Tracking and evading

One of my latest WAR boredom antidotes is tracking and evading the enemy. It's a cheap thrill that gives me a nice dosage of suspense, fear and excitement. A side benefit of this is a better familiarity with the zones.



But I just looked up when my subscription expires again. It shouldn't have to require this much effort to have fun. It makes me sad every time I think of how much promise this game has.

Black Crag pre-Fortress duo roaming

Order was working to lock Black Crag to advance to the Destruction Fortress. There was a sizable force camping the Destro warcamp, and groups of Order were posted to guard each Battlefield Objective.

The video starts out with me harassing the north BO nearest to their warcamp (Squiggly Pens). Two White Lions refuse to play, and before long they start gathering their entire defensive force to hunt me.

Lylia shows up, and we decide to move to the east BO (Madcap Pickins) to see if Order is more alive over there. We run into some Order along the way, and arrive at the BO to find a decent force defending here as well. We evaluate the situation, count the numbers and identify our key targets. At this point the people we killed on the way here respawn, try to get back and we kill them again. Meanwhile, some roamers find us and we bait them away for the kill as well.

After a few sets of kills, it started to feel dangerous. We knew we would get overwhelmed soon. We tried to make our escape to a more advantageous position, but we get intercepted by a large Order force. After some slipping and evading, we end up heading toward some friendly NPCs (not expecting to get out of this alive) --- and that is where the last section of the fight happens.

Two's company

Incidentally, I'm not the only one bored with WAR's zzzzzzz "RVR" endgame. Introducing my partner in crime (in real life and in-game), Lylia the Sorceress. She came along for the hunt one day. It starts as a little project to familiarize with the zones, get used to prowling and finding kills.

Cutting teeth --- low-risk stalking for strays at the perimeter of Praag's RVR lake:


Aqua battle, with Lylia throwing in a disarm with the CCs to save me:


Dragging a 2v3 fight (that reduced to 2v2) away for the kill. Started rolling the camera after evading the WH. Lylia lagged out in this one, running into the trees near the end and leaving me to fend for myself :)


Destro was getting spawn camped in a scenario, so we decided to take a break from the cheese and hunt the weak. The game only allows at most a 6-man to queue together. This means that while the 6-man is strong enough to dominate the entire Destro PUG, there will be weak Order PUGs in the game who aren't well supported by the 6-man. In this fight, we bait rezzers away and Lylia draws aggro one way while I stay sneaky outside their field of view.

Hopefully more to come in the future!

Cone of Fire peculiarities & ability cooldown burning

I recently discovered a peculiarity with Cone of Fire requirements: if you are running away from your target, then try to fire an instant ability by jumping and facing your target in mid-air, it will not fire. Instead, you will get the error: "TARGET OUTSIDE CONE OF FIRE". Additionally, if the ability has a cooldown, the ability will be placed on cooldown, as if it fired.

Observe this in the following video (and excuse me for being half-naked --- I had a little to drink and Lylia persuaded me to go for a "Lucha Libre" look):



None of my abilities managed to fire, except for one Aethyric Shock at point-blank range. Weird that I never noticed this before.

c-c-c-Combo breaker :)

Running with low toughness and resist, BWs can hurt alot... especially when the damage is coupled with their silence/disable/stun and healing debuff. In the first encounter, I pay the price for not respecting the BW damage combo enough. In the second encounter I'm more cautious --- liberal use of Detaunt and tried to stay away from the burst damage combo. Attempted to pull the fight to my safe zone, but he was too level-headed to bite.

The ninja Zealot waits...

Getting used to flying solo

Having given up on the RVE endgame that Mythic is pushing in WAR (BOs, Keeps, Forts, Cities, cheesy 6-mans, mindless zergs), I have embarked on a lonely journey in search for PVP fun. This is, in a way, my proactive attempt at giving WAR one last chance to provide me with a reason to stay subscribed. It's been a few weekends now, and I must admit there is still alot to get used to. I have been tweaking my tactics and gear, and I think I have found a good combination of survivability and versatility to go against whatever I encounter.

What I've found I needed the most work on was understanding the zones: enemy traffic patterns, safe zones, entry points, exits, advantageous spots, etc. I struggled a little intially, but my increasing familiarity with the maps is helping. I am slowly warming up to the mindset of: stalking from safety, picking targets and maneuvering the fight for a kill, while trying to minimize danger to myself. As I get more comfortable, I plan to take on more risk, and bump up offense.









Occasionally, the zerg still runs over me, but I am starting to feel less helpless.