Month: September 2008

Finding myself awake early, I decided to log in and finish a few quests. I was reminded that, while Warhammer may have been the most ready-for-release MMO I know of, it is still not possible to play for five minutes without hitting a bug. In about an hour:

• Attack animations do not always play. This consistently happens with my Engineer’s Hip Shot
• Monster movement animations do not always play. One of every two or three monsters will take two steps, appear to pause for a couple seconds, then teleport next to me.
• Morale abilities show themselves as ready when they are still on cooldown.
• Tome tactics have been disabled. Nothing in game mentions that, but Google knows all. This counts as not being able to go one second without seeing a bug, because the spot where you would put a tome tactic is still there, empty.
• Pet controls disappear on zoning. The pet still follows. Hope you are not exiting a scenario with it set to aggressive. The “dismiss pet” button is part of those controls. (Tip: you can right-click the “pet buff” icon under your name or summon a new one and dismiss it.)
• My career trainer keeps offering to re-sell me Steam Vent, even though I got it several levels ago. Since I already have it, there is no price and he will not sell it to me. It just sits there at the top of the training window.
• The mount icon grabs a meaningless “will expire in” time from who knows where (another constant bug reminder).
• Random “interrupt” messages after completing abilities, especially my Flak Jacket or using my mount.
• The Tome of Knowledge lists the wrong trophy reward for the “scavenge 1000 corpses” unlock. You can still get the right item from a librarian, but you must guess it on your own.
• When you get that trophy, it will not display because it says another trophy is already there, even if you have no other trophies equipped.
• The quartermaster in Sigmar’s Hammer says it is locked. I can still buy Apothecary ingredients from it. I cannot use them, so maybe those are locked.

Not today, but these reminded me:

• Pets in defensive mode will sometimes attack your target even if you do not. Sometimes this is just the annoyance of having the pet pull while I am casting, so I do not get to use all my ranged abilities, but other times it will just shoot something.
• Flying messes up scenario queues. If you arrive to an invitation, it will not work.
• Has this one been fixed yet? If a scenario ends while I am casting something, I have gotten continuous “interrupt” spam after zoning until I cast something else.

There are probably more, but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

: Zubon

Previously

The class is coming into itself a bit more, with a shift towards AE DoTs. It does two things very well: single target burst damage and AE damage-over-time. Survivability is still low, but it is adequate for PvE and improving in PvP as I learn how to play better.

By level 20, the turrets have a permanent improvement, doing what they do a bit better. I have fallen into what seems like the proper use: the gun turret is the generic, single-target damage, what you use in solo PvE; the flamethrower is for close PvP fights and AE PvE, as in public quests; the bombardment tower is used less, for ranged PvP where clumps of enemies are more likely that solo targets. I think I will use that last one more when I start doing more open-field RvR.

I got most of my levels from tier 2 scenarios, which you can reasonably start doing around level 16. People start at 10, but they are mostly wastes of space that help their teams lose. The Order/Chaos scenario uses single-target ranged damage well, along with the flamethrower at the flag. The Dwarf/Greenskin scenario is great for AE, since people clump around corners or near spawn points. The Engineer is the default defense class for protecting your flag in the Elf scenario.

Continue reading Engineer at Level 20

I like him. This is what the creep Defiler aspires to be.

The slower pace of Warhammer fights makes the healer role more manageable. Unless a squishy aggroes a keep lord, no one drops in three hits. Contrast this with City of Heroes, where I often need to start the heal animation before damage arrived. Nothing will save a non-tank with six enemies on him, but healing is not massive bursts of green against massive bursts of red.

Continue reading Shaman at Level 10

I am not sure when we added them to the blogroll, because I paid Warhammer almost no attention until this month, but The Book of Grudges is full of interesting Warhammer content. If you want to see the difference between what we do here and an actual fan site for a game, definitely check them out.

My special love goes out to their comments on healing. On Monday, I will discuss how much I have enjoyed Warhammer’s alterations to the healer role, but scenarios have brought me the most mouthy, demanding, ignorant people I have found anywhere with respect to healing. You were hiding them all in WoW, weren’t you?

: Zubon

Why should the pointy-eared ones get all the fun?

: Zubon

As I write this, Mythic has a “Banhammer” image saying, “4051 banned for selling gold.” If that is accounts, that is $202,550 in Warhammer boxes. I know that retailers, publishers, etc. see a lot of that money, but it should be enough to pay for whoever is tracking down and banning spammers.

Frankly, I am not worried about people buying or selling gold, or the fine services offering level 40 in 8 days for $240. Just stop sending me poorly spelled tells about it. Seriously, you are pasting text; someone needs to write coherent English ONCE.

: Zubon

Edit: also, what are you spending this gold on? The only time I did not have enough money for something is when I bought new skills and renown gear all at once on a low-level character, before remembering to sell my vendor trash. I bought my mount at 16 and had cash to spare. Can there be that much on the auction house?