‘Warpforged’ T5 – Elf T1

For the last leg of our T5 journey we go to the realm of the elves, the place where my journey began – the Blighted Isle and Chrace. These two maps differ significantly from the battle for one main reason – they are significantly larger. Where much of the Dwarf T1 maps are lost to mountains and the Empire T1 map lost to ocean and mountains, the Elf T1 zones have less terrain lost to undeveloped oceans/mountains. For this reason I have opted to increase the BO count in these zones from the typical 6 per map I used in the Empire and Dwarf maps to 8 per map. The change isn’t large, but opens up the arena into a larger battleground over more locations.

‘Warpforged’ T5 – Dwarf T1

Today we take the RR91+ journey to the land of the Dwarves, infested by the bloody Greenskins. We enter the realm of Mount Bloodhorn and Ekrund. In lore, Ekrund has already fallen; in WAR, Mythic has given Ekrund a second life! Despite the small size of these RvR lake, so much space is wasted in mountains and undeveloped portions of the map. For this reason it was very hard to choose locations to fight at, in particular the Greenskin storyline is terribly cramped in these zones and finding locations that were spread out was very difficult. Hopefully the result I produce spreads the fight out enough to not make the zone tight and cluttered.

‘Warpforged’ T5 – Empire T1

Time for the beginning of the last leg of this journey. Today we enter the realm of the Empire v. Chaos T1 pairing and reshape a portion of it for the purpose of a T5 battleground for players who are RR91+, and what better place to duke it out than where it all began. Because the maps in this tier are so small, I have reduced the amount of BOs down to 6 per map, but have kept the amount of chapter hubs at 2. In these small maps the battle will be smaller, more frequent, and more fierce. Let’s take a look at the sites.

‘Doomflayer’ T5 – Elf T2

For the final installment of the ‘Doomflayer’ T5 we venture into the realm of the Elves. Oddly enough these are probably among the two most desolate zones in the game – the Shadowlands because everything is in ruins, and Ellyrion because its open rolling plains. That being said it was pretty difficult to find key locations of interest to fight over, the solution created very elongated maps – particularly in the Shadowlands. Going for 9 BOs per map and one chapter hub I had to opt for the 4/5 and 5/4 splits but that shouldn’t be to grave of an issue. Onto the locations!

‘Doomflayer’ T5 – Dwarf T2

Today I take the Doomflayer battle to the realm of the Dwarves and the Greenskins. These maps posed the same problem I had in the Badlands and Black Fire Pass – the majority of the T2 Dwarf storyline is in the Marsh of Madness while the majority of the Greenskin storyline is in Barak Varr. The solution was to place all 9 of the MoM BOs in the Dwarf storyline and have both the chapter hubs taken from the Dwarf Storyline, while in BV all of the BOs are taken from the Greenskin storyline. For the Marsh of Madness the Destruction T5 players would operate out of the standard warcamp, while in Barak Varr the Order players base of operations would be the Chapter 7 town. On to the locations! Can you find all the hidden SamuelJacksons?

‘Doomflayer’ T5 – Empire T2

Today we begin the journey into the realm of the Doomflayer portion of T5, taken out of T2. This tier is open to players 81+, although these players may return to the Sovereign tier and see slightly diminishing returns in their renown. The BOs and Chapter hubs from this tier will drop Doomflayer crests. Also because the maps are getting slightly smaller I have reduced the amount of BOs per pairing down to 18 (instead of 20 like in T3). For a special contest, look for the guest appearance in the Troll Country screenshots! See if you can find SamuelJackson in all the pictures.

‘Sovereign’ T5 – High Elf T3

For the final installment of the Sovereign T5 series we take the battle to Ulthuan, and I actually approached this task with great excitement because taking the battle to the Destro half of Saphery has always been my dream. I want a say in the fate of the Tower of Hoeth damn it. As an addendum to the thoughts I’ve thus far thrown out for the T5 model I wanted to add the option for players to take a quest to a BO of their possession – much like the quest in the Dragon’s Bane scenario that would teleport you to the BOs you controlled. Of course this system could be subject to tweaking, but it would certainly make the embattled sites that much more contested. Anyway onto the sites!

‘Sovereign’ T5 – Dwarf T3

Today we bring the fight to the Dwarf v Greenskin T3 zones – which are split up in a fashion that saddens me. All the cool locations in BFP (for Order) are in the Destro storyline and vice versa for the Greenskins. While other zones have 50/50 splits in terms of realm PvE storyline per map – for the Dwarves and Greenskins its messy. To complicate matters, all the BOs and Chapters hubs in the Badlands are Order and all the BOs and Chapter hubs in Black Fire Pass are Destro. One thing I wanted to mention that I forgot to say yesterday and was asked of me today was about low levels entering the zones to fight with the big kids (something we see in T4 often with people going into the RvR lakes as level 12s or whatever) – players in the T5 RvR lakes would only be flagged for RvR IF they met the minimum renown requirement (71 for Sov, 81 for DF, 91 for WF) otherwise they would just be normal guys killing mobs and would be unable to flag themselves, much like players in the respective tier. Additionally, players of the appropriate renown bracket (or above) would be flow instead to a chapter hub in the zone, not its warcamp (Chapter hubs under siege would be closed to flights in). For this particular pairing Order would have to use its WC in  BFP since no Chapter hub is used, and Destro would use the Badlands WC since their chapter hub was not used in the Badlands.

On to the pictures!

‘Sovereign’ T5 – Empire T3

Today I begin my journey of the project I’ve dubbed ‘T5 Parasite’ – the name because T5 is being a parasite on existing T1-3. If you recall from yesterday, T3 will now be the Sovereign bracket tier – so killing heroes/lords and locking it will yield Royal crests. Additionally, the bracket is open to RR71+ players, though players over RR81 will see diminishing returns. To reiterate some points from past posts – PQs will operate as BOs (stg 1 will be eliminated with the stage 2 mobs acting as champs and stage 3/4 mobs as the BO hero); Chapter hubs within the T5 RvR lake will operate as ‘keeps’ with the Rally Master acting as the lord; players of the ‘home tier’ will not be flagged for RvR while moving around the region flagged as the T5 RvR lake. Additionally, resources from BOs will operate to ease the assault on chapter hubs and generate siege weapons there. Because there are no walls or doors to break down, there are no rams; however, recall that the chapter hubs are ringed with 55 Champions – these resources could help weaken them. If I was to implement this system, I would require 4/5 BOs from that storyline to assault that faction’s Chapter Hub (with perhaps 3/5 of your own).

Without further ado let us enter the realm of the Sovereign Empire Tier –