Masquerade Systems

Recently I was looking for a competitive PvP type game so I bought Warhammer Online to try out. I should probably start of by saying I’m not exactly a fan of PvP in WoW. While I’m just as entertained at ganking other in WoW as the next guy, I’ve always found the BG’s tedious and never really had the heart to stick with arenas. Every now and then I’ll consider gearing up a character for PvP only to have my soul crushed by loss after loss. Then I remember I prefer PvE and swear off it in WoW for another few months.

A good deal of this is why I haven’t bothered trying WAR until now. I figured since I wasn’t a big fan of PvP in WoW, WAR probably wasn’t going to be all that great for me. Turns out, WAR is actually pretty fun. As soon as you enter the game you can queue up for scenarios (AKA battlegrounds in WoW). Being a low level, you’ll probably get rocked, but you’ll still net a decent amount of XP and quickly be on your way to winning. I rolled an Archmage which is actually a healer. Instead of running around killing people, I just heal everyone I can and let them do the killing. This is actually very effective in WAR since it both helps win the scenarios and it also nets you XP. Basically the more damage or healing you do, the more XP you get, and since I’ve been pretty high on the healing, I’ve been getting good XP.

It’s really interesting in WAR to see how much the PvP focus has affected the design of combat in the game, particularly with regards to threat. Anything that drops threat in PvE also makes you a less attractive target, and high threat abilities make you a more attractive target. For example, my detaunt on my Archmage makes me take 50% less damage. You also can’t walk through player enemies which makes tank positioning more important. Hiding behind others is a viable tactic when your team cooperates. Of course, more often the result is your team just runs away leaving you nicely exposed as a healer to be chopped down .

Amusingly enough, while I really prefer PvE in WoW, I really don’t like it much in WAR. It just feels too grindy. I’ve pretty much stopped even bothering with quests because I’ve found leveling via PvP to be much more entertaining. Perhaps part of this has to do with the fact that I’m leveling a healer, the couple alts I’ve messed around with though seem to be the same though. In WoW, slamming out a bunch of quests just seems so much better.

Interface wise, WAR is a knock off of WoW, and WoW does it so much better. Mods are available for both games, but the ones in WoW are so much more sophisticated (no doubt helped by how much longer the game has been out). The graphics in WAR are more realistic, but I’d say that WoW looks a lot better. Perhaps I’m just used to it, but I really think WoW still looks incredible, particularly in Northrend. WoW is beautiful and shiny where WAR is just gritty. There’s no question this is by design, but the result is that WoW is so much easier on the eyes. I’m sure this is part of my problem with PvE in WAR is that in the end, I don’t care to look at it. PvP is more about interacting with other people and graphics are simply a tool to help display what’s happening, while PvE is all about seeing awesome things and taking their loot . When it comes down to it, I just don’t want to be in Altdorf, but love hanging out in Dalaran or Stormwind. And even today, Ragnaros and Onyxia still look great.

So in the end, there’s no way I’m going to leave WoW for WAR. I still like WAR for PvP and will be sticking with it for whenever I want to go kill some people, but WoW is still my main game. I mean honestly, Death Knights and Arthas… who doesn’t want a piece of that action?

So it turns out that having a kid, working on a Master’s thesis in Computer Science, and having a job takes a lot of time. Not to mention leading raids in WoW. Who would have thought? The thesis is done though so clearly my free time is falling from the sky now. Or not…

Anyway, I’ve dropped the old host and upgraded to a fancy new Bluehost account. I’ve also converted to Wordpress. After browsing various themes for about 10 minutes, I chose this one. I’m not exactly in love with it… upgrading the looks will be on my todo list. Anyway, this site is alive once again and will hopefully remain so for the forseeable future. I haven’t decided completely on any directions yet, but I’m sure rants will be involved. Perhaps I’ll rant about leading raids – that could fill several volumes… Anyway, it’s time to head out so off I go.

Ciao!