Today was another amazing day like yesterday in Tier 3.  I spent something like five hours roaming the RvR lakes with Plucky (29 Runepriest) and Vrin (25 Runepriest) while I played my 31 Ironbreaker.  Our modus operendi was to completely avoid the zergs at all costs and not participate one iota in the keep swapping or battle objective hopping that was going on.  The result of doing this was the revitalization of my Warhammer RvRing experience.

We came up against more small-scale battles than I can even hope to remember.  There were times when it was us 3 vs. 10+ and we took out half of them before going down.  I know this sounds like I’m tooting my own own but we did amazing for our numbers/lvls and really showed ourselves and our enemies that these small-scale fights not only bring out the best in the player but the best in the game as well.  Class balance, mechanics, and the finer parts of the game truly come to fruition when battles take minutes instead of seconds; when players can use all the skills in their arsenal to win, and when teamwork matters.

Today’s battles brought me back to the days of WAR beta.  This is what I fell in love with months ago and couldn’t stop hyping.  This type of fighting is what made DAOC special.  I’ve captured the exact feelings from DAOC that WAR is missing by NOT playing the game how it was meant to be played – and that’s the problem.  Everything in Warhammer is designed around the big battles.  Everything in Warhammer is designed to bring the largest amount of players into one specific area whether on purpose or not.  Just look at Battle Objectives; by design they bring everyone into one tiny spot to stand around a flag to get renown and exp then stand around for 3 minutes and move to the next location together so that everyone gets points.  By design the game has nurtured the zerg mentality and neglected the small intimate fights that made knowing your enemy important.  Obviously this isn’t any new revelation and it’s been known by many that WAR is a big zerg fest.  It’s just that I now know that true RvR can exist in the game and dangit… I WANT MORE!

I took some video of some skirmishes today where I remembered to hit the record button.  Sadly, some of the better ones were not captured but these were memorable nonetheless.  I’ve also taken some video showcasing strategies for keep defense for the small groups like our which Plucky taught me.  I’ll get those uploaded later.  Click ‘more’ to watch the video.   Make sure you click the “HQ” button or go here and watch the HD version in a nice big 720 format! (Note:  Some vent conversation can be heard in the background.  I’ll work on my audio later.) (more…)