Sunday, December 21, 2008

Update: Epic Fail Mythic and Three Things to Keep Me Interested

Back in October, I had a rough time with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR). I wanted to take some time to give an update to my two damning posts.

First, an update to Epic Fail Mythic. To start off, I have moved on to Tier 4 and transferred my characters from Averheim to Badlands.

On a good note, lairs are now re-itemized and most lair bosses drop some pretty phat loots. I have only done a couple of lairs since the changes and the loot was very rewarding for the difficulty of the encounters. Along with update lair loot, a lot of armor sets received updates and are now actually justifiable to use over random green gear.

AOE farm groups are a normal occurrence and dominate the field with a plethora of overpowered AOE crowd control skills. Compounding this issue are the massive zergs of players running around in Tier 4, ensuring every battle is a lesson in frustration instead of fun. Even with slight nerfs and fixes to the core AOE farm abilities, they are still overpowered. Mythic must remove these from the game completely or risk losing more players because of them.

Apothecary is still laughably bad, but since multiple server transfers have lead to a higher population on Badlands, basic crafting components are readily available making it a little less painful.

To end on a good note, RvR outside of scenarios rewards a lot better experience now and is almost viable as a leveling strategy. Combined with boosted leveling speed in Tier 3 and 4, Mythic may just save WAR as an RvR game.

Three Things to Keep Me Interested was the title of my second anger-filled post.

1. As stated above, magnet abilities such as Electromagnet or Chaotic Rift must be removed from the game or people will continue to quit. Electromagnet and Rift are AOE versions, but it is increasing becoming obvious that the single target versions such as the White Lion's fetch will need to be removed as well. They do not belong in this game.

2. The open-world RvR zones have received an update. Small grind meters, known as Open RvR Influence, have been added to encourage players to venture out and kill each other in open-world zones for epic shinnies. Unfortunately, Mythic still refuses to add anything meaningful to keep players engaged and active in the open-world RvR zones. The "live event quests" are a start, but are passive activities at best. Mythic needs to add real, meaningful, and active content to these zones.

3. Scenarios are still a source of grind. Mythic slowed down the worst scenarios, but they are still an issue. They still reward far too much experience for damage/healing instead of winning, a fatal flaw that will continue to make me question whether Mythic spent enough time thinking out the grand scheme of RvR in WAR. Fortunately, open-RvR rewards are significantly better and offer a viable side-attraction to scenarios.

Mythic is doing well with updates, but unfortunately it does show that WAR needed a few more months in the cooker. And don't let this post fool you, WAR's #1 problem is still end-game performance. It is still completely UNPLAYABLE, but Mythic is getting closer to a resolution. Then they might be able to move onto making the actual end-game combat something players can enjoy.

PS. Mythic, come Jan 20th, I am still canceling. WAR is far from a good game in it's current state.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:14 PM

    All very valid complaints. The whole pull mechanic I am torn on. It is a pain, but it can also help break up what would otherwise be an impossible situation.

    I think there needs to be some pull defense that will force the puller to really pay attention.

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  2. Anonymous9:56 AM

    I remember one of the selling points to this game as being "you will never be constantly stunned through a fight" well that has changed, almost any fight i run into now it is perma-stun/silence the entire fight. It makes me less and less inclined to do rvr and as a healer i am in a quickly dwindling population.

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  3. Anonymous8:59 AM

    It is absolutely amazing... how silly complaints can someone have. Of course AoE skills are powerful - they are meant to be. EM/DR is nerfed to a joke of a skill (and i am NOT playing engineer :)). PvP is fastest way to lvl, but not only in scenarios - in fact, I do not play scenarios anymore, because PvE and oRvR semms to be faster way to XP for my RP.
    Only valid complaint i can see is stability of fortress sieges, but on my server (Eltharion)was after patch some fortress fights which was laged like hell, but did not crash :).

    I must admit that feeling i have for ppl like you is pity. I am enjoying WAR like very few games before and i pity you for you dissatisfaction. Your every post (not only those about WAR) is filled with it. I hope even you will sometime find game which would be fun for you too...

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  4. Anonymous10:48 AM

    Just quit already.

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  5. Anonymous3:18 PM

    Ignore the fanboys. Play the games you are enjoying, and don't pay for the ones that you aren't.

    Obviously people log on to your site because they are interested in your opinions, and dissatisfaction is certainly a valid opinion.

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