Sunday, 31 July 2011
A busy week
Done a lot of stuff round the house, painting, DIY, all that crap. Which meant what spare time I had, aside from family stuff, went into chilling out playing games rather than writing stuff. WAR wise I have dabbled with the Blorc a little, but have mainly been playing a Marauder in tier 3 with a bunch of recently returned and rerolled guildies. Will talk about that a bit soon...
Monday, 25 July 2011
Gobbo Frenzy
To mix things up a bit, yesterday we had one of our KF event nights. KF and friends went on a GOBBO FRENZY!
We cobbled together a full warband entirely made up of Shaman and Squig Herders, got ourselves a little bit organised and joined the madness that was last night’s Praag. There was loads of Order everywhere, constant AAO for us and as a result a fair bit of renown and entertainment. I think some of our enemies may have found it surprising quite how potent that horde of gobos could be… but everyone assisting on one target will do that. :P
Alas we didn’t have anyone frapsing last night, so no video this time round, but basically it was lots of running away, arrows, squigs, laser beams, getting sandwiched by multiple Order warbands, cackling on Ventrilo and general nonsense. All good fun. Oh and we got to totally screw with Order’s keep take by having everyone assisting on their ram each time they deployed it. Having well over 30 DoTs on a ram melts it fairly promptly, I think we destroyed about 7 or 8 rams in that one keep take. :D
Elsewhere.. no gobbos involved but lol
We cobbled together a full warband entirely made up of Shaman and Squig Herders, got ourselves a little bit organised and joined the madness that was last night’s Praag. There was loads of Order everywhere, constant AAO for us and as a result a fair bit of renown and entertainment. I think some of our enemies may have found it surprising quite how potent that horde of gobos could be… but everyone assisting on one target will do that. :P
Alas we didn’t have anyone frapsing last night, so no video this time round, but basically it was lots of running away, arrows, squigs, laser beams, getting sandwiched by multiple Order warbands, cackling on Ventrilo and general nonsense. All good fun. Oh and we got to totally screw with Order’s keep take by having everyone assisting on their ram each time they deployed it. Having well over 30 DoTs on a ram melts it fairly promptly, I think we destroyed about 7 or 8 rams in that one keep take. :D
Elsewhere.. no gobbos involved but lol
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Saturday, 23 July 2011
WAR on the road
Mythic posted this earlier detailing some events they're going to be attending. Copy paste job for ya'll below:
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Greetings,
Some interesting weeks are ahead of us. There are four events that we plan to visit before the end of August giving us the chance to have some face to face conversations with you.
The first two events are the US and the German Gamesday operated by our good friends at Games Workshop. The US Gamesday in Chicago is on Saturday, July 30th and the German Gamesday is on Sunday, August 7th. At both locations we want to take the opportunity to present the details of the upcoming patches as introduced in the last Community Update. Do you want to share your ideas how Fortresses should be re-introduced or which areas can make excellent new points of conflict? In Chicago or Cologne is your chance to discuss it in person.
The next event is GamesCom 2011 in Cologne. It starts on Wednesday, August 17th and ends on Sunday, August 21st. WAR won’t have a presence on the EA booth, but we will have some meet and greets events planned. The exact details including dates and times will be posted closer to the convention.
The last event is PAX in Seattle, WA from August 26th to August 28th and again we hope to meet some of you there for feedback and discussion.
The end of August will also see an announcement about our future plans for Warhammer Online.
See you on the road!
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Wednesday, 20 July 2011
A return to WAR - Squig Frenzy
The Squig Herder is one of my favourite WAR careers; it has loads of character and (in theory) good damage combined with excellent mobility. Unfortunately 1.4 turned up and gave them (and other ranged physical damage careers) the proper shaft by gimping armour penetration. Now I wasn’t interested enough to look into the calculations and details that explained why this gimping happened, but I know that it did because I tried playing my Squig Herder back then and it was bloody terrible. Mythic acknowledged these issues and eventually changed some things about, including adjusting a supposedly unpopular tactic so that it provides a dramatic boost to a range of DPS stats, at the cost of toughness. Combined with the lower renown rank requirements for armour sets and the excellent new item sets, this looked like it might have gone some way to making the career not suck donkey balls for any players below RR80. The question of course is has it made any difference?
Yes, it has made a significant difference and the career is very much worth playing, but it has unfortunately come at a significant cost.
I’ve had a few solid sessions in Tier 4 now with my RR52 Squig Herder, taking part in a mixture of solo and small scale group roaming, as well as some warband and scenario action. I dabbled with specs based on each of the 3 mastery trees, including variants of the old cookie cutter specs from the past, results have been mixed. In general I think the career works pretty well, has a wide range of decent abilities, some great morales and is very well defined in it's role and game-play style. Whilst not one of the big 4 that both factions have, it is a very good career and one of the most fun to play.
For the laugh I tried out playing a full on melee theme with its Squig Armour ability/stance/thing. It sucked, big time. The damage is poor compared with other melee, the range of abilities have some use but are too limited, it just feels too slow and as a result is surprisingly dull to play. It does have Bad Gas which now it's not linked to your squig actually has a chance of working and the Squig Armour does look cool, but that’s all it's really got going for it. I’ve no idea how viable it is at high RR, but at low ones avoid this at all costs.
A heavy Quick Shootin’ spec, that doesn't also have plenty of points in Big Shootin, is mediocre, not bad, but certainly not good. The abilities just do not hit hard enough and I always had to rely on Big Shootin abilities to get the burst to actually kill things. In certain situations it could be great, when kiting an enemy 1v1 for example, but all too often when multiple players and healers are involved, I found it too lacking in damage. That said, I see the heal debuff as an essential, so would always want that on my action bar. At low RR I would say this mastery tree is worth experimenting with, it might work for you, but I personally wasn’t happy with it as my main focus.
The one that really worked for me was a spec that was high in both Big and Quick Shootin. Plink still rules the roost as primary source of killing and was doing quite reasonable damage, certainly enough that I wasn’t just leeching kills from the big boys. Which wasn’t much of a surprise as this was basically the spec I used to play anyway, so the familiarity no doubt helped. To be honest I was pleasantly surprised at quite how good the damage could be, nothing silly of course, but decent. This was helped by the stats I can now reach: 1070 BS, 650 WS and I think about 25% crit, though I don’t remember how much my total ranged power was. I could easily get my crit a lot higher and run at say 500 WS too, which might be worth doing. That’s not bad at all for a mere RR52 character and I at least felt competitive.
However… This damage comes at a significant cost. A mere 6-7k wounds, a pathetic 98 Toughness and bugger all other defensive stats. Which means if anyone deigns to look at me, I am totally and utterly buggered, but to be honest I don’t mind this. I have to work harder to stay alive against the high RR people sure, but I can get solo kills if I’m clever and do very well when working with a group. So that doesn’t bother me so much as the other big problem.
Basically Squig Herders now only have 1 tactic slot. There are two tactics that between them give a lot of Ballistic and Weapon Skill, they are both absolutely essential. Then there is Run Away, the speed boost on damage tactic, this is a career defining tactic for a Squig Herder and is again absolutely essential for a low RR one due to the lack of survivability related stats. So that leaves one slot free… For me that had to be the range boost for Quick Shootin abilities which brings them in line with the Big ones. I’d like to take the tactic that reduces Plink’s cast time, but it’s not viable without other tactics to help with the increased action point cost. There are other tactics I’d also like to use, but they just can’t compete with stats and Run Away, so I find myself frustrated and feeling somewhat restricted.
All told this means that yes a lowbie Squig Herder works rather well again with certain specs and honestly it is a great laugh to play, but you’ve not got many options in play style or build. I don’t know how much that changes later on and it may not bother you anyway, but personally I would really like to feel like I have more choice in how to build my character. Ranged DPS gets some attention in the next patch, hopefully that will include having less essential tactics (without gimping things...) and making Squig Armour specs worthwhile.
Yes, it has made a significant difference and the career is very much worth playing, but it has unfortunately come at a significant cost.
I’ve had a few solid sessions in Tier 4 now with my RR52 Squig Herder, taking part in a mixture of solo and small scale group roaming, as well as some warband and scenario action. I dabbled with specs based on each of the 3 mastery trees, including variants of the old cookie cutter specs from the past, results have been mixed. In general I think the career works pretty well, has a wide range of decent abilities, some great morales and is very well defined in it's role and game-play style. Whilst not one of the big 4 that both factions have, it is a very good career and one of the most fun to play.
For the laugh I tried out playing a full on melee theme with its Squig Armour ability/stance/thing. It sucked, big time. The damage is poor compared with other melee, the range of abilities have some use but are too limited, it just feels too slow and as a result is surprisingly dull to play. It does have Bad Gas which now it's not linked to your squig actually has a chance of working and the Squig Armour does look cool, but that’s all it's really got going for it. I’ve no idea how viable it is at high RR, but at low ones avoid this at all costs.
A heavy Quick Shootin’ spec, that doesn't also have plenty of points in Big Shootin, is mediocre, not bad, but certainly not good. The abilities just do not hit hard enough and I always had to rely on Big Shootin abilities to get the burst to actually kill things. In certain situations it could be great, when kiting an enemy 1v1 for example, but all too often when multiple players and healers are involved, I found it too lacking in damage. That said, I see the heal debuff as an essential, so would always want that on my action bar. At low RR I would say this mastery tree is worth experimenting with, it might work for you, but I personally wasn’t happy with it as my main focus.
The one that really worked for me was a spec that was high in both Big and Quick Shootin. Plink still rules the roost as primary source of killing and was doing quite reasonable damage, certainly enough that I wasn’t just leeching kills from the big boys. Which wasn’t much of a surprise as this was basically the spec I used to play anyway, so the familiarity no doubt helped. To be honest I was pleasantly surprised at quite how good the damage could be, nothing silly of course, but decent. This was helped by the stats I can now reach: 1070 BS, 650 WS and I think about 25% crit, though I don’t remember how much my total ranged power was. I could easily get my crit a lot higher and run at say 500 WS too, which might be worth doing. That’s not bad at all for a mere RR52 character and I at least felt competitive.
However… This damage comes at a significant cost. A mere 6-7k wounds, a pathetic 98 Toughness and bugger all other defensive stats. Which means if anyone deigns to look at me, I am totally and utterly buggered, but to be honest I don’t mind this. I have to work harder to stay alive against the high RR people sure, but I can get solo kills if I’m clever and do very well when working with a group. So that doesn’t bother me so much as the other big problem.
Basically Squig Herders now only have 1 tactic slot. There are two tactics that between them give a lot of Ballistic and Weapon Skill, they are both absolutely essential. Then there is Run Away, the speed boost on damage tactic, this is a career defining tactic for a Squig Herder and is again absolutely essential for a low RR one due to the lack of survivability related stats. So that leaves one slot free… For me that had to be the range boost for Quick Shootin abilities which brings them in line with the Big ones. I’d like to take the tactic that reduces Plink’s cast time, but it’s not viable without other tactics to help with the increased action point cost. There are other tactics I’d also like to use, but they just can’t compete with stats and Run Away, so I find myself frustrated and feeling somewhat restricted.
All told this means that yes a lowbie Squig Herder works rather well again with certain specs and honestly it is a great laugh to play, but you’ve not got many options in play style or build. I don’t know how much that changes later on and it may not bother you anyway, but personally I would really like to feel like I have more choice in how to build my character. Ranged DPS gets some attention in the next patch, hopefully that will include having less essential tactics (without gimping things...) and making Squig Armour specs worthwhile.
Monday, 18 July 2011
Bit of a greenskin theme
I'm having a bit of a break from my Shaman and have mainly been messing around with my Squig Herder and Black Orc. The Squig Herder is RR52 and the Black Orc a mere RR42, both are level 40 and as such are right in the sodding deep end in Tier 4. So I'll be posting about those this week to continue my return to WAR series of posts, though there is the risk of other tangents diverting my attention of course..
And I ended up playing my Marauder and Chosen tonight :P
And I ended up playing my Marauder and Chosen tonight :P
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
A return to WAR - Mean green laser beam
I mentioned the other day that I’ve been playing a DPS Shaman recently. Where the Magus proved to be frustrating, the Shaman with a DPS spec and a mere RR50 (now 62...) has been an absolute revelation; it’s far more effective and entertaining than I had expected. In the past I had played my Shaman as a healer, since it was just not possible to get enough DPS related stats at his low RR, but the recent changes to WAR’s armour restrictions and the new jewellery set have completely changed that.
I’m wearing:
This selection seems to be the best combination of set bonuses to maximise my damage and gets me to around 250 damage bonus, which for someone at that RR is not too bad I think. I’m not far off getting Worn Sovereign now too which should make quite a difference too. Whilst this seems pretty good to me, if anyone has any ideas on improving this further, any tips are more than welcome.
I do of course switch to healing tactics and armour if in a situation or scenario where there aren’t enough healers, no point choosing to lose, but wherever possible I’ve played as DPS. Unlike the zealot, a DPS Shaman doesn’t become a particularly effective healer just by switching, so how you spec is more of a rigid play-style choice. Spec wise I’ve dabbled with the classic tri-mastery set up, which has a lot going for it and gives more survivability, but at the moment I prefer a balls to the wall Gork with Green spec. Sure, it’s a fairly selfish spec to go for and isn’t making the most of the Shaman’s unique abilities, but I don’t care, I’m having a good laugh with it. That said, I am tempted to try out a more Green focussed spec and get more from the Shaman’s lifetaps, I’ve heard some good reports on it and since I do a lot of solo roaming, it could work quite well for me .
Regarding the solo roaming; whilst it’s best to run from RR90-100’s with a clue, I’ve done rather well in 1v1 fights in general and been able to earn some very nice renown just doing my own thing. Group play with people that know I’m in DPS mode has been very good too and in particular one night playing as a DPS Shammie tag team was hysterical and very successful indeed.
One thing you will get though is shit from people who are offended that you dare spec for DPS. Now, if you’re point blank refusing to heal even when there are no other healers or if when DPS mode you’re not using your lifetaps and mork charged instants to help out, then you probably deserve to get called a twat. However, that doesn’t excuse those occasional morons that will give you shit even if you and your team are doing well. For example the other day I was DPSing in a scenario, we had people healing and things were going rather well. Terry Fuckwitt Chosen (name changed to insult the idiot) then decides to complain about “fucking LOLhealerDPS”. I didn’t bother replying and let the result do the talking, We won comfortably I finished with over double his damage, had 3x more killing blows and in fact I healed for more damage he did. Oh and to make it somewhat ironic, by the look of his character and how squishy he was, he must have had a LOLDPS tank set up himself. So even when you're doing nothing worth any crap, some twats can't resist it.
Anyway, to sum it up, the Shaman is an excellent class to play even at low RRs. It can be effective at both DPS and healing, though not really both roles with one spec. Healing is the fastest way to gain renown and whilst still enjoyable, it’s not quite as much fun as playing as DPS (not that healing shammies are dull, far from it), however DPS spec is a fair bit more challenging to play and earn renown with. Be sure to make the most of the career’s mobility, practice and you’ll do well. It’s early days for me and I’ve got lots to learn, but it has been great and the gear gap has barely been an issue. I can fully recommend the Shaman for any returning or new player.
Though if you do spec DPS, don’t refuse to heal when you need to. Like I said above, don’t choose to lose.
UPDATE! In other news there's a new development thread up about new locations for scenarios. Check it out here.
I’m wearing:
- 2 Conqueror and 3 Invader armour
- The Land of the Dead cloak/jewellery 2 piece with the magic power bonus
- 4 parts of the new accessory set (belt+3 jewels).
- A staff from one of the Tombs (Sky I think it was) with INT and MP talismans.
This selection seems to be the best combination of set bonuses to maximise my damage and gets me to around 250 damage bonus, which for someone at that RR is not too bad I think. I’m not far off getting Worn Sovereign now too which should make quite a difference too. Whilst this seems pretty good to me, if anyone has any ideas on improving this further, any tips are more than welcome.
I do of course switch to healing tactics and armour if in a situation or scenario where there aren’t enough healers, no point choosing to lose, but wherever possible I’ve played as DPS. Unlike the zealot, a DPS Shaman doesn’t become a particularly effective healer just by switching, so how you spec is more of a rigid play-style choice. Spec wise I’ve dabbled with the classic tri-mastery set up, which has a lot going for it and gives more survivability, but at the moment I prefer a balls to the wall Gork with Green spec. Sure, it’s a fairly selfish spec to go for and isn’t making the most of the Shaman’s unique abilities, but I don’t care, I’m having a good laugh with it. That said, I am tempted to try out a more Green focussed spec and get more from the Shaman’s lifetaps, I’ve heard some good reports on it and since I do a lot of solo roaming, it could work quite well for me .
Regarding the solo roaming; whilst it’s best to run from RR90-100’s with a clue, I’ve done rather well in 1v1 fights in general and been able to earn some very nice renown just doing my own thing. Group play with people that know I’m in DPS mode has been very good too and in particular one night playing as a DPS Shammie tag team was hysterical and very successful indeed.One thing you will get though is shit from people who are offended that you dare spec for DPS. Now, if you’re point blank refusing to heal even when there are no other healers or if when DPS mode you’re not using your lifetaps and mork charged instants to help out, then you probably deserve to get called a twat. However, that doesn’t excuse those occasional morons that will give you shit even if you and your team are doing well. For example the other day I was DPSing in a scenario, we had people healing and things were going rather well. Terry Fuckwitt Chosen (name changed to insult the idiot) then decides to complain about “fucking LOLhealerDPS”. I didn’t bother replying and let the result do the talking, We won comfortably I finished with over double his damage, had 3x more killing blows and in fact I healed for more damage he did. Oh and to make it somewhat ironic, by the look of his character and how squishy he was, he must have had a LOLDPS tank set up himself. So even when you're doing nothing worth any crap, some twats can't resist it.
Anyway, to sum it up, the Shaman is an excellent class to play even at low RRs. It can be effective at both DPS and healing, though not really both roles with one spec. Healing is the fastest way to gain renown and whilst still enjoyable, it’s not quite as much fun as playing as DPS (not that healing shammies are dull, far from it), however DPS spec is a fair bit more challenging to play and earn renown with. Be sure to make the most of the career’s mobility, practice and you’ll do well. It’s early days for me and I’ve got lots to learn, but it has been great and the gear gap has barely been an issue. I can fully recommend the Shaman for any returning or new player.
Though if you do spec DPS, don’t refuse to heal when you need to. Like I said above, don’t choose to lose.
UPDATE! In other news there's a new development thread up about new locations for scenarios. Check it out here.
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About Me
- Bootae
- Half man half pixel. Music obsessive, likes a drink, occasional bastard.