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[WAR] Now With HDR & Bloom on PTS! Comparison Screens on p82!
Lucky Cynic
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Recent Patch Notes
Vital Information!
LIVE EXPANSION:
Mythic is currently releasing a “Live Expansion†called "Call to Arms" that is basically a staggering list of patches, Live Events, and release of new content. Expect lots of contet to come and go swiftly. If there was a time to pay extra attention to WAR, this is it! We are currently at about the halfway point. Here is the schedule as of now:
- March 3rd - 7th: The Live Event: Call to Arms: Bitter Rivals.
- March 17th: Release: The Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer answer the Call to Arms and join WAR!
- April 20th - 27th: The Live Event: Call to Arms: Beyond the Sands.
- June: The Live Event: Call to Arms: Rise of the Tomb Kings.
- Late June: Release: The Land of the Dead.
But a list is not enough. So here I have two very nice podcasts for you, with a third on the way next month. But nope, that isn't good enough either, so here are two articles on the herald that go even deeper in depth! You can take a stroll through The Land of the Dead or The Necropolis of Zandri. Screenshots and artwork below.
Concept Art: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Screenshots: 1 2 3 4
NEW PLAYERS:
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) is a MMORPG from the folks at Mythic, creators of fine gamery such as Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC). WAR is focused on Realm vs. Realm, or RvR, design. Two realms (Order and Destruction) try to beat the living shit out of each other while claiming everything for themselves. While PvE exists, this is a game where PvP is the hallmark. WAR puts a stake in the heart of other MMOs and their dull PvP content with intelligently designed and well balanced PvP content, dubbed 'RvR' or 'Realm vs. Realm.' From the start (yes, at level 1) you can head out and start fighting the other realm for control of the world, be it in the game world or sequestered in small, objective-minded scenarios. As they say: War is Everywhere!
This all takes place in the Warhammer Fantasy universe, an ancient piece of geek culture that has aged like a fine wine. Recently celebrating it's 25th anniversary, Warhammer is a rich piece of work that takes the fantasy genre to dark, violent places. Humans are no better than the real-world Catholic Church of the Dark Ages, Elves have serious superiority complexes and Orcs treat war like a sport. What a great backdrop for a massive PvP-oriented game with non-stop conflict and strife! Morskittar is a Warhammer guru of sorts, and has a good handle on how to get up-to-speed on all things Warhammer.
However, just diving into the game is also a great way to get a handle of how the world of Warhammer works. Each race, each zone, each quest, they all shed light on how things operate. Gone are the generic "Kill 3 bats for their batwings" and instead think "To further break their spirits, rip off 4 rebellious villager's heads and place them on pikes for the glory of our Raven God." The story of WAR is played out with a Tome of Knowledge, which is the in game tracker, rewards system, quest giver, and achievements manager-- all in one! If you want just the right amount of lore, without having to read walls of it, start with the tome. It is flavorful, but in morsels. Such delicious morsels.
So, if you want to play this is a good time to start. Scroll down for information on free trials and get started in WAR.
RETURNING PLAYERS:
Welcome back to WAR. We're glad you are here. If you have been away for more than 60 days, you can just hop on down to the Free Trials section below and ask someone for an invitation to the game. The link should offer you some place to reactivate your old account, allowing you to play the game for 10 days for free but as your old characters.
So what is new? There's been plenty of awesome new features and live events. The first major fix was to fortresses which are rarely if ever crashing now. What else? Well there is ORvR influence now. The more you fight, the better chances you have to build up points over time and get rewards for them like at chapter hubs. The points really have to be built over time and it really adds a sense of longevity to the game while handing you our some pretty damn fine items across several milestones. It sounds like a small tweak but it really makes ORvR more consistent, especially so when coupled with the Zone Domination system. When you capture a BFO or Keep, it has a timer that ticks down. Hold everything in the zone long enough and the zone flips, regardless of Victory Points. So what else is there? Well you can check out the 1.2 notes right here. Mythic has been very aggressively pumping out juicy patches. 1.2 patch notes. You can also read up on the 1.2.1 patch. Supposedly it was a 'mini' patch but Mythic is intent on having every patch, big or small, have a nice and noticeable positive impact on the game.
But what is coming next? Well, this whole RvR dungeon thing is kind of a big deal. Some of you may remember from Camelot the Darkness Falls dungeon. A labyrinth yet well laid out dungeon featuring difficult yet very rewarding PvE content, it's own currency with tokens for rare items not found anywhere else, and also the 'look over your shoulder' aspect that is associated with enemy players being able to tear control of the dungeon from your realm's grasp and pour in to wide out your entire faction, making the dungeon free to explore for their own gain. Well, you aren't going to just let them kick you out without a fight! And thus is the purge. Across the lands of the dead, there are certain choke points and areas of interest where defenses will be had, but don't fool yourself by avoiding the crossroads, there is no 'safe.' Only 'safer.' This represents a new flavor of RvR which has not been expressed yet, a more intimate and skill based RvR.
The dungeon will be coming in 1.3. However, what else will come with it is still unknown. 1.3 will probably have several notable features, but nothing else has really been confirmed. Mythic is planning on adding an additional ramp to keeps and fortresses so that there is no 'tank walls' to slow down the fighting. Additionally, there will be better EAX support, improved graphics optimizations, and general UI improvements. However, these additional features are not assigned to any particular patch quite yet. Still, WAR is shaping up to be a highly polished PvP MMO.
It's a good time to be answering the Call to Arms!
FREE TRIALS:
Free trials are now available from the main WAR website but invitations from current subscribers are preferred as they will get a free 30 days and some other cool rewards. Each subscriber has up to 6 invitations to offer every month and the trial lasts 10 days of free game play across any of the servers. To get a trial, pick a letter from the list below and PM the recipient your first name and email. You should be set after that!
CLICK HERE!
UPDATE: Also! If you have been out of the game for more than 60 days, go on and PM one of the above! We can hook you up with 10 days on your old account! What a good time to Come Back to Camelo-- er, Warhammer.
ARMIES:
Warhammer Online has two realms, each with three armies, and every army has four careers. While some careers are similar to each other in terms of mechanics, you're looking at 24 careers here and while there may be one with a similiar mechanic on the opposing faction, each class has its own unique hallmark. For example, the 3 tanks from Destruction play very differently from one another, even though they still are tanks. Black Orkz have Combos they string together, Black Guards have hate that builds and Chosen have auras that can twist and become even more vile. All three are tanks, but how they tank is unique. If you need help deciding, click on the army and read up on their careers. Each race has a Tank, Healer, Melee DPS and Ranged DPS class. Be sure to try a handful of them out to at the very least, rank 5 to see if you like where the class is going. Each Class is useful in both PvE and RvR. There are some that are better at PvE than others but if you are mixing up your play-style, WAR should not feel grindy and you should not base your class choice on what 'levels' the fastest.
GUILDS:
Penny-Arcade has two main guilds, The Six Mouths from Destruction on Iron Rock and also the Candymancers from Order on Badlands. Do a /who [guildname] to talk to these people and see if you can join in from in game or make a post on the forums or PM someone here on the PA forums if you know they are an officer or guild master of one of the two servers. Both guilds are friendly, active and casual. Also thanks to the 2 new careers that have rolled out, there are players across both guilds from all level ranges! Our guilds are a great way to get into the game.
Six Mouths Info
Candymancer Info
Rumor has it that there is a European PA guild called Obsidian Spur and that it is rolled on the server Karak Eight Peaks. Seems Klyka and Echo are the notable mentions from other there. Probably no finger EU WAR PA guild.
Six Mouths Info
Candymancer Info
Rumor has it that there is a European PA guild called Obsidian Spur and that it is rolled on the server Karak Eight Peaks. Seems Klyka and Echo are the notable mentions from other there. Probably no finger EU WAR PA guild.
ADD-ONS**:
Warhammer Online has very extensive Modding and UI support for those of you who are into that sort of thing. Even better, many of your favorite WoW addons have found their way into WAR with more being uploaded every day. Here are a few must haves.
Note: Having the Curse Client makes the install and uninstall process a whole lot easier but does require paying attention to basic instructions to set it up properly.
Note: Having the Curse Client makes the install and uninstall process a whole lot easier but does require paying attention to basic instructions to set it up properly.
- Curse's Main Website.
- Libslash. A great client tool for modders, allows for complex commands and mods. WARNING: Many mods require this 'mod'. Just install it and that's all. It's all done behind the scenes.
- Action Bar Color. Out of range spells and abilities get shaded red for easy recognition.
- ReAction Bar Color. Same as above, but also colors reactive abilities (IE requiring a block) a tint of green when they are ready.
- Killing Blow. Displays name of person you just killed and their RPs.
- Focus. Set up 2 macro buttons on your hotbar. One makes your friendly target your /assist and the other refreshes their target. VERY excellent for RvR.
- Victory Points. Adds a Victory Point counter to your UI instead of just eyeballing bars.
- SNT Bar. Great UI toolbar. Kinda tricky to set up though.
- No Movie Mod This removes every opening movie, including the logos. I, Accualt, declare this shall be in every OP ever from now on.
- State of Realm Shows you a detailed look at Tier 4, and also includes the keep status of Tiers 2 and 3. Shows the Victory Points of all Tiers and will even display timers when local Battle Objectives are taken.
- Aura Let’s you put up static images when certain effects are active…such as debuffs that damage you when you move.
- PhantomAllows you to turn off UI elements that you normally aren't able to.
- Warhammer Scrolling Combat Text From the makers of the WoW mod.
- Waaaghbar Continue A strip that you can place at the top or bottom (or both) sides of your screen. Lists info like friends/guildmates online, money, level/rank progress and more. This is a continuation of the original, which had ceased work.
- Squared A layout of boxes for your party/warband. Makes things a bit cleaner.
- Auto Dismount Does what it says. Dismounts you when you use an action.
- Item Rack Saves multiple gear outfits. Switch from dungeon to RvR in seconds.
- BuffHead Shows icons of your buffs or debuffs above your target's head, complete with timer bar.
RESOURCES:
The Warhammer community is FULL of fantastic resources. Digging around, let me share some of the best around. Bookmarking these is a great help. To really break your noobhood, these resources really do a hell of a job cramming in necessary info without being bloated or filled with crap. Study them religiously.
- Warhammer Database Literally a google for WAR.
- Bestiary Tome Unlocks
- Mob Grinding Thread
- Map-a-lot! Err- Map-Hammer!
- Armor Sets! List of all known armor sets.
- Battlefield Map An interactive map that reveals the latest news from your server/zone.
- WAR Career Builder. (Link leads to Chosen career, highlight "Career builder" at the top to bring up your class.
- WAR Renown Builder. (Same thing.)
SUPPORT:
Mythic doesn't just throw you into an ocean and leave you to fend for yourself. Where's the WAR in doing something like that? Below are official Mythic Entertainment links.
- The Official Website
- The Official Warhammer Dev Blog/News Page
- The Official Realm War Page (Keep track of your character, guild, and battlelines from a website!)
- The Official Mythic Accounts Website
- The Official Mythic Store
- Official List of Super Duper Secret Uber Items
- Official Tech Specs (Some Addons and mods can improve performance.)
- Mythic's Phone Support: (650) 628-1001. Hours are 10am to 10pm EST, Monday through Friday.
SCREENSHOTS:
Sorry guys, I know I said I would work up a spiffy new OP/thread. I was working on a nice refresh of the current thread but the text document was eaten up and I have been too lazy to restart that effort. More stuff will be coming into the OP as time goes on, and feel free to PM me if you want to contribute. Much thanks!
--LC
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Lucky Cynic on
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Posts
I can finally brag about the fact that I got allllll my Conqueror gear last week. Now I'm just waitin' for City instances so's I can grind invader stuff...
Let alone get the last two ranks to equip my last Conc pieces.
But since I'm a Zealot, I don't really even want any of the Conc stuff
having fun, started up a blorc on the six mouths server but havent bothered checking around for guilds yet.
Up to level 10 so far. Staring to outlevel the pve quickly from running lots of scenarios. I suppose I could skip a chapter.
Could always lvl solely from rvr/scens. Although pugging scenarios starts getting pretty terrible t3 and up.
Join us on Six Mouths!
We've got a bunch of low level guys. A level 8 Shaman (me!), another shaman, a troop of squig herders, and a few other non-goblins that are dumb because they are not greenkins.
(Greenskins are the best.)
Yeah so far I've pretty much been going through each chapter methodically and queuing for the scenarios repeatedly. I'm just now hitting the areas with open world RVR capture points. One of which I was happy to stop a cap on fighting 1v1 against some dwarf. The other time I unfortunately ran into quite the sizeable roaming band of Order.
I'll check around for Six Mouthes next time I'm on for an extended amount of time.
How does the Rally Cry button/summon thing work? That wasn't there when I played at launch and the one time I clicked it I was pretty low level and didnt see much of anything going on where it brought me.
I'm pretty good at picking up patterns and I have no goddam idea how it works after seeing it happen multiple times while I'm in the rvr lake.
Anybody know its rules?
You shoulda heard corrigan going on about the black orc stuff he wanted that was "awesome".
I tried using your arguments but he was having none of it.
Honestly thinking too hard about these things is the problem most of the time. You completely lose perspective.
"Everyone who is capable of logical thought should be able to see why you shouldn't sell lifetime subscriptions to an MMO. Cell phone companies and drug dealers don't offer lifetime subscriptions either, guess why?" - Mugaaz
I'm not noticing anything different. Also all the problems I had with the UI not updating are still there. All my health bars never sync up. I can never see where the artefact/flag is, if the enemy has it or what.
Makes scens kind of hard.
Anyway.
I guess I'm gonna play my shaman for a bit over the next 10 days and then decide if I like the "improvements" (Still haven't seen any significant ones)
No they're not.
Steam: Drokmir
Some PA people might get me back into this, but since the only other person I knew playing this was my brother and he's in the army I don't think I would start again otherwise.
Bummer.
Back to chaos it is!
As in you wish for blackguards utility? what class do you play now that you would wish the blight of being a blackguard on yourself.
Probably Black Orc.
Because that is probably the only thing I'll be doing.
heh, probably
I still like my BG, she can take a beating but thats really about it. Not high enough RR to be able to get soul killer as well as full loathing. So I can survive attacks , taunt moar and thats about it.
As for Best SC tank, you want one with group utility and that is the chosen.
Its very few classes that couldn't use a blackguard's group buffs. Like Hold the Line. and.. maybe Elite Training?
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
:P many a times has my warband cried out "Pop elite training now!!! Save us from ourselves and our action point deficit!" and I look down upon then and tell them "NO!"
or something.. I dont know.
Spec the middle tree. Whatever the DoK equivalent of Grace is, if you want to healbot. That way you can switch between either pure healing and melee healing with just a tactic switch and weapon swap. So you can heal, and you can smack things with the same spec.
You miss out on the AoE channel heal, but its subpar once you hit t4 anyway.
Black orc, as guessed. Every tank gets guard, challenge, an AOE root, and hold the line.
For the black orc our group buffs are as follows.
Da toughest- Heals us for 320-560 25% chance on hit, 10s cool down. Used to be double what it is now, no group utility. Used primarily when solo, tanking, or when most of your group is down.
Da Greenest-25% chance on being hit to increase you and your party's resistances by 236-378 and your armor by 470-990 for 10s. If you are getting hit this is a decent one to run as you will give everyone more armor and resistances. Least used aura because we are rarely targeted.
Of the above 3 we can only have one up at a time.
Savin Me hide- Reduces all incoming magic damage to the group by 20% for 4 seconds. Best plan, no cooldown. Decent damage if tank speced.
Get em-Increases the groups AP regen for 15 seconds. 60s cooldown.
Not in da face-Makes group immune to all cc for 4 seconds. 20s cooldown, requires best plan.
WAAAAGH!- Debuffs targets corp resistance by 359. Does corp damage. Does not benefit from its own debuff. Broken since beta. Should be fixed in 1.3.1. Likely not fixed until hell freezes over.
Big brawlin-Big swing now snares and disorients for 5s setting back build times. Big swing tooltip says it is 30 yards, was 10 yards before 1.3. Still 10 yards. Great for rushing in and slowing people down.
One of the biggest problems with blorcs is the plan mechanic, it can be very difficult to be in the right plan at the right time. Our snare is middle plan, our best abilities are best plan. However if you are in best plan, and need a good plan, there is no way to go back down the chain.
Pretty sure this is wrong, but I havne't played my black orc for several months. Pretty sure you can use any abilities in your current plan or below. So If you're good plan you can use a good plan ability then go to best plan, and use another good plan ability and still be in best plan until you actually use a best plan ability.
EDIT: Well, now that I'm remembering it I know that you can at least use your "no plan" abilities whenever you want. Not 100% sure about the good plan spamming.
What's the way to go once I start caring about masteries? HoT or direct?
Before 20, either way is really fine.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
the cookie cutter zealot spec is up the single target tree to the castable stun, taking in the +crit heal tactic, then everything else in the aoe tree. it doesn't come into its own until 31 though. until that point i specced up the hot tree to transferrence, as corriganx said. a 1 min uncleansable dot is the last word in hilarity for any scenario in which people have to try and pick up flags.
You can use your "no plan" abilities at any time, which will take you to good plan. If you are using PlanB you just have to remember to put a no plan ability somewhere you can reach it.
So as I log off in disgust, I managed to get a couple screen shots that I doubt anyone will give a shit about. The first is my 1015 toughness, softcapped corp/elemental resistance tank taking a 1780 crit from a BW with Pyroclastic surge. That is right, I got hit for 20% of my health in one shot at capped mitigation. The second is a nova crit for 1175. The third is a witch hunter crit for 580 with torment, I took it after i tucked my back into a corner, and ran "Can't Hit Me". I am about convinced that this point that block covers a 90 degree arc in front of you. Anything in the other 270 degrees counts as behind you.
This is the same day the a dev interview comes out talking about how they have no plans to revisit the softcaps, as they are happy with how they are. The last patch that they can please everyone with is going to be 1.3.1. Because if 1.4 does not make a bunch of people miserable I know they have fucked it up.
Edit* Oh just found the screenshot from earlier today with 5 bw spamming PBAOEs at the top of a ramp in a keep siege. As we all know AOE stacking is not a problem, especially in a confined space. Fuck I cannot believe mythic was dumb enough to leave PBAOES stacking after the GTAOE nerf.
It means your secondary target, as in instead of clicking on yourself, you highlight someone else on your side.
It doesn't even have to be in your group. Like a melee heal.
I just wanted to point that out.
yeah, i'm having this problem. stuffing +crit heal gems in it to offset the poor set bonus is gonna jip my survivability.
its a mystery to me why they don't just consolidate magic crit and heal crit. at least then you could play a dps zealot without being railroaded into it...
That I did not know, as usually my defensive target is my guard target so I can use the green arrow to keep track of them. Good to know though, mostly i open with Wot Armor, but have been considering using follow 'me lead with the tactic for the dot it applies. Means I could if i had the time start bouncing around between different MDPS and buffing them. That will definitely come in handy for PVE as i can now buff the OT/MT. The guild chosen are going to love that buff for tanking.
Thanks for the tip.
Also, "Can't hit me." is a 'Blessing' and Witch Hunters have "Sever Blessing". He might've done that while you were being pummled.