Give WAR a Chance

Highpass Cemetary is fun fun fun

For the last few days, the only T3 scenario popping with any consistency on Averheim was Talabec Dam, but tonight I put some time in Highpass Cemetary, Tor Anroc, Black Fire Basin.  The latter was alright, but involved way too much running.  Tor Anroc sucked as a result of Destro being really, really organized - it has potential, but also involves more running than I like.  Highpass, on the other hand, is spectacular - fast-paced, small, and capable of producing absurd amounts of xp and rep.  I hope it pops frequently in the coming days.

Quick Notes from Averheim

I've been playing like a maniac the last few days in anticipation of not being able to play much for the next week or so, so posting has been low priority.  I'm 24/18 atm, and am hoping desperately that Tier 3 RvR picks up soon so I can stop questing and kill some zerglings.  But here are a couple quick thoughts:

• I was right to follow the Path of Grimnir.  Rune of Serenity remains one of the more underrated spells, Blessing of Valaya is unbelievably good in RvR, and Master Rune of Adamant is awesome in pretty much every circumstance.  I think I'm going to pick up Rune of Battle, too, to supplement my meager DPS, but I'm very happy with the choice.  I'll dump everything that's left into Valaya and see how that works out in Tier 4.
• The world is amazing.  I got a bit ahead of the leveling curve and resorted to questing, and Mythic did an oustanding job making interesting, beautiful, story-laden zones.
• The Tier 3 keeps blew me away, especially the ones in the Empire zones.  I haven't had a chance to fight in them (aside from one desperate and ill-advised solo keep defense effort last night) but I am really looking forward to bringing some oil and ballistae into High Pass and setting up camp with a few of my guildies over the next week or two.  I am really looking forward to seeing the Tier 4 keeps andthe fortresses.

More later - back to WAR.

A Tale of Two Servers

Averheim treated me well on Sunday.  I logged in right at noon and logged out around 1 a.m.  I ran a lot of scenarios, did some Tier 2 PvE (for want of scenarios at the time), and did some RvR in the Empire/ChaosTier 1 lake in the middle for some fun.  I managed 11 discoveries on WarDB, probably the last times I'll discover anything but a neat novelty nevertheless, and hit 13/12.  Unfortunately, I had to fly out for work Monday morning and my laptop is not able to stably handle WAR.  Needless to say I will be getting a new laptop shortly.  I spend way too much time on the road to not have access to my favorite distraction.

    Destruction has a noticeable population advantage on Averheim, but I'm hoping it's nothing that can't be overcome with a little organization and talent.  And if the zerglings should end up dominating us with sheer numbers, at least we'll have short queues for scenarios and the perpetual ability to mock them for their pathetic reliance on every fat kid in his mom's basement logging in to validate his otherwise hopeless existence.

    Our Destro contingent, on the other hand, rolled on Volkmar and got boned.  Despite my optimistic take on Mythic's response to the server release problem that I and thousdands of others pointed out, things turned out exactly how we thought they were going to turn out and the server is plagued with huge queues already.  They're actually asking people not to create new characters there.  Oops.  Mythic has generally been pretty responsive to player concerns, but they screwed the pooch on this one and managed to piss off some of their biggest fans.  I imagine it will all work itself out in the next couple weeks, but it will also leave a sour taste in the community's mouth that could have been easily avoided.  Next time a big chunk of players says there's a problem, the company should take it a little more seriously.  The Destruction players have opted to reroll on a different server.  I wish them all the best there; while it sucks to lose their work to date, in the long run it will prove worthwhile.

Problem Resolved: Mythic Comes Through Again

In response to community complaints about the limited number of core servers available for CE launch, Mythic has added more servers to the list:

Folks,

Okay, there’s been much commotion and concern about our server names, availability at CE/SE launch, etc. So, here’s the full scoop on what we are going to do and what we are not going to do.

First, we will take the number of servers up on CE launch from 10 to 15. While we still don’t think it is necessary (and I’ll explain in detail why), this additional number of servers tomorrow should alleviate some of the concerns being raised by the community. Here is the updated list:

Red Eye Mountain Core
Skull Throne Core
Badlands Core
Sylvania Core
Volkmar Core
Averheim Core
Azazel Core
Hochland RvR
Wolfenburg RvR
Dark Crag Open RvR
Bechafen Open RvR
Phoenix Throne Roleplay
Ostermark Roleplay
Chaos Wastes RP/Open RvR


Second, I’ll lay out the names of the servers that will be deployed as other servers of that type hit their population cap (more on this below). We will not list the names of all the servers we have for a number of reasons, including the fact that the names are irrelevant this far out as the type of server that name could be associated with could change based on player play patterns. For example, if Deathsword was listed as a “Core” server in a list but then is changed to an ”RP” server based on demand, it would create more confusion, not less.

Ulthuan Core
Vortex Core
Ungrim Core
Drachenfels Open RvR
Eerie Downs Open RvR
Tor Elyr Roleplay
Kazador RP/Open RvR



In terms of how our rollout plan looks like, here are some more details:

1) On day one, our population cap on each server will start at 1/3 of its total cap and then move up to ½ on a rolling basis. We can raise that number any time, no restart of the servers are necessary.

2) As a server approaches cap, we will either raise the cap again or deploy another server of that type. Deployment of a server takes only 30 minutes and our intention is that there are no server queues during the CE/SE period.

3) By day 2, we will raise the server cap of all servers to 2/3.

4) By day 3, we will raise the server cap of all servers to its full cap.

5) Each server’s cap is a bit soft and even our top cap is less than the servers can handle.

6) Depending on how many of our CE/SE players take advantage of the head start, we will add more servers as necessary throughout the entire process.

Once again, our plan (not our goal, but our plan) is to deploy servers as needed to *avoid* long server queues whether it is in the Head Start or beyond. Please keep in mind we needed to have some queuing in Open Beta so we could test the code before launch.

Here’s the list of the next servers of each type that are queued up so that guilds can start making their plans.

We will not open all the CE/SE servers at launch for a number of reasons, one of which is that doing so would be unfair to the SE players who might also want to come into a “fresh” server just like our CE people. We also will not open all the servers we have racked at SE launch as the same reasoning applies to people who didn’t pre-order the game. We will not open all our servers at launch as well since that could lead to servers with too few people in the beginning if people spread out too much.

If this plan doesn’t work, you can expect us to make changes on the fly and/or after launch including free transfers as necessary.

Mark

This goes a long way toward alleviating concerns about Sunday servers getting overwhelmed on Tuesday and Thursday.  Thanks Mythic!

Mythic's Misstep

As promised, Mythic today released the list of CE servers that will be open tomorrow (with the caveat that they will add to this list as needed).  Unfortunately, the list is short.  Very short.  How short?  For North America, 5 core ruleset servers, 3 open RvR servers, 1 RP server, and 1 RP/RvR server.

    With 60,000 CEs, it's not unrealistic to think that those servers can handle the load on Sunday.  It is wildly unrealistic, however, to think that those servers can handle the load of all the CE buyers, plus all their SE preorder friends who log in on Tuesday, plus all their friends from the unwashed masses who log in on Thursday.  Mythic has done a great job not just with building an amazing game but with handling the beta process and rollout, BUT - and this is a huge but - they will forever tarnish this game's launch if hordes of people have to reroll their CE characters to avoid massive queues on the few original servers.  Unless there's a character transfer or server split option available immediately, this is going to be a huge problem.

    Let's take a look at the Casualties of WAR: we have a few dozen people who are going to play like maniacs Sunday.  I aim to sink at least 16 hours into my character tomorrow, and while I have to work some Monday, I'll get in at least another 5-6 hours then.  I will not want to abandon that character.  But more Casualties will be coming on board on Tuesday - figure that doubles the numbers on the server since other guilds will do the same, and you end up with queues.  Now I have to wait to play.  Maybe half an hour, maybe an hour - who knows?  And all this before the game even launches.  And then Armageddon comes: even *more* people come on board on Thursday, some of whom know members of Casualties or other guilds on our server and want to play there.  The queues get worse, and *someone* is going to have to abandon a character they've already sunk a lot of time into or everyone is going to have to deal with hours of waiting just to play.

    I sincerely hope Mythic realizes and corrects its error in the next nineteen and a half hours.

Witch Hunter: Source Material

In addition to playing WAR lately, I've been reading The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, a collection of stories by Conan creator Robert Howard.  Solomon Kane is a rugged Puritan who battles evil with his sword and pistol - oh, and who wears a cool hat.  Sound familiar?  Folks on the Warhammer Alliance board inform me that Solomon Kane is the inspiration for the Witch Hunter class.  It's nothing deep or insightful, but Howard can write action scenes like nobody's business.  The book's a fun read and makes me appreciate my melee DPS friends all the more.

I've Been Giving WAR a Chance for the Last Few Days

My posting schedule died a horrible death starting with Preview Weekend 2, and I've been messing around with my Rune Priest quite a bit.  Mythic has made a number of big adjustments, perhaps the biggest being the addition of Grimnir's Shield (and subsequent change in that shield's introduction from rank 5 to rank 21).  Rune Priests are still beastly healers with great survivability, and thrive in larger-scale RvR.  Rune of Serenity is the best thing ever, at least until I'm in a position to level up to Rune of Sundering and pick up the Sundered Motion tactic.

    In the course of Open Beta, though, I did test out the Curse add-on and was surprised to find that I discovered an item - I think this is the first time that's happened in any MMO I've played.  I don't know if the discovery will carry over into live (or even if the item will), but for the time being I am forever linked with the Gale-Runner's Clogs.

    My guild, Casualties of War, will be picking a server tomorrow when the CE list comes up.  Thanks to nien years of higher education, I had the disposable income to ebay a CE and will be rising at the crack of 6:30 on Sunday to log in and help form the guild.  I was hoping to take the week off, but unfortunately work calls so I'll be playing like a maniac on Sunday, playing in the evening Monday through Wednesday, and then taking off Thursday and Friday to play more.  Missing some hours here and there is a good thing, as it lets more people level up to create a more dynamic pool of RvRers and hopefully cut the queues down for scenarios.  I don't want to be so far ahead of the leveling curve that I'm forced to PvE most of the time.

    I'll have more substantive updates after I get in game for awhile and see how the Rune Priest plays at the top end of Tier 2 and beyond.  It will be nice to have the effort count.  It will be a very long time before I hit RR80, but in the meantime there are many enemies to be crushed and goodies to be acquired.  This is going to be awesome.

New Renown Planner Online

The good people responsible for my favorite Warhammer career planner, MMOGuildsites, have released a new renown planner to let you play around with renown points - not that any of us will need to worry about that last tier for awhile. ;)

Leaked Patch 4.1 Notes

You've probably seen them by now, but leaked notes for Patch 4.1 are floating around.  Caveats abound: there will be more changes, the notes may not be complete, etc.  But since there's nothing else to go on right now, let's assume the notes are accurate.  What does this patch entail for the Order healing classes?

    Here's what the notes say about Rune Priests:

• Rune of Cleansing: This ability now removes one Curse or Ailment from the Runepriest's target.

• All Master Runes are now placeable ground target effects with 30 second cool downs and 30 second durations.

• Rune of Warding: This ability now only affects Corporeal Resist.

• Rune of Shielding: This ability is now instant cast, but has a 20 second cool down.

• Regenerative Shielding: This ability's tooltip now mentions that armor boost will also ignore armor penetration from attacks.

• Ancestor's Blessing: This ability's tooltip now mentions that this ability will not affect the caster.

• Rune of Nullification: Now mentions debuff duration.

• Spec Tactics are now properly classified as Spec tactics.

• Rune of Shielding: The cool down of this ability has increased to 20 seconds as originally intended.

• Rune of Preservation and Concussive Runes: These abilities will no longer stack with other De-taunts.

Ouch!  All that math on Oath Rune of Warding down the drain, and now it's a bit more meh.  It's still equal to Stubborness, though, and may be worth more than Iron or Sanctuary.  Regardless of its current merit, the change is a significant hit to our survivability.  We're still going to be tough to take down, but

    The shortened duration of the master runes is a mixed blessing - we gain mobility, but take a hit to efficiency by costing 3.4 seconds per minute between the casting time and the GCD.  Shielding also takes a big hit with 10 times the cooldown; the archmage Shield of Saphery is now plainly superior despite the limitation to groupmates.  I like the change to cleansing; I'd rather focus on clearing status effects from the guys I'm healing than trying to juggle debuffing the other side. 

    And here's what our Archmage friends see in terms of changes:

• Storm of Cronos: The duration has been increased.

• Feel the Winds: The duration has been increased.

• Law of Age: The duration has been increased.

• Cleansing Light: This ability now removes one Ailment or Hex from your target.

No nerfage here; the Archmage's debuffs were buffed and the already comparable healing did not take any hits.  As I mention above, the change to the Rune Priest's shield makes the Archmage's clearly superior.  The Archmage was pretty comparable to the Rune Priest prior to these changes; I expect people who were looking at both may focus a little more on the Archmage during open beta.

    And let's not forget the more hybrid healer, the Warrior Priest:

• Purge: This ability now removes an Enchantment from the Warrior Priest's enemy. Upon removal, the enemy takes damage. This ability can be purchased at level 25.

• Divine Shock: This ability is now available at level 40.

• Purify: This ability now removes one Curse or Hex from the Warrior Priest's target.

No major changes, but the ability to both purify and debuff should give the Warrior Priest solid large-scale RvR utility in situations where melee combat may be difficult.

    The balancing will continue and I expect the relative utility of the healing classes will shift quite a bit more over the next few months.  In the meantime, expect to hear some whines from the Rune Priest community.  Given that the game hasn't even launched, it's not fair to say that the nerfbat hit us, but the legions of preview weekend players have already set a baseline and adjusting down from that leaves them thinking that something that was theirs has been taken away.

Rune Priest: A Comparison of Oath Runes

During preview weekend I typically kept the Oath Rune of Warding on myself.  I was surprised to see on these boards that many (maybe even most) favor self-buffing with the Oath Rune of Iron. To be sure I wasn't completely nuts, I decided to run some numbers and compare the benefits from each. I looked at each oath rune under ideal conditions - i.e., with the given mastery path maxed out. Your mileage will obviously vary based on what spec you choose.

    With 15 mastery points in Grimnir, Oath Rune of Warding gives an additional 14.95% mitigation to all damage types. That's some serious business, at least as long as it's not dispelled. That's compared with 80 willpower and initiative on the Oath Rune of Iron.

     At level 40, with Valaya maxed out, Oath Rune of Iron gives us:
1.71% chance to evade ranged attacks
1.71% chance to disrupt spell attacks
+18 healing per second

In other words, we get around half of what the tactic Discipline gives us, plus a little bit of evasion gravy. Oath Rune of Iron is worth a little more than half of a tactic.

    With Grimnir maxed out, Oath Rune of Warding gives us:
14.95% mitigation to corporeal damage
14.95% mitigation to spiritual damage
14.95% mitigation to elemental damage

In other words, Warding gives us the effect of the tactic Stubborness, plus the same effect applied to two other damage types. The rune is roughly equivalent in value to 3 tactics.

    Now I'm all for willpower stacking, and plan on speccing as heavily as possible into willpower with my renown points and on using Discipline, but it seems to me that that's a huge tradeoff in terms of value, and that I should not hesitate to trade the potential extra stats from Iron for the increased mitigation from Warding. And I fully acknowledge that avoidance is far better than mitigation, especially since some of the things that can be avoided are debuffs that mitigation won't help against at all. But when you're looking at a choice between a certain amount of avoidance and almost 10 times that much evasion, the evasion looks like it will have a much bigger impact.

    Even if you have no points in Grimnir, you get 9.4% mitigation to the three non-physical damage types; I'd still take that over the max-Valaya'ed Iron. But since I'm planning on speccing up Grimnir, it seems like a no-brainer: as best I can tell, when compared with similar tactics available to Rune Priests, the effect of the Oath Rune of Warding are objectively far superior to the effects of the Oath Rune of Iron.