List of Recommended WAR addons

Posted on 2009 August 2 by Ed Park

The addons are listed below in sections, with my favorite addons listed first in each section.

If you have questions about using an addon, please read the addon’s page on war.curse.com before posting here, as your question may have been answered there already. I’ll try to answer questions posted, but keep in mind I’m not the developer of any of these addons.

Game-play Addons

This section lists addons that improve the effectiveness of one’s game-play. Or at least they’ve made me a better player :)

1. Warhammer Scrolling Combat Text (WSCT)

WSCT provides much more visibility to combat events (e.g. damage done/taken, healing done/taken, buffs, debuffs, etc) than the default UI.

The addon allows you to turn on skill names, so you can see which abilities caused which damage / heal / effect. I find it incredibly informative.

I recommend changing the Absorb messages from the default Frame 3 to Frame 2, so you can see the flow of damage you’re taking and what is absorbed by bubbles.

2. Aura

Aura enables you to define “auras” that you’d like to track on your character, friendly targets, and enemy targets. Auras can be almost anything, e.g. timers on effects, cooldown timers, whether you have a buff or debuff on you, etc.

The auras you define can provide a lot of visibility into what’s happening in combat. On my Swordmaster, I use Aura to track all my debuffs on targets (e.g. Quick Incision snare, Wrath of Hoeth spirit debuff, cooldown of Ether Dance or Crashing Wave, whether my target has the Unstoppable or Immovable buff on them, etc). When playing a healer, I define auras to show HoT durations on me and on my friendly targets, so I see how long existing HoTs have before expiring.

Aura has significantly improved my game-play, because I don’t have to read the Combat Log or stare at small icons on the character portraits.

This addon takes a lot of time to configure, test, and tweak to your liking. If you like driving automatic instead of manual, Aura is probably not for you.

3. ActionBarColor

This addon makes your ability buttons turn red when they your target is out-of-range. Simple but very helpful.

4. Tortall’s DPS Meter

I don’t use a DPS Meter for e-peen measurement, but rather for numerically testing different spec and gear setups. E.g. TDM has helped me figure out which Swordmaster DoT tactics are most effective.

When you install the addon, you get a little button in the upper-left of your UI for toggling whether to show the meter.

5. AutoDismount

If you are mounted and use an ability, this addon automatically dismounts you then fires the ability.

Convenience Addons

This section lists addons that provide value in terms of convenience.

1. AnywhereTrainer

This addon allows you to view trainable abilities, mastery trees, and renown trees for your class, no matter where you are.

2. Think Out Loud

TOL automates chat when abilities are used. E.g. I have a message that indicates when I’ve put Guard on another player, when I pop Shield Wall, etc. Much simpler than having to type every time.

Fun Addons

1. Killing Blow

This simple addon puts a very visible text message on your screen when you got the deathblow on a player.

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Shaman PVP Video: Tier 1

Posted on 2009 August 2 by Ed Park

As I said in the previous post, I recently rolled a Shaman named Taugrim on the Iron Rock server.

Here’s footage of him:

  • at R6 in a Khaine’s Embrace scenario
  • at R11 in ORVR in Nordland

I wasn’t planning on playing a Shaman, but I tried the class and loved it. Shaman excels at both soloing and group play, which is important to me. I was also inspired by watching some of Nazgum’s videos of his Shaman in Tier 4.

I’ve tried Archmage, Rune Priest, and Shaman, and I find Shaman to be the most entertaining of those 3. The class has strong mechanics for kiting, which is a playstyle I find fun and challenging.

On a funny note, a few people on Iron Rock have asked me if I was the “real” Taugrim. One player took some convincing :)

are-you-the-real-taugrim

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Now Playing Destruction on Iron Rock

Posted on 2009 August 2 by Ed Park

I’ve been playing Order on the role-play server Phoenix Throne (PT) exclusively since the game’s Head Start back last September.

Tier 4 RVR on PT has been pretty dead the past couple weeks. The Destruction faction on PT has taken hits in terms of numbers of players and morale. Many Destruction players on PT are frustrated with class imbalance and have quit the game; check out the discussion threads started by me and by Beccala asking PT players what they thought about the WAR’s current class balance in Patch 1.3.

It’s been really boring when I’m on my Swordmaster. Sometimes I have to go to multiple zones to find opponents to fight.

After reading the posts on the threads linked to above, I created a 2nd account on a trial basis and rolled a Black Orc (BO) on PT. I did this for multiple reasons:

  • I wanted to continue to support the server
  • I’d rather fight on the outnumbered side
  • I wanted to see the class balance from the other side. I’d also prefer to play on the side with weaker classes, if I do find that Destruction classes are weaker as a whole
  • I wanted, in a little way, to help out with the numbers imbalance on PT

Unfortunately, Tier 1 RVR on PT was very slow. Scenarios would take 15-30 minutes to pop, and I am unwilling to level a character via PVE, as I’ve had my fill of that from other games. So I made the hard decision to try Destruction on another server.

I looked around on the WarhammerAlliance.com server forums and ended up rolling on Iron Rock (IR). The Tier 1 activity on IR is awesome: scenarios pop quickly, the ORVR is active, and I heard that Destruction is outnumbered in Tier 4. It turns out that a lot of players from PT have also rolled characters on IR.

If you’re playing on IR, gimme a shout. My main Destruction character is a Shaman named Taugrim. Shaman videos are coming soon! :)

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Posted in PVP, Warhammer Online

Video of an Awesome Nordenwatch Scenario (Patch 1.3b)

Posted on 2009 July 25 by Ed Park

Last night I participated in an awesome PUG Nordenwatch scenario. I’ve been waiting to find a closely-contested scenario to make a video of, and this scenario was a perfect fit :)

As I said in the video, I was highly skeptical of Patch 1.3b, but to my pleasant surprise, the patch has greatly improved WAR’s playability. Prior to Patch 1.3b, AoE damage was way too powerful. This caused a lot of fights to degenerate into cheese-fests, where 2-3 characters spamming AoE in the same spot could wipe out a group of opponents. It was incredibly lame, required no skill, and was frustrating for both sides. Now the game requires coordinated focus-fire to burn down opponents. The other significant change in Patch 1.3b was the increase to immunity timers. This was a much-needed change, as CC was too powerful and created a negative game-play experience.

Tips:

  • With the increased AP cost and decreased damage of Wrath of Hoeth, be careful using it too much, esp on single targets. A few times in the video, I used it on successive cycles on single targets (e.g. on the Choppa at the beginning of the video), and it’s a mistake to do so. Against single targets, you want to use WoH enough to keep the debuff up, but other than that, abilities such as Eagle’s Flight, Quick Incision, and Intimidating Blow are better bang for your buck

Video errata:

  • I said that I had tried “speccing without Khaine, but I miss Protection of Hoeth too much”. What I meant was that I have tried “speccing without Hoeth, but I miss Protection of Hoeth too much”. Without PoH, the SM balance mechanic feels too stiff. With PoH, an SM has the ability to get into any balance without a target
  • Zealot AoE punt is a class not morale ability

P.S. I recorded the footage in FRAPS with the full-size setting instead of half-size setting, which is normally what I use. Let me know if you find the video quality to be noticably better than my previous videos.

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Swordmaster PVP Video: Patch 1.3 R40 1v1s: 2H Khaine / Hoeth

Posted on 2009 July 19 by Ed Park

This is my 1st Swordmaster (SM) 1v1s video spec’d as Khaine / Hoeth. The matchups, with renown ranks (RR):

  • RR59 SM vs RR60 Discipline of Khaine
  • RR59 SM vs RR63 Discipline of Khaine
  • RR59 SM vs RR63 Chosen
  • RR60 SM vs RR62 Sorcerer
  • RR60 SM vs RR56 Sorcerer

I’m back to playing Warhammer Online after 10 weeks away from the game. I decided to check out Patch 1.3 on a 10-day trial to see whether the game had improved in terms of stability. It’s much more stable overall; it still crashes but not multiple times a night.

When I re-subscribed to WAR, I was quite rusty and wasn’t sure if anything had changed with the SM class. So I tried out a bunch of different specs and blade enchants against the same opponents. Here is the list of specs I experimented with:

  • 1h Hoeth / Khaine
  • 1h Vaul / Hoeth
  • 1h Vaul / Khaine
  • 2h Hoeth / Khaine
  • 2h Vaul / Hoeth
  • 2h Vaul / Khaine
  • 2h Khaine / Hoeth

Compared to the other specs, 2h Khaine / Hoeth spec performed surprisingly well. I had tried that spec in Patch 1.1 and in Patch 1.2, but I didn’t like it for two reasons:

  1. Ether Dance (ED) did not fire consistently. This was the main issue for me
  2. the spec lacks crowd control (no silence or knockdown)

That first point seems to have been addressed; ED is much more usable now. Overall the build is a lot of fun to play, and it’s suited well for both soloing and grouping.

Here are the pros to 2h Khaine / Hoeth spec:

  • ED provides the best single-target burst damage we have, and burst damage kills
  • ED synergizes superbly with other excellent tactics: Potent Enchantments (PE) and Balanced Accuracy (BA). As ED is a 5-hit ability, there are many opportunities for PE to proc. Every proc of PE gives an immediate damage over time (DoT) tick and re-starts the PE DoT timer. BA gives +20% crit chance to each of the 5 swings of ED
  • ED makes the spec efficient in terms of the damage-to-Action Points (AP) ratio. I notice with an ED spec that I can DPS for longer before running dry on AP, primarily because ED is a 5-hit ability

Here are the cons to 2h Khaine / Hoeth spec:

  • as noted above, lack of silence or knockdown
  • opponents can interrupt ED
  • the spec is squishier than other specs / doesn’t allow for use of a shield

If you have any questions or feedback on the video or this post, please submit a Comment.

  • RR57 SM vs RR53 Chosen
  • RR57 SM vs RR70 Sorc
  • RR57 SM vs RR78 BO

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Posted in PVP, Video, Warhammer Online
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