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Waging WAR: The Nagaryth Chronicles, part three
This week bears with it the final installment to Waging WAR's Nagaryth Chronicles, which took a long-term, in-depth look at the Path of the Scout mastery tree available to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's shadow warrior. Admittedly, Greg didn't have time to take his character all the way through to rank 40/40, but this past July 4th weekend's double XP and renown bonuses allowed him to level through Tier 3 relatively quickly. He's also promised us that he'll continue to play her casually as a break from his Archmage main, from time to time. Again, I would like to take a moment to respond to some feedback left as reader comments to last week's column: @Taawa -- According to my experience, festerbombs are absolutely deadly (think: "BOOM Headshot!"), possibly even moreso than any sort of infiltration attack by stealth-class melee-damage-per-second (MDPS) careers. If you're the type who enjoys sneaking around terrain and quietly selecting a target while taking time to prepare a guaranteed kill, you'll enjoy this build. I'll explain more after the break. @Kyelthis -- Again with excellent feedback: the Steady Aim (SA) - Replenishing Strikes (RS) - Rapid Fire (RF) combination (a combination that had never occured to me until you pointed it out) is almost always as effective as Lileath's Forgiveness (LF). However, I feel that my use of SA is slightly more productive. I'll explain why after the break. @Hal900x -- I'm pretty sure you're mistaking Unshakeable Focus with SA. Also, Shadow Sting (SS) is extremely short-range (45'). My ideal build (complete by rank 35) was focusing on extremely long-range, high-burst, sniping -- which is why I opted for Fell the Weak (FTW, 100') instead, since it has the same effect except instead of requiring an ailment, the "mortal strike" component requires Vengeance of Nagarythe (VoN, and is one second longer in duration to boot!). Finally, SA applies a 50% increased critical chance to damaging attacks, not to the overall critical chance of the character; thus, any attack during those six seconds has its critical chance treated like a coin flip: heads for a critical, tails for a normal hit. So, why do I think that shadow warriors are fine and don't need the attention that everyone seems to claim they need? I'll discuss my side of the issue after the break.
Waging WAR: The Nagaryth Chronicles, part two
Waging WAR continues this week with the second installment of the Nagaryth Chronicles -- an in-depth look at the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's shadow warrior. We'll talk about how the career performs through tier two, identify key abilities, and open the floor to discussion about how we might begin to remedy some of the most basic issues with the career. So nock another arrow and let's get started. First things first. I want to quickly respond to a few of the reader comments left on last week's column. @MiloMenderBender: After you pointed out my target selection could be wrong, I started paying attention to my damage vs. the varying enemy careers. Your suggestion to pay closer attention to damage-per-kill rather than overall made perfect sense, and I'm now making more careful and efficient targeting decisions -- with satisfying results. @Kyelthis: Your keybinding suggestions were excellent and definitely worth trying out. @ShadowWAR: After reading your comment, it took only a moment to pay closer attention and confirm that the stances are not on the global cooldown (GCD) and skirmish stance does indeed return 1:1 ballistics to strength from items only. @ the rest: Thank you for your contributions, and, although I'm hesitant to have this series turn into a conversation about mirrors, issues with the game in general or concerns with other careers, I want you to know that I read all of your comments and appreciate your feedback. Moving on, let's continue with my impressions and issues with the shadow warrior through tier two after the break.
Waging WAR: The Nagaryth Chronicles, part one
This week, Waging WAR starts the first in-depth career review with a three to four column exposè on Warhammer Online's shadow warrior. We'll take a look at the career as it progresses through each of the tiers, as well as consider key tactics, abilities and masteries that are learned along the way. As we go, we'll try to understand and break down what makes the shadow warrior tick, why so many players claim the career is broken, and whether or not Waging WAR agrees. So, let's get our tabi boots on, pull our face masks up, and get started. For a long time now, I've stood on the sidelines and listened to horror stories regarding the shadow warrior. It has been clear that many players are (or have been) dissatisfied with the career, but I've never fully understood why. It isn't so difficult for me to peruse the SW forums or read one of the many blogs out there that explain things quite clearly, and understand the theory of it, but as far as first-hand experience goes, I've been lacking a direct understanding of the career and how it works. With that in mind, I've decided to educate myself; over the next few weeks, I'll be leveling a shadow warrior so I can analyze the career from the inside.
WAR January newsletter hits, spotlights Shadow Warriors
The January Edition of the Warhammer Online newsletter is out, and as usual, it's chock full of goodies that any WAR fan is going to need to sustain himself in that woefully long period until the game's release in the second quarter of this year. The most notable content is the spotlight on the High Elf Shadow Warrior career. They're going some neat things with the Shadow Warrior, making them more of a mobile ranged physical DPS class, with the ability to deliver powerful short-range bow shots while on the run. Some of the other highlights include: The Video of the Month, which features a heavily scripted but very exciting-looking head-on battle between the forces of Destruction and Order. A video of an internal demonstration of their trophy system, which will highlight the badassery of the players and allow for more extensive visual customization options. More behind-the-scenes (and usually completely off the wall) goodies in Paul's Video Blog. An overview of some of the PvP scenarios, including Nordenwatch and Highpass Cemetary. If you want to be privvy to all these goodies without having to have us point them out for you, we advise you to sign up for the Warhammer Online e-newsletter so you can be kept abreast of all the latest news from the EA Mythic boyz.
