Yes, players are advocating the renown-gain strategy of letting the Destruction take BOs so Order can cap it all back later.

None of this surprised me until this discussion just now in Caledor:

Really? Really?
/sigh

I suppose nobody should be surprised. Groups of Order have always done RVE to get renown. I’m saddened that they want to work together with Destruction to maximize renown gain.

Organdonar and I joined up for some fun in some of the scenarios. Scenarios are like AV or WSG in WoW, except you can queue from anywhere in the world. When you are done with the scenario, the game puts you back where you were when you left the PVE world. We initially tried to play on Destruction, but the queues were literally 45 minutes. It reminded me of the queues we had to put up with when WoW implemented the dreaded 2.4 patch. So we switched over to Order and gave it a shot.

There we reigned supreme, or at least, according to the screenshots. Actually my photography kind of sucked. I’ve completely lost my touch with all these months away from gaming. I didn’t even get some battle shots. Oh well, heres what the scoreboard looks like:

Burnination was my Bright Wizard, the class I plan to play on launch. Bright Wizards are hella fun because if you’re not careful you blow up and die. As Organdonar can attest, I did this several times without complaint.

Notice to the far right there’s an XP column. Do not ignore this. The experience in a BG is awesome. And from our perspective playing Order, we got so much experience so quickly we could barely get out of the start area before we were too big for it.

Organdonar did really well as he played his dwarven Rune Priest.

Notice how Organ is level 6 (they call it ranks in Warhammer). Each scenario has a level limit, but even if you are at the lower end of the spectrum, the game boosts your hit points and armor (and maybe your spells?) to levels 8, 18, 28 and 39 depending on the scenario.

There is also a large open-world RVR aspect to the game. At level 11, it was really fun. I can’t wait to see what it’s like at higher levels.

Also when you PVP you get points called renown. You gain ranks with renown, like realm points in DAOC. You can spend your renown on abilities, like more intelligence or the ability to absorb damage. Also, with higher renown ranks you can unlock equipment. Yes this is all through PVP. I couldn’t tell as I only attained level 11 during preview weekend, but I think you don’t have to PVE at all to gain levels or gear.

Once we know what server we’re going to be on, we’ll post in the forums. Hope to see you all there.

So far the game is pretty good, random crashing notwithstanding. There are definitely flags involved, so the guild name will remain the same unless others prefer to call it something else.

When I’m going to be in Warhammer I’ll be in Vent. Hopefully we’ll see some of us. Try to get on Gorfang server if you can. I rolled a destruction sorceress.

To those of us who did not get into beta, or on Gorfang, don’t worry. They’re going to wipe our characters anyway before launch so you’re not going to be far behind. From beta it’s hard to tell which realm will be overpowered or outnumbered. So far more people seem to be rolling destruction. This is expected from what I hear, and maybe it will balance out more later on.

I had high hopes for this game. I fear, though, that this shift in circumstances could affect how I and others enjoy the game. Read an announcement from Mark Jacobs on Massively.

Additionally, four classes are being removed, deemed to be in a condition unsuitable for launch. They are:

• The Choppa (Greenskin)
• The Hammerer (Dwarf)
• The Blackguard (Dark Elf)
• The Knight of the Blazing Sun (Empire)

Well at least I didn’t have my heart set on any of those.

Let’s think of the bright side, shall we? First off, fewer tanking classes = less PVE. Good, I wasn’t going to do that anyway. The only bad thing is that fewer tanks means begging for tanks in the unfortunate circumstance where you have to do it to get gear. I don’t read Warhammer message boards obsessively, and I’m still not sure how people acquire gear if they only want to PVP.

Second, fewer capitol cities. Eh, either way. It doesn’t matter to me. It’s better than releasing an unfinished game.

Third, I still plan to play this game. I have not canceled my pre-order.

I can’t say I’m surprised. Most PVPers seem to want to play an uncharismatic race:

They’re also marketing their game as RvR and most recently, “hardcore.” A game like this is naturally going to appeal more to the people who traditionally play “evil” races in other MMORPGs. In World of Warcraft, it’s no mystery that Horde players fancied PvP more than Alliance.

So keep an Order class in mind, folks. We don’t want to be roaming in RVR looking for a fight all day because other groups get to the bad guys first. I’d personally rather play the underdog, even if I have to look cute to do it.

If you browse the achievements, you get badges for winning WSG, AB, EOTS games. Not sure what the badges do, to be honest.

That’s kind of cheesy I think. But it shows Warcraft is actually concerned about Warhammer, and that’s a good thing. This does make me wonder, though, if Warcraft players are going to be complacent with the “innovations.” If many of them are holding their breath for Warhammer, will they stay with WoW becuase WoW is copying Warhammer?

I hope players can see through the smokescreen.

EDIT: We are planning on fighting on the Destruction side (it’s kind of like Horde). However, if it looks like Destruction is going to be overpopulated, we’ll pick Order.

Anyway, here’s an update on how the guild system will work in Warhammer:

Grab Bag

Cliff notes: Guilds must be started with six people in the group. Guilds can level, just like people, and they can level with PVP or PVE experience.

(For those who don’t know what a grab bag is, it’s a list of questions asked by the community that the PR person goes out and finds answers to. I liked the system in DAOC because it showed they were actually listening.)