Steven Engle has posted an edited version of the healing changes. Small tweaks, but much, much better. I'm still not sure if the main heals are fast enough, but with the reduction in how fragile they are I can understand it being sensible to see how a half second cast time reduction pans out. Cleanse staying instant but having optional tactics to change it, well that works for me just fine.
BTW about the producer's letter, real life got in the way of me writing up much about it and I'm sure you will have read reviews from the other bloggers by now, so in brief...
I like that it didn't do the usual focus on recapping on what's happened and instead is looking further to the future. However I'm sure nobody is shocked to hear that I wish it had information on more substantial and desired changes to the game. The new things mentioned are unfortunately totally and utterly "meh", sure they're not bad things, but inspiring they are not.
I'm tried of vague comments like "expanding existing areas and features as well as new concepts to the Warhammer Online experience". Areas could mean anything from zones to in fact any major or minor component of the game. So for now it's an utterly meaningless statement, that in the past I would have latched onto with hope, but I've had my fingers burnt too many times to do that anymore. Hopefully of course it will be something significant and James will clarify soon.
One thing though...more pets? I mean seriously? Why bother? Do people really care about that? Or is it the start of moving towards a cash shop and F2P? Carrie's new focus yet to be revealed perhaps. I can't think of any other reason to waste time making bloody pets.
All told it wasn't a bad letter compared with the past ones, it's just that for a great many WAR players (myself included obviously) this is a really critical time and to retain their interest Mythic need to, well... say something properly interesting.
Over to you James.
Monday, 31 January 2011
Friday, 28 January 2011
The EU news
New EU community Manager announced here.
What will that really mean for WAR? No idea to be honest, not sure if this is just to cater for French/German speakers on their servers, or something further. Wait and see what happens I guess.
What will that really mean for WAR? No idea to be honest, not sure if this is just to cater for French/German speakers on their servers, or something further. Wait and see what happens I guess.
Further healing stuff
Steve Engle is putting somethings out there for discussion in the developer thread about the upcoming healing changes.
++++++
As of right now, the cleanse change is slated to go to PTS and will most likely make it there.
Now I want to just spit-ball with all of you, what if we did something like this instead?
All cleanses remain 0s build time with a 5s cooldown.
We do tactic layouts as such that modify cleanse. (please remember I haven't had time to run numbers, but want an idea of what you think conceptually.)
Archmage - tactic that adds a HoT on the defensive target (mirror Shaman version)
Runepriest/Zealot - Tactic that alters the cleanse to have no cooldown, but cost significantly more AP.
Disciple of Khaine - Tactic for Group cleanse (mirror of Warrior Priest's Cleansing Power)
++++++
I vastly prefer these options. And the key word is "options", it doesn't break any current gameplay styles and gives us alternatives should people want to play cleanse monkey. Much better.
And I like to see the developers talking and throwing ideas out, please continue :)
++++++
As of right now, the cleanse change is slated to go to PTS and will most likely make it there.
Now I want to just spit-ball with all of you, what if we did something like this instead?
All cleanses remain 0s build time with a 5s cooldown.
We do tactic layouts as such that modify cleanse. (please remember I haven't had time to run numbers, but want an idea of what you think conceptually.)
Archmage - tactic that adds a HoT on the defensive target (mirror Shaman version)
Runepriest/Zealot - Tactic that alters the cleanse to have no cooldown, but cost significantly more AP.
Disciple of Khaine - Tactic for Group cleanse (mirror of Warrior Priest's Cleansing Power)
++++++
I vastly prefer these options. And the key word is "options", it doesn't break any current gameplay styles and gives us alternatives should people want to play cleanse monkey. Much better.
And I like to see the developers talking and throwing ideas out, please continue :)
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Healer changes
Sorry, bit slow posting due to being busy and stuff last few days. Link for the healer changes here.
Or in summary...
1) The big single target heals get reduced by 0.5 seconds to a 2 second cast.
2) Cleanse gets its cooldown removed and gets changed to a 0.5 second cast.
3) Runepriest's morale 3 gets a nerf, Zealot's morale 3 is changed to mirror it.
My verdict...
1) Not enough and I don't see this meaning much at all, particularly if the easily set back thing still applies. It's only 20% quicker than group heals which heal EACH person for almost the same amount, do not suffer the same pushback problem and obviously heal the entire group. The extra AP cost of group heals are totally outweighed by their power. Should be 1 or 1.5 seconds for single target heals.
As it stands this change has little benefit for PvP and though it is obviously a slight improvement, I will still not use the single target big heals except when bored or dicking about. It will be better for PvE, shame there's none worth doing anymore :P
It is on the right track, but it needs to be taken further to have any real impact on what button people will press.
2) Why change cleanse? Of all the things to be wasting time thinking about... Christ on a bike guys!
Impact on warband play could be significant if people organise dedicated cleansers, but I'm guessing we won't really know until it goes live. Perhaps, but I don't know and don't care. This was so far away from being anything I give two turds about right now, that I'm totally perplexed by it.
It's a horrible nerf to a healer trying to surivive on their own for any reason, since melee range being quite, uhm, far... that any pause in movement can have a huge cost. Particularly since so many MDPS can kill things so quickly now. From a selfish perspective I really don't like this change. It hurts my Shaman for no reason that I understand right now.
If someone could explain why curse needs any time and thought put into changing it, please do explain.
3) Well I tend to use the damage morale 3 on my Zealot, so to be honest I don't care. It might be a buff, I don't really know.
It may sound like I'm suffering from a bit of apathy here, but don't think that's apathy towards WAR itself, it's just these changes aren't doing much for me and the curse one is annoying. The single target heal one would be good if it was made worthwhile.
Or in summary...
1) The big single target heals get reduced by 0.5 seconds to a 2 second cast.
2) Cleanse gets its cooldown removed and gets changed to a 0.5 second cast.
3) Runepriest's morale 3 gets a nerf, Zealot's morale 3 is changed to mirror it.
My verdict...
1) Not enough and I don't see this meaning much at all, particularly if the easily set back thing still applies. It's only 20% quicker than group heals which heal EACH person for almost the same amount, do not suffer the same pushback problem and obviously heal the entire group. The extra AP cost of group heals are totally outweighed by their power. Should be 1 or 1.5 seconds for single target heals.
As it stands this change has little benefit for PvP and though it is obviously a slight improvement, I will still not use the single target big heals except when bored or dicking about. It will be better for PvE, shame there's none worth doing anymore :P
It is on the right track, but it needs to be taken further to have any real impact on what button people will press.
2) Why change cleanse? Of all the things to be wasting time thinking about... Christ on a bike guys!
Impact on warband play could be significant if people organise dedicated cleansers, but I'm guessing we won't really know until it goes live. Perhaps, but I don't know and don't care. This was so far away from being anything I give two turds about right now, that I'm totally perplexed by it.
It's a horrible nerf to a healer trying to surivive on their own for any reason, since melee range being quite, uhm, far... that any pause in movement can have a huge cost. Particularly since so many MDPS can kill things so quickly now. From a selfish perspective I really don't like this change. It hurts my Shaman for no reason that I understand right now.
If someone could explain why curse needs any time and thought put into changing it, please do explain.
3) Well I tend to use the damage morale 3 on my Zealot, so to be honest I don't care. It might be a buff, I don't really know.
It may sound like I'm suffering from a bit of apathy here, but don't think that's apathy towards WAR itself, it's just these changes aren't doing much for me and the curse one is annoying. The single target heal one would be good if it was made worthwhile.
Monday, 24 January 2011
He returns and me going off on one, again, but nicely..
Mythic's Community Manager Andy Belford is back at work after a having some time off for personal stuff, something that for some strange reason many gamers seem to find unacceptable. I presume they're not standing amongst the glass shards of their shattered homes and they don't ever have any time away from work. Unlikely one suspects. Me, I get 30 days leave a year and I'll take that whenever I like thank you very much. That said, I'm more than a little puzzled that nobody else at Mythic picked up the torch and covered things.
Anyway, Andy has posted about communication and Mythic's current ethos of not releasing news on anything until it's about to be launched. They’re trying to avoid disappointment and all the too common over-hyping of things that may not see the light of day, which is understandable, but personally I think they've tightened up too much. There is a desperate desire for solid long term positive news amongst the community, a community that is splitting apart as so many players declare they’re moving on to RIFT, WoW, etc. People are looking for reassurance that they’re not wasting their time, yet all the time the WAR haters and jaded snipe away with ever increasing calibre of ammunition and in some cases considerably more accuracy than in the past. Yet for those of us wanting to present a balanced (let alone a positive...) opinion we’re left with not much to go on. I don’t mean that to be interpreted as me saying it’s all doom and gloom, it’s just we’ve genuinely no idea what is really going on with WAR. Other than some fairly minor and very short term news anyway. This leaves those that still like the game floundering in a sea infested with hate filled pirates.
You just have to look at all the WAR bloggers that are just treading water (if they’re posting about WAR at all) because there is quite simply nothing to write about other than concerns or total flights of fancy. Those flights of fancy these days are just asking to be laughed at and it gets boring writing negative stuff; we want to have exciting things to ponder on, clues and gossip to debate. Unfortunately at the moment it’s a bit flat and the only people that can change that are Mythic.
Sure, I don’t want Mythic promising things that are unrealistic, but we do need a bit more info squeezed out than what we’re getting now. Particularly as whilst I like the proposed healing changes, unfortunately they do nothing to address the major problems it’s perceived (fairly IMHO) that 1.4 introduced regarding gear, renown, zergs and more. We need some positivity back, a sense of direction and control from Mythic, because regardless of how much they really have, the sensations of them existing are just not present in the WAR community right now.
I want to write positive stuff (it’s more interesting for a bloody start), but I can’t do that without being thrown a bone or two.
Tenuous link putting this tune on, but it makes me laugh, so nyah!
You just have to look at all the WAR bloggers that are just treading water (if they’re posting about WAR at all) because there is quite simply nothing to write about other than concerns or total flights of fancy. Those flights of fancy these days are just asking to be laughed at and it gets boring writing negative stuff; we want to have exciting things to ponder on, clues and gossip to debate. Unfortunately at the moment it’s a bit flat and the only people that can change that are Mythic.
Sure, I don’t want Mythic promising things that are unrealistic, but we do need a bit more info squeezed out than what we’re getting now. Particularly as whilst I like the proposed healing changes, unfortunately they do nothing to address the major problems it’s perceived (fairly IMHO) that 1.4 introduced regarding gear, renown, zergs and more. We need some positivity back, a sense of direction and control from Mythic, because regardless of how much they really have, the sensations of them existing are just not present in the WAR community right now.
I want to write positive stuff (it’s more interesting for a bloody start), but I can’t do that without being thrown a bone or two.
Lowbie Zealot = easymode gearing up
Been playing mostly playing my Zealot over the last few days, for no real reason other than I fancied a change and wanted to get his gear up a little bit more. So I took him from RR40 to RR45, which obviously isn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but unlike most careers, with Zealots it has quite a big impact. Now most WAR players will know about this, but I figured I’d explain why for anyone that is a new starter or are looking for an alt with an easy life.
At RR45 you can equip full conqueror armour, a set that was traditionally a DPS armour set. However because of the (fairly) recent changes to the Harbinger system it’s actually a lot more flexible than it used to be. The Harbinger ability is now a toggle between DPS and healing. It does this by converting all your armour’s Willpower to Intelligence, Heal Crit to Magic Crit, Heal Power to Magic Power and vice versa. In some respects I am not a fan of this new system, the cooldown on the ability can at times be a little too restrictive, but I can live with that because of the how easy it makes getting reasonable stats for a levelling Zealot.
As a lowbie it makes a lot of sense to run as a healer rather than DPS. It is great renown and you don’t need to worry about killing high RR players. Leaving your harbinger toggle in healing mode will mean that all your Intelligence counts as Willpower, etc as mentioned above. So if you had an item with say 20 Willpower and 20 Intelligence, it would actually count as 40 Willpower, which if you’re healing is a much better stat. Since Conqueror armour (and pretty much every other set too) has both Willpower and Intelligence on it, this means that with no effort or dicking about combining sets for different bonuses you can get extremely high Willpower. This then gives you plenty of freedom to invest in other stats like wounds and widens your options when choosing renown abilities.
This all means that for Zealots it’s incredibly easy to get focussed healing (or DPS…) stats that are just not possible with other careers at that low renown rank. My Shaman is higher RR and has a load of PvE gear from the likes of Lost Vale to choose from, but he can’t get stats anywhere near my Zealot’s who’s never done any PvE.
Now I’m sure there’s far better gear combinations possible than my simple “chuck on Conqueror cos its easy” thing. In fact I bet with some thought put to it you could really make the most of this ability and end up with pretty damn good stats at a very low RR. So if you're looking for a character you can gear up quite easily and you don't mind playing a healer, then it's well worth considering a Zealot.
At RR45 you can equip full conqueror armour, a set that was traditionally a DPS armour set. However because of the (fairly) recent changes to the Harbinger system it’s actually a lot more flexible than it used to be. The Harbinger ability is now a toggle between DPS and healing. It does this by converting all your armour’s Willpower to Intelligence, Heal Crit to Magic Crit, Heal Power to Magic Power and vice versa. In some respects I am not a fan of this new system, the cooldown on the ability can at times be a little too restrictive, but I can live with that because of the how easy it makes getting reasonable stats for a levelling Zealot.
As a lowbie it makes a lot of sense to run as a healer rather than DPS. It is great renown and you don’t need to worry about killing high RR players. Leaving your harbinger toggle in healing mode will mean that all your Intelligence counts as Willpower, etc as mentioned above. So if you had an item with say 20 Willpower and 20 Intelligence, it would actually count as 40 Willpower, which if you’re healing is a much better stat. Since Conqueror armour (and pretty much every other set too) has both Willpower and Intelligence on it, this means that with no effort or dicking about combining sets for different bonuses you can get extremely high Willpower. This then gives you plenty of freedom to invest in other stats like wounds and widens your options when choosing renown abilities.
This all means that for Zealots it’s incredibly easy to get focussed healing (or DPS…) stats that are just not possible with other careers at that low renown rank. My Shaman is higher RR and has a load of PvE gear from the likes of Lost Vale to choose from, but he can’t get stats anywhere near my Zealot’s who’s never done any PvE.
Now I’m sure there’s far better gear combinations possible than my simple “chuck on Conqueror cos its easy” thing. In fact I bet with some thought put to it you could really make the most of this ability and end up with pretty damn good stats at a very low RR. So if you're looking for a character you can gear up quite easily and you don't mind playing a healer, then it's well worth considering a Zealot.
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About Me
- Bootae
- Half man half pixel. Music obsessive, likes a drink, occasional bastard.