On Rally Calls

Patch 1.2 held many bountiful gifts, but the addition of the Rally Call button was a silent beast,. Like everyone else my boyfriend and I rolled a Slayer, and while we were questing, suddenly got issued a rally call. We clicked the blue button, and were transported (without a loading page, if I remember rightly) to the Tier 1 Dwarf warcamp, along with a handful of others, and ran straight into battle.

Awesome. But how it works is still confusing.

Here's what the patch notes say:

"We are introducing the new Rally Call system. At various intervals, players will be called to join the battle in the Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 RvR lakes. A button will appear near the mini-map, enabling willing participants to jump right into the action.

Basically, when a Rally Call is issued, you get an on-screen notification and the blue button lights up. Push the button and you’re automatically teleported to the appropriate warcamp. The idea is that this should provide easier access to RvR for those who want it.

Everyone seems to be under the impression that this was something a warband leader could issue, so the requests for it to go off again kept flying in Warband chat. The reality SEEMS to be that when activity in the ORVR lakes hits a certain point, the game issues it independently. And it's not available in Tier 4. Why isn't there a rally call option for Tier 4, where it's just as useful? Tier 4 is huge in terms of levelling, and lower levels are still in the PvE areas.

One of the major flaws that Mythic keep repeating is that they give us great features... but we don't know how to use them! Thankfully, as soon as we tell them, they nearly always respond quickly. So I'm expecting this to be addressed on The Herald soon enough.

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A quick side note: another thing I would like to see is a more efficient warning before subscriptions run out. This might be more critical of the EA-Mythic side of the game, but I don't like suddenly being informed that my subscription has ended. And even worse, getting an email a day or two after I've renewed telling me that my subscription is close to ending blah blah blah.

But I did resubscribe!

The Blighted Isle

What Now?

I seem to hit a wall in every game without fail. Back in the day (um, 1997-8), I resorted to ringing the Nintendo hotline because I couldn't work out how to get past the second dungeon in Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (to date, one of the only decent game I've ever completed). I like Warhammer and I've just renewed my subs, so I'm not going to up and quit, but I need to find a solution to the corner I'm stuck in.

Basically:

• Kipling (nearly level 37) seems to be surrounded by quests that are too hard - too many sensitive mobs that respawn too quickly. ORVR is a killer because I'm running on ghetto specs, so until I get my new desktop (post-emigration, but very soon!) I can't join in there. I did complete some quests in the Dwarfland, but I'm reluctant to zone jump too much, in case it makes questing on my alts boring. I could happily ding via grinding Serpent's Passage, it's a brilliant scenario, but it doesn't pop enough to keep me busy.
  

• Icepick does not like RVR. No one seems to heal her, so it's an exercise in frustration. I'm one of those crazy people that likes to run facefirst into a group of the opposing team (quote from /sc "WTF is that chick DOING?"), but it's a shortlived joy if the healing is nonexistent*. Questing is more than easy, especially when Knights can easily solo champions. But when your renown is affected by your level, it makes more sense to keep them as even as possible. And all the fun ORVR is still in Tier 3.
  

• Petroleum wants scenarios. Scenarios refuse to pop. Pop scenarios, pop! Aside from that, I'm loving Archmages. I especially love that one move that's a *zzzzzapp!* lightning bolt from the sky. I'm aiming to play her all the way to Tier 4, so hopefully the scenario popping won't be a massive inconvenience and I can keep moving forward in a fluid motion.
  

So in short, Tier 4 has questing problems, and Tier 1/2 has scenario popping problems. I'm not sure much can be done about the scenarios... maybe try and boost server population? But they could definitely improve the ease of Elfland quests - after Saphery, there just don't seem to be a good distribution of achievable quests. Kadrin Valley onwards has a far superior layout.

*Healing in Tier 4 is amazing. I love you guys.

(Dark) Elf Land

Scenarios refused to pop this afternoon, so I weasled Petroleum, my new Archmage, into the Dark Elf side of the Blighted Isle and had a poke around. I managed to get all the way to their starting ground without being shot in the face. Not really sure that's a good thing... but whatever!