Wednesday 12 May 2010

BOMBSQUAD

I've been semi-involved in a discussion on WHA about bombing in WAR. It started out with me asking how much value to a group my Swordmaster brings - the answer was a resounding "Not much". And this is why...

On my server there are Bomb Squads on both sides and they dominate. A Bomb Squad warband is made up typically of Sorcs/BWs who are heavily protected and run into a crowd dealing out devastating AoE damage to everyone around them. Slayers and Choppa add quite nicely to the damage and the Auras of Knights and Chosen provide a tailored boost to the carnage.

This isn't about mindlessly spamming one button. The top guilds have perfected this over time, putting a lot of thought into class spec and ability choices, gear setup, Morales and, of course, timing and execution through voice comms. It's pro-stuff.

This has led to optimisation of warband composition where the classes I mentioned above are the preferred and greatly desired option and this leads to the marginalisation of the other classes. Two thirds of classes can't compete or don't bring anything to the table in a bombing environment.

In response to bombing Mythic have said that it's is fine, a legitimate tactic, within the rules of the game, and on the face of it I have to agree with that. The tools to do this are available to both Order and Destro.

Interestingly, I'm hearing that the bombing is more prevalent on European servers and in particular my server Karak Norn. Is this true?? This has been suggested as one reason why Mythic aren't fully aware of the problem (or think it's not a problem at all).

I am all for an arms race in WAR. Both sides constantly evolving and developing new strategies and counter-strategies to out do each other. What I don't want to see is the arms race to reach a point where it's all-out nuclear war and it's either bomb or be bombed. There has to exist multiple strategies and the game not just boil down to a place where one strategy rules all.

Has the combat in WAR reached this point yet or are we just at a particularly melty point in it's evolution? Is it up to players to figure out the next step or should Mythic play God and make changes themselves?

Do you even consider bombing as a problem on your server or am I just a disgruntled Elf struggling to find my place in the big ol' world??

3 comments:

  1. I'd be totally okay with Mythic playing god a little bit. Turn on 20% friendly fire and see how that works for these bomb groups. Might be fun...

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  2. Go ahead, and turn on friendly fire. That is what my explosive force tactic is for. Go ahead adjust to 80% because half of my explosion dmg will dmg you.

    I haven't run a steady bomb group for about a year. I am surprised that they say Swordmaster is not in the mix. It was always part of ours. I believe its the Whispering Wind ability or tactic, or tree I don't remember exactly, but he decreases everyones cooldowns in the group. At least it did back than.

    We always ran KotBS,SM, BW, BW, WP, RP with guard on both the BW's.

    It is definitely different now with no kotbs knockdown, morale stuns from the BW, and etc but it still kills alot of people.

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  3. Check this out in regard to bombing on both sides...

    http://forums.warhammeronline.com/warhammer/board/message?board.id=dev_discussions&thread.id=9327

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