Renown/Jolly Hols

Now my Choppa has hit the level cap logging into War now comes down to the serious business of renown gain. It seems I have a few choices here I can:

1. Join pugs and wait on the capture of battle objectives and the little renown they give and join the odd keep attack.

2. Join alliance war bands and do they same, the renown probably ends up a little higher and is more fun but our alliance has gone a little quiet of late.

3. Try single PvP in duels with other players. I have heard this gives the most renown, but I doubt I have the skill or min/maxing to do this.

4. Join PUG scenarios, this seems to give decent renown. I can usually get from around 1.5 to 3k per scenario. In the old days of KDS this would have been a nightmare of constantly loosing scenarios. But it seems of late especially on Karak-Azgal the matches are more balanced. I have been in a lot of matches were both sides where around the 400+ points.

5. Join pre-made scenarios. This is where the renown and fun flows like wine in War. You can’t beat being a Choppa with guard and a pocket healer…

Have to say one of my favourite abilities is the Choppa auto resurrection ability. So many times I have just been beaten by the tiniest slivers of health and I get the lovely auto rez dialog pop up. I wait for the other player to turn their back on me and go for the soft spot.

This is just a quick note to say I will not be posting for the next week as I am off on my summer holiday. I hope I get back in time for the Wild Hunt event, did I mention I wanted the stag cloak.

Defence Sabotage Stage for Keeps

An article has been posted on the official War site detailing what they needed to do to improve keep design. This hopefully will say goodbye to the single point of combat at the top of the ramp to the lord room. Over at thatsskarwithak they rightfully voice concerns at what this means for smaller groups of defenders but they also comment this may mean city sieges become regular events.

Hopefully this may mean the fights within keeps become more dynamic, with multiple tank walls needed. The reduction in AoE might also help to make keep combat more interesting.

But could there be more additions to keeps to make them even more interesting? I have already posted a few ideas on possible simple solutions for siege weapons. When thinking about ideas I always try to make them simple to include. Mythic probably don’t have the time to include whole new structures and mechanics not already part of the game in some capacity.

In keep combat the end is usually when the lord is killed and the almost immediate wipe of the defending side. What if this wasn’t the end, there is third floor and a lot of the keeps have outer siege pads with single bridges to them. Smaller groups could further defend these points. Taking this idea I came up with the following possible stage two keep encounters:

Keep Cleansing Stage

This is the simplest idea, once the lord is down and the doors respawn. The lord and champions don’t immediately respawn. Instead the opposing side have given amount of time to completely wipe out the defenders to eradicate their taint within the keep walls. Who ever wins within this time frame, would get further tokens or renown tick.

Supply Line Sabotage Stage

Again once the keep lord is dead, small barrels/containers spawn around the keep, at the top or along the keep walls. If any defenders still live they have the chance to taint the supply barrels to the keep reducing the hit points of the new NPC’s giving them a slight advantage when they decide to try and take the keep back.

Defence Sabotage Stage

As before once the keep lord is dead, explosive crates spawn at each of the walls above the inner and outer doors. If the defeated defenders can protect this spawns for a limited time they explode and reduce the hit points of the keep doors, again giving the loosing side an advantage when trying to take the keep back.

I am not suggesting all keeps would have all three mechanics; maybe they are spread out making each keep attack unique within the zone. It also might provide smaller groups an extra incentive to hide around the keep defending parts and bring even more dynamic combat to keeps.

Turn around for War

If you have been reading the forums and blogs at the moment you would be hard pressed to find positive thoughts on the game. Anyone would have thought the Raven God himself was demolishing the very foundations of War.

To be honest half the time I think this is down to the usual trolls and rage quit posts, by people who think just because War didn’t suit their needs must be doomed to failure. In my little mutated world all has been fine from release and has only gotten better. Yes classes have been imbalanced at times (with zergs throwing themselves at the bomb squads) and city sieges broken. But as a player I just accept them and have faith the people at Mythic love the game as much as I do and will one day fix the issues. I just work around the areas I don’t find fun and do the stuff I do enjoy.

Anyway for all those doom mongers it looks like things might be looking up, there are a lot of positive reports on the city sieges (see below). The guild I am part of got to take part on PTS to test the city sieges. Everyone agreed that it was a great improvement and seemed to be fluid and fun. As for the last AoE patch, again that seems to have been well received. I for one am not dying time and time again to Bright Wizard bomb squads (did I just admit to sometimes being part of those mindless zergs?).

By the way I also just hit level 40 with my Choppa. This again is a first for me having actually two characters at the level cap, the only other time I ever hit the level cap in a morg was in vanilla World of Warcraft with my level 60 priest. Those last 10 levels in WoW killed me even though I had the help of friends to quest with.

What is more surprising for me is the lack of the sinking feeling. You know that feeling that you never want to go through that levelling process again, and the end game doesn’t appeal. On the contrary I am ready to go through it all again with my Zealot, and a few hours in tier 1 and 2 scenerios always seems to refresh the game for me.

I think she will be more of a part time alt, as I actually plan to play my Choppa and climb the renown and gear ladders.


DRANNATH'S ZEALOT LOVE

Werit

Warhammer Blog Times

Serrate

With my ‘Choppa’ approaching level 40 I need a new alt to keep me occupied when I am not doing RvR in tier 4.

After hearing on the guild Ventrilo ‘Zealot’s’ are quite easy to level through AoE in public quests I thought I would create one. I already have a level 5 ‘Shaman’, but I am keeping him in case my friends ever try ‘War’. I plan just using him as supporting character to keep them up in scenarios and public quests to try and make the experience as painless as possible.

Anyway… introducing ‘Serrate’ currently a level 4 ‘Zealot’. Currently I am not sure about her as she does not seem to have a funky heal/damage meter like the ‘Shamans’ WAAAGH mechanic.

I have done a few scenarios with her, and enjoyed them a lot. Running around the buildings next to the ‘Barracks’ objective in ‘Nordenwatch’ with a ‘Knight of the Blazing Sun’ on your tail while trying to keep party members alive is fun. I am glad the Raven god blessed us with key binding, now if he could only make those skulls the Zealots use come with slots in the top so you could toast your bread.

Active in RvR

Over the past week, our guild has been back in RvR as organised alliance war bands and it has been glorious. The amount of order around has been astounding, which means for a smaller organized war band you can pick and choose your fights.

Some of the best fights where around Eataine between Defensive Boon and Healing Boon. Due to its hilly nature and the buildings around those two points you can sneak up behind with your war band and hit them right in the healers. (Maybe that should be a new euphemism)

I have just hit renown rank 33 and level 38 so I can wear all my Annihilator stuff, which makes him better equipped than my Chosen.

On this subject does anyone have any suggestions what I do on the long road to renown rank 40? Are there any specific weapons I need to get to help me on my way?