Snaffy's Space | MMO Fansites

Here's a milestone most bloggers don't get to. :)

As you can clearly see, traffic has been falling off since Warhammer Online's release, which isn't a surprise all things considered. Still, I'm quite happy to surpass 1,000,000 pageviews since that was the main traffic goal I set for myself when I started TheGreenskin back in November 2007. It took me 18 months; not bad since this is a one-MMO focused blog and WAR was in beta for over half its lifespan.

Much like the line graph above, my interest and excitement over WAR has risen and fallen. I'm basically sticking around until The Land of the Dead. Hopefully, that will be enough to sustain me a couple more months until games like Aion, Global Agenda, and Jumpgate Evolution establish themselves. I'd still very much like for WAR to be my one and only MMO, but given the current situation, I'm a bit pessimistic at that happening.

The biggest praise I've gotten as a blogger is for my writing style and quality. In case you can't tell, I'm a bit anal about polish in almost everything I do. Server crashes, lag, sticky terrain, a swinging pendulum of career balance, and other annoying things WAR is famous for drive me bonkers. I'm starting to think that Mythic and I have very different views on how a game should be devloped and delivered. I'm cool with less features as long as they're impeccably implemented. Based on 18 months of observation, it seems Mythic would rather throw more content at players to gloss over quality issues. It's the classic struggle of quality vs. quantity.

I am hopeful! Not naive, but hopeful Mythic will finally come around.

What's the best advice I can give them as a player? After Land of the Dead, I don't want to see a lick of new content until you finely tune your current content. Honestly, I don't even want to see a new live event! If the core of your game is working properly, it will sustain player interest for years! Once you have it working, new content can be brought in to enrich the experience. No more smoke and mirrors please.

Thanks to every single person who reads and comments on this blog. Obviously, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun doing this without you.

Does your ideal renown ability build include any RvR tactics? Mine doesn't.

When I look at the list of available options, the stat buffs jump out at me as must-haves. Seriously, stats are very important in this game. My SH goes from pimp to gimp if I drop my Ballistic by a mere 50 points. There don't seem to be any diminishing returns on stats, although there are definitely sweet spots.

I can't fathom not boosting Ballistic as high as possible until I reach the T3 renown abilities (RR40 required). It would simply put me at a disadvantage.

Once I hit that RR40+ mark, the lure of +ranged crit is the only thing on my radar. Crit is huge. Two or three crits in a fight means you're going to win, especially if you pair it with heavily stacked Strength, Ballistic, or Intelligence (the main damage stats).

There are only two reasons I would ever buy an RvR tactic:

The +5% XP tactic from RvR is very nice while leveling but useless once you hit rank 40.

While saving for a +stat/crit RA that costs 3 or 5+ points I can buy RvR tactics (2-4 points) so that my points aren't just sitting there unused. Once I can buy the +stat or +crit RA, I would immediately respec out of the RvR tactic(s).

Why do I feel this way? Simply put, the RvR tactics aren't that enticing and the +stat/crit RAs will impact my character much more heavily. Reducing nearby players' morale when I kill a member of a particular race? It doesn't reduce their morale enough to make this worth it. Doubling AP regen 10% of the time on killing a particular race? Way too situational. Giving a small HP boost when killing a certain race? I had that once... I think I got 53hp per kill at rank 40—useless. How about 5% increased renown in situation X, Y, or Z? That's around 50 extra renown per rank 40 solo kill/BO and it only works in X, Y, or Z—weaksauce.

The 2% damage to individual enemy races and 5% increased morale per allied race in your group are fairly decent, but they are at the very bottom of the tree and I would still rather improve my crit chance since that's a ~100% damage increase to any enemy race if it goes off. For morale gain, I use the Strength in Numbas PvE tactic.

I'm sorry, but I really think these RvR tactics are useless in their current state. Want some suggestions?

"Fear Me" tactics reduce nearby enemy morale by 25%+ per kill

"Invigorating Victory" doubles AP regen 33% of the time

"Refreshing Dominance" heals you by 10% of your total HP per kill

Combine all "+5% increased renown" into one tactic and double the cost to 4pts

All "Bane" tactics increased to 5% damage

All "+5% morale gain" tactics cost 2pts (half)

I don't think my proposed ideas are overpowered, but they will make the RvR tactics a lot more desirable than they currently are. They need to be good or no-one will sacrifice their +stat/crit renown points on them except in the two reasons I described above.