Da Boyz are back in town!

backinwarapril09

A Token system to supplement random RvR loot

Keeps receiving much needed attention allowing guilds to upgrade and add to them

Two months of polish

Land of the Dead coming soon…. [LotD Podcast 1 and Podcast 2 – check them out!]

All of the above are why I decided to resubscribe to Warhammer Online.   How well the token system works, how the changes to keeps have affected the meaningless realm war, just how much this polish has smoothed over the rough edges, and just how well Mythic pulls off implementing Land of the dead will determine how long I stay.  Out of all the above, Land of the Dead is the most important to me.  I decided to resubscribing now, instead of in June (or whenever it is implemented), because I want to hit the sand running in LotD.  I want to have a character that will be able to take advantage of the content and I want to already be in the WAR mindset, instead of playing catchup.   LotD, from the video podcasts, looks like it’s going to be everything I want it to be and more (assuming the massive number of PQ’s don’t !#*& it all up.)

Needing to be ~level 25 to enter (which is still too high if you ask me) means I have a little bit of work ahead of me.   I’m going to take it slow.  I want to experience a lot of T2 keep sieging to get a feel for how much sense the token system’s implementation makes.  I’ve heard that the token cost is extremely high for gear, and given how fast people progress through T2 whether they want to or not, I want to see first hand whether Mythic got it right or not.  Right now I’m level 9 and I’ve earned a total of 12 Recruit Medallions and 1 Scout medallion.  That won’t get me much.

I decided to play Destruction on Phoenix Throne.  It turns out that I have several friends there.  Ostermark merged into Phoenix Throne which means Snafzg from the Greenskin will be able to play with me.  Several people that I played with, and even guilded with for a short time, on Order have rerolled Destruction (some time ago) and are mostly all level 40.   Playing with all their alts will help me to feel included until I can group with their mains.  There are a lot of people playing on this server.  I expected a lot less to be honest.  Although it’s nothing like launch there are still people everywhere — Certainly more than you’ll see randomly in Darkfall.

Playing a Choppa is already fun.   I’m not a god and I can’t kill everything (darn!) but the class is really useful.  I run in, swing my axes like a crazed loon and kill a couple before I either have to run or die.  Either way, I push the front lines or I rip apart the back (I can even do both with a good healer).  It’s fun to kill stuff quickly, but it’s more fun to do it in the Choppa style.  The class feels like it will be as close to the DAOC Savage as I’ll get and that’s a huge draw — My highest RR in DAOC was a Kobold Savage…. or was in my Shaman… maybe my Chanter… I dunno.   Either way, I tore stuff up with my Savage and I want to rekindle that style of play.

I’ll keep you all updated on whether or not it’s worth it to resub to WAR now, or if you should wait.  I’m already bored of questing after half of T1, so I’ve spent most of my time up to level 9 RvRing (In frontiers and scenarios).   I won’t be devoting all of my time to WAR though since I still plan to spend my prime time in Darkfall.  To be honest, I enjoy the overall feel/gameplay of Darkfall a lot more than WAR.  The problem is, that enjoyment or fun is had in very short, random, and very spread out bursts.   In WAR I can have less fun, but have it more often.   LotD could be the deciding factor for me, and will ultimately decide if I drop WAR forever or if I continue to subscribe.  Until then, WAR will be a side project for me.

  • Good to see you back Keen. I think you’ll really enjoy tier 2 once you get there, oRvR in the lower tiers has been much better since 1.2. In the last month or two I’ve put a few characters through tier 2 and it’s been great fun.

    As you’re no doubt aware tier 4 RvR was very messed up by 1.2 and initially it seemed like 1.2.1 was going to sort a lot of that out. Which it did, but it also brought a bunch of new issues 😛 That said, the 1.2.1 patch only went live Thursday/Friday last week, so I’m expecting to see a lot of hot fixing from Mythic this week. There’s still fun to be had in Tier 4 regardless.

    In fact I think the US servers are a hot fix ahead of us now (I’m on EU servers), so with luck things are already getting sorted.

    Choppa’s are a good laugh for sure. I’ve just hit 36 with mine and whilst I’m extra squishy for it, I have been able to contribute and enjoy tier 4 RvR.

    Look forward to reading how you get on 😉

  • I’m surprised but I have been having a blast back on my old Squig Herder. With the boost to the squigs (they actually live for a while now), I’m enjoying the pesty class quite a bit.

    I need to give DarkFall a break until they iron out a few more issues.

  • Yay! Glad to have you back, though I enjoyed reading your adventures in Darkfall too. Destruction on Phoenix Throne is where all the cool kids hang out. 😉 Like the previous commenter mentioned, things are a little buggy right now with this most recent patch, but they are hotfixing things frequently.

  • I fear that your trip back to WAR will end just like Darkfall. No doubt that you really love MMOs Keen, but this is like running after your ex wife in the hope things will get better this time.

    I hope for the future to bring us some really good new MMOs, I see no chance that Land of the Dead is going to suddenly turn WAR into a great game.

  • As for the fun in darkfall being short, random and spread out i think is a symptom you are going to run into with any pvp game of darkfalls nature.

    That said their are a lot of things darkfall should do increase burst.

    Rare materials points would be a good idea. (think they are coming soon)

    Localized banks would be nice but would piss people off.

    Mobs are already static which is a good thing given the world. Still wish their was a few lower grade mobs.

    Smaller outposts/camps that give guilds that conquer them access to guild banks and maybe crafting table would be nice and give a means for smaller guilds to resupply and fight larger guilds in an area (guerrilla war outpost). These outpost could have mechanics where they change hands a lot.

  • Warhammer changes drastically once you hit R40. Getting there is a real drag for most (including myself), but once you do relief sets in and you start enjoying the parts of the game -you want- to enjoy. Some get bored once they hit 40 and roll alts or quit. I roll alts so that I’m always available to help friends and it is nice to get a break sometimes, but being R40 brings lots of benefits. All of the game content becomes open to you and you have more freedom of choice. Pre-40 you’re either gaining XP or being a drag on those you’re with since you’re not at full effectiveness (sure the goal is fun, but winning or at least putting in every ounce of effort is fun right?).

    The endgame of Warhammer is fine imo. That’s because I consider the endgame of WAR to be PvP, not city sieges. If you want city sieges then this game will still be a disappointment, but if you want fast paced PvP of different forms (zerg, small scale, scenarios etc) that gets thrown at you over and over (on some servers like PT) then this game still has entertainment to provide. I’m not bored of this game after having ranked several toons to 40 and running endgame instances and PvP on them.

    The game is 100% about who you surround yourself with and what you want to get out of it. If you want anything other than PvP with side games like instances, scenarios and city raids then the game will fail you.

  • This is why we need ships in Darkfall – everyone will want to jump aboard and go bombard enemy towns for fun. Raid and pillage Cairn or some other alliances coastal areas. Get some war stirred up. 🙂

  • Darkfall needs resource spawns like….Im going to say it, WOW.

    Imagine fewer resources spawns, and rare ones too. People would actually have to leave their cities to find them, and have to go in force to protect their miners.

    The fact that we have resources inside our cities and plenty just outside is bad. They should have them far enough away from the cities to bring players out.

  • “LotD, from the video podcasts, looks like it’s going to be everything I want it to be and more (assuming the massive number of PQ’s don’t !#*& it all up.)”

    Yeah my enthusiasm dulled a bit when I watched those producer videos and saw them explaining ‘all you have to do is complete these 18 PQs!….’. And then once again when the zone flips ‘all you have to do is complete the enemy PQ’s!…’

  • I re-activated my WAR account last Friday and got my WP from 37 to 40 over the weekend in the Badlands server. I just camped a few lvl 38+ PQs with a few friends of mine and I got a few gold bags and TONS of xp. I think that’s probably the fastest way to level. I knew I would not be able to quest for XP, since that is so damn boring, but doing those PQs in a small group was challenging and actually really fun! Oh, and nice gear upgrades for everybody.

    Last night Destruction pushed to Altdorf and I decided to show up to defend the city. I was excited to be there for the first time. See Altdorf burning and a bunch of Destro attacking the place. The idea is really cool, but all the lag and several other technical issues really bothered me.

    I have a very beefy computer actually. I upgraded it since last time I played WAR and I thought I would not run into problems like that, but last night it was unbearable. I got a lot of “Target is out of Range” problems when I had my target right in front of me. People would die, click on the Respawn button and nothing would happen. Doing a /reloadui helped in some cases, but still, annoying as hell. And just performance wise, things ran at really low frames per second most of the time.

    We had several shots in trying to complete the PQs inside, but those Destruction minions just 1 shot everybody. We didn’t even get close to kill 1 of the 4 minions. Kinda crazy if you ask me…

    Well, I will keep my subscription up until the expansion comes out. I sure had fun with my group of friends doing PQs all over the pairings, but the RvR side of WAR still has serious issues. I was hoping most of that would be fixed by now. I was wrong…

  • I would keep playing WAR but after 6 months they still haven’t fixed the “hitching” issue.

  • Same her giving Warhammer a chance again. Actually Im downloading the new patch as Im writing this.

    Its so funny you had a kobold savage. Had the same thing and it was my main. Love it!!

    Actually now we are speaking about DAOC and the classes in that game. The great thing was that almost every class was very difference even compared to other realms. Yes other realms had damagedealer, but it was in a totally other style. Noone, as I remember, had anything like the savage, with claws ect. In Daoc you were special, or at least I felt like it

    And that is what warhammer really lack. Think about. If not all, then almost all classes, have a “clone” class on the opposite faction (order vs destruction). Ex. Slayer / Choppa, Bright wizard / sorcerer, warrior priest / Disciple of kaine and so on. Imo its to easy got get around it like that. We need some difference.

    I know it basicly about balance.. but come on!

  • Using rested XP and jumping around the PQs is a very simple way to level, not a lot of immersion, but very time efficient. Just jump to the next PQ, which gives mobs, your level or higher. Burn through the rested xp nice while waiting on scenario pops. If you can, rest up in the city or the guild tavern.

  • Hi Keen, welcome back to WAR, from one of your oppponents in T2 Order on Phoenix Throne. (/spams detaunt button in Keen’s direction)

    I started WAR only a month ago as a “WoW tourist” and have decided to stick around for a while – this game gets plenty of things wrong but one thing it never lacks is constant action. Especially here on PT which is one of the busiest if not THE most busy server in the game.

    I’m enjoying my insta-queues over here on Order side… no idea what it’s like for you and the other 2 zillion Choppas over on Destro though 😉

  • Are there any balanced WAR servers? I’m presently playing Horde on one of the most imbalanced WoW servers (Proudmoore) and there’s no way I’m jumping to another game if they can’t get realm balance right.

  • Actually, population balance is one of the better things about WAR right now.

    I’ve found one of the few recently updated WAR census sites (post server merges) and it’s very close to 50/50 on all servers:

    http://www.warheap.com/servers/active/

    The more serious balance issue facing WAR has to do with class balance, not population balance. Such as the fact that each faction has a massively overpowered healing class (Order’s Warrior Priest, Destro’s Disciple of Khaine) that overshadows all the others is what first comes to mind for me, but then again I play healers in all my MMOs.

    Eye-popping ranged AOE DPS overshadowing anything that can be done by melee is another major class balance issue out there… Keen is probably going to be noticing this on his Choppa fairly soon as he moves into the higher tiers, I’d imagine.

  • Yeah it is, although T4 Destro has been very organized/aggressive in pushing the Order capital (Altdorf) on PT in the last week (since 1.2.1 patch day).

    This has caused all sorts of wacky server instability, crashes, and even some rollbacks. In addition, the Destro push also opens up the very nice Altdorf War Quarters lowbie scenario of which I was on the winning (Order) side around 75% of the time.

    So from my VERY non-scientific study it looks like Order has a slight edge in the lowbie tiers and Destro has the upper hand in T4. But of course this situation is very fluid and could change any day now. I don’t think the dust has settled from all the new Ostermark arrivals either.

  • Hey keen Im about to try it again to Hopefully cya on there I guess i can pick the same realm :D.

  • Now is a good time to be a MMO slut I have decided. There’s a number of decent MMOs out right now and while none of them grab me fully, they all have potential for fun if you just allow yourself to get engaged and play to have a good time not to grind up and be number one.

  • woot, welcome to PT, and good class choice, choppas are fun =)

    Hope you survive the leveling process to 40, perhaps I’ll see ya out in the rvr lakes one day =)

  • Good to see you are playing again. I hope it sticks this time. Also, I hope that you will find the game much improved after your hiatus.

  • Iron Rock is pretty balanced I’d say. Seems like I’m the only reader on that server though. =p