Post-announcement thoughts

The big announcements from Mythic have come and gone. I have always felt it is best to sleep on things in order to get a good perspective. Now that I have, on to my thoughts!

Night of Murder. As alluded to by the cards from Mythic, it is a Valentines Day event. In fact, it starts in a week! The Marked for Death mechanic sounds pretty fun, should make for some interesting fights. Also, you can loot someones head and send them a gift. Should be an interesting week, looks very fun.

Bitter Rivals Event. To usher in the new classes, there will be a live event. This is a lot like Heavy Metal, which was a big hit. A new scenario is introduced too, Twisting Tower. As I enjoyed Heavy Metal a lot, I am looking forward to this one too.

Siege Weapon Rewards. As a part of Bitter Rivals, the advanced reward are new siege weapons. Flame Cannons and Giants! I am very excited about this, almost giddy. Almost. I will have this reward, no matter what the cost in time :)

Slayer and Choppa. The class picture painted before release will now be complete. Order will have a flood of melee DPS, which will hopefully lead towards a better balance. This is a much welcomed addition, especially Slayer over Hammerer. The Choppa? Well, that is just one more class for me to kill :)

Call to Arms Events. There are 2 live events (April and May) to bring in the new zone/dungeon. I think this is a great idea to help pass the time and spice things up. Without them, we will have have an uneventful stretch. There aren't too many details yet, but it sounds good to me.

Nehekhara. The zone in which the Land of the Dead dungeon is located. I can't wait to see what the world team does with a desert. It has a lot of potential to look amazing. For lore info, look here.

Land of the Dead. The new RvR Dungeon, akin to Darkness Falls and LoTRO's Delving PvMP dungeon. Many folks had been calling for this to be added, as it was a popular feature of DAoC. I was never really for or against it. Now that I have grown to like WAR dungeons a bit, I think this could be a lot of fun. Of course, it is all in the implementation, but I am looking forward to it.

Zone Domination. As seen here. It is clear that changes had to be made to the zone locking system. Mythic has added a way for capture to take place via open RvR. Now the old way still exists, but this will offer an alternative. While I have concerns, I would like to see the campaign get moving again, so this is a good thing.

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There were two things I really wished they had announced:

Keep/Fortress fights. Stuffing 100's of people in the Lords room and on the ramp/stairs is just not that fun. Neither is the same basic fight every time. Break down doors, rush keep Lord. I would have loved to hear that they were going to make changes here.

Capital Cities return. This isn't that big of a deal to me, but still something I want to see. I'm not sure if 4 more cities even have a place in WAR anymore. Would be nice to see them though.

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The new announcement brings excitement, but it also worries me a bit:

Event Loot. Giving out PvP useful loot in rare/one time events does not feel right. I have the Heralds Cloak which is quite nice, but a lot of players have no chance of getting it. In PvP especially, this isn't quite fair. All should have at least the opportunity to get everything.

Land of the Dead Loot. Keen makes a good point. Where will the rewards from this new dungeon fall? Will they be very good and a lot easier to get than city loot? I would love to see a lot of customization rewards, like new mounts. Even just different looking weapons (same as in stats) as what I have would be neat.

Will the City still matter? As mentioned above, will players lose interest in the city capture with the addition of LotD? In order to get access, you will have to fight in Nehekhara rather than any of the traditional zones. This could work itself out though, as if you abandon the normal zones they could be captured and your city lost. We will see if players-at-large care though.

Zone Domination. My main concern with Zone Domination is that the entire war will be over while I sleep. I don't want to leave a fight Friday night where things are even, and wake up at 8am to find our city has been taken. Will this happen? We'll have to wait and see.

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Overall, I am pretty happy and excited. This is all happening in just 6 months too! I know some folks think that is too long, but to me it sounds just about right. When you get older, time just flies by. Still, waiting is hard when it sounds this good.

Posted in: Announcement,Call to Arms,WAR