First bits of concept art now appearing for the RvR pack

We really need to get a name for this don't we?

Anyway, this link was popped on over at twitter by one of the writers at GameReactor a Swedish based website and retweeted by Carrie Gouskos

http://www.gamereactor.eu/news/4654/Warhammer+Online+concept+art/

Looks fairly standard but the painting of the underground tunnels would be a nice background image

I rescind my hate on turtle builds

I've been running a turtle build recently despite hating it to see how effective it truly is. I'm 'lucky' in that I have full Sov, 4/5 Tyrant Glyphs and RR80 so I can make a fairly decent build out of it. Currently using 7 piece Defensive Sovereign, the four Glyphs and an Invader tanking choppa nets me 388 HP every 4 seconds, combined with Da Toughest bellow and the dirty new You Got Nuffin (basically a 340 HP heal every 10 seconds) and it basically works out as 716 HP regained every 4 seconds (if I've done my math right).

Against average players I can literally hold up six people and they cannot kill me, decent players or those using nerfed buttons with pre programmed interrupts as soon as it picks up that you are channeling an ability or have an ability will have an easier time but still, it's fantastic to 'feel' the rage building up in players as they beat on you, unable to kill you and in fact the more that appear to beat down on the Black Orc the more he seems to be regaining health.

I've literally just come out of a scenario where my view for most of it was the following:

(click for bigger pic)

This actually allowed the other 11 players in the scenario to turn a 200-20 losing scenario to a 500 win because the rest of Order were badly outnumbered as 5 focused on me.

So turtling, it's fun for now but no doubt the novelty of being almost immortal will wear off soon enough, however even in this spec I still managed to take out a Bright Wizard (a good one) and a random White Lion at the same time and finish on full health.

Oh and this is how the scenario ended:

(click for bigger pic)

All aboard dat Twitter Waaagh!

Well I finally signed up and started getting setup with a Twitter account for Mmmmm Gud. It'll make 'micro blogging' easier as I often have a lot of little things to say which really doesn't make either any sense to post in the main blog or I'm nowhere near a PC and forget to do it (yay for iPhone and Twitter app). So you can now follow me under the URL below.

http://www.twitter.com/mmmmmgud

Slowly adding folks from the WAR community and those that write about WAR whether it's blog or general MMO news.

It's also possibly a good chance to annoy the hell out of people by sending them messages over it...

Mythics secret announcement - Bringing back the MMO Imperator?

From Superannuation:
http://supererogatory.tumblr.com/post/945189389/domain-name-imperatorthegame-com

The domain www.imperatorthegame.com has been registered by Mythic Entertainment in December.

Registrant:
Electronic Arts
Domain Hostmaster
209 Redwood Shores Parkway
Redwood City, CA 94065
US
Email:

Registrar Name....: CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC.
Registrar Whois...: whois.corporatedomains.com
Registrar Homepage: www.cscprotectsbrands.com

Domain Name: imperatorthegame.com

Created on..............: Tue, Dec 15, 2009
Expires on..............: Sun, Jun 24, 2012
Record last updated on..: Sun, Dec 20, 2009

Administrative,Technical Contact:
Electronic Arts
Domain Hostmaster
209 Redwood Shores Parkway
Redwood City, CA 94065
US
Phone: +1.6506281500
Email:

A previous MMO by Mythic put on hold, this game was about the Roman empire that still exists in a futuristic Earth, you can check out links at IGN and Gamespot for more information about it:

http://uk.pc.ign.com/objects/483/483577.html

http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/imperator/index.html

Are we about to see a new MMO announcement from Mythic and EA?

Two things are clear here though...

1) Mythic have registered a new domain for a previously canned MMO.
2) Mythic have a special announcement next week.

Updates:
Update 1: Here's some ALPHA footage of the game from 2005. Don't judge it in the slightest.



Update 2: Also to add to imperatorthegame.com there is also http://spcqr.net/ which is very close to SPQR which is a term used for the Roman Senate (if I remember rightly..)

Update 3: Ok, more digging about, and a lot more URL's have been registered for Imperator.

imperator-online.com
imperator-online.net
imperatorherald.com
imperatorherald.net
imperatoronline.net
imperatorthegame.com
voximperator.net (Created in 2004)

(edit, apologies, the formatting of the email is a bit wonky, at least on my screen. It reads hostmaster@mythic.ea.com
Edit: 2. Added 2005 Alpha gameplay footage
Edit: 3. Also added http://spcqr.net/
Edit: 4. Added more domains regarding Imperator)

"We'd rather make the Careers more similar than less similar"

From the latest Q&A posted by Gaarawarr there was a question posted about Shamans and Archmages, but the answer does relate to Black Orcs somewhere down the line, you can tell which part by the title (which I purposely misquoted to make it sound better).

Q – Any plans on evaluating the parity between Shaman and Archmage DPS specs?

Nate - The only thing I can really say to that is what I have said a couple of times before. All things being equal, I’d rather make the Careers more similar than less similar. But I really don’t have an answer beyond that.

Now it looks fairly innocent enough, but we've already started to see that happen in the boss tree where we got the swordmasters group heal instead of our anti detaunt (which was a nerf to Black Orcs.. and for the record, we still never got a reason for the change). So I thought I'd have a look at what else is in the equivalent tree to see if we could make Boss mastery a better choice.

Now, the Boss tree is meant to be an AoE/Group Buff tree which does very little of either it has one decent tactic in it (Big Brawlin') and the rest of the tree can be happily ignored forever. Swordmasters have it as an magic/anti magic tree.

Now we share the same opening tactic so that's fair enough, we can skip straight to the first action. I dont know a lot about Swordmasters so any SM's please correct me as I just write this out from WARDB.com

Swordmaster: Aethyric Armor - 35AP - The power coursing through your blade is extended to your armor, increasing it by 660 and increasing your Disrupt chance by 5% (is this a permanent buff, the WarDB tooltip doesn't show any duration etc)

Black Orc: We'z Bigger - 45AP -20s cool down. Needs middle plan -- Deals 176 damage. Increases the armor of all groupmates within 20 feet by 429 for 20 seconds.

Both are fairly meh and don't stack with armour pots or any other armour buff making it all but useless, I've never used We'z Bigger but when compared to Big Swing + Big Brawlin' it's pointless for groups. I'd suggest both sides get the following:

40AP 20s cool down. Needs middle plan/stance -- Deals (low) damage, increases resists by 200 and disrupt chance by 5% for all group mates within 60feet.

Swordmaster: Calming Winds (tactic) - Increase Disrupt chance by 10% when in Improved Balance, and 20% when in Perfect balance.

Black Orc: Big Brawlin (tactic) - Big Swing now Snares for 40% for 5 seconds and Disorients, increasing build times by 25%.

I'll happily give Big Swing to the Swordmasters making it affect Wrath of Hoeth, disrupt fits in with the anti magic side of things for SM's and the aoe side for Black Orcs.

Swordmaster: Protection of Hoeth - 25AP - requires first balance - 10s cool down -- You call upon the magic in your blade to form a barrier to protect you, absorbing up to 825 damage for up to 5 seconds.

Black Orc: Rock 'Ard - 35AP - 10s cool down - requires first plan -- Deals 77 damage. Activates protective shield that absorbs up to 160 over 5 seconds.

As a Black Orc I'd happily take a bubble that didn't require me to hit the target first even if it meant I didn't do damage on the attack (it's low anyway). So yeah, give Borcs a copy of Protection of Hoeth plz.

Swordmaster: Blessing Of Heaven (tactic) - Path of Hoeth abilities will place an effect on your target for 10 seconds. During this time, any allies who strike the target will recover 132 health over 3 seconds.

Black Orc: No Choppin' Me (tactic) - Follow 'me Lead will also buff all group mates within 30 feet of the defensive target.

This is another one where I'm fairly... Meh about both tactics, BoH looks nice but when you look at the amount that gets healed it's fairly pathetic to get any solid use from it. No Choppin' Me is one of those tactics that IF you're in a melee group is very nice, IF your group stays within 30 feet if your defensive target and IF you could justify using it over an armour debuff. Honestly though, it's in our soddin' buff tree and Mythic give it a pathetically low size to effect people.. Meh, at least double it, even up to 100 feet and it'd be better, though maybe still not worth picking that high up the tree. Any SM's or Bobs have a better idea to replace this tactic?

And finally...

Swordmaster: Whispering Wind - 20s cool down - requires 3rd balance -- You release two swift blows that deal 153 Spirit damage each, interrupting any building attack and will Silence your target for 4 seconds. The winds then aid group members within 100 feet for the next 10 seconds by decreasing the cool down of abilities used by 5 seconds

Black Orc: WAAAAAAAGH! - requires 3rd plan -- Deals 246 Corporeal damage to all targets within 30 feet. Also reduces target's Corporeal resistance by 160 for 20 seconds.

The iconic ability of WAR, the one that is screamed daily by players and developers alike... WAAAAAAAGH! is a pile of shit. Even specced up to max in it the damage is still no more than our core AoE attack Da Big Un. Whispering Wind is a fantastic action for warbands and scenario group and I'm seeing more and more SM's in top level warbands these days specced for Whispering Wind. In fact it's such a nice action that it fits in perfectly as WAAAAAAAGH! instead of our rotten one. So I'll happily leech WW of you SM's and rename it to WAAAAAAAGH! :)

WAAAAAAAGH! -- You shout loudly causing two shock waves dealing 153 Corporeal damage each, interrupting any building attack and will Silence your target for 4 seconds. The shouting then 'inspires' group members within 100 feet for the next 10 seconds by decreasing the cool down of abilities used by 5 seconds

Sounds good huh? Well to me it does being a Black Orc. In all honesty though, this is just a look at the one mastery I'm not overly keen on for Black Orcs and is possibly favoured a bit towards us, however there are actions and tactics in other trees that I'm sure Swordmasters would happily copy from Black Orcs as well. While we don't want clones so classes must be somewhat distinct there needs to be a bit more parity for sure, after all I'm not sure either class wants to be Swordmasters of Gork.

Werit shows us the new Black Orc shields

Got home from vacation yesterday and sadly contracted Nurgles Rot so having to take the day off work as my head fills up with snot and blood. In the meantime though Werit has kindly posted the new shields you can get at early ranks. Much the same as Werit said, the target one is my favourite. Hopefully I'll be able to get onto the test centre over the next couple of days.

http://www.weritsblog.com/2010/08/136-black-orc-shields.html

Cheers Werit!

EA partners with microtransactions firm

EA has a HUGE library of games already in development, so it's a fairly good chance that it's nothing to do with the MMO arm of EA (Bioware Mythic) but just in case I thought I'd pass along the news.

Keep in mind though, microtransactions do not mean F2P, probably just TRH....

Electronic Arts ( ERTS - news - people ), one of the world's largest games publishers, on Monday partnered with microtransactions platform Live Gamer to bolster its online game efforts. The companies did not disclose details of their partnership.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/26/electronic-arts-videogames-technology-microtransactions.html

Warhammer Online: Island of Blood

I recently found out that Warhammer the board game has recently had a new version brought out (I stopped playing the board games a long time back), it's up to 8th edition and is just a rulebook. However Games Workshop have also announced that there will be a boxed set expansion type thing for the game in September featuring two armies.. High Elves and Skaven.

Now what possible tie in could happen with a certain online game that we play?

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=11500028a

Nothing even mumbled from Mythic of course, but it'd make an almost perfect opportunity to announce an expansion whether live or paid. Fighting over resources or some such for the war against a Skaven horde. Now we just need to find out some background on this Island of Blood and what the story is behind it, could it be linkable?

BioWare points, ANOTHER vacation the PTS and thank you to da boss Xzi

I have a Bioware Social Network account from buying Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 so one account rather than multiples is always good for me, it's also inevitable that SW:TOR will go through the network as well, possibly DAoC and Ultima will come later if it's viable.

So what does this mean really? Well one key thing that the BSN (I can't be bothered typing it out each time, so it's now called that) has is the purchasing of BioWare points for real life money, this is used in Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age to purchase downloadable content such as new quests, party members and expansions.. Could Warhammer be going down the road of purchasable items? There was also mention a while back about new vanity pets coming in, this would be a way to gauge interest, maybe add some of the mounts that are hidden in the files that people have found.. There's a possibility. What I don't see happening is a free to play model, WAR is profitable enough to not have to worry about that... For now.

And guess what? I'm on another vacation. Last one for the year probably but I'm off for a week to Sweden with the girlfriend and to meet up with some long time guild mates, we're heading up to the north of Sweden, just inside the Arctic Circle with a forest, lake and mountain around us. Mmm 1600 metre mountain to climb. Should be a good laugh :)

The PTS I've had very little time to play with, the problem with it right now is that I don't have Lokax on it, I hate using template characters as they don't let me 'test' situations properly. I know Loks gear, limitations with it and what not, so giving me two sets of high end gear and a lot of emblems doesn't help when I still have jewels, other weapons and other armour pieces I use. From what I've heard though the plan mechanic changing is not too bad, will take some time to get used to for some people but when you can open up with a Down Ya Go or Shut Yer Mouth it certainly can't be bad.

And finally my long time guild leader has stepped down to concentrate on real life. We went out with one final Hand of Blood warband with Xzi leading on Thursday night before he logged out for possibly the last time. So here's vid that one of our members took.

/salute Xzi

You were a gud git.

(click to expand to see the full version)

Another look at the 8 piece sovereign bonuses

NateL of Bioware Mythic posted the revised 8 piece set bonuses they are looking at

(clicky)

And for the stuff I'm interested in, lets look at the tank bonuses:

Tank archetype

• Defensive: Your group becomes immune to Stagger, Knockdown, Root, and Knockback effects for 5 seconds.
• Offensive: Nearby allies have their movement speed increased by 60% for 10 seconds.

Meh... Well compared to the other archetypes it's just a big... Meh. I mean, lets be honest about it, we get the same buff (for four seconds) on a 20 second cooldown in our third plan, that's not an endgame bonus on a 2 minute cooldown no matter what they think, all other bonuses are on 10 seconds. Just because you think CC immunity is hugely powerful doesn't actually make it so when it is reliant on timing and lasts 5 seconds. Extend it to 10 seconds maybe and then we're talking.

The offensive one I still think it's Meh as well... It just doesn't strike me as 'tanky' even for offensive tanks. I guess it's meant to show the tanks leading a charge in, but lets be honest, it will only affect you, maybe the other tank in the group and a melee dps (assuming a two tank, one mdps, one rdps and two healer group). I just don't rate it as using up an item slot when there's better abilities out there for offensive tanks, in particular the LotD cloak for DPS. Hmm, 100 melee power and 25 strength.. Or I can run fast for 10 seconds on a two minute cooldown. I know what I'll pick.

No they've said they dont want 'click = more damage' bonuses so we should avoid dreaming of them, and subsequently I don't think they want 'click = absorb damage', they're looking for bonuses which change the shape of the battlefield.

So how would I do this?

For Defensive I'd change the timer to 10 seconds, if that's deemed too powerful then how about?

Your group takes 20% less incoming damage for the next 10 seconds

I'd say it looks decent enough, can be vital if timed right, or a waste if not.

And for offensive bonus? Hmmm, a bit more difficult. It needs to be aggressive and beneficial to your group, or a hindrance to your enemies, not a simple self buff or single target debuff. It's very difficult to think of the bonus since by nature tanks are defensive but yet we need an offensive bonus which does not mirror the MDPS morale. I'm honestly at a loss for what could be better but I still can't see myself using it in any shape if I'm DPS spec (which I generally am these days).

So are the bonuses great or not? A guild mate suggested you make it a simple +1 tactic slot which I think is great in theory, but sadly would become essential rather than a choice even beyond the inevitable rank increase.