Saturday 18 December 2010

A spy is me!

Yeah.....got accused of being a spy tonight by some div which annoyed me and hence spured me into posting again!

The lay up for the accusation is basically logging on while under the influence running round Praag on my tod and trying to track down any Order stragglers and basically pushing across to the Order WC. There's a second solo Chosen doing pretty much the same thing and we catch up to a couple of apparent idlers outside the Order WC. First BW goes down like the AFK Chump he blatantly was while the second AFK Slayer....tears me a new one.... my back up partner was conspicuously absent and that's when I see a /Msg from him sending me messages of encouragement. Turns out I'd missed a duel emote shortly before laying into him and it had all kicked off. Well a respawn and quick dash back and there's a few duellers about now so I line up and join in. (FYI I hate duelling WPs. I never win but always accept out of some seemingly deep seated need to be taken advantage of - backing up and emoting I can stop because he doesn't need the RR from my shame only makes it worse some how).

Now TBH I don't know what your home server is like but on Azgal Praag is always where duellers meet up. Admittedly normally while a Zone is locked and not while Destro are trying and failing to take a keep despite having a 5 to 1 star advantage but still there it is. Anyway skipping to the end of a rather long series of me standing around because I'm actually not in the state to give duelling my full attention and I see a message in /Region 1: Sarigs is a Order Spy!

So there you go! It's official and my secret shame is out! Que telling him where to go and being counter told what I could do with myself but seriously....WTF? What's the thinking behind this? Have mythic implemented a new /spy comment but it only works if your within 30 feet of someone? Does Vent impose some kind of cross realming police which mutes your voice if your not RIGHT NEXT to whoever your trying to talk to? And did Order REALLY need a spy to tell them "OMG They're totally going to hit the keep! Yes the only place they can push. YES their fucking it up and have been for quite some time but don't tell them I told you cos it's a SECRET!" So in finishing STFU random person I've never come across before and probably never will again! I'm totally not /hugging you next time I see you!

Also while I've got a post open I have two things to report! Me and my guild leader were pugging IC today (FYI we kicked ass) and I scored a white loot bag from stage III...


White bag FTW

What in this new holy of holys....?

No idea when I went to claim it it dropped a gold massive bag into my inventory. I know I shouldn't feel hard done by here and yet somehow I do!

And finally finally I really wish Mythic would fix this. I know there are more pressing things on their minds (Or there should be at least) but FFS fix it so locked zones dont keep giving RR ticks for BOs. I could quite happily just idle away time in a already locked zone reaping 4 ticks every X minutes. I know it's not crazy RR/INF but there is no damn reason for it at all. Anyone who dosen't know what I'm talk about I give you exhibits A thru B.




While logging into a already locked zone. Very very minor but it make me feel slightly dirty every time I log off in a zone and then log back in on another day to find it pre-locked and someone trying to give me renown for effectively sitting about looking awesome. I did bugrep this and Twit Andy about it when I first noticed it (When 1.4 first came out) but nothing back about it! Also Merry Almost Crimbo!

Edit: Just checked the screen shots and it's not clear. The Zone is locked the fight only opening zone in the Elf Pairing was Eataine in this stage just because the Map icons would suggest the zone is contested it wasn't!

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Regular Broadcasting Will Resume Shortly! Now with added RAGE!

Right well the last month has been a almost complete write off WAR wise for me unfortunately.

Between housesitting with no connections and work going absolutely mental I've only made it on a couple of times!

But the dawn has broken and I'm back at what I enjoy so regular (well as regular as before) posts should follow!

Having said that I did log on a couple of times post 1.4 going live, not really long enough to get a proper feel for it other then a couple of city sieges and just long enough to start getting majorly irked by the constant refund of mastery points.

You see 1.4 brought in a free refund. So I spend most of my availible time switching through my 8 alts reallocating my mastery points (In almost every case putting them back where they were before other then a play around with the renown abilities). Finally done and BING! Hotfix! All your points are refunded!

FFS I DONT WANT TO RESPEC MAKE THE DAMN THING OPTIONAL YOU'RE KILLING ME HERE ZOMG!!1!

None of my guys were even using the ability that got changed! Such a damn waste of time if you don't want to change anything! I know if you do it's great but if you've got to cycle through every toon to put things back like they were yesterday it's just annoying! Make it a token you can change to the mastery trainers! Make it capped at one per toon or just fix it so the first change per toon per refund isn't charged! Jeeze! Or is it just me? Does everyone else practically skip down to the trainers for a change to jam points into random differents trees just to see what'll happen?

Anyhoo...when I finally finish the rounds of fixing that I may be able to get back to beating people in the face!

Friday 19 November 2010

Exalted Goodies!

Well despite my earlier post, I've sacrified a nights sleep to sneak home and patch and play for a while!

Destroy pushed across to Aldorf and Purple Bagged goodness did ensure!

The exalted weapons are bad ass! Here's a few I managed to snag Screenies of!

I've also just noticed their Bind on Equip so sellable!

Imposing

Exalted 1

Exalted 2

Tasty!

Thursday 18 November 2010

1.4 goes live! RVR packs released and...

...I can't play!

Boo hiss and things of that nature.

Yep unfortunately I'm house sitting for my folks which has left me stranded from WAR other then hopefully nipping back at the weekend to get some hands on time!

I'm really looking forward to this one so waiting sucks!

For a similar reason I'll not be posted much for the next couple of weeks while I'm stranded!

Have fun and see ya inna few!

Saturday 13 November 2010

Expansion release date!

It's Thursday!

Check out the herald here!

Was not expecting it so soon TBH thought they'd be a month or so more but i'm not complaining!

Sunday 7 November 2010

Chickened Out!


Well for the last little while I've realised too late that my Rank 31 SH was far too close to hitting 32 and leveling out of T3 before he could grab the max influence bow that I really, really wanted!

So as a result for the last little while I've been desperate trying to maximise influence while running madly from anything smelling of XP and despite see-sawing back and forth I could tell whether I would make it. It come down to needing 850 Influence and only being 11k away from hitting 32. I was just beginning to give up hope when this happened:

Balls!

DOUBLE BALLS!

So close!

Was pretty close as well! I'd flagged by the Gutter runner as in combat so I held out a final hope that the tick if he went down might nudge me over the edge!

Last Chance!

Bottom line? It didn't work.

Oh, I got the tick all right but it still left me 51 Influence short.

I'm sulking now. :-(

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Patch notes 1.4 up!

At the herald!

See here

From the same: "These packs are broken down into the Progression Pack and the Personality Pack."
Where'd POWAH go?!

In other news i'm kinda on a break atm. Not getting much play time in and RL keeps butting into my free time so I'll be back when I can but expect some radio silence for a while!

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Skaven Rvr dungeon + Test times!

Herald Bam!
From the herald:
"Everyone is invited to come out to the Warpstone Public Test server this week to help put the all new RvR Skaven Themed dungeon, "Thanquol's Incursion", through it's testing paces. We're going to be kicking things off tomorrow, 10/20/2010, at 8:00 PM EDT/02.00 CET with your first ever look at this RvR Dungeon. We'll be hosting a second, more EU friendly test this coming Friday, 10/22/2010, at 3:00 PM EDT/21.00 CET. "

Double Forum Bam! about the new Raid! All images below plundered from the forum announcement!

Looks very interesting! Dungeon is going to be a Pvp 24 v 24, Renown rank 65+ raid, 3 bosses have been announced:

Skeetk the warplock engineer:

http://mythicmktg.fileburst.net/war/us/herald/images/community/skavenrvrdungeon/skeekt.jpg

Clan Moulder's Throt the Unclean
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.net/war/us/herald/images/community/skavenrvrdungeon/thrott.jpg

and Grey Seer Thanquol
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.net/war/us/herald/images/community/skavenrvrdungeon/thanquol.jpg

with his Boneconstruct Boneripper:
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.net/war/us/herald/images/community/skavenrvrdungeon/boneripper.jpg


The artwork looks fantastic!


Thursday 14 October 2010

T4 PTS Test this Friday!

Whelp looks like their rolling another test out on Friday for Tier 4 for the Orvr changes!

You can check it on the Herald here.

Different time of at 3:00 PM EDT (21.00 CET) centered in Praag should be interesting with the time being more of a compromise between both time zones!

P.s. I'll wait till after that to post a update about the testing, I've had a busy week and still haven't got round to doing a proper update about the changes, I made it to the last Fridays test and Tuesday as I was still about, had great fun both times

Friday 8 October 2010

So the test...

Short answer on the test to night! Enjoyed it!

Longer answer can wait for the moment while sorting out a proper post!

Also Andy killed me when I was squaring off against another WP up at the manor while the rest of order were distracted elsewhere. He totally uses Nerf Buttons thou :-(

Thursday 7 October 2010

It's All On You Mythic.....

....so for the love of got make it count!

I have had the worst week of my.... well certainly year..quite possible a lot longer! (Bad times at work, divorce papers finally served on me, 5 year old son's birthday who doesn't want to talk to me on the phone because he's distracted by presents [Totally expected but a kick in the teeth I don't need on top of everything else] a whole bunch of everything else going wrong that I'm not getting into)

Anyway, I don't vent in RL hence why your getting more info then you needed, it's culminating tomorrow. I'm expecting another shitty day at work before the weekend so Friday YOU ARE IT.

Make or break time and I'm going to be on the PTS for the Euro Test Event. I turned down drinks for this! Feedback for the US ones seems positive in the main,but I've not been a massive Rvr fan in T4 in general and this is what I'm hoping with suck me in.

Week + Rvr make or break = Eggs in basket.

Soooo....no pressure Mythic eh? Salvage my week and you will have my thanks! That's totally why your going to all this effort right...?

RIGHT?!

Tuesday 5 October 2010

PTS test run, New zone & a single concern.

New Zone Info!
Well been another busy week of news with Bootae getting the skinny on the first news regarding the new Skaven themed zone over here. I was tempted to check out the interview but after trying and failing to skip ahead to the interesting bits I gave up...I'm just not dedicated to put up with the host!

To be honest it sounds like a lot of fun, one of my favorite thing is mixing up Rvr with Pve if it's done well and Tomb raiding is a lot more fun when order is about to prove a fruitful distraction.


Course its far too early to guess how it's all going to pan but I'm looking forward to new news about this in the coming months.


Rvr Change Test Runs!


Other big news over on the Herald is PTS tests going live this Tuesday, Friday and the following Tuesday again!


From the Herald:
>We're inviting our entire Community out to the Warpstone Public Test Server this Wednesday, October 6th 2010, to put the new ORvR mechanic through its paces. We'll be kicking things off at 8:00 PM EDT/02.00 CET, so be sure to log in early to get set up! Tier 3 templates will be provided, as we'll be testing the night away in the Tier 3 EvC Lake.


A second (European friendly) test will be hosted this Friday, October 8th 2010 at 21.00 CET/3:00 PM EDT with a final test occurring Tuesday, October 12th 2010 at 8:00 PM EDT/02.00 CET.


Should be a whole lotta fun and will definitely be hitting up the Friday night Euro friendly testing!


Looking forward to getting hands on with the new changes and seeing how shiny the new mechanics are, especially interesting in how lock rewards are going to be calculated.




A Single Foreboding Concern


I do have one major concern with regards to the new system and that is this. You fly into a zone and land in your keep. If a zerg effectively sieges your keep as soon as a zone unlocks you can't get out. Defending a keep with smaller numbers is one thing, but trying to get out past a besieging force right from the get go, while potential outnumbered is going to be tricky. And close to impossible for soloers or PUG groups.
No access to the zone as a whole and no effective way of of breaking out of your keep. It's counter intuitive but I can't see anything stopping a large body of people effectively blockading you in your keep.


Sure you get Aerial Bombers to break up the blob, but when your keep is rank 0 you don't and if you cant get out while a zerg baby sits you while a couple of small group scoop up the BOs it's going to be fun. Everyone enjoying being camped in scenarios who wont in the lakes?


Maybe some kind of transport system from the keeps to teleport to your War Camp would be the answer. Two access points to the lake and you cant effectively be "locked in".


May not happen and be totally unfounded but you know I can think of it some zerger will. :-)

Edit: Intial reports from T3 suggest they've worked around this by working around which keep belongs to which Realm news can be checked over at Krosuss will be interesting to see how it works in T4 though

Thursday 30 September 2010

The Great Skaven Debate

Well following on everyone digesting the news from last weekend about the future WARs taking there has been a inevitable backlash against the decision by the game producers to make Skaven playable by both Order and Destruction.

Sure it makes perfect sense for them to side with Destro but less so for Order.

Ekalime over at Hypothetical WAR has set out a much less Lore shaking option .

Now personally the different play styles the Skaven option sound great and although a fair few are unhappy about the lack of progression they're gonna offer like Shadow-War and Gaarawarr I'm looking forward to it but TBH I'd much rather square off against a order equivalent like either Lizard-men or Ogre/Dogs of War on Order's side.

Check out his well made argument and then head over to the forum thread he starts regarding it. Unsurprisingly the threads got a bit flamy and non-constructive but themz the net for you!

Monday 27 September 2010

Gamesday Uk news! RvR Campaign changes and Skaven!

Right just got home after a long 'ol train journey, (Bless you National Rail, if you hadn't crapped up the route at least once I'd have been disappointed!) kettles on and I figured I'd get the jump on the others before their barrage of far better written posts follow - Just remember - you read it here first! Unless you follow Bruglir on twitter that is, in which case second at best but still....

Just before I start was a great day, neat presentation and was good to meet Bruglir, Bootae, Andy and a bunch of Destro from Norm. (I was the sole Azgal representative and Order wisely kept away!) Unfortunately Carrie wasn't able to make it so Andy was on his tod.

So...right ok firstly some minor changes

On Line Shop/Microtransaction:
  1. Server Transfers: Your going to be able to transfer toons from one server to another for a fee, theirs not going to be any cooldowns on it although their be putting in restrictions to stop over populated servers getting increasing any further. Normal rules apply so only Destro/Order characters on any given server.
  2. Mounts: Appears mounts will be availible from a on-line shop, vanity style for a fee, the only one I could see from a screen shot were called started mounts and which, IIRC seemed to be +25% speed and 100% dismount change so seemed aimed at Tier 1.
  3. Pets: Again vanity type pets will be added. Andy mentioned some of these would have a buff associated with them, the example he gave was one that applied a +2 speed increase so other types are likely to be similar sized so very minor but there.
  4. WAR Tracts: Purchasable from an online shop similar to 2-5. Exactly the same as the in game item and you'd only be able to get one.
2 to 4 of the above would be applied account wide rather then per character and from the screen shot of 3 & 4 they were aimed at $9.99, whether thats that they'll be in the end or whether that was meant to be there is a different matter!

Edit: To clarify I only say the $9.99 linked with the mounts and pets and not with the below. Whether it's going to a flat rate for everything/was a placeholder I don't know! Few people have taken it as gospel that it'll apply to everything!

Barber Surgeon:

Their gonna implement a way of completely re-doing your toon's look from scratch which is pretty good for everyone who messed up the character creation and needed a do over! Not said about how it's going to be implemented over then it's gonna be there.

Renown Rank System Change:

So we already knew they were pushing this up to 100 Renown Cap and that they were intending to smooth the journey from 1 to 80. They confirmed they'll be new armour sets 90 and 100 along with further weapons although their wasn't further info beyond that.

Renown Rank Points abilities:

Well this'll be getting a pretty massive do over!

They're removing the renown tactics altogether and replacing them with similar ability as "passive bonuses" mainly as not many people use them and it'll stop people having to mess about slotting further tactics.

They'll also be removing the "tiered" system altogether. Everything will unlocked so you want need to allocate X point in Tier Y to unlock ability Z you can go straight in for the +crit/dmg/resolute defense without the messing about!

Speaking of Resolute Defense they'll be adding in a number of powerful Renown Abilities, each of which will have 4 minute cool down and will obviously be a tactical call as to whether their worth the trade off compared to the increased stats.

The ones Andy was able to talk about were called Last Stand & Total Cleanse.

Last Stand: 4 minute cooldown. For the next 4 - 7 seconds you are completely undamagable(!). After 4 to 7 seconds you die(!) Should be fun expecially with some of the changes to come! I may have orginally stated this was 47 seconds...say them both in your head quickly and i'm sure you'll forgive me!!
Total Cleanse: 4 minute cooldown. Removes all debuffs from your character, does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin.

No idea what it's actually called: 4 minute cooldown. Reduces the AP of all ability used to 0 for it's duration which is...no clue wasn't mentioned!

Whether they'll be others as well to come I'm not sure but he did mention all of the renown abilities will be ungradable with further point investments. This wasn't elaborated on but I imagine in the full of reduced cooldown/longer durations or maybe secondary effects?

Open RvR Champaign Changes:

Ok this was the biggie as far as I'm concerned, you can keep your skaven this is what I was interested in! (Not really the Skaven look cool but yea RvR goodness!)

Right, Well first the domination system is going out the window all together.

Each open zone will have the two keeps and the 4 BOs still. When ever a zone "unlocks" one keep will belong to one of the sides automatically so even in Chaos Wastes Order will have one and vice-versa in Reikland.

You zone into the Keeps, NOT the Warcamps from here on in! You respawn after dying in Your respective Keeps as well! You lock a zone by capturing the opposing keep. That's it no waiting no mess right? Well no it's a bit more complicated then that. Taking a leaf from the new scenario's their going for a far more dynamic take on controlling a lake involving the Battlefield Objectives.

These are still cappable as normal but there is no longer a cooldown on wresting control of them from the opposing side. So no capping and wandering off for 15 minutes safe in the knowledge it's untouchable. You leave one unguarded and they'll be vulnerable.

Why do you need them? Well once capped by either side they will start generating resources and when enough of them have build up a NPC spawns. (Think sappers from the city instances) Now when one spawns it will just sit there doing nothing...

They need to be triggered by interacting with them at which point they will scurry off with the resources and head to your Warcamp. Their gonna be fairly squishy and if the opposing faction kill one they will drop the resources which can then be ninjaed so they'll need watching. (Resources are gonna be important so trying to watch four BOs while guarding the carriers, while attacking the keep and potentially defending your own should do a fair job of splitting zergs and forcing warbands to co-ordinate with each other across a zone, will also have amazing potential for smaller hit squads to run guarilla sabatage tactics!)

So you once you get resources trickling into your warcamp they'll start leveling up your owned keep which will have 5 Ranks.
  1. Rank One: Resource carrier's will become armoured and become far less squishy.
  2. Rank Two: Carrier's will get a speed boast. (Hopefully one and two will mean once you get going ranking up will start escalating by this point)
  3. Rank Three: Offensive siege weaponry becomes available! These will spawn in the keep and can be picked up by anyone and deployed any where, no more siege pads! Siege weaponry in general is getting a massive boast with the single target ones doing around 4k damage unmitigated! (Not sure if they meant it's Unmitigatable or 4k before armour/toughness etc is taken into account but a big increase either way!)
  4. Ram becomes available, more offensive siege weapons spawn, Aerial Bombers* unlock - (*)Patience!
  5. More weapons, more Aerial Bombers!
So should be mentioned that they are changing keeps so they CANNOT be ninjaed and doors CANNOT be harmed other then by Rams. Well Rams and one other think but that's to follow somewhere below! So with keep doors pretty much unassailable untill the opposing keep hits Rank 4 you need to be out in the lake patrolling, watching out for the opposing side as they try and disrupt your well oiled resource gathering troopers!

Keeps are going to have a Anti-res aura within the outer walls untill the Outer doors are taken down so any attackers, usually MDPS ghosting in through the postern (But potentially any class) will not be able to get ressed EVEN IF THE *Insert healer here* IS OUTSIDE THE WALLS.

The keep CANNOT be taken until the Inner Doors are destroyed so no more ninjaing cos it aint gonna work. Once the doors are down its a case of charging in, piling up the stairs, bundling into the lord's room but OH NOES: "Your keep lord is in another castle". Yep Keep Lords are no more instead they'll be a banner where they stood which must be interacted with uninterrupted for a full 30 seconds (timer subject to chance if its not realistic in practise). Now im not 100% on the ins and outs of this part but as the defenders spawn within the keep you are going to keep getting hit by waves of pissed Order/Destro while your trying this so should be fun!

Edit: Once the inner doors of a keep are broken the spawn point will switch back to the warcamp so that once the doors are down you cant keep respawning instantly to disrupt the caps!

It's worth pointing out keeps themselves will start out fully tricked out with siege weaponry so will be defensible from the get go!

Aerial Bombers: At stage 3 aerial bombers unlock, these will effectively be flying mounts which will spawn in the keep which can be mounted by anyone. They'll then take to the sky and will follow set patten patrols though the lakes, not sure the exact routes that will be taken but Andy confirmed they will pass over keys features/choke points to shake things up a bit. The bomber in question can...drop bombs. By the sounds of things these will be pretty devestating so your gonna want to spread out and keep a eye to the sky! Again these seem designed to chew through Blobs in particular which is a pretty reoccuring theme throughout! Once you get bored of bombing you can parachute down to safety! Inside the enemy keep! Wheeeee!

That's about it off the top of my head for the RvR changes but for my money it sound brilliant and as someone who has until recently kept away from the main Campaign I'll definitely be re-joining the War!

So great games day! Although I'm sure there was one other thing.... Oh yeah....

Boom! Skaven Shot!

Rat Orges, Packmaster, Warlock Engineers, Gutterrunners! You want 'em? We gots em!

Seems these WILL NOT be a seperate character! The unlocking mechanism has not been revealed as yet but they will effectively be a "sleeve" for your character, completely replacing your skin and class features for the duration! (I've no idea if there is a actual duration, don't think so but I mean session or what ever!) This'll also mean any renown gained while a Skaven will level up your main toon! They'll be joining both sides (Its ok lore fans, apparently it's happened before in a book! Skaven Slayer I think according to Bruglir). I'm thinking maybe another resource type? Warpstone at a crazy outside guess!

So onto the Class types before this stops being a wall of text and gets into mountainous territory!

Rat Ogres: Huge hulking beasts of destruction, damage dealing mobile siege weapon pretty much!
  1. Lots of wounds!
  2. Lots of toughness!
  3. Lots of damage!
  4. Special Charge Attack! Gives you a speed boast and knockdown/knockback (Not sure sorry!) Any enemies in your way! Reminds me of the Tank from L4D!
  5. Special Hurl Attack! Pick up a near by ally and throw them up on the enemy keep wall! (This sounds like so much fun but potentially could cause a fair bit of grief "Gimme healz!" "No I'm busy healing others!" *Hurl*)
  6. Can damage doors. Other then Rams the only thing in the game that can!
  7. Can't be healed! EXCEPT BY.....
Packmaster: The brains to the Ogres brawn your looking at a squishy buff/debuff type dude!
  1. Can heal Rat Ogres!
  2. Very Squishy!
  3. Can produce buffs that effect allies around and that again compliment Rat Ogres!
  4. Summon rat swarms that do ridiculous damage (Quoted as 1!) but that apply a outgoing damage debuff to the target. It stacks. Alot. And Quickly.
  5. Can leg it to the nearest Rat Ogre if in trouble! (Sounds like pounce but defensive only and to the nearest Ogre...which is also likely to be Hulking out in melee range of people!)
Warlock Engineers: A defensive beast, adept at protecting keeps especially
  1. Has a number of AoE pulsing buffs, increased AP regen or healer pluses. Sounds like a extension of the Zealot/Rune Priest ritual system.
  2. Has a Warpfire flamethrower!
  3. Can repair siege weapons!
  4. I should point out all of the classes will have further ability but these are the ones they're prepared to talk about at this stage!
Gutter Runners: Fast, Invisible, Utility heavy sneaky rat bastards
  1. Has a permanent stealth mode
  2. Run invisible with a +70% speed increase. At all times!
  3. Very very squishy!
  4. Can "leap" onto keep walls in a single bound!
  5. Can sabotage siege weapons which will trigger when someone trys to next one it. Will deal 4-5k and break the siege weaponry which will then be unusable till either a Warlock Engineer gets to it or that repair renown ability is used!
  6. Very low damage dealing wise though, they'll be strictly utility based running around hampering opposition!
That's pretty much it I believe, their was some Q&A, I'm pretty sure he said "Yes" when asked if forts were making a comeback but I missed the wording on the question and so may well have been one of those "are they any plans" "have you thought about" "is there any chance" rather they a straight forward are you putting them back in kinda thing.

I did check and the new keep system will pretty much mean guild can no longer claim keeps (Although this hasn't been finalised) so a guild wont be able to control the siege weaponry, Bombers etc distribution.

Likewise Tier One will remain pretty much as before as they have no keeps and there are no plans to change that.

Oh yeah and they did mention they looking into potentially cross service scenario queuing or some kind of matching up similar groups against each other (But looking into could mean anything!)

And that's me done! I'm sure their are shed loads of spelling errors/sloppy english above but it's late, been a long day and I've been writing this bloody thing for the last 2 hours odd so....POST!

Bah couldn't do it, edited and hacked out a lot of bad english/spelling mistakes, still not perfect but at least it's readable!

Saturday 11 September 2010

Finally

Well finally dinged 61 last night, I know it’s not exactly a massive benchmark but I’ve been stuck on 60 for what seems like forever (and has been a just under a month in fact).

Why? Because of this motley collection of alts:


Sarigs: 40/61 (Finally) - My Main Obviously, Still fully S&B and playing purely defensive roles mainly for guild groups, not been PUG Warbanded with him for a long 'ol while mainly because I'm defensive to the point of pretty much uselessness on my own or amongst unorganised Zerging kittens. Hoping to phase in some more DPS but gear is still a major hurdle for me, plus I don't like change so switching between different set ups, has never really appealed to me!

Larkett: 40/42 - Mainly only log him on if the guild short of healers, has been a lot of fun playing around with the new Harbringer function and flicking between healing and DPSing depending on the scenario while on my tod. I've sworn to only heal while with the guild though! QQ (Their just jealous of me really!)




Gorkitt: 31/22 - My oldest toon behind Sarigs and horrifically neglected. I should really put the effort into getting him up to 40 next but I'm just not a massive fan of the choppa, no idea why though. Think I'll try and take him out solo roaming and see if I can get back into the swing of the mechanics again.




Giblettz: 28/25 - My favorite secondary by far. Recently switched him over to Big Shooting after mainly being specced for short range skirmishing. Got caught out a time or two too often so I'm gonna hide at the back for a while!





Ryntle: 25/23 - Loved the Marauder all the way through T1 and T2, Tier 3's taking the shine off a bit but again need to try and get him up and back into it. Definitely my favorite for solo roaming without question however.





Darksar: 18/17 - Not used in quite some time, tend to go through bouts of favoritism amongst my toons and my lowly magus has been having the cold shoulder for a while!






Sesoli: 10/9 - Started for the hell of it while bored, T1's always fun so not in a hurry to drag up through the ranks.







Jeliwali: 6/6 - Ditto to the above, plus my son named her so I'll keep the WE way back on the bench.







Frankly I'm wasting far to much time on various half assed alts and although I have great fun flicking between then I'm spreading myself far too thin!

I tend to still have great fun running a alt through T1-3 and then as soon as I enter Tier 4 I tend to lose interest until they finally max out their rank at 40 at which point they become intriguing again!


Well I've decided to swear off my alts during peak times, maybe limit myself to a alt night once or twice a week, until I get Sarigs up to 70 and unlock Warlord. Think I'll be able to stick to that for a while especially with my guild starting to branch out more into some scale Orvr roaming which has been great fun coupled with the AAOs boasting.


Spend a large chuck of last night switch between Scenarios and cruising across Praag and then into Chaos Wastes was a blast especially being the only survivor of a Destro group pinning stragglers back into their Warcamp for a while....well till the Zerg doubled back for us!

Also this is just sneaky:


Anyways, I did have a point when I started this post but rambled off a tad. Everyone beat me to the punch about the recent hotfix. Moar Medallions = Good news! Away to Gamesday this weekend, randomly crashing at a guildies sofa for the Saturday before the big day sunday so should be fun. And hopefully I'll come away with something interest to share!

Friday 10 September 2010

Non-helpful BO-Hugging Cats Vs. 3 Man Ambush Squad

Well I was running around with Ryntle my R25 Marauder in Saph with a two group PUG Warband and by the end of it I was fuming.

We'd just cleared Well of Qhaysh and the moderate Order defenders and had moved up to Sari'Daroir the BO just directly north of their.

On the way one of our members gets jumped by a Slayer/Witch Hunter/Bw Trio taking advantage of the AAO buff (and who'd come back to dog our steps across the rest of the lake.) They went down quickly after me and a couple of others jogged over to assist and a nearby healer came over to Res our fallen. (Not one of our healers who were far to busy sprinting to the next BO, a theme about to reoccur)

We moved onto Sari'Daroir capped it and moved across to The Spire of Teclis, we'd just moved in and started the tick when a message comes in from one of our DOKs who'd been jumped on route by the same three and gone down. Now bear in mind that from one BO to the other is literally about a 30 second sprite and he fell on the way, who was stirred enough by a group members plight to double back and help?

Well me and a choppa. By the time us 2 got there the hit squad had faded back into the scenery. The chop buggers off back for his tick, while I sit there failing to Res the DOK using pure mental willpower alone!

I start requesting (nicely) in /WB for a resser or some kind of assistance by which point a Shammy volunteers to double back. In the mean time Order return and unsurprisingly I go down. I warn the Shammy back off without the help of the other 9 Destroy warband members all happily cuddling the BO Flag not a minute away.

Jerk-faced-Jerks
Well lo and behold the tick happen a couple of minutes later and then sweeping majestically to the rescue the Group floods in wipes the resistance (All 3 of them) and we're duly ressed.

Not to be ungrateful but FFS what's wrong with you people?!

Why in for the love of Jiff would you sit around when you had plenty of time to go and return you bunch of jerks. I don't blame the choppa for doubling back, without a healer to res it was pretty pointless him being there. Likewise the Shammy who came out afterwards and ended up missing the tick because he was trying to find a way round the hit squad to res us while unsupported.

I ended up apologising to the DOK for the bunch of jerks who made up are our PUG even though none of them were anything to do with me!

I mean I could understand if there was seconds on the clock for the reward but seriously....My Frustration and rage about this relatively minor incident will power me through the weekend!

Also kudos to the three order who hit us again as we we're leaving the Woodchoppa camp after locking everything down and again took 3 of us down while the rest of the group ran unconcerned back to do what ever it was that was so pressing for them.

But really am I expecting too much of people? Would you double back for group mates under attack or just ignore them in favour of free renown?

Tuesday 31 August 2010

Wild Hunt is up and off/Producer's Letter!

Welp Wild Hunt is back again, sprung up live while PUGing some Scenarios.

Double LEage!

Haven't really noticed anything different from last year as yet! Except the Hunter's Vale seem a lot easier then last time round. No idea if that's a change in my perception but I'm pretty sure last time round the Boss had a insta kill attack and I diddn't notice it this time round!

Wild Hunt Task


wOOt! While posting this up the Producer's Letter Augest has come online! Can be found here! I'm off to read through it!

Sunday 29 August 2010

I hates it. Part 2 - The explanation

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm along in this but I'm really not liking the new 6v6 EC scenario.

Why not? Well after doing it pretty much constantly all of yesterday, both solo queuing with PUGs, Dual queuing with a friendly Zealot and as a full guild pre-made I think I've come to it from pretty much every angle and it's just far to short and inconsequential. It also dosen't help that it's been the only damn thing that seems to pop.

God knows how the points are generated but it's crazy quick.

I've not been in one that took longer then 5 minutes start to finish, win, or lose it dosent matter. It's over in minutes and you just requeue again. I know it's a farmer paradise for your fused insignias but it's just far, FAR too throw away.

Just whenever it pops up I can't summon the energy to care how it ends up (except in a pre-made obviously). And the renown your gain from it seems to be rubbish compared to pretty much every other scenario in the game currently, lucky to hit 1.8k even with the 10% bonus and a 500 point lead (although I suppose the amount of bonus 600 RP win bonus adds up at the rate you can hammer through them)

If there seriously thinking about putting this in the rotation they need to take out all point scoring other then player kills or half it or something, TBH I'm not even sure how you get the points but even with 0 kills the losing side still seems to end up with 100-200 points!

So yeah, I love 6v6s but if there thinking about putting one in permently they should seriously just fix AOE/LoS issues with Iron Clad and put that back in. Much more fun and enjoyable IMHO.

Also this is one of the PUG line ups I ended up in while dual queuing with Skumgummi the Zealot. Kinda fixed the eternal question of is there such a think as too many Chosen?
Spoilt Broth
The answers a big fat YES.

Also annoyingly I ran afoul of the Quitter debuff ona T1 alt. Have been queuing while roaming the Empire/Chaos lake, get a pop while in combat. We finish off the Order in the area but I don't come out of Combat in time. The pop expires and I get hit with the Quitter debuff. Wth? Is that meant to happen? I'm guessing not and being locked out of scenario queues because the game wouldnt let me enter the bloody thing in the first place it not cool.

I hates it. Part 1

It being the new 6v6 scenario.

I've just logged off, after a couple of drinks and having complete the neww WE Warfront event line (So at least 15 Runs both as Pug/Premade)...and I don't like it.

In fact I would go as far as to say I dislike it immensely bordering on hating it.

I'll clarify this further tomorrow but right now all I have is.....apathy. I would have much preferred pretty much anything else.

But A) I'm fully aware everyone else including my guildies seem to *love* this and B) Kudos to Mythic for bringing forth something new. Ill go into further detail soon!

Wednesday 25 August 2010

I have a confession…Goodbye old faithful.

I've been playing WAR on an old 6+ year old comp on the "fastest graphics" and everything slashed down to minimum settings or turned off completely.

The only times I’ve been able to put things up to high is during Pve Raids (That’s specifically because standing around in AOE while Main Tanking is neither big nor clever.) but it’s turned off as soon as the raid’s done to stop my poor geriatric crashing in a storm of lag.

My PC’s huge hard drive (All 60Gbs of it) has finally filled up and I’ve run out of things to delete to make space and so I’ve been (happily) forced into upgrading to a new desktop. Frankly it’s well past time and I’m looking forward to being able to crank everything up to full and playing it as it was designed to be played. Aswell as hopefully making Orvr viable for me again without sildeshowing completely!

Upgrading from a old 1.8Ghz single core CPU to a Quad core 2.9Ghz and my old old graphics card upto a ATI Radeon 1GB HD 5770 and 1 gig or Ram upto 4, should mean I get huge inprovements across the board, but unfortunately it’ll mean finally letting XP go in favour Windows 7 but I’ll live with that one was or the other.

Gotta wait two weeks for it to be build and delivered but I honestly can’t freakin’ wait.

Saturday 21 August 2010

Setting up a twitter thingie

Diddn't catch much of the Video chat but what I heard wasn't exactly inspiring. I'm resigned for no solid news to follow for a while so....yeah I guess its back to waiting.....again...

Overhyped much?

In other news I'm setting up on twitter and can be found here: https://twitter.com/WarAura

Mainly for keeping tabs on news and random things rather then much else I think, guess I'll see how it goes never tried it before.

Double renown bonus could not have come at a worse time for me really. Kids staying over and trying to make up for not studying the last 2 years into a weekend craming does not make for a whole lotta play time!

Friday 20 August 2010

Pacified for the moment!

Well new news has been leaking over the last while.

Seems the RvR pack will be out before Christmas (here) and I'm more interested by the new plans then anything else right now.

Nobwaart has a transcript of the WAR related questions from the earlier Webchat (Which I missed, stupid work) up here.

Confirms a new zone is coming and will be available to everyone regardless of the Rvr Pack although some content within will be restricted to those with the pack (I'm guessing items etc)

Krossuss has put up some interesting ideas about what the 3P's (Power, Progression and Personality) could mean.

I like the idea of a Tiered unlock, especially if it can be upgraded at a later time once you've purchased a "lower" Tier like Skar suggests.

The only thought's I've had myself regarding what 3P's could mean are the announcement that RR81-100 is being brought in....and they have a expansion-like called Progression being introduced. RR81-100 unlocked by purchased the Progression pack for when you max out and want to keep going rather then re-rolling an alt? I don't see a issue with that myself but could be a bit to similar Pack X=Advantage Y over everyone else for some.

Any hoo colour me intrigued I'm looking forward to more roll outs of news after the initial apathy I was feeling on Wednesday!

Thursday 19 August 2010

Massively initial info from Gamescom up

Massively posted their post late yesterday and I missed it initially. Can be seen here.

No new content over yesterday's information day is still youngish I guess but other then a post from Andy on the Forum's expending (a tiny bit) on their reference to "personalise" game play experiences nothing else has been forthcoming.

Does seem like these posts are not the extent of the interviews that took place yesterday at least but otherwise still Mehing here.

Edited Title as I misled my self!

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Gamescom update: I'm 'a gonna wait it out!

Well spend most of my free time at work scanning for new news from Gamescom and to be honest it's been scant and fairly underwhelming so far. Theres a interview over at Onrpg you can check out here.

Brief highlights are RR cap being raised to 100, Skaven not being added as a normal race but "something different" and not wanting to follow the tradition path of releasing paid expansion every 2 years. And by brief highlights I mean thats pretty much it.

Well...TBH I'm not knocked over here but I'm making a concious effort and I'm going to wait it out and see what else appears before commenting nothing released so far really interests me.

*Possible Server transfer? Well maybe if my home server (Karak Azgal) dies suddenly that may be useful.
*Name changes? No not bothered by that at all.
*Skaven being something different, I'm guessing rules out a new Tier 1-4 pairing zone with a opposite number and could mean anything or nothing.
*RR to 100? Could well be a interesting incentive to maxed characters and I would imagine will mean new armour/weapon/item sets to follow at some point. Personally Im not bumping my head against that particular ceiling but I'm not self-absorbed enough to rule it out as a big issue for those up there. Just hope they don't over compensate with making the attempts to make progression through the lower RR ranks and make it a doddle to hit 80.
*Not going F2P? Pretty much already ruled out so not exactly news.

Andy stated over on his twitter that more detailed..details should follow. Hopefully about other bits being planned cos frankly the above....no.....NO....gonna stay positive till they pack up and head back to the states before ruling out anything more exciting being announced.
Edited: As Bootae point's out the above further information to follow will be from Baltimore Gamesday this weekend so that could be all she wrote for now. Boo & Hiss indeed!

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Patch notes up!

Check them out here!

More hopefully later once I've had a chance to go over them!

Edit: well server's been done all evening so I've not been able to scope out the changes. Looks like a pretty solid patch overwise and I'll see how it pans out when I finally get online later in the week. 'Course by then we should have the Big Announcement to chew on so....I know it's stupid but I'm actually excited to hear the news!

Friday 13 August 2010

1st Time Draws and Kislev's

Just a quick one today!

Had a strange Scenario fight out last night while running with a guild Premade. Normally there's 4 of us that run about together using various alts with the other two spots being who every else is online and fancies it. Last night due to a some odd playing times I ended up in a completely different group. We ended up with me, another S&B Chosen (who is a absolute DPS monster, I'm still not quite sure how he manages it!), a 2 hander chosen, 1 heal DOK, Zatos the Sorc and a SH, frankly we rocked, and it was great fun mixing up with different set ups for a while.

Tie!
Just before we settled into that group we had a slightly different line up when the Reikland Factory Sc we were plugging away at came to a abrupt (Seemed like: I dont tend to pay attention to the score/time if it seems to be going well!) end:










First time I'd come across this! Always fun!

Anyhoo I saw this master piece for the first time this week, I'm sure it's old hat for some but first time awesomness for me! :

Your Doom!


And that kinda got me thinking about the Kisliv's. For those that aren't up with there Warhammer IP, Kisliv is a hardy country situated somewhere between Nordland, Troll Country and the Chaos Wastes. Lead by a powerful Ice Queen and Praag had close linkes. There a ally of the Empire rather then a part of it as far as I'm aware but my lore years old! Think Cossacks, think Prussian/Russian medieval, think Mongolian style horse arches, think wind swept Siberia but mainly think BEAR CALVARY! Mythic you missed a trick here!

Bear king!
Images have been ridiculously hard to come by! Most of the models are discontinued etc. Diddn't want to start stealing them from random guys website so I'd point ya here for more Bear Riding Minature goodness! If you like minatures in general the sites got some pretty cool painted/converted goodness. Stumbled across it while trying to grab some offical pic but there all out of production!

Actually I'd settle for adding Cathay to the game!:

Tigers Calvary!
I've also learnt that google image searching for "Bear Cavalry" will never, EVER get old!

Tuesday 10 August 2010

No more (new/old) cities anymore

Well between the Q&A (Check Gaarawarr for a transcipt or Bruglir for a recording) and the Buffed.De interview Carrie has pretty much ruled out re-introducing the lost cities back into the game.

Which is kinda a shame. I wasn't around for the Beta so I've never seen them or had a chance to poke around in them. :-(

Personally I think they should meet some where in the middle, add them in as Instances only ala IC/Aldorf Siege and have them unlock when ever the relevant pairing locks down instead of the current system or Empire/Chaos + Elf = IC/Aldorf unlocking.

My thinking behind this is it would add some variety (never a bad think in my book) to the city sieges instead of it always being IC/Aldorf for the end game and hopefully spread out the Zerglings with the opposing force being able to split and counter attack for a different city across the pairings. It would also take advantage or the current system with Orvr opening up during the current city sieges giving multiple targets and something to aim at.

Sadly you'd probable need some kind of incentive to get people to defend threatened pairings rather then just pushing through a undefended zone....Perhaps increased rewards for defense in the outer zones in the form of either a generic Renown increase for the defensive side (So Order in Reikland/Kadrin Valley/Eataine and Destruction in Chaos Wastes/Caledor/Black Crag - combined with the Against all odds would be a pretty strong reward) or increased lock rewards for these end zones (Less keen on the last idea and as would probable led to increased Zergs concentrating in one area rather then spreading out)

So....was just something that I thought might have a impact/salvage the old cities/add some variety...kinda works in my head but what do other people think?

Tuesday 3 August 2010

Un-Constructive VL post! Now with added expansion thoughts

Bah after the amount of messing around last night, it went almost disappointing smoothly tonight and the Vulture Lord fell within a couple of tries.

Just goes to show what massed tiredness and frustration can do to a otherwise competent group!

Wasn't a bad run for the guild, our Off Tank Black Guard picked up the Tyrant chest piece, I finished off my full Glyph set (although disappointingly only 1 Tyrant piece in total still) and our healer DOK got his Glyph cloak and enough masks for another piece of his set.


Elsewhere, every one seems quiet - quiet at the moment, just settling in to wait for the big news which is fast approaching when I'm sure the scene will explode again.

Personally I'm still not sure what I'm expecting. Expansion announcement certainly. New races seems a given but I'm starting to lose hope in my preferred tag team of Skaven V Lizardmen duking it out in Lustria. As one of Bootae's comments reminded me in one of his post comments the recent flag backgrounds in podcasts and the like have had a huge "Bretonnia" scrawled across them. Honestly I've never been that enamoured with them, plus while different from a style and Lore perspective they are still at the end of the day more humans for order.

Of course from a IP perspective they could be released in tandem with Wood Elves for a kinda dual-race pairing. That would mean either cutting classes down to just two a piece or making the Skaven faction a deluxed sized affair. Skaven could certainly stretch to keeping 6-8 classes interesting and distinctive I just don't see it happening realistically unless they were also planning on adding some additional classes to the existing races and that just seems like a impossible amount of work for Mythic to do in one go regardless of how large/long away the expansion is likely to be.

You'll notice I'm taking Skaven as a given if new races are coming. I just can't, CAN'T, see anyone at Bioware-Mythic being...silly....enough to think:

"Hey you know what'll be funny? That's add another destruction race, hint all the way Skaven are likely to be involved and then put out Beastmen instead to keep people on their toes!"
*Enter angry mobs stage left*


On a more down beat note Wasdstomp had some disturbing thoughts regarding the "big announcement". I just really hope he's wrong!

Regardless interesting times ahead!

Scr*w you Vulture Lord!

Gnah. Its 4 in the morning, I'm meant to get up for work in a hour and I'm just logged from War after spending the last....8 hours trying and failing to take down the 8th boss.

And I mean just the 8th, our group had cleared up to there yesterday...

..Just...gnah nothing went right! Anything from weird things happening, occasional member errors, bad luck, some down right shoddy tanking (Hey im tired leave me alone!) and pretty much everything else.

Just too clarify everyone in the group has finished this before barring a couple of position swaps (Our healer DOK hadn't been primary healer for it before and I'd only off-tanked him previously)

Well enjoy your victory tonight Mr. so-called-King Amenemhetum, cos I'm coming back tomorrow and your in for it.

(Words cannot describe how singularly annoyed I am about tonights run!)

/end self-pity

Saturday 31 July 2010

Gratz Zatos!

Just wanted to give a big shout out to our guild resident badass Sorc Zatos who dinged RR80 last night!

Massive gratulations and things of that nature!

The big man himself

He dinged shortly before this in a scenario but I was too lazy to take a screenie then so this is slightly later on chest hunting in LotD.

Speaking of which:
Mmmkay




Hmmm never noticed these guys before. Guess wolves migrate south for the winter!








In other news the Producers later came out and can be found here if you haven't already checked it. It's about what you'd expect, round up of information regarding the new patch. Only new thing is confirmation the Wild Hunt will be returning which is always fun. I just hope if they return Hunter's Vale in across the other Tier's they put the insta-gibb sections of the final boss fight back in!

Friday 30 July 2010

Four thing’s Werit learnt.

Just a quick one:

Werit’s posted up a new interview from Buffed.de with Carrie Gouskos.

I’d recommend shunting over Werit’s way and checking it out. Translation leaves a bit to be desired and mainly more dropped hints but news is news!

Seems to confirm they are definitely working on something and that they have further plans for the End Game long term which unfortunately don't include re-introducing the missing home cities (Boo! Hiss! Etc!) a new 6v6 Scenario which is great as I loved the Ironclad. I'm convinced with all the hints and I'm gonna get off the fence about it. Next month is going to be a new expanion announcement...or I'll cry inside!