Snafzg returns to WAR (week four): A gilding guild (part 2)
Now let's talk about the things I didn't accomplish. It feels as if I'll never fill up my RvR influence bars. I need anywhere from 10,000-18,000 influence to get my elite rewards. Killing someone solo yields 100 influence, which is great, but killing someone in a warband might yield 1/10th of that. The influence from battlefield objectives seems to have been nerfed since I actively played because they now reward 65 influence instead of 100. Keeps do reward a decent amount of influence but that doesn't happen very often in my casual experience. I know I'll get there eventually, but it won't happen during the course of this experiment.
Also, Land of the Dead (LotD) seems to have taken from its namesake: it's completely "dead" every time I go there. I haven't been able to put a group together for it despite all my efforts and even when I log off inside and come back when Order controls it, I don't find any of them inside to fight either.
I'm not quite sure why this is, but I can speculate. Back when LotD first came out it was widely reported that RvR all but came to a standstill in the game because people were more interested in the new megazone. Mythic's official reponse to player concern was that things would settle down once everyone had their fill. It appears this has happened to the tenth degree. Not only have things settled, they have all but stopped (at least on my server at the times I've been playing).
This is quite a shame because from what I've seen so far, the developers put a lot of effort into this area. In fact, they announced that they were working on it back in January 2009 and I recall reading somewhere that the project was green-lit by Mark Jacobs only days after the game launched in September 2008. I'm less interested in traversing all the PQs outside than I am about gaining access to the Tomb of the Vulture Lord, but it seems I can't even find people willing to do that.
Finally, I've yet to set foot back in Bloodwraught Enclave or Bilerot Burrow since I've been back. I haven't put a major effort into this, but when I have, I came up empty. I organized a couple runs with another guild earlier this week but we couldn't get enough people interested on the night of and randomly spamming region chat with "Warded SH LFG B&B," hasn't been working either. It could just be that people have surpassed the loot these dungeons provide. Personally, I've been seeing tons of RvR tokens and high end loot dropping in RvR from Conqueror all the way up to Warlord.
So, that's it for this week. I will continue playing all through until next Wednesday evening in order to let more of Warhammer Online seep into my bones. Not even Aion open beta will tear me away... for long! Next Thursday will be the big reveal post -- my final impressions piece on my return trip. What are my major likes? Dislikes? Surprises? Will WAR keep my subscription? Tune in to find out!
Snaffy out!
