p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”If you guys haven’t been checking the Herald, or were away from your computer for the past couple of days, chances are you may have missed some very significant news updates. First off, Mythic has buffed experience gain AGAIN. Now players Rank 20 through 33 will have a significantly faster leveling curve. This means that all of Tier 3 and part of Tier 4 gets the buff. So once again, they are giving me a chance to get one of my many played alts to T4, at least. This stokes me out and my goal of getting one character to max level before I roll yet another alt will be easier to realize./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Speaking of alts, Mark Jacobs’ most recent post on the Herald hints at some big announcements coming at the end of this month. This coupled with MJ’s reference to Snafzg’s “Mythic’s Top Ten Priorities for Warhammer Online in 2009″ post tells me we may be getting a sneak peek at the first expansion! If true, this is super exciting news, and forum-goers all over are heavily speculating on what new races or content we may be getting. I’m hoping for a Skaven/Lizardmen pairing myself. I can also see them implementing new capitals, such as Karak Eight Peaks and Karaz-a-Karak for the DvG pairing./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”However, I want them to announce the new MDPS careers for the Dwarfs and Greenskins and implement them soon! I want my Slayer! I want me Choppa! WAAAGH!/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Okay, now that I’m no longer hyperventilating, lets look at some of the other news. In response to the crashing issues plaguing fortress captures, Mythic is implementing a throttling system, that will funnel players under a certain level attempting to to enter the fortress area to warcamps, once a certain population threshold has been met. This will address the issue of low-level players joining a fortress defense and lagging the server through overpopulation of the fortress area, leading to a crash. As pop thresholds are surpassed, the game will winnow out lower level players until at max threshold, only 39-40 Rank players will be allowed into the zone. /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Now opinion is split on this, with some players lauding the attempts to fix the crashes and some players disliking the fact that lower levels can not join the defense as easily. Myself, I’m for this change, because unfortunately I’ve seen people telling other players to zone into the fortress defense, no matter the level, and force a server crash when their fort is under attack. I myself do not agree that flooding the tier with lowbies that can’t effectively fight and overloading the server to be a valid tactic. Reports have also been made of groups of lowbies sitting in the fort spamming emotes and AoEs. /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”And last, Mythic is already looking at tweaking the Fortress Lord stats to ensure that they are in line with the number of players participating the the siege, as well as looking at other ways to optimizing the code for additional stability. Also, they are considering giving Fortresses their own zone, both to improve stability and to increase the amount of players that can participate in a siege./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Well, that’s your news wrap-up for today, I can’t wait for the big announcement at the end of the month, whatever it may be. It’s a good time to be a WAR player, and I’m cautiously optimistic about the future. Take care, gents./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Sources:/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”http://thegreenskin.com/2009/01/09/mark-jacobs-responds-to-the-top-10-priorities-list/br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=564br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=570br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=571br //pp/pp/pp/pp/pp/p

divbr //divdivp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”So I was leveling one of my characters last night, when one of my guildies, a new guy from his guild tag, grumbles that he is having a terrible losing streak in the T3 scenarios (he is rank 22). I empathize, saying I’m sorry to hear it. A bit later, he complains about the healers not throwing him heals, as well has healers ignoring him as he goes down in front of them. Again I commiserate, being a tank player myself, when the tank gets no heals, that’s usually not a good sign. Shortly after this he makes the following statement:/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”"This sucks, I can see this game going the way of Hellgate”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Surprised, I strongly disagree with this statement, and point out that Hellgate was bogged down by problems since launch, including a borked subscription type and character deletion bugs. He then says that people are going to quit since the players in his faction are no good and that the factions are so unbalanced. To which I counter that healers not healing is not a game balance issue. It’s a team quality issue, which is why you ought to roll around with guildies or friends if possible. I add that I hear this sort of complaint over on my characters on the other faction. It’s a grass-is-greener issue. /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”At this point another guildie pipes up that the bad pugs unbalance the game. Again I retort that bad pugs are part of the MM in MMO, and nearly every player has to deal with bad pugs at some point. I reiterate that bad players are not a design or balance issue, but rather a community issue. Everyone has had those nights in which every player in your groups seems to be in the running for most useless teammate of the year. I’ve had weekends where my team just couldn’t pull it together, and I’ve had times where my group steamrolls over everything again and again. The thing is, I hear this kind of talk regularly, from both sides. So if anything the equivalent amount of bitching each side does is actually a very good indication that the game is better balanced than one would suspect./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Sure there are certain bugs and issues that affect balance in the game, but these are being ironed out on a regular basis by Mythic. It saddens me when players point fingers at inept group mates or players who make a bad decision in combat and yell “unbalanced!”. Competency in a video game is not something that can be coded into the game. Players need to take responsibility instead of disavowing their own contribution to the success or failure of a team. Also, we need to take into account that it will always seem that we have weaker classes or dumber faction-mates, but the other side is probably saying the exact same things about us. As someone who plays both sides, trust me, both factions are equally broken and are arguably pretty balanced./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Players unfortunately have this tendency to look for reasons beyond their control when things are going badly for their team or faction. Now, sometimes players are correct. There are many well-known and documented bugs and exploits that can be extremely frustrating to deal with in the game. But a great majority of gamers will cry for nerfs or buffs, or suggest rebalancing instead of dealing with the resources available to them and learning to play smarter. Smart players find ways to bypass or minimize these perceived imbalances without resorting to whining. Remember, don’t worry about the stuff that you can’t control, and focus on the variables that you can control./p p/p p/p p/p p/p /divdiv /div

p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”One of the things I really enjoy about WAR and the Warhammer IP is the background lore and novels fleshing out the setting. I don’t really RP, but I do enjoy reading novels that are related to whatever career I happen to be putting time into. It kind of helps me get into the mindset of the character I am playing.  I read the Gotrek and Felix series as a starting point, I read Oathbreaker when I started up my Ironbreaker  (I still can’t find Grudge Bearer). I went through the Malus Darkblade series as I started my Blackguard. /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”And so following this pattern, when I picked up my Black Orc, Kurok, and started leveling him again I started to look for related Greenskin lore. And well, there really isn’t any. There is of course the background info associated with the tabletop game and other stuff like that. But looking through blacklibrary.com fails to turn up a single novel based on the Greenskins as protagonists. Orcs and Gobbos are usually used as cannon fodder bad guys, or perhaps a strong warboss is the main baddie. In general, their lives and motivations aren’t examined too closely, as they are basically there to kill things and to be killed by the heroes./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”I can sort of understand why. Greenskins are big, bloodthirsty, loud, violent slabs of muscle, prone to random cannibalism and unreasoning ferocity. Not exactly the most sympathetic characters to write about. The Greenskins and Gobbos are akin to an elemental force, except they are sentient, live to fight, and they hate iyou/i. Now there are novels that deal with marauders in the Chaos Wastes as well as champions of Khorne. Now I do realize that the protagonists of these books are still human. They may be cruel or insane, they could be fanatical worshippers of the Ruinous Powers, but they still retain their basic, relatable humanity. They are characters the reader can still empathize with, even though they are basically “evil”. These characters tend to be anti-heroes, being intrinsically iniquitous themselves, but fighting against a greater malefactor that poses a larger threat to the world. /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Another example is Malus Darkblade, who by any moral compass is a thoroughly detestable individual. He is a slaver, a murderer and worse. Yet we root for him because he is flung into conflict against forces that can wreak destruction on a much greater scale than Malus ever could./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Based on these examples I feel that there is room for a Greenskin novel. Don’t forget that Greenskins are basically a bunch of football hooligans that kill anyone who they don’t like in da name of Gork and Mork. They even talk in a Cockney accent! Greenskins also are famous for their infighting and beatin’ on da gits and bashin’ on da stunties. Let’s have the premise that the book can focus on a particular Orc, we can call him Rippa. The book can follow his life starting from his first kill, culminating with his epic defeat of a rival Boss, thus consolidating the tribes into a great WAAAGH! The book can detail his many battles and epic kills, in his struggle to be “Da Big Boss”. You could throw in a Gobbo sidekick, but that’s a bit too derivative for my taste. It would also be cool for him to possibly loot or find a particularly powerful magic weapon or artifact, just to spice things up. I mean, many movies don’t have much more plot than stringing together action pieces, so why couldn’t a novel work on the same mechanic? /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Even if some readers are turned off by a book that is basically about an Orc killing things over and over on his way to the top, I’m sure that many more readers would be thrilled to catch a glimpse into the life and culture of the Orcs and Gobbos. Greenskins are one of the most popular armies in the tabletop game, for a reason. They are considered one of the more entertaining armies to play, due to their flavor and fun factor./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”There you have it. Games Workshop, I don’t need credit or anything for this idea, just use it. Get C.L. Werner or William King on it stat! Perhaps we could have Nathan Long even. So, is there anything you gents would like to see in a Greenskin novel?/pp/p p/p p/p p/p

divbr //divdivp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Let me give you a bit of background about my playing style. I’m an incorrigible altaholic. I play various alts, usually fixating on one or two steadily for many ranks. Then I lose interest and retire them for weeks, sometimes months. The result of this of course, is that I’m an extremely slow leveler. Currently, I have yet to attain a single 40. Instead, I now have a 35 IB, a 20 Blackguard and Black Orc. I also leveled an Engineer to 19, a White Lion to 12, a Witch Hunter to 24 and a Marauder to 28. This does not include other sub rank-11 alts. So yeah, I have a bit of a problem. I don’t want to aimlessly grind or quest, so I thought up a way to have a more goal-oriented play-style that was still efficient and had nice rewards./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”And so, I had to come up with a way to structure my already limited playing time in order to get any leveling done. What I have done was to play in “shifts”. Basically, I will play the character with the largest amount of rest xp to maximize the xp/hour. I try to get to the next rank, or pretty cIose, before I log the character and play the next one in line. This ensures I always have a decent amount of rest xp built up every time I play that character. Doing this also helps me with burnout, as I don’t play the same character more than two or three sessions in a row. /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”I usually do straight chapter questing, in my character’s native pairing. I usually have the goal of making a level and-a-half to two levels for every two chapters. Although to do this, I try to grind out at least level 2 Influence on each chapter. This opens up the chapter’s “transition” quest that takes you to the next chapter, and also provides me with an occasional gear upgrade. I will max out influence if the Elite reward is really good for my career or is a significant upgrade. I’ll do kill collector mobs, but only if they happen to be in the way, or are directly part  of a quest. I like to save them in case I need some extra xp to get me to the next rank.br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Now I occasionally still hit plateaus in my leveling curve, but I have found a few ways to make them tolerable. One of my tactics is to look up Influence rewards from different pairings and try to find items that I really want. I try to find chapters that are relatively close to my level, so I can use the items for a decent amount of time. I’ll fly out there, hoof it to the chapter, check in with the Rally Masters and Kill Collectors and proceed to find a relatively close PQ. I grind out Stage One of the PQ, sometimes do a bit of Stage Two if I can hack it, then head back to town to sell off my junk. While I wait for Stage Two to reset, I’ll either look for another PQ at Stage One, or look for Kill Collector mobs to grind on while waiting on the first PQ to  reset itself. Check the Kill Collector npc every time you head back to town. Repeat until the Elite reward is unlocked. This is usually extremely efficient in terms of xp per hour, especially if the PQ’s are relatively close to each other and the  Kill Collector mobs aren’t too far from the chapter hubs or PQs. And it nets me a shiny new upgrade item!br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Doing this usually gets me a good chunk of xp, often enough to get me to the next chapter. However, this is not always the case. In this situation I will travel to other pairings and do the appropriate-level quests there. I don’t really like to do this, as I prefer to save those quests for a character I’m leveling in that area. And I also make a habit to read quest text and all associated chapter lore. /p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Now you may have noticed I haven’t mentioned doing scenarios yet, and you may wonder if I do scenarios at all. In fact, I do play scenarios, but in moderated increments. I queue while questing, mostly. I try to get one scenario in for every quest that I complete. I don’t hang out at the warcamp and only do the scenario quests. I’ll grab the scenario quests at the warcamp, sure. But I’ll be out in the world mostly killing and questing. Depending on your server and the time of day, you should be doing a scenario roughly every 5-10 minutes. If the scenario comes up while in the middle of a quest, I’ll hit the “give me a minute” option, kill my mob and find a safe spot. Afterwards, I get back on my quest groove and continue with my day. /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”However, I do NOT queue for scenarios while grinding out PQs or Kill Collector mobs, as I find it throws me off my groove. Now I drop off my scenario quests when I’m ready to log out for the day, before I get back to my capital city. Back in the capital, I check my auctions, maybe put some stuff up on the auction house, maybe do some crafting, and log out. I play anywhere between one to three hours in a given day, spread out over two or three playing sessions.br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica” /pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px”br //p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”And that’s how I work my “shifts”. I find this to be an efficient gaming method, and it allows me to feel that I am making progress whilst avoiding burnout on any particular character. Also this goal-oriented method avoids excessive grinding and usually rewards you with items and experience for quest completion,  thus enabling a feeling of accomplishment. This isn’t suggesting that THIS is how you MUST play your game. It’s just my system, and I like it. If you feel like trying it and it help you out, cool! If it doesn’t do anything for you, that’s fine as well. I hope you glean something worthwhile from this, and safe travels to ya!/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica” G’nite, gents./p p/pp/p p/p /div

divbr //divdivp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”Hello everyone, and welcome to Grumble and Mutter. This is my inaugural post for this blog and for this year. As a gamer, I’m sure many of you are looking forward to the new year and the potential it brings. Personally, I’m eagerly awaiting the announcement of the new MDPS Careers for Dwarfs and Greenskins. I’m hoping for the Slayer and Choppa, myself. I’ll be rolling up one of each for sure, which does not do my altitis any favors. Also, I’m sure you all have heard the rumors about official forums for Warhammer Online being implemented. I’m unsure where I stand on this issue, as a convincing argument can be made either way./pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”On another note, I’ve made a resolution for this year. I have decided to forego playing multiple alts and to focus on getting my two Destro characters to Rank 40 within the next 60 days. This was an idea I put forth in my guilds forums a little while ago, to help us focus and get more characters to max level. And so several of my guildies have now pledged to join the “60 days to 40″ movement, and hopefully we can all reach this goal. We are pretty casual overall, but it never hurts to have a goal to shoot for. It’s not a must-do, but rather a friendly challenge to ourselves in order to grow and prosper./p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”As far as wishes go, I really wish that populations stabilize across the realms and factions. Warhammer is a game that relies heavily on having a healthy, balanced population on a server for optimal RvR performance and enjoyment. The server transfers have alleviated this to a large degree. Indeed, both my guilds availed ourselves of this transfer and the consensus on both sides is that it was the right choice. We now enjoy much faster scenario queues as well as a larger and more active population, especially in Tier 4. I feel that Mythic should take the sometimes painful but necessary step of server mergers. Take several of the lowest pop servers and merge them into a few well-populated servers. Server ghost towns are fun for no one, especially in a game like this. /p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px”br //pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px”/pp style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica”I see that Mythic stands on the cusp of being the “best” alternative to the behemoth that is WoW. Mythic has the tools, they have a dedicated fanbase, competent developers and coders, and an amazing IP. Also, the fact that Mark Jacobs is a bona-fide fanatic about WAR doesn’t hurt at all. They’ve shown that they are ready to tweak, patch and adjust what needs to be adjusted. They have done a commendable job of communicating with the player base, something that is especially refreshing if you come from WoW and remember Blue very rarely, if ever communicating with the players. They have shown their commitment to providing regular infusions of new content into the game. In three months, WAR has seen a major rebalancing patch, careers re-inplemented, and the ORvR Influence system introduced. Mythic has the potential to be a major player in the MMO scene, maybe even number one in the unforeseen future. I hope they achieve their goals, and bring us players along for the ride. I hope that we will all  be part of the WAAAGH!!/p p style=”margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px”br //p p/p p/p p/p /div