Mythic monsters

Having to rush this post as I've got a RIFT dungeon run tonight, so sorry for any spelling issues...

Today mythic have some info for us about, amongst things, the Sigmar's Tide event. It includes a new scenario set (as predicted) in the Bright Wizard College and some open world RvR activities to do. The scenario includes some kind of monster play feature as players can gain control of a fire elemental type beastie. When looked at purely in the context of a live event, this all sounds pretty good. Of course players are already ignoring that context and complaining that this isn't anywhere near the amount of new content or changes the game needs.

And they'd be right. But this is about the live event and we don't know what is (or isn't...) getting announced at Chicago Gamesday which it appears will be a month after this has already gone live, so sounds like I've got that one wrong and perhaps they do have something more than this to talk about. I'll not be getting hyped about it mind you, I remain wracked with doubt. So despite this the event itself sounds good.

Also we can see in that first post that 1.4.3 goes live in June. The only mention of what it includes is a new accessory set. So, uhm, ok. Have to wait and see if 1.4.3 brings us anything to care about or not.

And then finally we have a new dev discussion about monsterplay, or as Mythic calls it, Play as Monster. This leads me to feel a little uncomfortable about where this could end up. Aside from the incredibly bad idea, sorry... the INCREDIBLY BAD AND BLOODY STUPID IDEA of having Skaven playable for both factions instead of Lizardmen for Order, the implementation has not worked out very well at all and isn't even vaguely popular. People wanted new playable races and classes, not temporary skins with a few abilities, that you can only choose to use occasionally. So the thought of more of this is not in any way appealing.

Sure I guess there are ways it could be made a bit more appealing, but it will never, EVER, be as well received as actual new races and careers. Mythic need to HTFU, admit they got it wrong and do it properly. Sorry Mythic, I wub you guys and all, but that is the reality of how utterly mediocre the Skaven turned out and the only way you'd really improve it. For now it remains a missed opportunity of E P I C proportions. I've no idea where you'd get the money to sort this of course, but it really could be so much better if monster play was dropped.

A few quick comments on the latest live event

The daemon moon has risen and with it arrives the latest live event. And it's a good one too, unless you are like my missus and scared of masks. In which case you're buggered, unlike my... uhm... yeah... you get the idea. Lots of masks, LOTS!

If you cant get in game right now, take a look over at Werit for screenshots of the task list. It's great to see this is almost entirely PvP based.

The murder ball PQ is very cool when players from both factions are present. It's like a demented game of rugby/capture the flag. Not so good if no enemy are there to fight, but then that's the case for anything PvP wise and makea no sense to complain about.

The masks themselves are an amusing little distraction. Yes it nerfs your DPS/whatever, but who cares, it's just a bit of fun. I'm not so fussed about loot anyway and have to say I've not even bothered checking my event influence rewards properly yet. As for masks, I think I've got about 6 so far, each of which give you a different blessing style ability when you wear them. Rain of Squigs gets points for the best name ;)

Has to be said, I'm liking the character of this event generally. Probably my second favourite after Night of Murder.

 A HUGE plus was when IC was under siege earlier we could still do the live event scenario. Aaaaand it was popping every couple of minutes. Take that point on board pls Mythic ;)

Oh and here's me in a mask. Oh so handsome...

Good Wild Hunting

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a WAR live event cause such mixed opinion. Some very vocal people have been calling it out for being a load of PvE rubbish, some have been saying it promoted great RvR around the portals and then others just loved the whole thing. I found it a bit of a mixed bag.

The Hunters Vale
The instance was good. Ok, other than the cloak there was bugger all gear relevant to me, but to be honest it would have sucked if the dungeon brought in the latest uber weapon of doom. It doesn’t have to be an arms race anytime something new arrives; sideways itemisation is no bad thing. By giving the dungeon armour from the Ruin set, moderate weapon drops and the stag cloak, it ensured that instance was relevant to everyone.

The dungeon itself looked great. It was very pretty and absolutely nailed the wood spirit theme. The mini bosses were not the most exciting ever tactic wise, but that’s fine for a live event, you don’t want to be researching tactics for an instance available for just one week. The puzzle and main boss fight (which had a bit more too it) worked perfectly, not too hard to learn, but not one everyone would instantly beat either. Also having the PQ timer to complete the instance in (or you got less loot) added a bit of spice to the dungeon as a whole. On the subject of time, Mythic got this exactly right. Depending on your group it took between 20 to 45mins to complete, which is spot on. I like mixing in PvE to my gaming, but I don’t like having to spend 4 hours in a dungeon. I’d love it if Mythic added lots of instances on a similar scale to Hunter’s Vale. Oh and I didn’t encounter a single bug in HV.


Stag chasing…
For a week Benny Hill has been alive, well and playing WAR. There were these Lord level Stags that run through the zones and if attacked they just keep running. Part of the Live Event required us to kill these 5 times, which obviously resulted in zergs of players chasing bloody Stags around everywhere trying to hit the damned thing. The zerging whilst funny to watch was dull as hell to take part in, but if you chased a stag in a quiet area it was potentially great fun. I grouped up with Khalie a sorc from Kill Frenzy and we went stag hunting in Etaine. At first there was nobody else there, but then a few Order turned up and joined in. What followed was running battles around the zone trying to not lose sight of the stag, while fighting off enemies. It was actually a brilliant laugh. Small scale combat rocks ;)

You’re the Piggy Pig!
Some of the other popular tasks were killing or being killed as “beast hexed” players. What happened here was whilst in the PQ area people could get a hex on them, they then had 20 seconds or so to pass the hex onto another player or they would turn into a pig. This could be both frustrating and fun. When in Zergland it was very hard to get credit, but in smaller scale stuff it was most amusing. It also provided the epic title “Squeals like a pig”. Alas no banjo though.

Other bits.
Other tasks were a bit meh. Kill a variety of animals, a brief PvE quest, do some elf scenarios, that sort of thing. Nothing to shout out about.

All in all, it was a fairly good event. If you got into it and ignored the “its all PvE” crying then you’d find there was something for everyone and I certainly had some quality PvP scraps out of it. The dungeon shows great potential and I really hope Mythic pick up on this. On the negative side there were too many humdrum tasks and I know some people had problems completing certain tasks because of zerging.

Not as much fun as the Night of Murder one, but it had its moments.