.: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Showing posts with label Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Show all posts

Saturday

Doomfist Crater Weekend

I have a love hate relationship with this scenario. It is pretty simple. If I am fighting in the middle I am having fun. If I end up fighting off our spawn, or farming their spawn it isn't as much fun.

This has always been an AOE Bright Wizard's dream scenario in Warhammer Online. I initially remember at launch when Bright Wizards could actually kill people with dots with ease in this scenario. I saw bodies dropping one after another. I literally lived in this scenario.

It wasn't soon after that Bright Wizards being nerfed was the topic in every forum. Slowly these last two years our once OP class is now just renown fodder. We can't kill players as fast as we used to be able to.

I am still blowing up many players in Doomfist Crater with Fireball Barrage, Focused Mind Moral with Fiery Blast. I find myself having more fun in these scenarios solo than with my guild.

Tuesday

Last Night On Gorfang

I took a nap, and logged into Warhammer Online much later than I normally do. I have today off from work so I was able to play until the early morning hours.

Destruction was pushing to the city. They had Empire locked, and close to locking Dwarf. We had some great fights in Kadrin Valley.

A group of four guildmates went venturing around looking for fights. We were getting some pretty good renown. It was fun, and broke up the normal monotony of RvR.

They were getting closer and closer to getting our keep. I am not sure what was going on, but the keep door wasn't moving. The rams kept getting damaged.

We just wanted to go defend the city. Empire was getting closer, and closer to unlocking. Destruction had about 30% to go on the door, and Empire was unlocking in five minutes. It was a huge race.

In a way it would be funny to see it unlock thirty seconds before they took the Kadrin Valley, but we wanted the city just as much as Destro.

The door gets to about 1%, and the ram breaks again. I am not sure how they managed, but they got another ram up pretty quickly, and took the keep. We stood at hardwater waiting for the flip. The anticipation was killing us.

It takes around thirty seconds for the zone to flip after a keep, and the timer on Empire ran out about 15 seconds earlier. It seemed like hours waiting, and waiting for it to either flip, or for it to unlock Empire. It was the closest I have ever seen the two.

Luckily the flip finally comes, and we get to the city. We luckily were able to farm two instances pretty easily, but the third one we got stuck fighting a premade destro warband. It was fine. We all got a few more pieces of gear so losing wasn't so bad.

Sunday

Playing Around On The PTS

I am still trying to figure everything out for all the upcoming changes coming Thursday for Patch 1.4, and the release of the RvR Packs. I spent some quality time basically running around on the PTS today trying everything out.

The PTS events sometimes seems a little hectic, and puggish. It was nice today to roam the PTS server basically by myself to visually implant in my mind how everything works. I think I now have a pretty good grasp on the ORvR changes.

I took all the battlefield objectives, and watched the keep eventually get to Rank 5. I think I could of flipped the zone all by myself, but I couldn't figure out how to drop the ram once I picked it up, and went to the keep.

I flew around on the gryphon riders, and I don't see myself ever doing it once it goes live. I can see it as an easy way to get to the keep if you hurl yourself off, but otherwise the bombing, and stuff didn't excite me too much.

I believe I understand how the Skaven work, and the new TI dungeon.

I definitely like the changes, and initially will be involved with ORvR. The problem is I still love just doing scenarios. With the matchmaking system it could make them even more fun.

Wednesday

Skaven Or Worgen?

Skaven or Worgen is the question of the day. Will the official release date of Cataclysm lure away the Skaven players to World of Warcraft to play Worgen? Is playing a Worgen still better than the implementation of the Skaven in Warhammer Online? Will patch 1.4, and the RvR packs keep players in Warhammer, and not jump ship to Cataclysm?

It isn't a tough question for me to answer. I am no huge lore buff, and I just want to play a character that is different than most other classes. So for me it is real easy to choose a Worgen over a Skaven. I just want to play a class that looks cool. I know a Worgen is a Werewolf, and Skaven are Rats, but I want to actually have a character that I can progress from level one.

I know I will be able to play a Skaven in Warhammer Online, but it won't even be a real class. It is basically going to be a temporary skin for RvR. It will have no personalization, progression, or power which seems to be the focus of the RvR packs, but Skaven will have none of that.

I have already made my decision, and I am choosing playing a Worgen over a Skaven. What is your choice?

Thursday

Why Tier 1 Beats Tier 4 Content In Warhammer Online

Do you ever wonder why people love the free trial in Warhammer Online? Is it really the free part, or is it that the game is actually enjoyable? What does tier 1 offer that tier 4 doesn't?

Tier 1 offers a much more enjoyable play experience than tier 4. Players are on a much more level playing field. In Tier 1 you know that almost everyone has equivalent gear unlike tier 4. It plays a huge part in the fun factor. You don't have to worry about being 40 renown levels behind another player. You know that pvp is more about skill than someone having better gear, and stats.

The problem is tier 4 is going to even get worse with the introduction of the increase of renown ranks to 100. It is going to put even a bigger gap between the veteran players, and the new players. It is going to make tier 4 quite frustrating for most players. It not only effects new players, but even veteran players who make new alts.

Initially all the players who are max renown rank played on a basically even playing field while ranking up. It is much tougher now to gain renown for a fresh rank 40 player. They are constantly up against players who are twice as strong if not even more. It means it is going to take alot longer to gain renown if you are dying more than you are killing.

This is where Warhammer Online needs to take a look at there game. Should there be renown rank brackets for scenarios instead of just all rank 40's being thrown into the same scenarios? If you are being spawn camped by a guild of RR80's, or RR100's soon enough how much fun is it going to be?

I am sure this is one of the biggest factors on why new players quit the game. No one likes to play a game where they see too much of a gap between the new, and veteran players. Can you even imagine the difference between a RR100 player, and a RR40 player?

How do you think they should fix the unbalancing of fresh RR40 players with RR100?

Tuesday

Gaming Rut Syndrome

These last few weeks I have definitely been hit hard by the Gaming Rut Syndrome. I will call it GRS from now on. No matter what game I play, or download it just doesn't keep my interest for more than thirty minutes.

I think it may be actually PAX GRS. A week before PAX I could feel it coming on. I was excited about seeing all these new games at PAX. I barely got my Archmage to 40 before deciding to take a short break from the game. Originally it was just going to be for a week or so.

The problem is GRS is all consuming. After going to PAX it just made everything else seem unimportant. I just want to play all the new games I saw. Unfortunately most of them I may not even get to play even next year even though most of them promised a 2011 release.

GRS has hit me hard. I can't play another minute of Warhammer Online until either patch 1.4 or the RvR packs. It just seems pointless until the new mechanics get in the game.

I played Lego Universe beta, and it was fun for about a week, and now I have lost interest in it to. I swear GRS is a real disease it seems.

I have tried playing Global Agenda. The game was a blast the first few nights, but nothing made me want to keep logging in every day.

I tried EvE, and even after listening to alot of convincing chat on Twitter I was to overwhelmed with everything in the game. I really think the game is right down my alley, but I just felt to much like a noob, and ragequit after the tutorial.

My next adventure was to download my old love DAOC. It wasn't even close to how awesome I remember it being. It seemed so 1980, and clunky I just couldn't play it past the tutorial.

Why am I suffering from this Gaming Rut Syndrome? Why are no games keeping me even slightly interested? Is GRS that powerful that it controls my mind?

Anyways I am not sure what to do these days. I am bored, and I definitely need some game to play. The problem is my list keeps growing larger and larger of games I have tried, and didn't like.

I forgot some others I have bought recently, and once again I played them once. It was Blood Bowl, DAO, LOTRO, DND, and so on. I really am running out of options.

Does Warhammer really have that much control over me? I swear the game pisses me off more than it makes me happy most of the time, but I just can't shake it. I keep going back to it like a cigarette habit.

I guess we will have to see if Rift, Tera, GW2, Firefall or SWTOR ends up finally setting me free from GRS, or some other game.

Friday

In Case You Missed It

I recorded my live broadcast earlier, and wanted to share it with everyone. It is unedited, and shown in its entirety. I start off talking about some of the games I saw at PAX, and move on to some of my current rants for Warhammer Online.

It was my first show so bear with me a little bit, but I think you will enjoy watching the show. I started loosening up after a little bit, and I think you will get a few laughs.

Watch my PAX Game Reviews and Warhammer Online Rants right here.

Wednesday

Mass Exodus To Badlands

Is it deja vu or what? I know personally I have lived through what is happening with Badlands. I don't see it being good for Warhammer Online. If I saw this pattern repeating itself I would be doing some damage control pretty quick to stop the bleeding. What am I talking about? Let me tell you my story.

Initially I started on the Reikland server. It was dead from day one. I had to pve all the way to 40. This was before they changed the way scenarios queued, and stuff. It sucked, and basically everyone left the server, and rerolled. This was before server mergers so there was no other option.

I had this crazy idea to make another Bright Wizard on Magnus as they were offering an xp, and renown bonus. Everything was good, and than the bonus went away. Once again I had to basically pve the rest of the way to 40. Initially taking keeps, and bo's were easy. No one was really 40 so you could get alot of renown real easy with a group of 12 people or so.

Times changed as more and more people reached max level. It seemed like it should be a good thing, but it eventually just caused every zone to be stalemates. The losing side would stop queuing for scenarios,and zones wouldn't flip ever. This was before domination timers. After months of no successful fort takes, or city sieges everyone decided to do a mass exodus from Magnus, and go to the highest populated server Dark Crag.

It was a dream come true for most of us. We had big plans to dominate the server on the Order side. Sadly as each day passed most ended up quitting the game. Not only the players who went to Dark Crag, but also other players on Magnus who felt like they got deserted. I think in the end only about 5 out of probably 300 players stuck it out on Dark Crag.

At the time it was insane. Order would constantly have the city locked down for 18 hours, and destro would be bored out of their minds, and soon order would be too since everyone had gear for the next 20 renown levels.

Being on the most populated server was great with around the clock pvp, scenarios, and etc. Eventually Destro stopped playing. One by one most probably quit, or rerolled to a lower pop server that had a destro advantage.

We all know what eventually happened. Order had no one to fight, and Dark Crag closed. I see the same thing happening now, and I am still skeptical that the rvr packs will fix it. Everyone is flocking to Badlands.

This means the other servers are going to feel like ghost towns. It gives players a few limited options. Reroll to Badlands, keep playing on your current server that is now a ghost town, or quit the game.

I would just cluster all the servers now, and save all the heartache. I think if domination is being removed in the rvr packs than maybe it will be possible. I think players would be willing to help each other cross server more than having to gear up a fresh 40 on a new server.

I just think something needs to happen fast. Eventually one side or the other will dominate Badlands, and people will quit the game after losing day after day, night after night.

Friday

Will We Know Anything More After This Weekend?

That is currently the million dollar question for Warhammer Online. It is driving me crazy the last few months getting a hint here or there, but never concrete answers. Mythic keeps talking about GDB so now lets see what happens.
I know personally I am going to be pretty pissed off if they don't start elaborating on things. How can it be good for the game to leave everything to speculation? Why not just come out, and explain everything?
I better know exactly what each RvR pack does, what the new zone entails, how Skaven are being implemented in the game, and exactly how the new renown ranks are going to work by the end of the GDB event.

Sunday

The Big Announcement

By now every player has read the Producer's letter at least a hundred times, and dissected it like a frog in 8th grade science class. I saw something in the letter that made me think I know what the big announcement is going to be.

The hint was a little subtle, and most players probably overlooked it. Bloggers, and players everywhere have a few predications which is more playable classes, an expansion, or possibly a third faction. I hate to be a bearer of bad news, but I don't think it is any of those three.

What did I read that has me thinking it is a big announcement that doesn't include any of the above? How could anything else be a bigger announcement than those things being added to the game?

You want to know what I think it is? I think the big announcement will have nothing to do with Warhammer Online. You heard me right. The big announcement will have nothing to do with Warhammer Online.

I predict the big announcement is going to be that DAOC 2 is in development. Did you read the first paragraph? The big announcement is coming from the producer of DAOC. At least that is how I am reading it.

How excited would you be if that was the big announcement? I think Mythic thrived with their own title because they were not limited to following an IP.

Why do you think Warcraft has thrived? Yes World of Warcraft is based off an IP, but it is their own. They can change the lore any time they feel like to cater to the game. The same can happen with Mythic with DAOC.

Once again I think the big announcement has something to do with DAOC, and not WAR. I guess we will have to wait, and see.

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Saturday

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Tuesday

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