Sigmar Crypts (Second Time)

This evening a hotch potch of guildies (that's my guild leader in the foreground) and Master Caledorian Army ran the Sigmar Crypts (located beneath the Temple of Sigmar in Altdorf). This was my second trip and the first for the off tank, and went pretty smoothly. As a WoW veteran, I do wonder if it's hard to fail at Crypts - it's ease of play is way beyond anything Blizzard ever put forth. But as a WoW veteran, maybe I'm just an old hand at instances now and should shut the hell up because at least it's quick and accessible to all.

For the record: the group balance was two healers (Archmage and Warrior Priest), two tanks (Ironbreaker and Swordmaster) and two DPS (Archmage and Shadow Warrior).

We managed to get to the Twins before we wiped, but the wipe was pretty amusing anyway. The Swordmaster tripped over her own ankles and went down in the corner (not her fault, we weren't managing the dps properly), then a healer died, and then the Archmage DPS. Which left Kipling, the WP and the IB valiantly fighting on to our deaths. We knew we'd die, we just didn't expect to last until the Twins were down to 30% health (down from about 60%? I could be wrong here). Which apparently made for an entertaining/impressive spectacle for our dead comrades? I was too busy pewpewing! A much preferable wipe than aggro fail anyway.

We got through to the end in about an hour and a half, and a good time was had by all. Gear-wise, I picked up my first piece of Sentinel gear last time (chest piece) so I was lucky to get the wrists tonight. As a whole, Sigmar Crypts drops the belt, chest, arms and shoulders. So hopefully this run of luck will continue the next time I visit.

Thoughts on Patch 1.3 (Public Test version)

Take a gander! Here are my thoughts:

• The first thing I go to are the updates for Shadow Warriors, because obviously, after all this time, over 6 months of playing one, they have to give us a boost right? Oh. A UI update and an AoE nerf. Maybe next time? I doubt it. It's a good thing I have a great group of people to roll around RVR with, because without them, I would have ditched Kipling a long time ago. I can't solo on my Scout mastery because there's no good way to clear distance or gain any height. I'm tired of the disappointment every.single.patch day.
  

• Flag/bomb carriers and escorts in the immediate area (300-unit radius) will now receive 50 RP for capturing flags and setting bombs. Woohoo! Finally an incentive for hitting up the flag in scenarios and supporting the runner. That's a nice chunk of renown without it turning into a fight to get the flag before anyone else.

• [In Serpent's Passage] Added area-of-effect siege weapons to the bow of each ship to discourage spawn camping. Aww, but regardless of whether you're being camped or camping the other side, it's fun for everyone! Boo. I guess that's not how they intended the scenario to be played out though.

• [In Phoenix Gate] If both flags are held for over a minute, players can drop the flag off at the central bridge for 25 points, resetting both flags with no Renown rewarded. Now that's going to be interesting.
  

• Woah! Some nice changes to Black Fire Basin: This Scenario now functions as a shared capture-the-flag Scenario. A single flag will spawn in the middle of the Ice Lake, and this flag must be brought back to a capture location to earn Scenario points. There is one such capture point for each realm, located next to the realm's spawn point. Captured flags will decorate the wall at the spawn area. When a flag is held, the capture locations will be highlighted by a glowing effect. The Order capture location has been replaced with a large Dwarf anvil. The guards have been rearranged to prevent the opposing realm from griefing the spawn locations. This was the most neglected scenario since the beginning - it was turtle or lose. The landscape for this one is particularly interesting, and it finally won't be going to waste.
  

• Medallions will now be available to players in Scenarios, should the corresponding zone be captured by their realm while they are inside. Another good change, everyone should be able to play scenarios as a contribution to zone domination without fear that they'll miss the lockout they've played to achieve.

• Large-scale Keep fights will now have the possibility of awarding additional gold bags for attackers or medallions for defenders. More rewards ftw!

• Guilds can now purchase the Deadbolt upgrade for their Keeps. This upgrade locks the inner door of a claimed Keep, making it so enemies cannot use Pick Lock or Bypass Defenses to gain entry into the inner Keep. When the Deadbolt upgrade has been purchased, the postern door will be named "Dead-locked Postern Door." Well, that's halfway to stopping players from ninja-ing keeps. Do I want to talk about how certain Order players on Monolith have been ripping the rest of us off? Kind of, but I won't. I do want to see the inner doors barred from entry by opposing players on a permanent level though.

• Players now have the option to opt-out of the loot roll at any Public Quest. Opting-out will not affect your contribution, but will bypass your character when rolling for loot, allowing others to get a chance at the loot. Awesome! Now Kipling has all the Annhilator gear but keeps getting Gold bags, I will be opting out as soon as this is implemented.
  

• The action bar is now more customisable, hooray hooray! Characters will now be able to have up to five action bars on the screen. and The orientation of each of the action bars can now be set individually to vertical or horizontal. are brilliant, excellent, and long overdue.

• There is now an Auto Roll tab on the Open Parties and Warbands window that will allow players to set their preferences on loot. The system will automatically roll for items based on your settings and items done in that fashion will not even appear in the loot roll window, making loot rolling much easier Too complicated to really copy and paste without it being a huge lump of text, so I'd advise clicking through, but this is going to save a lot of pop ups on my screen while I'm fighting. Should be good.

• Players who have won loot from a Public Quest, but were unable to claim it for one reason or another, will now have that loot mailed to them 24 hours later. ! and that includes Keeps right? :D :D :D :D :D That is AWESOME!

There's obviously a lot more than this, especially in regards to character changes. Hopefully all the ones I like will get implemented in the final patch, and some miracle will befell Shadow Warriors to give us a damn break.

What's this? Nordenwatch Weekend?

"Along the rain-scoured coast of Nordland, spring is not a blessing. For while the end of winter signals a return of the growing season, it also heralds the thawing of the Sea of Claws. Now all eyes turn to the white foamed waves, searching for the first sign of invaders. It doesn't take long.

A sharp shout goes up from the watchtower moments before a harsh bell begins to toll. Norse sails have been spotted on the horizon. War is coming, and the only hope that the people of Nordland have is that their defenders are well prepared."

Great writers. And a whole weekend of Nordenwatch for all tiers? :D A title at the end if you complete quests? Isn't that a mini-live event? Isn't that AWESOMENESS IN A BUCKET? Why yes. Yes it is.

Now all you guys need to do is create something like this for PQs and PvE. It will round out the game a lot.

Big Orc Face

Beyond the Sands

As you can see from the picture above, today I got the Aviator Goggles from the current Live Event. What's made this particular event interesting is that despite it being a list of quest chains and kill/object counts, there's been a fair bit of organic RVR in the midst of it all. Destruction took to camping/swarming the event area, and Order didn't back down, resulting in pretty realistic clashes, wipes and comeback surges.

Not to mention the fact that there are epic rewards for the three quest chains. I can't link it, as it doesn't seem to be mentioned on any of the Warhammer Wiki's, but look out for the quest reward called the Bone Ward... it's fairly useful and interesting. Not to mention a Pocket item!

Serpent's Passage #4

It's that time again.


Hugely successful, mostly thanks to the help of my almighty guild leader Aedenwe, who herded and bashed healers down so that I could pick them off. Pick pick pick, I love Fell the Weak.

Grab Bag of Playing

I'm keeping my Archmage on ice until the next patch so that I can try the Tier 3 Gates of Ekrund. I'm not in the mood to play another character, and Tier 4 is a back and forth keep game, so nothing huge to report. So how about some random screenshots from the ol'screenshot folder? Yeah? Yeah!

This made me laugh entirely too much:


Ooh, pretty trees in Empire Tier 3:


Killed this guy on the way up to an Avelorn warcamp, finally got the unlock for the Moldy Coin Purse. No wonder nearly everyone has this pocket item, yet I've never seen it (it's a high traffic area):


Last but not least, the view from a Keep, as Monolith's Order pushes back Destruction: