They may be on strike

But we can still enjoy their commercials.  These Fox Sports NBA commercials are probably my favorite of all time.  They aired close to 10 years ago, but are still pretty funny. It's been a slow week gaming wise, so I'm going to punt and show some videos :)





Coppertone





Artificial Butter





Fresh like a can of Picante

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A Humble Merchant

I mentioned yesterday that I started to play X3: Terran Conflict.  For those that may not have heard of it before, it can be thought of as Elite on steroids or a single player Eve Online.  It's a massive universe sandbox which you can do pretty much whatever you want.

There are a number of ways to start the game, I chose Humble Merchant.  This gave me about 10k worth of credits, a freighter and a small scout.  One of the interesting aspects of X3 is that you can own and control a large number of ships.  This happens in several ways:  direct control, remote control and AI control.

Right now my Scout ship is sitting in the Argon Prime system allowing me to see commodity prices and inventory amounts.  Once I find myself someone selling satellites, I can deploy one of those in the system instead of using a ship.

In typical space trader fashion, I am buying low and selling high between Herron's Nebula.  There are probably 100+ more systems in the game controlled by a variety of races.  My current goal is to earn enough money to be able to afford an AI trading module.  This will allow my to designate a ship as a Sector Trader, and have it do what I'm doing on its own.

I finished up my trading yesterday with 120k credits.  Just to give you an idea on pricing, my ship probably costs ~250k.  An Argon Titan, which is one of the capital ships (yes, you can own them too), costs around 70 million credits. That doesn't include outfitting it with equipment.  You can also buy space stations.  I have a long way to go for that.  Plus, I'd also like to get myself a fighting ship so I can have some fun on that side of the game.

Interested?  As of this writing, Amazon has it for $6.77.

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Good and Bad

It seems I have hit a little drought in stuff to blog about.  It is bound to happen sometimes, that's when a true blogger is able to dig deep and come up with some kind of fluff to fill the day.  The strange part is, I am pretty busy playing games which should mean I have something to write.

Good.  A good chunk of my time has been spent playing two new games.  I like them quite a bit and would love to tell you about them.

Bad.  Both games are in beta and covered by a NDA.  One of which is, of course, Wrath of Heroes.  Sadly, it is in between beta phases at the moment.  The other, as it happens, is another BioWare game: Star Wars: The Old Republic.  That's all I can really say about that.

Being a gamer and blogger can be a bit tough at times like these.  I really want to talk about the games, but if I do I can't play them.  So here I sit in blogging limbo unable to talk about what I'm playing.  I suppose it is a good problem to have in the scheme of things.

I do have something interesting to post involving Warhammer Online soon.  Right now BioWare seems to have a monopoly on my gaming time.  Bootae got me to install X3: Terran Conflict yesterday which is a huge game, so we'll see if I can get into it with my limited time.  I do love X games, but they can eat up more time than a MMO.

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Use those Renown Abilities

Warhammer Online's 1.4.4 patch brought the ram into focus for keep sieges.  Knock out the ram and defenders can get a big boost to help push back their would-be conquerors.  One of the best ways to take out a ram is to use siege weapons.  To go with that, renown abilities received some import changes, continue on for more details.

If you are anything like me, renown abilities were removed from my hot-bars long ago.  With the changes in 1.4.4, they have made a return.  All of them have been changed so that they are actually useful.  Gone are long cooldowns and now most of them stack (to a certain extent).  Lets take a peak at some of them.

Bolster War Engine.  Siege Targetted buff. Increases damage done by that siege engine by 2% for 10 seconds.

Now has a 100ft range and 30 second cooldown.  It also stacks 5 times (I think).  That means you can increase your siege damage by 10%, which could mean an extra 1k damage per shot.  That will help take down a ram quicker.

Reinforce War Engine. You heal the ram for 750 health over the next 5 seconds.

This also has a 30 second cooldown now and is an instant cast.  It will also stack with other players ram heals. It will help keep your ram alive longer, so be sure to break it out when it is ready.

Deflect Oil.  10% reduction in damage taken by Oil siege engines. You will also protect two other group mates within 30 feet. Only one effect of this type may be on a player at a time.

This ability is no longer channeled, so feel free to cast it.

Siege Wrecker.  You sabotage a siege ram, causing the ram to deal 98% of the original damage for the next 10 seconds.

This ability now has a 30 second cooldown and will stack with other similar buffs.  Also note that it has a 65ft range.  It will reduce the damage that the enemy ram is doing, giving you more time to take it down.

This has just been a sampling of the ability changes.  You might want to look through your ability list and see for yourself.  On their own, they may not change the course of the battle.  However, if you and all of your allies are using the abilities, they can become quite potent.

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The Jedi Gambit

Since the release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic has been announced, I can't help but start to get a little excited about the game.  We still have a long way to go until December 20th, but the end is now in sight.  One of the sites involving SWTOR which I especially enjoy is The Jedi Gambit.

The Jedi Gambit is run by Rackham.  If that name is familiar, you are correct.  He used to do some great comics for Warhammer Online.  Since then he has started to do the same for The Old Republic.  

The Jedi Gambit.  The title of the site is also the name of his full fledged comic strip.  This isn't just another web comic, it's pretty much a digital comic book.  He just completed the first issue, so now is a great time to check it out.  

I am very impressed and jealous at what Rackham has put together.  The art is top notch and the story is intriguing.  My version would be stick figures speaking in bullet points.  If you are hungry for Star Wars content, this site should be on your list to visit.  

Contest.  In a case of good timing, Rackham is also running a contest.  He will draw the winner a portrait of their SWTOR character.  All you have to do is tweet a special message.  His portraits are amazing, so I encourage you to enter.  I will be! 

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News from the Front: TREEmendous

I've decided to use the News from the Front for Wrath of Heroes, as well as Warhammer Online.  There are only so many post title variations of Update, Beta and News that I could make.  Not too much going on with WAR at the moment, so this one is mostly about Wrath.

New Hero.  From the WoH Facebook page we have news of a new hero for this weekends test.

Kaelin the Dryad shifts between summer and winter forms which alter her powers. Which role is she going to play in the fight?

 It's a tree!  That explains the groan worthy title of this post...

Beta Times. We are still on a limited beta schedule, with this one being more limited than usual.  Wonder what happened to Sunday?  We do get an extra long 11 hour test today though.

• Thursday, 09/29, 4pm – 6pm EDT (8pm – 10pm GMT)
• Friday, 09/30, 10am – 9pm EDT (2pm – 1am GMT)
• Saturday, 10/01, 1pm – 5pm EDT (5pm – 9pm GMT)

The Return of Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs ( former CEO of Mythic ) is back on the scene it seems.  He's started up a new company, City State Entertainment. 

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/37562/ExMythic_CoFounder_Mark_Jacobs_Reveals_New_Casual_Studio.php

http://www.forbes.com/sites/traceyjohn/2011/09/30/former-mythic-ceo-mark-jacobs-starts-city-state-entertainment/

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Tier 7 Armor Sets - Round 4

Today's post is a continuation of a series about the upcoming Tier 7 appearance armor for Warhammer Online.  We still don't know exactly how these will be obtained.  Since we are in the 1.4.5 patch cycle, we might hear about it soon.  Continue on for a look at some of the new sets.

Witch Hunter

I am liking the new Witch hunter set.  Although, it looks like he is going to go rob a train out in the Old West.  Still, that is cool.

Zealot

Can't say that I am a fan of this one.  I think it's the multitude of feathers combined with the skirt.

Blackguard

This set is pretty decent.  I think if he was carrying a shield or pole-arm i'd appreciate it a bit more.

Tier 7 Armor Sets - Round 1 - Bright Wizard, Chosen, Engineer
Tier 7 Armor Sets - Round 2 - Disciple of Khain, Knight of the Blazing Sun, Slayer, Witch Elf
Tier 7 Armor Sets - Round 3 - Marauder, Squig Herder, Shadow Warrior
Tier 7 Armor Sets - Round 4 - With Hunter, Zealot, Blackguard

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Dominion Impressions

This week, League of Legends released their new gameplay mode called Dominion.  Basically, it is a capture and hold map that supports 5 vs 5.  This is a pretty big departure from the standard base destroying gameplay LoL and its friends are known for.  Continue on for my thoughts about this new mode.

To sum it up, I like it quite a bit.

Length.  Dominion matches usually only last between 15 and 20 minutes.  Summoners Rift, on the other hand, can last over an hour.  Even Twisted Treeline can last 45 minutes.  So if you are short on time, you can still get a Dominion match in.

Stress.  Maybe it's just me, but I find normal LoL matches to be pretty stressful.  The time investment is not trivial, and players take it very seriously.  The last thing I want to do is waste mine or others people game time. That does not happen with Dominion, since the matches are short.  If it goes badly, no big deal since it will be over very soon.

Community.  So far, players seem much friendlier in Dominion.  And by friendlier, I mean not raging asses.  I think it is because of the two points above.  There are still some troubled players, but much less than other matches.

Practice.  Another thing I like about Dominion's short matches is that it provides a great opportunity to get a feel for a new champion.  It is fast paced, so you will likely get to rank all of your abilities and obtain advanced items.  I tried Maokai a bit yesterday, and I feel much more comfortable with him after a couple Dominion matches.

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Survival of the Fittest

This is a post I have been meaning to write ever since Wrath of Heroes was announced.  Other topics kept coming up to discuss, so I pushed it back.  I would not exactly say that the arrival of WoH met with a warm reception with the Warhammer Online community.

My initial reaction was not a very positive one, as I'm sure many of you can understand.  I wanted to hear about new and great things for WAR Live, not that all of that was going into a new game.  Of course, none of that should detract from Wrath of Heroes.  It's a great game in its own right, but it is not WAR.

One worry I had was that Wrath of Heroes is a big success, it could be detrimental to WAR.  It won't make sense to spend resources on the game if WoH is that much more profitable.  Sure, success will be great for BioWare Mythic and that's something I'd like to see.  But, I can't help but be a little selfish though and think about how it will effect the game I play the most.

The truth is, if Wrath of Heroes beats out WAR for resources because of its success, then it deserves to be the game that goes on.  Warhammer Online is over 3 years old now, so it has had ample time.  I won't argue over how much support it's received or decisions that have been made because it makes no difference at this point.

I really do hope that WAR can keep going on for a long time to come.  It was clear when we visited the HQ that the Mythic team feels the same.  Feelings are not business though.

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Streaming

This weekend I tried out something new, streaming live game footage.  I've always enjoyed it when Mykiel did it for WAR, so I figured I should see what it is all about.  Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results.  I've only done the very basics, but you have to start somewhere.

I like doing videos for the games I play, but usually they are only for special occasions.  Streaming, if practical, seems like a simpler way to do video work.  To host the streams, I chose Own3d.tv.  I picked that mainly because I saw fellow blogger Tarelther use it a few days earlier.  Looked nice and clean from a design standpoint.

To do the actual streaming, I downloaded XSplit.  It is very easy to use and doesn't involve any virtual webcams.  It's free in beta at the moment.  It's also what Own3d primarily uses, so it worked like a charm. After fiddling with the settings, I was up and going.  The first thing I streamed was WAR, of course.

On the sidebar, you can see an indicator whether the stream in online or off.  I put this together with some javascript, so it should change automatically when I start streaming.  The stream itself can be found at: http://www.own3d.tv/Werit

Below is the stream, which was easily uploaded to youtube.  The first few seconds are garbled, but it clears up.





Overall, what do you think about the quality (be sure to try HD)?  It's pretty much the same as seen live.  I don't plan on uploading every stream to to youtube, not sure anyone wants to watch an hour of someone play a game.

I'm not quite sure what I want to do with streaming.  I see two possibilities.  One is to just stream on special occasions.  PTS sessions or new games would be a good time to stream.  The other option is to stream whenever I play a game.  I've been watching my bandwidth and both seem feasible.

In the future I plan on hooking up the microphone to give some commentary.  I'm also thinking about streaming some non-traditional games, like the strategy game Sengoku.  Not sure how fun it will be to watch though.

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Career Builder Update

Warhammer Online's recent 1.4.4 patch brought with it a good number of career changes.  Over the weekend, I took some time and updated the career builder to reflect them.  The major changes involved the Engineer, Magus and Shadow Warrior.  The renown abilities also needed a good bit of updating.

Renown Abilities.  Pretty much every siege ability had its cooldown lowered and its effect improved.  Many of them also stack, so be sure to use these in your next keep siege!

Engineer.  Flak Jacket is now an instant, hooray!  Landmine is now instant, double hooray!  Shock Grenade replaced Field repair.  This new skill will un-stagger your allies, as long as you are not staggered.  Great ability, which I have used on a number of occasions.

Magus.  See Engineer (except for that silly disc).

Shadow Warrior.  I don't play one, they are Elves.  They did get some improvements, like a new escape tool in Whirling Pin which will knock them away from an enemy.  Sounds pretty cool I guess.  Engineer should have the same, but with a massive amount of explosives.

Squig Herder.  See the Shadow Warrior.  These buggers did get a new ability on Shrapnel Arrer, lowers the range of the targets abilities to 75%.  This is REALLY annoying as a ranged class.  Why can I suddenly not hit my target, oh, I'm out of range but no one moved.

The career builder is at: http://builder.arsenalofwar.com/

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Wrath of Heroes Beta News

The weekend is approaching, which means it is time for another Wrath of Heroes Beta session!  The last one was the best one yet.  It had a new map to play on which was a lot of fun.  Not sure what this weeks test will hold, but I guess we will find out soon!  I'm hoping for more heroes to kill with.

So what's new with Wrath of Heroes this week?

New Heroes.  Update from Facebook:

From the cold and cruel Naggaroth we have Sorceress Ilanya, the Poisoned Bloom. From the dead lands of Nehekhara comes Lich Priest Amenadresh, Steward of the Sands.

Wiki.  The 'official' Wrath of Heroes wiki page is now operational.  It has Hero information and the beta times.  It even has a countdown to the beta session which should solve all of the timezone confusion.  

Beta Times. This weekend will have the most Wrath of Heroes yet, including a 12 hour session on Sunday.  Ugh, I'd hate to be the one who has to turn on the servers at 5am.  I know one thing for sure, you will not see me in game then either.

• Thursday, 09/22     4pm – 6pm EDT (8pm – 10pm UTC)
• Friday, 09/23     10am – 12pm EDT (2pm – 4pm UTC)
• Friday, 09/23     7pm – 9pm EDT (11pm – 1am UTC)
• Saturday, 09/24     1pm – 5pm EDT (5pm – 9pm UTC)
• Sunday, 09/25     5am – 5pm EDT (9am – 9pm UTC)

Seems like we are getting closer to WoH all day, every day.

Games Day.  Wrath of Heroes will be playable at this years UK Games Day in Birmingham.  It marks the first public showing of the game.  Should be a fun time, this game will work will in that setting, especially when you only have a short time to play. 

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More Keep Defense Changes

Just because the 1.4.4 patch has been released doesn't mean that the WAR team is done with it.  Late last week they made a few more changes regarding the keep defense changes.  How do they affect keep sieges?  Continue past the break for the details.

Most of the changes below came about because of player feedback on the forums.  They do read them and act on feedback.

----------------------------

1) Foreman in T3 and T4 have been moved to the outer wall, into the room directly above the outer door *

2) The time it takes for Foreman to process a New Door order has been increased to 90 seconds

3) Messaging has been added that will go out to everyone in the area alerting them to:

when a new door has been ordered

• an update at every 30 sec mark of the process
• a notification when the Foreman's ordering has been halted
• a notification when the Foreman restarts the ordering process from the beginning
• if the Foreman was killed while processing an order
• if the Foreman successfully completes processing the order

4) The Foreman will now enter his cower state when the keep door is attacked by a ram **

* Having the Foreman in this location will force defenders to be more mobile throughout the keep area, rather than turtle in the inner keep. It will also make the Foreman far more exposed, and accessible to attackers, so actively defending him will become more important.

** While an order for a new door cannot be made while there is a ram active, an order already in progress does not get canceled if a ram is placed at the inner door after the fact. This line item is intended to make it far more difficult to complete the process without stopping it completely.

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Moving the Foreman is a pretty big deal and one I'm on the fence about.  Keep sieges generally fall into two categories:  lopsided and even.   In the first case, the defenders are heavily outnumbered.  Having the Foreman inside the inner keep gave them a better chance of defending him.

In the case of an even battle, the defenders are more able to protect the Foreman since only a subset of the enemy force can pick the lock.  Attackers could also use Rat Ogre's to toss players onto the keep.  In any case, the defenders were in a much better spot and could get a new door up more easily.

With the new changes, an outnumbered realm does not have much of a chance to defend their Foreman.  The keeps are just too small to make an attacking realm split to deal with the foreman.  This changes if the defenders are able to bring down the ram, they should have the power to push back the attackers and reclaim the Foreman.  That part I like, but this patch didn't really help the outnumbered defenders take down the ram.

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Ekrund Campaign: Day 1

Since we are celebrating the 3rd anniversary of Warhammer Online, I thought I'd take a look back.  Below is the first post I made when WAR launched.  It's still the character I play today, three years later.  It's nice to think about how big the game was back then, when everything was new.  This was originally posted on Monday, September 15, 2008.




My non-beta adventure in Warhammer Online officially began on Sunday with the Collectors Edition Head Start. Originally, they had planned to start it at 7am EDT, then 1pm, then 12. That worked out fine for me, as I did not have to get up early or anything.

Me and my fellow CoW's logged in as soon as the servers un-grey'd. I was able to secure 2 names I wanted, so that is good. I was on the Order side and had no queuing issues that others have had.

A recap of what I did:

• Werit the Dwarven Engineer arrives in Ekrund to take up the Oathbearer cause.
• Achieved battle Rank 5 and Renown Rank 4.
• Did most of the starting quests.
• Did the first PQ a couple times and maximized my Chapter 1 influence. Best finish was #3.
• Found a Plunger! It told me it was not secret enough and to go find others.
• Read through all of my Tome entries. Very neat stuff in there.
• Picked up Scavenging and Talisman making.
• Did a few Gates of Ekrund scenarios.
• Guild reached Rank 2 when I logged off.
• Total play time was about 2.5 hours.

It was pretty fun and problem free. I am trying to take the game slow and stop to smell the roses. The changes to the Engineer class have been nice. I feel like I am more dangerous in scenarios now. The new turret animations are nice!

That about covers it for Day 1.

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Warhammer Online Turns 3

Has it been three years already?  It's hard to believe WAR is celebrating its 3rd anniversary.  Since it is a special occasion, the Mythic team has some goodies for its players.  Don't worry, it is not a Triple Aegis.  Read on for more details about WAR's 3rd anniversary.

Bonus!  Until this coming Sunday, there will be bonus XP and Renown given.  I think it is 50%,  which when combined with the other ways to boost gain adds up nicely.  I took advantage of it this weekend and got myself another renown rank.

Gifts.  What would a birthday be without some presents?  These should be available to players who've played for three years.  I'm not sure when they will actually be available in game though, hopefully soon.

• Jack O Lantern Vanity Pet – An exclusive pet for players that is available in four different colors.  This awesome seasonally themed pet is available only through the veteran rewards program.
• Endless Chaos Black Dye – This item will give you an endless supply of Chaos Black dye to deck out your armor in style!
• Endless Blazing Orange Dye – This item will give you an endless supply of Blazing Orange dye to make you stand out in battle, plus the color is perfect for the season!

I'm looking forward to these rewards.  They may not provide a bonus like other anniversary gifts had, but these have character.  My Engineer will look like a well armed pumpkin soon!  The vanity pet looks nice too, looking forward to seeing it animated.

Then there is the end of the letter...

After looking at the past and the present, let’s take a quick look at the future to conclude this note. End of next month the demon moon will rise again and Fortresses are looming on the horizon. And next year we are about encounter bloodlust in an additional way.

No clue what that last sentence means, but I am looking forward to the reintroduction Forts!  We also have the return of Grovod Cavern at some point soon too.  

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Wrath of Heroes Update

The Wrath of Heroes team has been very busy over the last few weeks. If you have been following their Facebook page, you have a pretty good idea of what has been going on in Beta. If you are like me and do not have an account, then it might not be as apparent.  What have they been up to?

Heroes. Four new Heroes have been brought into the beta:

• Nethys the Vampire
• Korelei the Witch Elf
• Volrik the Chaos Marauder
• Ikkrik the Skaven Gutter Runner

The heroes are a big part of the experience and they have been a lot of fun.

New Map.  During this last beta session, Mythic introduced a new map called the Arena.  

Schedule.  There are several test sessions this weekend.

• Thursday 4pm - 6pm EDT (8pm - 10pm UTC)
• Friday 10am - 12pm EDT (2pm - 4pm UTC)
• Friday 7pm - 9pm EDT (Friday 11pm - Saturday 1am UTC)
• Saturday 1pm - 5pm EDT (5pm - 9pm UTC)

They even created a nice map to help with any timezone confusion.

The NDA is still in effect, so I cannot say much more.  It's a shame too, as there is plenty more to talk about!  You can sign up for beta here, they are inviting more people all of the time.

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Nethys the Crimson

Nethys is one of the more interesting heroes in Wrath of Heroes.  She is the first major departure from WAR Live careers in that she is a vampire.  This isn't your Twilight kind of vampire either, she's all about melee and self healing.  Continue on for more details about this hero and a video.





Nethys Ahlbricht was one of several children born to a tradesman’s family in Talabecland. A comely child, she was picked out by the Lady Krueger to serve at her manor. There she was subjected whatever horrors could be devised by the lady’s three daughters. They had very active imaginations. There was no safety among the servants either, for no one was willing to call the wrath of their mistress down upon their head by intervening on her behalf. When assigned to the chambers of a foreign visitor, Nethys leapt at the chance of freedom.

The beautiful woman listened to her sordid story and offered her a choice: one kiss and Nethys would have the power to make them all pay. No man would ever hurt her again. She would never age, never know death. Her loyalty would belong solely to She Who Reigns atop the Silver Pinnacle; for the rest of her existence she would serve the Queen of Mysteries without hesitation or failure. Nethys agreed.

Nethys specializes in Seduction, recouping her health by drinking the blood of her enemies. Once she has her fangs in an opponent she will Dominate them and infect them with her Tainted Blood.

Strategy

• Constant healing from Siphoned Blood makes Nethys very survivable in one-on-one fights, as long as she can get close enough to cast it.
• Always remember that Quickblood also gives a damage boost in addition to its speed boost.  Even when you're already in close combat, cast it for the damage increase!
• Domination is best cast immediately before Tainted Blood, increasing the chance that your highest-damage spell will critically hit.
• Seduction works best when you coordinate with your group.  Make sure that your allies aren't casting area damage, or else the Stagger will immediately break!

Find out more at the Wrath of Heroes Facebook page.

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Pets of 1.4.4

Along with the 1.4.4 patch, two new packs were released to the Origin store.  Both involve new vanity pets.  One pack is just for show, the other is of some use to the player.  This one is sure to cause a bit of controversy as well, so lets take a look at the new pets.

Stat Booster Pet

Let's start out with the new booster pet.  Order gets the Drumming Bear and Destruction gets the Tzeentch Familiar.   A quick peek at the files reveals that these pets give players a 5% stat increase to one of the following depending on color:

Weapon Skill, Wounds, Toughness or Initiative

I am pretty disappointed that Mythic went this route for two reasons.

1)  It's a straight up power increase for money.  It's true we have another pet that increases speed by 3%, but that is more indirect compared to a stat bump.  Is 5% a lot?  Not really, but it isn't trivial either.  If a player has 1000 wounds, this will give an extra 50 (500 hp).

That's not too shabby.  They could also free up one or two talisman slots since they are getting wounds elsewhere.  Three of the four stats are defensive, but then they include Weapon Skill which has an offensive component.  That leads me into the second reason.

2)  The new pet benefits some careers more than others.  Tanks will generally have more Wounds, Toughness and Initiative than other careers, so they will get a bigger stat boost.  Melee and other physical DPS will usually have more Weapon Skill, so they will get more benefit.

You can find the Booster Pet Pack at the Origin Store.  It is $9.99 at the time of this writing.

Drumming Bear

Tzeentch Familiar

Personality Pack 3

The second pack they released includes Barber Shop Tokens, Trophy tokens and some more vanity pets.

This pack can be found at the Origin Store. At the time of this writing, it was $9.99.


Both realms get:

Imp Skeleton

Griffonling

Order gets:

Phoenix

Bulldog

Destruction gets:

Armored Mite

Ravenspawn

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1.4.4 Goes Live

Today, the Warhammer Online servers will go down and be brought up with the 1.4.4 patch.  Downtime is expected to start at 8am EDT and last until 1:30pm EDT. So, what do you need to know about when the servers come back up?  Read on for the details.

Engineers, Magus, Shadow Warriors and Squig Herders will likely have their career mastery trees reset, so be sure to visit the trainer.  Engineers and Magus will probably have to purchase their new anti-stagger ability as well.

The new keep defense system will be active.  Be sure to protect or kill that ram, depending on your battlefield situation.  Will it slow down the campaign and bring out the defenders?  Only time will tell.

I will update the WARdrobe career builder once templates return to the PTS.  I'm hoping that will happen this week or next.

The scenario lineup has changed, here is what will be available in Tier 4.

• Nordenwatch
• Mourkain Temple
• Tor Anroc
• Temple of Isha
• Khaine's Embrace
• Howling Gorge

Gates of Ekrund is now 6 vs 6 in tiers 2 and 3. That should make scenarios pop more for these tiers.  Mythic also reduced the amount of XP rewarded so players can obtain more renown before out-leveling the tier.  

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1.4.4 Keep Defenses

In the upcoming 1.4.4 patch, a new system has been added for successful keep defenses.  In the current version of the game, nothing really happens when defenders push attackers back.  The door stays down and the fight continues.  That's about to change though, read on for the details.

A successful keep defense is declared when the defenders destroy a deployed ram.  Since the ram is now a major focus, bugs relating to its destruction have been fixed.  That means siege engines should no longer be able to make quick work of them.  Rams have also received some armor plating, which takes the form of a number of absorb buffs.

Once the ram is destroyed, all defenders in the area receive a Heroic Defender buff.

The Heroic Defender Buff grants the following bonuses: Movement speed increase, incoming damage reduction, high resistance to incoming critical, increased chance of outgoing critical, and finally increased morale and AP gain.

On the PTS, this buff lasts 1 minute and will be removed when players depart the keep area.  The buff should enable defenders to drive back the attackers.  There is no extra renown, instead the buff should help you get more by slaughtering your enemies.

A new Keep Foreman NPC now resides on the first floor of the keep.  He sells wood for repair and the ability to construct an outer door.  Both cost Ordinance, the final prices have yet to be determined.  Each piece of wood will repair the door by 1%.  However, it does not stack so you can only carry a limited amount.  The door must also not be in a combat state.  The Foreman is able to be killed though, so you might want to watch his back.

Some other important pieces of info from the patch notes:

If a New Outer Keep Door is purchased, the Keep Foreman will attempt to place the door. However as they are construction workers and not warriors, they will stop work on the door if an enemy is nearby or attacking them. They will return to work if the enemy leaves or is dispatched.

If the Keep Foreman is killed before the door has been deployed, a new purchase will need to be made. No refunds on uncompleted construction! Defend your foreman. 

If the Keep Foreman is able to successfully deploy a New Outer Keep Door, the keep siege will push back to the "defend outer door" stage. When this occurs, the inner door is not repaired automatically, but players can use bundles of wood to repair it.

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Tier 7 Armor Sets - Round 3

At some point in the future, Mythic will be introducing a new set of armor for each of the 24 careers.  These will most likely just be for appearance rather than stats.  Still no word on how they will make it into the game, but as rewards for the upcoming Fortress changes seem like a good bet.  Continue on for a look at them.

Marauder

Not too shabby, one of the better Marauder sets in my opinion.  Times must be hard for them, can't even afford a second shoulder piece.

Squig Herder

Small characters, like Goblins and Dwarves are usually hit or miss.  There is only so much space to use.  I think this once turned out very well.  Someday, my SH will be 40.

Shadow Warrior

I actually like this set even though it is for an Elf.  The quiver thing on his back is pretty cool looking.  I'd probably dye it something less elfy though.



Tier 7 Armor Sets - Round 1 - Bright Wizard, Chosen, Engineer
Tier 7 Armor Sets - Round 2 - Disciple of Khain, Knight of the Blazing Sun, Slayer, Witch Elf
Tier 7 Armor Sets - Round 3 - Marauder, Squig Herder, Shadow Warrior
Tier 7 Armor Sets - Round 4 - With Hunter, Zealot, Blackguard

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1.4.4 PTS Events

With the release of Warhammer Online's 1.4.4 patch coming up fast, Mythic will be holding a couple of PTS events to test out some of the changes.  The new Keep Defense system in particular will be put through its paces.  Continue on for more details about the events.

There are 2 scheduled events:

• Thursday, 09/08 at 7:00 pm EDT (Friday 1:00 am CEST)
• Friday, 09/09 at 3:00 pm EDT (9:00 pm CEST)

They are also enabling character transfers to the PTS from the live servers for this test.  Since the changes involve some RvR currency, they'd like for players to use what they have on live.

This is a great chance to catch some bugs and just see how the system works.  I'm going to try and at least make one of the events.

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1.4.4 Patch Notes

The patch notes for Warhammer Online's 1.4.4 patch have been posted!  They come in at a bit under 3,000 words making this a fairly hefty update.  The big ticket item with this update is a new Keep Defense system and the return of the Wild Hunt Live Event.  Read on for some of the other highlights.

Wild Hunt.  The Wild Hunt Live Event is back, and that means that the Hunters Vale dungeon will be open too all tiers.  

Keep Defense.  Successfully defending your keep will now give you a boost to assist driving the enemy back from your gates.  There are some big changes here, so I will cover them in a separate post.  

Vanity Pets.  Mythic continues to release their backlog of vanity pets.  The new Personality Pack 3 will include a Bulldog, Pheonix, Ravenspawn, Griffonling, Imp Skeleton and Mite.  They are also releasing a Booster pet pack which gives some sort of utility.  This one includes the Drumming Bear and Tzeentch Familiar. 

Scenarios.  There will be a new scenario lineup when the patch goes live.  

RvR Changes.  Players with siege equipment will no longer be able to use aerial bombers. Also, when resource carriers successfully deliver their goods, the amount the keep door is healed is affected by Against All Odds.

Career Changes.  The Engineer and Magus careers received some improvements, including a unique Stagger cleanse ability.  Shadow Warriors also received some major changes, and to a lesser extent, so did the Squig Herder. 

Bug Fixes.  This patch also contains a large amount of bug fixes to quests and other content.  

Currently, the patch is set to release on September 13th.  The PTS should also be up soon.  You can find the notes at: http://herald.warhammeronline.com/patchnotes/index.php?id=2011_1-4-4

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Under the Bus

I try to avoid most of the fuss the Internet likes the chew on, but this one deserves some kind of response.  A week or so ago at PAX, BioWare Mythic held a panel to talk about Wrath of Heroes.  It seems this video has generated quite a bit of controversy.

Honestly, the fact that this developed into something negative was a complete surprise to me.  I watched the video when it came out, wrote down some notes for the blog posts and that was that.  Today, Massively has a post saying Mythic is throwing Warhammer Online under the bus.  Oddly enough, this is the most coverage WoH has received from Massively, other than a 2 paragraph blurb about its announcement.  

I usually like what Syp writes at Massively and find it to be on the level.  So what caused him to say this?  In the video, Paul Barnett (Creative Director of Mythic)  talks about aspects of WAR (and MMO's in general) and used words like 'boring crap' and 'dull.'  

Why didn't this register with me?  Context.  It seemed obvious to me that Paul was talking about the differences between Wrath of Heroes and WAR (and other MMO's).  The new game is aimed at players who may not want to take the time to do a lengthy progression or min-max gear and abilities.  And that is the group he was talking to.  

The panel was also given in a fun/excited tone, not a serious one where words like 'crap' would have a different connotation. That's all part of context though.

With that context in mind, I still don't see how it is throwing WAR under the bus.  His statements don't affect my enjoyment of progression and min-maxing, I still like them.  Telling people who may not enjoy those aspects that they are not present in Wrath of Heroes is fine with me.  

Could his words have been better chosen? Maybe. Eventually though, this just leads to the path of no interaction and dry press-releases.  That'll sure be fun.

That's enough of this serious stuff, looks like the 1.4.4 patch notes might be out today. 

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Wrath of Heroes for WAR Players

Over the weekend, the first round of beta tests for Wrath of Heroes was held.  Since it was the first, the numbers were relatively limited.   It was still a lot of fun.  Sadly, the NDA prevents any real details.  If you are a WAR player, you may be able to see for yourself soon.

Kai, the Community Guy, posted that all WAR subscribers will be invited into the Wrath of Heroes beta.  I'm not sure if that means the tests coming up this weekend, but it sounds like it should be soon.  This was also mentioned in a Facebook update:

If you are an active subscriber of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning your invitation is coming soon. We will ask every active subscriber of WAR to join us in the next few WoH beta tests. The next one is scheduled for the end of next week.

Please note: In order for us to identify you, you have to be signed up for WoH Beta with the same EA account you use for WAR.

Speaking of WAR (Warhammer Online Live as it is called), expect a flurry of new posts about it soon.  The 1.4.4 patch should be hitting the PTS this week, so I'll be covering that.  There is a lot going into the new Keep Defense system, which means it should be very interesting.

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