Thursday 16 June 2011

Happy yet grumbling yet happy

I know I should be focussed on my 8X RR Chosen, but I’ve been playing my L40 Choppa a lot recently, gradually taking him from RR50 to RR67 due to my sporadic gaming time. After 1.4 destroyed any viability for a casual altoholic like me, it’s been very pleasing on my return to discover that a low RR Choppa was playable again. I’m now at the point where he is able to mix the new Worn Sovereign armour with Warlord/Invader/etc and get half decent stats, so he has enough potency that I can do fairly well and feel useful. Of course at my low RR it is still pointless fighting anyone 1v1 who is RR90+ and geared appropriately. Simply because they can have such high mitigation whilst still retaining excellent damage output, that no matter what you do you will get slaughtered. Or if it’s a healer, they’re utterly unkillable.
 
Having said that, it’s nowhere near as bad as it was directly after 1.4 and isn’t anywhere near as bad as games like WoW are in that respect. So I wouldn’t say its game breaking anymore, just that it is disappointing that WAR has become as influenced by gear as it is now. Personally I would have much preferred to see WAR focus more on sideways progression through gaining abilities and options, instead of damage output and resilience. I think that kind of sideways growth for characters is much better for a RvR game as it puts the emphasis on a player’s skill and decision making, instead of on their time played, which is pretty much all that RR is. Thankfully due to the recent adjustments, WAR hasn’t yet gone too far the wrong way and I’m finding playing the Choppa increasingly enjoyable as I get more and more options with my Worn Sovereign, etc. Though it sounds like I’ll have to farm Tomb of the Vulture Lord to get glyphs for him, as the glyphs are better than the new accessory set coming in the next patch and I loathe (BLOODY LOATHE!) items that decay over time, so I really cba with that.
 
One thing that is bugging me though at the moment is the rampant use of absorb and un-defendable effects in WAR at the moment. It’s got waaaaaaaaay out of hand. All these pocket items, potions, item procs, etc when combined with class abilities are taking away from the uniqueness and role of playing careers. For example I know when playing one of my tanks, that when facing certain Slayers I actually will not count as tank at all, as they will activate items and abilities that will entirely avoid my block and parry for enough time to basically make me a squishy. Likewise, a WH emergency parry abilities become null and void when any player can get an item that negates them. Of course we could all go farm the relevant absorb, etc items for all our toons and set up the panic button instant 6 item macro thing (more than bordering on cheating imo) but I don’t like where this is going. I don’t want WAR to require WoW raiding style preparation, grinding mats or cash to get a stock of everything each week. That’s not what WAR is about for me. Hopefully Mythic will rein this in a bit and at the very least look at giving a lot more items shared cooldowns.
 
So yeah I’m generally happy with WAR and am having a good time playing it, but there’s still plenty to whinge about.
 
BTW yes I know I’ve not bothered posting the patch notes, commenting on them, etc. Basically I didn’t think it was worth it. Patch doesn’t look particularly inspiring, nor is it depressing and to be honest I didn’t really expect anything from it anyway. Bad Gas change is good, but the rest I don’t care about and that’s including the new CoC scenario I’m afraid. Sure, it might be temporary fun, but I’m just not interested in it enough to have much to say. Scenarios are very low on my /care list. Sorry chaps. I’m waiting to see more substantial WAR news, or start on my next wave of MMO beta tests. Whichever comes first…

7 comments:

  1. Hehehehe... CoC scenario...

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  2. You touched on couple things that annoy me with WAR as well .. extreme gear focus .. and scenarios.. two things which I really also loathe.. Also being a casual player.. I have more or less given up my "gear lust" as I just simply don't have the desire to waste the few precious minutes or hours I have in any given day to play WAR .. grinding.. so I just make do with what I got .. and I am happier about it.. I recall when WAR used to be about open RVR .. now its just people sitting around waiting for scenarios to pop .. or off to farm in LOTD .. (neither of which I have done in months) .. ORVR when it does happen is sporadic and disorganized at best. Often as soon as a zone flips and everyone gets their renown points, the momentum fizzles and dies a slow death.. It's sad to see such a terrific open pvp game like war degenerate into PVE farming and short attention span mind-set instanced pvp .. You can see the impact the increased focus on scenario token reward items has had.. people have really more or less forgot how to open rvr.. Don't get me wrong, I love WAR .. i'm just terribly saddened to see it degenerate into what its become.

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  3. See, that's quite interesting.. Lately I've seen a few people on forums also say that there's not much ORvR and its all scenarios, but on Karak Norn there's a lot of ORvR and I mean a LOT. Evening times that is anyway, day times are a bit more sporadic I believe. Which server are you on?

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  4. Open RvR is now much more enjoyable than at the start of the year. The nerfing of rr90+ sets and introduction of Worn Sov has worked wonders.

    Personally, I like the sense of progression in renown/gear. It's nice to know that you can improve your char as you play. It's not something I focus on but I like that it's in the pipeline. Prior to 1.4.1 there was widespread despondancy that it would be necessary to grind rr90 just to be competitive, thankfully this is no longer the case. I'm blissfully plodding along to rr90 at a relaxed pace.

    For me Mythic have done a good job of balancing out the gear/rr for now. I'd like their focus to turn to improving the campaign and addressing the side-effects of the armour changes. Of course, new meaningful content would be great but who knows if this will ever happen.

    Arsenal fan btw? Not an easy start to the season...

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  5. Liverpool mate. I'm not too unhappy with our fixture list really, if we can get good results in the first 2 games it will be a great springboard.

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  6. Ha! I always knew you talked sense. Despite being a filthy worshipper of the dark gods. I'm a red too :)

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  7. Sorry for the delayed response.. I play on Gorfang ..

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