New WAR classes confirmed?

"In 2009 we are going to keep advancing with great strides. The Keg End Event is drawing to an end in the new year, but the next patch is coming soon and so is the next event. Also, the introduction of the melee DPS careers for the Dwarfs and the Greenskins is looming on the horizon."

http://www.war-europe.com/#/news/?lang=en&id_news=en326

Seems so :)

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Fable 2, surprisingly good

I was not a big fan of the original Fable, so I was a bit nervous about asking for Fable 2 as a Christmas gift. With the help of other blogs, I managed to work up the confidence. So far, I am glad that I did. I have only put a few hours into Fable 2 so far, but I am really enjoying it.

After playing MMO's lately, a single player RPG is quite refreshing. Some notes:

• Story is nice. I am a fan of a good tale of revenge.
• Graphics are decent. Often times they do seem quite blurry to me, maybe my vision is going?
• Combat is simple but fun. You really feel like you are laying down some smack on the fools.
• The sandbox elements are great and do not feel tacked on at all. I am quite surprised at this, as I was not expecting to enjoy those aspects.
• The dog works out well. I was skeptical about your companion, but it is actually a good game mechanic. No mini-map need, as the dog can provide the cue. Great idea.
• The 'adult' elements feel quite unnecessary. This game feels like a kids (not little kids) game from the start with the Harry Potter type music. I'm not sure if there is more too it, but it feels like a gimmick.
• The B button for Will powers is killing me with the townsfolk. B means cancel to me, so I try to use it to close the radial sometimes, but instead it activates a power and scares the townsfolk.
• Yay for fast travel!
• Trophies are pretty neat too.
  

Overall what I like about the game the most is that it is stress free. While I enjoyed Oblivion, it was almost too open. Fable is more on rails in comparison. Fallout 3 also seems much more stressful than Fable. That is not to say those games are bad, as that would be crazy... just different.

So Fable will be yet another drain on my MMO time, but only temporary as it has an end.

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How WoW will help WAR

More specifically, "How Lake Wintergrasp will give War subscribers."

I used to not be a fan of PvP in MMO's. I know, you are shocked, but it is true. I grew up on single player RPG's and other single player games. When I got into MUD's and MUSH's, it was always for the role playing and other non-pvp content. When the graphical games came on the scene, I never really participated in their PvP either.

It wasn't until Lord of the Rings Online came out that I became a fan of PvP. I know that sounds strange, as LoTRO is mainly a PvE game. When I first started playing it, it was for the PvE content, but one day I thought I would try out their Monster versus Player PvP system. After that, I barely logged into my player character anymore.

I think Lake Wintergrasp will have the same effect on many WoW players as time goes on. World PvP that allows you to advance your character, has a goal and has familiar enemies is very addicting. Wintergrasp may not have all of these ingredients, but it is offering a taste of what non-battleground PvP can be like.

Once players get a taste they may find that they like it, a lot. I know I did, but I found that LoTRO's system just wasn't enough and it never would be. I went looking for a game dedicated to that type of gameplay and found WAR. The same is likely to happen with WoW, as it is a PvE game at its essence. There will never be enough to satisfy the player who wants to do Wintergrasp type activities with all of their gameplay.

Over time, I think the inclusion of Wintergrasp will actually send folks to WAR. Of course, it may be an insignificant amount, relative to WoW's base. This is one downside to WoW trying to give players everything they want, they just can't give enough.

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Introducing WAR Watcher

WAR Watcher is a way for you to keep informed about the zone control (locking) changes on your server in Warhammer Online. When a zone changes hand, a post will automatically be made to a RSS feed, so you can get the latest RvR news. There are two RSS feeds for each server: One reports only on Tier 4 changes (low traffic), the other reports on all tiers (higher traffic).

Sign up for the RSS feeds at: http://warwatcher.appspot.com/rss

Some things you should know:

• The RSS Feeds will be empty until a Zone changes hand, starting now, so do not be surprised to see an empty feed.
  
• Keeps and Objectives are not tracked due to how frequently they change hands.
• Accuracy depends on Realm War, so if that is off so will the feeds.

Please post all feedback/requests here. Thanks and I hope you enjoy this new tool!

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Friday Question: Favorite Holiday Movie

Here we are, in the holiday's hangover. I guess there still is New Years, but it really doesn't compare, now does it? One of my favorite things about this time of year is the movies. There are so many great ones.

Q: What is your favorite holiday movie?

Mine would have to be Christmas Vacation. Funny and in the spirit of the holidays.

What is yours?

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Werit the Lightweight

You wish... a Dwarf lightweight, can you imagine? I wouldn't be able to show myself again in the pub. In this case, I am referring to WARs holiday event, Kegs End. Much like my fellow engineer Syp, I just am not enjoying this live event. I probably put in 5-10 hours a week in WAR and I just can't do it.

I spend all of my time doing RvR in scenarios and out in the lakes. I have barely scratched most of the quests. My influence bar is not even at the basic reward. I *might* be able to get that reward (a title) by January 5th. If I don't, oh well. The backpack is nice, but I will not go farm mobs just to get it. The influence rewards are just meh too. The Elite reward only has 15 uses... bleh.

I think this was just Mythic experimenting with content. Heavy Metal was very easy, this seems to be on the opposite side of the spectrum. I think the holiday content should fall in the middle. If Kegs End had half the requirements, I would likely take time out of my busy schedule giving Destruction their comeupins in order to complete them.

I wonder if there is a WAR equivalent to Valentines Day? If there is, I imagine it is particularly disturbing. Hopefully whatever the next event is, is not as time consuming as Kegs End.

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Werit conquers The Nexus

As you will recall, I have had some trouble with completing The Nexus. Well, no more! This weekend I managed to complete it... it's a Christmas miracle! Well, maybe not, but still I am pretty happy.

I logged on in the morning and on a lark went looking for a group. I actually found a bunch of random folks willing to go and all of them level appropriate. The group was great and we had no afkers! In fact, there were only 2 deaths and both were not in combat. I was one of them... got myself stuck on a ledge and had to take a leap into the Nexus.

This was the first time I had tanked in many months. Overall I think I did decent, but there is always room for improvement. I am a keyboard user for skills, so I have found myself getting confused with my WAR key mappings. I pretty quickly fall into the tanking habit though. I see there is a built in threat meter now. I wonder if I can get that view above the mobs head (with the nameplate). Some notes:

• Grand Magus Telestra: That Gravity Well spell is very annoying, as it playes tether ball with the party. I also found her split to be pretty annoying, as for some reason I have trouble seeing them. Maybe it is all the spell effects going off? The fun part of this is when I reflected a polymorph spell, turning one of her images into a cat.
• Anomalus: This fight way pretty easy, although it reminded my of the Curator (without an immunity time). Just tanked him, then attacked his adds when they spawned.
• Ormorok the Tree-Shaper: This big fella was also pretty simple. His main trick is to lay out ice spike, which will propel you into the air. There were actually a pretty good amount of spikes, so it took me a couple of trips into the air to figure it out. Just move slightly off the spikes.
• Keristrasza: She was not very difficult for a final boss. Her trick is a nasty DoT, Intense Cold, which you can break by moving. So I just tanked her in one spot while jumping. That was pretty much it.

Overall I did like the dungeon. The atmosphere was right up my alley with it's sci-fi aspects. I was disappointed after I turned in the quests and found out nothing more of the story. it just stopped cold.

What did I walk away with?

• The Nexus achievement.
• A Monarch Topaz from mining Ormorok. It is worth about 70g on the AH. I think I'll hang onto it though.
• Several greens, which I figure will amount to around 50g.
• No loot drops. There was a single plate drop, but it was more for DPS and not tanking.
• A Small Dream Shard, thankfully we had a DE'er with us. I'll hang on to this as well.
• 3 Stone Keeper's Shards. Lake Wintergrasp was in Alliance control, only 197 more to go until something like this!

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Keep Improvement: Door Control

It is no secret that the Keeps in WAR leave much to be desired. They do look good, but they are linear and really just boring. There is no real strategy beyond covering the postern doors and pushing your way in. There is a lot of potential here though.

Idea: When the outer keep doors come down, a location becomes available for capture. When this location is controlled by the owner realm for X amount of time, the door will respawn. If the enemy controls it, it will delay the door being rebuilt. By default, NPC guards would spawn as well. Securing the door control would be important, as your enemy could lock you in and your reinforcements out of the keep.

An alternative approach would be to have this location be able to be captured at all times. This would allow those classes that can enter through the postern door (if this is ever fixed) to be able to try and take control over the door. In this case, rather then the doors disappearing, it may just weaken them.

Benefits: Provides more incentive to split the attacking and defending forces. The battle would also be more dynamic, as it will not be centered solely on the inner keep door at this point.

Issues: The keep layout (except Fortresses and a few T4 keeps) are too small to support multiple locations. A couple of warbands could easily Swarm these locations, or respond quickly to any attack with massive force. Defending this area may be a lost cause, as you will be separated from the main defensive force in the inner keep. On the flip side, it would provide an objective for reinforcements to assault.

I am sure there are other issues for this idea, can you think of any?

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At an impasse

Recently, I have hit a bit of trouble with WoW. When we last left my 72 Protection Warrior, he was off to Coldarra. I finished up all the quests there, which were not too bad. I really like the scenery. The last thing for me to do there (and in the Borean Tundra), was to venture into the Nexus.

I have 4 quests in there to do, all of which sound kinda neat. The Dragons in WoW have always been an intriguing part of the story for me. The big quest is to rescue a friendly Dragon, who Malygos is making be his ...um... 'consort'. I guess it is kinda fair, as we lured his previous consort into a trap and killed her. There are a couple of nice rewards I can actually use too, Tundra Pauldrons and Boots of the Unbowed Protector. My first Kara epic will be replaced by the boots.

My problem is I can't seem to complete the Nexus. There are a few reasons for this.

• During the week, I do not have chunks of time big enough for a dungeon. With WAR, only being able to play in hour chunks is fine. In WoW it is fine for questing... but a dungeon may take more than an hour.
  
• When I have had time, it has been in off hours not ideal for grouping with my guild. I really like the folks in my guild, but my hours are a bit off. My prime time hours are reserved for WAR at the moment.
• I have had a miserable time with Pugs as usual. Healers are very hard to come by so getting a full group is rare. When I have gotten a group it has fallen apart. The one time I have managed to actually get to the first boss, someone went afk for 10 minutes and the group fell apart.

I do not want to move on until I complete the Nexus. It is just the way I play, I like to have everything from the zone completed and off my Quest Log. I'm not really sure how I will get the Nexus done, unless I ask an 80 (or two) to run me through. The run through is usually my last resort, as I really want to complete it the proper way. In the mean time, I am lounging around at the inn, full of rested xp.

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Dark Knight

This weekend I watched Dark Knight on Blu-Ray. I had never seen it in theaters but heard a lot of good things. I was a little worried that it would not live up to the hype, but thankfully it did. This was probably one of the best movies I have seen this year, which is saying something as it has been a good year for movies.

The picture and sound were top notch. Although for movies like this, I wish I had a projector and a 100" screen. Ah well, the next iteration of my TV area will have one. Sadly, that day is years off. On the bright side, the projectors will be very nice and even more affordable by that time.

*** Spoiler Warning ***

Some random thoughts:

• Batman's voice seems a lot more horse than in the first movie.
• That banker keeps a shotgun in his desk... nice.
• The joker character was very well done. I liked Nicholson's version and I think this was just as good.
• Good to see Zeus and Anthony Michael Hall around. This movie had a lot of people in it.
• IMDB does not show a third entry being made, but I would think they would make one.
• Did they leave the door open for the Joker character to return? It seems he could have his own movie, although without Ledger it may not work.
  
• Who could be the villain (s) in the third movie? Yet another Catwoman? A new take on the Penguin? A sick and twisted Riddler might be interesting. Maybe a brand new villain?
  

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