Wards? Where We're Going, We Don't Need No Wards!

Few things actually make me angry in video games -- I try to be pretty laid-back and casual -- with the exceptions being content that I just can't beat no matter what, idiots being jerks to people I know, and incredibly bone-headed development design choices. Now, for all that we pick on different decisions Mythic's made about WAR, the truth is that you can't please everyone all the time, those choices could've gone either way, and Mythic's learning (as all MMO companies do) from their failures as much as their successes.

Yet the Ward system in Warhammer Online isn't just a bad choice, or a "let's try it out and see" decision, or a logical progression of game development. It's a bad call, Ripley, a bad call, and it needs to go. Period. It makes me mad to think about it, and it's one of the reasons why I'm actually slowing Syp's progress down as she nears the fabled 40 end game.

Let's back up, because many of you, like myself, are still dithering around a few (or few hundred) miles away from 40, and thus have no idea or need of gear with wards on them. You're probably gathering good gear from PQs and keeps and drops and whatnot, and enjoying the collection aspect of it all.

That'll soon end, my friend, especially if you want to have full end game options available to you instead of an eternity grinding RR's and taking the same keeps and BOs over and over again. Like so many poorly-handled MMO end games before it, Mythic seems bound and determined to force players into grinding for specific armor sets in order to reach areas where they'll have to grind for more specific armor sets in order to go on and on.

Think of wards like special invitations to premiere events. You can't get into those events unless you've attained gear with enough wards (at least 2 for DPS, 3+ for healers and tanks) on them. It doesn't matter how good your current gear is, how much armor or toughness or health or dps they hold, without the wards you simply can't go into these events and expect to come out alive.

Mythic's designed the end game PvE/PvP progression to be brutal to anyone lacking ward-encrusted armor, and there are five tiers of wards that you'll have to attain to unlock full access to the end game. Bloodlord and Annihilator armor sets grant lesser wards, which will allow you to survive in high level city dungeons and fortress encounters. Sentinel and Conqueror sets grant greater wards, which then let you survive in Lost Vale and city invasion PQs. More armor sets grant the last three wards: superior wards (sub-bosses), excelsior (king fights) and supreme (something beyond king fights we haven't heard about yet).

Since the game does absolutely squat to teach you about how the end game works, you might hit 40 all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, expecting to leap into fortress battles and dungeons and city invasions, only to find a big DENIED ENTRY by groups that will require you to have warded gear on hand before joining. At that point you have two options: be content with where you're at, realizing that you'll never gain access to content beyond what you've seen, or start your hardcore grinding engines for gear progression.

As you may tell, end game gear progression is just one of my biggest pet peeves of any MMOs, and I had hoped WAR would've learned to avoid this by now. It's some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy of MMO game designers to look at the end game, sigh wistfully, and announce there's no way around having ridiculously difficult gear grinds just to touch some of their best and most interesting content. We would make it more accessible, but, y'know?  Everyone else is doing it. 

WAR is supposed to be the game where everything is measured against a yardstick of Fun.  Is it Fun to be forced into a PvE grind to get the gear for PvP encounters?  Is it Fun that you can't just buy the pieces when you've gotten to a certain Renown Rank?  Is it Fun to barely if at all inform players that they need wards before getting slapped in the face for not having them?  Is it Fun to effectively deny a huge chunk of your playerbase access to some of the most dynamic content in the game just because they don't know how to get the right gear or have the time to do it?  Is it Fun to make an abrupt switch at 40 from "we're not a gear-heavy game" to "Gear is Law (copyright John Romero)"? 

So I really don't get this, Mythic, I really don't.  I hate logging on to see a select chunk of guildies grinding away at Bastion Stair and talking about how many wards they've gotten while the rest of us feel like we're getting left behind at the party.  I don't see why I can't, at level 40, be a meaningful participant in a city invasion without having to jump through ungodly hoops first.  I'm all for getting better and better gear that marginally improves stats and abilities, but the ward system effectively eliminates past gear accomplishments and narrows down your end game gear focus to very few, very select pieces.  The impression I get is that the artists are more than happy to show off how cool the gear looks without telling you it's absolutely necessary to get it if you don't want to be sitting at the kiddy table for all of your character's end game life.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is balking at the idea of a ward gear grind.  My plea is simple: rethink wards.  We want to play the game, not stand in line in order to play it waaaay down the road.