Great Times on Iron Rock

As we draw upon the two year anniversary of Warhammer Online, I've been reflecting on some of the best times I've had in the game since closed beta.  One of those times just happened to be last night on Iron Rock.  The south keep in Chaos Wastes was being attacked by Order, and one of the best keep defenses I have ever seen was on...

Chaos Wastes

It was about 9PM EST.  Order had been running around the zones doing their usual thing.  Over the past few months Destro has pretty much come to accept the fact that Order will be in the city on a regular basis, and as such very few turn out anymore to defend.  It really has seemed to have killed the server at some times, but last night for whatever reason Destro showed up in full force. 

Over the next two and a half hours, with roughly 300 total people, we battled over the south keep in Chaos Wastes.  Probably six full warbands on each side doing their best to take down the enemy and stake it's claim to not only the keep, but to the zone.  It was what a keep take / defense should be like.  All to well do we know how easy it can be to take a keep, but rarely do we see such an instance where the feeling was truly epic and one of which the entirety of the realm can get behind. 

I had been soloing on my Witch Elf, Tragical, in Chaos Wastes before the keep siege began to take place.  But I could see the pieces slowly coming together for what would be one of the largest fights we have seen on Iron Rock in months.  There was so much action, that the lag actually turned out to be pretty awful.  But it didn't matter.  There was action!  It was intense!  No one cared that there was huge lag spikes left and right.  It was mentioned in Vent, but other than that no one minded.  We were just basking in the glory of the moment, doing our darnedest to hold the Order back.  And hold them back we did....

After roughly 2 to3 hours, thousands of kills, two sets of doors (inner and outer), we finally pushed them back.  Although I had been on my WE ganking around the edges of the keep, and on the travel paths Order takes, I had such a feeling of accomplishment.  Region chat was filled with "congrats", "great job everyone", "awesome fight" and the like.  The entire realm felt great about itself.  It was almost as if Destruction banded together to say, enough is enough.  We have been run over for far to long and now is the time to do something about it. 

Last night really restored my confidence with the game.  For the most part, RvR has become stale on Iron Rock.  It's the usual roam around, hopping from one AAO zone to the next while we sit in scenario queues.  Nothing near as epic as last nights memorable defense.  Hopefully it did the same for others on the server as well.  I would love to see fights like this on a daily basis.  It's what the game was meant to be from the start.  Epic battles, a great community, and a general hatred of your enemies (respecting them all the same).  With 1.4 on the horizon, it's fights like these that the game and server need now.  Here's to hoping nights like last night continue, through 1.4 and beyond.