Snuffing The Candle

I really didn't want to have to do this, but I suppose it's better than proverbially leaving everyone in the dark.

Sadly, my account is going to lapse at the end of this month.  This, obviously, means that I also must bow out of the Age of Blogging crew as well.  I know that normally, this is the part where people would ragequit and bash the developers for their 'rampant failures' or 'complete idiocy' or what have you, but to be honest?  Their creation is not at all why I'm taking a step back.  In fact, I at least feel glad at being able to say (should anyone from Mythic come across this during a blog-binge) that Warhammer Online has been completely enjoyable during my time playing it, and should things change, I will gladly make a triumphant return.

No, there have been two things have conspired to pull me away from Warhammer.  The primary culprit has been the Ostermark community.  While I'm not about to throw every last player under the bus on this one, there have been enough bad tempers and constant bickering to make the general atmosphere uncomfortable at best, and while I could switch servers, I refuse to jump onto a non-RP server and so the only other option available to me - Phoenix Throne - is already my Destruction server.  I'd rather not swap those around, mainly because then I'd be shanking the few good people I've gotten along with.

The secondary reason, quite simply, has been the way that the economy has been.  No, it's not gotten to the point where I'm horrendously poor and broke and dear lord pull the plug on everything we don't need to live.  However, it has gotten me to take a good look at the value of what I'm paying money for with a lot more scrutiny, and after the long period of poor atmosphere on my home server, I decided that my $15 is better served elsewhere.

What this all boils down to is that, after a little bit of time to allow the Ostermark population to try and level itself out, as well as some time to let the financial side of things to improve, I'll most likely be back to shank some Orcs in the face.  I'm looking incredibly forward to what will lie in wait for me when that day comes.

Now, I believe that this is the part where I get to say, "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

The Latest Puzzle From Mythic

So there's a batch of letters circulating the blogging community - some sort of a puzzle, really.  Might as well toss the theories I have out there.

All of the letters have a number on the back of them.  Something out of 13.  A few of the letters also mention the second week in February.  On a lark, I checked something out - "Valentine's Day" is 13 letters and just so happens to be the last day of the second full week in February.  In addition, all of the letters thus far feature bloody hearts and black lipstick kisses, which make this pretty locked in that something major will happen around that day.

Curiously, the 29th - our supposed date for the Slayer/Choppa reveal - is about two weeks before the 14th... and if the community recalls, Heavy Metal - our event that signaled the release of Knights and Blackguards - lasted two weeks.  Coincidence?  Possibly, but the possibility of a Valentine's Day event for the Slayer and Choppa release is now much, much more likely.

Mythic, you're a pack of evil, twisted bastards and I love you all for it.

Dancing Around The Game

This isn't about emotes, I promise.

So in the interest of getting in some playtime despite my recent hardware troubles, I rolled a new character that would completely skip out on RvR for as long as possible.  It's not that I have anything against RvR, mind you - far from it.  It's just that, while my gaming rig is unable to handle full-on RvR, I'll take this as a chance to experience the PvE content that I've largely ignored up until now.

To that end, I've started Elear Amandil the Swordmaster about a week ago, and gave myself a very simple set of rules to follow as I played.  No setting foot into the RvR lakes.  No scenarios.  No quests that involve the RvR lakes in any fashion.  All kill collectors, chapter quests, and influence rewards must be finished before moving on to the next chapter.  This may sound a bit extreme, but it serves a purpose - much like the RvR-only challenge that was issued on another blog (which I'll try and dig up just which one that was!), I'm looking to see how calibrated, if you will, the PvE side of things is.  In other words, just how much grinding, if at all, does a PvE player need if they do all of the PvE content they can?

All in all, my experience has been pretty fun.  Say what you will about the Balance mechanic, but I've found it quite good and appropriate thus far.  It's also a complete departure from my usual tanking style, in that Elear, out of all six tanking careers I have on my roster, is the only one who is not a defensive-specced tank; while the Knight, Ironbreaker, Chosen, Black Orc, and Blackguard I have are doing some mix of their defensive and support trees, Elear's looking at a Khaine/Hoeth mixture for some greatsword-toting action.  Thus far, it's been pretty decent, despite some difficulties in the last chapter (High Elf Chapter 9, for reference) with survivability.  I'm going to play it off as careless fighting and call it a day, although I'll start worrying if the trend continues.

In other news. I've finally started working on getting Talisman Making levelled up on my Witch Hunter.  I'd never really gotten someone with Magical Salvaging before, so with Elear working through the levels and getting all sorts of gear that she can't use, I figured that I would set up a crafting supply chain and start mailing things around.  Hopefully, this supposed gravy-train of talismans being worth a ton still exists by the time I get to the tier 4 stuff.  Only time will tell.

See you on the battlefield!

Age of Blogging, Round Three!

Seventy-six blogs.

As of my last count, including my own, the Warhammer Online Age of Blogging effort has swelled to seventy-six blogs, both new and old - and that's assuming that I snagged everyone, which it is very likely that I did not.  I have to wonder just how many more writers will come out of the woodwork before the month is over.  Will we reach seven dozen?  Eight dozen?  The possibilities are staggering, and I cannot help but be a bit proud to participate in it all.

As always, should your blog be on the blogroll, drop me a comment and I'll be sure to get you hooked up.  On a related note, if the blogroll gets too large (which is may already be!), I'll look into alternate ways to display the list that won't crowd my sidebar to epic proportions.

Oh, and lastly, since I promised her that I would do this during my last post and subsequently failed to do so, I'd like to give a shout-out to Arbitrary of Nerf The Cat.  May the next time we speak be at a time where I can function without the use of coffee, so that I might be able to form coherent thoughts on a regular basis.

See you on the battlefield!

Careers Upon The Horizon?

So it would seem, as hinted over at Keen and Graev's, that January 29th will hold for us all the announcement of the Dwarf and Greenskin Melee DPS careers.  Regardless of what they end up being, I must admit that I am curious as to what their mechanic and playstyle will be.  You see, my theory is that, due to Melee DPS careers being considered the 'counter' to Ranged DPS careers, all Melee DPS careers must have some effective means of closing the gap.  Witch Hunters and Witch Elves have Incognito and Shadow Prowling, while White Lions and Marauders have Fetch! and Terrible Embrace.

If I had to guess, based off of beta accounts of some Momentum and Berserk mechanic, there will be some sort of bullrush ability for whatever these careers end up being.  After all, charging directly into enemy lines would keep with the respective theme of those mechanics, as well as present a third 'option', if you will, to close the distance.  Also a possibility is some sort of innate and/or cooldown-based movement speed increase.  This is all just theorizing, so it could be something completely different and I wouldn't feel bad about 'being wrong'; however, it's the best idea I've got as far as career theme is concerned, so perhaps there's some merit to the idea.

Of course, I have to ask - as January 29th approaches, what news do you think we'll see, and if it's about the careers, what do you think their mechanic and/or playstyle will be?

How The Roster Forms

My last post, with its mentioning of alts, got me thinking - how do other players decide what their character roster will consist of?  What methods do they use to sift through the various careers and decide on their main, mains, or small horde of characters?

For me, Warhammer Online's system of four archetypes - Tanks, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS, and Support - gave me the notion that I would have one of each kind to start with, just to tinker with the various playstyles.  In addition, the running gag from my days within City of Heroes was that, despite being male in real life, I was seemingly incapable of playing anything other than female characters in an online setting.  Seriously - out of sixteen characters, I possessed a whopping three men - none of whom were on my 'active playlist', as it were.  Thus came my second stipulation - I would enforce, rather strictly, a half-and-half rule when it came to character genders on my roster.

Thus, my initial four came to be.  Sephorus Laedorum the Warrior Priest, Relaena Koradun the Witch Hunter, Idena Powderkeg the Engineer, and Aldrun Songspire the Swordmaster.  I dabbled with all four of them in my beginning days in Warhammer, but found myself gravitating towards Sephorus and Relaena (with a heavy emphasis on Relaena later on) as my playstyles solidified.  It wasn't that I found Engineers or Swordmasters boring, mind you - just that smiting and inquisiting were more up my alley.

Of course, my days of altitis flared up again.  Not content to stay with a 'mere four characters', I enforced my archetype 'law' again for rolling more characters; Gegundi Stonetower the Runepriest, Zefa Caleros the White Lion, Elear Amandil the Shadow Warrior, and Herida Steelhammer the Ironbreaker soon found themselves firmly planted on my Ostermark roster.  Oddly enough, out of those four, only Herida managed to get onto my 'active duty' listing.

The roster, later on, became more or less finalized when we received our two new careers.  Obviously, with only ten total slots (which left two, for the mathmatically disinclined), I couldn't enforce the archetype idea to its fullest; never mind the fact that I'd be left without a Melee DPS career even if I could.  Upon the release of 1.06, Heindall Kreuzritter the Knight of the Blazing Sun came to be, along with Ehilian the Archmage - also known as "she without a last name for the time being".  Here, Heindall is the only one to get playtime, although this is less about my interest levels concerning Archmages and more that Ehilian is only getting playtime if we end up getting Slayers for our Melee DPS.

You heard me right - or read me right.  I'd rather play an Archmage over a Slayer - which is a topic for another day.

Anyways, there you have it - an explanation of how my roster came to be.  I'm curious - what drives the rest of you to create who you do?

When The Alt Bug Bites Unexpectedly

The good news is that Relaena, my Witch Hunter, hit rank 32 and is 'officially' in Tier 4.  Grats, kudos, huzzah, etc.  The bad news is that, having gotten over the initial dread, I was excited to get into the final part of the campaign - and discovered that part of my memory blew out, rendering my gaming rig incapable of... well, rendering anything in massive battles.  Small scale is still fine, thankfully, so I've taken this as an opportunity to attend to the other nine characters on my roster.  Yes, nine.  I won't cover them all, lest your eyes explode from the wall of words.

Heindall Kreuzritter, my Knight of the Blazing Sun, got a small amount of playtime - little worth mentioning, however.  My quest to complete every last quest, influence bar, tome unlock, and other various bits with him is well underway, although I have plenty in Tier 1 to backtrack to.  I'm thinking that I shall complete the Tier 2 RvR influence bars before doubling back to Ekrund and The Blighted Isle, since I can easily do any PvE questing without the constraint of running around as a chicken.  On a related note (and I should probably go back and report this, if I haven't already!), one of the Dwarven Chapter 2 influence rewards for Knights is a greatsword with, oddly enough, an Elven Greatsword graphic.  I'm claiming that it was a gift from the Phoenix King, or some other RP-related explanation.  I'm also imagining every last Swordmaster on the planet sighing in disgust at some grey-haired Empire madman swinging around one of their swords like some neanderthal savage.

Herida Steelhammer, my Ironbreaker, received a fair bit of playtime.  After putting the entire Spanish Inquisition to shame with Relaena for a lengthy amount of time, it's a breath of fresh air to be able to stand and fight for longer than two minutes without support, even if the killing speed is a bit longer than I'm accustomed to.  No joke - Herida somehow managed to fight a stream of orcs for about five minutes before I was flagged as 'Out of Combat', and I probably could have gone another minute or so before flatlining.  I was somewhat skeptical of the staying power of Ironbreakers, but having given them a try, I at least have some insight as to how that idea came about.  As an added bonus, smashing a Witch Elf in the face with my shield is always, always a good time.

Last, but not least, it seems that Pure, a mod for new player and group health bars, went into a beta release earlier today.  I have to admit, the simple-yet-functional look is much more appealing (at least to me) than Squared is; if Wikki ever adds in support for warbands and scenarios, I am fairly certain that I'll switch over for my large-scale needs.  I'd say more, but then I'd be stealing from Nehkrot over at Warhammer Online Addons Reviewed, and we can't have that, now can we?

See you on the battlefield!