Warhammer Alliance Podcast Episode 9: Podcast Of Trust

[PhoenixRed]

A busy news day yesterday pushes us back a day for the podcast, but here be the latest episode, mateys!

Your hosts for this podcast are: Frank, Martin, Kristen, and 4th slot guest host Shannon, officer of casual guild Circle of Trust and podcaster on CoTCast.

Introduction (5 minutes)

• Intros via poll question: "What are you drinking?", featuring Elliott Ness.
• New host introduction

Community Poll Pingback (7 minutes)

• Featuring: Poll on Customer Service

Dev Post Blender (10 minutes)

• Dev Diary - Land of the Dead

Foresight-Hindsight (5 ninutes)

• Featuring: Paul Barnett's Career Video on Shadow Warriors

Community Sound-Off (10 minutes)

• Discussion of: Gear diversity, 1.2.1 Patching Cycles, Endgame Excitement and more! Thanks to Mutters, Nnucifera, and Slurm for their comments!

Total length: 38:50 minutes

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[Chaz]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

Foresight-Hindsight (5 ninutes)

check that. 10char

Another great podcast

i never get what you guys say at the intro

any change to invite Taugrim into the next podcast?

i didnt care about the Land of the dead either
The SW bit was really not very good since a lot was said that was simply not true or half-true, like Festering hiting for 4k or SW 2 shoting ppl without mentioning that the FA damage is being enhanced by VoN and UF (Rank2 morale) wich is a combo with a very little window and can only be done once every few minutes.

[PhoenixRed]

Originally Posted by Chaz

check that. 10char

Another great podcast

i never get what you guys say at the intro

any change to invite Taugrim into the next podcast?

i didnt care about the Land of the dead either

If you have someone that you'd like to appear in our 4th slot, just PM me with who they are and what they do, and we'll consider it.

The point of the intro is basically to tell people we don't take ourselves or the podcast too seriously. We're in it to have a good time and possibly hand out some casual WAR discussion.. If you've ever just hung out on comfy couches in a friends' place and just talked shop about whatever, that's pretty much the tone we're taking. It's one of those "we can make fun of ourselves" moments - because there are plenty of outtakes that potentially make the intro and secret outro.

[Helvetica-WHA]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

The point of the intro is basically to tell people we don't take ourselves or the podcast too seriously.

Because Sprite is serious business. Especially with juice mixed in

And no worries Kristen, I didn't care much for Land of the Dead either.

[Chaz]

So, how about some captions, or a transcript, sometimes i get confused, specially when there are 2 chicks talkin. And god forbid there is more than one guest.

It is a shame that when the SW finally got a spot in a podcast Phoenix went "ok... anybody played that class?" and somebody said "Well... a friend of a friend once heard from a guy who played it, a long time ago..."

(Disclaimer: quotes may not be 100% accurate)

[Mutters]

good stuff, good stuff. I think you have a good thumb on the community here. I've seen squig herders and shadow warriors do amazing things from their 'skirmisher rdps' tactics. Each and every class, IMHO, is within the 'almost balanced' array other than:

underpowered:
runepriests/zealot (fix up some trees and balance healing/damage)
magus/(possibly engineer, but less so) - bring magus in line with mirror

overpowered:
warrior priest/disciple (AoE healing, damage to healing ratio compared to other healers)

I think some of this was resolved in the book/chalice bug that was fixed but we're still seeing how this plays out. From my experience, good players make bad classes good, and good players make good classes unstoppable.

[Geez]

Originally Posted by Mutters

I've seen squig herders and shadow warriors do amazing things from their 'skirmisher rdps' tactics.
...
(possibly engineer, but less so)

Sorry for taking this even more off-topic than it already is. But I can't believe what I'm seeing here.

Shadow Warriors are not balanced and are not OK. We're so much behind Squig Herders and other RDPS it's crazy (excluding Magus, who are as broken as we are).

Engineers on the other hand are on par with BWs.

Thank you.

Bye.

[Amriel]

On the note of Shadow Warriors:

I never played one past level 6 because they didn't appeal to me aesthetically and couldn't dual wield, unlike the girl in the intro video. If they could have, I may have played one out. I'm extremely partial to dual wielders, as is evident with my 40 character lineup: a Witch Elf and Disciple of Khaine.

Furthermore, I HAVE seen FE crit for up to 4.3k from the Shadow Warrior on our server, Rkelly. I'm not the type to scroll through my combat log and go "OMG THAT IS SO OP *Printscreen*", so I can't give you that. However, I can tell you that Rkelly is heavily respected, the only SW genuinely feared on the server, and he can two or three shot people when all his CDs are up. He gets top KBs in SCs and is a huge reason his teams win: He has the damage and range to quickly annhilate the backline healers.

This doesn't mean the class is balanced and fine: one trick ponys with one good thing doesn't equal balance. However, it does mean the class is extremely powerful in the right hands and with the right cooldowns.

Honestly though, I hate seeing classes as a one button machine: Heal Disciples are this way too, and I find them extreeeemmmeeeely boring to play. The reason being that the frontlines are so much damage and CC, a healer wouldn't last. That leaves us healbotting! We have 2 HoTs and a groupheal, core. One HoT is too expensive for something so horrible, the second HoT is good for a little "boost" when someone is under FF, and our groupheal is just insanely OP. It leaves heal DoKs in the "One Trick Pony" department, which is a reason I just hate playing her that way.

-Am

PS. Next time we talk about SWs, Frank needs to get Rkelly on the show.

[Chaz]

Respect has nothing to do with the fact that you wtfpwn ppl, and even Rkelly can come along and tell us that his SW is eight feet tall, kills destro by the hundreds, and consums his enemies with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse, but i wont buy it, a lot of careers can pull that off and even more. If you are looking for an opinion you can check the forums, type "shadow warrior", "weak class" or "gorilla" on the search bar and im sure something will appear. Look i found some polls with little effort, some are old, some are new, but at least it is better than 1 player's opinion.

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/for...d.php?t=277698
http://www.warhammeralliance.com/for...d.php?t=269157
http://www.warhammeralliance.com/for...d.php?t=271870
http://www.warhammeralliance.com/for...d.php?t=274315
http://www.warhammeralliance.com/for...d.php?t=251279
http://www.warhammeralliance.com/for....php?t=175581&

Originally Posted by Amriel

I HAVE seen FE crit for up to 4.3k

This is what you saw.

Originally Posted by Marcolin

Vengeance Of Nagarythe (+1.5s gcd) > Festering Arrow (+3s cast) > Unshakable Focus R2 Morale (+1.5s gcd) > Steady Aim (+1.5s gcd) + Enchanted Arrows. 90 ap, 7.5s, and a tactic to crit for around half your life. Imagine a melee dps in your face for 8 seconds, unobstructed, using a morale, and tell me that 3.5k dmg is out of bounds, considering their rank 1 morale Sever Nerve alone does 1200. Knee jerk reaction to a huge number.

Originally Posted by Blackgem

This is of course assuming the you can get UF and SA off in the arrow flight time (given lag etc) and it STILL relies on you actually critting.

Originally Posted by silvermaan

Also, with how cast times are now, FA takes nearly 4 seconds to get off. Try getting that off before the zerg overruns you.

So much for being a one button machine, btw...

Originally Posted by Koe

Screw festering arrow.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...er/Koe_109.jpg

[Slurms]

Originally Posted by Mutters

good players make bad classes good, and good players make good classes unstoppable.

quote of the day!

[Ghmou]

Enjoyed the podcast, particularly the rumination on the SW.

The problem is, while that Festering Arrow thing might be a 1-2 punch that kills you, it's like a 2 minute mage from WoW. It's only possible with L2 Morale, Vengeance, etc.

The overall mechanics for the Shadow Warrior are lacking. They are in need of a review. Mastering the one trick that the pony can do doesn't make the class balanced - it just means that player is very good at taking crap and turning it into gold.

SW's need a great deal of review - they are not as range-oriented as they should be as an RDPS class. Right now, Scout (ranged) is considered weaker than either Assault or Skirmish.

To summarize the thoughts of many SWs out there - "Look at our class closely and give us a role. Please."

[rollen]

I'm not trying to be mean or anti-WAP :P but the intro is kinda cheesy and makes me skip it every time. Great show though love to hear other people's opinion but it's mostly a Destruction point of view...


Another note, sounds like you guys complain a lot about gear when the game was supposedly not suppose to be so gear centric... I've been following the game since way before they ever had their first news letter and one of the main things that made me happy was the fact that gear wasn't that much of a big deal. I'm not saying that it shouldn't be considered because I myself am a WP and I know all about the healer centric gear and personally I don't mind it I got great dps with RvR gear and great heals with PvE gear.

I really hope mythic doesn't turn around and start spewing new armor because I think that's least important compared to New content and Bug fixes.

[girlirl]

Originally Posted by Chaz

So, how about some captions, or a transcript, sometimes i get confused, specially when there are 2 chicks talkin. And god forbid there is more than one guest.

You've GOT to be kidding me. You realize that the WA staff is volunteer-based, right? And yet you expect the staff to take time out of their busy schedules (which include their real life jobs and their uncompensated work for the site) to write a transcript of the podcast because you can't understand the difference between two "chick" voices?

I'll admit that Kristen and I sound alike, and that it was somewhat difficult to tell the difference when I was on the show, but Shannon's voice is very distinctive. I had no problem figuring out which one of the women was speaking when I listened this week.

- - - -

Really enjoyed the podcast, especially Kristen's brave admission of not being too interested in Land of the Dead. I feel similarly: while I really want to see Land of the Dead implemented and hope that it is successful in revitalizing the game experience for me, I'm just not all that thrilled by what I have seen so far.

[rollen]

Originally Posted by girlirl

You've GOT to be kidding me. You realize that the WA staff is volunteer-based, right? And yet you expect the staff to take time out of their busy schedules (which include their real life jobs and their uncompensated work for the site) to write a transcript of the podcast because you can't understand the difference between two "chick" voices?

I'll admit that Kristen and I sound alike, and that it was somewhat difficult to tell the difference when I was on the show, but Shannon's voice is very distinctive. I had no problem figuring out which one of the women was speaking when I listened this week.

Who said you have to do it though? I'm sure you guys have more staff members who can listen in and write it up. I don't agree that there should be some kind of transcript it's not a big deal but I don't see how it can't be done using other resources to create it.

[PhoenixRed]

I think you're confusing things first off. Girlirl doesn't work for the site.

As for Chaz's request, we're busy as it is, so we don't see dedicating staff resources to a transcript as a priority. If someone outside of the site wanted to do it on their own time it would be another story, although in some respects, a podcast is supposed to be listened to, not read. We want people to listen, after all.

The only other option is professional services, and those cost money we're probably not willing to spend.