General Guide to WAR

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:

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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.
   
4. 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.