Fight on the Flag

Last night was easily the most fun I’ve ever had in an MMO to date. What began as an attempt to take Covenant of Flame became an epic battle that lasted more than an hour.

Earlier I started a group of people who wanted to play Nordenwatch. Then another Nordenwatch premade wanted to join us so we could RVR together. Soon I had a three-group warband. We went to Covenant of Flame and joined Bolimor’s warband (I think Deer had a small group also).

That’s when the fun started.

We soon discovered that Destro’s defenses were too great and the doors were too heavy to pound down in the short amount of time we had left before the outer door would close.

We retreated, killed some Destro, then advanced and opened the Center Keep door (all the while another group opened the door that just closed behind us). The tank wall was too solid, and Bolimor and I decided to bring our groups to the gatehouse. (About then our LV crew joined us.)

It took a while for Destro to break our tank walls, but not before many of us gained a realm rank or two (I gained something around 10 percent in 62).

Destro stride in over Order's dead corpses.

A view of the battle map shortly before the Gatehouse fell.

Surely this is what the game designers intended.

I think some people tend to forget that in a video game, you don’t die IRL. Why else would people be afraid to stand and fight Destro?

Case in point, the above Order player, whose name has been changed to protect the innocent for humerous effect, suggested I bring my warband somewhere else because we couldn’t flip Chaos Wastes (I know this was last weekend, but I’ve been slow on posting because RL suddenly got real busy).

But believe it or not, some people actually like doing something other than trying to stay awake and fight NPCs at battle objectives:

Yes, it’s true! Even Thursday morning, I was playing my White Lion and noticed Destro and Order avoiding each other on purpose. They both capped BOs in the same zone at the same time and then didn’t even try to fight each other. Here’s a hint: You get more renown by killing people than waiting on that tick. I know, I know, hard to believe.

Does anyone play this game for the RVE?

Finally, a screenshot from a ways back from an awesome fight in Caledor.

Good fights all. That Destro clump was formidable!

For the most part the patch has been good to us. Destro came out in force last night and we are very happy about that.

We had a merry time chasing Destro in Dragonwake. FOTF guarded objectives. Here we are defending Fireguard. I would guess it was an even fight, numbers wise, with FOTF’s two groups and another half warband against Destro’s full WB. The only way I could have been happier is if a scenario had popped. None did in the two hours I was online.

But not all are happy, Bright Wizards to name one. It appears during certain situations, the BW spell Rain of Fire does zero damage. That’s right, zero. Read all about it on the Bright Wizard forums.

I tested and confirmed this last night on the test server, and indeed as I expected, when more than one BW target the same enemy at the same time with RoF, only one of the BW does damage. The other BW does a grand total of 0 damage, but still wastes his AP and time, and gets to wait 10 more sec before being able to cast again (assuming he isn’t running in the conflag line, and therefore doesn’t have Fiery Reserves.

The thread is seven pages long, with lots of whining and little constructive information (to be fair I stopped after page three). I don’t think it was ever intended for BWs to do zero damage when two of them targeted the same people (remember, ROF is a ground target spell. Who you target should make little difference).

Here are the thoughts of Gorfangers… Gorfangians… Gorfangstons? on the new patch.

I will reserve my judgment until this weekend. Also we’re going to do some Lost Vale runs early in the morning on Saturday and Sunday. If non-FOTFers want to join in we might be able to form a second group.

OMG Tier 2 was not happening at all on Skull Throne. Riamin instead checked Gorfang and for once, there was a significant Destro force running around. Woo!

But just as we logged in, we found our alliance warband was leaving the zone. Boo! They said there were too many Destro to fight. It makes me wonder if any of them remember how we fought when the server was new, Destro was overpopulated and Order was demoralized?

My bright idea to attack them when they were in the tunnel didn’t go as well as I planned. Instead we rushed to the north keep to take it. We waited for a minute or so, and once I thought they were well on their way to Gromril Junction, we started in on the door.

The Destro took Gromril Junction and we continued working on the door, sweating as the timer on the battlefield objective ticked down. Meanwhile I was trying to get the alliance warband to return. They showed up when the door was about 10 percent and we started in on the second door (at this point the keep flagged for the first time. Bug maybe?).

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We’ve been torn with the state of Gorfang as of late. We are all apprehensive with the impending patch notes and what that will mean for us all. Lately we’ve been debating whether or not to roll onto a different server as Destruction instead (we have a guild set up on Skull Throne if anyone is interested).

After much debate, we’re sticking with Gorfang in hopes that the new zone domination rules will help the RVR. We hate doing RVE. It bothers us to the core. I am hoping the changes will encourage more people to fight each other instead of fleeing to another zone when the enemy shows up.

Recent circumstances dictate that I reroll to play a White Lion instead of my Archmage. For me, it’s a disappointing turn of events, but a necessary one. I like my Archmage but my White Lion is great fun, and I am sure I will learn to love her as well. With me rerolling, that means Khaevil will now play the Archmage. There could be other permanent changes, but for now those are the big ones. (We are also hoping one of our members will reroll to a Warrior Priest, hint hint. Maybe when you get back from vacation?)

The upside to me playing a non-healer is it will allow me to lead warbands more effectively. Before I was so focused on healing (or getting yelled at because I let someone die, sorry!) I couldn’t relay orders well enough. This led me to either not lead a warband at all or do it in a half-assed fashion. I am looking forward to being high enough level to RVR with the big boys again.

The little RVR we did participate in this weekend was a lot of fun. Destro had a mighty zerg, almost like old times. We assaulted a keep in Eataine and they held the Lord room well. We ran back after a wipe and they were ready for our assault.

Needless to say we didn’t take that keep. Maybe another time!

It’s been a while since Order had their collective asses handed to them. FOTF was ready for yet another day of playing alts to find any semblance of RVR action when we heard of a couple of Destro warbands.

I didn’t take the threat seriously until they flipped Caledor.

The rest of the night I can only equate to how a battered woman feels when her abusive boyfriend returns after a long period away from her: skittish, excited and afraid at the same time. I remember the days when Destro zerged the server so hard that Order were demoralized and weak. Then a few server transfers brought more people to the Gorfang and the Destro had some infighting

After Caledor flipped, I put out the rallying cry in alliance chat and told people to join my warband and get in vent. At this point the Destro had already claimed Covenant of Flame. When Destro hit Drakebreakers we had a whopping two groups.

So we did what we FOTF tries to do best. We queued for Serpent’s passage.

The beatdown was humiliating and awesome.

What happened next is something that hasn’t happened in a long time. We got stomped. It’s hard not to get stomped when you have a full group of PUG in the scenario. Somehow Destro made everyone who was not level 40 stay out of the scenario queue and only let the pro players go in preset groups.

After our beatdown, we went to Drakebreakers, but Destro rolled through us like we weren’t even there.

Destro flood the inside of Drakebreakers Scourge.

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Saturday the Order capped Eataine and moved the fight back to Dragonwake. Sunday we continued the fray in Dragonwake. There were at least three Order warbands out, and mine was one of them. Click the screenshot for full effect.

I know as the underdog realm we must use strategy. That’s why I employed a new, radical strategy that is sure to help us win more battles.

FOTF started out the night with about a group and a half of people. We refused to admit anyone into the warband unless they were a healer, a tank, or brought one of those classes with them. I’m sure I ruffled a few feathers, but the wins we accumulated were worth the ire. We were unstoppable.

Now this is not to say that I won’t res or heal people outside of the warband, because I do. I support the realm. But I think the best way to support the realm is with a balanced warband. Would anyone PVE with an unbalanced group? Why should we PVP with any less?

The screenshots on which the above montage is based were the culmination of three attempts by Destro to take our keep (which they finally did at 12:30 a.m. Pacific time)

I hope Order will continue to support the balanced warband.

Saturday was, in a word, awesome! A group of us from FOTF and League of Light decided to stir up trouble in Dragonwake. All of a sudden it became an entire warband. The fights weren’t bad there, but eventually we got run out of the zone and took up residence in Kadrin Valley.

We traded BOs with Destro and often hit their force head-on.

To get the full effect of this large-scale fight, click the image. A new window will open with a full-size version.

I think Destro had far more numbers, but I think Order was more organized. Throughout the night we had several crashes to desktop. Very annoying, especially in the middle of a keep siege.

We did manage to take the northern keep and defended it for around 11 hours.

Dead Destruction… the best kind!

In the end we got tired and went to bed, but not before we formed an alliance with League of Light! The new alliance, called Flamberge Phalanx, is dedicated to RVR and organization.

It’s cool the way you form friendships even across realm lines. I’ve seen Rugbyrat often on the battlefield. He’s always willing to charge out and fight even if his team is hopelessly lost.

Here he’s trying to give Pylith a hug… I think… Be careful Rugby!

So anyway, on Sundays the Order tends to take keeps around noon eastern time. Why don’t we see Destro defending? My theory is they are all in Sunday School.

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First let’s address Bablog’s comment in the previous post about how we only had our keep for 30 minutes Saturday:

(Also if anyone wants to comment on the Web site they all have to be approved by me. There will be a delay with your first comment)

In any case, keep defenses were not nearly as exciting Sunday. I guess Destruction learned its lesson from Saturday, where we repelled several invasions in the span of seven hours. They zone hopped and avoided us like that annoying person at work who is always trying to get you to buy their daughter’s gee gaws to raise money for the PTA.

We took every keep in every zone save one, so by the time Destro got back from church (that’s where you were right?) we were pretty bored. Fortunately something other than Serpent’s Passage popped. Thunder Valley was a blast:

Lots of destro to fight, and they were actually trying.

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