This week's Grab Bag ranges all over the map, and is filled with useful information.  It seems like work on patch 1.3 is progressing.  I can hardly wait!  Be sure to look after the jump for the full Q & A.

Q. Are the new jewelry sets going to be catered to each class or to each archetype?

A. The first jewelry sets are designed by archetype, but are usable by any career, so we expect to see cross-use of many of these sets. The final jewelry set is custom per career, and as such has bonuses specific to that particular career.

Q. What power level of weapons are we able to look forward to? (LV weapons? Watcher level? Warlord PQ weapons?)

A. Tomb King weapons are uniquely customizable, and as such they significantly vary in power. The base weapons players can find range in power from mid 30’s weapons all the way to Watcher-equivalent weapons; however, each one of these weapons can be slotted with special talismans unique to the Tomb Kings content. These unique talismans will allow players to boost their weapons to much higher power levels for a short period of time. In addition, there is one set of weapons similar in power to the Warlord PQ weapons that will take a decent time investment to obtain.

This week’s Grab Bag, we’re exploring every facet of Game Update 1.3, and answering questions about the upcoming game update, as presented by the WAR Community on the Official Forums. We’ve got you covered on everything from the next Live Event, the improved Ward system, what you can expect to find in the Land of the Dead, and more. Thank you everyone for your contributions—now, on with the questions!

Grab Bag Q & A

Q. How will the winner of the next Live Event be determined?

 

A. Throughout the Rise of the Tomb Kings Live Event, each Realm will earn points for their Realm by successfully completing a series of tasks. There are 10 unique tasks associated with Rise of the Tomb Kings, some of which are repeatable. Whoever has the most points by the end of the event will be deemed the winner. The winning Realm on each server will be awarded early, uninterrupted access (24-hours) to the Necropolis of Zandri.

 

Q. What kind of objectives can we expect for the next Live Event?

A. Players will find a Public Quest in each capital city’s War Quarters to gather airship parts and build an airship. There will also be three locations in every Tier and pairing (so, 12 in total) that have airship resources that you can pick up and earn points for doing so. When you kill enemy players, sometimes they will drop blueprints, which will complete one of the Live Event tasks.

Each Realm will also have the opportunity to pick up a unique pocket item by completing the Live Event quest-line. This quest-line differs depending on what Tier your character is in, and is available to players of all Ranks. Completing any of the 10 Live Event tasks will earn points for your Realm. And last but not least, Riekland Factory has been retrofitted to build airships for the expedition—players who win this Scenario will also earn points for their Realm.

Killing enemy players will also sometimes yield special Glyphs that are the key to a secret encounter and reward associated with the Live Event—but that’s the only clue we’re giving out for now!

Q. Are there any plans in the future to allow us to change our guild heraldry? I just set our heraldry the other day, and thought I chose a unique look, only to see two others that were unknown to me that were almost exactly the same. I would gladly pay to change ours, but the current suggestions to allow a change based on guild rank wouldn't cut it for us. We are a very small guild, and I would probably die of old age before we got to an arbitrarily high setting for that.

A. We think that’s a fantastic suggestion. We don’t have any immediate plans to implement the ability to change guild heraldry, but it’s something we’ll look into.

Q. Are the new jewelry sets going to be catered to each class or to each archetype?

A. The first jewelry sets are designed by archetype, but are usable by any career, so we expect to see cross-use of many of these sets. The final jewelry set is custom per career, and as such has bonuses specific to that particular career.

Q. What power level of weapons are we able to look forward to? (LV weapons? Watcher level? Warlord PQ weapons?)

A. Tomb King weapons are uniquely customizable, and as such they significantly vary in power. The base weapons players can find range in power from mid 30’s weapons all the way to Watcher-equivalent weapons; however, each one of these weapons can be slotted with special talismans unique to the Tomb Kings content. These unique talismans will allow players to boost their weapons to much higher power levels for a short period of time. In addition, there is one set of weapons similar in power to the Warlord PQ weapons that will take a decent time investment to obtain.

Q. Since all items have been "claimed" to be vendor bought, how many hours approx. are players expected to be in The Land of the Dead to fully obtain their Tyrant sets/jewelry sets/weapons/pocket items?

A. Not all items are vendor purchasable. While you can purchase a good portion of the items off of the vendors, some of the most unique items will only be available by completing content. Players will be able to earn a lot of items fairly quickly, but we expect it will take months before players will have completely exhausted the area and earned everything.

Q. Are there any plans to add new graphics to existing rare/mythic armor and weapons that have duplicate appearance to lower level items?

A. We are currently assessing how artwork is used throughout the game. Unfortunately, we won’t be producing new art for existing items; however, we will be re-distributing some of the art in later patches to ensure the “best” equipment always has the best artwork.

Q. What are the different tokens we are getting, and how will we obtain them? I would imagine the eight super bosses drop specific tokens, right?

A. There is a unique token type for each encounter “level” found in the area. Players should expect to see different token rewards come out of the PQs, Lairs, the Tomb and other “special” encounters. Players can use each of these token types to purchase items of the appropriate level, or break them down to purchase lower-level items and disposable items (such as crafting materials and potions).

Q. Will each Tyrant set have a unique look?

A. Yes, each Tyrant set will have its own unique appearance, complete with new profile-changing visuals such as helmets, shoulders, and back items!

Q. Tanks and healers can have slightly differing roles in PVE/RVR. What kind of sets will the healer/tank Tyrant sets be? Will healers be able to look forward to another healing set (past Darkpromise they have limited options) and will tanks get to look forward to a DPS set or a PVE tank set?

A. In general, Tyrant armor is the companion set to Warlord armor. So, players should expect to different bonuses between the two sets. For example, if Warlord has a heavy healing emphasis, then Tyrant will have more of an offensive/support emphasis.

Q. Is it possible to eventually obtain everything in the LotD through the solo PQ's? Or will the dungeon crawl be required to get the better pieces?

A. Players will not be able to obtain the better equipment (even off the merchants) without participating in all of the Tomb King content. This includes the Lairs, the Tomb, and other encounters in the zone.

Q. I’ve noticed that you are trying to introduce more DPS to the Zealot class.  Are there any plans to add +magic crit% daggers and charms somewhere in the game?  As far as I know, not a single one of either exists at the moment.

A. Yes, we have plans for significantly improving item diversity for all careers. This will be implemented through a combination of new itemization for new content, and revamps of older content in the world. Players can expect to see new items entering the world at a reasonable rate over the next 6+ months.

Q. How does the 'Sigil System' work and how will it replace Wards already applied to earned gear?

A. We’ve actually gone back to calling them Wards (I know, I know. I swear we’re really not trying to confuse you). In short, Wards will now be unlocked via the Tome of Knowledge once you equip an item that has that specific Ward on it. After you unlock a Ward (the unlock is permanent), you no longer have to wear that piece of armor in order to gain the Ward’s benefits. This means that Ward bonuses will no longer be tied to a specific piece of armor, so players will be free to wear whatever they want!

In addition, any player who has already unlocked a Ward by earning the corresponding piece of armor will automatically be credited with the appropriate Ward, even if they no longer physically have that piece in their inventory. In addition, players will be able to earn additional Wards by completing specific RvR or PvE tasks, instead of getting lucky from a loot drop.

Q. Will the new set, Tyrant, be gained from just the Tomb of the Vulture Lord, or will parts be available outside the Dungeon as well?

A. Tyrant Armor is only available to those who participate in the Tomb of the Vulture Lord content.

Q. Will there be multiple armor sets available for those classes that can both heal/DPS and tank/DPS?

A. There is only one suit of armor available per career.

Q. Will the gear that comes from the LotD have unique set bonuses?

A. The Land of the Dead items introduce a number of new bonuses, procs, and click-able effects. In addition, players will also find items that have popular existing effects that drop in this area as well.

Q. How do the different Ward fragments work? Or do they not work separately? How will players know which monsters have which Wards, and what kind they are?

A. The new Wards will work just like current Warded armor. For each Ward you earn you earn a portion of protection against monsters that carry the same Ward. Earn two out of five Wards and you have 40% protection versus that Ward type. In addition, we have clearly marked monsters now with a special icon on their portrait that matches the icon for the Ward.

Q. Are there any plans to actively reward the people engaging in RvR combat more than people who do not, per capita per unit of time?

A. We are constantly evaluating how Experience, Realm Points, and items are gained through RvR, and making changes as needed. Some of the upcoming changes we're currently working on are making sure players in Scenarios get their RvR tokens for zone captures, along with the introduction of the new Ward unlock system through RvR game-play. Now players will have a choice of unlocking Wards not only in PvE content, but solely through RvR too!

Q. Large fights still result in a lot of lag. Can you give any specific examples of how this is being combated?

A. We have ongoing engineering efforts to improve both our client and server performance under heavy load situations. Our version roadmap, starting with the forthcoming 1.3.0 release, has several system-level improvements to both the client and server that will help in large-scale battles. The unpredictable nature of player interactions and behavior in massive combat situations makes for a large engineering challenge. Addressing overall game performance, and specifically alleviating performance issues that affect the game's large RvR battles, is one of our top priorities.

Q. Scenarios are cool and people should have the option to leave them if they want, but is a mechanism to discourage leaving being looked into? (I’m thinking a 'Can’t queue for another Scenario for 15 minutes debuff' or something.)

A. Yes, we are investigating such a feature. We don't have any details quite yet, but stay tuned.

Q. If the larger RvR/PvE zone of the Land of the Dead is successful, would you consider retrofitting the RvR zones in the middle of the T4 Tiers to be larger?  (Thus pushing the pve into the side zones.)

A. Retrofitting existing RvR zones Tier 4 would require a huge amount of developer time that we would rather leverage in other areas of the game (end-game City Siege improvements, for example). Rest assured we will be following your feedback on the Land of the Dead and taking that into consider as we introduce new and improved content into the game.

Q. Are there any plans to redo the animation for Rain of Fire so that it clearly shows its area of effect (like Pit of Shades)?

A. We do not have any current plans to further update the Rain of Fire visual effect beyond the changes made in 1.2.1.

Q. Will there be any changes made to Butchering like there has been for Cultivation (with Cultivation having hybrid seeds)?

A. We have a few plans for improvements for Butchering in our constant effort to improve the gathering/production trade skills. Players can expect some changes in the near future, including the ability to butcher a monster corpse multiple times and new feature additions that are currently only available to Cultivator-Apothecaries.

and thus have less opportunities to hide where other players cannot reach them.

Q. New talisman-types have been announced. What restrictions are in place to keep us from stacking ridiculous bonuses, like 6 pieces of equipment with +crit%? Also, what are all the new break-down properties? Are we looking at just a few types (melee power and crit chance) or is it more along the lines of every bonus can now be made into a talisman (parry, dodge, HP regen, AP regen, SE/RF regen, ect.)?

A. All talismans will now have equip restrictions on them. The most common equip restriction will be simple Rank restrictions, while some of the more powerful talismans will be restricted to specific equipment slots. In addition, 1.3 only introduces a few new bonus types to the game (currently +crit chance and +damage); we plan to continue to roll out auxiliary talisman bonuses such as parry, dodge, etc. via new content as the game matures.

Q. AoE effects across the board are getting scaled down and shrunk in size.  There has also been talk of adding more "entry points" to Keeps and Forts (to get to the Lord, rather than one ramp).  If all of these changes were to go live, would there be any consideration to removing the stacking-restriction to AoE's added recently?  With the only two times that they were causing severe issues getting / maybe getting removed (that being major choke-points and whole-battlefield saturation), it seems like the added effect of non-stacking may very well take AoE from being predominant, and making it almost unusable (as opposed to be just as viable, on average, as single-target tactics).

A. At this time, we have no plans to remove the stacking restriction on GTAoE spells; however, once all of the changes to radius and choke point improvements are live, we may consider further adjustments.

Q. Are there any plans to enforce line-of-sight restrictions on certain spells (GTAoE, AoE heals, etc) to prevent casting spells through walls?

A. Not at this time. Changing the way line-of-sight works on area-of-effect heals would make them extremely difficult to use in our current game environment. This is part of the reason we plan to reduce the range so that players must be much closer to the action in order to use them effectively,

Q. Are there any plans to add in more world ToK unlocks such as new titles, bestial tokens, cloaks, etc.?

A. The Land of the Dead content will introduce all of the above! Also, we’re constantly adding new titles and rewards with the Live Events.

Q. Basically how does the "World" tab function or is it currently broken? The "Nearby" tab seems to work fine and show parties and warbands that are local; however, the "World" tab will usually return nothing even when searching for "Any."  Yet, when I fly to a zone I'll see warbands and parties that did not show up on the "World" tab in the "Local" tab.

A. The "Nearby" tab automatically displays any open parties or warbands in your current zone. The way the World tab currently functions is to display any party or individual that has set their location and interest. All parties are “Open” by default and not searchable, so they will not show up in the World tab.

If you want your character or party to show up for other players in the World tab, be sure to select your Location and Interest (PvE, RvR, Public Quests, Scenarios, etc.), then hit the “Set Interests” button and click the "Searchable" box—you’ll then be viewable by anyone else who clicks on “Search For Others” in the World tab.