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Die Wilde Jagd

Destination: Hell, Transport: Handbasket

It’s been so long since I last posted here, I had to drag my sorry ass onto the pain train route that is upgrading both Wordpress and a theme. But here I am.

Much has happened, since I last posted. October 31 marked the birth of my son, Misha (and before anyone gives me shit about naming my son after the WoW server I am playing on… ’tis not so). WotLK was released. I leveled my Druid, Priest, and a Death Knight to 80. My guild is still going strong on Misha, not as far progressed as my Daggerspine brothers and sisters, but a good group of great people whose attitude and comraderie seem unique to me in WoW.

I’m back to healing. With TBC being my tanking expansion, Vanilla WoW the “decurse and Innervate” expansion, WotLK is the “everyone rolled a DK, spec healer” one. And I am strangely enjoying it. More than I did in Vanilla.

I haven’t renewed WAR. As of right now I look over friends’ shoulders every once in a while and get some second-hand story time from guildies who still play both. Maybe later. My Tabula Rasa account is dead, as well, not for lack of want, but alas TR shut down. As did Hellgate. Which, strangely, makes me a one-game player again. What else is there to look at? Anyone got an idea for a MMORPG or MMORTS I should be looking at?

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Warhammer introduces new classes with World EventOctober 29 2008

Neatly placed a few days after WotLK comes out, Warhammer’s new tanking careers get a world event of their own:

When the Heavy Metal live event begins on November 17th, players who log into WAR will see a new tab in the Tome of Knowledge. Clicking on this tab will open the Live Events page, where each day we’ll place a new daily task. Completing these daily tasks earns influence, just like you’d earn in a public quest. There are rewards for Basic, Advanced and Elite influence, culminating in the ultimate prize: the chance to play WAR’s new classes a full week before they’re released to the public! This last reward won’t be easy to earn, and players who want to get to the Elite level will need to log in each day and complete on the daily event.

Let’s hope the patched client not only introduces the new careers (Blackguard and Knight of the Blazing Sun) but also fixes client lag.

The Day WAR stood still Today my Warhammer subscription officially lapsed. That means, my toons...
Warhammer Online (WAR) Beta NDA lifted [caption id="attachment_94" align="aligncenter" width="300" capti

Wickerman BalanceOctober 26 2008

Horde: run into the Inn while massive amounts of guards spawn whom you must kill to do your quest. Get ganked by a handful of Alliance standing around feeling very strong. Get camped and spit on. Run back a few times (quite a hike) until you manage to drop some stink bombs and stink up a keg.

Alliance: Spend a good amount of time unflagged (or protected by your guards and numbers on PvP servers) in your own town and click on stink bombs. Ride past the Wickerman.

Balanced, yeah!

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Tauren in Cow Doo Doo (again)October 23 2008

I cried a little when they took away my Plainswalking. I cried a little more, when epic Kodo mounts changed and became more generic a week before I could afford one. I cried even more when I realized that, no matter which mount I’d choose, I’d always look like an organ grinder monkey on a training bike except for my Kodo.

Time to shed some more virtual tears. Leading the Cavalry is the WoW achievement granting a nifty white drake to anyone collecting 50 unique mounts. Which is, and here comes the sadness, easiest for Dwarves, easier for Alliance, possible for Horde, and neigh impossible for Tauren.

You see, only mounts we can use count. Which means that without Wintersabers and by being barred from some mounts, we only have 44 total grindable mounts. If all RNG are in favor, Tauren can get 49 mounts. One short. Thanks Blizzard.

This, above all else, is what I mean when I speak of imbalanced and inconsiderate game design.

Wickerman Balance Horde: run into the Inn while massive amounts of guards...

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The Day WAR stood stillOctober 21 2008

Today my Warhammer subscription officially lapsed. That means, my toons will be on cold storage until I decide to come back, whenever that will be.

I’ve followed Warhammer since the dawn of code. My Beta account was created as one of the triple-digit ones, I’ve played through the first and second iteration of the UI, watched my Warrior Priest change a few times, played Nordenwatch during the days of the “invisible” bug, captured Keeps, and rolled template careers.

In that time I filed literally hundreds of bug reports. Most were fixed. I can honestly claim, I care about Warhammer, love its concept, and love the idea behind it.

But, alas, some things just need fixing before I decide to spend money on this game.

The client is insanely laggy. There is a very discernible disconnect between action and display. Often my damaging attacks have long waned when the casting animation still ramps up. For a fast paced game like Warhammer, this is death. Cooldowns are important, and even more so in the case of Black Orc and Swordmaster, whom depend upon knowing what they just casted.

The game is linear and seems to actively discourage taking stops. If I have a story line to play through, I want to take my time. I want to see things I won’t be seeing anymore once I level up. RvR lakes, Scenarios, and many other areas are just inaccessible to anyone too high of level. However, the game’s dynamics (and the power-leveler mindset of its p