Waaagh! and well met!

So this begins the first of our weekly updates to the WAR Beta community. This is where we keep all of you up to speed with the changes, enhancements, and additions to WAR during this downtime. Each week will have different information from the various teams. Some of the information we’ll be keeping fairly high level, at least initially, but we will work on giving you insights into what to expect when we re-open in December.

I’ve gone to each of the various teams and asked them to write up a little snippet on something that’s going on in their neck of the woods.

So let’s get this show on the road!

We'll start with something dealing with PQs:

Public Quests have made a great start- but as everyone knows, the devil is in the details. In between now and beta reopening, we are going to focus in on some of the feedback you folks have been giving us. Some balancing work is going to go into Influence gain and XP for public quests. The groundwork for UI enhancements is also going to get done (though it may be after the holidays before you see the final fruits of that labour). Perhaps most importantly of all however, we are going to look at PQ loot. Ever a hot topic, we've noticed! Right now we're working to make sure that the whole loot experience is more satisfying than it currently is. We can't unveil the details right now- as we want to make sure we can deliver before we make you promises- but suffice to say, you should end up with a much better chance at getting what you want.

Keep an eye on the beta boards for more details!

-Public Quest Team

Keep an eye on the boards indeed. Expect to hear more from the PQ team over the coming weeks. Now let’s go over to the RvR team where they talk about a hot topic from various RvR discussions… Manual PvP Flagging:

Phase one of our improvements to open world RvR is under way, with changes to PvP flagging up first. Players can now PvP flag themselves, although the regular rules apply for removing the flag. Guards (and some other NPCs) in the Chapter hubs will PvP flag any enemy player foolish enough to engage them in combat. We've also added more guards to the warcamp entrances across all pairings and tiers. Still in progress are changes to the battlefield objectives, but we aren't quite ready to share those details yet.

-RvR Team

This topic alone should generate a good discussion with you Beta testers. =) Next up is some information from the Item Team in which the subject of trading between players as well as item “binding” comes into play:

One of the things we have been working hard on is player trading. I can’t wait to see it once the UI team has had a chance to reskin it. Player trading works just like you would imagine. Right clicking on a friend brings up a list of actions, with Trade now being one of them. Now you can trade off all those boots!

With trading, however, comes the question of binding. Trading is really, really good if loot doesn’t have any binding restrictions. So the next step was to “tag” all our items as Bind on Equip (BoE), Bind on Pickup (BoP), or “no binding”. Quest items, Influence Rewards, Renown store items have all been made BoP.

-Item Team

Very interesting, indeed. Next we have some high level information on two of our cities that the City Team has been working on. Remember, this is only the first week of updates so we’re not going to give away everything up front. We can't wait till we can have all of you playing around with the cities:

Hello everyone – We worked heavily on the Inevitable City and Altdorf making sure that both cities are ready for you to explore, discover…and smash! Some of the exciting areas you can visit are places like the Temple of Sigmar, the Altdorf docks, and the Inevitable City arena! Unlike any other city you’ve seen before, WAR cities are places for you to be proud of, to protect, and places that can be captured by your enemies. Enemies aren’t always nice to cities they “visit” so we’ve been creating lots of things for invaders to break, smash, and burn. We look forward to opening the city gates to you and listening to your feedback on the ultimate goal in RvR – city capture!

-City Team

Trust me; our cities are very impressive visually. What the City Team has been able to do has been very impressive indeed. Last but certainly not least is some information on the Marauder from our Combat & Careers team:

Marauders are frantic warriors who wade into the thick of battle dual-wielding a standard weapon in their main and an offhand that has mutated into a terrifying, organic weapon. The Marauder recieves 3 different mutations that he can choose from. Each mutation represents a different type of weapon and play style. The mutations themselves offer different buffs, and unlock different abilities based on what mutation you activate. They are a straightforward melee DPS class that is all about pumping out damage based upon their offhand mutation. During battle, they are able to change the mutation of their offhand, which will dictate what abilities or effects are used on certain attacks, much like a stance would.

-Combat & Careers Team

Well that’s it for now lads and lasses. Tune in again next week for another of our weekly WAR Beta Updates. Until then make sure to keep your beer frothy and to not accept too many gifts from the forces of Chaos!