I have returned!

This will be quick, but some good news on my end. I've finally gotten XP re-installed on my PC about a week after I had to reformat and my original XP disc wasn't installing properly. I had to wait for the OEM to send me a new disc, which took a few days. 

But now I'm back and will be resuming my regular play schedule. Unfortunately, since I'm a week behind, I'm going to have to cancel my plans to raise my Renown Rank on my Black Orc and just get back to straight leveling. And my Ironbreaker needs to push through those last few ranks to 40. I guess I can always raise my RR at 40...sigh.

But at least I can finally play again, the nights of no WAR were getting old, but I was able to come up with new ideas, like the comic while my PC was down. Well, it's back to the battlefield tonight, and I'll see you all ingame.

1.29.09. Taking the Oath

And so, the cycle is complete. Over two years ago, I heard about an upcoming MMO called Warhammer Online. Being a current WoW player, I was intrigued by the new game, and so I started to try to learn about it. I found out it was based on the Warhammer Fantasy IP, and that it was being developed my Mythic, who was known as the developer of Dark Age of Camelot, another MMO that was based around a player-versus-player mechanic. I wanted to know more about the setting and it was recommended to me that I try out the first book in the Gotrek and Felix series, Trollslayer. 

I was captivated by the book. I admit that the earlier stories were pulpy and a bit short, but it was my first glimpse into the setting of Warhammer Fantasy. It is a world far from most author's visions of a fantasy setting. It is dark, dirty and grim. Heroes are few and far between. The Empire seethes with corruption, while the Dwarfs keep mostly to their mountain holds and the Elves hold themselves apart in Ulthuan.

And here we have Gotrek, the most (in)famous of Slayers, accompanied by his companion and Rememberer, Felix Jaeger, Gotrek is possibly the most successful Slayer in all Warhammer lore. Or perhaps the most unsuccessful, depending on your interpretation. Wielding what is rumored to be one of the legendary axes of the Dwarf ancestor god, Grimnir, Gotrek has slain trolls, skaven, daemons, vampires, dark elves and greenskins unnumbered. Driven to take the Slayer Oath to seek a glorious death in battle by a secret shame, he wishes for the story of his death to be recorded by Felix in an epic poem. I loved the premise, and am now a huge Gotrek and Felix fan.

And so, when the Careers for WAR were finally announced, I was disheartened by the fact that the Slayer was not an available career for the Dwarf race. Instead the Hammerer was to be implemented. I had wanted so badly to play a Slayer and emulate the character of Gotrek, like any child who pretends to be a favorite super-hero from a comic book. Still, I was glad that WAR was coming along in development, and I would finally get to have my adventures in the world I had only read about. Some time later, when the report that four cities and four careers, including the Hammerer had been temporarily dropped from the game, I was bummed of course, since who wants content to be cut? But deep in the back of my head the thought that there was some hope for the Slayer to be added after all still burned. 

Later still, WAR launches, and I am having a great time with it, playing many careers. Some time after launch, they re-introduce the Knight of Blazing Sun and the Blackguard, but still no word on the last two cut careers. Rumors surface that one of the cut classes is going to be cut completely from the game, and the forums go wild with speculation. Many players start petitions demanding the Slayer, and many arguments rage across the internet. 

Of course, you know the rest. After weeks of hints and speculation, today Mythic has made some huge announcements, including the official confirmation of the Slayer and Choppa careers, as well as events based on their launch. For more on the news, check the official website at www.warhammeronline.com.

And the latest newsletter is now up on the official site, and it has a great overview of the Slayer and Choppa background and mechanics, as well as great artwork.

At last I can play as a Slayer, the character that drew me into Warhammer in the very beginning. I'm going to take the Slayer Oath. In a twist on my usual playstyle, my Slayer will be my role-playing character, and his adventures will be the source of the material for the webcomic I am starting. I honestly can't wait. This is what I have been hoping to do for years. I'm very excited about this whole deal, and again I am grateful to Mythic for listening to the fans and bringing in the Slayer, who is possibly the most iconic character in all of Warhammer. 

The latest newsletter is now up on the official site, and it has a great overview of the Slayer and Choppa background and mechanics, as well as great artwork. 

And now the long process of selecting a name and coming up with a backstory for my Slayer begins. Yup, I'm one of those guys that actually sits around for days trying to come up with a name for his toons. I expect to take even more time with name selection for the Slayer, since he'll be an RP character. This is gonna take a while. On a related note, this might be the cure for my altitis, at least for a little while.

I know this post has been rambling and all over the place, but hey, I'm hyped and my mind is running a million miles a minute.

Slayers! Choppas and Tomb Kings! NEWS!

Well, today is the big day that Mythic has been hinting at and they do not disappoint. If you have been keeping up, you know that Mythic has been heavily hinting at several "big" announcements this past few weeks. And today is the day. From Warhammeralliance, here is a quick rundown on the big points:

New Careers, the Choppa and Slayer.

More events, namely the Bitter Rivals introduction event for the new Careers.

Also, a Live Expansion starting in March, along with other stuff like the Night of Murder event. 

All this stuff leads up to the Rise of the Tomb Kings event that opens up the Land of the Dead dungeon zone. Many players have referred to it as the successor to DaoC's Darkness Falls dungeon. I'm not too familiar with Daoc, but it is basically a PvE dungeon with great rewards and challenges, that is only unlocked for your realm through RvR. So, this actually sounds pretty sweet, it would definitely add more incentive for RvR and be another reward to aim for.

There is really way too much for me to go into so I suggest perusing the links below. Some cool artwork at some of those links too.

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=242560

http://www.warhammeronline.com

Awesome news, now more than ever, it's a great time to be playing Warhammer Online.

Edit: CALLED IT! /gloat

Starting a New Venture

So, with my time off from WAR, I've had some time to browse many blogs and forums and think up new ideas. And so in conjunction with my upcoming role-playing character, who will be a Slayer, I've decided to start a web-based comic. Yes, I know, there are already a ton of webcomics out there and all that, but bear with me. 

The comic will follow his adventures through Warhammer Online in an in-universe style. I figure, since the game is already laid out in a chapter-based fashion, it would be interesting to follow my character as he progresses through the quests and the storyline. And since I'm going to play him as an RP character, I can use that as a narrative base. I dabble in manga-style art as a hobby, and I enjoy drawing my characters. Also, most of the WAR-based webcomics are done in a self-contained episodic format, and I plan to have a single coherent narrative.

I plan to give him a small backstory, with his overall quest taking him to Karak Kadrin, the Slayer Keep. Of course, there will be a certain amount of poetic license involved, but I'll try and not stray too far from the source material. I hope I can also take common experiences, such as open RvR and keep sieges, and integrate them into the storyline. 

This is a completely new venture for me, and I honestly have no idea how often I'm gonna be putting out pages, and I'm still debating what format I'm going to use. I'm probably going to try to release 3-6 pages every week and a half or so. I'm currently sketching up character designs and other background art. Check back in a few weeks and I'll try to have some sketches uploaded. Wish me luck, and lets hope I don't completely suck at this.

Image credit to Chuck Voit-kev-itch and www.chukw.com

Technical difficulties, please bear with us.

Well, my gaming PC is out of commission for at least a few days. I had to reformat following a trojan infection, but when it came to reinstalling Windows XP, the disc I had originally received from the manufacturer wasn't being recognized. After speaking to tech support, they decided it must be a bum disc and they will ship one out to me within the next few days.

Unfortunately this means until then I will be unable to play WAR. However, I will still be browsing forums, blogs and news, and I will still be updating this blog. I do not expect to be away from the game for too long, And I hope you will continue to check back with me here. I'll see you guys back ingame soon. Now... what to do with all the extra free time?

Alting Around... Again.

So, yeah. Being the easily swayed weakling that I am, after I read a discussion on the forums I frequent about Shadow Warriors, I just had to roll one up. I hit Rank 11 last night, and I also maxed out my RvR Influence for the T1 Empire vs, Chaos pairing. So now I'm running around New Emskrank looking for fights and just messing around til I hit 12 and have to move on to the next tier. 

I gotta say, I'm enjoying the Shadow Warrior a lot! I had rolled one up shortly after release, but shelved him at Rank 3 because the career didn't grab me right away. I didn't realize how much of a difference getting all my stances would make on my fun factor. Skirmish stance, which is the mid-range mobile dps tree, is simply so much fun to play. It feels great being able to run around whilst firing off bow attacks. Once I got Spiral-Fletched Arrows and Takedown, the career just got so fun to play. I know that my melee stance, Assault, is considered the best stance to be in, but I still like the mobility I get from Skirmish.

Another amazing thing is the versatility of the career. In a single engagement, I can select say a Witch Elf from range and begin dpsing with my bow in Scout stance. As they get closer, I switch into Skirmish and snare and DoT, then kite a bit. When they close to melee I can swap into Assault stance which buffs my Armor and  Strength, and bring them down with very respectable melee dps. I love having the potential to switch roles in an instant, which sometimes confuses my targets. Today I started picking off a Witch Elf from range, she started to run, so I chased her down in Skirmish, DoT-ing and dpsing. She ran behind some cover to break my line of sight, but I guess she didn't expect me to flip into Assault and run her down, where I cut her down in melee. I guess that move confused the other Destro players around her, because she got no heals, and I was able to make my escape. I guess they didn't expect an archer to move in and finish the job at close range. Now I'm aware the situation I've described is pretty much an ideal situation, but still, it's pretty cool when it happens.

Perusing the forums reveals that veteran SW players do have several issues with the class, but the general feeling is that the career needs some tweaks, but is doing quite well otherwise. Also, the more experienced players agree that the career is in very good shape, but I'll reserve judgement until I have several more ranks under my belt.

SOME DAYS LATER...

Well, I am very close to 14 now, and have some more observations about the career. I still enjoy the Shadow Warrior, but I've come across my first issues. One is just a graphical issue, when I equip my helm it changes my selected hair into a "default" hairstyle that's the same for every SW of the same gender. Only the original color is retained. Not a big deal really, as I like my selected hair and don't mind turning the helm graphic off.

I've also gotten a chance to play some Mourkain's Temple. Overall, I enjoy it on my SW. I'm much squishier than I've ever been before, and it's a very different mindset to play as a ranged damage dealer as opposed to tanking or melee dpsing. I like finding good vantage points for sniping, and killing or harassing squishies and healers. Once the focus fire finds me though, I'm dead meat. Still, it's a great change of pace, and a great feeling to take down that Witch Elf who just popped out behind the healing line. 

PvE-wise, my Shadow Warrior is competent, if a bit repetitive. Of course, I'm still low in Tier 2, and don't have access yet to many of my abilities. I'm spending lots of time in Assault Stance, basically DoT-ing and pulling from range until the mob closes and then finishing it off in melee. I try to kite a bit, but I think Skirmish could use a bit more range, and it seems that it's quicker to just pull, then melee.

I'll continue to try and level this guy, who I have named Zanshin, after the Japanese martial arts term referring to a certain mental state. I hope that I can somehow find time to level all my other characters before the Slayer/Choppa is implemented. Still, we shall see where I stand on the Shadow Warrior some ranks from now.

News, Rumors and Developments.

First off I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates these past several days. I've been busy playing more than writing, and I've also been waiting to see how some news items developed. So let's see:

If you have been following up on WAR news and rumors, I'm sure you have already read about the speculation going around that Mythic has suffered some job losses following EA scaling down it's operations by about 10%. I'm not really going to comment much on this, as the reaction has run the full the spectrum of internet discourse already, and I don't feel like rehashing previous statements. I will state however that I feel many players are blowing it a bit out of proportion, and I feel Mark Jacobs has done an admirable job in addressing these rumors and communicating to the player base. As always, I continue to have faith in Mythic. More info can be found at Massively.com and at Warhammeralliance.com.

On a more optimistic note, I hope you saw Keen's post over at www,keenandgraev.com regarding that "teaser package" that was recently sent to him by Mythic. The package contained some hair dye, an electric razor and a card bearing the WAR logo and the date 1.29.2009. If you know anything about Warhammer lore, the super obvious hint is that the Slayer will be announced as the new Dwarf MDPS career on that date. You know, Slayers shave their hair into a crest and dye it before taking up the Slayer oath to seek a glorious death in battle to atone for some past shame or failure. So that looks dead-on as a hint towards Slayers. Now for the Greenskin MDPS, you could argue that the razor might also represent the Choppa being re-introduced, but that's a bit tenuous. Still, Slayers look to be in, and this is the place where I gloat and claim to have seen it coming all along. Which I kinda did, heh.

If you'd like to learn more about Slayers, I heartily recommend that you purchase the first Gotrek and Felix Omnibus novel, which should be available at your local bookstore. It's a great read, and it was my first exposure to the Warhammer setting.

Also, I rolled another alt. Yes, I know I'll never hit 40 at this rate, but I have settled into a comfortable rhythm with my leveling on my Ironbreaker and Black Orc. I just hit 37 on the IB and am preparing to max my influence for my current chapter before moving on, and I hit 30 on my Blorc. I plan to RvR on my Blorc for the next 2 ranks to get my Renown Rank up, which currently sits at a dismal 17. I know, that's super low. But i'll be fixing that soon, hopefully. More news on that alt later.

That's it for this post, I'll see you guys on the battlefield!