This post was going to be called "I'm back!" but you didn't know I'd gone. I've been camping for the last 5 days in a big forest in Yorkshire (that's in the UK).
It took a while, probably 3 days, for my mind to become unriddled of Warhammer. On the 2nd day I was showing my son some tadpoles and frogspawn in a pond and I couldn't help think of spawn camping. WAR's tendrils sink deep into my brain. I'm often like this, I see hidden references to WAR all the time, in car registration plates, road signs, food labels. Sometimes if I'm arranging a meeting in work I find myself wanting to set up a "balanced group" instead of a meeting, it's bonkers. I once had this idea that introducing experience points to businesses would be a good idea. Every time you did something useful in work you'd level up a bit, and when you reached a new rank so would your salary. Managers could think up tasks that they want doing for XP and people could come up and do what they wanted. Would be especially nice if the work you did involved swinging a massive siege hammer about.
I'm healthy in most other regards, honest.
5 days was enough to purge my brain of WAR, and that was nice, but I was glad to be able resoak it in the 75 unread blog posts awaiting in my reader when I got back. That's a lot of WAR posts for 5 days!
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Sunday, 23 May 2010
City Tastes Good
I got my first taste of the City over the weekend. When I logged in on Friday I was disappointed to find I'd just missed an invasion of Inevitable City and the rest of the guild were in there and just downing the King. But on Saturday I logged in with Destro about 20 minutes off getting to Altdorf.
We got a about 3/4 Guild WB up and went in. It was a pretty epic feeling to be honest.
The experience was great, I can see a lot of potential for strategy and great fights. We lost this one though, got pretty much whitewashed, losing all 6 BOs. I met Bootae in there which was good for me as it's the first time I've met a fellow blogger in-game. I managed to insult him a little, called him a Gobbo, didn't seem to put him off much :p
We didn't really know what we were doing, didn't start using the rally flags until it was too late for instance, didn't really have a strategy. Gaarawaar's latest guide, RvR Drive City Sieges - The Guide will hopefully help with that. This guide is quite simply awesome, and as english gentleman you'll appreciate I don't use that word lightly. With a bit more experience of the Cities some truly amazing fights are in store for the future.
In other news, I accidentally bought 6 of the new RvR items Bewildering Relic of Vitality. They are unique-equip and have a decay timer of them of 14 days! I bought them accidentally because I had just scrolled in to the Guild Hall and my sound still hadn't come back up so I was clicking on the item from the merchant to buy it and expecting to hear the little "ching" noise to indicate the purchase. But there was no "ching" so I kept clicking until I had 6. D'oh! But thankfully I put a CSR appeal in to explain my mistake and next day all my Invader crests had been refunded. I was surprised by this, and grateful of course. Thanks for that Mythic, and thanks for the new City.
We got a about 3/4 Guild WB up and went in. It was a pretty epic feeling to be honest.
The experience was great, I can see a lot of potential for strategy and great fights. We lost this one though, got pretty much whitewashed, losing all 6 BOs. I met Bootae in there which was good for me as it's the first time I've met a fellow blogger in-game. I managed to insult him a little, called him a Gobbo, didn't seem to put him off much :p
We didn't really know what we were doing, didn't start using the rally flags until it was too late for instance, didn't really have a strategy. Gaarawaar's latest guide, RvR Drive City Sieges - The Guide will hopefully help with that. This guide is quite simply awesome, and as english gentleman you'll appreciate I don't use that word lightly. With a bit more experience of the Cities some truly amazing fights are in store for the future.
In other news, I accidentally bought 6 of the new RvR items Bewildering Relic of Vitality. They are unique-equip and have a decay timer of them of 14 days! I bought them accidentally because I had just scrolled in to the Guild Hall and my sound still hadn't come back up so I was clicking on the item from the merchant to buy it and expecting to hear the little "ching" noise to indicate the purchase. But there was no "ching" so I kept clicking until I had 6. D'oh! But thankfully I put a CSR appeal in to explain my mistake and next day all my Invader crests had been refunded. I was surprised by this, and grateful of course. Thanks for that Mythic, and thanks for the new City.
Friday, 21 May 2010
Be More (Super) Effective
On her blog Super Effective Warhammer's favourite Portuguese Sara gives a great example of how you can be effective in a scenario without having to put out massive amounts of damage and by just doing something smart, something effective.
In her example Destro were being spawn camped by Order but instead of offering herself up as free renown she joined a couple of other players in escaping the farm and capping the BOs and, once capped, coming back at Order from behind and throwing a spanner into the works, kicking up a fuss and providing the initiative for the rest of Destro to push on and eventually win the scenario.
I did something similar last night. I entered Serpent's Passage a few minutes in to the scenario to find my Order compatriots scattered and fleeing back from the wreckage to our spawn point. We all got farmed for a few minutes until I decided to try and find a way out. I mentioned in /sc that I was going to make a run to the east and if Destro followed me everyone else should push out. I mounted up and ran east from Order's spawn point. Sure enough 5 Destro chased after me. When they caught up with me I used my Morale 2 AoE snare to slow them down and kept them chasing me under the rock bridge thingy in the middle of the two sides. They caught me in the end, and killed me of course, but as I died I could see Order pushing out from our spawn point. By the time I had respawn we had wiped them. What. A. Hero.
The morale of the story is not everything boils down to a DPS race and just a few well-placed moves and abilites can make all the difference.
For more tactical shannigans go and read Thrangis the Red's excellent post about the Nordenwatch scenario.
In her example Destro were being spawn camped by Order but instead of offering herself up as free renown she joined a couple of other players in escaping the farm and capping the BOs and, once capped, coming back at Order from behind and throwing a spanner into the works, kicking up a fuss and providing the initiative for the rest of Destro to push on and eventually win the scenario.
I did something similar last night. I entered Serpent's Passage a few minutes in to the scenario to find my Order compatriots scattered and fleeing back from the wreckage to our spawn point. We all got farmed for a few minutes until I decided to try and find a way out. I mentioned in /sc that I was going to make a run to the east and if Destro followed me everyone else should push out. I mounted up and ran east from Order's spawn point. Sure enough 5 Destro chased after me. When they caught up with me I used my Morale 2 AoE snare to slow them down and kept them chasing me under the rock bridge thingy in the middle of the two sides. They caught me in the end, and killed me of course, but as I died I could see Order pushing out from our spawn point. By the time I had respawn we had wiped them. What. A. Hero.
The morale of the story is not everything boils down to a DPS race and just a few well-placed moves and abilites can make all the difference.
For more tactical shannigans go and read Thrangis the Red's excellent post about the Nordenwatch scenario.
Thursday, 20 May 2010
WAR Stats: This is Critical
In previous posts I have looked at damage totals from combat logs but this ignores something very important - the heat of the moment, what can happen in just a few seconds of combat. There is one thing I dread to see flash up on my screen and that's a string of big crits hitting me in quick succession.
Looks like this...
-1050
-1637
-1320
When I see just one big number like this I think "oh shit", nevermind three at once. That's over 4000 damage in the blink of an eye. Numbers like this are enough to kill you dead if you are already at low health. When people see you with low HP they go for the kill and you get focused. A string of big crits will either kill you straight off or leave you vunerable and put pressure on healers. Things tend to go awry.
DPS classes are crit-crazy. Go ask one. I believe BWs and Sorcs can get there crit chance up to 75%, other DPS classes to around 50%. They love the stuff.
On top of what your opponent is stacking you also have a base chance to be crit, based primarily on your initiative that has nothing to do with you opponent.
At Level 40 the formula for 'Chance to be Crit' = 35 / Initiative
E.G.
Initiative @ 100 (35/100) = 35% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 200 (35/200) = 17.5% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 300 (35/300) = 11.6% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 400 (35/400) = 8.75% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 500 (35/500) = 7.0% chance to be crit
Most people's initiative is around 200 so a 17.5% chance to be crit. This means that a Sorc with their own +75% chance to crit will actually have a chance to crit you of 92.5%!! This is scary.
Reducing your base chance to be crit to 0% is not too difficult but what's the point if a Sorc still has a 75% chance to crit you?
It's the chance to not be Crit multiple times in a row that's important. You can survive one big crit. Surviving three is a different story.
Imagine a situation where the DoTs have added up and you have 4000 HP left. A Sorc or two focuses on you with +75% Crit. Added on top of your 17.5% base chance to be crit you will be crit 92.5% of the time.
The probability you will be crit twice in a row is 92.5% x 92.5% = 86%
Thrice in a row = 92.5% x 92.5% x 92.5% = 79%. You will survive 2 out of 10 times.
With a base chance to be crit of 0% you will get crit 75% of the time. The probability you will be crit twice in a row is 75% x 75% = 56%
Thrice in a row 75% 75% x 75% = 42%. You will survive 6 out of 10 times.
By reducing your base chance to be crit from 15% to 0% you are 3 times more likely to survive focus fire. Not only are this but there are lots of nasty procs and debuffs linked to critical hits that you will avoid.
-Crit also obviously gives you a direct overall damage reduction. For most classes a crit is 50% more damage than a non-crit. If a normal attack hits for 400, a crit will hit for 600. Therefore, a 10% reduction in Crit chance = 5% reduction in damage. Sorcs/BW however do 150% damage per crit, so a 400 attack will hit for 1000 when it crits. A 10% reduction in Crit is therefore equivalent to a 15% reduction in damage versus a BW or Sorc. As I have shown in a previous post, playing a SM and being in the front line Sorcs do me a lot of damage.
Getting to 0%
If you look again at the formula and examples above of initiative and base crit chance you'll notice a diminishing return on the stat. Going from 100 initiative to 200 reduces your Crit chance by 17.5% but going from 300 to 400 only reduces it by 3%. I would advise getting to around 250-300 initative and get the rest from -Crit% on items. Most armour sets have a piece that gives -3% Crit so mix and max from different sets you want to use to get the best -Crit.
Conclusions
Recommended.
Looks like this...
-1050
-1637
-1320
When I see just one big number like this I think "oh shit", nevermind three at once. That's over 4000 damage in the blink of an eye. Numbers like this are enough to kill you dead if you are already at low health. When people see you with low HP they go for the kill and you get focused. A string of big crits will either kill you straight off or leave you vunerable and put pressure on healers. Things tend to go awry.
DPS classes are crit-crazy. Go ask one. I believe BWs and Sorcs can get there crit chance up to 75%, other DPS classes to around 50%. They love the stuff.
On top of what your opponent is stacking you also have a base chance to be crit, based primarily on your initiative that has nothing to do with you opponent.
At Level 40 the formula for 'Chance to be Crit' = 35 / Initiative
E.G.
Initiative @ 100 (35/100) = 35% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 200 (35/200) = 17.5% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 300 (35/300) = 11.6% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 400 (35/400) = 8.75% chance to be crit
Initiative @ 500 (35/500) = 7.0% chance to be crit
Most people's initiative is around 200 so a 17.5% chance to be crit. This means that a Sorc with their own +75% chance to crit will actually have a chance to crit you of 92.5%!! This is scary.
Reducing your base chance to be crit to 0% is not too difficult but what's the point if a Sorc still has a 75% chance to crit you?
It's the chance to not be Crit multiple times in a row that's important. You can survive one big crit. Surviving three is a different story.
Imagine a situation where the DoTs have added up and you have 4000 HP left. A Sorc or two focuses on you with +75% Crit. Added on top of your 17.5% base chance to be crit you will be crit 92.5% of the time.
The probability you will be crit twice in a row is 92.5% x 92.5% = 86%
Thrice in a row = 92.5% x 92.5% x 92.5% = 79%. You will survive 2 out of 10 times.
With a base chance to be crit of 0% you will get crit 75% of the time. The probability you will be crit twice in a row is 75% x 75% = 56%
Thrice in a row 75% 75% x 75% = 42%. You will survive 6 out of 10 times.
By reducing your base chance to be crit from 15% to 0% you are 3 times more likely to survive focus fire. Not only are this but there are lots of nasty procs and debuffs linked to critical hits that you will avoid.
-Crit also obviously gives you a direct overall damage reduction. For most classes a crit is 50% more damage than a non-crit. If a normal attack hits for 400, a crit will hit for 600. Therefore, a 10% reduction in Crit chance = 5% reduction in damage. Sorcs/BW however do 150% damage per crit, so a 400 attack will hit for 1000 when it crits. A 10% reduction in Crit is therefore equivalent to a 15% reduction in damage versus a BW or Sorc. As I have shown in a previous post, playing a SM and being in the front line Sorcs do me a lot of damage.
Getting to 0%
If you look again at the formula and examples above of initiative and base crit chance you'll notice a diminishing return on the stat. Going from 100 initiative to 200 reduces your Crit chance by 17.5% but going from 300 to 400 only reduces it by 3%. I would advise getting to around 250-300 initative and get the rest from -Crit% on items. Most armour sets have a piece that gives -3% Crit so mix and max from different sets you want to use to get the best -Crit.
Conclusions
Recommended.
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Pitch Day
It's patch day. You've already read about it on other blogs. I hope it lands on time in Europe tomorrow! There's no volcanic ash cloud in cyberspace is there?
I have just caught up with a post by adorable Gobbo Squibblegut Loveorder in which he pitches an idea to fellow bloggers and readers (see what I did there, did ya?) to put together some suggestions for the RvR campaign.
I think we should do this. Thrash out some ideas and put them to Mythic. Maybe now isn't the right time with this patch about to land so I'll get to back to the idea after the excitement of 1.3.5 has died down.
Talking of excitement, what am I looking forward to...?
I have just caught up with a post by adorable Gobbo Squibblegut Loveorder in which he pitches an idea to fellow bloggers and readers (see what I did there, did ya?) to put together some suggestions for the RvR campaign.
I think we should do this. Thrash out some ideas and put them to Mythic. Maybe now isn't the right time with this patch about to land so I'll get to back to the idea after the excitement of 1.3.5 has died down.
Talking of excitement, what am I looking forward to...?
- Contested RvR: as Wasdtomp asked, what will the rush to play the City do for RvR? Will it be hotly contested? Or a massive Zergfest? Looking forward to finding out.
- New items: more stat tweaking and min-maxing for me!
- Nerfs! Yes, as a Swordmaster I welcome the nerf to both auto-attack haste and bombing. This will make me more relevant. High Elf assist train anyone?
- The City itself of course. It'll be great that individual players/warbands/guilds can feel relevant to the end-game encounter. That will make the difference to me.
Friday, 14 May 2010
New WAR Blogs
So many new blogs I am having trouble keeping up! Thanks to Werit and Grimnir in particular for highlighting these guys and to all other bloggers for giving me something to do whilst at work!! If I've missed anyone do let me know.
Krosuss Says Burn
Rune Twisitng
Vauleen of Volkmar
Thrangis the Red
Test Pig v Warhammer
War 4 Scrubs
Thehealeroftru
Suffer Not The Heretic
Journal and Compendium of Squibblegut the Squig Herder
Champion of Chaos
Rudepox at WAR
Krosuss Says Burn
Rune Twisitng
Vauleen of Volkmar
Thrangis the Red
Test Pig v Warhammer
War 4 Scrubs
Thehealeroftru
Suffer Not The Heretic
Journal and Compendium of Squibblegut the Squig Herder
Champion of Chaos
Rudepox at WAR
Deathblows speak louder than words
In clearly a direct response to my last post Mythic have nerfed the potential for BWs and Sorcs to bomb. What should I QQ about next?
Another reason for the change and a rumour I have heard is that a guild called VII from Karak Norn took an elite team of bombers onto the EU PTS and burnt some visiting Devs arses to a crisp. Can't be sure if this is true or just boasting ofc.
Another reason for the change and a rumour I have heard is that a guild called VII from Karak Norn took an elite team of bombers onto the EU PTS and burnt some visiting Devs arses to a crisp. Can't be sure if this is true or just boasting ofc.
From Mythic:
After evaluating the feedback, it became clear to us that there was much concern about the potential of PBAE-focused groups to diminish the fun of the City Siege, especially those built and focused around a Bright Wizard or Sorcerer. In response to this feedback, we made the decision to accelerate a few of our balance changes which were originally planned for version 1.3.6. Therefore, in tonight's public City Siege tests, you will notice the following adjustments:
Bright Wizard: Scorched Earth now costs 20 Combustion instead of Action Points. Additionally, this ability no longer builds Combustion when used.
Sorcerer: Surging Pain now costs 20 Dark Magic instead of Action Points. Additionally, this ability no longer builds Dark Magic when used.
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