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War Beginner's Apothecary Guide

2008-09-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

Potions can be very useful in game, at least in my experience. Most of the beginner potions are going to add +10 to a stat for 5-10 minutes. If you compare that to level 5 gear, you're talking about being able to add a bonus comparable to two or three pieces of armor that all buff the same stat. Want to heal? Beginner potions will give you a quick recharge of +250 hp if you know where to get the materials. Overall it appears that Mythic intends apothecary to be the number one utility crafting skill. If you don't want to invest a lot of time in raising it, you don't have to: every merchant who sells apothecary supplies sells enough materials for you to grind out restoration potions.

What you need:
Every potion has 3 basic components. First you have to have some sort of container. The basic container is a used glass vial, which costs 5 brass at a vendor. You also need a main ingredient, these can be purchased at a basic vendor as well. Vendors in the low-level towns will have elvish parsley for recovery (heal over time potion) and bear claws for strength. There are also some intelligence materials I believe. Bear in mind that as you progress in level, the quality and type of ingredients vendors provide will change. Finally, you have three slots where you can add additional components. When first starting out, don't waste your time adding anything other than cloudy water. Again: until you get your skill to 25 adding anything other than cloudy water to your potions is a waste of materials that will be helpful later. Simply put, you don't yet have the skill to make more than one potion at a time, and you don't have the materials to make potions that last longer than 5 minutes.

How to get it:
There are two gathering skills that contribute items usable as a main ingredient. Butchering will give you main ingredients as well as some ingredients with varying miscellaneous effects (stabilizing effects appear to be the most common). Cultivating will allow you to grow plants and fungi which can then be used to create potions. Which is better? Well each has its benefits. Butchering is great because if you know where an animal spawns you have an unlimited supply of an ingredient, provided you are willing to farm long enough to build up your stock. However, butchering's strength is also its main weakness: you have to have animals to butcher, which means higher-level components will not be available right away, even if your skill would be high enough to harvest them. Cultivation is the more peaceful alternative to butchering. I've found that every monster component has an equivalent plant. But it's worth noting that each skill point you want to raise in cultivation will take approximately 90 seconds. Butchering an animal has a duration of 5 seconds. This means that while cultivation requires nothing other than seeds, it takes much much longer to raise skill in cultivation compared to butchering. However as far as I can tell butchering has nearly nothing to contribute to dyes; I am reluctant to comment any further on this because my experience with dye-making is non-existent.

How to get good potions quickly:
Here's how I did it, which may not be the best way, but it got me to making some good potions after about 15 minutes of skill-raising. First off, you're not going to be able to use any green ingredient you have until your skill is at least 25 (this may change, I'll explain more later). Your best bet for getting skill from 1 to 25 is to simply figure out what potion will benefit you most from the ingredients available at the vendor, and then just get enough materials to make this potion 25 times. Remember you only need the main ingredient, a used glass vial and some cloudy water at this point. After buying 25 of these three items, open up your skills by pressing 'V', then select apothecary from the top of the alphabetized list under the general skills tab (it's the hammer icon on the far right).

The Apothecary Screen:
As you can see, apothecary is pretty intuitive once you know where to get ingredients. The screen has 5 slots, with each one clearly marked as to what goes there. On the right side is a little bar which you can pretty much ignore. What you want to pay attention to is the text at the bottom which will read one of three things: 1. This potion is unstable (will definitely fail) 2. This potion is volatile (may succeed) 3. This potion is stable (will definitely succeed). At this point, every potion you make will be volatile. That's okay, because that's the best you can do with only cloudy water**.
Here's where WAR crafting deviates from other MMOs you may be familiar with. As far as I can tell, each main ingredient has a set 'stability value'. If the items you have in your three additional slots do not provide enough stability to meet that required 'stability value', any attempted potion with that ingredient will always fail no matter how many times you try. As a correlate to this, any potion which is volatile but succeeds will always succeed and produce a potion.

**: Volatile potions have a small disclaimer stating that they may produce a negative effect, but at the time of this writing the chance of this happening is negligible enough for it to be ignored. I have used scores of volatile potions, and have yet for one to backfire and produce a negative effect.

High Elf Starter Guide

2008-09-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

As a member of the Phoenix King's army, you are tasked with defending the lands from the invading Dark Elves, your twisted mirror images who seek to use the magic resources you hold for their own dark purposes. Launching a noble defense, you seek to preserve the peace and civilization of the High Elves, and keep the powerful items you have at your disposal from falling into the hands of your misguided kin.

You'll start out at the Blighted Isle, under siege by the massive invading Dark Elf forces.

What Ivory Tower?

Turn around and talk to your first quest NPC, Silvshara Greywind. She'll give you your first quest, Sins of the Past, which will send you on your way to kill . You'll also get the High Elf unlock.

These "ninjas" you speak of have nothing on us.

Turn around and go over the makeshift barricade to Moonrise Forest to the west. You'll find plenty of Dark Sprites, so kill them, unlock Imp, and go back to Silvshara, who will complete your quest and give you a new one, Necessary Regret. This time around, you're to engage in battle with the scouts of the dark elves, and kill a few of the Dark Elf Infiltrator mobs in the forest. Go back out into the forest again and go further west to find some infiltrators to slay, getting the Dark Elf unlock as well. Once you have enough, go back to Silvshara, who will give you a quest to find Prince Eldrion.

Before you leave, don't forget to go to Career Trainer Lyndriel Flameleaf. Get some Core Training under your belt, then take the road southeast out of the camp and down. On the way, you'll see an Eagle's Claw Crewman, who will ask for your help via a quest called to kill haripes with an Eagle's Claw. Man the shooter and take aim at the to kill them. Afterwards, talk to the crewman again, who will update The Eagle's Claw with a quest to find Prince Eldrion, who we're on the way to find anyway.

Proceed southeast along the road until you run into a Shining Warguard, who has the repeatable quest , which you can complete by participating in the Khaine's Embrace scenario (we'll get into that at the end of this guide). Move ahead to Prince Eldrion as you discover Calumel. He'll complete your quests and give you a ton more. The quests include The Brides of Khaine, to kill Arkaneth Witch Elf mobs, another to kill Arkaneth Harpy mobs, and A Difficult Choice, which sends you to Calumel proper to administer a salve to a Wounded Calumel Citizen.

After getting all of these, it's time to start knocking them out. Go up the path and southwest first and kill enough harpies to finish that quest, then head northeast across the bridge and kill Witch Elves until your quest is complete for them as well. Go northeast and down as the path dips and you'll find the wounded citizens you'll need to complete the last of your quests for now. Head back to Prince Eldrion to turn these in. You'll get Shadows of War, to head down southeast to find Sariel Keenbow. Before you leave, talk to the Career Trainer here, to train if you've gained a rank, but also to unlock Shining Guard. After this, head southeast and you'll get to Azurewood Forest and the next camp.

High Elves - the masters of making things shiny.

Start off at this new hub by going ahead to Laretha the Sun Mage, who will give you the quest Predators, which will send you to kill Cold Ones in the forest. Right next to her, a Kill Collector will give you credit for killing all the Dark Elves you have so far. Go just to the left and back to find the Rally Master in the area. Rally Masters set bind points and give you rewards based on influence gained by completing Public Quests (we'll get to one of those at the end of this guide). Finally, turn around and head back to find Sariel, who will complete the quest the brought you here and give you a quest asking you to do some scouting and get some reports on the enemy.

Let's take care of the Predators quest first. Head into the forest and find enough Cold Ones to kill to complete your quest, unlocking the Cold One entry. Go back to Laretha, and she'll complete this quest and give you two more - Tears of Lileath, which sends you to the Halls of Lileath to get the Tears after triggering four tomes, and Tireless Honor, which sends you to the east to relieve a from fighting.

Head southeast out of the camp and you'll run into a Dwarf, Grunda. She'll ask for your help and give you the quest Reluctant Hand, to get some Azure-rock from the forest for her. Go back towards the camp and right before the entrance, you should see a path leading up to the right. Go up this path to the top, then south to talk to the Keenbow Scout to get the Arkaneth Barracks Reports. Go back north all the way on this lookout point and talk to the scout there to get the Black Ark Reports, finishing your quest for them. From here, you'll be able to see the Halls of Lileath, where you'll need to go to finish more quests.

A touching scene...for a place under siege by hated enemies.

Go back down the path the way you came and descend once again. Make a hard right and go back to the camp to turn in the Reports quest to Sariel, who will give you two more quests. The first is Ignoble Weapons, which directs you to kill some Reaper Bolt Throwers, and Decisive Imbalance, which has you killing s in Azurewood. You should be able to talk to Hans Schuler in camp as well to get the Empire unlock and another quest, Silencing Hans, which has you traveling to a Chaos encampment to burn accursed tomes.

Head out of the camp and search around for Azure-rock for your quest with Grunda. When you finish and turn it in to her, she gives you an update to Reluctant Hand by giving you a bomb to set off near the Black Ark. Proceed southeast from here and kill Arkaneth Warriors and Reapers to fulfill your quest there. Go southwest and you'll find the Chaos encampment to burn the tomes. After this, go northeast up the path and follow it until you find the Halls of Lileath. Go into the square and kill all the dark elves attacking Geran Mournfire and talk to him afterwrards to fulfill your Mournfire quest.

Turning to the right, you'll see the entrance to the Halls of Lileath. Proceed down the staircase and wander through to dead ends where scrolls are located. Once all four are activated, you should be able to get the Tears to appear. Retrieve two of them and head up and out of the Halls.

Proceed north, and you'll run into the area's public quest, which you can participate in. But before that, get close enough to the Black Ark landing so you can see the path leading up to it, then open your inventory. Click on the gold quest tab and right click the keg Grunda gave you to set it off, completing that quest.

Now that's what I call a kegger.

Afterwards, head back south and back the way you came to the camp, making your way back to the red circles on your map. You can complete your quest with Grunda on the way back (and repeat it if you like), and go back to the camp to turn in the rest of your quests. You're on your way to defending the lands against your evil kin!

House Arkaneth has three stages:

Stage 1 has you killing the Arkaneth soldiers defending the Spires.
Stage 2 has you defending the Shining Guard as they set up Eagle's Claw weapons to take down the invading Dark Elf force.
Stage 3 pits you against a Beastmaster and his pet Hydra in a final battle of wills to decide the victor!

The area's scenario is Khaine's Embrace, where you can potentially get unlocks for Greenskin and Chaos by killing them in combat.

The objective of the scenario is to control the two points on the map for a period of 10 seconds, after which an explosion will kill everyone in the area and reset everything.
There is a point on each side of the map with a connecting tunnel in the center, although there are multiple paths to take to get to the opposing team's point.
It's possible to avoid the explosion that happens after two points are taken. Simply take cover a fair distance away and you'll survive the blast, allowing you to re-take a point quickly without waiting for a respawn.

Warhammer Disciple of Khaine Video

2008-09-17T11:14:00.001-07:00

Warhammer Online has release a new video on the Warhammer Disciple of Khaine. Paul Barnett explains the class and what the developers wanted for the disciple career.

The Warhammer Disciple is a healer and a buffer at its core. However, the Warhammer developers have tried their best to make sure the disciple is not just a heal bot. The Warhammer Online disciple will need to be standing toe to toe with the enemy in order to heal. He will be a meleeing healer.

Here is a full review of Warhammer Disciple of Khaine.
Check out this Warhammer Disciple of Khaine Video.

World of Warcraft player's guide to Warhammer Online

2008-09-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

Whether or not you see many similarities between Blizzard's epically popular title and Mythic's Warhammer Online, the reality is that World of Warcraft players are going to feel very comfortable in the brand-new game. Much of the framework that has made the world of Azeroth so successful over the last four years is in full force within Warhammer.

Questing as a central component to leveling, an intuitive user interface, and combat very much like that found in Warcraft are all going to be great handrails to incoming players.There are plenty of MMO players (rightly) curious about what kind of game Mythic has created for them. For the curious Azerothian citizen, despite the familiar handholds, there are a number of big differences and additional features you're just not going to have experience with. Warhammer's a brand new world, with a lot of different sights, cultures, and expectations. To help you out as a brand new WAR player, we've compiled a guide to ease that transition, in the same tradition as our guides to Age of Conan and Guild Wars. WoW players, welcome to a brand new world ... one without gnomes!

Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out all of our previous Warhammer Online features, and don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

World SettingAs a WoW player, you're going to have to put aside a lot of your preconceptions about lore and setting when coming into Warhammer Online. Despite the obvious DNA the two worlds share, Stormwind is a very different place than the battle-scarred walls of Altdorf. Put off any expectations you have about what kind of fantasy game Warhammer is, and just read your quests as you go. The world of Warhammer is a great one ... it's what Azeroth is built on, at that. Here are some of the biggest differences a WoW veteran will probably notice:

WAR is low fantasy. Magic is obviously a powerful force in Warhammer, and several classes sling it around like hash at a buffet, but generally the world is much grittier and brutal than what we see in Warcraft.

One faction is evil. No, actually evil, not just 'misunderstood'. The Orcs want to eat babies, the Dark Elves are sadists, and the Chaos Marauders want everyone dead or corrupted. You are playing a very bad person if you fight for Destruction.

The humans are deeply religious. The worship of Sigmar is a driving force for their culture, and religiosity is present in the game in a way very much absent from Warcraft. Not that this doesn't make the humans virtuous - in truth, they're every bit as conniving as the residents of Stormwind.

War is now. In Warcraft, the war has been over for a bit. The world as a whole is in a state of relative peace, though there are obviously plenty of border skirmishes and political problems. In Warhammer what little peace and prosperity people can find is beset on all sides by violence. There are famines, plagues, and war is everywhere.

Warhammer Online Preview Weekend Update - The Update

2008-09-03T21:12:00.001-07:00

Details on what they're going to fix/improve/patch/add to Warhammer Online has been posted over at Warhammer Alliance by Marc of Mythic Entertainment.

Folks,

Well, things have been, as usual, busy here at Mythic so I have lots of news to share. So, without further ado and no SNL references, here's the update on my update:

1) Significantly improved NPC pathing - Okay, in all fairness it wouldn't have taken much to improve on what we showed you folks during the PW. However, the NPC pathing is back to where it needs to be and while it still isn't perfect, well, it's a heck of a lot closer than it was just a short time ago. We identified a whole lot of bugs and squashed them.

2) Improved pet commands and responsivness - Well, pretty much same as above. Pets will no longer act as if obeying an order from you was the last thing in this world that they wanted to do.
3) Fixed an issue with textures blurring - Nothing like looking at textures through a blurred lens to make things look really sharp eh? Major improvements in and more OTW.

4) Enhanced Global Cooldown Mechanic - Well, for one the GCD actually shows the correct cooldown time and not the rounded up cooldown time (Hey, what a great idea, let's make it seem slower than it is. WOOT!). The slop timer is working fine right now and we'll continue to look at making the GCD and combat in general more responsive.

5) Continuing to improve Client Stability - As always, lots of fixes going in here. The client is supposed to be more stable (and looks like it so far) but until we get the masses back in...

6) Added new Graphics Settings and seeking more feedback from testers to guide future improvements. You asked for it, you got it. Well, in all fairness we were going to put these in anyway but it never hurts to nudge us a bit at times.

7) Target Nearest Target improved - Yeah! One of my pet peeves addressed.

8) Renown Gear changes and Potency of Potions increased. Tweaking, adding, subtracting, in other words (don't say "nerf", we're still in beta!) balancing.

9) Increased bonus for medal winners in PQs. PQs are supposed to be fun, joyous and not grindy. We'll continue tweaking and changing them wherever we need to do that to make it so #1. (okay, a ST reference)

10) Added more loot bags in Tier 1 PQs - Boy, it's going to be rather crowded when we launch so we just upped the loot for the Tier 1 PQs. We'll do the same to T2 as needed. And when the rush is over, we'll tweak downwards.

So, in terms of some other good stuff, lots and lots and lots of bugs fixed and lots of new stuff added to the ToK. But wait, there's more and we'll address some of it next week as well as more coming info in the next update.

Oh, and there's still no such thing as a miracle patch so don't expect one here. Just a ton of fixes, additions and adjustments. We have another major patch coming as well before launch. We don't believe in miracle patches (miracle whip is a whole other subject) here at Mythic but simply hard work and a talented team.

Much respect to my team that is really doing one heck of a job getting things ready for launch.

Warhammer Online Goes Gold

2008-09-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has gone gold, meaning the development stage is completed and the game is now ready for duplication. The highly-anticipated MMORPG from Mythic Entertainment will officially launch on September 18 for a retail price of $49.99.

Warhammer Online is the highly-anticipated MMORPG based on the popular Games Workshop tabletop game. IGN recently awarded it the best MMORPG of E3. Vice President of EA and General Manager of Mythic Entertainment Mark Jacobs was very enthusiastic about the gold announcement. "We've done our best to create the next great MMORP experience, but it's the fans that will bring our world to life."

Age of Reckoning can it Protect its Gold?

2008-09-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

Warhammer online is scheduled for release on September 18, 2008. Will it, like every other massively multiplayer online role playing game with an exchange barter system, be suck susceptible to gold farmers? Time will only tell but if the past predicts the future the possibility is high.

There are numerous reasons too for others to make a buck from MMORPGs like warhammer. The main being that people will buy from you and or trade for what they are selling. If a gamer doesn’t want to tediously go through building up the gold to buy that special item they want they could just buy it from someone for real money. The same goes for power leveling, you want that high level character now, and well you could by him from somebody that is willing to part with their leveled up toon, for a sometimes unreasonable price.

This practice has been going on ever since it could be done. For Everquest, another MMORPG, there was so much selling of in-game items for real cash that the BBC did a report that with a exchange rate of game currency to real money that everquest would be the 77th richest country in the world. The developers for EQ made a plea for eBay to stop putting up such trade auctions. This has lead to many specialty sites dedicated to game to real currency exchange. Will Warhammer have the same issue?

Not only with EV is there seen to be a problem between fiction game gold to real money exchanges. In early 2006, Square Enix of final fantasy found that a group of players had found out a way to generate game currency and exchange it for real currency, which, drove up prices for all items across the game, In response, 700 accounts were permanently banned and 300 billion gil (final fantasy’s take one money), was removed from circulation.

In response to more and more of these types of fictional gold for real currency from other developers has been varied but altogether a bit futile, for there are more sellers and buyers then there ever were. Square Enix has declared that the trade of items for real currency is officially a violation of the Terms of Service for Final Fantasy XI. In July 2006, Square Enix banned or suspended over 8,000 other accounts for manipulation and commerce. As of 2006, Square Enix has regularly banned accounts found to be in violation of the Terms of Service, some using third-party tools, removing billions of gil from the in-game economy. EQ seems to have taken “if you can’t beat them join them approach, in that EverQuest 2 launched “Station Exchange” servers in July 2005. The program provides buying in-game items for real money from fellow players for a nominal fee.

With all the in game trades and selling form real to fake money from all the other MMOPG’s out there one has to wonder if Warhammer is prepared for it. What will it do in response to the possibility of selling in game gold and turning it into green cash? So suggest to Usfine.com to buy Warhammer Online Gold !

Warhammer The Melee DPS Survival Guide

2008-09-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the MDPS survival guide! The current version is beta version 0.3.0, for Warhammer Closed Beta patch 3.3. This guide will be regularly updated as new relevant information is made available.

This guide exists to help users of the Melee Damage (MDPS) archetype, which includes the White Lion, Witch Hunter, Marauder, and Witch Elf classes, gain a better understanding of how "Pick Up Groups" (PUGs), which are unorganized groups of players, function and how to be successful within one of those groups. Users will find plenty basic tips and strategies that have been successfully tested and used on the battlefield. Users will not find comprehensive mathematical breakdowns and exact strategies for each class.

It has always been my hope and sincerest wish that users of this guide learn something and become better players. I hope you, the reader, enjoy this guide and do, in fact, learn something!

The Types of Combat
In Warhammer Online, and indeed most MMOs in general, there are four basic types of "PUG" (Pick Up Group), which is to say- unorganized, combat. What I mean by unorganized is that the players on each side are a random assortment of players that don't have a set plan in mind and are often very uncoordinated. They either never gain a plan, or they have to just make it up as they go along. The four basic types of PUG combat are:

Large Group, aka "Zerg"

The term zerg refers to a race in the strategy game "Starcraft." The main tactic for this race was not getting the best units or technologies, but instead the race was all about getting as many units onto the battlefield at one time...whether the units are very effective or not. Therefore, the "zerg" has come to be a term meaning "a very large, unorganized mass of players." When in a zerg situation, MDPS are at their very weakest. It is difficult for them to cross the field and do anything meaningful before they are gunned down by the large mass of ranged players.

Medium Group
A medium group could be loosely defined as 7-18 players. This size of group will most commonly be encountered in scenarios. MDPS fair surprisingly well in this situation, as long as the player understands some basic principles. "The Flow of Battle," my original guide, as well as the chapter with the same name, address this situation.

Small Group
Approximately 2-5 players. This is when MDPS are at their strongest. MDPS typically have the damage power to kill most healers and ranged damage (RDPS) classes by themselves, and the offense threats against them are at a minimum in this situation.

Solo
1v1 combat. MDPS are very strong here as well, but don't fair as well as melee healers like Warrior-Priests and Disciples.

Basic Tips for Any Combat Situation
There are some basic things that will greatly improve your chances of success as a MDPS, no matter your combat situation.
Have a healer friend.
This is listed first for a reason! Cherish them as much as they should cherish you. In a tier 1 game having a healer would mean the difference from a game with 10 kills and 10k damage to a game of 18 kills and 35k damage. I prefer the ranged healers of any type as you can use your snare to peel enemies off them. The ranged healers also further improve your magic resistances with the appropriate buff...which is GREAT to have (always ask for resist buff over strength buff, trust me and tell them politely to use it on themselves!). Don't underestimate the power of having a melee healer with you though (especially if they have a tank friend to guard them!). Their armor buff is extremely helpful.

Know your enemy.
First, know that your biggest enemy is other melee. You have light or medium armor with only about 25% damage mitigation. A defensive tank gets up to 70% mitigation, an offensive tank 45%ish mitigation. That's a big difference! Second: know that ranged healers stand no chance against you. Last, know that if you start a fight in melee range against an RDPS, it's pretty much over for them as well.

Know thyself.
You're mainly a skirmisher...a caster killer. You're not built to stay on the front lines like a tank. Get in, get your kill, and get out if you're going to take hits.

Situational Awareness
This is basically being aware of your surroundings. Very often it is wise to pan your camera around to check if you're about to be flanked, or what your enemy is about to do. Don't get too caught up in the frenzy of battle.

Stick Together
Never run strait into the zerg unless all the melee run in together. You will get tab targeted and focused down unless there are other melee (especially a shield tank) to absorb part of the damage for you. Running in all together is very effective, but takes some coordination that most pug groups aren't willing to display.

Gear and Statistics
For a list of formulas regarding gear and statistics, reference here.
The most important stats on gear, in my personal preference order (I say it this way because it's bound to be debated), are:

Resists - You're a caster killer, and they don't like to see you coming! Resists are very important for your survival. Even the "physical" ranged damage: Shadow Warriors, Engineers, and Squig Herders, are equipped with a number of skills that are based on resists. Do not spend RPs on increasing resists though. All your resists should come through gear and buffs from friends.

Armor - Realistically, armor is soft capped by the type you wear and so increasing it isn't always possible. Still, you want armor as your biggest enemy is other melee. Having a melee healer (Warrior-Priest or Disciple) in your group that runs the armor buff helps significantly. I would not spend your RPs on increasing armor, increase it through gear or buffs from friends.

Strength - You're a damage class. Strength improves your damage. Makes sense! But wait Duty, I'm a Witch Hunter and have ranged skills, shouldn't I stack Ballistic? No. WHs have a very high base Ballistic skill. Mythic gave them this so their stat spread wouldn't be too crazy. Stack strength as a Witch Hunter just as you would other classes. Strength is where the majority of RPs should be spent.

Toughness - Per point, in my opinion, resists/armor offer a lot more survivability increase, but you can only get so much of those. Toughness is the next best survivability stat. For AoE-focused character builds, I'd recommend stacking toughness equally or in preference with strength. These builds tend to do well in large situations with healers to support the MDPS. Because you will be taking so much damage in these situations, toughness becomes more vital. Toughness is where your secondary RPs should be spent.

Initiative - Lowering your chance to be crit is nice, but still won't have as much effect as other defensive stats. Dodge chance is nice to have to avoid the crowd control and damage skills of shadow warriors, squig herders, engineers, and witch hunters. A note: the point-blank area of effect root of Shadow Warriors, Squig Herders, and Engineers is considered a ranged skill, and so is dodged, not parried.

Weapon Skill - The armor penetration is not as significant as you might think. First, you're killing casters, they don't have a lot of armor (and armor does not work logarithmically like it does in other games...it's a flat increase, so armor penetration is more useful against high armor targets due to hitting the "penetration cap" on lower armored targets). Melee is your biggest enemy, but you are trying to avoid them, and armor is a natural defense against them that doesn't eat stat budget (stat budget refers to what stats you spend on your gear...you can only have so many stats and so have to choose). Weapon skill is nice to have, but you get more offensive punch out of strength, and more defensive punch out of toughness, initiative, and armor.

Willpower - Since MDPS don't heal, 1/2 this stat is worthless. The other half seems beneficial, but you don't gain enough disrupt chance to warrant stacking over other stats.

Ballistic - Mostly worthless. Helps Witch Hunters some, but Strength will net you a better DPS increase.

Intellect - Mostly worthless.

Tips for Large Group Situations
Zergs aren't easy for MDPS. In fact I'd say they're downright painful if you have a bad group or no support. Brawler types tend to fair much much better, but still are at a general disadvantage in this situation. Obviously character builds that emphasize AoE (Area of Effect...skills that hit multiple characters at a time), such as the Marauder's Monstrosity line, will fair better.

Large group situations tend not to "whittle down" to smaller and smaller groups. There are typically too many players to kill before the ones you just dispatched are already back. Splitting up to take multiple objectives, or players just logging/relocating are the only ways zergs tend to dissipate. Since you're weak at this type of combat: encourage dissipation. Go somewhere else, fight another battle. Don't play the zerg game and don't be a sheep. Even if you have to 1v1 you're in a much stronger position.

Still, if you feel you must participate in a zerg, you must know that zergs don't generally get progressively smaller, and so aren't won by killing all the players. They're won by pushes. Admittedly, it can be incredibly fun charging the line and routing your enemies even if that's more a tank's job then MDPS.

To best win the pushing, you must coordinate melee charges. You can't send 1-2 melee guys at a time as they get slaughtered. It can be difficult in a PUG to rally players to all charge at the same time...but when you do get enough to make a difference, it's quite a sight to behold as you rout the enemy and slaughter them from behind. If possible you want to stay behind tanks that are using "Hold the Line." You'll recognize it as an animation that sprays behind the tank, and he will hold his shield steadfast in front of him. He gains a 45% chance to dodge and disrupt (that is: avoid any ranged attack) while you gain 15% chance to do the same. However, you can gain the benefit up to 3 times if you stand behind 3 tanks doing it, which gives you a total of 45% to avoid any ranged attack. Hold the Line only lasts a short amount of time...it's meant to get you to the action (which by that time your enemy will probably be routing unless they have significant amounts of melee players to hide behind).

After you get to the fighting, it's pretty simple. Assist other players by focusing on 1 guy at a time to kill them faster, and don't go beyond the front line. The worst thing you can do is pass your tanks, because you'll get "tab targeted," which refers to players hitting the "target closest player" button and all focusing on you. You want to let your tanks take the damage...that's what they're there for. You try to remain as inconspicuous as possible.

If you have 2 or more ranged healing friends that are dedicated to keeping you alive, you can really rampage and flourish in a large group situation, as long as you are a brawler MDPS (marauder or white lion) that is specialized in AoEs. You can often run in and kill several players at chokepoints when you have such a support corps. Using Monstrosity spec on my Marauder, I've managed to kill 13 players near simultaneously while they came up the stairs in a Dark Elf keep. The secret is to choose your spot: a chokepoint where they're all bunched up (like stairs, a doorway or a bridge), know your AoE combos, and have help to keep you alive. When things go the right way, you'll net LOTS of kills and have a ton of fun doing so.

The Flow of Battle: Medium Group Situations
Let me start by saying that there is a very key difference in how medium group battles tend to take place from large group battles: they whittle down. What I mean is that as players die, it becomes a progressively smaller group situation. So as medium group battles carry on, MDPS get stronger and stronger.

You must use this to your advantage! I have recommended this approach because I know the power of the tab target. The biggest difference in an organized group against an unorganized one is that the organized guys are all hitting the same target to kill him faster, while unorganized guys are hitting all different ones. Tab Target turns those unorganized guys into organized ones by making sure they all target you: the melee guy who happens to be closest. I've recommended this approach so you don't get into that particularly nasty situation.

Phase 1: The Skirmish
When two armies first meet, the skirmish takes place. This is a period where each side is at full or near full strength. Ranged characters are at their best as they can safely hide behind melee types and blast away. The cardinal rule for MDPS of this stage is to stay alive. Don't take risks. Your RPDS buddies are at their strongest: so let them do their job! Let them pick away at the enemy forces from a safe distance. Your job is to use that wonderful snare that all MDPS have and help your RDPS friends stay away from the melee players that charge too early.

The more melee players from the enemy side that want to charge over, the better. Kill those foolish melee! They're your biggest enemy and the more you remove, the better your survival chances are later in the fight. Even if they're tanks, they're by far the safest thing to beat on at this stage, and with enough people focusing on them, they'll die eventually.

Don't worry, they will come to you. A true master does not chase his enemies, but lets his enemies come to him on his land...his advantage. Let their melee come (and they will), as they're easy to single out and destroy. If one of them happens to target you, run back into your group so you "overextend" him. This means you make him chase you out of range of his support: where he becomes a very easy target.

Phase 2: Fun Time!
After their melee characters are either dead or otherwise distracted away from you, it's time for you to make your move. You want to get at the casters at this stage. Try to flank or otherwise reach them without drawing attention. Stealth characters excel at this as they can cross the battlefield without drawing focus to themselves. Brawlers may be tempted to use Charge! but this is unwise. You not only want to save Charge! for retreating or catching a player that tries to escape, but it also brings attention to that fast moving White Lion blazing across the field...something you don't want.

Once behind the front lines, you should know which classes to kill first. Because the majority of their healing comes from their "big heal," which is easily pushed back when they take damage, killing ranged healers is often the easiest to do, and often enough required before you can kill anything else (they'll just keep healing it!).

If you think you can get away with it without them getting heals: kill "Glass Cannons," which are Sorceresses and Bright Wizards first. They do a TON of damage and can ruin your day if you don't take care of them. If smart ranged healers are around to prevent you from doing so, you'll have to kill the healers first.

After the ranged healers and glass cannons are dead or not present, take out "skirmishers," who are Squig Herders and Shadow Warriors. These classes have a lot of crowd control and can make life very frustrating. Taking them out makes your job easier. Last, take out the "defender RDPS," which are the engineers and mages of Tzeentch. They are the most difficult of the ranged characters to kill, and typically aren't your first choice to kill.

So the kill order tends to generally (there are exceptions that experience will teach you) look like this:
Shaman/Archmage
Zealot/Runepriest
Sorceress/Bright Wizard - First if you can get away with it
Squig Herder/Shadow Warrior
Magus/Engineer
Witch Elf/Witch Hunter
Marauder/White Lion
Disciple/Warrior-Priest
All tanks

If you succeed in not attracting attention, you should almost be guaranteed a kill. You're brutally effective when facing the enemies weakest to you while the enemies strongest against you are distracted elseware.

If you do attract attention, be ready to retreat. Where as stealthy types rely on getting there unnoticed and are good at it, brawler types tend to excel at getting out if needed. Your detaunt (that is: the skill that reduces the damage players around you deal to you), followed by Charge! if you have it, will get you out of many situations. The whole reason I personally love brawler MDPS is their 50% AoE detaunt. It's completely underestimated by new players. It has saved me from many many sticky situations.

Understand a key component to this stage: you don't want to overextend. There is still enough DPS on the field to be a threat to you if you stray from your support. No one can heal or kill the enemies attacking you if you're out of range. With few exceptions, you don't want to chase enemies back too far.

Phase 3: Small Group
At some point in the battle, one side will most likely establish itself as the clear victors and will just "mop up the rest." At this point you are generally free to overextend some (never too much though), chase down enemies, and revel in the glory of killing your enemies.

However, sometimes the sides are fairly even with only about 2-6 players left on each side. This is a time you will want to keep special considerations in mind.

First, there generally isn't enough DPS still out there to kill you before you can make it back to your support. *Some* overextending and chasing is warranted if it furthers the cause of winning the battle.

Second, you want to focus fire. Take a look who others are killing and help them. Help other DPS classes before you help tanks. If you see a Witch Elf bashing on a Runepriest, and a Black Orc hitting an Archmage, go help the Witch Elf as your combined DPS is pretty staggering.

Third, help your ranged guys by using your snare against their melee pursuers. Keep them safe: your best weapon is the guy beside you (for proof of this, calculate your current weapon vs getting the best weapon in the game for your class...figure out the gain. Will you gain double the damage or healing, double the hit points, and double the utility skills that you get from having a friend?).

Solo Battles
Solo battles are truly beyond the scope of this guide, as they are a much more exact science then groups. They depend on your class and what class you are facing more then anything, and tend to become exact blow-for-blow, counter-for-counter fights.

There are some key advantages and tips MDPS players have in solo situations though. Knowledge of which classes you can defeat and which generally defeat you is paramount. In general the melee healers, which are Warrior-Priests and Disciples, tend to be the strongest solo classes, and most of the time you'll want to avoid engaging them. Tanks also tend to be fairly tough, but most of the time will not finish you off before you can escape them if the battle goes poorly, as your escape moves tend to trump their pursuit moves.

Knowing which classes you can engage and which you can not is very important because MDPS, over any other class, have the power of selecting their engagements. Stealth and runspeed buffs (Charge!) give you that power. You're very hard to escape and you can escape very easily.

It's always beneficial to get the first blow in as well. You have a major advantage, especially against ranged characters, if you can reach them before they know you're coming. Lastly, bring friends. Two or more can always accomplish more then one solo player.

Closing
This concludes the basic training for MDPS in RvR. It may sound like a lot more work then it is, but with some practice you can become a successful player. The key is to be patient and fight on your terms...not the enemy's. Don't go chasing kills when they'll come right to you. And bring friends!

Warhammer RvR Video Guide

2008-09-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

Warhammer Online: AoR 'RvR' video

A Guide to the Witch Hunter Class

2008-09-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

A heavy revamp of my Previous guide in the Witch Hunter forums. With overviews of all skills now included and in depth uses of each Mastery Tree.

"Corruption and the threat of the enemy within are what drove into existence the need for the Witch Hunters. These grim folk seek out and destroy the seeds of corruption wherever they find it. With fire and the sword do they hunt, slay and burn any who have even the slightest hint of being touched by the fell powers. Cultists, mutants and unlicensed practitioners of magic all have fallen to the judgment of the Witch Hunters over the years.

These folk get their name from ancient days when ordained folk were given the perilous task of seeking out and destroying those dark magisters in our lands. These Witches and Warlocks as they are called, consorted with dangerous powers, summoned forth daemons and otherwise posed a grave threat. In modern days however the role of the Witch Hunter is much broader, not only do they seek out those who practice magic, or who dabble with dark magic, but also cultists, mutants and even darker threats to our lands.

These folk live a cursed life, hated and feared by most folk for the suspicion and doubts they cast. Witch Hunters are never welcome in most communities, even those that have great need of them, for they are cruel and unrelenting in their pursuit of those corrupted. These folk are skilled warriors out of the necessity of their tasks, often being proficient even in some of the more recent innovations such as blackpowder arms. Nowhere nearly as heavily armored as a knight or even the warrior priests, the Witch Hunter is still a deadly opponent.

Being sought by a Witch Hunter is a great fear for many folk, for a great many stories are told of how these fell protectors of our lands torment and torture their foes, forcing a confession of their black deeds from them before they are put to death. Many Witch Hunters have fallen over the years, slain by those they seek to destroy yet there are always more zealous folk who take up the calling, driven perhaps by some inner torment or burning desire to see justice done to the wicked. Few enter this career who are innocent folk and surely none last long who cannot become hardened to the horrors and trials forced upon these folk.

In this time of great peril to our lands with the coming of a new warhost of Chaos out of the north, many Witch Hunters have come forth to do battle against such an open display of Chaos. After long years of being hidden in the darkness with this new Age of Reckoning many cults have revealed themselves, believing that the time has finally come for the Empire to fall and a new Realm of Chaos to be established upon the world. So too have many beastmen, mutants and worse things come forth to wage their war against us and these foul folk shall soon learn to fear the wicked ministrations of the Witch Hunter."

Extract From Armies of WAR
These poor, simple folk - too fearful or too dull-witted to see the vulgarity and evil in their own midst. They wail and complain about my...uncompromising methods, but who among you can say that hanging half a village is too high a price to pay for the assurance that corruption has been exposed and destroyed this day?" - Ernst Traugott, Templar Witch Hunter The Witch

Hunter Look
Lightly Armored, with long cloaks and coats, wide-brimmed hats and buckled tunics.
Wields off-hand pistols and main-hand rapiers, swords and torches.

Ornamented with other tools of their craft such as stakes, daggers, relics, chains and emblems of the Cult of Sigmar or the Empire.

Why Choose the Witch Hunter?

Witch Hunters are currently Light Melee DPS classes, meaning they can throw a punch yet can be blown away with the slightest breeze. This class takes heavy amounts of concentration and positional tactics to succeed on the battlefield and should not be confused with the WoW variation of the 'Rogue' class as this class requires a braincell to succeed in the battlefield.

Stealth and how it Works!

Stealth is an opening move for a few Witch Hunter Skills for a massive advantage over his target. Currently, there are only 3 openers for the Witch Hunter, all of which grant a 50% off all attack Skills and 50% off cool down. All 3 have unique aspects about them and must be used for each different target.

Burn Armour: This Openers unique trait grants X damage every time your target attacks using a melee skill or auto attack for 10 seconds. This skill should be used on MDPS or Tank. So, from experience, never use this opener in RvR , only on Hero Mobs or Champions. I’ll explain this later.

Sudden Accusation: This Openers unique trait grants X damage every time your target moves for 10 seconds. This is the most useful opener for all targets, as most players seem to circle strafe or run behind enemy lines in fear. Never use this opener in PvE.

Fanatical Zeal: This Openers unique trait grants X damage every time your target uses a Spell for 10 seconds. This skill should be used on every caster type and even Witch Elves who has an array of spells,(melee range of course). However it is better to Use Sudden Accusation.

Stealth, in otherwords 'Incognito' at the moment has a Cool down of 60 seconds, which, only starts once your session in stealth has finished, so you can’t spam stealth attacks. Stealth takes a few seconds to Activate, which also can be done on the Move. Stealth only has duration of 30 seconds, and in total will wipe 50% of your AP bar.

Detecting a person using stealth is easy, however you can only be detected if you are attacking in the line of sight of your target, so it is better to attack from the rear or side to get full advantage. You can also be detected if you take any damage while in stealth, this includes AoE attacks but somehow not DoT attacks that you had on you before activating stealth.

Mythic have not yet responded to the countless threads suggesting better alternatives other than stealth....Since it was implemented last year. Hopefully this will change when both US/EU communities combine in the future.

Masteries and YOU!

Confession

Focused more on burst damage and is commonly used to take down more than 1 target at a time. This mastery is currently in my opinion the best Mastery to specialize in for PvE due to its PBAoE buff and Execution.

This mastery improves the following Core skills:

Blessed Bullets of Purity: This Bullets should on be used in PvE, as mobs do not require a snare as they will only on some occasions run. This skill seems to be designed for solo PvE play if you do not have a healer.

Trail by Pain: Currently, this skill should only be used in Solo PvE and only if you pick on 1 mob at a time. 3 out of 6 shots stack with Bullet Blessings, and in this case should only apply to Blessed Bullets of Purity.

Burn Armour: Can be used in Both PvE and PvP, more useful on Marauders and Witch Elves due to the mass spam of melee attacks, should not be used on caster or healers. Sudden Acussation however outclasses this in PvP due to melee dps players keen interest in Circle Strafing.

Seekers Blade: A good skill if used right if you plan on taking out tanks or infact any MDPS careers. I usually apply this skill along Fervor from the Inquisition line.

Razor Srike: This skill can be put to use in this mastery due to Sweeping Razor, This will become your main damage dealer in mass RvR, combined with Dragon Gun will become a good crowd destroyer.

Skills and Aquired in Confession

Dragon Gun : This skill works brilliantly with bullets. Works very well in mass situations like open world RvR where casters and healers are bunched up. For PvE purposes, this skill can be used for AoE farming combined with Blessed Bullets of Purity.

Repel Blasphemy: This is a MUST HAVE skill if specced in Confession. If under attack by Melee Careers this will add alot of survivability and opening up your Confess ability. This skill also can be put to use with the Tactic Riposte, melee careers will suffer incredible damage if under attack while this skill is active if combined with Ripost.
Tactics

Sweeping Razor: As mentioned above, use this paired up with Razor Strike as your main damage and accusation builder.

Sanctified Bullets: This tactic is also, only useful in PvE at the moment due to Blessed Bullets of Cleansing being superior in PvP than Purity. This tactic is only worth it if you intend on bring BBoP to the battle.

Seeker's Tiumph: A tactic not worth bringing to the battlefield. There are other tactics worth using more than this as armour ignoring tactic for a skill that does not do much damage is not worth it.

Inquisition

Focused more on DoT damage, but has powerful skills that reduce stats and healing done on targets.

This mastery Improves the following Core skills:

Fervor: This skill should be the main accusation builder for Inquisition specced WH's. Use this after a stealth opener 3 times (as it stacks), unleashing Exit wound with 5 accusations can be incredibly powerful.

Burn the Heretic!: This skill does massive damage in PvE and PvE, as it is a DoT and does not do physical damage, it is worth doing this on tanks and medium mdps. This skill still does pack a punch and worth using in RvR on ALL careers.

Confess!: A must use skill if need be. Confession/Inquisition builds benefit from this greatly because of Repel Blasphemy. This skill is great going against melee careers if need be it. It is not worth using against Casters as they use spells rather than weapon attacks.

Sudden Accusation: *See article on Stealth above*

Blessed Bullets of Confession: Avoid this bullet blessing. This skill is not worth using, as the AP your target loses from this skill can simply be recovered in 1 second. Currently the worst skill the Witch Hunter has.

Skills Aquired in Inquisition:

Seal of Destruction: A must have skill if specced in Inquisition or any/Inqui builds. This skill is a life saver. As most Caster classes focus on the DoT line (Curses and Hexes), this skill will remove most attacks the enemy casters throw at you, and healing you as well (Willpower increases healing). Brilliant skill.

Punish The False!: If you are attacking a healer, infact, any class, this skill must be used after you have done damage spike with Fervor or other damaging abilities as healers will only focus on the target if it's health is low. By using it at the right time you can take out your target even with healing support.

Exit Wound: (Currently not listed in WHDB, will update with info once added)

Tactics

Full Confession: A good tactic if you intend to be attacking melee careers more than casters for the damage, however you should not be, instead going for casters careers and I doubt you'll be using ''Confess!'' on them.

Prolonged Confession: A must have if you are mainly specced in Inquisition (like Sweeping Razor for confession). This tactic makes sure you do that extra bit of damage to finish off your enemies with an extra tick of damage.

Encourage Confession: Avoid this tactic! Currently Blessed Bullets of Confession as mentioned above is the worst skill in your arsenal.

Judgement

This mastery is focused in massive single target burst damage, and has great finishers, a mastery that teaches you to deal with all target types including the dreaded Tank archtype..

This mastery Improves the following Core skills:

Blessed Bullets of Cleansing: Currently the PvP bullet buff. The 40% from all executions is priceless to finish off your cowardly enemies. This skill is best used with Dragon Gun to combat zerg mind. However this is subject to change coming the next patch, expect Bullet revamp.

Torment: This should be your main accusation builder, Razor Strike is not an option as this does more damage regardless of position if specced in Inquisition. If you can stay at the side or rear of a tank you can do good damage.

Absolution: The first execution you acquire as a Witch Hunter. Good for quickly applying BBoC on running targets. Use this at the right moment with Burn Away Lies for massive spike damage.

Silence the Heretic: A good skill on taking out casters. The 3 second silence gives you enough time to build up a few accusations to blow your target away. If using Pistol Whip you should use them after either of their timers run out if 1 is used first.

Fanatical Zeal: (See above article on Stealth)

Skills Aquired in Inquisition:

Witch Hunter Armour and Stats.

Those who were expecting this class to have more armour than a Caster will be sorely disappointed. This is the weakest aspect to being a Witch Hunter.

The Witch Hunter has the same base armour for throughout his/her entire career as a caster (We call them Paper thin because of it). This is its biggest downfall, and has led to minimal survivability throughout later tiers above 1, and the reason why few Witch Hunters ascended above Tier 1. The only Trade off is that you look incredibly badass throughout your career (except Tier 3, bad armour design there).
The Witch Hunters most important stats are:

Wounds: Increases Health/Hit Points. If you are to survive, you need quite a few of these.

Strength: Increases your overall ability damage and reduces your opponents chance to parry your attacks.

Weapon Skill: Increases your chance to parry an enemy attack and increases the amount of armour penetration.

These are the most important stats you need to focus on, however it is still important to have a healthy balance of the other remaining stats (besides Willpower) if you are to be affective. The reason I state no Willpower, is because it is a healing buffer skill, increasing Heal Crits and you won’t be doing any Healing.

Current RvR Situation

The current Situation for the past few weeks in Tier 4 has been Zerg Vs Zerg. The WH only get 1 AoE skill, Dragon Gun, which requires full accusations for it to be effective, which requires a massive spec in Confession.

Get a group, you will need a dedicated healer, not a PuG one with more than just 1 healer in the party, because you will drop like a fly if you’re not careful, well, even if your careful, you’ll die anyway.

Combining Dragon gun with Blessed Bullets of Cleansing and Sudden Accusation can disperse Zerg mind easily and Snare allot of enemies, but only attack from behind. This is because most players in the Zerg do not group or have no concept of looking anywhere else than in front of them, it will cause mass panic (we did this last night, lots of fun) and you can just finish off the fleeing healers and stuff.

Mythic in the next patch will be changing all Bullet buffs and Giving ‘Snap Shot’ ( Deals X damage to player, 5-65ft range) a snare if used from behind to catch fleeing players. Also, we will be receiving the +50% critical damage tactic the Sorceress got and had made them OP (they will be losing it next patch).

The main problem Mythic still haven’t addressed is that the WH still do not have a useful escape skill besides ‘Declare Anathema’ which you only get at max rank.

I hardly use this skill, as I always end up flying back into the enemy lines if I do not co-ordinate myself properly, or even off cliffs, lol.

I’ve yet to question why Mythic decided Witch Hunters not to die when you level 40.

Who to Kill

The first Target to get on the battlefield is the ‘Goblin Shaman’. The Shaman has fewer skills in which to defend themselves against mass melee and surprise unlike the Zealot and DoK. Although it’s heals are stronger. The best skill to use in this situation is Silence the Heretic.

The Silence condition may be small, but is effective. Use this at least 2 seconds after you start attacking your Shaman, as within those 2 seconds the Shaman will not be targeting heals on himself yet.

‘The Zealot’ can be overcome, but it is ideal you do not attack the Zealot first if there is a Shaman nearby you can target. It is harder, because the Zealot has access to Knockbacks and damage reduction skills next patch.

Disciple o’ Khaine should be your next target after the Shammy n Zealot. Because of their lack of strength, you will be be able to parry alot of their attacks. By using the skill Confess! as a reactionary you can disarm him (unable to use melee weapon) and thus weakening his heals. He will take longer to kill because of his armour.

Next are all types of RDPS classes. They can be killed easily, but only if they have no healing support. They cause havoc on your team, due to Mexican standoff syndrome in large fights, kill these!

Witch Elves are next in line. They are deadly as hell, and if you do not get rid of them they will kill your healers. Keep using confess to disarm them if they attack you. Now this goes on for all MDPS classes.

Tanks, they will kill you, especially Chosen, However, this can change if you spec in the Inquisition Mastery line, as they have skills to reduce their stats dramatically, however this skill is also high up in the mastery line, but you get some good skills on the way there, some of which are my faves, but it is still wise to avoid them and go for the squishy targets.

To summarize the kill order should be this.
Shaman—Zealot—DoK—All RDPS classes –Witch Elf—Marauder –Tank.

Warhammer Rust Effects Guide from MiniWarGaming

2008-09-03T19:23:00.002-07:00

Easy-to-follow WAR Leveling Strategies For Beginners

2008-09-03T19:23:00.001-07:00

If you're going to be really particular about it, there's no such as thing as "level" in WAR, or Warhammer Online. What it has is rank, and there are two types of them. You have the rank and the renown rank. Nevertheless, since the concept of ranking and leveling is almost the same in WAR, you can still generally say that speaking of ranks is just similar to talking about levels.

WAR is a real-to-realm battle. To make sure that you don't get destroyed by your enemy, you should do everything you can to hold on to your territory, and one of the techniques is to increase your levels. This will give you better capacity to protect yourself, your "people," and your realm. For you to do that, however, you must take note of the following WAR leveling strategies:

1. Advance your career. One of the best ways to increase your rank or your level in WAR is by improving your career. Once you join, you already have a pre-determined rank and career, depending on what realm you are. However, you can move to the next level by improving your craft. You can look for a skilled trainer to help you out with this one.

2. Obtain core abilities. The core abilities, which can differ from one character to another, are essential for you to gain mastery points. The mastery points, on the other hand, can be utilized to increase your level of mastery.

3. Get the gears needed. Though you may need to have some ranks before you can start obtaining gears, the equipment nevertheless will give you more defense during battles. Keep in mind that every time you win battles, you will have the opportunity to rise above the ranks. You may want to read up WAR leveling guides to inform you of the kinds of equipment you need to have, according to your chosen career.

The Top Considerations When You're Going to Buy War Gold

2008-09-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

Whether you like it or not, getting addicted to Warhammer Online has its own corresponding price-literally. If you want to make sure that you can get the most out of every game, you may want to get hold of some gold. However, it doesn't come easy at all. You can start with the following:

1. Do some research. It may consume your time just looking up for Warhammer Online gold prices in the World Wide Web, but it will help you make better financial decisions later. You can try looking shopping websites, even in Ebay and Amazon. You will find that there are plenty of sellers who may be offering their gold at different prices.

2. Determine the quality of the gold. Are the gold used or not? Normally, if they are brand new, they would have higher price than the used ones. But then, you're guaranteed of its quality. If you have some money, you may want to go for them. But if you're on a tight budget, you can settle for the used ones first and then just change it later to something new.

3. Look for great deals. A lot of websites and sellers currently offering WAR gold may be giving some fantastic deals to all their customers. You can benefit from low WAR gold price. Nevertheless, it may mean that you're constantly on the lookout for them. You can just subscribe to their newsletter, if they have one, or bookmark them, so you don't get left behind with the news.

A WAR gold price doesn't really mean that it's going to be cheap, but you can get the best deal if you know how to compare it with others.

Rayford Adams is at the moment playing several MMORPGs including Warhammer Online Gold.
http://www.usfine.com/Warhammer-Online-c-106.html

The Evolution of Gaming

2008-09-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

From Warcraft to Final Fantasy to the upcoming Warhammer Online, games are slowly evolving from play/win mode to play/play mode, where the game never ends and the fun is in the social aspects and the process you use to better yourself. These Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, or MMORPGs, are prime examples of gaming and social life combining to create the most popular pseudo-universes in the world.

WoW
World of Warcraft is the old example. While there are goals and levels, the game technically never ends. People from countries all over the planet play the World of Warcraft regularly, playing the game on a daily basis and completing quests and socializing with others. But World of Warcraft was based on an older game, "Warcraft" that already had its own computer presence.

Warhammer Online
Today, even non-computer games are turning to MMORPG platforms. Warhammer Online, scheduled to be released in September of 2008, is based on an offline, computer-less game known as Warhammer, that takes place with dice, miniature sculptures/characters, and a tabletop. That game was incredibly popular throughout the world, featuring over 8 different editions, hundreds of characters and rules, and a complexity that made the table top become its own world. But table tops have limitations. You cannot create new rules or quests on the fly. You cannot choose where to go at your leisure and most of all you cannot socialize. The game was designed for people that enjoyed playing competitive games alone with strict guidelines. Warhammer Online allows them to change that. By taking Warhammer online, the company can turn the universe into something far more dynamic. They can come up with quests that require teams or goals that take weeks to accomplish. They can make the game as complex or simple as they want and negate all of the limitations of the table top.

Most importantly, Warhammer Online has the ability to be a new universe that every day people can enjoy regularly, without requiring another player is around to compete with and without requiring every "piece" be properly located on the table. Warhammer Online is the next in a series of games that plan on taking advantage of the MMORPG craze. Assuming Warhammer Online achieves the same success as World of Warcraft, assume that many other offline games are likely to go the same route in the future. Warhammer Online is taking the first step towards the future of all games. One can only wonder where it will lead in the future.

How to Make the Most of Cheats

2008-09-03T19:13:00.001-07:00

The Warhammer Online cheat comes in handy when the going gets real tough. You can usually use it to acquire certain equipment, to discover walkthroughs, to increase strength and healing ability, or to speed up your rise in ranks.

However, these Warhammer cheats will be utterly useless if you don't know how to make the most of them. To help you out, you can start with the following:

1. Begin everything with the -dev command. This is known as the command line parameter. It allows you to enable or to disable specific features in the game, especially while it's currently running. This command, moreover, will be the one you're going to use so you can activate your Warhammer cheats.

2. Get your cheat list. The cheat list may vary, depending on what Warhammer version you're going to play. Nevertheless, you can find a lot of them in the World Wide Web. These are the commands that you need to enter into the command line in order to activate the cheat. Keep in mind that some of these Warhammer hacks are general cheats. This means that you need to modify them to make them really work.

3. Save your list. Since you're going to make some modifications into the cheat file, you may want to save the actual list, the one before you made any change. Sooner or later, you may need them again. Rather than starting from scratch, all you need to do is to simply open the file.

Now, once players tend to discover Warhammer hacks, they tend to become totally dependent on it. Although it's not going to be an issue of morality or ethics, you may want to reserve your cheats, though, when you don't really know what to do or when you're struggling. Make them your saving grace, not the whole drive of the game.

Making the Most of the World Wide Web For Advancement

2008-09-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

Don't think that Warhammer Online is just going to be a battle between good and evil. It's definitely more than that. There are a lot of fights that you have to win, and you have the realm to protect. You also need to think of how to advance your career, so you can be a great addition to the team.

Perhaps to speed up everything you need to get some Warhammer hacks. Fortunately, you don't need to scour for them for a very long time. Today, you can already look for a Warhammer Online hack right at the World Wide Web. Here's how:

1. Join message boards and groups. There are already countless forums that are dedicated to Warhammer Online. They are composed of hard-core players and beginners who exchange ideas and tips on how to win battles and defeat enemies. You can surely find threads and posts that talk about Warhammer hacks.

2. Check out game cheats websites. There are also plenty of websites that are currently offering different game cheats for free. Considering that there is a huge demand of Warhammer Online today, most likely, you can already find a number of Warhammer hacks in here. You may have to sign up, though, as these cheats are exclusive to members only.

3. Get yourself some Warhammer guides. You can buy them, or you can ask for them from someone who has. Needless to say, though, these Warhammer guides don't only give you tips and tactics to increase your ranks or to discover shortcuts during your play, but they can also offer cheats and hacks to speed up the game and win more fights.

Indeed, these hacks will give you more reason to become more confident in playing the game, but if you really want to learn and make the game even more challenging, make these cheats your last option.

Warhammer Online Leveling Guide

2008-09-03T19:04:00.000-07:00

If you’ve read my site previously you’ll know I’m a World of Warcraft player (WOW addict to be precise :)) While I’ve been patiently waiting for the new WOW expansion Wrath of the Lich King to arrive I was lucky enough to gain access to the early beta release of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, so have been spending some VERY LATE nights playing WAR online.

Although it’s early days (MMO’s tend to evolve over time with user feedback) I can see Warhammer Online rivaling World of Warcraft as THE MMO to play. It looks and plays really well and in some respects is better than World of Warcraft (in others it’s not), can see both online games doing well long term: which is going to mean I’ll have to choose one to play most!

Anyway, I hate leveling characters so have been checking online for a Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning leveling guide and finally someone has created one. It’s from someone called Penn who also has a World of Warcraft Professions guide (never tried it, so can’t say if it’s good/bad).
I just bought a copy of the WAR leveling guide and will be using it to level a new character in the beta release of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

If you want to check it out go to Leveling Guide Site go to the “Game Guides” link for access to the info on the 1-40 Order Leveling Guide and the 1-40 Destruction Leveling Guide. When I’ve leveled a character will add a review of the Warhammer leveling guide here (I bought both versions, but starting with the Destruction version).

Just noticed he has a 1-70 WOW Alliance Leveling guide as well, obviously not tried it, but I doubt it’s as good as the Team iDemise guide: see my Team iDemise Review.

I really do spend way too many hours a day playing games In between playing games online I actually run my own consulting business and do very well money wise, I love my life

Warhammer Brief Guide

2008-09-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

The Warhammer world - a dark and dangerous place to live, full of horror and conflict. Welcome to this guide to the Warhammer world, a look at the kingdoms and races that inhabit this war-torn land.

Few races know the Warhammer World as well as the adventurous and entrepreneurial High Kindred of Elves. Their tall-masted ships ply the northern oceans between the Old World to the east and the shores of Lustria to the west. To the north the Elven seamen keep a watchful eye upon Naggaroth, the Land of Chill, which the estranged Dark Elves have made their own. To the south lie the Southlands and the Fortress of Dawn, a safe haven for many an Elven seafarer bound for distant Cathay.

THE OLD WORLD
Though the proud Elves have for many ages explored the world and learned much about its strange peoples, they do not reveal their secrets to lesser races. To Men these places are little more than names upon a mostly empty map. The lands they know and inhabit comprise what they call the Old World. These lands are home to Men, Dwarfs, Elves and the diminutive race of Halflings, as well as numerous evil creatures which infest the mountains and forests.

The largest and most important of the realms of Man are the Empire and Bretonnia. The Empire lies at the centre of the Old World, bounded by tall mountains and dark forests. It is the most populous by far of the Human nations and probably the most powerful too. To the south of the Empire is the Kingdom of Bretonnia, whose main strength of arms lies in its gallant knights whose tradition of chivalric virtue is held in high regard throughout the Old World.

The other Human lands are less powerful and not so strongly unified as either the Empire or Bretonnia. North of the Empire is the cold, unwelcoming land of Kislev, ruled over by its fierce warrior Tzarina. Further north still is the rocky land of Norsca, inhabited by violent and blood-thirsty savages whose raids are a constant irritation to the Tzarina and Emperor alike. South of Bretonnia are the hot, arid lands of Estalia and Tilea. Neither is united under one crown, instead they are divided into countless petty kingdoms and warring city states. Between Tilea and Bretonnia is the tiny upland region known as the Vaults, a stronghold of bandits and brigands who sometimes hire their services as mercenaries in the Emperor's armies. Beyond the immediate confines of the Old World is Araby to the south and, to the east, the bleak, forbidding Dark Lands. The Arabians are incorrigible pirates and raiders, whose dark-sailed dhows sometimes appear in the trading ports of Tilea and Estalia. The land south of Araby is known only as the Southlands. Few Old Worlders have ever glimpsed its jungle-covered coasts or the tall white mountains of its interior. The Dark Lands east of the Empire are barren and inhospitable, where Orcs, Goblins and other monsters constantly battle against each other.

SOUTH OF THE BADLANDS
To the immediate south of the Empire is the small brigand-infested land of the Border Princes. This is a dangerous region where renegades, dissenters and other refugees from the settled lands face constant predation from Orcs, Goblins and each other. Further south still are the Badlands, dominated by fierce tribes of Orcs, and beyond that lies the fabled Land of the Dead, the source of much unrest in the world.

Between the Empire and the Dark Lands is a towering mountain range whose peaks are so tall and so black that for years beyond remembering Men held the view that this must be the very edge of the world. In consequence these are called the Worlds Edge Mountains and, in truth, they form the natural eastern boundary of the Old World. These ancient peaks have been tunnelled, mined and inhabited for many centuries by the Dwarfs, a strong-minded and equally strong-armed folk whose endless wars against the Goblins of the mountains are well known even amongst Men.

THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
Listed above are the lands and races known to the scholars of humanity, to the sages of the Dwarfs, and to the wise amongst Elvenkind. To this font of common knowledge the Elves could certainly add far more if they did not guard their secrets so jealously. Doubtless too there are many learned men who could make a shrewd guess as to the further nature of the world and its perils. Perhaps they would speak of the subterranean race of Skaven and their gnawing and scheming beneath the world. Maybe they would hint darkly at the threat from the Land of the Dead and the ancient realm of its master Nagash. Then there are the deeper and more sinister secrets of Chaos and the hidden power of the north.

Warhammer Online Headstart dates!

2008-09-02T23:00:00.002-07:00

Customers will have access to the Headstart from:

Collector's Edition pre-orders - 14th of September

Standard Edition pre-orders - 15th of September

The full range of live servers will be available to choose from when the Headstart begins and you will be able to keep your characters and any progress you made with them for the live launch on the 18th of September (note that this only applies to characters created during the Headstart, all Open Beta characters will be wiped before the Headstart begins).

Age Of Reckoning Has Gone Gold

2008-09-02T23:00:00.001-07:00

FAIRFAX, Va. - August 26, 2008 - GET READY FOR THE WORLDWIDE WAAAGH! Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Mythic Entertainment today announced that the highly-anticipated MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™ (WAR), has gone gold and will open its servers on September 18, 2008 at an MSRP of $49.99 in North America.

"We've done our best to create the next great MMORPG experience, but it's the fans that will bring our world to life," said Mark Jacobs, vice president at EA and general manager of Mythic Entertainment. "The Day of Reckoning approaches and it's going to be glorious! It's time to go to WAR."

Based on the popular tabletop game from Games Workshop, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is an epic fantasy MMORPG featuring innovative Realm vs. Realm™ game play that pits the forces of Order and Destruction against one another on the battlefield to determine the fate of nations.

Awarded "Best Online Game" at the recent Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, "Best PC Game" of E3 by G4's X-Play and "Best MMO" of E3 by IGN, WAR has been well-received by critics and by the gaming community as an accessible and engaging MMO title. Tens of thousands of players have already joined the battle in the closed beta, and soon the time will be at hand for players the world over to pledge their allegiance to the armies of WAR.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is scheduled to launch simultaneously in North America, Europe, and Oceania on September 18, 2008. Available for PC, WAR is rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB. For more information, visit http://www.warhammeronline.com/.

About Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™
Experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm™! Declare your allegiance and join hundreds of thousands of mighty heroes on the battlefields of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the new MMORPG from Mythic Entertainment, the creators of Dark Age of Camelot™. Enter a grim fantasy world of perpetual conflict to fight for the Realms of Order (Dwarfs, High Elves, and Empire) or Destruction (Greenskins, Dark Elves, and Chaos). Invade enemy lands, besiege imposing fortresses, and sack sprawling capital cities for the glory of your Realm. Wield devastating magic and deadly weapons, battle monstrous creatures, and join your brothers-in-arms in epic Public Quests™. Climb the Bastion Stair, carry your Guild Banner into battle, and unlock the infinite secrets of the Tome of Knowledge as you travel the world. Sharpen your blade and unleash your inner mutation; the Age of Reckoning has begun and WAR IS EVERYWHERE!

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA SPORTS Freestyle™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO, Mythic Entertainment, Dark Age of Camelot, Public Quests, Realm vs. Realm, and Game Time are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer Online, Age of Reckoning, and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer world are either ®, ™ and/or © Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2008. Used under license by Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Guide to Dwarf Grudges

2008-09-02T22:56:00.001-07:00

This is an excerpt of Pendrako's guide to Dwarf Grudges. One thing that is understood about Dwarfs is their ability to hold onto a grudge for generations. While some events pass with little notice, the recent events and the taking of Karak Eight Peaks renews many an old Grudge in every Dwarf in the Kingdom.

Of all the creatures in the world, none are more loathsome or worthy of hate than the Grobi. They are a wicked, treacherous race without morality, conscience or honour, the cause of endless woe for our people. No Karak bears a Book of Grudges that does not have many a line devoted to the actions of those foul creatures, and no Dwarf would hesitate before burying his axe in the neck of a Grobi. Every day which passes while these creatures still draw breath brings shame to us all.

Dwarfs are defined by their reverence for their past. They tirelessly construct monumental tombs in order to worship and venerate their ancestors, and great value is placed upon their oldest artefacts in order to respect the long dead craftsmen who originally fashioned them and to help preserve ancient Dwarf traditions. It is said that when Dwarfs are in any doubt as to how to proceed they look to the Dwarf with the longest beard to tell them what to do. This is invariably the wisest solution.

Dwarfs have exceedingly good memories, and live to a very great age. It is the task of any self respecting Dwarf to memorize the names of every Dwarf in their extended family going back many generations to the time their Clan was first founded by a common ancestor. Should a wrong be done to a Dwarf, it is considered to be dealt equally to their Clan and to their ancestors and their unborn descendants, and every other member of the Clan will be duty bound to avenge them. Dwarfs are a proud, stubborn race, who rarely compromise and are never seen to intentionally back down from a fight. This aspect of their character is epitomised by Dammaz Kron - the Great Book of Grudges ? a massive tome written in the blood of the High Kings which recounts all the great wrongs, unpaid debts and deeds of treachery perpetrated against the Dwarf race. Although the grudges listed in the book are occasionally avenged, Dwarfs on the whole tend to prefer to hold a grudge rather than let bygones be bygones. Indeed, the Dwarf language has no word for forgiveness, but many subtle variations on revenge, recompense and retribution.

The Ruinous Powers

The Dwarfs have been fighting the forces of Chaos since the very first page of the Great Book of Grudges. Despite the strength of their mountain strongholds, when the power of Chaos grows strong and the followers of the dark gods sweep down from the north the Dwarfs inevitably suffer. Many are the grudges against the Ruinous Powers, but the greatest must surely be that held for the loss of Karak Vlag. During the first Great War against Chaos when the Dwarfs fought side by side with the elves in a desperate struggle for survival the hold of Karak Vlag in the north of the Worlds Edge mountains was enveloped by the warping influence of Chaos, cutting it off from the outside world. After the Chaotic hordes had finally been driven back to their own realm, the Dwarfs returned to the site of Karak Vlag to find that the stronghold and its entire garrison had vanished into the aethyr, as if it had never existed.

The Great Betrayal

The event that may have originally sparked the Great Betrayal is recorded in Dammaz Kron as a relatively minor grudge concerning the theft of a caravan of gold and other goods being transported across the Old World. The attackers were described merely as Elgi - Khazalid for Elves - since at the time the Dwarfs did not distinguish between High Elves and Dark Elves. The Sundering of the Elves had not concerned the Dwarfs in their mountain kingdoms since the concept of a war of kin against kin was totally incomprehensible to them, and they had maintained good relations with the elves of Ulthuan. In fact the Druchii had been secretly raiding Dwarf caravans disguised as Asur warriors, and as the raids continued the Dwarf king, Gotrek Starbreaker, issued strong protests to the Phoenix King demanding compensation. Caledor the Second, the Phoenix King at the time, was considered arrogant even by elf standards, and he ignored all demands made against him, saying only that the Phoenix King did not answer demands but granted pleas.

Relations between the two races became increasingly acrimonious, and things reached a head when the ambassador sent to Ulthuan by an infuriated King Gotrek in a final attempt to prevent a war was sent home with his beard shaved off, causing the ambassador to take the slayer oath in shame. The inevitable war that followed is recorded as the War of Vengeance, although the High Elves refer to it as the War of the Beard. For the next four centuries the two races slaughtered each other on battlefields across the Old World and many great and powerful grudges were added to the pages of Dammaz Kron, until the Battle of Three Towers at the gates of Tor Alessi, where King Gotrek slew Caledor and took the Phoenix crown from his corpse as payment for the many wrongs suffered by his people. The Dwarf army marched back to Karaz-a-Karak and placed the crown among the treasure hoard of the High Kings, where it remains locked away to this day.

The Grobi Wars

By far the greatest and most vengeful of the grudges held in Dammaz Kron are against the Grobi ? Khazalid for Goblins - and those who aided them. Page after page of the tome records in grim detail the events of the thousand year long period of Dwarven history when tribes of Goblins swarmed over the Worlds Edge Mountains inflicting unthinkable suffering on the Dwarf kingdoms. Earthquakes, eruptions and floods weakened the impregnable defences of their strongholds, and when the Goblins attacked not even the unbreakable axes and hammers of the Dwarfs were able to stop the never ending tide of greenskins from overrunning their holds. The Everlasting Realm was shattered as countless beleaguered outposts, settlements, mines and temples were destroyed and occupied by their enemies.

Among all the grudges recorded in Dammaz Kron, the most grievous losses ever suffered occurred at the hands of Goblins, Orcs, and Skaven as entire Clans were killed to the last Dwarf and mighty kingdoms were utterly destroyed. Karak Ungor the delving hold, now known as Red Eye Mountain. Karak Varn and its gromril-rich mines by the shores of Black Water. Ekrund, home to the Dragonback clans, now known as Mount Bloodhorn. Gunbad, the largest and richest mine in the Worlds Edge Mountains and home to the blue crystal Brynduraz. Mount Silverspear, seized by the Orc Warlord Urk Grimfang and renamed Mount Grimfang. Karak Eight Peaks, Karak Azgal and Karak Drazh, all taken in the space of fifty years. The loss of these treasured holds is still felt by every living Dwarf as though it happened yesterday, and all Dwarfs dream of the day when they can purge the greenskin filth from their ancient halls forever.

Karak Eight Peaks

When the Greenskin horde approached Karak Eight Peaks, the Dwarfs gathered within its walls, confident the impregnable fortress was in no real danger. When the Orcs used their amplified magic to blast a hole in the impossibly thick wall surrounding the city, the Dwarfs were dumbstruck. The idea of an invading army breaking through the perimeter of Karak Eight Peaks was unthinkable. As a wave of snarling, bellowing greenskins pours through the breach, the dour but determined defenders of the doomed city make a last stand.

The news spreads like a shockwave. How could one tribe of greenskins capture the seemingly impenetrable fortress? High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer vowed revenge, the grudge against the Orcs is perhaps the third oldest in in the book of Dwarf grudges. Thorgrim rallied the Dwarf masses and has commanded every Dwarf in the city to make preparations for the war now underway. This seemingly impossible defeat has awoken the primal nature of many a Dwarf. Even those Dwarfs only concerned with their own business dealings soon found themselves rekindling the hostility felt towards the Orcs. The taking of Karak Eight Peaks will not go unrevenged.

No axe or hammer shall rest until the taint of the grobi has been wiped from the face of the earth. We shall not rest when our ancient halls have been reclaimed, we shall not rest when the Everlasting Realm has been rebuilt, for we are oathbound to rest only when we have driven the grobi from the mountains and the dark places of the world for ever. Only then shall the spirits of the ancestors be truly avenged.

Shadowlands Overview

2008-09-02T22:54:00.000-07:00

Following the death of Aenarion, first Phoenix King of Ulthuan, the Elves faced a difficult choice. Some argued that Malekith, Aenarion's lone surviving son, should succeed his father. Others, however, feared what Aenarion had become after he drew the Sword of Khaine and worried that the dread sword's curse had been passed on to Malekith. In the end, it was Bel-Shannar who was chosen to lead the Elves, and not Aenarion's heir.

At first, Malekith concealed his lust for power and his hatred of the Elves who had denied him his birthright. Instead, he made allies and won great victories in war, rising to a position of prominence among his people second only to the Phoenix King himself. It was then that he made his move, assassinating Bel-Shannar and proclaiming himself the rightful Phoenix King. Only one thing now remained. Malekith would have to prove his quality by entering the sacred flame at the Shrine of Asuryan, to be judged by the greatest of the Elven gods.

When he did so, however, the flame rejected him. Malekith was burned and disfigured, and his servants rushed the ambitious lord to the land of Nagarythe in the north of Ulthuan. When truth of the assassination came to light, the High Elves made war upon Malekith and his followers. When he was defeated by the new Phoenix King, Caledor the Conqueror, the son of Aenarion hatched a mad plan to undo the magic of the Vortex and let the raw power of Chaos spill into Ulthuan, destroying his enemies. The attempt was only partially successful, but the results were devastating.

Violent and apocalyptic energies were unleashed, tearing the northern lands of Ulthuan apart. A wall of seawater a thousand feet high crashed into Nagarythe and drowned countless thousands. At the last moment, Malekith and the other surviving Sorcerers chanted spells to preserve their greatest fortresses, transforming them into floating Black Arks. These sailed westward, eventually coming to rest in the north of the New World. Malekith named this land Naggaroth and his exiled people, now called Dark Elves, made a new civilization for themselves.

What little remains of Nagarythe is a tortured and twisted land, blasted by fire and seared by destructive magical energies. Strange, mutated creatures stalk this gloomy, barren wasteland of gray earth and black stone. The High Elves named this cursed place the Shadowlands, for it seemed always to be in darkness.

It was not long before the Dark Elves returned to claim their ancestral land, and the two sides have fought ceaselessly for control of the region ever since.

Though the Shadowlands are forever ruined by the catastrophic wars of the Sundering, the armies of the High Elves and Dark Elves have once again converged here to do battle. The invaders from Naggaroth are searching for more of the ancient menhirs that anchor the Vortex, and the High Elves have come to make sure they do not gain control of these standing stones. The menhirs are sources of great arcane power, but any tampering with that power could have far-reaching effects that mirror the ancient Sundering.

The Shadowlands have other value for the Dark Elves. Artifacts and relics from their distant past can be found here as well, and these are prized by the nobles of Naggaroth. Eager-eyed scavengers search the blasted wastes for some trinket they can offer to curry favor with their lords, or perhaps even with the Witch King himself.

Complicating matters for the warriors of House Uthorin is the appearance of their great rival, House Arkaneth. These two houses despise each other deeply, even by Dark Elf standards. The Witch King has commanded the rulers of both noble houses to take control of the Shadowlands menhirs, pitting his two most powerful rivals against one another. In this way, Malekith intends to ensure that neither Lord Uthorin nor Lady Arkaneth become powerful enough to pose a threat to him.

While the warriors of Naggaroth scour the Shadowlands for pieces of the past, it is the High Elves who make the most surprising discovery. Following a battle at one of the invaders' dig sites, ancient scrolls are found that complete a prophecy once thought lost. The events described in the antiquated scrolls bear a disquieting reference to the unfolding Age of Reckoning, but the prophecy also offers a slim hope that the Dark Elves' terrible plan can be stopped.

More time is needed to research the prophecy and convince the rulers of Ulthuan that it must be pursued. Time, however, is a luxury that the High Elves are quickly running out of. Their armies are spread thin, as many of their legions are still in the Old World fighting to aid the Empire and the realms of the Dwarfs. The Shining Guard has barely been able to slow the advance of the invading army, and if the Dark Elves move on the great gates that grant passage to the Inner Kingdoms, there is grave doubt that they can be stopped.

The spark of hope, it seems, may be extinguished before it has truly been kindled.

Guide to Statistics

2008-09-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

Statistics and resistances. In every MMO each does something slightly different than the last. Strength, agility, willpower, each career has a set of statistics more important to them than another and it's important to know which are important to your career. Finding an item with +5 Willpower might not be that great for your Dwarf Engineer, but maybe it would be more useful for your Witchhunter. The purpose of the guide is to help guide to to the statistic and resistances that you'll find in WAR.

Strength
Increases your melee damage and makes it harder for enemies to parry or block your attacks.

Willpower
Increases your chances to disrupt hostile spells and increases all healing you do.

Toughness
Reduces the damage you take from all sources.

Wounds
Increases your maximum hitpoints.

Initiative
Increases your chance to dodge ranged attacks and makes it more difficult for enemies to critically hit you.

Weapon
Increases your chances to parry melee attacks and allows your melee attacks to bypass a portion of the enemy's armor.

Ballistic
Increases your ranged damage and makes it harder for your enemies to block or dodge your ranged attacks.

Intelligence
Increases your magical damage and makes it harder for enemies to disrupt or block your attacks.

Warhammer Renown Guide

2008-09-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

Renown is the system which measures Realm vs. Realm (RvR) participation by a player. It functions as an experience system for RvR and players can “level up” to earn Renown ranks that show their proficiency at fighting the opposing Realm. Renown gain is also capped based on a character’s level so a player can’t be Renown rank 50 and player rank 5.

The Renown system dictates the rewards made available to a player (items, abilities, titles, or otherwise). Renown is gained through many actions in WAR - killing other players, taking or defending battlefield objectives or keeps, participating in scenarios, and zone control.

Earning Renown

At the simplest level, you get Renown from killing other players. Each player has a flat amount of Renown they are worth depending on their current Player Rank (level). When one player is killed by another player, the deceased’s player rank and Renown rank are measured against those of the killer and the awarded Renown is adjusted upward or downward based on the parity of the two players. If the deceased player has been killed recently, they will be worth less Renown than normal, and sometimes none at all if they’ve come back into combat too quickly.

Renown for killing players is also awarded to members in groups. Group members must be active in RvR, and within a certain range of the nearly deceased individual to receive Renown. “Active in RvR” means that you must have performed an action against another player or benefited an ally who is also active. Renown is split amongst players on a percentage base.

For example: Bob, Joe and Mike are attacking Jack. Bob and Joe are grouped, but Mike is not. Bob and Joe do 70% of the damage it took to kill Jack and Mike did the remaining 30%. Let’s say that Jack was worth 100 Renown. Bob and Joe will split 70 Renown evenly, and Mike will get 30 Renown.

Renown is also granted to healers from a separate pool for aiding their allies. This is designed to provide incentive to healers to keep their realm mates alive whether they’re grouped with them or not. Every time you heal another player, whether they’ve been in combat recently or are currently in combat, you’ll get a little bit of Renown.

Players can also earn Renown for capturing and defending battlefield objectives and keeps. Each of these locations has a set amount of Renown, as well as a building pool of Renown, that is distributed when the keep or battlefield objective is taken or successfully defended. The amount of Renown granted increases in each tier (i.e., Tier 3 keeps are worth more than Tier 2 keeps) and is dependent on the number of players killed in the area.

Both winners and loser of scenarios will be granted Renown as a reward for their participation. The amount of Renown a player receives is directly related to the amount of points their realm earned in a scenario. The winners will obviously get more, but both sides will earn additional Renown for having fought in the scenario beyond any they’ve received from player kills.

Lastly, taking over an enemy zone will give you a chunk of Renown worth roughly 5 times your base if you’re actively fighting in RvR at the time of capture. Let’s say your base Renown worth is 100 points, you’ll be given roughly 500 points when a zone is captured!
Renown Rewards

As a reward for participating in RvR, characters will receive one Renown point per Renown rank reached. These Renown points can be used to purchase special character advancement rewards from your trainer. These rewards are primarily focused on improving your character’s RvR capabilities, but many offer minor benefits to PvE performance as well.

RvR Tactics are special tactics that can only be purchased with Renown points. These tactics have their own unique slots in addition to the existing career tactic slots to further customize your character’s abilities. Renown tactics have special effects that focus on RvR performance. In particular, they allow a player to become more effective against a particularly hated enemy. For example, if a player wanted to become the ultimate Greenskin killing machine, they would purchase many of the anti-Greenskin Renown tactics.

Examples:
Hard as Nails I – Increases your Toughness by 3, costs 1 Renown point.Hard as Nails V – Increases your Toughness by 42, costs 14 Renown points.Blade Master III – Increases your Strength by 9 and Weapon Skill by 9, costs 10 Renown points.Fireproof I – Increases your Elemental resistance by 20, costs 5 Renown points.Improved Heavy Armor III – Increases your Armor by 900, costs 15 Renown points.

In addition to the Renown points, players also earn a new title with each Renown rank. These titles will help separate players who have been around the block from those who are greener than green (no pun intended Greenskin players).

Renown Items

When players hit certain Renown rank thresholds they earn the right to certain items. These items can only be bought from special shops, called Renown stores. There is a “Renown store” in every war camp and they function much like regular stores. However, each item in a Renown store has a Renown rank requirement, which means that you can’t buy or use it unless you are above a certain Renown rank. These items reward players that keep their Renown rank and level close. We’ve even put some of the RvR armor set pieces in the Renown stores. You’ll still have to do certain other things to complete your sets, but I’ll let you guys figure that out for yourselves.

Once a player has reached level 40 and Renown rank 40+, Renown items becomes really interesting. While the Renown store is still a player’s primary way of upgrading their RvR gear, players who participate in city captures also get access to really awesome RvR armor sets. A combination of keeping your renown-rank high and storming cities and killing kings will put players on the right track to get the best renown gear in the game. All the renown 40+ items are effectively level 40+ items. So, the higher your renown rank, the better the items are that you can get from the renown store.

General Guide to WAR

2008-09-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

before I start with the guide, I'd like to have a chance to introduce myself and say a few words.

1.2. The guide:

Warhammer Online cought my eyes about a year ago. And I was immediatly interested. Since I have the tendency to tumble into games not really knowing what they're all about, I saw a nice opportunity to follow a game in it's development and absorbing all the information as the game is taking shape. While doing so, I started to documentate things, since many info is scattered all around the place. After a few months a guide was born.

When reading the guide, please keep in mind that a lot of it's content is based on unofficial information. As content becomes official, I'll be updating the guide if needed to be.

1.3 My regiment:

As I have already stated before, I'm a member of Eva Vix A european hardcore PvP guild lead by Esraymuk. A few months ago, I was appointed an officer's position in this guild, and I'm now overseeing the recruitment proces. The community of this guild has helped me establish the guide. They took out spelling errors and grammatical issues, brought forward new content and information. Without their help, this guide would not have been what it is now.

1.4 Special thanks to...:

I wish to thank Eva Vix and its community for it's support and help in creating this guide, as I said before, without them this guide would be very poor. I also wish to thank the WarhammerAlliance community, for it's constructive and mature posts that helped me understand a lot of the game mechanics. And finaly a word of thanks should go to EA Mythic for developing this jewel of an MMORPG.

OK, so that was the introduction. Let's get down to business and focus on what this guide is all about: Warhammer Online!

2. YOUR CHARACTER

In this chapter, everything related to your playable character is discussed. How will it evolve, how will it look like, what will it be capable off. I will slightly touch the races and careers as well. But I'm not going deeper into them because of the simple reason that that information is enough dough to bake a whole new guide.

2.1 Character Creation:

What's one of the features a MMORPG distinguishes itself from other games? Indeed, Character Creation. It's the first and far most important choice a player needs to go through. It's in this phase he will be determining the race, the class and the looks of his character. Specialy for roleplayers the latter is a vital stage to make their gaming experience as pleasant as possible.

2.1.1. Race:

At the release of Warhammer Online there will be six races available to chose from. Three of those will form the alliance of Order. They're in constant war and struggle with the three remaining races wich form the armies of Destruction. The war between these two factions is the thin red line throughout the whole game. Thus chosing the right race is a vital step in the character creation. Basically the armies of Destruction are trying to destroy the three other races for personal reason and for world domination. The alliance of Order allied with eachother to support eachother in their struggle for survival.
Order:
The Dwarfs
The humans of the Empire
The High Elfs

Destruction:
The Greenskins
The corrupted Chaos humans
The Dark Elfs or Druchii
Source: http://www.warhammeronline.com/

2.1.2. Careers:

Your class or career is what you want to be in the game. Do you want to be a full armored meatshield, or do you prefer the fine art of magic? Would you rather be a devestating force weilding huge weaponry, or do you wish to support your allies in combat with magic? The career choice is up to you and is sometimes the hardest choice to make since it will greatly determine the gameplay.

Each race in Warhammer Online has four unique careers developed from a basic archtype. This archtype is the rough sketch of the career. Developers start from the archtype and built a unique character out of it. Sometimes their inovation combines two archtypes into one making an even more unique character!

The four archtypes in Warhammer Online are:
The Tank: This is the meatshield, ready to take damage and protect their allies from the enemy. Their huge defence is backed up by their capability of weilding close combat weapons. Allthough not as specialised as the Melee DPS archtype, they're still capable of infliction some good damage.
Melee DPS: The melee DPS (Damage Per Second) is the master of arms. His skill in weaponry makes him a very dangerous oponent in close combat. You'll find the Melee DPS at the front of the battle where they feel at home. Because they're needed at the front, they'll be able to take a hit or two, but not as well as the tank archtype can.
Ranged DPS: This archtype is specialised in dealing damage from a distance. Whether they use magic, long ranging arrows or devestating bullets and bolts is irrelevant. Usually this archtype is the most vulnarable as well, relying on the other archtypes for protection.
Support: This archtype will support its allies in combat. By tapping in to various mystical forces, they can boost their oponents to the maximum. Aside of that, they're also able to inflict damage, and heal the wounds of their comrades.

That being said, lets have a look how this translates to the six races in Warhammer Online:
Dwarfs:

Ironbreaker [Tank]
Hammerer [Melee DPS]
Engineer [Ranged DPS]
Runepriest [Support]

Greenskins:

Black Orc [Tank]
Choppah [Melee DPS]
Squig Herder [Ranged DPS]
Shaman [Support]

Empire:

Knight of the Blazing Sun [Tank]
Witch Hunter [Melee DPS]
Bright Wizard [Ranged DPS]
Warrior Priest [Support]

Chaos:

Chosen [Tank]
Marauder [Melee DPS]
Magus [Ranged DPS]
Zealot Priest [Support]

High Elfs:

Swordmaster [Tank]
? [Melee DPS]
Shadow Warrior [Ranged DPS]
Arch Mage [Support]

Dark Elfs:

Black Guard [Tank]
With Elf [Melee DPS]
Sorceress [Ranged DPS]
Disciple of Khaine [Support]

As I said before, some careers seem to be a hybrid between two archtypes. So there aren't really clear archtypes set. There are two good Empire examples for this:

Witch Hunter:

The witch hunter will be weilding rapiers with an uncunning precision. So that makes them the Melee DPS archtype. However they'll also be capable of shooting guns with a deadly accuracy, making them Ranged DPS too somehow.

Warrior Priest:

Since the Warrior Priest is capable of casting curative magic by the blessings of their diety Sigmar, they're categorised as the Support archtype of the Empire. However, their hammerskills are surely to be reckoned with, thus making them also a Melee DPS archtype.

This proves that careers can be a hybrid of multiple archtypes, making it challenging to discover the full potential of your character!

Source: http://www.warhammeronline.com/

2.1.3. Appearences:

Also in the Character Creation, you'll need to decide how your character will look like. No official information is out on this matter yet. But most MMORPG's have had the same basic four options to determine your appearace:
Sex
Haristyle
Hair Color
Facial Features

There's no reason to assume why Warhammer Online shouldn't have the same four basic options. There are a lot of screenshots out there (mostly showing Dwarfs and Greenskins) that already show a lot of differences in appearance. And seeing the innovative nature of Warhammer Online, I wouldn't be surprised if they added more changable features. However, recently it has been confirmed that there will be no slider bars to change appearances to the extreme limit, however I'm sure a great variaty of choices will be available.

Source: http://www.warhammeronline.com/english/media/screenshots/

2.2. Character Evolution:

As in every MMORPG as your progress in Warhammer Online, your character will evolve and grow stronger. However, the devolepment team of EA Mythic have put extra attention into this feature. Many of the roleplayers amongst us are really relieved to hear this, since it will greatly help to make your character look unique and distinguished. It's actually one of the goals of the dev team to make sure no two characters will look alike.

2.2.1. Costumisation:

In Warhammer Online you'll be able to add some extra costumisation to your character as you progress through the levels. You will be able to die small parts of your armor, you can add accesoiries to your armor and thus make your character look different. In what extend this will be implemented is not sure at this point. I'm personaly thinking of tabards, symbols and emblems, a spellbook hanging on one's belt, etc...

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgnK1_yBQ5s

2.2.2. The Bragging System:

I placed this feature in the Character Evolution section, since it's part of the costumisation of your character. You'll be able to attatch battle-trophies on your armor to show the world how mean you are. Dwarven beards hanging on Orc belts, human skulls pierced on a spike of the shoulder pat of a chaos human, a necklace made out of orc teeth hangin around the neck of an Empire warrior, etc... It's all meant to brag. I can't discribe it better then Lance Roberts did:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance Roberts: Producer Warhammer Online

By the time you get into the high levels of the game, you will look like a walking trophy case! Somebody else on the battlefield will take a look at you and think: "Heh, maybe not, he looks like a tough guy."

Thanks for clearing that one up for us Lance!

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgnK1_yBQ5s

2.2.3. Evolution:

Not only will the bragging system and costumisation make clear how bad- you are, but your actual appearance will change as well as you advance in tiers (levels). There's a lot of speculation going on about this, and recently we've got official statements on the matter:
Orcs will grow larger and their skin will darken.
Dwarfs their beards will grow longer.
Chaos will have more impressive and decorated armor.
Also Empire will have more glammy armor and weapons to show off their rank.
No info out on this matter yet for the High Elfs nor the Dark Elfs.

Sources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgnK1_yBQ5s - http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9158

2.3 The Tome of Knowledge

Anyone who is familiar with the series Charmed will recognise the Book of Shadows in the Tome of Knowledge. The Tome of Knowledge is a book everyone will be carrying with them. It contains all information you've gathered so far by exploring the world. If you meet a specific type of enemy, there will appear a short discription of this foe in your Tome of Knowledge. If you discover a new area, your Tome of Knowledge will be updated as well and might show a short background history of that specific area and a map.

Basically, everything you've discovered will be stored in your Tome of Knowledge: The palm computer of the Warhammer Online world. However, besides being a scrap book, the developers took the role of the Tomb of Knowledge in Warhammer Online a step further. Not only will it keep track of your achievements, it will also be able to generate new quests for you to venture on.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J8XaEUuYzI

2.4. Means of Transportation

In every MMORPG, transportation plays a vital role. How transportation in Warhammer Online will be taken care of, is unknown at this point. The only thing we know for sure at this point is that every race will have a unique way of transportation. Screenshots of Dwarven Gyrocopters have appeared. Orcs are supposed to be shot away with catapults. There's also speculation about a selfcontrolled mean of transportation (read mount) and a specific transportation route (boat, trolly-train, god knows). As soon as more information is out on that matter, I'll make sure it gets updated.

2.5 Ways of expression

Read "emotes". We all know them as /bow; /sit; /wave; etc... Warhammer Online will have these emotes as well to support expression of a character. We'll just have to wait and see what our possibilities are.

3. THE WORLD OF WARHAMMER ONLINE

In this chapter I'll be discussing what the world in Warhammer Online will look like. What is your relation to the world? How can your actions affect the world? Also trading and crafting will be part of this chapter! But there's one thing you should always keep in mind while reading this chapter, and I quote:

Originally Posted by Lance Roberts: Producer Warhammer Online.

Everything in the game is focussed around that war. Everything you do, any quest, every mission you go on, is to support the war effort: your side versus the enemy."

Now let's get down to business shall we?

3.1 Questing

By doing quests in Warhammer Online, you wont just only be gaining EXP and rewards, but quest actually are the backbone for the storyline in Warhammer Online. By completing quests, you'll be walking through the story of your character, unraveling secrets, digging up old myths and revealing huge complots.

Because the storyline and quests are so mend into eachother, the developers have split up quests into chapters. Based on your level, the amount of quests and their difficulty will increase along with your level.

There's two different ways to divide quests into different categories. I'll discuss them here:

3.1.2 Quest Radius:

The first way is by their "radius": how far the quest will take you into the wide world of Warhammer, and how much of the story the quest will reveal. Using this factor, you can devide quests into 3 different groups:

Charges: Charges have a small radius. A charge is a chapter in the story of Warhammer Online and when you've finished the quest, you've finished the chapter. They stand on their own, are easy to complete and reveal just a small amount of the story line. Basicaly they create the atmosphere for larger quests.
Adventures: Adventures will take you further into the world of Warhammer Online. They connect different chapters of the storyline in a specific levelrange and unravel a lorge chunk of the plot of a story. Adventures are there to warm you up for the final kind of quest based on radius:
Epic Quests: These quests are woven all the way through all your levels. They connect a massive amount of chapters throughout your whole career. They're enormous, time consuming and they reveal the actual plot of the storyline of WAR. They'll take you all over the world and you'll meet all the major notorious NPC's of the Warhammer universe.

3.1.2 Content:

The second way to categorize the different quests is just by their content. By this way, we can differntiate five types of quests:

Kill Collectors: As already explained, your Tome of Knowledge will always keep track of how what kind of mobs you've killed and how many. This information might come in handy for Kill Collectors. Suppose an NPC asks you to kill as much wolves as possible. If you haven't killed a wolf ever yet, then you'll set out, kill 50 wolves, return to the NPC and he'll reward you for the job well done. You can then go kill some more for an even bigger reward. However, if you've killed 150 wolves before you spoke to the NPC, you'll get rewarded for those 150 as well! You can always keep track of this in your Tome of Knowledge. Your Tome of Knowledge is also enough proof for these NPC's, they wont ask you to bring wolf tails as proof you killed wolves...

Tome Quests: As already stated before, if you unlock certain chapters in your Tome of Knowledge, it might generate a quest for you. This is the only information EA Mythic is giving about Tome Quests atm.

Exploration Quests: Exploration Quests are there for players who actually try to discover the whole world of Warhammer Online. In your voyage of exploration, you might stumble upon a random event wich results in a quest. They'll generate great rewards, for little effort.
RvR Quests: This type of quest is specificaly designed for the RvR areas present in each zone. An NPC there will ask you to complete RvR related tasks, such as killing an X amount of players, setting up traps, collecting limbs and skulls of the enemy, etc...
Public Quests: Public Quests are linked into a specific area. If you walk in that area, you will automatically be given a quest wich has to do with the story of that specific area. Everyone that enters that specific area is given literally the same quest whether you're grouped or not you will be working together on this quest. If it says, for example, kill 15 snotlings, then each time anyone in that area kills a snotling, your counter will go up. In Public Quests you'll be rewarded in 2 different ways. First of all there's contribution. If you got the mission to kill 15 snotlings and you've killed 10 and someone else has killed 5, then your reward will be bigger at the end of the quest, since you contributed more. The second way to be rewarded is based on your influence. An NPC will keep track of your actions in Public Quests. So if you are the one that killed 5 snotlings in stead of 10, but you've killed a lot more in earlier rounds of the same public quest, your reward might be bigger then the other person.

That's all confirmed information out there on quests. All types of quests will contain the three forms of quests based on their radius, providing a wide variaty of different kinds of quests.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J8XaEUuYzI[url]http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/media/flash/pp_Quests_bitrate.html[/url

3.2. Rewards:

Rewards from quests and missions will be vary, depending on the difficulty of the quest. So far there has been official confirmation of three kinds of rewards:

Ingame currency reward
EXP reward
Gear reward

This doesn't mean those three will be the only forms of rewards. It's the only three that have been confirmed. Some quests will even give you the option to chose what kind of a reward you receive: cash, exp or gear. A very promising feature.

Also, what irritated me in a lot of games was that when I finished a quest as a mage, wich took me to all corners of the world, I got an iron breastplate as a reward. None of that in Warhammer Online. Your reward will be measured with your career choice.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgnK1_yBQ5s

3.3 Trading and Crafting

Also on this topic EA Mythic has not released too much information yet. The only thing they promise is a very innovative crafting system. Also all crafting will be done to contribute to the war effort. There wont be a recipy to make a flowerpot or to craft a straw skirt, it's war, everything you craft goes directly to the war. So in other words: items such as armor and weaponry.

4. GAINING LEVELS AND ABILITIES

In this chapter I'll try to explain how gaining levels, and learning abilties will work. It's something we're all very eager to learn more about, however, it's one of the hardest things to explain. So bare with me.

I also feel the urge to indicate that not everything written here will comply with the truth and how it will be once the game is released. Specialy this chapter is a gathering of official information, and gaps have been filled with logic, speculations and assumptions. So please, do not think this is holy information. I could be wrong.

Anyways, that being said, let's grab the cow with the horns and get down to business.

4.1 Gaining Experience Points, Ranks and Tiers.

In Warhammer Online there are 40 levels. However, they wont be called levels, but ranks, devided in four Tiers. So ten ranks per tier starting from Tier 1/Rank 1 and Tier 4/Rank 10 being the cap at this moment. Tiers will be important in the RvR system, as will be explained later on.

To advance in ranks, and eventually tiers, you will have to gather experience points. You can gain these Experience Points (also refered to as EXP) through three different ways:

Defeating an NPC through PvE
Defeating a PC through PvP
As a reward for completing a quest

There might be other means to gather EXP in Warhammer Online, but they've not been confirmed yet.

So yes, you will be able to gain ranks and tiers through PvP only if you do not like PvE at all. How and where the line lies between PvP and PvE is irrelevant to this chapter and will be explained later on. Important here is to remember that, yet again, Warhammer Online is all about your own choices and preferences.

4.2 Abilties

There are 3 kinds of abilties in Warhammer Online:

4.2.1 Action Abilities:

Action Abilities are the core abilties of a specific class. When you gain ranks, along the way, you'll be gaining action abilities. Once you hit the maximum level, you will have received ALL action abilities available to your career. Action Abilties define you as a Zealot Priest or Warrior Priest.

4.2.2 Tactic Abilities:

When you are gaining experience, you'll also receive Tactic Points. With these tactic points you can buy tactic abilities. Tactic abilities are abilities that can be very usefull in specific situation. They'll increase your power to be able to handle specific situations. Basicaly there are three categories of tactic abilities:

Career Tactic Abilities: These tactics will increase your power in all features of the gameplay, meaning you'll be able to use them in both RvR as PvP.
Renown Tactic Abilities: This kind of tactics can only be used in RvR situations and will increase your power specificaly in RvR. These tactics can not be used in PvE.
Tome Tactic Abilties: This type of tactic is specificaly designed for PvE situations, it will only be usable in PvE and will increase your power there only.

You can only use seven tactics at once, and you can only swap tactics between battles. Once you engage in a battle, you wont be able to change tactics. At all time you can have a maximum of 4 Career Tactics, 2 Renown Tactics and 1 Tome Tactic. This allows you to create a wide variaty of different set of tactics, making your Zealot Priest very much different from your friend's Zealot Priest!

4.2.3 Morale Abilities:

The same as with Tactic Abilities: when you're progressing through the levels, you'll also gain Moral Points along with Tactic Points. With a specific amount of Morale Points, you can buy Morale Abilities. Morale abilties can only be accessed during combat. As you fight, you'll build up morale, and when you've gathered a certain amount of morale, a Morale Ability will become available to you. You can have 4 Morale Abilties in your set of Morale Abilities. When you gain 20 (numbers are examples) Morale during a fight, you can use your first Morale Ability. However if you decide not to and gain another 20, you can use your second morale ability. Your second Morale ability is a lot more powerfull then your first. However, if you don't want to waste all your moral, you can also decide to use your first Morale Ability twice. This goes all the way up to your fourth and most powerfull morale ability. For each slot, there are different kinds of Morale Abilties. There are 3 different kinds of Morale Abilties:

Career Morale Abilities:

These are the Morale abilities specific for your career. These Career Morale Abilities are the same for your Zealot Priest, as the Career Morale Abilities of your friend's Zealot Priest.
Archetype Morale Abilities:

These are the Morale abilities specific for your archetype. These Archetype Morale Abilities are the same for your Damage DPS archetype as the Archetype Morale Abilities of your friend's Damage DPS archetype.
Racial Morale Abilities:

Yes indeed, these are the Morale Abilities specific for your race. They're the same Racial Morale abilties your Dark Elf has as those of your friend's Dark Elf.

4.2.4. The Catch!

You are probably wondering now, why are Tactics and Morales not just ordinary Action Abilities? Well it's simple: In your whole career you'll gain ALL your Action Abilities, however you wont gain enough Tactic and Morale points to buy all Tactic Abilties and Morale Abilities. So you'll have to make a choice and make it wisely!

4.2.5. A summary:

In PvP situations, your character has the following abilities:

ALL the Action Abilities available to your class at that level. (this differs from class to class)
Six Tactic Abilities (4 career and 2 Renown) bought with Tactic Points.
Four Morale Abilities bought with Morale Points

In PvE situations your character has the following abilties:

ALL the Action Abilities available to your class at that level. (this differs from class to class)
Five Tactic Abilities (4 career and 1 Tome) bought with Tactic Points.
Four Morale Abilities bought with Morale Points

4.3 The Skill Tree Structure:

The Skill Tree Structure is a grid on wich you can keep track of what abilities you've activated and unlocked with the points you've gather by gaining experience, rank and tiers. Per Tier, Action, Tactic and Morale has it's own Skill Tree. Thus there are three skill trees per Tier, bringing us a total of twelve skill trees when you've reached maximum level.

Have a look at this visualisation of the Skill Tree Structure. It's very helpfull in understanding this concept, cause I know it's all very complicated. Just read the explaination over and over again and keep staring at the Skill Tree Structure in that link and it'll become a little bit more clear.

Sources:http://www.war-rvr.net/calc/http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6422 - http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/media/flash/2007-09_pp_CombatSystem.html

5. REALM VERSUS REALM

This chapter is actually what Warhammer Online is all about. The ungoing war between six races. Allthough their motivations might differ, they all have the same goal: Whipe the opposing nation of the face of the earth.

In this chapter I’ll try to explain how RvR works in Warhammer Online, since there are various ways the RvR is set up in Warhammer Online. Before I go on, please take a look at the next picture and study it for a while.

I’ll be refering to this picture regularly in this chapter, so keep it close at hand. On the image you see the battlefront between the Dwarfs and the Greenskins. Dwarfs represented in the brown color, Greenskins represented in the green color. Take a good look how they’re connected with eachother.

5.1 Connection between Tiers, zones and gaining levels.

In chapter 4 you read how I was talking about Tiers. You probably wondered then why they added tiers, since levels and ranks are practically the same. Well here’s why. Not only is your Tier connected to your rank or level, it’s also connected to the zone’s you’ll be fighting in.

When you start playing you start in the starting zone, d’uh. Well, this zone is called the Tier 1 zone. You probably noticed the numbers on the image as well. You’ll start in the zones with the number 1 in them. Those are the Tier 1 zones. They’re connected with eachother and the connection represents the Tier 1 battlfront between the Dwarfs and Greenskins.

Once you reach Tier 2 (or level 10) you’ll be able to enter the Tier 2 zone. This proces goes on untill Tier 4. The Tier 4 zone of your nation is connected with your nation’s capital, represented by the star on the image. So in other words, there’s no way you’ll be visiting your capital as a Tier 3 or lower. In order to enter your own capital, you’ll need to be Tier 4. Why this is the case, will be explained later on.

5.2 Connection between Tiers, zones and RvR.

You probably wonder now what this all has to do with RvR. On the image you see how the Tier 1 zone of the Dwarfs is connected by a line with the Tier 1 zone of the Greenskins. Same goes for Tier 2 and Tier 3. The connections represent the battlefronts between the two races.

Each of these Tiered zones has an RvR area and a PvE area. The lower Tiered zones will have large PvE areas and small RvR areas. But as you progress in level, the size of the RvR area will grow. So in Tier 4, the most part of the zone is RvR, and a small portion will be PvE. So it’s perfectly possible to reach highest rank by just playing PvE or only playing RvR. However a combination of both, will be the quickest and easiest way to reach maximum level.

Not only can you gain experience points through RvR, but also gold, gear and loot will be available through RvR. When you kill an enemy, random generated items will be lootable from their corps. So even for the sake of collecting some extra cash or gear, there’s no need to play PvE, since they’re obtainable through RvR as well.

The RvR area of the Dwarf Tier 1 zone is connected with the RvR area of the Greenskin Tier 1 zone: both RvR areas form the actual Tier 1 battlefront. The same goes for Tier 2 and Tier 3. Tier 4 is a little bit different, but will, once again, be explained later on. It’s in these battlefronts that the three types of RvR will take place. Another fourth type will take place in Tier 4.

5.3 Types of RvR.

Ok so we know now that the nations will clash with eachother in the battlefronts between the four tiered areas. But what form will this RvR have. As already said, there are four different types of RvR: skirmish RvR, Battlefields, Scenarios and Campaigns. I’ll explain the first three types of RvR here. Campaigns are connected with the special battlefront between the Tier 4 zones, so I’ll cover those in a different section later on.

5.3.1 Skirmish RvR:
As stated above, in each zone there’s an RvR area. When you enter those area’s you’ll get a message informing you that you are entering an RvR area, and that the enemy can attack you freely once you’ve entered that area. Once inside, you’ll be able to fight the enemy in a PvP situation. Skirmish RvR is the casual meet and defeat. You see an enemy, you engage him and you bonk his head. Plain and simple, no questions asked.

5.3.2 Battlefields:

Within the RvR areas of the tiered zones there will be locations of interest. This could be an armory depot, an outpost, a watchtower, etc... These constructions can be claimed by your opposing nation and form the Battlefields. NPC’s might be guarding these structures and also the enemy will try to keep you away from these battlefields. The goal is to claim the structure for your own nation.

5.3.3 Scenarios:
In Warhammer Online there will be Scenarios that can take place all over the world. They are instanced, objecive based, evenly matched battles between two races. They will be linked with the story and the general war theme of the game. When you enter an instance you will be directed to a lobby. In that lobby you are set up against evenly matched forces of the enemy. If not enough players from the opposing realm show up, then NPC's will balance this out. So for example. You decide to go do a scenario with a group of 10 people around the same level. You and your team are directed to the lobby where you wait for the instance to begin. If the enemy only has 5 people showing up for that scenario, then they will get help from 5 NPC's to help balance the battle. When that is done, you will get an objective and a time limit (usually 15 to 30 minutes).

5.4 Victory Points

Your actions in the RvR areas will not only give you loot, gold and experience, but they’ll also give you Victory Points. Victory Points (VP) are points awarded to your nation through your achievements in RvR. Skirmish RvR will earn you a small amount of Victory Points. By capturing a structure in the Battlefield RvR, the reward in Victory Points will be larger. By succesfully completing a Scenario the reward in victory points will be great. But what is their purpose you ask? Let me try to explain.

Imagine that each battlefront between the two Tier 1 zones of Dwarfs and Greenskins has a scale. On the right side, the Dwarfs add the Victory Points they’ve earned through RvR, on the left side the Greenskins do the same with their Victory Points. Once, for example, the Greenskins have gathered enough Victory Points, the scale might tip over in their favor. When this happens, the Dwarf Tier 1 zone will be under Greenskin control.

What’s the reward you get from this you may ask? Well, a small percentage of the Victory Points earned in the Tier 1 zone will spill over onto the scale of the Tier 2 zone. Wich in it’s turn will spill over in the Tier 3 zone scale. This means that Tier 1 players will be contributing to the overall effort in the war of their race.

Now, grab that image again. Do you see the blue zone between the Greenskin Tier 4 zone ad the Dwarf Tier 4 zone? This is the neutral zone. It does not belong to any race (yet). You also see connecting arrows from the Tier 3 zones to the neutral zones. These arrows represent the spilling of Victory Points into the neutral zone.

There are also arrows running from the Tier 4 zones to the Neutral zone. The Tier 4 zones are connected to the neutral zones and also spill a larger percentage of their victory points onto the scale of the Neutral zone. The arrows do not only indicate that, but also mean that you can fysically access the neutral zone from the Tier 4 zone, once the neutral zone has fallen under your nation’s control. Tier 3 players wont be able to do this.

If the Greenskins have an overal better amount of Victory Points compared to the Dwarfs, then after a while, the Neutral zone will fall under Greenskin control. This is the first and most vital step in Campaigns. So here we go ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for the crème de la crème of Warhammer Online: Campaigns.

5.5 Campaigns

As we read before the Greenskins just gathered enough Victory Points to capture the Neutral Zone. Once that happens all the scenario’s in the Dwarven Tier 4 zone will lock down, the Dwarven Tier 4 zone also falls under Greenskin control and a path to the Dwarven capital has been opened for the Greenskins. Two things can happen next.

In the first case, the Dwarfs gather forces, receive help from their allies and push the forces of Destruction back to where they came from. The Greenskins and their allies should pay special attention then. Since if the Dwarfs succeed in this, the Neutral Zone might fall under their control and the Greenskins’ capital might be danger then!

In the second case, the Greenskins and their allies push through and arrive at the gates of the Dwarven capital. Once this happens, a series of scenarios will be opened. These scenarios all involve the City Siege (as the community started to call these scenarios). These scearios will have set objectives such as: “Hit a hole in the city walls” or “Breach the city gates”. While these city siege scenarios take place, the remaining Greenskins will have to hold their ground in the Tier 4 zone of the Dwarfs, as the Dwarfs will keep trying to push them back.

Once the city siege scenarios have been succesfully finished by the Greenskins, all hell will break lose. The city is open for storming then. Hordes of greenskins will flood the Dwarven capital and plunder, loot, murder and destroy. They’ll even be able to fight your leader, capture him and bring them to their capital for a nice session of torture and humiliation.

The actual city raid will be real time, and not instanced. Dwarfs will still be running around trying to stop the Greenskins of causing too much damage. But once Greenskins smell blood, they’re in a rage, and this time the Dwarfs could not hold them back.

When the city is completely in ruins, the Greenskins will even have control over the Dwarven capital. However, this is not indefinatly. After a set time, the Victory Points will be reset, and the scale will be back in balance. Watch out Greenskins, those Dwarves cary a grudge for a long time...

Sources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J8XaEUuYzI - http://www.warhammeronline.com/english/media/podcast/files/Tir-RvR_explaination_final.html-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h31S9wMGbhE&mode=related&search=

5.6 Keeps

Yes, you DaoC fans, you read it right, Warhammer Online will have Keeps! Now for those who don't know DaoC and keeps, pay attention! Keeps are strategicaly orientated areas at the border of RvR zones that form some sort of an open RvR Battlefront. When a keep has been captured, it'll evolve into a fortress of your own faction. So if you're an Orc, then your keep will look Orcish. If you're a Dwarf, well then, it'll look Dwarvish. But do mind this, (and I'm sorry to inform this to the solo-oriented players) keeps can only be capture by guilds. To reward their effort, they can even let their guild banner wave on top of the keep to show everyone you own it. When a keep is captured it'll start out as a small enwalled area with a few guards, but after time (and I bet after you invested gold in it) it'll grow larger and larger making it harder to be captured by the enemy. To aid your guild in defending and holding your keep, NPC guards will be there to help you fight off the enemy when your guild crashed after a long LAN party. Both the keep keepers and the keep siegers will have an arsenal of siege weaponry to attack/defend a keep.

A Beginner's Guide to Warhammer Lore

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Warhammer is a fantasy world created by Games Workshop in 1983 to play host to a tabletop miniature wargame. Originally intended to be another way for D&D players to use their legions of lead figures, Warhammer soon took a life of its own, spawning books, a role-playing game, computer games, jewelry, a heavy metal album, and a pub. Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (or "WAR") is based off of the intellectual property that creates the backdrop for these various bits of consumer media.

The Warhammer story, or background, is vast. It begins tens of thousands of years before the current day with the Old Ones: beings of vast power that sailed between worlds on a sea of infinite potential (known as the Warp, Aethyr, or Realm of Chaos). Armed with incomprehensible techno-magicks and knowledge, the Old Ones raised the races of the Warhammer World from barbarism, teaching elf and dwarf how to draw upon the Realm of Chaos to shape extra-dimensional potential into physical forms… or magic, and bestowing upon them the joys of enlightened civilization. This golden age ended too soon, however, as the Old Ones were exterminated or driven away by things from the Aethyr: the daemons of Chaos and Ruinous Powers native to that Realm. Given form and purpose by the Warp-reflected flaws of mortals, these daemons invaded the Warhammer World, ending the age of Law and advancement brought about by the Old Ones. Many millennia later, the children of the Old Ones continue the battle gainst Chaos.

It is important to note that there are many, varied, implementations of Warhammer lore; none are more "right" or "official" than others. To put it quite simply, according to GW: THERE IS NO WARHAMMER CANON. Players are free to pick, choose, and research the bits they like.

WHERE DID GAMES WORKSHOP COME UP WITH THIS STUFF?

Warhammer's imagery and style are influenced heavily by gritty, classic fantasy authors, such as Michael Moorcock, Robert E. Howard, and H.P. Lovecraft, as well as real-world history and a bit of Tolkien. Designers also list influences such as Terry Gilliam, Black Adder, and Monty Python. The Warhammer world is a playground-like amalgam of everything from Napoleonic gun lines, to sanity-blasting tentacled horrors, to halfings and their giant cocks (depictions of a large rooster that serves as a provincial symbol for the little folk). Those interested in learning more might be urged to pick up some of these older books; Warhammer’s roots are clearly evident in Conan, Elric, and Martin Luther.

THE WARHAMMER WORLD

The unnamed (to its inhabitants) Warhammer world roughly resembles our own. A map can be found here. At the “heart” of the known setting is the Old World, analogous to Earth’s Europe. Here one finds the human nations of the Empire, Bretonnia, Kislev, brutal Nosrca, Tilea, and Estalia as well as the remnants of the Dwarfs’ ancient empire beneath the mountains. Scattered pockets of wood elves (both civilized and less so…) share lands with the Empire and Bretonnia. To the south, past the rogue settlements of the Border Princes and orc-infested Badlands, lie trackless deserts. Cut through by the great River Mortis, the ancient, dusty realm of Nehekkarha lies not-as-silent as it should be, duly earning its title as the Land of the Dead. Past here, one finds the mysterious human nation of Araby, rife with proscribed cults and unknown magic, with the dark jungles of the Southlands engulfing the rest of the southern continent. Nothing but sun-mad orcs and the remains of the Old Ones’ world live here.

To the east lie the dead plains of the Dark Lands, choked with the fumes of Chaos Dwarf industry. Yet further east, in the Mountains of Mourn, are the Ogre Kingdoms. These inhospitable vaults are dotted with the scattered ruins of forgotten civilizations and shaggy prehistoric beasts, pierced in the south by the Silver Road, the sole not-so-safe route between the lands of the Old World and mysterious Far East. Of the kingdoms of Ind, Cathay, and Nippon little is known… other than that the presence of Chaos.

In the middle of the Great Ocean hides Ulthuan, the last great holding of the Asur, first and favorite children of the Old Ones. This magic and mist enshrouded isle contains the kingdoms of the High Elves, including mystical Avelorn and stately Eataine; recently opened to outsiders by the Phoenix King Finubar. Unknown to most of the Warhammer world, Ulthuan is of critical importance. In ancient times, the elves created a vortex of Chaos energy, woven of the structure of the island itself. This vortex drained the Chaos-stuff feeding daemonic legions after the fall of the Old Ones, allowing the elves to fight back and forestall the end of the world. Were this vortex to ever fail, Ulthuan would sink beneath the waves, heralding the final invasion of Chaos.

West of Ulthuan one finds the brooding forests and icy mountains of Naggaroth, the Land of Chill. Now refuge of the Druchii, exiled for millennia from Ulthuan, this is a land as cruel as its inhabitants. To the south is fabled Lustria, where the seat of the Old Ones lies rotting in the jungles. Overseen by things blindly following the edicts of the lost Old Ones, many attempt to enter these jungles to secure the gold and riches within. A few even make it back.

Finally, at the very ends of the Warhammer world lie madness and infinity. The collapsed interdimensional gates of the Old Ones spill Aethyr into the material, and thoughts of mortals into the Realm of Chaos. Surrounding the northern pole gate are the Chaos Wastes, lands of blended Warp and Material, realms of madness, eternal war, and the whims of the Chaos Gods. No one can leave this place entirely untouched by Chaos.

WARHAMMER ARMIES

Considering the wargame roots, Warhammer is often seen in terms of armies and military units, as well as nations and species.

Beasts of Chaos

Hidden in the darkest places of the world are the Beasts of Chaos. Beastmen, Minotaurs, Centaurs, and other spawn of the Dark Gods, these things are Warhammer’s version of the archetypal medieval daemonic satyr or beast in the woods. Beastmen were once human, but became the true and favored children of the Dark Gods when the Warp Gates fell, spilling pure Aethyr into the world. They’re still closely linked too; often a human baby is born horned and hoofed. These turnskins are either killed by Witch Hunters and priests, or taken by insane but loving parents into the woods, where they’re left for the Beasts.

Bretonnia

A thousand years younger than the Empire, the Bretonni tribe became the nation of Bretonnia under the guidance of Giles le Breton. Eschewing the philosophy and science of the Empire in favor of mysticism and feudalism, Bretonnians rely on the martial strength of their lordly knights in battle. They follow the edicts of the Lady, a goddess of suspect origin, but sometimes uphold her message of honor and mercy. A curious blend of pre-revolution France, English fighting styles, and Le Morte d’Arthur, the Bretonnians are a bit of an anachronism compared to the rest of the Old World.

Dark Elves

Warhammer’s version of the Melnibonean archetype, the Druchii have little to do with D&D dark elves or Tolkien’s fading perfect beings. Inheritors of the Phoenix King’s crown by way of heredity, the dark elves followed Malekith, son of the first Phoenix King, into exile after he was driven from Ulthuan by conspirators. The Druchii respect strength above all, and solely worship Khaine, the elven god of war. Taking a cue from the original sorcerers and their Chaos vortex, the Druchii do not fear Chaos, but seek to bind it to their will and purpose. Some would say this has corrupted them as a race and nation, but the dark elves don’t (officially) worship the Dark Gods- just see them as a means to an end.

Daemons ofChaos

At the heart of the Ream of Chaos lie the architects of the Old Ones’ fall. Born of fear and rage, ambition and despair, the most primal of these beings are the most powerful; the Great Gods of Chaos, four brothers who would see the end of the world. First among them is great Khorne, lord of all that is war, hatred, and bloodshed. There are few the martially-minded god hates so much as his sibling, the passionate Slaanesh. Patron of excess and indulgence, Slaanesh is least amongst the Chaos gods but popular with depraved cults of the Empire. Jovial grandfather Nurgle seeks to enrich the world’s despair by blessing mortals with virulent plagues and pestilences. Finally, of primary import to WAR is Tzeentch, the Architect of Fate. Tzeentch brings hope. Hope of change without reason or balance; Tzeentch is a manipulator, plotter, and sorcerer. His touch brings ambition and madness.

At times, the powers of Chaos put their differences aside and send splinters of their selves into the material world; where the skin of reality is thin, daemons can step into the mortal realms and fulfill the urges of their patron.

Dogs of War

As an army, Dogs of War include everything from Tilean pikes and crossbowmen to suicidal Dwarf pirates to an exiled Asur prince and his dragon. This has allowed GW to release a number of unique and interesting models over the years, often from nations that don’t warrant their own armies. Araby, Tilea, Estalia, and rogue elements of other armies have all been detailed.

Dwarfs

As those following WAR are probably aware, Warhammer dwarfs are the Nordic and Tolkien archetype taken to an extreme. More obsessive, drunk, and gold-hungry than most settings’ dwarfs, these guys are a major reason for the success of the Empire, having taught humans ironworking, gunpowder, and numerous other advances. The friendship between the dwarf kings and Empire is one of the few true alliances in the Warhammer world. The dwarfs once held a mighty empire running the length and breadth of the Old World. A mysterious cataclysm befell them many years before the founding of the Empire, followed by battles against the greenskins, then a costly war against the elves known as the “War of Vengeance”. These events saw the dwarfs greatly reduced in power, but through sheer spite and stubbornness, the race continues to survive.

The Empire

The point-of-view for most of the Warhammer World (and setting for WFRP), the Empire is an especially mad take on the 16th century, pre-Protestant Holy Roman Empire. The Empire learned metalworking and industry from the dwarfs, and were taught magic by the elves. The last true hopes of civilization against Chaos, Imperial armies combine gunlines, professional soldiers, knights, artillery, and magic to defeat their foes. Founded by Sigmar two and a half millennia before the current game period, Imperials now worship their founder as a god. It was Sigmar who forged the first true alliance with the dwarfs, saving their High King from capture by a superior band of orcs. For this, Sigmar was granted the hammer Ghal-Maraz, an heirloom dwarf runic hammer (and the titular weapon for the setting)… which is probably still carried by Karl-Franz, the current Emperor.

High Elves

First experiment of the Old Ones, these ancient and lawful beings taught the elves their magic, art, song, and civilization. Unlike other experiments, elven history vaguely remembers the Old Ones, giving them a racial memory and learning that vastly exceeds all others. Physically resistant to Chaos, the elves still suffer the moral and mental effects, especially when succumbing to their own arrogance and passions. High elf culture is extremely rigid and controlled because of this and they see themselves as the protectors of the world, justifying their near-fascism and unchallenged control of major sea-routes. Unlike the Tolkien archetype, the Asur are warriors and imperialists, with a strong fascination in the arts of warfare and bloodshed.

Lizardmen

During their time elevating the races of the Warhammer world, the Old Ones also created servants to help them with their work. After their fall, these servants blindly continued the Old Ones’ inscrutable plans, carrying on adjustment of the planet itself and battling Chaos in all its forms. The mighty Slaan, beings of immense Aethyric and psychic ability, interpret the Old Ones plans, while the Skinks act as their agents. Saurus warriors emerge from spawning pools, ready to defend their Lustrian homes, while Kroxigor and other prehistoric beasts are used for industry and war.

Ogre Kingdoms

One of the final experiments of the Old Ones, Ogres are among the most physically robust and resistant to Chaos. Not completely resistant, however, as an event early in their development lead them to worship of an entity known as the Great Maw, and granted the race an all-consuming hunger to fuel their massive bodies. Ogres have no allegiance to Chaos, though, nor hatred of it, often showing up as Dogs of War or mercenaries in the armies of humans, Orcs, Chaos, and anyone else willing to pay a bit of coin or bucket of stew.

Greenskins

Mushrooms? Monsters? Degenerate barbarians? However one classifies Orcs and Goblins, the only certainty is that they’re as certain as death and taxes. Little more complex than human two-year olds in massively tough and muscled bodies (or quick and wiry in the case of Goblins) greenskins enjoy nothing more than scrappin’ and fightin’. Dey’s ded ‘ard too, and dem Gobbos is pretty kunnin’ too, tho dey’s a buncha weedy gits. All ‘oomies need to know is dat da Waaagh! can’t be stopped and yous gonna get yer ‘ed bashed right in!

*cough*

Skaven

There is no such thing as skaven. Just because you’ve seen evidence of rat-like beastmen doesn’t mean there’s some sort of intelligent Chaos beats below all the cities of the world, with technology that surpasses the Empire and a master plan to rule the ruins of civilization. That’s ridiculous.

Tomb Kings

Before the time of Sigmar, the first true civilization of Man arose in the deserts south of the Old World. Living amongst architecture strangely reminiscent of both Lustrian ruins and the monuments of the high elves, the people of ancient Nehekhara considered themselves the favored children of the gods. Over time, they came to fear and worship death above all else, believing their lives were mere preparation for a glorious and shining afterlife; much like the real world’s ancient Egyptians. For one Nehekharan, however, the afterlife was not enough; a brother of the Priest-King of mighty Khemri, this man sought eternal life and coveted the lands of all Nehekhara to be his shining paradise. After capturing and torturing the secrets of magic from stranded Druchii sailors, this man developed the science that would one day be known as Necromancy; power over the dead and death itself. Distilling an elixir from human blood, he was able to prolong his life, eventually usurping his brother and taking Khemri as his own. Eventually, the other Priest-Kings united and drove him into the desert, where he passed beyond the realm of the living, but did not truly die.

In his bitterness at being driven out, this man, known as the Accursed One to Nehekharans and He Who Shall Not Be Named to modern Arabyans, polluted the headwaters of the River Mortis, the very backbone of life in Nehekhara. Not content with merely bringing the ancient nation to its knees, he then attempted to cast a single spell that would awaken the entire nation from death and bind them to his will, creating an eternal army to rule the world with. Though he cast the spell and tore generations of Nehekharans from their graves, he was mysteriously interrupted at the peak of the spell, losing control of his would-be slaves. The Tomb Kings and their entombed soldiers were not put to rest, however, and have since resumed the activities of their lives, protecting their dusty homes from invaders and warring against each other. All of these undead, however, nurse a hatred for he who tore them from the afterlife, and the dry desert winds carry their whispers of the Great Necromancer’s hated name; Nagash.

Vampire Counts

As with most undead in the Warhammer world, the vampires have roots in old Nehekhara. When Nagash was driven from Khemri by an alliance of kings, samples of his Elixir of Life and notes were captured and taken as spoils. In the city-state of Lahmia, the queen and her court drank of the Elixir and continued Nagash’s experiments. Soon these depraved nobles learned to sustain themselves indefinitely, not just by consuming the Elixir, but by drawing the very essence of life from living beings. Their souls sustained thusly, their bodies became strong and fast, driven by their own willpower and able to grasp and manipulate the Aethyr. These beings, known later as vampires, were eventually discovered by the Priest-Kings of other cities and driven out, later allying with, then fleeing from, Nagash.

In the modern Warhammer world, the vampires are often split along lines of bloodline and creed, following common archetypes of vampires from all of fantasy stories. Some have infiltrated the nobility of the Empire, counts of the blighted province of Sylvania. Some vampires are physically powerful, while others great sorcerers and necromancers. Some are affected by curses laid upon them by Nagash for their escape and cannot tolerate sunlight or holy relics. All are selfish and driven to make use of their long lives; whether through study, survival, or conquest.

Warriors of Chaos

Mortals who flock to the standards of the Dark Gods can consist of the disillusioned, the corrupt, and the insane. Some are refugees from the civilized nations of the Old World, while the bulk come from tribes of corrupted Norse. Living in the ever-changing wastes beyond Norsca and Kislev, bands of these warriors dedicate themselves to the Gods of Chaos, fighting for glory, the capricious favor of the gods, and the ultimate gift of Daemonhood. At times, a great champion will arise, sometimes dedicated to a single god, others loyal to all Chaos as a pantheon. These champions will then sweep from the north at the head of a vast horde, encased in dark iron armor and wielding weapons of madness and gifts of mutation from their gods.

Wood Elves

Long before the birth of Sigmar, the elves withdrew from their extensive colonies in the Old World. Caught between an unwinnable war against the dwarfs and civil war led by Malekith, the Asur were forced to the defensive. Not all the elven colonists followed the Phoenix King’s call for retreat, however. Small pockets of elves remained behind, in particular the colonists who settled in an ancient and dark forest known as Athel Loren. One of the most ancient and untouched woods of the world, Loren is a living, breathing entity, jealous of its borders and willing and able to brutally protect itself. Allied with the forest, the former elven colonists, called Asraii have returned to many of their rustic roots, favoring bow and bronze spear, eschewing advanced metalworking and armor. Wood elves owe more to medieval legends of forest spirits than Tolkien’s elves; they’re feral and vengeful, uncaring for little but defending the forest.

Advancing Your Warhammer Online Character

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Everyone starts out at Rank 1. As you do quests and kill things, you gain experience. As experience accrues, your rank increases and you start to learn some of the ins and outs of your career. As you gain ranks new abilities will become available to you and yourcharacter will increase in power naturally.Your character can be advanced and customized in a number of ways in addition togaining Ranks, abilities, or new weapons and armor.

Morale and Tactics

Morale abilities are powerful effects that require you to engage in combat for a period of
time as you gain Morale. When you use a Morale ability any Morale you've built up is
lost. There are four ranks of Morale Abilities. Rank 4 Morale abilities require the
maximum Morale possible (100%) but can be devastating to your opponents. Players unlock their first Morale ability at Rank 8.

Tactics

Tactics are passive abilities that can be combined with other tactics to enhance your
natural abilities. As your gain ranks you unlock more slots to use additional Tactics at the
same time. In addition, you can save different sets of Tactics for use in specific situations.
Players unlock their first Tactic ability at Rank 11.

Career Masteries

Career Mastery will allow players focus on different facets of their career giving them the
opportunity to differentiate themselves from others, while still making sure that every
character, no matter how they're specialized, can still perform the basic and fundamental
purpose of their career. For example, every Sword Master will be an able tank, capable of
absorbing much more damage than a lighter fighter. However someone who specializes
in the Sword Master's defensive path will find that they are generally more durable, able
to hold aggro better in PvE and able to defend their friends more efficiently in an RvR
scenario. Meanwhile a Sword Master who chooses to go a more offensive route will still
be able to take a hit, but may find themselves hard pressed to defend & protect as well as
their counterpart, admittedly they will be hitting quite a bit harder as a trade off.

To begin at the most basic layer, every player will have four grouping of skills: Core
skills and skills that fall under one of three different Paths of Mastery. The Core skills
include a small handful of abilities which are simply critical to the career (to continue the
example above, a Swordmaster would find that their Taunt and Guard abilities are Core).
These Core skills automatically improve as you gain ranks; once you learn them, they
won't require any further investments. Moving beyond that, each career will have three
paths available to Master, each of which emphasizes one specific facet of the career's
abilities. While the Core skills represent a more automatic progress, the pathed skills are
heavily player-controlled.

Each Mastery contains Base skills, Supplemental skills, and also has its own Mastery
level. Base skills are the Actions, Tactics & Morale a player is granted as a reward for
achieving a specific level, every character of that Career will always be able to purchase
these skills, however their total effectiveness is intimately tied to the player's level of
Mastery. Supplemental Skills are the Actions, Tactics, and Morale that a player can only
unlock by increasing their Mastery of a given path, like Base skills Supplemental skills
continue to increase in effectiveness as you're Mastery level increases. The Mastery level
itself is the current amount of Mastery a player has in a particular path, players will be
able to choose just how much Mastery they desire in each of the three paths available to
them.

Earning Skills & Increasing Mastery

Skills can be earned in one of two ways Base skills are unlocked when you achieve a specific rank then purchased at your trainer, players can choose to skip a Base skill if they desire but there is no good reason to do so. Supplemental skills however are only unlocked once you reach a certain Mastery level, once unlocked a player has to choose to spend points to purchase these skills. This is a difficult choice because the same points used to purchase Supplemental skills are used to increase Mastery level. These points are referred to as specialization points, and are earned every rank, a player will never have enough Specialization points to completely Master multiple paths while purchasing Supplemental skills. It is a tough choice because every point of Mastery earned improves EVERY action in that mastery line by a small amount - this includes the Base Skills you automatically get. One level of Mastery can seem trivial however they add up and 5 or 10p points of Mastery makes a significant difference!

There is some amount of automatic leveling of power for skills in the paths outside of their Mastery. This is done to make sure the ability is not completely useless to the player, in fact many abilities may still be useful for secondary effects such as Stun even if they have horrible damage/healing values because their Mastery level is lower. When comparing the general power of an ability of a path with 100% Mastery and one with 0% Mastery you will see around a 30 - 35% difference in power. Remember this number can be improved (or widened) further depending on which Tactics and Stats you focus on as well.

Warhammer Online Chosen Guide

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A Chosen Champion of Tzeentch is a sight to behold - warped by the blessings of the dark gods, these hulking behemoths have the power and size to match even the mightiest of mortal creatures. Their thick Chaos armor can ward off the most punishing of blows, while the fell weapons they wield can cleave the heaviest of defenses. However, these "blessings" come at a price - the Chosen is beholden to Tzeentch, and must constantly strive to earn his favor. For the Chosen of Tzeentch this means more than mere slaughter and death. In order to earn the grace of the Changer of Ways, the Chosen must apply guile and trickery as much as brute force. Only through careful planning and deliberate carnage can a Chosen of Tzeentch truly find the favor of their god.

Chosen Strenghts and Weaknesses
Strengths:

Takes lots of damage with an above average amount of hit points.
Deal more damage than other tanks on average.
Auras that cause different effects such as buffing or damage.

Weaknesses:

Lacks ranged attacks which makes fighting from a distance impossible.
Lifetap aura doesn't heal for enough to offset combat damage.
Weak against ranged damage classes

PvE and RvR Overview
PvE
The Chaos Chosen is hard to beat in PvE environment. They tend to solo quickly with their high tolerance for damage and ability to enhance their DPS through their different auras. Their auras can enhance Chosen's damage, resist effects or even enable them to heal themselves for small amounts. Auras can also buff their group members, so they are quite an asset to any party.

RvR
The Chaos Chosen's preferred mode of combat is up close and personal. The combination of their ability to soak damage, do a decent amount of damage, and the effects of a their auras make the Chosen a hard foe to bring down. However, if ranged DPS classes get a headstart, Chosen will quickly end up dead. However with a good healer backing you up, you will be unstoppable.
Chosen Career Masteries

Path of Dread
The Path of Dread is highly offensive, focusing on direct offensive power while sacrificing some defensive protections. A master of Dread will be likely to favor a Great Weapon over a shield. They will be easily capable of picking up a shield when the situation calls for it... but they won't be happy about it.

Path of Corruption
The Path of Corruption is a cunning mastery for those who prefer to wait for their enemies to fruitlessly unleash their most powerful attacks before responding with deliberate and vicious counter attacks. A specialist in Corruption can outlast most enemies, letting their foes exhaust their attacks against their shield, and they will be the person who defines where the lines of battle will be drawn, since they -are- the front lines.

Path of Discord
The Path of Discord is one that delves more deeply into Tzeentch's arcane gifts, and masters of Discord have a limited understanding of how to manipulate the Chaos forces that swirl within them. They can unleash blasts of magical power, or twist the aethyr to unnaturally enhance their melee attacks. Their understanding of the nature of magic is still relatively shallow, however, and they can not hope to approach the skill or power of a true Magus, but even their brief flashes of otherworldly energy are enough to empower them as potent melee combatants.
Chosen Guide
Leveling - secret leveling locations specifically for Chosen will make you level up at least twice as fast

Gold making - gold making secrets from the generic Warhammer Online guide will help a lot, but if you're serious about making huge amounts of gold in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning this Chosen specific strategies will easily net you over 100 gold per hour

Equipment - if you're confused with all the gear choices and don't know where to get the best possible items, this chapter will answer all of your questions. A comprehensive list of gear specific for your Chosen will make you a RvR god.

RvR strategy - knowing other career weaknesses and strenghts is half of the battle, but the other half is knowing your own class in detail. There's a huge number of working strategies in this guide which will enable you to beat every single opponent you face in RvR battles.

Warhammer Online Bright Wizard Guide

2008-09-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

Bright Wizards aren't the easiest class to play in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, so many players requested a guide to help them better understand leveling, equipment choices, gold making, RvR strategies and more. This guide you're reading about now will answer many of these questions.

The Bright Wizard has a number of abilities to blow their enemies to pieces with various spells: direct damage, damage over time (DoT) or area of effect (AoE).

Every damaging spell your Bright Wizard casts builds up Combustion, which translates into greater chance to critically hit your foes, and sometimes even hit you back. The key to avoiding this to happen is the Meltdown ability.

Starting at rank 10, Bright Wizards can invest points into three different talent trees to maximize the effectiveness of certain spells:
- Incineration: Direct damage
- Immolation: Damage over time
- Conflagration: Area effect spells

Bright Wizard Guide Summary
Bright Wizard specific leveling strategy - how to maximize your experience gain per hour and level up as fast as possible

Making gold - There's a number of different insider strategies included to help you earn massive amounts of gold faster than you think.

Attack and defense - how to turn Bright Wizard's greatest weakness into your favor
Equipment - Bright Wizard specific gear list will show you exactly how and where to get the best possible items

RvR tricks - learn the key weaknesses of other careers in Warhammer Online and easy to follow strategies on beating them in RvR combat

Crafting In Warhammer

2008-09-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

You can choose from several different crafts (skills, professions) in Warhammer Online:

Apothecary
Butchering
Cultivating
Magical salvaging
Talisman making
Scavenging
Keep in mind these few facts:

Apothecary and talisman making are crafting skills, while the other four are gathering skills
You can only have one crafting and one gathering profession at any given time
Learning these skills is easy, simply visit one of the trainers throughout the world
Switching skills is possible, but you will loose all progress with previous skills

Apothecary
Apothecary is basically what you might know as alchemy from other games. It enables you to make all sorts of potions, lotions and powders, which increase your stats for a certain period of time.

For low level potions, you can get the ingredients from various merchants, but higher level potions will require items obtained with one or more of the gathering professions: cultivating, scavenging or butchering.

Apothecary works with a main ingredient which determines what kind of potion you will make (whether the potion will give you bonuses to healing, intelligence or something else), while other additional ingredients (mods) are up to you: depending on which ones you use, there can be a longer or shorter duration, greater effect, more doses, and they also affect potion stability. Basically, you get to mix your own stuff, and of course Tome of Knowledge will track it all so you don't have to remember the ingredients.

Talisman making
Talismans are minor items of power which you can attach to other powerful and rare items obtained with RvR, PvE, quests or something else. Basic talismans give bonuses to armor, resistances or stats, while more complicated talismans will give more elaborate bonuses.
To make a talisman, you need ingredients from various crafting and gathering skills, but the main ingredient is a magical fragment obtained with magical salvaging.

Magical Salvaging
Magical salvaging is basically (dis)enchanting; it can convert magical items into component parts. You can actually choose which bonuses to extract from items, like strength or intelligence. Also, you can get different fragments which are used to make talismans.

Cultivating
With cultivating, you can grow your own plants and fungi, which are mostly used for apothecary. To grow the plants or fungi, you need various seeds or spores obtained from merchants, monsters or scavenging. When you have the ingredients, you put them in the pot and then the growth cycle starts. You can also add soil, water and nutrients to speed up the process. After it's done, you should be able to harvest the plant which will then appear in your backpack, and you can then use the pot to grow another plant.

Butchering and Scavenging
Scavenging and butchering are rather similar, since they both extract specific resources from the monsters you kill. However, scavenging can only be used on 'humanoid' type creatures, while butchering can be used on beasts (non-sentient creatures so to speak). If they got no clothes or pockets, then it's most likely you will have to butcher. The only items you can recover with butchering are meat, skin and bones; for everything else, there's scavenging.

If you're wondering, scavenging is supposedly the most profitable profession so take that into consideration also when choosing your skills. But both are pretty profitable, since you can sometimes just follow other players and scavenge/butcher the monsters they kill (you need to wait a few minutes though).

Warhammer Apothecary Guide

2008-09-02T20:58:00.000-07:00

Containers

A container is required for each Apothecary attempt. Merchants sell basic containers. They can be easily identified since they have "Apothecary - Container" in their tooltips. Better containers usually have some beneficial effect, like adding stability or "power". Containers have four slots.
Containers have Apothecary skill-level requirements. A player will be able to use a container only if his or her Apothecary skill is sufficiently high. Each container's skill-level requirement is shown in its tooltip.

Main Ingredients

These items determine what type of "potion" will be made. They can be easily identified since they have "Apothecary - Main Ingredient" in their tooltips. Each tooltip contains flavor text that gives a basic explanation of what that main ingredient does.
Main Ingredients have skill-level requirements, the higher the skill-level requirement, the more powerful the main ingredient is. A player can only use a main ingredient with a high skill-level requirement if his or her skill is sufficiently high. Main ingredients are very unstable.

Ingredients

These items determine the overall effects of the "potion". They are easily identified since they have "Apothecary - Ingredient" in their tooltips. Each Ingredient's tooltip also contains flavor text that gives a basic explanation of what that ingredient does.
Ingredients can have different properties. Some add stability; some make potions last longer, some increase the product yield. Ingredients have skill-level requirements, the higher the skill-level requirement, the more powerful the ingredient. A player can only use an ingredient with a high skill-level requirement if his or her skill is sufficiently high.

Creating a potion

To begin creating a potion, a player must first drag a container into the Apothecary interface. Then the player must add a Main Ingredient. This determines what kind of potion will be made. Once a Main Ingredient has been added, the Un-Stabilityometer appears. This gauge gives information to the player about whether the current mix of ingredients is stable enough.

Unstability meter

This gauge tells the player how stable the current concoction is. The Un-Stabilityometer has a pointer that points to either the red (fail), green (success) or orange part of the gauge.
If the pointer is in the red area, the potion will definitely fail - it's not stable enough. If the pointer is in the green area, the potion will definitely succeed.

If the pointer is in the orange area, the potion "might" succeed - it's either just stable enough (success), or slightly unstable (fail). It's too close to call. When the pointer is in the orange area, the overall stability of the concoction can't be definitively determined.
If a concoction is in the orange area, it "might succeed". At this point, it's usually a good idea to add an ingredient that will increase stability. However, players can take a chance that the concoction is stable enough and hit "BREW".

Note that if a brew attempt fails when the concoction "might succeed", retrying with the same ingredients will never result in a success. There's no randomness associated with "might succeed".

Adding Ingredients

Once a Main Ingredient has been added, players can add other ingredients to make the concoction stable. Some ingredients can increase the duration of a potion's effect; some can increase how many potions are made; some increase the stability of the concoction. Players can use different combinations of ingredients to create potions with different effects. By experimenting with ingredients, players can "design" potions that suit their play style.

Failure

If a concoction is unstable and the player presses BREW, the attempt will fail. Ingredients are not usually destroyed during a failure. However, some containers and ingredients (normally those bought from a merchant) can be destroyed during a failure.

Stability

The most important aspect of crafting potions is ensuring that the concoction is stable. Players make concoctions stable by adding ingredients that add stability. You can tell if an ingredient is a "stabilizer" by reading its flavor text.

There is a "water" family of "stabilizer" ingredients. Basic waters can be bought from crafting merchants. Better waters can be found from humanoids, either from general loot or by scavenging them. Better waters add more stability to a concoction. If a player is experimenting with new and difficult ingredients, using better stabilizers will make a brew attempt more likely to succeed.

When a player starts out in Apothecary, a good way to skill up is to make simple potions using one main ingredient, two cloudy waters, and one other ingredient. You can get all these items from crafting merchants.

Warhammer Guide

Not enough?

If you're having trouble with anything in this game, consider getting a Warhammer Online Guide. It has everything you'll ever need about RvR, Public Quests, Tome of Knowledge, skills, crafts and more. Also features great gold farming strategies and leveling guides & tips.

Warhammer Online Open Beta client downloads (US) and (EU)

2008-09-02T20:39:00.000-07:00

For North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore:

Visit the new Mythic Account Management website
http://accounts.eamythic.com/
to create your Warhammer Online game account. When prompted, enter your Open Beta code. If you have previously entered your Open Beta code in the Beta Center, you will need to enter it again when you create your WAR game account at the new account management site.

Download the open beta client from Fileplanet.com.
http://www.fileplanet.com/betas/who_key_auth.aspx
You will be required to create a free FilePlanet account and input your open beta pre-order code to access the file.

for Europe:

At long last, the 12GB Open Beta client is now available for download through our website
http://www.war-europe.com/#/clientdl/?lang=enl
This download is open for anyone who is logged in at our website, but only Open Beta testers will be able to run the client. Open Beta testers include all current beta testers, Collector's Edition pre-order customers as well as customers who bought a Standard Edition pre-order via one of our premium partners. To download the client without Open Beta access will only slow the download for other users so we kindly ask you to respect this.

Please note: current beta testers will be able to patch their clients; no new download is needed if you already have one.

WAR NDA lifted!

2008-09-02T20:38:00.000-07:00

As of now, the Non Disclosure portions of our North American Beta Testing Agreement are now officially lifted. From this point on players may now freely talk about their experiences in the game as well as post screenshots, videos, etc. We will be sending an email out to all our current players with full details about the lift over the next 24 hours. Players with access to our forums can also see the letter there. Players may not talk about nor reprint posts from our forums and our Test Servers (currently Deathsword) are still fully covered by the confidentiality portions of our Beta Testing Agreement. So, other than that, free feel to talk about and share your experiences in WAR.

My thanks go out to everyone who has beta tested and continues to beta test WAR. It has been with your help and feedback that WAR is where it is today. We really appreciate your effort.

WAR is almost upon us!

Mark Jacobs
VP, GM Mythic Entertainment

and for EU

We're proud to announce an important news you've all been waiting for!

The NDA has been lifted today, August 19th, opening the way for testers to share their impressions of the beta and for the flood of videos and pics to hit news sites and games magazines near you. Finally all the excitement can be unleashed!

Please note that the information published on the beta testers forums are still confidential and can be discussed only inside the forums themselves.

EA prepares for WAR and announces ship date

2008-09-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

FAIRFAX, Va. - August 5, 2008 - Hot on the heels of spectacular showings at E3 and Comic-Con, Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio, today announced that fans will be able to enter the gritty fantasy world of Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™ (WAR) on September 18th, 2008 when the highly-anticipated MMORPG goes live. After three years in development by Virginia-based Mythic Entertainment, WAR will open its North American, European and Oceanic servers and offer players a variety of flexible subscription options. Gamers who pre-order WAR in North American will enjoy special benefits including open beta admission, a live game head start, and bonus in-game items.

Based on Games Workshop's epic and longstanding tabletop fantasy war game, WAR is a unique MMORPG that features revolutionary Realm vs. Realm™ (RvR) gameplay that will immerse players in a world of perpetual conflict for years to come. WAR has been recognized for its unique play style that appeals to novice MMO players while offering incredible depth for more seasoned players.

Consumer demand for WAR is mounting with all units of the game's Collector's Edition having been pre-sold in North America. In addition, the title is receiving significant media attention, picking up numerous critic awards at this year's E3, including "Best PC Game" from G4's XPlay, "Best MMO" from IGN and Voodoo Extreme, and "Top 10 PC Game" from Gamespy, as well as being nominated for the prestigious Game Critic's Awards "Best PC Game".

"The countdown has officially begun. Mark your calendars! September 18th is the Day of Reckoning," said Mark Jacobs, founder and general manager of Mythic Entertainment. "For the last three years, the entire team at Mythic has poured their hearts into making Warhammer Online the next great MMORPG. We are so excited to open up this world and share it with the fans that will live in it, quest in it, go to war in it and make it come alive."

Fans looking forward to laying siege to their enemy's capital city will have several pricing options available, beginning with a $14.99 monthly subscription. Additionally, collectible 30- and 60-day prepaid Game Time™ Cards will be available at many game retailers. WAR subscription options include:
Monthly Subscription: $14.99 USD
3-Month Subscription: $41.97 ($13.99 per month)
6-Month Subscription: $77.94 ($12.99 per month)
Players can now pre-order their copy of WAR to secure their spots on the frontlines with a special pre-order package that includes:
Open beta admission: Pre-order customers can experience the glory of battle and the thrill of WAR by participating in the open beta test.
Head Start program: Players can begin their adventures in the Age of Reckoning before the game's official launch.
Bonus in-game items: Players can equip their characters with two bonus in-game items by pre-ordering from select retail partners.
Universal Fighting System™ Battle Deck: The Emperor Karl Franz and Tchar'zanek, dread Champion of Tzeentch, go head-to-head in this exclusive collectible card game from Fantasy Flight Games. (Available in a limited supply from select retailers.)
Participating pre-order partners include Amazon.com, Best Buy, Circuit City, Direct2Drive, EAStore.com, EB Canada, EB Games, Fry's, GameCrazy, GameStop, GoGamer.com, and Walmart.com. (Pre-order offers will vary by retailer.) The European pre-order program is scheduled to begin in late August. For more information about the North American pre-order program, visit www.warhammeronline.com/preorder.

Available for the PC, WAR is rated "T" for TEEN by the ESRB. WAR will be the first MMORPG to launch servers simultaneously in North America, Europe, and Oceania when it goes live on September 18th, 2008. For more information, visit http://www.warhammeronline.com/.

###

About Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™
Experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm™! Declare your allegiance and join hundreds of thousands of mighty heroes on the battlefields of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the new MMORPG from Mythic Entertainment, the creators of Dark Age of Camelot™. Enter a grim fantasy world of perpetual conflict to fight for the Realms of Order (Dwarfs, High Elves, and Empire) or Destruction (Greenskins, Dark Elves, and Chaos). Invade enemy lands, besiege imposing fortresses, and sack sprawling capital cities for the glory of your Realm. Wield devastating magic and deadly weapons, battle monstrous creatures, and join your brothers-in-arms in epic Public Quests™. Climb the Bastion Stair, carry your Guild Banner into battle, and unlock the infinite secrets of the Tome of Knowledge as you travel the world. Sharpen your blade and unleash your inner mutation; the Age of Reckoning has begun and WAR IS EVERYWHERE!

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA SPORTS Freestyle™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO, Mythic Entertainment, Dark Age of Camelot, Public Quests, Realm vs. Realm, and Game Time are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer Online, Age of Reckoning, and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer world are either ®, ™ and/or © Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2008. Used under license by Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective licensors.

Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning Weapons

2007-08-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

Warhammer online age of reckoning weaponry and equipment vary in editions of the warhammer online age of reckoning setups. Current editions of the warhammer games may not include any of the older forms of weaponry and equipment. Descriptions of the usage and histories of the weapons and equipment will be described on warhammer online age of reckoning websites.

Rule books that are in online versions or book versions will be a useful guide in descriptions and wielding capabilities. Some warhammer online age of reckoning fansites can give more information as well. Some weapons of choice for warhammer online age of reckoning play sites are brutally configured for deadly assaults on enemies.

C’tan Phase swords slice thru force fields and armor with ease. There are special sword rules for its use. It is mainly used by Callidus assassins for close combat situations. Like the modern day chainsaw, chain weapons slash and tear into opponents with their ripping chain teeth. In the warhammer online age of reckoning, chain weapons or chain swords can destroy thick plated armor and bulkheads to escape the situations. They are very sharp and unforgiving to foes. The chain axe is another chain weapon that is to be feared.

The Hunting Lance is a spearlike weapon that has an explosive tip that can wound or confuse enemies. Power weapons are all about energy field powers. The power weapons can be modified versions of any of the offered weapons. Warhammer online age of reckoning force weapons are psychic energy channeled weapons. These weapons can be bladed weapons such as swords. They are very powerful and take skill in wielding by the user.

Of course warhammer online age of reckoning arsenals would not be complete without ranged weapons. These include firearms like Bolt weapons. Bolt guns fire high powered rounds that cause devastating results. Warhammer online age of reckoning bolt weapons can be found in rifle, pistol, machine gun and gatling cannon forms. These firearms can be used with different grades of ammunitions. Some have force weapon powers with psychic energy.

Flame throwing weapons also are at gamers fingertips. These incinerator devices are used in jungle warfare, close quarter combat and in urban battles. They are short ranged weapons used to get out of tight situations. Other warhammer online compute game weapons include laser weapons that fire strong beams to keep foes back. They need to be recharged for use of extended periods of time. Other weapons exist that are similar to modern day weapons and firearms used today.

Only a few of the warhammer online age of reckoning weapons are from a futuristic imagination. All weapons used for the warhammer online age of reckoning can inflict gory demises for enemies. Due to the intense violence that is associated with this game, it should only be played by approved age groups. Warhammer online age of reckoning fan sites also invite fans to create and personalize their weapons. Contests and rules of submissions apply. However, any player can personalize their weapon of choice through game options. This feature will help in better identification during multi player battles. It can also enable a clear distinction in the warhammer guilds.

Warhammer Online

2007-07-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

War is everywhere in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR), the new MMORPG from the creators of Dark Age of Camelot®. Based on Games Workshop's popular Warhammer® fantasy war game, WAR features next generation Realm vs. Realm™ (RvR) game play that will immerse players in a world of perpetual conflict.

Upon entering WAR, players must determine their allegiance and join an Army. Those inclined towards the side of good may fight for the Armies of Order as an obstinate Dwarf, noble High Elf, or loyal human soldier of the Empire. Those inclined towards darker deeds may side with the sinister Armies of Destruction as a savage Greenskin (Orc or Goblin), corrupt Dark Elf, or marauding human worshipper of Chaos.

RvR combat takes place on three fronts where ancient foes wage an unending war – Dwarfs vs. Greenskins, High Elf vs. Dark Elf, and Empire vs. Chaos. Players begin the game fighting their ancestral enemy, but are free to journey to other fronts to help their allies in their ongoing struggles.

The ultimate goal in RvR combat is the sacking of an enemy's capital city. To do this, an army must invade and take control of the opposition's homeland. Deciding battles take place on objective-based battlefields and in instanced scenarios - point-balanced battles that make use of NPC mercenaries known as Dogs of War.

For the first time, WAR's RvR system integrates both Player vs. Player (PvP) combat and Player vs. Environment (PvE) quests on the same map. Every aspect of the game, including PvE missions, is geared towards the greater war in some important way. However, players are not required to participate in PvP combat, and may aid in the RvR war effort and enjoy the game in its entirety via PvE content.

Drawing from a quarter century of highly detailed source material, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will bring Games Workshop's fantasy world to life in a way that will allow players to create characters destined for great deeds and glory on the field of battle.

Key Features

Based on Games Workshop's popular Warhammer fantasy world. Dominated by force of arms and

magic, this world provides a rich setting for hundreds of thousands of players to experience the epic

nature of war and the glory of battle.

Join one of six Armies and fight for the Armies of Order (Dwarf, High Elf and Empire) or

the Armies of Destruction (Greenskin, Dark Elf, or Chaos). Wage war across three unique battlefronts.

Next generation Realm vs. Realm game system integrating both PvP combat and PvE quests on the

same map in support of the greater war.

Engage in four levels of RvR combat:

- Skirmishes: Incidental PvP combat

- Battlefields: Objective-based battles in the game world

- Scenarios: Instanced, point-based battles balanced with NPC Dogs of War

- Campaigns: The invasion of enemy lands culminating in the assault on their capital city

Undertake a wide variety of PvE quest types related to an army's war efforts, including:

- Public quests that benefit from the participation of the entire army

- Conflict quests that pit players against an enemy with opposing goals

- Branching quests that let you choose the outcome of the quest and your reward

- Xmas quests that reward exploration with high value loot

A robust combat system introduces Player Tactics (earned powers you equip prior to battle) and

Morale Skills (combat options that increase in power when the momentum of battle is in your favor).

Player models that change to reflect the relative power of a character (i.e., Orcs grow in size and

Dwarfs' beards get longer). Customizable armor and a visual guild system allow a player to make their

character truly unique.

Embark on an epic quest to complete the Tome of Knowledge and unlock Warhammer lore, detailed

monster information, and major story plotlines.

Online play requires a subscription and Internet connection