Rigor Mortis reached Guild Rank 37

Yesterday our guild, Rigor Mortis, finally reached guild rank 37. Which means we can buy the improved hunting mounts from the guild vendor. They cost 150g and give you 60% speed and a lower dismount chance. They are only slightly faster then the normal mounts, but all have some kind of armored look to them. I posted all the pictures from the Black Orc GR 37 mounts back when we tried them on the PTS. I still think tho that the guild rank mounts should have a slightly different model as well, like i suggested here and here. After our friends from Enklava, Rigor Mortis is the 2nd Destruction guild to reach rank 37 on Karak-Azgal afaik.

Fluff Item idea of the Day: A different model for the basic throwing attacks, same damage, same everything just a different model. Would look cool if your Orc could throw a large axe or a bottle, wouldn't it? ;)

The Grass is always Greener on the other Side

People stop playing Destruction as they think things are better on Order side and vice versa. I did put some heavy thinking in switching from Cultivating to Scavenging these days. I'm 200/200 Apothecary/ Cultivating since a long time, but the lack of access to stabilizers did not vanish. I was hoping when the server would mature more, the supply at the AH would become better, but it did not. Of course i can ask around in the guild and usually will get some water, but it's annoying. Especially when usually you only craft 20% of the potions you need yourself and give the rest away for free to friends & guildies due to lack of demand at the AH. So right now i bleed through the nose for stabilizers i buy from the AH when i really need them and no one else is online to give me some. My guess is that either not many people bothered to pick up gathering professions or they simply vendor the stuff. So my new plan, that's supposed to lead me to greener and mellower meadows, for these days is to train an alt for Cultivating and pick up Scavenging with Thulf. Should you level up some alts, feel free to send me all kinds of seeds you find and would just throw away else. ;)
Refering to my post yesterday, i decided to go for the 'Eadplate of the Stair you can see on the pic, looks good.

Not only is the beer supposed to be better on Order side, but they also got trophies from monsters hanging from their guild officers room inside the Pretzelbar (or whatever their milk lounge is called). Check out the pics Arbitrary posted from it. Compare that to the officers room from Inevitable City on my pic. Why don't we have some Stunty heads at the walls.. and beards.. and stolen beer... ? Guess it's about time to raid Altdorf and steal their trophies!

On a sidenote i installed two new little addon helper i want to mention: AutoDeath (can automaticly accept being resurrected and fixes the annoying countdown box) and MovableLootWindow (registers loot/roll windows with layout editor). Good Stuff!

Guild Heraldry Emblem on Cloak

Our guild Thirst reached guild rank 20 yesterday. Yay! Finally the heraldry emblem shows on the cloak. The system Mythic developed for the guild heraldry is a bit strange in my eyes. You reserve the pattern with guild rank 10, then with guild rank 15 the colors and pattern will show on the cloak (together with the ugly default emblem) and at guild rank 20 the complete guild cloak will be displayed. Beside the ugly default emblem (why show it at all?) the system is a bit weird as many guilds will reserve their heraldry with rank 10 but you can't see what the others chose. So with rank 20 there will be some surprises to which guilds have similar heraldry. I can't stress enough the fact that the shape will be the same for standard and cloak. So if you choose a triangle shape, your cloaks witll have it as well.

We had a very long discussion about which colors, pattern and emblem we wanted to use. Rather quickly we decided on a dark cloak as it will fit to all different dyed armor parts. The next letdown is that the patterns a) look like some C64 pixelart (look at the border) depending on the different colors you use and b) the pattern color "bleeds" into the background color as a kind of layer - very ugly. My initial suggestion (see the pic) was to use a dark color together with a dark red pattern, but the color bleed made the cloak become dirty grey and the pattern did look very pixelish. In the end we decided for the combination you can see in the upper picture on me as we thought the hand is somewhat unique between the different emblems and has no color variations, therefore reducing the amount of guilds running around with it, and a pattern we can cope with should it take Mythic a longer time to fix them. Funny thing is that we discovered Eva Vix got a sense for style as well and chose a similar design then we did - imagine we would have used my initial suggestion, that would have been nearly the same. So whoever decided on the guild heraldry at Eva Vix... kudos, you got taste. ;)

Toe-to-Toe: Claiming a Keep

Yesterday night Thirst, with the help of Rigor Mortis & Da Meanest an' Greenest, took back the T4 keep "Ironskin Skar" in Black Crag from the filthy hands of Order. I did not participate personally, but will use this as an example how to claim a keep and what it costs. Before you can claim a keep, of course first you have to conquer it. So gather a strong warband and find one occupied by the forces of Order, preferably already claimed by an Order guild. ;)



You can check which realm owns a keep by looking at the mouse-over window. It will also show if a guild, in this example Thirst, has claimed that keep. So after you conquered the keep and slaughtered all the NPCs (including the Keep Lord of course) in there, you can claim the "empty" keep. If you just leave it, NPCs from your realm will repopulate the keep by themselves. If you want to claim the keep (Note: Your guild needs rank 14 to be able to claim) for your guild, after the fight you'll have to head to the top of the structure. IF you are a standard bearer for your guild, you'll be able to interact with one of the banner poles on top and you can place your banner there, claiming the keep.

It's important to note: The claiming standard bearer won't be able to carry a standard as long as the guild keeps that keep, because he "uses" his to claim it. Once your guild claimed the keep (your guild can only have one keep claimed at a time), the banners will transform into your guild heraldry, showing colors, patterns and emblem depending on your guild rank. In addition the Keep Lord will be hired by your guild and will show the guild tag as well.

But of course such service does not come for free. If you intend to claim keeps, you better fill up your war chest in advance with gold. The costs for keep maintenance are:
T3 Keep Maintenance =  6 gold/hour (144g per day)
T4 Keep Maintenance = 10 gold/hour (240g per day)

Maybe a good idea to talk about guild tithes & taxes or how guild members donate money in advance. We did not really plan for the keep claiming and had to realize our funds inside the guild vault were not enough to hold it for long. Next time then... ;)

So you wonder what the benefits are for paying maintenance and defending a claimed keep? Well, should someone attack "your" keep you'll get a warning in chat - so better make your way over quick when that happens. The benfits of a claimed keep include, that your guild banner tactics (the ones "equipped" in the banner used to claim) will be applied to the specified RvR area for ALL realm members to benefit from. In addition your guild will earn experience over time while holding the Keep. If a Keep (that is claimed by a guild) is captured, then the Standard associated with the Keep is considered captured.

Toe-to-Toe: Basic Guild Battle Standards

The open beta is closer to its end now, so its time to test all you can and want to know for launch. Yesterday i tried out guild battle standards and figured they are worth an in detail article.

Once your guild reaches guild rank 5 you'll gain the right to assign two standard bearers (everyone can buy a standard, but only those assigned can use it) and use a Warped Battle Standard, which can be bought at quartermasters in warcamps. The guild leader will always be able to function as a standard bearer as well. You equip the battle standard in the designated slot (player doll) and drag it into a hotbar slot. Once you use it, a castbar will show up (takes a while) and you'll bring out the standard. When you have it out, you'll gain a permanent speed buff:








This passive speed buff will work for all guildies in your party (and most likely warband as well, did not test that) as long as they're within range of you. If you should die while carrying the banner, it will be lost - that's nearly 1.9g wasted then. Especially in the begining that would be bad, so probably best to let tanks carry it and maybe have an off-tank to "guard" the standard bearer as well if in dangerous areas. The nifty part of the speed buff is it will let your party move 25% faster through areas, could be useful when you don't have a mount yet. But be aware that the standard bearer can't use any of his abilities/skills while carrying it. He can only run & jump and has access to two core abilities in the beginning:

The blessing will prevent you from most damage for a short period. And NO it does not prevent falling damage, i tried. ;)






Planting a standard on the ground is where the basic battle standard gets interesting. Once you plant it, it will stay one hour (then decay if not picked up again) or until and enemy player picks it up. I have no idea what exactly happens then, but afaik they will be able to use it as a trophy or gain "Banner Scraps" to buy unlocks. As long as the designated standard bearer is still alive, it's not possible for another guildie to pick the standard up instead. I don't know if he would be able to do so should you die. As he gets a message I'm still alive, maybe so.

The interesting part is what the tooltip does not tell you... once the basic banner is planted it will radiate a pulse that will award all party members in the area of effect with a 20% morale boost. Imagine for example you enter a dungeon and plant the banner as your spot to fight and pull the mobs over into the pulse. Also useful if you are defending a keep. Depending on the fight you could use your morale abilities a lot more.


So its rather obvious that the standards real use will come at later levels with additional tactics etc. equipped. But for a cautious group even the basic battle standard can provide uses, maybe in the beginning more in PvE then RvR, but still. Standards will also be needed later to allow the guild to claim keeps.

Tip of the Day:
#You do not need to stand still to bring out or store the battle standard, you can do it while running.