Monday 25 October 2010

Solo hero warband legends

I know I should be finishing off my Chosen, but I just can’t help myself and shock shock horror, I’ve got distracted by one of my (far too many) alts. This weekend it was all about my Squig Herder. He’s level 40 and low RR, but it’s a career that can be surprisingly effective with the right choice of gear. Not a patch on a top end geared one of course and obviously you’re the underdog, but you can have an impact, get some kills and perhaps surprise yourself.
 
I spent most of my online Squig time roaming solo, mixed with a bit of PUG warbanding and a few scenarios. Which is how I would always recommend getting the hang of a career in T4, initially at least; put yourself in the shit and learn how to deal with it. And always remember if you lose, it’s just as much you as it is the enemy’s gear/OPness/etc.
 
Also and where this post is leading, is it’s good to learn and enjoy different playstyles. If you only ever play in guild warbands and perfect set ups it will just mean you suck when caught solo. And being caught on your lonesome will happen at some point, unless you’re one of those types that won’t go anywhere without an escort. There are an awful lot of big reputation players that may well be incredibly good team players, but prove to be not all that great when caught without all their group/warband crutches.
 
Having said that, WAR is most certainly a group game and while it’s great fun being a solo roaming hero, you’ll find it a lot harder to achieve much without finding your place in a decent warband. So while I would recommend initially learning the class by solo roaming lots, you will quite quickly need to suss out what you should be doing in a warband and how that can require totally different tactic and ability selection. Those big reputation players that disappoint when solo may well fully deserve their reputation for their understanding of group synergy and being as devastating as possible.
 
For example I know a few people that are incredible solo players, but are an absolute bloody nightmare in a warband; always running off at random chasing things down, not using group beneficial abilities quite so well, etc. When you have a mixed hardcore-casual guild like mine that’s just something you have to live with :P
 
It’s often quite amusing while browsing forums to read solo heroes and the “won’t go out without a warband” players sneering at each other’s playstyles. Yet really they’re both perfectly valid ways of playing and if you want to maximise your enjoyment of the game then you should consider learning both. Unless of course your epeen won’t let you run the risk of losing a fight, in which case you may want to reflect on what epeen is actually worth. Purely playing one style just means you miss out on more ways to enjoy your time playing WAR.

4 comments:

  1. Bang on post. I try to run my WL solo most of the time because the class lends its self well to that type of play. At the same time I love getting into a good group because the support I get and can lend make me a beast. I can literally destroy the scenario boards which I think I can attribute in part to be used to running solo and not having a guard bot or focused healer on me.

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  2. I have also rolled a WL to experience the solo life style. Its a very different style of play much more similar to FPS. Playing empire T2 with a WL is just fantastic stalking the woods looking for prey ;) it's really cool not least because there are WE's and choppa's out there too doing the same thing...

    It might be a coincidence but I have started to play my KotBS focused purely on group synergyism.

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  3. Excellent post, it has made me look at my playstyle and to see what I need to do short of gearing up to improve my pvp skills.

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  4. I normally realise in review of a solo fight all the things I did wrong, rarely what I did right, which is a worrying short list.

    If I was to be utterly frank, I'm a shockingly bad solo player.

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