Hiya Tobold, looking forward to reading your coverage.

My question is in regards to how much you can 'tweek' your character.
Specifically, haste (whether it be meele or casting or ranged).

I've always had a thing with making my characters swing their sword as fast as possible, or cast their spells as quickly as possible.

How much does WAR allow you to do this?
Does it at all?
Do items have stats that affect haste?
Are there skills, talents or any other way to improve the stat?
 

BTW, Is it the next WoW killer? :)
 

Did you get to try out the living guild features?

Also, same as robert: WoW Killer Y/N? :)
 

You've mentioned many times that you were looking forward to the separate racial paths to the end game. In WoW, the paths tended to merge in the mid 20s to 30s. At what level do the leveling paths in WAR merge?
 

As a player of both the WoW beta and launch and now the WAR beta, how do you think the two of them stack up when you compare WoW launch version to the version of WAR that you are playing now?
 

Personally, I have played both WoW Beta and WAR beta, personally I believe there is just more 'worldly' content in Warhammer at launch..meaning the world itself is just more fun to play in since it helps tell mini-stories in each zone you go to.

As for =##='s question...all 3 paths are separate all the way to your max level (40). The war between the two races is always available, and told in each zone as I said earlier. However, at any 'warcamp', which is a small area of each zone near that zones 'RVR' area, you can talk to a flight master and fly to the other 2 conflicts 'warcamp', giving you that many more quests and battlegrounds.

...Each 'Tier' of each conflict has their own battleground that you can queue for once you're in that conflicts' zone.

I'd type more...but servers are coming back up!
 

Is the game completely awful, or is it actually kind of o.k.? :)

For the actual questions:

The obvious ones (public quests, mixed support classes vs. healers, tanks in PvP, how the economy/crafting seem to work, how RvR is, etc.)

Has the system of balancing the amount of players on each side actually worked 9assuming they tested it)?
 

I have a question about the atmosphere of the setting in WAR. The impression I've got from the coverage so far has been that the world is rather more light hearted than other MMORPGs. Whilst that might make for an interesting change for a while, I have my concerns about how a sense of drama and tension can be maintained in a world of dwarves in a barrel.

How well do you think they've managed that?
 

Is it true GOA haven't lifted their NDA?
 

A ballpark figure on how long it takes to reach level 40 (max) in hours played?
 

Dillon:

I love it..kinda gimmicky to say its DAoC with WoW gameplay elements, but needless to say if you liked the PVP aspects of Dark Age you'll enjoy WAR a lot.

Public Quests: There are about 3-4 per zone, and you hit a zone about every 2 levels. They are awesome, quick, and you gain loot from both participating in the quest, and from getting influence (reputation) while doing the quest which you can turn in for some loot as well.

Mixed support vs healers: You have your four core classes. Melee DPS, ranged DPS, healer, tank. The gimmick with the healers in WAR is that in order to get enhanced or better bonuses to your healing, you need to engage in active combat by doing damage. Its a very neat system, especially with how tanks are set up to help out the healers.

Crafting: I have a gathering profession, still haven't done a crafting profession (not my bag)

Tanks: This is what I actually play currently. Dwarf Ironbreaker (tank) My chief ability (shared among all tanks) is Guard. You can select one target, and you share 50% of all damage incoming to that target, which is then mitigated by your armor. IE My guard gets hit for 500. My guard takes 250 damage instead, and I mitigate around 70-90% of that 250, meaning my guard takes 250, and I take 50 instead of 250. Guard combined with actual collision detection makes for useful players for holding flags / defending choke points with your healer. (The Ironbreaker gets some wild abilities that bolster their buddies stats and what not too)

RVR is WAGGGAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

Balancing: All they've currently done is post when you log in the amount of players per side. Its typically 3 Order to 4 Destruction from my observation (like 900 Order / 1200 Destruction) There are no xp bonuses or such for the underdog ATM (that I've seen)
 

Sven: Although I hope Tobold will answer with a more articulated response than mine, the Warhammer mythos has always had its share of humor with drama. I feel Mythic has done fine with injecting the game with the same sense of war and humor that the tabletop game had. Granted I play a dwarf, and the Dwarf vs Greenskin conflict is both gritty and witty! DOWN WITH MORK AND GORK YOU DAMNED GREENIES.
 

What is the sentiment among beta testers on using and fighting against the races with missing tanks in both pve and pvp?

I read from others that certain parts of the cities are blocked off unless you are in a hgigh level guild. How does guild levelling feel in general and how well do they fight in the world in terms of how their existence leads to restricted content?

Are the terrain and structures designed like they would be in the real world or did Mythic work them over as if they were Halo Maps with Unreal tournament style buildings?

Something that's starting to bug me now is how sustainable WAR will be in attracting new players. Launch will be phenominal but after that point it will be just like any MMO where there woul be 3-20 people in the starting zone and on average 10-35 people in the lower third of the levelling zones. I've read that PQ are a bitch to do when you have only a handful of people left after the majority of the zerg has outlevelled the content and there are still 70 NPCs to kill. Is the game designed to ensur low levels have fun when the population is lacking?

Thank you for your time.
 

How much bank space is there? Will my inner pack rat be soothed?
 

I have read a lot of people raving about the Tome of Knowledge. I have read some details but I have yet to see why this is so great. It strikes me as a source of information the majority of which I wouldn't care about. Do you have an opinion? Can you give an example of why it really shines?
 

How are squig herders?
 

Never mind the features and specifics.... Is it game we've been waiting for, the promised one, the one that makes the Blizzard exceutives quake in thier dark tower? xD
 

One quick, because important answer:

Is it true GOA haven't lifted their NDA?

No, that isn't true. The GOA NDA lifted as well. Check the GOA site news. In any case, non-disclosure agreements all have a clause stating that you are allowed to talk about anything which is publicly available information. Thus if the US NDA was lifted and the European NDA not, only details specific to Europe would have still been protected.
 

Are the cut Capitals missed?

Is any of the criticism of GOA justified?
 

Where are the shinies?
 

Is there an achievement system like 360 games?

Or even better is there a deed/trait system like CoX/LORTO?
 

Tobold!

You never said that the devs have agro abilities working in PVP!??

Taunt works. Fade works. (Tuanted targets apparently do 50% damage to anyone not taunting them, deagroed targets (say WOW vanish) take 50% from anyone targeting them.)

I expect to see this idea everywhere in PVP.
 

Hello. Although i've been reading your blog for some time , this is the firs time i'm leaving a coment.
I'd like to know what is winning based on during a pvp battle. Does gear/level reign about all , or can a very skilled player with bad gear beat a leess skilled player with good gear.