The War Journal Forum: Recent Posts

The War Journal Forum: Recent Posts http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ The War Journal Forum: Recent Posts en Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:58:20 +0000 Censored on "Mark Jacobs returns to Blogging" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=103#post-251 Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:43:00 +0000 Censored 251@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ <a href="http://onlinegamesareanichemarket.wordpress.com/">http://onlinegamesareanichemarket.wordpress.com/</a> Thought it might be of interest to some that Mark is back blogging again after a 2.5 month break..... Link provided above.. mal2478 on "Developer Posts (Test Forums) regarding Sor & BW" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=101#post-250 Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:06:46 +0000 mal2478 250@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ I think its really sad that after all the feedback that was sent in PTS none of it was used. I said something similar on the IGN Boards a month ago stating that this was a feel good stunt by Mythic and most if any feedback was going to be ignored as they go ahead and implement the changes they originally stated. Cryptic pulled this stunt a few times in City of Heroes - announce what they were doing - have a lot of people log into Test and post volumes of feedback - and go ahead with the original plans anyways. Ferrel on "Developer Posts (Test Forums) regarding Sor & BW" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=101#post-249 Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:37:15 +0000 Ferrel 249@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ In all honesty I can accept some of the nerfs to my damage as a sorceress if that were it. Part of the problem is that my damage was assumed based on Bright Wizards. It truly looks like development just dropped the ball there. Bright Wizards, as admitted by them, us, parses, and apparently developers, do more damage than everyone. Sorceresses didn't even really hang with them but because we're their mirror we have to fall as hard? To me it is a great joke that it was decided that making Word of Pain a resistance debuff was over powered but Boiling Blood was left as is! How does that even come about? Colt on "Developer Posts (Test Forums) regarding Sor & BW" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=101#post-248 Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:12:20 +0000 Colt 248@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Thanks for the cross post. This is starting to become ridiculous. They're so afraid of giving Sorc's anything that might give them an edge in damage, yet BWs remain the kings the of dps/mobility/utility. It's really frustrating seeing all these 'changes' rolling out on the PTS and none of them actually doing anything. Buffs to Boiling Blood? Are you serious? Colt on "Open RvR and You" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=102#post-247 Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:09:13 +0000 Colt 247@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Ladies and Gentlemen, the definition of underwhelming; "Folks, Over the last few months I’ve spoken about our continued focus on improving our open RvR systems. While we have taken some major steps in the last month, we believe that there is much more we can do to encourage people to take part in oRvR throughout the entire evolution of their character(s). Over the next few months we have some very exciting changes and additions taking place. Please note that as always, this does not represent everything that either we are doing or thinking about doing, just what we, as of now, plan on adding to WAR. We have a number of major initiatives planned for oRvR in WAR. Please keep in mind that these changes/systems apply to oRvR only and not to scenarios. This is not all we are working on but these do reflect the majority of oRvR additions that we are currently working on/planning for the next few months. First, we have created an RvR Influence system. This system is designed to reward our oRvR players with lots of new stuff that you can only get through oRvR. This will be a complimentary system to our PQ Influence system. This system is already implemented in 1.1 and is scheduled to go LIVE along with that version in December. Second, we want to improve the visibility that players have into oRvR and make it easier for players to get involved in the action quickly and easily. We have a number of wide-ranging changes going into our map and travel systems to allow players to better understand the state of oRvR in our game and also allow them to get to the action faster. We have already taken one step with putting a Rally Master in each Warcamp but we will also add the ability for people to have a second bind point to make it even easier for players to move around the maps. We will also make it easily for players to see where players from their Realm are engaging in oRvR, a Campaign HUD for all tiers and other improvements We will also improve Tier-wide messaging about what is going on in Battlefield Objectives and Keeps. Other additions include changes to the UI, in-game manual improvements, map enhancements, and a few other changes. Third, we want to provide greater incentives to players to participate in oRvR. In order to accomplish this we will be adding additional layers to the questing system of oRvR including the addition of Keep Quests, “Daily Event Quests”, Chained RvR Missions, improve the initial Tome Unlocks and other oRvR-oriented Events. We will also improve our BO itemization. Our goal is to provide players with even more incentive for participating in oRvR than we have already. Fourth, we want to encourage guilds to take and control keeps, and we will continue our work on adding better rewards for Guilds who own Keeps as well as the addition of a system of Keep upgrades. This system will be added to the game in several stages beginning in the late winter. Finally, we will begin work on a global oRvR “Fame” system that will be tied directly to the Tome of Knowledge which will provide more rewards, titles, experience, etc. for participating and being successful in oRvR. This system will provide even more incentives for people to participate in oRvR than the current systems and one that fits nicely both with the ToK’s concept as “This is your life” as well as an additional advancement and reward system. Please keep in mind that these additions are subject to change and given the nature of these changes/improvements, they will not go LIVE until we have thoroughly tested them. However, these are crucial improvements to WAR and are being treated as such by the team. Finally, I want to close this out with a brief explanation about the role that we believe that oRvR should play in WAR. It’s really as simple as this, oRvR should be a major focus for leveling, item gain, etc. in WAR. Some of the systems are already in place and in Tier 4, oRvR is alive and well. On other Tiers, however, oRvR is not being engaged in as often as we had hoped when we launched WAR. Our goal is to ensure that oRvR is the place where players can level the fastest, get the best items and overall, have a great time while doing it. It is supposed to be riskier, more challenging but ultimately, more rewarding than any other place within WAR. What is outlined in this letter are some of the ways we plan on making this happen over the next few months and beyond. As always, we thank you for your patronage and support. We won’t let you down. Mark" <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/109545361/p1/?427">http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/109545361/p1/?427</a> It really seems like the majority of the bigger issues were once again pushed to the side to make room for 'new and exciting changes!' While I'm all for new ORvR incentive, how about fixing all the broken / useless crap in the game first? Censored on "Developer Posts (Test Forums) regarding Sor & BW" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=101#post-246 Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:50:58 +0000 Censored 246@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ I have posted a couple of comments from the developers on various forums to let people see what they are thinking. We get some very sensible posting here so I though I would cross post so that folks have the chance to read and pass comment in case they missed them elsewhere. Some very interesting comments from the developer regarding total damage output. He actually recognizes that BW have a higher total damage output than Sorcerers. Now we just need to hear what they are going to do to balance this as the current batch of nerfs and buffs effect both classes perfectly equally. <blockquote>Hey folks, Ya'll have been a bit more civil then the BW in expressing their dissatisfaction with us. For that I'm greatful, however I am going to repeat myself here. The Dark Magic Change really was necessary, it sucks that we had to do it but it was for the good of the game. Many of you realize that and that reflects in your posts. Now on Word of Pain... I had them revert this to willpower b/c our inital tests show as a Resist debuff it was pushing the Sorc too high b/c they debuffed their own damage type. This still continues to be a problem with Bright Wizards, as such I didn't want to let this go live just to have to take it away again. This is what Public test is all about, don't expect everything we put there to go live. Sometimes a change just dosn't work out. Now that being said now that the Sorc / BW have both come down a bit in terms of their total power level we will gain alot more wiggle room to adjust within a given specialization. We will be going back and looking at spells like WoP and a couple of other ones to help balance the lines. The detailed feedback many of you gave on most of your abilities will help this effort a great deal. However keep in mind we can't hit everything in 1.0.6, so while we talk about looking at issues those results may not show up till a later patch -Adam</blockquote> <blockquote>Hey guys. I'll take a look into Detonate... We did have a fix in the original 1.0.5 patch notes about fixing the stat contribution on it. However that seemed to have gotten deleted when we put together the 1.0.6 notes. Aside from that this thread has been VERY heated. I understand why as well, however Bright Wizards by far up and beyond any other career (including Sorc) were the complete reigning kings of damage by an very large margin. We had to bring you down, it wasn't an option to bring everyone else up. Yes I know this sucks, but at the same time we tried to do it in such a way that you also took less damage (Lower miscast chance). Yes I know this seems like a pitiful bone to throw you for the damage reduction but it was appropriate. Bringing the damage down will also allow us to go back in the next few patches and balance better between the 3 spec lines. We definately want to take a look at Immolation and Incineration and make them both match up better, but this was somthing we just couldn't do with the overall damage being as high as it was pre 1.0.6 -Adam</blockquote> Colt on "1.05 updates - Healer HoT nerf reversed!" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=100#post-245 Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:31:13 +0000 Colt 245@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Folks, When we launched our Public Test Server last week our goal was to create a place where we could test and iterate on ideas/initiatives/fixes with our subscribers in a non-LIVE environment. Our plan was that no patch would make it through the PTS until we were sure that it was tested thoroughly and properly. Patch 1.0.5 (Combat and Careers) is a perfect example of how this system is supposed to work. Thanks to the data and feedback we’ve gathered over the last week we are going to make some major changes to 1.0.5. First, the Combat and Careers portion of the patch is being moved to 1.0.6. We have made enough changes that we have decided to let them stay on PTS a while longer for additional testing. As I’ve said before, we will not rush these changes on to the LIVE servers until we are sure that they have been thoroughly tested and that the changes are working the way that the designers planned. It was evident throughout the testing process that some of the changes needed to be reconsidered and some changed outright. Thus and secondly, we are making the following changes to certain careers: 1) For our Ironbreakers, this means more time to assess the impact at our proposed changes to the Grudge mechanic to IBs in RvR. When patch 1.0.6 goes up on Deathsword, we will have an updated version of the grudge mechanic. As of now, this will result in IBs having decay beginning at 15 seconds as well a much slower loss of grudge per second than originally planned. Over the course of 1.0.6 on the PTS, we will continue to look at this mechanic and see if we have to add some additional time to the beginning of grudge decay. 2) For our healers, we are going to keep the decrease in cast time for the “big heals” but we are reverting the changes to the HOTs back to their current LIVE status. Given the changes and general increases to most careers’ DOTs, keeping healers’ HOTs where they are currently is the more prudent path. As we continue testing with 1.0.6, this may change but for now we want to spend some more time running the numbers before we make any additional changes to our healers. 3) Sorcs/BWs will not have any buffs to their DOTs until we can gather more data on the long-term impact of these DOTs. 4) We are looking at several interface changes geared to make target selection, spell-casting, etc. easier and more reliable especially in RvR. Those are some of the biggest changes to the “Combat and Careers” portion of 1.0.5. Additionally, 1.0.5 will now focus on the “Heavy Metal” event that paves the way for the introduction of the Blackguard and the Knight of the Blazing Sun as well as a few other changes including fixes/improvements to our Realm War system. We expect to deploy 1.0.5 tomorrow to our LIVE servers. Once that is done, version 1.0.6 will be deployed to our PTS with all the current C&C changes. Additionally, 1.0.6 will also provide an opportunity for testers to get a sneak peek at those two new careers. So, please, keep signing on to our PTS and help us gather the data we need to ensure that the changes we are making are what we intend them to be, a series of necessary and balanced steps to improve balance among the careers. As always, I thank you for your patronage and support of WAR. Mark <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_on...7/109471070/p1" target="_blank">http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_on...7/109471070/p1</a> Some good news. Healers should be happy. BW/Sorcs should be mad. Not only does the combustion/DM nerf screw the Direct Damage mastery lines, DoTs will do the same amount as on Live it seems. At least they're working on it. What will these changes do to the timing of the patch? Does this mean it's getting pushed back even further? Great... Colt on "1.05 and Heavy Metal hit Tuesday, 18th" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=99#post-244 Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:55:15 +0000 Colt 244@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ From the War Herald: <blockquote>The Heavy Metal event will begin Tuesday, November 18, 2008 in order to coincide with the release of Game Update 1.0.5. Please watch the Herald for more details!</blockquote> <a href="http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=449">http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=449</a> Let's see that root fix! KingKeeper on "More 1.05 Updates (1.05a)" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=98#post-243 Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:22:31 +0000 KingKeeper 243@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Uhmm for Tanks its a HUGE Update! Their are the INT->STR Switches for Chosen but the Tank-Archtype changes are pretty nice too: Champions Challange: Will be once again in my Moral1 Slot for PvP. No Chance for the Target to get away trough kickin.. Juggernaut: nice change no more missfireing of it, only activats when needed. Raze: Raze while run = Win :) Colt on "More 1.05 Updates (1.05a)" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=98#post-242 Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:17:04 +0000 Colt 242@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Greetings! The Public Test Server: Deathsword is now offline for an update. We anticipate the server to be back online by 7PM EST. With your feedback on 1.0.5 we've been able to pull together a lot of great additions and fixes to reported problems. Your assistance has been invaluable in our efforts to make 1.0.5 better. We encourage you to continue playing on the Public Test Server when you are able and submit bug reports and feedback. Thanks for helping us make WAR a better game, below you will find all of the great features and fixes for this update...enjoy! Combat and Careers Healer Archetype * Restorative Burst: The tooltip for this tactic will now correctly state the number of Action Points gained when triggered. Tank Archetype * Champion's Challenge: Neither the player nor the player’s enemy may be knocked back while this Morale ability is in effect. * Juggernaut: This ability will only fire when the player is rooted, snared, silenced, or disarmed. * Raze: This channeled ability will no longer be interrupted while on the move. Dwarf Racial Tactics * Stoutness of Stone: This tactic will once again reduce the effectiveness of Stuns and Knockdowns. Archmage: * Boon of Hysh: This ability has had its cast time reduced to 2.5 seconds, and the setback amount has been reduced to half a second. * Wild Healing: This tactic will now correctly provide a 50% reduction to AP costs on direct healing abilities when triggered. * Funnel Essence: This ability will now correctly behave like a channeled ability. * Radiant Gaze: This ability will now correctly reduce the target’s chance to critically hit and reduce their damage by the correct amount. * Storm of Cronos: This ability will now correctly reduce Spirit resistance for the correct amount. * Balanced Mending will now correctly provide a bonus to heals on other players, and a penalty to heals on the caster. * Increased Conductivity: This Tactic will now increase the damage for all abilities listed in the tooltip. * Rain Lord: The tooltip for this effect will now list all stats affected. Bright Wizard * Combustion mechanic: Chance to critical hit based on combustion level has been reduced. * Combustion mechanic: Chance to cause a Miscast and damage yourself based on combustion level has been reduced. * Choking Smoke: This ability now has no build time. Chosen * Blast Wave: This ability will now behave like a melee attack. Strength will contribute to this ability’s damage (rather than Intelligence), and this ability can now be defended against like a melee attack. * Bane Shield: This ability will now behave like a melee attack. Strength will contribute to this ability’s damage (rather than Intelligence), and this ability can now be defended against like a melee attack. * Quake: This ability will now behave like a melee attack. Strength will contribute to this ability’s damage (rather than Intelligence), and this ability can now be defended against like a melee attack. * Bane Shield: The damage for this ability is now considered Spiritual Damage Disciple * Rend Soul: This ability now returns 350% of the damage done, and the setback amount has been reduced to half a second. * Curse of Khaine: The effect of this ability has been reduced to 50%. * Covenant of Celerity: This ability will no longer stack with other snares, and the effect can now be removed with snare cleansing abilities. * Flay: This ability is now considered a snare and can be removed with snare cleansing abilities Engineer * Self Destruct: This ability will now correctly knock all targets down and kill the turret. * Barbed Wire: This ability will now correctly root all players. * Friction burn: This ability will now work correctly when there are no targets in the area. * Strafing Run: This ability now has less delay before damaging and knocking back the target. Ironbreaker * Oath Friend: The rate at which Grudge is generated has been changed. If the Ironbreaker is at 0-30 Grudge, the Ironbreaker will gain 10 Grudges every time the Oath Friend is attacked. If the Ironbreaker is at 31-60 Grudge, the Ironbreaker will gain 5 Grudges every time the Oath Friend is attacked. If the Ironbreaker is at 61-100 Grudge, the Ironbreaker will gain 3 Grudge every time the Oath Friend is attacked. * Avenging the Debt: The heal value of this ability has increased. * Away With Ye: The Grudge cost for this ability has been reduced to 25, and the cooldown has been decreased to 10-seconds. * Grumble An’ Mutter: The heal value of this ability has increased. * Oathbound: The Grudge cost for this ability has been reduced to 15. * Shield Sweep: The Grudge cost for this ability has been reduced to 25. * Watch An’ Learn: The Grudge cost for this ability has been reduced to 15, the damage has increased, and the cooldown has increased to 10 seconds. * Axe Slam: This Morale Ability will now correctly gain benefit from Mastery into Path of Stone. * Strength in Numbers: This Morale Ability will now correctly gain benefit from Mastery into Path of Vengeance. Magus * Daemonic Lash: The tooltip for this ability no longer displays an incorrect cooldown time. * Seed of Chaos: The AoE damage for this ability will once again fire at the end of the damage over time. Marauder * Mouth of Tzeentch: This ability will now behave like a melee attack. Strength will contribute to this ability’s damage (rather than Intelligence), and this ability can now be defended against like a melee attack Runepriest * Rune of Restoration: This ability has had its cast time reduced to 2.5 seconds, and the setback amount has been reduced to half a second. * Rune of Nullification: The effect of this ability has been reduced to 50%. Shaman * Bleed fer Me: Fixed a bug which caused this ability to heal for incorrect amounts when used with WAAAGH. * Nuthin' But Da WAAAGH: This ability now works correctly on players other than the caster. * Bigger, Better, An' Greener: This ability has had its cast time reduced to 2.5 seconds, and the setback amount has been reduced to half a second. Squig Herder * Squig Squeal: This ability’s damage over time will now fire on the target correctly. Sorcerer * Dark Magic mechanic: The chance to critical hit based on Dark Magic level has been reduced. * Dark Magic mechanic: The chance to cause a Miscast and damage yourself based on Dark Magic level has been reduced. * Stricken Voices: This ability is now instant cast. * Word of Pain: This ability is no longer a Willpower reduction, and will now lower the target’s Spirit resistance instead. The effect will last 15 seconds and deal a large amount of damage after the effect wears off. The need to stack this ability has been removed, and it now has a 10 second cooldown time. * Triumphant Blasting: The tooltip for this ability now correctly states that it will knock down mobs. * Surging Pain: This ability now builds 10 Dark Magic. * Umbral Fury: This ability has been renamed to Frozen Fury. The tooltip now points to the correct ability name that it effects. * Tapping the Dark: The tooltip for this ability now refers to the correct ability that it effects. Swordmaster * Crashing Wave: This ability will now knock targets down every time. * Perfect Defenses: Players will now properly receive the bonuses to defense while in Improved and Perfect Balance * Sapping Strike: The Action Point drain on this ability will now work correctly. * Shadow Blades: The damage done with this ability can no longer be defended against. Warrior Priest * Divine Assault: This ability now returns 350% of the damage done, and the setback amount has been reduced to half a second. * Divine Shock: This ability will now fire when there are no targets in the area. White Lion * Thin the Herd: This ability will now have the correct range. * Pack Assault: This ability will now correctly grant all group mates the extra damage. * Cull the Weak: This ability will now have the correct range. Witch Hunter * Seeker’s Blade: This ability will now check for an Ailment before firing. * Burn Away Lies: This ability will now trigger Blessed Bullets. Zealot * Elixir of Dark Blessing: This ability has had its cast time reduced to 2.5 seconds, and the setback amount has been reduced to half a second. * Boon of Tzeentch: The tooltip for this ability now displays the correct range. * Storm of Ravens: The tooltip for this ability now displays the correct range. * Chaotic Agitation: The tooltip for this ability will now display the correct frequency for damage pulses. Colt on "Updates from the 1.0.5 PTS" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=97#post-241 Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:04:35 +0000 Colt 241@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ The Public Test Server went up this weekend, and I'm already getting people sending me emails/PMs with the changes they've noticed. It looks like the increase to DoT damage is slightly more than everyone initially expected, which is dissapointing. DoT damage A friend of mine who plays a Bright Wizard reported that his DoTs, mainly Ignite and Boiling Blood, were doing even more damage now, and that the increase is very noticable. He parsed some quick numbers over a couple PUG scenarios and came up with approximately a 20% damage increase on Ignite, and a 40% increase on Boiling Blood damage. Sounds like more bad news for melee, let's hope the damage gets readjusted. Combustion / Dark Magic This is all before the combustion/dark magic changes though, so there's still a good chance that that will be the big balance card. That change has not yet hit the PTS, nor has the resist debuff on Word of Pain. I really hope that Mythic is paying at least a little big of attention and make the resist debuff SPIRIT instead of CORPOREAL. I guess we'll see how that pans out. Electromagnet / Chaotic Rift These changes are in. The cooldown has been increased to 30 seconds, no big deal. The limit of players that can be pulled in at once is set to 6 currently. The cast time has been raised to 1 second. Definitely a good change, and I'm glad they didn't over-do the cast time. I'm sure it'll still cause some rage, as the Magus/Engineer needs to be well within damage range to get this spell off. My Sorceress' disarm is also a 1 second cast, and even with a single melee class beating on me, the cast time gets pushed back a lot. I'm going to get on the PTS as soon as I can, both with my Sorceress and my Marauder to see how things are going for both ranged and melee DPS. I'm going to get some perspective from a few healers I know as well to keep everyone updated on those changes. Stay tuned. KingKeeper on "1.0.5 Updates!" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=96#post-240 Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:51:16 +0000 KingKeeper 240@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Im actually crying... FINALLY STR instead of INT! Chosen coming back from the bottom! Buckeye on "1.0.5 Updates!" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=96#post-239 Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:13:18 +0000 Buckeye 239@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ "b) Sorcs will also see Word of Pain’s debuff changes from a willpower debuff to a resist debuff to match BWs and it will no longer stack Word of Pain and be a single application that deals damage at the end. Stricken Voices will have its cast time removed to match Bright wizard Choking Smoke." That made my day and if the graphics bugs for the AOE spells can be squashed I'll be positively stoked. Colt on "1.0.5 Updates!" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=96#post-238 Sat, 08 Nov 2008 05:49:18 +0000 Colt 238@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Sorceress resist debuff and instant silence!! Combustion/Dark Magic crit chance nerf! and more: <blockquote>Folks, Some good news as the weekend approaches: 1) We hope to have the PTS up and running this weekend. Right now we are shooting for sometime tomorrow. The Herald will have all the latest information. 2) As promised, our C&C team has combed through this thread (and pertinent links) and here's what they have found in regards to bugs. Unfortunately, there were a number of both unreported bugs and reported bugs that didn't make it up to the C&C team in time for this patch (initially). I am in total agreement with player sentiment that these bugs need to be fixed along with 1.0.5 and as such, the team is already working on doing that today and over the weekend. The current plan is to fix the vast majority of them in time for the patch but some, because of the coding involved or if they are minor bugs (display) will not be fixed for 1.0.5 but will be fixed as soon as practical. The update to the 1.0.5 patch will be updated to reflect these fixes once these changes are incorporated into 1.0.5. 3) We are also going to look at making some additional changes to some of the classes/archetypes. As I've said before, 1.0.5. is not yet up on the patcher and we expect to continue to make more tweaks/adjustments until the patch goes live. Among the changes currently going into 1.0.5 are: a) BW/Sorcs will have their crit chance lowered for combustion. b) Sorcs will also see Word of Pain’s debuff changes from a willpower debuff to a resist debuff to match BWs and it will no longer stack Word of Pain and be a single application that deals damage at the end. Stricken Voices will have its cast time removed to match Bright wizard Choking Smoke. c) For IBs, we are going to make some changes that will allow the IB to get to low grudge more quickly than initially proposed by increasing Oath friend grudge thresholds from 5/3/1 grudge generated to 10/5/3. Also, we are lowering the grudge required (and making a couple other changes) in the following abilities: Shield Sweep: Cost reduction from 30 Grudge to 25 Grudge. Oath bound: Cost reduction from 30 Grudge to 15 Grudge. Avenging The Debt: Increase heal value. Away With Ye: Reduce cost from 30 Grudge to 25 Grudge. Increase damage. (Also requires cool down from 0s to 10s) Watch An' Learn: Reduce cost from 30 Grudge to 15 Grudge. (Also requires cool down from 0s to 20s) Grumble An' Mutter: Increase heal value. The combination of better contribution from OF and lowering the grudge cost of some abilities should help alleviate some, if not all, of the IB's concern. We will continue, of course, to look at the IB as a whole to determine if additional changes are still necessary. d) For our healers, we are looking at making the following changes: Ranged Healers Long Cast Big heals go from 3s cast to 2.5s cast Interrupt / setback value on long heals is reduced by 50% Melee Healers Divine Strike and Rend soul will now heal for 350% damage dealt instead of 250% Like the IBs, this is just part of an ongoing process. As I said yesterday, the team will continue to look very carefully at the healers on the PTS and if more changes need to be made, we'll make them. e) The Chosen seemed to have a higher number of potential (we haven't confirmed them all yet) bugs but in the meantime, we will make the following changes: Convert Blast Wave, Bane Shield and Quake to magic attacks that use STR instead of INT for bonus damage Push Aura code fix up that makes twisting easier f) The Marauders have a similar bug to the Chosen (using INT not STR) so we are making the following change: Mouth of Tzeentch will use STR instead of INT for bonus damage g) For the Black Orc the biggest bug appears to losing their place in the combo chain randomly. The team has been trying to duplicate this all day and so far, no luck. If we can duplicate it, it will be fixed. So, a few things: 1) Let me once again express my thanks to those great people here on the Vault (and elsewhere) who spent time and energy posting helpful (critical, insightful, positive, etc.) messages. You have helped us quite a bit by doing so. The 1.0.5 thread was, at its best, a great example of how developer<->community interaction can work very well at times when you have motivated players and interested developers who are actually paying attention. So again, you have my thanks. 2) The changes here are still part of an ongoing process of evaluation and reevaluation of 1.0.5. Nothing is final and until the PTS is up and running and 1.0.5 goes through the ringer, will it even be close to final. So please, when the PTS goes up let us know what you think through feedback here and in the game. 3) Some of the bugs/changes that I'm listing here will not be fixed/up by tomorrow of course but they will be during the time that the PTS is running and *before* 1.0.5 goes LIVE. We will keep you informed about the changes through the patcher. 4) A number of people have commented that this patch seems more chock full of ranged DPS changes and while the team believes that a lot of the changes we made to the the rDPS group will have a significant positive impact on our tanks and mDPS folks, they will turn their attention to those careers again after the 1.0.5 version. Again, please keep in mind that bugs for the mDPS/Tanks will be fixed for this version as well. Again, my thanks to the many members of the WAR community for their efforts in regards to our game. Mark</blockquote> source: <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/109355195/p1/?247">http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/109355195/p1/?247</a> Finally! These are the kinds of changes I was expecting from the 1.0.5 patch notes. Maybe there's hope after all! Colt on "1.05 Patch Notes Summary" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=95#post-237 Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:09:22 +0000 Colt 237@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ I just hope the change to how Roots break (off of DoT ticks now too) will help out melee classes some. I'm kind of dissapointed nothing was done to help the Marauder Terrible Embrace be more on-par with the White Lion's Fetch, since they nerfed the Marauder healing debuff to be 50% like the WL's. The lack of BW nerfs is a little worrying. The lack of a severe BW nerf has caused 2 more (that I know of) big PvP guilds to drop their rank 40 destro characters and reroll Order. Things like this shouldn't be happening, but I can't blame them. Having to deal with a min of 6 BWs every scenario is beyond aggrivating. Buckeye on "1.05 Patch Notes Summary" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=95#post-236 Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:46:17 +0000 Buckeye 236@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ I'm not going to let myself get all worked up over this, especially since it's the first of the big balancing patches, but it's still disconcerning to not see any genuine improvements for the Sorcerer class and what appears, at least on paper, to be an actual buff to Bright Wizards. zato on "1.05 Combat and Carreer Patch Notes" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=94#post-235 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:48:01 +0000 zato 235@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Another "sigh"... What's the point with BW's DOT buff!? Everybody knows current DOTs are too much Sor's crappy spell with no changes, BW still has tons of instant Ok, what a balance patch P.S. The SH, SW, Engine changes are good through KingKeeper on "1.05 Patch Notes Summary" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=95#post-234 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:10:01 +0000 KingKeeper 234@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Agree... no real significant Patch... All DoTs do more Damage, Heal is partialy nerfed dont know if i like this... bragennix on "1.05 Patch Notes Summary" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=95#post-233 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:02:24 +0000 bragennix 233@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ weak indeed. bragennix on "1.05 Combat and Carreer Patch Notes" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=94#post-232 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:58:22 +0000 bragennix 232@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Ey' quit bleeding gets increased to 24 seconds with the same amount healed???? WTF???? Thats our main HoT and its 15 seconds now and seems fine to me... Colt on "1.05 Patch Notes Summary" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=95#post-231 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:41:47 +0000 Colt 231@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ So the big Career and Combat patch, that so many people were hoping would balance things out, so far seems like a whole lot of fluff, and not much change. The big things that stand out are the Electromagnet/Chaotic Rift nerfs, where the two abilities now have longer cooldowns, cast times, knockback/down immunities, and a limit on how many players can be pulled in. Roots will now break from DoT damage, and all damage, which is a huge blessing for melee. Playing with Fire cannot crit anymore and doesn't proc off HoT ticks. Bright Wizard's are still in check. Nothing has been done save a longer cooldown on their Fire Cage (Sorc's root also with longer cooldown now). In fact, due to INT being fixed and adding the proper amount of damage to DoTs, we can expect an INCREASE is BW DoT damage. Hurray. I wish there was more worthy of note, but there isn't. The majority of the patch just saw an increase in damage for various abilities from different classes. Nothing gamebreaking. The rest of the patch could have been summed up with 'Certain moves and abilities now do extra damage with higher AP cost, check your tooltips.' Nothing to fix broken/useless class mechanics? Nothing to fix itemization? Nothing to balance out mirror classes? This is the big balance patch? Hm. KingKeeper on "1.05 Combat and Carreer Patch Notes" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=94#post-230 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:33:34 +0000 KingKeeper 230@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Playing with Fire seems to do the Damage now only if it is on a healer. Still its a 50% Healreduction on 100fts and Instantcast. Didnt read all of the Changes but i dont know why Chosen get a Respec.. <blockquote>• All Chosen have undergone significant changes and will need to reallocate their career mastery points as a result. Be sure to speak to your trainer right away to regain your abilities! • Suppression: The parry buff from this ability should no longer stack with itself. • Mixed Defenses: The tooltip for this ability should now display proper values. • Juggernaut: This ability is now available at rank 12. • Guard: This ability should no longer attempt to work on players outside of your group. • Seeping Wound: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. </blockquote> Its more like a Hotfix, and even their, still no Change on the Int-Based Skills, and the Lame Aura System... Still no Push on the Damage and Def-Tree, so that Discord Chosen are still the only usefull Chosens... So far no Changes for us :( Colt on "1.05 Combat and Carreer Patch Notes" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=94#post-229 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:23:25 +0000 Colt 229@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Aside from the big Electromagnet/Chaotic Rift nerf, nothing really has changed. Roots grant 5 (seriously, 5?) second immunity now, better than nothing I guess. Bright Wizard DoTs had their damage INCREASED!? Playing with Fire doesn't proc off DoT's and can't crit anymore. Sorceress DoTs are still just as useless as ever, with slight damage increases to go along with all DoTs. I'm really not happy with this at the moment. Colt on "1.05 Combat and Carreer Patch Notes" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=94#post-228 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:17:35 +0000 Colt 228@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Here they are: 1) The changes laid out in these patch notes are preliminary. They are not final (nothing in an MMO is final until the game is dead) and they won't even be official until after they go through testing on our PTS. 2) If you feel your career has been dealt with unfairly, feel free of course to let us know here and but most importantly inside the game. I will not respond to every post here nor engage in endless debate about whether these changes are necessary, especially in this topic. These changes are the result not of my or any one individual at Mythic's decisions but rather what the entire team has felt will be best for the game going forward based on all our sources of data. Again, these changes are preliminary and if we made any mistakes, we will correct them. 3) With the upcoming opening of the PTS, our players will have the opportunity to help us test the latest patch before it goes LIVE. We urge you to take advantage of this opportunity to help us but to also help you as in the end, you are the guys/gals who play the game. 4) As always, we thank you for your support and patronage. I hope that these notes are another indication of how seriously we take the long-term future of WAR. In order to prevent eyestrain, I've broken up the notes into sections to make it easier for people to find, read and digest the information without having to deal with a monstrous wall of test. Mark The purpose of the Public Test Server is for the players to help us refine and test the latest version of the game by participating and providing feedback and bug reports to Mythic. As such, we want to remind you that the content there is still considered “in development” and that bugs and issues not found on the LIVE server may occur on the PTS. All features and fixes listed below are subject to change until we release Game Update 1.0.5 to all live servers. Game Update 1.0.5 - Public Test Server Highlights • Each career has been reviewed, and we have made many changes to improve career balance and playability. Players who belong to one of the following careers will need to speak to their trainers in order to re-train their Career Mastery abilities: Black Orc Bright Wizard Chosen Engineer Ironbreaker Magus Shadow Warrior Sorcerer Squig Herder Swordmaster • Players who go AFK while in Public Quest areas or during keep sieges will no longer receive contribution credit towards those encounters. • Players are now able to set their rally points in warcamps. • Fixes have been made to issues which were causing guild promotion and demotion not to work properly. • Several issues have been addressed that previously allowed players to get to locations they were not supposed to be able to reach. • Morale abilities will now be much more responsive. These abilities will now fire immediately when activated by the player on the first attempt. • Morale abilities will now display their cooldowns correctly at all times. • Root effects, with the exception of morale roots, will now grant a 5 second immunity from all roots to the victim when the effect breaks, and in addition will no longer stack with other roots. • Root effects will now properly have a chance to break whenever a player takes ANY damage. This includes individual tics of Damage over Time spells. • To promote population balance among the various scenarios, we have added a feature that reduces the number of times a scenario can launch in a short period of time. This will give scenarios which are launched less frequently an opportunity to catch up in the queue population and launch more often. • Improvements have been made to auto-attack animations. Players will now see smoother, more consistent weapon swaps when players change from ranged to melee auto-attacks, and vice-versa. • The responsiveness of ability activations has been improved. Players will now see less of a delay between the activation of aann ability and the corresponding animation. General Changes and Bug Fixes: • There were some instances in which the reticule for ground-target-area-effects was allowing these spells to be cast in areas which were not originally intended. This has been adjusted. • Several issues have been addressed that previously allowed players to get to locations they were not supposed to be able to reach. Combat and Careers General • Tactics gained from Tome Unlocks have been renamed. • Damage over Time abilities: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of these abilities has been made consistent across the board. This generally resulted in an increase in damage, but some abilities have also been brought down. Individual abilities are noted under each career’s section. • Unstoppable: Knockdowns will now be listed on all tooltips for this ability when applicable. • Point Blank will now correctly ignore Knockback and Knockdown immunity, as well as not trigger it. • Fixed assorted issues in which certain movement reductions/increases would stack, slowing or speeding targets more than intended. This also addresses cases in which snared players would find themselves essentially rooted when in lava. • Image Changing Rewards: A player’s illusion will now break upon using an ability in addition to breaking on damage. • Alter Fate: Tooltip should now display the correct values. • Misdirection: This ability should now play an effect on the caster while the ability is active, and play a brief effect on anyone damage by the effect. • Rampaging Siphon: Morale should now heal the group for each target hit, instead of only once. • Frenzied Slaughter, Force of Will, and Relentless Assault: These abilities will now play an effect when used. • Relentless Assault: This ability will no longer remove snares and roots. • Divine Protection should now list the amount of damage absorbed in the tooltip. Renown Rewards: • Mission Focused: This tactic should now provide the correct bonus while fighting around objectives. • Spiritual Refreshment: This ability should now show its bonus correctly in the Character Window. Archmage • Prismatic shield: This ability will no longer fail if your defensive target is not a group member. • Transfer Force: The damage of this ability has been increased. • Hurried Restore: This tactic will now stun the caster when the resurrection spell is cast, instead of when it is accepted. • Healing Energy: Contribution from stats has been reduced to bring the ability in line with our design goals. • Drain Magic: This ability will now increase in potency with High Magic. • Balanced Mending: The HoT portion of Healing Energy will now benefit from this tactic. • Radiant Lance: This ability will now reliably consume high magic. • Law of Conductivity: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Radiant Gaze: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Transfer Force: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Dissipating Energies: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased slightly to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Scatter the Winds: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased slightly to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. Lambent Aura: The duration of this ability has been increased to 24 seconds, and the overall amount healed over this duration remains the same. Black Orc • All Black Orcs have undergone significant changes and will need to reallocate their career mastery points as a result. Be sure to speak to your trainer right away to regain your abilities! • All War Bellows will now persist through the Black Orc's death. This means that you will not have to recast a War Bellow after respawning or being resurrected. • Trip Em Up: The snare from this ability will no longer stack with other snares. Also, the damage has been reduced but no longer occurs over time. The AP cost has increased and the reuse timer has been removed. • Da Big Un: The damage of this spell has increased, and its radius reduced. • Skull Thumper: This ability now adds an effect that deals additional damage to the target whenever they are critically hit. • Right in da Jibblies: The reuse timer of this ability has been lowered. • Follow me Lead: The Toughness buff given to the defensive target should now work correctly. • Juggernaut: This ability is now available at rank 12. • Guard: This ability should no longer attempt to work on players outside of your group. • Rock 'Ard: This ability now starts a Plan chain. Bright Wizard • All Bright Wizards have undergone significant changes and will need to reallocate their career mastery points as a result. Be sure to speak to your trainer right away to regain your abilities! • Flame Breath: Affected targets will now properly receive a debuff icon. • Explosive Force: The damage done to the targets around the caster is now defendable. • Fiery Blast: The tooltip now displays the correct damage and radius. In addition, this ability now builds the correct amount of combustion. • Scorched Earth: This ability now builds 10 combustion. • Playing with Fire: The damage from this ability is only triggered when the affected player casts a direct heal and cannot do critical damage. • Detonate: Fixed a bug in which this ability was receiving double stat contribution on the direct damage portion of the ability. • Combustion will no longer start to fade away if you continue casting spells after hitting 100. • Fire Cage: This ability’s cost has been decreased, the cooldown has been increased and the ability is now available at rank 12. • Pyroclastic Surge: This ability is now available at rank 10. • Scorched Earth: The ability should now have the correct cooldown. • Ignite: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Boiling Blood: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Detonate: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Flame Breath: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Spreading Flames: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Backdraft: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. Chosen • All Chosen have undergone significant changes and will need to reallocate their career mastery points as a result. Be sure to speak to your trainer right away to regain your abilities! • Suppression: The parry buff from this ability should no longer stack with itself. • Mixed Defenses: The tooltip for this ability should now display proper values. • Juggernaut: This ability is now available at rank 12. • Guard: This ability should no longer attempt to work on players outside of your group. • Seeping Wound: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. Disciple • All Covenants will now persist through the Disciple's death. This means that you will not have to recast a Covenant after respawning or being resurrected. • Covenant of Tenacity: Fixed a bug that made the radius of this ability much too small. • Covenant of Vitality: Fixed a bug that caused the healing portion of the lifetap to always heal the Disciple, instead of the player who procced the damage. • Covenant of Vitality: The damage of this ability has increased. • Consume Essence: The damage of this ability has increased. • Transfer Essence: The damage of this ability has increased. • Restore Essence: The stat contribution has been fixed. This ability was previously receiving more stat benefits than intended. • Bloodthirst: The snare component for this ability has been removed, and damage has been increased. • Lacerate: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Fell Sacrifice: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Soul Infusion: The duration of this ability has been increased to 24 seconds, and the overall amount healed over this duration remains the same. Magus • All Magus have undergone significant changes and will need to reallocate their career mastery points as a result. Be sure to speak to your trainer right away to regain your abilities! • Daemonic Armor: Magic Damage will no longer reduce Armor counters. • Summon Blue Horror: Opponents must now be close to the Blue horror to melee it. • Wither Soul: The ability tooltip has been corrected and no longer gives the false impression that % debuff was scaling. • Warping Blast, Dissolving Mist: These abilities now display the correct icon. • Infernal Blast: The damage and cost of this ability has increased. • Baleful Transmogrification: The damage and cost of this ability has increased. • Pandemonium: The damage and cost of this ability has increased. • Wither Soul: The damage and cost of this ability has increased. • Rend Winds: The damage and cost of this ability has increased. • Strengthen Thrall: This ability’s cost, range and cooldown timer have been increased. In addition, it now instantly restores health instead of being a channeled ability. • Instability: The cost of this ability has been removed, its reuse timer has been increased significantly, and it now knocks down the target instead of draining Action Points. • Flamer, Blue Horror, and Pink Horror of Tzeentch: These abilities have had their cost greatly reduced and their auto attack damage greatly increased. In addition, they are now core abilities and the demons will match the level of the player’s rank when summoned. • Pet Ability - Flames of Change: Reuse time reduced, now considered a Path of Changing ability. • Pet Ability - Flame of Tzeentch: Reuse time and channel duration reduced, damage increased, now considered a Path of Changing ability. • Pet Ability - Coruscating Energy: Damage reduced, now considered a Path of Daemonology ability. • Pet Ability - Warping Energy: Now considered a Path of Daemonology ability • Pet Ability Daemonic - Consumption: Build time increased, now considered a Path of Havoc ability. • Pet Ability - Daemonic Fire: Build time and damage increased, now considered a Path of Havoc ability. • Chaotic Rift: This ability has undergone significant changes. The cost of the ability has been significantly reduced and its cooldown has been increased. In addition, the build time has been increased. The ability can no longer be cast on the move, the maximum number of targets affected by this ability has been decreased, and it can now be defended against. Lastly, this ability will also grant immunity to knockback effects. • Tzeentch's Grasp: The cost has been decreased, the cooldown has been increased and the ability is now available at rank 12. • Move Surging Violet Fire: This ability is now available at rank 10. • Infernal Blast: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Glean Magic: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Baleful Transmogrification: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Pandemonium: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Withered Soul: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Mutating Blue Fire: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Seed of Chaos: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Dissolving Mist: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Agonizing Torrent: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Demonic Consumption: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Flames of Change: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. Marauder • Tainted Claw: This ability will now be increased in duration by Ailments, not Cripples. • Rend: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Wave of Mutilation: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Deadly Clutch: The Value of this debuff has been reduced to 50%. In addition, 25% of the value the target is healed for (after debuff) also affects the Marauder. Rune Priest • Blessing of Valaya: This ability will no longer fail to cast if you don’t have line of sight to your defensive target. • Rune of Fortune: The damage of this ability has increased. • Rune of Fate: The damage of this ability has increased. • Rune of Mending: Stat contribution fixed. This ability was previously receiving more stat benefits than intended. • Oath Rune of Sanctuary: This ability will now be affected by the anti-resurrection aura. • Rune of Immolation: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Rune of Cleaving: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Spellbinding Rune: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Rune of Fate: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Rune of Battle: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Rune of Warding: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Rune of Iron: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Oath Rune of Power: Now also increases the target’s Ballistic Skill. Shadow Warrior • All Shadow Warriors have undergone significant changes and will need to reallocate their career mastery points as a result. Be sure to speak to your trainer right away to regain your abilities! • Festering Arrow: The hotkey for this ability will no longer light up when in Assault Stance. • Hunter’s Fervor: The radius has been increased to match similar group based effects. • Acid Arrow: Buff Icon will now state the actual number that the armor is debuffed, instead of percent. • All stance abilities will now persist through death. • Skirmish Stance: The buff granted to the Shadow Warrior when in Skirmish Stance will now allow ranged autoattack to fire while moving. • Vengeance of the Nagarythe: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced. • Assault Stance: This ability has been given an added benefit. While the Shadow Warrior is in Assault stance, all +Balistic Skill benefits provided by items will be considered +Strength as well. • Broadhead Arrow: The damage of this ability has increased. • Acid Arrow: The damage of this ability has increased. • Takedown: The damage of this ability has increased. • Spiral Fletched Arrow: The damage of this ability has increased. • Flame Arrow: The damage of this ability has increased. • Rapid Fire: The damage of this ability has increased. • Eye Shot: The damage of this ability has increased. • Throat Shot: The damage of this ability has increased. • Glass Arrow: The damage of this ability has increased. • Festering Arrow: The damage of this ability has increased. • Fell the Weak: The damage of this ability has increased. • Shadow Sting: The damage of this ability has increased. • Flanking Shot: The damage of this ability has increased. • Whirling Pin: The cost of this ability has decreased, the cooldown has increased, and the ability is now available at rank 12. • Vengeance of Nagarythe: This ability is now available at rank 10. • Broadhead Arrow: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Draw Blood: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly decreased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Flame Arrow: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Glass Arrow: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Shadow Sting: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. Shaman • Gork’ll Fix It: The buff icon for this ability will now state that the ability is healing you, instead of damaging you. • Greener ‘n Cleaner: This ability will now properly remove effects from allies. • Ere We Go!: The tooltip for this ability will now list the duration of the effect. • Bleed fer Me: : The damage of this ability has increased. • Dat Makes Me Dizzy: This tactic will now stun the caster when the resurrect is cast, instead of when it is accepted. In addition, when this tactic is equipped, Shrug it Off will now work properly. • Gork’ll Fix It: The stat contribution for this ability has been fixed. This was previously receiving more stat benefits than intended. • Life Leaka: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Bleed Fer me: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Ere’ We Goes Again: Duration of Ere’ We Go will no longer be reduced with this tactic equipped. • Brain Bursta: This ability will now reliably consume Waaagh! • Shrug it Off: This ability will no longer work in anti-resurrect areas. • 'Ey, Quit Bleedin': The duration of this ability has been increased to 24 seconds, and the overall amount healed over this duration remains the same. Sorcerer • All Sorcerers have undergone significant changes and will need to reallocate their career mastery points as a result. Be sure to speak to your trainer right away to regain your abilities! • Surging Pain: This ability now builds 10 combustion. • Triumphant Blasting: Players knocked back by this ability will now correctly be provided knockback immunity. • Grip of Fear: The cost of this ability has decreased, the cooldown has increased, and the ability is now available at rank 12. • Arctic Blast: This ability is now available at rank 10. • Piercing Shadows: The damage done to targets around the caster is now defendable. • Chillwind: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Word of Pain: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Ice Spikes: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Gloom of Night: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Absorb Vitality: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. Squig Herder • All Squig Herders have undergone significant changes and will need to reallocate their career mastery points as a result. Be sure to speak to your trainer right away to regain your abilities! • Ard Noggin: The cooldown for this ability has been removed. • Sneaky Stabbin: The tooltip for this ability is now correct. • Spiked Squig: The buff granted to the Squig Herder when a Spiked Squig is summoned will now allow ranged autoattack to fire while moving. • What Blocka?: This ability is now defendable, and now reduces the target’s armor and block chance. • Plink: The Action Point cost and damage for this ability has been increased. • Stabbity: The Action Point cost and damage for this ability has been increased. • Run ‘n Shoot: The Action Point cost for this ability has been reduced. • Squig Armor: While in Squig Armor, thh Squig Herder’s Ballistic Skill from items is now converted into Strength. • Ard Noggin: The damage of this ability has increased. • All pets will now summon at the same level as the Squig Herder’s rank. • Pet Ability “Poisoned Spine:” This ability now fires properly and its damage has been increased. • Pet Ability “Goop Shootin:” The damage of this ability has increased. • Yer’ Bleedin: The damage of this ability has increased. • Stop Runnin!: The damage of this ability has increased. • Run ‘n Shoot: The damage of this ability has increased. • Explodin’ Arrer: The damage of this ability has increased. • Lots o’ Arrers: The damage of this ability has increased. • Not So Fast!: The damage of this ability has increased. • Choking Arrer: The damage of this ability has increased. • Finish Em Off: The damage of this ability has increased. • Shrapnel Arrer: The damage of this ability has increased. • Rotten Arrer: The damage of this ability has increased. • Behind Ya!: The damage of this ability has increased. • Sticky Squigz: The cost has been decreased, the cooldown has been increased and the ability is now available at rank 12. • Squig Frenzy: This ability is now available at rank 10. • Yer Bleedin' : The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Cut Ya : The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Explodin Arrer : The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly decreased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Big Claw : The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Shrapnel Arrer : The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Rotten Arrer : The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly decreased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Gore : The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been decreased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Poisoned Spine : The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been decreased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. Swordmaster • All Swordmasters have undergone significant changes and will need to reallocate their career mastery points as a result. Be sure to speak to your trainer right away to regain your abilities! All Blade Enchants will now persist through the Swordmaster's death. This means that you will not have to recast an Enchant after respawning or being resurrected. • Heaven's Blade: This ability now reduces resists by the correct amount and will display as a debuff. • Graceful Strike: Fixed a bug in which this ability was receiving double stat contribution on the direct damage portion of the ability. • Nature's Blade: The proc from this ability now has new art for its area effect. • Gusting Wind: The cost of this ability has been decreased, it has been changed to a Perfect Balance attack, and it now deals spirit damage. • Quick Incision: The cost has of this ability been increased, its cooldown timer has been removed, and its damage has been changed to apply instantly instead of over time. • Wrath of Hoeth: The cost of this ability has been increased, it has been changed to an Improved Balance attack, and its radius has decreased. • Blurring Shock: This ability now applies an effect on the target for the next 10s: whenever they are critically hit they take additional damage. • Phoenix Wing: This ability no longer adds additional hate. Its damage has been increased, and its radius has been increased. • Crushing Advance: The damage of this ability has increased, its reuse has increased, and this ability now adds 10% to the Swordmaster’s block instead of increasing the current value by 10%. • Protection of Hoeth: This ability has been changed to an Open Balance attack, its reuse has been decreased, and its absorb effect has been decreased. • Juggernaut: This ability is now available at rank 12. • Guard: This ability should no longer attempt to work on players outside of the Swordmaster’s group. • Graceful Strike: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. Warrior Priest • All Auras will now persist through the Warrior Priest's death. This means that the Warrior Priest will not have to recast an Aura after respawning or being resurrected. • Prayer of Absolution: Fixed a bug that made the actual range much shorter than the range listed in the tooltip. The range has been increased to match the tooltip value. • Soulfire: This ability’s tooltip will now state that the effect is a Curse, instead of a Cripple. • Divine Strike: The damage of this ability has increased. • Sigmar’s Radiance: The damage of this ability has increased. • Prayer of Righteousness: The buff window tooltip for this ability will now display correctly. • Divine Aid: The stat contribution for this ability has been fixed. This was previously receiving more stat benefits than intended. • Prayer of Devotion: The health gained when this ability triggers has increased. • Castigation: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Healing Hand: The duration of this ability has been increased to 24 seconds, and the overall amount healed over this duration remains the same. White Lion • All Training buffs now persist through the White Lion's death. This means that the White Lion will not have to recast a Training after respawning or being resurrected. • Blindside: Fixed a bug in which this ability was receiving double stat contribution on the direct damage portion of the ability. • Pet ability Gut Ripper: Fixed a bug in which this ability was receiving double stat contribution on the direct damage portion of the ability. • Cleave Limb: This ability now snares the target for 10 seconds. The ability no longer reduces auto attack speed. • Pet Ability “Bite:” The damage of this ability has increased. • Pet Ability “Claw Sweep:” The damage of this ability has increased • Pet Ability “Shred:” The damage of this ability has increased • Pet Ability “Leg Tear:” The duration has decreased on the Damage over Time aspect of this ability. • Pet Ability “Fang and Claw:” The damage of this ability has increased • Pet Ability “Maul:” The damage of this ability has decreased and its reuse timer has been decreased. • Pet Ability “Gut Ripper:” This ability’s reuse timer is now 20 seconds. • The White Lion pet’s auto attack damage has been given a substantial increase. • Pack Assault: Fixed a bug that prevented the initial damage of this ability from being displayed to the player. • Blindside: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly decreased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Shattering Blow: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Echoing Roar: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Leg Tear: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Gut Rip: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been decreased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. Witch Elf • All Kisses now persist through the Witch Elf's death. This means that the Witch Elf will not have to recast a Kiss after respawning or being resurrected. • Envenomed Blade: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Wracking Pains: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Elixir of Insane Power: The benefit of this ability has been reduced. The Witch Elf’s attacks will now ignore 50% of her target’s armor. Witch Hunter • All Witch Hunters have undergone significant changes and will need to reallocate their career mastery points as a result. Be sure to speak to your trainer right away to regain your abilities! • Repel Blasphemy: This self-buff is now right click removable. • Blessed Bullets of Cleansings: The damage of this ability has increased and the amount of Action Points stolen has been increased. This ability is now available at rank 35. • Blessed Bullets of Confession: The damage of this ability has increased, and this ability is now available at rank 9. • Blessed Bullets of Purity: The damage of this ability has increased, and this ability is now available at rank 4. • All Bullets now persist through the Witch Hunter's death. This means that the Witch Hunter will not have to recast a Bullet after respawning or being resurrected. • Sanctified Bullets: This tactic has been adjusted so that Blessed Bullets of Purity will now heal for 50% of the damage they cause. • Fervor: Fixed a bug in which this ability was receiving double stat contribution on the direct damage portion of the ability. • Sweeping Strikes: This tactic will now correctly affect two other targets. • Emperor’s Commendation: This ability now triggers off of from-stealth openers. • Fervor: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Burn, Heretic!: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Burn Away Lies: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Seal of Destruction: The Witch Hunter’s attacks will now ignore 50% of his or her target’s armor. Zealot • Endless Gifts: This ability will no longer affect Winds of Insanity. • Boon of Tzeentch: The damage of this ability has increased. • Dark Medicine: The stat contribution for this ability has been fixed; it was previously receiving more stat benefits than intended. • Manipulation: This ability will no longer trigger if the target of the heal is already at full health. • Mark of Remaking: This ability will now be affected by the anti-resurrection aura. • Warp Reality: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Demon Spittle: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been decreased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Tzeentch's Lash: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Wind of Insanity: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Vortex: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Spell Destroyer: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other damage over time abilities. • Mark of Daemonic Fury: This ability now also increases the target’s Ballistic Skill. • Tzeentch's Cordial: The duration of this ability has been increased to 24 seconds, and the overall amount healed over this duration remains the same. source: <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/109335186/p1/?55">http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/109335186/p1/?55</a> Colt on "Electromagnet/Rift Nerf Announced" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=93#post-227 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:38:35 +0000 Colt 227@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Another quick preview of what's to come before the full patch notes for 1.05 are released, Mark Jacobs had this to say about the much talked about Electromagnet and Chaotic Rift abilities: <blockquote>Okay, but just because it's you. I hope the notes will go up early tomorrow and then we begin testing on it as well on PTS. Once the PTS is up and running players will begin to be able to play there and help test the patch. As to one tidbit per class, sorry but I have to turn that request down. However, here is a sample from one of the most talked about abilities on the VN: Electromagnet: The cost has been reduced significantly. The cooldown has been increased. The build time has been increased. The ability can no longer be cast on the move. The pull-in maximum number of targets has been decreased and can now be defended against. And remember, this C&C patch is only the first steps. Big steps, but just the first. Mark</blockquote> That seems like a lot. Granted, a good magnet Magus/Engie can pretty much win games for his side, this might be too much without buffing those respective classes in other areas, hopefully they will get some love elsewhere. I know a lot of people had rerolled Magus/Engie just for this move; a month ago you'd be lucky to see a Magus past Tier1, and now I've been in games with 5 Magi per Tor Anroc in Tier3 on my alt. So much for the whole 'more buffs than nerfs' mantra. I guess it's too early to judge though, we'll see when the full notes come out. source: <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/109321363/p15">http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/109321363/p15</a> KingKeeper on "A Brief Analysis of Meat Shields" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=89#post-226 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:05:17 +0000 KingKeeper 226@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Im playing a Chosen and atm im Playing mostly offensive with a 2-Hand Sword. But im Def-Speced. For What? You will laugh - for PvE :P In Keepraids i still use Sword/Board for the Lords and Guards, but in Scenarios im going Full 2-Hand, cause it brings enough Damage to Deal with a Healer so that he cant Heal others. Maybe for Blackorcs its different cause they can raise their Blocking with Tactics and Skills, but Chosen mainly stick at the Blockrating of the Shield (around 20%). Chosen have some Skills to improve their Parry but that dosnt help the Shield ;) Its for Repel, or to be exact for "Hastened Dismissal" to have Repel every 10 Seconds (for the -100 Armorpenetration-Buff of Piercing Repel) So in PvP im nearly useless except for the 4s Stun of Downfall. Most the time i lay the Foes down, so that Marauder or a Witch can kill it. Im hoping that Baneshield will get a Buff with 1.05, im using it (cause im Def-Spec) but atm its pretty lame. For the Stats: When i started to play my Motto was: Im a Tank! Mainstats are Wounds and Toughness! Now that im playing in the Endgame i have reduced my Toughness massivly. I relocated all my Renown Points from Toughness to Initiative. So i pushed my 25% Critchance to 10%. Helps pretty much in PvE and RvR. Also atm i use the "The Winds Impervious - Set" for PvP. These 3 Rings dont have many Stats on them but massiv Resistance on it (with all 3 Items it gives you 371 on all Resis). Maybe its my Imagination but BWs dont hit so hard anymore... KingKeeper on "Patch 1.05 Preview" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=92#post-225 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:37:14 +0000 KingKeeper 225@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Ahh it would be great if they manage to fix the Animation und "Not-Ready"-Bugs. Still the Most interesting Part comes tomorrow... Class Changes... Colt on "Patch 1.05 Preview" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=92#post-224 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:32:49 +0000 Colt 224@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Just posted: <blockquote>Folks, Okay, here’s the first part of the 1.05 patch from us. The 1.05 patch is the anxiously awaited “Combat and Careers” patch. As I mentioned already, it is over 17 pages long and still growing and it includes, among other things, adjustments to every career in the game. Some careers got a special shot of extra-loving goodness and some careers also got some tough love as well as some goodness as well. We hope to post the full patch notes tomorrow morning but as we continue to conduct a final review of all the preliminary changes and the notes themselves, it might be held up a bit longer, but I certainly hope not. It is, by far, the largest WAR patch yet and is by its very nature, full of far-reaching and sweeping changes. Here are some of the highlights of the patch. 1) We are pleased to announce the official opening of our Public Test Server. Similar to our Pendragon sever for DAoC, this server will be both open to all players but players will be able to copy (not transfer, your original character remains on its server) their existing characters over to this server at anytime. This server will get the latest, but not final, version of the game and feedback from this server will be used in making any further adjustments to the version. We encourage all players who want to help in the development process to give it a shot. More information on the PTS will be posted on the Herald. 2) Rally masters have been put at every Warcamp to make moving around the world a bit easier and faster. This is only the first part of some improvements we are making to the transportation system to cut down on the time that players have had to spend simply running back and forth between places. The next step will be to allow players to have multiple bind points. 3) Players’ should be able to use the morale button abilities more effectively now. In other words, the darn thing should work every time. 4) Many of the issues with spell/abilities animations not firing off/ending properly have been corrected. Hopefully we got all of the issues but only time will tell. 5) An additional gold bag will be generated when a keep or fortress is taken. 6) Morale abilities will now display their cooldowns correctly at all times. This is just one of many UI fixes. 7) The "Ability Not Ready" message will no longer display when the remaining cooldown on an ability is less than or equal to the full global cooldown. 8) Corrected an issue with the cooldown timers on the action bar buttons that was causing them to count down improperly. The timers will now count down in half-second increments beginning at 3 seconds remaining. See, I said there was more than 1 other UI fix. 9) Another “warhammer to the head” to those that try to AFK in scenarios and PQs. 10) All classes have had some abilities buffed and some abilities have been debuffed a bit. For example, the Squig Herder has gotten 30+ adjustments to its abilities. Out of those 30+ adjustments, the phase “damage has been increased” shows up about 80% of the time. As part of this update, the team has looked at every career in the game and made adjustments. Things such as Electromagnet, Fire Cage and snares/roots in general have drawn particular attention from the team and have had numerous changes/fixes made to them. Of course, where major changes have occurred to the careers a free re-training has been offered. Tomorrow’s notes will detail all of the changes and considering that the career changes are about 14 out of those 17+ pages, I think you can say that we made a whole lot of changes. So, hopefully qill tomorrow's 1.05 patch notes will put an end to the “Mythic doesn’t respond, doesn’t want to make changes” threads eh? Nah! Again, 1.05 is primarily the C&C patch, expect more other big patches coming as well over the next month or so. When you see the contents of the patch, I hope most of you, if not all of you, will see why we have been taking "baby steps" with C&C changes up to now. Mark</blockquote> Full notes tomorrow. Yay! <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/109321363/p1/?57">http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/109321363/p1/?57</a> Colt on "1.05 Patch Notes Tomorrow! Preview Today" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=91#post-223 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:07:09 +0000 Colt 223@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ An Update on the latest patch notes. Mark Jacobs just posted this on the VN Boards: <blockquote>I'm always hoping to post Part 1 of the update shortly (within 30 mins). The full patch notes will have to wait till tomorrow due to their rather hefty size and widespread impact and they need a little extra review time. Mark</blockquote> Looks like 1.05 is coming soon. Full patch notes tomorrow, with perhaps a good preview today. As said in the previous post, the patch notes are 17 pages long. Let's hope for some good changes! Colt on "1.1 Patch Earlier Than Expected?" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=90#post-222 Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:55:14 +0000 Colt 222@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ It seems so. Recent posts by Mark Jacobs on the VN Boards lead players to believe that the big content patch that is supposedly scheduled to hit in December, will make it's way live in majority within the next few weeks. A new patch name, 1.05, has been floating around, and speculation has it that it will be released before November 13th (World of Warcraft's WotLK expansion launch date) with most of what 1.1 had promised. All the RvR improvements and class balance changes seem to have been moved to this new 1.05 patch, leaving only the Blackguard/KofBS class inroduction due out later on. <blockquote>Folks, Look for my new topic in a few hours. The notes are 17 pages long and still growing. And yes, this is the patch that pretty much everyone has been asking for and talking about here and elsewhere. Brought in from 1.1 to 1.05 as I hoped we could do. There's no such thing as a miracle patch, and WAR certainly doesn't need one, but it certainly is a big patch. Mark <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=109303253&brd=22997&start=109315982">http://vnboards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=109303253&brd=22997&start=109315982</a></blockquote> That was posted this morning on the VN Boards and is the latest we've heard so far. Hopefully we'll see at least a preview of these '17-page-patch-notes,' before they go live. I know a lot of playeres are banking on this patch to fix a lot of problems in RvR in this game, or they'll be heading to WotLK. It would definitely be a good move on Mythic's part to bump the big fixed to before Nov 13th. bec on "A Brief Analysis of Meat Shields" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=89#post-221 Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:26:33 +0000 bec 221@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ So I figure I've got some time to burn and I'm going to write a review/guide/chunk-o-bullshit bit about green fatties and tanks in general. If you're wondering where the hell I've been, colt, don't worry about it. I'll be back soonish. For some history: I have a blorky blorc (black orc, if you're silly) at r38 that has constantly "respec'd" and has experience using powerful two handers with da brawler/da boss builds and decent 1h/shields with builds throughout each mastery. I've played an engineer to 19, a marauder to 16ish, a chosen to 24ish, an ironbreaker to 13ish, and several other classes through t1. I do not have extensive r40 experience, but I've dealt with r40 enemy classes of every type. The tanks' dilemma The single most important thing you must realize as a tank class is that you can very rarely, if ever, play a perfect game. I point this out first as a foil to my extensive experience playing a warrior in WoW, where playing a perfect game is possible, if not relatively simple. Most of a warrior's difficulty involves either hitting the right target(s) or dropping back to a defensive position when necessary. There's really nothing else you can do better on your own. You always immediately hamstring targets, always pummel specific spells (i.e. shadow school on warlocks), always trinket certain effects, and always use a relatively simple dps cycle. There's a little variety besides that, but not much more. I haven't played since the patch so I guess things could change, but from what I could tell things were just getting easier. You will immediately want to do everything as a tank in warhammer. You want to be everywhere. You want to be within 30ft of whatever's getting focused on your side whenever they get focused so your guard works. You want to focus whatever your team is focusing with your armor or resist debuffs. You want to pummel opposing glass cannons so they can't cast as easily (note; bright wizards still function pretty well under fire, whereas sorcs do not). You want to pummel healers so they can't cast their spells with build times easily. You want to snare and root and knock the hell out of all enemy tanks and melee so they can't muck with your glass cannons or healers. You want to knock squishies into positions where they are open to attacks from your forces. If you can't force something dangerous to hit you, you want to challenge them. If you get into a position to drop someone on the opposing team, you want to taunt them and kick their ass. You want to perform everything above while staying within the range of a healer without dying to effects like playing with fire. You do not want to helplessly hit something you cannot kill while your team gets mutilated. Ultimately, you want to maximize both how well you enable your forces while disabling the opposing force. This isn't easy at all! Thank god for that.  Dealing with the impossible - how to approach mastery paths Obviously you can't do everything at once, and dealing with all the opposing classes is impossible. First, you need to figure out where and how you should fit in with your force. How you play with your friends will, from what I've seen, tell you more about your role as a tank than anything else. Of course, your class is pretty darn important too. I mean, I don't think there are many absolutely terrible mastery paths, but there's at least one for ironbreakers. Ironbreakers should probably stay far away from stone and should probably pick up powered etchings regardless of how you play. Chosen should probably go heavy discord if you want offense (until something about cleave is buffed) or a combination of virtually anything else for defense, picking and choosing abilities that function well. Note that tainted wound's damage appears to be modified by intelligence, and that discordant instability and blast wave do not stack. But in all seriousness, my experience lies with the green fatties. I've spent most of my game time playing alongside a sorceress and a zealot. For that reason, I have a really negative bias against offensive builds like 2h oriented da brawler. That's because, to be honest, da brawler's spiky damage just isn't necessary if you have a friendly sorceress or five around. I can tell when I'm soloing or playing without a friendly sorc that da brawler would be infinitely more useful if my friends had played different classes or if there were more tank oriented tanks around. I definitely feel much more useful going as heavy da toughest. As da brawler, I certainly do significant damage and can definitely drop bright wizards if healers are preoccupied, but I also feel as though bright wizards can drop me even if I'm getting healed. One thing that I've found about all the tanking mastery paths among all the tanks is that the orc's da toughest path isn't joking around. Nothing is tougher. If you play with a lot of marauders or other tanks, you should probably take literally everything I say with a grain of salt. How's yer choppa? - how to approach gear Tanks really only have four stats to deal with -- Strength, toughness, wounds, and weapon skill are all pretty good. I tend to value the first three about equally, and the fourth about half as much or less for black orcs. Armor and mitigation% bonuses are pretty awesome too, but are only really available on higher end set items. Sets with powerful bonuses are generally worth getting even if they spread around their itemization a lot; I haven't encountered many set items with completely worthless statistics, and the set bonuses end up being more important than anything else. I've used the devastator set through t3 and t4, and I haven't found anything to replace it yet. For the uninitiated, one toughness is just as good as subtracting one strength/ballistic skill/intelligence from targets that hit you for the purposes of damage dealt/taken. I tend to keep a set of toughness/wounds accessories and a set of str/weapon skill accessories. I'd change what I use depending on who I'm playing with or what I'm playing against -- if we have a lot of healers I go all str, for instance. If you're comparing two weapons, just remember that 10 strength adds ~3 dps. Yes, the renown big choppas are very powerful and nearly invalidate two handers throughout most of the game. I think I'll end the introduction here. I'll continue this post and do more in the future if there's any demand. Colt on "blorcblorcblorcblorc - Or, a Brief Analysis of Meat Shields" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=87#post-220 Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:22:57 +0000 Colt 220@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Gonna re-post this on the main page. Good stuff. PS, Play more nub. bragennix on "blorcblorcblorcblorc - Or, a Brief Analysis of Meat Shields" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=87#post-219 Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:39:29 +0000 bragennix 219@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ kyle, you would make a fantastic porn star. Branislav on "What We Need to See in Patch 1.1" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=83#post-218 Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:17:39 +0000 Branislav 218@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ The thing is, it seems like the chaos rift is the magus bread and butter right now. It seems like that class needs a bit of love. I think a BIG thing they need to add/fix is some correlation between controlling points in a zone and keep defense. Right now, those points mean nothing. If your side owns all the points in a zone, it should be nigh impossible to take a keep by either adding guards or making existing guards much tougher. Something to tie in realm control to make it meaningful. Make keep attack/defense a whole zone affair and not just these small scale skirmishes. Branislav on "blorcblorcblorcblorc - Or, a Brief Analysis of Meat Shields" http://thewarjournal.com/forum/topic.php?id=87#post-217 Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:33:37 +0000 Branislav 217@http://thewarjournal.com/forum/ Very interesting information. Thanks!