I am a Master of the Air

Well there we go then, current live event completed by me.  I was a little dubious about this one as Mrs B complained about the fuel pump in the Reikland Factory scenario.  

“There is only one and you gotta get there first and everyone wants it!” she told me.

Well I ran Reikland Factory a bunch of times and found out her mistake.  Someone taking it will cap it for everyone on your side.  Happy days.

 

I had finished the PQ the night we ran BWE so that was ticked off, leaving the PVE chain and a few random things (2000 points)

 

Well Mrs B and I hammered out the chain and got our Prison Warden titles (haha cool) then we ground the respawning chests for the 2000 points.

 

I don’t know what has happened on Norn with the update but Order are pouring out of the woodwork, as usual they are putting up a fight during the day when destruction are at work, but in the evenings now they are holding us steady, even launching fort takes themselves.

I do think that destruction has gone soft and have stopped co-ordinating attacks and just zerging zones and getting cut down,  or maybe it has something to do with the 100’s of BW bomb groups.

On that matter itself its annoying, Mrs B and I tried it together to see how it worked on Destro and its not as effective, I was guarding she was bombing and I was AOE knockdowning.  But we were getting shredded, with or without a healer.

Disastrous Cascade just does not have the synergy that the BW spell does.  I think I will try it again with Mrs B and swap around her tactics to see how it fares.

 

Im off all week next week so my hope is to hit RR43 (im 41 atm) so I can wear my Conq shoulders.  I am also aiming on getting some more of the Ruin set so I can hit 5% block.  

 

I took a trip into Lost Vale with Mrs B yesterday to test my defences on the first boss.  He hit me for 4k, which is actually ok, I parry parry block him for the next three, take a 300 attack, then parry some more.  Eventually I died.  This is doable!

 

Not much else happened, so plans for tonight and the weekend are pretty much as written above,.  Ill be running BWE and BB on the reset for alliance peeps and maybe look at a LV run.

 

Keep on trucking

1.3 Has arrived: Some Impressions

Ok so 1.3 is in and I managed to run BWE and BB last night, with a less than optimal group but with the changes to wards I was interested in how my tanking suit (which was built without wards) would stand up to these city instances.

 

Before we get on to that though I just want to say a couple of things which I like about the patch.  First thing is that I now have 5/5 Greater Wards due to having my Conqueror Shoulders in my pack when the patch was implemented. Bonus!

Second thing is that talismans have become permanent, however the fact you can only have one type in a piece sort of stunts my 2 hander which I wanted to put two strength gems in.

 

On to the runs then, my tanking suit was built when I was tanking hard PQs in a duo.  It is basically a TON of armour as that seemed to give the best bang for your buck on damage mitigation.  
Well BWE was as fast as ever, I was taking minimal damage, even the final boss was thwarted by the thickness of my armour.  Excellent.

 

Oh group for BWE was: Chosen(Me), Sorceress, Shaman, Blackguard, Black Orc, Magus

Its basically the guys I always run with other than our regular Squig Herder was on his BO as a shot at getting some loot.

First thing is that Guard minimises a TON of damage, but even without it I was never in danger.

 

We were a little dubious about BB with a solo healer, and justifiably so, normally even with 5/5 you can get shredded by certain things.  Well we managed to kill everything up to the boss which summons the Nurglings.  He kept kerb stomping us over and over again. 
As soon as we decided to call it a day and I posted up another run for the next day we tried a new tactic…. And BOOM! Boss dead J

 

The final boss was the same as ever, apart from the annoying decision he made to keep gobbling our shaman up last… this led to him dying from the adds multiple times before I gave up guarding him (and taking his aggro) and guarded the Sorc instead.

Well that try was the killing try, but from 30% to 0% it was myself and Zugzig (Shaman) alive, so we dinked him to death.

 

Bad things about 1.3…… My UI is BORKED!  Cant wait for Yak do update, he reckons the weekend so im stoked for that.

 

I think I may organise a LV run, ive never been but would like to see it as I now have the gear to do it.  I also have a few pieces of gear to aim at to round out my tanking set.  The next couple of pieces will give me another 5% block…. That’s awesome!

 

Hope you all have a good day.

Patch 1.3 Today!

Well patch 1.3 hits europe today, and in anticipation of its arrivals I bought my Conqueror shoulders.  I still cant use them for another 3 renown levels but if I get the unlock when the patch hits im a happy camper.

I didn’t manage to get much gaming done yesterday due to the massive amount of lag I had, I have NO idea where it came from but it was unplayable.

Im running Blood and Bile again today for the alliance.  If anything it’s a shot at my sentinel shoulders, and for everyone else who HASN’T got their drops, it will be one stage of the sigil unlock for the bosses with them.

That will be my main focus when I get home tonight, instead of exploring the content ill simply be running those dungeons for the guys.
Oh and with the sigil changes ill need to test out my tanking suit.  I had an awesome boss tanking suit which I could never wear for anything after Bastion Stair.  Well if my tests come out well then ill have to look at tweaking it for the later dungeons.

We shall see!

Cartouches

As any player of Warhammer online is aware,  Mythic (and GOA in my case) are running a competition “Treasure Hunt” to win exclusive in game items for WAR.

This involves visiting Blogs about warhammer to find the old alphabet then discovering a cartouche on another random website and deciphering the name.

Well I managed to get my arse in gear and spend some time at work (sue me) looking around for what I needed , I soon found the alphabet and also a cartouche that was only announced an hour before!! I was in with a shot!

Since the WAR-Europe site is blocked from work I called Mrs B at home and got her to register my answer and she read out the congratulations message!

Yay for my detective skills! Now both Mrs B and I have it cracked.

Big shout out to War Of Alts for the alphabet… see Flim you are good for something….

EDIT:  As for the cartouch itself, I dunno, maybe try here?

Wardz, I haz them!

<Insert Generic Lolcats picture here>

Sorry for lack of updates the past week or so.  Its not that ive been overly busy ive just really had much to talk about, but now I do!

 

I finally bought my chest and shoulders giving me 5/5 for city dungeons (3 LW, 2 GW) so I arranged a Blood and Bile run.

 

The group consisted of Me(Chosen), Sorceress, Squid Herder, Zealot, Shaman and Blackguard.  Now im not a “newbie” to Blood or Bile but this was to be the first time I had maintanked Bile.  The dungeon itself actually isn’t hard, its just the damn dogs!

 

Anyway BWE went as usual, crazy boss reset a couple of times on the final boss but he went down.  Mrs B got her Sorceress boots so now she is happy with 3 wards (and finally useful in dungeons)

 

Bile was smooth… enough, for my first time.  Dogs were a pain but we got the strat down in the end and they all died.  I got my Chosen Gloves (Yay!) and final boss gave Zugzig our Shaman the chestpiece.

 

We were getting weird resets on the final boss where we would drop him to 50% then he would reset, this happened 4 or 5 times before we managed to get into his stomach, v weird.  I was trying to replicate it during some pulls but I couldn’t nail down what it was.  

 

So Blood and Bile cleared,  I only need two more greater wards (Chest and shoulder) before im 5/5 GW and can go into Lost Vale which is what ive been waiting for.  Im tempted right now to save up medals and buy Conqueror shoulders / chest but in the meantime running Bile as much as possible to try to get my drops.  More drops means less to buy!

 

We are getting a new sofa this weekend so might not game as much as I could, have fun everyone else who is chilling!

My First Proper Fortress Defence

The usual happened on Karak Norn when I logged in after work.  Order were on the push towards IC again.
What normally seems to happen is Order push all day then in the evenings destro hold them off and push them back.

Well last night I joined a warband in the elf lands and tried to stem the tide of order trying to lock the zone, as soon as it looked unlikely I left the warband and legged it to the fortress and joined the warband there.

 

I grabbed the oil on the outer door but noticed nobody else was around… it seems the other door FLEW off its hinges, I just about managed to get into the inner keep and managed to also pile on my tank gear and set myself up in the tank wall on the stairs.

Well all I did was rotate three auras, hit hold the line and fire off Sprout Carapace.
I did this for as long as it took for us to defend (I think it was an hour).  Then came the roll off for loot.  In short I didn’t win, but I got one Invader crest…… come on Mythic at least make this worth it, 5 measly officer medals for standing in one spot for an hour is not just rewards.  2 Invader crests would have been better.

 

After that I joined in hitting the other zones but I wasn’t overly in the mood to wait for zone locks so I didn’t spend much more time in game, that and Littlest B decided to not go to sleep so I spent the rest of the evening with her on my lap watching TV.

 

Tonight is a Bastion Stair run, since its Friday ill see about running all of the wings for people starting with the left.

 

However I have to work tomorrow…. Not a happy bunny.

I got confusticated!!

I said yesterday that it was a Bilerot Run that I was intending to go on last night, well I kinda got my knickers in a twist and it was actually a scheduled Bloodwrought run.  Now I don’t mind BWE, it’s a fast instance with only two bosses, however I got both of the drops from there the first time I ran it.

 

But im getting ahead of myself, the night actually started with some mad RvR keeptake and zonelock action, so much so that I actually won a gold bag!!! However I was thwarted by the loot gods when out popped the Annihilator Helm (I have my Sentinel) so I took the two medals bah! 
I did however get enough medals to buy my Anni shoulders so now ive got 4 wards!  This is a godsend since it now means I can (almost) safely tank the city dungeons!

 

Ok now we are up to date.  Upon the allotted time for the run we all grouped up, there was 13 of us.  BWE is a 6 man instance meaning we could get two groups in but one poor sod will have to sit out.  My place was pretty secure as I was one of three tanks, and the only one with 4 wards.  Mrs B was sweating as she only has 1 ward however she got a place in group 2.

 

Our group consisted of: Chosen (me), Zealot, Blackguard(1ward), Squig Herder, Magus and Choppa.

 

The second group was: BO, Shaman, Sorc(1ward), Choppa, Squig Herder, Squig Herder (I think it was two of them)

 

Well the race was on, Gruntled (GM of Humberton Blackguard and a good friend) marshalled group 2, whilst I took command of group 1.  Last one to drop the Godslayer loses!

Group 2 made it into the instance first as we were waiting on one person to make it to the instance and then we dived in.

The good thing about me and Mrs B being in different groups is that I can see how they are getting on, they wiped on the first trash pack which gave us time to catch up.

We weren’t safe from the deaths either, far from it, I would constantly go down on the packs but there was enough damage to drop them.

 

Eventually we got to the first boss, the big dragon ogre git a couple of packs BEFORE group 2.

This is fairly easy for me as a tank,  grab aggro on him and hold it, easy!  Our dps started burning and dropped one add as I held everything else, then the boss ran off to enrage, well sever blessing seemed to take care of that and soon he was down, followed by the second add.

I cant honestly remember the loot but I think it was stuff everyone could use.

 

We carried on plowing through the adds with me dying every pull, meanwhile group 2 downed the first boss (no Sorc loot BOO!) and started chasing us.  Eventually we were at the godslayer.  After explaining how I tank it we started.

We wipe!!!!  The issue was fairly easy to fix.  Our zealoth started to throw down his ritual on my tank spot (which is fine, the zealot was rocking) but in those few seconds I missed all my blocks and parrys, took a double hit then got crit by a spell and I was down.

The next pull… WIPE!

I forgot to guard the healer… oops LOL!

 

Third time and he was down. Choppa and Magus loot, YAY for something everyone can use.  So yeah group 1 “wins”  however the glee was shortlived as group 2 was having a very hard time of it and could not drop the godslayer, I noticed a few “problems” with how their tank was doing it so ill offer my advice on how I tank this fight.

 

As you look into the boss room from the door you have a raised platform with the boss on it and two staircases right and left.  Ranged stand on either stair, makes no difference who is on what side.  I will tank the boss with him at the bottom of his platform, me on the stairs of the platform.  The reason for this is that the boss does a knockback and when he does you will fly behind his platform meaning he has further to run to get to you.

 

Now the key about tanking anything is generating aggro to keep the boss on you, this boss is a bit of a dick that he randomly charges those on the stairs, he cant be taunted off he will eventually come back after swiping someone ONCE. AS LONG AS YOU HAVE BUILT ENOUGH THREAT!

Key things for this fight are as follows, keep him snared, this is so that when he does do a knockback he is running very slowly giving you time to kite.  Also if you lose aggro it gives you more time to taunt him back
Next thing is to use challenge, and use it a lot.  Taunts keep the mob on you for the duration they are up, using challenge as your main taunt means less damage when he does those gay charge moves and gives you your single target for the next situation.

 

When he does the knockback, HIT YOUR SINGLE TAUNT!  This will keep the boss on you and all you need to do is one lap of the platform and the debuff is gone and you can continue tanking.

Now that’s really it.  Ive never been a BO past level 5 so im not sure how their defences are compared to my chosen but that’s the way I roll.  Im on about 26% block, 40% parry (suppression = tehsex) 800 tough, 4800 armour (AND THIS WAS DPS SPECCED!)

If I was tank specced I would have taken less damage but would my threat generation be higher?  I didn’t use my threat attack once!

 

So there we are, BWE tanked, shoulders gained, all I really need now are gloves, chest and shoulders with GW on them and I can tank lost vale, if I get them then ill gladly respect tank spec and do it for the alliance, all that sexy loot in there makes me wanna do bad things to myself.

 

On another note I jumped onto test to see land of the dead but it was order controlled, maybe next time then.

Ding 40, Bastion Stair and Finally some Medals!

Mrs B dinged 40!!!!!!!! At last! 

 

Seeing as we both played beta together, hopes were high that we would both ding 40 very quickly after release.  What actually happened is we both got burn out not long after release and got to around level 25 and stopped for a good while.  Upon returning I powered myself through the content I had levelled twice already in and hit 40 as reported earlier, Mrs B rerolled.

 

To Sorceress!  A long time healer player she fancied something that makes people go pop.  As I wrote she finally hit 40, but in reality it was a joint powerlevel effort.  We grinded and grinded and grinded.  Mrs B got 38 fast but then stopped again.

 

Finally she came back though and full rested we slayed more elves on the way to 40 and DING there she goes!

 

Im dead chuffed for her as it means she may show a little more interest into Warhammer which is really piquing my interest again.

Ive also discovered my groove in getting medals, instead of hitting scenarios in the hope they drop from players it seems the best way is zone locks, capping keeps and forts.  Im now up to 95 medals and will soon be able to get my shoulders.

I may try to blag a DPS spot on BB tonight though in the vain hope chosen shoulders and chest drops, then its much less needed.  Technically I still need the gloves too but I can wait for those since I have a LW in that slot already.

 

After the lil bit of fun in RvR (I got into Reikland as it locked, woot 6 medals for me) we headed as an alliance to Bastion Stair.  With Mrs B as the new 40 and myself dps specced we ripped through the right wing and headed for Slauriths door.

 

Groups were juggled to get people who needed shoulders in and I graciously stepped aside for a second healer as I can almost afford my RvR ones so was happy to.

 

Well the group zones in and starts pulling and it turns out the OT in the group got ported to the entrance of the zone, queue me legging it through the portal to help out.

 

Now I have fought this guy a few times but never killed him, the tactics were just never right, well two wipes later it seemed to be happening all over again.

But then I decided to read the tactic myself and give orders to the group.  I shoved on my fave tanking gear (capped resists, 9k hits and 4.8k armour, 0 wards though) and proceeded to take him down.

 

I had myself and the BO MT in the middle just ping ponging aggro and cross guarding, everyone else was spread.  I warned the group about the GTAoE he does and they all did a sterling job getting out.  

If he started to run for someone else it was snare, taunt time and soon he dropped.

 

Shame chosen loot didn’t drop, but Sorc did! Congrats Mrs B on her first ward!

 

Tonight is a BB run as I said so ill try to force my way in, should be hard since im well known in the alliance and have proven myself in there a few times before.  Hopefully I can go and get myself my gear at last. LV here I come? Who knows.

Bring on the Nerfs!

I cannot wait for 1.3 and the AOE fixes to go in.  There I said it!

Last night was a little frustrating in WAR, well only a little.  I decided I would run with the zerg to try to get some medals since it seems to be the best way of doing it.  But there wasn’t a lot of keep taking action going on, we were trying to lock Reikland for ages but couldn’t get it done.
Eventually the alliance called for a warband of its own and I joined them in Thunder Mountain.  This proved to be a lot better as we locked it and I seemed to gain 6 medals, no idea where from but I went from 69 to 75!

We then moved into Kadrin Valley, I sort of semi took over the warband leadership as there wasn’t as much guidance as id like and I called an attack on the first keep in the zone.
Eventually the zerg of roughly 4 warbands split between the two keeps with us  attempting to take the heavily defended one.
Now here is where it gets crap, ive got capped resists, over 9k health but the amount of different AOEs at the door were still making a mess of me, I was getting enough time to hit the door 4 times or so before I would either die or have to retreat.  No I don’t accept that it was because my healer was level 35.  He was doing fine.

In all the time I stayed we got the door down to about 40% whilst feeding the Order RP.

Mrs B logged in for the first time in a while as she said “Theres no point playing Everquest, they are probably raiding so we cant do anything” and I went to powerlevel her.
We started at the last PQ in Kadrin Valley but the sheer amount of lag soon moved us on to Elf lands (which were locked by order earlier in the evening)  We were only there for 2 hours or so but she dinged 39 and got 30% of the level done.  If she wants to play tonight I can see her dinging 40 at last.  Warhammer has piqued my interest again, but it still cant touch the addiction to DAoC I had.

Ten Character Questions

Czarnal over at The Homonculus did this a little while ago but I enjoyed reading it so much that I decided I wanted to do it too. So here we go then!

1. What is your current main character’s name (or names, if you play multiple games)? Explain how you chose the name.

Main name right now is Borgio or a variation thereof (Borgeo). The name is actually based in Warhammer. Borgio the Besieger! Anyway back in the day of my first MMO, Ultima Online, there was a roleplaying guild on Europa called the Guardsmen Militia based out of Yew. When I went to join my and I was stuck for an RP friendly name my mate says to “Pick something out of Warhamer or something” so I did, and its stuck since then.

2. What was the name of your very first character in an MMO? Explain how you chose that name.

  Topcat.  In fact ive been Topcat since I was about 7 years old.  Occasionally my old Topcat tag will come out to play but that mostly in FPS games now,  MMOs with all their copyright checks don’t bode well for old TC.  The name came from when I was in school and I used to do gymnastics (laugh all you want I was good) the piece of music I used to perform to was the theme from Topcat.  The rest is history.

3. Have you kept a specific name through various games, or do you tend to change your naming habits based on the individual game?

As said above ive been Topcat for years but the current name following me around is Borgio. Topcat in UO
Borgio in UO
Top-Cat in SWG
Borgio in EQ
Borgio in EQ2
Borgeo in EQ2
Topcat in CoH
Topcat in guildwars
Borgio in DAoC
Borgeo in DAoC (This is where the EO developed from)
Borgio in WoW
Borgeo in WoW
Borgio in LOTRO
Borgio in Vanguard
As for changing naming habits, yes as I said above with the changes to copyright.

4. Do you ever reserve names, planning to use them for characters that you might play later? If so, what are they and why do you hold on them?

Actually yes starting with WAR. Mrs B was in BETA but I didn’t get in till much later, since I was known to GOA through my chars on DAoC I had to pick a name that was nothing to do with me at all, and so Kharek was born. Hes my current “alt” but he was a placeholder chosen for a while before I decided to use him. The reason I hold onto the name? Well it’s a nice throwback to the beta when people actually sat up and looked at what I could do as a chosen and actually say “oh shit it’s a chosen” as was reported on the boards after another night of carnage (pocket healer natch)

5. Of the three common archetypes in MMOs — tank, healer, DPS — which is your current main character?

Tanks, and I hate them, I really do.. honest……

6. What archetype was your very first character in an MMO? Why did you choose it?

Well my first MMO was UO and there weren’t archtypes per sé just skills. I suppose my first job was a bowyer, I used to lumberjack trees all day and turn them into bows to sell for some cash. Eventually I became a mage, a warrior and then a tamer.

7. Are you usually attracted to one archetype over another, or do you play them equally? Why?

I almost always play the tanking class, and I kick myself everytime I do, Its not that I dislike tanking, but im still stuck in the mindset of wanting to see the big numbers. Im sure ill grow out of it soon and be a better tank than I am now (and im not shit)

8. What is your favorite feature from an MMO you no longer play?

Proper keep sieges from DAoC, honestly if that game still had 5k players on it at peak time with my old alliance id still be there. Nothing could beat actually having a USE as a tank in that game, manning siege engines, thwomping squishies with my polearm, good times!

9. Is there an MMO that you would play if it was free? Which and why?

 Generally I wouldn’t have a problem paying for any game I enjoy but im sure if LOTRO was free id play that some more, theres lots I want to do in it but cant justify having open 6 game accounts at once.

10. How do you measure the success of a character in an MMO (total kills, titles accumulated, wealth, rare items collected, level reached, etc.)?

 Personally I like infamy! How well known you are, im pretty much a nobody in the grand scheme of things in most games but ive had my share of fame (and infamy) if people remember you as a good player then you are doing well. I wont bother tagging anyone to answer this, I had enough fun doing it myself.