Warmaster

[r1p]

Let me start by saying that I play on PS3/NA and so some of the things that I am posting may only apply to that platform and/or region. I would also like to state that I've only been playing the game for about 6 months, which makes me an "f2p" player, but I am aware that my perspective is at least a little skewed because I haven't been around for the entire evolution of the game. I'm mentioning this because there is a large portion of the current PS3 playing community that joined when the game became free-to-play and I believe it is significant when considering the cultural shift that has occurred with regards to the Warmaster event. It took me totally by surprise.

Until recently the WM event has been a waste of time to play on PS3/NA because you had a better chance of pulling OJ grenades out of a lockbox then beating it. In my first 5 months playing I was only present once when it was beaten and that was during the time it was nerfed. Also no matter how many times I went back the we hardly ever even broke the crystal armor much less got close to beating it. I do know that it was beaten during this time frame, but a lot of the time it was a huge undertaking getting enough skilled and equipped people into the same instance so the success rate was abysmal. There were a few reasons for the lack of success and I'm sure that one of them is the large influx of f2p players. The f2p business model is prone to attracting a large transient player population and most of them aren't go to spend as much time learning all of the mechanics of the game mostly because they don't have anything invested in the game itself. They also aren't going to take the time to read the forums or read the great guides that are available and they probably don't even know that defiancedata.com. Just flash back to the Solstice event when everyone was spamming the chat window looking for reindeer locations. How many times did you see "where?" or "huh?" when they were told to go use the reindeer map on defiance data? Another part of the problem is the locks and timer that were added before f2p. From what I've gathered this has turned off a lot of veterans from participating and it was compounded by new players destroying the locks because they are programmed from the start of the game to follow the instructions from their EGO. These 2 these things combined made it difficult to get experienced, well-equipped players into the event. Throw in people yelling insults at other players when telling not shoot the Viscera or not to shoot the locks and now griefers are added to the mix because people don't like being insulted. All of these things add up to a rag tag group of everyone doing their own thing and no chance of success.

Fast forward to the quasi-present. I went to a WM last week because I got invited by a friend that I won't say no to when he invites me to it. I went expecting another Failmaster and was shocked at how organized it was. Everyone was calm and organized and no one shot the Viscera or the locks. People had the proper equipment, dropped spikes when they were supposed to and focused on the right arm. Not everyone extracted when they should have but you can't have everything. At one point I stopped to watch because I had never been to a WM where everyone knew what to do and that's when something odd happened: we beat the Big Blue Monkey. To be honest I was shocked more by the fact that everyone played as 1 cohesive unit than by the fact that we beat it. I was also shocked because no one pulled out a BMG or a CF and at least a third of the group had an EGO below 4k. I got another invite the next night and we beat it 2 out of 4 tries and I wasn't disappointed with the matches that we lost. I ran it again last night and the groups that I was in went 3 for 3. The winning is great and all, but the amazing thing is the change in culture surrounding the event. Also, from what I can tell this has been building momentum since the beginning of the year with more and more players showing up prepared and understanding what needs done.

So, if you've gotten this far please be aware that you just lost 10 minutes of your life. And yeah, if you think this is long winded just think how the rest of my clan feels when I'm in clan chat Seriously, what I really want to do is thank everyone who has been a part of this shift and has taken the time to educate and assist people when they want/need it. It helps make the game better and I'm sure you aren't thanked enough. I would also like to also thank the members of the Trion staff for the substantial influx of Golden Ring's during the Solstice event because they have been a big help in properly equipping players.

*Sidenote
I'm sure almost none of you were aware that I was boycotting the WM for a time. I enjoy a good boss fight especially where multiple players have to work together to overcome it. I also don't expect/want to win every time but I do want fair chance to beat it. With the culture being what it used to be and timer/lock mechanics compounding the issue it appeared that the only way I would ever have a chance to enjoy the WM would be via a private instance with players that I knew and who understood what to do. So, needless to say that when Trion announced that it would cost 3 Hunter Req tokens for private WM instances I was incensed. I couldn't believe that they were tying a revenue stream to something that I had already paid for. Also, from my perspective WM was broken without private instances so it felt like I was getting charged a recurring fee for the patch. Given these things I decided to boycott the event until something changed. The funny thing is that the one thing that I thought had no chance of changing was the culture. Change like this requires too many things to be done properly to have any effect especially in a semi-anonymous environment with a largely transient population such as this one. So, what this shift has done for me is eliminate the need for private instances and enabled me to enjoy WM again. Thanks everyone for giving me yet another reason to keep playing Defiance.

[Burned In Effigy]

I'm in almost every wm event since I hooked up with Lonestar. If u want u can friend me . if one of your other friends aren't on. For me as well it'd the cohesiveness of the group that go in to kill the warmaster.
Every so often someone just bullrushes the inside to only bullrush the locks but I don't see it too often. Mostly when I get there there's already 20+ dedicated killers.

[EvilAg3nt]

what weapons Exactly << are required to beat the WM??
all i ever see is dont shoot the locks and dont use this that the other weapons,very confusing.
so,what Should we Be Using?

[r1p]

These 2 guides will give you a good idea on what to use:

http://forums.defiance.com/showthrea...armaster-Guide

http://forums.defiance.com/showthrea...e-by-Miss-Teri

But a quick synopsis would be a high DPS weapon to remove the crystal armor and a high Crit weapon on the exposed area after the armor is gone. A lot people use Pulsers & Tachmags for high DPS and a Wolfhound for Crit which is why the Golden Ring from the Solstice event is so popular. There are other weapons that fit these categories and the guides I listed should help you choose what to bring.

[Bonehead]

*way tldr* Thanks everyone for giving me yet another reason to keep playing Defiance.

Glad it worked out for you.

[Iceberg]

These 2 guides will give you a good idea on what to use:

http://forums.defiance.com/showthrea...armaster-Guide

http://forums.defiance.com/showthrea...e-by-Miss-Teri

But a quick synopsis would be a high DPS weapon to remove the crystal armor and a high Crit weapon on the exposed area after the armor is gone. A lot people use Pulsers & Tachmags for high DPS and a Wolfhound for Crit which is why the Golden Ring from the Solstice event is so popular. There are other weapons that fit these categories and the guides I listed should help you choose what to bring.

Pretty much this. I use the VOT tachmag pulsar smg with rad nano a bio nade and a fire wolfhound. Only thing I wish they would bring back is the total damage done at the end of the fight, even if its a second page on the post fight scoreboard.

[Mrdr]

I was at a major arkfall last night where everyone was waiting for it to hit. About 20 of us were in our vehicles and decided to have a car show. We were able to organize ourselves enough to park side by side and have a car horn "wave" etc. Then we decided to break formation and start stunt driving. It was the most fun I've had so far in this game/world. Unfortunately I was totally disconnected as soon as it fell. I reconnected but by the time I got there it was too late. Everyone was inside and I was unable to get in as I didn't know anyone in there. As a sub-1100 ego player and reading these WM guides and such I was really excited to finally get in on a WM with an organized group. Unfortunately it didn't happen.

That said I wanted to thank everyone who was there for the fun car show. I had a blast and hope to do it again. For anyone wondering, I was the one in the hellfire Durango who started the donut session from the line up. I think everyone had fun with it. It was nice to experience this level of organization between non clan members and everyone having a good time. I look forward to the next one and hope more can join in the fun too. See you in the Bay Area.

[Chris Robet]

I was one of the vets that gave up on the warmaster. Once free to play came out I tried for a few months to educate people on how best to beat him and one of the main things that discouraged Vets from the warmaster was the way people took our advice. I rarely was able to tell people different tactics for the warmaster without some other person yelling at me or using words that were very much against the CoC then telling these people to use boomers or some stupid thing like that. I am happy to see that he is going down daily now but for many other vets whose advice was ignored or had people turn hostile on them enough is enough and I doubt we will see a lot of Vets return to the warmaster due the abuse recieved.

[konstantinov]

I was at a major arkfall last night where everyone was waiting for it to hit. About 20 of us were in our vehicles and decided to have a car show. We were able to organize ourselves enough to park side by side and have a car horn "wave" etc. Then we decided to break formation and start stunt driving. It was the most fun I've had so far in this game/world. Unfortunately I was totally disconnected as soon as it fell. I reconnected but by the time I got there it was too late. Everyone was inside and I was unable to get in as I didn't know anyone in there. As a sub-1100 ego player and reading these WM guides and such I was really excited to finally get in on a WM with an organized group. Unfortunately it didn't happen.

That said I wanted to thank everyone who was there for the fun car show. I had a blast and hope to do it again. For anyone wondering, I was the one in the hellfire Durango who started the donut session from the line up. I think everyone had fun with it. It was nice to experience this level of organization between non clan members and everyone having a good time. I look forward to the next one and hope more can join in the fun too. See you in the Bay Area.

So out of 20 of you guys no one had the DLC to drop the spikes? That's pretty impressive.

[Mrdr]

So out of 20 of you guys no one had the DLC to drop the spikes? That's pretty impressive.

No everyone got there almost at the same time and was having fun. While having fun we were waiting on clan mates to show. None of mine showed though Then after everyone had their fun the spikes were dropped. As soon as it hit I was dc'd and couldn't get back in since I didn't know anyone inside Either way we had a good time before hand. It's a shame you weren't there. It was fun.