Putting the “Murder” in Murderball
Beyond that, however, my first five minutes on the game were a bit frenetic and haphazard. Having inherited a computer in the middle of a RvR skirmish, I was put at the helm of a level 20 Bright Wizard in the middle of the battlefield, getting wailed on by a couple of Disciples. Needless to say, it did not end well. Being half-way to the level cap of 40, my toon had a lot of abilities equipped to his button bar, and being thrown into the middle of the action made it hard to take the time to tell one skill from another. Once I did get an opportunity to take a look at what my character could do, playing became a lot more enjoyable and more strategic than just random skill clicking. The Bright Wizard is a pure caster class, akin to elementalists and various mages from other games, though his damage is strictly fire-based. Equipped with an arsenal of direct-damage spells and AoEs that leave lingering damage-over-time effects called “burns”, he also had several direct DoT spells and debuffs called “hexes”. These were rounded off with a temporary root spell which immobilizes surrounding enemies in a cage of fire and a buff which placed a damage absorption field around party members for an hour. It was a bit of a challenge to get used to playing such a squishy character (I am partial to tanking classes, myself), but very fun, and with multiple Bright Wizards on our side we were at least able to go out in literal blazes of glory every time a Chaos Marauder came a’calling.
The skirmishes themselves took several different forms, all of them classics in multiplayer conflict: flag capturing, murderball running, target destroying and base holding. Each lasted about twenty minutes and had its own objective and specific environment. My particular favorite was the powder keg scenario, in which both factions vied for a murderball located in the dead center of the map. In order to succeed, the murderball then had to be brought to the opposing faction’s bridge to blow it up. To have a sense of how well or poorly things are going for your site, the HUD includes a small timer as well as tally of each team’s score. Completing the objective dumps a whole bunch of points in your team’s corner, but it’s not a sure win. If your team is light on the slaughter, an aggressive opponent can easily chip away at your lead by racking up a bunch of kills against your teammates. The faction whose side ultimately wins the battle ends up scoring points for their affiliation.
