As my previous post will have indicated, Im still playing Warhammer and loving it for the most part. One feature of the game that really stares you in the face and says that Mythic really didnt give it much thought is the PvE content. Like all MMO's Warhammer has obviously a lot of PvE conent. It comes in the form of monsters you kill while leveling and as part of the quest system. Dungeons are not really a prominent feature of Warhammer Online and when you experience them they really appear to be an after thought.

The monsters in Warhammer are the dumbest I have ever experienced to the point that they provide no challenge and I often wonder if Mythic would get better server performance if they just removed them. Heres an example of the typical monster spawn point in Warhammer. Say you have a quest to go and kill boss monster X at location Y. You run over to location Y and you find boss monster X and discover he is surrounded by his minions. So you think oh crap I'm going to have to clear all his minions if I want to solo him. No not in Warhammer, if you wait for him to come near you, nine times out of ten you will be able to pull him from his minions and slaughter him while they watch. This is a common theme in Warhammer PvE content.

So then you take the dungeons and wonder what the hell were they thinking. Then you realise they were not thinking, in fact some dungeons really feel like they are a total after thought. Take the sewers in Altdorf, the Scaven Tunnels or the Warpblade Tunnels, they all feel like one of the designers asked their 6 year child to design them. The last two are level 40 dungeons and provide zero challenge and even are 90% the same in layout and design.

Why am I whinging about PvE when if you have read this blog and have heard my podcasts then you will know I am a 100% PvP focused player. Well Mythic FORCE you to PvE once you reach level 40. That's right, once you get to the end game you CAN NOT just PvP, you HAVE TO PvE if you want to get the decent armour sets. Certain pieces of the high end armour only comes from bosses found in those crappy dungeons. The other thing that needs fixing is the Capital City raids are more PvE focused than PvP. That's right, when you finally get to attack and attempt to sack your enemies city you need to PvE public quests to attempt to get to and kill the king. Come on Mythic, if your going to force PvE content down our throats at least have a crack at producing some interesting and compelling content.

Rant off, the PvP in Warhammer to me is still extremely fun and engaging, especially when your with a guild that knows what their doing. The funny thing is a lot of guilds we run into in the RvR lakes are PvE guilds trying to PvE the keeps to get the better armour sets. I don't know how Mythic is going to solve the requirement to PvE for the high end armour sets. You can see why they did it otherwise the system would be gamed by the slime that always clings to the underbelly of any game.

The large scale battles are getting better and the last couple of fortress sieges have not crashed the server, Mythic still have got some work to do in this area as the interim fix they have put in should remain just that, an interim fix. The largest battle I have been in where the lag was not that bad and the server didn't crash was with about 250 people in total from both sides. It was a blast as tactics really can make the difference. The number of times my guild has been out numbered and we have owned the enemy are adding up fast. Zerg guilds and pick up groups (PUG's) will normally get smashed by small groups that use tactics and voice communications. Of course that depends on the size of the zerg. If the zerg is to big then we will go into skirmish mode and start laying ambushes and breaking off before we get over run.

By far the RvR in Warhammer is a blast and only getting better. So if your on the fence, start leveling up a toon and get into the War. Make sure your in a decent guild because half the fun of War is being in an organised War Party.