Thursday, August 18, 2011

Keep Defense Details

Amid all of the Wrath of Heroes commotion, WAR Developer Keaven Freeman posted details about how they plan on improving Keep Defenses.  In WAR's current state, there is a lot of apathy when it comes to defending keeps.  Will these new changes help fix that?

A Successful Defense is triggered when the Defenders destroy the attacking ram. When the ram goes down, the keep siege briefly shifts to a Successful Defense state to acknowledge the event. Defenders in the keep area are awarded the Heroic Defender buff, granting them the power to push back the attacking force. Once the brief Successful Defense stage is over, the Keep Siege goes back to the state it was in previously.

Check out the full post here.

That is the core of the changes.  When defenders kill a ram, they get a temporary buff which increases their Morale generation, crits, movement speed increase, AP increase and reduced chance to be crit.  The idea being that it will give the defenders the powers to turn back the opposing force.

Along with this, defenders will now be able to repair and replace fallen doors (Outer Only).  A Keep Foreman will sell wood and the new door for Ordinance (yay!) and Medallions (eh).  He is not invincible, so careers which can pick locks can take him out denying his services to the defenders.

I think it is an idea with potential.  Mythic wants to get away with throwing renown at people just for being in the area.  All that seems to lead to is AFK abuse.  Now, players will gain some power and will be able to go out and get the reward for themselves.

I was also happy to see the Keep Foreman added.  I hope this puts WAR back on the road for more keep options and customization.  Just think about what else he could sell, lots of potential.  I'll be happy to get rid of the hundreds of Ordinance I lug around with me.