"Coordinated groups should have an advantage over disparate solo'ers. We have no intention of taking that away."

First, anyone who thinks this is the heart of the current argument about scenarios in WAR really does not understand what the problem is. This goes for players who are pro-premade, those who are pro-solo, and developers alike. Now that Mythic has turned scenarios into the new way to keep a grip on the subscription fees of their players, it is more of a ghetto than ever. And it has added a variable to the argument, plunging it further into the mire.

"It's the economy, stupid"

Who are the most important people for and MMO to cater to? As we've seen with the most recent patches in WAR where they have added in the New User Experience and re-flowed the quests in T2 dwarf/greenskin, those players are the newcomers to the game. They are the ones you want to make a good impression on. They are the ones who need to enjoy the game enough in the first month they own it to turn around and plug a credit card number in for a 1, 3, or 6 month subscription. Why? Because, for better or worse, no matter what the hardcore players and veterans do, it's the new players that are going to keep the game alive and grow it.

If those players aren't impressed, then Mythic/EA makes no more money and WAR becomes an MMO ghetto. (Well, more than it is already.) And if those players don't enjoy the game in its entirety, then they will leave. There's not enough of any one of the three basic components in this game--RvR, Scenarios, or PvE--to keep people around for the long haul. So mythic has to make at least two of those fun and rewarding for those players.

It's not inconceivable that a player will make it into T4 within the first month of play. And I see questions like, "What is the game like once you reach T4," on the forums all the time. When they get there and queue up for a scenario solo, only to be denied every opportunity to win, that's frustrating. Even if they were to join a guild and manage to convince the other players in that guild to form a premade with a CR32, they would probably lose more than win, to the tune of 1-2:9. Is this really how you want to welcome new players to the game? By handing them their hats for 8 CRs, and probably more RRs than that, too?

Casual != lower class

There are those who would have you believe that if you do not dedicate at least four hours a weeknight and eight hours a day on the weekend to WAR--building friendships in a guild and perfecting your team gaming--then you do not deserve to play the game, or at least enjoy playing it. I have a feeling that Mythic, and their overlords at EA (i.e. the ones who are happy to fleece the pockets of hardcore and casual players alike) would not agree with that. In fact, I have a feeling they like the casual players more because they get the same amount of money out of them per month, but with a reduced stress on their servers and bandwidth. Also, should those players want to experience as much of the game as they can, they have to spend more months playing (and paying) to do so. Where the hardcore players who are on all the time get their characters up to RR80 and burn out much more quickly.

I can usually play only one night a week. This weekend, I have not been able to play at all, other than a little time on Friday night. I defy any of you out there who casually say "It's not that hard to round up five friends and put together a premade," to tell me when I'm supposed to do that. There are no regular, good premade groups that are going to limit themselves to my play schedule. I also put forth that most ad hoc premades are not much better than pugs of soloers. Sure, they'll most likely beat other pugs, but they'll be wiped by dedicated teams.

So my options are very limited to what I can do in WAR. All things being equal, I don't mind. But when it comes to scenarios, all things are not equal. According to Mythic's devs-- with their misdirected answer, their response which is not an answer ("Coordinated groups should have an advantage over disparate solo'ers. We have no intention of taking that away.")--I can just go take a flying leap.

Random Scenario is Random
 
Frankly, don't really care about the new scenario currency. It certainly would be nice if I could get my grubby little digital paws on some of the new weapons, but I have no illusions about that happening any time soon. Especially since the new currency has drawn all the premades and top guilds back into scenarios so they can earn their emblems. But what I would like is a chance to have fun in scenarios. Right now on Gorfang, the only way Destruction in T4 can get any significant amount of renown or even have a chance at the satisfaction of winning something, is to play a scenario. I have not even bothered. Just the chatter on the forums is enough to keep me out. Since I can't get into a reliable premade, I'm stuck facing RLH, Blitz, etc. in a pug, where some of the most smug and self-satisfied Order await to step on my throat and laugh in my face on the forums afterward. No thanks.

You see, when I click on the button that says "Join Scenario" I think it's not too much to expect that the scenario is going to be a random make up of whoever is on and willing to play. In a system like that, everyone entering has a 50/50 chance each time at a win. Sure, maybe I'll end up in a group that's mostly MDPS this time, and we'll be smashed because we're up against a more balanced team, but in a random setting, that's to be expected. Next time it may swing in my favor. I'm willing to sit through a crappy scenario if I know that next time, there's a chance I'll be able to win.

A few months ago there was a Lost Temple of Isha scenario weekend. After three times in, I stopped playing because I kept running into premades. That was not random, and it pretty much removed any chance of me winning a scenario at all. Three times in a row of being spawn camped was enough, thanks. I don't see any reason why the Scurvy Dogs weekend with the Ironclad is going to be any different. I played a WE I started this week on that scenario and I had loads of fun, wins and losses alike, because it was a level playing field. And that's all I want out of T4, too. A level playing field where I can have fun.

This is where Mythic's infatuation with WoW is going to be their downfall. They followed the pattern of a primarily PvE game and tried to mash it onto a PvP game. (By the way, Rob Pardo of Blizzard has gone on the record as saying WoW's venture into formal PvP was a big mistake.) Gear progression and RvR skills make it a wildly unbalanced game; one where the gap between the haves and the have-nots gets wider by the day because only the haves are able to progress at a reasonable pace.

Better they should have looked to Guild Wars, where ArenaNet focused on making everyone basically even in gear and interface (no add-ons in GW). Sure some people may have access to different skills than you when you join RA or the competitive missions, but for the most part everything evens out. I was able to play GW for years in the competitive missions and enjoy the game because of the level playing field in these random set-ups. I didn't bother putting my head into HA or GvG because that was not the type of game I was interested in.

So now I'm to just accept that unless I somehow am able to magically pull 28 hours a day out of my butt, I should just give up on scenarios? If that's what you want Mythic, then don't lead your players on: remove that little radio button that says "Join Solo" in the scenario lobby. Otherwise you're just pushing those players into an abattoir and sniggering behind their back with the big guilds running dedicated premades as you feed pugs to them for their advancement.

 

 

In one of my previous posts, I praised Mythic for putting together a weekend event for a scenario. I even encouraged them to continue this. So I was happy when I saw they were going to do it every weekend in September.

But they missed an important part of the equation. Incentive to take part. Just because it's different does not mean it's going to be a big attraction. Especially in MMO's. "If you build it, they will come," does not really apply in MMOs. There has to be a draw to get players in there. The only carrot Mythic has put up for these scenario weekends is titles. And, while titles are fun, there's no concrete reward to make them more enticing than regular RvR.

On my server, Gorfang, there has not been a serious SC metagame as of late. There are those in the forums who talk about them and certainly enjoy the rewards they get from them. But in my experience as of late, scenarios have not been popping very much in recent months. And one would think that with the live event for the Gates of Ekrund, there would have been good activity in that scenario.

Across two characters, I got one scenario pop for each of them this weekend. In the past when they've had these weekends, like with Nordenwatch, the scen pops were flying around like crazy. But not this weekend, and though I didn't really have a chance to try it out last weekend with Mourkain, Grimnir says he was not getting a lot of activity in that scen either.

So, as I said, a title for that amount of work is not enough for people, and the scenarios were underpopulated. How are you supposed to participate in a scenario ten times when it pops twice? Especially when, on Anromir, I was able to get a hefty dose of Renown Points by flipping zones. Especially the ones where I helped take keeps and BO's. Three zones and I was able to go up a Renown Rank. Regular RvR was much more rewarding for people in T4 this weekend. (Mind, I was queued for Ekrund the whole time I ran around locking zones. Only one pop.)

So, I know the RP and XP earned has a 20% bonus throughout the game this whole month, but that's pretty much the only thing which will draw people into the scenarios: increased RP gain. So, if Mythic wants these to be a success, I think they'll have to throw something like that in.

 

Just read an interesting article by Spinks about twinking in MMOs. While most of the ideas discussed surround whether twinking is cheating or not, it got me thinking about how that would apply in WAR. I've never been more than casual in my attitude about MMOs so I've never done a lot if research into gearing out lower level characters, but twinking strikes me as just unfeasable in WAR.

The best gear you can get as you level up is the named set pieces and the RvR lake influence gear. Right now my sorceress has max greenskin and chaos RvR inf gear for Tier 2 and Obliterator gear. In fact, her hand armor is inf gear because it's better than the Obliterator hand gear. There is no way for me to have gotten that gear for her without just getting out into the RvR lakes and pounding on Order. Taking keeps and battlefield objectives, locking zones, and killing for medallions are the only way to get the influence, renown, and currency to buy these things for your character. Sure, you could get some green Butcher's or Precursor gear for an alt, but what a pain in the ass it is to keep an eye out for BlackGuard gear while I'm trying to heal up a warband defending Badmoon Hole on my Disciple of Khaine.

About the only thing I can think of that might constitute serious twinking is talismans and potions. They are but a few of the items that are not tied to specific classes. But even they have level caps. Money can always be mailed, but for the most part I've found all that's good for is buying mounts.

Of course, I don't really have a problem with people doing what they can in WAR to give their alts a leg up, largely because the game does have a lot of controls on what can be used by which characters. And really, is giving gold to your alt that much different than a guild running Bastion Stairs or Lost Vale for some of their lower level members to help them gear up? It's an investment of time, one way or the other, because sending money means having acquired it first.

I'm sure there are those min/maxers out there have have found ways of twinking their alts. I don't think they really have a huge effect on the game as a whole. Plus, if you are trying to twink, then you're missing out on the fun of smashing the other faction to get the really good gear.

You guessed it, Crowd Control.

CC in Warhammer is, to put it simply, a confusing mess. Check out this post at the defunct Blame the Healer WAR blog. Dont does a great job of laying out all the different kinds of crowd control, who has them and what type of skill it is. The only thing left out is the ranks at which these skills are acquired, which I think can be pretty telling when you have situations like Ironbreakers getting a knockback at rank 13 and their mirror, the Blackguard, not getting one until rank 25.

But I'm not here to complain about how Order/Destruction is better/worse than Order/Destruction with crowd control. I'm here to suggest ways that Mythic could improve their implementation of crowd control in Warhammer. And the watchword of the day is simplify. Overly complicated systems lead to impossible to manange and balance situations. The fewer moving parts, the more predictable situations will be. With that, battles will be more about skill.

First: settle down with all the different types of effects. What, really, is the need to have both knockdown and stun? The only difference between them is whether you can move. And if some one stuns you and you run away, you deserve to die, since you're opening your back to your attacker. Then there's silence and disarm. Again, what's the point of having both, much less either of these, when you can stun or knockdown? So, Mythic needs to clean up what kind of crowd control they have available.

Ideally, there would only be 3 or 4 types. Right off the bat, the base which is really usable is disorient, knockback, and knockdown. Also without a second thought we can give the boot to stun and root. Yes, that's right. In PvP there is no room for roots. Instead of roots we have snares. Want to keep someone in one place? Knock them down. Want to keep them away from you, snare them and run away. So there we are, the basic 4 types of CC: disorient, knockdown, knockback, and snare. Get rid of disarm, silence, root, and stun. They are redundant and overly complicate the system.

Next, there needs to be some kind of rhyme and reason in who gets what kinds of CC. Only tanks should get access to all of them. Tanks are meant to control the action on the field, and that's what CC does. RDPS should have ranged disorients and knockdowns, and melee or point blank snares and knockdowns. Ranged knockbacks are completely stupid. I'm not even going to address them civilly. They get ranged disorients to help manage enemy healers. MDPS should have melee disorients, knockdowns, and snares, so they can keep their targets in range. Healers should have knockbacks and snares, for kiting purposes.

That done, we need to address when someone should have access to any CC skills. Having a simple requirement like "target must be facing away" from you to use a skill like Pistol Whip or Heart Seeker is just plain dumb. A three second stun for the price of...nothing. I just get to do it at will, from stealth. My opponent has to just stand there and watch as I burn their health down. And a lone player stunned for 3 seconds is dead. As healer, mdps, or rdps, that's about it. Something that powerful should only work with some kind of build up. Maybe you need to have at least 2 or 3 accusations or blood lust built up against that player before you can use it. Since we're getting rid of stuns, it's obvious this applies to knockdowns.

And while I'm on it, ranged knockdowns should require some kind of hefty price be paid for using them. Make any ranged knockdown only a M2 or better. Or make activating that skill take at least 3 seconds. Or give the user a global cooldown of 3 seconds: if you want that knockdown to turn into a kill, then someone else has to do it for you. Mix and match. Remember, a knockdown totally takes someone out of the game for its duration. That is powerful mojo.

Knockbacks are not really too disruptive, so I don't see thay they need too much of a build up. Most of the knockback skills already have some kind of mitigation built into them anyway, whether it be short distance, narrow cone, or a career mechanic limiting them. (I'm looking at you, Exile.) The only place they make or break a battle is in Tor Anroc. And disorients are pretty much in the same boat. Snares, I've already put a stealth limit on because no one gets a ranged snare. You want to keep someone close by, you have to keep them in PBAoE range or melee range.

If Mythic were to go through and limit CC and make it simpler, not even necessarily in the ways I'm suggesting, I think it will go a long way to evening out the crazy complaints we keep seeing over and over about how combat and careers are so messed up in WAR.

If you've been following the RL fun of the packages Mythic sent out to let people unlock the Scarab Amulet, you may be pleased to learn that our friend Snafzg over at Snaffy's Space has gotten a package, and it comlpetes the Diary of Doom. Not sure where that name came from, but it's short and typable. Anyway, I have added it to my compendium of diary pages, making it the first full compilation, I believe. Have a look to learn the fate of the heretofore unknown Phillippi.

--Anromir

I have managed to use the MMORPG.com translated cartouche to activate the Scarab Amulet on my account. No lie!



As you can see, this is my only special trinket. As such, I feel I'm justified in my excitement, even if there will be 5000 other people running around on the US servers with their own.

One thing to be clear on, make sure to enter the codes correctly when you get your hands on a decoded cartouche. Meaning, if there's an "H" in the code, don't forget to enter it. I almost missed this one because I was in a hurry, and when it didn't work, I got frustrated. In fact, because I entered the code almost 4 hours after it was originally deciphered, I'm surprised it worked for me at all. I guess there are a lot of people playing WAR that have full time jobs and can't acess the inter-tubes during the day.

Good luck to you all in getting a Scarab Amulet of your own!

--Anromir.
 

Well, I have not been blogging in a long time. Much too long. Mostly, I just don't find that my activities in WAR are so interesting or my ideas so insightful that anyone else would care about them. Today, however, I find myself doing what I wish someone else had done. (Finally, I come up with an idea, however lame, that someone else has not.)

The "Rise of the Tomb Kings blogger hieroglyphic code deciphering challenge" (coined by Keen and Graev) has started, and lots of people have been getting goodies in the mail. One of bits sent out is a story in journal form of a group of dwarves venturing to the Necropolis of Zandri. Has some clues about what to expect there if you haven't messed around on the PTS. The thing is, everyone just has scans of the paper letters, making them a pain to read. So, I have transcribed them into wonderful ASCII for the Warhammer populace. Here they are. As new ones come out, I will try to transcribe them as well. There should only be three more pages (3-5).

Thanks to those blogs that have posted their goodies (there are others, but these are my sources):

• Keen and Graev
• Da Toughest
• Tome of Knowledge
• Epic Slant
• Rainbow MMO
• Werit
• Biobreak
• Snaffy's Space

##########


Day 1

Twenty days at sea, 'n Revollo puked up his guts every single one of 'em. He's as pale as a sheet 'n will be next to useless unless we can get some meat on his bones. It doesn't so much matter, though. He's more grist for the mill, you understand. He can take an arrow or a snake bite as well as any of the rest of 'em. I'll sleep better at night knowin' there's less chance of me bein' the one who gets shot or bit.

West through the valley 'n along the river should take us into the Necropolis. Ain't none as as have ever gone in 'n come back out alive, but I haven't told the lads that. Last thing I need is them gettin' sheepish just as things are startin' to look profitable. There's treasures in this place what folks couldn't dream of, 'n soon it'll belong to me.

Later...

cursed lizards on the riverbank charged us. No geckos, these things. Big, like scaly wolves, hissin' like a boilin' kettle over the fire. Revolo, still weak from the crossin', ended up takin' a nasty bite while DiBiano 'n Falcone gave the beasts a taste of their steel. By the time the lizards was dead, Revollo had bled out. Wasn't much to do but leave him for the birds.

Speakin of birds, I can see 'em circlin' about overhead. Big ones. The gods only know if they're here for us, or for what's left of Revollo.

*     *     *

Day 2

Found a tomb entrance in the cliff face as we skirted the river. The stone doors were ajar so we could squeeze in. All except Falcone, that is. The fellow's like an ox, 'n that big axe of his wouldn't be much use in a tomb.

Stairs 'n passages met us beyond the doors. Walls scrawled with odd pictures, paint peelin' with age. Lots of traps too I figure. I says this to Tunari, since he thinks he's some sort of thief. He said there ain't a trap invented what he couldn't beat.

Funny he says that, 'cause that's right when the door shut behind us 'n a swarm of beetles started pourin' into the hall. Mazza screamed like a tart 'n we all got to runnin'. Piccione caught his foot in a snare, 'n yelled for help. DiBiano started to go back for him, but stopped when he saw how many beetles there really were.

Any of us could've saved Piccione. But then again, who's to say those bugs wouldn't have come out on top? When Piccione started screamin' it made me glad I didn't take the risk. I looked back at him, but all I could see was his arms wavin' madly, the rest of him hidden by that black beetle swarm.

No one was of a mind to stay. Tunari made good, though, 'n found a hidden passage what got us back to the the river. That must've been trapped, too, 'cause the ceiling fell in just as the last of us was comin' out.

We walked back to the doors, which were now closed. Falcove was pickin' through our gear like a robber. He leapt to his feet when he saw us. The doors had slammed shut just a few moments before, he said, 'n he reckoned us for goners. Then he noticed Piccione was missin' 'n shut up.


*     *     *

Day 3

Farinelli decided it'd be easier to climb the rocky crags than the desert sands. Why'd I listen to him? We left the river behind 'n have made our way up a twistin' path. It was hotter than a Bright Wizard's piss pot, 'n those birds were flappin' around over our heads. The closer I got, the less I liked the look of 'em.

Phillippi, a bandit at heart, spotted a temple at the top of a nearby ridge. We doubled our pace. The land around the temple crawled with large beetles, so Venezia put in some target practice with his bow. The vermin were harmless enough, 'n we moved towards a nearby platform that crackled with fiery power.

There's nothing to fear says Phillippi, rushin' towards the platform.

The ground in front of him exploded 'n a huge snake made of yellowed bones lashed out. Phillippi screamed 'n staggered backwards. The sound of his agony echoed around the canyon 'n the men stopped in their tracks with their jaws hangin' slack 'n stupid.

What was Phillippi's face streamed blood, with two holes were where his eyes use to be. He screamed again and the snake struck him from behind, pullin' his head off like a drunk pulls a cork from a wine bottle.

The others ran, 'n me with em. Stupid, running into the temple, but I followed anyway. Best to be one target among many than to be alone. On seein what was in the temple, we was soon runnin' again. Least the creatures inside paid us little mind. All withered faces 'n the stink of ancient death. Cursin' Farinelli 'n the fallen Phillippi, we fled back to the rocky desert.

There must be simpler pickin's elsewhere. We'll search to the west tomorrow.
*     *     *

Day 4

Someone's been diggin' out here. There's a pit what's been dug up 'n cut outta the rocks.  Looks like a quarry. Scaffolds've been built up in the center of the area, 'n it looks like somethin's bein' built there. We're gonna move in 'n see if we can find out what they're diggin' up.

Later...

Bones! They're diggin' great big bones outta the ground!

When we went in, there wasn't a soul around. Somethin' had been buried there a long time ago, 'n we could see its bones in the walls. The rock face was chipped like workers had been takin' shovels to it. Not only that, but some bones were laid out like two big feet near the scaffolds.

Then they came upon us! A dozen attackers. I'd heard tales of Khemri's people, but I ain't never expected to see 'em. Without a sign between 'em, they lunged. I give the lads credit, 'cause they fought back like true soldiers. The skeletons didn't tire, didn't sweat, didn't bleed. Not like us.

I heard a grunt of pain. DiBiano was clutchin' his chest. Bloody froth spouted from his mouth. The skeleton what hit him was going for another strike. I struck the bastard with my heavy-bladed sword. The skeleton clattered to the ground in a dozen bits.

DiBiano didn't thank me, 'cause he was too busy tryin' to breathe. That little sword of his might've been fine for duelin' back home, but them skeletons would've laughed at it if they'd had the lungs. I told Farinelli 'to [sic] carry DiBiano, then yelled at the rest of the lads to finish up and get outta there. Nothin' but bones in the place. Nothin' worth dyin' [sic] for.

'Course I won't be tellin' DiBiano that, on the off chance he don't pull through.

*     *     *

Day 5

DiBiano died. We couldn't sleep for the sound of his gurglin'. Cept for Bonfiglio, that is, whose snorin' was like an opera compared to DiBiano. We'll leave the body. Try crossin' the river, might be better on the other side. The lads don't seem to mind one way or the other.

As to that river, I've got a bad feelin' about it. Mazza says he found a couple of rafts on our side, but we don't know if they'll float. That water ain't healthy, 'n I don't wanna find out what happens if we ends up takin' a swim.

Later...

The river near killed us. Bloody rafts broke up. Nevermind the lizards swimmin' in the water. There was some splashin' 'n Venezia got a dose of wet across his left hand. His skin went black as death, peelin' away from his bones before our eyes. We've wrapped it, but I figure we'll need to hack it off soon. I don't know what good a one handed archer will do for us.

Later...

Blasted beetles! Not like the ones at the temple, either. Bigger 'n meaner. There's traps in the tombs, too. While the rest of us fought, Tunari ducked into one of the mastabas. Next thing I knew, I hear screamin'. He comes staggerin' out bleedin' outta his ears.

Draggin' Tunari behind us, I see Farinelli gettin' pounced by four of them bugs. He's cursin' 'em as they're tearin' chunks out of his legs 'n groin. He died of course.

There's less of us now, 'n the ones what're left are lookin' a bit ragged. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

*     *     *

Day 6

Northwards we found a hall. Massive sculptures eyed us as we approached. Past those, a courtyard flanked by kneelin' statues. Beyond the courtyard, a hall with a pool of water. Past that was another door what let to a longer hall, 'n plenty of doors. The lads spread out, lookin' for enemies 'n treasures. They didn't see either.

Tunari led to the right, claiming he could smell out gold the way a pig noses truffles. The hall he led us to had 4 statues on each side, with 2 at the very end. An altar had been put between 'em, 'n something gold glimmerin' on top of it.

Tunari waved to us to stop, 'n crept to the altar. He looked at it for ages. Finally, he reached out 'n picked up the shiny thing on the altar.

Then the two statues on either side of Tunari turned, their arms outstretched. Tunari was so busy with the gold in his hand that he didn't see 'em until it was too late. All we could do was stare as they grabbed him by his arms, one each, 'n then pulled.

Tunari shrieked as his right arm was torn off. It was like they was breakin' a wishbone between 'em. The statue on the left whipped Tunari up into the air, then slammed him on the floor. Just as Tunari's screamin' stopped, the rest of the statues linin' the hall came alive.

What else could we do? We ran like the lords of Chaos were on our tails.

*     *     *

Day 7

A sandstorm forced us to seek shelter in a cave. Once inside, it became clear that we'd made a mistake. This is no cave, but is instead a Nehekharan tomb. The memory of the last tomb 'n Piccione's screams are still with me. The horror, the horror...

Later...

Those of us what are left decided to risk the storm rather than face Mazza's fate. I'm gettin ahead of myself. Mazza's dead now, 'n I think I'll miss him more'n the rest.

We'd been in the tomb an hour, maybe two. The storm outside was getting worse. Mazza started singin' to raise a smile or two, but all he raised was the dead. All of a sudden, a woman's voice, smooth as silk but thick with menace, rang out around the tomb. Mazza stopped, dumbstruck, walked towards the voice. Me, Falcone 'n Bonfiglio tried to stop Mazza. He lashed out, knocking us down. Which, truth to tell, is probably what saved us.

When I got up I saw Mazza starin' into the eyes of a corpse-woman, ancient and linen wrapped. She smiled 'n gently touched his cheek. He grinned but the pleasure was all too brief. A burst of sand shot from the lady's palm 'n tore its way through Mazza's head.

The sand on the floor began to writhe, 'n everywhere we stepped there were hungry scarabs. Even Venezia was awakened by the commotion. We grabbed what we could 'n left Mazza behind.

*     *     *

Day 8

Four of us remain, though Venezia hardly counts. After our escape into the storm last night, we took shelter in the shade of a rocky rise. All sense of direction was lost to us, 'n I've no idea where we are.

But Venezia, he's gone to sleep 'n I'll venture a guess he won't be wakin' up any time soon. He's feverish but wracked with chills, even in the desert heat. And the smell of him! I decided to look at his hand, so I peeled back the bandage, crusted 'n wet as it is with whatever putrid humors he's been exudin'. His hand, or what's left of it, is little better than a skeleton's. There's strips of what might be flesh 'n muscle hangin' from the bones, but they're black 'n festerin'.

I've spoken to Falcone 'n Bonfiglio. They agree that Venezia's not going to last much longer. Best we put him out of his misery now rather than let him linger on like he is.

Later...

Falcone put his axe to Venezia. It was a well-placed blow, 'n any pain was mercifully brief. I keep tellin' myself, "Three-way split, three-way split," but that don't mean much when all we're splittin' is our lives.

*     *     *

Day 9

This mornin' we decided to return to the river. Falcone reckoned we could follow it back to the sea. It sounded good. After all, we wasn't going' into the pyramid. The three of us tryin' somethin' like that would be suicide.

There's a courtyard outside the pyramid's gate. Some of the cobbles looked marked, maybe they'd open the pyramid if used right. We could see skeletons patrolling, 'n some big beetles, like what ate Farinelli. Then there was something huge.

It saw us same time as we saw it, a giant made from bone. The thing moved faster than I would've thought. Falcone had enough time to scream as the thing stomped him flat. Bonfiglio was next. The beetles 'n skeletons got him. It wasn't a quick death.

I ran to the sands and straight into the path of an ancient King. Might've been human once, but was now some withered undead monter. A smile split his fleshless lips, and it stared with those pitiless eyes. I knew then that I had amused this creature, with my quest to raid his gold. I also knew it had plans, plans for me and my journal. My [sic] his decree I was being allowed to live. To carry word of the horrors of this place to the civilized world...if I could survive the desert trek.

I fled, chilled to the marrow.

It's been a few hours now, 'n I'm thirstier than I've a right to be. The river water's lookin' better 'n better. I keep remindin' myself of Venezia's hand, of what it'll do to me if I drink it. The longer I walk, though, the less I care.

##########

Feel free to let me know of any typos or new pages that have turned up on blogs.

Update 1: Rainbow MMO now has a package, with the journal from day 5. I have added it above.
Update 2: Werit and Syp of Biobreak have gotten packages too. Syp's page is a duplicate of the one Keen and Graev got, though. Day 3 is still missing.
Update 3: Snafzg finally got his package, and it has the missing Day 3. Posted above.

Bonus: Here's a list of the 11 characters in the story and their fates. The number after their listing is the day they die.

Narrator - does not die, but may after the last entry
Revollo - bitten by lizards, bled to death - 1
Picciano - devoured by beetle swarm - 2
Phillippi - beheaded by skeleton snake - 3
DiBiano - stabbed on day 4 by skeleton - 5
Farinelli - chunked by giant beetles - 5
Tunari - de-limbed/smashed by statues - 6
Mazza - sandblasted by female mummy - 7
Venezia - axed by Falcone - 8, (hand wounded by river water - 5)
Falcone - stomped by bone giant - 9
Bonfiglio - killed by skeletons/beetles - 9

 
--Anromir

A couple weeks ago I created my first RDPS character, a Sorceress. There have been some trials I've dealt with playing her, but this weekend, I learned what the real draw of RDPS is. Playing RDPS is a lot of fun. Fun, as in killing a whole lot of bozos, fun.

I have never experienced so much killing. Damaz Kron was going wild on me. When I started out the night, I was at an over all score of -4. I'll have to get a screenshot of it to put in later, but afterward, my overall score was close to +30. After only a couple hours of scens and oRvR in Chaos T1. I also managed to get a Decimator chest piece for her off the champion when taking the Harvest Shrine.

Most of my kills I can attribute to Chillwind. I would try to keep that up on any target I had picked, and then work on them, often getting help from the others in my party or scen. But usually, it was just one little tic that would push the target over the edge and give me a kill. After playing healers, tanks, and even MDPS, I racked up the most kills per scenario that I've ever gotten. Even after a couple of wipes in oRvR at the Lost Lagoon and Festenplatz, I still managed to rack up many more kills than deaths.

Remember that my Sorc is only R11 right now, but this is what has been working on for me so far. (Consider this a starters' kit for those just picking up a Sorc.) Once I pick a target I'll start with Word of Pain, then Chillwind. The idea here is to get the DoTs down and use Chillwind as a cover hex for Word (not something I have heard of at all in Warhammer, but a staple in Guild Wars). Word goes back on at recharge. Gloomburst is next, followed by Doombolt. Depending on where they are, I may throw a Shattered Shadows in there to hit some others. And now that I have it, I may hit a tank or MDPS with Arctic Blast just for the snare to keep them off me. And when my immediate area is crawling with Order, I'll spam Surging Pain. At lower ranks I've gotten a good number of kills with that.

In all, it's the first four that really see heavy use and do a lot of work for me. I've put one point in Calamity so far, but I'm sure that by the time I hit the middle of T3, I'll respec destruction. I'd be silly not to.

So, my Sorc is my most fun character right now. Though I'm guessing that will change once I've gotten to T2 and I'm at the bottom of the totem pole again.

Ranking up is an essential part of playing any MMO. Even Guild Wars, where you really expand your character through gaining new skills. Skills which have no level requirements. It's still fun to level and get new points to spend on you characters. In WAR, getting the new skill/tactic/whatever for the rank is always nice. I've been waiting forever to get to rank 25 on my Blackguard so I can get Exile.

But there seem to be some times when you rank up that are more interesting or memorable than others. And some ranks that should be more memorable. Like rank 40.

Well, one such memorable rank up for me was with my Choppa a few weeks ago. I was playing Stone Troll Crossing and we had Order pushed up against their spawn. I was happy because for once we were owning the place. A Bright Wizard set me in her sights and that was it. I chased her down and began the choppin'. When I strippped the life from the overachieving BW, not only did I get the kill for Damaz Kron, but I also ranked up to 13. That was a doubly enjoyable kill.

Now, as for a rank up that should be memorable. My main, Anromir the Desciple of Khaine made it to rank 40 a couple months ago. Again, I was really looking forward to a knockback skill (Uncaring Dismissal this time). I'd been grinding through the Spirits of Eataine PQ solo to powerlevel, and I ranked up to 40 killing a trash mob on my way to finish the second stage of the PQ. Not so glamorous. But I remember it none-the-less.

Anyone else have a memorable rank up to share?

--Anromir

Grimnir has a good look at new strategies for the expanded Nordenwatch scenario Mythic slipped out unannounced this weekend. Personally, I think this idea is a great bit of thievery on their part, with their own twist.

What? Thievery? Of course, that's how all the big boys do it nowadays. WoW has achievements (Tome of Knowledge knockoff, if you ask me). WaR, and just about every MMO models itself after WoW somewhat. In this case, WaR is stealing from Guild Wars.

GW is a great MMO if you haven't tried it. It's not the same as other MMO's so don't expect it to be "better" than your favorite. But I think it brings a lot of new ideas to the table and it is definitely fun. That said, GW has been running weekend events for just about three years. Every weekend, there's an incentive to get out and focus on a different specific part of the game. But GW has several different types of PvP as well as PvE areas. One weekend they may double faction for playing in Alliance Battles (PvP), the next double it for Competitive Missions like the Jade Quarry or Fort Aspenwood (basically scens). The next week might be doubling the chance of green weapons (think set item armor). Next, double faction for a certain title track.

One thing WAR added that's great is the tie in with the Tome of Knowledge. A set of tasks to complete for the weekend. Do them all and get a neat title. This is Mythic's own twist on it, and I think it's a great way to make this kind of thing WAR's own.

So what else can Mythic learn from this? Right now, they have made the focus a scenario, and that's a great place to start. I think they should definitely make something like this happen every weekend. But they can expand it to other areas:

• Double influence for PQs
• Double influence for RvR
• More gold bags in Keeps
• Double gold drops in dungeons
• Double influence in dungeons
• Double renown for skirmish kills
• Double renown for capturing BOs
• Double chance to drop/number dropped of medallions/crests
• A title/quest/ToK tie in for a Dungeon/PQ/RvR goal
• etc.

As you can see, there are a lot of directions Mythic can take this. I think this Nordenwatch scen a great idea and a way to give people reasons to try different things on a regular basis if they continue doing this kind of thing every weekend. Doing different things is a way to keep the game fresh for people and help prevent burnout.

--Anromir

I've been a bit mum lately, and there's a couple reasons for that. One is the ennui brought on by all the bloggers out there who've been leaving the fold. Not much of an excuse, but one reason I started blogging was to try to join that community. I had the misunderstanding that the community was going away. Now, however, I've realized that it's not going away, just changing. I'm starting to find the new cheese.

That said, my other reason for not being around is there's a certain other MMO out there, the one I was weaned on, which is having a big 4th Anniversary going on. Lot's of new updates after about four months of static. They've moved to a new model of quarterly updates instead of monthly. Ostensibly, this is to allow them to make the updates bigger. And they delivered. Lots of new stuff, and I've been having fun collecting coins for gear. I think I'll start to spend time there regularly, but for the most part, my main gaming time will be in WAR.

Now, onto the meat of the post. I know it's been a bit, but I want to finish off my comments on Beyond the Sands now that it's over. And again, I have two comments. They are directly related to the two items on the Live Event list that were the toughest to complete.

Let's start with the crates. Now, the way the quests were structured, they led you to believe that the crates were only in the zones that the quests led you to. I was not aware until nearly the end of the event (and after it was a moot point for me) that the crates could be picked up elsewhere. I kept striking out into Thunder Mountain where I would usually get ganked by a group of three or more Order who where camping the Airship Depot. Eventually I lucked out and found a ten minute window where absolutely no one but me was there, and I snatched up thirteen crates in short order.

Secondly, I think the Liche Priest was way too difficult. Participating in the PQ was a joke. I flew into the zone from the Inevitable City and within two minutes the PQ had been failed and I was credited with having participated. But the Liche Priest himself was something else. I tried three times. Once with a group of four. We were mown down in short order. I tried again, in Praag, but the PQ was bugged there. When I finally finished it, I did so with the help of fourteen other players. I only got that warband together because people were drawn into it by seeing there was combat with a crowd of about six Order going on. As we grew we were able to drive the Order off. Once that was done, it took us just a short while to finish the PQ. However, despite having scads of healers and RDPS, it was all we could do to keep our main Tank up, and all our MDPS were torn to shreds by the plague of locusts skill the liche priest had. And it took entirely too long to bring him down. Keep lords go down faster than he did with the same amount of people.

In all, though, I had fun with it. I definitely think it should take some time and effort to get everything on the list of a live event, but it should be soloable. The Liche Priest and, almost, the crates were not. And, as I said before, I like how it was more of a story that you could follow along with. The quest chains were fun. It's too bad more of the items on the list didn't play into the story as well, but having a story at all was a great step forward. Here's to Mythic bringing more live events like this to the table.

--Anromir

• Breakfast at War
• Alt Much?
• Wizards and Wenches (probably) 

Looking around today, I put together this list of people who are un-subbing from WAR. Kind of sad as Regis and Pancakez/Omelletez were two primary institutions in inspiring me to start a blog about WAR. On a deeper level, if these people--who are ostensibly the biggest fans of the game--are leaving, then what does that have to say about the state of the game? They are so into it that they burned out? Even if that's the case, it does not bode well for the game overall. It means everyone will burn out eventually, on a shorter candle than we might want to admit. Definitely shorter than what Mythic wants. People have played other MMO's for years and have not burned out.
 
Like I said. Sad day.

--Anromir

Collecting crates seems to be a pretty innocuous activity. But when it's in the RvR lake, you're by yourself, and there's an entire warband from the opposing realm camping the crate spawns and gobbling them up, well, it's a nightmare.

I can see what Mythic's plan here is. Force people into RvR. That's what this game is about, right? Well, yes, it is. But the offshoot of this part of the Live Event is a lot of frustration. I don't know that I'll ever be able to collect the required crates on my T4 character or not. Especially since, in T4, the area where the crates spawn is closer to the Order warcamp. If I get ganked, it takes me twice as long as the Order people to come back if I don't have another healer handy to rez me.

I did manage to finish up that part of the quest in T2 with my Choppa. I only managed it because at the time I went, there were enough other Destruction around to help me clear out the two or three Order at the spawn point. We were also enough to defend it against other Order insurgents as we hunted for crates. We got a few RvR kills with small groups, so more renown each. We locked the zone, too, so I acquired a bunch of medallions as well. I'm sure that's what Mythic wanted from this.

I'm despairing about my Disciple of Khaine, though. The T4 crate spawn was swarmed by warbands from both realms. I was there for nearly an hour and only managed to get two crates. I'll have to try at a low population time. With a whole warband out there, the crates get snatched up pretty quickly. Best bet is to have a small group at off hours and hope we don't get rolled by an Order warband.

On the other hand, I do like how Mythic has turned this LE into something more of a story. The quests are set in a series of chapters that have continuity, and I think that draws people in. The journal entries in the Tome of Knowledge are a fun twist. It would have been neat if they could have tied this LE into the last one through the story a little more--since they are both Call to Arms events- but the fact that they've made LE more than a honey-do list is great.

And if you get a chance while you're hunting around for crates, take a look up in the sky now and then. The airship floating around up there is a treat.

--Anromir

For as long as my post yesterday was, it was still unfinished. I did have a more critical point to make other than "Wow, wasn't this cool? I rule for having Obliterator armor now!" But the action scene just got too big, and there really wasn't room for the denouement. That said, this post contains the conclusions we as a class can take from yesterday's post.

First, let me say that I have been playing WAR since about a month from release. I've enjoyed it, but I'm a pretty casual player. I only reached R40 with my main a few weeks ago. Both because I don't play much, and because I've wasted a decent amount of time on my alts.

So, between that tidbit of information, and yesterday's post, what is wrong with this picture? I'll give you a moment to digest and cogitate.

...

The problem is that, being a casual player aside, it's taken me 5 1/2 months of playing to get a complete set of armor. And it's only a 3 piece set at that. I had 4 pieces of Devastator on my DoK, but never completed it before I ranked out of T3. Not for a lack of trying, though. I spent half of R30 and most of R31 sieging keeps. I got a good amount of gold bags, too. It's too bad you can't combine gorgets though, because I had three or four of them. 

So, the point is that in the lower tiers, it's much too hard to get the named sets. How Can you possibly get Decimator or Carnage if you're out of T1 in a day or two after rolling a new char? I'll have to see how Obliterator stands up to the test of time, but what's the point (other than titles) of getting the T2 sets if you can't get them until you're nearly at the end of the tier, and they're useless by R23? The Devastator set of T3 at least is a good set, and I had pieces of it on my DoK until R40 (mostly because I couldn't find greens or even blues that were better, and Annihilator pieces are rare for a char that dies every 2 minutes in RvR). T4, sure it should take effort. That's one of the things you can do to occupy yourself after R40.

I have high hopes for the new token system in the 1.2.1 patch going up today. Depending on their drop rate in RvR, it could make getting full sets something you can do just by focusing on it rather than making a lifestyle for your characters out of it.

Last night, I acquired a full set of named armor for one of my characters. Of course, it was on my one greenskin, Gitsmacka the Choppa. He now proudly displays his new title: "The Obliterator". It's been kind of a circuitous trip getting him to this set, so I'll fill you in on the backstory.

Several weeks ago I read over Gaarawarr's Armor Set Guide and it inspired me. I'd already missed out on the Decimator set on my choppa, so I decided to take the time to try acquiring at least a couple of the sets that I could in T2 while I was there. Most critical was the Obliterator set, as once you get past R21, there's really no hope of getting the chest piece or the boots for that set. It's tough to win a Keep PQ loot bag as a chicken, I would expect.

So, I hit R17 on Gitsmacka and decided to try to collect as many of the sets as I could before ranking out of T2. I ran around and collected all the quests I needed for the Tracker's set. Then began a campaign of nothing but RvR to try winning the Obliterator chest piece and getting the Obliterator boots to drop. This also played into the Tracker's set, because I needed to kill 20 Witch Hunters, Ironbreakers, and Swordmasters each. I'd totally forgotten about the Keeper's set, and wasn't worried about the Havoc set, since I could get that after R21 anyway. And RvRing is a slow way to rank up, so it was the best bet to keep me in T2 as long as possible and increase chances of getting Obliterator.

It turned out that the RvR kills were slow going. I expected that to be the fastest part of this. Tougher would be getting groups together to help me kill the heroes for the second parts of the Havoc quest chains. But pretty quickly I scored in the top three in a keep siege, and obtained my Obliterator Tuff Chest. In another session, I took two keeps, and won two more Tuff Chests. I didn't even claim them from the bags while I was still in the warband out of embarassment. So I had 3 Tuff Chests in my bags, and I couldn't even wear them yet. Durr.

There I stood for some time. My kills were slow going, not even getting ten for each of the classes I needed. (Where are the T2 Swordmasters on Ironfist? They're like some kind of lost tribe.) Until last night.

I logged in and found myself in the Ostland warcamp. Since I've been alt hopping lately, it's always kind of a suprise where I'll be when I log in. I queued up for some scens and waited. Then the announcement came that Mandred's Hold was under attack by Order. Hey, there could be some good kills there. Maybe bring down some Witch Hunters. So I headed out and scoped out the keep to see if it was just a random spark. Nope, I could see several Order out front, and a ram. They were serious. It just so happened that I had some oil on me. Even though I was alone, the oil could make things fun, and while I might not save the keep, I could rack up some kills.

Through the postern and up to the landing I ran, and found they'd already taken out the oil. But I didn't think they'd spotted me, so I waited. Sure enough, in short order the Oil spawned again, and I jumped on it and rained boiling enmity down on them. I don't think they even noticed the first dump of oil. The second dump killed two or three of them, and then they noticed, heh. The third dump aced two more, and then the Bright Wizard started whacking on the oil, and I was taking some serious AoE damage. I ran off for a second to stabilize myself, and then jumped in to dump more oil. I died at that point, but I did get some more oil off and killed one more of them. So, I got five or six solo kills. I was happy to have the renown to myself.

I respawned and booked it back to Mandred's to dump more oil on them, but unfortunately, they were already in the keep. I got upstairs losing about half my health, and laden with a BW DoT. Hmm. But my appearance had them wary, so they didn't charge up to the pad. When they did, the same BW killed me again as I harrassed them. It was then that I announced on region chat that Mandred's was about to go down.

When I spawned again and ran out, I was happy to see that there were four other Destro on the way, too. No healers, though. Despite that, we were able to get into the keep and begin the chaos, which can be all it takes to get a keep siege to crumble apart. Soon, we had torn them to shreds, leaving a pile of digital corpses littering the balcony. They had only had about one party worth taking the keep, so we were about evenly matched human groups. I racked up a couple more kills, including the BW that had taken me down twice. (Thanks, Dammaz Kron). Plus, I'd gotten a couple Witch Hunter and Ironbreaker kills for my quests.

Still not enough renown to don my Tuff Chest though. One of the keep defenders turned out to be in my guild, so we put together a team for scenarios since we were all fired up about our recent keep defense. After a wait long enough to make me worry there would be no scens at all, Mourkain Temple popped. It was a typical scen, with Destro keeping Order on their heels most of it. The match was still close, though, with the artifact going back and forth. But then it happened. Obliterator Stompas popped up. It goes without saying that I 'needed' on that one. Usually there's a long wait as more people slowly roll on it. But somehow, I must have been the last one, and almost as soon as I rolled, my chat box told me I'd gotten them.

It took one more scen to get my renown rank, but by then, I was able to run out to Mandred's and buy the Obliterator Punchas. In one fell swoop I changed from a clown garbed in motley to a warrior in a coordinated outfit. (Far better than a war wizard outfit.) Turns out, the Obliterator set is by far the best of the four. I'll still try to get the others though, for the titles. I need 3-5 more kills of each class to get there for Tracker's, though.

(And yes, I know that this had nothing to to with the Druchii, but it was timely. You can garnish my wages.)

--Anromir

One of my pet peeves about software publishing companies has always been long intros. I was thrilled when I played WAR for the first time and I was able to hit the space bar to skip the opening cinematic. This was immediately followed by a brief spate of panic when I thought I wouldn't be able to watch it at all then. I should not have worried. Because the next time I ran WAR it popped up the cinematic again. I happily watched it, but there was an undercurrent of grumpiness because I knew I would have to hit the space bar every time I loaded up the game.

It only took a few more times for the real despair to set in when I realized that EA, Mythic, and Games Workshop all had to pimp their logos for a few seconds each immediately after hitting 'play' on the patcher. Every week or so I would get fed up and whack the space bar a few times to see if maybe, this time, I could get past the logos...to no avail. And then, after the required spacing to get through the cinematic, there's the game logo that has to thunderously swoop onto the page, and eat up more time. *Slam*, *slam* on the space bar again, but I still have to wait.

So let's recap. To log into the game, I click the WAR icon. Then I log in. Then I hit play (after any requisite patching that goes on). Then I wait for 3 logo pimpings. Then I either watch or cancel a cinematic. Then one more logo pimp. Then I get to the point where my machine actually logs into the server and I get to choose a character to play. Then, I have to wait for the interface and zone to load. Now I get to play.

It's like Mythic wants us to get so bored that we're excited to play the game when it starts no matter what. Usually I end up running off for a bio or to let a dog out and let it all run it's course.

This is why the patch notes for 1.2.1 have me so excited. Way down at the bottom they have this gem:

• Pre-game splash screens and opening cinematic can now be skipped by hitting the ESC key.  

This is the single most valuable change they are making in 1.2.1. Why? It can't help but make the game better. There is no way it can make it worse. All the balance changes, crafting changes, and RvR changes can make people happy, true. But they can also piss people off. They can also backfire and create problems. But this splash screen stuff only adds a choice. Wait, or hit the esc key and get to WARring. Yes, I'm excited about the other changes, and I hope for the best with them. But this one is a real gem.

Now, if they would just make the cinematic run just the first time you run the game (but still available for future viewing via the cinematic button that's aleady there) this would be ideal.