Starter Guide to Warhammer Online

Getting Started:
Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. It is being developed and published by EA Mythic. Age of Reckoning is based off of the wildly popular Warhammer intellectual property, that consists of a table top figure and dice game, books, comics, video games and more. EA Mythic was chosen because of their success with their “RvR” concept from their first MMORPG. Age of Reckoning takes place during a time of alliance between the goodly races, and the evil races of the Warhammer world. We see Greenskins, Dark Elves and Chaos aligning and waging war against the good races of Dwarfs, High Elves and Order.

Server Selection:
Choosing your server is the first crucial moment you will face when entering the Age of Reckoning world. You will be given many options for server choice, and some will even be recommended to you based on racial choice and server population. Initially your server choices will be limited to the “core” rule set only, but after release EA Mythic has already informed us that there will be a “PvP” rule set, that allows you to RvR anywhere in the Warhammer world. The only major differences between these two rule sets is the option to choose whether or not you wish to RvR in the PvE zones. Remember that you can only choose one alliance on each server, meaning you cannot have good and evil characters on the same server.

Character Creation/Selection:
After choosing a server your next choice will come down to race and class selection. While some of us have an idea of what we want to play, many do not. WAR makes this choice simple as it gives you a detailed description of each class and allows you to move and manipulate character avatars, so you can see how your character may actually look. During the character creation you are given varying options to change many features of your character(via sliding bars), and while this is not the only visual customization your character will get(ie trophies) you will be allowed to choose things like eye color, tooth color, skin tone, and many more things. Here is where you will also be able to choose a name for your character, if you do not have a name, or cannot think of one, there will be a random name generator.

Gender:
In WAR there are a few classes that we know of, such as the Witch Elf, that are gender specific classes. The Greenskin race also does not have a specific gender, so the gender choices for some of the races/classes are not an option. For the most part though, you are also given the option to choose the gender of your avatar in the Warhammer world.

Races:
There are six different racial choices in Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. Dwarf, Greenskin, High Elf, Dark elf, Order and Chaos are the racial choices available to us, the players. We will see many races of the Warhammer world that are not available to play such as the rat men, Skaven. Dwarfs, High Elves, and Order make up the goodly side of the battle between these six races, and Greenskin, Dark Elves and Chaos make up the evil side. Dwarfs are the short and stoic inhabitants of the world. High Elves are the reclusive arrogant, intellectuals. Order are the human men and woman of warhammer, they are the true sigmar fanatics. Greenskins are wild and crazy, abandoning tact for pure brute force. Dark Elves are truly the most evil and vicious race of the world, truly selfish and self serving. Chaos are the devotees of Tzeeench, most are warped, both physically and mentally by his cruel magic.

Classes:
Warhammer: Age of Reckoning uses and archetypal system for its class system. Each race has four classes, each class fits one archetypal role. The different class types are healer, “tank” or the heavy mitigation class, melee dps, and ranged dps classes.

Greenskin Classes:
Tank - Black Orc
Healer - Goblin Shaman
Melee Dps - Orc Choppa
Ranged Dps - Goblin Squig Herder

Dwarf Classes:
Tank - Iron Breaker
Healer - Rune Priest
Melee Dps - Hammerer
Ranged Dps - Engineer

High Elf Classes:
Tank - Sword Master
Healer - Archmage
Melee Dps - White Lion
Ranged Dps - Shadow Warrior

Dark Elf Classes:
Tank - Black Gaurd
Healer - Disciple of Khaine
Melee Dps - Witch Elf
Ranged Dps - Sorcerer/Sorceress

Order Classes:
Tank - Knight of the Blazing Sun
Healer - Warrior Priest
Melee Dps - Witch Hunter
Ranged Dps - Bright Wizard

Chaos Classes:
Tank - Chosen
Healer - Zealot
Melee Dps - Marauder
Ranged Dps - Magus

User Interface(UI):
Warhammer: Age of Reckoning has(as described by EA Mythic) a minimalist user interface. Things like the amount of quick bars, exp, renown exp, Tome of Knowledge are all easily interpreted through the basic UI. The reasoning behind the basic UI is customization. WAR will use the LUA coding system for its user interface, allowing for easy and dynamic customization. EA Mythic will provide you with the basics to make the game fun, and leave the rest open to interpretation. While the UI will be customizable, there will not be add-ons macro programs or anything of that nature.

Chatting:
The Chat system is very easy to interpret in WAR. For example when you join a party, you are prompted with the particular command used to speak in your “party chat”, the same goes for things like the local or region chat, guild chat, and public quest chats.

Hot bars -
In Age of Reckoning, like most MMORPG's you have “hotbars”. You can choose between one, two stacked on top of each other, of four, two stacked on top of each other, one on the left had side of the screen, and one on the right hand side. Each of these hot bars has a modifier key, such as Alt, or Ctrl, that allow you to do most of your important functions with key clicks, and not mouse clicks.

In-game Community UI -
Looking for guilds, and groups is made easier in Warhammer: Age of Reckoning via the social window. You can use the social window to try and find like minded adventurers to visit PQ's, Dungeons, or just to go and RvR. WAR also has a calender system that allows you to plan things with your guild mates, a shared calender for your entire guild, can have plans written down onto it that allows for much more organization.

Health and Action Points -
Health is pretty straight forward, if you take to much damage, you die. Your health goes up with your “wounds” stat, and toughness allows you to mitigate more damage, making your health points stretch a little further. Action Points are far more complicated, they are the replacement for the usual endurance and mana(or power). You have a pool of 250 action points, they regenerate quickly, but it still requires a smart person to use abilities the right way to not run out of AP. Most actions(core abilities, master abilities) use action points, while tactics, and morales do not.

Experience -
In WAR, there are many ways to gain experience. From simple exploration of new lands, to competitive RvR, and much more. PQ's are a great place to earn experience, since you usually have to complete three stages(most of the time at least two stages include killing npc mobs) with a bonus amount of experience when the PQ is complete. There is also rest experience, this is experience gained from being logged out of the game for any period of time, it gives you a bonus percentage of experience. The last kind of experience is Renown experience, this is gained by killing your realm enemies, or healing your allies if you are able.

Maps -
Maps are fairly straight forward in WAR, the default hotkey is “m”, which will pull up a map of the area you are currently in. If you are in The Inevitable City, hitting the “m” key will show you a map for the city. You can choose to view the entire region map, to see your location relevant to other areas of the world. Opening the map will also show you were you quest goals are, where your mini-map cannot see.
POST BY DYNN