T7 Black Orc armour

Now this looks mean as hell. I like a lot.

T7 Archmage armour

I think this one looks a bit crap in this picture, but I really do suspect that's because of how flat these images look, hopefully in proper 3D it will be a lot better... 

Black Guard T7 armour pic

More pics of WAR's new armour sets

More pics are out of the new armour sets, original post here. Notice this time there's a couple (Zealot and Shadow Warrior) with 3D images that show the sets much better.

Marauder

Squig Herder

Shadow Warrior

Witch Hunter

Zealot

If not before, there should be further stuff coming out soon with Gamescom in a couple of weeks.

New Developer discussion posts and some shots of new armour sets

James Casey has posted a discussion thread for feedback on current developments in a general sense, you can find the thread here. In there he has posted 2D screenshots of a few of the new tier 7 armour sets, which I've posted below. Intricate and quite showy as you can see..

Bright Wizard

 Chosen

 Engineer

Shaman

Hopefully we'll get the other sets to post soon. I particularly liked the Orc ones when I saw them at the Mythic visit thing.

Elsewhere Steven Engle has posted a thread for discussion on upcoming Shadow Warrior and Squig Herder changes; link here. Initial thought is I like the changes for my Squiggy (not sure its got enough damage still mind you...), but that doesn't mean they're great for the game as a whole. No that I'm saying they're a bad idea either, it's just I'd like to see what improvements the Magus and Engineer get alongside this, as the range reducing ability is quite a potent thing and life is crap enough for those 2 careers as it is.

Anyways, go get your feedback in and have you say.

New armour sets adjusted after feedback

Mythic have just posted up adjustments to the new RR90/100 armour sets they revealed earlier this month. These changes have been made based upon the feedback people have left in the focus discussion threads, so as always if you've got an idea and/or further constructive feedback, go post on the official forum threads and you genuinely stand a chance of influencing things. You can find all the relevant threads in this section of the forums.

Here's the details posted:

Hello everybody,


We have been reading through all of your great feedback regarding the new Doomflayer and Warpforged sets. After discussing all of the feedback internally, we have come up with a number of adjustments. As always, if you choose to respond please stay on topic with comments directly related to these adjustments. Also, these are all subject to change.


General Notes
To clarify some confusion as to how these procs work (Sovereign, Doomflayer and Warpforged), they will not refresh themselves. This means that a proc cannot be triggered again while the effect is active. In addition, any proc that is higher level (e.g. Warpforged vs Doomflayer) will overwrite the lower level proc.


As evidenced by the changes below, the support careers now have 1 version of their sets with a proc that affects their entire group and 1 proc that affects themselves. This is meant to reinforce their intended purpose of being a support career.


Tanks
-Chosen and Swordmaster sets will have WS replaced with Init.


-All tank procs will be set to On Being Attacked. The difference between On Being Attacked and On Being Hit is that in order for the latter to have a chance to trigger, it must not be defended. On Being Attacked will have a chance to trigger regardless of whether you successfully defend or not.


-The 4 piece proc will be replaced with the following:
--Doomflayer: On Being Attacked: 10% chance to reduce incoming damage to your group by 7% for 10 seconds.
--Warpforged: On Being Attacked: 10% chance to reduce incoming damage to your group by 10% for 10 seconds.


Ranged DPS
-The BS on the secondary defensive set will be re-allocated, with half of the stat points put into WS (71 BS, 70 WS).


Magic Healers
-The 2 piece proc will be replaced with the following:
--Doomflayer: On Heal: 10% chance to gain 66 Action Points over 3 seconds.
--Warpforged: On Heal: 10% chance to gain 75 Action Points over 3 seconds.


Melee Healers
-The Tou on the secondary melee set will be replaced with Init


-The 4 piece proc will be replaced with the following:
--Doomflayer: On Hit: 10% chance to reduce your chance to be critically hit by 7% for 10 seconds.
--Warpforged: On Hit: 10% chance to reduce your chance to be critically hit by 10% for 10 seconds.

New Tank Armour sets

You can find the in development post here. Or because I'm quite nice really, read on...

With the upcoming RvR pack, we will be introducing 2 brand new sets of armor. These sets will be above and beyond Sovereign, requiring Renown Rank 90 (Doomflayer) and 100 (Warpforged). Much like the changes to Sovereign that were implemented in 1.3.6, there will be 2 version of each of these sets.


The new sets will consist of 5 pieces of armor. The goal of having 5-piece armor sets is to encourage players to acquire items from multiple sources, giving players more flexibility without having to sacrifice set bonuses by removing pieces from a 6+ piece set. Due to the combination of this change and the increase in item power, we have also removed set bonuses of a single stat to make each individual non-set piece more impactful.


In addition to these new sets, we are also introducing a brand new stat. The stat is called Fortitude and is effectively "Toughness Power." It works with the same relationship as Melee Power/Str, Ranged Power/BS, Heal Power/Wil and Magic Power/Int.


Below is the stat allocation and set bonus information for Doomflayer (RR90) and Warpforged (RR100) for Tanks. As always, please keep this thread on topic with providing feedback to the set stats and bonuses.


Doomflayer (Defensive)
Tou - 289
Wou - 182
Init - 170
Str - 141
7% reduced chance to be crit
5% block
80 hit points every 4 seconds
4 AP per second
4% reduced armor penetration
80 fortitude
Set Bonuses
2 piece - On Being Hit: 10% chance to increase Fortitude by 238 for 10 seconds.
4 piece - On Being Hit: 10% chance to Heal yourself for 1030 health over the next 5 seconds.

Warpforged (Defensive)
Tou - 374
Wou - 228
Init - 212
Str - 178
9% reduced chance to be crit
7% block
120 hit points every 4 seconds
5 AP per second
6% reduced armor penetration
120 fortitude
Set Bonuses
2 piece - On Being Hit: 10% chance to increase Fortitude by 308 for 10 seconds.
4 piece - On Being Hit: 10% chance to Heal yourself for 1325 health over the next 5 seconds.
5 piece - 2m cooldown - Your group becomes immune to Stagger, Knockdown, Root and Knockback effects for 5 seconds.

Doomflayer (Offensive)
Str - 289
WS - 182
Tou - 170
Wou - 141
6% melee crit chance
80 melee power
5% reduced chance to be parried
4 AP per second
5% parry
6% critical damage
Set Bonuses
2 piece - On Hit: 10% chance to reduce the next two heals on the target within 10 seconds by 516.
4 piece - On Hit: 10% chance to increase Melee Power by 238 for 10 seconds.

Warpforged (Offensive)
Str - 374
WS - 228
Tou - 212
Wou - 178
8% melee crit chance
120 melee power
8% reduced chance to be parried
4 AP per second
6% parry
10% critical damage
Set Bonuses
2 piece - On Hit: 10% chance to reduce the next two heals on the target within 10 seconds by 662.
4 piece - On Hit: 10% chance to increase Melee Power by 308 for 10 seconds.
5 piece - 2m cooldown - Nearby allies have their movement speed increased by 60% for 10 seconds.

 Hmmm interesting. I like the idea of armour sets only being 5 parts in future.


LOVE the new Fortitude stat. Great idea to improve the defensive side of tanks, which just doesn't work correctly with toughness as it is right now.

Obviously this armour is quite potent in its power, but with everything changing and renown 1-80 being greatly accelerated, I suspect that won't be too much of an issue. Hopefully... hmmm. I do wish at least Invader and Warlord could be improved too.

Sovereign Healer set details revealed

Once again you can find the original post by Mythic over here.

 

And because I'm such a bootaefull person here's a copy and paste of the stat ridden goodness...

 

Coming with the 1.3.6 patch are some exciting (and by no means small) changes to the Sovereign armor set. Sovereign is being split into 2 sets for each archetype, each with its own focus. You will now be able to choose how you want to itemize yourself depending on your playstyle without sacrificing item levels.

The system works as follows:

 

• The existing Sovereign set (the pieces that already drop, and more importantly the pieces you may already have) will turn into the "Primary" set below. This requires nothing from you as the player and the first time you log in you'll notice that your Sovereign set has different stats and set bonuses.
• If your personal preference is to use the "Secondary" set, you'll be able to head to an NPC in the cities where you would trade a piece of the "Primary" set in for the equivalent slot of the "Secondary" set. This transaction is only a 1-way transaction.
• There are no restrictions on mixing and matching between the 2 versions of the sets, however their set bonuses are mutually exclusive (e.g. if you want the 5pc from the "Secondary" set, you need to be wearing 5 pieces from that set).

 

We will slowly be rolling out in development posts for each of the archetypes as soon as possible. Here is the new layout of the 2 Sovereign sets for Healers.

 

Magic Healer (Rune Priest, Shaman, Archmage, Zealot)

(Primary) Healing Set

Wil - 232
Tou - 134
Wou - 116
Ini - 106
Spi - 294
Cor - 289
Ele - 289
6% heal crit chance
40 heal power
4 AP/s
4% reduced chance to be crit
2% reduced armor penetration

 

Set Bonus
3 piece - 85 Wil
4 piece - 85 Wou
5 piece - 5% Heal Crit
6 piece - On Heal: 10% chance to increase heal power by 130 for 10s.
7 piece - On Heal: 10% chance to reduce target's chance to be critically hit by 10% for 10s.
8 piece - 2m cooldown - Increases your critical heal amount by 75% for 10s.

 

(Secondary) Offensive Set
Int - 232
Tou - 134
Wou - 116
Ini - 106
Spi - 294
Cor - 289
Ele - 289
6% magic crit chance
40 magic power
4 AP/s
4% disrupt strikethrough
2% reduced armor penetration

 

Set Bonus
3 piece - 85 Int
4 piece - 85 Wou
5 piece - 5% Magic Crit
6 piece - On Hit: 10% chance to increase magic power by 130 for 10s.
7 piece - On Hit: 10% chance to increase target's chance to be critically hit by 10% for 10s.
8 piece - 2m cooldown - Increases your critical damage amount by 50% for 10s.

 

Melee Healers (Warrior Priest, Disciple)
(Primary) Healing Set
Wil - 232
Tou - 134
Wou - 116
Ini - 106
Spi - 294
Cor - 289
Ele - 289
6% heal crit chance
40 heal power
4% reduced armor penetration
3% reduced chance to be crit
3 AP/s

 

Set bonus
3 piece - 85 Wil
4 piece - 85 Wou
5 piece - 5% Heal Crit
6 piece - On Heal: 10% chance to increase heal power by 130 for 10s.
7 piece - On Heal: 10% chance to recover 20 Soul Essence/Righteous Fury.
8 piece - 2m cooldown - Increases your critical heal amount by 75% for 10s.

 

(Secondary) Melee Set

Str - 232
WS - 134
Wou - 116
Tou - 106
Spi - 294
Cor - 289
Ele - 289
6% melee crit chance
40 melee power
20% auto attack speed
3 AP/s
2% parry strikethrough

 

Set Bonus
3 piece - 85 Str
4 piece - 85 WS
5 piece - 5% Melee Crit
6 piece - On Hit: 10% chance to increase melee power by 130 for 10s.
7 piece - On Hit: 10% chance to recover 20 AP.
8 piece - 2m cooldown - Increases your critical damage amount by 50% for 10s.

New Sovereign Armour details for Tanks

The original post can be found here.

Coming with the 1.3.6 patch are some exciting (and by no means small) changes to the Sovereign armor set. Sovereign is being split into 2 sets for each archetype, each with its own focus. You will now be able to choose how you want to itemize yourself depending on your playstyle without sacrificing item levels.

The system works as follows:

• The existing Sovereign set (the pieces that already drop, and more importantly the pieces you may already have) will turn into the "Primary" set below. This requires nothing from you as the player and the first time you log in you'll notice that your Sovereign set has different stats and set bonuses.
• If your personal preference is to use the "Secondary" set, you'll be able to head to an NPC in the cities where you would trade a piece of the "Primary" set in for the equivalent slot of the "Secondary" set. This transaction is only a 1-way transaction.
• There are no restrictions on mixing and matching between the 2 versions of the sets, however their set bonuses are mutually exclusive (e.g. if you want the 5pc from the "Secondary" set, you need to be wearing 5 pieces from that set).

We will slowly be rolling out in development posts for each of the archetypes as soon as possible. To start with, here is the new layout of the 2 Sovereign sets for Tanks.

(Primary) Defensive Set
Tou - 232
Wou - 134
Ini - 116
WS - 106
Spi - 294
Cor - 289
Ele - 289
6% reduced chance to be crit
4% block
60 hp/4s
4 AP/s
2% reduced armor penetration

Set Bonus
3 piece - 85 Tou

4 piece - 85 Wou
5 piece - 200 HP/4s
6 piece - On Being Hit: 10% chance to reduce attacker's armor penetration against you and chance to critically hit you by 6% for 10s.
7 piece - On Defense: 25% chance to increase parry/block/disrupt/dodge by 5% for 10s.
8 piece - 2m cooldown - Up to 9 targets within a 20 foot radius have their movement speed reduced by 60% for 5s.

(Secondary) Offensive Set
Str - 232
WS - 134
Wou - 116
Tou - 106
Spi - 294
Cor - 289
Ele - 289
6% melee crit chance
40 melee power
4% parry strikethrough
3 AP/s
2% parry

Set Bonus
3 piece - 85 Str
4 piece - 85 WS
5 piece - 5% DPS
6 piece - On Hit: 10% chance to increase melee power by 130 for 10s.
7 piece - On Hit: 10% chance to increase parry/block strikethrough by 10% for 10s.
8 piece - 2m cooldown - Up to 9 allies within a 20 foot radius have their movement speed increased by 60% for 5s.

I'm not using Sovereign yet, but it looks pretty good to me. That 8 piece bonus is an interesting one, I wonder if it works in combat?

Producers Letter is out and this time…

…I’m liking it quite a lot. You can find Carrie's Producer Letter here. As our main source of future WAR news, it’s actually somewhat lacking in the amount of things we get to hear about, but there are two very cool bits of news. At least from my perspective they’re very cool to hear, but those expecting to hear about expansions, red plagues and the removal and public humiliation of Bright Wizards and Sorcs… well you’ll be disappointed, but ah well :P

One of the things I’m liking about Mythic, particularly in recent times, is their ability to put their hands up and say ok that was a bad idea. I’m sure some people will wish they did that a bit more regarding certain careers and so on, but then that’s probably a bit harsh and to be honest change is often best as a gradual thing. Anyways, the reason I’m waffling on here is because Mythic have listened to the serious concerns raised by myself and many others about the plans to let people play both factions on the same server.

“Because of this, we gauge player reaction through many outlets to make sure that our vision for the game aligns with community sentiment. In the last producer’s letter I told everyone that we would be allowing players to play both realms on the same server. There were reasons for this decision, however community sentiment about the impact this would have on Realm pride was, to be blunt, mixed. As a result of this mixed community reaction we have reevaluated our decision. The intent behind this feature moving forward is to only allow the option to play both Realms in the case where there is only one server to choose from. In smaller language markets our only option up until this point has been to merge them with other markets of different languages, or allow them to play on one server but force them to choose which realm they prefer playing. This feature allows us to achieve our goal of offering the best possible gameplay experience for all markets.”

As far as I’m concerned this is excellent news and I’m 100% with Mythic on this decision. As a solution for languages covered by 1 server it makes perfect sense. Great job. I'm sure some people will now cry about them not doing this, but I geuninely think it would have been terrible for the game and the tattered remains of realm pride.

Ok the next bit of lovely jubbly news is 1.3.6 will not only feature the much delayed new armour set graphics, but will also include a system to choose what armour style is displayed on your character.

“Our solution is to introduce a new system that will let you set your armor and weapon appearance independently of your armor stats, so that you can look how you want to look and yet keep the statistics that you personally prefer. The goal is to give players the added benefit of having the new armor sets available to them, but the ability to change their appearance if they don’t like the way they look.”

I really, really like this. Perfect solution and I can’t see how anyone could not be pleased. The look of your character is hugely important to your subconscious bond to it as a player, so giving us more customisation options and the ability to not look shite because we got an armour upgrade, is all very good news. With this change we get our cake and we get to eat it too.

Ok as players we are expecting 1.3.6 to be the BIG career balancing patch, I'm not sure why, I believe Mythic said as much... but I can’t remember where. Confirmation anyone? Regardless of that, there is only one bit of class changing information discussed which is to do with Zealots and Runepriests. It sounds like quite a dramatic change in play style, the exact details of which the letter does not confirm, but basically the Harbinger of Doom is to become THE HARBINGER OF DOOOOOM! I’ve just got my Zealot to 40, so I’m very interested in seeing more info on this.

And finally the much anticipated blogger video is out. Alas it's nowt to do with expansions or other moments of wonder, instead its regarding the new loading screen tips. However it's well worth a watch and is a good way of introducing the competition. Mykiel you are comedy gold mate.

The armour Wards system has the potential to be awesome, don't waste it please

The potentially great thing about the Ward system is that it allows a clear chain of dungeon progression, but without the need to have ever increasing stats of uberness on new amour sets. Which in turn means players upgrading their armour sets from dungeons do not unbalance PvP. For example you can make the stat improvement between setA and setB fairly slight, with the main differences being on set bonuses and special abilities. Make the sets interesting in their differences, not just bigger numbers. Obviously graphically you'd want dramatic differences for pimping about in ;)

So in theory wards are an awesome system... But it needs Mythic to truely buy into their own system and not be lured by other games ever growing stat style.

With new instances and the like heading our way in the free expansion, I really hope Mythic avoid the temptation to give us new armour sets with monstrous stat increases. The impact on PvP could be horrible for players that aren't into doing dungeons or are more casual in their playtime. We really don't want a WoW style thing where if you've not got the latest gear, then you can't compete at all. Items can be made interesting through variety and ingenuity rather than just piling more numbers on.

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.