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Here's an awesome overview of the most important issues and questions about Warhammer Online.- What are public quests?
Public quests are a great way to simultaneously level, gain influence for influence rewards, contribute to your faction's control of a zone, and gain RvR reputation. Multiple public quests are located in every zone. Public quests are multi-staged quests that require cooperation from a number of players who do not necessarily need to be grouped. You wander into the area and can start contributing to whatever phase the quest is in. Once the final phase is complete, which typically involves one or more challenging "bosses", rolls are made for good to excellent loot drops. For each kill or objective, you gain inflence. The influence meter for a zone is broken into three levels. When you fill each level, you are able to obtain your choice of an influence item from the influence turn-in NPC for the zone located in the warcamp. It is the same NPC used to bind your map for rapid travel. For every kill or objective you contribute to, your faction also gains points towards control of the zone. You get good XP for kills and objectives, as well as for being involved in the completion of each phase. A number of PQ's intersect with an open PvP/RvR area. Public quests are also great places to meet new people, expand your friends list, and recruit for the guild. I really enjoy them and think they are a great way for newer players to level and get into the swing of things. In addition, it is not unusual for you to obtain quests that send you into public quest areas and get double credit towards both the public quest and your personal quest.
- Why are healers on the front lines?
One of the things I love about WAR is the paradigm shift they made for healing classes. In WAR there are no classes that just follow their party around like a healbot. Healing classes in WAR all bring something unique to the party, and they all do both damage and healing. Most have to do damage in order to keep their points up to sustain healing. This is especially true for Warrior Priests (order) and Shamans (destro). In fact, for some classes the most powerful healing abilities only work when you are smashing on something...for every hit it heals your defensive target. For Shamans, the more damage they do the more powerful their heals become and the more healing they do the more powerful their damage becomes. What this means is that it is generally good to have two healers for a group of six, preferably two different kinds, and players should not expect their healers to stand around doing nothing but healing. Both Order and Destro have a variety of classes that can heal (one in each race).
Order: Warrior Priest, Rune Priest, Arch Mage
Destro: Shaman, Zealot, Disciple of Khain
So forget everything you learned about healing classes in other games. WAR is different, and I love what WAR has done for healers. They are in the thick of things.
Furthermore, healers get Renown Points (RP) for healing other players in RvR, rather than just for kills. These points are shared with their group mates.
- Grouping
To invite someone to join a group, select them and then right click on their icon next to their health bar. One nice feature is that any member of a party can "refer" someone to the group leader to be added to the group in a similar manner. You can also type "/invite
As you travel through zones, you will see a window under your icon that tells you if there are open groups in your area that you can join. You will also see a small icon to the lower left of your avatar icon that looks like a few wood people models. Click that to get a list of groups and warbands you can join. This game strongly encourages grouping. As a rule, if you are not in a guild group and you head to a public quest or to an RvR zone, it is in your best interest to either create or join a group. These are also always good opportunities to do some recruiting for AoA and also scouting for potential members of our alliance.
You don't have to stay in the pairing you start in. To change to a different pairing, make your way to your tier's warcamp (which is always located next to an RvR lake - there is a symbol on the map for the WC but it is often easy to miss) and talk to the flight master. For a modest fee you can change to a different pairing. Reasons you may want to do this include grouping with guildies for PvE or RvR, to experience different scenarios (each pairing and each tier have their own), and to go to where the action is for RvR.
How does open world RvR work?
Open world RvR is broken into tiers 1 through 4 for each of the three racial pairings, with each tier being intended for a level bracket. The open world RvR areas are designated by orange-brown outlines on your map referred to as RvR lakes. As you move through the tiers, the RvR lakes become larger and larger until eventually in tier 4 almost the entire map is open RvR. In each open world RvR zone (which are generally split over two maps) you will find battlefield objectives and keeps (except in tier 1 where there are no keeps). Taking the battlefied objectives will reward you with renown points and XP, and generally requires killing off champion and potentially hero level NPCs as well as any player character defenders that may be there. Open world RvR can be very intense, with the objectives moving back and forth between the realms all day long and a lot of players on both sides. It is a good idea to purchase battering rams, and oil, and ranged siege weapons. These can be set up on pads in the vicinity of the keeps for offense or defense.
Once you get to tiers 2 and on, you will find renown trainers and merchants in the keeps - which must be in your realm's control to use them. Each pairing in Tier 4 culminates in battles for fortresses. Capturing two fortresses triggers the city siege phase, which leads to a series of RvR public quests for the contested phase. If the defenders succeed, they kick out the enemy and RvR resets. If the enemy succeeds, it leads to a sequence of PQs culminating in an attack on the king, which will open up the city for a looting phase that gives the enemy access to dungeons and quests for a period of time.
What are RvR scenarios
Scenarios are instanced battlegrounds, with different maps and different objectives. Each tier of each pairing has multiple scenarios. To queue up for a scenario, click the scenario queue button on the left/top of your minimap and it will open up a UI. You can select from among the scenarios available in your tier and then continue on with what you were doing. When the scenario opens up, you will be asked if you want to join. This is an amazing feature because it means either solo or as a party you could engage in questing, public questing, or open world RvR and then go into a scenario when it is ready and then keep questing and alternate between the two. Lots of fun and really lets you find some action very quickly as soon as you log into the game. You can start playing scenarios from early levels and they are available in different tiers throughout the leveling process. You get XP and renown from scenarios just as you do from open world RvR, and they contribute to Realm vs. Realm by shifting control between the realms. It is best when full parties go in so that the ratio of healers is good, but if you play a healing class everyone will always be thrilled to see you.
You can be queued for multiple scenarios at once. Best way to do this is group with some guildies and each go to a different pairing and queue up. Each person can queue for the party for the scenario in their region. Note that if a new member joins the group, you need to re-queue or they will not get the invite when the scenario starts.
How to get armor and gear
For armor and gear, there are five different ways to get upgrades:
1. Public Quest loot bags
2. Influence rewards
3. Renown gear
4. Quest rewards
5. Random drops
Public quest loot rewards are received by the top 10 loot rolls at the end of a public quest. At the end of a public quest, your contribution is calculated and turned into a bonus addition to your loot roll. If you win, you get a loot bag which will have a color. I believe there are four different levels of loot bag, with the level of the PQ and the loot roll determining the rarity of your bag. PQ rewards can be very good. In particular I have found that for weapon this is one of the best ways to get upgrades. Once you have done a number of PQs in a zone, you will have built up your influence for that zone. Influence gives you access to three rewards, at least one of which ("elite") will be armor. Influence rewards are often, but not always, upgrades. When you fight in RvR, either open world or scenarios, you gain renown. For every renown rank you gain (there are 80 ranks) you earn a point. These points serve two purposes. First, by visiting renown trainers you can allocate points to increase your stats, gain new tactics, and new skills. Second, you can visit renown merchants. Renown merchants give you access to better gear (especially armor) to purchase depending on what your renown rank is. You still need to spend money on it - but your choices improve the higher your renown rank. In my experience the better armor is typically available as renown gear. Quest rewards are often good at the beginning of a tier bracket, but as you level in the bracket you will typically get renown gear or influence rewards that are often better than gear you get as quest rewards. So you will sell a lot of the quest reward gear. Random drops are just that, random. They usually are not as good as the gear you get from the other four sources - but occasionally you will get a rare drop that is better.
In many situations, you will see loot that is tailored for your class, even in need/greed situations. So it is possible that three players will each see an uncommon item (armor or weapon) that is for their class and "need" it. This can lead to some animosity when players don't understand what is happening. If you see players getting confused/upset try to explain that a lot of the loot drops are tailored to your class, and spread the word among your guildies so they don't get upset when they see people needing items. Not all loot drops are tailored, however, and if you see stuff that is not for your class it is generally expected that you will pass or greed.
What is crafting?
The following video is very helpful:
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/ ... fting.html
My advice is when you first start playing, get scavenging and apothacary or cultivation. They work very well together and scavenging will get you added income. Talisman making is not yet in the game so I can't say much about it.
How do guilds and alliances work?
The guild and alliance tools in this game are fantastic. We have the ability to establish custom ranks for both the guild and the alliance. We have in game event calendars, bank, and other perks you gain as the guild "levels up." An interesting guild mechanic is the battle standard, which can be wielded by a member designated as a standard bearer. Standards become more powerful as the guild levels, with the guild able to purchase and apply additional tactics to the standard that provide a variety of buffs. Standards also offer a speed buff which is useful in the early game before players have mounts. Standards may be planted in the ground to allow the standard bearer to fight - but when planted they are susceptible to being stolen. Standards may also be used to capture keeps in the name of the guild.
What are character attributes and abilities?
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.
Base Skills: 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.
Morale: 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
Mastery: Supplemental skills are 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 starting at rank 11. 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 10 points of Mastery makes a significant difference.
Renown: Talk to renown trainers at the warcamps and keeps to spend renown points on buffs to your attributes, on additional tactics, and on additional skills. Renown points play an important role in character progression, so your character progression is really a combination of your XP rank and your renown rank. Renown is earned through RvR activity. Note that RvR activity also earns you XP - so RvR is a very good way to progress your character.
Tome Unlocks: You can unlock additional tactics through achievements in the Tome of Knowledge. Hope to have a list someday.
Thanks to warhammeralliance.com forum for originally posting this!
New Warhammer Online Player FAQ - Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning News
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