So let's set the back drop:

Sever: Averheim

Faction: Destro

So, some time ago a large contingent of Destro guilds formed an alliance (~300 people) and went about the task of assaulting Altdorf.  That was fun but not really exciting as the Order numbers were lacking.

But, Order has started to get their act together and are bringing respectable numbers and actually using tactics.  Having experienced an RvR skirmish with some 200 players going at it - the game felt epic again.  Even dying was enjoyable.  Really how often can you say that - DYING was enjoyable.  Fireballs were flying, Chaotic Rifts were sucking people in, Sorcs were laying pits of shades.  My only regret is that I got so caught up in the euphoria of it all that I neglected to  hit the fraps button.  I die a little inside every time I think about.

That single encounter has ruined the game for me.  I find myself logging in with this void that can only be filled by mass bloodshed.  I need carnage!  I crave it now.  I've GOT TO HAVE IT!!!

Any Order out there wishing to truly test your resolve.  I invite you to come to Averheim.  T2 and T3 RvR won't disappoint but T4 will be an epic slaugther fest.  I NEED YOU TO JOIN.  There can never be enough lambs to slaughter.  *Taps vein like a heroine addict while logging in*   Ahhhhhhhhh

And yes...I'm currently seeking counseling.

I just recently voted in Georgia (Cobb County) and I was required to present a Valid I.D.  It's my understanding that this is common place.  Some valid state recongnized I.D. has to be presented in order to vote.

The one thing I noticed is that McCain became noticeably angry as the debate went on.  People say that he seemed more experienced - I'd ask if it was because McCain kept pointing to his dicey record and outright insulting Obama or was it due to the lack of poise McCain showed in the face of an intellectual superior?  If you have a recording look at McCain facial expression at the beginning of the the debate, somewhere in the middle, and finally in the last 30 minutes.  His glossy eyed plastic smile becomes more and more strained.

I will say that after watching the debate on CNN, Republicans sure do love the mere mention of war.  I mean the point could be on one thing and McCain somehow shoots off on a tangent with some war story and the Republican line just shoots up.  Watching the meters I came to understand how Bush was elected twice.  Where I find the fact that McCain is hellbent on mentioning the armed forces in damn near everything he does detestable, apparently it really gathers his party to him.

To the question of Obama and him being nervous.  I didn't see that.  What I saw was a person trying to be respectful and actually debate topics face to face...with an opponent who seemed to fear eye contact.  The respect given to McCain leveled with that of common decency, not weakness.  Someone mentioned mannerisms.  Throughout the entire debate it seemed Obama was the initiator of social plesantries.

Originally posted by honkeytonkma

I noticed the engineer cant compete like the squig can

Engineers become down right annoying at lvl 11'ish.  They do have DPS; however, their dps is consistent and not burst.  The real gem to the engineer class (and this is from a destro player who has hell killing them), is that their survivability sky rockets in the hands of the right player.  1 v 1 against and engi is one of the worst match up I run into if they are any good.  Give the class a chance.  Most classes utterly suck at lower levels.  This can be said for most long range classes that aren't all out dps.  You think an engineer sucks?  HA!  Try playing a low level destro magus.  You'll wonder what the devs were doing til you get to lvl 11 - 14 ish.

This thread made me sad because I'm part of the problem.  During my limited play in beta I was dead set on rolling a bright wizard.  Then the evil struck and I was tempted to play a Witch Elf.  Even though I had two very specific rules about never playing a female toon and NEVER playing an elf race - I broke them both and haven't looked back.  I still have discomfort vibing with the toon but the amout of order @ss I get to serve up is just...just... *tear*.  It's so beautiful man.  All I need is an emote to lick my dagger and I truly believe I'll want for nothing else...excpet a melee snare.

Originally posted by Dekron

(1) A GPA does not determine intelligence, especially when that GPA is due to a law degree. I think Obama is an pure idiot for what he wishes to do to this country, but that is not saying he is not intelligent in specific subject matter. Vice-versa for McCain.

Everyone seems to believe Obama is more intelligent; however, can Obama fly a jet? No? Does that make him stupid? No. He simply lacks the knowledge in the subject matter. Does McCain know what it means to be a community manager? No, that's because he is qualified for President.

As far as leadership goes, (2) McCain surpasses Obama by an unmeasurable margin. His military experience alone qualifies his leadership - to say so otherwise is idiocity and shows one's lack of knowledge of history.

For example, George Washington was not an academic. He was a general. Abe Lincoln was definately not an academic. He was not considered intelligent, but he was a great leader and a great speaker.

Faux intelligence does not quantify leadership ability.

(3) Obama's law degree actually plays agaisnt him for President. His degree prepares him for the legislative branch, not the executive. People seem to forget the President is also Commander-in-Chief. the leader of our armed forces. Therefore experience is needed in that area.

(1)

It's true that a GPA does not determine intelligence.  That fact can not be argued as some of the dumbest people I've ever encountered were in a much higher GPA bracket during my school days.  I think the point here though is that, in Obama's case, the paper standard of intelligence (GPA) is backed when he speaks.  The way he answers questions with careful consideration of all points shows a clear amount of intellect.  It's the basis of critical thought.  Obama allows for all possibilities and then addresses each one even though the answer is unknown to him.  (Like his response to the question of when life begins as it pertains to abortion)  A person who takes time to consider all sides of a matter and atleast try explain why his points stand as they do is, in my eyes, covering all the bases.

McCain comes off as being less intelligent to me because his answers are so quick, short, and typically neglect several speaking points of an issue.  (The way he answered the CSPAN questions Saturday)  While this doesn't necessarily mean he is less intelligent it gives me to "feeling" that McCain has been told what to say, and doesn't speak at length on topics simply because he hasn't really thought them through.  Or, if he hasn't been told what to say; the fact that he still hasn't carefully considered all speaking points on an issue means he is still missing the mark.

(2)

The only experience I've had with the military comes in the form of JROTC and ROTC.  From that very limited experience I can state, without hesitation, that everyone in a leadership position in the military is not necessarily a good leader.  I'm not saying this is the case for McCain, I just found that statement of drawing an analogy between the military and unquestionable leadership ability to be too arrogant.  Let me ask you this - has the military always made the right choice as denoted by the history which you cling to so strongly?

(3)

I could make the argument that McCains imprisonment (POW status) makes him a bad candidate for president.  You want someone with the potential to excercise full use of American military strength, to have been locked up as a prisoner of war?  That gives him access to one hell of a revenge button.

Curving back to the point, I did find it interesting that you could see a degree in law as negative in any way possible.  When one studies law (I don't much care for which specific field) they have to study history.  One case sets the standard for another.  If one case is overturned it must be done using the principles specified by our nations constitution.  If you've studied law and can understand how laws form and fall, how is that a bad thing?  In addition to the how, you must learn the why and be able to improvise in their use to form a case.  Again we see where Obama's pursuit in such a field would demonstrate intelligence.

Originally posted by Draenor

Apparently some of you Obama koolaid drinkers have never actually listened to Obama give anything but a rehearsed speech...listening to him speak off the cuff about pretty much any issue is an absolutely painful experience...But I suppose when you want to love him badly enough, and only go out of your way to listen to the stuff that MSNBC shows on TV, then yeah, he's a wonderfully charismatic speaker.

Once again, I'm not a huge McCain fan...but for any idiot to say that he isn't educated about the issues associated with being the president is completely asenine.  Do you really and honestly believe that he got where he is by being uneducated?  You need to take off your liberal bilnders and look at this objectively...You don't get a presidential nomination by being stupid...you DO, however, get railed on by your intellectual superiors on a forum.

Fair enough.  I mean George Dubuya Bush was clearly the most educated man in the world, and he definitely got the presidential nomination.  I see your point sir.

*Edit*  Wasn't Obama speaking off the cuff at the Saddleback forum?  Sounded alright to me.  He wasn't the fastest speaker but his responses definitely showed a belief in the principle of thiking before one speaks.  On the flip side when McCain spoke every thrid word out of his mouth was about his P.O.W. status.  At one point he almost got through an entire answer and then paused and asked if he might tell another War story.  Not to take anything away from the guy but at some point I just wanted to call up some buddies and start playing the drinking game with the word being "military."  We would have easily been drunk off our asses inside of 5 minutes.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and deem this movie a complete failure.  I know I know, it's a risky prediciton but sometimes the unpopular choice is the hard one. 

Somehow I think an orc that has a big @ss fireball searing his flesh to a nice blackened color, will comprehend the end goal of my thoughts even if conveyed in a language he can't  readily decipher.

So after hearing the Obama speech from the DNC, I was watching the Republican review with Larry King Live.  And while it wasn't just the panel of republicans stating that Obama came off as defensive and  hostile - I'm at a lost for exactly what the hell they are talking about.  To me his speech was actually pretty light on Mccain.    I thought he stated the facts, as best he knew them, and simply made his case as it relates to his opponent.

To the point.  Can some of the more politically inclined spell out for me, in no uncertain terms, exactly when fact based rebuttals mutate into slanderous aggressive remarks?  I mean at what point is the line crossed?  When you bring up the issue?  Does it happen when you state your opposing stance?  If Mccain votes a certain way and Obama then states that he (Mccain) did indeed vote a certain way...isn't that just the truth?  I don't see this invisible political rage that is supposedly conveyed.

I'm not making the post in jest.  I seriously am just lost when it comes to the perceived overtones in political speeches.   If Obama says "John has voted with Bush on 90% of his legislation," and then goes on to plainly turn that into a demonstration of how John isn't about change; I fail to see how this is coined "the same ole slanderous political approach."

Though the question points to a certain degree of naivety on my part (admittantly I'm not the most politcally savy individual), I just find myself starring cock-eyed at the TV after most of these speeches when the dems/repubs start weighing in.  I mean if I were to watch an Obama speech and flip over to FOX news, I'd swear Obama was threatening to blow up Mccain's house or something.

I choose a ranged class simply because it is really dangerous playing one in WAR.  I just get a rush when I know that if X class gets within 10 feet of me, my chance of survival drops some 90%   It puts this anxiety into playing that always has me looking behind my character and not just assuming my ranged position is safe.  I know melee is no cake walk but I just prefer the challenges ranged classes present this go round.

My advice.  Take each class you're interested in into RvR.  Be it level 1 or lvl 30 queue up for a scenario and see how you enjoy it.  It's safe to assume, in most cases, that they character will only get better in terms of roots, damage, etc. so it's a pretty good gauge of what to expect.

One big deciding factor for me was mouse/keyboard setup.  I've never been a master at hotkeys and have always used a mouse click / hotkey setup which has some pretty severe setbacks.  As such, my melee efficiency suffers greatly (about a 20-25% drop in PvP effectiveness due to response time) so that too was a factor.

The last factor that always determines character selection for me is the "swagger," of each class.  Each class has a distinct coolness to it that naturally draws you in.  For me the BW's finger snap with fire cages and incinerate it just too pimp not to have.  The following is a narrative of me in RvR screaming at my computer screen which let me know I had found my class:

This is gon burn baby!!!  Are ya ready...ya ready..huh?  Ya ready *explicative* (cast spell)  BOOM *explicative* and down goes Frazier - DOWN GOES FRAZIER!!!

I mean sometimes ya just know. 

I see it happening a lot too as a BW, but it honestly doesn't bother me.  I've played healers in other games and understand the reasons why some choose to heal and others don't.

The only time a lack of healing peevs me, is when I put myself in harms way to save a healer only to then become the victim of something I could of survived had I been given one heal.  If a bright wizard breaks off from max range and runs up to fire cage the Marauder wailing on you (rune priests) and then knocks him down with DoT that functions off of incinerate, AND then uses withering heat to let you further escape...don't freaking abandon the BW as he has pretty much blown all his/her CC saving you.

Originally posted by Spardasoul

just to clear a few things up

 

You cant remove limbs

Shadow warriors dont Duel wield

Orcs dont use daggers

Brightwizards dont heal themselves

Engineers cant 1 shot everything

Being CCed doesnt mean you can get insta gibbed when hit

 

 

Im sure theres more, but you get the idea.... Its a movie enjoy it :p

 

I don't think the BW healed himself in the video.  Looks to me like he used cauterize which removes varying types of wound effects like bleeding etc.  As in he cauterized the big @ss hole in his chest.  How he fixed the whole impaled heart thing is a cat of a different color.

Originally posted by Rikimaru_X

Yo wazzup everybody. I'm doing my 2nd day in Haiwaii and loving it. I'm loving the beautiful senery, the beautiful ladies, the beautiful ladies....asian ladies too. Haiwaii is so far a great experiece. I am in waikiki. Well I walked around and I'm familar with my area a lot. I went up to the front desk and the lady didn't know where some good nightclubs are but she did mark on the map some bars/clubs when about 70% of them were Gay Bars.

Now my sister would'nt mind going in, but I do. I don't have a problem with gays as long as they don't hit on me, and I wouldn't mind walking in (actualy I do), but your pretty much setting yourself up to be a hyprocite, not only that I'm lookin for the ladies, not the official carpet-eers or sasusage fest.

So hell, I have a laptop with the internet and the first thing that comes up is a club right across the hotel from where I'm staying.

http://www.zanzabarhawaii.com/

Now I look thought the site (starting with the GO GO DANCERS) and it don't seem like this is one of the gay clubs that she listed on this map. I think it's straight. I mean this really don't look gay at all. I just wont want to wait in line, get in the club and find out it's a trap.

 

When I read this I spit up vitamin water on my keyboard thinking of this Episode of American dad:

www.youtube.com/watch

I know those short SoB's owned me when i was on my Bright wizard.  It really makes you feel bad too cause they are short enough for you to simply step on.  For shame...for...shame.

Suppose I'll chime in here too.  Tactics can still overcome respawn and it's due to the way territories are set up in this game.

I'll give you an example.  There was a keep near the southern edge of Troll Country.  I've forgotten the name but a good bit of siege based pvp happened there.  North of this hold and a fairly decent walk away was the respawn point for "the order," if they died defending the keep.  I'd ask that you all consider that this point is static.  You die and you respawn at that war camp.  You don't choose a new spawn point etc.  Doesn't the strategy to stop an endless zerg become rather obvious then?

To get from the war camp to the keep meant a jog south.  There was an occasion where a guild of destro actually figured this out and deployed a task force which camped out in the forest waiting for the unlucky respawners.  By the time enough people died to give this forest detachment of Chaos a run for their money the main destro force was damn near done taking the keep.

So even with no serious death penalty tactics can still overcome what you all call a zerg.  The only time no death penalty really becomes an issue is when the spawn point and the objective to be taken/defended are side by side.  From what I saw of the scenario maps and open world RvR that was never the case.  The zerg can be stopped it just requires more thought as to how to stop it.  It's not like another game whose name I will not mention, where objectives are a mere hop, skip, and a jump away from the graveyard.  Stop a 15 second zerg is a helluva lot different than stopping a 2 minute zerg.

Originally posted by Cabe2323

I guess the OP missed out on the memo that no money has gone to Mythic at all from Pre orders yet.  That won't happen until September 18th when the game launches.  Until that date any money you might have put down went only to the retailer.  (I personally didn't put down any money to pre order my collector's edition from Amazon). 

So you currently have provided no financial support to Mythic.  You haven't given Mythic anything and should be thankful for any pre play time you recieve. 

 

It seems too many people feel entitled now adays.  I remember back when Beta testing was only for actual Beta Testing and no on used it as a free trial for a game.  And Definitely no one felt entitled to a free trial for games. 

 

 

This is exactly what I was thinking.  I was about to get angry thinking someone allowed a customer to pay the full cost of the game upfront when best buy didn't let me do that.  Then I see your post and am left scratching my head as to what this guy's justification is again?

And something else I just thought about.  All the collector's edition people get in the preview weekend with the leftovers going to SE holders, and when you think about it - if anyone has actually invested in the company it's the CE holders as they are essentially paying more for the WAR fluff and such a thing as a preview week counts as fluff in my book.  Though even the CE'ers haven't actually paid Mythic anything yet either.

I think people are really missing the mark when it comes to this comparison and it's because no one is accounting for the dynamic behind the two systems (WoW vs. War)

I played a rogue in WoW.  Combat in WoW most closely draws a resemblance to that of a stopwatch.  From the moment you opened and lost stealth, it was a race.  The longer you were exposed the greater the chance that death was going to greet you fairly quickly.  If we were to take away the variables in a 1 v 1 or 1 v X equation such as player skill, latency, etc. and look at the dynamic that drove WoW what's left?  Essentially you had 2 characters at 100% doing battle to see who kills who the quickest.  Duh...right?  When I say 100% I don't simply mean health and mana/energy, what I mean is all things being equal the two characters are as strong as they will ever be at the first moment of pvp engagment.

This is where I feel the games subtle differences come into play.  In WAR each character starts at 100% battle readiness, but during the course of battle each class has a "special" mechanic and other skills which when combined boost them to 200%.  For example, I played the Bright Wizard class in beta for something like 2 and 1/2 weeks.  The innate ability of the BW is/was combustion.  It was something that with each attack built up (and rather quickly I might add).  What combustion did was to boost the crit rate and potential damage multiplier with the drawback of back lash. 

Back lash can be seen as a journey to the sun.  On earth the effect of the sun's rays on a person are minimal   We still get quite the bit of light with minimum risk.  Let's say I wanted a shit ton more light with an amazingly small amount of energy being lost to the ozone and the environment in general.  I would then have to venture closer to the sun to feel the direct, undiluted effects of its rays.  Well, the closer I get the the sun, the more UV intensity I have to endure as well as heat/light energy etc.  Assuming I can now touch the sun I am at that point harnessing the greatest energy potential possible...only I'm dead.  Consumption works kinda like that journey.  Once I harness my full potential each spell starts to hit me (back lash against me) for 300-600 damage; however, at that point my spells have a greater chance to explode, crit, do more damage and just generally own face!

So jumping back on topic.  In WAR combat characters have to essentially charge up their class specific mechanic in addition to building a morale meter which unlocks even more special abilities such as dd attacks, shields, buffs etc.  This actually happens quite fast.  I'd estimate that given a target my BW was at full combustion with atleast a rank 1 morale attack ready in just under 20-25 seconds.  The more enemies around the easier it is to up as I can cast endlessly and build combustion that much faster.

Well going back to the comparison.  Where WoW was a stopwatch, WAR follows more of a bell curve.  You start off at 100%, boost yourself to 200% and then fall back down to 100%.  What this does is make the duration of battle vary.  If my dps dump is ready (100% combustion, rank 1 morale ability, dots applied and ticking, while winding up a fire ball) well then I can tell you...the battle is pretty damn short ESPECIALLY if that ish crits, but at the same time when my dps dump isn't ready provided it's 1 v 1 it's still a pretty short lived encounter.  The thing that makes combat in WAR long is when "good" healers come into play.  But that can be said even for WoW.

So combat in WAR isn't so much slow as just different.  I know that sounds like a cop out but my pvp encounters don't last long simply because that can't...I simply don't have to health to sustain them.  And melee in t his game is so vicious.  I mean I've near seen shield wielding tanks own face in a game before but if you let them get close to you - game over.  Though I feel this post doesn't flow very well, I hope it gives whoever reads it all some concept of why pvp in WAR is just different.  Oh also bare in mind that the previously mentioned mechanic is specific to the BW as I can't really speak for the others.

P.S.  Oh, and that whole backlash thing can and will kill you.  There is no safety net.  Nothing like killing an enemy with that last spell only to have the back lash from said spell send you on a respawning adventure.

I'd say archmagus, and not just because it's a healing class.  For me it's the fact that it's an elf and a healer.  Besides how they play vs. something like a rune priest only means they will take more of hit.

Yeah man it was the BestBuy on freaking Cobb Parkway.  That's one of their busiest locations which is why I was so dumbfounded when I saw it.  I mean the thought of buying a CE didn't even enter my mind because I was so sure only SE's were left.

I've put in the codes in Account manager and sure enough it's a valid CE pre-order.