Warhammer Online Delayed: Picking Sides

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) has been delayed yet again. Now, for most MMORPGs, the vapourware police would be bouncing off the walls right about now. Fortunately, that isn't the case here. Unfortunately, the "WAR will suck" haters have taken their place. I don't care. I'm dead set on playing WAR, whether it is complete trash or not, and damn the players breaking the NDA (I will post about them soon enough).

With that said, I want to take some time to talk about picking sides in WAR. Literally, what side are you going to play? Destruction or Order? Race? Class?

I've struggled with this decision since I started looking into WAR. Having played a fair bit on the "evil side" for the last few MMORPGs, I figured I would just fall in line with Destruction (Greenskins, Chaos, and Dark Elves). However, I didn't want to constrain myself. I sat down and thought about what would be important to me in choosing a side.

Overwhelmingly, visual style WILL play a huge role in my choice of sides for WAR.

In Dark Ages of Camelot, I rolled Midgard with my guild. Ironically, I caught myself staring at Albion's buildings, cities, and castles. They had working doors! Also, I found myself envious of the fairly human looking races offered on the Albion side, especially considering that my Kobold Runemaster was blue and furry. To me, Albions looked the part of Epic Fantasy Hero, plate armor and sword at hand, but most importantly human.

Then, I started as a Troll Shaman of the Horde in World of Warcraft to roll with a new guild and there I have remained ever since. Aside from Thunder Bluff, the Tauren's home, there wasn't a single visual aspect of the Horde that I enjoy. The races are ugly, the main cities are depressingly drab, and not until The Burning Crusade launched, and with it Silvermoon City, did the Horde even know colors other than brown and rust existed.

Moving back to my topic, picking a side for WAR, visual style will guide me more than any other aspect. Screw class and population balance, they will be sorted out regardless of the side I choose. If a side has a class and race combo that interests me with the visual intrigue I am looking for, I am taking it.

So far, that looks like the Empire, the relative good guys of WAR. They have a very old-world European look to their world. Plus, they are humans and not since Ultima Online have I played something with a normal skin tone.

I completely accept that as the "human" faction, the Empire will attract a lot of newbs, because the human sides in MMOs usually do for some reason. I don't care, WAR is going to be about FUN for me and FUN starts with what I'm looking at as I play the game. So far, the Empire screen shots look amazing.

No, I will not be playing a Witch Hunter, probably the most hyped class for WAR.

World of Warcraft Patch 2.4

Today is the day! Patch 2.4 is on the Blizzard downloader and sometime this afternoon World of Warcraft players around the world will be romping through Sunwell Isle. See the excitement in my typing? See it!?

The basics of the patch for me are: Druid's Cyclone gets nerfed, Shamans get slightly buffed, but Shamans still suck and Cycloning Druids will continue to be crazy-popular in PvP. The status quo remains unchanged.

There will be some new loot to achieve as players cash in Badges of Justice, PvE currency, for PvP rewards. Sorry, there is no way to pay honor, PvP currency, for PvE gear. Blizzard doesn't like PvP to lead to PvE. However, PvE that leads to PvP is awesome in their eyes, because PvE takes like coordination and skillz and stuff. PvP takes no skill, especially for the AFKers and Warlocks.

Yes, I said I was quitting WoW, but I just can't do it. Blizzard is buffing Shamans! Even if it is just a little bit, I've waited too long for instant Ghost Wolf to quit now!!!

Bad News Bears

It has been hell since I've upgraded my computer. First, a mother board. Now, my video card. My EVGA 7800GTX took a dump on me this morning, and in the interest of time, I had to shop locally to find a replacement. Nothing sucks worse than Spring Break without a PC, not only for gaming, but the mountain of homework I need to catch up on.

Good news is that the local computer store had an MSI 9600 GT for close to $200. So, I picked one up and I'm back online. Now about that homework...

Shamans Hit Bottom

It's official: of the top 100 Arena Players in World of Warcraft, 0% are now Shamans. I guess it wasn't bad enough that Shamans were the least played class in game.

I hate to quote Arena numbers as much as the next WoW blogger, but I can't help but notice how EVERY CLASS, OTHER THAN SHAMANS, GETS BUFFED TO COMPETE IN ARENAS. I hate the idea that Blizzard is balancing classes based on Arena gameplay, but it is fairly evident that they are leaning that way currently.

Personally, I think WoW is about as lost as it can get in terms of PvP and class balance. I just want to know when it will be my turn, as an Enhancement Shaman, to be on the top of the OP stack. Actually, I would settle for anything other than the bottom.

Better than Guitar Hero