Friday, November 28, 2008

Warhammer Online: Sorceress in PvE



After the short class overview a few days ago I'm going to write a bit about the performance of the sorceress in PvE. She belongs to one of the classes which have less issues in PvE leveling, mainly due to her high damage output.

Playing a sorceress in PvE is much different from playing her in PvP/RvR. While having Dark Magic up all the time in PvP and RvR for the max. possible damage, you have to be careful if you're leveling/questing alone. Failing to take care of this, may resulting in many frustrating deaths in later game

Notice: This post mainly handles the sorceress in solo PvE play.

Leveling 1-10

The first 10 levels are pretty straightforward and basically you'll press the same keys over and over again. That's not such a big matter, as the NPCs in this level range are fairly easy. Your main skills will be Doombolt and Gloomburst. Don't even try to cast Chillwind or Word of Pain, it's not worth it. The NPCs die so quickly, that the damage over time spells won't barely do any damage. If you get additional adds you may consider or are low on HP you may consider to use Dhar Wind to load off your dark magic and use it to finish of the mob and prevent backlashes killing you. If you're attacked by two mobs, you can also throw Dread Aspect of the mob you're not attacking to reduce it's damage by 50% for 15 seconds.

Mastery Spec: Not possible yet

Tactics: Not possible yet

Leveling 11-20

Not much changes since level 1-10. Additionally to your standard nuke spells, you now also have the Grip of Fear as AoE root and starting with level 11 you finally get your first Mastery Points every second level. Doombolt, Gloomburst, Doombolt until the NPC is dead.

Mastery Spec: In this level range, it's best to invest all your points into the Agony Mastery to increase the damage done by your Doombolt and Gloomburst. Each point spent in Agony will increase the damage of your Agony spells by 5% for a total of 25% on level 20.

Tactics:
13-20: Devour Energy
Devour Energy is a very good tactics and it procs quite decently and you won't go out of AP so quickly. Later it's very useful as sometimes you can run out of AP when the enemy is at low HP. With this tactic you basically almost never run out of AP.

Leveling 21-25

Only a slight change. Starting at level 20 you can also use Frostbite, which disarms the enemy and deals some additional damage. This changes our rotation slightly. Now we start with Doombolt, Gloomburst and Frostbite to disarm the NPC, Doombolt, Gloomburst and Repeat until the NPC dies. Notice: Frostbite only works with melee NPCs and ones using bows/crossbows, it won't work on casters.

Mastery Spec: Same as above, pump in all your points into Agony to increase your direct damage skills by 45-50%. Once you hit 25, you may consider to respec. More below.

Tactics:
21-25: Devour Energy + Endless Knowledge
Endless Knowledge is one of the more powerful tactics. At the lower level it Intelligence Bonus is fairly low, but with every level you gain it gets more powerful and the tactics results in a fairly significant increase in damage.

Leveling 25-30

At level 25, we hit the first point where it's worth to change your mastery. For solo play, a calamity spec is the best way to go. The main reason is Hand of Ruin. Good thing on Hand of Ruin is, that it's a channeling spell on a 11 sec cooldown (effectively it's 5 seconds, as the channeling itself has a duration of 6 seconds). It deals damage every 2 seconds for approximate the damage of a Doombolt and has no cast time pushbacks. At this point the usual spell-rotation looks like this: You start with a Doombolt, Gloomburst and finally Hand of Ruin. This is usually enough for most of the NPCs, if the NPC is still alive you can cast an additional Gloomburst or Surging Pain (the AoE Spell, its good for finishing because it's instant)

Mastery Spec: Hitting level 25, it's time to change your spec. At level 25, you invest 9 points into Calamity and buy Hand of Ruin with your 10th point. Any other point should be spent to increase the mastery level to mastery level 13 (which you can reach at level 29). The last point, you get with level 30, needs to be spent on absorb vitality, which is quite useful as it heals you for the amount of damage it deals.

Tactics:
25-30: Devour Energy + Endless Knowledge

Leveling 31-40

You have almost done it. At level 30 you Reckless Gathering, very helpful skill to recharge your AP quickly (Notice: Can only be used when you're not being attacked by an NPC other you will suffer a 3 second knockdown). Additionally with the Close Quarter tactics, you will deal significantly more damage and the NPCs will go down pretty quickly. If you have the choice, try to stay very close to the enemy when pulling (be close than 45 ft) so you do additional damage as from the beginning.

If it's not possible (because there are to many mobs between your and your target), then pull it with Gloomburst (instead of Doombolt) and cast Doombolt as second spell. In the meantime the mob will get close enough before the casting is done, dealing 25% additional damage and then cast Hand of Ruin.

Mastery Spec: Up to level 33 you'll spend your points to get your Calamity Mastery to level 15 and get the Rank 4 morale ability. The next 7 Mastery Points should be spent in Agony. 5 points in Agony mastery level and the remaining 2 points for Recover Energy and Echo of Power

Tactics:
31-39: Endless Knowledge + Close Quarters + Devour Energy/Bathing of Blood
Endless Knowledge and Close Quarters are the best combination for PvE. Close Quarters increase damage done by 25% if the enemy is within 45 ft.
40: Endless Knowledge + Close Quarters + Devour Energy + Bathing of Blood/Sleight of Hand
Sleight of Hand is of course only useful when you're leveling in a group (i.e. doing instances, public quests or city raid which is mainly PvE)

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Warhammer Online: Sorceress Review



 

Overview

Dark Elf SorceressThe sorceress is the dark elf ranged dps class. She wears cloth armor and her protection is very low, but her damage is very high and you shouldn't underestimate her. She can specialize in three different Masteries: Agony (Single Target Spells), Calamity (Damage over Time effects) and Destruction (Area of Effect) spells. Each of the Masteries have their pro and cons.

Mechanics

The mechanics of the sorceress are quite unique in the world of MMOGs. The more magic the sorceress uses, the more dark magic she gains resulting in more powerful spells. Almost every spell casted, will increase her chance to land a critical hit and the critical damage up to 200% damage and +50% chance to crit but also has a 60% chance to cause a backlash damaging the caster itself. The trick is to manage your dark magic to not blow up yourself

Mastery: Agony

Agony focuses on single target direct damage spells and increase their damage as well unlock some new spells. It's not a very good Mastery in the late game, as it requires you to stand for long time and force you to use Doombolt as your main spell which has a very long cast (3 seconds). You will find yourself often, that the enemy runs out of range/line of sight and your cast cancels, dealing no damage. However, it's pretty nice in the early game (first 20-25 levels) for leveling, as the better AoE/DoT spells are unlocked at higher levels.

Pros

  • High single target damage
  • Good for levels 1-25

Cons

  • Long cast times and cooldowns on related Agony spells
  • Doombolt is canceled very often or interrupted due toe loss of line of sight or target running out of range
  • Not many good skills/tactics to be unlocked

Mastery: Calamity

This mastery focuses on damage over time (DoTs) effects and get really interesting once you hit level 25 where you get a channeling DoT which will become your main damage spell. Besides that, there are some other nice spells you can get with this Mastery, like a healing DoT. Very good for leveling/solo PvE as well as for PvP

Pros

  • High mobility
  • Can heal yourself
  • DoTs dealing damage even when victim runs out of range
  • Strong channeling spell

Cons

  • Applying all DoTs is time consuming and victim often dies before you're done
  • Low peak damage
  • Low dps due to damage over time effects

Mastery: Destruction

Destruction is the mastery of area of effect spells. This mastery can get very powerful if you're able to hit many persons who are close to each other, like in a keep or city raid. It is very powerful mastery in this areas. On the downside, it's not very good in the early game unless you're leveling with a group and have at least one decent healer to keep you up.

Pros

  • Strong area of effect spells
  • Very powerful on keep and city raids

Cons

  • Easily to get agro from nearby mobs
  • Weak DoT/single target spells

Summary

In the next few days I'm going to write an extensive review on PvP/PvE performance and some tips & tricks.

Strengths

  • High spell damage
  • Very long range spells
  • Strong area of effect attacks

Weaknesses

  • Vulnerable to Melee
  • Light Armor
  • Spells can backlash

WTBBlue’s WOTLK Guide to Alchemy 375-450



This is a speed guide and will go over the quickest and cheapest way to level alchemy from 375-450 - with alternative recipes listed whenever it makes sense. Given that none of the professions will be finalized until November 13th this guide will be revised and completed when Wrath of the Lich King is released - however the basic patterns for Alchemy looks pretty complete at the moment so the final build should be similar (if not cheaper to level) to the current beta as of 09/26/2008.

Leveling Guide

From 375-390:
Elixir of Spirit (3 x Talandra's Rose, 1 x Imbued Vial) x 15
(Optional) Crazy Alchemist's Potion (2 x Goldclover, 1 x Imbued Vial) x 15
You can craft either of these depending on which herb's you have more of - however I'd highly recommend the Elixir of Spirit first since Crazy Alchemist's Potions could level you all the way to 430 at the moment

From 390-430:
Crazy Alchemist's Potion (2 x Goldclover, 1 x Imbued Vial) x 64
Woah really? Actually at the moment this will stay yellow till 422 and with the crazy cheap materials, how can you lose? Note that when you hit 422-430 the recipe will be green, so it'll take a lot more crafts per skill up but is still the easiest way to hit 430.

From 430-435:
Transmute: Titanium (2 x Cobalt Bar, 8 x Saronite Bar, 2 x Crystallized Life) x 5
Unfortunately the only way at the moment to move from 430-450 is through transmutes. Titanium Bars at the moment is your only option to move from 430-435.

From 435-440:
Transmute: Earthsiege Diamond (1 x Dark Jade, 1 x Huge Citrine, 1 x Ethernal Fire) x 5
You now learn Transmute: Earthsiege Diamond, which is yellow till 440.

From 440-445:
Transmute: Skyflare Diamond (1 x Bloodstone, 1 x Chalcedony, 1 x Ethernal Air) x 5
You now learn Transmute: Skyflare Diamond, which is yellow till 445.

From 445-450:
Transmute: Ethermal Might (1 x Ethernal Air, 1 x Ethernal Earth, 1 x Ethernal Fire, 1 x Ethernal Water) x 5
Finally you learn Transmute: Ethermal Might, which is yellow till 450.

At 450 you can learn new flasks such as Flask of the Frost Wyrm (125 spell power for 2 hours) and Flask of Endless Rage (180 attack power for 2 hours). Also I'm not going to list the total materials until the expansion is released and the list is finalized since there is no way to stockpile these materials until then anyway.

And for those wondering - it appears that basically all outland elixirs, potions, and flasks will only level you to 380. If you want to stockpile Outland materials to get to 380 that’s fine, but since Elixir of Spirit and Crazy Alchemist's Potion are both so easy to craft it doesn't make much of a difference if you decide to just start with Northrend patterns.

Special Perks for Alchemists

Alchemists get a few perks in WOTLK, the first being an Alchemist Stone trinket (tank - caster - melee). Alchemists also get to use 2 new types of potions - Crazy Alchemist's Potion which gives random buffs and the big one - Endless Potions (Endless Rejuvenation Potion for example) that are potions with an INFINTE supply usable every 3 minutes...and...wait for it...USABLE IN ARENAS.

Warhammer Online: Confusion with numbers



Seems that there is some confusion about the active subscribers, registered users and copies sold.

Some news pages and blogs report, that Warhammer archived 1.2 million users so far. This is not 100% correct. Actually it's 1.2 million copies delivered to the shops/actually sold. But in reality "only" 800.000 copies have been activated, which is still a pretty good number and even outnumbers World of Warcraft during it's first 2 months. It's highly probable that Warhammer will break the 1 million by the end of this year, which indeed will make it a success, compared to recently MMOs such as Lord of the Rings Online,Vanguard and Age of Conan, which didn't passed the 500.000 mark.

However, 800.000 registered copies, doesn't mean that the game has 800.000 subscriptions. There are many people who were disappointed and didn't subscribe after the first free month included within the retail box. So far the real number of subscribers is unknown.

There are first indications that there is a pretty fairly number of people who stopped playing, which could be observed on some European Servers which are there since the pre-release start where preorder customers could start a few days before the actual release. This servers were pretty full and European servers still don't have a character transfers, so they are quite good for to observer such changes.

Some of the servers, like Carroburg and Erengrad, where full even weeks after the cloning process with queues of 200-400 resulting in waiting times of over 90 minutes. At end of October and beginning of November, the queues suddenly disappeared. No big surprise here, as that's around the time, where the free trial month is expired and many people didn't extended their subscription, which is a good indication that there are indeed many people who stopped playing Warhammer.

Also, on Erengrad it's pretty hard to join a Scenario, as the waiting times there are pretty high which indicates that there are not many level 31-40 characters there who sign up for scenarios. The situation on Carroburg on other side looks much better, the waiting times are around 2-5 minutes depending on the daytime.

Sources:
EA Second Quarter ficial year report 2009

WTBBlue’s WOTLK Guide to Tailoring (350-450)



This is a speed guide and will go over the quickest and cheapest way to level tailoring from 375-450 - with alternative patterns listed whenever it makes sense. Given that none of the professions will be finalized until November 13th this guide will be revised and completed when Wrath of the Lich King is released - however the basic patterns for Tailoring looks pretty complete at the moment so the final build should be similar (if not cheaper to level) to the current beta as of 10/16/2008.

Leveling Guide

Note every pattern listed is purchasable from the trainer or a vendor unless otherwise noted

From 350-375:
Bolt of Frostweave (5x Frostweave Cloth) x 1445
Not at 375 yet? No worries! You can make Bolt of Frostweaves until you are!

From 375-380:
Frostwoven Robe (4x Bolt of Frostweave, 1x Eternium Thread) x5
From 375-425 you can craft basically the entire Frostwoven and Duskweave set - which is worth it if you plan on using it. Otherwise this just goes over the cheapest items in these 2 sets to skill up with.

From 380-390:
Frostwoven Leggings (5x Bolt of Frostweave, 1x Ethernium Thread) x10

From 390-395:
Frostwoven Boots (4x Bolt of Frostweave, 1x Ethernium Thread) x5

From 395-400:
Frostwoven Leggings (5x Bolt of Frostweave, 1x Ethernium Thread) x5

From 400-405:
Bolt of Imbued Frostweave (3x Bolt of Frostweave, 2x Infinite Dust) x5
Craft as may of these as you can until it turns grey at 405, you’ll need it to level from 425-450. If you plan on leveling only to 440 you’ll need 90 of these. If you plan on leveling to 450 you need about 300 more LOL GOOD LUCK.

From 405-415:
Duskweave Wristwraps (8x Bolt of Frostweave, 1x Ethernium Thread) x5

From 415-420:
Duskweave Gloves (9x Bolt of Frostweave, 1x Ethernium Thread) x5

From 420-425:
Duskweave Shoulders (10x Bolt of Frostweave, 1x Ethernium Thread) x5

From 425-430:
Frostweave Bag (6x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave, 2x Ethernium Thread) x5
Black Duskweave Wristwraps (4x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave, 2x Iceweb Spider Silk, 2x Ethernium Thread) x5
Black Duskweave Leggings (5x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave, 2x Iceweb Spider Silk, 2x Ethernium Thread) x5
Depending on if you have any Iceweb Spider Silk, Black Duskweave Wristwraps are the cheapest way to level to 430 - I included the Black Duskweave Leggings as they are a good pair of rare leggings that cost 1 extra Bolt of Imbued Frostweave.

From 430-440:
Frostweave Bag (6x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave, 2x Ethernium Thread) x10
Cheapest thing you can make at this point and at least you can auction them to get some gold back.

From 440-445:
Frostweave Bag (6x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave, 2x Ethernium Thread) x25
Optional Abyssal Bag (4x Ebonweave, 2x Spellweave, 1x Ethernium Thread) x5 - Pattern Obtained through Knights of the Ebon Blade Revered Reputation
Optional Mysterious Bag (4x Spellweave, 2x Moonshroud, 1x Ethernium Thread) x5 - Pattern Obtained through The Wyrmrest Accord Revered Reputation
Optional Glacial Bag (4x Moonshroud, 4x Ebonweave, 1x Ethernium Thread) x5 - Pattern Obtained through The Son of Hodir Exaulted Reputation
Now this gets retardedly hard. There are a handful of patterns that stay yellow to 445 but the cheapest way to go is to just make 25x Frostweave Bags and pray that you get lucky. No seriously. The other option is to craft the 3 rare bags - however Ebonweave, Spellweave, and Moonshroud all have a 4 day cooldown (similar to the cloths in TBC) and the patterns all require reputation to buy.

From 445-450:
Frostweave Bag (6x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave, 2x Ethernium Thread) x25
Optional Ebonweave Gloves (4x Ebonweave, 4x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave, 1x Eternium Thread, 1x Frozen Orb) x5
Optional Moonshroud Gloves (4x Moonshroud, 4x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave, 1x Eternium Thread, 1x Frozen Orb) x5
Optional Spellweave Gloves (4x Spellweave, 4x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave, 1x Eternium Thread, 1x Frozen Orb) x5
Optional Mysterious Bag (4x Spellweave, 2x Moonshroud, 1x Ethernium Thread) x5
Optional Glacial Bag (4x Moonshroud, 4x Ebonweave, 1x Ethernium Thread) x5
You can also make the tailoring epic gloves now as well so might as well craft 1 to help level. Past that the cheapest way is still Frostweave Bag followed by the 2 rare bags. (Abyssal Bags turn green at 445 so is not on this list)

Materials Required

390 Imbued Frostweave
275 Frostweave Bolt
175 Ethernium Thread

Doesn’t sound like much? Lets break it down further:

7225 Frostweave Cloth
780 Infinite Dust
175 Ethernium Thread

Note that this is the fastest way to get to 450 - you can craft the optional items to sell or to use, but you’ll need more types of materials and it’ll cost a lot more and/or take longer

Special Perks for Tailors

Tailors get unique cloak enchants (Healer, Caster, Melee) as well as an easy to craft Spellthread to use on their pants (note that it is not any better then the one they can craft for other players, however the materials are drastically cheaper). Finally tailors get to craft a magic carpet to ride on! Tailors also get a new ability learned from a world drop book - Northern Cloth Scavenging - which increases the cloth drop rates of all Northrend Humanoids they kill!

For those saving TBC materials - you can still make rare/epic TBC tailoring items up to 395 (just about every pattern that crafts a rare/epic item that you learned at 375 will turn green at 390 and gray at 395) however this guide will focus on the cheapest materials to get to 450 - which in all cases points to new Northrend green tailoring items. If you still want to stock up on materials to level with TBC mats your best bet is to craft a ton of Golden Spellthread/Runic Spellthread as they are currently the cheapest high level items as well as still being somewhat useful in WOTLK.

Source: http://www.wtbblue.com/

Monday, November 24, 2008

First player to get "Glory of the Hero"



Yesterday, Negiva from Forlon Legacy was the first player to achieve this achievement. That's 39 achievements spread around all heroic instances currently available in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King rewarding a Red Proto-Drake, which is a 280% speed mount.

A short interview can be found at MMO-Champion

Warhammer Online: What is it?



Warhammer Online is a next-generation MMORPG and successor of Dark Ages of Camelot with the main Focus on RvR (Realm vs Realm) fight. In Realm vs Realm there are usually 2 (or more) factions consisting of 2 or more races who fight side on side against the other factions. Mythic, the developer behind Dark Ages of Camelot and Warhammer, promotes Warhammer as a game, where "WAR" (also used as abbreviation for Warhammer: Age of Reckoning) is everywhere.

What does this mean?

It means that from the beginning at level 1, you will be involved in the war between the Armies of Order and Destruction. What ever you do - be it Quests, PvE or PvP - it will bring the feeling of war. You can master your character and hit max level by doing only PvP or only doing PvE or a mix of both. For the best and fastest experience it's recommended to do a mix of both. This way you get involved with the background story of Warhammer and can participate in the PvP and learn to master your character when you hit level 40.

What makes Warhammer different from other MMOs?

  • Focus on PvP/RvR
    Unlike PvE games like World of Warcraft, Warhammer online focuses on PvP/RvR. Most of the time in Warhammer you'll be fighting other players, may it be in instanced Scenarios or in the open world RvR Zones
  • Open World PvP/RvR
    In the Open World players have to capture Battleground Objectives and Keeps in order to take control over a certain zone. If a factions controls enough zones, they can start a raid on the enemies capital city, burn it down and plunder it
  • Public Quests
    Mythic introduced something called "Public Quests" in Warhammer. Public Quests are special places within a Zone, where scripted event is running and everyone who passes by can participate without the need to join a group or get a quest. Everyone within the range of the Public Quest can participate by contributing to the Public Quest objectives. There are usually 2-4 steps to be done. Last step usually have a more or less tough boss to beat. The loot is distributed at the end of the Public Quest, depending on your participation you get a bigger bonus on the rolls and everyone who have enough contribution rolls a random number between 1 and 1000 + Contribution Bonus. A few minutes later, the Quest restarts and can be repeated as often as you like

Warhammer Online was released on 18-08-2008.

Warhammer Online US Homepage
Warhammer Online Europe Homepage

4 years of World of Warcraft



Starting on Monday, there is a new event/achievement to earn when you log in to your World of Warcraft account.

All players who login within the next days, receive a "WoW's 4th Anniversary" achievement and a in-game mail containing a "Blizzard Baby Bear" vanity pet.

wow4thanniversary_small

Happy Birthday World of Warcraft!