Exclusive Jeff Hickman WAR Blog from PAX - The Hickman Returns

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Posted August 29th, 2008 by Cody Bye

So, here I am, on an airplane heading to Seattle and PAX.

I actually grew up in the Northwest, in Spokane on the Eastern edge of Washington State. Spokane, Seattle, Portland, Tacoma and Port Townsend – they were all my old stomping grounds. I actually fell in love with my wife in Seattle and spent many wonderful nights in the area, laughing with friends and learning how to live. I remember the city very fondly…

The Penny Arcade Expo is the last stop in the worldwide WAR tour.

I haven’t been back to Seattle in over 15 years though. I wonder how the years will have changed it? Is Pike Place Market still the place to go for fish? Does Seattle’s Best Coffee even exist anymore or did it get consumed by Starbucks? What about Dilettante chocolates? Is the crazy “Hammery Man” still standing in the middle of downtown?

As for PAX itself? It should be absolutely incredible. The show has a lot going for it, and is growing to be “the” North American show to go to and be at as a game developer. And we couldn’t ask for better timing. WAR is three weeks to launch and counting, our game is riding high on very positive beta reviews, our presales are through the roof, we have hit the mark with the game and PAX is the final leg on our world tour – our last place to show off before we launch. It is going to be awesome!

Let me share a little secret with you all; When Ten Ton Hammer asked me to write this blog for them about my trip to PAX, I was initially unsure of where to go with it. Josh and Paul have both written fairly successful and popular pieces for TTH, and neither of them could resist the temptation to point out to me how popular their attempts were, and how difficult it will be for me to achieve their greatness. Josh did have one piece of advice for me; “get drunk before you write them”. Thanks Josh…

…so I decided to blatantly and shamelessly cheat my way into getting people to read my blog. Here is my plan;

I will reveal to you that they were mean to me when they both pointed out that I have no hope in getting the number of readers that their blogs received.
I will ask and if need be, beg, you all to come and read my humble blog attempts in an effort to surpass their reader numbers.
As a last ditch, only I can pull this off, underhanded maneuver, I will put in each of my blog entries some little tidbits of information about Warhammer Online that people may not know.

If all of this fails, then I will be forever trapped in “the hell of Paul and Josh poking fun at me for the rest of my life about not being as popular as them” – as the guys from Big Trouble in Little China would call it.

So, without further ado, here is my blatant attempt at cheating for readership;

Things you may not know about WAR or have been afraid to ask!

1. Lairs are awesome and have yet to be really discovered and exploited by the players. Let me give you a nudge;

There is a Lair in Nordland. It is on the other side of the mountains from Grimmenhagen village, just past Salzemund. You have to pass by Salzemund and swim down the coast to find it. It, like all Lairs, has a pretty tough boss monster in it that has a chance of dropping some pretty good loot.

There is a Lair in Western Prague that is tough to find. Swim west, up the river from Prague. Don’t stop until you see a little cove on your right. This leads to the entrance to another Lair that not many people (if any) know about.

2. Has anyone really figured out where the Armor Sets come from? Remember there are around 20 for each career...

PvE Sets can come from both PQs, and Dungeons (in higher levels). The PQ Sets are generally from rare bags in the higher level PQs in each Tier. For a better chance at getting the rare bags, do the “hard” difficulty PQs. The Dungeon Sets are gained in Gunbad, Bastion Stair, the High Level City Dungeons and Lost Vale. These are mostly from the bosses in each wing, though some pieces drop from all monsters in the dungeons. Each set will help you get to the next.

RvR Sets are gained in a bunch of different ways. Some pieces are gained from killing enemy players of various Renown Ranks, some from killing the guards around BOs and Keeps, some are purchasable from Renown Merchants. Killing Keep and Fortress Lords is an almost sure fire way of getting the best RvR Set pieces.

City Sets? I think I will leave that for later… *winks*

Respond to my blog with direct questions on the forums, and I will read them and try to answer whatever I can in my next blog post.

More tomorrow from PAX (and more cheating too)!

- Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer

(Editor's Note: If you enjoyed this blog, make sure you check out all of Jeff Hickman's PAX blogs by clicking here!)

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