From our buddies over at Wow.com, there is an article that states pretty unequivocally that the new WoW expansion races have been “leaked”. The article does not give clear sources, but it also goes on to say that “Cataclysm” will be the new…

I purchased an XBOX 360 TE FightStick yesterday, after some time spent cursing the Fightpad and saving money. And it’s every bit as good as the reviews  say it is. It’s much more precise and sensitive. Maybe a bit too sensitive, as I found …

Once again I’m late to the party, but this weekend I hope to finally be playing Street Fighter 4 online…on the PC. Yes I know I’m nearly a month late to the PC release, but I had been focusing on the console versions since launch. I’ve been…

If you have more than a cursory interest in 2-D fighting games, the release of SNK’s flagship fighting series on July 24th is well known to you. However, what you may not know yet is that somehow SNK has taken the game that could have theoretic…

This is probably very old news to many people, but I recently discovered the Gundam series The 08th MS Team. I stumbled across it in a random topic in a modeling forum I frequent and thought I’d give it a shot based on all the positive comments it…

I had an epiphany the other night, whilst lying in bed waiting to fall asleep. For the first time in many many months, I realized that I finally understood why I’ve been without motivation to pursue many of my hobbies. I’ll talk about model bui…

Yes, after many months of inactivity, I return to this blog. However, I am not returning to my previous theme and subject matter. I burned out. After months of hype and excitement, both with Warhammer Online and my blog, I began to hit a wall….

Yep, that’s the truth. I had never done any instanced dungeons in WAR until last night. This is mainly because I was unable to settle on a character until the Slayer was released. Now, with Khazgar at 4/5 Annihilator, I felt ready to start doing …

p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”March third baby! Time to bust out the Bitter Rivals event and get on unlocking the Slayer and Choppa early. I can’t wait to see what the trials are gonna be, hopefully, not too many difficult tasks. I’m still undecided as to what character I’ll be doing the tasks on. My Shadow Warrior is 17, so he’s in a good spot to go through the event in T2, which may prove more doable than going through the event on my Ironbreaker at 40. In any case, I’m gonna have to get back on a more regular playing schedule starting tonight. I’ve been a bit lax in playing recently, since I’ve been waiting on the event to get my ass in gear. /p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”Also, many changes ought to be going live tomorrow with patch 1.2, which should launch alongside the event. We looked at some of the notes in earlier posts, and if all the changes make it live, we are looking at a great patch with many many needed tweaks and changes. /p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”Lastly, I apologize for still not having any artwork up for this project I’ve been talking about. I actually have quite a few sketeches that I need to clean up and finalize, but I guess my inexperience with online publishing is putting a damper on my output. I really need to learn more about the medium, and I have to get better at managing my time. I’ve had some RL stuff come up recently, and the schedule change has been tough to adjust to. Still, having a new goal ought to help me be productive and also focus on my gametime more. Thanks for sticking with me thus far. /pdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2205416172038754050-7056336287962941887?l=grumble-and-mutter.blogspot.com’//div

p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”It looks like another batch of notes got thrown up on the Herald recently, there are some bangers in there, so lets take another look. Selected notes of interest are reposted below, I’m not going to cover everything, as I can only comment on things within my own experience./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”bBlack Orc/b/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”b/bbr //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”b* Balance Changes/b/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”b* Da Toughest!: Wound buff increased from previously reduced value./b/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”Good news! I’m stoked to see that Mythic has somewhat reversed their decision to nerf Da Toughest bellow. I always loved Da Toughest, and hearing that it got nerfed was a bummer. Now I can’t tell you precisely how much they un-nerfed it, but any improvement is good. Black Orcs’ main attribute is their survivability, and taking away from that is a mistake in my opinion. Hopefully we will see them continue to be unkillable hunks of green anger./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”b* Da Biggest!: This ability will now grant a stat buff to nearby group members./b/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”b* Da Bestest!: This ability has been renamed to “Guud at Big Choppin!” and will now increase damage and Parry rate while using a great weapon./b/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”These two notes are major for BO’s, with the change from An’ Bestest to Gud at Big Choppin!. The new tactic is now similar to the Greataxe Mastery tactic that Ironbreakers have, which currently gives them an additional 5% Parry and 10% Damage when a greatweapon is equipped. This helps define the Da Brawla tree as a 2-handed dps Mastery path. Previously the Brawla tree had a slight lack of focus on greatweapons, with many BO’s sticking to the sword and board. Now with the new tactic, using a greatweapon will be a more viable choice as compared to the survivability of a shield. /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”Also, having Da Biggest now include the stat buff from An’ Bestest is a cool buff to the group utility of a Black Orc, if they choose to forego Da ‘Toughest. More utility is always welcome./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”b* Skull Thumper: The additional damage caused by this ability’s debuff has been increased, is now mitigated as Corporeal damage, and no longer gains an increase from stats. Additionally, the damage from this effect will show up on its own line in the combat log.”./b/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”b* Loudmouth: The damage of this ability has been increased and changed to Corporeal. However, this damage will not critically hit or receive benefit from stats./b/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”Nice to see more damage from Skull Thumper, but also of note is the shift towards certain damage types for each career. In this case, BO’s now putting out Corporeal damage as a supplemental damage type. I’m pretty excited about this because it will introduce a rock/paper/scissors variable to the game. Combined with the upcoming hardcap and diminishing returns on resists, players will have better resists against certain careers while being more vulnerable to others. You could stack Corp and Spirit resists to help against sorcerers, but be weaker against Elemental damage. I like the direction Mythic is going with this, as this will make RvR encounters a bit more strategic./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”I’m not going to comment on the Choppa/Slayer notes, as they are fairly short and are mostly minor tweaks and bugfixes./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”Chosen and Knobs get a HUGE buff with these latest notes, as auras/commands no longer cost AP, and their tactic that previously made them free is now converted to a 5AP/sec buff for each aura they have running. This helps the AP issues these careers were having, as well as encouraging them to twist auras to fully benefit from the new tactic. Almost enough to make me go back to either my Knob or Chosen. Almost.br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana” /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”Witch Hunters get another big buff in my opinion, as now all their pistol finishers scale based on Strength, instead of Ballistic Skill. This was a huge issue for them since WH’s had to split their stat allocation at endgame between STR and Ballistics, compared to Witch Elves only having to stack STR. Witch Hunters had a naturally high base Ballistics value to compensate, but the issue persisted. Once the itemization is rebalanced to reflect the change, I think we will see the number of “buff WH plz” in the forums drop dramatically. Also, Witch Hunters are being adjusted to do Spiritual damage as their supplemental damage type, in keeping with the shift I mentioned earlier./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”All in all, some great news for some classes. I’m sorry if I didn’t address your career or notes, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for more developments a they occur./p p/pp/pdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2205416172038754050-5894913328209741859?l=grumble-and-mutter.blogspot.com’//div

p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”This is weird. Very weird. It’s just that I’m not on the PTS, playing the crap outta the new careers. Why? Well, its a bit complicated. First off I have a strange desire not to “spoil” anything for myself. I want my first login on the Slayer to be a completely new and fresh experience. But in the back of my head I have a little voice telling me I ineed/i to get on the PTS, for multiple reasons. For one thing, I can finalize my Slayer design, as I’ll have access to all the needed tattoo art and other details I need to finish my character’s design for the comic. Also, I can give useful feedback, as I pride myself on being really good about bug reporting, class feedback etc. None of this “OMG Slayers nedd a buff now our Deeps is teh suck!!” I can only imagine what the PTS forums are looking like about now, Although from my brief sojourn on the official forums I can see that Mythic is not playing around when it comes to deleting/locking flames and stupid trolling posts. Kudos to them. The WoW forums were such a cesspool because of this lack of efficient moderation./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Strangely, I’m not in a hurry to try out the Choppa either. I’m still keeping up with all the game news, browsing multiple forums and websites to soak up information as it is released. I’m still committed to playing the game, although a recent change in my work schedule has limited my evening playtime. I expect to get back on track once my body fully acclimatizes to waking up early or when the Bitter Rivals event begins, whichever comes first./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”In a way, I’m glad we have tons of people on the PTS testing away. Mainly because a lot of these players are interested primarily in trying something new, but aren’t really going to be making the Slayer or Choppa their main. Of course, I’m sure we will see the same pattern of activity that immediately followed the release of the Blackguard and Knight of the Blazing Sun. Namely, we’ll see tons of Slayers and Choppa in Tier 1, and early Tier 2, with numbers dropping into Tiers 3 and 4. At least, the PTS lets people get it out of their system, or decide whether or not they want to stick with the new classes./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”With any luck, the event will go live sooner rather than later, and when it does I’ll be hopping on and getting that influence. I want my Slayer on day one baby. Thank god the weekend is coming up, that ouughta give me a good amount of playtime, I need to get back in the groove./pp/pdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2205416172038754050-5547040814365256220?l=grumble-and-mutter.blogspot.com’//div

p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Here we go again. My Destruction guild has had the worst luck with picking servers since launch. We were originally on Ulthuan, then moved over to Red Eye Mountain. Now server transfers have been opened up from REM to more populated servers, like Iron Rock and Monolith. We are preparing to pick a server again, but in the meantime… Well my destro guild has had some big highs and low lows in our time. We went from being a 300+ member guild shortly after launch, to having a huge drop-off in active players after the free month was up. We had some hardcore players split because we were primarily casual, and finally server population issues forced us to move to Red Eye Mountain./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Once on Red Eye. we experienced several cycles of more hardcore members outleveling the rest, hitting level cap, and then joining other guilds because we did not have enough Rank 40’s on at a given time to go do dungeons. I know, dungeons. In a RvR game. Big pet peeve, long story. This happened more than a few times, it became a self-fulfilling spiral of events. We somehow never achieved a critical mass of enough 40s to enable us to begin endgame. Some stalwarts continued to play, and coordinate with our allied guilds, pugging or playing with guildies as the situation arose. Also, REM started having the same pop issues we had on Ulthuan, and many players started new alts over at Dark Crag./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”During this time, my Order guild has steadily grown through it all, even though we also had to transfer from our original home on Averheim. Now on the Badlands server, we are doing well. We aren’t huge, but we have a much larger percentage of active players in all level ranges, including at Rank 40. We also have a very active core group of officers that the rest of guild rallies around. My first 40 is on there, Stahlrek the Ironbreaker, but it looks like he will be semi-retired once the Slayer goes live.br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial” /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”So for now, it looks like my destro characters will all be on indefinite hold until we get a destination server finalized. Sigh. The Bitter Rivals event can’t start soon enough./p p/pdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2205416172038754050-2276116245993553856?l=grumble-and-mutter.blogspot.com’//div

p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Well, title about says it all. I had a pretty full weekend, unfortunately it was not busy playing WAR. We had a family member stay over and of course that’s a black hole of time consumption, as many of you know. I did hit Rank 40 Friday night, so I’m stoked on that. Got my Sentinel belt equipped, and now the process starts of getting my pitiful renown rank up. At least, until the Slayer debuts. On Badlands, Altdorf got attacked, but it looks like it didn’t progress past the contested stage. Some of my guildies have expressed frustration with the current City siege mechanic, but I’m still optimistic. I’m going to give Mythic a chance to get on the issues, they are always working on improving the game./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”In other news, looks like the Night of Murder event is over. I personally didn’t get all hyped up for this one, but I heard they implemented the influence curve better this time, as opposed to the grind-tastic Keg End. Although, word is that initially Keg End influence was too fast at first, Mythic heard about players blow through it in a short time, and over-nerfed the inf gain. Unfortunately right after that was a major holiday, and it seems no one made it back to fix the inf curve til after the holiday. Which resulted in a massively slow inf gain throughout the event. Well, now we can start getting hyped on the Bitter Rivals event that is just around the corner. /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”I really need to amp up my sketching for this comic project I’m working on, I do have the first page or two planned out and I’ve finalized the Slayer design I’m using. Of course, details for the design will change when the Slayer goes live, as I plan to use the ingame hair and tattoo designs, which I won’t know how they look exactly until launch. I still haven’t figured out many of the mechanics for doing a webcomic, but I’m open to learning. I’ve been lurking artwork threads and if you have a link that has something like a step-by-step guide I’d appreciate it. Anyway, I’ll see you guys in a couple days, hope you all had a great weekend!br //pdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/2205416172038754050-6755183210346351777?l=grumble-and-mutter.blogspot.com’//div

divspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; “Still with me here? Good. All right, now on to itemization and other cool stuff./spanbr //divdiv p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* Many mounts have been renamed. Existing mounts will have their names updated./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* We have added two additional mount variants for each race. These have been added to the Stable masters in the capital cities./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* We have added three additional mount variants exclusive to guilds only. These can be purchased by visiting the Guild Quartermaster once your guild reaches Guild Rank 25./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* We have added three new improved mounts (Faster amp; Lower dismount chance) exclusive to guilds only. These can be purchased by visiting the Guild Quartermaster once your guild reaches Guild Rank 37./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”More mounts? Faster mounts? New and Improved mounts? Yes please. These all get a big thumbs up from me here. Having more options is always a good thing, and the “epic” mounts for your guild is another addition to the benefits of being in a stable, progressive guild. if nothing else, this will add some visual variety to the mount system. Having vaguely similar looking horses across Order for the Empire and High Elves is getting a bit old, At least Destruction has three very distinctive mounts for their races, but Order needs some help. And no I don’t hate the Dwarfcopter./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”iRvR Fortress raids have received an update for their itemization in version 1.2. The focus of this update was to better reward players for completion of a Fortress capture as well as give players who do not successfully capture a Fortress some chance at improved loot./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* The Fortresses now feature the same world drop items found in the high-level city dungeons. This includes rare drop “Watcher” weapons./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* The Fortress PQ bags now feature new, unique Uncommon, Rare, and Very Rare items./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* Non-PQ target mobs within the Fortresses, including general mobs and the guards of the lords, now have a chance to drop the Conqueror Belt. The belt will no longer drop from Gold Bags./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* Additionally, the Conqueror Belt has been made bind-on-equip. This only affects new instances of the Conqueror Belt. Any Conquerer Belts found prior to this patch will remain bind-on-pickup./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* The number of PQ reward bags that drop in Fortresses has been increased to 30, with 12 Gold Bags for each completion./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Now we’re getting into some meaty stuff. Adding more chances for gear to drop, both off the mobs and the gold bags will significantly speed gearing up for successful Fortress takers, enabling them to push the campaign along faster and more effectively. Plus 30 Bags, 12 of which are Gold? Awesome. You could theoretically completely gear up two groups in days by consistently taking Forts. I can see smart guilds putting together 12-man strikeforces specifically to siege Forts and acquire gear. Kudos again to Mythic for easing the gear acquisition curve. The more people geared and warded, the closer we are to a successful City capture./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px Arial”iCapital Cities/i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”iThe capital cities have been updated with numerous adjusted items and new drops. Players should find items dropped in capital cities to be more rewarding than previously./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”iCity Invader PQs:/i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* The Invader PQs now feature unique Uncommon, Rare, and Very Rare items in the PQ bags./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* Both Attacker and Defender versions of these PQs offer 12 PQ reward bags. Attackers will continue to receive a greater number of Gold Bags for victory./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”iCity Warlord PQs:/i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* The Warlord PQs now feature unique Uncommon, Rare, and Very Rare dropped items from monsters and mini-bosses within the PQ instances./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* The Warlord PQs also now feature unique Uncommon, Rare, and Very Rare items in the PQ bags, including potent Warlord weapons./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* The number of PQ reward bags that drop in these PQs has been increased to 18, with 4 Gold Bags for each completion./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”iPalace Encounters:/i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”iNew, unique Uncommon, Rare, and Very Rare items have been added to the King’s Palace instances. These items are available as dropped items from all monsters in the dungeon, except the Kings./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* Unique weapons are now offered on the sub-bosses within the King’s Palace instances./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”i/ibr //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Same as above, we are seeing efforts to increase gear acquisition for players. Comments above apply./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Lets see, lotsa bug fixes, etc etc./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px Arial”iZone Control Domination/i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”iTo help place more emphasis on Keep claiming and defense, as well as to combat the “defense by not defending” strategy, we are introducing the Zone Control Domination mechanic. With this system, players who take and hold all Battlefield Objectives and claim Keeps in a contested zone (in Tier 4) or a shared RvR lake (in Tiers 2 and 3) have the opportunity to capture that zone, forgoing the standard mechanics of Zone Control. Each Battlefield Objective and Keep will be worth 1 Domination Point. To capture a zone via the Domination rules, your Realm must have all 6 Domination Points. In Tiers 2 and 3, capturing all six points in a shared RvR lake will give the capturing Realm control of the entire Tier. These are represented as small pip marks on the Zone Control Bar. Battlefield Objectives and Keeps have different requirements for earning their Domination Point, as follows:/i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* To earn a Domination Point from a Battlefield Objective, it must be owned by your realm for 30 minutes./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* To earn a Domination Point from a Keep, it must be claimed by a Guild and then held for 2 hours. If you lose control of a Battlefield Objective or Keep at any time, you lose the Domination Point./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* Multiple Domination Points cannot be gained from a single source (for example, it isn’t possible to get 6 Domination Points by capturing Martyr’s Square 6 times)./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* If a zone that was taken over by Zone Domination is put into a contested state, all timers and Domination Points are reset./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”i/ibr //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Ahh, here we are. The vaunted Zone Domination system. Before I comment, I’m going to repost something a fellow forum-goer said about this that I found to encapsulate my feelings precisely./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”span style=”font: 13.0px Arial”"/spanThe domination system is not that hard to understand. If people are zerging back and forth and keeps and BOs are changing hands frequently, nobody gets any domination points and things work exactly like they do now because the domination stuff sits on top of the existing victory point system. The only place it’s really going to kick in is when one side takes all the keeps and BOs in a pairing, and the other side says “everyone run PQs and scenarios to prevent the zone from locking!” I’ve seen that happen a couple times now. If you were diligent enough (and didn’t get whipped in scenarios), you could keep the other side from locking a zone indefinitely, even though they held all the objectives, and you never had to set foot in the RvR lake to do it./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”The domination system means you can no longer do that forever (or until everyone gets tired and goes to bed). You can stall for a while, but after at most 30 minutes BO domination points start to come in, and after at most 2 hours keep domination points start to come in, and if the attackers get enough domination points, just those and the objective points will probably be enough for zone control. So if you’re defending and you really need to prevent that zone lock to prevent a fortress siege, which could prevent the razing of your capital city, you need to get back in the RvR lake and take some of those objectives back. That’s ultimately what the domination system does, force the fighting back into the RvR lakes where it belongs.”/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”Couldn’t have said it better myself. Credit goes to vonPoonBurGer on the PA forums./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; “New RvR Chain Quests/spanbr //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Verdana” /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* The rally call has gone out! The WAR rages on and help is needed at every warcamp across the realms! New quest-givers have appeared in every warcamp and will offer players brand spanking new chain quests. ‘Chain’ quests are a new feature that will allow players to complete a set of linked quests and repeat the ‘chain’ again once they have completed all of the quests in the ‘chain.’ The new quests will be available from NPCs near the Rallymasters in the warcamps, and they are designed to reward players for participating in open RVR./i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”i/ibr //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Basically, we are getting RvR dailies. I’m liking this addition, because every additional incentive to push players into RvR counts. Players will take the path of least resistance, and if ORvR starts to become a viable leveling alternative thanks to quests like these, I can only see that as a good thing. Lets get players out fighting, and if we need to throw goodies at them for doing it, then fine. Look at the resurgence of ORvR after the RvR influence system came out. Same thing. /p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”i* We are introducing the new Rally Call system. At various intervals, players will be called to join the battle in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 RvR lakes. A button will appear near the mini-map, enabling willing participants to jump right into the action.  /i/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”i/ibr //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”I touched on this earlier, I think. Free teleports to the fight? I’m down for that, makes it easier to get groups and guilds to where they need to be quickly./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Well, that concludes my roundup of patch notes that I find interesting. I apologize if I didn’t talk about your career or your bug. The patch notes are just too massive. I’m going to try and write a last update and summary later on. It’s been quite a slog, thanks for reading this far./p p/pp/p p/pp/p /divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/2205416172038754050-1695868749874658293?l=grumble-and-mutter.blogspot.com’//div

p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”All right, continuing with the patch notes analysis here. I may skip many notes, especially ones pertaining to classes that I have no personal experience playing. If something really jumps out at me, I will address it. Otherwise don’t be surprised if I skip your class or bug entirely./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Chosen:/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Dire Shielding: This Tactic will no longer cause Bane Shield to stack when multiple Chosen in the same group use the ability./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”This comes as a welcome change to AoE-based classes, especially Engineers. There have been reports of this ability stacking so much that Engineers and Bright Wizards would drop some AoE’s down, only to get nearly backlashed into the ground as the stacking proc on all affected targets hit them back. It also looks like Bane Shield got a cooldown to only trigger once every 2 seconds per character./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Ironbreaker:/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Stone Breaker: This ability’s % armor debuff has now been replaced with a flat value armor debuff./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Same deal as the BO with this tweak./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Marauder:/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Terrible Embrace: This ability’s build time has been reduced to 1 second, and its cooldown time increased to 30 seconds./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Terrible Embrace: This ability’s cost has been reduced. Additionally, it will now continue to build while moving./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Fetch: This ability’s range has been reduced to 65 feet, and its cost has been reduced.  Additionally, this ability’s cooldown has been increased to 30 seconds. (White Lion)/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”This is both a slight nerf, and a decent buff. Yes the Marauder will not be able to pull as often, but being able to move while using the ability in order to keep the target within range is a huge deal. The White Lions are up in arms about this, especially combined with the range nerf to Fetch./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Shadow Warrior:/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Bug Fixes:/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Split Arrows: You can now hit keep doors with Spiral-Fletched Arrow while this Tactic is slotted./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* The bonuses from Scout, Assault, and Skirmish Stance will now stack with other bonuses./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Balance Changes:/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Eye Shot: This ability can now be used while moving./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Fell the Weak: The build time for this ability has been reduced to 0 seconds, but the cost has been increased./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”The Split Arrows fix is a huge deal for Skirmish SW’s, especially during keep sieges. Previously if this tactic was slotted, Spiral-Fletched Arrow wound not hit keep doors, which I’m sure you will see is a big problem. Now Skirmish SW’s don’t have to use different abilities other than SFA when bringing down a keep door./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Eye Shot now working when you move is a fix that has been asked for since beta, as it was the only Skirmish ability that required the SW to stand still. Now it is more consistent with the other abilities in the tree./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Fell the Weak becoming instant is great. The ability was previously very difficult to use effectively, due to the requirement that the target be below 20% health to get maximum damage, and that it was a 2 second cast. Now a Shadow Warrior will be able to use it on reaction, and won’t have to gauge the travel time as much. I’m stoked about this myself./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Swordmaster:/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Balanced Accuracy: This Tactic now affects all strikes of Ether Dance, Dragon’s Talon, Crashing Wave, and Whispering Winds/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”SM’s are getting a good amount of buffs and bug fixes in the patch, but I wanted to point this out in particular. This tactic is a mirror of the Blorc tactic Gork Smash! which is a 10/20% buff to critical strike rate when in the two higher stances. The SM version now affects all hits from their combo, while the Blorc version still only affects the first hit of the five from their T’ree Hit Combo. I’m pretty disappointed with this, I had hoped Mythic would have noted that the functionality of this tactic was mirrored on both factions and buffed both, instead of just one version./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* All chapters throughout the game within Tiers two through four have received a pass on Public Quest difficulty, much like what was previously done within Tier one. All affected Chapters now have an “Easy”, “Normal”, and “Hard” Public Quest. Public Quest points on the map have also been updated to reflect these difficulty levels as well as suggested player numbers to successfully complete./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Numerous epic quests within the Dwarf vs. Greenskin pairing have been modified to be more immersive and rewarding. For many this means that the length of the quests have been increased in order to tell a grander story. The experience and coin rewards have been adjusted to account for these changes./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”This is pretty cool to see that we are getting more difficulty options with the PQs. As many people know, I love solo farming PQs to grind up my influence for that chapter. I like this a lot. Also, good to see that the Dwarf/Greenskin quests are getting looked at. This is my favorite pairing, I mean who doesn’t like to kill gobbos and stunties. As the Dwarfs and Greenskins are my favorite races, this is a cool change for me. I hope that there is an uptick in the overall experience for this tier./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Crafting:/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”We have introduced a number of improvements to crafting in version 1.2. The focus of these changes was to better pair-off specific gathering skills with specific production skills, making it easier for crafters to be self-sufficient. In addition, we have made a concentrated effort to improve the leveling curves of all trade skills as well as reduce the number of different materials needed to make various items. In addition to these changes, we have also introduced a number of new player-crafted products. Please refer to the sections on each trade skill below for more specific information./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: 15px; “General/spanbr //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial” /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* The Apothecary production skill will now receive the majority of its materials from the Butchering and Cultivation gathering skills./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* The Talisman Crafting production skill will now receive the majority of its materials from the Scavenging and Salvaging skills./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Players can right-click on crafting items in the backpack to auto-move them to the appropriate slot when their crafting window is open./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* The Ctrl-Right-Click user interaction has been added for item conversion, e.g. plants being converted back into seeds./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Salvaging will now display the percentage chance of success on the item tooltip./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Talisman crafting no longer removes materials from the crafting window if there are more left in the stack./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Apothecary ingredient subtypes (Gold Dust, Essence, etc.) are now reflected in the item list view and item tooltips./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”This is pretty sweet stuff overall. I’m glad to see that they are clarifying the Crafting system and laying out the best pairing for gathering and production professions. I’m a bit miffed by the slight nerf to Scavenging, now that Scavenging no longer produces as many items for multiple professions. Used to be you could procure materials for Cultivation, Apothecary and Talisman making. Now it is tied more closely to Talisman making, with Cult and Butchering being tied to Apothecary instead. I had Scavenging purely as a money-making profession on multiple characters. Looks like I’ll be picking up Butchering or Cultivation in the future./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”There are quite a few more tweaks to crafting being added as well, including new components being introduced and some new systems being implemented. For example Cultivation now gets something called Reaping./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Plant Reaping:/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Plant reaping is a new skill given to Cultivators. This allows the Cultivator to harvest most plants for seeds as well as for Apothecary stabilizers./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Reaping a plant will consume the plant and produce 2 – 4 seeds for that plant type/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Reaping a plant will also produce 1 – 2 stabilizers that can be used in Apothecary./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px Arial”Guild Crafting Merchants/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”We have made adjustments to the guild merchants who sell crafting supplies. These changes represent adjustments needed after we refined many recipes and skill-up progressions. In addition, we have added the first of many “Guild Exclusive” crafting materials that can make unique crafted items that are not available any other way./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Crafting materials from skill 0 – 74 will appear on guild merchant at Guild Rank 7./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Crafting materials from skill 75 – 149 will appear on the guild merchant at Guild Rank 21./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* Crafting materials for skill 150+ will appear on the guild merchant at Guild Rank 28./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* A new, exclusive Skill 75 Apothecary main ingredients are available at Guild Rank 7./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* A new, exclusive Skill 150 Apothecary main ingredients are available at Guild Rank 21./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”* A new exclusive Skill 200 Apothecary main ingredients are available at Guild Rank 28./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”The above is another great incentive for guild advancement. It’s good to see Mythic offering more rewards for the guild system, while simultaneously NOT rendering player-acquired ingredients sold on the Auction House obsolete./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial”Next post, we’ll take a look at the itemization improvements currently planned. These are some long notes, so bear with me here as I slowly get through each section. /p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; min-height: 15.0px”br //p p/pp/pp/pdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/2205416172038754050-4476921258348307005?l=grumble-and-mutter.blogspot.com’//div