Patch 1.1.1 is out today for Warhammer Online, with some short but potentially very sweet notes. Once a player hits rank 40, the focus of the game goes (as intended) straight to the RvR campaign, with the ultimate goal of sacking the other realms capital. The major brick wall currently facing most servers is locking down zones and taking down a Fortress lord. Quite simply, it’s far too easy to defend a Fortress currently, which greatly demoralizes any offensive force and reduces RvR to a standstill.

Here are the key changes from the notes:

• A minimum level of 37 is now needed to participate in Fortress assault/defense.
• The value of Scenarios towards City Capture has been reduced. The value of Battle Objectives and skirmishes towards City Capture has been increased.
• We have reduced the hit points on the three outer doors of all Fortresses.  We will continue to evaluate the difficulty of the Fortress encounters and make adjustments as necessary.
• In Fortresses, the Fortress Lord’s Terror aura will now affect defending players as well as attackers.

Raising the minimum rank to 37 is huge. Currently Fortresses get flooded by lower rank players who lack the ward gear needed to survive the lords AoE blast. They don’t contribute much to the assault, and are generally seen as wasted space in an area where you can’t really afford it. Smart move, and one could argue it should be increased to rank 40.

Scenarios should stop contributing towards the campaign period, but at least this is another step in that direction. Scenarios are fun enough alone to remain popular (both for gaining xp/renown and just for taking a break from oRvR with friends), and counting towards the war only frustrates those participating in oRvR. Hopefully this change will reduce their effect enough to not slow down oRvR as they have in the past.

Banging on a fort/keep door is bla currently, so shortening the time it takes is a good step. This will also get attackers into the inner courtyard faster, allowing them to cut off incoming defenders faster. The Fort lord’s room will still be the site of the decisive push, but with this change at least MORE combat will occur outside, as defenders try to push past the attacking force assigned to keep them out.

The final change is, IMO, the biggest one. Currently attackers get 1-2 shots at the lord, and if they fail the siege is over. By forcing defenders to also release and run back into the fortress means you can now try to slowly break apart the defending force in the lord’s room before making a final all out charge. This will also place a greater emphasis on keeping released defenders out, which means more combat in and around the fortress courtyard, another big win.

Last weekend CoW’s alliance made a big oRvR push, and while turnout the first night was excellent, and we managed to lock zones and get into a Fortress, the two defeats at the Fortresses were huge moral killers. Our planning was solid, our leadership was good, we had enough people to get the job done, but in the end the sheer difficulty of actually getting the enemy out of the lord’s room and taking the lord down proved too difficult. I think with the changes in 1.1.1, and upcoming future changes, RvR will be re-ignited again, and hopefully we will be reading and seeing capital cities under siege soon enough.