And, like probably every other WoW guild out there, people are drying up at a phenomenal rate.

I’m left to wonder, is the only thing that can steal playtime away from WoW, another Blizzard game? Well, to be fair you see this quite often when a new, quality triple A game on the PC is released. Usually it’s a Bioware game stealing some of the thunder – Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age… this time, it’s a Blizzard game, and Starcraft 2 is, with little doubt in my mind, going to cause a pretty sharp drop in WoW players online concurrently for quite some time. Depending how many of them embrace online play, the drop may be more permanent and significant.

The biggest threat, then, to World of Warcraft seems to me won’t necessarily be another MMO, but simply another quality multiplayer PC game. And very specifically, Diablo 3. D3 will offer much of the simple pick up and play co-operative gameplay that WoW offers in it’s current badge-farming heroic intancing, which I’d guess makes up a good bulk of what people do in the game at the level cap. Sure raiding happens too, but is it the real focus of WoW gamers? Most of us spend more time gearing for raids than actually raiding. And, sure, PVP is a fun enough distraction, but BG’s are something to do in short bursts, and arenas are the domain of a very small minority of WoW’s subscriber base.

Personally I think Starcraft 2 might offer superior PVP multiplayer gameplay within a ‘massive’ environment, and Diablo3 will scratch the itch that the other half has, in co-operative dungeon crawling. As much as Blizzard mentions it doesn’t see SC2 and D3 as competition to WoW… I really think they are.

How does starcraft 2 itself play, I might hear you ask. My initial impressions are highly favourable. This game exudes polish in a quantity I don’t think I have seen before. The closest would be to liken it to Mass Effect 2 in terms of sheer quality of design. The engine itself is spectacular, the gameplay is classic Starcraft, and the higher focus on exposition and storyline between missions is superb. Hard to say if this is the best game ever, I don’t think it’s perfect, but it’s damn near. If you have a PC, this is simply a must buy, whether you’re an RTS fan or not so much.

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

Starcraft 2 and WoW : Blizzard is it’s own worst enemy

Incoming search terms:

• does blizzard own warhammer online

• Battle.net Balance and Diablo 3 will earn me money
• Keen and Graev’s Most Anticipated Games of 2012
• Keen and Graev’s Most Anticipated Games of 2012
• SWTOR Beta Impressions
• Gameplay over Graphics
• Too Many Games
• Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure … 3DS!
• Mario Kart 7 Review
• MMOs are not given room to grow anymore. Launch perfect or die!
• MMOs are not given room to grow anymore. Launch perfect or die!

Skurmish is changing hosts to

http://forums.prophecy.co.za/blogs/skurm

Why, you may ask? WordPress is warm and cozy and familiar! Well, here’s the thing:  while wordpress is an awesome host and software, the best I’ve used to date, I’m also part of a gaming community, one with aspirations to grow and expand. Prophecy just launched a blog hosting service to it’s members and I certainly would be setting a lousy example if I didn’t take advantage of it.

So be sure to update your favourites or blogrolls if you’re linking to Skurmish.

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

Moving on up…

• SWTOR Pre-ordered but now I have two Origin accounts
• Netflix Party Play Removed from Xbox 360
• Network Maintenance – 11/18
• TOR Nexus Updates
• Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and stay current on all things Keen and Graev
• About a dwarf and his oath
• And We’re Back
• I had reasons for the silence
• MMOs are not given room to grow anymore. Launch perfect or die!
• MMOs are not given room to grow anymore. Launch perfect or die!

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

1.2 and Shamans

None Found

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

NYCC and Night of Murder

None Found

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

The good, the bad and the ugly.

• Would Reckoning make a good MMORPG?
• Would Reckoning make a good MMORPG?
• MWO – Another mech revealed and it makes for a good comparison
• STO – 2nd anniversary rewards are a bit good

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

The Art of War: Being Like The Water

• MWO – Cockpit view concept art
• WAR 1.4.5 Q&A
• A Look at WAR
• WAR for the Holidays
• Upcoming WAR Changes
• No WAR Boots?
• WAR Producer update
• Beat War in the North
• Stratics returns to WAR
• Weekend Warfront – Spirit of War

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

And now, we wait.

• Here we go!
• Mechwarrior Online, what we know so far
• Free Character Transfer Now Available
• STO is now F2P
• Dominus jetpacking to the top of my ‘gimme now’ list
• SWTOR Pre-ordered but now I have two Origin accounts
• PvP Stats: Not Necessary Before, Not Necessary Now

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

A short adventure in Middle Earth

• Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure … 3DS!
• Quests Should Be An Adventure
• SWTOR PvP falls short, my suggestions
• RvR in SWTOR?
• Mining in Skyrim
• Corellia: Closing in on 50
• Beat War in the North
• KDR Leaderboards in MMO’s
• Latest Mech in the lineup revealed
• Choosing my class in SWTOR

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

I’ve been one-shotted!

None Found

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

Valentines Day Live Event next?

• Version 1.4.5 Goes Live – 01/31
• On the Second Day of TOR
• Since it’s launch day
• Playing on launch day
• Day Two of SWTOR
• First day of SWTOR and plenty more to go
• 3 posts in one day? Doctor Who demands it!

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

The case for/against noexp

None Found

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

Green iz da best

None Found

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

SkurmUI!

None Found

So I’m re-re-rerolling. This is something completely new to me. Previously I was never big into alts or rerolls. I’d make a character, level it to the cap ASAP, and begin work on the gearing process. Potentially looking at a new char months down the line.

Last night  instead of levelling my Witch Elf, I took my new Goblin Shaman, Skabs, to Level 11. And I loved it.

Warhammer is very alt friendly, because the stuff to do below level cap is really, simply, so much more fleshed out than what I’m used to. There’s ORVR in Tier1, even though I level through T1 in a day! Madness. There’s Lairs. There’s PQ’s. There’s 3 different pairings to choose to level through. And the amount of questing available at low level is truly massive. When you consider everything, the number of options Mythic presents us sub endgame appears truly unparralleled within the genre. Most MMO’s are a case of questing and/or grinding to endgame before starting the game proper. Not so in WAR, and in fact I suspect people reaching 40 and expecting more, are leaving because they’ve in reality already experienced the concept of an ‘endgame’, 30 levels ago. Those that have realised this have rerolled rather than quit, and aren’t rushing to level because right here, right now, Tiers 1 and 2, is where the real fun’s at.

Beyond the ‘lack’ of end-endgame, there’s also the issue of AoE CC spam ruining Tier4 and the fact that the game seems to hand you most of your core abilities early on. I would have preferred some more ’spacing out’ of abilities between the 4 tiers, actually.

Another factor is certainly that levelling through Tiers 3 and 4 is a bit of a drudge. But, ultimately, it’s probably the fact that I hadn’t yet really ‘clicked’ with any class. I think the shammy, finally, clicks. The Witch Elf was fun, but something about the class feels… off. I might return to it, might level her up some day, but the way a shammy plays feels very well conceptualised, very well realised. I absolutely love the Gork/Mork thing and how throwing out lots of heals makes casting a quick Yer Not So Bad faster, even instant. I love that I can put out some rather respectable DPS if i choose to, and am in fact rewarded for doing so thansk to concepts like a DoT that also heals my friendly target. The class requires  a significant amount of multitasking as opposed to the Witch Elf’s entire focus being on burning that one target down and getting your combo just right. More than that, I simply love the way the goblin race moves, the way it animates, the voice emotes. The look of their gear, everything just fits together really, really well. This is probably WoW’s greatest strength and when it comes to the greenskins, is where Mythic came closest to duplicating that same magic. This is clearly where they used up most of their polish.

For the first time in a long time in an MMO, I even feel like… occasionally… roleplaying.

I think, 4 months on I’m still trying to decide what my final role for endgame in WAR should be. Should I be tanking, healing, melee dps’ing, or tossing fireballs from range? I’ve tried them all to Tier 3 or at least Tier 2, and I’m leaning towards either tanking or healing, these roles being far more tactical, even strategic, and less buttonmashy and twitchreflexy. Ultimately for the aspiring battlefield general, a healer archetype does make the most sense, since by default you’re constantly making decisions and weighing the importance of the lives of your minions.

And really, gobbos have the best /special. By far. That alone is almost reason enough to pick a greenskin as my main.

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

I got’s da WAAAGH!

• Modifiable gear (orange named) in SWTOR
• Choosing my class in SWTOR
• Bounty Hunter PvP
• A Dwarf and an Elf walk into a bar
• KDR Leaderboards in MMO’s
• Belsavis and Voss
• SWTOR Beta Impressions
• Would Reckoning make a good MMORPG?
• Would Reckoning make a good MMORPG?
• Tier 7 Armor Sets – Round 6

A few things I’d love to see as a Witch Elf this year. Granted I’m still relatively noobish to this class so much of it may be without merit. But that’s why I have a blog. To post unbiased, raving random demands.

1. Un-suck stealth. No seriously. Stealth in this game sucks giant donkey balls. It’s terrible. The only real ace up a Witch Elf’s sleeve is her stealth, and it takes around 3 seconds to activate, and lasts maybe 30 seconds tops, while draining your AP too. Look I know we all still have WoW rogue phobia, but Witch Elves are really, really squishy. Could we at least have a stealth that’s harder to detect (and notifies us somehow if we’ve been detected?). And could it last at least a minute or perhaps even last until broken, without draining AP at all? I really don’t think that would be overpowered.

2. Dodge, parry, block, parry, parry, dodge. Active mitigation in this game is brutal, and that’s fine, but it would be great if Frenzy could build up even if dodged, parried or blocked. As it stands players have so many ways to neutralize our damage – neutralizing our capacity to build up our combo strings as well is a little over the top. Imagine you had to actually hit and do damage to your target to build up Plan/Balance. Imagine your spells being disrupted meant your Combustion did not increase. That’s what playing a Witch Elf is like. Mitigate our damage sure, but not our mechanic.

3. Escapability. I can only sit back and wonder why Marauders and White Lions have extra sprints and  tools like pulls and pounces, where we have nothing short of a level 40 ‘disengage’. We have an AoE taunt and a snare remove and..that’s it. Considering we’re melee dps with effectively no armor and some of the lowest base hit points in the game? Like, whu…? I’ve honestly never died this much playing a toon, and I’ve played a few up to Tier 2, 3 and 4. Witch Elves are by far the most fragile character I’ve played. Even Bright Wizards have more ‘o crap’ tools. AoE Snare, Morale punt and later either an AoE knockback or a single target knockdown. Okay, we have On Your Knees, so maybe I’m not entirely informed just yet. But up to level 25, thus far, playing a Witch Elf has been the most infuriating, frustrating leveling experience, which brings me to,

4. PvE tuning. It seems to me that solo PvE leveling is tuned for tanks and… nobody else.  On my Ironbreaker I could pull 6 mobs same level and take them down with ease. On my Witch Elf, more than 2 and I have to cut and run. That would be ok if I was killing mobs drastically quicker, but compared to my Ironbreaker when wielding a 2H and with full grudge, I’m not. I’m just not. When mobs respawn 3 feet away and start whacking on my elf it usually means a run, a break in my play. On my Ironbreaker, I’d shrug them off and just keep on burning through. PvE just seems ill thought out. Mobs spawn too quickly and are too closely packed for squishy classes to level effectively.  And squishies really feel like they’re too squishy, particularly those that can’t heal. I could never, for example, solo a champion, but as an Ironbreaker? No problem. As a Black Orc, I could solo some heroes. Space out the mobs, fine-tune their ridiculously short respawn timers. Not everyone plays a tank, Mythic!

5. Nicer looking gear. Yeah, the bikini thing? Cute. I get it. I’m over it. I still like the look and feel, lots of skin showing fits the class and idea behind it. But Witch Elves look kinda…well…gimp, compared to the other Destro classes. I guess it’s better than most Order. But you never see a well equipped Witch Elf and think ‘hey, she’s well geared’, because you can’t exactly tell. Sentinel Gear on a witch elf seems to look no better or more epic than Tier 2 greens. Compare that to a Chosen in full Annihilator.

6. Dull, unvaried animations need to go. Most Witch Elf combat consists of 2 or 3 animations – a strike from the left, a strike from the right and some whirwhindy stuff. Every time you hit Slice or Envenomed Blade, she performs the exact same animation and it looks dull. Maybe other classes suffer this problem too but I never seemed to notice. On my WE, I do. Distinctly. I’d like to see hitting Slice pool from one of three or so different animations, for example. The finishers can have their unique animations, but building up to that finisher should look cooler, sweeter, like a Witch Elf spinning and dancing as she builds up into frenzy. As opposed to the current  status quo, which looks like a boxer going ‘left jab, left jab, left jab, left jab, left jab, RIGHT HOOK!’. Booooooriiinggg. Also that ‘baf’ sound the builders tend to have? Icky. I’m stabbing and slashing things, not hitting them with rolled up newspaper. Get the sound effects right.

7. Stuff to do in ORvR. Scenarios are fine, my job there is clear – kill healers. In ORvR it’s to…what exactly? Man the ram? Twice? Then stare at RDPS pew pew the enemy tank wall while our tanks push forward and try to AoE cc/break up the defending warband? A Witch Elf trying to sneak into the Keep Lord’s room is simply suicide. Running into the zerg, suicide. What we need is wall climbing. We should be able to get behind that damn tank wall blocking off the Lord’s room so we can try and strike their healers just as our tanks make a push to break the defenders lines. Right now, we just hang around hoping that happens so we can rush up and pick off stragglers and dps the Lord. That’s reactive, and lame, when this class is supposed to be the most proactive, aggressive class around.

8. Emotes and Teh Pr0n. This is a pet peeve, but emotes in this game are kinda dreary, bar the /special, and even that can be pretty boring. Gobbos have many great emotes. Ours are all pretty meh. If there was ever a case for a sexy dance emote, Witch Elves are it. Seriously. Put in some pole dancing animations or something for Witch Elves and watch subscription numbers soar. Sex sells. A strong reason I rolled a Witch Elf is because she looks like a hot goth stripper. I admit it. I’m a horndog. You took the first step in creating Witch Elves… now roll with it, Mythic!

9. Group utility. Thus far at 25 I’ve seen one, exactly one ability that provides some kind of group utility or buff or whatever, and that’s a Rank 2 Morale ability that regens the groups AP. That’s it. Now, granted, I know that the purpose of a Witch Elf is to be an assassin and as such not so focused on playing with others. But c’mon, toss us a bone here! It would be nice to be wanted because we do something other than kill squishies good( end even then, as healers realize the importance of stacking Initiative, that role starts diminishing rather rapidly…). How about group DPS buffs? Surely witnessing the sight of a Witch Elf eviscerating her foes would galvanize those around her? Why not a tactic that increases my and everyone around me’s strength by a certain amount every time I trigger a Frenzy?

10. And lastly, but certainly not leastly… Out of Range. Boy is this infuriating. I detest some elements of War’s gameplay which it ‘inherited’ from WoW, and one of them is the endless kiting and running around like idiots. I’d love to see a MMORPG some day rid itself of the notion that martial combat is all about running around in a circle flailing at each other like morons. It’s not. Go watch some Kendo clips. Watch some good old pugilism. There might be some maneuvering but it’s nothing like combat in WAR and WoW, which is completely unreal and, when you get down to it, lame. But I’m getting ahead of myself. In the absence of realistic combat, at the very least extend the hitboxes of characters a little. Maybe even give us a snare, at least in the absence of a WL’esque distance closer. It’s too easy to pop a detaunt and kite a Witch Elf, particularly if lag’s a factor, which it certainly is in this game.

Most of these probably seem unreasonable to many non-Witch Elves. Hell they’ll probably seem unreasonable or OP too many Witch Elves themselves, probably those with a lot more experience playing this class than me. And that’s fine, it’s a wish list. If anyone at Mythic ever looks at it and even thinks about any of the mentioned suggestions before tossing it all aside, that’s just fine with me.

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

Ten Things for ‘09: A Witch Elf Wishlist

• Choosing my class in SWTOR
• Would Reckoning make a good MMORPG?
• Would Reckoning make a good MMORPG?
• Bounty Hunter PvP
• I had reasons for the silence
• SWTOR Launch Preparation
• Skyrim Black Falls Barrow Tip
• Relic Raid Tests on Warpstone
• Skyrim So far
• Relic Bonuses

…long time passing?

This is a completely subjective post. I have no research data or statistics to support this hunch. Yet I’m going to blather on anyway. Feel free to post flaming comments.

I frequent a few gaming sites and forums, many MMO focused, and I’ve noticed a few trends, them being:

1:More and more people selling their WoW accounts.

2:More and more people quitting WoW in emo rage.

3:More and more WoW guilds breaking up, downsizing, what have you.

4:A slew of new recruits in the guild I’m in. Most of them ex WoW fans.

5:No official mention yet of the 12th million WoW player, which judging by growth rate to date, should have clearly happened by now…

Now, I don’t subscribe to the notion that WoW is a bad game. Obviously it’s anything but, and obviously it remains absolutely THE most popular MMO out there, even if growth seems to be tapering off.  But I do certainly suspect that a combination of treadmill burnout and EZMode is having it’s toll on an ‘aging’ playerbase.

The fact is, WoW is an old game. It’s an old game that continued to be massively successful for two reasons:

(a)Easy to get into (leveling), and

(b)Hard to master (endgame)

Wrath of the Lich King turned (b) into Easy to master (while still being a massive grind). We’re starting to witness the fallout now, a month later, as people level through Northrend, run through Naxx 10man in an afternoon and then….nothing. That’s it. The End. Nothing more to see.

In Warhammer conversely, the war never, ever ends. The difficulty bar is set by the capacity of the opposing realm. Which scales constantly, and remains eternally variable. One night you’ll cap keeps with token resistance, the next you’ll get steamrolled by 5 warbands. Constant frustration and elation, highs and lows are what keep us playing. Wiping seemingly endlessly on Lurker was just as important as finally downing him. WoW’s new philosophy is to give everyone everything they wanted, almost immediately. Instant gratification. Once they have it, though, why bother playing? For the first time in a long, long while, you CAN reach the end of the rainbow in an MMO and what you find, what you’ll always find is a lump of lead. That’s not a WoW thing. That’s an MMO thing.

Truly successful MMO’s keep that carrot dangling constantly, ever out of reach. Should the day come that Inevitable City or Altdorf is truly sacked, the campaign simply resets and the WAR starts anew. We will never truly vanquish the forces of Order or Destruction. It is a WAR without end. This is what people want. This is why they play MMORPG’s in the first place.

And this is why Blizzard’s new focus on accessible PVE content is doomed to ultimately fail. One cannot churn out easy content fast enough for the masses to blitz through them. Massive challenge in a PVE game is critical to keep the zombies munching away at it, perpetually, which was the case with Burning Crusade, and is where WoW saw it’s most growth to date. Many, I suspect, are again turning to WAR recently because, subconsciously, they know this. They don’t want to ‘finish the game’. In WAR, it never can, because the focus is on players versus players, which means goalposts that are shifting seemingly daily.

So I’d like to close off with a prophecy that WAR will grow in 2009 and see a stady influx of subs, most of them old MMO vets who know that what’s important is the journey, and not the destination. WAR is one big journey. There is no prize at the end, because there IS no end. It’s one long ride, with many ups and downs, sure, but one that will not surrender without a fight.

WoW will see new content, Ulduar and Icecrowne, and players will again be momentarily entranced by the sparkles and fat loots. But unless we’re talking crushingly difficult content to keep them invested, they’ll backslide to the WAR’s and the LotrO’s or one of the new MMO’s coming out this year. Blizzard would be well advised to rerealise that handing people what they want – an ending – means that your MMO actually ends. Giving the majority of your clientele an ending is, simply speaking, is a terrible business strategy within the MMORPG space.

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

Where have all the WoWfans gone…

• Observations about EQ going Free and other F2P ‘stuff’
• Battle.net Balance and Diablo 3 will earn me money
• SWTOR vs WoW: Battle of the Bears?
• MMOs are not given room to grow anymore. Launch perfect or die!
• MMOs are not given room to grow anymore. Launch perfect or die!
• Almost there! (lol as if somebody hasn’t already used that for a post title)
• My SWTOR PvP experience so far
• Gameplay over Graphics
• MMO Worlds should be like Skyrim
• TOR Datacron: And We’re Off!

Keen and Graev have the scoop on a rather obvious hint dropped on them by the not so subtle boyz over at Mythic.

Allow me to direct you over yonder.

To me, that’s pretty obvious. Orange hair, shaving kit? Seriously.

Among many others, one thing that WAR fans have been clamouring for is a cool Order MDPS toon. Witch Hunters are pretty okay, in a somewhat Van Helsing but otherwise rather generic swashbuckler kinda way…I guess. But White Lions are just faggy. Sorry, but they are. For the Melee DPS fan who simply craved balls out bloodbaths and mayhem, we only had two options available to us outside of tanks, and they were both Destruction exclusive. Marauders are flexible melee DPS powerhouses, and Witch Elves are suicidal whirlwinds of death (unfortunately, too often their own).

Slayers will give Order players a taste of this playstyle. I find Witch Hunters to be a bit too tactical with their versatility, they’re really not much like a Witch Elf at all besides having stealth and some melee builders, their ranged executions make them far better at spreading damage around where Witch Elves are all about killing one squishy at a time. And White Lions are almost entirely positionally based in their attacks and focused around getting into and out of combat quickly, meaning more thinky and less smashy, unlike Marauders who exist solely to wade into the zerg and dish it out to all and sundry.

Choppas will most likely be announced alongside the Slayer, as you obviously cannot release just one class – it would unbalance the realms somewhat. It’s unlikely that the class will be widely embraced though, much like the Blackguard as compared to the Knight of the Blazing Sun. People who rolled Marauders and Witch Elves likely wont reroll a terribly similiar class, and ORder players certainly won’t pick a rather generic Choppa over the exciting, psychotic and provocatively named Slayer

All in all this will go a long way to making Order a bit more popular and balancing out the two realms a little. As a Destruction player I welcome it wholeheartedly (anything to dilute the Bright Wizard Army in scenarios, sigh), and I think I certainly will make my very own Slayer alt.

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

Slayers TBA 29 Jan?

• Tier 7 Armor Sets – Round 6
• Elf Generals
• Tobias and Rockgut
• I had reasons for the silence
• Relic Raid Tests on Warpstone
• PTS Events
• Mining in Skyrim
• Choosing a Class
• Observations about EQ going Free and other F2P ‘stuff’
• Reborn

So Zone Domination is coming in Patch 1.1.1. Short version, you’ll be able to lock zones by holding all keeps and BO’s in said zone for X amount of time.

This is something the community has been asking about for a long time. Why the need to grind Scenarios and PQ’s for Victory Points? It really doesn’t seem to make much sense.

In fact, this is such an obvious ‘No Duhhhh’ moment that I can’t exactly praise Mythic for implementing this. Zone Domination should have been part of the zone locking mechanism from the get go.

Oh well. No use crying over spilled milk. This is yet another move towards the way ORVR should work, especially when you correlate it to how warfare works in real life. Take and hold. Occupy something for long enough, and it becomes yours. Ahem, Middle East Conflict. Hell every single sovereign nation today was built on that principle, so it makes sense to echo it in a game based on perpetual war.

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

Zone Domination should have been Day 1

• MWO: Information Warfare
• SWTOR Warzones have no level brackets
• Outlaw’s Den: I only see problems ahead
• MWO – role warfare, hmmm yum
• SWTOR, MWO and X news.
• Skyward Sword Impressions
• Star Trek Online F2P launch date
• MMO Names
• SWTOR 1-40 Commentary
• About a dwarf and his oath

It may simply be a hunch, a feeling, a groundless suspicion. Yet it seems to be that I’m hearing questions and speaking to a number of new players in WAR these days. Has Blizzard’s approach of levelling their PVE playing field  resulted in a number of bored fans now exploring other games? While it’s certainly true that the new focus on content availability and easing up on the diffculty curve has certainly proven to be a big hit with the casuals, this could also have the knockon effect of veterans to the game increasingly seeking challenges elsewhere.

For those new to WAR, and it seems that even 5 months later there are a lot of you, I’m going to give a quick explanation of each class and draw a parrallel to it’s closest applicable WoW class. While the differences are vast, there remains some common ground and probably the easiest way to understand the various classes is to compare them to an Azerothian ‘counterpart’, or the closest thing that counts.

We’ll start off with Order, which is a lot like the Alliance, if the Alliance were a bunch of grizzled, constantly assailed war veterans bent on world domination.

Empire. These represent the good side of humans which… isn’t very good, actually. The Empire is a totalitarian regime under the command of Karl Franz, focused on rooting out and destroying heresy wherever it may find it. Remember when Arthas burnt down Stratholme? That. Except imagine he wasn’t reviled and damned by his own people for doing what needed to be done.

Knight of the Blazing Sun. The closest class WoW has would be a Protection Warrior. I’d like to factor Protection Paladins too, but the Knight is more of a gritty fighter and less a holy defender. He’s far more offensive than the typical WoW tank, even when packing a sword and board, and has defensive auras much like a Prot Pally. Expect to see him on the frontlines knocking down his foes, buffing all his allies and sustaining very respectable sustained damage – it isn’t unusual to see a Knight in the top 5 DPS done at the end of a scenario.

Bright Wizard. This ones easy. Fire Mage, with a hint of Destruction Warlock. Fire is what he does, and he does it well. He doesn’t know how to do anything else. You won’t find bright wizards tossing arcane missiles and blinking all over the place. They are masters of dots, fireballs, sustained ranged damage and massive AoE damage (which is probably more important in WAR than it will ever be in WoW). In a word, pyromaniacs.

Witch Hunter. Rogue with a gun. The stealth classes mirror WoW’s Rogues quite strongly, Witch Elves for example having Frenzy which enables finishers much the same way eviscerates build up combos points used to unleash a devastating final blow. The only slight difference being the way stealth works (it’s not permanent, rather a buff that slowly drains your AP, the equivalent of Energy) and the limited survivability tools that they have (no equivalents to vanish, cloak of shadows, shadowstep or other such imba goodies). Witch Hunters differ from With Elves in that they have some  ranged finishers and damage abilities, but not quite the same level of melee burst. This makes them far more versatile but not quite so specialised.

Warrior Priest. Imagine a holy pally wielding a 2 handed mace and charging into the thick of it. Warrior priests are primarily melee healers, which is probably going to make WoW vets go “Whu? You can’t be a melee healer!”. In WAR you can. You have to be, because they use a seperate, additional form of resource to AP called Righteous Fury for healing, which only fills up by doing damage (or channeling your will to convert AP to RF, but that’s time consuming and suboptimal). You can certainly be a backline healbot if you want to be, but WP’s in the fray of things whacking people while dishing out hots is probably the best way to play the class.

Dwarves. WAR’s dwarves are pretty similiar to WoW’s dwarves. They’re short. They’re alcoholic. WAR’s dwarves are a lot more angry. A better comparison would perhaps be Middle Earth dwarves. They’re focused on arms and armour and technology, not so much magic and mysticism.

Ironbreaker. A Prot/Arms Warrior. Where Ironbreakers differ is their Oath Friend, which allows whatever buff they apply to themselves, to apply to a designated ally within 30 feet as well. They make the best bodyguards in the game. Of all Warhammer’s tanks, probably the most capable at putting out damage – 2 handed IB’s have a wide variety of knockdowns, knockbacks and burst damage available to them while S&B IB’s tend to favour AoE damage and sustained damage while upping survivability. Incredibly tough little buggers too, their only real drawback being that they have no party or warband based buffs/utility, or any ranged options whatsoever beyond a nominal axe toss.

Engineer. I could say that Engineers are like hunters, but I’d be lying. they’re more like Warlocks. Engineers and Magus are actually quite unique. They operate by doing damage at range, in the case of Engineers using their rifle and grenades, and are also capable of placing landmines and turrets, which operate much like a Hunter’s traps, except being more persistent and less once-offish. I would compare them to a Survival Hunter if I absolutely had to – lots of tools, snares, roots, ‘traps’, and powerful ranged pewpew. No pet, though.

Rune Priest. Rune Priest’s are like WoW’s Discipline Priest. Maybe with a hint of Shadow. Their strengths are very strong heals, very strong buffs, and very strong debuffs. They can’t nuke for shit, and I wouldn’t exactly call them the best pure healers in the game since there really is no such thing. But they offer a massive, dizzying array of utility, even being able to grant players additional abilities. Rune Priests are for the strategic healer, where Warrior Priests are for the healer who wants to hit things a lot, and Archmages for the healer that likes to pretend he’s a mage too.

Moving on to High Elves. Pretentious snobs,which is typical of elves in fantasy. The Dark Elves have been giving them a hard time, so they’ve come crawling to the Humans and Dwarves for help, probably much to their own chagrin.

Archmage. The High Elves Healer/Caster hybrid, Archmages empower their healing spells by doing damage, and vice versa. Playing an Archmage effectively means weaving in between offensive spells and healing spells. Their closest WoW mirror would probably be a LolSmite Holy priest. Not a very popular class at the moment, it needs some work but has great potential.

Swordmaster. Like all the Warhammer tanks, the Swordmaster is a good slice of Prot Warrior with a side order of Arms. Swordmasters sacrifice much group utility in the forms of party/warband buffs to focus on AoE damage and tanking exclusively. Whether they succeed at these roles is still up for debate. Regarded as the weakest Order tank, they nonetheless can crunch out some solid AoE damage and are incredibly hard to take down.

Shadow Warrior. Take a WoW Hunter, take away his pet, and make him good at melee, and you’d have a Shadow Warrior. With a stance switch, a Shadow Warrior can shift from a ranged pewpew machine, to a melee powerhouse.  They aren’t too squishy, but do sacrifice some utility to gain melee versatility. Once considered weak, Shadow Warriors, after recent patches, are a force to be reckoned with.

White Lion. Conversely to the Shadow Warrior, imagine you take a Beastmastery specced hunter and took away his bow/gun completely, made him a hell of a lot better at melee, and handed him a 2 handed axe. White Lions are exclusively melee based skirmishers with a pet. If you’ve ever wanted to just wade into a ruckus with your WoW hunter, smashing people with your Legacy and watching your pet tear them to shreds from behind, White Lion is for you.

And now, the star of the show… Destruction!

Destruction is not like the Horde. Not at all. Desctruction would be more like… the Burning Legion. Absolutely, unrepentantly evil, Destruction does not fight for honour or defense, it fights because it can. Either you fight to bring about anarchy and change (Chaos), you fight out of murderous xenophobic hatred of everyone else (Dark Elves), or you fight because it’s just plain ole fun (Greenskins). Whatever the case, you live to fight, kill, maim, slaughter and conquer.

Chaos. Chaos seeks to bring around great change to the world, to alter everything according to their gods’ plans. Chaos in Warhammer Online, specifically, is focused solely on Tzeentch, the god of change, but there are others such as Slaanesh and Khorne which each represent a different facet of anarchy. Chaos is perhaps not inherently evil, in so much as a tornado levelling a trailer park is not evil, rather a force of nature.  In some ways they are the ultimate revolutionaries, hellbent on altering the status quo to unrecognizable levels.

Marauder. We’re starting to explore uncharted waters here. A Marauder is a melee dps in medium armour. He has no stealth, no range, isn’t as tough as a tank. So what’s the point? Marauders can change the shape of their left arm to deal different kinds of attacks, so they’re versatile. They have a variety of crowd control options, very strong single target and pb-aoe dps and loads of utility. You could probably call a Marauder a cross between a Fury Warrior and an Enhancement Shaman. If the combination of brute force and right-tool-for-the-job in a mdps class appeals, you can’t go wrong with a Marauder

Chosen. The Chaos Tank, some would call it the flagship tank in the game, it certainly is the most popular. Chosen look wicked sick. They also shunt out great damage (especially later on), make very respectable tanks and are able to debuff entire groups or warbands of enemies with their auras. If you could take a Death Knight and strap on a shield, you’d  probably have a Chosen. Evil, scary, spiky, ‘ard as nails.

Zealot. The Destruction mirror to the Rune Priest, the Zealot acts like a cross between a Disc Priest and a Shadow Priest, perhaps Affliction Warlock Lite. They are cultists dedicated to Tzeentch and the perversion and corruption of all that is weak and worthless. Survival of the fittest is a core tenet of the Zealot.

Magus. Like the Engineer, the Magus relies on ‘traps’, except this time these traps/turrets manifest as summoned demons, of which the Magus has a wide variety at his disposal. The Magus is more dot oriented, where the Engineer focuses more on direct ranged damage, and for that reason the Magus is a lot more Warlocky(specifically Demo spec), where the Engineer is more Hunter-ey(specifically Marksman).

Dark Elves. Like High Elves, but with more Marilyn Manson and less harps. Dark Elves believe themselves superior to all others, and ally only with Chaos and the greenskins out of momentary common interest.

Blackguard. The Dark Elf tank, they’re very offensive in nature, specifically with an anti-caster slant.  They are the mirror to the Ironbreaker. They are Malekith elite guard and favoured even within the ranks of the Dark Elves. So even amongst their own kind, Blackguards consider themselves superior. I suppose you could see them as some kind of unholy cross between Ret Pallies and Death Knights, although currently a lot less uber. Seen as the weakest Destro tank currently, though that’s not saying much – tanks in general are all brutal.

Witch Elf. This is the closest parrallel to a WoW rogue. Witch Elves are soft, have no ranged attacks except for the obligatory dagger toss, can’t heal, buff, tank or anything like that. Why would you roll one? Two reasons. Their single target burst damage is probably the strongest in the game. And they’re perpetually almost completly naked. Oh ho, <waggle eyebrows>. Witch Elves love nothing more than to slaughter their enemies en masse and bathe in the blood and gore afterwards. Apparently it’s good for their porcelein complexion. I don’t know. All I know, for sure, is that killing squishies really fast is fun. When it works.  They’re like suicide bombers, and usually get thumped by the entire Order backline within seconds. High risk, high reward, they’re also probably the strongest 1v1 class around, if you’re not that big a team player. The class for leet pwnerers.

Disciple of Khaine. Take one Warrior Priest, give it dual wielding swords and apply a lot of black makeup, and you’d have a DoK. In WoW terms, it would be an Enhancement Shaman with a side order of Resto. Currently, alongside WP’s, completely imba.

Sorceror. The direct mirror to the Bright Wizard, mechanics and playstyle are virtually identical. You could say that a Sorceror is the bastard lovechild of a Frost Mage and an Affliction Warlock. Very squishy, very powerful if left alone, you will probably fall in love with Pit of Shades as a Sorceror or grow to despite it implicitly as a Order player.

Greenskins. WAAAAGH. No really. Not much else to say. Orcs like to hit things with sharp things until they die. Goblins like to poke things with pointy sticks until they die. It doesn’t really get any more complicated than that. Greenskins are people who thought Orcs should be a lot more Uruk-Hai and ‘Death To Puny Humies!’,  and a lot less peacepipe-smoking ‘Thrall and Jaina sitting in a tree” ancestral hippie bullcrap.

Black Orc. He’s bigger ‘n you! In Orc ‘culture’, bigger is better, and the Black Orc certainly is very big, and very, very good. Arguably the best tank in the game at strictly tanking, Black Orcs are monstrously hard to kill. Ironbreakers are tough, sure, but Black Orcs are like a slabs of granite with a pointy stick stapled to ‘em. WoW equivalent? Er. Take a Tauren Protection Warrior. Coat him in Adamantium. Then strap a pocket belf holy pally to his back spamming FoL on him whenever he hits something, and you’d have Mr Black Orc. Occasionally you may see one running around with a 2-hander pretending to DPS, but the real deal is the one with the shield standing in the middle of your entire Order warband as if you don’t even exist, you puny insects you. Yes, he can be killed but if he’s getting a steady stream of hots from somewhere it’s far more useful trying to find the healer and take him out first, else your team will be spending the next 5 minutes whacking away at what feels like a petrified redwood tree with your weenie toothpicks. Coupled with solid CC, the Blorc is borderline OP, the only thing keeping this class in check is it’s pretty mundane dps.

Shaman. The greenskin equivalent of the Archmage, Shaman(s?es?eses?) seem to fare a little better. If you could take an Elemental Shaman from WoW, spec it into Resto as well, and make it so that lightning bolts buff your Healing Wave spells, you’d have a gobbo shammy. Goblins ooze charm and their classes are eminently playable, polished and fun, making them a rather popular choice.

Squig Herder. A Squig Herder is about the closest comparison you’ll find to the traditional WoW hunter. Send in pet, pewpew. Once thought to be the weakest ranged class in WAR, quite likely now the strongest, which further strengthens the Hunter stereotype.

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

WAR classes for WoW players

• Empire and Chaos Generals
• Tier 7 Armor Sets – Round 6
• Elf Generals
• SWTOR Launch Preparation
• Choosing my class in SWTOR
• Dwarf and Greenskin Generals
• Relic Raid Tests on Warpstone
• Tobias and Rockgut
• PTS Events
• Bounty Hunter PvP

Forgive the heading, this will not be about the artwork in Warhammer.

Rather, about a year or so ago I acquired two books on military strategy. One was the Art of War, by Sun Tzu, and the second, The Book of Five Rings, by Miyamoto Musashi. I acquired these classic, timeless works on war tactics and strategy for the purpose of assisting me in my role as officer in the WoW guild I was part of at the time.

They didn’t help much within that context. I probably should have rather bought something by Dr. Phil for that job.

However, now that I’m playing a large-scale, PVP focused MMO as opposed to a PVE whinefest, they become far, far more relevant. I’ve begun rereading them a little bit at a time. Hopefully, these snippets of wisdom that I’ll be quoting and analysing here in this column, which I plan to do weekly, will assist all of us in our ORVR ambitions.

I’ll kick off with this, the very first concept that will greet you upon flipping open the Art of War to Chapter 1: Strategic Assessments.

“Military action is important to the nation. It is the ground of death and life, the path of survival and destruction, so it is imperative to examine it.”

Warhammer revolves around conflict, and war. Moreso than any other Western MMO, the warfare that consumes the sides of Order and Destruction impact you, the player, whether you choose to take part in it, or not.

One such way are keeps. They provide resources in the form of Renown trainers and Renown vendors. While both exist within your respective capital city, none exist within your Chapter hubs and warcamps beyond Tier1. So if all you’ve been doing is grinding scenario’s, and destro caps all the keeps in your Tier, and you’d like to upgrade your gear with some easy to acquire Renown gear, or spend those Renown training points, you’re left with flying to the city, running around for a bit trying to find the trainer/vendor, then flying back. This can cut into your XP/Renown grind significantly.

Worse, if the capital city falls, AND your keeps and fortresses have fallen, then you as a character can no longer advance or progress, as you will have no access to those NPC’s whatsoever. All amenities available within the capital, including auctioneers, will also be unavailable.

Another example? If you like Serpent’s Passage as an Order player, and Destruction locks Dragonwake? It is no longer queue-able.

Finally, there’s gear. Gear drops from players and from Keep/Fort/City Lord/PQ bags. While the possibility remains to gear up exclusively via PVE, dungeons in this game are all on 3 day lockout timers, and further to that, the chances of receiving loot is mostly based on chance, whereas engaging in Open RVR grants you both Renown towards some Obliterator/Devastator/Annihilator/Conqueror/and beyond gear, as well as ORVR influence which can be used to purchase some very nicely itemised purples, and fill in the holes adequately. It is crystal clear that embracing ORVR is critical to gearing yourself adequately.

It becomes quite clear that fighting, in Warhammer, is about more than serving solely your own interests. It must be realised that you wage war for your realm, and have to. The consequences for ultimate loss are quite severe, and impact both you and your chosen faction directly. This is no game for pacifists, where loss means a slap on the wrist and business as usual. Removing yourself from the conflict will not guarantee a peaceful existence for you. Eventually, the conflict will come to you if you choose to do nothing. It will find you in your city, and while there may be some safe havens to flee to, you will in essence then be relegated to ekeing out an existence as an exile.

To survive in WAR is to engage in war. Conquering your enemies is the most sincere form of self-defense. Push them to the gates of the Inevitable City, and it guarantees that they won’t be burning down Altdorf, at least not any time soon. Essentially, as Li Quan elaborates and expands on Master Sun Tzu’s words, “Military action is inauspicious. It is only considered important because it is a matter of life and death, and there is the possibility that it may be taken up lightly.”

In 21st century speak? “WAR is very serious business.”

Full post: WarhammerFeeds.com

Art Of War

• City Siege Hot Fix – 02/01
• My 2012 online gaming schedule
• First day of SWTOR and plenty more to go
• SWTOR Temptation
• Upcoming Free Server Transfers
• Stardrive Q&A
• The Lord of the Rings: War in the North impressions and gameplay footage
• PvP Stats: Not Necessary Before, Not Necessary Now
• A Look at WAR
• And We’re Back