The Mage Issue

I like playing a mage. The only reason I didn't roll a bright wizard in WAR was the fact that there were plenty of them already. The damage you can deal with them justifies the smallest HP in the game. And you can do so many awesome things with the BW. The powerful fireballs, AoE and DoTs make the class fun to watch, fun to play and painful to play against. When a played my squig herder I would run away in search of some big rock to hide behind whenever I got so much as a single hit from a BW. These guys would fry your butt in seconds. Now that is some ranged damage dealing.
I play a mage in WoW. There is definitely something wrong with the class. It is no longer the primary damage dealer it used to be (and has to be, taking into account the lack of HP). Warlocks are now at the top along with the Death Knights. That makes the mage just a vending machine that can also provide portals. For that reason there are not many mages around and, really, it is not like people really need them in raids. They can go with a warlock and be just fine.
I blew a lot of gold on respecing this week. I initially was frost spec and it does reduce the damage by about 10-12%. That is a considerable number. First I went Arcane because I heard that it is not the joke it used to be. It is a fun spec - that's for sure: more resistance to all kinds of magic, improved blink and almost instant invisibility. Great for getting out of tight spots. It was hard getting used to Arcane but it got me to Wrathgate. The spec gave me more mana regen, took a great chunk of crowd control away but granted more damage. But still not enough.
Next I decided to try fire. Felt like a BW a bit. A lot of damage, long cast times and wild consumption of mana. Fire is for the damage but for some reason I did not enjoy it. I ran a dungeon with my guildies shortly after. I was fire spec before so I didn't have to get used to the abilities. But man was that a hard run for me! I can't live without AoE and CC of the Frost spec. Plus there is no way a mage can go about without an Ice Barrier. The squishiness of the class doesn't let you be unprotected when swarmed by mobs. Mana Shield is not the answer for me. And my guildies told me that they really miss my AoE Blizzards. So I went back to Frost. I had to bite the bullet and swap damage for AoE and CC.
The mage is facing a predicament. Not enough damage for a class that is supposed to be the primary damage dealer in the game. When you try doing more damage by respecing you lose mana and ultimately your life. There are less and less Frost mages around because of the lack of damage and less fire mages because of the lack of CC. Arcane is somewhere in the middle, so I guess that this is the spec to go with for most mages today. I'll stick to Frost however, I just love the crowd control too mush.
It looks like waiting for the new patch and hoping for some mage-love is the way for me. Dual spec will only be available at 80 and I'm not leveling fast enough.
Another thing is the graphics. The Mage spells don't look too hot. The Warlocks have received some cool spells and the imps are chatting all the way through the dungeon runs. Arcane spells look ok but both frost and fire haven't changed since 2005 it seems. If Blizzard won't give the Mages more power - they could at least make us look cool. A mage should be much more than just shooting Fireballs and Frostbolts. Make frost mages freeze the earth around them or something. And fire should be like the one we see in Utgarde Keep.

Quality PvE

Having decided to take up WoW again an get my mage to lvl 80 after all I have given myself the opportunity to make my gaming experience more diverse. I am now playing both WAR and WoW, and that means that I'm making half the amount of progress in both. In any case I'm not in for the leveling race.
Wrath is actually very very good to say the least. Even though I didn't like it from the start in the Borean Tundra, I find more and more good quests as I get deeper and deeper into Northrend. And the fact that I am not actually committing to the game makes it a relaxed lay-back experience. It is nice to have some high quality PvE every once in a while. The quest chains get pretty interesting and I like the rewards. And the fact that you don't look like a clown in the gear you get is also a big deal for me. I am not going to describe the gameplay or the quests - it has been done a million times already.
Blizzard have really outdone themselves with this expansion. And I am not talking about any innovations, I can't say that there is anything conceptually new in Wrath. But quality is oozing all over Northrend. The "new and improved" quests would have never hooked me for Wrath, but the looks of Northrend did. The ambiance is phenomenal and the best thing contributing to it is the music. I have always liked the way Blizzard structured the environments (Hillsbrad and all) and it still doesn't seize to amaze me. I just wish Mythic could make the Warhammer world as open and captivating.
Now the thing that always bugged me. Making lots and lots of gold. Strangely I discovered that it is not as hard as it used to be. Maybe it is just the prices for gold clover are way up but I made 1100 gold in two levels (70 - 72) - that's not much but still. I never was great at making money in WoW, always having just enough to afford mounts and learn spells, but now gold isn't such a big deal.
I am having fun with WoW so far. I guess it will last till the awesomeness of the environments along with music rub away a bit, but they still hold a tight grip on me.
Quality can make even the things you didn't initially enjoy look like fun.

Be the Master of Puppets

PvP should be different altogether. Playing a scenario in WAR I realized that I didn't feel like I was PvPing, it was like I was killing mobs. I guess that you get so used to RvR (or rather ZvZ for zerg vs zerg) that it turns into another type of routine slaughter. I am not bashing WAR right now. Their PvP model is awesome.
But I start thinking that for PvP to be more of a human vs human player experience you have to be able to have more control over your character's actions. I am eyeing Darkfall. I followed the game for some time, watched videos, previews. As far as I understand, the PvP in the game is more like actual fighting, the style that you can see in Oblivion. You don't just click and see your character fight the opponent, while throwing in some spells and abilities. You actually hit and block and hit again yourself. Now that is the direction that PvP games should evolve in. More human factor.
Considering Darkfall, I don't think that I'll be playing the game however. I cannot say that I like how it looks or that it is worth trying out for me. There is a bit too much realism in the graphics for my liking. I like cartoony things. Plus the type of character control isn't the only thing that makes a game fun. Unfortunately I haven't seen anything that would excite me. However I am not the one to judge, considering that I haven't actually played the game.
In any case, I like the Darkfall type of PvP; but seriously - playing 3 MMOs? No way.

As I was taking a break from WAR

I decided to take a few days' rest from WAR. No matter how good a game is there should be times when you take a break so that the game doesn't get annoying. Surprisingly I felt like going to some Northrend dungeons. I hopped on my level 70 mage and shipped out to that rugged land of zombies and spectacular landscapes. Despite my hatred for PvE I had fun. Quality PvE is just as important as balanced RvR, just for different kinds of players.
So that time playing I did the thing I loath - I got in a PUG. A group of two druids, a priest, a death knight and me, the mage. With only two players for dps it was a slow progression, but strangely enough that made the Nexus fun to play. I even shot a couple of videos.

Watch more videos of WoW

and the boss (after a wipe)

Watch more videos of WoW

more to see here http://www.wegame.com/users/Magree/

So that was my day having a break from Warhammer. It turned out better than I thought it would. Oh, and I recently got an invite from a guild called the Zerg (funny name). It's not a bad one, I like it so far, so it may turn out that I'll be playing WoW after all. That doesn't mean of course that I'll put WAR aside. Anyway, to be able to judge a game (WoW in my case) you have to get to the good stuff, run the instances, get to 80 and have some decent crafting, which I missed so much.

Killing Time in WAR

What do warriors do in between battles? They get ready for the next one. What is there to do when there is nothing going on in WAR? Well you can go get some coke out of the fridge while waiting for a scenario to pop up. You may go PvE. Although that is not for me apparently. If I wanted to PvE, I'd just play WoW. But I don't - so I play WAR, which is, as stated by Mythic, a constant battle. Unfortunately there is no such thing as constant battle (in the game of course). So there are certain times that can be characterised as ... truce I guess. During those times you can just as well go afk or log out.

There is just not enough to do in the game. PQs are certainly a great way to get xp and some gear, but I mainly use them as a means of killing time while waiting for a scenario or a call to arms. I just stand near a PQ location and pick out mobs, then go to a scenario, then go back to killing mobs. It seems that they put the PvE content because you kind of have to. You can't have an mmo without PvE. So there - knock yourself out.

Mythic could really do something about the crafting system. It hasn't been fun before and it isn't fun now. I'm starting to think that the only way to make it better is just changing it altogether. It could have at least been like WoW's trading skills. Instead we get some skills that are in fact useless from the economy perspective. And we get a billion of potions that basically do the same thing but with insignificant differences. 1500 health over 12 seconds or 1233 health over 7 - choose wisely young dwarf! Do we really need such diversity? I'd like to see potions that differ by the amount of health they grant you and not the time that they need to do their job.
I just can't shake the feeling that most of the things in WAR aside RvR are there just for the sake of being there, just because it's the rules. The world of WAR lacks depth.

Wanna Be the Best Around

After the introduction of the Slayer and the Choppa I expected to see loads and loads of the two around the starting areas. Which is not surprising. But my astonishment had no bounds when I stated to meet Slayers in Altdorf two days after the event. Big deal right? But seeing Slayers in their 20s two days after the event is completely "WTF?!". I understand, people were so eager to play the new classes in their Tiers that they just had to play them no-stop for two days. But seriously. Do some "mmo-enthusiasts" even pick their butts up from the chairs? I remember a similar impression when there was an announsement on WoWs general chat about some orc who was the first one on the server to get to 80. Again 2 (or 3) days into the game.

Personally I always was kind of to shy to have the best gear or to be the first one on the server to get to a certain level. To have an awesome character is a good thing of course, it means that you are devoted to your dwarf or orc or whatever and you can set aims and reach them. However there is a fine line between being good at the game and being a nerd. Playing your character 10 hours a day is just freaky. If you want to impress people in an mmo you are probably at the wrong place. I admit - some kids will praise you for your leet skills, but is putting real life aside and playing like crazy (and probably having no fun in the process) really worth it? You are just showing everybody around that you spend to much time in front of your computer, that you have no life and that your priorities in life are screwed up.

Bitter Rivals

The Slayers are coming hurray-hurray, the Slayers are coming hurray-hurray!

Oh yes, the new patch and some sweet new classes. I really liked the cosmetic changes to some arms and more detail in maps. The Open RvR Rallying Cry is a thing I've craved for for too long. This new feature has made Open RvR more dynamic, taking a keep "while no one is looking" is now possible only if the opposing side are a bunch of lazy blokes. Although the highlight is most certainly the Twisting Tower scenario. It is a wonderful scenario, you get to fly up to the tower, it looks good and there are a lot of places for my engy (Klondike Snow who has become my main after all) to set up his turrets. The dreaded columns are a pain! Those pesky sorceresses and zealots are getting from the line of sight, who do the thing they are?! But no matter...
The event itself isn't such a big deal, I guess it is OK. There isn't much to say about it, it is a lot like the Night of Murder. You do quests that are not that difficult, I was actually expecting something more challenging. But I have to hand it to the devs, it is not difficult or easy enough to be boring. I had fun, so thank you, Mythic.
Now getting to play the new classes early is a sweet deal and I am reflecting whether I should play a Slayer. Of course I am going to try one out but am I going to really get into the class? The tattooed dwarf is attractive, to say the least. But I am not a melee type of guy; and the fact that there are going to be loads of them out there isn't exactly selling the class to me. Not that it should matter to anyone wanting to play a berserk but it kind of does matter to me. Another demerit is that I'll have to level yet another dwarf through all the stuff. Do not want! But we'll have to wait and see - who knows, maybe the Slayer will be such a cool character that I'll forget all about the leveling burden.

But if you're not going to be a Slayer the new class wave is a perfect time for making an alt. The starter zones are going to be full and the fist PQs will most probably be a blast. Regardless of having a tank or a healer as an alt, you will be in high demand. Slayers can't tank or heal themselves and suddenly you appear on the horizon, a shiny Rune Priest extending your healing touch upon the dying Slayers, prolonging their quest to find death and restore honor! You'll be a star - chicks will digg you. And that leads me to believe that a high-level Slayer will lorewise be the biggest loser a Slayer can be - you're alive, what kind of a Slayer are you?!
That is all just jokes. I am actually very excited about the new classes, they will make RvR so much better. It is such a pain going up the stairs to the keep lord - the first guys showing their faces on on the second floor die if you have anything less than awesome healers. A character that can get through all the people to make room for the ranged guys (like me) is a real treat. The times of awesomeness are almost upon us. I am almost sure of it. Don't let us down, Mythic.

There is no I in team, there is U in failure

Some days are RvR-friendly, others turn out to be a total failure. Today was the day when Destruction could give themselves a good pat on the back. They ruined Order's attempts at taking a keep (any keep) several times in a row . I played my engy today, so obviously I was one of those who got their asses kicked. The situation that we found ourselves in was caused not by the Destruction being more awesome (as it usually is), it was the fact that our organisation totally sucked. People couldn't agree on anything. "Lets go left! No lets go right! Get to the dwarfs, before the destro comes. No lets focus on this keep! You suck! Screw you! Res plz! Noob!" Yep, one of those day I tells'ya...

MMOs need team effort in order for the players to achieve anything. And WAR is all about team effort, RvR just doesn't work any other way. Play by the rules or eat dirt. I don't know any other game that requires people to work together and interact as much as WAR does. That is the main reason why you just have to be guilded to get the real taste of WAR. And let's face it - the game's PvE is not developed enough to focus solely on mob slaughter, it is...well it's just dull.
I realize that not all people want to interact all the time while playing, some people prefer soloing and group only for dungeons or raids, some people just don't do PvP. A more "classic" game is the one for them. WAR, as Paul Barnett put it, is the Led Zeppelin of the MMOs. That is the most precise description that you can apply to Warhammer. It is for those people that like their MMO to be the ultimate one. It is the multiplayer game of massive scale. And such a game is not for everyone. You can't make people be a part of a team if they don't want to. So most of casual gamers that are not into RvR will stick to what they have and what satisfies them. And that's OK.
No matter how awesome WAR is, it will never be the biggest MMO ever, it will probably grow a bit, but really, I will be surprised if WAR breaks a one million mark. I will be pleasantly surprised, but surprised none the less.