Back in the saddle

It certainly has been awhile since my last post, but frankly a nice vacation in Cancun, Mexico far outweighs anything WAR has to offer.  Sun, margaritas, old ruins, margaritas, family, margaritas, swimming, margaritas...you get the picture.

Played a little bit now that 1.4 is out and I'm not sure I like it at the T2 and T3 stages.  I do like the new bracket levels for T2 and T3.  I just could never strike a good balance between leveling my actual level to gain new abilities and leveling my renown and Warcamp influence.  Now I've more time to level my RR and influence and I might actually get that last item from RvR T3.

1.4 seems....oddly implemented.  By that I mean, the focus was to remove the zerg (or at least reduce it), promote small group skirmishes and remove the situation where one side or the other could dominate all three zones which effectively hindered the other side gaining any momentum to outst them.  What I've seen lately swings TOO far in the other direction.  (Remember, this is not T4.  I haven't tried that with the new bracket changes)  It Gaiscioch's T3 seige night we spent most of the time running from one empty zone to another, standing around at BOs until the keep was at four stars then quickly purchasing rams to knock the doors down.   Even the keeps are merely standing around with the demise of NPC door guards and keep lords.  Of all the changes I miss, keep lords are at the top of that list.  They were NO impediment to a large 2+ Warband assault, but they did provide the difference defending against a single warband attempt to take a castle.  A small warband of one or two groups could hold off twice their number...sometimes...with the Keep lords help.  As it stands now, there is NO chance for that to happen.  The smaller group of defenders cannot keep an attack off the walls, especially now that most classes can "picklocks" or "airdrop" in from bombers.  I think the simple replacement of the keep lords would be a perfect balance of difficult versus achievement.

On a side note, I've been playing my Warrior Priest more.  I've come to realize that I NEED to get at least one toon to level 40 as soon as possible.  I haven't purchased the RvR pack, and I don't plan to for a while at least.  So to assist me, I spent the night in LoTD and gained almost an entire level doing the PQ where you put out burning books and such.  Of course my group of 2 KoTBS, 1 Witch Hunter, 2 Warrior Priests and a Runepriest were completely and quickly killed on the third stage of that PQ by a lvl 41 Champion.  Even the lvl 39 Knight couldn't tank the damage...unless all the other healers were asleep, but I doubt that.

So, in an effort to "build a better WP", I've added a link to Realm War for my Warrior Priest, JONZAC
Jonzac the Warrior Priest
Given that Realm War doesn't show my 1h hammer alternative, I've added the Pale Cudgel of Neferata link from Arsenal of War.

I've several questions, and I hope that someone...anyone will comment on them.

1.  Should I focus on leveling to lvl 40 and ignore my RR?  Or should I delay getting to lvl 40 until I can get there at lvl 40R40?
2.  What kind of gear should I be getting?  Annilator is merely 1 to 6 Realm Ranks away...but it healing focused?
3.  I am speced in Grace and have the Wounds buff...with enough in to Salv right now to get the group cleanse tactic...is that appropriate, or should I move back into all Salvation?

Any advice would be appreciated.

For the Emporer

Sometimes, I LOVE WAR!!!  My main/highest level character is a lvl 32/RR27 Warrior Priest on Badlands.  I've had him and picked him for the thought of healing and bashing, much like a Paladin in DAOC.  Little did I know they were Flavor of the Month at that time, of course, I haven't seen much solo pwnage, but I don't try for that either as I'm speced entirely in the Salvation Tree.

But, I logged on last night and I went to head out to T4 to sign into a scenario and I noticed that all the lands were locked and destro was pushing into the city.  Now as you can imagine, I'm not geared like many others, but I truly feel that WAR shines when you step away from the "pre-made" mentality and accept and revel in the Pick-up dynamic.  I had never been in a city defense of any kind before this so I had no idea what to expect.  I was in a full WB and I happened to be in the group with a Archmage, Knight and two Ironbreakers...quite frankly the perfect sort of group for a Warrior Priest to assist.  During the first phase, Destro managed to take over two BOs, but hit our brick wall at the center BO, the Plaza.  Guarding the siege engines and attempting to keep close to my group was a confusing and very fun challenge.  I focused on throwing out my 15 sec HOT to all in the warband and using my group heal for supplemental healing that the Archmage was throwing out...I can proudly say that none of my group went down during Phase I.  The sad thing was I won 1st place in that phase and I STILL have no idea where the chest shows up at...the chat log shows that someone told me my golden bag will get mailed to me, hopefully that it true.

Phase II was very confusing as I lost the WB as I was looking for the chest and I came across some HUGE destro NPC that ran into a huge order NPC...after promptly dying to the Destro players guarding their NPC I realized that we had to kill their NPCs and save ours....I caught up to the Warband after respawn and we managed to do that.  I didn't contribute much as I haven't truly figured out how the heal and move as well as I need to.

Phase III showed up and I saw the emperor for the first time...MAN HE'S HUGE!!  Once again, not knowing the dynamics, I didn't realize that we had to kill two "supporting" NPCs and then kill Tensh after that.  I just ran around in the circular room with columns and spammed one of four buttons, 1) my HOT 2) my group heal 3) Purify to remove curses and 4) my melee heal that heals all allies within 20ft of my defensive target.    I also spent more and more time rezzing others to avoid them from having to run back from the respawn.  Although it was close I think keeping the 10% wounds debuff off of them was worthwhile.  Fortunately, I managed to track down one of the IB in my group that was Main Tanking the "strong boss" NPC.  He had taking him into a corner and it took me a minute to figure out why he was always out of sight of my HOT.  Once I got that straightened out, I was able to heal him much better and using the melee heal, keep others in the same area up against sporadic Destro attacks.

After that, taking down Tensh, was difficult as I was starting to get focused fired more and more.  The Witch Elves were starting to become a serious pain to my low level buttock.  However, we took the boss down and cleared up the remaining destro players...I even got a 7th place bag out of the deal and a purple bookstrap that I can use at lvl 40.  I also managed to level up my RR to 28 throughout the evening as well.  All in all, a great two hours of my evening....and cemented why I like WAR.