Guild Beta Update

Here's the latest info I've heard on the guild beta. My guild leader sent in an email to confirm that our guild was still involved. Here's what he had to say about the response he received:

I got an email from Mythic. Sounds like there will be another round of updates *right* before the guild beta opens; I'd imagine this would be to update guild invited accounts and the like.

Sounds like it's being done as it should have been in the first place; we'll hear something shortly before it starts for real.

Hopefully things are still on track for the guild beta to start "early in the new year."

Waaagh! and You: A Primer

The beta may have been shut down and information about the Greenskins has slowed to a trickle, but that doesn't mean we can't endlessly pour over all the old info that came out this summer!

Over at WAR-resource.com they have a page set up with all the currently known (although subject to change) goblin shaman abilities.

The breakdown on these abilities goes something like this:

• 4 damage abilities
  
• 4 healing abilities
  
• 5 buff/debuff (sometimes with a heal or damage component)
  
• 3 utility (rez, Eek!, action point regenation)

That seems pretty balanced. When you take a look at those debuff abilities, if they cause damage they also build Waaagh!, which is nice. Roughly half the abilities listed so far generate Waaagh!. There is even a DoT/HoT life siphon ability.

When it comes to Morale abilities, most seem focused on damage or debuffs. The known tactics on the other hand seem healing focused. It's probably way too early to make any guesses off of these numbers, but it's interesting to consider that morale abilities (which are usable after building up morale in combat) are mostly offensive in nature.

Overall, it seems like damage and healing are handed out in equal measure by the shaman, with strong doses of group buffs and enemy debuffs designed to weaken enemy meleers.

Mastery of the Waaagh!

Back in November, Mythic announced that they'd be using a system called "Mastery" for class specialization. It breaks down something like this: Every time you gain a level, you get a point. You can put that point into one of three "Mastery" trees, each focusing on a different aspect of your class. For every point you invest, all the abilities associated with that tree increase in effectiveness. After investing a certain number of points, you can unlock new abilities (which you need to buy with an additional point) that are specific to that mastery tree.

Say you're a Bright Wizard (I know, who wants to be humie scum? Just go along with me for now). The three trees will be something like direct damage, damage over time, and area of effect (multiple enemy damage). If you put mastery points into direct damage, your fireballs will hurt your enemies more. If you put them into damage over time, your fireballs may get an additional burn component. It's all about enhancing how you do what your class already does.

Now for the fun part: rampant speculation. What does this mean for the goblin shaman? As a hybrid class, the option of specialization is powerful (and potentially dangerous). If you've ever played an MMO before, you know how great it is to have someone healing in PVP combat. It often means the difference between a win and a loss. There's a lot of pressure for healers to heal (and only heal) in some situations. Will the same pressure exist to only master the healing arts of the Little Waaagh and ignore it's buffing and damage capabilities? Hard to say, but it's certainly something to think about.

So, as a hybrid, what are the Shaman mastery trees? I certainly don't know, but I'm going to enjoy guessing. Here's my initial list of possible mastery trees:

• Healing
  
• Damage
  
• Group buffs

These options seem to cover all the major spells that have been released so far. There's certainly other options, but I wouldn't be too surprised if the trees came out something like this. There are many different types of healing and damage, but as a hybrid class it doesn't make a lot of sense to specialize in a particular kind of damage or healing. I could certainly be wrong though, as I haven't had a chance to actually play the Beta (if I did, I'd be NDA'd) or check it out at any of the public events WAR was at in the past year.

A brief glance at the early beta abilities points pretty strongly at the shaman's ability to buff and debuff while dealing damage and healing. I hope the little gobbos who wield the Little Waaagh get the mastery option to use it for the betterment of the big WAAAGH! One thing is for sure, the shaman's ability to build waaagh! by causing damage that increases their healing ability will play an important role in any possible mastery tree.

So, what do you think the shaman mastery trees will focus on? Comment away!

Beta's Back!

And it's better than ever (or so I've heard). After taking in the advice and recommendations of the first wave of beta players, Mythic decided that reworking character specialization and open field RVR was the thing to do.

So, what did they change? Well, they added Career Mastery to replace the previous talent system. I'll leave the explanation to the pros:



Additional announcements include player controlled forts, a "Living Guild" system, and the High Elf and Dark Elf classes. All in all, not much new gobbo info. Check out the Warherald, the official WAR blog for more details.

WAR beta update from the Warherald

Beta email update on the Warherald, EA Mythic's kind-of sort-of WAR community blog.

This month's beta email update on the progress being made while the beta is down has been posted on the Warherald. Nothing earth-shattering, but some interesting info on itemization (class specific loot choices for quests), the UI (talk about map functionality), city design (taverns and crypts in Altdorf), as well as a little more Marauder info.

Combined with the info that has come out about server rule-sets, the newsletter is quickly becoming a marketing vehicle while the real information is coming out via this beta email and interviews. We're about 3 quarters out from the planned launch.

I don't know about you guys, but I plan on having my computer upgraded before December to maximize my chances of actually getting my guild beta spot.

Thumb-twiddling

Well, I'm sure everyone already knowns, but the closed beta has been shut down until December for some retooling. Probably a good thing, but still a little disappointing. The whole point of beta testing is to give feedback though, and it's good to see it being acted upon.

There hasn't been much in the way of announced info lately (other than stinky elfs), so there hasn't been much to blog about. And I'd be lying if I didn't say the whole guild beta thing didn't bum me out; from a supposed announcement in June to maybe some people getting invites in December is a pretty dramatic shift in dates. I work in software development, so I know it's weird balancing the wants of users with the realities of developing functioning software.

Now for some shaman-specific content: Da Tank over at WarhammerAlliance.com hasput together a list of shaman related media released so far. Hmmm. Tiny green men.

Shaman info page on WAR-resource.com

The fine folks at WAR-resource.com have put together a page listing all the known information about the shaman class. They've got concept art, game play videos, ability lists, screen shots, and quotes from people who've had hands on experience with the class. Check it out here.

Basically, these guys have done the hard part of my job for me. All that's left to do here at the Little Waaagh! is the fun part: rampant speculation and analysis. Lucky for us, the guild beta invites haven't gone out yet, so I'm still not under NDA (because I don't have anymore information than anyone else).

Here's a quote from way back (Atlanta Games Day to be precise):
The Shaman was a prime example of a class with a steep learning curve. It had perhaps too many abilities for a novice player to handle effectively. With abilities like debuffs, lifetaps, heals, damage spells, damage over time spells, and a few escape maneuvers, the shaman seems like it could be a formidable class in the hands of a skilled player, but the Shaman players at Games Day struggled.

-- S.A.: S.A. goes to Atlanta Games Day

This is good news to me. Hard to master usually equals hard to beat when mastered. Although I hate to jump onto the World of Warcraft comparison bandwagon (I wonder if the band plays Sousa tunes?) it still serves as a pretty decent point of comparison for about 9 million people. That said, the shaman sounds like it effectively combines the priest, shadow priest, and warlock class abilities into one mega-caster with the Waaagh! on his side. Yummy.

The ability list demands another whole post; there's just too much good stuff there not to give an in-depth analysis of the known shaman abilities. There are 16 known abilities listed, plus 8 morale abilities and 4 known tactics. I love the idea that I'll actually be able to fit all my abilities on the action bar and have hotkeys bound to all of them. There are 6 Waaagh! building abilities and 6 that spend Waaagh!. Most damaging abilities have a range of 100 feet, heals have a range of 150 feet. Intriguing...

All in all, I can see myself spending a lot of time on that page to get to know the shaman class better. I think I'll spend even more time on WAR-resource.com's Dwarf class list page getting to know my enemy. Forewarned is fore-armed, after all.