Angry lass on a floaty disk

I'm finding Tier 4 to be horrifically zergy lately. With 1.3 just around the corner and me not being a huge fan of zerg warfare, it's hit my motivation to play Tier 4 oRvR a bit. I'm sure it will spark my interest again soon, I'm already getting a few withdrawl symptoms, but in the meantime I'm experimenting with my Magus "Devotchka".

Officially the least popular class in the game and undoubtedly inferior to it's mirror (Engineer), but it's still the ranged DPS class I'm interested in. I got a taste for DoT based ranged DPS classes with my affliction warlock in World of Warcraft. Not totally sure why I find them more appealing than direct damage nukers, maybe it's the tortuous manner of death these classes provide their enemies. Nothing quite like DoTing the crap out of some poor sod and watching them run to their death. Embracing my inner sadist? Hmm maybe.

I hit level 28 tonight and so far still enjoying it. Right now I don't think the Magus is as bad as people make out, it's got issues that's for sure and it takes work to make the most of, but I'm doing fine in Tier 3 RvR. However, we all know that class balance can change dramatically as you move through the tiers. Perhaps Tier 4 will send me spiralling into Magus manic depression.

I'm also considering playing my Chosen more again. There are still things I'm not liking about the class right now (hopefully 1.3 will address those), but I'm finding it too wierd with people starting to call me Gash instead of Boots (my Choppa is Gashface). Been known as Bootae for 12 years of MMO gaming now and I think I'm too senile to cope with a new name :D

100 bloody posts!

This is my 100th post... Woah...

I'm a bit spun out by having hit this milestone. I only started this blog on a whim and it kinda snowballed once I realised that (for some mad reason) people were actually reading it.

I can't claim to have got anywhere near the big boys in blogging's numbers (whatever they might get), nor was it my aim to, this has always been just something to do for my own amusement, but I've been pleasantly surprised with the numbers I've had. Over the 100 posts I've had over 12,000 hits and am currently sitting with about 140 feeds on the back burner. They may well actually be low numbers, I don't know tbh, but I can tell you it's far more than I ever expected.

A big thank you to all the members and organisers of the WCPI, as well as to all the bloggers that have me on their blog roll. Also I have to give a shout out to the legendary Durtbocks who after listening to my crap descriptions over the phone, has whipped up all the best images I've used, including my banners and my all time favourite the super sexy BBW Orc...

Well if WoW can have World of Whorecraft...

You dirty rat!

Whilst chatting on guild vent the other night I asked the question “What do you think will be added first, the missing cities or Skaven as a playable race?”

The general consensus was new playable races first. Not what I expected, but perhaps they have a point. Their reasoning for this was roughly as follows… Essentially the campaign works as it is. There’s lots of fighting and Land of the Dead is only going to add to that. Sure oRvR has a load of issues and bringing the cities back could address some of those, but would it entice lots of new players to the game? Perhaps it would, but certainly not as much as the introduction of new playable races.

So I had to ask myself, what would I rather have, the missing cities or whole new zones and sneaky bastard Skaven to log in with?

It’s a no-brainer, Skaven win hands down.

If you don’t know your Warhammer lore, then you maybe wondering what’s so special about them or even asking WTF are Skaven anyway?

Skaven are a race of chaos-warped rats that live hidden from the rest of civilisation, planning the downfall of everything and everyone. They have the appearance of a classic anthropomorphic fantasy creature; imagine a pre-menstrual rage filled Beatrix Potter drawing Ratty and you’re on the right track.



They are conniving, evil, untrustworthy, self-centred and utterly malicious. They have no redeeming features of any form. And there are millions of them. They’re under your character’s pixelated feet right now, scrubbing about, preparing your doom. Seriously folks, it’s not ceiling cat watching your vinegar stokes that you should worry about…

If it weren’t for their constant backstabbing and self-destructive nature, they would have killed or enslaved the entire world long ago. Thankfully it’s unlikely they will ever act in a truly united manner, but if they did then everyone is buggered. By rats… Not a nice thought that.

Not only are they full of horrid character, but they have a wealth of options for playable classes. There’s no need to create any dubious lore stretching class like the Disciple of Khaine. It’s all there just waiting to be used. How soon we’ll actually see playable Skaven I have no idea, but I’m 100% sure at some point we will. For now just watch your backs…

The great aura scandal of 2009

If you've ever attended a busy Fortress or in fact any of WAR's other lag magnets, you may have encountered the DoT Aura of Doom. Just in case you've never encountered it, basically this is what happens.

Chosen and Knights of the Blazing Sun auras take 12 seconds to deactivate, so when you click a new aura the old one lingers for 12 seconds before turning off. It's something that is part of the class, players "twist" their auras by clicking a new one before the previous one deactivates and by doing so will often run 3 auras at once. This requires a lot of monotonous clicking or the use of the Twister add on which helps make it easier.

That's fine and just the way the class works, nothing wrong there. However when you twist your auras in a laggy environment, the game freaks out and auras do not shut down properly. End result of which is massive amounts of stacked auras. We're talking double figures... Normally this doesn't really cause any problem to anyone except the Chosen/KotBS themselves, because stat buffs don't actually stack, it's just a visual thing on your UI. Damage Over Time auras are a totally different kettle of fish. In these laggy situations they DO stack, causing huge amounts of damage to any poor soul within 30 foot... This is generally considered as an exploit.

I'm not going to argue with that, though it's not as clean cut as some may think and there is a lot of misinformation going around. I'll quickly clarify a couple of things:

- The Twister add on does NOT cause this. Actually it's a case of twisting auras in any manner whilst lagged can cause it. It's a flaw of the chosen/kotbs mechanic when the game is lagged.
- It is impossible to twist auras and choose NOT to lag stack them. If you play your class as intended and twist auras, then there is a risk of this happening.
- Once it's started its hard to stop, logging out is more than likely not going to work, so you're left with ctrl+alt+delete to shut down WAR.
- People can just choose not to use a DoT aura in forts at all... That doesn't fix the bug though, just avoids it.
- BOTH factions are "abusing" this exploit. People can deny it all they like, but if there's an option to cheat, then some people will.

Get your asbestos lined suit and factor 9000 suncream, then have a look at this thread in my server's forum on WHA: http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289186

I'm sitting quite comfortably on the fence about the right and wrongs of that night's events. Otherwise I'll get dragged into all the rambling about two wrongs, ivory towers, glass houses and all that crap. There are some good points being made by both Order and Destruction players in that thread, but as so often with a topic coloured in dramatic shades of grey, they're being smothered by all the bile and trolling.

All this anger, rage, denial and nonsense caused by the laggy servers/code/etc. Mythic you're about to cram us all into Land of the Dead... With lag as it is, I'm not alone in feeling a little bit uneasy...

Gashface the Conqueror

Cor blimey guv! It didn't take long to get Gashface a full set of Conqueror's War Brudda's Kit. Sure there's already other choppas with Invader, but then I don't play quite as much as those nut jobs ;) Plus I'm still using Bootae and splitting time between characters, so this was pretty damn quick really. Admittedly I've been a right jammy git with rolls, but it has to be said, the new token system was a huge help and I would be forced into BB/BE otherwise.

I got the chest, shoulders and belt with tokens, the helm from guild keep claim capture loot and both the gloves and boots dropped from players. Result :)

Token system, I salute you!

There's more to 1.3 than LotD and AoE nerfs

With the 1.3 patch notes coming out; Land of the Dead, AoE and class balance is obviously getting loads of attention. Forums are heating up or exploding with joy and the blogging community is busier than a crack dealer on a day trip to Luton. But lets not forget the patch also brings us lots of other changes. I'm going to pick out a few things (not all of them!) that for me are the kinda underdog highlights, including some things I've been asking for since I started this bloody blog.

"To ensure that you and your allies can wage battle against the undead legions of the Tomb Kings (or any of the game's other challenging instanced bosses!), we have made several player-friendly changes to the instance lockout timer system. Now, players both with and without lockout timers can join forces to crush the enemy and reap the rewards of conquest. "
I'm really, really, REALLY pleased to see this. I've whinged about the current system so many times before. This is actually a huge improvement for the PvE experience. There's a lot more info about this change further down the patch notes. Basically it's the WoW system and in this case, that's no bad thing.

"The Armor Ward system has been replaced with a new achievement-based system called Sigils. Each Sigil represents a Ward that was previously awarded through the acquisition and equipping of armor sets found in the Old World Armory. The purpose of the Sigil system is to allow players to get the benefit of the Wards previously associated with the armor sets without being required to wear and use that armor set. It also allows for new methods of receiving the Ward and progressing through the game without collecting armor sets.
The new Sigil system can be viewed and tracked in the Old World Armory section of the Tome of Knowledge. Clicking on any Sigil loads a page that displays the fragments needed to complete the Sigil, and describes the tasks associated with each fragment of the Sigil. For any given fragment, only one task of those presented will need to be done. You can see the tasks associated with each fragment by clicking on the fragment icon on the left side of the screen. Also, obtaining a fragment of a higher level Sigil will unlock the fragment for any lower level Sigils. Any players who have current armor or sets that would fulfill a fragment task for any Sigil fragment will be granted credit for the fragment task upon first logging in on that character. Once unlocked, a fragment is unlocked; completing multiple fragment tasks for any particular task will not grant any additional bonus. "
This is an incredibly good move. I've posted in the past about wards and how the system has the potential to be the best PvE instance progression system in any MMO to date. On paper this looks to be the realisation of that potential.

"Respawn checkpoints have been added throughout Gunbad. In most cases, this means that when a character dies, he or she will respawn closer to the location of death instead of at the dungeon entrance.rather These checkpoints also include a Healer. "
I wanted to like Mount Gunbad and Bastion Stair, but I just found both a frustrating experience. Anyone dies, discons or whatever and it's repeat killing the same bloody trash over and over again. To be fair I haven't done either since the first month or two after launch, so maybe it's not so bad now, but regardless this is a good change. I might even take an alt through these dungeons sometime...

"Players logging out in most instances will be able to log back into the instance at the spot they left if they return within five minutes. This includes Scenarios and dungeons. "
Everytime a CTD or discon shafts us mid instance a kitten dies. The kitten community will be relieved. Another great dungeon fix. GJ Mythic.

"Guilds can now purchase the Deadbolt upgrade for their Keeps. This upgrade locks the inner door of a claimed Keep, making it so enemies cannot use Pick Lock or Bypass Defenses to gain entry into the inner Keep. When the Deadbolt upgrade has been purchased, the postern door will be named "Dead-locked Postern Door." "
Ninjas get nerfed which includes my Choppa, but still no complaints here. This is exactly what I had hoped for. Result! :)

"Players now have the option to opt-out of the loot roll at any Public Quest. Opting-out will not affect your contribution, but will bypass your character when rolling for loot, allowing others to get a chance at the loot. The following rules apply"
The community has been crying out for this since launch. Finally!

"Players who have won loot from a Public Quest, but were unable to claim it for one reason or another, will now have that loot mailed to them 24 hours later. The unclaimed loot will appear in the player's mailbox after the 24 hour period with the Public Quest listed as the sender for easy identification"
Another common complaint fixed!

"Take control like never before with improved Action Bar functionality. Show up to five action bars on the screen, and customize the orientation and number of buttons on each bar individually. "
For most of my characters this isn't so important, but for my Chosen this is great. I use a LOT of abilities, pots, items and macros on him and can't fit everything on 4 tool bars. Good news.

"We have expanded player inventory to ensure that you have room for all of the new treasures you find in the Land of the Dead. Players will be able to obtain additional inventory space for alternative currency and crafting, freeing up their existing inventory for more loot! "
Much like action bars, this is going to make my life a lot easier for my Chosen. I carry around a range of different armour and equipment for using in different situations, which doesn't leave me much inventory room.

"New weapons that can be customized with special talismans from the Land of the Dead! "
At the moment the only top end weapons come from Lost Vale, with no RVR equivalent. There's quite a few mid range end game weapons from Bastion Stair, the remnant weapons or RvR influence rewards, but nothing that compares with the good Lost Vale drops. Hopefully the new LotD weapons will be on a par with the best that LV has to offer.

=][=

On paper 1.3 is looking like a very good patch. It bring us the wonders of Darkness Falls 2 in Land of the Dead, the AoE fix the game was desperate for and the rebalancing of single target damage. All of which are very good, but it also brings us loads of things that improve the general experience of playing WAR and relieve many of it's longest serving frustrations.

I'm sure there will also be new problems and no doubt performance headaches whilst the patch settles down, yet for me the content of this patch clearly demonstrates that Mythic are not only listening, but also understand our frustrations. They took their time with some of these changes, but 1.3 is shaping up to be a huge step in the right direction. Credit where credits due.

1.3 patch notes are out and it's on the US PTS

Link : http://herald.warhammeronline.com/patchnotes/index.php?id=2009_1-3-0#_50

I'd copy it all here, but there's such a huge amount of info it will take too long to format :P You'd be better off reading the official page linked above.

There's loads of interesting things aside from the stuff we knew about too, just a few examples would be:
Public Quest Loot Roll Opt-Out
Auto Roll Tab
Large-scale Keep fights will now have the possibility of awarding additional gold bags for attackers or medallions for defenders.
Seizing an upgraded Keep will now yield additional gold bags, depending on the Keep's level.
Additional Ordnance Weapons
Crafting Inventory Improvements
Respawn checkpoints have been added throughout Gunbad. In most cases, this means that when a character dies, he or she will respawn closer to the location of death instead of at the dungeon entrance.rather These checkpoints also include a Healer.

Unfortunately it appears the Chosen is one of the classes included in this statement:
Due to the wide scope of these changes, we will be rolling them out on a career-by-career basis over the next few patches. Careers that did not get damage adjustments in 1.3 will be receiving them in the next update.

Ahh well, at least it's on its way.

Bring on the EU PTS pls!