Dominating and having fun in T3 by NOT playing the game how it was ‘meant’ to be played

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…)

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A grand ole time in T3 tonight

Amidst the increasing pains of burnout in Warhammer came a gem of an evening in Tier 3.  I was on the Phoenix Throne server on my level 31 Ironbreaker (named Stocky) grouped with a guildy (Conjunction guild) named Plucky ( 29 Runepriest).  We started out the evening kinda slow by participating in the usual zerg vs. zerg battles going on in Avelorn and Saphery.  Not that this wasn’t fun, because it was actually quite evenly matched on the open-field, but it was just more of the same that I’ve been experiencing for months.  At the suggest of Plucky, we broke off from everyone else and went to Highpass which is in another zone entirely.

In Highpass we came upon a huge zerg of Destruction taking objectives like they usually do… you know, mindlessly moving objective to objective like a herd of cattle for their points (I know, because I’m one of them on Dark Crag).   We hung back for a while just observing them and watching where they went.  It was a weird feeling being just two dwarves out on a hill looking over a zerg of red names.  When they started to move out is when we made our move.  We positioned ourselves behind a hill that stood between them and where they were going next.  Reliably, there’s always a couple stragglers and these were our marks.  We swept in like vulchers and made quick work of the people who were moving quite fast enough.  It was intense!  The adrenaline rush of knowing their friends are still in view while snaring and dropping them quickly and sprinting away was awesome.

The evening was packed full of experiences like this.  There was one point where we were on this wall that acts like a Milgate did back from the DAOC days (a chokepoint of sorts) where we did the same thing as before by picking off the late arrivals to take objectives and the stragglers.   Another memorable battle (that Plucky fraps’d) was when he ran into a group of 4 people while I was catching up from a quick AFK.  He engaged a sorc and turned to run since 3 of the sorcs friends showed up.  I came in right as Plucky was in retreat and began to retreat with him.   Having faith in our abilities, Plucky told me to go ahead and fight them (you can see him type it in the video below).  I turned and went to town on all 3 of them as Plucky worked his amazing healing magic.  We smashed them 3v2 and could have done it 4v2 if the other guy stuck around.

Tonight brought back great memories of DAOC and the smaller scale battles.  We used strategy, skill, and teamwork to overcome odds and find action where, under most circumstances, many would have just changed zones to finda fair fight.   We didn’t earn a ton of exp and we certainly didn’t earn a ton of renown.  We could have done way better for ourselves in scenarios or following the herd, but we had amazing fun.  I’m definitely not burned out on stuff like this.  If I can get more of this in WAR then I’ll be set.

Thanks to Plucky for teaching an old dog that the old tricks still work.      (Click more to watch the video from Plucky’s point of view). (more…)

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