Blurring Shock

Blogger Plays Game, Blogs About It

2012-02-02T04:38:00.000-08:00

I’ve been playing The Old Republic since the official release date. Blog Shocker! I wanted to stick around in WAR but my guild and friends pretty much vanished overnight and it only took a moment of weakness and my copy of SWTOR was winging it’s way to me.

My WAR sub was still active for a few weeks after this but I guess not actually logging in again tells it’s own story. Not that I am now a WAR hater but I was right into the Star Wars storylines and learning a new class is one of the best things for me. Just messing about on some different classes in SWTOR has made me realise how much variety of play style I missed out in WAR, playing only a Swordmaster for my 3 years. I am definitely going to get a few chars rolling in Star Wars, so far got a L20 Sith Assassin , L18 Sniper, both on Tomb of Freedon Naad server . More about my PVP experience with these guys in future posts!

My server though was one of the worst hit for queues, and still has about a 15 min queue in primetime (when I play ofc). The queues were easily over an hour every day for the first few weeks. This hit my game time somewhat. My wife loved these queues though; it meant I could do some jobs around the house!

I’m in no hurry to get to 50 though and am taking it easy. The storyline have been quite fun so far, and I am into it, I cannot recall anything about the story in Warhammer whatsoever. And the way I see it, open-world PvP is a still some way off from being an actual viable PvP endgame yet so there’s no pointing rushing to get there.

Coming Soon

2012-02-01T05:44:00.001-08:00

A Last Hurrah

2011-12-05T07:44:00.000-08:00

I’m gonna be back playing WAR for a month or so, until the 9th Jan when my sub is up. My guild has decided to wind itself down with the vast majority of players including the leaders deciding to move to SWTOR. So for a few weeks there is to be something of a last hurrah with a few players like myself popping back on-line for a farewell Des bashing.

I have been increasingly tempted to get back into things anyway so this was all the incentive I needed. I will not be going to play SWTOR unless there is sufficent positive feedback about end game PvP so I may even stay in WAR after doomsday if there are still some people to play with, and against.

I had about 4hrs in game on Friday night. Was awesome fun, just the buzz I’ve been missing.

Fair Fights

2011-07-15T03:56:00.000-07:00

1 Destro + 1 Order = 1 Winner + 1 Whiner. Bask in the glory of my mathematics.

I think future development of WAR needs to focus on fair fights. 2 faction RvR was never going to cut it and the campaign and introduction of Forts/Relics needs to be seriously focused to reduce the advantages of numerical superiority.

AAO and Underdog (does this still do anything?) isn't enough on it's own. Maybe it was to start with, but not anymore, not now have folks the option to reroll on the same server to play on the winning game. Crashing the client does not enable the measely 8hr lockout you know.

Karak Norn has been suffering from realm imbalance for a long time now with Destro dominating for months. And if Destro aren't dominating Order are.

The latest Destro dominance came about when a french server merged with Norn and with this came a guild called Legion de Midgaard Nord, LNM, who can regularily field 6FG of well geared players, and play well to boot. Destro was already in the ascendancy on Norn at the time but this merge cemmented it big time.

It has been politely requested via the medium of forums that Destro should stop zerging Orders for the good of the server but that's not going to happen.

Whilst I would like to say Orders should man up and adapt it just hasn't happened either and just won't happen. Success breeds success. Many Orders have rerolled Destro's to ride the renown train to Altdorf or gradually quit RvR after geting wiped one too many times.

There has been some adapataion by Order. Some Guilds and alliances have merged but this has been slow going and in the meantime, and to their great credit imo, LNM rerolled to Order and are racing back to T4 as we speak. They say they will review the situation when they reach T4 and settle on a side. It's very admirable of them but it won't change anything. One side will always dominate.

LNM's reroll has created a vacuum on Destro's side now and Order are back in the ascendcy, suddenly emerging from the warcamps/Sc queue, or returning from Dessie alts.

Allowing cross-realming was criminal to be honest. Like me you may be a pillar of rightousness ;) but the world is full of easy moders. It really is. Look outside, there's one right now!! And why not, why do things the hard way when there is an easy way? It's human nature. But it's sucks for both sides really and drives everyone towards RvE.

How can a 2 faction game ever be balanced?

My radical idea would be to allow everyone to fight each other and only Guild and Alliance members are friendly targets. Maintain some lore and RvR by not allowing Order and Detro to Guild or Alliance together but everything else is a free for all. I'd make a new map to go with this. Call it T5. A large PvP zone with hex-style territory, claimable by guilds and rewards points but split up depending in the size of the guild. This would put the cat amongst the pigeons.

I'll get my coat ;)

The Kid and the Vicar

2011-07-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

I had an impromptu game of Warhammer 40K (tabletop) with my cousin on Christmas Day last year. Whilst he taught me a lesson in why not to drink 3 bottles of red wine and take control of an army of slavering genestealers he mentioned that he played WAR with his some of his friends. He’s 11 by the way. I am 33.

This made me think about the different type of people who play Warhammer Online and where Mythic/Bioware/EA see the market for WAR.

When I was eleven I played Warhammer tabletop too, and computer games (Dungeon Master on the Atari ST anyone?). I very much doubt my cousin played WoW before WAR . He did not seem like a grizzled DAoC veteran either.

My next door neighbour is a vicar, he’s 40, and a huge tabletop fan. He enjoys the painting and modelling aspect the most and makes some simply amazing converted armies and scenery. He had heard about WAR and asked me about it. I was very cagey to be honest. I do not see WAR as Warhammer at all. It’s a PvP MMO. Although he likes to play Guitar Hero on his Xbox he is no gamer and I don’t think there is anything for the tabletop hobbyist in T4’s endgame PvP. In short, I did not recommend it to him.

Somewhere in all last week’s goings on I picked up that Mythic are going to make this new announcement at Games Day US, Game’s Workshop’s annual tabletop fest. Game’s Workshop’s Warhammer hobby has a hugely established fanbase of all ages around the world. I’m wondering if the news will be something to try to continue tap into the ever-lasting and lucrative Warhammer hobby market. Something to make the game more accessible to Warhammer fans who are also casual gamers. One commenter on Bootae’s blog threw out the idea of the game being released on Xbox, which Mythic did demo was possible before launch. Would certainly fit the criteria some of the bloggers have mentioned (e.g. speechless). Only Sigmar knows, and his bloggers ;)

Baited

2011-07-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am eagerly awaiting the July 6th news. I am checking all sources of WAR news for WAR news every few minutes.

It feels like Transfer Deadline Day for an Everton FC fan. UK football reference here, humour me :)

SkySports (1 hour before the deadline): "Yes, Argentine World Cup hero Juan Roman Riquelme has been spotted outside Goodison Park..."
(30 mins before deadline): "No, turned out it was the cleaner".

Latest snippet from Werit on Twitter is they are on their way for playtesting and presentations. Playtesting? I am sure they are not playtesting F2P, the no.1 speculation going around. And could they playtest a shakeup of the RvR campaign? Not sure how, unless they can go into a new or restyled zone or something. Maybe new keep siege interations? Ladders and stuff.

Course, they could playtest new careers but let's not go there.

Werit, Gaarawar, Mykiel and Eka are over there in the US, and Bootae and Zizlak on Skype (no.1 skype conversation EU). Maybe others???

Last time Bloggers were invited to Mythic they introduced the new City sieges and that turned out well, although a tad stale now. What will it be indeed? I can't help but get excited.

A Wink and A Smile

2011-06-29T04:50:00.000-07:00

I have not played much of 1.4.3's Live Event yet. Didn't get the eldest to bed 'til almost 11 last night so was knackered and just inhaled vapours from an empty beer bottle and vegged my way through a couple of Scs. What little I saw of the College of Corruption I couldn't make sense of, just got farmed on the stairs.

I logged off quite down actually. I shouldn't bother logging in so late, just to catch a lock and PuG a scenario or two. Leeching locks used to be worthwhile when I was RR50 and shit, as you could get about 10% renown for it, but not so anymore.

Soloing Scs rarely turns out for the best at that hour either. In Gates of Ekrund last night the only DPS in the group, a WH, stealths up and goes missing, wants to be the man I guess. One of the healers turns out to be DPS. I actually had some fun though. Switched to my WB spec,a nd with Odjira, Quick Escape, and full defensive setup I gave the Des a good run around. Got 0 renown though.

My overall thoughts on patch 1.4.3 are that is of very little consequence to me, or the game. WAR's events aren't really events as I imagine them to be. Nothing actually happens. It's just an extra scenario with some progress/reward attached. My WAR is oRvR, not Squishies of Asqy or whatever they are called. When will they do a Live Event that actually takes place in the live world, in the lakes? They could try some new campaign ideas or something, wandering monsters, special RvR quests into the side zones to rescue supplies or something. Something!

Despite the little grumble up there I am content with the game as it is, plenty of fun to be had. Can't get enough of it in fact. It's not exactly what I want it to be, but it what it is, you know. Yadda yadda yadda. WAR has a lot to offer me when I am fully awake and there is beer in the bottle.

But what's this 6th June schizzle? I have learnt not to get carried away with my hopes and expectations for WAR but if Bootae deems it appropriate to devote a wink and a smile to it then it might be something up my street. I'll wager it's not more vanity pets. My guess is it's a joint sub for DAoC and WAR, perhaps with a levelling bonus to get people going. This is a guess. I hope it's wrong.

The Battle for Thargrim's Headwall

2011-06-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

I took part in Grezko's event on Thursday gone. It was a Dwarf vs. Orc & Gobbo only battle in Black Crag. It was a hoot, despite loads of elves turning up. Screenshot here is us Dawi lined up ready to take on the stinkin' greenskins.

I miss this sort of thing from the game. For me this event brought Warhammer to WAR, if you know what I mean.

Lesson #341: How to Zerg

2011-05-31T04:14:00.000-07:00

I've had a bit of an AFK lately due to the birth of my second son (:D woot!). Just getting back into things the last week or so.

My last post was soooo negative for me, I am a lover really.

Last patch was very good for the game and I am enjoying every bit of it, of course I am, and everyone around me seems to be as well.

WAR is great, you really never now what to expect, you can be fighting small scale one minute and the next thing you know the Zerg turns up. Soloing is cool, Scenarios are cool, massive RvR is cool.

Here's a video a guildie posted on our forums, made me chcuckle. Norn gets like this occasionally on Saturday nights :)

Move Along

2011-04-05T00:50:00.001-07:00

March's Producer's Letter is out, although it's not called the Producer's Letter anymore but the March Community Update.

It's basically says nothing. They repeat what has been going on in the Dev discussions, and then some blah about Facebook.

One small ray of ...err... sunshine?.. is that patch 1.4.2 will be up on PTS soon - early April, which by my reckoning is no longer than a week away, then it's middle-April. This is really just a few small steps forward after the massive backward step that was 1.4.

I will say this though. If each of these Dev Discussion topics brings a well-considered change, even very simple ones, then it could add up to something alright in the end. Just takes so damn long though, doesn't it.

Greetings!

With the preparation of patch 1.4.2 in full swing, this month’s update is not the typical Producer’s letter. Instead it is brought to you by the WAR community team. This new monthly overview will summarize things that were going on in the past month and give you a heads up on things to look forward to. Our producers will present new features or major changes and give you and insight into the bigger picture in State of the Game updates. On the forums you have direct developer interaction at your disposal.

We’ve been using the Dev Discussion forum to give you insight into our current and future plans. It has been a busy month on the dev discussion boards with a wide range of topics. Thank you to all those who participated, your feedback is very helpful and we are looking forward to further discussions in the future.

Dev discussions from this month include:

General feedback: Campaigns

Hypothetical Discussion: Horde Scenario

Patch Feedback: Scenario Line-up

Patch Feedback: Keep Doors

General Feedback: Future Discussions

Feature Discussion: Physical Mitigation

Hypothetical Discussion: Scenario Rulesets

Facebook!
Thank you to those who have liked us in the past month. We are so close to the 5,000 like mark that we thought we would give you a little something extra for your support. In recognition of player efforts, and in acknowledgement of requests from players who have already purchased the RvR double pack, we are having a 1 week 25% off sale on server transfers. This will run from April 1st through April 7th. Check it out here.

Coming next month
In closing, we wanted to let you know we are working hard to push some changes to the power gap concerns based on the feedback and discussions we’ve been having on the forums. This should be hitting PTS early in April for testing. We also have some interesting changes to Grovod in the works as well as a surprise for the scenario lineup changes in the next patch. Finally, we’d like to encourage people to continue to talk about the game in the discussions as we will be opening up the topic of crafting soon and want to get as much input as possible for our plans.

Expectant

2011-03-31T02:32:00.000-07:00

In 4 weeks time my wife is expecting a baby but that's ages away whilst today is the last day of March and I am expecting the Producer's Letter.

A lot has been "discussed" since the last letter, mostly within the Dev Discussions on the official forum. From February's letter and the forums the following could be on the agenda for today's (?) letter.

I hope there is a damn letter. Although it usually amounts to little, it is something. I am not going to start playing anything new, so it's WAR or bust for me, and whilst I am (thankfully) cleansed of hope for major changes, like a "new frontiers" campain, knowing that there is something going on in the background keeps me happy.

Dev Discussions
- Campaign Changes
- Keep Doors
- Physical Mitigation, maybe a reduction in how much armour is worth
- Doomflayer & Warpfored Nerfs. Post-80 gear nerfs
- Effective Level nerfs
- Scenario Line-ups
- Grovod Caverns Skaven Scenario
- Ironclad Scenario

Horde Scenarios

Live Events
- Maybe more news on Sigmartide. My idealistic hope is this will be an actual NPC War which is going on in on the side zones which we participate/RvR quest in. No chance. With Wood Elves and Beastmen as new playable races.

'Advanced Crafting'
- My fantasy here is something that can be crafted and slotted on armour and grants bonus similar to current set bonuses so you can customise your armour more. Who knows what's in store?

Dev says Nerf

2011-03-22T23:59:00.000-07:00

In case you have not seen this already Steve Engle in his 'Physical Mitigation' thread on the offiicial forums has touched upon some planned changes to the 1.4 gear.

"Currently, the plan is to reduce your effective rank gain from one every renown rank gained to one every four renown ranks gained.

Note: This means the stat soft cap goes from 1550 at RR100 to 1175 at RR100.

Doomflayer sets will have ~ 233 less stats total on them in comparison to the current LIVE Doomflayer sets.

Warpforged sets will have ~365 less stats total on them in comparison to the current LIVE Warpforged sets.

Both sets are adjusted based on the Effective Rank they are intended for, which is now ~42.5 and 45."

He later added...

"SC weapons, any non-set Verminous Horde drops, and RVR purchased accessories will all receive attention as well."

I have put his quotes in italic to make it look like I am quoting from Joyce and not the Bioware Social Network.

WAR vs. Washing Up

2011-03-11T02:23:00.000-08:00

Every time I log into WAR I have a great time. This could be just spending an hour putting some liniments onto the AH and tinkering with a different gear/renown/mastery setup, or full on epic RvR or City sieges.

Like the night before last, I was even more tired than is usual for me. My wife and I are trying new ways to get our 2 and half year old son to sleep better in the night in preperation for having another baby soon (very soon). This has been interesting but tiring so I logged in with the sole intention of playing some leechhammer.

Basically, I visit the AH and check liniment prices, then grab a load of ingredients, fly out to the most promising leeching spot and then alternate between roaming and making stacks of pots. I enjoy this. Do a bit of washing up. Wiggle the mouse a bit. Nice relaxing evening.

Destro however had different plans and were just locking down Eataine and an Altdotf defense was on. In the time it takes to say "Reikwald" a guild WB was up, I was tuned in and on vent, geared up and potted, and ready to go.

It was a City Siege with a twist. We spent too long getting our warband organised at the start of Stage 1 and then were outplayed as Des split up to cap multiple BOs at once. We were faced with killing Sappers for 20 mins or conceding stage 1. So we lost the stage but did manage 100+ kills to about 4 losses. Nice RP.

Stage 2 was a tie, but another 100 kills or so and a balanced fight. We were moving as single warband whilst Des were splitting up into groups and flanking us. It made for a really great fight. The stuff you pay money for.

Stage 3 was where it went weird. We got down 3 of their champs but couldn't take down the 4th, a Black Orc. His HP hardly shifted. That's when we realised we were up against 13 healers, including 10 DoKs. Shifting focus to the healers wasn't any better - we could only kill 3 or 4 before the others started rezzing up and the Black Orc would be back up at 100%.

The timer elapsed on the stage but we duked it out some more. Karl Franz and T'char went for a quiet cup of tea and wondered whatever happened to the Red Plague. We tried a few different things, like coordinating our CC and stuff, but we couldn't break through and our morale dropped a bit and people started dying. Both sides ended up with 400+ kills and 100,000+ renown for some ( for me!).

It ended on a slightly sour note for us that we could not break through their healing - lots of people blamed Doomflayer- but I really think a large part of it was losing all control of the BOs in stage 1 and giving Des the healing bonus. And of course facing so many healers.

It was an great evening though. The washing up did not get done.

1.4.1 was Kind to Me

2011-03-03T01:17:00.000-08:00

1.4.1 has been very kind to me.

I am on the cusp of RR70 so have practically dropped straight into full lolSov. There was a big RR gap between old Invader and Warlord (from 55 to 70) and Warlord for Swordmaster's is crap anyway. +5% Block and +5% Disrupt set bonuses on Warlord are very low value when compared to +72 Tough and +72 Wound on Invader (go compare their RA cost). Why Knight's and IB's get +78 Wounds and +5% Melee Crit on their Warlord and SM got Block & Disrupt I'll never know.

Anyway, I had been faced with skipping most of Warlord and remaining in 4 Inv all the way up to swapping in for real Sov. Being able to skip Warlord completely has made me very happy.

I am also pleased that the increased Renown Gain now carries on post 80. I had been worried that I would hit a brick wall at 80/81.

When I resubbed in December I was RR53 and most of the guild I joined were 81 or 82. Now I am 69 whilst they are 84-87ish. I was 30 RR behind, now I am 15. I could see myself getting to 80 though just as they were getting to 90 and then never really catching up until they all got at 100. I am confident now that I can gradually keep on closing the gap.

There are many other things I like about this patch (loading times) and of course I recognise that real issues remain for a lot of players but, being selfish, 1.4.1 has been great for me. I am optimistic too about the Producer's Letter and will post my thoughts about that soon.

Throwing Axes are OP

2011-02-24T08:58:00.001-08:00

Well, I have been thinking all day about what my KB:Death ratio data really means and what I can conclude from it all when I saw this...

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

A Marauder on the PTS in Defensive Warpforged killing a Shadow Warrior in Offensive Warpforged .. at range with Throwing Axes.

I wonder how much just these Defensive Procs are contributing to whole imbalance thing. Oh Boy.

KB:Death Ratio - Now & Then

2011-02-23T03:36:00.000-08:00

Some very valuable feedback in the comments from my last post has spurred me into further analysis.

My results last time showed that those folks with RR90 scenario weapons scored a disproportionate number of killblows for their rank and my hasty conclusion was that this is proof of the power gap.

The feedback I got was... did I consider that the very same people who are RR90 are also the most skilled and experienced players and therefore dominate regardless of gear.

I did think about this angle whilst putting those last numbers together but I can be blamed of making the common statistical mistake of confusing correlation with causation. Here's an example of what I mean copied from t'internet:

"Consider school students' shoe sizes and scores on a standard reading exam. They are correlated, but saying that larger shoe size causes higher reading scores is as absurd as saying that high reading scores cause larger shoe size.

In this example, there is a clear lurking variable, namely, age. As the child gets older, both their shoe size and reading ability increase."

The omitted lurking variable in my case is player skill.

So, accepting the assumption that the most skilled of players will always dominate, has the new gear in 1.4 made the best players dominate even more? Do these players kill more whilst dying less?

Cconveniently I have a combat log saved from May 2010, 9 months ago. I am using the ratio of kill blows : Deaths as my measure and this obviously "rates" DPS classes above Tanks & Healers.

Below is a table showing the top 20 players ranked by KB:Death ratio from one night in May 2010 compared to one night in Feb 2011 on Karak Norn.

As can be seen the "best" players, or those in the best groups, were just as dominant on that night back in May as they are on the night in Feb. Extending this to the top 50 rather than top 20 gives an average of 6 KB:Death now compared to 5 KB:Death in 2010.

This analysis suggests that the top players are running amok but only to the same degree as they were 9 months ago. Statisitically the two data sets are very similar. There is not an overwhelming power shift.

Of course these very skilled players will dominatae over low RR players even more in their new gear than they did 9 months ago and I can understand more and more why Mythic's repsonse to the power gap has been to adjust the lower level armour sets.

Feedback is extremely useful and warmly received :) Sorry for the error (see edit)

EDIT: First time up this post detailed a slightly better KB:Death ratio in May 2010 than nowadays. I forget to fully calculate some of the numbers. New results suggest KB:Death ratio is slightly better now than then but the two data sets are very similar. My conclsion is the same h, I think, that skill does prevail over gear, but I will take some extra time to mull this over. Please draw your own conclusions :)

3220 Killing Blows

2011-02-22T09:04:00.001-08:00

Did you know that your combat log records every kill blow that happens within your current zone for both Order and Des?

I am not one to accept coonventional wisdom without some kind of look-see at the facts so in order to try and measure the power gap I have parsed my combat log from a typical night of RvR on Karak Norn and this is what is says.

The total number of kill blows was 3220. This was in 3.5 hrs so one killing blow every 4 secounds. Good stuff!!!

The combat log also tells you who was killed and by whom. There were 700 unique characters names who landed a KB or fell to one. This is more than I expected. Lots of people, or enough!, out and fighting.

I think these are very good numbers. That's lots of people playing and lots of fighting in the zones.

Next though, when an auto-attack lands the killing blow the combat log details the weapon that was being used....

[11/02/07][23:31:52] Knofel has been slashed by Aeoluw's Sentry's Blade of Reverence in The Cursed City.

From this I can work out how many people are using which type of weapon. Scenario weapons all have the same name for each RR band - e..g "Axe/blade/sword/whatver of Supremacy" for Order RR65 weapons, "Blah Blah of Malevolence for Destro RR90". There is also the "Imposing" wepaons. From this I can determine how many killbows high RR folks are getting compared to low RR.

Time for some graphs...

The graph on the left is the number of unique character names that landed a killing blow with each rank of scenario weapon and is my approximation at the renown rank distribution at the moment. There were 6 characters seen using a RR90 Scenario weapon.

The graph on the right shows the number of killing blows landed by each rank of scenarion weapons and is an approximation of which renown ranks are landing the most killing blows. RR90 characters landed 64 kill blows.

You can see killing blows for RR90 on the right hand side chart is disproprtionate to the distribution of ranks on the left and is out of sync with the normal distribution. This is show more disticntly on the chart below.

This is the ratio between the first two charts. It is number of killing blows per RR char. At RR90 a character lands 3.7 KBs on average. RR65 0.4 KBs per char on average.

This is a clear indication that RR90s are running rampant slaughtering as they go. I do not want to descredit them for their skills and abilities - because I have see some of these guys in action and they are good.

But the Kill Blow ratio chart shows a nice and steady increase up from RR65 to RR84 like you would expect. The drastic increase at RR90 is a measure of the effect of the power gap.

Remember I determined RR by KBs from scenario weapons but now knowing the names of those who use a RR90 weapon I can work out the total kill blows and their deaths. The ratio was 224 killed 30 deaths. 17 of their deaths were a single WE who I guess was out ganking. So, with her removed, the ratio would be 171 KBs to 13 deaths. Unbalanced.

Conclusions

The good news is there are plenty of people playing and fighting, averging a kill every 4 secs in the zones I was in. Most people are still sub 90 and their kill blow ratio is not out of hand. This means this game is still enjoyable... most of the time.

But RR90 Power means those players can run amok and when you run into them repeatedly it's probably not so enjoyable. Let's hope Myhic address this with 1.4.1.

There are a low number of kills from low RRs though so new players into T4 do need the boost they will be getting from 1.4.1, especially as player majority of players push into they high RR80s.

All being said, I still have great time out in RvR, even if we do need to pay special attention to certain players. Most of the time it's an even fight, all being said. The real problem for me is the RvR mechanic. The fun just grinds to a halt when it's siege time, but that's another story, and another patch.

Power Gap - Feeling It

2011-02-15T03:22:00.000-08:00

Since my last post about not feeling the Power Gap there have been several posts from other people who are definitely are feeling it.

Bootae has quit because of it. Sad days.

Blaq puts it at the top of his priority list in his post WAR on depreciation

Zizlak get’s Doomflayered Right in the Face.

Whilst Taransula rejoices at getting into Doomflayer in The Big Ding claiming Doomflayer is everything she hoped for.

I can’t help feel that I am being contrary with my point of view that I am not feeling the power gap pain, perhaps being blindly optimistic, so I am left revaluating what I said when I made the point that I still thought the Sov 8-piece abilities would retain their tactical advantage over DF.

In order to try and compare the gear I have used the cost of the first rank of the renown ability to work out an equivalent renown point cost of 5 pieces of each armour set. Basic stats like Str & Tough cost 1 renown point for 4 stat points. 2% Melee Crit is 5 points. For armour I have used the value on talismans – 164 armour is equivalent cost to 23 STR.

Doomflayer is as much above Sovereign (33% more renown points cost) as Sov is above Invader. This is a big step up in terms of stat points but Sovereign get an 8 piece bonus ability that Doomflayer does not.

Let’s look at the abilities that a Full Sov group could have available to them over a Doomflayer group.

2 Healers - 2 x Absolute Preservation – the party cannot be crit for 20s
1 Offensive Tank - Leading the Charge – 60% movement speed increase for everybody
1 Def Tank – Inexorable Force – 5s CC group immunity
MDPS -Desolation - Area effect morale strip
RDPS – 50% increased AP for enemies

The morale strip Desolation and two Absolute Preservations are key for me. Immunity to crit for 20s will reduce incoming damage by a huge amount , maybe 30% overall but a lot less spike damage. Being able to drop your morales but denying the enemy theirs is another biggie.

Of course this relies on a high level of organisation and teamwork to pull off, and I guess herein lies the problem. The vast majority of encounters between two sides are not between super-organised groups. I’d be foolish to claim “if you get super organised in your Sov it will be okay”. Errors will always be made on both sides and the margin for error between Sov and Doomflayers is too much.

A PuG group in Sov would get tramped on by PuG Doomflayers – but you could say the same thing about gear throughout the four tiers of Warhammer.

So the question is – should a group in Full Sov stand a chance verus a group in Full Doomflayer? And if so, how much and in what circumstances? 1 in 10 chance if they get lucky with crits, or manage to get the first KD in?

Likewise, what chance should a group in Invader stand against Sov?

I don't know. If you have a thought on this please do reply.

The real bad news for me is that Warpforged gets the same abilities as Sovereign does and as a 5-piece bonus, not 8 like Sov. From my graph Warpforged to Sov is equivalent to Sov to Anni. This is seriously Eek.

Mythic do need to make adjustments to the gear. I think for starters they could change the structure of both DF and WF to make them 6-piece instead of 5 to prevent grabbing the Sov 3-peice bonus. The set bonuses could be granted at 4 and 6 instead of 2 and 4. I would also remove the Sovereign-style abilities from Warpforged. I think these changes would not upset anyone who has worked hard at getting the gear already, at least not as much as downgrading the whole set.

The aim would be to give the player a real choice between awesome personal stats or valuable group abilities.

Mythic have also released details on plans to allow your RR to level over and above your XP level which they estimate seeing people around RR60 when they hit R40, which will help even things out a lot, especially if Warlord gets a little revamp with an eye on the type of group-abilities that Sov has - how about a group-wide Cleanising Wind for Tanks in 6-Warlord?

Power Gap - feeling it?

2011-02-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

I'm honestly not feeling the power gap right now, or at least not where it matters (in da jibblies).

Sure, I can't go anywhere solo without getting ganked, but I have never setup for duelling anyway so this doesn't bother me. It's not a single player game.

In a group I still think organisation and teamwork is more important.

I've ran about 20 odd scenarios with assorted guild premades in the last couple of weeks and have perhaps lost 2 of those*. On one occasion we had 3 out of 5 players sub-70 (me included) and we won 7 out of 7, including versus well-known Destro premades. The group was SM 52, SM 59, BW 68, WP 83, IB 83 - hardly the pwn all group of the century. Idly roaming about with the same group between Scs we encountered 2 RR90 players, a DoK and a Marauder. We killed them without any trouble, as you would expect 5 v 2. They were not the "group-killers" of internet fame.

This is not me trying to be all leet and knowing, not at all. I am just saying that, from my experience, which is all I have to go by, I do not feel that being outranked and outgeared means an automatic loss, which is the impression you get from reading the forums.

Perhaps the gap is not wide enough yet. I get the feeling that whilst many individuals may be RR90+ already, guilds/warbands on average, are not. Maybe some are just beginning to reach a position where they have more members online than not hat are RR90+. This may start to change the picture entirely, but I'm not so sure.

Sovereign Gear provides some excellent bonuses that significantly benefit a group. Doomflayer and Warpforged may bring great individual power but my money is on Sovereign retaining it's importance to a warband's overall performance, with DF & WF giving players more choice between group utility/synergy and all-out raw DPS/heals.

* - to put this into context a bit, in the 2 lost scenarios we were convincingly beat and hardly seemed to make a dent in our opposition whilst they creamed us, so yeah, with all things being equal I am not dismissing the importance of gear and rank.

We Care A Lot

2011-02-05T03:43:00.000-08:00

This song, one of my favourites from back in the day, sums up how I see the WAR community these days. We care a lot, but some people have faith no more. I am still okay with things. I was certainly interested to read what Mykiel had to say the other day but you are not going to catch me linking to a Bon Jovi song! First time I have linked a video, let's see how this works out...

The Colour of Renown

2011-02-04T01:05:00.000-08:00

Boy, Keep Sieges are a mood killer aren't they. I really enjoy warband nights but a couple of times recently we've ended up at the keep. Fun out in the lakes skirmishing, pushing back and forward, la la la, real PvP, ends up with the big clusterfudge that is a keep siege. We try to make the most of it.

I blame the renown. "Big Tick Incoming". Folks can't resist. It's like a warband galloping purposefully through the lakes, a force to be reckoned with, only to spot an AFK Shaman taking a dump in the bushes. Purple Lust just takes over. I can feel the tension, people glancing about, straining at the bit. Do we kill him? Shall we kill him? One person goes for the kill and the frenzy takes over. The warband falls over itself to kill the poor little git. Bmoo-ooo, bmoo-ooo (that's the sound of everyone mounting up again).

Of course, a firm "ignore the Shammie" from the WB leader would keep everyone on track and rewarded with a fuzzy little feeling inside that we are a pro unit after all. (Note: This is a fictional example, I would never go near a gobbo with it's pants down!)

It's the same with a Zone Lock or a Keep tick. You can't blame folks for wanting a nice chunk of renown, I mean everyone else is going to get it aren't they?

You could be fighting in KV, perhaps quite literally against the odds, maybe not quite earning the renown you deserve, when someone says "praag is locking". Glances. Shall we go? People are already starting to scroll, then cancelling it, then scrolling. Are we going? Don't get left behind!!!

I feel it's detrimental to the game for everyone to chase Zone Locks.

Why not just reward all players in all RVR zones whenever a zone falls? So Praag locks, everyone in Dwarf and Elf gets the tick for it too.
Why not base the size of renown tick you earn directly on how many players you & your group has killed? You have playing RvR for 3 hours, you've contributed to 300 kills. A zone lock somewhere, you get a nice, healthy tick for it worthy of the contribution you've made to RvR as a whole.

Keeps could still be important for the zone lock... but that's another post.

Reasons for Quitting and Not Quitting

2011-02-03T05:33:00.000-08:00

Reasons for Quitting
I've had two long breaks from WAR, both around the 5 month mark.

The reason for both times, I thnk, were the same.... burnout + slow progression.

With a busy family life I can only play 2-3 hours a day, tops, and even this cuts into my sleeping time. This would be fine in itself, but coupled with very slow progress through renown I slowly burnt myself out.

I pugged it a bit too much if I'm honest, and got fed up of losing. Even in a guild premade, even with vent, my precious time slot was too often spent getting farmed over and over in scenarios. My guild was quite a good one, but it was a large and mostly blobbed about. Franky, I craved the kind of competitive play and organisation I would read about on other blogs and forums. My restricted playtime held me back from applying to "top guilds".

My class didn't help either, the Swordmaster. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but being widely perceived as gimped, being behind the gear curve, and not really catching up I got tired of it all and drifed away.

Back for 1.4
I still followed the WAR blogs, mostly my favourites Bootae, Werit and Super Effective, so I followed the news about 1.4. The free 10 days "Return to WAR" offer was enough to tempt me back in mid-December.

I would not have resubbed if it wasn't for the accelerated progression up to 80. Now I can play at my own pace and still feel like I am making progress.

I vowed to find myself a guild too, one whereI felt at home and I am pleased to say that I did and that I am really enjoying myself in-game.

Well, I am glad this post is out of the way, it didn't contain any maths at all.

Blogging Again

2011-01-25T05:22:00.000-08:00

I've been back playing WAR again now since mid December after (another) 6 month break. I've been meaninig to start blogging again for a while now but found it hard to get started, other than a random out-of-the blue bunch of suggestions for making Skaven more meaningful to WAR and RvR.

So I have decided to give myself some focus by listing what I have been thinking about and what I want to blog about.

Why I stopped playing back in June and why I am back
My experiences since returning
Power Gap
Keep Sieges - my likes and dislikes
WAR Stats: new analysis of WAR's numbers and the combat log.
WAR Stats: Anatomy of a Fight, an in-depth look at what happens during a fight.
Swordmaster Specs & Builds

That'll do me for now.

As a quick starter for ten, I am enjoying my time playing WAR. I totally get the concerns that are doing the rounds but right now I am enjoying my playtime a great deal. I cannot get enough of it. Lack of communication from Mythic is my biggest concern.

Skaven Warbands Roaming the Lakes

2011-01-13T06:13:00.000-08:00

Here’s some new ideas to make the introduction of Skaven into WAR have a point.

This would not require much effort from a dev point of view in my opinion (a gamer). Everything is in game already. Just a slight rehash of the skaven classes and a small and very generic new zone.

Skaven vs Skaven

When Thanquol’s opens up players/groups/warbands queue for it jus like a City Instance or Sc and when it pops for your group or warband you get ported in. No RR restriction. You all get turned to Skaven. You can choose which class. A menu pops up and you can choose which Skaven class you went to play. The classes will need some tweaking from how they are now, but not much. Nothing “original” is required, they could just copy ideas from the current classes.

And then you have a big skaven fight against the opposing faction’s skaven over some kind of scenario/City style objective.

Skaven Warbands Roaming the Lakes

On top of loot and shit, whoever wins the encounter gets to continue playing as Skaven out in the lakes. So the winning warbands from both sides get ported into RvR as Skaven.

Skaven should be made overpowered but have drawbacks – no res allowed, no heals from non-skaven. If you die as a Skaven you do not respawn as a skaven. OR perhaps have stats or damage/healing decreases slowly over time up to the point where they are actually weaker than the normal players. They start with a 200% buff to damage which fades to 50% after 30 mins.

Level Up Your Skaven – Bonus at Low RR
This would be my favourite bit. When you kill players as a Skaven you earn RP as usual but you earn SP too (Skaven Points!). You get to spend these on levelling up your Skaven, something like renown abilities, even exactly like RA. You still get to choose which skaven class every time Thanquol’s pops so you don’t level up a single skaven character per se, you just increase your pool of points to spend each time.

Players with low RR will earn Skaven Points quicker than high RR in the same way that they do now with RP after the Progression Pack. This will help new and low RR players get the chance to be more powerful.

Skaven Tunnels
Skaven could be not be allowed out of the RvR zones but instead use tunnels to get between zones. This could actually be a new zone – just a simple generic series of tunnels that meet up and wind about leading to different ports, with plenty of opportunity for rival Skaven warbands to meet up and duke it out. Controlling access to these tunnels could be controlled by capping BOs out in the “real world”.

P.S. I'm playing again

Blip & POW

2010-06-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

My lust for WAR is suffering from a blip at the moment. I've posted more in the last 2 weeks than I've played and I haven't posted much. I have been logging on from time to time but the game has been unable to keep my attention. I've actually found myelf doing a T4 Epic Weapon quest and chasing some ToK accessory pieces rather than getting stuck into RvR. I have also picked up on a waning in enthusiam amongst the community. There are plenty of previously active blogs on my blog roll that have been quiet now for a good 5 or 6 weeks. I think 1.3.5 and the pre-patch hype was quite a big deal and took up a lot of energy, both for the community and at Mythic, plus the start of summer must have an affect. I think this is only natural after the high of the City patch, a producer's letter must be immenent though... .

HOWEVER, this week's "break" on the EU servers has piqued my interest and the absence of XP/RR that comes with the server move has posed an interesting question - would you still play WAR without the progression?

I would. Certainly. The PvP is great fun and I love the Warhammer World so of course I'd still play. In many ways I'd prefer no progression, or at least prefer less of a huge rank grind.

My motivation to get to RR80 is not to finish the game, but to start it. At RR80 I will feel my character is complete, my "training" over, and it's time therefore to put some serious skullage on the skull throne, or whatever the Asuryan equivalent is. I don't even feel it necessary to get to RR80 either, perhaps 60 something will do.

A lot of people seem to quit at 80, or once they've got all their PvE loot on, but that's not the case for me. I haven't even been to Lost Vale or ToVL yet, and don't intend to ever go, even if this leaves me with a bitter taste about the much-coveted Glyphs and Tyrant.

It's all about the thrill and challenge of player versus player comabt to me so logging on during this downtime will be very interesting. A lot of people won't bother playing at all. The people who do though will hopefully be up a mighty scrap. No freenowning, no selfish behaviour around BOs or Keeps, and hopefully just players out there for the fun of the fight. No Zergs too I'd imagine and it might slow the campaign down to the pace it had in the early days. It could turn out to be a very interesting week.

Swordmaster Scenario Weapons

2010-06-21T23:02:00.001-07:00

Here are the scenario weapons for the Swordmaster from Rank 40 onwards. I've found it good to know what I'm aiming for :) Click to see larger images. I owe a debt to Gaar .

The Titan Blades are the offensive choice, Sentry defensive. I'm currently gunning for the Invader Defensive 2H. Weapon DPS contributes a lot to some key SM abilities (like Ether Dance) and Strength less so.

What weapon are you using to drive the foul taint of Chaos from the shores of Ulthuan?

Shokk Sez Waaagh!!

2010-06-21T04:49:00.000-07:00

The Blurring Shock team has expanded!! A delightful Orc with a big choppa from the greenskin clan Da Blurz Boyz has joined the blog to give an informed and rounded perspective on weekly happenings surrounding Warhammer Online. Give a warm welcome to Shokk...

Shokk on Warhammer 40K: Dark Millenium
Wot da fook is dis all aboot den? Dark mil'len...mil'el...Da Fu'tah Waaagh! We not giv a snotling aboot dis, is moons away init?! Even da runts will be Big 'Uns by den. Dem massiv blastas luk gud for blastin' tho.
VERDICT: Waaaghh!!

Shokk on Josh Drescher leaving Mythic
Who da fook is dis then? Sum humie by da sound of it. Heard da name but dunno wot he dun. Musta dun summink gud as Shokk enjoy da big Waaagh! Wud say gud luk to him but e's a stinkin' humie, in'ee?
VERDICT: Waaagh!!

Shokk on RunePriest changes
Wot, dat stunty fella gettin' new stik to bash me wiv? Shokk still gonna bash 'im 'arder dan he bash Shokk, an' wen da stunty bash Shokk da boyz go an' bash uv'er stunties even 'arder.
VERDICT: Waaagh!!

Shokk will be back next week with another cosmopolitan take on a week in Waaaagh!!! :)

AoE Anonymous

2010-06-15T10:32:00.001-07:00

I haven't played WAR in a few days, I've been too hungover. There's a hole in my head where Saturday used to be. England played USA in the World Cup and I spent the weekend drinking in the pub. Gotrek would've been proud of me.

I could have logged in, I had the time, but I don't like to PvP unless I'm 100% fighting fit. I don't like to let my side down, whether this means my guild or even some random Order PuGs. If I'm going to play alongside other people who may be counting on my performance then I need to feel that I'm playing at my best. If not then I won't play.

Levelling was different. If I was tired I could just go and farm XP or PQ influence for a few hours, and it was progress and without responsibility, and I miss that hassle free bit of grindiness if I'm honest. Not enough to level up another character that way though. It's PvP or nothing nowadays.

And talking of PvP, Brazil play in the World Cup today. Brazil are traditionally seen as the flair side of international football, a star-laden team committed to the art of the beautiful game. On the radio this morning Brazil have come under fire for taking a more pragmatic approach to the World Cup this year, abandoning their attacking traditions in favour of a "Play to Win" mentality. Their fans though would rather they played beautiful football and lost than win ugly. Scrubs?

Back to WAR, this has chimed with me a little because some issues with the Swordmaster, which probably apply to other classes too. The Swordmaster does excellent Single Target damage and gets a lot of joy out of small-scale PvP, but in large scale RvR single target damage doesn't cut the mustard. AoE rulez 4EVA..

During class discussions SM supporters have espoused the skill it takes to play the class, the satisfaction gained from combining multiple abilities effectively, and the finesse of single target damage in PvP compared to AoE. I'd want to totally agree with that on face value but a counter-argument from a well-respected player has made me think a little. If single-target damage was changed to be more effective than AoE then the battlefield would be won by superior numbers. It would be difficult for outnumbered but well-organised players to combat larger groups and they would get overwhelmed by Zergs. I'm going to quote this guy, Sidrath of Crimson on Karak-Norn..

"I love the bombing environment for RvR, and I love the single-target precision of scenarios/6v6. They are fundamentally different playstyles, both worth mastering. Bombing is not a travesty, it is a sensible mechanic to ensure servers don't become dominated by numbers-play: it allows a coordinated well-positioned 24-man to melt things just fast enough to avoid drowning under a sea of red. By all means, allow other DPS classes to contribute viable AoE - but don't campaign for RvR without stacked AoE otherwise any realm facing a massive numbers imbalance will have no 'hardcore' means of fighting back in the lakes, and would thus be condemned to die and get merged."

I've quoted this in full as it's a side of the argument I've not heard before or contemplated myself. I'm not 100% sure I agree with it, surely an organised single-target warband could still defeat a single-target zerg and, when bomb meets bomb, surely greater numbers will win out? But still, it's food for thought.

Anyway, a well-organised warband with tight AoE is not a simple thing to achieve. It requires team-work and discipline, just like beating Brazil does. Brazil boast fantastically talented players and it's not just any old team who can beat them, but for all their attacking flamboyance the World Champions are often the team who are the most well-organised. It's often the team with the best defence and organisation that wins, sprinkled with the odd over-powered player or two. Look at Italy's victory 4 years ago or Inter Milan's triumph in this season's Champion's League.

Football purists criticise the efficient approach of some teams but can't argue with it's effectiveness. I'm sure Brazil fans who bemoan their team's pragmatic approach will be delighted if they win the Cup. I've criticised the dominance of AoEand bombing warbands in the past but I will have yet to try it out myself. I'm sure if the Swordmaster happened to be the de facto class in Order's warband I wouldn't be complaining so much.

I'm going to respec my Swordmaster to an AoE orientated build and see how it goes. For a long time I didn't think the class had a viable AoE spec but picking up Phoenix Wing (PW), Protection of Hoeth (PoH) and Whispering Wind (WW), and rotating PoH, PW and Gusting Wind with the cooldown reduction from WW will give me some decent AoE damage. I will pick try and gear-up with some debuff procs on items to take advantage of the large number of hits I'll be getting.

I've no idea how this post ended up about AoE and with me respeccing, it certainly didn't start out that way!! Mind, I do have a pretty serious hangover ;)

RvR Ideas: The Campaign

2010-06-11T04:53:00.000-07:00

I had too much to dream last night, too much to dream.

I've tried to think of a different campaign system for WAR's RvR. It borrows a lot from Bootae's posts about DAoC and WAR and I've also incorporated features from the new City Siege. I've found it a bit tricky to convey exactly what I wanted but will post anyway :p.

The campaign would involve two phases, first a fight for control of the keeps, then assault and defence of the Forts.

Phase 1: WAR for Territory

Summary: All zones and all keeps are open for capture and Order and Destro fight to claim as many keeps as they can until all are controlled. When claimed, keeps can be used as port locations for guilds and alliances. Keep control will offer a strategic advantage in Phase 2.

All 18 keeps in T4 are contested and open for capture at the start of the phase. There are no Keep Lords or Keep Doors.

To gain control of a keep 6 players need to interact with an objective inside the keep. Controlling a keep will NOT lock it down, i.e. they are immediatley recapturable.

Controlling a keep will spawn a very low HP door, this door is only designed to a allow some response time if it's attacked.

Rally Flags: Once a Keep is under a faction's control guilds can place a Rally Flag within the keep that will allow guild members to port inside using a Keep Scroll. Guilds can only have one Rally Flag active at any time but multiple guilds can have a Rally Flag in the same keep. Alliance Rally Flags are also available. These allow all players from an alliance to port there.

Guild and Alliance Flags are bought just like standards. Keep Scrolls have a 10 minute reuse timer on them. The whole point of generous use of scrolling is to avoid a situation where players have to stand guard at keeps for a long time as that is boring. Alliance scrolls give well organised alliances an edge.

Taking an already controlled keep will place it in a neutral state for the next 10 minutes. After this it becomes open to capture again by either side. The reason for this 10 minutes of neutrality is to keep Phase 1 from ending too quickly.

When every keep is controlled by one side or another (i.e. there are no uncontrolled keeps left) a 1 hour timer starts after which Phase 1 ends. This extra time is to give some final furious fighting over the keeps in key locations (see Phase 2). In the final hour keeps don't go into a neutral state when captured but pass straight into the control of whichever side captured them.

Phase 2: Push to the City

Summary: Order and Destro now battle for the Forts. Capture all 3 enemy Forts to win the phase and open up the City. Keeps control from Phase 1 provides strategic advantage as keeps are now permanently locked and are available to port to and from for the entire faction who control them.

Every keep you controlled in Phase 1 will be locked and uncapturable during Phase 2. They act as permanent port locations for all players from the faction who control it, not just the guild or alliances that placed Rally Flags there. Keep Scrolls are still on a 10 minute reuse timer.

Keeps can then be used to stage attacks on an enemy Fortress or to rally to and defend your own. The value of controlling the keeps closet to Forts should result in some serious conflict over these in Phase 1.

Capturing a Fort
Capturing a fort involves killing a Fortress Lord. These don't do damage, they just require a lot of killing. Fortress Lord's HP doesn't reset or regenerate so any damage done to them is permanent and once they are dead the Fort is captured until the campaign resets. They will take a tonne of killing so it will take numerous attempts to take them down.

Attackers cannot rez inside a Fort but Defender's can. Several waves of attack will be needed therefore, each one aiming to chip away at the Lord's health as much as possible.

Controlling the Middle Zone
The top and bottom zones are strategically important to assault or defend nearby Forts so the middle zone needs a reason to be important too (i.e. Praag, Dragonwake and Thunder Mountain). In Phase 1 BOs weren't involved but in Phase 2 the four objectives in the middle zone in each pairing come into play. Control of 3 out 4 BOs spawns a Monster who makes it's way to the enemy Fort and gives the Lord there a wallop. Doesn't kill it, just makes a nice dent in it's HP. Monster's can be killed and healed. I'm not totally sold on this monster idea but control of the middle zone's needs to offer something of value.

1.3.5 gave me Altitis

2010-06-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

I had never played on an alt before patch 1.3.5 came out but I hate the new City siege mechanic so much that I can't play my Rank 40 anymore....

...just kidding. Ho-ho. You can stop laughing........Now.

No, I just found myself always logging in just the City was entering safe mode and I thought what the hell, let's dick about in T1 for a bit.

I always wondered what healing would be like so I rolled an Archmage first. And I really, really enjoyed it. I've also tried a Shadow Warrior, Witch Hunter, White Lion, Knight and Rune Priest. Oh, and a Slayer. I gotta say, I'm having a lot of fun with each one.

Tier 1 is really active and one thing I know is a big draw for me is the rapid progression with new abilities and gear flowing like a river in spring.

It reminds of when I first started playing really. Everything's new and I'm learning.

But I am also enjoying a different play style having played a Tank exclusively for 12+ months. One thing that has made me laugh is that I find myself instinctively trying to play like a tank. On my SW I would try and intercept Witch Elves that were making a run for our back line. This didn't turn out too well.

Here are my alts:
Partridge L9 - Archmage
Cahill L7 Shadow - Warrior
Steinson L6 - Slayer
Stockport L6 - Witch Hunter
Tractor L6 - Knight
Groggi L6 - Rune Priest
Cincinnatti L6 - White Lion

As you can see L6 is a bit of sticking point. I think that's as far as I get in one evening without getting too drunk and falling asleep.

The Archmage is the one I think I'm going to keep going with. I like healing and it has been immensely satisfying to be top of the charts for once. I know scenario scores can be misleading but outhealing L11 toons when I was just L6 was great.

WAR World Cup: Order F.C.

2010-06-07T05:06:00.001-07:00

The Football (soccer) World Cup kicks off in just a few days and here is my team for Order :)

GOALKEEPER: Iron Breaker
Not your traditional goalkeeper but nothing get's past this guy. Sworn an oath to protect the onion bag at all costs and stakes his family name on it. A superb shot-blocker.

CENTRE DEFENCE: Archmage
A cultured and elegant defender confident on and off the ball. Can be relied upon to get team-mates out of trouble with a last ditch tackle. Can play the ball forward well and turn defense into attack.

CENTRE DEFENCE: Runepriest
Provides the team with mobility at the back and his displays inspire confidence to those around him.

LEFT BACK: Swordmaster
The archetypal modern attacking full-back. The SM is able to defend and attack in equal measure. Has the pace to get up and down the line and offers great support and cover for the winger. Pops up with the odd goal.

RIGHT BACK: Engineer
A toolkit full of tricks on the field. A master of the zonal marking system he is able lock down an area when in defence and has the ammunition needed to get forward to set-up attacks when required. Great delivery from set-pieces and takes the team's free-kicks and corners.

RIGHT WING: Bright Wizard
The flamboyant primadonna of the team courts publicity and controversy where ever he goes. Possessing devastating attacking skills is often his side's match-winner but his self-destructive nature can leaves his side exposed on the counter-attack.

LEFT WING: Shadow Warrior
The unsung hero of the team brings natural width to the side. A great crosser of the ball can provide pin-point service to strikers or cut inside himself to unleash a trademark long-range finish.

CENTRE MIDFIELD: Knight
The midfield general and team captain. Dictates the tempo in the centre of the park pushing his team to press the attack or defend as required. Offers little goal threat himself but his aura of confidence on the pitch inspires his team-mates on to greater feats.

CENTRE MIDFIELD: Warrior Priest
A box-to-box midfielder offering support to the whole team whether in attack or defence. Equally adapt at anchoring the midfield, protecting the back four or making late runs in to the box to support the attack. A model pro.

STRIKER: Slayer
Relishes the physical side of the game . His aggressive, no nonsense approach and raw power is enough to unsettle a defence on his own. His barn-storming style often leads to him tiring during the game and an explosive temper can get him in trouble with the ref.

STRIKER: Witch Hunter
A fox-in-the-box and the perfect foil to the Slayer's physical game, the Witch Hunter employs clever movement and positioning to evade his marker. His job on the pitch is to score goals and clinical finishing means he does just that. Has been accused of going missing on occasion and has the tendency to get caught offside.

MANAGER: White Lion
Dressed in a stereotypical manager's Lionskin coat the he roars instructions from the touchline with the emphasis on teamwork and hunting for the ball as a pack. If the ball ends up in the crowd will call upon his assistant to fetch it back quickly and keep the game going.

May's Letter - Wot no RvR?

2010-06-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

I was dissappointed when I read the latest letter. Half of it was about something they aren't going to do. A lot of the rest of it was about something they were going to do months ago. So nothing of the RvR changes that has been eluded to in articles like the Massively interview with Carrie.

I did like the talk of changes to the RP & Zealot. This means they still have time to spend on class mechanics so everyone's gripes about their own class (and mine about the SM ;)) could well be on the agenda one day.

Back to the RvR though, I think Carrie is being deliberately protective of anything they've got going on with RvR, and I think any changes might still be so much in their infancy that they wouldn't dare mention anything about them right now.

In fact, I think they're totally in the concept stage for RvR changes. If you read the Massively interview Carrie repeatedly says that all ideas are on the table and that no idea is being ruled out.

"There's nothing off the table"
"Anything's on the table"

Carrie Gouskos, May 12th

If they haven't yet decided which RvR changes they want to make then it's no suprise that there's no mention of this in the letter.

I am confident that RvR changes are incoming and there may well be some hints in the June or July Producer's Letter if they can get some of their ideas/concepts fleshed out a bit and feel confident enough about meeting a release date.

"we do have some really awesome stuff coming -- and 1.4 is a patch that I'm very excited about."

Carrie Gouskos, May 12th

RvR Ideas: Player-Monsters!

2010-06-02T22:58:00.000-07:00

I'm going to get myself all in a lather over the next few weeks with ideas for improving the RvR in WAR. I'm also going to try and scour other WAR blogs and forums for great ideas and collect them together, with proper kudos attributed of course.

My first idea is just a small thing and won't affect the overall campaign but it'll be a lot of fun and bring some epic moments.

It's giving the players the option to play as Warhammer Monsters! One of the great things about fantasy is the monsters. Ogres, Trolls, Giants, all that jazz. Take a look at these bad boys.

The introduction of Player-Champions to the new City Siege has been a big hit and Player-Monsters is really building on that. I actually had this idea in March - shoulda posted that shit.

The nitty gritty details don't matter here but basically a player would collect some kind of currency, be that Invader Crests or new Monster Tokens, and then trade these in at a merchant to receive an item that would turn them into a montser of their choice.

The Monster-Buff would last about an hour I'd guess and have a lockout timer on it, perhaps a day. The monsters wouldn't be super-powerful, just a bit different, maybe have twice the Wounds as normal, nothing extravagent, it's really just for variety and fun.

I would try to implement 3 monsters choices for each of Order and Destruction. All monsters would be hybrid classes - they would each have ranged ability, melee, and some heals. Basic stuff, think T1 :)

To make it more interesting I would also tie a mini-progression system to the Monster-Buffs, so that whilst you are playing a Monster you earn influence or something that levels your Monster up earning you new tricks. Nothing major of course, just a few different abilities, some specialisation, or access to bigger and better weapons.

Order Monsters - not so easy to find monsters for the good guys - any ideas??
Ogre Butcher : Ths guy is big and fat and carries two giant cleavers!
Ogre LeadBelly: Carries a small hand-cannon so short-ranged RDPS is it's thing
Treeman: Treeman. Nuff said.

Destro Monsters
Troll: Vomits Acid for fun. Swings Big Clubs.
Minatour: Giant Bull prone to feeding frenzies. Perhaps have a Charge for it's ranged attack?
Giant: Be that big, bald guy from Nordland!

I think this would be a great addition to the game, not too hard to implement and would provide some epic massed monster battles!

WAR Stats: Debuffing Initiative

2010-06-02T04:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a comment in my last WAR Stats post from the venerable TzuDevil I'm going to discuss Initiative debuffs and their effect on your chance to be crit.

TzuDevil's comment was that debuffing Initiative is HUGE. He's right. Here's an example:

I am aloofly striding into battle with my Swordmaster and start attacking the insidious Evillyn. Using Nature's Blade enchantment that is core to all Swordmaters and with points in the right tree I have a chance on any attack to steal 120 pts from a random stat, including initiative.

A reminder that the formula before bonuses from items for Chance to be Crit is 35/Initiative

Evillyn has an initiative of around 200 and one -3% Crit item on her Armour Set giving her a base chance to be crit of about 15%. I would say this is typical for most people.

I hit Evillyn a few times, get lucky and steal 120 points from her initiative reducing it from 200 to 80. Her chance to be crit has now increased from 15% to 45%! If she gets focused by DPS, even just a little, she'll probably cark it.

The good news for Evillyn is the SM initiative debuff is a bit random. The bad news is that a Witch Hunter can debuff Initiative too. Blessed Bullets of Purity debuffs Initiative by 80. The Archmage has a 80pt debuff called Mistress Of The Marshes.

By the same yardstick, buffing your own or group's Initiative is very advantageous. It's all to do with the steepness of the curve at the low end. You don't want to be sitting on the steep bit, it's treacherous. Unless you stack Initiative up to around 300 a debuff is really going to hurt, so protect yourself and your allies by buffing it if you can.

Conclusions
If you hold true to the maxim that Bursts Kills and Crit FTW! then do what you can to debuff your opponent's initiative - it'll make a difference.

About Swordmasters
For a Swordmaster looking to assist the DPS classes the potential for Nature's Blade to debuff Initiative by 120 points makes it very hard to overlook in my eyes, and it's actually a stat steal so also buffs your entire group by the amount it steals. Very useful. The Black Orc has the mirror for Destro. It doesn't just steal iniative either, it can steal any stat.

People will argue that a Knight can do the same job of increasing crit chance much more reliably than a Swordmaster, and they may well be right. For example, the KotBS has a tactic called Dirty Tricks that increases their group's Crit chanceby 10% for 10s every time they block. This is more reliable when compared to Nature's Blade, which is more random but has a higher reward. The odds are hard to calculate but in a warband with 3 or 4 SMs all running Nature's Blade I would think that there would be enough initiative getting debuffed it would leave your enemy very vulnerable to crits, not to mention stealing and buffing your group with all the other stats.

Pink for Tink

2010-06-01T05:42:00.000-07:00

Here's my SM in pink in support of Tinkerhell and Pink for Tink. A very good friend of mine had lymphatic cancer just a few years ago and although better now he is still living with it. I was amazed at how he dealt with it, as I am for anybody who copes with such an illness. I can't comprehend the strength and character that this must take for all those involved, friends and family included, and my best wishes go out to them.

But You Didn't Know I'd Gone

2010-05-29T09:24:00.001-07:00

This post was going to be called "I'm back!" but you didn't know I'd gone. I've been camping for the last 5 days in a big forest in Yorkshire (that's in the UK).

It took a while, probably 3 days, for my mind to become unriddled of Warhammer. On the 2nd day I was showing my son some tadpoles and frogspawn in a pond and I couldn't help think of spawn camping. WAR's tendrils sink deep into my brain. I'm often like this, I see hidden references to WAR all the time, in car registration plates, road signs, food labels. Sometimes if I'm arranging a meeting in work I find myself wanting to set up a "balanced group" instead of a meeting, it's bonkers. I once had this idea that introducing experience points to businesses would be a good idea. Every time you did something useful in work you'd level up a bit, and when you reached a new rank so would your salary. Managers could think up tasks that they want doing for XP and people could come up and do what they wanted. Would be especially nice if the work you did involved swinging a massive siege hammer about.

I'm healthy in most other regards, honest.

5 days was enough to purge my brain of WAR, and that was nice, but I was glad to be able resoak it in the 75 unread blog posts awaiting in my reader when I got back. That's a lot of WAR posts for 5 days!

City Tastes Good

2010-05-23T23:35:00.000-07:00

I got my first taste of the City over the weekend. When I logged in on Friday I was disappointed to find I'd just missed an invasion of Inevitable City and the rest of the guild were in there and just downing the King. But on Saturday I logged in with Destro about 20 minutes off getting to Altdorf.

We got a about 3/4 Guild WB up and went in. It was a pretty epic feeling to be honest.

The experience was great, I can see a lot of potential for strategy and great fights. We lost this one though, got pretty much whitewashed, losing all 6 BOs. I met Bootae in there which was good for me as it's the first time I've met a fellow blogger in-game. I managed to insult him a little, called him a Gobbo, didn't seem to put him off much :p

We didn't really know what we were doing, didn't start using the rally flags until it was too late for instance, didn't really have a strategy. Gaarawaar's latest guide, RvR Drive City Sieges - The Guide will hopefully help with that. This guide is quite simply awesome, and as english gentleman you'll appreciate I don't use that word lightly. With a bit more experience of the Cities some truly amazing fights are in store for the future.

In other news, I accidentally bought 6 of the new RvR items Bewildering Relic of Vitality. They are unique-equip and have a decay timer of them of 14 days! I bought them accidentally because I had just scrolled in to the Guild Hall and my sound still hadn't come back up so I was clicking on the item from the merchant to buy it and expecting to hear the little "ching" noise to indicate the purchase. But there was no "ching" so I kept clicking until I had 6. D'oh! But thankfully I put a CSR appeal in to explain my mistake and next day all my Invader crests had been refunded. I was surprised by this, and grateful of course. Thanks for that Mythic, and thanks for the new City.

Be More (Super) Effective

2010-05-21T02:37:00.000-07:00

On her blog Super Effective Warhammer's favourite Portuguese Sara gives a great example of how you can be effective in a scenario without having to put out massive amounts of damage and by just doing something smart, something effective.

In her example Destro were being spawn camped by Order but instead of offering herself up as free renown she joined a couple of other players in escaping the farm and capping the BOs and, once capped, coming back at Order from behind and throwing a spanner into the works, kicking up a fuss and providing the initiative for the rest of Destro to push on and eventually win the scenario.

I did something similar last night. I entered Serpent's Passage a few minutes in to the scenario to find my Order compatriots scattered and fleeing back from the wreckage to our spawn point. We all got farmed for a few minutes until I decided to try and find a way out. I mentioned in /sc that I was going to make a run to the east and if Destro followed me everyone else should push out. I mounted up and ran east from Order's spawn point. Sure enough 5 Destro chased after me. When they caught up with me I used my Morale 2 AoE snare to slow them down and kept them chasing me under the rock bridge thingy in the middle of the two sides. They caught me in the end, and killed me of course, but as I died I could see Order pushing out from our spawn point. By the time I had respawn we had wiped them. What. A. Hero.

The morale of the story is not everything boils down to a DPS race and just a few well-placed moves and abilites can make all the difference.

For more tactical shannigans go and read Thrangis the Red's excellent post about the Nordenwatch scenario.

WAR Stats: This is Critical

2010-05-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

In previous posts I have looked at damage totals from combat logs but this ignores something very important - the heat of the moment, what can happen in just a few seconds of combat. There is one thing I dread to see flash up on my screen and that's a string of big crits hitting me in quick succession.

Looks like this...

-1050
-1637
-1320

When I see just one big number like this I think "oh shit", nevermind three at once. That's over 4000 damage in the blink of an eye. Numbers like this are enough to kill you dead if you are already at low health. When people see you with low HP they go for the kill and you get focused. A string of big crits will either kill you straight off or leave you vunerable and put pressure on healers. Things tend to go awry.

DPS classes are crit-crazy. Go ask one. I believe BWs and Sorcs can get there crit chance up to 75%, other DPS classes to around 50%. They love the stuff.

On top of what your opponent is stacking you also have a base chance to be crit, based primarily on your initiative that has nothing to do with you opponent.

At Level 40 the formula for 'Chance to be Crit' = 35 / Initiative
E.G.
Initiative @ 100 (35/100) = 35% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 200 (35/200) = 17.5% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 300 (35/300) = 11.6% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 400 (35/400) = 8.75% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 500 (35/500) = 7.0% chance to be crit

Most people's initiative is around 200 so a 17.5% chance to be crit. This means that a Sorc with their own +75% chance to crit will actually have a chance to crit you of 92.5%!! This is scary.

Reducing your base chance to be crit to 0% is not too difficult but what's the point if a Sorc still has a 75% chance to crit you?

It's the chance to not be Crit multiple times in a row that's important. You can survive one big crit. Surviving three is a different story.

Imagine a situation where the DoTs have added up and you have 4000 HP left. A Sorc or two focuses on you with +75% Crit. Added on top of your 17.5% base chance to be crit you will be crit 92.5% of the time.

The probability you will be crit twice in a row is 92.5% x 92.5% = 86%
Thrice in a row = 92.5% x 92.5% x 92.5% = 79%. You will survive 2 out of 10 times.

With a base chance to be crit of 0% you will get crit 75% of the time. The probability you will be crit twice in a row is 75% x 75% = 56%
Thrice in a row 75% 75% x 75% = 42%. You will survive 6 out of 10 times.

By reducing your base chance to be crit from 15% to 0% you are 3 times more likely to survive focus fire. Not only are this but there are lots of nasty procs and debuffs linked to critical hits that you will avoid.

-Crit also obviously gives you a direct overall damage reduction. For most classes a crit is 50% more damage than a non-crit. If a normal attack hits for 400, a crit will hit for 600. Therefore, a 10% reduction in Crit chance = 5% reduction in damage. Sorcs/BW however do 150% damage per crit, so a 400 attack will hit for 1000 when it crits. A 10% reduction in Crit is therefore equivalent to a 15% reduction in damage versus a BW or Sorc. As I have shown in a previous post, playing a SM and being in the front line Sorcs do me a lot of damage.

Getting to 0%
If you look again at the formula and examples above of initiative and base crit chance you'll notice a diminishing return on the stat. Going from 100 initiative to 200 reduces your Crit chance by 17.5% but going from 300 to 400 only reduces it by 3%. I would advise getting to around 250-300 initative and get the rest from -Crit% on items. Most armour sets have a piece that gives -3% Crit so mix and max from different sets you want to use to get the best -Crit.

Conclusions
Recommended.

Pitch Day

2010-05-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

It's patch day. You've already read about it on other blogs. I hope it lands on time in Europe tomorrow! There's no volcanic ash cloud in cyberspace is there?

I have just caught up with a post by adorable Gobbo Squibblegut Loveorder in which he pitches an idea to fellow bloggers and readers (see what I did there, did ya?) to put together some suggestions for the RvR campaign.

I think we should do this. Thrash out some ideas and put them to Mythic. Maybe now isn't the right time with this patch about to land so I'll get to back to the idea after the excitement of 1.3.5 has died down.

Talking of excitement, what am I looking forward to...?

Contested RvR: as Wasdtomp asked, what will the rush to play the City do for RvR? Will it be hotly contested? Or a massive Zergfest? Looking forward to finding out.
New items: more stat tweaking and min-maxing for me!
Nerfs! Yes, as a Swordmaster I welcome the nerf to both auto-attack haste and bombing. This will make me more relevant. High Elf assist train anyone?
The City itself of course. It'll be great that individual players/warbands/guilds can feel relevant to the end-game encounter. That will make the difference to me.

To be honest I don't think this patch is the future of WAR. It's a massively brilliant patch but not a game-changer. What I am particularly impressed about is the sheer amount of stuff included. Mythic could've gotten away with this just being about the City, but all the extras feautures... they have been very productive. I'm looking forward to the next producer's letter and hints of 1.3.6 and beyond.

New WAR Blogs

2010-05-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

So many new blogs I am having trouble keeping up! Thanks to Werit and Grimnir in particular for highlighting these guys and to all other bloggers for giving me something to do whilst at work!! If I've missed anyone do let me know.

Krosuss Says Burn

Rune Twisitng

Vauleen of Volkmar

Thrangis the Red

Test Pig v Warhammer

War 4 Scrubs

Thehealeroftru

Suffer Not The Heretic

Journal and Compendium of Squibblegut the Squig Herder

Champion of Chaos

Rudepox at WAR

Deathblows speak louder than words

2010-05-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

In clearly a direct response to my last post Mythic have nerfed the potential for BWs and Sorcs to bomb. What should I QQ about next?

Another reason for the change and a rumour I have heard is that a guild called VII from Karak Norn took an elite team of bombers onto the EU PTS and burnt some visiting Devs arses to a crisp. Can't be sure if this is true or just boasting ofc.

From Mythic:

After evaluating the feedback, it became clear to us that there was much concern about the potential of PBAE-focused groups to diminish the fun of the City Siege, especially those built and focused around a Bright Wizard or Sorcerer. In response to this feedback, we made the decision to accelerate a few of our balance changes which were originally planned for version 1.3.6. Therefore, in tonight's public City Siege tests, you will notice the following adjustments:

Bright Wizard: Scorched Earth now costs 20 Combustion instead of Action Points. Additionally, this ability no longer builds Combustion when used.

Sorcerer: Surging Pain now costs 20 Dark Magic instead of Action Points. Additionally, this ability no longer builds Dark Magic when used.

BOMBSQUAD

2010-05-12T10:34:00.001-07:00

I've been semi-involved in a discussion on WHA about bombing in WAR. It started out with me asking how much value to a group my Swordmaster brings - the answer was a resounding "Not much". And this is why...

On my server there are Bomb Squads on both sides and they dominate. A Bomb Squad warband is made up typically of Sorcs/BWs who are heavily protected and run into a crowd dealing out devastating AoE damage to everyone around them. Slayers and Choppa add quite nicely to the damage and the Auras of Knights and Chosen provide a tailored boost to the carnage.

This isn't about mindlessly spamming one button. The top guilds have perfected this over time, putting a lot of thought into class spec and ability choices, gear setup, Morales and, of course, timing and execution through voice comms. It's pro-stuff.

This has led to optimisation of warband composition where the classes I mentioned above are the preferred and greatly desired option and this leads to the marginalisation of the other classes. Two thirds of classes can't compete or don't bring anything to the table in a bombing environment.

In response to bombing Mythic have said that it's is fine, a legitimate tactic, within the rules of the game, and on the face of it I have to agree with that. The tools to do this are available to both Order and Destro.

Interestingly, I'm hearing that the bombing is more prevalent on European servers and in particular my server Karak Norn. Is this true?? This has been suggested as one reason why Mythic aren't fully aware of the problem (or think it's not a problem at all).

I am all for an arms race in WAR. Both sides constantly evolving and developing new strategies and counter-strategies to out do each other. What I don't want to see is the arms race to reach a point where it's all-out nuclear war and it's either bomb or be bombed. There has to exist multiple strategies and the game not just boil down to a place where one strategy rules all.

Has the combat in WAR reached this point yet or are we just at a particularly melty point in it's evolution? Is it up to players to figure out the next step or should Mythic play God and make changes themselves?

Do you even consider bombing as a problem on your server or am I just a disgruntled Elf struggling to find my place in the big ol' world??

Volunteers wanted for WAR Stats

2010-05-09T22:41:00.000-07:00

When I posted my first Damage Pie a lot of people replid saying they would try to make their own. A few posts later in a comment I said I was trying to make a Do-it-Yerself Spreadsheet for people to download. Well, I did make the spreadsheet but the combat log parser I have been using is no longer available to download :(

So I will do this for people. I will parse your combat log and make you a spreadsheet which shows you how much damage you take from the different types of attack (physical, spirit, etc) and which classes are doing the damage to you. You'll get a chart like this...

Alas, I can only do this for ORDER characters at the moment because they are my team and I'm biased! Not really, it's because I have had to create a list of every Destro ability and look up the damage type and class from WarDB. It took time. If people want a Destro Pie then contact me and we'll have to make the list together.

I am doing this because I am interested in seeing how the results for other people differ from my own. I'm a tank so am in the front line taking a lot of damage from the RDPS. What about back-line healers??

PRIORITY in doing this goes to people as follows:

Folks who commented on my earlier posts.
First come, first served

Remember I can only do this for ORDER.

For me to do this I need you to send me your combat log.

Step 1 - Make sure you are looking at the correct Combat Log
There are 2 combat logs in your Warhammer folder. And one of them is always empty.

Warhammer Online - Age of Reckoning/logs/combat.txt
- this one is EMPTY. DON'T USE

Warhammer Online - Age of Reckoning/logs/communication/your server/your charcter/combat.txt
- this is the one to use, replace your server and your character.

Step 2 - Make sure the correct Combat log isn't empty too!
By default logging combat to disk is turned off. To turn it back on do this...

"How to enable logging to disk"

* In your Warhammer directory, edit the file user/UserSettings.xml
* find this tag: Logging logAllToDisk="false"
* change it to this: Logging logAllToDisk="true"

Step 3 - Fight!
For consistency it would be best if you didn't change builds and gear around too much but obviously do whatever you want. I reckon about 2 hours worth of furious fighting is needed to generate enough combat data.

Step 4 - Extras
If you want me to look at anything else in particular then ask and I will try. I am particular interested in avoidance at the moment so if you have very high Block and/or Parry and want to know how much you actually avoid then send me your log and I will take a look. Let me know what your base Block/Parry is plus what buffs you will have active.

Step 5 - Send your combat.txt file to blurringshock@hotmail.co.uk

Hail to the Chief

2010-05-09T07:17:00.000-07:00

I take my hat off to Warband leaders everywhere. They double the fun in this game for me.

My favourite moments in WAR are when the RvR gets epic and I'm with my guild, on vent, following the orders of my warband leader. There doesn't even have to be a lot of combat (there needs to be some) but just strategically maneuvering around the lakes and coordinating with other warbands. It's great when a rally call comes up from an objective under siege and our warband responds to make a flanking attack on Destro, just managing to re-claim back the BO.

And for all this I thank warband leaders for being there to organise and take responsibility. I won't be overly mushy in my thanks as I reckon the guys and gals that step up must take their own enjoyment from it but I still say grats, and my cap is doffed in particular to the warband leaders who I have served with recently - Shadowfist, Wonan and Gripnir.

I have been enjoying the developments in RvR tactics and strategies too. On my server (Karak Norn) there have been significant improvements in tactics and co-operation in the last 12 months.

I have a unique(ish) perception having stopped playing WAR in June 2009 and only coming back to it a few months ago. Before my break there was still a battle for leadership on Order between individuals, and a battle for supremacy between guilds - it was very unproductive. Now a hierarchy has established, with guilds and warbands working together quite readily and without conflict.

There are a couple of new terms and tactics too. First there's The Blob, when a warband group up very tightly on one spot so they look like a blob on the map. This was not the case when I last played. It's about focusing all the AoE on one spot.

And then there's the Funnel. I was used to the Tank Wall before but this is Tank Wall Mark II. The Tanks line up in two groups opposite from each other to form a funnel into which enemy players are, err.. funnelled. They then get AoE'd to death, all clustered up a tight space.

The RvR campaign in WAR needs to become more strategic to improve and I hope this is what Mythic are considering when they think about RvR changes. I am well into Bootae's ideas snagged from Dark Age of Camelot. Anything to increase the amount of options for cunning strategy and dispersing combat over larger areas.

If I have one major complaint about RvR (even at it's best) it's that it's dominated by numbers and AoE. Look at my two examples above of the Blob and the Funnel - both AoE. If Mythic could find a way to make both small and large scale combat relevant to the campaign then I would be like one of those endangered Chinese bears on it's birthday.

Make your own Emotes and insult your Foes!

2010-05-07T05:44:00.000-07:00

You've all no doubt targeted an enemy player (let's call him Bob) and typed /taunt to emote and see in chat...

Aeoluw taunts Bob. What's he going to do?

There's an addon you can use to make these emotes much more personal and interesting.

It's called Chatmacros and you can get it here.

Once downloaded you can a create a macro (from main menu, ESC key) and make up your own emotes.

The %t in the macro means "your hostile target", so the player you are targeting.

I use this after landing a killing blow...
/script chatmacro("/em wipes %t's foul blood from his blade")
Aeoluw wipes Bob's foul blood from his blade

and I try to use this when I'm fighting a Choppa or Black Orc...
/script chatmacro("/em reckons %t fights like a Gobbo")
Aeoluw reckons Bob fights like a Gobbo

You should try some of these out for yourself!

Or let me know your ideas for some good "lorey" insults an arrogant High Elf can dish out on the battelfield. I am trying to think of a nice way to insult my fallen kin, the Dark Elves.

WAR Stats: Getting Disruptive

2010-05-06T05:26:00.000-07:00

In my last WAR stats I had done some testing of Disrupt and Parry, the chance to Disrupt a Caster attack and the chance to Parry a melee attack.

I chose Disrupt specifically because as far as I know the chance to Disrupt does not depend on your positioning, unlike Parry and Block which only defend from the front. You can Disrupt an attack whether it hits you in the front or back so it makes a very good test case for working out how much your enemy's offensive stats will reduce your defensive stats.

Last time I tested a build that had 18% Parry and 18 % Disrupt (0% Block) and my conclusions were mixed. My Disrupt rate was reduced by 12% from 18% to just 6%.
I have now tested some different amounts of Disrupt and Parry.

The value on the left is what was shown on my character screen, on the right the amount actually avoided from looking at my combat log over 1000s of hits.

The results for 18% and 25% Disrupt show that a 12-13% reduction can more or less be considered as the typical reduction to your defense, so whatever your character screen says take 12% off that. Some opponents will reduce that more, some less. I know I have access to two tactics as a Swordmaster that can reduce my opponent's chance to defend by 10% each. I'm not familiar with Caster tactics but I have seen high level set bonuses and glyphs each with 4% chance to disrupt on them so I would not be surprised to see people reducing my defense as much as 20%. Then there are the "Undefendable" proc items.

The testing of 10% Disrupt and 10% Parry also shows that there seems to be a minimum amount to which your defense can be reduced. I think this might be based on your actual stat and disregard the modifiers.

There's are some equations out there for working this stuff out...

(defenders willpower or weapon skill / attackers intelligence or strength) * 15 + defenders '+ defense' bonuses - attackers 'reduced chance to be defended' = Disrupt % or % Parry

My willpower is 150 so assuming an attack from a 1000 Int. Caster with no modifiers taken into account on either side my Disrupt % would be 2 to 3%, and similarly my Weapon Skill is 350 vs 1000Str = 5%.

So I'm guessing that your chance to disrupt or parry can't fall below the first bit of the equation: (defenders willpower / attackers intelligence) * 15

A Closer Look at Parry
Parry isn't as straight forward as Disrupt due to the positional considerations and that both high and low Str people will be hitting me so I don't want to over analyse it. But (But!) looking closer at the attacks parried against certain classes when I had a 18% base chance, I parried around 10% attacks from Black Orcs compared to only 2% from Witch Elves.

It's also important to note that an attack will actually give your enemy a Parry bonus if they have higher Weapon Skill than your Strength. So a Black Guard with 500 STR attacking a Slayer with 700 WS will actually give the Slayer a 21% chance to Parry before any modifiers.

Conclusions

I had really wanted to find that avoidance and Disrupt in particular were worthwhile investments. There is a lot of guff on forums about avoidance being "completely useless" and if I'm honest wanted to do some testing and prove this wrong. I believe people often latch on to a popular idea and it becomes accepted as the "truth" without the facts actually being looked at.

But from these latest results I now think avoidance isn't something you can count on as a reliable defense UNLESS you can get you're actual in-game avoid chance something like 50%.

The positional requirements of Parry and Block also make me question the merit of these. In a 6v6 I can imagine positioning would be easy to keep up but when you start getting 12v12 (e.g. scenarios) you often get mobbed and attacked from all sides and Block/Parry won't make much difference. Them Witch Elves just love to get behind you! And I notice that I'm getting AoE attacks from Choppas from all directions!

I still think Disrupt has some hidden value due to the potential to avoid large spike damage from Sorcs, especially for the ever popular 2H Tank . If I could stack up my base Disrupt chance towards 40-50% I would. At the moment I sacrifice too much to get there but Warlord has a +5% Disrupt set bonus that I'll be interested in when I reach that level.

The Swordmaster does have access to a few abilities to increase Disrupt. Aerythic Armour is +5% and Calming Winds tactic gives +10% in Improved Balance and +20% in Perfect Balance. Plus Hold the Line or Wall of Darting Steel are channelled abilities granting +45%/+50% Disrupt. With these I can get my Disrupt to +95%/100% and I notice this is very, very effective. It Disrupts a lot!!

I am still interested in doing more testing of avoidance. I will try out some of the Swordmaster's Disrupt tactics mentioned above and I will try a maximum avoidance build too (e.g. shield + tactics).

But I am also soon to be taking a look at initative and reducing your chance to be crit. I think this may be the answer I'm looking for. Stay with me ;)

Props to Thrangis

2010-05-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

Grimnir posted the other day highlighting this...

Thrangis The Red

It's great, I'm really enjoying it. It's Thangris' journal of a journey through WAR.

I had to give it a shout. Well done that Dwarf.

There's no place like home

2010-04-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

Backseatdev is great with the breaking news and has just brought news from the Producer's Letter that in patch 1.3.6 you'll be allowed to roll Order and Destro on the same server.

Wow. This is a bombshell. At first I thought WTF but now I think it coud be Kewl.

After a long time on Order I've always wanted to play Destro but couldn't leave my "home server" Karak Norn. I tried a Black Orc on Azgal once but it felt way too weird. Didn't last more than a few hours. It felt like I was a stranger in a foreign land and nothing was the same. They didn't even have Rich Tea biscuits.

My intial WTF reaction was wondering what it would do for realm balance and realm pride with everyone hopping over to the other side all the time. But giving players options is a good thing, and what's good for the player is good for the game. I'm sure Mythic will implement it with thought and care - they've already mentioned "significant lockout timers".

I can't help think what else is up Mythic's sleeve. In her Producer's letter Carrie mentions oRvR is on the radar. Great.

Average Renown Rank & Me

2010-04-30T04:49:00.001-07:00

I hear different things about where the average renown rank of players is right now. I read that most people are already RR80 or that most people will be RR80 very soon, and even that most people will never reach RR80. So I had to find out for myself.

The Realm WAR page for Europe was recently restored to a place where it works so I could look up Destro that appeared in my combat logs.

Below is the RR distribution of 100 random Destro I have fought on Karak Norn. There will be some error from only taking 100 ppl, and some will be alts, but it gives a good indication of where it's at.

On Karak Norn most people are already RR60+, most people will soon be RR70+ and it looks like most people will get to RR80 one day (me included!)

What would happen if Keep Defense earnt better Rewards?

2010-04-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

Zizlak had an intersting post t'other day amidst all the new patch hype. The gist is that the new city siege mechanic isn't going to do anything for the general RvR campaign and as City invasions will still happen all too often they will soon run out of The Epic. The new city siege could end being a daily super-scenario.

The problem I've found with the RvR campaign in the last month since I came back to the game is that there's just so little actual fighting. The opposition have no incentive to defend in any force so it's just one side getting a little organised or waiting to become the underdog, then claiming a few unopposed keeps and waiting patiently for the lock. So much standing around and doing nothing.

This could actually get worse with the new City mechanic with both sides probably quite willing for their City to fall to get experience of the new City and the rewards that come with it. In my last post a couple of days ago I was happy with rewards for participation but having said what I've just said I do hope the rewards for a successful invasion far outweigh those for the losers.

Back in May 2009, before my break, the RvR was still hugely contested on Karak Norn. City invasions were just starting to happen. It provided plenty of action but if I'm honest it was very frustrating too because Order (my team) were outnumbered and/or outclassed. We could put a lot of effort into defense and get nothing out of it.

I want what Zizlak wants. The RvR campaign to be THE enjoyable part of the game with a City invasion being a special rare treat at the end.

It got me wondering what would happen if they made Keep Defense a very worthwhile experinence for the players, like very, very rewarding.

How about if players defending a keep were rewarded with a 5 times drop rate on crests and other loot drop. New seed drops maybe. Perhaps introduce scenario insignias into RvR but only for keep defense kills. Whatever, but worthwhile stuff.

The point would be to make defending a keep so worthwhile that players/guilds would want to turn up to defend. But to get the rewards for defending you would have to attack and take a keep in the first place, so it would encourage attacking as well.

It's a counter-intuituve idea but I think that changing the emphais from attack to defense in RvR might mix things up a bit.

I'd love to hear other's opinions on this idea and any other thoughts on how to give general RvR a boost in the arm.

Participation & Reward

2010-04-27T05:17:00.000-07:00

I don't know whether I'm Hardcore or Casual and I wish I didn't have to think about it, or even that the distinction had to exist, but it does. I don't know why I even feel the need to preface what I am saying here with this but, again, there you go.

If I had to pigeonhole myself I would say I was Casual. I have a full-time job, a mortgage and a 2 year old son so there's a lot of responsibility right there, and little time for games. I do try and play as much as I can but that might only amount to 5 hours a week sometimes, and rarely (never!) am I able to commit to scheduled events or late night schtick. But if I was a purely casual player I wouldn't pour over combat logs nor would I be spending time on a blog.

There are people like me who can't easily be pigeon-holed, who might have limited playing time but want to make the most of it. That's why I like the reward system in Warhammer. It definitely keeps me playing.

Scenarios reward insignia despite losing and the new City system will also reward the losing side. Participation brings rewards but don't forget winning gives better rewards.

Rewarding particiption has rubbed some people up the wrong way but it shouldn't. Participation is required for a healthy and competitive game. Earning them shinines keeps people playing. If I felt I wasn't getting anything out of my precious 2 hour game slot then I'm sure I'd find myself drifting away, as well as many other players similar to me, and that would not be good, would it?

Rampant Indulgence about Wood Elves

2010-04-23T05:13:00.001-07:00

Mykiel has made an astute observation on PODCAST about the meaning of the Red Plague content in the latest patch notes and the possible introduction of Skaven as a new race so I am going to partake in a bit of rampant indulgance about new races and classes.

The fan's favourites at the moment seem to be Skaven and Lizardmen. Skaven are okay but I just can't get my head around Lizardmen, with their big googley eyes and lollopping tongues.

Chaos: "Heed my command mortal, and bow down before the might of Chaos!"
or
Lizardman: "I am Uk-Tuq of the Frog People. Croak Croak."

I would prefer to see Wood Elves, who also get a mention in the Red Plague lore . Wood Elves in Warhammer aren't anything like the current High Elves in-game, all ooty-snooty in posh shiny armour, and they certainly aren't like Legolas in Lord of the Rings. They are a dark and dangerous race and embody the malignent spirit of the forest, like a wild animal prowling it's territorry and woe be tide anyone who ventures across their border. They aren't a "Good" race like Empire or Dwarfs and would definitely add some cool to Order.

Wardancers (MDPS)
These would be the most exciting new class if Wood Elves were introduced to WAR. They are acrobatic and savage fighters, duel-weilding, and preferring warpaint to armour. They would be a whirling dervish in combat and the obvious MDPS class. I can envisage special acrobatic moves, such as an attack that causes the Wardancer to leap over the top of a player spinning around to make an attack to the rear, or perhaps defensive moves like somersaulting away from an attack. They could have a combat resource called Wardance that builds up with subsequent attacks. Once filled they get access to high powered attacks, both offensive or defensive.

Dryads (Tank)
These are ancient forest creatures and can really be summed up as being like small Treemen. They would be the perfect Tank for Wood Elves. In Warhammer lore Dryads lure unsuspecting passer-by into their clutches before tearing them to pieces on sharp branches and thorns. To represent this I would give the Dryad player an ability which lowers it's defense but also generates 'Ancient Power' each time the Dryad is hit which can then be used to unleash strong attacks.

HighBorn (Healer)
The Highborn are the leaders of the Wood Elf army. Wood Elves are a very close-comabt heavy race so the Highborn would be a melee healer similar to the DoK. I would devise a mechanic that allows the Highborn to boost his healing power depending on what's happening to the party he is in (or just to him when solo). One option could be to build healing power everytime a group member successfully defends against an attack. Or he could switch to build power whenever a group member scores a critcal hit. The player would be able to switch between differnt options depending on the group and the situation.

SpellSinger (RDPS)
The Wood Elf army calls upon the power of the forest for it's magic so the SpellSinger would be a Caster who could summon this power a bit like a pet. The focus would be a little more on utility than a BW or Sorc so more like a Magus or Eng. She could call upon a host of creatures which would could be "launched" at an enemy, like a stampede of horses, or cause players to be snared in thorns and brambles. I would probably give her some healing too.

I would definitely get excited about Wood Elves in Warhammer!!

WAR Stats: Avoidance and Onions

2010-04-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

I've been having a good 'ol think about combat and avoidance for some time now and have done some testing in-game. It's been a bit like an onion really. There are many layers to peel and it makes my eyes cry so I'll be breaking it down into a few parts.

In this part I'll be looking at some basics and testing a balanced Parry & Disrupt build. In part 2 I'll go all out and stack more avoidance and throw a big shield into the mix and see how that fares. I want to look at how avoidance works with Guard damage too. Once I'm done with testing I hope to offer some insights to the worth of avoidance vs. mitigation as there is much more to avoidance than just reducing overall damage, such as avoiding CC and damage spikes.

Basic Mechanic
Stats and Items give a character a percentage chance to avoid attacks.
Rok did an awesome job of posting the theory of combat in his post 'From Mace to Face'. Check it out for a more in-depth look at combat. I thank him for the loan of the equations :)

Weapon Skill gives a % chance to parry a melee attack. My modest 350 Weapon Skill gives me a base chance to parry of 7.4% on the character screen.

Similarily, Willpower offers a % chance to disrupt an attack from a Caster and Initative gives a % chance to Dodge ranged attacks.

Block gives a % chance to avoid any type of attack. A decent T4 purple shield with a block rating of 370 translates as a %Block value of 21.1% on my character screen.

However an attacker's offensive stat (Str, Int or BS) reduces the defender's chance to defend. A melee attack made with 1000 Strength will reduce my base chance to block from to 21.1% to 14.8% and my chance to parry will drop from 7.4% to 5.3%.

There are other bonuses in-game (Tactics, Items, Buffs) that influence the chance to attack and defend, e.g. +5% to Block or 5% reduced chance to be Evaded. 2-Handed weapons reduce chance to defend by 10%.

And very importantly Block and Parry are only useful when the attack is made to your front, a 180 degree arc I think.

Please TheoryHammer! Don't Hurt Us!
As you can see there is a lot going on with avoidance and a base chance to avoid on the character screen of 10% may or may not translate to that in combat. So on to some testing...

Through a combination of gear, tactics and renown points I got both my Parry and Disrupt to 18%. I ran with a 2-hander so my Block chance was 0%. I didn't use any abilities which provided a buff to these stats.

I specifically chose Parry and Disrupt to test as Parry is only effective against Melee attacks and Disrupt is only effective against Casters. The two can be kept seperate. Also, as Parry is positional and only defends against attacks from the front and Disrupt defends from all directions I can get an idea how much Parry I lose out on by getting attacked from behind. I must add that the current situtation in-game will dictate my positioning rather than trying to keep my attackers in front of me all the time. If I need to move to defend an ally in some way then I usually will even if that means exposing my back (not to a witch Elf though!!).

Results with 18% Parry and 18% Disrupt

I was attacked 1260 times by Casters and Disrupted 85 times. 6.7% Disrupt Rate.
I was attacked 1478 times by Melee and Parried 81 times. 5.5% Parry Rate.

Furthermore from Initative I had about an 8% chance to Dodge. I was hit by a Squig Herder 123 times and didn't Dodge any of them!! 0% Dodge Rate.

This is really pretty depressing at first glance. It appears that approx. 10-12% of your avoidance is wiped off your base stat straight away by your atatcker's offensive stats and gear.

I have had a go at working out the amount of potential damage I avoided. I would appreciate some comments on this comparison as it's not an easy one.

Looking just at the Sorcerer for starters, those bastards hit me 407 times and I disrupted 26 hits (6.4% avoidance). I can see which individual abilities I avoided so can make a good estimate of the damage those 26 Disrupts saved me from. Sorcs did 154,352 damage to me overall and I estimate that I avoided an extra 13,826. That's an overall damage reduction of 8% or 34 dmg per hit. If I've got this right I would need ~170 extra Toughness (34*5)to get the same overall reduction in damage, which is quite a bit actually. 34 renown points buys you 102 Toughness. A tactic slot all Tanks get called Rugged gives 160 toughness.

With the Sorc being a high DPS class I also took a look at the damage I avoided from wimpy Tanks. I was hit by Tanks 675 times and parried 38 hits (5.6%) avoiding an estimated 4067 damage, a reduction in damage of 5% or 6 Dmg per Hit. This is equivalent to the overall damage reduction I would gain from an extra 30 Toughness.

Conclusions
A common perception in Warhammer is that avoidance is worthless in PvP as your chance to avoid an attack gets reduced far too much by your attacker's setup. I've demonstrated this is true to an extent with my both my Parry and Disrupt rates getting reduced from 18% to ~6%. But by comparing the potential damage avoided against a Sorc and against Tanks it suggests the benefit of avoiding an attack get proportionally better the higher the damage of the attack. This is a bit like in PvE when Tuten McBosspants is hitting you for 8000 per hit - it's better to avoid that hit entirely than just mitigate it down to 7500 or something.

I'm starting to think now that avoidance might be the best path for me. In my other WAR Stats posts I've shown that it's the high damage attacks from the likes of Sorcs and Witch Elves that do me the most harm, and I know from experience it's getting big hits in quick succession that gets me killed in a hurry. Having a chance to avoid these big hits rather just soak them up sound good to me. Plus there's the intangilble benefit of avoiding some CC or a nasty armour debuff.

Quite a bit to chew on. I hope this has not made your eyes water and makes some sense. Next up I'm going to try and stack even more Disrupt and see if the extra X% that I stack on top of the 18% I've tested here translates to an extra as X% in-game.

~Aeo

Dinging along nicely

2010-04-21T09:01:00.000-07:00

It's been just over a month since I came back to the game and I am pleased to say things are going well.

I've gone from RR41 to RR50 (dinged last night!). That's pretty good going as far as I'm concerned. I've also accrued 4 Invader pieces and have plenty of crests for me to get the 5th or 6th if I want to and when I'm ready.

I've also got some other nice gear, some rings and cloaks and stuff, oh, and a Weapon of WAR! So yeah, loot.

I've been spending a lot of time look at "my role" as a Swordmaster and what stats and abilities are important to me. I've spent a lot of time thinking and tinkering but it's been worth it. I feel more effective in PvP now than I did 10 months ago, even though I'm pretty much in the same gear I was then, which is relatively poor by today's standards (Anni/Conq). I'm looking forward to equipping some of the Invader!!

I've still not done any serious PvE. I have not been to Lost Vale or ToVL yet and really don't know if I ever will. I haven't got the time for long raids and things. I just don't get the buzz from PvE that I get versus human opponents. It feels more like a chore, like it's just for the loot. I do feel a gentle tugging on me in that direction though, so who knows.

In other news, I've been doing some testing of avoidance in-game and will have a new WAR Stats post up in a few days.

Happy Bashing
~Aeo

The Land of Tank and Glory

2010-04-15T05:07:00.000-07:00

Scenario Scoreboards are an integral part of WAR but they are not conducive to good team play. I have an idea to change that.

DPS classes do Damage. Healers Heal. So far, so good.

The role of Tanks isn't that simple though. They are there to support other classes.

The scenario scoreboards give a measure of Damage Done and Healing Done. How does a tank measure his or her impact on the result?

The only obvious measure available to a Tank in a scenario is damage done. Tanks commonly stack strength and use a two-hander to maximise their offence. Forums are full of screenshots and boasts about topping the charts and doing 200K damage or whatever. I can't really blame them either. There's nothing else to boast about.

When a scenario finishes and I scroll down to the bottom of the scoreboard to see my damage only just topping that of a WP who did 10K damage but 200K healing I can't help but metaphorically sink into my chair and glance around a little to make sure no-one's looking my way. There is little glory for a support Tank.

Solution
Add an additional column on scenario scoreboards alongside Damage and Healing, let's call it Protection.

Protection would measure the reduction of incoming damage to party members and, importantly, party members only, not to the individual player.

This would not be exclusive to tanks, but a new score for all players. Let's look at some examples. Lancelot is your friendly KotBS and Teclis an Archmage.

Mitigated Guard Damage - Lancelot is guarding Teclis who gets hit for 800 damage. Lancleot takes 50% of that so is hit for 400. Armour mitigates 75% of that so Lancelot has been hit for 100 damage and mitigated 300 that otherwise would have hit Teclis. Lancelot scores 300 Protection.
Avoided Guard Damage - Lancleot takes a guard hit from Teclis of 500 but that shield he's so fond of blocks it completely. 500 Protection for Lancelot.
Buffs - Teclis buffs Lancelot's resists and reduces the damage from an incoming Gloombolt to him by 150, earning Teclis a 150 Protection.
Debuffs - Lancelot has a weapon that steals 80 strength from enemy players and as a result Teclis gets hit by 100 less damage. 100 to Lancelot.
Absorbs - Teclis puts a bubble up around Lancelot which absorbs 650 damage. 650 to Teclis.

You get the picture. Any ability that directly or indirectly reduces damage to your team mates is totalled up as Protection in a new column on the scenario scoreboards.

This gives every class increased reason to use their protective abilities but in particular will emphasise teamplay and encourage and reward Tanks who play a support role which, in my opinion, will be for the betterment of the game for everyone.

CITY.3.5

2010-04-13T22:32:00.000-07:00

This post is up from Andy Mythic on the official forums about the planned City changes and there is a tonne of extra juicy in the form of Q&A appearing from the blogger champions. Shadow-War and Mykiel have City RvR specific posts up.

It does sound like it's going to be a fun ride. The 3 different stages sound varied and interesting. 2 hours maximum is good. Rewards win or lose is good. Only relying on your own instance for the result is good. And the super-buffed player-champions idea is super-buffed-good. I look forward to seeing this in action. I hope the players are visibly buffed - supersized I mean. Imagine a 20ft Black Orc stomping on loads of stunties!

Being issued your instructions by the Realm Leader (Karl Franz or Tchar'zanek) and getting to see these guys be called in for special moves will add some grandness to the whole affair.

My biggest stumbling block with the news so far is this, from Mythic's thread...

"Players will be forcibly placed within a Warband upon entering a City instance equipped with an instance-specific chat channel. Manipulation of looting rules will be disabled"

Reading Mykiel's Q&A about this, it sounds to me that Mythic don't want organised Warbands grouping up and queueing for instances together. It sounds like each single person queues on their own and is randomly assigned to a warband.

This sucks. I am really going to want to play this part of the game with my guildies. Not just for the organised/competitive edge that comes with that but because these are the people I know in game and enjoy playing with.

And I can imagine a whole load of chaos deciding who the warband-leader is going to be. There will be heat! Communication is a big slice of success in WAR.

I'm sure Mythic have thought about this but it's gonna pose problems and I'm sure high-end players/guilds are going to like it even less.

They could at least think about letting single groups join.

EDIT: From Werit's post it seems single groups may in fact remain together. Smiles.

Overall though, it looks rosey and I can't wait.

Meet Jumby

2010-04-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

This post on the Tank section of the official forums made me smile, especially as it popped up in a thread discussing the merits of a Swordmaster.

I've copied a bit of the post here. Follow the link for the full post.

"...Meet Jumby. He is a RR70 Chosen and enters a scenario. He sees the front lines charging strong. Jumby thinks fast and unleashes the following combo: Blast Wave, Rending Blade, Challenge

Each member of the charging front line has just lost some health, but more importantly all of their wounds have been reduced by 111. The combination of Jumby's 45% crit and the AoE attacks has most likely crit every single member of the front lines too, and due to Crippling Strikes, their damage has been reduced by 25%. Jumby's Challenge also reduces damage by 30% so long as they don't attack Jumby. Jumby is so scary looking, they wouldn't dare. So, now the whole front lines are wounded and weak. I don't think they're a threat anymore! Go ahead Jumby, run on past them.

Jumby gets past the front lines into the backlines of RDPS and healers. How can Jumby stop them all!?!? I know, Quake! Now all of the backlines are staggered and are of no threat for several seconds! Further, if he crit any of those nasty Bright Wizards, they will wake up with 25% less damage due to Crippling Strikes. Good Jumby!

Ok, Jumby's not done yet. He still needs to kill someone. That Rune Priest looks tasty. First, let's use Dizzying Blow to slow him down and then Touch of Palsy to make it hurt if he tries to run away. Now, let's add a Seeping Wound for yummy DoT damage. Ok, so the Rune Priest can't get away and he's a little wounded. How on earth can Jumby kill this bugger though?..."

Read the Full Post here.

What's woot got to do with it?

2010-04-12T05:05:00.000-07:00

Before my stint away from the game I had been to defend Altdorf four or five times. Theses visits were generally marred by slide-show lag and general confusion as to what to do. It wasn’t great but people were still getting used to it. Confrontation with actual real enemy players was avoided as people tried to find an empty instance. Even then we’d struggle to kill the PQ boss in time and never got to Stage 2. IC was the same.

On Friday I got to go back to the Inevitable City for the first time since my return. And my thoughts? Well the changes in 1.3.5 will be extremely welcome but I am glad to have had the chance to farm free Invader first!!

Most players have probably got all the Invader gear they need now but I am still in need of it – or I was until Friday anyway. In the 3 hours the “siege” lasted I got 3 Invader pieces and crests enough to buy a 4th.

The city siege involved one hour in Stage 1 where I didn’t do anything except stand on the stairs to the Apex and watch another warband try (and fail) to kill Adell. No bother though, Stage 1 was won and Stage 2 was up. My guild had enough folks about to take on the King (and win) but, alas, I didn’t have the wards so was left behind on my todd .

There were a hanadful of other Order left in the instance . We all just stood around taking and retaking BOs for 2 hours. 2 whole hours doing amost nothing. I made some comments to the other players there that this was “…a bit boring…” only to get the reply “no, this is great” “free loot” “wootwoot” “we love it, free loot!”.

Hmmmm.

At the time It really didn’t feel like fun at all. It wasn’t enjoyable. I wish I’d had a film to watch. It was a very good job I had beer!! But now, looking back, I don’t regret it and would do it over. I even let out a little “woot” myself when I got the Invader chest piece.

And this has left me musing over the whole “what’s fun?” question. What was it that made me readily do doing something boring in my own free time ? For me, it was the feeling that future game-time will now be that extra bit more enjoyable. I will feel more competitive in PvP, or at least not feel like I am lacking an edge due to dated gear. And I won’t have the niggling feeling of compulsion that I need to be getting the better gear.

I have always been against the gear-grind, believing (hoping!!) that skill was just as important and that the game could be enjoyed all the same whatever gear you had. But even on these merits, it’s got to be more enjoyable with better gear, no? I might even be tempted to try out some of that PvE lark. Well, maybe not.

~Aeo

WAR Stats: Hard Hitting

2010-04-09T04:10:00.000-07:00

This is a look at the abilites which do the most damage per hit on my Karak Norn Swordmaster. From my combat logs I have totalled up the damage done by each ability and then divided this by the number of times the ability actually hit me.

The numbers are before any mitigation from Toughness, Armour or Resists to give them more relevane to all classes, rather than slanting the numbers with my high tanky mititgation.

I've only included abilities which hit me more than 20 times (out of 2000 total hits). There are certain abilities, such as Morales, which hit hard but they might only have hit me once or twice so I'm not counting them as typical.

Remeber this is average damage per hit and before any mitigation. It's an average of all normal and all critical hits together and this can smooth over the potential actual damage some of these abilities can do.

For example, from my logs I can see Agonizing Wounds can crit for ~1500 (before mitigation) and, as it ignores armour if struck from behind, I will often take ~1000 actual damage from an Agonizing Wounds crit.

Saying that though, Sorc crits regularily do me for closer to 2000 actual damage. I mitigate about 50-60% of Sorc damage meaning the total hit before mitigation would be scarily around 4000. I dread to think what this would do to a low toughness class with debuffed Spirit resistance.

Conclusions: Ouch and Double Ouch
As I've been posting my other results and seeing the Sorcs taking the damage biscuit I've been mindful that a lot of this damage could be so called "meaningless damage", AoE or DoTs, that are easily healed away, and it's the burst abilites that get the real job done.

The results show that Sorcs has the potential to inflict more single big hits on me as well as most overall damage. I have to stop them somehow, for the greater good.

I have been tailoring my spec a bit for greater survivability vs. Sorcs. and it has worked out well, but I had been holding some back until now as I was fearful of losing to much to melee classes, particularily the Choppa and Witch Elves.

Swordmaster's were initially portrayed by Mythic as the "anti-magic Tank" and there are a few useful abilities for this which are often ignored on the SM forums.

I am going to explore further a Sorc-Killing role for my SM.

AFK & Go Bloggers!

2010-04-07T05:10:00.000-07:00

I've been AFK a bit as my wife has been laid out by an infection for the best part of a week so I have been taking care of her and our son. She has no interest in WAR or even computer games but still reads this blog which is nice and kinda weird. Get well soon, honey!

The news that Werit, Gaarawar, Shadow-War and Mykiel are being flown to Mythic HQ to get a preview of the City changes has filled me with even more optimism than usual about the future of WAR. Mythic must be feeling confident about making a really significant change to the game. I can't wait to read what everyone has to say.

In-game I've just started some testing of different builds for my next WAR Stats post, although I doubt I'll have time to complete it this week now. I'll be comparing a high avoidance set-up (e.g. block, parry) versus a pure mitigation set-up (Toughness FTW!).

WAR Stats: Damage Received per Class

2010-03-31T06:06:00.000-07:00

The chef at the Blurring Shock cafe is all out of pie but has cooked up another tasty treat. This time it's damage bars (may contains nuts).

Following my look at the damage I recei ved in game by damage type (i.e. Spirit, Physical, etc) I have now looked at the damage done to me by each class.

My reason for doing this is to make me more survivable in RvR, and to make me a better tank. One of my favourite things about WAR is the wealth of different stats available to the player, offensive and defensive. With such variety it isn't always easy knowing which stats are the best - hence a closer look at the numbers.

I can't easily determine who auto-attacked me. In the combat logs there are lots of hits simply described as 'attack'. I could go through it by hand and figure each one out but it's a ball-ache so I'm not going to. In the data below auto attacks from all classes are listed together as 'All auto-attack' and, as far as I know, all auto-attacks do physical damage only.

The results are before any mitigation from armour or resists. I play a Swordmaster on Karak Norn and as was pointed out last time the type of damage received will depend on who attacks me. As a tank I am naturally in the firing line.

This doesn't mean that a Chosen and a Choppa do the same damage, but that these classes did the same damage to me over a couple hours gameplay. I can't tell how many Chosen or Choppas there were out there. One would assume that there were more Chosen. Remember too that these values are before mitigation so Chosen would've done more actual damage to me than Choppas as my spirit resist (40%) is lower than my physical (75%)

Conclusion: Can't Ignore the Sorc
There is a lot more to PvP than total damage. Burst damage might not amount to much in total but it puts prssure on healing and kills. In my search for a better defense however, I can't ignore the amount of damage done to me by the Sorc. +Block and +Disrupt and good Spirit and Corp resists will be important.

There is more work to be done! Next week I am going to have a look my avoidance stats (Block/Parry/Dodge/Disrupt) as well as how much damage I take from Casters vs. Melee vs. Ranged.

I'll need to look at individual high-damage abilities at some point soon too.

~Aeo

Gromril Plate Nerf - What else?

2010-03-30T11:53:00.000-07:00

Breaking news from backseatdev: "The Ironbreaker ability, Gromril Plating, a Morale 3 ability that gives every group member within 100ft a 7200 damage absorb shield, will be changed to be self only in the upcoming patch"

What other unknowns might lurk in 1.3.5?

I've heard there is a massive godmode buff to Swordmasters. Oh, wait, it's not April yet.

Ahh, the memories...

2010-03-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

I am going to celebrate my 10th post by recalling some of my memories from the early days in WAR as I took my wide-eyed MMO-noob self on a journey into the unknown.

Khaine's Embrace
In the very early days you could only join one scenario, the one for your pairing. For me in HE vs DE this was Khaine's Embrace. I loved it, good job too seen as I had to play it over and over. I was already in T2 when scenarios across all pairings were opened.

In my first ever scenario this is how much of a noob I was. I hadn't seen much of other players yet, so at the start of my first scenario, with all the other HE players runnning about in their freshly laundered white dresses I asked in /sc "are you all real people?". No reply. I mused to my wife "hmmm, I think these are all just controlled by the computer".
I hope to see Khaine's Embrace in a Weekend Warfront one day. It hasn't been canned has it?

Questing through the Tiers
I actually felt a sense of immersion in the early days. I would look interestingly at the maps wondering what lay ahead. With each new quest I felt I was on a mission of importance to the war story that was unfolding. I particulary remember first entering T3 and being struck by the chaos of an Orc invasion on the beaches of Chrace. That immersion has gone now. Well, maybe not completely, but there's no way you'd find me questing and getting involved in the story these days. Still, I enjoyed it whilst it lasted.

Joining my first Guild (Serenity)
I bumped into some folk at a PQ around level 15 and got invited to a guild called Serenity. This was on Karak Ungor (EU). There were only a few of us and the server was pretty dead until we merged with Norn. Still, we had some good times and it enhanced my enjoyment of the game. The founder of the guild (Shiro) left a while after due to illness so we all got together to take some pics and give him a good farewell. In a way I have never left this guild. Serenity merged with Ironclad Regiment, who in turn merged with Executed where I reside today.

Epic RvR & 'Call to War'
In the days when neither side on Karak Norn had made it to a City a White Lion called Malril set up a website called War-Orders which was used as a forum for Order guilds to meet and plan events and strategies. Some of the discussions back and forward on the site were worth the money alone but every now and again a massive event was planned called 'Call to War'. Guilds would muster their troops and we'd gather up mounted at the warcamps. I used to do a bit of guild fiction on Serenity's forum to set the scene a little. We'd literally feel like we were riding out to War. This kind of RvR is a regular occurance these days, which is great of course, but experiencing it for the first time is still a great memory for me.

Why WAR will win the battle

2010-03-27T00:27:00.001-07:00

Gonna put my serious hat on here for a bit.

Warhammer Online is a great game, and I emphasise that word because that's what it is - a game which I play and enjoy.

WAR is 18 months old, more or less, and it has now reached a position where it can go from strength to strength.

It's inaugural year was not without issue and it's a great credit to the quality of the gameplay that it's come this far and survived.

The pre-launch hype was a factor of Mythic's own-making and the game had to weather the ineveitable backlash.

The Tier 4 RvR element of the game was always going to need refining after launch. Designing a flawless 400-odd player RvR system across multiple zones without proper player testing would've required a team of sheer genius to achieve. T4 RvR wasn't perfect, and still isn't, but it's pretty damn good when you think about the complexities involved.

Changes to Mythic's internal leadership and merger with BioWare must have stunted a lot of the progress the game could otherwise have made and is now catching up on. I can remember a time when there was a different Producer every month. There were staff cuts and a global recession to deal with too.

Despite all this WAR has survived and is improving all the time.

Welcome changes are on the horizon in 1.3.5, the game is being taken to new markets and new content is in the pipeline. I would hope the next 6-9 months sees the improvement to the endgame and new content that players want.

With this achieved there is huge potential to take the RvR game to a new level, with new maps and territories for players and guilds to fight over in true Warhammer-style campaign. Mythic have already shown they can come up with great and original material for players to enjoy. With an established and stable platfrom to build on the future for WAR looks good.

/hat off

New WAR Blogs

2010-03-25T13:04:00.001-07:00

As a new WAR blogger myself I wanted to give a shout out to the latest new blogs that I've come across.

I must give big thanks to two dwarfs. Werit , a dwarf who has misplaced his tankard of ale but still finds time to give new bloggers a plug in his weekly 'News from the Front'. And to Grimnir, for handily putting an asterix next to new blogs in his bloglist.

WAR Stats: Damage Pie meets Premade

2010-03-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough :p last night to PuG some scenarios and run into Destro premades on KaraK Norn and along with my fellow Order PuG-in-arms proceeded to get the mauling I deserve for going solo.

My damage pie from yesterday was based on what I would consider typical combat, verus all types of groups, and including scenarios won and lost, oRvR, skirmish, keep battles and "zergfare". I thought it would make an interesting excercise to compare this with the damage dished out by the premades.

This new damage pie (now with extra cherry!) is from 5 scenarios. Destro were very, very heavy melee and well backed up well by healers, with the odd caster or ranged. This was the distribution of classes across all 5 scenarios.

DoK 10, Chosen 10, Choppa 6, Shaman 6, Zealot 6, Witch Elf 6, Black Orc 5, Sorc 5, Squig Herder 4, Black Guard 4. Note: no Marauders or Magus!

Below left is a breakdown of damage type collected from the whupping I took in these 5 scenarios compared to the more general "overall" damage on the right that I posted yesterday.

Conclusions: There is more than one way to skin a Tank
It'll be stating the obvious to a lot of people but the type of damage received will vary depending on who you are up against. I knew this but I wasn't quite expecting it to be that different and ironically, since yesterday I had re-geared/specced slightly to have a better defense against caster and magic damage. My mistake!

The lesson I will learn is make sure I have different options available to me and make decisions based on who the opposition are. Having an armour pot handy against melee trains for example, some +disrupt rings against caster heavy groups.

~Aeo

WAR Stats: Damage Pie

2010-03-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

I was messing about with the different armour sets I've got for my Swordmaster (Anni/Sent/Conq) and trying to figure out which Set Bonuses to plump for.

I could not look past the 3 Piece Bonus of +320 Spirit Resist on Annihiator and the 2 Piece Bonus of +344 Corporeal Resist without wondering exactly how much more defense this would give me over the other defensive stats, like +66 Toughness Bonus from Sentinel.

So I decided to parse my combat logs to see exactly how much whack I took from the 4 different damage types.

Here's the results.

This is total damage inflicted on me (a Tank) during 45 mins combat time before any mitigation or absorbs are taken into account.

How I did this
I used combat log parser and saved the file as text and imported that into excel. I then sorted the spreadsheet by ability name and created a pivot table to sum all damage from each ability. Then the tedious bit. I looked on WarDB at each ability and made a note of the damage type. Then added it all up. I'll be happy to provide better instructions to anyone who's interested.

My Conclusions
I was suprised to see how much damage came from magic compared to physical, thought it would've been more like 33%:66%. Also, just how little elemental damage I took. No need for +Elem on items then but definely need to keep the Spirit and Corp high.

There's a hell of a lot more useful information to come out of this and I'll be making some more posts in the coming days, things like the amount of Burst and Crit damage, the amount of damage from each archetype and my %mitigation.

Wait 'til you see the breakdown of damage per class and just how much Sorcs accounted for! Stay tuned for that one.

~Aeo

The Balance Feels Good

2010-03-22T06:15:00.000-07:00

Since my return to the game one week ago I've been playing a lot of Scenarios to re-hone my skills and make some ground up on my Renown Rank.

It seems to me there is a much better balance between all the classes now compared to 9 months ago, at least as far as I can tell in Scenarios.

Back "then" in a scenario the eventual winners could be decided very early in the game, often already 100 victory points up after 2 or 3 minutes and taking up residence outside the opposition's spawn camp to see out the game 500-14 or something.

But in the last week I've seen a few things in scenarios that I can't remember happening much, if at all, when I first played.

Fightbacks for starters. I joined in a Scenario the other day and Order were losing 25-300. Here we go, I thought. But Order fought back bigtime and the score finished something like 475-500.

Another time in Serpent's there was a battle around the wreckage that just lasted for ages, 10 minutes maybe. No-one was getting killed! At one point I even thought I might have been disconnected or in some massive lag spike.

And in general fights and skirmishes seem to last longer. It's really to the benefit of the game that encounters are slower paced.

I imagine the emblems are a big part of this. Players won't leave at the first sign of a mauling. Winning the scenario, rather than just racking up kills, has actually become desirable.

I wonder if this was an intentional move by Mythic, or if scenario weapons were just introduced as another carrot to keep people grinding away. I would like to think both.

A Tier 4.1 Idea

2010-03-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

Bootae over at Bootae's Bloody Blog talks about the lack of a next step for end-game players and this got me thinking about an idea I've had for WAR since I started playing way back.

I had not played any other MMO before WAR but was especially keen to play this one
as I'm a long time fan of the warhammer table top game. So playing WAR I've always hoped that elements of the tabletop would make it into the game.

In table top each player has an army composed of different units used for different functions: large groups of ranked troups, skirmishers, artillery. They are placed on opposite sides of the table and the players take turns to move and attack.

So this is my idea to roughly represent that.

Organised Groups and Duellers
I haven't given much thought to the trigger for "The Event" yet but at some point in the game a notice goes out to all high level players that the event is starting in 15 minutes or so. This is time for people to group up. Folks can band together in a 6 man group or warbands, or can opt to remain solo.

After the 15 minutes is up leaders of warbands are invited to join the instance. If a warband isn't full the WB leader is asked if they wish to accept extra players (PuGs). Leaders of 6 man groups are invited in the same way.

All the solo players are asked if they want to join a WB or go in to a Duel. The system should try to assign the solo players as evenly as it can (ie DPS/Tank/Healer).

As a result of this there will be:
A) Premade Warbands
B) PuG Warbands
C) Premade 6 man groups
D) Duellers

Like for Like Match-Up
Next all players involved in a WB or groups get ported to a brand new instanced map. All the solo players who opted to duel go to another brand new place.

The groups would be matched up with their equivalent enemy on the map, premade vs premade, PuG v Pug, 6 v6. Each woud be given a pop-up message to claim a certain objective. I would probaly say two warbands and two 6 mans groups per side in each instance of the event.

The Thing
Here's the thing. To balance the encounter and to keep the WAR immersion the warbands and groups could see each other but only be allowed to damage and be damaged by the opposite group, i.e. the PuG warbands would only fight each other, the 6 man would fight the 6 man. Each different group would be fighting over a different objective that would have some interaction with others in the event. The 6-man party could perhaps fight over an objective giving control of a war machine to lob rocks at an enemy warband in batte with their allies.

Vitory Points would be scored for holding an objective over time, killing players, the usual. The Event would end after 30 mins and launch into another new map where the warband and groups who won their single objective are placed against the winners from other instances, and likewise, losers against losers.

At the end VPs are added up and the shinies are dished out. The most victorious warbands and groups, those contributing most to their sides win, could be hailed as champions and given extra shinies. Successful guild groups could be given special standards to show off.

But what about the Duellers?
Ah, yes. All duellers are randomly matched up in 1v1 instance placed in a creatively designed map and duke it out with their opponent. When the duel is over the players are placed into another randomly assigned 1v1 instance, and so on 'til the time is up. At the end of the event VPs are totted up and added to the overall pot and the most successful players are given their kudos.

People may think duelling is against the spirit of WAR but at RR80 players should be given the platform to do whatever the hell they want.

Well, I guess I'll reign myself in now, my mind doth wander off. Happy Days.

My WAR re-education starts here

2010-03-16T02:17:00.001-07:00

I've had 3 or so hours game time since my return to WAR following an 8 month absence. I first had to fix a load of UI errors leftover from numerous outdated Addons, then redo all my action bars and key bindings (the state I left them in!). With this all straightened up I hit the queue button....

Scenarios: They feel pretty much the just the same. I noticed a lot less CC than before. I was hardly ever CC'd myself and I can't remember my own AoE knockback working once. A good change overall I'd say. The pop-rate was great too, and with being able to join the queue from Altdorf I was able to play scenarios non-stop the whole time.

oRvR: Well to be fair I've not done any RvR yet but 3 of the 4 times I logged in their was a City siege going on. What was great though was that the campaign resets so the City isn't the only option to players. Again a very simple and very good change. In the past I hated it when going to get my ungeared ass owned in Altdorf was my only choice, besides farming Elvish Parsley of course.

Swordmaster: Well, the vibe I'm getting about my only really progressed character (RR41) is not good. The forums are doom and gloom and it seems there have been several combat mechanic changes to the game in general that have added up to incremental nerfs to the class. 8 months ago I wouldn't have said I was a great influence on fights but an influence none the less. Now? Well, I felt as I may as not be there but it's early days yet and I'm very rusty.

Currency & Items: There are a lot of new currencies in the game that I need to learn about, and a lot of new items too, like LotD talismans and pocket items that I've been reading about which are all new to me. I'm going to have to figure out what's what, how to get what, and what it takes to get what I want.

Gear: I always struggled to keep up with the gear race but now I must be miles behind. I think I'm in 4 Anni/2 Sent at the mo, with some Conq. stuff in the bank. I'm not sure what's the best way to proceed from here. I need to work out how much more effective getting to the next level of gear would make me in combat. I have no ambitions to reach the pinnacle of uberness but I don't want to be a gimp

So overall...? Boy, am I glad to be back!!!

Why WAR Blog

2010-03-12T22:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I've not had any game time since my first post yesterday so in the meantime I thought I would give my reasons for starting a WAR blog.

Simple. I have always loved reading WAR blogs and forums. I want to be a greater part of the WAR community and contribute something to it myself.

The Second Humming

2010-03-12T05:24:00.000-08:00

I'm getting back in the game after 8 months out. I played from launch 'til June 2009 when I moved house and had no net for a couple of weeks. I was playing way too much though, it was killing me. My son was only 8 months old back then and the lack of sleep between him and the game was literally killing me.

I had thought I'd deleted the game and even threw away the disc but then I noticed the WAR.exe on my C drive and have had a growing itch to play the last two months that has just got to be scratched. I started reading some of the old WAR blogs and the newsletters and that was that. I'm back and can't wait to get going.

I'll try and recall what I remember of WAR back in June last year...

The Land of the Dead was released the day I moved so I had about 2 hours of running around it and doing not much. LotD was claimed by some to be the "Saviour of WAR". The community were very much looking forward to it. I wasn't. Me and PvE have yet to click. I was looking forward to the extra dimension it would add to RvR though. Order were the first to get on the airship on Karak Norn. I remember I was very pleased about that.
Fortress Battles and large scale Keeps were a nightmare. My residing memory of them is a screen filled to the rafters with toons, my PC lagging like a old man in a race. My main was a Swordmaster and being the dutiful tank that I was I would always lead the charge trying to break the line on the stairs - only to die in a hurry, not be rezzed, respawn, not get back in to the keep and miss out on any contribution. If I did get loot I would never make it back in time.
Scenarios were great fun. Probably my favourite type of fun.
I loved oRVR too of course. Getting together in a guild WB and claiming and protecting a keep. Destro on Norn were usually in the ascendency so a lot my guilds fighting was about defending keeps. I loved the anticipation of being on the walls and seeing the red names of Destro approaching. On special nights chat was full of calls to arms and organisation of different WBs in the area to flank the attackers and we'd rush out to complete the rout.
There hadn't yetbeen a King kill on Karak Norn, on either side. I think the first worldwide had been just a month or two earlier.

Inevitably a couple of negative points in there but overall it was top fun of course or I wouldn't be back. I look forward to seeing what's changed, I've heard there's been quite a bit.