Calling Them Out

I am calling out Warspirits right now because he just made a post on the official forums saying that he never lost today.  Well of course you don't lose when you leave the SC right away.  I mean honestly just horrible.  I call out people who lie and think they are top dog when in reality they live in there own little world.  Yes this may be a little vindictive but this is my blog and I can do what I want.

Insignias

So today I was thinking about how long it will take to up each level.  I figure it will take 16 hours of total SC game play to go up to invader level insignias.  I figured this out by thinking that you will get an average of 2 conq. insignias throughout the SCs.  So that means it will take 160 SCs to get enough conq. insignias to be able to buy the conq weapon thus going up to invader insignias.  I also figured that the average SC will take about 6 mins. to complete.  So 160x6 = 960 then I divided it by 60 which comes out to 16 hrs of SC game play.  

Now this is just an estimate.  Some people will earn them faster while others will earn them slower but I figure this is about average.  This time will go up by about 30 mins or so each level.  So I figure that it will take me 84 hours and 30 mins of SC game play to get my royal two hander that I want.  

Patch Day

Patch day, patch day, patch day, yay.  I love patch day.  It is always excited to see what new bugs mythic comes up with when patch day comes.  What old bugs will suddenly reappear with this new patch.  I am also excited the new weapons coming out today.  Yay time to own destro when I get off of work.

A Couple of Things.

First thing first patch tomorrow as it says here.  Time to start dominating destro.  Another thing is pretty cool.  A player has live streaming of his warhammer game play.  I may try and figure this out and do it my self to show you all how uber i am.

The Homestretch

So I am on the homestretch to renown rank 80.  I was 65% of the way in to 78 starting Friday night and now I only need 60% of a renown to reach 80.  The 30% renown bonus this past weekend was nice to and it helped out a lot.  Now with me being so  close to 80 I can fell me just renown whoring for zone locks and everything else.  I haven't been doing that before but now that I am close I find myself doing this just to get to 80.  I hope to be there by next week.

Bilerot

Yes I ran Bilerot for the first time this weekend.  No I don't have a destro toon to 40 yet.  I ran it on my Knight. You see we went to Stage 2 Sat. and I was bored and I actually found a group that wanted to go to Bilerot and I have always wanted to run it.  So we four manned Bilerot.  Our group was RP, DPS WP, and 2 KotBS.  Yup we downed everything in Bilerot and I have to say I thought it was pretty easy to do.  I found that instance actually a lot easier than Sigmars and WBT.  But anyway it was a nice change of pace to do something I have never done before, now all I need to do is the Blood instance during a Stage 2 push when I am locked out of the king.

Ironclad

So I logged on last night to the test server to try out the new Ironclad sc.  I have mixed feelings about this new sc.  Sure it is compact which is nice and it is only 6v6 which again is really nice.  I think it is two compact though.  It should be only one level with one flag in the middle like Caledor Woods.  You think people complain about BWs and Sorcs before, just wait til this SC comes out.  It is way to close quarters and AoE will again be king in this SC.  I am not worried about it with our 6 mans, but other 6 mans will be destroyed by AoE.

Another thing about this SC is that WPs and DoKs will be king because of the multiple stories and being able to hide and just AoE heal from the different stories while the RPs and AMs have to be able to see there target really to heal well.

Well also on the test server I got to test out the new two hander for the rvr weapons.  I have to say I liked it a lot. It raised my dps up by 24 pts which is really nice.

The Little Things

I do enjoy the little things.  The little things make it fun.  Right now the little thing that make it fun is staking people with the live event reward.  It is fun to run up to someone you just killed and throw a huge stake threw there body.  I just wish they had a flag on it with your name on it showing that you were the one who staked them.  Here are some pictures of my adventure in staking people.

Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell is an awesome actor and I love his old shows like Brisco County Jr., and Jack of All Trades.  I love Hulu because it has Jack of All Trades on it and I am just finishing up the series.  Also Burn Notice is also an awesome show.  Anyway just throwing that out there.

The New SCs

Well in case you haven't seen it yet here is the new SCs that are coming out, and here are my thoughts on these new SCs.

Sure these 6 SCs are better than the 6 that they purposed before, but the problem is that there are only 6 SCs the whole time, and 7 on the weekend.  Again as the saying goes "variety is the spice of life" and this saying applies here.  We need variety which is what this system right now does offer.  We don't have the same SCs over and over again like the new system is going to do.

Also here are some thoughts on what he said in his post as well.

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Andy wrote:
Last week we told the community that we were going “back to the whiteboard” on how we implemented the Scenario changes in 1.3.4. We took the feedback provided by you, the community, to heart and took a long look at what we wanted to accomplish with these changes compared to what the players are asking for.

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Yes you did take the feedback on the SC choices, but you didn't take the feedback on just have 6 scs the whole time.  It is going to get boring fast with only having a total of 6 scs, instead of now where there are 12 scs and varitey.

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Andy wrote: Attaining “critical mass” for Scenarios to ensure that they are firing off as frequently as possible. If we put in too many Scenarios active at one time, we end up spreading out the active population to the point that there is a significant, and thereby not fun, wait for Scenarios.

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Um I can barely get an SC pop with just 3 to 4 SCs open at one time, how is having 6 SCs open all the time going to make them fire off more frequently.  This confuses me.

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Andy wrote: Providing you with the variety in Scenarios that you’re asking for by adding in the most asked for Scenarios from the community and re moving some of the less played ones. 

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A lot of the SCs you removed were still fun.  There were only two totally worthless SCs and those were Thunder Valley and Blood of the Black Carin.  All the others were fine, those two SCs could be fixed pretty easily.

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Andy wrote: Ending scores, for both the winner and the losing realm (the higher the better for the losing realm)

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So you are saying I shouldn't have just tried to totally dominate in the SC then.  I should let them at least get a couple of points.  Well I say screw that I want to totally demoralize the other side, which is part of the game.  I want them to challenge us, not to just hand them the points.  I don't want an SC that just hands points to the other realm, I want SCs that make each realm work for the points.

 

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Andy wrote: Time to completion

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Hey it isn't our fault that you don't know how make some changes to the SCs so they all finish around the same time.  Like Caledor Woods, make the flag earn you points quicker, instead of it taking the whole time just to finish the SC when the other side is spawn camped.  Same thing with Maw, make it so you earn points slower when you are holding the part.  There you go problem fixed.

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Andy wrote: Fun of Gameplay, i.e..; does it feed into being an AoE meatgrinder or is it more strategic with lots of room to play in?

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You know I was thinking about this and Thunder Valley.  If you made Thunder Valley just like Battle for Praag then it would be an awesome SC, it would be just like Gromil Crossing since there are no flags close by the camp, but since you kept Gromil Crossing... oh that is right you didn't, instead we have Battle for Praag, which is fun but the points are so close together that it is easy to wipe them once at the flag and the spawn camp the other side while in Gromil Crossing it takes a few wipes before that.

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Andy wrote: “But Andy, that’s still only 6 static Scenarios in tier 4!”

Yes, yes it is. This is where the aforementioned “critical mass” comes into play. We understand the desire for as much variety as possible, however we had to temper that with ensuring the most active Scenario environment possible for everyone.

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You didn't need to change which SC pop now because you added a new way to earn weapons because of SCs.  Because of this new system coming out more SCs would have been firing off and thus would have fixed your issue.

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Andy wrote: We saw the large outcry against the inclusion of Phoenix Gate, Mourkain Temple and Gates of Ekrund at the higher level tiers and the exclusion of some favorites such as Reikland Factory, Caledor Woods and Serpent’s Passage.

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  They are good SCs, well except for Phoenix Gate, except that those SCs would be a 6v6 sc instead of a 12v12 sc.  If Mourkain Temple and Gates of Ekrund became 6v6 in t4 then I say let them in and they will be a blast.

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Andy wrote: One thing that we didn't emphasize strongly enough in previous communications is that these Tier 4 Scenarios will be available at all times, no matter what state the campaign is in (aside from stage one of a City Siege).

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Um I had no question about that.  I just wish that they were available during Stage 1 because Stage 1 can get boring.

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Andy wrote: Making obsolete the need to queue for one or two specific Scenarios to “push” the campaign.

 Additionally, these Weekend Warfronts will do something that weekend events have never done before: contribute to the campaign. No longer will you be forced to pick and choose which Scenarios to queue for; all of them contribute.

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This actually hurts the campaign then helps it.  If we are trying to lock a pairing we can't tell people that aren't in premades to just queue for such and such SCs now we have to tell them not to queue at all and that isn't going to happen.  

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Andy wrote: So there you have it. We are extremely grateful to you, the community, for all of the feedback you’ve provided over the last few weeks regarding the Scenario changes. While we understand that everyone will react differently to this new system, we are steadfast in the belief that this is the best thing for the future of WAR. Thank you for being a part of what’s to come.

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Thanks for listening to about 20% of what the community wants.  We were fine with how the SC system worked before, you just needed to fix one or two SCs instead of removing almost half the SCs. 

At least we can get new weapons now.

Tank Progression

So I was thinking the other day about tank progression in MMOs.  The tanks are the ones that need the gear the most out of anyone else.  Tanks are the ones that need the gear first because they are the ones that need to progress the most so the whole group can.

Without the tanks getting gear there isn't a way for anyone else to progress in the game as far.  At least in WAR tanks need to be fully warded for every instance they do.  Well at least the main tank does.  While every other person in there can be 3/5 wards and still be able to do it.  Without the tank being fully warded it makes everything that much more difficult.

This is where I think WAR has had trouble with in the beginning and still does for new up and coming guilds.  With there random loot drop from the higher dungeons it is hard to gear up a tank.  I remember when I was in League of Light my guild was waiting on me to finally get fully warded to run LV.  We had the dps and the healers ready but not the tank.  Because I couldn't finish my set.  I know this has been a problem with other people to waiting on there tanks to get warded enough to run the instance.  Now it isn't as much of a trouble with how easy it is to get invader tokens but it still can be a problem with some guilds.

I am not sure how it is other MMOs and if you could post a comment about how important it is for tank progression in other MMOs I would appreciate it.

Back

Ok guys I am back to posting, since I have basically shoveled all the snow that I can.  I haven't stopped playing WAR but I just didn't have time to post anything.

Well we downed the King again last night and we now have the first full sovereign character on Gorfang on our server.  I am also now only 2 pieces away from being full sovereign, which are the two pieces I can't wear yet so it is all good.

I did learn something else though, and that is I can't tank the king.  The reason being is that I fail at strafing.  I can tank the final boss in TotVL pretty easily, but for some reason I can't tank the king.  Oh well what can you do.

Snow

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit it is because of the 2 ft of snow we got over the weekend and the foot we are suppose to get today.  I have been busy shoveling snow and I haven't had time to post anything.  I probably won't be able to post until Thursday.  Be patient and I will be back.

Gates of Ekrund

So last night I got a Gates of Ekrund pop.  I was in Altdorf on my main standing at the Auction House not even queued up for any SCs and I get this pop.  I started busting out laughing in vent and proceeded to go in to the SC.  Now I can only speculate what  the destro in the SC were saying or thinking in that SC but I know on order they were busting out laughing.  I kind of felt bad for the destro in there but then I realized that I don't care and that this only happens once really.  So I proceeded to 2 or 3 shot every character in there which was fun.  I hope another one pops for me again some time.

The New Currency

Last night they told people how they will be able to get the higher up insignias on the test server.  I wasn't able to be on the vent server to ask questions due to prior obligations, but I have heard how you get them new currency.  

You start out by getting Conq. Insignias from SCs.  Then once you buy a Conq. weapon you start getting Invader Insignias then so on an so forth.  Now this system seems to be pretty interesting and I don't mind it except for one problem.  Characters who can only use great weapons are screwed over.  The reason being is that I as a knight can say buy my shield at Conq. level which is half as expensive as a great weapon.  Thus I will start being able to earn Invader Insignias faster than say a RP because they can only use staffs.  So by the time the buy there Conq. Great Weapon I will be able to buy my Invader Shield and start earning Warlord Insignias while they are just starting to earn Invader Insignias.  This is not good at all.

Here is how I propose to fix it.  I say that you have to be able to buy the weapon below that before you can buy the higher level weapon.  Which means say that I buy the Conq. Shield then I will be only able to buy the Invader Shield and not the other weapons.  Now I know it isn't perfect and that I will still be able to earn Insignias faster than someone who only has a great weapon but it would close the gap a great deal in price wise.

His Thoughts

Just thought I would post this here since it is so true.  Read Grimnir Grudge blog post it is true.

Thoughts on the New Weapons

Well like I said earlier I would post my thoughts on the new weapons.  For almost every class it is a very big upgrade.  For what I want the KotBS 2-hander is freaking amazing.  I would take either the Warlord or Royal weapon over Gutbeaters any day of the week.  Both shields for the knight are awesome and they even look awesome.  You can see how each weapon looks over at at Gaarawarr Gabs.

With that being said, I know in our guild the AMs and RPs are angry.  DPS is fast out scaling healing and these weapons are going to make it a bigger difference than before.  The sandstorm staffs are still better for the healers.  They said there is changes coming to healing in 1.3.5 that will be talked in the next producers letter so that will be interesting to see when it comes out.

The New Weapons

Well I logged on to the test server to see the weapons and here they are.  The royal ones for order.  I will post what I think later, but with out further ado.

My Thoughts on the Patch Notes

Well I posted yesterday that the patch notes where out and after looking over them there are some good things and then there are some really terrible things.  I will focus on the terrible things first just to get them out of the way.

The first and worst thing they did was get rid of way to many SCs.  As the old saying goes Variety is the Spice of Life and this goes with games.  People want variety when they are playing.  Sure these 6 SCs will be open the whole time but there will be no changes what so ever and they will get boring unless they have a weekend event every weekend that brings back one of the old SCs.  If they do that every single weekend then I think it will be ok, if not then well we will see.

Another face palm is the nerf of IBs.  Now listen people still hold the misconception that IBs are OP, well they are not.  Only thing making them that is Gromil Plating, which they do need to fix, but other than that they are fine.  They didn't need to nerf cave-in.  It was fine as is.  As someone put it in a thread on WHA, "how can mythic give 2 of the 6 tanks an AoE stagger, while continuously nerfing the other tanks CC is beyond me."  I agree with this wholeheartedly.  They need to either change our AoE CC or give the other tanks more CC.

On a good note is the weapons I hope.  I will be checking them out after work to see how good they are and will be hopefully posting some screenshots of them to show you all.

1.3.4 Patch Notes

http://herald.warhammeronline.com/patchnotes/index.php?id=2010_1-3-4#patch:-1_section:1

Here are the patch notes for 1.3.4.  Interesting choice in the SCs and how they are doing them.  I will be going on the test server tomorrow to see the weapons and will hopefully be able to get SS's of them and post them on here later.

Repeccing

I don't mind paying the money to respec to my different specs that I have.  What I am tired of is having to go back to Altdorf to respec.  It is a pain in the but to travel back to Altdorf to repec my renown points and my mastery tree for the three different specs I have.  Yes I have three differnt specs.  I have a full on tank spec for when I am main tanking an instance, I have an off tank spec for when I am the off tank in an instance, and I have my PvP spec for when I am running around in pvp.

Here is what I would wish they would do.  Give us an option on the our character screen or something to be able to switch what spec we want.  Have us be able to set up 2 or 3 different specs and when we want to change it we get out of combat pick the spec we want, it takes the 14 gold or so that it cost to respec and boom we are ready to go.  It would be so much easier if they did this, will they I doubt it but I can dream.