A Trip to Mythic - Part 1

Several weeks ago myself, Mykiel and Gaarawarr were invited down to Mythic for a day at the studio.  At the time, we had no idea why we were being invited down.  Of course our minds filled with many possibilities.  Was WAR going F2P?  Was WoH coming out of beta?  And many more.  Sadly, these turned out not to be true.

The day started out with the news that Wrath of Heroes would be shutting down.  I was pretty surprised at the news, as I did not expect to get bad news during a trip to visit the studio.  I have to give them props and respect for breaking the news face to face though.  It could not have been an easy thing to do.

We then discussed some of what they were going to do with WoH from now until closing.  Most of it revolved around releasing new heroes at a frantic pace.  It seems they have a lot of them waiting in the wings and want players to get a chance to play them.  They will also reduce the gold cost of them, so they can actually be bought in time.  They have some really neat Heroes coming up!

They also talked a bit about providing some sort of incentive to play other games, like WAR.  we found out yesterday that WoH players will get a nice package to jump start their WAR experience.  I know I'm looking forward to jumping one of my low level alts to level 30 :)

As for WoH, I was certainly sad to hear the news about its closing.  I only played it casually though, as WAR was still my game of choice.  Mythic made an original game concept, which was a risk.  Sometimes it does not work out so I cannot fault them for trying.  People may wonder what might have been if these resources were spent on WAR instead.  There is no guarantee that the resources would have been used elsewhere at all though.

Speaking of WAR, we'll talk about that in Part 2.  I will say it's nothing too crazy, so don't let your mins wander that much :)

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Wrath of Heroes is Shutting Down

Today, Mythic announced that they will be shutting down Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes. The end will come on March 29th.  It's not entirely unexpected news, as WoH never really gained the polularity it needed.  I applaud Mythic for trying to make a new game, which was unlike anything else out there.  While it was not always my game of choice, I did have fun playing it from time to time.

There is some good news, players will get a Wrath Chest code which will grant them Warhammer Online (WAR) items, which includes a month of free game time and a level 30 character along with a bunch of other stuff.

I'll have more to say about WoH later this week.

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WoH Guide Making Giveaway

It's time for another contest here on Werit's Blog!.  This one is all about making guides for Wrath of Heroes.  We have some great prizes to giveaway too, including a legendary hero who is no longer available. The guide can be about any aspect of Wrath of Heroes.  Everyone who participates will receive a nice prize too.

NOTE:  I'm all out of Gold Boosts, so I closed the Mission.  Thanks to everyone who participated, a ton of guides were made :)

Get started now using the BLUE Sites with Benefits tab on the right side of the screen.  Sign-In and start doing missions :)

Rewards:

Malus Darkblade.  This legendary hero is no longer available in the game, so now is your chance to win him.  He will be given away by lottery, and submitting guides is the best way to earn points to get your tickets.

7-Day Gold Boosts.  Everyone who submits a guide, which is accepted, will get a Gold Boost.  Once approved, you can find the code at http://www.siteswithbenefits.com on the Reader tab, under Rewards Earned.  The guide should be of decent quality, as judged by me.

7-Day XP Boosts.  You can also spend your points on 7-Day XP Boosts.  These are great if can't write a guide, but still want to participate.  Completing the Sharing mission is a great way to earn points for this reward.

Rules:

1)  Guides should be posted on http://6v6v6.com/

2)  Guides must include 'Sites with Benefits' somewhere in the post, so I know that it is yours.

3)  You may submit multiple guides.

4)  Only 1 previously made guide can be submitted.

The contest will end January 31st at 11am EST and the Malus winner will be selected.

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Video of the Day

It's Friday!  That means I am going to take the easy way out and post a video I found on youtube.  This one is of a Wrath of Heroes match involving two teams of the CuLt group squaring off in the Pyramid of Settra.  It has interesting music and has been sped up a bit.

Have a good weekend!

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Garden of Morr

A couple weeks ago, the Durrig's Secret Stash giveaway was held for Wrath of Heroes.  One of the missions for it was to create a video.  When the giveaway finished up, we had 16 new Wrath of Heroes videos!  Thanks to everyone who submitted one.

Here are the video submissions having to do with WoH's newest map, the Garden of Morr.

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The Morr the Merrier

Wrath of Heroes is launching a new patch today, which contains a number of new features.  This includes a new map:  the Garden of Morr.  When I was down at the Mythic HQ recently, I was able to check it out.  I liked what I saw, and am looking forward to playing it today.

Garden of Morr.  This is a cross between the Arena and WAR's Mourkain Temple.  You gain points by killing your enemies, but there is a bobble you can get which grants more points.  It is no ordinary bobble, as it transforms the player into a Skeletal Standard-Bearer who has its own set of abilities.

Practice Mode.  Now you can mess around with heroes and your builds without playing a real match.  Sounds like a neat addition.

Rydion.  Oh yeah, they are also adding a new hero in this patch, Rydion the Archmage.   Another dress wearing Elf, bah!  Need more Dwarves.

Perk Balancing.  The WoH team went through a lot of the perks and made them a bit more balanced.  Some, like Power Unbound, are a bit less potent.  Others, like Lil' Helper, have had their requirements decreased.  This is a pretty important change, as Perks have been controversial.

Check out the full notes:  http://wrathofheroes.warhammeronline.com/news/193

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Durrig's Secret Stash Update

Today marks the midway point of Durrig's Secret Stash Giveaway, with the Ornate Chest lottery occurring on Monday, October 22nd.  So far everything has been working well, with a minor bug here and there.  But there are changes for this last week.

New Missions.  Several new mission have been added, and other missions removed.  That means new opportunities to gain points!

Comment Mission.  This has been changed to a one-time mission instead of a daily.  As a result, it is worth a bit more points.

Video Sharing Mission. This is still a Daily, but you can now only share a video once for each sharing type.  We had a couple of submissions, so go share them! :)

Unlocks.  Sites with Benefits now has the capability to unlock new missions by completing a mission.  We'll be testing that this week.

You can find the widget on the left side of the webpage, please let me know if you have any issues.  Thanks!

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Durrig's Secret Stash Giveaway

Looking for the contest?  Check out this page and sign in with the Sites with Benefits widget on the left to get started!

It's time for another giveaway!  Project Murdock, the system I made to give stuff away, has leveled up and received a new name:  Sites with Benefits.  Along with the new name, I've added a bunch of new features, but more on that later.  You can find all the contest details here.  This time I am giving away:

Ornate Chest.  Probably the most prized item in Wrath of Heroes as it contains an Elite Tactic.  I have one code to giveaway, so we will be doing it lottery style.  Buy as many tickets as you want.  A winner will be drawn on October 22nd.

XP Boosts.  I have more 7-Day 100% XP Boosts to give away from Wrath of Heroes too.  These just cost points, so get yours while supplies last!


What's New?

New Widget.  On your left, you should see the new Sites with Benefits widget.  It's not great yet, but I think it is an improvement from the first version.

Themed.  As you can see with the name and the campaign page, I am trying to make the contests less dry and more themed to what I am giving away.

Create a Video.  This is a new Mission which I spent a good chunk of the weekend working on.  The goal here is two fold. First, encourage players to create videos of the game and submit the URL for big points.  Secondly, a Share Videos mission is also automatically created which will feature submitted videos and sharing links.  Users can then earn points by sharing videos made for the contest.

I wanted to try something to better promote the game I am featuring, so this is one attempt at doing that.  Making a video is not a trivial task, so we'll see if it works.

Facebook.  I have integrated Facebook with Sites with Benefits.  You can now login using FB, or do missions involving FB.

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Home again and a trip to Mythic HQ

You may have noticed it has been quiet around the blog this week.  I had to go out of town for work and did not have any time to schedule posts for the week.  On a positive note, my travels took me very close to the BioWare Mythic HQ and they were nice enough to let me stop by.

I only had a short time to spend with them, as work wanted me to work for some strange reason.  It was great to see the team and have lunch, and yes, there is still a bunch of people at Mythic.  So, what to talk about....

WAR.  I did find out that 1.4.7 will be out [REDACTED].  I also inquired into that 'live event' feature that was mentioned recently.  It looks pretty cool, [REDACTED] will be [REDACTED] in the [REDACTED] at times.  We also talked a little about 1.4.8.  I am VERY excited for this patch for one simple reason: [REDACTED].

WoH.  We did talk about Wrath of Heroes a bit too.  They have a really nice new [REDACTED] coming out soon which I am pretty excited about.  I also got to see a sneak peak of [REDACTED] which is a very cool [REDACTED].  We won't have to wait too long to see what those are either.

I apologize for having to hold out on you guys, but that is the way it works.  Thanks again to the Mythic team for letting me stop by, it was a great break from work!

So what else is going on.... oh yeah, the Civilization 5 Giveaway.  It may be an older game, but they have a brand new expansion pack out: Gods and Kings.  It's a lot of fun, so if you don't have Civ 5, now is your chance to get it for free!  The lottery ends Saturday.

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Test Results

Last week, I introduced Project Murdock with a code giveaway.  Basically, PM is a reader engagement system which allows you to reward your readers.  It does this through Missions, which are things like visiting a link and leaving a comment.  All of these are tracked and your readers are given points which they can redeem for good stuff.

What went well

1)  It worked!  I received very little in the way of reported problems.  Readers were able to cplete their missions, redeem the points and obtain a code.  On the backend, things went very smoothly too, so I am quite happy.

2)  It drove traffic.  One of my main goals for PM is to be able to better drive visitors to other places in the community.  In this case I picked Tarelther's videos and 6v6v6.com.  I hope I gave them some increased exposure, although 6v6v6.com probably gave me more than I gave it :)

What didn't go so well

1)  The first batch of codes had expired.  This is totally my fault as I had them for a while and never considered that they would expire.  Thankfully, the Mythic team was quick to bail me out and provided a batch a new and better codes.

2) The missions were limited.  There were only a few missions available, and only a single reward.  In the future I'd like to offer more mission and reward choices.  For the test though, it was fine since it confirmed the pieces of the system worked.

3)  The widget is just plain ugly.  It needs to be brought into the 21st century pronto.  I've already started work on that and you should see the results soon.

What's Next?

I'm currently preparing for the next test.  It will feature more missions (Twitter), more reward choices and a better widget.  Beyond that, I have a 3rd test being planned which will have some really cool rewards and also open the system up for people to use on their sites.

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who helped test the system.  Thanks also go out to BioWare Mythic for the codes and the Facebook post!

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Alchemy

One of the things that has always bothered me about Wrath of Heroes was their Elite Tactic system.  These powerful options were only available from an expensive Ornate Chest.  You were sure to receive an Elite Tactic, but it was random.  These are necessary to compete at the high end of WoH, so the random aspect never sat well with me.

Turns out that Mythic has been listening and is introducing the Alchemy system next week.  It basically lets you do something with all those duplicate normal tactics you might have and even extra elite tactics.  The important part is, you can create an Elite Tactic by combining five of the same normal tactic.  It will still cost you 40,000 gold but you get the tactic you want.

One way to get those normal tactics is to purchase heroes and unlock them with Mastery Points.  Those points are gained with levels, making XP important.  I'm currently giving away 7-Day 100% XP boosts, so stop on by :)

Is it the perfect solution?  I'm not sure.  I had always thought selling Elite Tactics individually in the store would have been easier and made Mythic some money.  That might walk the Pay 2 Win line though, so maybe Alchemy is a better way to go about it.

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XP Boost Giveaway

UPDATE:  Codes are all gone, thanks for the help testing!  I have more codes to give, so look for another test soon :)

It's time for another Wrath of Heroes XP Boost Giveaway!  This time is special though.  To give out the codes I am using a new project of mine, temporarily named Project Murdock.  It's a web system that rewards you, the readers, with points for doing some basic stuff like visiting the page or leaving a comment.

To obtain a WoH code, you need to earn 45 points.  There are 4 missions you can do to gain those points.  You can click on Missions link (bottom of post) to see what's available, and find links mentioned below.

Sign In.  Using the widget below, sign in and get a cool 20 points.  You can use exisiting logins ( Google, Twitter and more), so no need to create a new account.

Daily Visit.  You'll also receive 5 points just for stopping by.

Visit Tarelther.  Tarelther has a whole bunch of Wrath of Heroes videos, so visiting his site will get you 10 points.

Leave Feedback.  I'd like to know what you think about the project (other than the looks, I know it is ugly :)    If you leave a comment, you'll get another 10 points.  You can even do it as a Guest.

Now that you have 45 points, click on the Rewards link and you should be able to Redeem those points for a Wrath of Heroes XP Boost code (1 per person).

You can also visit http://projectmurdockhm.appspot.com/  to see a log of points you've received and any rewards you have obtained.  Please let me know of any issues.  Thanks!  P.S.  This is a project I am planning on opening up to other people to use :)

NOTE:  The codes being given out have expired :(  Do redeem them still though. I will have new ones tomorrow, so just e-mail me the code you get (address is on the right side) and I'll return you a working one.  Sorry for the trouble, didn't realize that they could expire.

NOTE #2.  The new codes have come in!   They are actually 7-day 100% XP codes and are in the system.  If you redeem your points now, you should get one.  If you got an old expired code from before, send me an e-mail with it and I'll give you a new one.

NOTE #3.  New mission added!  More rewards to come :)

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Durrig First Impressions

Yesterday, Wrath of Heroes re-introduced Durring the Engineer to the game.  I, of course, had to own him to quickly bought up some gems and made the purchase.  Thankfully, Mythic just upped the amount of gems you get for the same amount of money too.  I can't resist me some Engineer gameplay.

Durrig is sort of like Felicia, AoE focused.  There are some differences though.  Durrig deals Physical damage and has turret.  You can check out his full list of abilities here.  In the end though, he is a ranged DPS class and I do tend to favor them.

What I liked.

Dwarf.  He's a Dwarf who carries a gun.

Turret.  You have 2 turret options with the Mastery tree, Bombardment and Steam.  Unlike WAR, these are instant cast and can be cast on the move, which is sweet.  The Steam turret is good for when you are up close and personal, the bombardment tutrret is good for when you want to hang back.

Stopping Power.  This tactic adds a snare to your Gun Blast.  Very nice to keep people from running away, or to just be annoying.

AoE.  He can do quite a bit of area of affect damage, and his steam turret can also apply an AoE snare.

What I didn't like.

Low Damage.  Just like WAR, the Engineer has trouble with burst damage.  The abundance of tanks currently being played does not help this problem, it is demoralizing to see your AoE hitting for 7 damage.  There are times when you can get some good damage due to the passive.  Tracer Rounds (98 damage), at close range gets doubled.

Stopping Power.  I like it sometimes, but I ended up unslotting it.  There are just too many ways for melee classes to run faster that the snare felt negligible.

Squishy.  The Engineer is a bit squishy, especially when running in to drop off a Steam Turret.

Tactics

There are some tactics that can help Durrig out.

Carnage.  We can cause a lot of damage, even if its small.... so Durrig works well with procs.  Once these start hitting, your damage goes way up.

Eternal Knowledge.  20% lower cooldowns is great for everyone.

Bloodthirst.  This is another proc based tactic, but instead heals you.  It is only an 8% chance, so it felt like it rarely occurred.

Absorb Vitality.  This perk is usuable at 8,000 damage, which Durrig can get without too much of a problem.  It'll do more AoE damage and heal you.  I actually don;t have access to thhis one yet.

Adaptation.  This tactic provides some crit immunity.  Always good if you want to survive a bit longer.   I have this on Ilanya, may need to move it over to Durrig.

Overall

I found him fun to play, and plan on making him my main (as if there was any doubt).  In almost all of my matches I was able to top the damage charts, as much as that matters.  I will likely buy his second skin so I can get access to another loadout.  Switching between Steam and Bombardment turrets depending on the map will be important.

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Wrath of Heroes Tracker

Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes has joined the Dev Spy family.  Compared to other games, I offer a bit more limited information.  There are no official forums, which makes it tough to get Developer posts.  6v6v6.com is the next best thing, but spammers have ruined that avenue.

What it does offer is:  main site news, Twitter, Facebook and Live Streams (including yours truly). Right now, there is a bit of a problem with some of the Facebook entries.  I strip all HTML out, as I don't want to pass anything nasty on to you fine folks, and sometimes their title is a link.  That makes for an empty title, I'm working on a fix.

Head on over to http://devspy.weritsblog.com/  and check it out under the WoH tab.  If you have previously saved settings, you'll have to enable the game in the Customize menu.

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WoH Gets a New Ranking System

Today's Wrath of Heroes patch (0.24) is pretty beefy, so there is a lot to go over.  The most interesting change, at least to me, is the inclusion of a brand new ranking system.  the previous system was more of a High Score board and rewarded time rather than skill winning.  Does the new system fix that problem?

New Ranking System.  In the new system, everyone starts with a score of 1,000.  Your score will go higher or lower depending on whether you win or lose.  Sounds a lot more like an ELO type system than a High Score!  This should make rankings much more interesting, and I'm looking forward to trying it out.

It's probably not perfect yet.  There should be a solo queue ranking to separate premades and the rest.  Otherwise, premades will dominate the rankings.  It'll be interesting to see how their system works as 2 out of 3 teams will lose every match.  Does 2nd place lose less points than 3rd?

Ornaments.  These are another big addition to WoH.  If you played WAR, they are kind of like Trophies.  Except this time they affect your heroes weapons.  Unlocking hero skins and trophies will grant you new ornaments which can be used to customize your character further.

Some other interesting changes:

The third scenario reward spinner no longer requires the player to join a warband. Instead, this spinner now requires a personal Score of 20 or above.

Gaarawarr will love this one.  I do too, no longer do us solo players miss out on a wheel opportunity.  

Elite Tactics will now be highlighted by a Gold border to make them easier to spot and slot.

Good change, but I'm still hoping to see the way these tactics are changed overhauled.  Make them purchasable individually!  

Albodi the Chosen has been added to the Store. See the Hero Lineup section for more information.

Rivs should like this guy.  You can check out his abilities here.  

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ELO is a fickle mistress

So I had gotten myself up to a 1264 rating in League of Legends.   It's not very high, but it qualifies me for a Bronze standing should the season come to an end.  The best players are at 2200+ ELO.  If you finish with a standing, you get a skin reward and some forum graphic.

ELO Decay does not start to happen until 1400+, so I thought to myself, maybe I should just stay where I am.  That would mean not playing the game, which defeats the purpose.   You know where this is going....

Played two games last night, got trounced in both games and my ELO now down below Bronze.   Luckily, Season 2 does not end until October, so there is plenty of time for me to get back up there (or go down even further).

Speaking of ratings, Wrath of Heroes is making some changes to their system.  No real details, but I'm glad to see something being done.  The system was just not sustainable and it rewarded time more than skill.  Hopefully, the new system will do a better job.

And finally, a self-plug:  http://devspy.weritsblog.com/  I will be adding a new game to it next week!  Hint, it's mentioned on this page :)

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Wrath of Heroes gets a Podcast

It's about time I say, those slackers.  The folks at Mythic have put together a podcast, using youtube minus the video, to talk about some upcoming happenings with Wrath of Heroes.  I originally heard about it from 6v6v6.com.

Oddly enough, this is Mythicast #2... guess I missed #1.  Also, get the #2 jokes out of your system now, I'll wait.

Overall, I found it to be pretty interesting.  The new legendary hero sounds good, although he would be awesome if he were a Dwarf.  They also talk about other future champions and goings on.  It was a good listen.

Now I am going to be a bit negative.  At the end of the podcast they mention something special happening around Halloween.  Great, seasonal events, who doesn't like them?  It sounded like there would be a new legendary Hero too.  The Red Duke.

The Red Duke has been referenced in the WAR files for a long time, probably part of the never launched Vampire Count expansion that Mark Jacobs mentioned way back when.  Excuse me for being a little bitter that WoH will get The Red Duke and WAR will not.

I could be upset for nothing though.  Maybe now that they are fixing up his model, he can be used in WAR.  I don't care how he's used, just put him in there somewhere.  It would be something new and interesting.

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Legendary Heroes

A long time ago, in a state not so far a way a group of intrepid bloggers visited Mythic HQ and got a look at Wrath of Heroes.  During our talks with the developers, it was mentioned that we might be able to play some famous Warhammer characters in the game.  It looks like that time is just about upon us.

As an additional facet to the available Heroes, we will introduce some very special characters from the Warhammer Fantasy lore to Wrath of Heroes. You have probably heard of these very noteworthy persons and have read about their adventures. Now it’s up to you to lead them into batle and write a new chapter of their deeds.

Not much else is known about them, except they will cost Gold.  That's the in-game currency, so they will be free to play.  And from the sounds of it, they could be expensive.

Rankings.  Last patch, they introduced a leaderboard/ranking system.  It's not a traditional ELO type system, as scores just keep going up.  As of this morning, the leader is a smidgen above 80,000 points.  I'm not really sure how this system is sustainable.  What will the leader be at in 6 months?

I suppose they could implement a season system (like LoL) where the scores will reset.  The winner get prizes in the form of cash, skins, in-game stuff and so on.  That would be kinda cool.

I'd still rather see a proper rating system put in, where you can lose points.  Seems like the only way you can make skill matter in the rating scheme.

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Wrath of Heroes gets Rankings

Included in yesterdays patch, a new ranking system was introduced for Wrath of Heroes.  I have always felt something was lacking with WoH, mainly 'what's the point?'  Competition is a great way to fill that void.  Does the ranking system accomplish that feat?

Everyone starts off fresh as far as rankings go, so I logged on and played a bunch of games.

You'll notice that they did not opt for an ELO system.  From the patch notes:

• A player’s score for rankings is based on their gameplay and analyzes personal and team gameplay.
• Scores will only go up, at a rate determined by the player’s performance, but rankings will vary based on other players’ performance.

This makes the system seem much more like a cumulative High-Score board rather than a competitive ranking system.   The people who play the most will top the charts rather than the ones who play the best.   That is pretty disappointing for those hoping for a competitive measure, unless I am mistaken.  

I'll never be able to play as much as some other people, so I will perpetually be ranked low even if I win and play well.  I hope that Mythic reconsiders the system and adds a more competitive mode.  

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Bonus Calendar

One of the neat new features introduced into Wrath of Heroes is the Bonus Calendar.  Recently, Mythic started to add rewards for logging in on certain days.  You can pick up potions, wooden chests and even Ornate Chests just by logging in!  That's right, free Elite Tactics.

I still want to see the chests removed all together so we can just purchase tactics individually, but this is nice too.  The Bonus Spinner is still there as well, except now you don't reset to a single spinner if you miss a day.  You just lose one.

I would like to see their special events added to the Calendar as well.  For example, Friday they will be holding a Play against the Devs session.  Would be nice to see it listed on there.  Hopefully they can do that while still having it look pretty good.

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