Wrath's Release Is Imminent

Well that's it, where do we go?

Stick to WAR, continue the leveling process up to 40 and get the gear maxed out until Mythic bring out an expansion?

Back to WoW, return to the addiction of grinding to 80, farming honor/arean points, raiding (in a successful guild for a change) and watch over WAR players running around at half my level?

I have finally ran out of money on my WAR account, just in time to make a quick decision on which I'd prefer to invest in.

I'll look at a few pros and cons...

I'm in a guild where I have some importance in WAR, I'm a Vault Manager, the guild's web designer (even though I'm not that great), I've met some great people already in WAR, I'm enjoying leveling up Thwomp greatly, I'm more into the RvR side rather than PvE aspect of the game.

WoW, I have 3 level 70s, one of them is well geared (in my opinion) and I do have a very vast knowledge of this class in particular, as well as the game in general. Some of the game mechanics for damage mitigation, threat generation, mana regeneration, etc, are not one of my strong points but I have experienced some of the numbers needed to optimize output of these stats. I've spent a good 2 years or so playing WoW, and enjoyed playing from when I first played.

WoW currently lacks what WAR has which benefits players like me greatly. I'm not great with finding groups to run an instance, since I prefer to either be head hunted, or be in the LFG queue and wait an hour or 2 before I am contacted. With the PQ system in place, and open parties, I can contribute to taking BO's, Keep's, etc without having to look for the group myself. It's a huge waste of time in WoW and I never liked it.

I'm not the highest level in WAR yet, not even close, but after a previous post about the Sovereign armor set for Black Orcs, which looks almost impossible to get after reading all of the requirements to get to that stage, it's orientated for a player like me. Even if I wanted to be anti social for many levels, I can still pick up my first armor set by nothing more than grinding to rank 40 and renown rank 37+ or something along them lines.

In fact, after writing this post, I've realised I've already made up my mind.

Thwomp will continue his crusade! I will more than likely not play WoW again until Thwomp is fully clad in full Sovereign and the guild rank is 40! Even then I may decide to level up an alt... or even taste what WAR has to offer on Order's side...

Thank you so much Mythic, you've converted me and I'm deeply proud you have... how many more can you convert?

Yet Another Ding-Fest!

Thwomp hit rank 23! He'll be sitting here now possibly forever, it will depend on if I put more money on the account.

Who am I kidding, I'm putting more money on!

Anyway, here's Thwomp with a ding while killing Skaven in Chaos tier 3 (Talabecland)

He pretty much got straight into Tor Anroc and got renown rank 15...

The Chaos Within guild rank at the moment is getting pretty close to 12, I'm hoping that by the time I net login (hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday if not) it'll be 13 which would hopefully take no time to get the next rank for the next standard unlock!

I also gained (at least) 2 titles last night! obtained from earning 50g in your careers' lifetime and which is obtained from dying (with ink not killing yourself) 25 items

As a bit of comedy to all of this success, here is something I picked up while killing in Talabecland...

Elegant?! What's elegant about a slag?!

Bugged Rank 22 Mastery Tactic

The clue is in the name...

Thwomp hit rank 22 and was ready to pick up some more moves to smash, bosh, crush and... thwack his way to the next rank.

He picked up the big mastery tactic Gork Smash! This tactic increases critical strike chance by 10% when you have Da Gud Plan, and increases you critical strike chance by 20% (not cumulative with the first 10% boooooo!) when you have Da Best Plan. One of the best dps tactics I've seen for a Black Orc!

However (you knew I was going to say that), upon collecting my flashy new tactic, and clicked on train, it appeared to have bugged my tactics...

I'll show you... here are the 2 pages of my tactics...

You should also notice that the train button is greyed out... this proves I pressed the button, but my new 'best' tactic cannot be found!

This appears to be a bug, I didn't log out and log back in to see if that rectified the problem. Chances are this might have been a known bug...

Anyway, Thwomp is rank 22 and is on track for 40 by Christmas!

Hold The Line!

I've been reading up on Hold The Line!

This is one of those abilities of mine that takes up a slot in my action bar, but is just about never clicked on!

Well after having a good inspection of the ability, it appears more useful that I first thought!

It clearly states that you (I) will increase chances to dodge (melee and ranged attacks?) and disrupt by 45% for 12 seconds.

12 seconds isn't that long, and it pretty much drains all of your action points. Read on with me...

You (I) will also defend all allies behind you up to 40 feet away, increasing their chances to dodge and disrupt by 15% as long as they remain at your back.

Allies may have this effect stacked on them up to 3 times.

So... Thwomp runs into battle with all the squishy healers and ranged guys throwing everything at Order, but Order are doing the same, leaving me to charge into melee! I quickly pop Hold The Line! and all of my fellow runts behind me (including the healers keeping me alive) won't be getting minced by all of the Bright Wizards flamey goodness, the Witch Hunters magic bullets or the Archmages... whatever it is they cast. Ok 15% isn't that much, but it's better than nothing right?

What if 3 Black Orcs ran up the field? Each of us would get 45% chance to dodge and disrupt, and as long as all 3 of us were close enough to the runts, they would get 45% too!

Hang on... am I reading it right?

Is it possible that 4 Black Orcs (Thwomp being one of them) run in, I stop slighty before them, they all pop Hold The Line! buffing me with 45% chance to dodge/disrupt for being behind them, and then I pop Hold The Line! to make me have 90% chance to dodge/disrupt?

Although Hold The Line! seems like a great ability when getting stormed or fighting a really immensley hard boss, it's not particularly that good for holding agro or dealing any damage back, since all you will be doing is Auto-Attack...

With everything said, is Hold The Line! really worth it? Can't it have a large cooldown, cost a set amount of AP but continue to have the same effects? Much like (I dread to say this) the Shield Wall ability for a Warrior in WoW? Although it won't be used very often, but it provides excellent protection for yourself and all the runts, which would make me use it more than 'never'.

The Great Talisman Crafter

Talisman crafting, also known in WoW as Jewel crafting. In fact, it's pretty much exactly the same!

I've been looking for a decent Talisman Making guide, but I = fail!

Although I've scouted one that will greatly help me out (and others) with understanding the basics of the Talisman Making mechanics(if it can be said like that).

To craft a talisman (or a 'socketable' gem), you need a few items, to start, you will need your container. I have no idea where to get these from, as a guess, I'd say head over to a merchant, they have all sorts of stuff for Apothecary, so surely they must have a starting container. You'll next need something called a fragment.

Fragments can be obtained by Salvaging (a gathering trade skill) a magical item. Fortunately I have picked up Salvaging and Talisman Making on Larlas, so he should be self sufficient.

Other ingredients like Gold Essences and Magical Essences help enhance (increase stats) or stabalize (decrease the chance of failing the creation) the talisman. The guide that I got most of this information from is listed in 2 parts, part 1 and part 2.

I have also added http://warhammeronlineleveling.blogspot.com to the blogroll since it's a pretty handy one to keep referring to.

A Suitable Surname

I only found out recently that you can have a surname! That's a great idea, but what if you pick the wrong one?

Well I'm learning new things about Mythic's top product all the time! WAR has some fantastic features and a surname is a great idea!

Think of a recent post about guild colours... why have guild colours when you can all unite under one surname? Well a number of reasons... lets have a look and find out.

Firstly not everyone will want to have the same name as other people? Well that's fair enough, but seriously, what's the problem with it? People will be able to refer to a surname when complimenting or complaining about or something like that. Although, when they say... 'it ended in something like chaoswithin' which wouldn't be any help since all members will be named the same.

Guild colours would be a better idea in my opinion, since we would be noticed by the similar colours, and it would look a lot smarter than a bunch of yobbos in mismatch coloured gear. Thinking about it again though, some complete retard can colour his gear the same, just to pretend to be in the guild, but they can do the same with a surname I guess.

I can imagine that all members would turn their nose up if they had to pay it themself, but keeping prices in mind, a surname would be 4g per member, whereas it could be 2g per full colouring per member, which although right now it seems hands down that colours would be cheaper, gear can be upgraded and so will need recolouring, which eventually can turn out to be considerably expensive.

I can only see the guild paying for the first paint job and the player has to pay for it afterwards, but it could also turn out that the guild will pay if (for example) it colours more than 4 items.

With the guild tax, surely it would be more appropriate for the guild to pay it all the time, since it's almost like a payment for paying your guild tax?

So which would it be, a guild surname, guild colours, both or neither?

I Smash Yer Face In Now!

Thwomp is getting stronger and stronger. He's rank 21, but more importantly than that, he can now kill faster...

He completed the greenskin chapter 10 PQ and picked up a meaty 2h axe! something like 42 dps instead of a 1h axe with just under 20 dps.

Ok I don't have as much survivability now without my shield, but I'm able to grind through mobs faster, if I can do this to less mobs at a time then I'll either have the same downtime, or maybe less.

Using a 2h weapon limits my actions I'm able to use now, it used to be a nice big rotation of: -

1. Open with Wot Armor?, Big Slash, Savin' Me Hide
2. Follow 'Me Lead (with 'Ave Another One tactic), Trip 'Em Up, Skull Thumper
3. Wot Armor?, Tuffer 'N Nails, Skull Thumper
4. Start again with #1

Occasionally I'd mix it up a bit if Big Slash was on cooldown, or I lose my plans (why does that happen?) or I'm in a different situation that I will need to react to or I'll suffer, for example, I have 3 mobs on the go, and allof a sudden, 2 mob join up... I'll quickly get my defensive buffs up as fast as possible, Tuffer 'N Nails, Savin' Me Hide, and also throw in Right In Da Jibblies just to help my avoidance a little more.

However now all I seem to be doing is Wot Armor?, Big Slash (or Trip 'Em Up), Skull Thumper (or Da Big 'Un if I'm fighting more than one mob)... I very rarely use Savin' Me Hide now unless I pull 3 mobs, but then again, now that I'm using Da Big 'Un which causes less damage than Skull Thumper but hits a lot of mobs in my view that forces me to use Savin' Me Hide in the following rotation since I occasionally get another 2 mobs.

I Gotz Me Big Pig!

Thwomp did it last night! He's rank 20 and mounted on his boar! I'm going to call him Pigsy!

Here's some shots of Thwomp hitting rank 20 and Thwomp and Pigsy together...

Here's me thinking that a mount costed 20g when here is the reality!

"I gotz me big pig!"

It looks as if the guild have made some progress as well, we now have Guild Rank 10! And not only that, we're halfway to getting Guild Rank 11! Which means more space in the guild vault!

I've been doing a lot of scenarios last night, why though was I jumping into Talabec Dam and Tor Anroc when I was only 19? I must have been a bit mad. Then again, any way of getting the last 10k xp for level 20 is better than questing in Dark Elf lands... I'm not looking forward to going there in tier 3

Latest XCM Moves

I've not had much practice with the deck since my last post about being able to fan (not that greatly though)

I have actually been able to perform a one handed single cut called a Charlier... why Charlier and not Charlie or whatever I have no idea... I'm quite good at it, but it's still a bit harder with a full deck.

I have tried out a new move today, it's called the hot shot! You perform a Charlier cut, then a single card flies out of the deck into the other hand...

Sounds impossible right? But look at this and you will understand that it can be done without a fixed deck. I even showed this move to a colleague at work, he could do nothing but sit and smile...

Anyway, it's really coming along now, I'm picking up some pretty cool cuts, and I'm really enjoying it. I never realised I'd get so into it! Then again, it is something I've wanted to be doing for quite a few years now.

I'm looking at doing something called a Revolution, basically spin a 'packet' in one hand or a few fingers, along with other smart moves like Buckeye.

Anyway, I thought I best post the latest.

A Very Annoying Quest!

Since I do not have as much time as others playing WAR, I have been quickly logging in during the mornings before I head off to work.

The past few morning attempts at doing a quest called Heroes' End

Now I know I added the link to http://www.wardb.com/, but I've been extremely good for not 'cheating' and finding out how to do it using a spoiler...

I've killed Lithia (the first part of the quest) on the first attempt... but there are 3 big tents around where she is, and a smaller tent behind them.

I need to place her head on the 'Planning Desk' in the 'Command Tent', well the only tent that stands out from the others is the smaller tent... but why would that be the command tent?

I've noticed that the greenskin and chaos quests seem to be very enjoyable and at times simple. I don't want every quest to be simple, since I don't want every other player able to solo most of the quests (like I can). Champions are the biggest problem for me, but because I can take them on, they aren't even a threat anymore (unless they have about 4 other weedy mobs with them or are a much higher level than me!).

The Dark Elves quests are (excuse my language) sh*t! When I first arrived in Shadowlands, the quest givers were sending me all over the place for minimal xp for the area! Not only that I spent probably an hour finding things for certain quests!

I'll be glad when I'm out of Ellyrion... it's just as bad as Shadowlands, and it's the location where this Heroes' End quest is...