The Casual Community WAR Experiment - Week 1 Report

[PhoenixRed]

A couple of weeks ago Warhammer Alliance began a new content initiative called the Casual Community WAR Experiment, seeking to play a character completely controlled by the popular opinion of the community from week to week. Apologies for the late posting!

Please note the schedule which we will be trying to stick to for this:
-Wednesdays - Survey for the following week posted
-Saturdays - Previous week's report will be posted, poll for the following week ends.
-Sunday - Saturday - 1 hour a day playtime

The next report will be on February 28th.

The Archmage, which won by popular vote and a couple lucky coin flips, was the class of choice, and my adventures on Skull Throne through 1 hour a day gameplay in the first week are documented here, in Warhammer Alliance's new blog system (and if you're a WAR Soldier and above, I'd try it out under User CP > Blog). I even include some screenshots:

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/blog.php?b=47

Below is the survey for Week 2! Participate now and help drive a character in WAR that you have the choice to have us play (badly)!

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Casual Community WAR Experiment Survey #2 (Survey closes on 2/21/09)

What area should I be residing for this week? (choose one)
-Greenskin/Dwarf
-Empire/Chaos
-High Elf/Dark Elf
-Mix it up

What should be the primary method of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-PvE - Quests
-PvE - PQ's
-RvR - ORvR
-RvR - Scenarios

What should be the secondary method, if any, of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-PvE - Quests
-PvE - PQ's
-RvR - ORvR
-RvR - Scenarios

How should I spend my renown points? (I currently have eight but could get more this next week)
-Insert point spread here.

How should I begin speccing in my Mastery Trees?
-Insert Mastery suggestions here.

What else should I do this week?

[Sylf]

I read your report...I have not laughed so hard in a long, long time.

Thank you! <3

[Calelith]

lol read you blog, was pretty amusing.

1. Mix it up
2. Orvr
3. Scenarios
4. 2 in Acumen and 2 in resolve
5. Isha

[PhoenixRed]

Originally Posted by Sylf

I read your report...I have not laughed so hard in a long, long time.

Thank you! <3

Don't forget to fill out the survey!

And you're welcome. I am shooting for a bit on the humorous side, but there are real, actual issues, even at tier 1, that I encountered while playing an Archmage. I'm hoping to make people laugh a little at some of the abject issues while still bringing them to the limelight for addressing and discussion.

Really, the main issue is that the Archmage seemed awfully squishy even for a support healer. I observed RP's healing through damage like it was nothing and WP's with medium armor able to take somewhat of a beating. But the minute eyes turned on me, I was dead within seconds.

It was worthy to note that just as with the Shaman I played before, that doing damage is worthless compared to the healing you could be doing. It would be nice if the class truly went out of its way to establish the viability of both roles, not boxing the AM into the healing role so early on.

[kuno00]

Good job on the Blog, was very amusing to read...even at 7am after not going to sleep xD

Casual Community WAR Experiment Survey #2 (Survey closes on 2/21/09)

What area should I be residing for this week? (choose one)
-Greenskin/Dwarf (gotta love an Elf in a Dwarfy environment!)

What should be the primary method of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-PvE - Quests (you have catching up to do)

What should be the secondary method, if any, of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-RvR - Scenarios

How should I spend my renown points? (I currently have eight but could get more this next week)
-Willpower as far as possible!

How should I begin speccing in my Mastery Trees?
-No clue lol

What else should I do this week?
how bout you try to find a guild?

[Koremora]

Hahahahaha... I was Kjartan in that image. I just logged on and started reading and said to myself, "You know, this sounds familia- OH GOD THATS ME!" I didn't even realize it was Phoenix!

[Sylf]

What area should I be residing for this week? (choose one)
-Empire/Chaos

What should be the primary method of levelling for this week? (choose one)

-RvR - Scenarios

What should be the secondary method, if any, of levelling for this week? (choose one)

-RvR - ORvR

How should I spend my renown points? (I currently have eight but could get more this next week)
-Grab the +exp tactic and dump the rest into Willpower.

How should I begin speccing in my Mastery Trees?
Isha! Feel our pain.

What else should I do this week?
Give us more hilarity!

[Sigmarsbestfriend]

What area should I be residing for this week? (choose one)
Dwarf/Greenskin

What should be the primary method of levelling for this week? (choose one)
Scenarios (better in a balanced environment)

What should be the secondary method, if any, of levelling for this week? (choose one)
PQs (simply to see how it goes in pve compared to pvp)

How should I spend my renown points? (I currently have eight but could get more this next week)
I don't know Archmages very well, but something that...uhm...heals? :P

How should I begin speccing in my Mastery Trees?
Isha

What else should I do this week?
Have an Order advertising campaign.

[Iselin]

I liked your blog.

Don't knock that + Strength +Toughness staff you found. It may seem downright weird but you'll find that your melee DPS can be better than some of your DOTs (Law of Conductivity immediately comes to mind)... just don't try meleeing against anything that can think.

What area should I be residing for this week? (choose one)
-Mix it up... doesn't really matter at this point.

What should be the primary method of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-RvR - Scenarios... sounds like T1 scenarios are popping pretty well in Skull Throne. When they do, this is the fastest way to level... not to mention it's also more WAR "mainstream." After level 12 when you get the 2nd detaunt, Walk between Worlds, learn to love double-detaunting whoever is beating on you. You'll be amazed how many people get bored and walk away when they can't damage you at all for 5 seconds...short attention span I guess.

What should be the secondary method, if any, of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-Solo some PQs (1st stage anyways) to help you gear-up. BTW...a good starting solo rotation is Radiant Lance, your 3 DOTs and now Lambent Aura with the HM bonus healing. After that whatever else you like.

How should I spend my renown points? (I currently have eight but could get more this next week)
-Intitative... after your experience so far, do you really want other people's damage to critically hit you?

How should I begin speccing in my Mastery Trees?
-Start with Vaul until you get that 4th DOT (at 21) The two short-duration Vaul DOTS are by far your best damage abilities since they're instants and allow you to go back to healing quickly... Scatter the Winds has that nice heal debuff also. At this stage of the game your healing will get better all by itself withouout effort. But stay away from Divine Fury once you get it at 13: you need the healing it nerfs more than the extra 25% damage. Balanced play is still doable at this stage (healing/DPS) but an AM trying to go just DPS this early is...comical.

What else should I do this week?
Anything that gives you better gear... ORvR inf rewards has the best but the ones in T1 become obsolete so quickly they're hardly worth the much slower rate of exp gain... Go ahead and go for them in T2 (BTW, don't go for the ones that have the lower RR requirement and you can wear sooner--the RR18 ones are much, much better.)

[Maetoko]

Just remember to skip chapters if your primary leveling form is SC's, and your secondary is PvE- Quests. Just abandon the quests and run on to the next chapter camp so you are still doing appropriate level quests and making decent Exp.

The Epic quest chain you might want to keep up, but eh.

[matyeti]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

Casual Community WAR Experiment Survey #2 (Survey closes on 2/21/09)

What area should I be residing for this week? (choose one)
depends where ORvR action locates (see below)

What should be the primary method of levelling for this week? (choose one)
PvE Quest or QP first, because you need high xp as you current rvr rank is already at max for your level. If solo, choose lvl 8 mobs, if in group, go for higher lvl mobs

What should be the secondary method, if any, of levelling for this week? (choose one)
As you now reach a decent level within the tier (, go for Open RvR as a secondary method

How should I spend my renown points? (I currently have eight but could get more this next week)
All in Willpower. Keep unused safe.

How should I begin speccing in my Mastery Trees?
You do not have any. If you reach lvl 11 or more then spend all of them in Asuryan to boost up your damage which will help for solo PvE.

What else should I do this week?

advertisement : i never ever played an AM, so this is the way I would go This takes in consideration that :
- a casual is quite often playing alone in PvE (that's why i vote for asuryan)
- a casual wants to try all aspect of the game so now it's time for real pvp (open rvr)
- a casual does not have so much time so do not change zone too often

[Demmo]

amazing i loled many times!

What area should I be residing for this week? (choose one)
-Greenskin/Dwarf

What should be the primary method of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-pqs

What should be the secondary method, if any, of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-open rvr

How should I spend my renown points? (I currently have eight but could get more this next week)
-tough

How should I begin speccing in my Mastery Trees?
-the debuff line

What else should I do this week?
try to make a guild

[Triker]

What area should I be residing for this week? (choose one)
-High Elf/Dark Elf

What should be the primary method of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-RvR - Scenarios

What should be the secondary method, if any, of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-PvE - Quests

How should I spend my renown points? (I currently have eight but could get more this next week)
-Combat Awareness tactic, the rest on Acumen

How should I begin speccing in my Mastery Trees?
-Asuryan

What else should I do this week?
Visit Altdorf and do some quests there

[Marsares]

What area should I be residing for this week? (choose one)
-Mix it up

What should be the primary method of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-RvR - Scenarios

What should be the secondary method, if any, of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-RvR - ORvR

How should I spend my renown points? (I currently have eight but could get more this next week)
Init, you'll need it against WE's in order to reduce their crit chance and be able to spot them in stealth. Not an issue now, but it will become so later on. WILL doesn't scale that well, what you get from your gear and levels is sufficient I've found.

How should I begin speccing in my Mastery Trees?
-Isha all the way

What else should I do this week?
- Take on some WE's 1v1 and feel our pain

[LeonHart]

Casual Community WAR Experiment Survey #2 (Survey closes on 2/21/09)

What area should I be residing for this week? (choose one)
-High Elf/Dark Elf

What should be the primary method of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-RvR - ORvR

What should be the secondary method, if any, of levelling for this week? (choose one)
-RvR - Scenarios

How should I spend my renown points? (I currently have eight but could get more this next week)
Combat Awareness (2pts)
Acumen I (1pt)
Acumen II (3pts)
Acumen III (6pts) - when you have enough

How should I begin speccing in my Mastery Trees?
Asuryan all the way!

What else should I do this week?
Find as much +Int gear as you can, foregoing +Will gear
Use Divine Fury as your tactic