I’ve never planified to play Warhammer Online and yet here I am playing it. The reasons why I’ve stopped playing momentarily LOTRO are a bit long and complex but I’ll try. Excited by Mines of Moria, I rushed ahead to level up my alts to make them ready for Mines of Moria, LOTRO’s upcoming expansion, that tired me up a bit of the game. Then there was all this drama on the official forums about the trollish lore-nazis, constantly bashing players like me who love playing casters. Then there was the destruction of the rune-keeper by the lore nazi in the beta, the rune-keeper was fun but the animations are pretty much gone, I was really looking forward to it. The nail to the coffin is the upcoming nerf to my two favorite classes, lore-master and minstrel.

It really feels as if the few issues I’ve had with LOTRO have become bigger: lack of magic, absence of caster classes, lack of fantasy (the game feels more like a medieval MMO than a fantasy one actually).

I’ve spent the last two months not really playing but I payed my game card anyway, and I’m too poor and rational to waste money on a game I barely play. So I’ve decided to momentarily stop playing LOTRO and invest in another game for the next months, I cannot imagine myself not playing any MMO for a while. I’ve been through and through Guild Wars and I’ve burned the game so it has to be something else. I’ve heard good reviews about Warhammer Online and it had a good launch (unlike a few like Age of Conan per example), I can see there are many cool caster classes in their game, their PvP is fair, etc. Now that I’ve started it, it’s obvious they took a LOT from Guild Wars in a good way. The community is nice, the classes are fun, there is a decent PvE side along with their PvP, no death penalty, no item wear, anyone at any level can PvP. Some of the people in the guild I’m in in LOTRO are in Warhammer Online too and I’ve found a good guild there, I was in their guild at some point with them in LOTRO. The guild is Shadow Company.

I find the Destruction side wicked cool and their classes oh so wicked cool too, so I play on the Destruction side on the NA RP Ostermark server and the Order side on the NA RP Phoenix Throne server. My Destruction alts are Azaroth (Disciple of Khaine), Khainlin (Sorcerer), Minesha (Magus), Rahmiel (Zealot), Tamarah (Witch Elf), Waaka (Shaman) and Waaroth (Squig Herder). My Order alts are Flamelia (Bright Wizard), Kharzem (Engineer), Mazaroth (Shadow Warrior), Minesha (Archmage), Sapphir (White Lion) and Sulian (Witch Hunter). I like that it’s dark and gritty. Warhammer Online is not perfect of course, it’s interface is far from being intuitive and there are elements missing but it’s decent and the classes are fun to play. I’m very lost since I know nothing about the lore of the game but at the same time, discovering a new world is fun.