Why I'm not currently testing the Slayer.

This is weird. Very weird. It's just that I'm not on the PTS, playing the crap outta the new careers. Why? Well, its a bit complicated. First off I have a strange desire not to "spoil" anything for myself. I want my first login on the Slayer to be a completely new and fresh experience. But in the back of my head I have a little voice telling me I need to get on the PTS, for multiple reasons. For one thing, I can finalize my Slayer design, as I'll have access to all the needed tattoo art and other details I need to finish my character's design for the comic. Also, I can give useful feedback, as I pride myself on being really good about bug reporting, class feedback etc. None of this "OMG Slayers nedd a buff now our Deeps is teh suck!!" I can only imagine what the PTS forums are looking like about now, Although from my brief sojourn on the official forums I can see that Mythic is not playing around when it comes to deleting/locking flames and stupid trolling posts. Kudos to them. The WoW forums were such a cesspool because of this lack of efficient moderation.

Strangely, I'm not in a hurry to try out the Choppa either. I'm still keeping up with all the game news, browsing multiple forums and websites to soak up information as it is released. I'm still committed to playing the game, although a recent change in my work schedule has limited my evening playtime. I expect to get back on track once my body fully acclimatizes to waking up early or when the Bitter Rivals event begins, whichever comes first.

In a way, I'm glad we have tons of people on the PTS testing away. Mainly because a lot of these players are interested primarily in trying something new, but aren't really going to be making the Slayer or Choppa their main. Of course, I'm sure we will see the same pattern of activity that immediately followed the release of the Blackguard and Knight of the Blazing Sun. Namely, we'll see tons of Slayers and Choppa in Tier 1, and early Tier 2, with numbers dropping into Tiers 3 and 4. At least, the PTS lets people get it out of their system, or decide whether or not they want to stick with the new classes.

With any luck, the event will go live sooner rather than later, and when it does I'll be hopping on and getting that influence. I want my Slayer on day one baby. Thank god the weekend is coming up, that ouughta give me a good amount of playtime, I need to get back in the groove.

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!

An Altoholic's Lament, and other Stories.

As I've said before, I'm an admitted altoholic. I have played and leveled eleven separate characters, spread over two servers and both factions. Currently, I've settled on my Black Orc and Ironbreaker, and I play a Black Guard as well, though not as often. However, I seem do be having the hardest time picking on an Order DPS career. On that note, I've leveled a Witch Hunter to 24, an Engineer to 19 and a White Lion to 11.

I constantly bounce around forums, reading up on the different careers and getting excited about them. But this also leaves me swapping characters very often, I'll get amped up and play one career for a while, then get excited about another one and shelve my current character. It also doesn't help that the Order DPS characters are widely believed to suffer from several issues. Now I say "widely believed", this is just opinion, and is only supported by feedback from players and the forums. Sometimes I agree with the perceived issues, sometimes not. My problems are as follows:

Engineer:

- Most viable tree is the AoE tree, Grenadier. Unfortunately, this tree does not really fit my playstyle, but is considered the best overall. It has a few issues, but has fewer problems than Rifleman or Tinkerer. Rifleman, the single-target tree, was recently buffed, but still has several bugs. This is the tree I would have played, but it has some issues with abilities not working properly, as well as abilities taking longer to cast than they should. And the Tinkerer tree getting Electromagnet nerfed pretty much killed it. Add to this the problem with landmines not deploying properly, turret issues and others. I still like the Engineer, but he needs several fixes to make him live up to his real potential.

White Lion:

- The WL is actually in pretty good shape, the main complaint is that the lion's survivability is very low, and if the lion dies the WL loses a lot of utility. Some players get around this by not using the lion at all and slotting the Loner tactic to supplement their damage. While this is a viable workaround, I feel that the lion needs to either be buffed, or have it's stats scale with it's masters' stats. Another issue is the apparent uselessness of several tactics, as well as certain tactics simply not working properly. Also, they are poncy elves.

Witch Hunter:

-The WH, while widely viewed as inferior to their mirror, the Witch Elf, is really not as gimped as many players believe. All three Mastery trees are considered viable, and each does well in their respective roles. The major complaint is that the WE Kiss system is viewed as being superior to the WH's Blessed Bullet system. This assertion is definitely arguable, with players on both sides coming up with figures that support either system as being "better". So for now, I'm going  to defer to my belief that equivalent complaints are a sign of good balance. The itemization for WH's could definitely use some tweaks. Where a Witch Elf only has to stack Strength as a primary stat, Witch Hunters have to get both Strength and Ballistic Skill, as STR determines the effectiveness of their melee attacks and some Executions, while BS affects their pistol Executions. Now WH's have a naturally high BS value to compensate, but I can't help but wonder if instead Mythic could implement a system where a portion of their STR value was added to their Ballistics. This is similar to how Shadow Warriors in Assault Stance have their Ballistics from items also count towards their STR. Something like that would simplify gearing for the WH, as well as be a minor buff overall.

Slayer/Choppa: 

These guys are actually a really big reason I have trouble sticking to a DPS alt. You see, in the back of my mind the knowledge that these careers are going to be announced and re-implemented soon is putting a serious damper on my desire to get really into one of my current alts. I'm holding back, mentally at least, until I can see just what the new careers will be and how they'll work. Even though I have my own theories about them, nothing is set in stone until they are introduced. Only then will I be able to impartially gauge all the careers and finally figure out what I want to go with. And maybe not even then, heh. 

Hopefully, it won't be too long until the announcement. I really just wish they'd hurry it up and give us some news that we can theoryhammer about. Honestly, sometimes I feel that I enjoy theorizing about careers, mastery builds and abilities more than actually playing the game? But I guess it's because WAR so fully engages my imagination that I enjoy playing it so much.

My Expansion Theories

In a recent post, Mark Jacobs alludes heavily to a "big" announcement at the end of this month. Many rumors are swirling around regarding this pronouncement, and my guild has been discussing this ingame and on our forums. From these conversations, these are my theories.

Dwarf and Greenskin Melee DPS Careers: 

This is the most probable announcement, and it is also likely the easiest to implement, from Mythic's viewpoint. After all, they've probably already done most of the work involved, since the careers were cut early on. They have had a good bit of time to tweak and iterate these careers. And with the successful re-launch of the Blackguard and Knight of the Blazing Sun, anticipation is high regarding the last two careers. The Choppa and Slayer are favored to be the new careers. The Hammerer is widely rumored to be out, and a Euro CSR has stated that the Hammerer is a "relic of beta". This statement was in regards to some players being able to access the Hammerer career on the PTS for a short time. The CSR went on to state that this was a bug, and the Hammerer was not going to be made available.  As far as implementation goes, Choppa and Slayer npcs, with complete combat animations are currently ingame, and so all Mythic would really have to do is flesh out the itemization and mechanics for the careers. I am totally going to roll one, or both careers when they hit release.

New Races:

My money is on Skaven for Destruction and Lizardmen for Order. Many of my guildies call for a Vampire Counts/Bretonnian pairing. I disagree based on several factors. First, I feel that both Order and Destruction players will have problems with the races. I can already see Destruction not wanting "emo vampires" and Order complaining about "lame knights". The KotBS was criticized for not looking as cool as other careers, due to the use of feathers and codpieces in their design. In addition, Vampire Counts in particular do not usually directly involve themselves in events. Instead, Vampires usually stay behind the scenes and manipulate events from the shadows. Also, Vampires are extremely powerful beings, with a slow rate of population growth. It would be very difficult to implement them as even a player race, since lore-wise even fledgling vampires are significantly stronger than even seasoned warriors. The balancing would be tricky. Bretonnians are not as difficult to implement lore-wise, but they are pretty similar to the Empire,  at least on a basic aesthetic level. Which touches on why Skaven/Lizardmen make more sense.

Skaven and Lizardmen are aesthetically very different from all the other races. If you recall, four out of six races are mirrors of each other visually. Empire and Chaos are both humans, and High Elves and Dark Elves are technically the same race. These races are differentiated mainly by the appearance of their gear and the overall color scheme of their cultures. Were you to remove all the gear from a Chosen and a KotBS, and stand them side by side, they would be very similar in appearance. The distinctive profiles of the careers are created mainly by the gear they wear and in the Zealots' case, the posture.

Whereas Skaven and the Lizardmen would be immediately recognizable and obviously different from all the other races, in the same way that Dwarfs and Greenskins  are. Skaven are already ingame, and so again, they would only need some touchup to animations and gear. Lizardmen would need to be designed from scratch, of course

The main problem I see with the Skaven/Lizardmen pairing would be that both races don't really mesh seamlessly with the existing Cities. I mean, it's kind of hard to imagine Lizardmen casually walking through the streets of Altdorf! The Skaven would be easier to integrate into the Inevitable City, but I think the best thing to do would be to give them their own capitals. Yes, Skavenblight and Itza/Tlaxtlan!(?)

And so, to properly introduce these new races and their cities, we need...an EXPANSION!

Announcing a new expansion is listed as number one in Snafzg's post, "Mythic's Top Ten Priorities for Warhammer Online in 2009". I heartily agree with this as it gives us rabid gamers something to look forward to and theoryhammer over. Don't underestimate the anticipation that forms around MMO expansions, and this sort of buzz is what got many of us playing WAR. A major feature of course would be the new races and capitals. I don't think we need another 10 Ranks though, I'd like to see WAR move away from the whole deal of adding 10 levels every expansion. Instead, I'd like horizontal expansion. New quests, new weapons, new items, while still keeping the highest level "new" items on a similar level as existing endgame items. I don't want expansions to invalidate previous content. I would much prefer that the items look different and "new", while being equally, NOT MORE, effective than current gear.

So say a weapon from the Lost Vale does 78 dps with +67 Strength/Wounds, while a similar weapon from the Lustian dungeon have identical stats, but a very different look. Look to WoW for proof of this lesson, the expansions are great, but they basically trivialize old content, and new items are leaps and bounds better than existing content, so everyone blows through to level cap, grinds out the uber gear, and everyone looks exactly the same again...

I'd like the option to have my own look, while still maintaining effectiveness. For example, I'd like to have one of my characters have a savage/Lustrian based look, with obsidian weapons and armor from a new dungeon,  while another character can have the Darkpromise set, but perform at the same level as the first guy with the new gear.

As always these are just theories and predictions, but it would be so cool to be right on at least one point. That way, when they announce Skaven and Lizardmen, I can say...Called it! 

What do you want the big announcement to be about?