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.

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

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