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.

Woah that went live quick

Mythic didn't waste any time with the DoK/WP nerf/change going live. Forums are going to assplode right about... well... they have been for days.

It will be very interesting to see what the reality of this change is. My money is on the decent guilds and players adapting very quickly and not a great deal changing in the grand scheme of things, other than perhaps cloth healers getting a bit more popular. I suspect that those suggesting that the rampant AoE of doom will melt things quicker have a point, but meh, it's not like it was particularly slow before.

Any time that people get nerfed the forums go ape-shit, more often than not it proves to be players crying purely out of self interest, sometimes not of course, but until this gets played with on live we won't know how justified all the QQ has been. I'll be most intrigued to see on Karak Norn what impact (if any) it has on warband composition for the big name guilds.

Hotfix details below:

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Greetings!

The following Hot Fixes were implemented during today's maintenance:

General Changes and Bug Fixes
General
•The Keg’s End Live Event has begun and lasts until January 4th, 2011!
Combat and Careers


Disciple of Khaine
•Khaine’s Embrace: The base healing value of this ability has been reduced and its cooldown has been removed.
•Khaine’s Vigor: The base healing value of this ability has been increased and its duration has been reduced.

Magus
•Chaotic Attunement: Fixed an issue which prevented this Tactic ability from reducing the Action Point cost of summoning abilities.
Warrior Priest
•Pious Restoration: The base healing value of this ability has been increased and its duration has been reduced.
•Touch of the Divine: The base healing value of this ability has been reduced and its cooldown has been removed.

Realm vs. Realm
Open RvR
•Rate Ogre: This unit’s survivability has been increased.
•Gutter Run: This Gutter Runner ability will no longer stack with other run speed buffs.
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Goodbye guard or hello shield?

One of the things that went live on the PTS last night was a change to the Guard ability on tank careers; it now requires a shield to work. This has kicked off a lot of debate and after reading lots of it, I think it's fair to say that the change appears to be popular with most people, but unsurprisingly is not so much with great weapon wielding Tank players.

I think it’s an excellent change. It further defines the purpose of sword and shield tanks, making those players feel a bit more worthwhile and as Guard is an incredibly powerful ability, it now comes with a restriction to partly compensate for that power. I 100% think this is a good idea.

However, I do think there should be something to balance out the fact that Great Weapon tanks are losing an important ability. Because if things stay as they are, then without Guard all great weapon specced tanks are going to be pressured into using shields when grouped in any form. You just know that people will get flamed and ridiculed for using great weapons, instead of guarding Player X, Y or Z. It will cause rifts, arguments and lead to everyone using shields.

In my head at least, ideally a group should want both a Shield using guard tank AND a great weapon one. There should be purpose to the great weapon tank beyond just extra DPS, but I totally agree it should not be guard, it just feels right for that to be associated to a heavily armoured bugger with a bloody huge shield. So perhaps something buff or crowd control related?

Swordmasters and Blackguards SHOULD be using great weapons, just go look at the miniatures on the Gamesworkshop site and you’ll see that’s what they use. I can understand why their players in particular might not like this change, as it is forcing them into a different play style that isn’t quite what they’re meant to be.

With my Chosen I’m great weapon specced at the moment and I’m really enjoying it, so will I change back to shield spec? Probably, I really enjoy playing shield spec too, so it’s not a hardship. But I do have DPS sovereign and my best wep is a great weapon, so maybe I’d rather stick with the big stick. All told, I’m not screwing about the change at all, it is a good one and is needed, but I do think it should have something that goes alongside it to keep both playstyles as viable options.

Must.. stay... on... target.. Doh.

There is a problem with being an Alt-Whore like me, that being spoilt for choice and having moments where I just can’t decide what to focus on. I’ve got different little targets for each character, but to reach all requires a bit more spare time than I’ve got.

I sorta decided my priority now is to get Bootae (my Chosen) to RR80, I’m RR74 now and have just the Sovereign gloves to acquire for full sov, so it makes sense. But who am I kidding… I know I won’t be able to purely stick with playing one character. Already since deciding to focus on Bootae I’ve snuck onto my Black Orc and got a another level there (36 now), played with Choppa specs, did a dungeon with both my WE and Squig Herder, oh and played my DoK too…

I wish I was better at staying focussed. Perhaps it’s a good thing, I’m a hell of a lot less likely to burn out or get bored. Yet with new realm ranks and content that maybe linked to them coming out before the end of the year, I suspect I will regret not getting 80 on Bootae if I don’t do it before then.

hmmmmmmm but but but... doh.

Opposites attract

I was wondering earlier, if I had started WAR on the opposite faction, what career would I have gone for? Which career would I be considering my main today instead of my Chosen?

There are quite a few Order careers I’m intrigued by; in particular Slayers, White Lions, Shadow Warriors and Warrior Priests, but I just know I would have gone with an Ironbreaker. Nothing to do with how powerful they are or have been, since I wouldn’t have known back at launch anyway, no this would have been purely based on them being grumpy bastards smothered in gromril armour. With beards… and beards are important, both for WHFB dwarves and in real life. Beard+axe (or hammer)+grumpy+gromril=WIN! Yes I choose a career in as shallow a manner as that :P You've got to look at it for a long time, so style and character > all really.

Ages ago I made one on a different server; got a few levels under his rather large belt and then I decided to stop. Too tempting a distraction, too much time required away from my Destruction server. It’s nagging at me still…

What about you folks? If you had started on the opposing side which career would have attracted you?

What is Destruction's most fun career for a new player?

I wasn’t sure what to post about today, I left my list of potential topics at work and unfortunately I’m sat at home with my face on fire… don’t ask. Thankfully I’ve been saved by an email request from a chap by the name of Ulli, so Ulli thanks for the mail and this one’s for you sweetie.

Ulli is thinking about starting WAR and asked if I, as a self confessed alt whore, would post about what I think is the most fun Destruction career to play. That’s actually one hell of a tricky question to answer and is immensely influenced by personal taste, but none the less I shall attempt to answer.

First off I can’t claim to be an expert on every career and as the word fun was included, I think to make a judgement I have to have played them plenty at 40. So I will only consider the ones I personally have at level 40. Those being:

Choppa
Chosen
Magus
Shaman
Squig Herder
Witch Elf
Zealot

Which means I’m not thinking about:
Black Orc
Disciple of Khaine
Marauder
Sorcerer

Though it is worth mentioning, the Disciple of Khaine and Sorcerer are without any doubt the two most powerful careers on Destruction. So if fun for you means being a nigh unkillable healing machine of death or having nukes that make the Sun look a bit wet, those two might be your thing. How fun they are to play I can’t really say.

So what makes a class (or career as we call them in WAR) fun?

For me I think it’s these 4 things:

• Looking cool.
• Based around an interesting, but not overly restrictive mechanic or system.
• Having clear purpose and roles.
• Being effective at the role/s it plays.
• Comfortable in both groups and when solo.

And this is where I hit a bit of a problem… I started scoring them to see what would win, but all of the careers that I play score highly in each area. Each has a very different playstyles and I enjoy playing ALL of them, but I don’t know which I like best. However there is one I think that is worth ruling out for a new player; The Magus. It’s almost great, but it trips over in a big way as it lacks direction, burst damage and utility compared with the Sorcerer. Unless you take the rift bot bomb route (rift is a spell that pulls enemy plays towards you, the bomb is you and your groups AOE attacks), which is a restrictive gamestyle, it’s a bit like Mythic don’t quite know what the Magus is there for. Not that it’s as bad as many make out, but really I think the other options are just plain better and certainly more forgiving for a new player.

Anyway, with the other careers different play styles and abilities balancing themselves out in the fun stakes, I think the best thing for any new player is to take advantage of the free trial. Make one of everything, level it up to 11 and get a feel for each career, it won’t give you the level 40 lowdown, but at least you’ll get a flavour for it.

Bah I can’t bottle it like this. I need to choose…ok ok…

It’s the Choppa.

They look awesome, like totally brutal... Their rage system is simple, effective and well balanced, and they also have lots of abilities that are worth using, if played correctly this is no single ability spamming career. Choppa also have a very wide range of viable ways to spec their mastery points (talent lines, specs, whatever you want to call them), with each of the 3 mastery lines working perfectly well. You can AoE bomb with them, be a single target damage dealing monster, buff friends and debuff enemies. If you spec for it you can even self heal! They have a bit of everything, but with the ability through mastery points to be more than a jack of all trades. Also as a later addition to the game, it seems to me that Mythic had learnt a few lessons about itemisation when the Choppa was introduced, so gear wise you have a lot of options. There is nothing about the Choppa that I don’t like.

So there you have it. If like Ulli you’re considering starting WAR, but are unsure what to play and want something that will be good old fashioned fun, I would recommend the Choppa.

More 1.3.6 career changes revealed

The post by Nate Levy can be found here.

If you cba to click the link, here's what is says and my comments included in red:

Continuing with our "In Development" posts for patch 1.3.6, we're now ready to begin discussing some upcoming changes to several other careers. Just as before, we greatly appreciate your feedback and interest, and we will be heavily moderating this thread to ensure that discussions remain civil and constructive.

Swordmaster:

• A new ability, "Sudden Shift", is now trainable at Rank 3. This ability will instantly shift you from No Balance into Improved Balance, or from Improved Balance into Perfect Balance, or from Perfect Balance into Improved Balance. It is off of the global cooldown, and has a 5 second cooldown of its own.

 Black Orc:

• A new ability, "Changin' Da Plan", is now trainable at Rank 3. This ability will instantly shift you from No Plan into Da Good Plan, or from Da Good Plan into Da Best Plan, or from Da Best Plan into Da Good Plan. It is off of the global cooldown, and has a 5 second cooldown of its own.

 This is an improvement obviously for both SM and Blorcs, but is it enough? I think it might be, but I'd like to hear the thoughts of experienced T4 SM/Blorc players.

Black Guard:

• Crush The Weak is moving to Rank 35, and it will now reduce the victim's chance to critically hit based on Hate.
• Brutal Smash is moving to Rank 9, and it will now increase Strength, and Willpower based on Hate, for both the Black Guard themselves and their Protected ally.
• Feeding On Weakness will now increase Toughness instead of Strength.
• Furious Howl is moving to Rank 40.
• Horrific Wound is moving to Rank 12, and it will now reduce the victim's armor based on Hate.

 All good, the Black Guard has needed some love for a long time. Alas this is being ignored as people are up in arms that there is no mention of a fix to the Choking Fury bug, nothing something I know much about, but apparently its very powerful. Remember folks, no mention of a bug fix in a post about career changes doesn't mean it isn't getting fixed.

White Lion:

• Force Opportunity is moving to be available at 9 points in the Path of the Hunter, and its effect has been changed. It is now an undefendable attack which reduces the victim's armor.
• Echoing Roar is moving to be available at 5 points in the Path of the Guardian.

 I don't know the career well enough for personal opinion, but I'm told these are good changes.

Choppa:

• Can't Stop Da Chop has had its effect changed, and it will now reduce incoming healing on the victim. It now costs 15 Action Points, and has a 10 second cooldown.

Hmmm. This brings it more in line with the Slayer, that's no problem for me or my Choppa. I'm savage specced at the moment for farming saccelum for alts, but I'm more often Hitta specced anyway as I think its more interesting to play. Not arguing against the change, but I am kinda wondering what will be a Savage choppas main attack after this though, this will mean there is no longer a spammable savage main attack, well... other than two that dont really count (a crappy DoT and a behind target only attack). Constant cooldown dancing instead?

Looking forward to hearing more stuff in the hopefully near future.

An alternative dilemma

Oh me oh my, what to do? I’m suffering from indecision, which is not something that normally affects me. Indifference, apathy, random hatred, the raging horn and mild obsessions yes, I’ve got those well covered. Just ask my long-suffering wife… but indecision is not usually my scene. And so you may ask what is this incredibly important dilemma perplexing me so?
 
I can’t make my mind up which character to level next. Yes indeed, a decision of such great importance that it’s right up there with which useless expenses stealing twat I vote for at the next election. If only Jesse Ventura was British, and my local MP… then at least my voting choice would be easy. Alas Britain’s only Double-Hard-Bastard™ politician, Paddy Ashdown (ex-SBS) has retired.
 
Ok so here’s my current Destruction character list:
 
Chosen (40)
Choppa (40)
Magus (40)
Shaman (40)
 
Witch Elf (33)
Squig Herder (26ish)
Disciple of Khaine (in the teens somewhere)
Marauder (10)
Zealot (10)
Sorcerer (10)
 
There are things I like about all the potential candidates for 5th  level 40.. You’ll notice Black Guard and Black Orc are missing. Whilst I like the imagery of both, I tried them and didn’t like their play styles compared with my Chosen. So that leaves all the ones in yellow above to choose from. I think I’m leaning slightly more towards the Marauder or Squig Herder, though obviously the Marauder is a long way from 40. Yet every time I see one of those mutations ripple into different forms, or watch Biggsie’s Marauder video, I become more and more tempted. Of course the overpowered uberness of both the Sorcerer and Disciple of Khaine should be tempting, but to be honest I’ve never picked a class because of how good it is. Play style and imagery are the most important, which makes it more complicated as both of those classes are also fun to play, plus the DoK’s emo stance makes me laugh and my Sorceress has epic norks. Then there’s the Zealot, the red-headed bastard step child of Destruction and very intriguing because of that fact alone. I’m not impressed with mine so far, but I know they get damn good later and are always in demand. And then finally there’s the Squig Herder. It’s a goblin, which earns huge points, it has Squigs for even more points, it’s a goblin, it’s sneaky and it is a lot of fun to play. And it’s a goblin. Did I mention it’s a goblin?
 
The other part of this dilemma is I’m bored of the PvE grind, I’ve done it too many times now. So the other option is to purely RvR grind my way up, but I don’t have enough gaming time for this and my main character. RvR grinding is too slow for me personally right now. I don’t mind the lower tiers, but I’m an end-game player at heart. To me levelling is just a means to an end. I want to be in tier 4, building armour sets and balancing stats ASAP. I could get friends to power level me in Land of the Dead, but I don’t want to waste their time, so whatever I go for it has to be the right choice.
 
Any suggestions?