First legitimate city capture in Warhammer Online
by Brooke Pilley 
Apr 6th 2009 at 12:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Events, in-game, News items, Warlords Online
In dramatic fashion, the Third Realm alliance finished the necessary public quests gating the king instance with only two minutes remaining. After a number of wipes, they had Franz caged and ready for rotten fruit and vegetable target practice. They were rewarded greatly for their efforts.
Taking out the king in WAR is no easy feat as it requires hours upon hours and luck upon luck to gain the necessary gear to do so. Hearty congratulations are definitely in order (no pun intended). Mythic recently announced plans for a new token system that should help players get into the necessary warded gear faster than before. However, it's hard to say how long it will be before we hear news of another city capture. Was this sacking a one-off or have the floodgates opened?
You can watch a video of the king fight after the cut.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Leshrac said on 12:15PM 4-06-2009
BFD - looks like PVE to me.
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br3ntbr0 said on 12:33PM 4-06-2009
14 hours of PVE to kill a king. Looks like that effectively eliminates about 98% of WAR's player base from ever experiencing that content?
http://www.walloftext.info/2009/04/warhammer-online-14-hours-of-pve-to.html
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crsh said on 12:48PM 4-06-2009
The funny thing is how there's no strategy, he's just getting kited around the room and players DPS him down. The hard part is getting to him, I guess... not to mention this is pretty hardcore PvE content for a game that's supposed to be all about PvP.
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Siphaed said on 1:04PM 4-06-2009
@Leshrac & br3ntbr0
You're both newbs that ain't got a clue, do ya? To even open a city, a Realm has to capture 6 different Tier 4 zones and 2 Fortresses, the Fortresses within...I think it's 2-6hrs of each other (well, it might be 12, honestly, I can't remember). Of those zones I'm sure there was plenty of resistance to fight them for control before the Fortresses and those probably had defense too.
Oh, and of the 1st PQs of a city siege the 1st stage is to kill enemy players, so there had to be alot of enemy defenders to complete that PQ in order to move to the next stage.
And, that link provided by br3ntbr0 is so biased it's rediculous. "WoW this, WoW that", that's all that person seems to blather on about. Just an FYI to the clueless person that typed up that blog: A person doesn't need to be there for the full run to a city siege, they can join in at any point (except Fortress sieges if the population cap fills up) and leave at any point. So, I doubt that it was the same people the entire time to do the 14 hr campaign, and even if it was...it was on the weekend and this kind of thing isn't an obsessive, daily thing done.
"For a company that wanted to compete on a high level with World of Warcraft, catering to the small percentage of players that can actually pull off such a feat only ensures that WAR will be a niche game."
That statement quoted above is just pulled out of someone's ass, apparently. Many, many times during developement and post launch did the developers say that they're not competing with WoW, that they were making an RvR game for RvR players. Not once did they ever say they were going to compete on a high leve with WoW.
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Leshrac said on 1:11PM 4-06-2009
RvR, PQs and Keep sieges can involve little to no actually PVP. I'm a newb? LOL. Learn2MMO.
Brooke Pilley said on 1:12PM 4-06-2009
Actually mate, Mark Jacobs does claim that WAR is competing with WoW:
"This is the beginning of a rather lengthy battle with the guys at Blizzard," Jacobs explained. "We’re in this space to be successful and, when you have a competitor that is as successful and important to the games industry as WoW has been, you don't go into this space unless you're willing to spend money and spend time and really compete against them."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/mythic-blizzard-is-in-for-a-lengthy-battle
Siphaed said on 1:59PM 4-06-2009
Okay, maybe I missed a few interviews or two. But I do recall the early ones that stated they weren't competing with WoW...so, I guess they changed their opinion then.
But, there's still RvR/PvP required for a city siege, as I stated with the city PQs requiring player kills for one of the stages to complete. And, from what I could tell when participating on my server, there's alot of player kills required (50 per stage x how many times needed to repeat the PQ if needed).
And, if the other realm doesn't participate in defending their side, then that's their issue, but the game still has tons of PvP/RvR when there is participation. My server had 6 Fortress attempts this weekend and every one of them was a bust (for both sides) as the defense was increasingly strong and hard to get past. A few didn't get past the 1st door at the gatehouse, only one that I recall busted past the inner keep door, but they got wiped by our defense. There is RvR to get to a city, it just depends if the other Realm participates in defending or not (which I'm sure they do atleast some point in the race to a city).
Bant Warick said on 1:09PM 4-06-2009
Guess it kind of helps if the server is notorious for being for over-populated with destruction. Such as Karag Eight Peaks.
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T-Bone said on 1:15PM 4-06-2009
Not once did they ever say they were going to compete on a high leve with WoW.
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HUh? yes they did all the time. The often said if WOW was a band, they are the Beatles,and War was Led Zepplin. The compared themselves during development quite often. Of late, of course not, WARhammer is failing to meet expectations pretty spectacularly. Played the game for way to long, and I agree, city sieges are terrible and are way to PVE.
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Stell said on 2:01AM 4-09-2009
It is really a nice and informative site.
Lisa11
I still think Warhammer is way better then WoW but the numbers do not seem to show it. I wonder if it is because Warhammer does not seem to be advertised as much as Warcraft.
Warhammer Gold
SomeDude said on 1:16PM 4-06-2009
Contrary to what Siphaed might want you to believe most of what he is listing out is still PVE and not RVR. Locking a zone in a lot of cases is a PVE affair, NOT a RVR. Unless the other side is actively trying to stop you and is not out numbered.
Yeah, you need to take on 2 fortresses, that part is RVR, if the other side shows up and during said RVR you must fight a keep lord which is... PVE. In most cases the PVE is harder than the RVR simply because of the stupidity of wards (wards are on gear, required to reduce damage taken and increase dps on specific PVE mobs).
Once the forts are taken just about everything else is PVE.
War has some fun points but suggesting that this is anything more than a PVE grind is stretching it at best.
Someday WAR will figure out what they actually ARE and also fix class balance issues and maybe then it'll gain back those 300-400k people that left.
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java.scholl said on 1:37PM 4-06-2009
I played WAR for a small bit, didn't like it. But. the point is, it seems to be quite a n accomplishment to capture the city. Congrats. cool job.
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JP said on 1:47PM 4-06-2009
Well, first Good Job KEP. Way to go.
Second, YARP, WAR is littered w/ PvE grinds.
In RvR lakes, when both sides are willing to engage each other (why are people so fucking content w/ keep and BO swapping, that they'll follow these idiot WB leaders floating around zones instead of actually fighting?), then RvR is a blast. Keep Assault and Def is probably one of the high points of the game. Even Fort assault & def. At least until the second door goes down. Then the stability sucks, and everyone lags.
City Sieges are SO littered w/ bugs and stability problems, that they aren't even worth participating in. Just last week, Iron Rock's Order got to the 2nd PQ in IC. When they downed it.... it bugged w/ only 4 gold bags, and bugged further where only one person could collect. WTF is that?!?! How the bloody hell do they think people will be inspired to play w/ bullshit like that?
They need to fix this fucking jalopy quick as fuck if they expect to even stay in the position they are in. Choppas, Slayers, Tomb Kings, and all the rest of the "additions" won't mean didily-squat b/c people will only think "Awesome... more untested broken crap to not enjoy" /cancel /renew old title /move on.
They only have until 4/22 for me (time card runs out). Right now, as much fun as the RvR can be and how cool the zone battling can feel, it's to rare an occurrence, and coupled w/ the broken ass end game, I don't know if I'll be renewing. I've heard lots of good things about 1.2.1 though and still have high hopes for the overall picture, but I don't feel they've earned my money w/ all this broken crap.
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Carrie said on 2:13PM 4-06-2009
Wow you people are really vicious about this stuff. You make it sound like you don't want ANY PvE in this game at all. Okay sure, just take out all the NPC's and then you get... something like Halo or TF2 or some other multiplayer action game. A big empty world with nothing but players in it? No thanks.
Right now the only big thing plaguing WAR is lack of population numbers. That's the only reason it would seem to have more PvE than RvR. To whoever was asking if taking a keep actually involves any RvR hasn't tried to take a keep defended by 50+ enemy players. In that situation the keep lord is the easy part. What people are mostly talking about is when you flip an undefended keep. Yes, it's all NPC's but an undefended keep takes less than 10 minutes to flip, 5 if you've got a big group. Free renown, inf and loot is all it is. That's not how it's supposed to be so quit bashing the game just because you can't find anyone to play with. Like I said, the main problem is low population. And the main cause of THAT, is people who do nothing but bash the game and drive other people away.
WAR is a good game. It mixes RvR and PvE very well, much better than WoW ever could. It has a great story, a good leveling curve, and lots of unique no-brainer innovations that make gameplay fun. Obviously it's not perfect. It would take an act of God to make a perfect MMO. So I say quit expecting perfection and just go out and bash some folks on the head with a really big sword for a while. You'll feel better :D
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Hades said on 2:15PM 4-06-2009
Basically it was a bunch of work to get to a PVE encounter to down a raid level mob, and people had to acquire 4 sets of different ward gear to make the journey to survive it.
You PVE or do City Invasion PQ's for gold bags to get the gear you need to make it to the King. This game is mostly PVE at this point, and that is why people have the pitchforks out for Mythic.
Ward gear is a joke and shouldn't be needed AT ALL, and the end game should be doable so that you don't need to pass out at your computer and call in sick to work the next day to experience it.
I have been to many city invasions on both the Order and Destro realms, and there is just way too much PVE involved.
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Hub said on 2:39PM 4-06-2009
You know - and I quit this game a month after launch so I'm not biased here - the fact that it takes so much effort to down the big one kind of makes me want to go back to it. It should be a mix of PVE, PVP anything they can think off. These are supposed to be epic occassions for both players and the storyline, the fall of a world after all. You should not be able to kill a demi god in between meals, which if I remember right was what the emperor was meant to be.
In the face of so many games going into /easy mode it's nice to see something you could feel proud off should you manage it and if 90% of players could never do it, well good! Surely that just makes it better for those who can (although I wont be one good for you guys)
Not everyone should have everything otherwise it becomes meaningless - a bit like a WoW raid these days now everyone gets to win, be a tank, heal, whatever, even if they arn't really good enough (Yeah flame me if you want but I played it back when raids were hard :) Burn the game for bugs, imbalances, whatever, that's fair enough, but not because it actually takes some commitment to beat it sometimes.
Just a shame the population imbalances were too great for me.
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Abriael said on 3:11PM 4-06-2009
It's so usual to read the ignorant wow fanboys foaming at the mouth.
of the 14 hours, the actual PvE part is like 3 hours (the final 3), everything before that is PvP. It includes flipping 4 zones, capturing 8 keeps and 16 Objectives (and holding them, which is the hardest part), two fortress, and the first 2 hour long part of the city raid. All of that is PvP.
And yes, with merged servers that have all good and healthy populations capturing zones is an entirely PvP affair, including keep captures.
It's very simple, if you have no idea of what the state of the game is (it's a lot of fun at the moment, thank you), you might want to save yourself looking like a fool and not even comment.
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Holgar said on 3:55PM 4-06-2009
Seriously Abriael shaddup, stop acting like everyone "Knows nothing" already take your rose tinted glasses off and stop living in a dream world where WAR is ten thousand times better than WoW.
Then realise that a lot of the negativity comes from former players (Like me) that have legit concerns. Then go play darkfall with the other idiot fanbois.
Abriael said on 4:00PM 4-06-2009
Sorry to disappoint you, but you "former players" have no idea of the current state of the game, that has been improved tenfolds. So you might as well pull off the blindfold.
And no, never been interested in darkfall other than giving it a try (which I have already done). I'm having tons of fun in warhammer, and don't plan to move anytime soon.
Fess said on 4:25PM 4-06-2009
Abriael is right.
The game is DRASTICALLY improved since launch. I really can't emphasize that enough. It's almost like a completely different game, and if you go through my past posts, you'd see how critical I was of it in the past. Re-subbed this past week, and I'm loving it.