PATCH 1.21 IS COMING!Get the Notes here.LIVE EVENTS:
Mythic is releasing a
“Live Expansion†called
Call to Arms that is basically a staggered release of new content. Here is the schedule as of now:
- [strike]March 3rd - 7th: Call to Arms: Bitter Rivals Live Event: Successful completion of the live event allows head start access to the new Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer careers. The event will also introduces a new Chaos-themed RvR Scenario, Twisting Tower.[/strike]
- [strike]March 17th: The Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer answer the Call to Arms and join WAR! (Release for everyone who did not unlock them in previous Live Event.)[/strike]
- April: Call to Arms: Beyond the Sands Live Event: The promise of great riches and powerful weapons comes from the south. ((Assumed to be tagged along with 1.21))
- May: Call to Arms: Rise of the Tomb Kings Live Event: The race between Order and Destruction begins to unlock the Land of the Dead for their Realm.
- June: Land of the Dead Opens: The deserts of Nehekhara open to players with the addition of a new RvR-gated dungeon zone. To gain access to the Land of the Dead, opposing Realms must battle for control of the zone to access dozens of new Public Quests, instanced lairs, and a massive new Tomb Kings dungeon to plunder in search of the Casket of Souls.
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 (in this case Destruction and Order) 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 centerpiece. From the start you can head out and start fighting the other side 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 PvP-oriented game. Morskittar is a Warhammer guru of sorts, and has a
good handle on how to get up-to-speed on all things Warhammer.
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 are glad you interested in coming back. If you have been away for more than 60days, you can just hop on down to the Free Trials section below and ask someone for an invitation to the game. When you click the link, it should offer you some place to reactivate your old account, allowing you to play the game for 10 days 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 only these items are pretty damn sweet. 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, it has a timer that ticks down, same thing with keeps. 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.
Again, welcome back.
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 InfoCandymancer 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.
- 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.
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.
SCREENSHOTS:**
OP is the work of Lucky Cynic and probably others. It’ll be updated with new stuff, so check frequently.
**Pending Updates.
Posts
I liked the weakling killer when I first got it, but the 30s cooldown cooled me down real quick.
So I went back to whacking things with dual weilding, it's double the choppy! You can't go wrong!
If someone is clearly visible but around a corner, clicking on them does nothing.
Very frustrating.
It's as if the invisible matter constituting the box model of the building restricts my targeting ability.
Boo-urns.
that's exactly what it is. pisses me off every time on that map.
You can solve that problem in Flash in about 2 seconds.
Little things, but they're the most common issues I run into when playing. If this game had a mob position code like WoW (where I don't think I've EVER seen these issues), WAR would be my favorite MMO, hands down.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
I adjusted to War mob behavior pretty quickly. I throw something at them and then wait until they've worked out their dyslexic pathing, all the while mashing a damage button I know I wont mind doing twice.
It didn't really occur to me that this would fall into someones shit list, it's interesting to see other peoples attitudes to these things. I'm not saying you are wrong or any thing btw, just discussing.
It might have something to do with my switching between WoW and Warhammer pretty regularly. I don't play the former as often as I used to, but I hop on for a couple hours of raiding two days a week and occasionally dabble in dailies to keep the money for repair bills coming. In WoW, if I'm in range, and I hit my attack, it goes off... No questions. No worrying about mob pathing or anything like that. What you see is what you get.
It's rather jarring to jump onto Warhammer, where you have to kick into a completely different mode. I expect range has an easier time with this, as most of their abilities have an exceptionally large range.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
Hardly anybody who compares mmos in this unrealistic manner realises that companies aren't allowed to go around stealing wow code to make it perfect, either that or they expect people to reverse engineer or somehow come up with years worth of coding now.
This had better be a really important hotfix.
Black orc
Pro's: ORKZ IZ BEST.
Con's: Not a fan of the combo system. I like being able to use abilities when I need them. Are situational things like silences and stuns, the kind of thing I'd want to use at precise moments tied to building up to da best plan or are they generally free of the system?
Chosen
Pro's: Looks totally fucking badass.
Con's: Twisting is shit. I wasn't a fan of it in EQ and I doubt I will be now. Are the auras at least off the gcd? I heard something about them being usable any time between attack animations?
Blackguard
Pro's: Hate is an easy and straightforward mechanic and I've seen crazy fucking blackuards top the damage charts with their nutbar AE attacks. This probably makes it sound like I care about my damage, but I don't. It was just something I've noticed and that seems like a perk to me.
Con's: Epic blackguard looks stupid as fuck.
Also, what's up with tanking? There was some rumbling that generating threat is broken?
LoL: failboattootoot
It really is up to you how you want to play. Seems like you have dipped your feet in all 3 tanks.
I hope it's called, like, bash lock, or something.
And instead of a picking animation they smack the door.
you can get into combat without hitting anyone (on other classes I've noticed this). Once you do get into combat (for example a single axe toss and nothing else achieves this with my current tools, but there are a few group based choppa buffs later on which would probably do it without that), your furious/berserk meter starts ticking up.
Technically, it might be possible, to sneak up on someone from behind as a berserked choppa.
This would be completely worth it, regardless of outcome, for the visual shock alone.
It's Choppin Time!
Also zmailmod was updated for the patch - now I can select all and read a book while the gerbil-powered mail system pokes its way through all my items.
Also, positional openers. I have an attack that only works from the side/back that curses the target, and another that only works when the target is cursed, so in PVE I either need the lion to take aggro (that is, I take aggro, then have the lion taunt, because I can't just send the lion in first due to previously mentioned issues), or I need to open from the side. Which causes them to rubber band up and down visually.
Or, I could not use said attacks, but that's a bit of a solution for poor mob pathing.
I'd also be rather happy if they fixed keep/fort defenders to not constantly leash up and down the premises. So many times I've had the fuckers leash at 1%, then come back at full health. If you're leashing at least wipe the damn aggro.
[edit] I will say that Pounce was a godsend for that problem, though. The first time I use it on a target it counts me as being behind someone for a second or two, allowing me to use positional openers.
Good Times were had.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
It's not just WoW. CoH/CoV doesn't have these kinds of animation issues, and I believe the relatively new LoTRO doesn't either.
It does bother me in WAR, but animations are not the reason why I quit. It's a constantly noticeable, but not at all game-breaking problem.
Typically without this skill, MDPS has zero to do in a well defended keep take.
Or do they get a differently named skill? Not that it really matters, this skill seems kind of situational at best.
Empire - Veela Server
That seems a bit more useful.
It's pretty funny during fortress fights if the defenders have a bunch of high RR tanks and the attackers don't assign enough RDPS on the door. You'll see all of them dealing damage and the door just keeps repairing and repairing.
and then
I'm glad my guy had the foresight to wear brown pants. And a brown robe.
Has he reversed his stance on this subject now that his own MMO seems to be scaling back?
Which is exactly what I wanted to hear.
Goddang it Mythic. Stop being awesome.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
I have no problem playing a tank in PvE, but in PvP, what's my role? I don't do that much damage and I don't really live that long (especially not against 5 slayers AoEing our entire team in 5 seconds.).
So what should I try to do and how should I try to equip myself?
He hasn't explicitly reversed his stance. He's just giving the players what they want.
It's a tough call, but again, it's the right call.
I respect and appreciate their ongoing commitment to the game.
My favorite thing to do was to guard a DoK and wreck havoc with them. Baring that I would just try and tick off the enemy side so much they wasted time trying to kill me, making my DPS and Healers get a free ride.
Pointing an laughing helps.
You won't top any charts, but it feels useful at least.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Later on, after the population stabilized, it became apparent that there were too many servers, and players have been requesting measures to get the population together, for more active servers.
Playing a tank on my Blorc was one of the most frustrating things to do solo, but amazingly fun with a (rl) healer friend. Having someone you know will keep an eye on your health makes all the difference in the world -- when my friend got sucked into WoW again I eventually set the character aside.
Black Desert: Family Name: Foolery. Characters: Tome & Beerserk.
(Retired) GW2 Characters (Fort Aspenwood): Roy Gee Biv
(Retired) Let's Play: Lone Wolf
http://realmwar.warhammeronline.com/realmwar/CharacterInfo.war?id=351454&server=158
Goddam that was fast. Though I believe he admitted to account sharing? Ban?