Cleaning up the cave and a look ahead

Well yesterday I decided it's time to start doing a bit of cleaning work in the Mmmmm Gud cave (ick... Orcs dun like to clean stuff) but there was quite a few inactive Blogs and other bits and pieces no longer used. I'm also in the process of sorting a few new graphics out for the launch of the RvR Packs so it will get a fresh coat of mud. If there's any recommendations or things you'd like to see me change in the blog then just post a comment, email me or send me a message on twitter.

Also, if you run a Warhammer blog and I've not linked you at the side then please let me know through the same channels above, the more we all link through to each other the better. In particular I'd like to recommend a new blog to the scene Hadrune's Ammo Dump a great guild mate who has just started blogging and has some very high quality posts up already. Go check him out gitz.

The plan for the blog is to have the Brawler and Boss guides done by the end of the year (Brawler is nearly completed and I'm desperately holding out for Boss changes) and then to clean up the Toughest guide. Next on the guide list will be armour sets to use through the ranks, part of this may require me to actually go back and roll another Black Orc to remember the lower tiers but that might end up being fun as well and a good progress guide for new Black Orc players.

The blog has and will keep a Black Orc theme with my own personal rants about things going on as well, I'm not qualified to have an opinion on any other class since I don't play 'em :) You may notice bursts of posts and then a period of nothing for the coming couple of months as I've recently changed work hours so will be getting used to a new way of working each day :)

So see all you gitz back on the battle field

How to be... Gorbad Ironclaw

Gorbad Ironclaw
Gorbad Ironclaw, atop his vicious boar Gnarla, was the mightiest Warlord that ever lived. Gorbad Ironclaw and his tribe, the Ironclaw Orcs, absorbed the Broken Tooth tribe along with the local Goblin and Night Goblin tribes, to create a massive force of Greenskin warriors. The tribe marched through Black Fire Pass to attack the Empire under the Emperor Sigismund. Gorbad's army conquers the territories of Solland and Wissenland, but Gorbad himself was wounded in the fighting. At the fortress of Altdorf, the Waaagh! was kept at bay outside the city walls. Gorbad unleashed Wyverns upon the city, who threw the defenders into disarray but were ultimately repelled without achieving their main function, which was to destroy the city gates. Eventually, the lack of progress and Gorbad's injury took their toll on morale, and the army disintegrated. The remnants of Gorbad's tribe were ambushed and defeated on their way home by a Dwarf army under the King of Karaz-a-Karak. It is not known if Gorbad survived the encounter.

Part two in my "How to be..." series (part one is here). Today I focus on Gorbad Ironclaw, an Orc (not a Black Orc) who rose to become a great Warlord. Although Gorbad wasn't a Black Orc, I don't see any reason why we can't recreate him. One of the challenges for Gorbad was that he appears to have a couple of Choppa items (helm and chest) so I've attempted to recreate them as much as possible within my set guidelines of making it as easy as possible to achieve.

Sadly though, one thing I have messed up on is that there are a few items I've used which are quest rewards (search for the items on WARDB to find the quests) so apologies if you've already done them and trashed the reward. If I find an easier way to get the items then I'll try and remember to update this post.

I've used the following pictures of Gorbad as reference:



At least working out the colouring is easy, blood red the whole way through.! Once again, the shoulders became a bit of a pain, there's nothing really that matches up, but also they are fairly hidden under his cloak on the model and painting so I've simply used a fairly low key set which doesn't stand out. The cloak potentially could be replaced by the Tyrant Glyph back piece as it has the fur style plus the pole at the top but I've gone for the easier option to get (that and I don't actually have the back piece.. *mutters*).

I'm not overly happy with the weapon either, I feel there's a choppa which resembles it more but I can't seem to find it, in fact I'm almost positive there is and it used to drop as T4 green loot, but damned if remember properly. The chest I'm sure I can find a better version for as well, but the Carnage one I used (just do some newbie PQ's) works in the meantime.

So here we go, Gorbad Ironclaw. WAR style (click for bigger pictures).




Head: Ancient (Antiquated)/Conqueror 'Eadplate
Shoulders: Shouldaplate of da Miner (Quest)
Chest: Bodyplate of Carnage
Back: Vanguard Cloak (T4 renown vendor)
Gloves: Staunch Manifers of Skill (T4 green drop)
Belt: Decent plackart of Skill (T2 green drop)
Boots: Primeval/Invader/Darkpromise
Weapon: Bad Waaagh Choppa
Shield: Blocka o' da Doombull

To read up a bit more on Gorbad Ironclaw, I suggest you visit the Games Workshop page about him. Some fun little tidbits of information. HERE

We did it gitz... WE'Z DA BIGGEST!

From the PTS.... Black Orcs are now bigger than the Choppas!!! You can click on the picture for a bigger view. Middle is a Choppa and Chosen and the two at either end are a RR80 Black Orc and Tier 3 Black Orc, as you can see there's no difference in size based on renown, well if there is, it's not noticable. Still not complaining.



As a side note, I've not found any Black Orc changes other than the size and Save Da Runts (our guard now requires a shield). Not much time to check out more but will have a look tomorrow proper. Also I have to say this before I get too carried away.... This is only the PTS, it may change, they may remove the size difference so lets not get too excited.. ;)

(Edit: Added a Chosen into the mix for the size difference now so you may want to force a refresh of the site, holy crap we're massive! Although the Tyrant Black Orc doesn't look as big, he was slouching at that point as the chosen stretched up, trust me, it's noticable)

Tanktics part three. Guard.

You can check the other two parts of my tanktics series here and here but for those who aren't overly bothered it's simply a small post with combining tactics and the tank archetype abilities to improve them, to give something a bit more well.. Tanky.

Following on from my conversation with Bootae about only being able to guard if you are a shield it occurred to me this is actually a nerf. We're removing something from two handed tanks and not giving them anything in return, it doesn't actually make tanks want to guard more (which they always should anyway) but it certainly gives people ammunition to whine in scenarios etc about "OMG not a 2h tank.. ffs you're not mdps". If we were to only allow guard to be activated if using a shield then potentially we'd have to increase 2h damage to make it worthwhile for tanks to go 2h in scenarios etc.

Orrrrr..... We could look at combining it with a useless tactic. Now barring Unstoppable Juggernaut the other tank tactics are pretty decent, as we've already commandeered it for a Hold the Line buff then we either have to change another archetype tactic or I'm sure there's a useless tactic each tank has we can replace. I wont go through each class to find it, I wont pretend to know anything about Knights or Blackguards so I'll leave it as that, but here's what I propose instead of a straight "you can only guard if using a shield"

1 Slot Career Tactic - No range - No cool down - Passive
IMPROVED GUARD
If you have a shield equipped the damage split on your guarded target is increased to 75% assigned to you and the effect range is increased to 50ft

I have deliberately gone a bit overboard with this as I felt that my Hold the Line was in retrospect quite weak although it had the right 'feel'. Improved Guard might be a bit potent but it certainly makes choppa and blocka tanks be an absolute beast for guarding targets and much better than the 2h equivalent without nerfing 2h tanks.

Thoughts?

More thoughts on tanktics!

So I'm desperately trying to make my brain work tonight, for some reason motivation has disappeared and I'm tempted to just watch a film or some such, but I'm going to force myself to write something. Better to at least be a bit productive today even if I did sod all at work today.

So I wrote an earlier post about having changes to the taunt and challenge mechanic by adding in a tactic which improves it by speccing deeper into the tanking tree for tanks, and after speaking with Bootae earlier in the week we liked the idea of giving sword and board (or choppa 'n' blocka) tanks something more rewarding for speccing that way in RvR. To me, tactics are an easy way to look at how tanks can be improved, we have certain ones which are shared or at least are all very similar and yet we hardly have any that interact with our archetype abilities (taunt, challenge, guard and hold the line). So after my little thought about challenge/taunt being changed a bit, how about we look at Hold the Line....

Tanks have an unused tactic which is shared amongst them... Unstoppable Juggernaut. This tactic is all but useless these days with and in fact was never that great to start with, I can't see any tank justifying using up a tactic slot on it when there is so many better tactics out there. Now I don't want to make a tactic which works with Hold the Line that makes it the Uberbestomgwtfbbqpwn tactic of all time but I do want to make something which makes you think "Hmm, could I possibly slot this instead?". So after a few thoughts and simply looking at the name of the tactic I actually realised it's fairly simple.

1 Slot Career Tactic - No range - No cool down - Passive
UNSTOPPABLE JUGGERNAUT
While using Hold The Line! you also become immune to roots, snares and knockdowns, this also increases the channeling cost of Hold The Line! to 25 AP/sec

Nice isn't it? You can still be staggered and knocked back and the AP cost does go up, but it certainly helps to make tanks push forward more and gives another nice effect to having a shield. My other version of this was was to include knock backs (but not staggers) and increase the AP again to 30/sec.

Would this make a worthless tactic better? Certainly. Would it be used? I don't yet know but I can see potential for keep sieges and with WAR heading to more important sieges it could find a very nice place. Any thoughts?

Video: Hand of Blood - Recipe for Hate

Another video from the Hand of Blood vaults (well last night). A nice epic battle against one of the top guilds on the server (if not world) and then a little show on how to clear out a blob which is camping your war camp. Epic night of kills, it was a stupid amount again, there was over 3,000 kills in the zone when we jumped to Dragonwake to break up a potential zone lock.

Taunt , Challenge and tactics - Is there wasted potential?

So I've always thought that two of the four class defining abilities that tanks have (challenge and taunt) have no actual interaction with any other tactics or abilities. The tactics in that mastery can be good but especially as a Black Orc the top tier tanking tactic is absolutely rubbish (you can check previous rants on it in older posts). I'm sure each tanking class has the same issue, a tactic in there that really, isn't all that good and would rarely if ever be slotted and you'd gladly see another one replace it.

I have a little proposal for all tanks, it's not overly thought through so potentially it might be a bit potent or underwhelming but how about this for the top tier tactic in your tanking tree:

1 Slot Career Tactic - No range - No cool down - Passive
(insert name here)
Cool down on Taunt and Challenge is reduced by 5 seconds and the effectiveness is increased by 5%

So this would put Taunt on a 10 second cool down with 35% extra damage and Challenge on a 25 second cool down with enemies doing 65% damage to all other targets. The question is, would it become an option for you to slot, something to ignore or an essential tactic?

There's other possibilities as well, such as increased range or making Taunt a cone effect like challenge. Could we also then do things with Hold the Line?

Antiquated (Ancient) Set for Black Orcs

The Antiquated set from Land of the Deads Tomb of the Vulture Lord is a green repairable set. Once repaired it becomes Ancient (piece name). The actual set itself doesn't offer any set bonuses but does feature Strength, Toughness and Initiative as the primary stats, it's basically a T4 Surveyor set and is fairly decent to use but will quickly get replaced as it's rank 40 gear (primeval for example is much better). The set itself though replicates the Conqueror gear so it's good if you want to have some of the same appearance as it, the shoulders and helm tend to be popular. Anyway, if you want to find any of these on the Auction House, just search for "Antiquated".

Five things you didn't know about Black Orcs

Here's five things you may, or may not know about Black Orcs in Warhammer Online.

1) T'ree Hit Combo #1: It hits five times, not three. It's meant to.

2) T'ree Hit Combo: #2 It's one of the only actions that has fluff in the tool tip as well 'As Da' Big Boss would say, "Countin' is for Stuntiez" '

3) We are the only tanks that can do corporeal damage and have ailment actions

4) Our collectors edition head (the metal face plate) will be the same colour you choose for the metal bits when you create the Orc (so you can have a red or gold face plate for example)

5) We can use hammers, but none we can use actually drop from mobs or quests.

Changing da plan - A guide

So after a few weeks of 1.3.6, the biggest change to the Black Orc mechanic since launch has been used, mind you it's the only change to the Black Orc mechanic since launch so that's not saying much about the worst designed and badly implemented mechanic in the game. Thanks for throwing us a life line after nearly two years!

Anyway before I rant more about it, Mythic have mentioned in the past that they are looking at the mechanic and how it works in the future so maybe we'll see something come of it.

Well back onto "Changin' Da Plan". How does it work after testing? Overall it's not too bad, in fact it can work very well but also leads to over complication. I actually know of Rank 40 Black Orcs that haven't bothered with it as the mechanic and finger fiddling is enough for them without adding in another one. However I would recommend that all Black Orcs pick it up and use it as much as possible to learn the benefits of the new action.

Key points to remember about CDP.

+ It costs no AP
+ It's off the global cool down
+ In combination with Big Swing you can 'preload' to the third plan
+ You can step back to second plan when in our third plan

- It's not just to preload a plan
- It has a 5 second cool down which cannot be removed
- It can complicate a rotation
- Accidental use can cause problems

Preloading
The act of moving up plans to second or third after using Big Swing in preparation for combat is known as Preloading. Prior to engaging in ORvR I'll often setup a big swing or knockback if near a cliff face (I still gloat to this day about my preset aoe knock back killing four order that had come out of hunters vale near a cliff in Dragonwake and slid down the side of the terrain face taking fall damage).

However talking to some fellow Black Orcs and they tend to use it to setup moves at the start but then it gets lost in the shuffle of combat. Setting a rotation in your head is potentially the best you can do rather than trying to hit it in the middle of combat without thinking ahead. You can also preload third plans by using Big Swing to move straight onto it, letting you smack a target down straight away leaving them open for the melee dps to rip them into pieces.

Rotations (and stepping back)
Rotations pre 1.3.6 were fairly standard you could easily sit spamming three different actions but now with Changing Da Plan it can complicate things and lead to more actions being used.

Two example rotations are below:

ORvR (preloaded onto plan 2) - If on healer attack duty
Big Swing - Not in Da face - CHANGE DA PLAN! - Big Swing - Shut Yer Face - Wot Armour? - Big Swing - CHANGE DA PLAN! - Big Swing - Savin Me Hide - Wot Armour?

Single Target (example in PvE)
Wot Armour - CHANGE DA PLAN! - T'ree Hit Combo - Follow my lead - Right in Da jibblies - CHANGE DA PLAN! - Trip Em Up - T'ree Hit Combo

As you can see, CDP isn't always used when it's on cool down for the simple reason that it can sometimes break a better rotation. For example in the Single target rotation we actually change off the third plan away from t'ree hit to use a snare, even in PvE. The reason for this is actually straight forward. When you reach the third plan you actually have a 1.5-2 second cool down left on T'ree Hit and using another 3rd plan ability might not add much more damage. If you change down to second plan and immediately use Trip Em Up you will be ready for T'ree Hit again straight away. One great little unintentional boost that T'ree Hit now has is that it because it's a channeled skill which takes exactly as long as the cool down on CDP.

Lag does play a part in this though, so be warned that changing plans in heavy lag can take a few seconds to register leaving you wasting cool downs. Experiment a bit in each situation you're in to find your lag level and how you feel with a long rotation. It's not about memorising one rotation for each situation, it's about using a base rotation and swapping out actions for each situation. For example you probably won't bother too much about Trip Em Up on a slayer but using big swing may prove to be efficient if you don't have action point management issues.

Conclusion
So in conclusion. Changing Da Plan can be a very powerful tool, though can also be used poorly causing more issues or not using it to its full potential. If you've never used it, or are unsure on using it, please take the time to play around with some low damage champion mobs to find a rotation you like. Get used to using CDP in non dangerous or crazy situations and that will get you more comfortable in using it.