I saw that the 1.3.6 patch notes had appeared a couple of days ago and I would probably have to say I was a bit uninspired. This isn’t to say the changes weren’t welcome, but they didn’t really put any kind of fire into my belly.
If I was looking in from the outside, then separating appearance from stats is a cool thing, but it’s not really high on my list of must haves. To be honest all I care about are the stats on my equipment. I rarely spend much admiring the aesthetics of my characters, though I must say I’d draw the line at looking like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Hells bells, I spend most of my time staring at their backs anyway.
Though I’m sure Blizzard will add this feature into their game soon, once a respectful time had passed. I was in the pub with a hardcore WoW player at the weekend and we had a little chuckle about what had been apprehended from Warhammer, but that’s definitely a topic for another day.
The Against All Odd is a nice change for those guilds who will be able to proper take advantage of it, but if you’re going to get overwhelmed then the difference in points is going to be marginal. If you’re a good warband against multiple pug warband(s), then the points difference will have you drooling at the table. In fact, it will accelerate your climb up the higher ranks even faster. It will be a bit like fast food, same old crap, only quicker.
Of course Against All Odds isn’t just about the points, it’s about splitting up the zergs. If a group/warband sees action in another zone, then they may well be tempted to hot foot it over there, especially if they feel they will be at a numbers disadvantage, which isn’t necessarily the same as a combat disadvantage. I think this will be a wait and see.
But these changes hadn’t really excited me, until I was passing by Bootaes and saw a post he’d made on changes for Tier 2 and Tier 3 ORvR in 1.3.6. I was surprised these weren’t in the main patch notes.
I remember previously reading something by one of the developers, who’d said that changes of some sort were incoming for these tiers, since it was recognised things weren’t flowing as well as they’d (Mythic) like.
The real gumbins is that 2 PVE camps in Tier 2 (Troll Country) and 3 PvE camps Tier 3 (Ostland & High Pass) are being added to the ORvR zone with increased XP. If we forget for a second that it’s PvE, it should be a catalyst for action in those tiers.
Of course we’ll have the stealthers floating around the edges waiting for someone to stray to far from the safety zone, but a solo kill is worth it for the run back from the WC. It should make for interesting times.
I do wonder how the bomb groups will fair at this level, when interacting with the PvE mobs? Of course things will depend on pop rates, passive pulling, or maybe tank runners grabbing the agro. But I’m pretty sure things will shaken up for a while at least, until people decide it’s the best thing since sliced bread or the risks don’t out weigh the benefits. It may well kick-start the ORvR in these zones a lot earlier in the day, which is never a bad thing. But will it focus all the action here, leaving the other ORvRs for quick flip action? I don’t think so, but there are always unexpected consequences of changes like these.
It will be interesting to see how it affects the games PvE in these tiers? Which does raise the question, is there still PvE, outside of LotD?
The gutter runner random mob could prove amusing, since killing it would provide more reward to your realm, than killing all your opponents. Anyways, you can always fall on your foe, once the gutter runner is down.
As Bootes said, these changes when combined with the Lotd entry cap being raised to 32, should change the dynamic quite nicely. It’s a shame I seem to have missed the LotD leveling party. I did have it down for my next characters leveling method.
As with most things, it really does depend on your point of view, as to what within 1.3.6 gets you most worked up. For me it’s the dynamic that these PvE camps could bring to the table in these 2 ORvR zones.
It’s worth noting that Dwarf and Elf zones didn’t get the same treatment, which implies that Mythic are again focusing on the Human Vs Chaos zones to the detriment of the others. Maybe they’re concerned that if they create too many ideal farming camps within these other ORvR zones, that people will just hightail it to the quietest for a bit of Xtreme leveling and ignore everyone else. I know I can’t believe my fellow players would even dream of doing such a thing.
I does raise the question with regards to the other racial pairings. Will there ever be enough people at the lower levels to fully apply these changes and those made in tier 1?
A quick thank god to the removal of /assist, which will no longer be accessible by external add ons. Those little applications which automatically handle the assist off the main assist will hopefully soon cease to be. You lazy ass barstewards.
PS – I miss the RP bonus from last week, there’s a definite hole in my heart where it used to be.
PPS – Laminar hit RR48, only 17 to go.
The plague rats in tier 2, and 3 are the biggest joke yet. I checked it out on the PTS, and I am still trying to pick myself up from the floor. I suggest you check out my 10 second youtube video Plaguerats Love Chicken, and you will see how worthless these are going to be.
The PVE area inside the lakes is no bigger than my flame breath cone on my bright wizard. Why they didn’t make it throughout the zone like one huge PQ I will just not understand.
Closing off LOTD may help tier 2, and 3 a little, but with such low populations in these levels anyways it isn’t going to liven it up. Adding 5 players in the mix is not going to make any difference.
Like you were saying this patch is not exciting at all. I mean is appearance really something players wanted? If it is than I think I may be playing the wrong game.
I would think making ORvr fun would be what most players would want, and it all to mean something other than bonus renown taking keeps and objectives. It is a joke.
Basically one faction takes the keeps and bo’s, and starts the timers. The other faction takes back on the bo’s while the other faction lets the keep timers run down. The other faction goes back once timers are close, and retake objectives. They try to hold. If other faction successfully ninjas go to another zone, and take all bo’s while they take all bo’s again. Go back to zone again with keep timers to zero. Take objectives, hold for 30 mins. Rinse and repeat.
Hopefully Mythic will have time to work on the PvE part. Mythics problem has always been, good ideas, poor implementation. Which is what Blizzard are so good at. The 1st implentation is the one that sticks in peoples mind, no matter how you change it… case in point city seiges.
Exactly. WAR invents PQ’s. It sounds great. It failed after starting town two days after release.
Now look how GW2 plans on taking the PQ idea up a notch by making zones PQ’s. You would think after hearing how they were doing it they would evolve their own idea after hearing how excited people are about the concept in the new pve in the lakes.
I know how you feel about the lack of dwarf/elf enthusiasm from Mythic (now BiowareMythic :O). I came back to the game after a good long hiatus from beta and a little while after, only to find that I could no longer go to the dwarf and elf cities… they had been closed. I cried a little… on the inside of course.
Anyway, I’m assuming since they only have Altdorf, and the fact that everyone starts in Nordland, they’re pushing to “experiment” with the main artery of game progression. If whatever they’re trying seems to have positive outcomes they’ll probably add that same content to the dwarf/elf brackets. Assuming we ever get the cities back. Assuming BiowareMythic can turn the game around. Assuming everyone doesn’t quit before then! Sorry, Iron Rock has been hurting lately. It’s starting to get to me. D:
I honestly feel there is a real limit to what can be done at the moment with the resources available, especially if a few are tied up on a “Secret” project.
I’d stick with it. The expansion when it arrives should give the populations a shot in the arm, with a good few hanging around for longer term.
It’s really not a bad game, but any game that involves players is always going to be up and down. It’s probably why WoW does so well. The other half of the equation for them, is a scripted encounter, not a nother bunch of players.
@Wasdstomp
I think the problem is, that there are so many other things that have needed to be addressed over the last couple of years, that they have taken precedent.
PQs have changed. How they are shown on the map, which they weren’t at the start, then how many people are doing them, also the 3 different levels of PQ. All good changes, which would have been good to start with from the very start. It’s that fine tuning, that’s lacking.
These PvE camps are a new feature within the ORvR zones, it needs to be executed with a bit of flair. Lets not have a limp wristed implementation.
Whenever I write software, I have a simple methodology. Do it once, do it right. I bloody hate to redo something, just because I rushed it.
Well from the looks of the plague rats in the rvr lakes it took them probably five minutes to code it.
This is one of the reasons I don’t like to use the PTS, since it destroys the surprise. I would like to think they do more than just drop a spawn of mobs in a location.