1.2.1 - How's it been going?
I promised myself not to get all caught up with the MiraclePatch(tm) belief that people had when they read the notes about AoE changes, and.. other class changes. I knew that a lot of what people felt was imbalanced, was also due to player skill, ability, population, communication and a drive to succeed. And yesterday confirmed that, on Norn, destruction was zerging away in the morning but as soon as we came to stiff resistance from Order the warbands collapsed and melted away as Order literally walked through the zones and captured two forts with no resistance at all. This isn't class imbalance, or over powered mechanics. It's basically people playing like crap and following a zerg, then giving up as soon as things look tricky - combined with a lack of communication on our server from Destruction and we are always on a back foot...
Anyway, I'm rambling here so lets take a look at what has changed and how I feel after ONE day of it... I'll be using my patented (not really) Orcy rating!
Gobbo 
= Not gud...
= Not gud...Choppa 
= Better than a gobbo
= Better than a gobboBlack Orc 
= Da bestest!
= Da bestest!Keep Upgrades:
Seems to have done the job, keep doors no longer fall down like a sack of shit on a summers day the moment anyone gets close (fortress doors still do though, seriously, the time it takes to announce a fort is under attack, then for people to get there, the internal door is at 50%.. literally 5 or 6 minutes into the siege). The downside I see to this right now is that for under populated realms it takes a long time to break down a door now to try and disrupt a zone capture. There's no more guerrilla strikes on keeps especially if they have reinforced doors. From what I've heard all upgrades but reinforced doors are pretty much pointless anyway. Who seriously cares about healers/bankers in a keep? Still a bit to go on this though.
Orcy Rating:
Combat Responsiveness:
Well it seems to be working, though as I'm a black orc when I get server lag and unresponsive combat moments it can seriously bugger up any hope of a fight as skills don't fire, then go on cooldown. I'm sure casters love it, they don't have to get next to the target but even though ON MY SCREEN THE STUNTY IS NEXT TO ME, I AM OUT OF RANGE AND CAN'T SMUSH 'EM. It's still horribly broken for melee. More focus needed on this Mythic. The client/server synch is making melee combat really pants in even the lightest lag, especially when you have to rely on a plan system and can't just spam one button. This still needs a lot of work done on it, focus on melee.
Orcy Rating:
UI Improvements:
Oh My Gork! WIN! The guild interface is brilliant and the alliance tab works perfectly. Gork and Mork approve.
Orcy Rating:
RvR Zone Control Rewards:
Uhm, not really worked this out entirely, only managed to take the one zone yesterday before we got pummeled into the dirt but I got a nice renown buff, but other than that... I didn't notice any other buffs.. Mmm, not sure if I'm missing something here...
Orcy Rating:
Quartermaster System:
I like the idea of it so far, yes it will take some time but I don't want all the gear brought to me on a silver squig, I'm happy to get stuck in and work for it. And I can finally complete those old sets I never managed to finish. I've been hearing some reservations from the higher renown players (71+) saying that they get no advantage to the system other than being hunted down but I haven't looked into it too much. I'll just play this and see how it goes. Is good so far for me anyway.
Orcy Rating:
Ordnance:
You know.. upgraded siege weapons... Better rams.. oil immunity (and they did take out bombs and caltrops) and such forth... For some reason I like this idea. Forgot to check the prices of them but it does seem like it could take a while to get enough, but suppose you don't want to overwhelm the place with epic siege engines.. Still, would have preferred to have seen this as a crafting skill than straight purchasing.
Orcy Rating:
Career Changes:
Well as I only play a Black Orc I can't comment on the other changes, I tend to put down getting my head beaten in to being out played rather than a class being OP'd. Though I can say we must be the most balanced class in WAR when the only change we got was a typo fix in an ability.
Orcy Rating:
RvR Changes:
Not sure about some of these.. I get bonus renown if I help to capture a BO or keep and we take the zone. Must I remain in the zone or can I zone hop for an hour while waiting on the timers and get back to the original zone or do I lose the bonus? Same if I crash out or otherwise log.. Should I re-enter the game, does it remember what I've helped defend/capture?
Orcy Rating:
Bad Stuff...
The lag is back on Karak-Norn... Well it was never really away, just people had slowed down and were scattered more. Last night in the IC defence I gave up trying to do anything, the lag made it impossible for me to target and kill anyone before the rubber banded about or teleported. I've been getting affected by a bug that doesn't show my respawn window. A /reload UI brings this back but also breaks some addons (that's my issue though...), amusingly I sent a bug report in to advise that I was suffering from missing respawn windows. This is my reply from GOA
... wut?.You recently placed a support request concerning a missing item. We are sorry to hear that you have lost an item, however until further notice we are not reimbursing items in your situation.
Orcy Rating:
Well that's enough for me. Off to grab a coffee and a shower. Will be back tomorrow my little grots!
