Choose My Adventure: I da popular ork

Klurgind may not be the smartest ork in Warhammer Online nor the strongest one, but he's certainly a popular greenskin. What is it about him? That beady, penetrating stare? The way he eulogizes Squig Herders on the fields of Nordland? His sharply alluring green-blue skin and bright orange tattoos? Or just the fact that everyone knew he was my character, thus ensuring that every regular reader went out of the way to shower him with praise, advice, and adulation?

I don't know. But I do know that special thanks go out to Tsavonglah for some excellent in-game advice and a veritable wall of information in the comments, Daswagga for a large pile of Strength talismans, and the many people who gave me a wave or cheer for bring a touch of Massively WAAAAGH to the game. So read on past the break for talk about my adventures in the twilight of Tier 1, the dawn of Tier 2, scenarios, open RvR, and the general stages of the Choppocalypse.

The election last week was for a nice rounded helping of RvR, with Krulgind speccing into the Path of 'Da Wrecka once he started accumulating Mastery. So forward I went into Tier 1 with a fervor, chopping at everything my arms could reach. As it turned out, that was quite a lot. I also realized to my great shame that the Basic Renown vendors were selling the Decimator set that should be the start to any self-respecting Choppa's career in RvR, so I picked up the two pieces for a minimal outlay in cash while saving up for some better chopping implements.

RvR at Tier 1 mostly consists of the endless battle over Festenplatz, the Harvest Shrine, and the Nordland XI, with the successful capture of all three required to take control of the region. (Theoretically one could also fight over the Lost Lagoon, but that was about as abandoned as a single location could be.) So while I queued for scenarios, I took part in the battle that raged through the region, although truth be told it wasn't really much of a battle a lot of the time. There was a lot of time with the objectives safely held and the forces of Destruction pushing the Empire as far back as their warcamp would allow.

To be honest, while I had fun, I found some pretty notable issues with this particular band of content. There were an awful lot of lulls during which not a great deal was happening, and there were definitely times when being melee really hurt my viability. When everyone is bunched up with tanks in the front and healers in the back, the game essentially devolves into waiting for one side's nerve to break first... or for a lone Choppa to decide to just rust toward the back lines and start chopping hard enough for the healers to break ranks and lose focus. Not that I would be that much of a suicidal maniac, of course.

If I were, though, I would have fallen in love with Lotsa Choppin' once I got into range of those stupid Warrior Priests. True story.

Scenarios popped up on a fairly regular basis, however, which let me see a variety of different gameplay events. The College of Corruption scenario is live for the Sigmartide event, which meant a lot of fun turning Krulgind into a living avatar of flame and blasting Order to pieces. Nordenwatch and Gates of Ekrund are both fairly simplistic but fun scenarios, with the same basic "take these control points and kill players" layout as some of the others. I'm hoping that further scenarios mix things up a bit more, as the map format works but doesn't really light me on fire any longer.

But between chopping on the beaches and chopping in scenarios, I hit level 11 fast enough. Having maxed out my Tier 1 Influence for the region and having my first Mastery point, I decided that it was time to take a trip to a spot that had really lived up to its name. Yes, it was time for me to head off to the Inevitable City... where I was always going to wind up.

As it happened, the Inevitable City wound up being a hotbed of frustration for me simply because I made the mistake of logging out there when I was only half-finished with my business in the area. I had gotten my Master and Renown trained, but I was looking for the Renown Vendor when I had to log off for the time being. I logged back in to find out that I had been kicked out to the Maw.

The city was under siege. And while it's under siege, there are no gear vendors to be found.

Unfortunately, this was an answer that took me quite a bit more time than I would have liked to find out. I searched around online, found a bunch of information that was no longer accurate, and wound up wandering around in open Tier 2 up in Ostland for longer than seems strictly safe for a Choppa. Especially a level 11 Choppa by his lonesome. Eventually I broke down and asked the Advice channel, the players in which were kind enough to point me in the right direction.

If you were there when I regretfully asked for the answer to a stupid question and asked about where the /ragequit command could be found, thanks again. If you didn't know it was me, well, hey, you did a doubly good deed.

At any rate, I grabbed a pair of Renown shoulders for once I hit Rank 13, rounded out Tier 1 with a few more Scenarios and more fighting in Nordland, and headed out for the Tier 2 region of Empire vs. Chaos. Here, I must admit, I don't have the vaguest idea of what I'm doing. I figured out Tier 1 just fine, but at least when I wound up in Tier 2, the place was largely abandoned and I was unclear as to how one went about smashing down the opposing keep or how the captured objectives played into the setup. Between that and a general lack of time, I sadly topped out at Rank 12/RR 14 this week around (which is a shame; I had wanted Klurgind to be sporting shoulders this week, but I'll have to wait for the next go-round.)

For the edification of everyone, I've also created a custom chat channel for the event. I figured a lot of people wouldn't want to leave a guild just for Klurgind-chasing, but the channel MassiveWAAGH (note spelling) is in place so that I can chat with fellow players in Warhammer Online and we can form one big happy family worshipping a horrible unthinkable entity that wishes to inflict savage and unwanted suffering and mutation upon a world.

So this week, I leave you with two polls concerning my future destination and whether we'll get together in a more organized format. As before, voting on them closes in a few days, so vote before July 9th and I'll see you back here next week!

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Per the usual postscript, I'm not currently clear on what the big July 6th thing is all about. I know it's been hinted around the WAR blogosphere, but I'll be finding out today just like all of you. I'll talk about it next week, I promise.

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!