Blog Posts from "Battlegroup9" - Gameriot.com

BG9 Darkfall Server Info

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:27:54 -0500

Stay tuned to this blog and irc.gamesurge.net #battlegroup9 for Darkfall server selection and information. Read on...

Okay, so apparently Darkfall is finally going to be released, not just going into beta, but actually. being. released. According to the Wikipedia article (because www.darkfallonline.com doesn't have anything on their front page) it is going to be launched on Jan. 22nd in the EU. If that isn't going to be it's international release date, we can expect it to hit the US in less than a week following.

Now, I haven't had the stamina to follow Darkfall throughout the years of its development, but I do remember the premis of the game: hardcore PvP. Everyone is attackable at any time, you die, you lose all your gear -- although gear isn't as big of a deal as in WoW or other games. You kill someone, you take their gear. The world is going to be much more open, think old school Star Wars Galaxies, not the cramped worlds of Age of Conan or Warhammer Online. Player cities, seiges, world PvP, etc. Obviously this game isn't a "WoW Killer", it isn't an anything killer. Darkfall is simply a niche MMORPG for the niche community of hardcore PvPers. If that piques your interest at all, go research a bit. If you're interested in playing with other members of the BG9 community, stay tuned to our blog or visit us on IRC. If you have any relevant information about its release or general game information that might further entice people, post up and I'll edit it into this blog.

BG9 IRC - Arena Chat

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:15:40 -0500

With the arena season starting tomorrow I would like to invite everyone out there, not just those from BG9, to come join us over at BG9 IRC. Come talk trash, strat and whatever else you'd like with some of the previous seasons top teams and sponsored players -- as well as those small time players from every rating and every bracket.

Server: irc.gamesurge.net
Channel: #battlegroup9

If you're new to IRC, download the simple-to-use client at http://www.mirc.com and simply enter the above information.

Blizzcon Battlegrounds, DotA and SC2 Community Tournaments..

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:55:35 -0400

Gameriot/BG9 Fantasy Football League - Live Draft, Sign up!

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:24:00 -0400

For the 2nd year, I'm hosting a Fantasy Football league open to all gameriot & WoW players who'd like to participate in a competitive league against other PC gamers. It's free to join and considering cash prizes depending on how many people willing to play & how competitive the league gets.

10 Man League (If more people want to join before 8/31, it'll increase to 12, then 14)
Online Live Draft @ Aug 31st, 6:45pm EST
Current NFL Players, Head 2 Head League, Non-Keeper.
1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR 1 Flex RB/WR, 1 Flex WR/TE, 1 DEF, 1 Kicker
To join: Either send me a message on gameriot with your email, email iluvtrance@yahoo.com , or msg me on irc or aim @ hbbren00

This year it's going to be hosted on ESPN Fantasy Leagues, you'll need to get a free ESPN account-Â To get one go to http://espn.com/fantasy

For all those who wish to join, the Live Online Draft is at August 31st, Sunday @ 6:45pm EST. If you can't make the draft, you can autodraft & pre-set your rankings or use ESPN rankings.

Send an email to iluvtrance@yahoo.com , message me here on gameriot , message me over IRC @ #battlegroup9 username trancez or AIM me at hbbren00

By the way, I'm a chargers fan. Bolts 4 Champs 08' LETS DO IT

BG9 @ NVISION 08

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:17:23 -0400

Post up if you're going to NVISION 08 and where you will be sitting. I'll update this post with locations.

http://www.nvision2008.com/ for more information.

MLG Orlando Recap, Trance Edition

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 06:58:06 -0400

(Some reason this was deleted, I posted this a few days ago)

After coming home to catch up on sleep from MLG Orlando, I've decided to review my weekend and thoughts about the event. Having the best seat in the house to watch the competition, here's my personal thoughts about the past weekend:

WWI Stream, Discussion, Brackets, IRC & More & BG9!

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:41:22 -0400

#battlegroup9 @ irc.gamesurge.net - irc channel

come discuss the WoW, SC, War3 tournaments, the release of DIABLO 3, all up-to-date info and SHOUTOUTS TO THE ANNOUNCERS ON STREAM !

LIVE STREAM available at http://www.battlegroup9.com

Live Blog:

NIHILUM VS AAA NAWAK UP FIRST

WWI Live Stream Webpage

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:02:20 -0400

www.Battlegroup9.com is now hosting a live stream on the front page.

IRC information, brackets, etc.

Enjoy!

WWI 3v3 Brackets and IRC

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:35:06 -0400

During the 2008 World Invitational WoW 3v3 tournament, Battlegroup9.com will be keeping a live bracket for you to follow.

The stream should begin at 12:30 GMT, which is 5:30 AM Pacific/8:30 AM Eastern.

BG9 AoC Server Selection Instructions

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:21:32 -0400

You're going to have to jump through a couple of hoops, but the server selection instructions page is up. I created it so that a direct page couldn't be linked to the mass public and have our server explode like WoW's Archimonde.

For more information, check here:
http://forums.battlegroup9.com/showthread.php?p=1549

Also, if you're wanting to know more about BG9, what it's about and what we're up to in Age of Conan, check the feature on the front page of www.battlegroup9.com

BG9 AoC Contest: Closed Beta Keys

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Mon, 05 May 2008 23:19:43 -0400

Copy and paste from my thread on the AoC Boards:

We are currently planning to roll on a Free-For-All PvP server. Instructions on how to choose the same server as us will be announced May 10th, one week before the 3 day pre-launch. This however may change, as several guilds have expressed interest in announcing the instructions privately. Though, at the very least, we will have instructions up on the day of the pre-release. So make sure to bookmark us and keep up-to-date!

P.S. In case you're confused with our closed beta guild 'Battlegroup 9', it is simply that: a closed beta guild. We created it for members of our community to share a common chat channel and for identification purposes. We will most likely not be hosting an official BG9 guild when the game goes live. Again, this is a community of players and guilds formed with the intention of creating competition between each other.

Could it be love?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:58:53 -0400

Swarm. Minor. You got some 'splainin to do.

http://forums.battlegroup9.com/showthread.php?p=956

BG9 AoC: PvP Weekend Thoughts by Xade

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:10:35 -0400

Originally posted here: http://forums.battlegroup9.com/showthread.php?t=163 by Xade. This is a very detailed and encompassing review of the game, down to the various classes, game types and mechanics. Stay tuned for more and find out where WoWs top players will roll in Age of Conan!

---

Here are my impressions of Age of Conan so far. Keep in mind, I have only participated in the Gamespot PvP Weekend and not the general beta. We were capped at level 20, 12 feat points and 750ish skill points. Obviously it is probably an entirely different game at level 80 but I feel I had enough time to get a solid feel for the game. Again, remember I have not played on the general client. A lot of what I say may sound nitpicky, and may or may not be changed.

1. Performance

First things first, people need to know how it runs. The relevant specs of my system are:

Athlon X2 5000, 2.8GHz
3.5 gigs DDR2-800 RAM
7900 GTX, 256-bit 512mb GDDR3, 750/1800
Windows XP SP2

The game client is not very ram intensive, and is optimized rather well. I don't think I saw it go over 1.3 gigs of ram and my CPU usage was about 70%. It handled minimize/restore gracefully.

With all settings maximum and fully zoomed out, I got about 25 FPS in the lobby, 10-15 in the game world (unplayable), 5-10 in the indoor CTF areas. After dropping anisotropic quality to 11/16, shadow quality to medium, shadow maps to medium, AA to 2x, 3D Text off, particle effects to 85/100, particle view distance to 800/1000, and viewing distance to 2500/2800 the new rates were: 45-60 in the lobby, 25-35 in the world and ~20 on the underground maps (after disabling shadows, they are a big problem in those areas apparently).

I went a little liberal with the tweaks but overall texture quality is still well above medium. There was some visual clipping, but I attribute that to lag and server stress.

I had a few issues with camera panning. Often when I would try to look behind me it would freeze for half a second, every now and then it would cause a crash. While panning my FPS never dipped and I never once had a delay when mouse turning so I'm not sure what the ****. It was probably a shadow issue again. It was fine 98% of the time, but I heard similar complaints.

Occasional random crashes just moving foreward or strafing or something low impact, but that is to be expected in a beta client. Crashes were non-violent for the most part. There were a few blackscreen crashes but I was able to Alt-F4 out. I only had to hard reboot once after a crash but that was user error with something specific to my system.

All in all, I don't think you will have a rough go of AoC performance come retail. There are a lot of individual settings you can tweak to squeeze out every little frame. Vista and DX10 are a whole other issue of course.

2. Visual

2A. User Interface and Controls

I am still unsure how I feel about the UI. A lot of the visual aspects are highly customizable but after all the tweaking I still never felt satisfied. World of Warcraft has just spoiled me I guess.

You can get the UI very minimal, but not informative, if that makes any sense. No visible buff names/timers without mousing over, which is very annoying for proc effects and debuffs. Very little nofification of what is happening to you, an ally or an enemy outside of very, very minimal scrolling damage text. Buff and debuff areas cannot be moved, and the debuffs are in a very bad spot.

The combat log logs everyone and everything by default and cannot be edited in any way.

Actions were not able to be bound to mouse buttons.

The chat frame is horrible. No timestamps, awkward menus, unchangable colors. You are forced to make a tab for every channel and some tabs refused to work except once, immediately after creation. In this case it was the "Group" tab for me. Pressing enter automatically makes you type in the default chat window, not in the tab you have active. You have to click down on the text box in order to input into that frame. Once you had the tabs made, there was no indication when a certain message type came through without manually looking at the tab. It's hard to whisper someone back when you don't see the message.

The minimap is bland and uninformative and mostly useless because of target tracking.

Stock UI has a rudimentary target of target system, and target cast bars. Player and Enemy cast bars are moveable.

I found no way to lock buttons onto the action bars, though I didn't look very hard. Since skills were so limited and buffs were so long there was no reason to bind them. Constantly dragging them off the bar got annoying.

Party frame cannot be moved.

The menus are very, very large. They could all stand to be scaled down a bit and most of the information could be consolidated. They can also not be hidden at all, and span across the top of the screen. Think Diablo 2.

Menu's and action bars cannot be accessed while dead and the only thing you can do is chat. This should be changed, since you shouldn't be left to sit and twiddle your thumbs while waiting to ressurect if you want to change your UI around, redo points and whatnot. In the event someone is being a douche in a game, this also prevents you from leaving the game.

The paper doll looks nice. The backback has 3 tabs. The first has 2 pages for general items and weapons/armor. The second, for resources and probably crafting, has 84 pages. The third, also 84 pages, for quest items. Space should rarely be an issue, I think.

There is no button to expediate the allocation of skill points. During this test, for every character you were pressing the + button 800 times. Literally. It is arguably less annoying in the real game since you don't get all those points all at once but it's still tedious.

Quest tracker works. That's about all I can say of it.

I have no knowledge on whether the UI will be as customizable as World of Warcraft. At this level I am uncertain about whether the game would even benefit from that level of customization outside of cosmetic changes, but it certainly wouldn't hurt. My feelings tell me it will not.

2B. Graphics

Simply put, the graphics in this game are stunning. Typically marketing screenshots will be photoshopped and artificially edited, but that does not appear to be the case here. The game does actually look as good as the pictures and video.

Character customization is very in depth. For each race there is a pretty solid base of faces, eye colors, hair colors, facial and body tattoos and various markings. In addition, there is a height slider, a girth slider, and about 20 sliders for specific facial construction. Unique toons can be easily achieved.

Combat animations are very fluid, responsive and polished. Weapons and armor looked well fitting and natural. Hair moved and flowed naturally with wind and physical movement.

Death animations (not fatalities) could use a little work. In most cases when you die you just litterally fall over like a board. Other times you sink to your knees first and then collapse. A little more variation and smoother transitions would be nice.

Movement is excellent. Easily comparable to World of Warcraft.

Buff and weapon spell effects were excellent. Caster (damage) spell effects were dull and unimpressive, even at maximum. Healing spell effects were good but could stand to be a little more pronounced.

Scrolling combat text is tiny, can't be configured in any way and scrolls too quickly.

Lighting, insofar as I experianced it, is superb.

3. Gameplay

Onto the important stuff...

Default group size is 6.

Everyone can stealth and it gets better if you allocate skill points into it. Everyone can see stealth, and it gets better if you allocate skill points into it. This is arguably a good thing. It gives everyone the same tactical advantage, but it is also able to be abused. 1) There were no game timers on certain maps so one person could stay in stealth and the match would never end until enough people left. Except if you were dead and couldn't get a res you couldn't leave the game. 2) You cannot place your shields to guard yourself from behind, so you are defenseless. I don't know if the Perception skill is linked directly with the Search skill, or if it is an always on passive or an intermittant server check. But since you have no shields attacks from behind do more damage. This is probably less of an issue at later levels, but in this test it was quite easy to just sneak up, root or stun and use your strongest manuver to one shot anyone. It always gives the attacker(s) the element of surprise and makes it trivial to sneak around the lines and get behind the assist target. This leads me to believe that roaming would just be a gank fest, and sieges a big cluster****. I'm sure things are very different at 80.

On that same note, the shield system is rather useless. The attacker is likely swinging wildly and it is impossible to make any kind of reactive shield placement. Since shields have varying levels of strength, you would be spamming the directions to get them placed properly, but then you have to do your own attacks and hit combos in time and move and spin with the mouse. All for what really amounts to very little gain. It ends up making the action feel very button spammy and less strategical like an MMO is supposed to be. This may or may not become a little easier once mouse buttons are enabled, but what if you have few buttons? Conceptually, it becomes more relevant as you start learning to recognize other classes moves by sight and learn the attack directions of common combos, switch your shields once and then continue to fight. But the lack of any kind of macro/scripting system for user defined, quick shield placement to react against what happens to be hitting on you at the time makes this idea less useful and does nothing to solve the button spam issue. This system essentially relies on "security by obscurity". That is to say, your only defense comes with the idea that your attacker doesn't know where your defenses are. And then all of this becomes moot once your attackers become greater than one. Upper right and overhead shields might save you from the HoX, but not the 3 Barbarians behind you.... The whole thing is flawed.

Every class has three pools where applicable: Health, Mana and Stamina. The first two are self explanitory. Stamina effects your ability to sprint, stealth and if you are melee your ability to use combos.

In and out of combat regen is determined by class, bandaging skill, level and feats.

Every class has 3 feat trees, similar to WoW talent trees. There is a general tree and then two different specializations.

There is full collision, hostile and friendly.

Because of collision, all melee weapons use the same hitbox regardless of weapon size. Daggers, however, do not do sweeping damage with regular attacks. Sweeping damage is about 1/3 or less of your regular swing, depending on target buffs, shields and probably a lot of other factors. Primary damage comes from combos.

The melee combo system is the biggest selling point of this game, and rightfully so. It is a very simple concept: you trigger the combo, swing in pre-determined directions once or twice (thrice?) and that initiates a finishing move. Combos can be easily strung together, stamina permitting. However, while you can continue to move during the combo manuvers and you have a decent window to press the correct swing button and get your positioning optimal, the finishing move has a cast time like a spell and you cannot move while it's charging. It also, like a spell, can be interrupted. If it's interrupted for whatever reason other than your own movement, the cooldown still pops and the stamina still gets used.

This of course brings up the question of how melee characters get to be effective. The solution here is that everyone (casters included) has some kind of root, snare, interrupt or stun. In addition to normal sprinting, certain melee characters also have an intercept (no stun component) to close the gap. There is a pretty liberal distance limit to using the intercept, but it eats stamina like crazy. You'll want to use it more at 15 yards than 50.

While melee gameplay is pretty generic outside the one gimmick, caster gameplay is even simpler, and to be honest pretty boring. At the level we were allowed to play, it's pretty much Tab>Nuke Tab>Nuke all day long. There is not much more to say beyond that without getting into class specifics. I will detail each class more later below.

No word on group dispel/purges for healers. Most roots and snares available in this test are physical, and I would imagine Mez's are probably best saved for interrupts and healer lockdown so a purge might be unneccessary. Similar to DAoC, you become immune to an effect for about 45 seconds after it wears off.

Healing is a little different than most other games. Instead of wack-a-mole life bars, all heals that we were able to see were AoE HoT's and a single AoE burst heal. I have no idea if that will continue to be the case at level 80, but anecdotal evidence suggests it will. Melee and spell splash damage is very pronounced, in addition to your run of the mill AoE damage spells, so group healing seems to be the only effective solution. Add to this what I mentioned before about the UI being very uninformative. The party bars are little more than a name and a health bar with some buffs next to it. The only useful information you glean from them is that you are in fact in a party and whether people are dead or alive. Just about the only thing this gimmick promotes is group cohesion. Healing is very proactive in this game, as opposed to many other MMO's. It requires you be exposed to maximize HPS, but it also makes you a target. This by extension helps control the pace of play because with mez and root immunity timers, battles must ebb and flow and they become more about finesse than damage. PvP becomes an exersise in protecting your healer since they can't protect themselves and offer group utility at the same time.

Depending on class, self buffs lasted between 30 minutes and 4 hours and persisted through death. Other class buffs disappeared upon death. No idea if it is like this in the general beta or of it will carry into retail. Group proc buffs and auras faded in and out quickly and applied right away. Every class has at least 2 self and/or group buffs, not counting procs. The maximum amount of buffs I could receive was 8. No idea if that is a fixed number, but it seems very low. Some classes have as many as 5 or 6 by themselves. This could be an attempt to control group stacking, but why would they ever do that? PvP is all about groups and counter groups. The more I consider things, the more I feel like the game is trying to pidgeonhole siege balance.

No in combat ressing. It should be pointed out that as long as you were not being hit you could toggle combat on and off at will. It would toggle automatically when you got within a certain range of hostile enemies. Toggling combat status also means you can drop combat, run and instantly hide at will.

Hide has a 10 second cooldown. Search has a 30 second cooldown. Those numbers should be tweaked.

There is sticky targeting and automatic /face so jumping around like a spaz won't help you any. Not that it would anyway, because who turns with the keyboard honestly? Also collisionlol.

4. Classes

I'm not going to get too technically in depth here since you can look up specifics all over the web. I will just write about their basic primary function and how the class played in a group enviornment.

Ranger - Ranged physical DPS. High health, mid range stamina. Uses the melee combo system to attack. Has various status and root traps, ranged snare and as of a recent patch an instant cast Mez. They CAN use sword/board with a few abilities to help live and try to get out of melee range, but there is also no dead zone so they can just tank you and still hit just as hard if you're 50 yards away or right in their face. Everyone can stealth so this is one of the obvious choices for ganking, sieging and battleground sniping. They are all about kiting, cannot shoot on the run and are high priority targets once they come out of stealth. Very little group utility. If you wanted to take one on a roaming 6v6, they would synergize best with anything that provides armor penetration.

Assassin - Melee physical DPS. Medium health, high stamina. Run of the mill "rogue" type class. High burst damage and poisons, proc snares, damage suppression. It does its job if you like that kind of thing. Works best solo, in gib groups or in melee heavy groups.

Barbarian - Melee physical DPS. High health, high stamina. This is your run of the mill pure DPS class. All damage, little utility. Introduces the "Stance" mechanic with it's Reaver stance, which offers a stacking self buff to increase damage output. Has armor penetration, knockdowns/knockbacks, bleed effects and -threat PvE skills. Good for running gib and interrupt groups, but will fit in anywhere.

Conqueror - Melee physical DPS. High health, high stamina. Similar to the barbarian except it hits globally for slightly less, but makes up for that with group auras. The auras we had available were: Flat physical damage increase, Chance on hit to restore stamina, and + Fire Penetration and Damage. Extends the stance mechanic into: Defensive for damage suppression or Frenzy for damage output. Definitely a staple for any group. Synergizes well with anything melee heavy, or HoX + Demonologist.

Guardian - Melee physical DPS. High health, High stamina. This is your essential "tank" class, but much less gimped than the term applies. Has stances identical to the Conqueror, and another mechanic called Manuvers which alter incoming and outgoing damage in similar ways. For this test we had: Unguarded Attack, which raises your damage and lowers your maximum health. Provoke, which lowers your damage and increases your PvE threat and Enduring Defense, which lowers your outgoing damage and your incoming damage. They also have high debuff utility in the form of knockbacks, knockdowns and a "disarm" mechanic. It doesn't actually disarm you, just makes your weapon ineffective for a time. Very much a give and take class, it is suited best for, not surprisingly, tanking. In PvE and PvP. Works best in interrupt and attrition group setups.

Dark Templar - Melee physical DPS. High health, medium stamina, medium mana. This is your essential "offtank" with a twist. It utilizes the same stance system as the Barbarian, and also the aura system of the Conqueror plus its own defensive and offensive lifetap self/group heals, group weapon penetration, PvE threat capabilities, lifetap weapon procs, manatap weapon procs and another unique aura system known as Covenants. Only one convenant was available that proc'd a poison cloud on incoming damage. The auras available were: + Unholy melee and ranged damage and another + Life Tap proc. It is a very versatile class like the Guardian but without the need to trade off constantly. It is not suited for excelling in any one particular area but brings a lot of utility to the table. It works best in melee heavy groups and synergizes well with a properly specced Assassin and Necromancer.

Priest of Mitra - Healing and Holy DPS. Low health, low stamina, high mana, low regen. This is your primary healer class. Not much else to say about it. In this test the Priest CC was an AoE knockback, but it was such a short range knock back that it wasn't very useful as an escape mechanic. If you built your character with high armor it might serve you better as a front line disruption. Holy damage output was very, very low and the holy DPS tree started out more with lowering holy resistance than increasing damage, which might be great if there were another holy class in the game to synergize with... As it is, it doesn't seem like it would be very effective end game and as the games primary healer you would do best just healing. Compared to the Tempest, however, in combat mana regen is piss poor and resource management is a must. This class is a staple for any and every group.

Tempest of Set - Healing and Electric DPS. Low health, low stamina, high mana, high regen. This is your backup healer class. Exact same healing spell list as the Priest in this beta test, just with different names. Heals were not as big as the Priest, but what you lack in throughput you makeup for in longevity. They have AoE damage spells only, and damage output was comparable with an un-pacted Demonologist. The Tempest has 2 forms of crowd control; a single target mez and an AoE root. This makes them great candidates for AoE groups, melee train groups and any group as a backup healer. Because they are electric they synergize with Demonologists well, and help Priests immensely with their mana issues.

Bear Shaman - Melee DPS and Healing. Medium health, medium stamina, high mana, low regen. This is the only true "hybrid" class in the game imo. Every other class has two roles with two specs and you are either one or the other, whereas the Bear Shaman synergize with itself a lot better. You can be heavy melee dps with ok healing, or heavy healing with ok dps. The only other similar class would be the Dark Templar, but that is unique in its own right and not really a hybrid. The shaman does great melee damage, and has the same short range burst heal as the other two healers but lacks the Heal over Time skills. To combat this it has melee proc heals, similar to the Dark Templar but they are true proc heals and not hostile life taps. Like the other melee, it has armor penetration, knockbacks, bleed effects and defensive buffs. Works best in melee heavy groups.

Herald of Xotli - Melee physical and Fire DPS. Medium health, low stamina, high mana, low regen. This is a melee oriented class, and thus far my favorite. All melee attacks are fire based, with fire procs, debuffs and splash damage. It also has a small host of fire based magic spells, and perhaps the most unique and interesting feature of the class is its ability to transform into a hulking demon. For 30 seconds your attack damage, defenses, attack speed and regen are heightened as you run around waylaying everything. This is an interesting class, because it takes more resource management than the Priest and does more damage than the casters in better armor. Because the stamina pool is so low, chase is for the most part out of the question. For having such a high mana pool, the available spells in the test were useless. We only had one channeled fire spell that was awful and weak, but the firebased combos were AoE and incredibly strong. The class has a short range, instant cast AoE root. Out of all the classes, this feels like it needs the most tweaking. It is a very hit and run, high damage, low survivability class yet everything about it feels slow. Combos feel like they execute slower than the other melee classes. The firebreath spell should be instant cast and drain mana while active. The transformation spell has a cast time and it breaks the flow of combat so much I forgot to use it half the time. In order to maximize its usage you would need to cast it once you are already in the fight, leaving you vulnerable, or cast it before the fight and lose half the duration trying to get into position. It needs to either be instant, or the duration needs to be increased. Hopefully it gets much better at 80. This class would work best in a gib group or a melee heavy group and synergizes best with Conq + Demonologist.

Demonologist - Magical Fire and Electric DPS. Low health, low stamina, high mana, medium regen. This is the primary caster DPS class in the game. It has both single target direct damage and AoE damage. It had a single target root with a very long duration. This is the only ranged class that had a nuke castable while on the move, but stamina regen was so slow that kiting is not likely, unless there are more powerful instants later on. The class signature is the demonic familiars which in this case were Incubii and Succubii, depending on your gender. I found the demons to be useless and the AI very horrible. They casted moderately fast, but only hit for about 15 damage. I was much more effective stealthing and nuking than I was using my pet, which made it impossible to stealth. The only benefit the pet has is the passive +mana aura, making it ideal to have for mana heavy groups. Damage output was very good, and the class has a similar mechanic to the templar covenants called Pacts, which force some kind of penalty on you for a massive gain. In this case, we had a pact that drained life every second to a maximum of 50%, while offering +200 spell damage for the duration. Obviously raining destruction everywhere was child-like easy. One thing I didn't like, and I bring it up here just because they have the most of them, is that AoE spells needed to be mouse targeted. The AoE snare of the Tempest operates just the same way. This isn't a new MMO mechanic, but still one I've never liked. There are Mouse Targeted AoE (MTAoE) and Personal Blast AoE (PBAoE), one day I would like to see a Target Blast AoE (TBAoE) that radiates from the selected target. It would make life much more simple, but that's just me. This class is great for gib groups and anywhere you need high damage.

Necromancer - Magical Unholy and Ice DPS + Pets. Low health, low stamina, high mana, medium regen. This is the only "pet" class in the game. The Demonologist has a mindless familiar but that's not the same as a self-buffable army. It uses both single target damage over time spells, cold/unholy debuffs, MTAoE and undead minions. Of all the caster classes, I found this to be the weakest. The DoTs available hit for so little that they were just ignored. The minions hit for a decent amount and fairly fast, and when you had enough of them their combined dps amounted to about that of a normal melee class auto attacking. They were more of an annoyance than anything and died in almost one shot. If this game had cast pushback, that would be the only place they would shine. The direct damage spells were very weak compared to the other casters. Since it is primarily a DoT class, over time I'm sure the damage would even out, but this test was all about instagibbing. Perhaps at the end game with stronger pets they could potentialy burst and interrupt a little better, and maybe they will be more useful at finesse and attrition. For right now the only benefit I get from the class would be low threat, sustained PvE damage.

5. Final Thoughts

This test was very limited, but I've been having lots of fun. What I am uncertain of is if it was because the game was actually fun or if it's because it's new and different and I am just starved for something to play. The game is set to release exactly 30 days from now. This close to retail, I would have thought they could do a little better. I don't know what it is with all these new and awful types of beta testing developers are into now, but I don't like it. It is hard to get an entirely accurate reading from such a limited play enviornment. Lots of assumptions and generalities have to be made and ultimately we come out of it barely more informed than when we went in. I suppose something is better than nothing.

This was not meant to be any review of sorts, just a collection of things I noticed, info I figured people would want to know and my thoughts on potential issues. The game is beautiful and the engine they developed has tons and tons of future potential even if this game were to fail, which I don't believe it will. It has all the lofty goals and makings of a great PvP game, but also a lot of the flaws of failed games passed. We will have to wait and see if it delivers on everything it promised.

As I muse on it more I will edit this with new info and changes and obsessively try to correct all my spelling and grammar. Hope this helped someone.

Dongs.

BG9: AoC PvP Weekend

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:35:20 -0400

"Welcome to the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures PVP Beta Weekend!

Congratulations, you are one of the lucky winners of a beta spot for the Age of Conan PvP weekend, and getting access to Hyboria is just a few days away!"

Go check your emails! Who else got in?

Let's get together and roll some faces. If there's more than one server, choose the first in alphabetical order.

Might be awhile before I'm in... still downloading.

P.S. If you're planning on playing AoC when it goes live, don't forget to sign-up with BG9!

Headcount thread: http://forums.battlegroup9.com/showthread.php?t=84

GC4 Real Official Link

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:24:03 -0400

Battlegroup9 presents the official movie launching site for GC4:

http://www.battlegroup9.com/

Stream it. Download it. Discuss it.

Age of Conan: Play With BG9

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:58:24 -0400

Interested in playing

BG9 Beta Forums and Other News

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:49:01 -0400

In one step of many towards creating a BG9 community website, we have launched our beta forums. These forums will be under heavy construction as we skin them an add in new features. More importantly however, this is one of the static places you will be able to find information on tournaments and server selection announcements for upcoming games.

Remember, anyone is welcome to join our community, even if you're not in the WoW Bloodlust server cluster. As long as you consider yourself a quality, competitive gamer, you're welcome to join us in any of our future endeavors.

Also, we are currently looking to work with sponsors to provide prizes for upcoming BG9 WoW tournaments.

BG9 Looking for Backend Coder

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:59:34 -0500

BG9 has been working towards building a community of competitive gamers, a community that extends beyond the boundaries of Bloodlust, beyond even those of World of Warcraft itself. We look towards a future of creating similar "BG9" environments in other games, such as Age of Conan or Warhammer Online. In order to help bring these goals to realization, we have begun development on a community website: www.battlegroup9.com.

We are looking for an experienced back-end coder, familiar with AJAX, working with databases and who is willing to work pro bono. We are willing to extend partial ownership and profit sharing (should it ever come to that point) to whoever helps bring the website live.

The aim of the website is for gamers of like-mind to come together and organize under the goal to create top quality, competitive environments in other games. Whether or not the website is completed, we will be posting information to help those interested choose the correct server in order to play with us (e.g. pending official server names for Age of Conan, we might post that we will be rolling on the 2nd free-for-all server in alphabetical order).

For those curious about what the website will feature (if we complete it), we plan to include a searchable individual and guild profile database. You will be able to input all relevant information pertaining to the games you play with the BG9 community, query the database for your friends and find out what names they use in other games, etc. If we are able to bring in enough money through advertisements and/or sponsorships, we will host tournaments (focusing on PvP) in the various games we have our focus on, for things like cash or computer hardware.

Drop by irc.gamsurge.net #battlegroup9 and contact me, Ghwrin, or send me a private message if you're interested in the position or sponsoring its development.

Re: Veex's Blog

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:43:25 -0500

Here's what happend from my perspective

I'm not here to defend SK-Gaming's Arena Team, but merely state the facts that happend.

During this period of time the lag spike happend, Cox Cable(An internet service in Orange County) had spiked throughout the whole region. I also was in my own arena practicing 5s and azure/agnos were complaining about lag spikes, and coincidentally Azurewrath/Agnos(They're roommates) live in the same arena as Mykke (Orange County, CA). Right after this was said, SK msged me about the lag spike rule. I should have dealt with this in a more timely fashion but I was busy practicing 5s in arena, talking to NWMF to setup the match, explain the WoW registry lag fix to azure/agnos, and talk to SK at the same time. Later on, Affix also confirmed a lag spike and he also uses Cox Cable Internet.

According to the ruleset (http://www.battlegroup9.com/bg9tourneyruleset.doc), #14.

In case of an instance server crash, severe lag conditions, or game-altering disconnect, teams may replay their match. If conditions are too severe during the scheduled match time for 1 hour or more, the match maybe rescheduled for a more suitable time.

While my judgement at the time was based off forcing my own team to replay because of a game-altering disconnect, asking them to replay the match shouldn't have been as much of an ordeal as Veex's made it. (I made the rule based off the WSVG rule that any lag spike/disconnect forced an automatic replay regardless, the difference though is there was an admin watching you play the whole time.)

I don't believe it's fair to change the ruleset mid-tournament while another team in previous rounds were effected by it. The difference between this incident and the fnatic/CLC one was that 10 people were listening to CLC play on BG9 vent saying they heard it happen, which isn't also a valid reason but just enough I guess.

The fraps from the match, starting about half-way through, is here from Neilyo's PoV: http://www.battlegroup9.com/skvsTSG.wmv

From the fraps about the incident, and here's the facts on it:

- Edit, there's some confusion because Veex's pet and TSG's paladin have the same name in the video.

- 53 seconds into it is when Mykke(SK's Priest) get's spell locked, he still has the pet targetted during this.

- For about 5-6 seconds, he remains with the paladin/warlock pet targetted. At about 22%, he targets himself and trinkets but dies shortly thereafter.

- Pronne(SK's Druid) does not attempt to heal Mykke until he's at about 22% as well, so it seems unlikely he would have lived though it could have been possible if Mykke had given himself a few more seconds to live and give pronne a chance to heal. Also note that Pronne has a full innervate and is the most mana'd at this time as well.

Whether the lagspike effected Mykke's death is still questionable, the arguement is very valid still.

Edit: I don't want to spoil people's amusement since the above content is invalid, the match stands 2-0 and the round won't be replayed.

Though I write for the website, I do this out of volunteer work mainly. The only reason I started writing for SK was to get this tournament sponsored by a high profile sponsor. If there's someone else out there that could run this full-time and help me out, I would gladly accept the help because I really had no one volunteer to help. My team(fnatic) was extremely frustrated that I chose the tournament's issues over the team's, which doesn't make well for good chemistry which is another reason I think we played poorly in the matches vs CLC.

If there is a next tournament, of course there will be a ruleset based off no admin judgement needed at all with maybe small exceptions and an invite system based off Ladder Ratings similar to what the BG3/Cyclone admin team uses. I will either play without administrating or only administrate as well, being that it does conflict with opposing team's agendas.

Bloodlust Invitational Website Up, Tourney Kicks Off Friday

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:22:08 -0500

I finally made a webpage for the tournament so I can update periodically without having to post a blog or take up a news article slot on sk-gaming.com. Rosters and more info are posted, I'm going to expand it more and add more eye-candy later.

http://www.battlegroup9.com/tournament/

I did use the BG3/Cyclone webpage as a template for this webpage, I threw it together in like an hour or so. But it is something needed though.

If teams could fraps their matches, I would like to compile the videos later while periodically add them as well.

Good Luck to all the teams particpating, we will follow up this event with another 16 team tournament with some changes.

Bloodlust Invitational #1 Ruleset (UPDATED)

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:53:11 -0500

Support BG9 @ WCM Skilled Movies Contest

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:35:01 -0500

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/contest.php

Vote for your BG9 movie makers in the warcraft movies dot com skilled movies contest!

For your info on bg9ers in this contest:

Dahis - Old school blogger, originally from Kil'jaeden - now plays on tichondrius.

Deep - The most infamous Rogue/Druid team from Ner'zhul

Faxmonkey - Mage tricks for life - hails from Blackrock

Fershie - Aka Swarm on Slackers, top ranked 5s team on BG9. From Tich

Neilyo - Who doesn't know neilyo by now.

Noktynn - Warrior from Pandemic, also the only guy with a unique legendary.

Xahlior - Warrior that hits harder then a truck from Blackrock.

------------

In other news,

please read again about the upcoming 5vs5 tourney:

I need to clarify one rule that I have to enforce in order to make this tourney fair.

Only 5 players per roster and each player can only play on one team.

Please when you're organizing your teams, get those certain people to pick a team and stick with it. We all know a lot of players ring for other top teams, just choose 1 team to play with.

BG9 5v5 Tourney Entry Details

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:00:15 -0500

Before I make final entries for this tourney or teams entered in, I need to clarify one rule that I have to enforce in order to make this tourney fair.

Only 5 players per roster and each player can only play on one team.

Please when you're organizing your teams, get those certain people to pick a team and stick with it. We all know a lot of players ring for other top teams, just try to choose 1 team to play with.

Thanks.

Battlegroup 9 5vs5 Tournament

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:51:43 -0500

Battlegroup 9's first 5vs5 invitational tournament will be organized in the upcoming weeks:

Details can be read here:
http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/15627-Battlegroup_9_5vs5_Invitational_Tournament

history of bg9 for ****s and giggles:

http://www.gameriot.com/blogs/Battlegroup9/The-History-of-Battlegroup-9-Detailed-Version/

The History of Battlegroup 9

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:41:20 -0500

Ps. Thanks to Vhell, Ghwrin, Noktyn, Anenga, Nitrana, Atomik, Idejder, Renew, TAO, Notorious, Eminence, Nurfed, Insomnia and whoever else contributed to the founding of BG9 possible.

Fantasy Basketball League - BG9 League Last day for Sign ups!

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:55:56 -0400

Battlegroup 9 Fantasy Basketball League (BG9FBL) is starting it's first draft, one of many leagues to come this season on September 27th at 9pm EST on yahoo.com fantasy sports.

Are you an NBA fan? Want to join a fantasy league full of competitive players?

How to Join:

-Be an supportive NBA basketball fan

-Have a Yahoo.com account, sign up on yahoo and go to http://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/ and join League id: 12450 with password: ym -

-The LIVE ONLINE DRAFT starts at 6pm PST / 9pm EST on Sept 27th

This league has a LIVE ONLINE Draft, meaning we get to choose our players in a draft order - you don't get to prepick them, you draft your team according to everyone else's teams.

League id: 12450 Password: ym

http://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/bg9

Yours truly will be the commissioner for the 2007-08 season, I'll be running several leagues depending on the interest of this.

-Brendan 'Trance'

Battlegroup 9 Fantasy Basketball League(s)

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:01:10 -0400

Battlegroup 9 Fantasy Basketball League (BG9FBL) is starting it's first draft, one of many leagues to come this season on September 27th at 9pm EST on yahoo.com fantasy sports.

Are you an NBA fan? Want to join a fantasy league full of competitive players?

How to Join:

- Be an ACTIVE member of the Bg9 Community, #battlegroup9 @ irc.gamesurge.net
- Be an supportive NBA basketball fan

- Have a Yahoo.com account, sign up on yahoo and go to http://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/ and join League id: 12450 with password: ym

- The LIVE ONLINE DRAFT starts at 6pm PST / 9pm EST on Sept 27th

This league has a LIVE ONLINE Draft, meaning we get to choose our players in a draft order - you don't get to prepick them, you draft your team according to everyone else's teams.

League id: 12450

Password: ym

http://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/bg9

Yours truly will be the commissioner for the 2007-08 season, I'll be running several leagues depending on the interest of this.

-Brendan 'Trance'

Battlegroup 9 Fantasy Football League (American Football)

no.spam@gameriot.com (trancez) — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 08:35:12 -0400

Battlegroup 9 Fantasy Football League is looking dedicated, enthusiastic football fans who 'want' to play in a competitive full season fantasy football league.

For those of you who haven't played fantasy football, you play in a 10 to 20 man league, head to head games with a drafted line-ups. The wins and losses are decided by overall player statistics, with offensive stats contributing the most to your success, with 1 overall accumulative defense stats based on the NFL team of your draft choice for your defensive stat catagory. Each team you partiscipate as the 'manager' of your team and you can trade / draft the players of each position of your choice.

Example: All teams meet up on IRC at a known date/time: where each manager selects a squad in real time. Every team selects one player per round until their roster is full. The draft order reverses each round, so the team that starts the first round will end the second, and the team that ends the first round will start the second.

ie. Round 1: Team 1 drafts a pick, team 2 drafts another, etc. Round 2: Team 10 drafts, team 9 drafts, team 8 drafts, etc.

A good example of the first overall picks are running backs, since they create the most stats in the game of football for most NFL teams. LT (LaDainian Tomlinson) the #1 running back in the NFL is the expected first pick for any veteran fantasy football manager.

Requirements for BG9 Fantasy Football:

-Must be an active member of the BG9 irc community

-Must be an avid sports fan, obvious football fan.

-I don't want this league to fail, so i'm looking for dedicated fans who want to play in an competitive fantasy football league.

If you have any more questions, feel free to message me for info. I've been doing fantasy sports leagues for years and being one of the biggest advocates for bg9, i feel this could be fun for the community

Commited Managers so far:

Trance - DEATHCOYLE

oPlaid

BlizzCon BG9 Movie Meet-Up

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 22:16:00 -0400
BG9 will be organizing a meet-up at a local theatre near the Anaheim Convention Center for a midnight screening of "The Bourne Ultimatum" (August 3rd, ~12:00 AM). Come and meet the faces behind the names!

The following theatres will be possible options:
AMC 30 At The Block
Regal Garden Grove 16

If there's anyone that lives in the general area and has any suggestions about the theatres, feel free to post them.

Make sure to bring your own money for the tickets and snacks. The goal is the fill the entire theatre with people from BG9 and have a chance for people to get to know eachother. Post here if you think you'll be able to make it.

Stay tuned for more details as the event draws closer.

UPDATE 7/31!

It's been suggested to me by an Anaheim local that AMC 30 At The Block will be our best bet. After (or before) picking up your tickets for BlizzCon, head over to the theatre and buy your tickets for the midnight screening early.

AMC 30 At The Block

I would suggest using a directions tool, such as Google Maps, if you need further help with directions. Make sure you plan everything out to be there on time.

Battlegroup 9: An Introduction

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ghwrin) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 03:19:55 -0400
For those of you unfamiliar with Battlegroup 9 (also referred to as Bloodlust) we are the premier server cluster for competitive World of Warcraft PvP. You may have heard naysayers trying to downplay us, but the fact of the matter is that nearly all of the top World of Warcraft teams in eSports call BG9 their home.

With many of the ranking teams from each battlegroup transferring to BG9, it's becoming more and more of a necessity for competitive players to follow suit. If you want to prepare your team for the next WSVG, why not scrimmage against teams like Pandemic, MoB Turtle Force, Check Six or Insurrection? Simply put, if you want become the best, play against the best.

The 3v3 bracket not your cup of tea? One of the main attractions to BG9 is the fact that it is host to the highest concentration of skilled 5v5 teams in the world. In fact, several guilds, teams and individuals have sought out new start on Bloodlust for this very reason. But, I saw on a website that random team x on backwater battlegroup y has a higher rating than most of the BG9 teams! Don't place any faith in those global ranking sites; to base a teams skill only on their rating is completely ignorant - how hard is it to farm points on a battlegroup with little to no competition? This is why a teams skill can only be accurately judged on BG9.

What else makes Battlegroup 9 so great? In my opinion, it's the highly active community - which actually extends outside the boundaries of BG9. Several people from around the world come to the Battlegroup 9 IRC channel every day to discuss topics ranging from arena strategy to their sexual fetishes (#battlegroup9 is renowned for its belief in the first amendment - you won't be censored). Friends are met, enemies made and drama ensues in the largest PvP oriented community around.

It's a combination of several things, too many to list and some too obscure to pinpoint, which makes Battlegroup 9/Bloodlust the best place to enjoy World of Warcraft.