Eataine, A Monumental Defense

Chillwind Manor has won my love. This BO proved to be very fun to defend. Tonight, we attempted to defend it with a decent sized warband of 3 groups (18 players). We headed out to defend Chillwind and once there we cleared the area of any scouts. We picked up the new BO defense quest under the impression that, upon turn in, would provide extra VP's for the zone and perhaps make up for the lives we were about to loose (anyone know if this quest helps towards VP?) .

Within the manor we set up our tank wall - four tanks in total (3 IB's and 1 SW). The manor doors only allows for 2 tanks to squeeze into the doorway side-by-side, so the other tanks (myself) stood in-between the cracks for extra cushion support.

Chillwind manor is now order controlled - appears across the screen.

First Wave

Obviously destro wasn't expecting anything other than PvE as they only sent a party of about 6 and we dealt with them swiftly. This was a surprise as we knew of 2 scouts that had spotted us setting up and expected that they would have relayed the info to someone. Even if they were just pugs, you'd think it would have showed up in RvR chat/Region chat. Never the less, a min went by, nothing. We sat their with our tank wall... silence. Then the ground began to shake and the sounds of horror approached. The doors burst open.

Second Wave

Destro were prepared this time, well, they were prepared for a fight, I don't think they saw an organized tank wall coming. The front line tanks were doing a great job with CC, knocking enemies away, down and keeping the destro push to a minimum. Our tanks manage to hold tight for the first min or so, then Destro began to pull us out. Both of our front line tanks get pulled, one is killed and the other struggles to reclaim his ground while destro begin to trickle in. Luckily, only a few got in and it was nothing our RDPS couldn't handle, as they finished them off just as I got my rez. 30 sec later and the fighting was getting more intense. A hand full of Chosen and Marauders breeched the tank wall and went to town on our healers & RDPS. But we weren’t done fighting; there were still a tone of destro here. We only hoped that our struggle would buy our comrades enough time to gain some ground and push from the warcamp. As for us another 30 seconds or so go by, at this point I lost track of time. Keeping the tank wall up was getting harder as now everyone had Rank 4 Moral abilities blasting us to shreds. Our healers were barley able to keep us up, but they did, and the line held tight for about a min - until we just got over whelmed. Destro made a massive push forward, cutting through our line and gutting our healers, the room was flooded with triumphant destruction players and a pile of dead order.

Conclusion

A lot was learned from this battle. Destro ultimatly smashed us out, but we held for a good time before they were able to gain any ground. Strategies to defeat the "zerg" that everyone talks of may not exist, but in theory, we can indefinitely delay its advancement into the next zone or simply force them to spread out. A key to winning a battle is fighting a battle where the terrain and maneuvers work in your favor. Use buildings and doorways to bottleneck your enemies should be used to your advantage. If used well enough, they may just give up and walk away. haha

Feel free to comment w your thoughts on the topic

My First RvR with Legends

The other night, after playing some catch with Kilor, the guild leader of Legends, I enquired about the current status of the guild. Being an ex-B&B (Bash and Brew) officer from the Averheim server I knew that a few of my old guild mates ended up over there. Sure enough I found a hand full of old friends! I'm so happy in my new guild! And to kick off my happiness with a bang they had RvR night. OH YES! FINALLY some organized ORvR (being that scenario's never popped).

Reikland
2/10/09

When I arirved Legends, Crimson Guard and Omega had a pretty good stand off at Reikwatch. Order had the high ground of the BO while Destro was north on the opposing hill. There were a lot of destro, but after a few more reinforcements, it was truly an order zerg - the likes of which I have never seen before - and with a swift order of our leader to push, everyone uniformly pushed. We pushed them off of Reikwatch and once they were on the run we all came back to reikwatch to cap the BO. I was amazed. Not only that but we sent out scouts to neighboring BO's and keeps to check the status. It seems that the PUG's were camping destro's warcamp. but I couldn't care less, it's happened to me dozens of times. Plus, its not like there aren't other ways to get into the RvR lake. TRY the back road... oh wait, that takes orginization. In the world of PUG's, we know how that works out.

Once we had all the BO's and Keeps, it was time to earn some VP. So we queued up for scenarios and headed off to the PQ. And that’s when we all got bored. Oh, the first run was fine, fun even. We were all energized with the idea of flipping the zone back to Praag (cause its so much fun to play there! Love that zone!). Then the 2nd PQ, still no VP gain, 3rd PQ... 4th PQ... and I'm spent. Our VP went from 84, down to 82 and back to 86 and in the end, 84. Perhaps destro was doing the same PQ grind, hence few returns from either side. I’m not sure, but it wasn’t much fun and there was no sign of accomplishment; time to move on and/or call it a night.

Challenging All Slayers!

Thank you Dont, from Blame the Healer, for giving me something super fun to do with my upcomming slayer! A few days ago Dont posted a challenge to all slayers. To sum it up, take a screen shot of your TOK with the '10 deaths by monster' or '10 deaths in RvR' as the most recent Tome Unlock. Lets see how far you can lvl up before getting 10 deaths. Sounds like fun!

Check out the full article here: the ultimate challenge for all the slayers

Isle of the Dead

"Only by the powers of chaos can such things exist!" Starbreaker looked very upset with the elves and their new assignment for him: travel to the Isle of the Dead. There he stood, at the base of the portal that leads to the Island. Radiant blue, purple and pink vortexes vibrantly burst forth from the portals center. Images of chaos daemons filled Starbreakers mind while he gazed deeper into portal.

He takes a step back, “I shall not fall to the dark powers on this day due to some Elven trickery!”

The two Elven warriors who guard the gates of the portal burst into laughter. “We have no quarrel with you Dwarf. This I will not lie, for the portal leads to chaos, but then, does not the road behind you lead to chaos and every road that it thusly connects to? It is in this day and age that Chaos is all around us. We have but to fight back and reclaim these lands for our own.”
Still ever reluctant to believe the Elki, he keeps his axe lowered, yet firm and steady, as though he was waiting for the essence of chaos itself to burst forth from the portal.

Before another word, the sound of a galloping horse catches the attention of the party, they look to the east. An Elven Swordmaster approach, and with out a word he pass by the three, up onto the bridge and into the portal. Gone, not a trace of him, not even a puff of smoke, only the foot prints of his galloping horse are left behind. There Starbreaker stood, bewildered by the occurrence.

The second warrior chimed in, “You see our Dwarven brother, even now our kin march to the fight on the island. We bid that you gift him, and others that you may encounter on the island, with your strength and indispensable courage.”

For a moment Starbreaker pondered upon what the Elves had said. Would the portal truly lead him to the island or where they still trying to trick him. Perhaps the Swardmaster entering the portal was nearly a ploy, one to draw the dwarf in to face the tortures of chaos. No doubt that purple hue that shone through the portal was due to the tainted god of pleasure, Slaanesh. Despite his instinct to not enter such a magically endowed doorway, he was drawn to it. Then a thought occurred to him, if he helped rid the island of chaos he could become famous, a hero in the eyes of Elven society; feasibly sculpting a statue in his honor. Without a second thought, Starbreaker raised his axe to his shoulder, grunted loudly and looking straight at the ground before him as he stormed off into the portal.

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Game note:
Today I took a trip to the Isle of the Dead. To be completely honest, I had imagined this island to be full of RvR and quests. In my mind it was going to be the island this it is now, looks just as I imagined it, yet functioned like an ORvR server. I guess I was expecting some BO’s and maybe a Keep in the center for a king of the hill type atmosphere. Anything RvR related was on my mind. I was so excited to head over there for the first time.

My dreams were utterly destroyed after doing about two quests. Though the area has an awesome map and some decent quests, it only took me about two and a half hours to complete all the quests (not including PQ’s). There was no camp or safe haven for me to rest and enjoy my profits, nor was there anyone (human) to fight against. Perhaps I’m too RvR orented and close minded, but I really had high hopes for this island.

I really hope that this new expansion, Tome King setting, conjures up the RvR fulfillment that the Isle of the Dead failed to bring me me.

1v1 in Praag DoK vs IB

Ironrbeaker (me) R36

VS

Disciple of Khain R38

My first thought was, “Oh laady, I’m going to get my ass handed to me on a paper plate.” That didn't stop me from charging in - of course I charged in - and with my lovely Cave In ability followed by a 40% movement reduction to dismount him (although, I probably could have just spit on him and he’d dismount). I popped my Toughness and Armor buffs up, but As he went from 50% to full health with the snap of his fingers, I begin to feel that this was a complete lost cause (With Starbreaker’s death being the only option). So while my health was at about 70% I punted and ran behind a corner.

And he almost passed me by… Damn gyro chopper makes too much noise. Haha. This time our fight took place with a lot of contact with the walls around Praag. I think I did an alright job of keeping him on his toes with positioning and knockdowns/punts. And I’m guessing that I punted him at just the right times cause his heals weren’t as effective as they were from the first time. I don’t know how I out damaged him, truly, he must have been having a coffee break and was playing with only one hand, *shrug* but I’ll take the victory never the less.

Thanks for the fun battle, Alder!

Destruction Almost Sacks Altdorf

Tonight I logged on around 8pm and saw this:

Holy crap! Destruction locked up Shining Way? AND they are at Reikwald? It was like the apocalypse was coming. I got such an adrenalin rush as I stunted up to the defensive line. When I arrived at the door it seemed that the main fort defense was full, Looks like I couldn't get in. Oh well, I headed over to Reikland to block off the folks who couldn't get rezed. That in itself was a total blast! I had so much fun in ORvR tonight that I almost peed my pants.

The best part is that there was little to no lag. I honestly was surprised. I'm not sure on the specifics of what Mythic did to the fort system, but it seems to have helped out a lot. The fact that destro was getting so far was so exciting! I almost wanted to see them sack the city, but then I started to have flashbacks of building up Altdorf all over again.

In the end they couldn't pull it off in time to take Reikwald. So we all headed back to Praag to claim the zone. This is where i got to have some really fun group vs group battles as well as a few 1v1's.

I got completely owned by a Witch Elf tag team. I must say, it was pretty awesome, they just popped out of the blue sky and proceeded to each go in a circle (one clock wise, the other counter clockwise) around me and kick my ass. And I loved every second of it. twas almost like a dance. =p

Sadly, I was so impressed by the whole scene that I forgot to grab a few snap shots… Shoot! If anyone has screen shots from the fortress fight I would love to see them. Just leave me a comment with a link. Thanks.

In Defense of Reikland

In Starbreakers own words:


“So one o’ me friends back in Kadrin Valley, good ol’ chap, 'e sends me all over tha place collectin’ things for ‘im an’ what not. So ‘e asks me to gyro it ova’ to Reikland to help out the humans. Humans are interestin’ creatures o’ habit.” Starbreaker grabs a drink and chugs down a large amount of ale and as he begins to talk again, droplets of ale splash out of his mouth. “I’m quite fond of ‘em really, or I was... but originaly twas this fondness that I choose to help ‘em out. I came to fight against, what they call, the “taint of chaos” that plagues their lands. Now we all know very well that the powers of chaos are notin’ to scoff at. In fac’, I know first hand what dose monstaz can do. Clearin’ out the mines of Eight Peaks is no simple task. But I ain’t gonna get inta that long story. I’m sure you know all ‘bout it anyway.”


Starbreaker bows his head and pauses for a moment as if remembering a terrible time in his life.“At least not at this moment,” he faintly mumbles. The dread on his face is quickly whipped away as he continues his story.

“Yet those humans don’t trust no ones! At least not other humans, an’ I guess they got good reason for et. The corruption in that place is unbelievable. For instance, I talked to his one lady, she was way up high on this observatory deck. You’ve seen ‘er, anyway, think her name was Greta. An’ she comes to me an’ asks if I’d run a bit o’ an errand for ‘er – go out an ‘elp some Lord Gramburg wid his peasant revolt. So I do, and when I get back, she tells me that this lord that I just helped out is” he speaks in a mystical voice, “tainted by chaos.”He continues on as normal, “So I run back talk to ‘im again an’ he says she’s got that SHE’s got the taint o’ chaos. So I think I’m done ‘elpin out these noble people, an’ have a chat wid the local militia.”

His hands start to shake with excitement as he stands up to tell his next part, “Well they say the lady AND the lord got” he uses his mystical voice, this time very sarcastically saying, “the taint of chaos!”

Starbreaker bursts into a fuss and starts yelling with all the excitement in the world, “What is wrong wid ‘em! I know chaos, don’t see no chaos in ‘em at all! Juss 'cause ya don't like someone don't mean they got the taint of chaos! These humans are crazy. What kinda empire they runnin' o're there? Well that does it, I’m done. Feel a lot better, thanks little guy.”

A Dwarf has to practice his story telling somewhere.