Blending Into Tier 4

The last week or so has been quite frustrating leveling up my Archmage.  I spent several nights not accomplishing anything.  It is like magically everyone left Tier 3.  I have really not seen any open rvr, or scenarios popping.  I am so close to Tier 4 I just want to do some pvp for xp.

It just isn't happening.  Tier 3 was halfway dead before, but now it is completely dead.  For around five hours I remained queued for scenarios, and no pops.  I see people asking about Orvr, and nothing.  I start doing a /who for tier 3.  It returns twelve players names.  No wonder nothing is happening.

I don't care how many plague rats spawn in High Pass, but twelve players in the lakes will still feel like a ghost town.  I am sorry, but changing the LOTD access to 32 isn't going to change much.  Do you really think there are that many players grinding there?

After this last week of frustration I decided to just go to tier 4.  I didn't want to pve grind 30-32, and even fall further behind in my renown rank.  It was already behind by almost five levels. 

Actually I blended in to Tier 4 just fine.  They had over two warbands running around.  I guess since I was healing no one was going to complain.  It is still pretty boring doing Orvr, but at least I was gaining some xp, and renown at a pretty good rate.  Even the zone flips helped.

I am getting close to rank 32, and will be soon able to queue up for tier 4 scenarios.  I really hope to rvr the rest of the way to 40, but I know it will be much slower than grinding out pve.

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Zergalicious

Zergs are everywhere in Warhammer Online.  Can zergs be successfully removed from the game?  How can zergs be eliminated?  What causes everyone to zerg in the first place?

The biggest culprit of creating a zerg is the addon State of the Realm.  How hard is it to see where everyone is, and what zone is closest to flipping.  Should they remove this addon from the game?  Would it cause players to venture out to the lakes in small groups looking for action?

Bonus renown causes zergs.  No one is going to take more than one objective at a time.  Why would you want to take away renown from other players?  Would it be better to give bonus renown as a faction so it splits players up into different parts of the lake, and other pairings?  What would happen if one group is taking the North objective in KV, another is taking the South, and a third group is in Dragonwake taking a keep.  In the end every player earns the bonus renown from taking all three.

Should all notifications be removed?  Doesn't notifications make it so no one defends?  Why stay, and defend a keep when you will know exactly when they hit the door?

Does the War Report enable zerging?  You know exactly where the zerg is the instant you log into the game, and instantly be teleported there.  I understand you want to know where the action is, but it points everyone to the same place.

Does Region and Realm chats make zerging easy?  All players can now communicate with everyone currently in the game, and you wonder why there are zergs?  What if they removed all region chats, and you had only say, guild, and maybe alliance.  I think this would make more players go out in small groups looking for action.

Everywhere you turn in the game you realize why zerging happens.  What do you think is the biggest reason for zerging in Warhammer Online?

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The Impact Of Assist Trains

Assist trains have become more dominant in Warhammer Online lately.  How many times have you run into a melee /assist train?  It seems to be quite popular these days in scenarios.  Third party addons has made this easymode for any noob in a scenario.

I haven't heard players complaining much about the nerf coming in patch 1.3.6.  Did most players not even see it in the patch notes?  Basically /assist is being removed from being able to be used in third party addons.  I have to say it is about time.

Focus Fire will have a whole new meaning.  No longer will any player be able to have the addon, and wreck havoc on the opposing faction if a few others in the scenario have the same addon by pushing one button.

It will now take more coordination.  Players will actually have to type target names, or call them out on vent.  It will no longer be as easy as typing the person you are assisting into your addon, and firing away with no skills required.

Players will now have to listen, or read while trying to actually find, and  target the player being focused.  No more instagib how did I die that fast garbage with five melee running the same focus /assist addon.

Are you happy about the /assist nerf coming in patch 1.3.6?

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Fixing AOE In Warhammer Online

I never even thought of this simple fix until today.  Could it really be this easy to fix AOE in Warhammer Online once, and for all?  Is it a fix that isn't considered a nerf?

What is this great idea of mine?  It actually hit me like a ton of bricks after purchasing Dragon Age today, and installing it.  I created a mage, and received my first initial spells.  One of the basic starting spells is an AOE type spell.

Can you guess how it works?  It works just like any other AOE type spell, but it has one catch.  You know what the catch is?  Have you played a mage in Dragon Age, and know what it is?

Okay, so the suspense is killing you.  It is killing me writing this, and not just instantly telling you how it could be done.

This is how it would be done.  Every AOE spell has friendly fire.  Yup, it is that simple of a fix.  You spam AOE, and not only are you killing your enemies, but also any of your own faction who are within the AOE circle, cone, or whatever.

Do you think it would work in Warhammer Online to have friendly fire AOE spells?  I think it would be great because it would stop all the AOE nerfs with all the classes.  It would still make it viable in pve, and in some RvR situations.

It would end bomb groups, or idiots that just hold down W while hitting their 1 key spamming AOE every half a second?

Do you see any drawbacks of friendly fire AOE?

Starcraft 2 Sucks

Yup, you heard it here first.  Starcraft 2 sucks.

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Where Is My Motivation?

It has been a struggle the last week or so.  I have had a hard time getting motivated to play Warhammer Online.  Is it burnout?  Is it summer?  What made me not even want to play this last week?

This last week should of been real exciting.  The new patch notes came out, but it seems we have already been discussing the changes for months.  I went on the PTS a few times, and it was boring.

I haven't played my Bright Wizard since I started my Archmage.  I don't really miss it at all.  I love playing my Archmage.  The problem is I spend too much time standing around waiting for something to happen.  I get bored way to easy, and just log out.

With basically no scenarios popping, or Orvr this past weekend it just was easier to not log in than just be in the game frustrated.  Was it because of no weekend scenario live event that no one was playing?  I get the feeling the overall population of the server is dying.

I don't see patch 1.3.6 making someone who is debating on playing the game to keep subscribing.  The patches are changing things, but not enough that it makes the game more fun, and exciting.  Orvr is still boring, and basically pointless.

What is going to make me log in, and play 5-6 hours every night, and have fun?  Are the plague rats the answer?  Will an expansion solve the problem?

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Chicken All Star Live Event

Would you participate in a chicken mechanic live event on Warhammer Online?  What kind of event would you like to see?  Would you do it if it was just put on by fellow Warhammer Online bloggers, and not Mythic themselves?

I think it would be fun to try an event like this.  Should it be done on the PTS, or on our regular servers?  I have mixed feelings on both.

If the chicken mechanic event took place on the PTS it would allow everyone to join in the fun all at once.  Would it be as much fun killing players as chickens that you don't know?  Would players actually log into the PTS for this, or would they just skip it?  Would players not be interested because the PTS doesn't mean anything?  Would there be less interference?

If the chicken mechanic event took place on each individual server it would take alot of dedicated players to pull it off.  I personally think it would be more exciting doing it on each server.  Would you have to do it in Tier 2 to avoid all the free trial players in tier 1?

Would you like the event to be very organized, or just a fun free for all event for an hour or two?  Would the server populations support such an event?

The third option would be for Mythic to create the live event themselves.  Why not liven up the Weekend Live Event Scenario?  Make it that all Nordenwatch Scenarios for the live event will be played in all tiers with the chicken mechanic. 

Can I expect you to join in the fun for the Chicken All Star Live Event?

Aion Live Expansion

Aion just announced their new expansion Assault on Balaurea. The expansion will be free.

You can find new flight mechanics, dungeons, instances, and more. The part that really amazed me is the raising of the level cap.

I know from personal experience 49 to 50 was the worst grind I ever saw, and now they are adding even more. I hate to see what 69 to 70 is going to be like.

Plague Rats Love Chicken

Tonight I went on the Warhammer Online PTS to check out the Tier 2, and Tier 3 RvR changes in patch 1.3.6 since my Archmage is Rank 30 currently.

The patch notes really make the plague rats sound very exciting. These plague rats are going to get players out in the RvR lakes. The bonus experience from killing these plague rats will replace powerleveling in LOTD since you will now have to be rank 32 to gain access.

I was pretty unimpressed. I was unable to check it out with my Archmage so I could only see it with my Bright Wizard as a chicken. It will be real interesting seeing players fighting over these ten instant spawn plague rats.

I am not sure how a small AOE type area located next to each warcamp is going to get players out to RvR. Even with fast respawns I don't see it working if more than a few players show up.

I don't know how plague rats 100 feet from the warcamp is drawing players out to the lakes. Why didn't they make the area bigger, and make it like a PQ?

You can watch a very short video of Plague Rats Love Chicken.

What do you think?

Warhammer Forums Joining Bioware Social Network

I happened to run across this, and it seems to of slipped through the cracks, or players don't care.  It seems the Official Warhammer Forums are going away, and will now be on the Bioware Social Network.

At first I thought to myself was Mythic sleeping during the whole Blizzard Real ID fiasco?  I automatically assumed that the Bioware Social Network was some copycat version of Real ID.

It seems to just be one central location of forums for all Bioware games.  Does it really matter where the official forums are?  Do you see any downfalls of them moving to the Bioware Social Network?  Is this the first step into introducing some kind of Real ID type friends list like Blizzard?

Real Life Farmville

What is life like on a real life farm? Is it anything like Farmville? The last two days I experienced the life of living in the country on a farm.

After my father passed away almost seven years ago my mom did something I never imagined. She met a new guy, and he was nothing that my three brothers, or myself pictured her being with.

She gave up everything, and pursued her passion of living in the country on a farm with her new man. She moved in with him on a huge farm in the middle of nowhere in a small town of maybe 500 people about three hours away.

You won't see any grocery stores, fast food, video stores, or anything that most of us are accustomed too. I had no internet, no cell phone service, and no TV the whole two days.

My daughter spends a week with my mom every summer, and I spent the last two days down there spending time with her also. I have to say the time I spent with my daughter these last two days probably meant more to my daughter than anything else I have ever done for her. I know how much it means to me too, and the reason I decided to write about it.

We had a blast together. We played this dice game called Farkle, and a game called Chicken Feet using Dominos. Can you imagine playing a non computer game? It was fun. We played multiple games, and time flew by.

We went outside, and just sat on a bench taking turns throwing my mom's dog a ball. Today my arm is so sore from throwing it so much the last two days.

We played on a home made swing which was basically a rope tied to a tree branch.

We picked things from the garden for dinner. We had carrots, corn, squash, and peas for a homemade stew.

We fed the animals. We handfed three baby cows that were less than two weeks old, the mama cow, some goats, two horses, and the fish in the pond.

Where Is The Keep Pride?

The question keeps coming up every time I play Warhammer Online. Where is the Keep pride? Do players really care about owning, and defending keeps or do they just do it because it is part of the game?

Last night I decided to do Orvr for the first time with my Tier 3 Archmage. We were defending a keep in the dwarf lands. It was fun as we held off the destruction pushes each time. It is what defending a keep is all about. Once we received the defense tick it all changed.

It falls apart shortly after that. Why? It is all about getting bonus renown. Once we repaired both doors Destruction left the zone to take BO's in elf. Order decided to go to Empire, and do the same.

It is easier to just avoid each other, and take BO's for freenown. Who doesn't love the boredom from standing around waiting for renown ticks?

Fifteen minutes later Destruction is knocking on the keep door again. Can you guess what Order decided? They decided to keep taking BO's, and let Destruction have the keep that they defended with their lives less than a half hour ago.

Basically freenown is better than keep pride. The problem with Orvr is if gets to hard players have ten different options instead of trying to strategize. Players can go PvE, go to LOTD, do Crypts, or Tunnels, queue up for scenarios, or just stand in warcamps.

What is going to make players defend a keep at all costs, and keep the other faction attacking for hours?

Reikwald Rested XP Bug

I think there is a rested xp bug in Reikwald. Has anyone else noticed? Any time I log into a city siege in progress my character has no rested xp even though I logged out in Altdorf the night before.

Numbers That Make You Say Hmmm

What numbers make you say hmmmm? It is the numbers I see active on Gorfang for Warhammer Online. Are players quitting? Is the free trial throwing off the overall numbers? Are players rolling alts? Are players taking the summer off?

It all seems a little mind boggling to me. I understand how all of the above questions could affect the overall populations on the Gorfang server. The problem is I don't see the trend on the Euro servers.

Are Euro players more hardcore? Do they play more? Why do they always have over 1000 players playing during primetime, and Gorfang is lucky to barely have over 200 total players?

It doesn't make sense. Gorfang has over 7000 players on the server active in the last 30 days, and almost 2000 rank 40's. With these numbers why are we only seeing 200+ during the primetime hours?

Is it taking into account that almost everyone has multiple rank 40's? What is the true amount of paying subscribers that have a rank 40? How much play time are most players doing every week?

Is the same trend happening that seems to always happen where everyone flocks to other populated servers? Are players tired of losing, and reroll on another server on the winning side? Did players jump ship, and join the Euro English speaking servers?

By looking at guild rosters of some of the bigger guilds using Warhammer Census I see lots of rank 40's not active. What needs to happen in the game to get people to want to play?

Scenario Premades Make Playing Fun

This weekend I was invited multiple times to scenario premades. I have to say being in a premade makes playing fun. It was very refreshing for once.

My healing was so great even Arisechicken would be jealous. I finally have an arsenal of healing spells, tactics, morales that make me, and my group virtually unkillable.

We destroyed so many destruction in the Khaine's Embrace. Most of the time we just farmed them at our flag, and if they were really bad we could farm them at there flag.

Warhammer Expansion Leak

Squibblegut has been digging through the testwar.exe file, and found a few goodies. Is it a slip up on Mythic? Has it always been in there, and was found just recently.

Anyways I found it quite interesting that an expansion for Warhammer Online may truly be coming.

Healing Sucks While Leveling

The other day I switched back to healing with my Archmage. I really enjoy keeping people alive in scenarios, and feeling appreciated.

It is great to be a healer when scenarios are popping. It really sucks when you have to resort to pve to gain ranks while still grinding out rank 40.

The damage output of my healer is pathetic. I have to literally go through my five spell rotation twice to kill the same mobs I was killing easily as a dps spec. Basically it will take me twice as long now to get to rank 40.

It seems like a huge difference. I understand a healer shouldn't be able to dish out great dps.

Here is my issue with it. A dps Archmage can still heal like crazy. I can literally still keep everyone alive in scenarios. No one would even know I was specced for dps.

Now turn the tables as a healer Archmage. You can heal like crazy, but your dps is absolutely worthless. It would probably take three spells to kill a level one rabbit.

So why is there such a huge disparity between healing, and dps spec?

What A Difference A Day Makes

Today I log into The Lord of the Rings Online. I am pretty excited about playing. At least I thought I was. How could I go from loving the game to not even wanting to play it?

It was just a weird feeling. I felt totally lost as soon as I logged in. It didn't seem like where I remember logging off. I tried running around, and nothing looked familiar. It just didn't make sense.

It just hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized I didn't know enough about the game to know exactly what I was supposed to be doing. I had no clue on crafts to learn, quests to do, grind spots, or anything.

It is a horrible feeling. Do I think the game sucks? No. I think the game is really nice, but I think deep down I am having a harder time letting go of Warhammer. There is just something about knowing everything you want to know about the game that makes playing that much more fun.

I think MMORPG's lose alot of players this way. The beginner areas are usually not to noob friendly once the game has been out a while.

In newly launched MMORPG's everyone learns together. You learn alot from reading chat, and so on. It is much easier to adapt to a new game with other players. Otherwise it just becomes to overwhelming learning everything without really having anyone to ask questions, or show you around.

Do you hate that lost feeling when you pick up a game months after launch?

Bright Wizard Close Quarters Of The Third Kind

Mythic is back at it again in Warhammer Online. How many nerfs does this make now for the Bright Wizard? Do you think they will ever stop nerfing them?

The newest announcement for the Bright Wizard for patch 1.3.6 is:

Close Quarters has been redesigned. It will now cause your abilities to build up 50% faster when your enemy target is within feet 20 of you, and no longer has a penalty.

The question is to me is it really a nerf? I know they want it to be, and it will change how bomb groups work, but is it really the answer?

It may nerf the way bomb groups work right now without the 25% damage bonus, but really it isn't going to change too much with the faster casting times.

Let's take for example Fiery Blast in a bomb group. It does over 700 dmg to everyone within 20 feet of your target. It is a three second cast with no cooldown. If you run in like a normal bomb group, and start casting fiery blast how will it be much different? You will still be doing multiple damage to several targets, and very quickly. Everyone will be getting hit for 700 damage just with Fiery blast.

You will still have your wildfire tactic (25% chance of 700 dot on each fiery blast that hits), explosive force (50% of your explosion does damage to enemies within 30 feet), and flashfire (any time a fiery blast is interrupted it will instacast) which will still make Bright Wizards very deadly along with focused mind. Will focused mind, and close quarters stack to make it instacast?

You still have other spells to use too like Scorched Earth, Annihilate, and Flamebreath.

How much damage will a bright wizard be doing now with the new close quarters?

Lets just take a 1 v 1 fight in the 20 feet range. Let's just see how much damage a bright wizard will be able to unload in 10 seconds.

Fiery Blast (preloaded 100 combustion): 700 damage
Wildfire Trigger: 700 damage over 5 seconds
Explosive Force: 375 damage
Fiery Blast :700 damage 1.5 seconds casting
Explosive Force: 375 damage
Fiery Blast interrupted instacast: 700 damage
Explosive Force: 375 damage
Flame Breath: 1000 damage over 9 seconds
Explosive Force: 375 damage
Annihilate: 900 damage over 9 secs 1.5 seconds casting
Wildfire Trigger:700 damage over 5 seconds
Explosive Force:375 damage
Focus Mind Morale 2 50% faster cast times stacked with close quarters for 10 secs.
Fiery Blast: 700 damage instacast
Explosive Force: 375 damage
Wildfire: 700 damage over 5 seconds
Fiery Blast: 700 damage instacast
Explosive Force: 375 damage
Fiery Blast: 700 damage instacast
Explosive Force: 375 damage
Fiery Blast: 700 damage instacast
Explosive Force: 375 damage
Fiery Blast: 700 damage instacast
Explosive Force: 375 damage

Within 10 seconds you could possibly do almost 12k in damage to everyone near you. Now just imagine two bright wizards in a bomb group doing this spell rotation. I think it is going to be even deadlier than the current bomb groups.

Anyone seeing this nerf actually making a bright wizard OP again? Will healers be able to heal through 2-3k damage a second with multiple bright wizards spamming fiery blast? Am I missing something? Will Fiery blast be the next bright wizard spell nerfed after it becomes the new flavor of the month spell?

I Like It, I Like It

My initial impressions of The Lord of the Rings Online is very good. I like it, I like it. I finally was able to play it this morning after the initial download took longer than I thought. I decided to just pick a server that sounded cool so I ended up on Firefoot.

I have tried out two classes so far, and still undecided which I like better. What classes did I choose? Of course I picked ranged dps. I am playing a Rune Keeper, and a Hunter. Both are very fun to play. I am still learning what spells work best, and how the classes work overall. I am around level 7 on both.

There is one more class I want to try. I think it was the Minstrel. It was the class with lots of crowd control. I just don't know how that will work trying to level up solo.

I still have lots to learn about the game, and look forward to spending more time playing the game this week, and possibly more in the future if I end up really liking it.

Blind Testing Lord Of The Rings Online

I have been asked on Twitter to try, and talk about more games. I decided to do it tonight. I will be testing Lord of the Rings Online game without knowing any lore. I have never visited the official website, read the books, or watched the movies. The only thing I know is it is an MMORPG, and is free to play.

It is taking several hours to download, but I still should be able to get in a few hours of playing tonight once it is done. Why not? My Archmage could use some rested xp anyways. All this week I am dedicating my free time to playing Lord of the Rings Online to truly test it out unless I absolutely hate it right away.

Reincarnation In A MMORPG

I just saw an advertisement for an MMO that uses reincarnation. Unfortunately I didn't catch the complete title, before I clicked away. It made me start thinking about how cool that really could be.

What if your character died, and when you rezzed you were a level 24 rat, or a dungeon boss? It could be really fun I think. Maybe you just see through the eyes of the NPC, or possibly even control it to a certain extent.

How much fun would it be killing players as a reincarnated NPC? I think it would make dying actually fun, and maybe too much fun.

Would it make players die on purpose more often? How would you eventually get to play your regular character again?

Do you think reincarnation being implemented into a death penalty would be a cool new feature in an MMORPG?

Things Players Say

My first Howling Gorge today was a great experience. I get queued up for a scenario half over, and being basically spawn camped.

I am busy throwing out heal dots, and group heals trying to reverse the trend. I was trying my hardest to keep everyone alive. I was the only healer in the scenario I realized after checking the scoreboard.

Here is why I love the things players say.

QQnumber: Are you an idiot healer? Rez me!!!

(After ignoring the whole scenario)

Riazza: You died two feet from the spawn.

QQnumber: I am a WH, and I kill people fast. A rez is faster. I think you are just lazy.

Riazza: I think you are lazy because you refused to respawn, and run back two seconds. You think you deserve special attention like Lebron James. It would take longer for my rez, and heals casting than just respawning.

QQnumber: You are talking about this and that. It's different.

Slapping High Fives

It is hard to believe it is Friday already. This week has been a great week of blogging, and I would like to share some of it with you in case you missed it.

I slap my first high five to Bio Break. He has introduced GuestBloggerMania'10, and so far I have really enjoyed the guest posts.

I have to slap my second high five to Mr. Meh. He describes how there are three different types of players in Warhammer.

My third high five goes to Bootae's Bloody Blog. He talks about Mythic wanting to shout something from the rooftops. He explains what should be a live expansion, and a paid expansion for Warhammer.

My fourth high five goes out to Thehealeroftru. He shares with us a special island he has found within Warhammer.

My fifth, and final high five goes to Gaarawarrgabs. Of all the posts I read about RealID and Blizzard his ranked #1 with me.

Change Of Heart

The time has come. I have had a change of heart. What made me decide to change my mind? What could make me decide that my new decision is the best thing to do? What is it?

It is simple. While I love burning players down as a dps Archmage I just have had a change of heart, and am respeccing healing. Why?

The number one reason is it makes me feel appreciated. Everyone in Warhammer loves to get heals. I remember the many frustrating days of playing my BW, and feeling like I was never getting heals. I hated every DPS healer I saw.

So why did I roll a dps healer when I hated them so much? I think initially it was giving everyone the middle finger that never healed me. The bomb groups I could never get in since I have joined Gorfang. I think just my overall frustration of playing a dps class, but not getting the healer love I expected.

Was I being a little demanding? Probably. I guess with all the nerfs to Bright Wizards it just became very frustrating blowing myself up trying to kill anyone solo in the game. It is much different with my Archmage. I don't think I can even play my bright wizard now. So much time, and work right out the window.

The last day or so I have just been healing in scenarios. I see the difference it makes. I don't see us losing many scenarios now. Of course my deathblows don't look the greatest, but my renown is higher than everyones in the scenario. Healing is paying off.

I can feel that people appreciate the heals, and the rezzes. I have realized that a heal can go much farther than me killing players when everyone else on my faction is dropping like flies from getting no heals.

It also stops all the hate in chat. I see no one really complaining, but a few idiots that ask where is my heals, and I know I probably personally healed them for 10k. I guess they just think they stood in the middle of 10 destruction, and lived through it because they are just that good.

Anyways I have alot of work to do. I have to get all new talismans, and gear now. I am not a huge fan of getting elite gear at this level anyways so it won't really break the bank.

So the next time you see me in a scenario you should see me spreading the heals, and loving every minute of it.

Mythic Now Is The Time To Make a Special Announcement

Grab the bull by the horns. It would absolutely be foolish right now to not take advantage of Blizzard shooting themselves in the foot with the RealID fiasco.

How many disgruntled players do you think there are right now? This is like a dream come true for any MMO company that competes with Blizzard. Everyone dreams about stealing Blizzards customers, and now they are giving them away possibly by the millions by exposing their privacy.

Offer something to bring players back. Why not finally announce the expansion you have been waiting months to talk about? How about a third faction? How about a fifth tier? How about 100% renown?

Come on Mythic. Don't waste the greatest opportunity ever to win players back, or get a bunch of unhappy World of Warcraft customers to try the game for the first time.

Do you think Mythic should take advantage of the Blizzard Realid fiasco?

Why Guild Ranks Kills New Guilds

After a frustrating few weeks of trying to start a guild from scratch I want to /slit my wrists. I never have struggled to get a guild going as much as I did with this. I did decide about a week ago to basically disband it from lack of anyone logging in more than an hour a week. The guild just consists of my characters now.

In all my previous guilds it was super easy to get guilds started. In just a few weeks you would have a solid core of players, and still growing every day. Recruiting was easy.

Times have changed, and now it is nearly impossible for any new guilds to form.

One of the main reasons is the free trial. It is almost impossible to weed out who is playing for free, and who is really going to subscribe to the game. You can recruit all day, and night. If you are lucky 1 out of 25 will stick around.

Another reason is the Forces of Order and Destruction guilds that players are automatically joined. It is hard to convince any player to join a new small guild when those guilds field the largest numbers. Of course there is no real organization, or ventrilo. It is just a bunch of players following each other around doing there own thing.

I think the biggest reason new guilds are impossible to get off the ground now is because of guild ranks. It sounds like a cool idea on paper, but eventually no one wants to start from scratch.

Everyone wants to join a high ranking guild. Of course most of the guild rank rewards are pure garbage, but a few will keep players in a guild even if they are unhappy.

No one wants to be in a guild that doesn't have a guild vault, standards, ability to claim keeps, faster mounts, joining an alliance and etc.

I really think guild ranks should be removed from the game. Every guild should be able to offer the same things, and not be judged on their guild rank which means nothing more than a bunch of players spending time in the game to achieve it.

Do you think guild ranks should be removed? How about the starter guilds Forces of Order, and Destruction?

Why Not Merge Euro English Servers With US Servers?

It seems like a no brainer to me, but I am just some bitter old gaming blogger. Why didn't they just merge the European English servers with the US on Warhammer Online? I think it would benefit both communities, and possibly help grow the game population.

One of the biggest complaints is usually the server is only active during prime time. If you work different hours than 7-5 than most of the time you are playing when no one else is on. What happens than? Most players quit from nothing to do, or having to do PvE instead of RvR.

How great would it be to be able to log in, and no matter what time it was have an active server population? I think it would be pretty exciting. No matter the time you could do scenarios, Orvr, city sieges, and so much more.

Wouldn't it make players play longer? I think it would definitely increase every players /played every day. Do you usually log off the same time every day, or when the population dies and it gets slow and boring?

What advantages or disadvantages would you see from this merger?

What A Bummer

The 100% renown will come, and go. I am a little disappointed in the timing. I feel like I never really was able to take full advantage of it.

I understand that they wanted to do something for the holiday, but is 100% renown really going to keep people home for the holiday weekend? I think I have been able to play a whole two hours.

The few hours I was able to play the overall population of the server seemed pretty low so those who did take advantage of the 100% renown probably felt cheated too since scenarios, and orvr probably weren't as active as normal.

I love the 100% renown, but why not just do it on a regular weekend? Why not announce it a week or two ahead of time so more people can make plans to be on?

Slapping High Fives To All My Commenters

I just wanted to slap high fives with everyone who comments on my blog. Wasdstomp wouldn't be the great community without all of you commenting, and bringing the blog to life.

I personally want to thank all the commenters in this last month. Thank you to Kinlay, Scarybooster, Rancid, ThatskarwithaK, Zizlak, Shannon, Longasc, Higgs, Werit, Krosuss, Thehealeroftru, Helldorf, Boruk, Ranknvile, Erbse, Blurring Shock, Grukkzag, Rer, Mr. Meh, Charlotte, Openedge, River, Blaq, Pearle, Paul Maplesden, Nick, Jestor, Kesarin, Thrangis, and Lokax.

Against All Odds: DOA

I feel that the new Against All Odds will be Dead on Arrival in Warhammer Online. It is a great idea on paper, but once it goes live in patch 1.3.6 I don't see it working.

Why is it not going to work? It is simple. Let's use the optimal situation of 400% renown. You have a full group of six, and the other faction is roaming in a full warband. That makes it 24-6. What are the odds that these 24 players aren't in a warband, and zerging together?

Have you ever been in an imbalanced scenario? Does it make you want to stay? How many kills does your side usually get compared to the other side? Will the bonus really offset the odds?

I am sorry, but the bonus could be 2000%, and it wouldn't matter. If you can't kill anyone the bonus is worthless while the other faction gets more renown by killing you twenty times trying to kill them for the 400% bonus.

You may get lucky, and get a few kills. Will it be worth the time, and effort compared to getting renown with a zerg, or a scenario? It still doesn't solve the problem of being outnumbered.

Can anyone prove me wrong?

RvR Public Quest Orvr Lakes

Can Warhammer Online steal back their PQ idea from Guild Wars 2, and make it work for RvR lakes? I keep trying to think of ideas that would make me go out to ORvR instead of living in scenarios.

I need to feel that I am getting a good renown:time ratio. Currently ORvR doesn't offer that. The one renown I earn off each kill isn't worth my time. Even zone lock bonuses aren't really that big of deal compared to the renown being earned in scenarios.

I know they are changing the VP equation in patch 1.3.6, but it is just going to lead to city sieges every hour or two. They happen to much as it is. They no longer feel important when they happen.

Why not slow it down a little, but make it fun. I think making each lake into a RvR PQ may work. Remove all keeps, and objectives.

What if they added NPC's throughout the lake that offered renown? Wouldn't that make players go out into the lakes in groups? Would it make factions fight over camp spots? Would it make players go out solo looking for some renown?

It could require 1-5k of these npc's to be killed along with 1-5k player kills to flip the RvR PQ, and lock the zone. Each side fights to flip the RvR PQ first. There would be fighting throughout the lakes as each side fights over the NPC's. There would be great skirmishes throughout each zone.

It could spread out fights in all three pairings. I think it would be fun, and eliminate everyone just following the SOR VP game because no one wants to miss zone lock renown bonus the way it works now. I say just remove zone lock bonuses.

Do you think this would work?