Choose My Adventure: Ork in da wild
Not to put too fine a point on it, but this past week was the sort of event that turns one's entire life upside-down. The stuff that happened was also pretty unambiguously good, yeah, but between that and my computer randomly screwing up, this has not been the best of weeks for Warhammer Online and myself. Which is odd, seeing as how there's been big (albeit secretive) news for the community, and I've still managed to sit down and get some solid time clocked in with Klurgind despite that.
Last week's polls both indicated that I should follow the WAR Report around the map, and they also indicated that people would really like to roll up with some Massively warband action. So we're going to make an event out of it, based on the best details and planning I can provide. Click on past the break for a recount of Klurgind's most recent adventures in Warhammer Online, plans for the meetup on the weekend, and the new set of polls.
First of all, a big shout-out to our man Obran, who sent me a nice care package and some tips on choppin' for fun and profit. He also implored me not to spec into Wrecka', which was a nice sentiment if not for the fact that I really don't have much in the way of control here. I am at the mercy of the wind and my fine readers.
That being said, I'm really liking the AoE festival I've got going on. Partly because it's nice to wade into groups and chop like the chop didn't stop, but partly because as soon as I do that, I enter a wonderful state I like to call the Not A Real Problem zone. That is, everyone on the Order side has seen Choppas before, and they know that Choppas are all AoE melee that just fails, so they don't really pay attention to the Choppa. Which leaves me free to exploit Klurgind's other tools, and I can't tell you how many healers have just stood there ignoring me while they get snared, bled, and finally smashed in the face with a Morale strike.
It's the sort of thing that appeals to me about PvP, and it made running into the fray and chopping away that much more satisfying. Especially when I was rotating my way through the tier 2 experience in a stable warband, which happened more than once. Along with reader comments, it was a great way to get a grip on what was going on in the open RvR regions and start understanding where I needed to be. Not helping that process, unfortunately, were fellow players.
I don't mean to imply that the people I met in the warbands were in any way unpleasant or rude -- quite the opposite. My experience with other players has been nothing but enjoyable. The problem is that at least in Tier 2, there's not enough population inside of the open RvR areas for these objectives to be hotly contested in all regions. So what seems to be happening... well, it could be one of two things, since I don't have the perspective of the Order side on Gorfang. But one of the following is definitely happening:
The two factions have reached an unintentional state of detente, where warbands avoid one another and capture regions where the enemy is not. Because of the nature of the timing, there's about enough population for Order to take Dwarves vs. Greenskins while Destruction is taking Elves vs. Dark Elves... and when Order moves on to Empire vs. Chaos, Destruction moves in and takes Dwarves vs. Greenskins.
Order has completely thrown in the towel for Tier 2 on Gorfang.
Which one is it? Doesn't matter. The point is, open RvR rarely has shown me any serious resistance, and it's not entirely surprising. The open areas avoid the classic failing of maps where one side is defending and the other is attacking, as both sides are maintaining an assault footing, but there's no real benefit to fighting against the enemy when you can just conquer a region the enemy doesn't have the population to defend. It makes the process just a bit disappointing.
Scenarios, on the other hand, show off the meat of the game's combat quite well. That's where both sides are matched and get to go in swinging, and I've gotten to develop a real hatred for Bright Wizards. Seriously, I hate those guys. Most of the matches I've been in have led to a Destruction victory, which lends some credibility to option 2 above, but it's been a great opportunity to storm the gates and really mix it up with the forces of Order. It also keeps me in my toes in a way that the open campaign just hasn't been. (The open areas are fun, don't get me wrong; it's just that the scenarios are more active.)
So that's my bellyaching for the week. Despite some minor complaints, I'm still having a blast running around with Klurgind, and I'm up to Rank 16/RR 21 even if my choppin' sticks are woefully out of date. I've spent up my first twenty ranks of Renown on Strength and Weapon Skill, and between that and the first two pieces of my Obliterator set things have been going fairly well.
Now for some fun with warbands. I'm going to go ahead and schedule a Tier 2 Warband for Saturday, July 16th at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Invitations will start going out at 4:30, and will be handled strictly on a first-come first-served basis. If we have overflow, we'll work out the plan at the time, although I imagine we'll use a dedicated chat channel to coordinate. I'll not stop the chop until 8:00, giving everyone who wants to take part a three-hour window to go nuts. But, of course, I'm not solely in charge here -- I want to give everyone a chance to voice their opinions, after all. Plus, I'm getting more Renown and I need to keep on trucking, right?
%Poll-66259%
%Poll-66254%
That's it for this week's installment, and I'll be back here next week with another recap. Until then, I'll leave everyone with the words that I have seen far too often over the past week -- what does it mean?
What happens next in Eliot Lefebvre's adventure? It all depends on the choices you make on Choose My Adventure! What path will he choose? Only you can determine that! And the best part is that you can keep reading every Wednesday until you've made not one but several different choices for him!
