Sun, Sand, and….Vulture Lord?

The World of Warhammer is about to embark on a sandy adventure that will send players to the desert lands of the Necropolis of Zandri, also called The Land of the Dead. This is the final part in the free expansion, Call to Arms.

When the patch was on the test server, I thought I’d play in the sandbox that is the Necropolis of Zandri and jot down some of the things I saw while I was there. I won’t tell everything I saw, because some details are better left a surprise, but I will leave this word of caution: Watch where you walk and what you attack.

On to the details such as getting to the sunny land. Control is determined by whoever is the first to collect ten thousand (10,000) Expedition Resources across their realm. That seems like a lot, but when you consider that if two thousand people were to turn in five Resources each, then we would have control. The Expedition Resources drop out in Tier 4 Open RvR and city sieges/captures; and they are turn-ins to Expedition Quartermasters at all War Camps, Refugee Camps, and next to the Flight Master in the capital cities. Players may watch the numbers for the control on a meter available on the large scale map of the Necropolis. Untouchable control of the zone will go to the winning realm for half an hour, but after that, the resources will be accepted again and the opposing realm may gain access and interrupt exploration. But be warned! The Expedition Resources only last 2 hours from the time you picked up the most recent resource. So make sure you keep an eye on the timer so you don’t end up with a bag full of dust!

Once in the Necropolis, players zone into a safe haven that has every amenity needed to pillage the land. Healers, Crafting merchants, Armor merchants, Weapon merchants, Quartermasters, everything necessary to successfully kill the Vulture Lord, the Big Bad of the zone. Players can choose to stay here and wait for the opposing realm to gain control, because it is possible to invade your enemies’ instances and get their phat lewtz; or they may choose to go out and explore the Necropolis and acquire their own lewtz. The first Public Quests are simple enough, even if the players participating are not yet Rank 40, as the mobs that spawn are approximately 35, give or take a level. One roams the beginning pathway, so be wary when you walk and there seem to be a sense of calm about.  There are several Public Quests that roam the map, so if you wander into one, don’t expect it to be there the next time you go looking for it!

Completion of each Public Quests will award participating players with a Glyph and Scarabs. Glyphs are needed to enter instances, though each instance requires different glyphs. The instances hide Baby Bads that are semi-difficult, but far less than had one entered the Tomb of the Vulture Lord, which I did not have the chance to see. The Scarabs are akin to the Medallions that currently drop in RvR, and they allow players to purchase armor, weapons, and crafting materials. The weapons are a little bit different than the average pieces. They have just one stat, and three talisman slots that allow for maximum customization. The armor pieces are a part of a new set, the Tyrant set. This set falls in between the Invader and Warlord from what my information leads me to believe.

After completing the glyph sets, and farming the Necropolis till your pillaging heart’s content, there’s the Tomb of the Vulture Lord. I don’t know much about it other than pay attention to the big statue when you go in because he’ll be a bit more…lively when you come back out. He’s the Big Bad for the Necropolis, and is the guy you want to beat for the really phat lewtz 😀

Enjoy the Land of the Dead, and watch where you’re wandering!

For everyone’s viewing pleasure, I took screenshots and you can view them here

My Knight’s Quest for my guild

I was told to write up how scenarios relate to fortress takes. Here’s what I wrote 😀

A fortress siege is comprised of many different elements; all play a vital role in a successful capture of the enemy’s fortress. Scenarios only contribute a small tithe of the effort necessary, but how they affect the rest of that effort is what makes them an absolute necessity in Realm vs. Realm.

A scenario is a testing field, a renown farm (if won), and an experience farm (again, if won).  Scenarios are excellent places to try out new specializations before going out to the open battlefield in large scale Realm vs. Realm. They are also a quick way to get some renown and experience. Winning a Tier 4 scenario at level 36 can usually yield around four to six thousand renown and eight to fifteen thousand experience; which when hitting a plateau in leveling, can help out a lot. Fortress takes require both defenders and attackers to be level 37 and higher, so both sides need help with all the leveling ranks and renown possible.

Another benefit of scenarios in relation to fortress takes, is how the attacking realm gets to the fortress, because without getting there, it’s kind of difficult to actually attack it. Scenarios contribute approximately forty percent of a zone capture, and in Tier 4 that can amount to three percent for a solid win.  In a zone that is close to being locked, then three percent every fifteen minutes (based on winning of course) so it could definitely be a help. And if the fight is at a zone that borders a fortress, the quicker the lock, the better; so scenarios? Definitely a bit of a help towards fortress takes.

Roses are Red….

Kinda fitting that I’m updating about the live event on Valentine’s Day (we’ll just ignore the fact that it’s been the 15th of February for about 23 minutes, ‘kay?) but meh. I’ve been playing my bright wizard in the live event and in the course of two days (was busy for the rest lol) I managed to finish all of the influence, and all but one task to finish the whole thing. Killing 10 Keep Lords in T4 on Ungrim has been difficult lately because…well, Destruction has been kicking our asses to be frank. When I logged last night they had Riekwald completely locked, and Eataine contested. I fully expect that when I log on after getting done here, to see that Altdorf has been taken. If that happens, then I doubt we’ll see Order accomplish much till Destro gets bored with it. And I’ll be on either Drakwald (hideaway Order Server) or Iron Rock (Destro Server) leveling my level 7 Magus. But shhhh don’t tell anyone.  😛

In slightly brighter news, I’m working on moving a few toons towards Tiers 2 and 3 (my engineer and shadow warrior) so we’ll see if a caster-by-heart can handle melee dps….. 😀

Till then!

~Kira

No words can account for it……

I most certainly did not want to have my second blog be about such devastating news, but the subject is just to important to NOT write about.

As many of you have probably heard Mythic Entertainment has laid off 60-130 people from their studios. Mark Jacobs is trying to play it off as post-launch trimming and for some of the positions that may very well be true. But a few of those laid off are senior designers.  I will admit that this is not entirely Mythic’s fault and that it only seems that way because subscription numbers are not exactly meeting expectations but then too, 300,000? Quite respectable if you think about it.  Unfortunately this is not a dream economy and everyone is feeling the sting. EA is to lay off 1,100 people. Mythic’s 60-130 is only a tithe of that, even if the previous QA and play-tester layoffs are counted. This obviously says that the people at Mythic are doing SOMETHING right, though not necessarily the correct right. One of those laid off? The genius behind the Tome of Knowledge. Yeah, that book that follows you around and records all of your achievements.  The one that WoW came out with about a month after WAR did.  THAT designer lost her job. She didn’t lose her job luckily, but still…To say that it sucks doesn’t begin to cover it.

The response all over the blogosphere is a varying range of “Wow, this sucks ass.” to “I’m done with Mythic. I quit.” to “I have nothing to say”.  All of these responses are expected, if nothing else. But the main point is that all the ranting, raving, threats to quit, and whatnot will hardly do anyone any good. What we as the WAR community, nay, as the gaming community need to do, is to support these designers, and many of those who face similar situations.  I’m not offering a solution by any means (I’m jobless and overdrawn by $40 myself) but I’m just thinking maybe there’s a better way to go about this than all the hubub we’ve seen today….

First Post…..

Okay, so I randomly decided to start a blog. I’m probably crazy for doing it (my friends always say I already am crazy but who’s keeping track?)

Now on to other matters besides am I crazy, like maybe who is this odd person that made a blog? Well people on the internet know me as Kira mostly. Occasionally you’ll hear the random calling of my real name, Kelli, but that’s few people, and mostly when I’ve caused some sort of catastrophe on accident >< (which seems to happen all too often for my liking)

How did I come to the pre-mentioned notion of this blog? Well, I have a livejournal but that just doesnt seem to fit my idea of a blog. Plus, hardly anyone on my friend’s list plays MMO’s so I feel weird clogging up their friend’s page with my rambles about the goings on of the gaming world. But for the most I just wanted somewhere to vent that wouldnt interfere with anyone’s blogs.  So aside from creating another LJ account, I decided to come here for this blog.

The most important question of the evening…why gaming? Well why not? I didn’t start out my gaming career with EQ or WoW like so many others. I started with a (now) little known game named Dark Age of Camelot about two years ago now. Yes, I started with a dieing game, go figure.  My account is still active to this day and will probably remain active until they shut the servers down, simply because that was my introduction to MMO’s. Sure I played Runescape (for about ten minutes, couldnt get used to the interface), and various web-browser games, but for the most part, you can blame Mythic for my finding my way here 🙂

And so I dont bore the whole lot of you and seeing as this is supposed to be a short intro post, I think I’ll stop here and continue in a few days…

Bye!

~Kira