Ok! it's been a while! I took a break from the game. Not because I was frustrated with the game itself but I was frustrated with the lack of community I was seeing back in Feb/Mar. My graphics card also died & I didn't want to buy a new one. Turns out my older one works find which really suprised me.
I'm running this game fairly well on a P4 2.9 or 3.9 ghz can't remember, Nvidia 6600 GTX 128mb, and 2 gb of DDR2-800mhz ram. Sure the graphics aren't the best but the game runs smoooth enough. I hardly every experience hardcore lag.
My time in game since returning has been fantastic. I've been taking it fairly slow to get through t2 but I've engaged in some great oRvR so why would I rush. I knew when the servers were merged into fewer servers the community would start to get better. I gave it some time to build and I can say at least on Iron Rock that there is a fantastic community already and it will only continue to grow. Because of this the game is as fun to play as DAoC...oRvR is not the same thing over and over again that you get in Scenarios and it's usually larger scale open area fights. Keep taking is great as long as you know your role....as a WH I make sure I keep an eye on the postern...actually I keep and eye on the path leading to the postern because if you just stand at the postern people will run past you. If you cut them off on their way you have a better chance of stopping them. You bring their health down enough that the people standing at the postern can quickly finish them off with you.
Here are some other WH strategies that I've come up with. Again I'm only T2 but i think they will be relevant all the way to t4.
When in a WB stick around the healers for a bit. RVR as a quasi-squishy class is difficult if you get targeted by someone, you're dead pretty quickly. If you stick with your healers you are the last person that the enemy will target. People are more interested in healers and ranged dps. This effectivly leaves you unseen. Healers need someone like you with them...you can quickly take down any threats without drawing a lot of attention to yourself. This also ensures you're always in range of a healer.
Another advatage of staying within the main clump of your warband is it allows you to stealth while people aren't watching you. If you run out of the group then stealth you're just asking to be looked for. If people don't know that you even stealthed they'll be really suprised when you pop on them.
The rear positional style w/ burn the heretic is a great damage dealing combo. I like trial by pain but it get's blocked a lot and I find burn the heretic drops their health faster.
Never ever let people see you stealth, they know you're there waiting for them. use obstacles such as trees and rocks as cover to hide behind. When you see an enemy wait until you have a chance to hit them, stealth up, leave your hiding spot then jump on them. They will be so suprised they won't know what to do...they will run which is a perfect opportunity to use the rear positional...use the snare if needed and keep owning them.
If you're a Witch Hunter or a Witch Elf give these a shot, it might be a nice change form dying constantly!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Why I like Mythic Entertainment
OK so to most people that play WAR probably say they don't like Mythic. I've seen it all over the forums. Mythic suck's...Mythic doesn't know how to design a game. You know same old same old on those places.
Here's why I think Mythic and this game will continue to be a success.
The number one feeling I get from the forums about mythic is that people aren't or weren't happy that they are paying to essentially be Beta testers. I don't think the game would be a success if they didn't do that. Sure they could have invited every single one of us but why do that when people will pay for it anyways. It was a smart move on their part to ensure they are getting paid to make this game completely awesome.
Another reason I like Mythic is because they care a lot about what the community thinks about their game. They listen to the playerbase's ideas and implement the ones that make sense. By doing that they are not only limiting the vision of the game to the creativity of a specific group of game designers but they are allowing what is essentially the worlds largest brainstorm. I also like that the president and ceo of the company communicates with the players directly. That way we get to see what his vision is like to help us expand on his ideas.
They made the only two MMO's that I have ever enjoyed to play for more than a week.
They've taken a lot of shit for the last 5 months. If they were strong enough to take that and meanwhile make the game exponentially better than they definatly have something going for them. If they were a football team you would commend them for their heart and determination to be the best.
So next time you think about mythic I hope this brightens your eyes to what makes them a great company.
Here's why I think Mythic and this game will continue to be a success.
The number one feeling I get from the forums about mythic is that people aren't or weren't happy that they are paying to essentially be Beta testers. I don't think the game would be a success if they didn't do that. Sure they could have invited every single one of us but why do that when people will pay for it anyways. It was a smart move on their part to ensure they are getting paid to make this game completely awesome.
Another reason I like Mythic is because they care a lot about what the community thinks about their game. They listen to the playerbase's ideas and implement the ones that make sense. By doing that they are not only limiting the vision of the game to the creativity of a specific group of game designers but they are allowing what is essentially the worlds largest brainstorm. I also like that the president and ceo of the company communicates with the players directly. That way we get to see what his vision is like to help us expand on his ideas.
They made the only two MMO's that I have ever enjoyed to play for more than a week.
They've taken a lot of shit for the last 5 months. If they were strong enough to take that and meanwhile make the game exponentially better than they definatly have something going for them. If they were a football team you would commend them for their heart and determination to be the best.
So next time you think about mythic I hope this brightens your eyes to what makes them a great company.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
T1 RvR Strategy
Here my first of I'm sure many ideas on strategy in this game. This of course may not be what someone else might do. If you think my ideas wouldn't work let me know why you think that.
T1 is the most basic form of RvR that you can experience in the game. There are fewer abilities availible to each person which keeps it fairly balanced and fast paced. I find it to be great fun and gives you a good sense of how your class fits in in the grand scheme of things. Essentially it's the first training ground for the more epic battles.
RvR is about fighting the enemy and the epic struggle for land. Even still people find themselves caught up in what I will lovingly call "take fever." You'll probably also hear it called keep swapping and BO trading. Everyone is more than willing to take, but has no will to keep what they take. Basically all you end up doing is running into pve mobs that take like 5 seconds to kill then stand and wait for 3 minutes. Once that point is capped move on to the next one. This is the wrong way to be doing it.
What should really be happening is taking all of the BO's in the zone, then wait at the first one you capped, sooner than later destro will have a warband on it trying to cap all the BOs in the zone. if your realm only holds those objectives then destro will have no choice but to attack them. And they will because they have take fever.
You will find that fighting constantly will give you more xp that just running around and capping BO's. And it will be more fun.
If your warband leaves to go take BO's because no destro is coming to fight then leave a small force to defend your current objectives. That way if something starts happening at the more vulnerable BO's then the WB will have a chance to get back to help.
I would also help to have scouts patrol the RvR lakes that your warband isn't in. That way you can tell where destro is and you can keep the lines of communication open. Thus allowing your warband to be wherever they are needed within a moments notice.
One other important thing to remember is to not get too caught up on attacking a very well defended BO, just move to the next availible BO, they will follow you and you will have the advantage of defending an area.
Don't attack BO's that can't be captured, it's just silly to fight for no reason and to die for no reason. Attack the BO's that can be attacked and defend your own when they are attackable.
If you do these things in T1 RvR you will find your side victorious more often than not. Get out there and give it a try. Don't be afraid of dying, you will be back in the fight in moments.
Happy hunting out there!
T1 is the most basic form of RvR that you can experience in the game. There are fewer abilities availible to each person which keeps it fairly balanced and fast paced. I find it to be great fun and gives you a good sense of how your class fits in in the grand scheme of things. Essentially it's the first training ground for the more epic battles.
RvR is about fighting the enemy and the epic struggle for land. Even still people find themselves caught up in what I will lovingly call "take fever." You'll probably also hear it called keep swapping and BO trading. Everyone is more than willing to take, but has no will to keep what they take. Basically all you end up doing is running into pve mobs that take like 5 seconds to kill then stand and wait for 3 minutes. Once that point is capped move on to the next one. This is the wrong way to be doing it.
What should really be happening is taking all of the BO's in the zone, then wait at the first one you capped, sooner than later destro will have a warband on it trying to cap all the BOs in the zone. if your realm only holds those objectives then destro will have no choice but to attack them. And they will because they have take fever.
You will find that fighting constantly will give you more xp that just running around and capping BO's. And it will be more fun.
If your warband leaves to go take BO's because no destro is coming to fight then leave a small force to defend your current objectives. That way if something starts happening at the more vulnerable BO's then the WB will have a chance to get back to help.
I would also help to have scouts patrol the RvR lakes that your warband isn't in. That way you can tell where destro is and you can keep the lines of communication open. Thus allowing your warband to be wherever they are needed within a moments notice.
One other important thing to remember is to not get too caught up on attacking a very well defended BO, just move to the next availible BO, they will follow you and you will have the advantage of defending an area.
Don't attack BO's that can't be captured, it's just silly to fight for no reason and to die for no reason. Attack the BO's that can be attacked and defend your own when they are attackable.
If you do these things in T1 RvR you will find your side victorious more often than not. Get out there and give it a try. Don't be afraid of dying, you will be back in the fight in moments.
Happy hunting out there!
Monday, January 12, 2009
This game is not DAoC!
I hear and see that a lot these days and I felt the same way as a lot of people. This game just isn't a new DAoC that the old DAoC fans were looking for. I've played warhammer long enough now to get a general sense of how I think the game has turned out so far. I found there were things that I wanted from DAoC to be implimented into WAR.
Then I thought about WAR as it's own game and stopped comparing it to DAoC. I came to the conclusion that WAR is already a better actual game than DAoC ever was, especially in the PVe sense. RVR is always RVR and will change with every patch so I know that they will make the end game more interesting over time. But if you look at the environments compared to DAoC they blow DAoC's out of the water they really give you the sense that you're in this fantastical world that is the warhammer universe. The quest stories are fantastic. PQ's are revolutionary and a great alternative to dungeon crawls. Scenarios are actually a blast!
Compare it next to DAoC. Bland old and tired environments of the same colour scheme. The were still nice enough but WAR's just seem so lush. TD's were fun in their own way and the almost instant dungeon crawl for good enough xp was fun (and I find this is something I miss) however if anyone's complaining about a grind in this game forgets how they got to 50 in DAOC. BG's and RvR were pretty fun and I'm sure still are. We're starting to get a good sense of this in WAR now and it can only really go up from where it was. In daoc you had a lot of assjamming going on all over the place. Solo's whining about someone or a group adding on their 1v1 fight, a fg whining about the zerg rolling them and the zerg whining about population balance.
WAR almost segregates these three parts of rvr to areas where they are basically as fair as can be. 1v1's will still get jumped on by others but there are a lot less 1's running around in RvR zones. Fg's can queue for scenarios and get the balanced small group fighting that they are looking for with some fun objectives thrown in so it's not just beating eachother for no reason. Open RvR is basically zerg vs. zerg like the keep fights in DAoC and it gives them a chance to play without having to worry about leet 8-mans yelling at them, they will always whine about population balance however, considering the population will probably change over time.
So my advice for starting warhammer is this. Don't go into the game expecting to get a daoc clone like you wanted. Go into it and experience the game for what it is. Take your time while end game gets enhanced and go from there. As MJ always likes to say "this is a marathon not a sprint."
Then I thought about WAR as it's own game and stopped comparing it to DAoC. I came to the conclusion that WAR is already a better actual game than DAoC ever was, especially in the PVe sense. RVR is always RVR and will change with every patch so I know that they will make the end game more interesting over time. But if you look at the environments compared to DAoC they blow DAoC's out of the water they really give you the sense that you're in this fantastical world that is the warhammer universe. The quest stories are fantastic. PQ's are revolutionary and a great alternative to dungeon crawls. Scenarios are actually a blast!
Compare it next to DAoC. Bland old and tired environments of the same colour scheme. The were still nice enough but WAR's just seem so lush. TD's were fun in their own way and the almost instant dungeon crawl for good enough xp was fun (and I find this is something I miss) however if anyone's complaining about a grind in this game forgets how they got to 50 in DAOC. BG's and RvR were pretty fun and I'm sure still are. We're starting to get a good sense of this in WAR now and it can only really go up from where it was. In daoc you had a lot of assjamming going on all over the place. Solo's whining about someone or a group adding on their 1v1 fight, a fg whining about the zerg rolling them and the zerg whining about population balance.
WAR almost segregates these three parts of rvr to areas where they are basically as fair as can be. 1v1's will still get jumped on by others but there are a lot less 1's running around in RvR zones. Fg's can queue for scenarios and get the balanced small group fighting that they are looking for with some fun objectives thrown in so it's not just beating eachother for no reason. Open RvR is basically zerg vs. zerg like the keep fights in DAoC and it gives them a chance to play without having to worry about leet 8-mans yelling at them, they will always whine about population balance however, considering the population will probably change over time.
So my advice for starting warhammer is this. Don't go into the game expecting to get a daoc clone like you wanted. Go into it and experience the game for what it is. Take your time while end game gets enhanced and go from there. As MJ always likes to say "this is a marathon not a sprint."
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
How to play teh VN.
First rule about VN is there are no rules in VN. (Except swearing and trolling).
Put on your flame retardant and retard retardant suit before entering the VN.
Peruse the general board for a topic that you are emotional about. Read all the posts. Find something that someone said that you disagree with.
Instead of posting something that is logical and concise, tell everything that what you say is fact and that everyone else in the world feels the same way as you. All while completely ridiculing the person who you disagree with and call them stupid or an idiot.
Defend your post and yourself from all of the other people doing the same thing to you.
Once you get bored of this you can create your own post telling Mythic how you think (with all your gaming genius) they should have made their game. Which will draw new posts from the people you were just defending your other posts from and other people who disagree with what you say.
Ensure that your post count gradually increases so that your VN rank can increase so more people will take you more seriously, which won't happen anyways because people will realize you have no life and all you do all day is post on VN boards complaining and defending your complaints about a video game from which you probably don't play that much anyways because VN is more fun to you.
Once your post count is high wait for MarkJacobsEA to make a post so that you may post something on his thread so he might possibly read what you have to say. When in all honesty he probably sits there and laughs about how stupid his playerbase is and how worked up they get about anything inconsequential. Then he makes a random post quoting someone, which creates more stupid assinine posts of people trying to be heard by the man.
VN is a nasty beast, but if you can get through all the crap and can find that little gem that actually helps you in the game then it's all worth it. Plus it keeps you busy at work if you're bored. Just don't get caught up in the RvR of the VN. When you make posts make then logical and concise and ensure that people realize that what you are posting is of your own opinion and that you're not trying to speak for the masses that don't exist.
Put on your flame retardant and retard retardant suit before entering the VN.
Peruse the general board for a topic that you are emotional about. Read all the posts. Find something that someone said that you disagree with.
Instead of posting something that is logical and concise, tell everything that what you say is fact and that everyone else in the world feels the same way as you. All while completely ridiculing the person who you disagree with and call them stupid or an idiot.
Defend your post and yourself from all of the other people doing the same thing to you.
Once you get bored of this you can create your own post telling Mythic how you think (with all your gaming genius) they should have made their game. Which will draw new posts from the people you were just defending your other posts from and other people who disagree with what you say.
Ensure that your post count gradually increases so that your VN rank can increase so more people will take you more seriously, which won't happen anyways because people will realize you have no life and all you do all day is post on VN boards complaining and defending your complaints about a video game from which you probably don't play that much anyways because VN is more fun to you.
Once your post count is high wait for MarkJacobsEA to make a post so that you may post something on his thread so he might possibly read what you have to say. When in all honesty he probably sits there and laughs about how stupid his playerbase is and how worked up they get about anything inconsequential. Then he makes a random post quoting someone, which creates more stupid assinine posts of people trying to be heard by the man.
VN is a nasty beast, but if you can get through all the crap and can find that little gem that actually helps you in the game then it's all worth it. Plus it keeps you busy at work if you're bored. Just don't get caught up in the RvR of the VN. When you make posts make then logical and concise and ensure that people realize that what you are posting is of your own opinion and that you're not trying to speak for the masses that don't exist.
Take your time!
I know it's tough these days to comprehend that people out there actually like playing Warhammer Online. Especially if you read any of the Warhammer forums like the VN Boards and Warhammer Alliance.
Ok so the game's not perfect and even though this is the first MMO launch that I've suffered through I understand that there are always problems at the start of any MMO. I debated waiting a while before playing to let them work out the bugs but I was too excited to try the game out. I understood that the game wouldn't be nearly as polished as the years I played through in DAoC, but I knew it had the potential to be a great game right off the get go.
There has been a lot of drama and a lot of negativity towards this game in the last couple of months but we're starting to see that take a turn for the better. I understand there are still some issues in t3 and t4 and I don't think I'd like to experience what most people are describing so I've been sticking with t1 and t2 pretty much my whole time in this game. A lot of people show disrespect towards the players who haven't made it to t4 yet and I know I'm not the only one.
Actually I think a lot of the people who aren't at the highest level yet are the smart ones. We're taking our time to learn class mechanics and how each class works in the grand scheme of things. I jumped around servers for a bit to find the right server, jumped around classes to find the right class, then jumped around guilds and haven't found the right one yet. Heck any player who has stayed playing in t1 and t2 because they know that the endgame is still bugged is a smart player, you can just tell because they made the right choice to maintain the fun level of the game. Endgame will be fixed and when the word hits VN then people like myself will make the trek to t4.
Even when t4 is fixed I recommend to anyone playing the game to take their time while leveling. Ensure that you read all of the descriptions of your class abilities and use them accordingly, don't just spam 1, 2, 3 or something like that. If you use all of your abilities as they should be used you will be a great player.
If you've read any of my previous posts you'd be a great player anyways :P
Ok so the game's not perfect and even though this is the first MMO launch that I've suffered through I understand that there are always problems at the start of any MMO. I debated waiting a while before playing to let them work out the bugs but I was too excited to try the game out. I understood that the game wouldn't be nearly as polished as the years I played through in DAoC, but I knew it had the potential to be a great game right off the get go.
There has been a lot of drama and a lot of negativity towards this game in the last couple of months but we're starting to see that take a turn for the better. I understand there are still some issues in t3 and t4 and I don't think I'd like to experience what most people are describing so I've been sticking with t1 and t2 pretty much my whole time in this game. A lot of people show disrespect towards the players who haven't made it to t4 yet and I know I'm not the only one.
Actually I think a lot of the people who aren't at the highest level yet are the smart ones. We're taking our time to learn class mechanics and how each class works in the grand scheme of things. I jumped around servers for a bit to find the right server, jumped around classes to find the right class, then jumped around guilds and haven't found the right one yet. Heck any player who has stayed playing in t1 and t2 because they know that the endgame is still bugged is a smart player, you can just tell because they made the right choice to maintain the fun level of the game. Endgame will be fixed and when the word hits VN then people like myself will make the trek to t4.
Even when t4 is fixed I recommend to anyone playing the game to take their time while leveling. Ensure that you read all of the descriptions of your class abilities and use them accordingly, don't just spam 1, 2, 3 or something like that. If you use all of your abilities as they should be used you will be a great player.
If you've read any of my previous posts you'd be a great player anyways :P
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
RvR with your class archtype.
Alrighty, so now you basically know how to do everything you need to do in t1. Once you've figured out t1 then you'll be set on your way up the rest of the tiers.
I'm going to take you through a little run down of how I believe each archtype of class should generally be played (in t1 of course). This is my opinion but if you follow this then make some tweaks for your class in specific then you should be golden.
In Warhammer Online there are 4 different types of class. Tanks, Healers, Ranged DPS and Melee DPS.
Tanks:
Order: Ironbreaker, Swordmaster, Knight of the Blazing Sun
Destruction: Black Guard, Black Orc, Chosen
There are many disputes over how a tank should be played. Lots of people will tell you that a tank should not DPS and should be there as a meatshield for squishier targets. Thus making a sword and sheild tank the most viable option in their eyes. They say a Two-Handed tank is useless. Honestly spec a tank however you want to play it. If you like surviving everything and couldn't care about doing damage then spec sword/sheild. If you like to weild a gigantic 2h sword then spec for it.
If you go with my theory in the Beginner's Guide (Part 2) and follow the next easiest to kill method that I use you will find that the last person that gets attacked (should get attacked) is a tank. So if you think about it this way then why even bother wearing a sheild, you might as well sacrifice your survivability for a bit more DPS. People may say why don't you just play a DPS class if you want to DPS. They don't understand the survivability of a 2h tank vs. a melee DPS.
Ok enough about how to spec, how do you RvR?
Well it's easy. You are there to take hits for the other classes that can't. You should be on the front line of your group. That way you set up a line that will protect the people behind you. Being the first target people see they will target you and try to kill you. This leaves the squishies behind you to open up on the healers of the other group. This is how I would recommend to fight when holding a choke point such as a keep's stairs or the different points in nordenwatch. It also allows for if any enemies squeak through your mdps and rdps hanging back there can kill them easily. If there aren't any choke points availible follow the next easiest to kill method. You will end up assisting with other players who are thinking the same or they will assist you. Kill the squishies then healers then the rest will be cake. If you head directly for these classes your enemy will notice and they will hit you, if they don't they are dumb. That's how you draw hits to protect your friends. If there are more than 1 healer and a teammate of yours is already attacking one assist them with that one. If you split to 1 healer each then each healer will be able to heal through the damage that you are doing.
During a keep seige get on the ram and establish a line at choke points inside the keep.
When a line is established always keep an eye on the people behind you as they may get jumped by a WE or WH. If you keep an eye on your healers they will notice and will remember to heal you.
Healers:
Order: Runepriest, Archmage, Warrior Priest
Destruction: Shaman, Zealot, Desciple of Khaine
Healers in this game have the option to do damage. Although it's great to do dmg I find that it takes away from the heals your teammates should be recieving from you. Do dmg when you are getting attacked then go back to healing when you're free. But again play how you want to play these are just my opinions.
#1 thing for healers to do to start off is to get the squared AddOn. This add on I say is essential to any healer. It provides a much cleaner easier healing grid to work with rather than trying to target people in game or using the default group window. As your friends lose health their box in squared will loose it's amount of green. All you need to do to heal them is click on their box in squared then use whichever heal you have that will help the most for that player provided they are in range. If your target is not in range to be healed then the squared box will grey out when you click on the box.
Watch the fight and watch squared and choose the healing targets appropriately. You need to watch the fight because if you don't you won't see people coming for you. When you get jumped by someone. Instantly start healing yourself...if you keep healing yourself someone on your team will notice that someone is on you and will kill them. If your health doesn't go down too much when you are attacked then keep an eye on your health and keep healing your group while giving yourself heals when you need them. You can also use your damage spells along with your heal spells.
For hybrid healers such as the Warrior Priest and Deciple of Khaine then you will need to be in the fight fighting. Fight with the tanks and heal when someone needs it. Your main priorities should be healing the people around you because they are the ones that will keep you alive.
As a healer your main priority should be healing. Try to stay safe by finding places to hide out of the way where you're not the first target of your enemy. If you see someone die resurrect them as soon as possible. Play like this and you should be fine and recieve praise from all of the players around you.
Most importantly do your best, don't listen to the people who yell at you for not healing them. Chances are you probably did heal them and they didn't notice OR they ran straight into the mob of oncoming enemies only to be focus fired while out of your heal range which is really stupid.
Ranged DPS:
Order: Bright Wizard, Shadow Warrior, Engineer
Destruction: Sorceress, Squig Herder, Magus
So you want to DPS and not get into the middle of the action. Great! Now what?
First of all you have to hope that your team has some good tanks that play like the tanks that I suggested above. If your team doesn't have tanks you're basically screwed.
If you are being properly protected then you should be fine, if not you are probably 1 of the first targets. It's pretty easy to play RDPS. Coordinate with othe RDPSers and focus fire on their team. Follow the next easiest to kill method and you'll be fine. If you do it that way you are focusing on killing any ranged threats towards you and your team, then killing their healers which should be your specialty then assisting everyone else. Also think about eliminating the most immediate threat to yourself. So if someone breaks the line that your tanks have created kill them because they will come for you. Always hang back with your healers and other DPS. Never be the first person or even the third person that the enemy sees.
For the Engineer and Magus. Set up your Turrets or Pets in an opportune location. I would probably set it up between the tanks and healers or right in with the healers. That way you have the turret or pet protecting them from incoming enemies. Setting up near a flag also helps in flag scenarios. Once you are set-up then focus on assisting the other RDPS in your group or killing anyone who is close to your turret.
Basically as RDPS your job is to do tons of damage without getting killed. So kill the ones that will go down easy.
Melee DPS:
Order: White Lion, Witch Hunter
Destruction: Marauder, Witch Elf
As MDPS you're there to but a beat down on anyone and everyone provided you don't die. You are more effective alive than dead and you die pretty fast. Priority # 1 for any MDPS should be no dying. It's going to happen regardless just keep in mind that you should be trying as hard as you can to not die while putting the hurt on the other team.
Here's a few strategies that I have developed as a WH that I think will be useful for any MDPS. Think stealth tactics. Yes Witch Hunters and Witch Elves have stealth, but even stealth doesn't mean that you're playing with stealth. Marauders and White Lions can stealth as well just in a different way. As MDPS you really can't afford to get hit much or you're going to go down so be consious of when you enter into the fray. I usually wait with the healers for a few seconds before I engage the enemy. What this does is enables me to enter the fight basically unseen. Everyone will be engaged with someone at that point and healers will be busy healing. Run in, take down 1 target and run out. Run back in, take out another target run out. You are essentially a strike force. Doing this allows you to basically come into any fight unseen and exact your punishment on the squishies of the opposing realm all while you come back to your healers to ensure they are ok. When you run away from a fight most of the time people will just change targets because they don't want to bother chasing you or will change to the healer you are running towards which is a stupid move on their part. If that happens you're golden, help the healer out, you're going to win the fight. This is how you can survive and be quite effective in any fight.
Always remember you are a caster, healer, and MDPS killer. Don't bother with tanks unless you have help. Kill their key players and your team will surely be victorious.
Again none of this is class specific. I will work on getting some guides for different classes. This is just a general idea of what your class should probably be doing in RvR. If you have better ideas try them out and let me know what else works.
Happy Hunting :)
I'm going to take you through a little run down of how I believe each archtype of class should generally be played (in t1 of course). This is my opinion but if you follow this then make some tweaks for your class in specific then you should be golden.
In Warhammer Online there are 4 different types of class. Tanks, Healers, Ranged DPS and Melee DPS.
Tanks:
Order: Ironbreaker, Swordmaster, Knight of the Blazing Sun
Destruction: Black Guard, Black Orc, Chosen
There are many disputes over how a tank should be played. Lots of people will tell you that a tank should not DPS and should be there as a meatshield for squishier targets. Thus making a sword and sheild tank the most viable option in their eyes. They say a Two-Handed tank is useless. Honestly spec a tank however you want to play it. If you like surviving everything and couldn't care about doing damage then spec sword/sheild. If you like to weild a gigantic 2h sword then spec for it.
If you go with my theory in the Beginner's Guide (Part 2) and follow the next easiest to kill method that I use you will find that the last person that gets attacked (should get attacked) is a tank. So if you think about it this way then why even bother wearing a sheild, you might as well sacrifice your survivability for a bit more DPS. People may say why don't you just play a DPS class if you want to DPS. They don't understand the survivability of a 2h tank vs. a melee DPS.
Ok enough about how to spec, how do you RvR?
Well it's easy. You are there to take hits for the other classes that can't. You should be on the front line of your group. That way you set up a line that will protect the people behind you. Being the first target people see they will target you and try to kill you. This leaves the squishies behind you to open up on the healers of the other group. This is how I would recommend to fight when holding a choke point such as a keep's stairs or the different points in nordenwatch. It also allows for if any enemies squeak through your mdps and rdps hanging back there can kill them easily. If there aren't any choke points availible follow the next easiest to kill method. You will end up assisting with other players who are thinking the same or they will assist you. Kill the squishies then healers then the rest will be cake. If you head directly for these classes your enemy will notice and they will hit you, if they don't they are dumb. That's how you draw hits to protect your friends. If there are more than 1 healer and a teammate of yours is already attacking one assist them with that one. If you split to 1 healer each then each healer will be able to heal through the damage that you are doing.
During a keep seige get on the ram and establish a line at choke points inside the keep.
When a line is established always keep an eye on the people behind you as they may get jumped by a WE or WH. If you keep an eye on your healers they will notice and will remember to heal you.
Healers:
Order: Runepriest, Archmage, Warrior Priest
Destruction: Shaman, Zealot, Desciple of Khaine
Healers in this game have the option to do damage. Although it's great to do dmg I find that it takes away from the heals your teammates should be recieving from you. Do dmg when you are getting attacked then go back to healing when you're free. But again play how you want to play these are just my opinions.
#1 thing for healers to do to start off is to get the squared AddOn. This add on I say is essential to any healer. It provides a much cleaner easier healing grid to work with rather than trying to target people in game or using the default group window. As your friends lose health their box in squared will loose it's amount of green. All you need to do to heal them is click on their box in squared then use whichever heal you have that will help the most for that player provided they are in range. If your target is not in range to be healed then the squared box will grey out when you click on the box.
Watch the fight and watch squared and choose the healing targets appropriately. You need to watch the fight because if you don't you won't see people coming for you. When you get jumped by someone. Instantly start healing yourself...if you keep healing yourself someone on your team will notice that someone is on you and will kill them. If your health doesn't go down too much when you are attacked then keep an eye on your health and keep healing your group while giving yourself heals when you need them. You can also use your damage spells along with your heal spells.
For hybrid healers such as the Warrior Priest and Deciple of Khaine then you will need to be in the fight fighting. Fight with the tanks and heal when someone needs it. Your main priorities should be healing the people around you because they are the ones that will keep you alive.
As a healer your main priority should be healing. Try to stay safe by finding places to hide out of the way where you're not the first target of your enemy. If you see someone die resurrect them as soon as possible. Play like this and you should be fine and recieve praise from all of the players around you.
Most importantly do your best, don't listen to the people who yell at you for not healing them. Chances are you probably did heal them and they didn't notice OR they ran straight into the mob of oncoming enemies only to be focus fired while out of your heal range which is really stupid.
Ranged DPS:
Order: Bright Wizard, Shadow Warrior, Engineer
Destruction: Sorceress, Squig Herder, Magus
So you want to DPS and not get into the middle of the action. Great! Now what?
First of all you have to hope that your team has some good tanks that play like the tanks that I suggested above. If your team doesn't have tanks you're basically screwed.
If you are being properly protected then you should be fine, if not you are probably 1 of the first targets. It's pretty easy to play RDPS. Coordinate with othe RDPSers and focus fire on their team. Follow the next easiest to kill method and you'll be fine. If you do it that way you are focusing on killing any ranged threats towards you and your team, then killing their healers which should be your specialty then assisting everyone else. Also think about eliminating the most immediate threat to yourself. So if someone breaks the line that your tanks have created kill them because they will come for you. Always hang back with your healers and other DPS. Never be the first person or even the third person that the enemy sees.
For the Engineer and Magus. Set up your Turrets or Pets in an opportune location. I would probably set it up between the tanks and healers or right in with the healers. That way you have the turret or pet protecting them from incoming enemies. Setting up near a flag also helps in flag scenarios. Once you are set-up then focus on assisting the other RDPS in your group or killing anyone who is close to your turret.
Basically as RDPS your job is to do tons of damage without getting killed. So kill the ones that will go down easy.
Melee DPS:
Order: White Lion, Witch Hunter
Destruction: Marauder, Witch Elf
As MDPS you're there to but a beat down on anyone and everyone provided you don't die. You are more effective alive than dead and you die pretty fast. Priority # 1 for any MDPS should be no dying. It's going to happen regardless just keep in mind that you should be trying as hard as you can to not die while putting the hurt on the other team.
Here's a few strategies that I have developed as a WH that I think will be useful for any MDPS. Think stealth tactics. Yes Witch Hunters and Witch Elves have stealth, but even stealth doesn't mean that you're playing with stealth. Marauders and White Lions can stealth as well just in a different way. As MDPS you really can't afford to get hit much or you're going to go down so be consious of when you enter into the fray. I usually wait with the healers for a few seconds before I engage the enemy. What this does is enables me to enter the fight basically unseen. Everyone will be engaged with someone at that point and healers will be busy healing. Run in, take down 1 target and run out. Run back in, take out another target run out. You are essentially a strike force. Doing this allows you to basically come into any fight unseen and exact your punishment on the squishies of the opposing realm all while you come back to your healers to ensure they are ok. When you run away from a fight most of the time people will just change targets because they don't want to bother chasing you or will change to the healer you are running towards which is a stupid move on their part. If that happens you're golden, help the healer out, you're going to win the fight. This is how you can survive and be quite effective in any fight.
Always remember you are a caster, healer, and MDPS killer. Don't bother with tanks unless you have help. Kill their key players and your team will surely be victorious.
Again none of this is class specific. I will work on getting some guides for different classes. This is just a general idea of what your class should probably be doing in RvR. If you have better ideas try them out and let me know what else works.
Happy Hunting :)
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