It's a riddle! Two guys destroyed your bike with a crowbar and a bat! One of them wasn't me!

LEVELS:

• Grubbuk hit 17...I don't know...Saturday!? Saturday night and/or early Sundam morning, I think. Good times. The Barak Varr Port (or whatever that little port is called) is awesome. Three public quests, all 20 feet from each other? Yes, please.

EDIT:
Grubbuk leveled up about and hour and a half after writing this! Only two more levels until I get my Wulf!

Tonight, the part of Al will be played by a tall, dark, sinister ugly man.

LEVELS:

• Last night around 12:30 (well, I guess that's technically this morning) Grubbuk hit 16. I actually levelled him by just doing Mourkain Temple over and over. It was very odd; normally the queue for Mourkain takes FOREVER, but last night I only had to wait a couple minutes between sessions. Basically, I'd queue it up and jot down some stuff for an upcoming D&D campaign I'm working on until the scenario window popped up. Good times.

Don't let me fall into nothingness! I won't be happy there!

LEVELS:

• Grubbuk hit level 15 after a rousing game of capture-the-troll-pacifier...whatever the hell THAT is. I've been playing as much RvR as possible lately, mostly because one of my Collector's Edition quests involves me killing dwarf players. Where the hell have all the dwarf engineers gone!? I remember being flooded with the little bastards in tier 1, but I haven't seen any since setting foot in Barak Varr.
  

Who is calling me a liar, you or the machine? 'Cause I need to know whose ass to kick!

LEVELS:

• AUGH. Leaving your character at 85% and being unable to play for two days is probably some sort of torture. That being said, Grubbuk is finally level 14.

MISC:

• I scrapped the Magus (he was only level 3) and decided to try a Chaos Marauder. It's kinda cool, I can definitely see the appeal. The arm mutations/stances thing is sort of interesting (even though I hate stances) and it's awesome to blow through things that quickly.
• I just completed the Greenskins chap 7 on Grubbuk and got the Waaaghstick of Bar Dawazbak. Grubbuk's lookin' pretty sharp.
  
  

Yeah? Well, have fun on the robot reservation, suckers! We're not gonna honor those bogus treaties!

Guess who's back?
Back again?
Gronog's back.
Tell a friend.

Seriously, though, I couldn't escape the allure of Black Orcs for much longer, and rerolled Gronog (now with one g!) He's level 5 so far and about ready to head out for Da War Maker and eventually on to bigger and better things.

Warhammer hit the shelves today, and I picked up my 10-pound collector's edition box and totally forgot about the OTHER free digital goodies I got!

See, any ol' schmoe that preordered the game got Rittenbach's Portable Camp and some sort of little PVE ring, depending on where you preordered. But the CE guys also get new titles, new quests that I haven't figured out how to activate yet, and BRAND NEW EXCLUSIVE FACES! Let's take a look:
I gotta admit, at first I wasn't too fond of Grubbuk's new 'I'm clinically insane' look, but it's really grown on me.

LEVELS:

• Grubbuk hit level 12 a few hours ago, and I'm about to hop back on and see if I can get to at least 13-and-a-half by tonight.

MISC:

• I won these awesome-ass blue boots for Grubbuk today in a public quest. Unfortunately, I didn't meet the level requirements, so I stuffed 'em in my backpack. Shortly after, I accidentally fucking sold them (along with tons of other stuff) and can't buy them back. I'm writing this down so hopefully I won't be THAT stupid in the future.
• Since we're on the subject of stupidity, last night I figured I'd roll a Magus, seeing as how I really liked them in the open beta. But how does one roleplay a Magus? I don't really know how Chaos do things, other than act all spiky and talk about how much of a weenie the Emperor is. That being said, I found a nice-sized OpenRvR server and started 'im up. I wasn't thinking, and I didn't even notice it was about 7:30 at night...when all the drooling idiots have come home from a long day of being at school/work/something.
  This is why I play RP. Not only do the fairly strict naming rules convince tons of idiots not to roll there, the fact that they assume everyone's going to come up to them and talk like Ren Faire regulars frightens all the mouthbreathers away. I've only seen two questions asked on my server in the starting area, and both were played nicely ("Oi, boss! 'ow do ya show dem titles abbuv yur name?")
  I'm sure some of these people are genuinely nice and are just confused about the game (that apparently went up for the first time ever "twelve hours ago"), but people who can't figure shit out on their own will probably be the death of me.
  

Team Rocket may be dirty rotten criminals, but we're not in the business of destroying children's dreams! At least, not yet.

LEVELS:

• Grubbuk's already up to level 10, and there's still time to get some more levels in.
• I'm up to level 17 in cultivating and level 8 in Apothecary-ing. I haven't quite gotten the hang of the Apothecary skill yet, but (so far) all the potions I've made haven't blown up in my face upon using them, so I guess that's a good thing.

MISC:

• Got the curse uploader for WARDB, because I'm a dork when it comes to helping fill out databases. I was just thinking last night about how much I miss Wowhead.
  

Yes. Yes, he killed Blake and half New York. Excuse me, Rorschach. I'm informing Laurie ninety seconds ago.

And lo, the game has started for realsies.

LEVELS:

• Grubbuk's (now with two b's!) up to level 7 so far. I didn't really mind playing the levelling game when I went from Gronogg in Preview Weekend to Grubuk in Preview Weekend Plus, but it's been a little over a week and I'm doing it all again with practically the same character...it's a little boring.
  
  
  

MISC:

• To get the 'full WAR experience' (as the game calls it), I'm playing on an Open RVR/RP server. The population on the server I'm playing is a little small, but at least I don't have to worry about idiots running around named 'pewpewlolz' or 'legolazz'. Roleplaying as an Orc is pretty easy; it's no different than being a soccer hooligan. Goblins are slightly different, they're pretty full of themselves, until one of da boyz puts 'em in their place. Grubbuk's no different, and it's pretty fun to play as someone who (and I quote) "...in his own mind he's the, he's the dopest trip".
• I started training my Cultivating and Apothicary skills today: I really suck. I haven't made a single non-volatile thing yet and all the seeds I keep finding require a higher cultivating skill, so I'm a little stuck at the moment.
  

I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine. And he shall be my Squishy.

Look, pauldrons! How I've missed thee. I've even got my old trophy (the mushrooms dangling from the right pauldron) that I got from a quest way back in Da Stumps.

Overall today was a good day; Awesome new blue shoulderpads, hit level 11, completed Greenskins Chap. 5, and ever since the patch came out, the game's been running WAY faster than normal, which is awesome.

Speaking of the new patch, it's time for more

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES:

• First and foremost: Cutscenes! I'm fairly certain they're different for each race (I've only played Grubuk so far today). They've got some British lady narrating them...she's good and all, but she's no Tony Jay. Actually, she sounds similar to the old God of War narrator ("And Kratos cast himself off a cliff, blah blah blah...").
• Your inventory now shows up automatically when talking to a merchant. It's a very small change, but I'm glad they added it.
• Both the Need/Greed/pass roll and the "Choose a reward" have been reworked a little (unfortunately the only picture I have is the reward window comparison). They've added scroll buttons to keep the window from blocking the whole screen.
  

EDIT: The narrator of God of War is Grandmother Willow from Pocahontas.
NO FUCKING WAY.

Well, a doctor cures people. A medic just helps people feel more comfortable... while they die.

DAMN YOU OPEN BETAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Seriously, though, open beta's out for all that didn't get into the closed beta/preview weekends, so I'll probably be taking a day off WAR (read: Spore came out) to avoid the new player rush. I'll play some more tomorrow when all the kids go back to school, seriously.

Might get on a little later tonight (read: If/when my tribe gets fucking destroyed again), though. We'll see how it goes.

It doesn't feel right to shoot an unarmed man... but I'll get over it.

-UPDATE TWO OF MANY-


So, normally I hate elves of any type, but I figured I'd give Shadow Warrior a shot.

(that was a pun)

I wasn't really overwhelmed. Hell, I wasn't even whelmed. So far, shadow warriors are just Night Elf hunters without the pets. They've got this 'Scout Stance' thing that boosts your ballistic damage which is kinda cool, but otherwise it's very humdrum. I'm not going to totally give up on the class yet...it's got potential, but I can't really see myself leveling one to endgame.
Have I mentioned arcing yet? Characters who use bows in WAR will actually fire their shots in an arc, which delights the Realism Nazi in me to no end. Watching the arrow fly in an arc and eventually hit its target is the main reason I've kept playing.
The High Elf area is okay. Very woodsy, which is a welcome change from all the dusty Ork camps and grimdark Chaos ruins I've been running through recently. There's just something about playing Order...it almost seems like the developers aren't done with them yet. One out of every 20-or-so arrows I shot at a target would freak out and jiggle around the target. And let's not forget the Scooty Corpses. I've got a video I'm trying to upload that explains it better, but it seems to be taking forever.


In slightly more interesting news, I've begun taking Grubuk to some of the other starting areas and doing their public quests to get some better armor (read: I want some damn shoulderpads). It would appear that public quests that aren't native to one's race have slower influence gain rates, but maybe it was just the quest I was on (Chaos Chap. 2).
Speaking of public quests: You Tyrion Order bastards! Stop seizing control of everything! Look what you've done to our Rally Master!

EDIT: More changes I've found have been added to yesterday's post, under the (Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-)Changes header.

More Pictures:

These are called "farms". Humans put seeds in the ground, pour water on them, and they grow food - like pizza!

-UPDATE ONE OF MANY-

Just when I thought I could go outside and lead a fairly normal life until Sunday, BAM. Preview Weekend Plus. They didn't even send out e-mails for this one! Pretty sneaky, Mythic.

I figured I'd roll a Shaman this time around, and thus Grubuk was born.
I sill haven't quite figured out their gimmick. So far, I know there are two separate WAAAGH meters: One for Mork (healing spells) and Gork (damaging spells)....I guess it makes since that Mork is in charge of the healing spells, what with him being kunnin' but brutal, but that's a different lore argument for a different day.
Anyway, Mork and Gork WAAAGH meters. It seems that the more damaging spells you do, the less time you have to spend casting healing spells (and vice versa). I'm only like 75% sure on this, so I may be wrong.
Once again, all my healing spells seem to be HoTs. It reminds me of healing with Shendir (not that that's a bad thing).

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES:
They've done a bit of work in the two weeks since Preview Weekend 1, and I figured I'd note them for posterity.

• The Influence-O-Meter has been moved to the top of the screen, near the Group Quest progress window. It also now tells you what chapter you're on. Looks like they've also made the Scenario button bigger (and bluer). Not sure why though.
  
• The "You Have Died! But don't worry, it's a part of the game!" message has been replaced with a big tombstone-looking image with "YOU HAVE BEEN KILLED" etched into it. I think I like the friendlier one more.
• Rolling for Group Quest loot has been slightly reworked. The outcome now appears in a more-noticeable window under the Group Quest progress window.
• Little helpful hints have been added. They pop up whenever it's your first time doing something. I wish they would have had these in closed beta, I could have actually tried out Pyn's apothecary skill.
• They've implemented the "one realm per sever" rule, which means if I wanted to fiddle around with High Elf again (not bloody likely) I'd have to roll it on a different sever. Speaking of which, where is ol' Kraka Drak? I new our closed beta characters would be deleted, but I didn't expect the whole server to be gone!
• The Tome of Knowledge window that pops up on occasion has been changed slightly, and the icons on the tabs in the Tome have been modified as well (you can sort of see the old Bestiary icon in the picture).
  
• They reworked the flying maps, but I forgot to save a picture of the old ones (I swore I had one somewhere)...you're just gonna have to trust me, the old one looked like an old Powerpoint flow chat. Little black boxes with words in them and arrows leading to different boxes. The new one is much fancier.
  

Overall, it looks like we're playing the version that will be sold in store. I know they've still got a few kinks to work out (we had a group quest freeze up on us today for little to no reason, that sucked), but the game is playable, for the most part.

More pictures:

In loving memory of Gronogg the Lint Loota, and his awesome pauldrons.