Marty’s WAR Beta Journal

Day 1:  July 24, 2008

I got my invite last week while I was on a two-week vacation.  When I got back, I immediately started downloading.  The download took forever – about 12 hours.   Hitting “Play” after the download screen caused a crash.  Not a great beginning.  But, using the thumbnail took me right to the character creation screen.  Nothing fancy here.  I chose to start with a Dwarf Runepriest.  Why?  My ultimate plan is a Goblin Shaman, but I don’t want to spoil things for release.  So, I chose alliance, and the class closest to the Shaman is the Runepriest.  Some decent options for hair, face, beard, etc. etc. but nothing really special.

I chose the Tyrion server because its population (1244) was higher than the other choice, Warpstone (419).  “Marty” and “Martin” were taken – DRAT!  Martinn is available, so I am Martinn the Dwarfen Runepriest.

By the way, the Dwarfs in Warhammer are Dwarfs, not Dwarves!

My starting area is Ekrund.  My first reaction was “Wow!  This game looks a lot better than I thought it would!”  Ekrund is within a huge cave, and one of the first things I see are big cannons lobbing cannonballs at gobbos and orcs across a cavern.  Eventually, I would get a quest to use those cannons which was a ton of fun.  When you use cannons, you go to a separate screen where you can aim and fire – it’s a lot of fun.  I wonder if archers get something similar???

I did a lot of quests, and eventually made my way out of the cave.  I am still in Ekrund, however, which I figured out was the first of the two Tier 1 areas.  Wow this is big.  I do my first public quests, which are fun.  I also do my first RvR scenario, which is a lot like WoW’s battlegrounds.  In my case, it’s the Dwarves (Engineers, Runepriests and Ironbreakers) against the Greenskins (Shamans, Black Orcs and Squig Herders).  For the Dwarves, I see a lot of Engineers and Runepriests, but very few Ironbreakers.  Greenskins seem a lot better spread out among their three classes.  I wonder when I will see Elfs (or is it Elves) and Humies?

I made level 6 and realm rank 2 on Day One.  It took about 4 hours and I could have gone more slowly and explored more, but I didn’t really rush either.  I played with the UI – it is fairly easy to configure right away and easy to use.  I like it.

The Runepriest was pretty fun.  Basically it is one big buff you can put on yourself (INT and STR) or group mates, plus a series of single target DDs and DOTs and single target heals and HOTs.  I had no problem at all completing all my quests and getting levels.  Money wasn’t a big issue either – seemed about right in terms of not too much and not too little.

Overall impression:  very good.  I got into RvR immediately, the class is very playable and the quests were interesting.  The game really looks great and has a more polished feel than I expected.

Day 2:  July 25, 2008

I went into the 2^nd Tier One area (Mount Bloodhorn) pretty quickly today.  I got the first few quests done but they seemed a bit hard for me.  After a while, I was wondering about the Capital City and asked someone about it.  They directed me to the first Dwarf War Camp, which has a flight point.  It is called Grudgekeg’s Guard, which was back in Ekrund.  It turns out I had missed a bunch of areas in Ekrund, and a bunch of quests. 

There was a flight point in the War Camp, plus some quests to visit the starting areas of the Humies and the Elfs.  It was very simple to fly to both of those areas (which offered a lot of quests I did not take) and to the only open Capital City, Altdorf.   It looks like you have to play in your own area for a couple hours, then you get to a flight point and can go to any of the other starting areas and level there.

My first impression of Altdorf was not good – I lagged terribly and crashed.  When I got back, I tried again and it wasn’t nearly as bad; still a bit more laggy (especially in the main area) but very playable.  I met the King, Karl Franz!  While the lag was an issue, Altdorf looked terrific.

I continued to do single quests, public quests (which now involve more RvR) and RvR scenarios.  They were all fun to do, and involved a nice mix of both RvR and PvE.  Everything is playing very smoothly and looking great.

My first 1v1 RvR encounters occurred today.  Wow did I get my butt kicked.  As indicated on the boards, the Runepriest is a very poor 1v1 PvP character, at least at low levels.  A level 7 shaman really put me to shame when I was level 8.  His damage output was WAY more than mine.  A Black Orc of the same level was not quite a strong as the Shaman, but I could not do nearly enough damage to get him near death.  He is using special attacks to hit me for 126 and auto-attacking for 60.  I am doing DD spells for 73 and a DOT for 29 per tick.  His health is a TON higher than mine too.

Time for a word about the Tome of Knowledge.  This thing is really cool.  It contains all of your quest information, and it keeps a ton of information about NPCs and mobs.  It even tracks available titles, and what you did to earn titles.  At level 8, I already have like 10 available titles – many of which are funny but not very flattering.

I spent my 1^st Realm Points – I took Acumen II (+9 int) and Toughness I (+3 toughness).  It cost me 5 realm points.  I found out that you cannot swim underwater in this game – that surprised me a bit.  I used the recall scroll for the first time – works just like every other one in every other MMORPG.

I played a lot today.  /played is about 11 hours.  By the end of the day I had just made level 10 and was RR5.  I did a lot more exploring and running around today than I did yesterday.  Game is still a lot of fun.  The running back and forth is starting to get a bit tedious though.  A pony would be nice.

Day 3 – July 26, 2008

Played the Runepriest a little today but was kind of busy so I didn’t get a lot of hours in until the evening.  When I logged, I saw Zez on and we hooked up.  He had rolled a Shadow Warrior (Elf Archer) and was level 4.  So, I rolled a Swordmaster, a 2-hand sword using Elf Tank, which I thought would work pretty well with the Shadow Warrior.  The male elfs are entirely too feminine-looking for me, but the big swords are cool.  We ended up doing several quests together, a public quest and the 1^st RvR scenario.  The Destruction crew was much higher level and we were owned really hard.  It was pretty fun though.  It was hard to figure out exactly how good the Swordmaster will be in RvR, but I got the feeling that it was pretty strong.  I tanked all the quests pretty well.  The Swordmaster uses style chains which seem to be pretty fun.  I don’t have a real good idea about the 3 different specs yet.  The server crashed on us and we didn’t get real far.

Eventually, we decided to get on the other server and play some more.  Aris came on too, and they both rolled Witch Hunters.  I still don’t get that class, but Zez commented that it played a lot like a Shadow Warrior.  I rolled a Bright Wizard, which was one of my favorite Order classes.  It was fun.  We only got to about level 3 but it was interesting seeing the Human starting area, which looks a lot like a town Northern Europe in the 1600s or 1700s.

I took advantage of some rested exp today.  That was something good to see in the game.    By the end of the day, my Runepriest was level 12 and RR5.  I had made it to Tier 2 content – the zone called Marshes of Madness.

Day 4 – July 27, 2008

My Runepriest got an item today with a slot for a gem, and I received a gem on one of my next quests to fill that slot.  It is very similar to the WoW gemcrafting system.  I spent a lot of time today exploring Altdorf.  There are a couple of quests to complete which just have you running around the city, and it’s a nice way to explore.  Altdorf is very rich in content, and really has some beautiful areas.



I even got to meet Gotrek and Felix at the Screaming Cat Inn at the docks. 



Unfortunately, a couple of features are not working, including the Sewers, which is a big instance, and the banking system.

The Runie was Level 13 and RR5 at the end of the day.

Day 5 – July 28, 2008

Went to log on and found out that Beta 3.1 was done, and the servers were down in preparation for Beta 3.2.  Drat!  Looked like characters will be wiped and I have to start over.  Version 3.2 is available by using a Bittorrent client, but wow is it slow.  I am looking at a 2-day download here.  Crap.  I spend a ton of time tweaking the uTorrent settings but I can’t get more than about 50-60 kB/s.  I let it run all night.  Download speeds aren’t a big deal, since the servers aren’t up anyway.

Day 6 – July 29, 2008

When I come home from work, the servers are up and running 3.2.  Yay!  But, either my wife or my kids have shut the computer down, turning off uTorrent for the better part of the day, so I am still less than 50% into the download.  Dammit.  Still about 10 hours of downloading left.  On a positive note, now it looks like our characters will be saved.  My download rate under uTorrent is up to over 150 kB/s due to more people seeding, I think.  Very, very late at night, it’s finally done.  By the time I am near the very end, download rates are over 300 kB/s.  All I have time to do is install and patch, and make sure it’s working.

Unfortunately, I wipe the 3.1 client from my hard drive before I had a chance to save my screenshots from the first 4 days (Psssst:  the ones you see above were re-created).

Day 7 – July 30, 2008

Woot – no character wipe!  Martinn the Runepriest still exists.  By the end of the night, I had completed several quests in the two Tier 2 zones. Barak Varr and Marshes of Madness.  I had also joined a raid of two groups to try and complete some PvP objectives.  We had only token resistance, but we still weren’t strong enough to defeat the Warchief of the Keep we were sieging.  It was very much in the style of DAOC, with a Warchief you have to defeat to take the keep, and player-controlled battering rams.  It was nice to find a big raid – the ability to quickly locate “public groups” (groups who haven’t restricted them to invite-only status) in your zone is pretty nice.

The “look” of WAR is very different from DAOC.  By the way, the lighting effects have been put in, which especially showed up in Altdorf.  This game looks great.  They have put in loading screens for the first time, too.  Another bit of polish done.  The word on the street is that the game might release for the headstart program on September 18, and for general release on September 23.  The game looks like it will be ready for release around that date.  I am betting that the Open Beta starts in mid-August.

There are still bugs.  When I log on, my dwarf’s robe is invisible, meaning that I get to run around butt-nekkid.  Thank goodness I have a belt with a big belt buckle that hangs kind of low.

I am becoming a bit down on the Runepriest class.  It’s a bit boring.  Although I can solo the quests and leveling alone hasn’t been a problem, I can tell that this is going to be Order’s primary healing class.  At least right now, I don’t see the Runie being real valuable as a dpser in big groups.  I had hoped healers were going to be different in Warhammer, but at least through level 15, I don’t see it.  Obviously, I am way too low in level and inexperienced to make a final conclusion.

I am a bit concerned about the Public Quests too.  It looks like you need at least one well-balanced group, with a tank and healers, to complete these (they are in multiple steps which usually end with a boss fight).   The population is so sparse in Beta right now, however, that the further along I get in level, the fewer and fewer opportunities exist for PQs.  They are just sort of sitting there with no one doing them.

My /played is up to 1 day, 1 hour by the end of the day, but a lot of that time has been AFK time lately.  Current info is level 15, RR 6, Butchering 64 and Apothecary 33.  The potions I make actually help but it’s a gold sink.

Day 8 - July 31, 2008

After a lot of thought, I decided to stop playing the Runie, at least for now.  It just wasn’t a real fun class and I wanted to try something else. 

This game looks like it is going to be terrific.  My overall impression of the game as a whole so far is terrific. 

However, my evaluation of the Runepriest class so far is that it is a typical boring MMORPG healer.  I thought that healers in WAR were going to be "different" and far more fun to play?  The dps output of the Runepriest is God-awful in RvR, and you would be completely wasting your time dpsing if you were in an RvR group.  This is a straight healer.  Cast a HOT, cast a direct heal when needed, try and anticipate where the damage will be and get your heals off as quick as possible.  The Runepriest is the same as any other primary healing class in any other MMORPG.

That said, the RP is a very useful class for any group.  The heals are excellent and the buffs are good.  Further, unlike some other MMORPG primary healers, the RP can solo kill mobs that are at the same level in 30 seconds or so, and complete quests to gain levels without being in groups.  A single add poses a significant challenge for the RP and will result in a death on occasion.  Two adds = death 95% of the time.  So, while this is a "needed" class, I don't think many people will choose to play it because, quite simply, it isn't very fun.

I have toyed with other classes, including a Swordmaster, a Bright Wizard and a Marauder, and those classes are 10x more fun than the RP, in my opinion.  I think I am likely to give up my RP and start using my Swordmaster more, just to see what the tank feels like.

I decided to try a tank, but I didn’t want to play another Dwarf, which is why I went back to the Swordmaster I created back on Day 3.  His name is “Emanon,” a name I have used for a long time.  I did a lot of the beginner’s quest and by the end of the night, I had gotten to Level 5, RR1.  I really didn’t have a lot of time to play, and ended the night at 2 hours /played.

Here is a shot of Emanon and my current UI setup.  I have labeled a lot of it.



Day 9 – August 1, 2008

I had a couple hours to play tonight and I got pretty deep into the first T1 area.  I now have a couple different options for skill chains, based on what I wanted to do.  I finally got into a couple Khaine’s Embrace scenarios and built my realm ranks.  That’s a fun and imaginative scenario. 

The High Elfs have a good nuker/healer class (Archmage), a good tank (Swordmaster), good ranged dps (Shadow Warrior) and a good pet/melee class (White Lion).  In the Scenario, it “feels” like the Elf classes are more complete than the Dwarf classes (which are only 3).

At the end of the night, Emanon was Level  9, RR 5 and my /played was 5 hours.

Day 10 – August 2, 2008

I played a lot today.  Zez and I caught up in the morning (early afternoon for me) and we decided to roll two completely new characters.  Zez suggested Destruction, and while I had been trying to preserve that for release, I just couldn’t resist.  On one of the first days I was in beta, I had created a Gobbo Shaman named Martee just to see if it would let me roll both Order and Destro (and it did).  He had never gotten past the character creation screen, so I just logged him on.  Zez rolled a Black Orc named Wayhem.  We played for about 4 hours, and man did the time fly.  The Greenskin starting area is awesome.  By this time, I had played through the Dwarf starting area and the High Elf starting area, and I had done a little in the Empire starting area, but the Greenskin area was the best so far.  The art is fabulous and the story lines and mechanics are clever and interesting.  We did all our quests together.  The Shaman/Black Orc combo is a great leveling combo.  Black Orcs hold agro and tank very well, and seem to do good dps as well.  The Shaman has good dps and healing potential, with a very interesting mechanic:  the more healing you do, the better your dps capacity, and the more dps you do, the better your healing capacity.

By the end of our session, I had played about 4 hours and I was level 7.  We never did get into an RvR scenario, so my RR was still 0.

In the evening, I put in some more time on the Swordmaster.  I am pleasantly surprised with this class.  I was a bit skeptical at first but it has turned out to be fun and interesting.  I found a few bugs and issues with quests, probably because the High Elf/Dark Elf pairing is the newest.  By the end of the night, I was Level 10, RR 5 with a /played of about 8 hours.

One of the problems I am noticing is that quite a bit more people are playing Destro than Order.  Usually when I log on, I am seeing about 450 people online as Destro and 300 as Order.  Most of the time, Destro controls the zones I am in.  I think this is what is causing the problem with scenarios taking so long to spawn.

Day 11 – August 3, 2008

I played the Blademaster for a little while tonight.  Zez logged on.  We started talking about the difference between the Tyrion and the Warpstone servers.  It turns out that Warpstone is the higher population server, and one of the reasons I have been having trouble finding people to help with Public Quests (PQs) and RvR scenarios is the low population on the Tyrion server.  So, for the 2^nd straight day, we decided to start over.  We chose Empire.  Arislan already had a Witch Hunter on Warpstone (see Day 3).  I decided to try the Warrior Priest (Martee) and Zez rolled a Bright Wizard.  We got through 6 levels and got RR 3.  We played for 3 hours, but that is a bit misleading because we had to wait for long periods of time when Arislan was having connection problems.

I should mention something here about the “leveling” system.  You need to understand the difference between three stats which cause you to level.

Experience:   As you might know, there are 40 character levels, which rise as you gain experience.  This is the typical, run-of-the mill experience you get for killing PvE targets.  You also get some experience for participating in RvR, and you get rested (bonus) experience if you are rested (haven’t played in a while).  As you gain Experience, you gain levels.  As you gain levels, you unlock access to spells and abilities.  All characters of a certain class get the same level of basic abilities.  However, you also gain skill points as you level up.  You can use your skill points to specialize your character in one of three different skill sets within your class.

Reknown:  For those who played DAOC, these are Realm Points.  They are earned by participating in RvR only.  You can use your realm points to “buy” other abilities, such as enhanced stats or other abilities.  This allows you to further specialize.

Influence:  This is a new concept.  Before I can explain this, you need to understand the geography of the game.  Each racial pairing is assigned a number of zones.  As you pass through these zones, the level of the quests and the mobs gets higher and higher.  Pretty typical stuff.  However, these zones are broken up into “Chapters.”  Chapters are usually centered around a town, and each chapter has related Public Quests.  When you do these PQs, you gain Influence within that Chapter.  Within each Chapter is a Rally Master who sells three “levels” of gear.  If you gain all of the Influence possible within each Chapter, you can pick one item from each level of gear.  When you move the next chapter, however, your Influence meter for the old zone is replaced by a new meter, which is back to zero.  If you are really going to experience the full game, you can wait until you have full influence in each Chapter before you move on.

Day 12 – August 4, 2008

Zez and Arislan were on so I went right to the Warrior Priest.  The WP is pretty fun.  It is a melee character, with only one ranged spell (so far), probably for pulling.  Empire has no tank right now, but the WP can do a reasonably good job because he can tank and heal himself.  Since Tanks and Healers are a bit on the rare side (just like in every other MMORPG), having a combo Tank/Healer makes me a pretty useful guy.  The Witch Hunter and the Bright Wizard suit Aris and Zez well.  The WH is flexible (ranged or melee) and cuts a dashing figure.  Aris, of course, had to stop for 15 minutes every time we were in town to re-dye her clothes (/rolls eyes).  Zez’s Bright Wizard basically nukes everything he sees and has a small chance of blowing up.  My WP tanks and heals those two when they get in trouble.  Yes, this trio is about as well suited to our three personalities as anything I can imagine.

We completely filled our Influence meters for both Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.  Zez and Aris had to leave a bit early, so I just did some open-world RvR.  Empire is very popular for RvR and the extra population on Warpstone really made the RvR zone in the Empire/Chaos starting area active.  In fact, when I logged I checked the population, and Warpstone was at 1497 where Tyrion was at 615.  The split between Chaos and Order is still about 60/40, which concerns me a lot. 

By the end of the night, I was Level 8, RR 3 (314/640) and fully-geared for Chapter 3.

Day 13 – August 5, 2008

I played the Warrior Priest again tonight with Zez and Aris.  We did a LOT of RvR stuff, especially the open-field RvR zone in the Empire/Chaos starting area.  The RvR here is VERY active and exciting.  The warrior priest RvRs pretty well for a healer – its survivability is OK, its buffing is OK, its damage is OK and its healing is good.  This is a jack-of-all-trades character which is very flexible and allows you to do a lot of things.

At the end of the night, my /played was 10 hours, I was Level 10, and I was RR 4 (842/1250).  I had all my influence rewards for Chapters 1 and 2, and was almost full for Chapter 3.

Day 14 – August 6, 2008

No Warhammer for me tonight.  They have been patching all day and the servers still aren’t up.  I am hitting the sack.  Big news day though.  The official release date is out – it’s September 18.  Also, I just saw one of the Devs, Paul Barnett, on the Tonight Show talking about Warhammer in a skit they were doing about ComicCon.  They even showed Jay Leno as a Goblin!  Cyas tomorrow.

Day 15 – August 7, 2008

Tried to play today without a lot of success.  Patch 3.3 is now out, and it’s just a patch rather than a completely new download.  Thank God.  All characters were wiped, and all newly-rolled characters are at level 31 with a template.  There is only one server now – Warpstone.  I created a Warrior Priest (“Marty”) and tried to play a little.  The lag was terrible, the crowds were all in one area and the crashes were frequent.  Frankly, it was no fun so when the last crash occurred, I just didn’t log back on.

Day 16 – August 8, 2008

More of the same today, I fear.  Zez and I decided to try Destro so I rolled a Magus and he rolled a Chosen.  Lag was a bit better but there were several crashes.  It wasn’t much fun so I went to bed early.  I don’t really have a feel for the Magus yet.  It is a pet class (demon summoning) but the demons cannot move.  I don’t see how the Magus will perform well in RvR with immobile pets.  I would think that mobility will be essential.  Maybe in keep defenses?

Day 17 – August 9, 2008

Finally got a little play in today--maybe an hour on the Warrior Priest.  I like this class.  It is a nice combination of dps, tanking and healing.  You have to do some dps to regenerate your ability to heal, so the mechanic is a lot like the Shaman (except the Shaman is ranged whereas the WP is melee).  I did a few RvR scenarios and one PQ.  I did fine;  I was very useful (buffing, healing, dpsing) and my survival was fine.  Solo PvE is also pretty good.  I was able to take on up to 3 mobs of my own level.  I just kept healing myself as the fight went on, and my innate defense makes me pretty tough.  Overall this is a very playable class.  It reminds me a little of the Warden in DAOC.

I discovered a pretty cool town today called the Observatory.  It is a town on a really high hill and is one of the towns in Empire’s T4 zone.  This town is built on a really high hill and is very interesting-looking.

Day 18 – August 10, 2008

Went to Altdorf today to buy my horse.  It sure makes getting around a lot easier.



Man, what a lag-fest.  I really hope this is just Beta lag, and that they get it fixed prior to release.  Altdorf has always been a problem for me.  By the way, here’s my computer specs:

DELL XPS 710.  OS:  Windows Vista Premium.  Processor:  Dual Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (4MB L2 Cache, 2.40 GHz, 2394 Mhz, 1066 FSB).  Memory:  2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAMN at 667MNHz - 2 DIMMs.  Video cards:  Dual 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS.  Hard Drive:  320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ Databurst Cache.

The lag was really bad in open field RvR again today.  Then again, the fights were like 50 v. 50.  There is even some interface lag – where the game doesn’t recognize your commands.  Most annoying.

I figured out today that when you buy two influence rewards, you get a quest which leads you to your next area.  It’s a good idea to pick that up. 

A word about abilities.  There are three types:  Spells/Combat styles, Tactics and Morale Abilities.  The spells and combat styles are your typical hotbar stuff – choose what you want to do in the context of the fight you are in.  Nuke, DOT, heal, HOT, buff, debuff, etc.  There are many, many options. 

Tactics are a bit new.  You get 4 tactic slots which you can change between fights.  You can pick from a number of different situational tactics.  For instance, you could pick 4 tactics that help you heal – one for increased willpower, one for extra healing, one for a special healing proc and one for reduced threat.  These tactics can be put in different sets – so you can save different sets and easily change between them for solo questing, grouping, RvR, etc.  All of these are passive abilities.

Morale Abilities are also new.  These are a chain of abilities (up to 4) which you can change in and out just like tactics.  However, they are all active abilities – they could be big group heals, big DOTs, big AE spells, etc.  They chain together.  As you heal/dps, your morale builds, and you can use that morale to use your morale abilities.  The more morale you build, the higher-level morale abilities you can use.

By the end of the day, I was about 3/4ths of the way through level 31, I was about 15% of the way through RR 25, and I had completed all my influence for Chapter 15.

Day 19 – August 11, 2008

ISP went out early in the afternoon and didn’t come back until the next day.  Thanks Comcast.  No gaming for me.

Day 20 – August 12, 2008

Tried a bit of RvR again today.  Mythic says they have been tweaking the servers based on what they learned about the heavy stress of large-scale RvR.  Still very, very laggy in open-field, large-scale RvR, and several crashes as well.  I couldn’t RvR for long, so I focused on leveling.

I finally got level 32, plus some.  My /played is 9.5 hours.  I think it took me a total of about 9 hours to get level 32.  I am only about 25% into RR 25, however.  I wish I could RvR without lagging or crashing.

As to the time it takes to level, here is what I am seeing based on total experience so far (all are complete estimates):

Level 1-5:  2-3 hours

Level 6-10:  7-8 hours (total 9-10)

Level 11-15:  11-12 hours (total 18-20)

Day 21 – August 13, 2008

Elindriele got into the beta and got it downloaded.  She could only log into the Tyrion server, not Warpstone.  She rolled a Witch Elf, something she is talking about playing after release.  So, I rolled up a Disciple of Khaine called “Marty.”  I liked it a lot – it is very, very similar to the Warrior Priest, which I also liked.  Overall, I think the Disciple does better damage whereas the WP heals a bit better. 



I saw Warder tonight too – it was really good to see an old friend.  Zez came on later as well.  What a great core of people.  I made level 6 and RR4 by the end of the night.  The Dark Elf starting area is pretty fun.

Day 22 – August 14, 2008

Elin and Zez were on.  We finally formed WGW for the first time in Warhammer, thanks to three volunteers.  It was really nice to wear the guild tag again.  Unfortunately, by the time we formed the guild, it was too late to really play with the controls.  Looks interesting though.  The “guild leveling” system will be fun.

In order to form the guild, I had to visit the Inevitable City.  Wow its crazy.  Very consistent with the Warhammer world.



I leveled the Disciple as well, and did some more RvR in Khaine’s Embrace.  I really do like that scenario a lot, and the Disciple played well.  All of my Chapter 2 influence is done.  At the end of the night, I was level 9, RR 5 with 5 hours /played.

Day 23 – August 15, 2008

RvR was very smooth.  Everything went very well tonight, although I really only played a couple of hours.  I most concentrated on RvR.  The Disciple does well – dps is respectable, healing is respectable, buffing is respectable.  At the end of the night, I was level 10, RR 7 with 8 hours /played.

Day 24 – August 16, 2008

Out of town – couldn’t play.

Day 25 – August 17, 2008

I continue to be worried about the Chaos/Order balance.  When I logged onto Tyrion today, the count was 1285 Destro and 875 Order.  Again, pretty close to the 60/40 split I have consistently seen throughout Beta.  If it stays that way through release, I really wonder how RvR will work out.  We are going Chaos, and I would hate to get a bunch of easy, meaningless wins just because our realm is Chaos-dominated.

I found a “secret” quest today – a corpse laying in a wooded area that gave me a quest, with no special markings on the map or on the screen.  I kind of like Easter Eggs like that.  I finally had some time to play with the Guild functions.  There’s a lot of interesting stuff, but a lot of it isn’t in the game yet, like guild vaults.  It really has a lot of potential, however, and I love the idea of leveling the guild.  There are 40 levels, with at least one new benefit at every level.  We are already Rank 2.

Lag continues to be an issue.  The RvR Scenarios are fine – they are well-controlled and seem to be on a separate server.  The lag even affected PvE tonight.  When I hit an ability button, I would often get the “Ability Not Ready Yet” message, even though the ability clearly WAS ready.  I am pretty sure this is a UI lag issue.

I continue to enjoy the Disciple.  I feel effective in RvR and I have no trouble soloing through quests.  One thing I have noticed on PQs though is that I constantly get beat out by other players for top honors.  I think it is at least partially due to the low dps output of the Disciple.  With the single-target heals and the HOTs, however, some decrease in dps is a reasonable sacrifice.  At least at this level, the balance seems about right.

Day 26 - August 18, 2008

Since Mythic announced it was dropping the NDA tomorrow, I mostly worked on finalizing and formatting this journal today.  I got in a little play on the Disciple, however.  I completed all of my influence needed for Chapter 4, and hit Level 12. 

I don't understand how they calculate "contribution" for purposes of PQs.  No matter what I do, my DoK is always on the bottom for purposes of the "bonus" granted by PQs.  In every PQ, the game somehow determines how much effect you had on the PQ and gives you a bonus to your 1-1000 roll for loot.  400 is the top and 95 appears to be the bottom (unless you count zero).  No matter what I do, I can get over the 95-150 range.  Tonight, I actually tanked the final boss mob.  I must have out-dpsed the tank, which was a Chosen, as I kept pulling aggro (probably because of my dps plus healing).  Yet, he gets a +400 bonus and I get +95.  How is that possible?  This needs to be adjusted.

By the end of the night, I was Level 12, RR 8 with 12 hours /played.