Thulf the Quest Giver

Those that follow my adventures from pre-WAR know i have always played MMOs on a roleplay server when i had the chance. I'm not a hardcore roleplayer, but i like the immersion and dislike people standing around in the major city talking about the Superbowl or having names like xXPowerBarbie13Xx. In addition its great that you can run into player driven events any day. With AoC being a PvP centric game we had some issues the political/diplomatic kind on the RP server tho, an attack always became a major affair of state when you just wanted to have some nice PvP. Therefore the decision for WAR to move to a "normal" server.


From the Witching Night event i still had tons of those Leather Mask of the Gobbo items. Since quite a while i had the idea to pose with Thulf as a quest giver in the greenskin newbie area and hand them out.

What better occasion than a lot of Choppas running around there? On Friday early evening i placed myself at the Snouts' Pens in Mount Bloodhorn and posed as a quest giver - asking for grey trash items from the Stunties to bolster the greenskin supplies. One thing i realised: The chat messages have to be quite short, if you add too many item links, those will make the message too long and it won't display. Therefore i had to shorten my message a bit. In addition to some pre-thought of lines for communication i also used the OrcTalk addon for slang flavour...
I know on "normal" servers players often are not that open for roleplay, as they're not used to it or don't have any interest in it. In addition the english servers are cross-cultural and some players don't speak english that well.


I had no expectations for this experiment and was prepared to stand there lonely for a while. I posed as a quest giver for around 40min and had two or three really nice conversations. I only handed out a few masks as many players were just running past, busy with their newbie quests, not reading the chat or not being interested in any interaction. Only one conversation i can describe as roleplay, the rest was people wanting to do the "quest" but needing pointers or high level players on their alts that already had masks themselves, but thought its a cool idea. As it was early evening the area was not bustling with activity the whole time tho. The result was okayish, but not great. I guess I'll try it again once everyone can create a Choppa and see how it goes then.

I can only encourage everyone to add to the server life with player driven events, be it regular 6vs6, player quests or just any other event that is open for others to participate.

Thulf the Sentinel

I went back into Bilerot Burrow yesterday, still hoping for my last Sentinel piece that eluded me for quite some time now. Lo and behold, finally the Sentinel Bodyplate piece droped for me! Yay! Now we have two tanks with 5/5 wards in our guild and have a third only lacking the chest as well. To celebrate the ward (and since we were able to recruit some healers recently) we started off with running two groups into Lost Vale. I took the tourist & sightseeing group (none of the guys had been deeper into LV) and we did very well. Killed all bosses up to the Butcher without much problems... we'll go back and should be fine. It's great to see we got the people now to run two groups into Lost Vale, which is (beside the annoying running) by far the most fun instance in WAR.

Since i have six Sentinel pieces now, i did some tests with the six piece set bonus: Preservation - On Being Hit: 10% chance to increase Wounds by 80 for 20 seconds. While the tooltip of the proc is wrong (says it reduces wounds) and it does not show in your combat log, the proc itself is not as good as i thought it would be. The "on being hit" does not trigger if you block or parry. The increase in wounds does not stack with the Da Toughest! and the proc also does not heal you, but only increases the max. amount of hitpoints you have. Being a tank i block & parry a lot, making the proc even less useful for me. After some testing IMO that set bonus is a joke and you're better off using another belt. Maybe if i get another Darkpromise piece I'll use the belt from that set, but as most Darkpromise pieces are rather weak compared to the Sentinel - as the single item bonuses are better for tanking - you're better off using Enervating Gutstrap (Gutstrap of Maiming) or the Black Orc Ransacker's Gird (with wounds talismans) depending on the situation. It's a pitty that a green belt is better then any blue/epic you can find. The Black Orc belts and also the Darkpromise set really should be looked at again.

Flipping the Switch

During the last days i switched from cultivating to scavenging on Thulf and moved cultivating over to an alt. One of the best choices i made, it's possible to train scavenging to 200 in about a few hours. It's always hard to lose progress you made, but sometimes it has to be done. Luckily with my knowledge about cultivating i was able to bring my alt up to 120 culti already and the next time I'll watch some TV he'll get to 200 easily, as the hardest part is over. I had some funny encounters while i was running around in full armor grinding low level PQs. Some peeps were really happy i was there to help them finish the PQ and i got a lot of tells what i was doing there. I still think one day i should go back to the starting area and hand out my own quests to new players... would be fun.

Since Mythic finally fixed the last PQ in wing 3 of Bastion Stair we went back to the Skull Lord (final and fourth boss) these days to send him back into the Rift of Rage. It's a fun fight and be it only due to the size of that Lord (check the size of his axe compared to the players). ;) I should take some time and write up for you a few orientation pointers for Bastion Stair, we all can run around there with closed eyes meanwhile. If you do wing 3 first and people got used to the portal jumping its always fun to lead group members towards the exit portal (in the other wings) instead to the boss instance - sometimes they take the bait and use it. I know, it was late. :P During that run i was lucky and got the Bloodlord Sholdaplate, which gives me the two piece set bonus. They look nearly identical to rank 3 white Orc shoulders btw. I was also finally able to get my hands on the Bodyplate of the Bleakest Despair, which eluded me for quite a while due to unlucky PQ bag generation. In addition we visited Bloodwrought Enclave, but i have to say i was quite disappointed as Bastion Stair is more fun and feels more of a challenge - needless to say we could not use a single of the drops in there. One thing that really annoys me is the lackluster high rank dungeon quests. You get these awesome tasks and then the only reward is some XP (it's a rank 40 quest, hello?!?) and there are not even follow-ups. At least should have made those more atmospheric and if nothing else reward some good looking social clothing you can wear while hanging out in the city.

The EU finally got a beta (!) version of the Realm War pages online. I used this fact to create a new info frame for the right navigation with a direct link to my profile. The EURW is still buggy tho... some weird localization errors and other bugs leave room for improvement. It's nice to see Thirst is one of the top three ranked destruction guilds on our server tho. Looking at the sheer amount of members other guilds have, I think we're doing really well. I think they squeezed in some kind of server status page into the leaderboards... but i dunno, overall the realm war pages seem ok, but there is still way to go. I hope we'll see some fixes soon and not in the same time span it took GOA to bring them online.

Tip of the Day: Despite a recent hotfix for the data.myp issue (every crash increased the file size), it seems that one did not fix an already existing large data.myp file. So it might be a good idea to go into your WAR folder and check the size of that file. If it's several gigabyte large (it's supposed to be around 50MB), delete it and tick the "full file check" in the patcher next startup.

When i grow up...

...i want to pillage & plunder Altdorf capitol. In the meantime Thulf hit rank 40... yay! The last two levels i did reel in with questing through Greenksin & Chaos chapters. So now what? I'll test my current mastery tree against another spec idea i got, atm i use 0:17:8 and am quite satisfied with it. I really should do some more RvR and bring my renown up. One mission of course has to be to get more Wards for the high-end dungeons. So far i only got the Bloodlord Andsplate and mobs inside the city instances and Lost Vale hit damn hard. Beside gear from PQ loot bags and boss drops, i can't upgrade my gear anymore with quest or influence rewards. There is one influence reward, the Da' Gorfang Bladestoppa I'll switch with my current Witch Steel Bladestoppa, to get but i nearly maxed the influence already. Beside that nothing else i can do beside running instances & PQs and hope for a lucky drop. Easiest way will probably be to do some RvR to be able to buy the rest from those rewards, tho nothing really major there beside the stuff with insane renown requirements. One quest to mention is Helpin da Humies, really easy travel quest and good reward if you did not get a better head piece yet. I got two good blue drops from PQs inside Bastion Stair i use: Gore Covered Sholdaplate and Bloodherd Eadplate (I could also use Eadplate of Demons, but the Bloodherd one looks better - maybe switching it for 'Eadplate of the Stair). The rest is a mix from the best quest, influence and BoE drops i could get my hands on. Overall I'm satisfied with my gear and atm i run around with approx. 11.6k HP (yes, includes the wounds tactic) while maintaining a very good level of mitigation. Once i get more set pieces with Wards my HP will go down a bit, but looks like i should be able to stay around 10k, which should be sufficient.

Overall i have to say the journey from 1-40 was enjoyable, partly also because the humor in the greenskin chapters is fun. I tried to stay away from the elvish chapters as much as i could, as i found them rather boring and too turquoise & pink. Character development felt like it was going somewhere, i gained new skills and new gear on a regular basis and had the feeling it was useful. Although itemization sucks at 25+, it really does. While in the beginning you praise that quest rewards are always useful to you, during later levels it's mainly DPS gear choices - three nearly identical pieces, but no tanking stuff - and like all the other classes you suffer from really weird stat distribution on gear. The gear 32+ being the worst... check out the epic rewards from Bastion Stair influence, WTH?
One thing i thought was rather disappointing is the really easy AI from NPCs. You get a quest to eliminate the boss from another tribe, head over and hes surrounded by his 10 bodyguards... you just get into a good position and shoot him, while he runs mad at you his gang does absolutely nothing. There are very few linked mobs in PvE, or those with smart behaviour or special abilities. This results in the normal PvE game being really, really easy. Starting with Mount Gunbad inside the instances it gets a bit better, but not much. Some of the scripted PQs are really cool, but i wish there would be some more generic intelligence for NPCs.

Talking about the city dungeons, Bloodwrought Enclave & Bilerot Burrow, and Lost Vale finally I'm able to venture into them, which is great. I took a sneak peak right after i turned 40 and in Lost Vale you can explore a bit and even kill a few mobs on your own... looks promising. ;) So beside Bastion Stair, expect to see a few updates and screenshots on those high-level dungeons here soon.

Patch 1.0.4b did hit EU today and introduced a damage reduction if you don't wear enough Wards. Evens out the playing field and everyone has to get their hands on Ward gear now. The random drops inside the dungeons suck tho, going there again and again and only find loot no one in your group can use is frustrating. Mythic should either introduce repairable items that more then one class can use or at least generate part of the loot depending on group setup. I don't think its viable to only drop loot that can be used by all in the group, as people probably will gear up to fast - but at least some way in the middle should be found. GOA also mentioned the EU Realm War pages again and they had run into technical difficulties.. blah..blah. Seriously, no one cares... we want results. GOA does not have to develop the game just provide service to EU customers and it takes forever for them to get stuff done. Answers from CSR to problems/bugs have a backlog from one or two days and the "service functions" they are supposed to provide with their website are non-existent yet. While i acknowledge their job is more difficult then many realize (having to coordinate everything with Mythic) the lack of service since the launch results for me in a state of mind where i don't even bother to read any of their excuses anymore. Go and get the stuff done, then we can talk... win trust back with results.

EDIT: Looks like the ward patch did not only nerf damage a notch, but significantly. People report they do barely any decent damage with only a few set pieces and in addition that bosses only drop one set piece and one blue now.
EDIT2: We've been in Bastion Stair tonight and i can't confirm any nerf in loot drops, looks like it did before patch to me.
EDIT3: Mythic reverted the Ward change back via a hotfix tonight. No word on when this will change for EU yet, but its coming.



Tip of the Day: When you port back into the Viper Pit via the Guild Recall Scroll, maybe to use the Flight Master inside the VP for quick travel access between zones, you don't have to run around the small podest to buy a new scroll. Just stand at the corner and you can access the vendor as well - saves you a few seconds everytime you do this.

Orc, Orc, Orc!

The absolute best emote for my Black Orc so far is the /cheer - when the orc goes Yeehaw.. Oi, Oi, Oi! and raises his arms in the air. It's funny, i like it. Another good one (i wish i had as a real emote) is when you use the Deflect Oil ability, as you'll bang your shield for a short while. Have 3-4 Black Orcs standing in one line next to each other and use it, looks impressive. I realized i did not take much time to write about my Black Orc and what I'm doing with him, or how i play him. There is just so much stuff to talk about in WAR... always something looks more important or I'm asked some questions I feel others wants to know the answer to as well. Once i write it in my blog, i can just refer people to it when they ask me the same stuff already in here... hehehe. Talking ablout the blog i have to say the response from other players has been great so far. Beside the comments (always appreciated if you discuss with me here) i had many players on my server Karak-Azgal that talked to me in game, or you enter a scenario and in the time before it starts someone cheers for you and makes a compliment about the blog. The amount of hits this blogs generated in the short amount i started it is incredible as well, i daily expect some pictures to go down because of the traffic. ;) And people have been responsible as well when it came to asking me stuff ingame. So far i only had very polite and friendly questions, which i very much appreciate... as talking to people and explaining stuff of course takes away from your game time and sometimes you're in the middle of things and don't have time. So a cheers out there to all readers and especially those playing on Karak-Azgal.

While i see many Orcs running around with a big 2H weapon, Thulf has been through all of his 27 ranks a defensive specced Black Orc. Of course i keep a strength/weapon skill/2H set as well to quickly grind lower level trash mobs, but usually i go with my wounds/toughness/sword'n'board set-up. I'm becoming a bit upset with quest reward choices for tanks tho. Often you have the choice between eg. 2-3 different items, but all are DPS ones that differ only very little. You really have to search for great tank upgrades meanwhile. I invested all points into the Da’ Toughest tree so far and while i took Less Stabbin' Me and Ya Missed Me, now I'm working my way up to Can't Hit Me!, which will be the next skill i take in this tree (taking lower ones later) - as i think this will be a great one to have. Quick sidenote on Ya Missed Me: It's a reactive skill (after a block), which i don't find troublesome to use, that works great... the damage can't be defended and it lowers the damage of that target by 20% for 10 seconds. The tooltip of the debuff is wrong tho and says the damage is periodically, which my combat log says is not true. Also worth to mention, after the block you can use this skill on any target you want - does not have to be the one you blocked.

When i play in my tank set, i usually have zero downtime needed for healing and can easily play at the edge of chapters i can't use the rewards yet. If i stay longer in an area i might switch some items from the tank set to get more str and such. For solo play and RvR alike, my tactic set up atm is I'm Da Biggest! and 'Ave Another One. The latter really increases my damage done nicely (57+250 atm). I did use Wot armor? for these cases at first, but RvR tends to be so fast paced the effect from direct damage in a skirmish feels better. In scenarios i often do as much damage as some "DPS classes" which is rather astonishing given the fact i don't even go for DPS, but for annoying the heck out of people. In my tanking gear i can take quite a beating. Of course focused fire takes me down hard as well, but eg. in a Black Fire Basin scenario recently i had 5 tank/melee banging on me for ages while a team mate sneaked in and stole the flag in the back, hillarious. I see my task in RvR in protecting the healers (and maybe other squishies) and else i try to be as annoying and disturbing as i can. Sometimes charging around the mob of enemies and trying to take out a healer in the back and cause confusion. Sometimes it works and your group can open up the enemy front line to multiply the distraction between the enemies, sometimes it doesn't. Of course if you pull a stunt like that without backup chances are very high you die if enough enemies notice you and focus fire. Often enough I'm one of the top three renown points (RP) in scenarios, works well enough for me. If we go in with a team of guild mates, usually we come out on the top as a team. I've to say it's great how Mythic implemented a real tank being useful in RvR, i really enjoy it.

In RvR my usual skill rotation (with above tactics) is Follow 'me Lead as a starter. Then it depends on the situation. If the target could run away and is taking good damage, it's Trip 'Em Up (snare & good damage over time). Should my target hit someone else it's Right in Da Jibblies, should it be me it's either RidJ or Tuffer 'n Nails. If i (or others) need space or the enemy is standing on top of a wall or something (lets not talk about TA) i use Big Slash for the knockback. While KBs are fun, i hate how many players use them wrong and knock back a target that's nearly dead - therefore working against the team. The finisher skill is Savin' Me Hide ofc then, as it does more damage then Skull Thumper for my tree. You should watch your skills closely once you invest points into the mastery trees, as quickly some abilities tied to your tree become better then others due to invested points.

While fighting multiple enemies (RvR or PvE) use Challenge, and use it a lot. Some Orcs seem to forget this skill in RvR and use Taunt instead. You can still use Taunt, but use Challenge for the sake of your team as well please. Raze and Distracting Bellow are the fun morales to use for RvR so far. If you time them right, they got quite an impact. Raze is awesome for enemies standing close together or crowded into a doorway. Let me finish with mentioning two other skills: Save Da Runts - use this always on some squishy. It also helps to switch targets during battle if you see someone taking a beating and maybe you can prolong his life enough for a healer to get there. Hold The Line! is great to retreat yourself or to protect people standing close to you when the enemy is moving onwards our group. In addition: Bind your Lob Choppa to a key you can press while running, it does insane damage to a wounded foe running away from you. Shatter Enchantment can be of situational use as well and is often forgotten, but requires you to know the possible enchantments to look for.

Of course i know my approach will change with rank 40 and more skills to my disposal, but so far I'm doing very well with the ones i have/use right now. My next goal is to get my hands on some Action Point regeneration gear, I'm always at the limit and could really use more. Get 'Em is good to use when my AP are at 50%, but its cooldown is very long. I did not mention tanking much, as so far PvE tanking has not been a problem or very challenging at all. The first few levels as a tank in WAR suck for PvE as Squigs basicly are the better tanks/taunters, but after you gain access to taunt yourself it changes. When you gained challenge and at rank 25 the Menace tactic you're set anyway. If someone pulls aggro from you often, either let them die or use your guard on them to share threat. PvE tanking has not really posed a challenge yet, it's more about tricky crowd control and people using focus fire then about threat generation. I could go on and on, but the cards will be shuffled again at 40 and this post is much longer than i intended it to be anyway. If you got questions, leave a comment, else I'll talk about skills once a really good new one became available to me.