April 3, 2009

April Fool's, Lost Vale and Rant

Just so the people reading my blog through a newsfeed reader don't miss it and spend hours searching: The entire Beyond the Kraken Sea towards the GM Castle post was just my sophisticated April Fool's joke. Everything was fiction and photoshoped. If you spend some time up there searching for the Journal (and i know some did *g*) i hope you had some fun at least and maybe saw a new area. ;)



After the evening in Lost Vale when the server started to screw us over, we went back another evening to finish the instance. We encountered some strange bugs (most is covered on the forums) during our run and especially at N'Kari i think we had the pleasure of encountering all of the ones mentioned here. Running several meters past an orb and picking it up was no fun. Also it felt like the stupid channeling-tomes are even harder to pick up now. Took me around 100 clicks to pick one up at some point. I fail to understand why the end-game instances does not seem to have any priority in the bug fixing process. At least they give people something to do while Mythic works on fixing the real end-game. But when you run an instance with a five day lockout and its bugged like hell, you start to ask yourself "Why am i doing this again? I want to have fun and not bite my keyboard due to stupid bugs..."
We did not get many items we could really use during that run, but i was lucky enough to grab Da Choppa of da Chieftain, which will become my new main weapon. I still wonder why there are just more or less generic weapons and not some designed for specific roles so eg. you can obtain a tanking Choppa - guess its part of a somewhat lazy itemization.

During our LV run we were talking a lot about the current "feel" of the game. The main problem right now is that there is not much to do that you can call endgame. Once you're not (or very seldom) running city dungeons anymore, because you got full sentinel, you can only do Lost Vale (which has a long lockout, you can't switch team members and its bugged), do oRvR and scenarios. The thing about oRvR currently is tho, that its a zerg-fest. Those of you that played AoC may remember some of the cool small scale PvP you could do there. That's the feeling i want in WAR as well. Zerg attacks are freakin' boring. Attacking Keeps involves too less strategy and the capitol raids are boring as well, once you've been there a few times. The whole end-game is not polished enough to be fun. And the thing that really bugs me are the very few possibilities you have to "upgrade" your character. Farming renown just feels like a grind, as does running LV currently. If we would not have such a fun crowd to play with in the guild, i think many more would have quit already. Once you have full Darkpromise gear you can only upgrade via Warlord gear (rr64-70). If i will hit a wall when i have to grind 30 renown levels to be able to wear the next item upgrades and there is no other possible upgrades... probably I'll rethink the "fun" I'm having. Mythic is re-thinking the ward-system and i hope they're doing it properly. In addition i know for a fact, that when the Land of the Dead does not deliver towards end-game fun and the "feeling" you can upgrade your character more, WAR will face hard times.

14 comments:

Proximo said...

There's PLENTY to do in WAR imo, there's thousands of Order that you can kill over and over and over again. And no, I don't need no damn gear or any other rewards to keep on doing it, I play WAR because it's a "PvP" focused game, so I can PvP, a LOT! Progress in terms of gear is fine, but not necessary for me. Give me more fun ways to dispose of order, that's bettah!

("PvP" because RvR is not only PvP, but I play it for the PvP)

Yitu said...

Thulf,

you throw me yesterday in an epic quest for... no key ;)

Yout summary of the situation in WAR ist short... and realistic.

Kind regards from germany,

Yitu

WeRT said...

Agree with you Thulf. I stand in this same situation as you. I have 40/54 SH, i'm bored as hell doing BE/BB/LV - i know all zones on Order and Destro side... have all renown items... And i don't enjoy zerg/lag fest...

I'm start to think about reroll to Order...

Dark days mate ... dark days...

Zzzzzrd said...

is Warlrod gear buyable after the certain rank or do you need to do keep lords and stuff? :O

SarGara said...

I know i hate myself for making the comparison but look at WoW. Every MMO when it releases has very little endgame and its something thats worked on later. WoW was the same instead of BE/BB you had to run Strat/Scholo. Then came MC, BWL etc etc.

But anyway you get what i mean. You either wait it out or you leave but no amounts of complaints really is going to speed it up and you make yourself feel bad so just enjoy what you have :)

Raclaw said...

The problem with Karak Azgal at the moment is that you get killed the minute you run out of the warcamp. Yes, I'm exagerating slightly but theres just not enough active destruction to fight back.

Anonymous said...

Thulf,

No end game. LoL. I guess u killed the opposite faction King already on numerous occasions.
Zerg -- LoL the game is Warhammer and based on armies not a 6vs6 teams. Every server ppl complain about zerging. Every single one. Deal with it. Coordinate with other guilds on running multiple warbads. Use PvE terrain for your advantage and movements so not to be seen. Post spies by other warcamps to inform on their movements. Use oRVR terrain to outflank and destroy. Tons of ways to enjoy oRvR. Ninja BO's. Use pick lock skill and ninja keeps.
Plus you can always lvl another toon. Send your lower tier alts to their appropriate Tier to mess with Zone locking. I dunno it mabe just me but i still havent thought for a second what am i gonna do today since i been 40.
I do agree on bugs issues though. That needs to be fixxed.

Raclaw said...

@ the anonymous guy

All that stuff has been tried and twarted, theres just no coping when you are outnumbers by 4 or 3 to 1. The game design is pretty flawed tbh, because is everyone is to have some amount of fun both realms needs to be equal or close to. So whoever wants it the most wins. WAR should have had 3 realms or a serious handicap if the population is seriously imbalanced(not xp and renown bonus) because casual gamers can't be bothered putting up a fight and will eventually quit, gap gets bigger and the game gets worse.

As much as I like WAR I've come to realise that I'm at my limit as well. Will probably cancel my sub soon.

Protector said...

theres smallcale RvR in war if you want to have it, all up to the player
and community.

Unknown said...

can i ask why u left thirst for the new guild o.o?

Thulf said...

@Jordy
Talked about it in other comments before: We merged Thirst and Rigor Mortis due to dwindling numbers of active players on both sides. Despite what some people say that have not done the WAR endgame since months, players that did get bored more and more.
With the merger we hoped we can keep up enough active players to get more stuff done.

Thulf said...

@Protector
Due to the RvR lakes and the two realms it really depends on the faction balance. ATM on KA if you just roam the RvR areas (for some small scale fights with 3-6 people) chances are high you'll just get stomped by a larger Order force.

in AoC PvP was often different and groups were fighting against each other in different spots. Zergs did happen as well, but the small scale PvP was much better.

Anonymous said...

To Raclaw:

Have you read what i posted or just glared through it. Pack ur team and move to a new location. I hope you not blindly keep on going against larger number of warbands and then complain about zerg. Like i stated, simply find new ways to deal with it if you are outnumbered.

To Thulf,

If you keep on capping Bo's ninja style of course you will eventually run into a zerg. Well actually most likely you will run into a small group first followed by a larger one. By the way picking up the tail of a zerg is tremendous fun and i highly suggest you try it if you like working with a smaller team.
Once again Thulf you are talking about smaller scale PvP in a game that was not designed with that in mind. Do not forget that.

The main problem that i see regarding end game is that there are way to many guilds on both sides with limited number of lvl 40's in them. And instead of forming alliances they all try to shove each other down. I see that constantly.

P.S. Truly an excellent blog Thulf, keep up the good work.

Skarlix said...

You rat bastard! A buddy and I have done quite a few "off the map" runs into other areas. One example is that we've been on the highest catwalks over the Greenskin fort. When we saw your post we immediately ran to the elf area and spent a few hours running around Dangerous Territory. We figured Mythic had been quick and removed the book, but I see now it was all a prank. Well done, you had us hook, line, and sinker. Great blog, thanks for the goose-chase!

Skarlix of the Soylent Greenskins!