Hardcore Casual

It’s amazing what a little motivation can do.

Yesterday was the first day of Warhammer Online’s current event, The Witching Night, and so far it looks to be a hit. It’s not perfect, but it’s a huge step in the right direction to get WAR away from a scenario grind and more about… well war.

I logged in at around 7pm EST to Thorgrim (mid/low pop), and flew over to Troll Country with my Rank 21 Disciple of Khaine. Checking in with CoW, most of the guild was in tier 3, and I got a quick status report from people saying the event was happening and they had some RvR action going. Good sign.

When I arrived at the tier 2 warcamp, I saw 8-10 Order players camping the entrance to the RvR area, and after gathering 3 other players, we charged them, killed a Bright Wizard (got to love squishies), and all died. Regrouping back at the camp, we noticed that the battlefield objective closest to us, and on the other side of the main entrance, was Order controlled. We figured we can try to take that and hopefully draw some Order players to us, rather than charge back and continue to give up a 4/1 kill ratio. The reason we figured this would give us a better chance than heading out into the open field was due to the objective being located in a crypt, with the tight hallways and stairs limiting movement, allowing our tanks to block the hall and even out the fight a bit. Sadly after we took the objective, no Order players showed up, so all that strategery for nothing!

As we took the objective and waited for it to cap, our warband had grown from 4 players to around 10, so we headed out into the open field to even things up with that Order group that got us before. Being the good reliable fools that they were, we found them still sitting near our camps entrance, and charged them again. This time, with the numbers a bit more even, we crushed them decisively. During the fight I noticed some serious tactical mistakes on their part. As we were hammering on their healers and other soft targets, I noticed more than half of them targeting the tanks we had sent in first. With good healing standing back, our tanks shrugged off the incoming damage, and the even fight soon turned into a rout.

After the battle, I noticed the RvR PQ had popped up, with the score 18/12 (out of the 100 kills needed) in favor of Order. Guess that little group had been picking people off for a bit, and this was the first real gathering of Destruction players. We got into a few more big battles, but for some reason as time went on, our warband grew in size (at one point it was a full 24 people), while the Order group got smaller. With the PQ at 50/100 or so for us, and all the objectives captured, we decided to take a break from RvR (Order was just hiding in their warcamp) and head up to knock out the Troll Lord PQ in chap 8 Chaos.

As we got into the woods, we noticed ghosts popping in and out. After finally killing one, we noticed we were getting influence and credit towards the world event, allowing us to continue progress even though Order had given up the fight. We took down the Troll Lord (one tough bastard, even for a warband), killed a bunch of ghosts, and returned to the RvR area. Order had put together another warband, and managed to capture back an objective. Sadly their group was still smaller than ours (damn population balance), and we quickly rolled them again.

This did however end up giving us enough kills to finish the first part of the new PQ. The second and final stage spawns a giant skeleton, Lord status, in the RvR area. At Rank 18 however, he did not prove too much of a challenge for our almost full warband, and went down quickly, dropping a chest with a gold, purple, and multiple green bags. The PQ reset, but did not come back for close to 2 hours or so. We ended the night after a few more skirmishes with some Order players, but sadly they never gathered enough to give us a real fight. Come on out and player you little bastards!

That wrapped up the first night, and overall it was a great time. An impressive number of Destruction players showed up, came and went, and everyone was just enjoying the RvR action, even if we never got a bigger group of Order to show up. Hopefully going forward, more players hear about the event and head over to check it out.

Lastly I want to mention one major issue, because like I said, although the event overall is great, it’s not perfect. Limiting the PQ to just the Troll Country RvR zone is awful. As soon as you cross over into Ostland (the zone below Troll Country) you stop getting credit for the PQ, and as the line between Ostland and Troll Country is invisible, it makes it very frustrating when you are trying to advance the PQ. In addition to that issue, the areas around a Keep and objectives also do not count towards the PQ, further frustrating players. The PQ should just cover the entire RvR lake, and I hope this is hot fixed shortly, as it really does limit the PQ unnecessarily. The two hour or so cooldown on the PQ is also a strange decision. I understand you don’t want players maxing out on influence too quickly, but I think a shorter cooldown is needed, or at least add a visible timer for when the PQ will be available.

Issues aside, The Witching Night has taken a much needed step for Warhammer and given players more reason to head out into the RvR areas and mix it up. This is the correct path for the game, and I fully expect Mythic to continue down it. Back to the battlefield tonight!

Out of all the possible post-launch issues, I wonder if “the players are in the wrong place” was ever considered. On the one hand, a player choice, rather than a technical issue, would indicate that you avoided the usual MMO launch troubles. (servers being down, key game features not working due to bugs, bad engine performance) On the other hand, when you have customers leaving (or in this case, not subscribing) because of this social issue, it’s clearly a problem.

I am of course talking about Warhammer Online, and the current ‘scenario plague’ infecting so many of its players. Over-simplified, scenarios are too popular, and in turn they suck away too many players to their instanced content, leaving the actual game world barren. In a game so heavily reliant on other players, this is clearly a major problem.

It’s debatable whether WAR should have scenarios in the first place, and made all the more real with the consideration of a ‘no scenarios’ server option. Would removing scenarios (not from WAR entirely, just from those select servers) fix more than it breaks? Would gaining ranks be effected too heavily? And would open world RvR increase enough to justify their removal? Is the main issue that scenario’s give too much experience currently, or is the problem a bit deeper?

I’m not sure even Mythic has the answers to those questions, but clearly something needs to happen to re-balance WAR, and turn it into the game most players thought they were getting. When people are quitting because they don’t get enough of what they really enjoyed (world RvR), it’s almost a nice problem to have. Almost. On the one hand, if by tweaking some settings, you can get a good balance between scenarios and open world RvR, you figure those people will return. It’s not like they quit because you pulled a bait and switch, going from a solo leveling game to forced raiding (WoW), or a story driven game to a typical quest grind (AoC). But people quitting is people quitting, and in this case, they have a legitimate point. WAR was billed as an RvR-focused game, not as a selection of scenarios to wait for.

For some, myself included, the ‘scenario plague’ is somewhat of a non-issue. I don’t find them boring, I’ve generally been able to find groups for PQs and world RvR, and I don’t feel like I’m ranking up too slow because I’m not sitting in a warcamp in a queue. Do I think the RvR lakes could be a bit more populated? Of course, but I don’t seem to be playing in that same barren world that some players are reporting.

I always assumed scenarios should server the purpose of a quick, fill-in-the-gap break from whatever you are focused on (PQs, RvR, questing), and not be the main go-to activity for advancement. They should have the lowest time/reward ratio, due to how instantly accessible they are. How can a PQ or RvR lake compete with a scenario in terms of time/reward, when you are comparing something that must be found, travelled to, and done in a pre-made group, to something that is instant and solo-friendly? In their 15 minute time frame, a scenario should be worth no more than a single 15 minute quest, perhaps even a bit less than that due to the fact a quest is generally a one time task, while scenarios are repeatable. Open world RvR, especially around objectives and Keeps, should be worth enough to offset the occasion time you don’t find any action. If it takes me 30 minutes to get into RvR combat, and that combat lasts for an hour, the xp gain should be more than two hours worth of scenarios, give or take.

I do think scenarios are over-emphasized in WAR. Whether the majority of the blame should be placed on the players for trying to make WAR play like WoW, or whether the current game rules herd people into scenarios, the fact is WAR needs and will receive some tweaks. How quickly Mythic deploys those changes, and to what effect, will determine how many players stick around, and how many of those that quit due to lack of RvR will return. So far Mythic has a good track record of addressing issues quickly and effectively, but this will likely be Warhammer’s biggest challenge. Hopefully they are up for it, and deliver.

With my free month up in Warhammer Online, it was time to make the decision to pay up or move on. Given how WAR sucks, and all the new awesome in WoW, that decision was easy. On to grind those daily quests, repeat the same raid treadmill from 2004 (now with shiny new skins on reused boss mobs), and go around stun/fear locking people in the games e-sport.

Snark aside, here are my thoughts on WAR from what I’ve seen in the first month. Currently my Disciple of Khaine is rank 20, RR 14, my shaman is rank 14, RR 12, and my Marauder is rank 9, RR 8. I also have a semi-retired Warrior Priest at rank 16, RR12. That means I’ve yet to see much of tier 3, but I’ve seen most of the tier 1-2 content for Destruction, with some of the higher-end tier 2 PQs and such still unexplored. That said I’ve fully completed all Dark Elf PQs up to chapter 9. I’ve been playing since the CE head-start, and x-fire reports a total of about 70 hours played.

Warhammer is more heavily dependant on the players around you than any other MMO, both on your side and the enemy. For some this is going to be a deal breaker, as all of the best content for both PvE and PvP requires other players. If you play primarily solo, you won’t get much out of PQs or Open World RvR, and while you can always queue up for scenarios, always running them solo makes them a far bigger grind than intended. If you have grouping phobia, WoW or LoTRO will better suit you.

On the other side of the coin, if you do have a solid group/guild, or play at normal server times and enjoy being social, WAR is one of the more rewarding MMOs out. If you have a group, or take the time to put one together, PQs are generally great PvE content. While some follow the traditional ‘kill 100 mobs, kill 10 champions, kill 1 hero’ formula, more than enough mix it up with different objectives and twists, and given that each chapter features 3 PQs, you have a ton of content even if you only run each one once. They don’t take very long to complete, are easy to find (mostly), and offer some very decent rewards for the effort.

On that same note, running a few scenarios with some friends is also very rewarding. RvR tends to be more dynamic than PvE, as you are facing other players who at times do unexpected things. This leads to memorable moments and good laughs between a set group, and helps spice scenarios up. Even solo, in moderation, they are entertaining, and the variety of maps and objectives helps to keep things interesting. Another huge advantage to scenarios is you know they will never be longer than 15 minutes, and since you can queue from almost anywhere in the world, they make for great filler between PQs or Open World RvR. Many gaming sessions with my guild end in 1-2 scenarios to cap off our night.

One ‘feature’ that has been more prominent for me than any other is how friendly WAR is towards level/gear/class discrepancy. My rank 14 shaman can group with two rank 20 characters and we still have a ton of content available to us. We can run some scenarios, raid a Keep, take objectives, or participate in PQs. Basically any character can group with another in each tier and find something rewarding to do. Gear is also a non-factor for the most part, and you won’t be shunned because you have not farmed the latest shiny. It’s always fun to win a gold or purple bag and pull out some epic gear, but that gear won’t make or break your character, and for me this is a huge plus. Less spreadsheet min/maxing, and more focus on actual gameplay and strategy.

Speaking of strategy, this is the area I feel WAR separates itself in terms of gameplay and PvP from other MMOs. Since day one, Mythic has hyped WAR as a game all about RvR, and IMO they have delivered on that promise. From the deliberately slower pace of the combat, to how health/damage is balanced, to how classes work together to form a team, WAR’s RvR pieces fit together very well. Tanks actually feel like tanks, good healers can have a major impact, and dps classes need to smart in order to be deadly. As WAR is still a new MMO, and since many players are still learning the ropes, RvR is still at the beginner level. Today you still see many dps classes rushing ahead of tanks, players targeting tanks when they can see a healer nearby, tanks not using protective skills to help out healer, and other common mistakes. As time goes on, I have no doubts players will adjust to WAR’s complexity, and the overall level of RvR will improve.

So WAR is perfect right? Yes of course, best game EVA!

WAR being a new MMO, it has its fair share of issues. There are still some rather annoying bugs with the PvE and PQs (mobs being unkillable, one shotting you, not spawning at all, bags giving you money when you selected an item, etc), the chat/mail systems could use further improvement, the auction house is semi-usable at best, and crafting overall is nothing new or special. Far worse, if you play on a low pop server, you are playing a severely gimped version of WAR. Mythic made a mistake at some point and either introduced too many servers too quickly, or somehow failed to balance populations well enough. While they are working on it currently, and people are reporting improvements, the fact that for a month+ a section of your population has been playing an inferior version due to server selection is unacceptable. WAR sucks solo, and low pop servers make find a group or enemies far harder than it should be.

Overall however WAR is in very good shape. The game is being patched/fixed almost daily, and the rate of improvement has been very encouraging. Mythic has shown they are not afraid to address issues quickly, and do whatever they can to improve WAR. After only a month, WAR is much improved in many areas already, and we have yet to see the first major patch. The big question of end-game remains (I don’t really count power gamers exploiting the system as a solid test case), and ultimately WAR’s future depends on whether it’s as entertaining at rank 40 as it is at rank 1.

One last note about scenarios. I feel bad for everyone who is rushing to rank 40 by sitting in a war camp and grinding out scenarios. In your rush to ‘end’ game, you are sadly missing out on the ‘actual’ game. It only takes a little effort/time to gather up a group for Open RvR or PQs (low pop server issue aside), and considering that end-game will only be a slight variation of the current game (RvR Keep raids mostly) I really fail to see the motivation, e-peen aside, of rushing to 40. The fun in WAR starts at rank 1, not level 70. Do yourself a favor, slow down, and actually enjoy the game. End-game will still be there in a few months waiting for you, and your guild won’t kick you because they have moved on to the next instance.