‘Darkfall’ and ‘Aion’ were released 'War' was too young and had only just been launched. Or as with the release of ‘Aion’, ‘War’ seemed almost glad not to be in the spot light so they could concentrate on none sexy improvements.

The article also mentions the decision to take ‘Warcraft’ in the e-sports direction and the problems they faced. I wonder if ‘Mythic’ ever wished they had stayed with the three faction model like ‘Dark Age of Camelot’.

What I also took out from it that an MMO’s vision and direction can be quite fluid. I remember the sales pitch ‘Warcraft’ had with inclusion of world PvP. Could ‘Warcraft’ been a better product if they had just stuck to PvE content. Maybe the constant balance issues and efforts taken up by PvP might have been used in improving its world and PvE offering. I imagine we might have seen more classes and even more hero classes.

If I was ‘Mythic’ I would take these lessons and pick a vision and stick to it. Forget PvE and focus on RvR and add variety. Even with the inclusion of a third faction, would this improve RvR as this later stage in ‘War’s’ life? Could effort wasted in creating a new faction and new zones associated with this go into creating a more varied experience. Does ‘War’ need siege weapons and realm balancing? Would it be better to hone the city sieges and make fortresses a key part of the campaign rather than a third faction with new classes?

I know the third faction seems important at the moment. But as an existing player, do I want another side to reroll as, or just more to do with my level 40 characters. Even if we got the third faction what would all those returning players once they hit 40 in the new faction find? I guess the same game but with more sides. ‘Mythic’ has shown us in the past they can think out of the box, maybe it is time they show us a new shining light which is not the third faction.

Denial, Waaagh and Revenge

So this is my third try at writing this post since the news about the redundancies at Mythic. I have gone through the classic symptoms of denial, Waaagh and revenge. The letter from Jeff Hickman did little to alleviate my concerns as it made no mention of that ‘still getting funding’, ‘hope for the future’ word… expansion.

My heart goes out to the staff that had to leave Mythic. But at least they can say (though I imagine it gives little too no comfort) they contributed in making War such a great product. Not many games released of late can say they contributed to the original ideas pool for MMO games.

I am not a maintenance mode player but for the moment I am staying on the roller coaster ride of War as the game is still a lot of fun for me. Saying that I actually think War has spoilt me with regards to my expectation of an MMO. I am no longer willing to accept playing through all the levels to reach an end game which is a totally different experience. War has shown you can have a game which is fun and accessible and does not necessarily need to change at level cap.

In resent months I have looked to see what has changed in the other games I used to play. I gave ‘Age of Conan’ and ‘World of Warcraft’ a month each, the later to play with my friends in instances, but I always just wanted to login back to War.

Like I said War has spoilt me, in those other games my choice of what to do is limited. I can quest, do their versions of scenarios (which are both limited) or wait around looking for a group in an instance. War for me at least offers so much more variation, and it is immediate! I can login for 20 minutes and feel like I have accomplished something. Whether it is getting my influence for a public quest or just 20 minutes of killing, the whole experience is friendly to the casual player.

So as I look across the MMO landscape I don’t seen much hope for other games which can offer the same accessible, fun experience like War. Aion looks nice, but I don’t fancy having to PvE through lots of levels to get the chance to PvP (before War I might have give it a go…).

I have tried Lord of the Rings but again I think I am tired of this generation’s type of PvE where quests are just a hub of exclamation marks. I only actually use quests in War while no RvR or scenarios are popping or I just plonk myself in a public quest. Even Eve Online which I consider to be the greatest MMO out there requires significant play time to be involved in PvP.

I hope EA know the gem of a game they have and continue to fund its expansion. With ‘Star Wars, The Old Republic’ for PvE and ‘Warhammer Online’ for PvP they could have two very cool offerings in their MMO portfolio.

City Siege Action

If you look at the War blogs and forum’s there is a lot of negativity around the changes to the removal of fortresses. A lot of servers are experiencing multiple city sieges a day. This was not really intended for the game so Mythic are introducing some more changes to try and alleviate the problems. It is a shame the removal of fortresses coincided with the performance changes as the performance fixes brought a lot of positive aspects to War, so much so I have actually been able to successfully Fraps a lot of the action in game.

My play time is limited at the moment therefore I missed out on city sieges in the past and the change has actually allowed me to participate with my guild to attack and defend the cities.

Monday night in particular was an excellent session, we had fought in Dragonwake managed to crash the server and on at least two occasions battle objectives bugged out and took a second count down to flip but destruction managed to lock the zone so as an alliance war band of 2 and a bit groups we all joined the same instance in Altdorf. We were out numbered in the instance so we accepted the fact we would loose and just played to have fun. Moving quickly to flip flags and hide in buildings to pick off smaller straggling groups from the main order masses. Sure we got caught a few times and order started to notice a pattern in our movement which just meant more skirmishes and death. It was one of my favourite nights in War from epic zone battles to mini instance skirmishers.

Bouncing

Last night in tier 4 on Karak-Azgal the RvR was bouncing. Eataine was on the brink of a zone lock for quite some time but Order kept popping up too steal an objective or two. Our own alliance managed to form a full war band and Order was everywhere so we had some good fights.

A few people on Ventrilo suggested this post might have shaken order up who have been complaining about the destruction zerg for weeks. I am not exactly sure how much of a role the server forums take in War. I for one rarely visit the official forums and instead lurk around the Warhammer Alliance ones, which for me have more of a community feel. The main reason for this I think is the forums existed before the game was released therefore a community has longer and more reason to establish. I think the official forums came too late and they might have been better off actually linking the Warhammer Alliance forums and establishing some kind of official link.

The real reason for the renewed activity in War could be the live event as we all know Order are loot whores but in my opinion it is patch 1.3.2 and the action point fix have made a huge positive difference in tier 4 RvR. No longer do I just spam abilities. Fights are lasting longer and I have to actually think more and be more careful, to come out alive.

Welcome back to War

A while back I posted an entry on how I thought War was on the up and I still think that patch was a good start. It was the time when Mythic stopped adding and started fixing. Since then we have had a number of patches which in my opinion has improved War adding polish and improvements as well as tweaks to the game to improve things.

I agree with Werit and Bootae it is a good time to come back to War, but I might suggest just wait one more patch. As I think between now and then things will only get better, Mythic even seem to be hot fixing improvements now, which for me is better than big patches spread out.

When I created an alt and logged in for the new player experience I was greeted with the following screen, which outlines all the improvements they have added. I think my favourite addition has been the second ramp in keeps. All the keep sieges I have participated in have been manic!

Just thought I would also add my favourite screen shot I have at the moment which became the blogs banner. I seem to have caught Scission in an almost deflated state. This with the dark clouds approaching from behind almost tells a story of foreboding.

Realm pride by statistics

When you speak to most Dark Age of Camelot players if they are not endlessly harping on about 3 factions they gush over the feeling of realm pride.

Now I don’t to even pretend to know the answer to instilling more realm pride into War. If you are winning at the moment most people just point to the zerg and if you loosing there seems to be common theme of I quit remarks.

The War web site does have statistics on what the current snap shot of the realm looks like and it does have leader boards. But these are cumbersome to use and don’t tell a story of those epic struggles to take an objective.

Over at www.worldoflogs.com I jealously explore the amazing amounts of statistics they collect from World of Warcraft instance runs.

Take this example it shows DPS against a boss in an instance. You get to see how the group has done and it even shows markers throughout the boss fight. Of course the statistics can be viewed in a multitude of ways which can be DPS done and damage taken, healing statistics and a whole lot more. The whole web site is so easy to use and quickly brings up any statistics you want.

Imagine if War had this kind of log site. You might be able to take a particular objective and show the flow of battle. Then post the links on the server forums of a battle were your war band managed to hold out against insurmountable odds. Maybe have bragging tables of the most active and successful guilds over the past week!

War's facilities

So a lot is happening in War at the moment. I could comment about the interesting musings over at Bootae about possible expansion leeks.

Maybe I could join Zizlak looking at 1.3.2 and make comments about the War patch?

Instead… I was in tier two and notice Mandred's Hold has its own toilet. With one fatal design floor! They placed it outside the keep. Some of those sieges can take hours! What is a goblin to do when nature calls and the forces of Order are trying to break down your keep door?

Sometimes I wonder why I write this blog. But now I am wondering if any other keeps have there own facilities. All I need to do take out my tier 4 character on walk about, so I can get round quickly… I knew once day it would bite me on the behind! Damn you chicken mechanic! Damn you to hell!

New user experience video's

So the new user experience is here! So I rolled a Witch Elf to see what it was about. As stated every race starts in the same zone, but you also get a cool scroll which transports you out of the new player experience. I played for around an hour and thought the experience did well to help the most green of none MMO players get to grips with the game. Hopefully bringing more people into the War fold so we can kill them over and over again until they scream into the night and clutch their teddy's.

I took a few videos and posted them here. Note you need sound for the posh voice.

What would have been good to see was the same posh lady describing what to do at the start of each scenario in tier 1, and maybe even a little blurb on your character class role.

Recruit a friend

So the new user experience is on its way and the price for War has been lowered (which are both good). So what is missing to bring more players to War? Well in Europe we still don’t have the recruit a friend that has been running in the states for what seems like years. With the patch 1.3.2 on its way this would be a good time to recommend a friend. I have already bought two friends copies of the game we just need to organised a week of computer’s, booze and RvR.

What also looks good is the 1.3.2 patch seems to bring with it performance improvements! Check out Werit and Shadow War for more details.

Healing in a keep.

You may have noticed I started a Zealot alt a while back. She was enjoyable to play but did not have a glitzy mechanic like the Shaman, or have the personality of the green skins.

A while back I created a Shaman to use if my friends ever tried War. He was still waiting at level 5 so I decide to give him a spin. 10 enjoyable levels later and I am still finding it fun and easier to level than my Chosen. I am keeping all the staffs I find and putting them in my bank as I find they, like the race have a lot of personality and a lot of work seems to have gone into them.

Today I got into RvR for the first time in tier 2 with him and found myself a war band leader. Like most of my outings in tier 2 it was extremely enjoyable, we swapped objectives and keeps with order in the chaos coupling. We won a few objectives and managed to beat order back. Once all the objectives were taken we decided to take the keep, which was fortified with order. We got to the keep lord and wiped due to a strong order defence. Instead of the usual stragglers being taken out as your side get whipped into submission the war band grouped up outside of the keep and tried again together moving as one force. We made it to the lord again and again order wiped the war band. The third time was a charm, and order again tried to wipe us, they succeeded but the lord fell in the last moments, the Raven god must have smiled on our lost souls. So we returned to clear out our keep, 2 epic hours later we swept the last of the enemy from the doors of the keep.

Healing in a keep attack and defence has given me new respect for healers in War, the whole 3 hours was quite stressful and full on. When I have played a tank or melee DPS you get time to take a breath in these situations, but not when I played as a healer. There was always someone taking damage or needing resurrection. The layout of the keeps doesn’t help as well with dead and dying players around walls or down stairs. That coupled with team members over extending themselves out of healing reach, calling out for resurrection without location details or just my ineptitude. The job is difficult and challenging but enjoyable.

A can of warrior priest.

So my venture into the Da' Savage tree for my Choppa, just didn't seem to cut the mustard for him. He doesn't want to return to the path of Da' Wrecka so soon after leaving, even if it is as fun as using a dwarfs beard to clean your pots and pans! ( while it's still attached to the dwarf )

So still wanting to explore ways of killing (it's not as if it can explore it's feminine side) we would focus and go for single target damage on healers. Who knows what a warrior priest keeps inside that armor! (could it be a toy?) So here is the spec, our only regret is there are no specialized two handed weapons for this job (see picture). The main focus is using lot's of bleeds and No More Helpin' to try and stop them healing themselves and if they try to run, they will still be taking damage while you catch up.

What do you think, any suggestions would be more than welcome.

While we are here somethings on my mind (you might want to close the door or pull the curtains over). Imagine a Choppa wanted to explore other avenues maybe to do with keys and a bowl. As your can't start a boar with keys (there is no ignition) do they just throw in their Choppa's and if so... what does that even mean?

Daemon Moon Rising

So we are getting to that time of the year when the twin moons Morrslieb and Mannslieb are high in the sky and the blood in your ooze ridden veins makes you do things even more horrid than sprouts with the roast dinner or skin on your gravy.

Mythic are giving use a new live event called Daemon Moon Rising. It has a few items from the last year’s event Witching Night and a new public quest ‘The Daemonball Rally’. It gives a nod to blood bowl and lets you kill and play skull football.

I am glad they are not just re-releasing last year’s event which looks positive for future events.

Breaking up the Zerg?

For a small organized war band the zerg can be annoying. You try and take a keep or lock a zone and the whole of the opposing side tier 4 players are all over you like mucus on a well used blade.

The tier 4 zones are a decent size, but the problem is each has a flight path smack in the middle. So any force can respond very quickly, which is good as Mythic’s aim has been War War War… But it also means the zerg might as well stay together as once they wipe a war band the other is only a snotlings throw away.

I wonder what would happen, if 2 out of the 3 flight paths in a race coupling was disabled or moved to a far flung PvE camp. Could this slow the zerg down or at least split it up. The smaller war bands then could at least try and take two objectives out at a time and have a little more time before the zerg wave crashed over them.

If we wanted to add a little more strategy to the campaign we could even allow the players to disable up to 2 of the flight paths by completing an objective near the camp. This might help split up war bands to respond to multiple threats but still allowing the War War War to happen.

Loveable?

At the moment my time in Warhammer has been limited. I am still playing I have a Shaman who I am comparing against my Zealot.

I find him more amenable. His starter zone is better and he has a touch of the comical about him. Early on his mechanic seems more interesting, and reading on the forums the views tend to be positive about them later on. With posts like 'I love my Shaman'. Which I think is a first for a MMO class.

Bootaes Blogger Challenge! What is YOUR ultimate MMO group?

Bootaes has issued a challenge so here is my ultimate MMO group.

Tanks

Spot 1: Warhammer - Black Orc

This was a difficult selection as the Chosen looks so good. But ever since I rolled a Warrior Priest and saw a Black Orc lumber over the hill dwarfing and annihilating all who got in his way I fell in love. Who could argue with an ability called ‘Right in Da Jibblies’.

Spot 2: Age of Conan – Conqueror

So here you have a tank that can use two weapon fighting. Anyone who is a fan of Drizzt Do'Urden will know wielding two swords is cool, doing this and being a viable tank at the same time must give them points.

Healers

Spot 1: Dungeons and Dragons Online – Cleric

Their versatility is excellent, they could also tank for you if your group were in a tight spot. The Warrior Priest from Warhammer nearly made it, but they are probably next generation Battle Clerics.

Spot 2: Missgideon (World of Warcraft - Priest)

For the single reason she was the only character I had who made it to the level cap in Vanilla WoW.

DPS

Spot 1: Eve Online - Megathron

They have everything, looks and style and filled with blasters as a Blasterthron would rip anything to shreds.

Spot 2: Age of Conan – Barbarian

They don’t actually have huge amounts of DPS as the moment, but would look good doing it. Blood splattering… heads flying all over the shop and the single fact you can pretend you are Conan and issues Arnie one-liners.

Pebble beach warfare?

Firstly I’d like to look at a few possible definitions’ of the word “Zerg”. You can pick one or dispute them if you like.

Definition 1

“The Zerg Swarm are a race of fictional insectoids and the overriding antagonists of the StarCraft series. Operating as a hive mind,….”

Definition 2

"Overwhelming an enemy with numbers - going for quantity instead of quality, by rushing your opponent with hundreds of millions of players that have little skill.”

Now I have been trying to par-take in some RvR this week and the “War” zerg doesn’t seem to even live up to any of the above. Rarely have I seen any focus, or even a goal of the PvP and there has been certainly no idea of rushing an opponent to overwhelm them with numbers or any inkling of a hive mind. (By the way I am not blaming Mythic for this; I am putting the blame squarely at the average player.)

I have joined a few war bands and a lot of the players are not even playing in the same zone. Then when I have run to where the main clusters of players are, you find a massive group of order and destruction just fighting in one spot. My best attempted at describing this is pebbled beach warfare. Each side has a turn at being the water, a wave of players smashing into the pebbles dissolving into nothing remotely meaningful.

Now I still consider my relationship with War meaningful, but this kind of PvP is like having dinner with your other half and finding a ginger hair in you lovely prepared chips, sausage and egg, when you both have brown hair.

What has happened to us? Are people just trying to grind renown, is it the fact flipping zones and taking keeps only gets you “Annihilator” gear, and most people and their dog already have this? One member of the guild did suggest moving to another zone, then some one pipe’s up they don’t want to do PvE RvR (taking keeps without opposition).

Before this post just descends into a rant, I will try being constructive.

For me, the only way to have a truly organised war band or scenario group is with Ventrilo or Team Speak. No matter how fast you type you can not respond to the flow of RvR without it. As well an integrating voice communication (I’d do what Dungeons’s and Dragons Online did and get the experts to help you integrate it, I seem to remember they used the gamespy people.) I would make it configurable and have 3 types of people in a war band. The leader, scout and member, allowing the war band leader able to assign roles and turn off mute depending on your role. That way you could have voice communication so only the leader and scouts can chat and the rest listen.

Should a war band leader get more renown or a gold bag, which significantly helps to flip a zone? A player already gets more renown on a tic if they took keeps and objectives. If you’re a war band leader with over a certain number of members could you also get something extra? A gold bag to re-distribute or more renown? This might make more people step to the front and try and lead as doing so actually requires thought and effort.

Do we need a war band leader only chat channel which spans regions? The region channels tend to get spammed therefore could leaders use this to coordinate themselves?

Mythic have done lot’s to try to coerce players to take objective and keeps, with extra renown and gold. But as far as I have witnessed a lot of the population for that past few weeks any way seem to be happy with the pebble beach warfare.

PVE - Hunter’s Vale

It has been a mixed bag of PvE this week. From trying to see the Wild Hunt instanced dungeon Hunter’s Vale with my level 9 Zealot to doing Bloodwrought Enclave and Bilerot Burrow with my Choppa. It seems with most MMO’s if you want to see all the content your best rolling a healer or tank as DPS classes are ten-a-penny.

Even trying to go through Hunter’s Vale with my Zealot has been difficult with limited time, as having just one healer in the group isn’t enough to tackle the hero’s.

Again with time and circumstance being limited, I have not been able to get into a decent group for Hunter’s Vale with my Choppa. Guild members have either already done it, are out doing RvR or want to do city instance’s.

I don’t blame them, so I joined them in two of the city dungeons and enjoyed myself. As a bonus I even got two pieces of Sentinal gear.

What I got to see of Hunter’s Vale was good though, and I enjoyed it. Though there was an annoying bug with my Zealot. Party members seemed to show up as dead or with depleted health, when they seem perfectly fine standing right in front of me.

WCPI:Grimnir’s Grudge

Over at ‘Grimnir’s Grudge’ he made an excellent post ‘Why you are going to (or already do) miss WAR?’. It is a simple question but the post covered so many topics from people leaving and how they do it, problems with the game to finally what he see’s as the essence of the game. It gave me so much to think about and made the boils in my brain bleed.

I have been away for a week and getting back into the swing of any MMO can be difficult. I think it’s the sun and sand which makes you forget why you played the time sink in the first place. ‘Grimnir’s’ post helped me see the essence of ‘War’ again. I logged in Tuesday night and thought right I need to complete the tasks, instead of thinking not lets carve some healers up. Consequently I only spent an hour and a half before I went and played ‘Batman Arkham Asylum’ (which is very good by the way).

‘Grimnir’s’ post helped me see why I play these games. Now if I quit a game I am not one of those people who wriggle on the floor in convulsing death throws on the forum spewing out hate and oily tentacles trying to take people with me. Or after I have died continually leave poisonous ooze to drive people away to what ever is my new shinny orb I am worshipping. I have always been the silent type who just moves on which a sourcey wink to the game “Catch ya later baby!” but I wonder what ‘Mythic’ prefer? At least the poisonous chaos beasts leave feedback, the most feedback they get from me is a closed subscription.

So getting back in the game can be a tentative time, with so many other games nudging each other for your time. I am not really talking about the newer games either… like ‘Champions’ or ‘Aion’ which at the moment don’t float my boat.

There are the also console games which I am not going to talk about here. But my two other MMO loves which are ‘Age of Conan’ and ‘Eve Online’, which in essence are in my view are quite similar to ‘War’.

‘War’s’ gems of play like ‘Grimnir’s’ states are the speed and bloody battle of war. I also think it brings with it the tactical combat of a well oiled war band that can use terrain and tactics to carve open the opposing side.

Then we have ‘Age of Conan’, I have not experienced it’s PvP as I only made it to level 55 with my barbarian and left before the PvP patch. But ‘Age of Conan’ actually excel’s in bringing this blood through its PvE combat. If you don’t believe me take one barbarian and sprinkle 6 bad guys and watch the blood fly. It is seat of you pants PvE combat with the barbarian knocking back and stunning foes… heads rolling and blood splattering. You make it out the other side with a sliver of health, but with the power in your lunges to shout down the wondrous ‘Hyborian’ valley with battle lust.

Lastly we have ‘Eve Online’. If you listen to ‘Channel Massive’ they call it gaming by spreadsheets. But I don’t imagine they have played the smaller fast guerilla style warfare of small ship combat. Imagine being 15 star gate jumps inside enemy territory (which actually takes real time and organization to achieve) and your cloaked scout has spotted your prey, a larger ship transporting some cargo. You spring your trap with a warp bubble and start to take him down. But this prey is not with out his own friends. Before you know it, scouts report in coming targets and your exit routes through star gates get closed off and a cat and mouse chase starts. You don’t have the coppery splatter of blood across your face but the eye stinking sweat and heart palpitations of the fight for survival are all too real.

But what is the point of this post, well it’s to give kudos to ‘Grimnir’s’ excellent post but also when you quit or play a game to try and remember why you play it. Push those bugs and niggles to the back of your mind and just savour the fear of your enemy.

Wild Hunt Video Guide-ish

Just in case you can not make it or all your guild members have already done it, check out this video to see the detail about the live event The Wild Hunt.

Video: Warhammer Online - Präsentation von The Wild Hunt auf der Gamescom 2009 (5:31)

None War post incoming.

So I am back from my holidays and I am looking forward to the Wild Hunt live event. But I just had to make a post about the book I read on holiday The Empyrean Age an Eve Online novel.

Now if I have a first love in the MMO genre it is probably Eve Online. (The name of this blog is a salute to the Eve server architecture.) Internet space ships for the win!

I thought the book scratched two of my itches. The first it follows classic (in my view) science fiction traditions. By this I mean taking a look at humanity as it is now and the human condition and putting a futuristic spin on those events. The next itch it plunges you into the Eve universe which is gritty and unforgiving. I could almost feel the mix of dirt, blood and pod fluid under my finger nails.

Renown/Jolly Hols

Now my Choppa has hit the level cap logging into War now comes down to the serious business of renown gain. It seems I have a few choices here I can:

1. Join pugs and wait on the capture of battle objectives and the little renown they give and join the odd keep attack.

2. Join alliance war bands and do they same, the renown probably ends up a little higher and is more fun but our alliance has gone a little quiet of late.

3. Try single PvP in duels with other players. I have heard this gives the most renown, but I doubt I have the skill or min/maxing to do this.

4. Join PUG scenarios, this seems to give decent renown. I can usually get from around 1.5 to 3k per scenario. In the old days of KDS this would have been a nightmare of constantly loosing scenarios. But it seems of late especially on Karak-Azgal the matches are more balanced. I have been in a lot of matches were both sides where around the 400+ points.

5. Join pre-made scenarios. This is where the renown and fun flows like wine in War. You can’t beat being a Choppa with guard and a pocket healer…

Have to say one of my favourite abilities is the Choppa auto resurrection ability. So many times I have just been beaten by the tiniest slivers of health and I get the lovely auto rez dialog pop up. I wait for the other player to turn their back on me and go for the soft spot.

This is just a quick note to say I will not be posting for the next week as I am off on my summer holiday. I hope I get back in time for the Wild Hunt event, did I mention I wanted the stag cloak.

Defence Sabotage Stage for Keeps

An article has been posted on the official War site detailing what they needed to do to improve keep design. This hopefully will say goodbye to the single point of combat at the top of the ramp to the lord room. Over at thatsskarwithak they rightfully voice concerns at what this means for smaller groups of defenders but they also comment this may mean city sieges become regular events.

Hopefully this may mean the fights within keeps become more dynamic, with multiple tank walls needed. The reduction in AoE might also help to make keep combat more interesting.

But could there be more additions to keeps to make them even more interesting? I have already posted a few ideas on possible simple solutions for siege weapons. When thinking about ideas I always try to make them simple to include. Mythic probably don’t have the time to include whole new structures and mechanics not already part of the game in some capacity.

In keep combat the end is usually when the lord is killed and the almost immediate wipe of the defending side. What if this wasn’t the end, there is third floor and a lot of the keeps have outer siege pads with single bridges to them. Smaller groups could further defend these points. Taking this idea I came up with the following possible stage two keep encounters:

Keep Cleansing Stage

This is the simplest idea, once the lord is down and the doors respawn. The lord and champions don’t immediately respawn. Instead the opposing side have given amount of time to completely wipe out the defenders to eradicate their taint within the keep walls. Who ever wins within this time frame, would get further tokens or renown tick.

Supply Line Sabotage Stage

Again once the keep lord is dead, small barrels/containers spawn around the keep, at the top or along the keep walls. If any defenders still live they have the chance to taint the supply barrels to the keep reducing the hit points of the new NPC’s giving them a slight advantage when they decide to try and take the keep back.

Defence Sabotage Stage

As before once the keep lord is dead, explosive crates spawn at each of the walls above the inner and outer doors. If the defeated defenders can protect this spawns for a limited time they explode and reduce the hit points of the keep doors, again giving the loosing side an advantage when trying to take the keep back.

I am not suggesting all keeps would have all three mechanics; maybe they are spread out making each keep attack unique within the zone. It also might provide smaller groups an extra incentive to hide around the keep defending parts and bring even more dynamic combat to keeps.

Turn around for War

If you have been reading the forums and blogs at the moment you would be hard pressed to find positive thoughts on the game. Anyone would have thought the Raven God himself was demolishing the very foundations of War.

To be honest half the time I think this is down to the usual trolls and rage quit posts, by people who think just because War didn’t suit their needs must be doomed to failure. In my little mutated world all has been fine from release and has only gotten better. Yes classes have been imbalanced at times (with zergs throwing themselves at the bomb squads) and city sieges broken. But as a player I just accept them and have faith the people at Mythic love the game as much as I do and will one day fix the issues. I just work around the areas I don’t find fun and do the stuff I do enjoy.

Anyway for all those doom mongers it looks like things might be looking up, there are a lot of positive reports on the city sieges (see below). The guild I am part of got to take part on PTS to test the city sieges. Everyone agreed that it was a great improvement and seemed to be fluid and fun. As for the last AoE patch, again that seems to have been well received. I for one am not dying time and time again to Bright Wizard bomb squads (did I just admit to sometimes being part of those mindless zergs?).

By the way I also just hit level 40 with my Choppa. This again is a first for me having actually two characters at the level cap, the only other time I ever hit the level cap in a morg was in vanilla World of Warcraft with my level 60 priest. Those last 10 levels in WoW killed me even though I had the help of friends to quest with.

What is more surprising for me is the lack of the sinking feeling. You know that feeling that you never want to go through that levelling process again, and the end game doesn’t appeal. On the contrary I am ready to go through it all again with my Zealot, and a few hours in tier 1 and 2 scenerios always seems to refresh the game for me.

I think she will be more of a part time alt, as I actually plan to play my Choppa and climb the renown and gear ladders.


DRANNATH'S ZEALOT LOVE

Werit

Warhammer Blog Times

Serrate

With my ‘Choppa’ approaching level 40 I need a new alt to keep me occupied when I am not doing RvR in tier 4.

After hearing on the guild Ventrilo ‘Zealot’s’ are quite easy to level through AoE in public quests I thought I would create one. I already have a level 5 ‘Shaman’, but I am keeping him in case my friends ever try ‘War’. I plan just using him as supporting character to keep them up in scenarios and public quests to try and make the experience as painless as possible.

Anyway… introducing ‘Serrate’ currently a level 4 ‘Zealot’. Currently I am not sure about her as she does not seem to have a funky heal/damage meter like the ‘Shamans’ WAAAGH mechanic.

I have done a few scenarios with her, and enjoyed them a lot. Running around the buildings next to the ‘Barracks’ objective in ‘Nordenwatch’ with a ‘Knight of the Blazing Sun’ on your tail while trying to keep party members alive is fun. I am glad the Raven god blessed us with key binding, now if he could only make those skulls the Zealots use come with slots in the top so you could toast your bread.

Active in RvR

Over the past week, our guild has been back in RvR as organised alliance war bands and it has been glorious. The amount of order around has been astounding, which means for a smaller organized war band you can pick and choose your fights.

Some of the best fights where around Eataine between Defensive Boon and Healing Boon. Due to its hilly nature and the buildings around those two points you can sneak up behind with your war band and hit them right in the healers. (Maybe that should be a new euphemism)

I have just hit renown rank 33 and level 38 so I can wear all my Annihilator stuff, which makes him better equipped than my Chosen.

On this subject does anyone have any suggestions what I do on the long road to renown rank 40? Are there any specific weapons I need to get to help me on my way?

Wild hunt

War’s 1 year anniversary is fast approaching and the excellent guys at Mythic are giving us what looks to be an epic live event, I have added the video below. Stuff like this keeps me playing and the knowledge War is here to say for a long time. I soOOoooOOOOo want the cloak!

Missing the fun?

I wandered into a dangerous mind set for me over the last week. It is one were progression becomes my main focus, which means the act of actually playing the game takes second fiddle.

This is largely due to the fact my Choppa is level 37 renown rank 31. What happens is I end up grinding PQ’s just to try and use a 1 and a half hour play session effectively. Even questing becomes too slow, as I become impatient because I have to travel or read text. Let alone stand in a keep for half an hour with guild members defend.

This means I end up actually missing all the fun stuff, and not engaging with my guild members. So I have pulled my self out of the progression pit and told myself 40 will happen so stop trying to make it happen. So last night instead of the PQ’s I joined a pug war band and had loads of fun.

War band is probably a bad term as there were at least 4 of them which is more of a zerg. It was only an hour’s play session, but instead of following I tried to make sure I was one the front line. Which does wonder’s for you character ego. I just charge and when I have casters in my range I stick on Git To Da Choppa and because there so tightly packed in just watch those damage numbers fly up. I know the zerg is not skillful but sometimes all you need is to stick your choppa into as many faces as possible.

Paul Barnett Part 2 - No Prisoners, No Mercy

Check out the Paul Barnett interview part 2 over at No Prisoners, No Mercy.

The thing which made my chaos mutation itch was the ‘High Noon’ part of the show were they got Saylah to discuss why she left and the sisters talked about what had improved with War.

It had me shouting at my mp3 player in the car, saying but what about this… what about that…

Obviously I was on the sister’s side but they did not mention any of the following which has improved in War to help leveling easier.

• Repeatable quests at Battle Objectives and Keeps, and also just having different quest icons to point them out.
• Influence RvR system, this is one of the main reasons why you get more people in the RvR lakes as the sets are so much more accessible.
• Easy public quests, as well as just providing more information on the map so you can tell straight away what kind of group you need to attempt the PQ.
• More experience given for killing players.
• Free trial, with a greater influx of players you have more people to play with.

Are there any over improvements I have missed? That's better, the roaming mutated eye on my elbow has stopped irritating me now... phew...

Destruction in Altdorf

It has been out for some months but I only just came across it. I love it when people do this stuff for online games.

Careful I bite

Over the past week a lot of our main open RvR leaders are trying the free trial for Dark Age of Camelot.

Those who are left have decided to level alts. My Choppa is 4 levels of 40, but has run out of rested experience. So this week has been made up of power levelling other guild members with my Choppa and taking my Squig Herder out for a run ‘Toenail’ is level 16, and I forgot how much fun the path of Quick Shootin was. Kiting multiple mobs with my Squig and snares makes for very fluid dynamic combat.

We have just been queuing for scenarios and running public quests, I love the fact you don’t need to go near questing to level.

WCPI

Check out Gaarawarr Gabs and his latest post, it is an interview with Josh Drescher. How does Gaarawarr do it? He is not even playing the game at the moment yet his blog still remains relevant. I think, he one of those people who is a natural blogger and will only go on to greater things. For now I am just pleased he playing the game I love.

The Patch 1.3.0b is here on the euro servers. I know they have temporally gimped a lot of classes. But for my Choppa this just gives him an excuse to try out another spec.

I think this patch is a step in the right direction, together with the extra ramps in keeps, defending one will result in an interesting challenge.

Reikland: Runehammer Gunworks: Defensive Boon

Location

Map Link

This is objective is in the middle of the map fairly close to the destruction war camp. It is also very close to another objective, so can be taken in conjunction while the defence timer is running (If an active order group is not around.).

Terrain features

The battle objective is located on a plateau with 3 steep sides and a gentle slope to the west. As the objective is higher up and you can see the approaching enemy and can easily run or defend depending on numbers.

Defending the objective can be fairly simple against equal numbers if your melee dps and tanks can hold the ridge, while you healers hide out of line of sight. If you are against larger numbers and they attack all sides you can quickly be overwhelmed.

When attacking getting members south without being seen can be a good ploy, then use your main force from the north you can get into there healers quickly if they don’t post scouts on the south ridge.

Engagements

I have had some of the best fights at this objective. If you have two massive war bands there is plenty of open space but with the added advantage of using the slopes or the building at the east of the plateau to de-aggro yourself.

Paul Barnett - No Prisoners, No Mercy

They used to be a Warhammer Online podcast before they moved to a wider spectrum of topics check out No Prisoners, No Mercy - Show 38 as they have an interview Paul Barnett.

If you are expecting nougats of information your best bet is just to re-reading the state of the game letters, but if you just want entertainment and like the enthusiasm Paul and the two sisters bring with them, then you will not be disappointed.

Edit: 9.42 Or check out the new letter here.

The beautiful game

Last night we defended a keep in Caledor against a large contingent of order, and managed to push them back twice in different ways.

When they first attacked we had our Choppa’s and Chosen behind the keep door about 6 or so, every time we pushed out we got wiped and our healers had to resurrect our burnt bodies. A little later on we had a greater number of players, and a count down went out in region chat. The push was successful, but required lots of work as we had to get past the tanks and AoE damage. The majority of the order war band were killed and the rest scattered. The count down helped, but I think in the end the numbers worked in our favour.

The second time our war band leader ordered us to mount up on the postern, while other members notified when it was clear. We exited the keep and hit the invading war band at their healers flank.

It is hard to describe but it was like one of the kitchen cleaning advertisements on television, were they clean away the dried in stain with one wipe. The invading war band completely crumbled, so much so I think their tanks at the door where still manning the ram probably wondering were their war band had just gone. They had little time, to fight or flee.

This is not meant to be a bragging post of how destruction won the battle or at superior skill as I think I am only just approaching competent, but a focus on how there are multiple ways to get any one task done and that numbers are not always the way to go.

Regular feature

I thought I would try a new regular feature with the blog. Spending a lot of time in tier 4 and playing a lot of open realm versus realm you slowly get to know the zones and how PvP plays ebbs and flows at certain points on the map. The guild I am with is a decent set of players and the war band leaders are always trying new tactics to try and beat the other side, so I thought I use the experience’s I am have to break down the objectives and keeps throughout the zones.

This may end with one feature or expand (if successful) across all the tiers. The first one is here. I will try and keep a common layout, and as my soul is sold to Chaos the details will be destruction focused. If you have any comments on views please post.

Reikland: Frostbeard's Quarry, Artisan's Grift

Location

Map Link

This objective is very close to the order war camp, from destruction point of view it is a bit of a lone objective and is used by order to ninja the objective before destruction can make it in time and maybe preventing a zone lock.

Terrain features

The battle objective is situated in sort of a crater with a path leading down and around, though a quick root in and out is available by means of a slope. Getting up the slope can be tricky but you just need to approach it from the right.

This objective can be a death trap for the smaller war band as it is a dead end and any approaching enemy can get a very good view of you war band numbers, without having to engage.

As the slope upwards is tricky it can be used as a farm point for ranged dps if they can taunt and pull the stupid lone war band stragglers up the slope.

Engagements

For destruction this can be a quick way to a war band wipe. Order can trap you at the objective, and any dead can quickly spawn back if their healers are pressed. My advice is hope the objective caps before order arrives and either quickly move up the slope or work you way round and push order closer to the war camp and then break off once you have sufficient numbers to make it away. So choosing when to cap this objective can be at important as fighting at it.

See more pictures here.

Stonetroll Certified Warhammer Online Podcast

This is a shout out to Ziss from lagwar.com, for Stonetroll Certified Warhammer Online Podcast #31. At the moment there is a lot of negativity in the War community and he put out a positive show which made me smile.

I agree with him War is what you make it, if you using the same tactics all the time or standing in the capital city waiting for the Land of the Dead to open for your side yes the game might get repetitive or feel like a grind.

Why don’t you, try the following?

• Stop and have a look round. The world Mythic has created is beautiful and contains so many nooks and crannies and beautiful spots. I love the tier 3 Empire battle objectives or the tier 4 the elf areas.
• Put a group together and try and run some RvR.
• Has the door on the outer wall fallen, instead of running to the keep, push out at the postern and catch them from behind. Does the keep have buildings contained inside the out walls? Hide in them and pop out when they least expect it.
• Have you have just joined a scenario group, with an enemy premade in it? Don’t just leave the scenario, try and form your own group and use the same tactics, or operated some avoidance tactics taking objective without running into that bomb squad.
• Go and explore that zone you have not tried and or that public quest you never completed.

If you continually just follow the zerg or AoE the same mob to power level the game will only get dull and repetitive.

Goodbye tier 3 hello tier 4.

I have just reached level 32, so it is the final few levels till the cap in tier 4. I am planning to do most of my levelling through RvR and scenarios. With the occasionally visit to public quests throughout the zones.

This time round, I have managed to keep my renown rank relatively close to my level, as it currently stands at 28. I don’t want to reach forty again and have to grind 10 levels of renown rank just to wear the annihilator stuff (renown rank 33).

Running keeps in tier 4 without with the level 30 renown rank ability to bypass the postern, sounds like I’ll be as much us as a chocolate Bright Wizard staff.

Gotrek and Felix: The first omnibus

So I finally finished the ‘Gotrek and Felix: The first omnibus’ novel. I started reading it before Christmas, but I got the Malus Darkblade Chronicles and Gilead’s Blood novel as a present and I could never resist Elves whether there are evil or just melancholy.

Since starting to play Warhammer I have been slowly working my way through the novels to pick up lore and gain more of a feeling about the world in Warhammer Online. It has been slow, as when it comes down to it whether I pick up a book or play War the later usually wins.

I enjoyed the Gotrek and Felix novel and found myself more drawn to Felix than the slayer. I like the fact he is more fallible and unsure about his predicament and seems to more fumble through the book than his doom questing friend. The books story tended to move quickly in an action adventure style. Especially more so in the first novel which has almost a pulp comic feel about it. It seems to settle down in Skavenslayer and you get more of a feel for the world and the main characters.

The way the Skaven were portrayed was probably my favourite thing through all three novels. Their inability to see their own failings and master race mentality made me want to play one even more (if they ever saw the light of day in Warhammer Online).

Though I enjoyed the books, I couldn’t help feel I had read the story before. The Warhammer Dwarfs are well… Dwarfs and didn’t seem to stray far away from jokes and sarcastic one liners with who ever they were fighting at the time. There were points in the books when you got to know about the Book of Grudges and their fascination with gold. But that is still general Dwarf story fodder, maybe the slayers past is to be kept for further novels.

WCPI: The cycle of life

Just thought, I would post a goodbye and hello to two War bloggers.

Goodbye to Tome of Knowledge an excellent blog with some good art work. You can check out an interview with it's writer at www.lagwar.com.

Hello to Stunty Stomper an old hat who seems to have returned, it provides an excellent resource for all thinks PvE.

First look at land of the dead

It’s 4’oclock in the morning, and it starting to get light. Everywhere is quiet and I am hot and can’t get to sleep, so I creep into the office and fire up my computer and luckily destruction have control of Land of the Dead. So I start to explore…

I have a go at one of the easy public quests. This particular one seems to fire a beam which keeps my Choppa in berserk mode. The skeletons rising out of the ground are level 40, and I am only 30 but being bolstered to level 36 they still deadly when you select them. So I try and pull one and he goes down in a few hits as I am in berserk mode. Then wham 2.5k from the kill, so I spend the next half hour killing skeletons and gain half a level and hit level 31. I stop as I don’t want to level to 32 as I am not quite finished with tier 3 oRvR.

What do I do… go back to tier 3? No! For some reason Land of the Dead almost begs me to explore, the whole place feels different… foreign. I try to swim across the river, which is a big mistake as the skin falls away from my body. I try and slay a vulture, and then I am picked up and dumped in a nest.

The whole area and monsters feel that little extra polished, and what is the main refreshing change to the area which makes me want to explore besides being just new content are there are no people in the hub with quests(what the funk)! Somehow I felt it free my character to take it up him self to see what is out there…

I took plenty of pictures which you can see here.

Guerrilla warfare

Could guerrilla warfare be coming to War? With the release of Land of the Dead, could we see smaller groups choosing hit and run tactics?

The opposing side is almost about to kill the boss from the public quest and you take down the healers and watch their tank get pummelled into the ground by the public quest boss.

When it comes to the purge, will the aim of organized alliances and guilds be to hide and choose hit and run tactics to disrupt the invading side until you recapture the zone.

Your pre-made groups in scenarios could be your training ground for the real deal.

Splat

It has been a weird few weeks; I have squeezed some time for playing between decorating my house. But had little time to surf and write so here is a Chaos cannon like splurge of my game play.

Thursday

This was my first attempt as Bilerot Burrow, a city dungeon. I was off tank, but Scission is only equipped with 4 lesser wards. We also had a better equipped tank, a marauder, squig herder and 2 disciple of khaine's. We where fully aware of the problems we faced with the party make-up but when the sewers of chaos are waiting all you can do is dive in.

The night was fun, even though we only managed one boss, and I did not win any gear. But learnt a lot and got to see some new content.

Monday

This was a night meant for open realm versus realm, and I was not disappointed. We had an excellent war band leader (see picture), which probably made the difference to the whole night. She threaten a war band kick when people did not follow orders as the war band was moving through zones. Organized groups to guard posterns and organize groups to do public quests and scenario’s to lock zones. Out of the whole night we must have locked two zones took 5 keeps and a multitude of battle objects.

Tuesday

With a smaller play session I opted to run scenario’s all night. I had a great time and had some good group on group fights. This is were I am finding the key binding paying off the most.