Tuesday 13 January 2009

A word of warding

Mythic's ward system on armour is a strange beast... I like that it creates a clear path of dungeon progression, so I don't need to worry about getting stats to some magic number like most games for the next level of dungeons. I just get the next level up of 5 Wards and I'm all sorted.
I think it has the potential to be a really good long term system for dungeon progression, but there's a few things that bother me.

1) Dungeon lock out timers
City dungeon lock out timers being 3 days is a real pain in the arse. I can't go to Lost Vale because I don't have enough Greater wards, but for the next 3 days I have NO way to get more Greater wards. I'm stuck waiting for Bloodwrought Enclave and Bilerot Burrow to unlock.

2) Random drops
Combine the lock outs with the random drops and mix in my history of crappy luck, and you get... AGGH! I might not make it into Lost Vale for a while.

Now I understand why developers put in the random loot, it's to drag things out, keeping us playing and subscribing, but it doesn't have to work like this. I've got a LOT of issues with WoW's heroic badge system, but the basic idea is sound. If you have crap luck you'll still get a token, then save up enough and you can exchange for a good item. Why not have something like this in WAR so you can exchange them for the Sentinel bit you're missing?

3) Availability of Lesser wards
This is impacting on open RvR and encouraging RvE. Keep Lords drop lesser ward gear, the fastest way to kill a keep lord is if there's no defenders, therefore... A lot of people will drop anything to go take an undefended keep. Even if it means leaving a zone under serious attack undefended. When I was struggling to get lesser wards I too would go for any keep I could. Most of my guild was doing the City Dungeons and as a Tank I have to have lots of lesser wards to go. It sucked to have to do that, maybe I should have been patient, but there you go.

It's also encouraged people to try and take keeps on the sly with their own small group. This is fine when nothing much is happening, but when people do it while others are distracted on Battle Objectives it can lead to bad feeling amongst your faction. And unlike WoW you can't beat the game with just your guild, instead in WAR the community on your server is of extreme importance. Your faction needs to work together, this should be encouraged at all times and not hindered by bloody loot.

Of course Bastion Stair is an option for lesser wards, but I'd rather punch myself in the face while watching R Kelly's "HipOpera". I hate fast respawns as much as I hate pony arsed fiddlers with delusions of grandeur.


Solutions?

I'm really hoping that when the missing cities are added, that they include 2 city dungeons in each and each city's dungeons offer alternative greater ward sets. If that happens then the 3 day lock out doesnt matter, different city each night until you get your ward set. I think this would also negate the random drops enough to keep me sane.

As for lesser wards. I've no problem with them being available in RvR, I think that's a good thing, but they must be more reliable to get (again tokens perhaps?). Also as an aside there should be bigger incentives to take defended keeps.

1 comment:

  1. You're absolutely right! I've been complaining about my of the same things myself.

    ReplyDelete

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Half man half pixel. Music obsessive, likes a drink, occasional bastard.