Order, what happened to thee?

So I spent a few hours running Scenarios again today and the results were fairly typical for the Badlands server.  Destruction won every single Scenario by huge margins.  I am not really sure what to say about this anymore.  Whenever I try to run Scenarios it seems that Order wins about 1 in 5 on a good day and about 1 in 10 on a normal day.  I won’t even hazard a guess at the numbers on a day like the current one.  So to put it bluntly, what in the hell has happened to Order on Badlands?

Where are all the good players?  Because crappy teamwork is the problem here, I assure you.  I go into these Scenarios and the overall strategic genius of the Order side involves a lot of people running around like they are high on LSD and can’t figure out what they are supposed to be doing.  Most of the time I stand there looking something like this…

No one targets healers or focus fires, no one moves as a group, and half the time we don’t even have two full groups because people que up and then decide that they don’t really want to play.  It all leaves me with a desire to log out and refuse to log in again for 24 hours.  I can’t say that I have seen anything comparable to it in my 10-year MMO history.  Sure, sometimes you are on the losing side or just have one of those days.

But Order on Badlands doesn’t have bad days anymore.  It’s more like they are locked into a perpetual state of mediocrity and laziness.  So where are you, Order?!  I’m calling you out!!!  It’s time put up or shut up!  I refuse to believe that Destro is overpowered because the lack of true cohesion on the Order side is painfully obvious.  No one seems to have realm pride anymore and that’s a shame.

I fear that we have become a community of players in search of the letter “I” in team and can’t figure out why it isn’t there.

You can’t cure stupid

This post is mostly for entertainment purposes, so I am playing myself a little more over the top than usual.  I am sure some of you have had similar experiences so feel free to share them in the comments!

So at last I find myself in a competitive Scenario with the score sitting at Destro 458 – Order 452.  Order has the Lighthouse, Destro has the Fort, and the Barracks are up for grabs.  A huge battle is raging at the Barracks so I sprint back up to take the Fort while the mob of players is engaged.  I get there and see a Witch Hunter standing near one of the rocks.  “Excellent,” I think to myself.  He will come in handy when the Witch Elf pops on me, which is almost sure to happen.

With the groundwork of the story complete, I am now going to employ a sophisticated technique known as foreshadowing.

The score now moves to Destro 488 – Order 487.  I am standing at the Fort with the Witch Hunter and we flip the Fort to Uncontested.  I watch with fervent anticipation as there are no Destro in sight and the ownership bar slowly fills up.  Then the unthinkable happens…using his undoubtedly ingenious tactical knowledge, the Witch Hunter decides to run off.  And so he goes, as useless as a writer on a movie set.

Does he not realize that I am a Shadow Warrior!!??  You can’t leave us alone!!!  We are like lost puppies by ourselves!!  *grins*

So I am left to fend for myself at the Fort while the crowd is still engaged at the Barracks.  I start to say something to the Witch Hunter in Scenario chat when…you guessed it…a Witch Elf pops out of stealth.  I die in about 5 seconds, she retakes the Fort, and boom…Scenario over and Destro wins.  So I would like to take a moment and say to said Witch Hunter…

I understand the plight of the moronic…I truly do.  It’s not your fault that you were born with a deficiency that prevents you from processing logical thought patterns.  So the next time you get distracted by a fly would you mind taking one little step off the edge of that bridge over there?  It’s completely safe, I promise.

*sighs*

Clear blue ocean…clear blue ocean…

Pugs and your will to live…a symbiotic relationship

I was going to begin today with an epic wall of text regarding the trials and triumphs of the Shadow Warrior, but I am going to put that on hold.  The main reason for this is I don’t feel that my current experience is reflective of max-level Shadow Warrior gameplay.  I have been absent from WAR for a long time and am only RR42.  I’m currently operating in gear that was adequate the last time I ventured into the lands of WAR over one year ago, but now that same gear is woefully outclassed.  I am in need of more power…

There is also another statement I would like to make at this time.  Pugging Scenarios can demolish your will to live faster than a…

I sometimes wonder if this is one of the primary reasons that so many people complain about class balance in WAR.  While I do agree that class balance is a problem, I think this is compounded by the fact that many Scenarios end with one side facerolling the other and nothing in between.  It’s amazing how ugly it can get out there.  I ran 7 Scenarios this morning and Order got absolutely hammered in every single one.  I felt frustrated, perplexed, and ready to throw my keyboard out the window.

I was trying my best to analyze how I could do better and wasn’t coming up with much.  I am a Scout Shadow Warrior and my gear has talismans to reflect that.  I have tried many different builds in the past, from Assault to Skirmish…but I find that Scout just suits me best.  If I wanted to be a melee dps class I would have rolled one, and my current gear is just not good enough to run with Skirmish…I simply die too quickly.

It’s no secret that the main problem with Shadow Warriors is SURVIVABILITY. Get used to that word, Mythic, because you are going to be hearing it from me ad nauseam until SW’s get a little more of it.  I’m going to wait until I get better gear before saying more, but I am confident that my primary concern for the Shadow Warrior will be the same even then.  But as for these Scenarios…I was just at my wit’s end.

Run just one more, I kept telling myself!  Surely my luck would have to change sooner or later.  So against the pleas of my wiser angels, I dove into the Scenario fray one more time.

The Scenario was Caledor Woods and I entered just a bit after it had begun.  Order was backed up to their camp on the little hill and things did not look promising.  I ran up to the collection of terrified Order on the hill and thought, “Pugs…crushing your will to live since 1997.”  I stared at them for a fragile moment while nothing was happening.  I could not understand what they were waiting for…we were all there so why not jump the hell down and make a fight as best you can!  And so I did, leaping gleefully down into the frothing mouths of the Choppas that awaited me.

This sparked several other to jump as well, and before you knew it we were all there screaming at the top of our lungs with weapons swinging wildly.  Several melee were on me in a flash, and I thought for sure I was a goner as I switched to Assault for the disarm.  To my utter and complete shock…I was still alive as I spun about, disarming the one and using Whirling Pin to slap the other into place.

I retreated as the heals flowed through me and moved back to Scout…debuffing and dotting up my target as I popped Von and UF for the Festerbomb.  I followed with a Fell the Weak as a few others chipped in and the Choppa was down.  But our victory was short-lived as the other melee was on me, announcing his arrival with an axe to my left nostril.  I thought for sure it was over, but again to my bewilderment the heals erupted into me, buying me time to get a little distance while we melted the target beneath a hail of damage.

These guys weren’t too bright for focusing on me instead of the Warrior Priests, but I wasn’t complaining.  “So that is what getting heals is like,” I thought.  I had quite forgotten after all that pugging.  The battle soldiered on as the two sides swayed back and forth like a branch on the cusp of the wind.  We ultimately lost, but to my astonishment I did not die once.  As a Shadow Warrior that is no meager feat.

So I decided to end my run of Scenario pugging on a high note and moved on to other things.  After 8 tries I had finally found some healing and a group that acted as if they had actually played the game before.  With a restored will to live and determined focus to find premade groups for Scenarios rather than pick-up ones, I logged out of Warhammer Online with this lesson well in hand.  Until next time, folks. 

Endless Trial a successs?

So just what does everyone think of Warhammer’s Endless Trial?

For the uninitiated, Mythic now allows anyone to play the first 11 levels of WAR for free, forever.  Now that we have had some time to absorb it, I think it’s clear that both positives and negatives surround this surprise move by Mythic.  On the one hand, it has genuinely instilled some life into Tier 1 and provided both new and returning players with a robust and lively experience.  We also have Ray Muzyka of Bioware saying that the Endless Trial has brought plenty of new people to WAR, as I’m sure some of those trials have transfered into subscriptions.

Tier 1 Scenarios pop like mad, Public Quests are easy to overcome because there is never want for a group, and Open RvR is always buzzing along at a frenetic pace.  So if we are looking at all of that upside then you must be wondering if there is any downside at all.  Well, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the…ahem…quality of some of these players is a bit…

I can’t tell you how many times I have walked into a Tier 1 Scenario where our healers seem to be distracted by the occasional gnat, or maybe they are just busy picking flowers, I don’t know.  Because they don’t start healing until 3 or 4 people are already dead.  I also enjoy hopping aboard the fail train when an entire scenario becomes obsessed with just fighting the enemy rather than actually achieving the objectives required to win the Scenario.  It’s like watching a Kindergarten class become enthralled by the candy jar on the teacher’s desk and forget what they were supposed to be doing.

I’m not sure how Destruction is fairing on other servers, but Badland Tier 1 Scenarios typically feature Order groups that drop faster than a recent Hollywood marriage.  So while it certainly is not all sunshine and roses for this Endless Trial experiment, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I have had a great deal of fun in Tier 1 these days.  Other than being forced to put up with crappy Scenario groups, Tier 1 is alive, hopping, and full of things to do and people to kill.

The new Tutorial makes this process a bit easier as well, especially if you are new to the game.  It features clearly laid out windows and a pleasant voice-over that points you towards more in-depth information regarding some of WAR’s features.  There is also a nice little dungeon for weary young groups to test their mettle on, known as Hunter’s Vale.  When you combine all of this with the fact that WAR now has all of the races funneled into the same racial pairing…you have a recipe for a vibrant start to your MMO.

This was all encouraging for a returning player like myself, as it provided me with plenty of options as I delved back into Warhammer Online.  I now have 5 alts in Tier 1 at the moment.  Yes I am seeking therapy so please stop asking.  I will say in closing, though, that I did find myself missing the changes in atmosphere and tone provided by the other racial pairings.  You are given a scroll that allows you to port back to your original starting place if you wish, but those lands are rather dead at the moment.  Everyone is consolidated in the Empire/Chaos pairing and that is where all of the action is happening.

Despite some of those issues, however, I would say that the Endless Trial has been a pleasant surprise for me thus far.  What do you guys think?  How has the Endless Trial treated you?