Monday Monday

Man what a weekend. There's been alot for me going on in WAR and the weekend was a busy one. My Engineer hit 20 and laid claim to his beercopter, my Witch Hunter was born and there was much RvR rvred.

Our story middles with the Oathkeepers Legacy and Sephorus' climb to 20 (which as of my heading to bed around midnight gmt last night, he still needed). The beginning was the day before when I was of course up to an unreasonable hour. Sabina (OL Witch Hunter) had headed off to bed before a day of exams and I was left to amuse myself. We had been running quite alot of Mourkains Temple runs (with the standard practice of taking the quest to kill 15 in the local lake or racially appropriate scenario and the quest to do the scenario) as well as others and so our story found Norri standing in the Marshes of Madness Warcamp wondering how best to proceed.So the plan was hatched, let's take back the battlefield objectives.
It didn't go quite according to plan at the start. A brave Rune Priest whose name sadly I've forgotten and a tough and fun female Ironbreaker, Bergita, joined me. Soon we added in a duo of an Archmage (Snowblind) and a Bright Wizard (Radiant). With the little band we finally made progress on getting around the one roving Greenskin party there was and retaking the points. There wasn't enough people to make a fight of the keep, so we took what we had achieved and considered it good.
Fast forward to Monday. Sephorus needs 20. Norri is 20. Norri logs on and finds Sabina directly in front of him in Sigmars Hammer. A party is born. We head off to the Marshes for the same tactic again and maybe some PQ's.

This is where I really started to feel as though I was getting a handle on the server. All over the weekend teamspeak picked up sudden exclamations of " I know that guy, I killed that guy. Gotta kill him again". This time, Bergita was spotted on /1 talking to someone about Nebhorests Tower.

I don't know about you lot, but the Oathkeepers tried the tower and had a bit of a hard time of it. We never quite made it to the top, and having now seen what is up there, I'm not convinced we'd have survived if we had.

Well here is where the awesome that was my Monday evening was born. All that started it was a roleplaying Ironbreaker whom I recognised and a PQ I hadn't finished. We were sold. We joined the party that was already over there, filling it. Couldn't leave the Ironbreaker out though, so I somehow ended up with the Crown and started the Warband before also pulling in Dusana of the Oathkeepers. This was shaping up good. Some yelling on /1 got a few more interested parties and we had at Nebhorest.

The bloody vampire is a Lord. Secondly, he yanks out essences (we think he's doing it wrong as the text implies that he should be doing it to anyone he corpsifies) which form Champion level mobs. We got trounced.

So into the party we add Snowblind and Radiant as well as a few others. Things are looking up, I'm recognising names and getting used to balancing parties in the Warband. We head back and charge on in, merrily slaughtering our way up the tower. Just before Nebhoest we add the final Oathkeeper of the day, Nadrion. Swordmaster extrordinarie.
Commence spanking. Unfortunately Snowblind crashed, but he managed to return and was quickly picked back up before Nebby (as the wonderfully amusing Warrior Priestess Chelsea dubbed him) went down. 13 or so people, one Lord, seven GREEN bags.
Still not to be sniffed at.

Now normally when I have experienced impromptu parties, they fall apart after the supposed goal is met. Nebhorest was dead, influence gained, bags gotten. Instead someone made the golden suggestion... "Destruction owns the keep.. keep raid?"

Woo!

So that's what we did. The band charged in to the lake and took the BO's before setting sights on Fangbreaka Keep. /2 wasn't much help, but /1 did get us a few more warm bodies. Channel on Ostermark : OrderRvR also proved a good place to recruit and we soon found ourselves (after a bit of a travesty of a first attempt) on the second floor and pounding the Lord for all we were worth.

First note. Swordmasters can tank.
Second note. Don't try to disrupt a warband taking a keep if there are only three or four of you unless you're really that good or pick your moment right. Those that tried us got pasted.
Third note. If an Engineer looks at you with a grin and your on a balcony without any railing...yeah..bye bye. Punting Shamans should be a national sport.

The band, supposedly led by me, sucessfully took the keep and headed on back to the Warcamp. After some polling, we decided to head on to the Shadowlands to try our hand there on the very reasonable assumption that Destruction would likely get its act together and guard Barak Varr.
Now for some reason Snowblind, either to foster some working together or very honestly, thanked me for being the voice of the warband, giving direction.

If I really was that good a leader then I impart to you my wisdom.
Leading a keep taking band consists of pointing at a target and yelling charge. Pretending like moving zone was your idea when people seem restless. Listening to the main tanks and telling everyone to do what they say. That seems to be it, certainly it's all I did.

Unfortunately at that time (but not before handing over the reigns to Nadrion and Snowblind) I crashed but managed to get back in time to help assault (a second time) the lord of Spites Reach.

I like Elven keeps in T-2. They're open and airy. They let the warband spread out a bit. They have a nice winding ramp that lets us gently get upstairs. They also have a Sorceress with alot of knockback and a nasty AoE as a Lord and a clear circle on the ground that we discovered represents the full distance of her AoE nastiness.Also, my personal favourite. The pointless sticky up pointy bits on Dark Elf buildings. That stopped me being punted off the side quite nicely thank you.
After this we seemed to be in good shape. The Lord was pummeled into submission both in Spites Reach and in the Cascades of Thunder in Ellryion. Sadly we lost Fangbreaka but that's just an example of while one warband can take a keep, it takes more to keep it and still press on with the conquest.

For such a great evening I'd like to thank the Oathkeepers Legacy : Dusana, Sephorus, Sabina, me and Nadrion.
Also thanks to Snowblind, Radiant, Chelsea, Coors, Bergita, Nolodan (who won a gold bag if memory serves in Spites Reach) and Zeonox (sp?) who despite being an explody Bright Wizard, happily brought along his guilds banner for the extra buffs it afforded us.
Thanks also to the many many others who joined in my first proper taste of Keep attacking.

Final notes.
I enjoy using the ram. It amuses me.
Also concussion grenade is the finest example of Dwarven engineering expertise a Dwarf could lob and I adore it.

It was a fun filled evening. After the keep taking, there was Witch Huntering and an odd encounter for next time.

My Roster

What's Ardy been doing in WAR?

Not too many things, truth be told.

My main, a Rune Priest named Orrekai, is now sitting pretty at 22. I've found myself somewhat stalled while I think of a method to catch up with my friends in the Guild or snag someone elses coattails for a bit of levelling.

My secondary is an Engineer named Norri. Drunk, confused and convinced he's a scout. To the point where he has taken to hiding in trees and shooting at people. Recently he's hit level 20 and renown 16 or 17. Grenades are fun!

My final active character at the moment is a Witch Hunter. While browsing WarDB I spotted two powers in the core abilities of Witch Hunters that caught my eye, but of course it will be some time till I get to experiment with them.

The first is Booby Trap. Like how some players can buff siege engine damage or resistances, Witch Hunters can booby trap enemy weapons causing them damage any time they're used. I don't know about you but to me that sounds like it will be as funny as using Point Blank to launch people.
The second.... Ohhh the second. It will either be epic or rubbish. Pick Lock is available at level 30. What does it do you may ask?

You bolster yourself for 30 seconds, allowing you to bypass the defenses of an
enemy keep's postern door, porting you inside.

We currently have two Witch Hunters in the Oathkeepers Legacy and now there are two more. My friend Cryo and I have a duo coming up the levels. Your doors, watch them. We're going to come in and have some fun.

El stuff and my return

How's it going folks?

I've been rather quiet as of late. Partially due to a personal funk and partially due to a lack of inspiration.

So in the meantime, some bits and pieces.
GOA announces more jobs in Dublin. 400 more it seems.
They still didn't hire me (yes I'm still beating that dead donkey) but that's because of a snafu with Manpower Ireland and CPL. So anyone looking for a job there, hit the main site http://www.war-europe.com/ or google CPL.

I'm up to 22 on my Rune Priest (Im the slowest leveller of the lot) and 16 on my Engineer. Personally I love the Dwarf race, story and classes and can't wait to hear what we're getting for Melee DPS. Let me go on record as saying "No Slayers please". I know how to make them work, I just don't want them to.

The Hammer of War Screenshot Competition is ongoing still. You've only a week left to enter and there's that lovely 60 day Game Time card up for grabs. Anyone yet to enter, hop on over and check it out.

Finally, a silly tidbit.
On the character select screen when you can see all the characters on your server, select one. You can then rotate the character.
Rotate him too much, too fast and they will do the dizzy drunken stupor. Completely useless yes, but it entertained me.

Whose your Dawi?

I've been lax lately I know. Work has been a bit mad and there are other factors, as usual.

So for this entry, I'm going to ramble, babble and generally wander around my recent experiences in RvR Scenarios. Speaking of which Hammer of War has two of my guides up so far, with more to come as I get them done (sorry for the delay boss). Here and here.

First let's discuss reasonable expectation.

In Mourikains Temple, I tend not to follow the main path. All of this will be explained in a soon to go up guide. Suffice to say, in one of my recent runs, after getting dead I decided to try flank the main battle and make a nuisance of myself. As it happened at the same time an Ironbreaker on my team manged to kill the dude with the thing and snag it. He by some good fortune ran down the same way I was coming up. Hiding behind a wall to give myself a few seconds cover I started spamming heals. Rune of Shielding to give me some time to work while it absorbs damage. Heal over times, direct heals, an Oath Rune for extra resists.
Basically I did my job. I did what one can reasonably expect of my class.

The Ironbreaker died. Contrary to his complaint "Oh great I ran past a Rune Priest and no heals" I did heal. He died because the majority of available destruction chased him down and turned him into paste.
I'm good, but I'm not that good. Half a dozen? I'd have kept you going. More? It was always a losing proposition.

You can reasonably expect a tank to tank, a healer to heal and a Bright Wizard to cause trouble. Sometimes though, they hit the limit of what they can do. It isn't anyones fault, eventually it gets too much.

Before anyone ever yells at anyone in a scenario, think. Did they do everything you could reasonably expect? If so, bite down on the frustration.


Secondly. Short jokes.

I love playing my Dwarf. It's brought in a slight advantage for me. I can break line of sight easier. Lanky Elves are easy to spot. Manlings inevitably mark their position with fire or the favour of Sigmar. Dwarves though, Dwarves are small, unassuming and not flashy.
As a result I love Phoenix Gate (Guide coming soon).

I've captured the flag on more than one occasion and reported troop movements on many more by virtue of the fact, I can't be seen. That and people don't appear to look around much if you hold off on spamming attacks.

So to the people in that Phoenix Gate run a while back where we were stalemated. To those people who valiantly distracted the forces of Destruction while a lone Dwarf waltzed up to the flag. To those who watched my victory lap because short guys are hard to target (trust me, try pick out a Shaman in a group). I have one thing to say about my sucessful capture, the only capture that time, that won us the match.

Whose your Dawi?

Dear Pheonix Gate Players

Specifically the White Lions.

I don't know what's wrong with you. Until yesteday your lot always seemed competent.
Allow me to enlighten you. When you have captured the flag. We get points for running it back to our Shrine while we still have ours.
Running around like a twat and ignoring half the scenario screaming at you to go the other way is not good. Turn around. Go to our Shrine.
Don't shame your race by getting ganked and having an Ironbreaker have to do it. Or by being yelled at by two Rune Priests till you go where you're supposed to and then having to have one baby sit you in case you get stupid again.

It's capture the flag. Not "Look at me I'm glowy and pretty".

Gah.

~Ardy