The unstable Warhammer Online thread of allaying

[Calistas]

Thought we could do with just one thread for everything Warhammer!

With that in mind I thought I would warn folks to keep away from the guidebook for WHO unless you're a real fan. Although the class info (240 pages of 350 or so) is good, and the maps are good, there's not much else in here. For example, not a mention of crafting! More annoying, there are missed opportunities, like skill descriptions with "does not cause GCD" with no info as to what this means or why it's important or how it might impact your class.

The book prefaces itself by saying they are focusing more on the lore and flavour than the mechanics as the former are less likely to change but info as requested above will always be useful to players. Hmmm, 3/5.

[Vincent_GC]

I wish I read this before I bought the book.

Waste of money as a guide.

Good bathroom reading material though

[TheWombat]

GCD = Global Cool Down. It's the 1.5 seconds or whatnot that you have to wait between using abilities, regardless of their inherent cool down time. It prevents spamming abilities I guess.

[Adree]

You bought a guide for an online game that just came out?

[AndrewM]

Hey, it is only going to get more out of date. Might as well strike while the iron is hot!

I've read that one purpose of the GCD is to prevent improved latency from giving a player too much of an advantage.

[chumpface]

The awesome-est part of the guide is how it's written in either Orc-ish, Dwarv-y, or Goblin-y style english, depending on which race they're talking about.

Sigh. Nothing wrong with a little color, but for fuck's sake, man- it's a strategy guide, not fan fic.

[Gendal]

I haven't logged in for longer than 15 minutes in over a week. I want to play but I discovered the PvE stuff bores me to tears and as is my unfortunate habit I out leveled almost everybody. So it's been RB2 while I wait for T3 scenarios to start popping and I can resume my obsessive compulsive leveling spree with the benefit of an active RvR community.

[Iron Xides]

Originally Posted by chumpface

The awesome-est part of the guide is how it's written in either Orc-ish, Dwarv-y, or Goblin-y style english, depending on which race they're talking about.

Sigh. Nothing wrong with a little color, but for fuck's sake, man- it's a strategy guide, not fan fic.

If all you want is strategy, the best information is almost certainly not in a book that was probably written before the game's release.

[Calistas]

I was in a rush when I picked it up, and it was so big and shiny I thought it must be full of goodness!

Yes, I managed to work out GCD, but only because I'm a bit of a geek. How many complete nubs pick up a guide (target audience) and then get mighty confused. Most I'd imagine. There are about a half-dozen other terms which are left undefined as well, which was annoying. Almost as annoying as the constant dwarf/ork speak, which really gets old after a couple of pages.

As for utility, sure, it will grow old, but there's a lot you could write about MMO strategy which is somewhat timeless. Eg, what particular combos the authors might suggest for class X facing archetype Y. How to use cover (if at all), suggested keyboard layouts, suggested UI tweaks (native ones, clearly it was written before a lot of mods came out), suggested great sights to see.. and so on.

They could have done a lot just on the strategies and paths one might engage in for career development, and they wouldn't have gone out of date faster than the book went out of print, I imagine. For example, there are a range of parry bonuses available for the Ironbreaker, it would be interesting to see an analysis of what level of parry you could get to and therefore, how it might allow you to specialise in all the parry-based abilities.

Anyway, never mind.

Oh, if any of you are on Darklands, I'm Tinypirate there. Angry wee man :)

[Calistas]

Oh, and mods I love:

- WhinySpellTimer: Dont let the name fool you, this thing makes it really easy to see what buffs and debuffs are on you and your enemy and when they're coming off. Love it a lot.

- ActionBarColor: Makes your actions go red if the target is out of range.

- AutoLoot: name says it all.

- Warhammer Combat Scrolling Text: Makes incoming and outgoing damage much more obvious.

- SpamMeNot: Reports spammers, tho I suspect it caused my machine to crash, so uninstalled it.

- NPC Item Sale Price: Removed due to crash concerns. Will try it again.

And has anyone else noticed that the Curse client (curse.com is where you can get all of these) is a complete POS? It barely installs (mine produces errors), barely runs, and I suspect it was part of some crash issues I was having last night. At least, uninstalling it and a couple of mods stopped the crashes.

[chumpface]

Originally Posted by Iron Xides

If all you want is strategy, the best information is almost certainly not in a book that was probably written before the game's release.

Dude, I was looking for an extended _manual_, not some hyperlinked stat database. Like, how do the various trade skills work? What's the deal with RVR and the goals of each of the areas (beyond the in-game text), etc. Not everybody plays MMOs to obsess over raiding gear.

[malkav11]

I was hoping there'd be info on Tome unlocks, myself. Not that I *really* want to spoil most of that for myself, but there are whole swathes of unlocks that I'm clueless about and clearly missed during my sojourns in the applicable areas. I'd really rather just know where and what to do than wander around a two-tiers-down area poking stuff. But then, I'm a completist and addicted to the damn Tome.

[Calistas]

This plan of reducing the number of Warhammer threads seems to have failed...

But gosh, I love my Ironbreaker. Level 10 now and for the past couple of levels I've been bashing the crap out of Scenarios. Anything that isn't a tank gets smacked down if it doesn't run. Best result so far, 7 kill hits!

[AndrewM]

Originally Posted by Calistas

This plan of reducing the number of Warhammer threads seems to have failed...

Amazingly, creating a new thread did not reduce the total number of threads. ;)

[Calistas]

Originally Posted by AndrewM

Amazingly, creating a new thread did not reduce the total number of threads. ;)

You are clearly wise in the ways of logic!

Anyway, great night tonight. Hit 10 with my ironbreaker and kicked ass in scenarios. Got 7 kills in one and top damage in another. Felt kinda sorry for the squig herders, witches and marauders I met, they didn't last too long. Black orks and shaman lasted until either side had a buddy turn up. Great fun and I hit renown 9.

[MikeJ]

Originally Posted by Calistas

But gosh, I love my Ironbreaker. Level 10 now and for the past couple of levels I've been bashing the crap out of Scenarios. Anything that isn't a tank gets smacked down if it doesn't run. Best result so far, 7 kill hits!

Tanks can get kills on anyone who's not getting healing. The difference between a group where the enemy healers are on the ball and one where they are not is night and day. I played one scenario where the destro team was about half healers and five of us couldn't even melee down a witch elf. On another scenarios where healing is conspicously absent, I can be tops in killing blows.

You can get some really fun faceoffs in scenarios. One that I remember with my swordmaster was where I was knocked off a mountain and landed with just 200 health right in front of a black orc. I popped my 'shield wall' morale ability for ten seconds of 100% blocking and turn on the shield-procing blade enchant. My shield just kept procing again and again, and hits were just parry, block, parry, absorb, block, absorb. He must not have been using his healing proc, because by the time the cavalry arrived I had carved off about 2000 hitpoints and he had carved off about 50. Then he got rooted and killed. I can't imagine how frustrating it would have been for him, to see his enemy with just 5% health and not be able to kill them.

Another scenario I was running to try to save an archmage who was getting pounded by a black orc and a witch elf, but I didn't get there in time. So I killed the witch elf, and started in on the black orc. Before I'd gotten through 10% of his health, a Chosen showed up. Once I got down to half health, I popped a heal-over-time potion for 1500 health. I managed to kill the black orc, but I was in bad shape. Now the witch elf shows up again, and I just barely manage to kill her *again* before the Chosen finally takes me out. Glorious.

[Marcin]

to see his enemy with just 5% health and not be able to kill them

This happens a surprising amount of times with IBs, so much so that I tell people to not rush them solo even at 5% :D

shield just kept procing again and again

How do you pronounce this "word", anyway??

[MikeJ]

Originally Posted by Marcin

How do you pronounce this "word", anyway??

I pronounce it with a hard c. So it rhymes with 'croc' in crocodile. Apparently it stands for 'Programmed Random OCcurence'. I guess I could just say 'activating'.

[intruder]

Originally Posted by Calistas

This plan of reducing the number of Warhammer threads seems to have failed...

Well mid-November you will see the return of the [WOW] thread avalanche so fair game for now. ;)

[Damien Neil]

Originally Posted by Mike Jamieson

I pronounce it with a hard c. So it rhymes with 'croc' in crocodile. Apparently it stands for 'Programmed Random OCcurence'. I guess I could just say 'activating'.

I believe that's an after-the-fact acronym. The exact origin of the term is muddy, since it dates back to the early MUD days, but it seems to be short for 'process'.

[beloved one]

Originally Posted by Damien Neil

I believe that's an after-the-fact acronym. The exact origin of the term is muddy, since it dates back to the early MUD days, but it seems to be short for 'process'.

Agreed, especially that being a backronym. I believe procedure, but possibly also process. Coder jargon.

[MikeJ]

Originally Posted by Damien Neil

I believe that's an after-the-fact acronym. The exact origin of the term is muddy, since it dates back to the early MUD days, but it seems to be short for 'process'.

It looks as though you are right about the after-the-fact acronym. Process or procedure seem to be the root, as in this from WoWWiki:

Proc is otherwise sometimes short for "spec_proc" which is a term used by the original programmer of Circle-MUD, Jeremy Elson. It might have been used as well by the original programmers of diku-MUD. spec_proc is short for "special procedure". Special procedures in Circle-MUD are functions that can be assigned to objects, players, and locations in the world such that each time an event occurs, the special procedure function will be invoked. Special procedures were used in Circle-MUD for a wide variety of purposes: Creating room events when a person typed a specific string of text, causing a weapon or piece of armor to perform a magical action, and even causing a MOB (mobile) to do something that it wouldn't normally do.

Interesting that in process or procedure it's a soft c, though I don't think people say proc that way (mostly I just see it typed though).

[RobotPants]

Saying it like "pross" just wouldn't sound right after years of hearing it as "prock".

[Calistas]

God I hate the chat window. Why the hell can't I split off the endless NPC spam so I can actually read important messages?!

And why can't I receive a /tell any more? Other people can read mine, I never see incoming tells. WT living F?!

[Coca Cola Zero]

Every programmer I've ever heard it from pronounces proc (as in GetProcAddress, etc) as "Prock", not "Pross".

I'm no linguist but it seems to be common to change the sound of abbreviated words like that when more common abbreviations or words that also end with that letter use a different sound (eg. most people say proc like croc, doc, etc, not like a chopped up version of "procedure").

[Peter Frazier]

Originally Posted by Calistas

God I hate the chat window. Why the hell can't I split off the endless NPC spam so I can actually read important messages?!

I agree. How do I filter out the unecessary stuff?

[RobotPants]

I've only put maybe 2 hours into the game so far since release, but have received several dozen spam tells from gold sellers. I couldn't see any apparent way to report these guys or a spam filter. Hopefully I'm missing something, because it's pretty damn horrible for a game this new.

[Charlatan]

Originally Posted by RobotPants

I've only put maybe 2 hours into the game so far since release, but have received several dozen spam tells from gold sellers. I couldn't see any apparent way to report these guys or a spam filter. Hopefully I'm missing something, because it's pretty damn horrible for a game this new.

Perhaps you missed the link on the Warhammer Herald promoting an anti spam mod called SpamMeNot?

http://herald.warhammeronline.com/wa...cle.war?id=329

The "Another reason to like WAR" thread talks about this too.

[Charlatan]

Originally Posted by Peter Frazier

I agree. How do I filter out the unecessary stuff?

All that junk is in the "Say" channel, which you can turn off (sort of).

Right click on your Chat tab (I've found that if this doesn't work, you need to right click in the middle of the chat window so the Lock/Unlock menu comes up, and THEN right click on the chat tab).

Pick "Filters" or some such, I don't recall the exact wording. You'll get a big window with all the channels listed, with certain ones checked. The very top channel listed is "Say." Uncheck that to get rid of the excessive text in your window.

The only catch is that you HAVE to have a window somewhere with "Say" turned on - so if you only have one chat window, make another one and turn Say on only there. If you try to turn it off in your only chat window I think it ignores you.

[Calistas]

Jeez. Maybe that's why I'm not getting tells. Stupid system. Could have put it in the manual, or even the guide book! Looking forward to more chat mods. Thanks for the tip.

Well, had an awesome night of pvp. Being lvl 11 helped, but so did travelling to the human lands and trying their scenario (gotta try 'em all before I ding!). Man, I love that capture scenario! Bit more room to move, nice for a change.

Managed to top damage or kills, or both, at least a couple of times. I put that down to buff-happy teammates, armoring a d toughness potions and my level difference. And ironbreakers are just hard as nails at this level.

Found "hold the line" awesome to use. A couple of times our guys were facing there's an no one wanted to jump, so I would run forward, turn on hold the line, and wait for the bad guys to unload. Purple and green bolts would fly, block and disrupt messages would pop and bad guys would charge.

Seeing me being primaried, friends would charge and go for their rear (front ranks on me). Then, front ranks run off and leave me to pick a target! Great! Squishies go down very quick to an ironbreaker in tier 1.

I wish I knew what the "disrupt" message was all about. There are some tactics which rely on it to help you or screw over the enemy (IIRC) and I think I might build around parry, block and disrupt. Doesn't it do something to the caster when they are disrupted yet another good tip the guide book could have had...