Order Strikes Back: Warrior Priest

Of all the warriors of men, few are more feared by the forces of Chaos than the Warrior-Priest. Wielding the divine power of Sigmar's Light, the warrior-priest wades courageously into the thick of battle, fire in his eyes, striking down his enemies in righteous fury. Just as the Light can bring death to the enemies of Sigmar, so too can it bring life to his allies. When touched by the divine power of the warrior-priest, grievous wounds close, broken bones mend, and weary resignation gives way to renewed hope and vigor.

The Warrior-Priest is the shield of the Empire, it is against him that the forces of Chaos will throw themselves time and again. But such is his faith and courage that he will not falter even against the gravest of enemies. He is no longer an ordinary man, for he has seen the face of Sigmar, glimpsed the power of divinity, and been touched by its holy Light. As such, the warrior-priest is above pain and beyond fear. His faith is unyielding, beyond the the power of Chaos to corrupt.

Where the Warrior-Priest walks, the darkness of Chaos gives way before him, and men of the Empire take heart at his coming, for with his fiery words comes a promise: that he will never yield before the forces of Chaos, that he will give his life to protect those who fight beside him, be they Man, Elf or Dwarf.

The warrior-priest is a beacon of light in dark times, spreading hope to a beleaguered Empire and its allies.

You can find more information about the warrior-priest at the main site: here.
You can find a list of possible Warrior-Priest abilities: here and here.

Stormcrow

The White Tower Speaks: Things We Did Not Want to Hear

The WAR fansite community is abuzz today over Mark Jacob's earlier announcements. You can find those in an MMORPG.com interview here. I'm sure you've already seen it. I'm sure you have an opinion about it, and I'm sure it's not super-duper positive (if it is, you may need a reality check).

I'm going to skip the crap, and get to the part I'm upset over: the cutting of classes.

I have to admit I had to read the passage three or four times to make sure I'd gotten it right. I'm not going to lie, it seems like publicity suicide. I'm pissed and I really didn't have any intention of playing those classes. If they'd cut Swordmaster, I would probably have thrown a hissy fit right there at my computer, logged into my Amazon account, and canceled my pre-order on the spot, and I'm not usually prone to rash decision making, or lording my "customer rights" over the developer.

My group got lucky, we had one guy who was thinking he might go Hammerer, but that's it. I can only imagine the people who had their heart set on one of the cut classes, or guilds who had several people affected by the cuts.

I have to assume that Mythic had an excellent reason for cutting these classes, they said the classes cut were not distinctive or strong enough. This tells me there was a problem with the classes' mechanics. Does this bode ill for the Ironbreaker, who shares a mechanic with the recently cut Blackguard, or the Chosen who shares a mechanic with KotBS?

What exactly wasn't working with the melee DPS (hammerer, choppa)? Were they having problems getting kited, or was it too difficult to balance their survivability (medium armor) with their damage? Why were the stealth (Witch Elves and Hunters) and pet classes (White Lion) not having similar problems? What about the Marauder?

Were the hammerer and choppa's mechanics giving them class specific problems? Did their momentum mechanic make them early and frequent targets for focus fire? Did they not have adequate mitigation or escape mechanisms?

Is it possible that the melee dps were so fragile they couldn't make it to their targets without stealth or a built in tank (aka pet)? Or that they had to resort to running in well after the fight had already commenced to avoid focus fire?

Of course, we do have to salute Mythic for doing what they think is best. Cutting classes must have been very difficult for them to do, and I'm sure they knew the response would be widely negative. Mythic's commitment to excellence is admirable, let's hope it doesn't bite them in the ass.

Look for more on this later,
Stormcrow

The Greenskin: Bo's Balancing Act II

Check out this article by Bo over at the Greenskin! His Balancing Act articles are top notch! You can find it: here!

In this article he tackles the delicate art of class balance, don't miss it!

Stormcrow

Warhammer Info: Class Abilities and More!

Tons of great information in this post, ranging from class specific abilities to general game play mechanics. I don't know if this information is all that new, but I certainly hadn't heard much of it. So please go over to Warhammer Info and take a look if you haven't already!

You can find the post: here!

Stormcrow

The White Tower Speaks: Collision Detection Part I

Collision detection, yes please. To me, one of WAR's main selling points. Collision detection is awesome, it creates a more tactical game where positioning is key, adding a new layer of depth and strategy to game play. Not only this, but it creates a less cluttered game space because people can't pile on top of each other so it becomes near impossible to target them (talk about frustrating).

Collision detection allows you to clog a choke point, and hold off, and perhaps even help you defeat, a larger enemy force. Not only this, but you can keep your healers, support, and ranged DPS out of harm's reach! So why don't all games have collision detection?

Unfortunately, collision detection is difficult to properly implement because of the potential for same-side griefing. Yeah, those jerks who block off the bank or auction house all day just to be douches, ruin an otherwise fantastic feature.

So the question becomes, how do we implement collision detection, but limit the players' ability to grief his own faction?

WAR has one answer, turn collision detection on only against enemies.

I have to admit, when I hard WAR was only going to feature enemy collision detection, I was a little disappointed. I already hear you clamoring, "WAR BASHING? Not on my watch!". Just hear me out.

I think the greatest thing about (full) collision detection is that it allows a smaller force in the right position (say a hallway, or a bridge), to engage larger forces on more equal terms. Tight spaces don't allow your enemies' numbers to work for him.

So what is this really? A zerg counter. Numbers don't matter quite so much when they can only bring a few of them to bear. Eventually, they will probably overwhelm your position. Your tanks will run out of hit points and your healers will run out of mana (or should I say action points!). Hopefully, however, you've managed to take out a few of the enemy and slow their advance without losing too many of your own.

Enemy only collision detection negates this strategic advantage altogether. It doesn't matter if there's only room for four people in the hallway if 1,000 people can stack on top of them, and their archers and spell casters can fling their full arsenal at you despite their teammates being in the way (a separate gripe for another day).

Stay tuned for Part II, coming later, for other ideas on Collision Detection Implementation.

Thanks,
Stormcrow

White Tower of Hoeth Featured in Chaos Cast 3!

That's right folks, Syp, Snafzg, and Keen have put out their newest WAR Podcast and they were nice enough to talk about us here at the White Tower! Also in that podcast, questions from viewers, and an interview with Garthilk over at WHA!

Lots of interesting stuff here guys, so make sure to check it out: here!

Thanks guys!
Stormcrow