Event starts tomorrow!

March third baby! Time to bust out the Bitter Rivals event and get on unlocking the Slayer and Choppa early. I can't wait to see what the trials are gonna be, hopefully, not too many difficult tasks. I'm still undecided as to what character I'll be doing the tasks on. My Shadow Warrior is 17, so he's in a good spot to go through the event in T2, which may prove more doable than going through the event on my Ironbreaker at 40. In any case, I'm gonna have to get back on a more regular playing schedule starting tonight. I've been a bit lax in playing recently, since I've been waiting on the event to get my ass in gear. 

Also, many changes ought to be going live tomorrow with patch 1.2, which should launch alongside the event. We looked at some of the notes in earlier posts, and if all the changes make it live, we are looking at a great patch with many many needed tweaks and changes. 

Lastly, I apologize for still not having any artwork up for this project I've been talking about. I actually have quite a few sketeches that I need to clean up and finalize, but I guess my inexperience with online publishing is putting a damper on my output. I really need to learn more about the medium, and I have to get better at managing my time. I've had some RL stuff come up recently, and the schedule change has been tough to adjust to. Still, having a new goal ought to help me be productive and also focus on my gametime more. Thanks for sticking with me thus far. 

My take on the Slayer and Choppa footage from NY Comic Con

First off, I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates over the past few days. It's been a busy weekend, both for me and the game. The NY Comic Con just ended yesterday, and over the weekend there has been quite a bit of news, So much new info is now out there that I though I'd wait a little while for the dust to settle, and go over the news that interests me. Mythic debuted the Choppa and the Slayer at Comic Con, and Adam Gershowitz showed off the first hands-on footage for both careers in two videos over at Tentonhammer. There was also new info on improved mounts for high-level guilds.

On the whole, the Slayer and Choppa are shaping up quite nicely, Their rage mechanic icon, while different for each career of course, looked easy to read and the look of both careers at level 40 was great. I thought the Choppa looked nice and threatening in the demo, wiv lotsa spiky bitz stuck on his armor. I know the Choppa is technically medium armor, but the gear showed looked very close to heavy, with spikes, chains, heads on spikes and all that lot. He also had some cool-looking choppas, with what appeared to be either goat or ram skulls mounted onto the axes, very bad-ass. Adam also showed off character customization options for the Slayer. In addition to the default options, Slayers get to select some pretty awesome tattoos, as well as a few beard options that are exclusive(!) to the career. Even the mohawk has some nifty choices, ranging from the classic crest to a split mohawk and even a more ragged look to the basic crest.

Gameplay-wise the two careers came off looking pretty similar, which is expected. Lots of cool slashing and spinning moves and effects, and some nice autoattack animations as well. Adam stated that both careers would have Mastery paths split into Greatweapons, Dual-wielding and Balanced. The Greatweapon Mastery focuses on big hits that drain your rage bar, the Dual-wield path is based on getting your rage as high up as possible and staying in the redzone dishing out tons of damage/AoE while getting real squishy, and the Balanced is well, balanced. One interesting thing is that the AoE for these two careers will be significantly different from that used by other careers. Adam stated that their AoE will be more powerful, but with a caveat: it will be somewhat random. Your selected target will always be hit by the AoE, but surrounding targets will be hit at random. They will NOT be hit by every AoE attack, but when they are hit, it will hit them harder. So instead of the typical sustained dps of other AoE, it will be a sort of "burst" dps.

The unpredictability of this new type of AoE is crucial to the Slayer/Choppa's role of "linebreaker". The new careers will be best used to slam into bunched opponents and bursting down random targets in the with their AoE, with the random nature of their AoE making it difficult for healers to focus heal. Properly played, the Slayer and Choppa will be great for breaking up the assist train and breaking up the zerg. This sounds pretty stonking great, and I already have visions of slamming into a packed group and dealing out death left and right.

Some other shared abilities include a move in which the Choppa/Slayer lashes out at anyone attacking them for several seconds. now what makes this different from the other "backlash" type abilities is that it looks like it hits back for the same damage as a regular attack, instead of a preset value. This could lead to some pretty hard-hitting revenge hits. I didn't see too many morale abilities except for one Adam called "Doomseeker" in which the Slayer sweeps with both weapons around him in an arc twice, which I assume hits for MASSIVE DAMAGE.

That's mainly what I was paying attention to over the weekend. I hit 39 on my IB as well. I ought to hit 40 this week, and I have the boots for the Conqueror set and the Sentinel belt waiting for me in the bank. Thanks for bearing with me, and I'll be seeing you guys again in a few days.

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.