Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Ironclad Improvements

WAR's first Weekend Warfront has come and gone.  Overall, it was an enjoyable experience.  One of the nice things about scenarios, like The Ironclad, only making an appearance every so often is that it can be improved more easily.  While fun, I think there are some things that can be done to make The Ironclad even better.

Bugs.  The scenario itself was a bit buggy, at least for my Engineer.  On the Central Gangway, there were numerous spots where my turrets and land mines would end up falling through the floor.  At least that's my guess, they just disappeared.  I disappeared through the floor on one occasion too.  Maybe the Ironclad was in the Bermuda Triangle?

Spawns.  While it was fun (for me) knocking Destruction back into the water as they left their spawn,  it probably wasn't very fair.  It brought back some fond Tor Anroc memories :)

Guards.  This seems to be a 1.3.4 issue rather than just The Ironclad.  If you aggro the spawn guards, be prepared for them to rampage through the scenario killing everyone in their path.  The lesson, be very careful if you camp a spawn.  Or it could just be a bug.

Healing.  I played this scenario a bit on my Rune Priest.  It was extremely boring.  Here is how nearly every scenario went:  Pick a spot, spam group heal skill.  Due to the corridors, it was the only way to be protected from melee.  It was also the most effective way to heal as group heals do not respect line of sight.

There really doesn't seem to be much Mythic can do about it though.  Maybe a debuff which reduces the range of group heals?  The downside would be it favors melee even more.

Ranged.  This isn't really a bug, but more of an observation.  Most of this scenario is not friendly to ranged classes who don't have overpowered pbaoe's.  That's all well and good as it is a temporary scenario.  I would love to see a scenario in the future which favors ranged, to balance things out.

Tasks.   Most of the tasks for the Scurvy Dogs live event were fine. I do think that completing 25 scenarios was a bit on the high side.  Let's say each scenario averages 10 minutes, that's over 4 hours just in the scenario.  It used up nearly all of my weekend game time.  In my opinion, 15 would be a better amount to require.

Hopefully the scenario will be even more solid the next time it rolls around.  It was fun to do for a weekend and I am already looking forward to the next Warfront.