WARHAMMER ONLINE GUIDES

The Sorceress Guide part 5

2008-10-29T15:53:00.000-07:00

X) Still to come: Mastery Ideas

25 Points

15(4)/5(1)/0 – High Agony Triple Nuke Build

XI) Suggestions & Bugs

Suggestion to Mythic: Healing Debuff

We need one. I really need to stress that this is very, very important! I'm not sure exactly whom has Healing Debuffs and whom doesn't, but it sure feels like the Order gets one on every Ranged DPS and some Support cousins, while Destruction get a meager few on their Melee DPS and maybe somewhere else I'm unaware of. The Sorceress could really use one, in fact it really should be standardized across the factions as to whom gets it as CORE abilities, not something you spec for. I think it should be limited and at least be accessed by the Glass Cannons of both sides - the Bright Wizard and the Sorceress. Either make it Core with a nice cooldown or on two or so Morale abilities on different levels to allow some choice on when to have it.

This solves two things. They really make us the tank destroyers we are meant to be. Healers usually focus their heals on the tanks keeping them up, which is basically their survival mechanic in group RvR and what makes them nearly unstoppable. If we can coordinate some focus fire and cut their healing in half then we can effectively counter them with our Magic DPS. It makes the chain of Magic DPS > Tank more of a reality. It also makes the stalemates of the near indestructible healers less frequent. Healers should eventually die even if they are focusing all their heals on themselves, this is certainly not the case now in practice. It's a careful timing issue with a Healing Debuff to kill off the healer. Not only do you have to worry about their morale heal being unaffected, but you have to be able to burst them down before it wears off. A 50% strength heal is still pretty powerful when most healers are pretty Magic Resistant. It gives us a chance to beat them, not enough of a chance be the favored in a duel, but it gives us a chance to take them off guard or get lucky with burst damage.

Suggestion to Mythic: Willpower Resistance Reduction and Staff DPS

Something to be concerned about is gear scaling in accordance to casters. As you get better and better gear later on, you are going to get more Int, Weapon Skill, Strength, Toughness, Armor, Resistances, etc. Int, Str, and Ball all balance out with Toughness pretty much equally. Armor is combated by more Weapon Skill. Essentially that help cut back the extra armor everyone will be experiencing. The problem is resistances and weapon dps bonuses are pretty much stand alone. Nothing counters them and as people get more and more gear it'll simply reduce magic damage with nothing to compensate it. The weapon dps will increase weapon-users damage as gear expands, but that can be expected to match Wounds. Thus we need something comparable.

Put simply, the higher in progression you get as long as you fight equal geared enemies you will be doing less magic damage because people will have more base resistances on their resistance pieces simply because they are stronger pieces of armor. This will result in people having more and more resistance % against your type of magic damages. Getting more and more Intelligence is simply countered by someone getting Toughness to compensate not to mention there will be a soft cap in which getting all the more Int would be less effective. There needs to be a mechanic that counteracts this.

The easiest way, is to put a Resist Piercing mechanic on Willpower to somewhat relate it to Weapon Skill. This will make healing classes more effective at piercing resistances as well, which isn't really that much of a problem considering it will reduce the insane length of battles between a Healer v. Healer fight. A small re-balance of the resistance system would have to be done, but this is vital to keeping the game scaling at a proper pace. If this doesn't occur, the longer the game continues the less damage any caster will do.

In the same way, Staff DPS needs to be worked into spell damage as a equal damage mechanic to mirror a weapon-users upgrades. A rework of all the spell damages would have to be done, but this is important to ensure that our damage scales just as a weapon-users damage scales throughout the game. If you would add say 200 points to every stat in two opponents then you would find that the Magic DPS does less damage due to not having anything to work against resistances and the Weapon DPS careers would simply do more damage because their weapon dps would be increasing and allowing them to do more damage. Considering more wounds equally the Magic DPS will take a much lower percentage of health from their opponent and the Weapon DPS should be balanced into doing around the same percentage damage.

It's imperative that something such as Willpower gives us resistance penetration and staff dps added to the spell damage. I awknowledge that it would be a fair amount of work having to increase the base resistance given by resistance points and reducing the base damage of spells to compensate for the added staff dps on average. Overall it would be for a much improved system in terms of a balancing act.

XII) The Last Stuff

There isn't much here yet. I imagine I will give credit to those that help me if I update it.

I'm currently still proofreading it so if you see any mistakes... I might have missed it or I'm in the process of working on it. There is a particularly nasty bug that doesn't allow you to edit pages with the spells with pictures on them nor touch the regular hyperlinks in an easy format. I'm trying to catch most of them!

Can't wait to see you all at launch!

Credits

...Part 4

The Sorceress Guide part 4

2008-10-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

VII) Masteries

Agony

These skills focus on doing the most damage while you still have Action Points in your system. Directly effecting a single target with massive damage to dispose of them quickly and effectively. Builds Dark Magic extremely quickly with Impending Doom and Gloomburst and is often quite damaging to oneself especially with Swell of Gloom slotted. These Sorceresses will be feared for the burst damage they can output while empowered with Dark Magic.

Recover Energy

Amazing tactic if you are an Agony Sorceress as you will be using a lot of Agony abilities. Used in tandem with the previously mentioned Devour Energy and Grasping Darkness you should boost your sustained damage considerably. It remains to be seen if you can exceed the sustained damage of a Calamity Sorceress but I can't imagine it being too far off.

Echo of Power

In it's current incarnation it's quite weak. It does far less then Impending Doom and has a requirement to be cast as well. Did I mention it costs the nearly same AP? I imagine if a target would disrupt often then it could be of use since it has no cooldown... but that doesn't happen enough because you are stacking a lot of INT right? I've never taken this ability other then to see if I could find a use for it.
Suggestion to Mythic: Make it proc on a chance to block as well, increase it's strength to make up for it's rarity, and/or give it a debuff to the enemies disrupt/block chance upon activation. Right the damage isn't much to be felt in comparison to Impending Doom and this carries a requirement. It has no cooldown but the requirement makes it so rare it's hardly ever used. Making it a better mechanic in taking down tanks wouldn't be such a bad idea, as we could use a better method of dealing with block in some form.

Tapping the Dark

Pretty neat ability. You become a pseudo support. I was never sure if it worked though even while trying to use it (I never noticed a new buff on my allies). Remember in it's current form it boosts only your allies an not yourself. With Umbral Fury I imagine your group keeping a shield up quite often to the point I hope it has a hidden “can only occur once every 3 seconds” tag in there somewhere. I don't often take it however since I want other things and it takes up a tactic slot. Besides... I kinda want some benefit to myself for a mastery ability.

EDIT: THIS DOES WORK ON ONESELF! Note to self, update this guide.

Suggestion to Mythic: Let it proc on ourselves. It'd be most powerful on any dual-wield dps anyway and not us. As long as the skill is capped to be only occurs once at most every 3 seconds then it should be fairly balanced to be on ourselves as well. Give us some form damage mitigation in our direct combat tree since that's likely where I should be.

Impending Doom

Very strong burst damage. Builds a ton of Dark magic and it's cooldown isn't too significant. Perfect when coupled with a healer or if you plan to use Empowered Dhar a lot. It will allow maybe favorite quick chain of spells which is Doombolt → Gloomburst → Impending Doom. (The Triple Nuke! Rawr!) It'll bring you up high in the Dark Magic levels though (it builds 75 Dark Magic!) although it's relatively safe at low levels of Dark Magic for what it outputs since the highest generation is backloaded. Especially useful while on the run although it's difficult to discharge the Dark Magic while doing so. No Agony Sorceress should ever be without it.

Swell of Gloom

A very powerful tactic as long as you are willing to suffer the consequences. Doombolt → Gloomburst → Impending Doom is a wicked combo with this tactic and you can bring people to their knees with a crit streak. It does come at that price though as you absolutely must have someone healing you. I'd take this tactic just so when the chance arises you can slot it. It makes Gloomburst just that much more to be feared. Swell of Gloom hits separate to Gloomburst so it triggers a separate hit and can crit just like any spell but will not be cast if the initial Gloomburst has killed the target.

BUG: Currently this only backlashes for around half of what you usually get hit with. Perhaps this is intended I'm not sure. I'm fairly certain I submit this bug however I'm a little tipsy right now so I can't be certain.

Shades of Death

It's not too impressive at first glance. Maybe it's not too impressive at all being a Master Ability Level 13. But I find it quite useful for a few things. The damage is triggered when anyone strikes the target and each trigger can crit. In other words, that's a good chunk of instant cast damage when a target is being focused upon as the five charges will be used up instantly. Often it will kill targets that are nearly dead and being attacked by anyone else. Also, it builds no Dark Magic. That means it can't backlash as well but still gains the bonus from Dark Magic. When you are fully charged on Dark Magic you can throw this out relentlessly (before you begin to drop levels of Dark Magic anyway) and not worry about causing harm to yourself while it is still extremely effective with it's frequent crits. The other use is prepping the target before you Triple Nuke it by getting 4 charges to trigger from it (Doombolt, Gloomburst, Swell of Gloom, and Impending Doom for those who question my math!) I've heard tale of this ability being too weak on damage and maybe it's true for a 13 point mastery ability but I find use enough for it anyway.

Calamity

Damage over time is a wondrous tool for those whom enjoy it. Coupled with the only way to recover health through an ability it enhances your DoTs to be the most that they can be. Technically, this is supposed to increase your sustained damage by a considerable amount. I'm not completely sure about it, although I could imagine Word of Pain, Chillwind, Vision of Torment, Gloom of Night, Shadow Spike, Absorb Vitality, and Hand of Ruin doing all the damage for you in some sense. Not all the DoTs are terribly efficient however. Having said that, they still do considerable damage allowing you to mostly be on the move and pepper a wider array of targets at the same time as compared to Agony. At low Dark Magic this is the safest line to progress in, but at high Dark Magic rapidly casting instant casts is very dangerous as you can trigger a lot of backlashes in quick succession. If you can cast at low Dark Magic and build up to high Dark Magic safely while your dots are still active... well... that's awesome because you played Calamity perfectly.

Vision of Domination

Currently this gives you 50 Action Points in return for the 40 you spent on it and the meager damage and minor AP drain. I suppose if you find a certain instance you use it relentlessly it could be of use. Currently however I honestly cannot find a time I'd not find another tactic of more value. Not to mention you will have access to the tactic FAR before you can get Vision of Torment.

Suggestion to Mythic: Scrap this and instead make a tactic that increases the duration of Chillwind, Absorb Vitality, Ice Spikes and/or Gloom of Night. It would really boost the sustained dps of the sustained dps tree to have a method of increasing the duration of the dots by a larger amount increasing the efficiency and therefore sustained dps.

Gloom of Night

Dirt cheap to cast, does a little more damage per second then Chillwind, and did I forget to mention it's an AoE effect around the target? Does have a 2s cast time however, so it has that minor flaw coupled with a 10s cooldown and 80 ft range. Use it when you can. It's very useful in adding to your array of DoTs and a centered AoE DoT is nothing to sneer at especially one stronger then the primary DoT you carry. Stack as many DoTs on your primary target that you can and make sure to use this before you throw out Pit of Shades.

Shadow of Disaster

This ability is largely valued by it's power in comparison to Daemonic Chill. It helps degrade the ranged defenses and is especially useful at damaging any AoE sources of damage. However, since Daemonic Chill does not have much of an effect this skill doesn't much either. I've heard of some sources claiming it does respectable damage against enemy AoE attacks but in my experience against a Bright Wizard whom carries the mirror tactic I didn't think the damage taken was much of a bother at all.

BUG: This ability has not yet reflected the text change and still says Demonic Chill.

Absorb Vitality

Oh sweet, sweet healing. It's not terribly much but it's enough to offset a backlash or two over the course of it's duration. Besides it is extra damage at the same price as Chillwind and it does nearly the same amount of damage as well per tick. This ability alone probably makes this tree one of the safest trees to utilize Dark Magic with, especially if you can use Dark Magic as described in the Calamity section above.

Chilling Gusts

Increases the Chillwind tick by about 50%.. 33% of the time. What is that, 16-17% increase in damage? On a skill that does maybe 60 DPS (Int vs. Tough not included) this doesn't really seem to amount to much as you are really only boosting yourself by 10 DPS. My advice? Don't take it in it's current incarnation. You are welcome to try and convince me the other way and I really wish that I could see the value in it. But currently I just don't think it's worth it.

Suggestion to Mythic: Give this some added effect for when it procs such as Toughness debuff and/or AP recovery and/or have it affect some other DoTs. Make this the crown jewel of sustained DPS in the tree since currently the tactics don't seem to provide that terribly much in that department.

Hand of Ruin

Raw damage that ticks 4 times. Great for adding in a pseudo direct damage for Calamity that is extremely safe to use when at maximum Dark Magic since it only chances a backlash once in the beginning of the channel. It's damage is high and it's cost isn't so bad either. It's also a fantastic source of Spirit damage for when the are Corporeal protected. Only in comparison to Withering Heat which does equal damage and snares in return for only costing 3 AP per second more. Not to mention it's much easier to get access to. I wouldn't really compare these two but they are nearly identical except for the snare, position in tree, and slight cost increase.

Suggestion to Mythic: Maybe consider increasing the damage by 10-25% when the target is Hexed and/or Cursed. I don't want it to be a direct mirror of the Bright Wizards and I think it should be the source of efficient and high damage for a Calamity Sorceress. Besides we already have a snare – I just want this ability to compare to a nearly direct mirror of an ability that our mirror class possesses. I know it's frowned upon to compare but Hand of Ruin could use something to differentiate itself damage wise for being such a difficult ability to get.

Destruction

This makes your area of effect abilities not only feared as they were before but respected as you can crit your Pit of Shades for damages that no one wishes to be within. This will make you an AoE powerhouse if you simply put the points into the tree for strength and ignore the skills. Remember increasing the baseline damage of a skill by 50% when you max it out is nothing to sneer at. The abilities are interesting to say the least but out of all three trees are generally not the most exciting. I often find my ability as an AoE caster just fine without Destruction but with it I become a tool for deflecting groups of enemies and killing any of those whom let themselves dwindle too low.

Piercing Shadows

Okay so this is a situation you don't want to be in pretty much ever where you Backlashes are close enough to injure the enemy. It also presumes you are killing yourself quickly. If you do intend on using it however it does do excellent damage. Over 300-400 damage AoE attacks are nothing to sneer at. Of course, you absolutely require healing support unless you want to die quickly. Surging Pain is useful in causing quick backlashes and doing a fair amount of damage itself although I still recommend using the cone skills. I've never had the chance to really test it with a pocket healer so I'm not sure how actually effective it is.

Black Horror

Replaces Shattered Shadows. It only costs 5 more AP for a nifty Initiative debuff and it builds less Dark Magic while dealing Corporeal instead of Spirit. The Dark Magic is up in the air, but usually it's a safe bet if you want to keep it low that this will keep it lower. If you want it high... well it will keep it high anyway. Make sure you prep any area with this if you plan on using Pit of Shades since the Initiative debuff is well worth the 3s cast time. It's a pretty large portion of crit chance you just gave yourself and all your allies assisting you. (Of course that is assuming you aren't alone fighting a group of enemies...) Just kinda wish it had more umph in some sense since it does the same damage as Shattered Shadows and doesn't even have a cooldown.

Suggestion to Mythic: Rework this ability so that it does a larger chunk of damage, has a lower cast time, and/or bigger debuff effect coupled with a cooldown associated with it. That way it doesn't completely replace a core ability and becomes more of a defining move in the repertoire of a Destruction Sorceress.

Lengthening Shadows

It increases Surging Pain to a radius 39 and Infernal Wave to a distance of 86.7. It's most useful for Infernal Wave but it does not increase the length of Shadow Spike. Infernal Wave will now reach targets at the 80 range which is helpful when you are trying to distance AoE. However, as a tactic it's not terribly useful as you probably can find something else to slot that will be much more useful. I never found it useful in helping Surging Pain in practice of course I didn't exactly like getting in that close.

Suggestion to Mythic: Standardize the increases so that Surging Pain is 40 radius, Infernal Wave is 85 distance, and Ice Spikes is 85 distance. I'd also consider increasing the other AoE's to say 25 radius, but I'd be hesitant to add too much. Ice Spikes absolutely must be added to this even if it is a Calamity ability. Infernal Wave and Ice Spikes are twin spells that simply must be used in tandem so they must be affected in the same way in terms of mechanics. Surging Pain needs all the help it can get and is already within the ability – I'd consider having Piercing Shadows increase to 40 radius as well though too to make a fun tactic combination.

Disastrous Cascade

It ticks 4 times in rapid succession during the channel. I'm sorry you can't move while channeling this it irks me too. This does very good damage and is comparable in a sense to Annihilate although it's higher in the tree and thus just a little bit better. Make sure you remain motionless while you cast it – although that penalty alone makes it iffy at best for a choice to take it.

Suggestion to Mythic: Allow us to channel it while moving. I had a lot of difficulty deciding to sit down and use it properly. I'd likely choose never to take this ability as it's too much of a hassle at the cost of a point.

Neverending Agony

Makes Pit of Shades chain-castable and Infernal Wave had a modest 5s cooldown. Being such a high tier tactic I wish it had more, but I suppose the ability to chain cast Pit of Shades is often worth it as it is superior to any ranged AoE we have. If you use Pit of Shades a lot I'd consider taking it although you often have stuff to cast in between Pit of Shades anyway besides likely needing to reposition against all the new threats within the 10 second channel.

Suggestion to Mythic: Add a 40% snare to Pit of Shades and/or some other fun effect. The tactic needs more umph being so high up in the tree and this is perfect. Possibly drop the reduced cooldown for Infernal Wave (or even Pit of Shades itself) but a snare ability within a tactic would be absolutely fantastic. Make sure it doesn't stack with itself and this would be a tactic worth choosing for a Destruction Sorceress.

Shadow Knives

Very interesting ability but it has one problem. It's extremely similar in damage to Pit of Shades. For those with the unkeen eye, this is a targeted, channeled AoE.. It ticks 4 times within 6 seconds but ticks for the same damage that Pit of Shades does. For being that high of an ability, you likely don't NEED this but it can be useful to fill in time in between Pit of Shades or if you find a moment you want the Pit of Shades to follow the target. It's a little lackluster but if someone can spot what I'm missing please inform me.

Suggestion to Mythic: Add something unique to Shadow Knives such as 100 range, 30 ft radius, higher damage, and/or some debuff associated with it. It's like Hand of Ruin except AoE and does the same damage as Pit of Shades. Make it more unique and fun to use!

VIII) Stilll to come: PvE

Damage, damage, damage...

IX) Still to come: RvR

Positioning is Key!

Part3... ...Part5

The Sorceress Guide part 2

2008-10-29T15:50:00.001-07:00

IV) Abilities

Dhar Wind

Your Dark Magic dump. It's damage isn't particularly great, although it is nice when Gloomburst is on cooldown as another 1s cast ability. It's primary weakness is that you have to be standing still to cast it and it's fairly meager damage. The damage is undefendable so you can pierce crazy defended tanks with it. Be wary of the cast time – you can't expect to spam your Surging Pain for example and clean up your Dark Magic.

Suggestion to Mythic: Make it instant cast and/or deal more damage. Currently it's very difficult to use in some situations such as kiting or running away and it makes you feel pretty useless in that state. I honestly just think making it instant cast would be perfect but some have said it could use a damage buff too to encourage it. Although I think the damage buff would be better served in it's respective tactic Empowered Dhar.

Doombolt

The primary skill used for damage comes at a hefty cost. Not action points however, cause that is dirt cheap in terms of the amount of damage. A 3 second cast can be difficult to pull off on some targets especially in RvR. If you are getting hit in melee you better find a way to prevent setback or you will suffer trying to cast this spell. Also watch for when people pull out of LoS. May as well cancel it at that point and reposition or retarget. With all it's downsides however it hits extremely hard compared to most spells and it comes without a cooldown allowing it to be chain cast. With Agony powered up this is a spell to fear getting hit with and is probably the single most efficient spell to spam while at maximum Dark Magic if you wish to gamble your health due to it's long cast time. This spell can be used to create some powerful combos with other morale, masteries, and core abilities as well and is the standard nuke you will use throughout your career as a Sorceress.

Chillwind

So a nine second dot does have it's disadvantages in that it's duration is so low. It's less AP efficient then Doombolt and costs you half the time to setup – although you can move during the global cooldown. It does wonderful damage for a DoT though, especially powered with Calamity. It's also extremely safe to use at low Dark Magic and powerful once you built it up. I use it primarily as I move around positioning myself – although I'm careful when I need to mind my Dark Magic. Spam casting it can destroy you if you do this at high Dark Magic levels. It's very useful with Grasping Darkness to AP drain and debuff the enemy as well. No matter what the spec a DoT has it's uses. From using it as a primary source of damage with Calamity to simply throwing it beforehand while getting into position as Agony it is your staple DoT that lasts forever (well 9 seconds of it anyway).

Gloomburst

A spell laced with Dark Magic. It oozes Dark Magic into you and is a very quick cast with a high damage per second. It also leaves you .4 seconds of freedom to move (with global cooldown) but you are more likely to simply chain a spell right after it. Taking it as a 1.5 second cast spell its a little above Doombolt in damage, hits the target instantly, and skyrockets your Dark Magic. Without healing, Dhar Wind might be the next cast if your Dark Magic is brought to Tier 4 or 5. Combined with Doombolt this makes an extremely low level efficient combo. Doombolt → Gloomburst hits at nearly the same time for a decent chunk of health. Use it pretty much anytime the cooldown is up unless your worried about Dark Magic.

Shroud of Darkness

Defensive spell plain and simple. Use it anytime you are being attacked by magical damage or anticipate it. Bright Wizards, Archmages, and Runepriests do it primarily. Most non-siege AoE is magical as well. A lot of melee classes are sprinkled with Spirit damage types (Swordmaster, Warrior Priest, Witch Hunter and White Lion) and the Engineer carries a lot of Corporeal. The Shadow Warrior comes with Festering Arrow and Flame Arrow but they can take a tactic to negate resistance - but throwing up a defense doesn't hurt I guess if you know if he doesn't have it as undefendable. You can save it for the Bright Wizards or simply chuck it out whenever one of the above engages you. It's a powerful effect and is not to be taken lightly. It single handedly allows you to beat Bright Wizards one on one and allows you to stick your nose out in a zerg without dying a horrible death.

Dread Aspect

Smart use of this ability can keep you alive especially coupled with healing. Doesn't prevent setback however so you can either make the choice to escape or cast at a reduced pace of damage. Use it on Shadow Warriors or Bright Wizards trying to pick you off. Be wary though – if you have Stricken Limbs or Grip of Fear do not use Dread Aspect immediately against a Witch Hunter whom has revealed themselves or a White Lion whom has pulled you to him. The exception is if you have to use Grip of Fear and the attacker is under heavy damage himself, in which use Dread Aspect so Grip of Fear doesn't break. You have to entirely prevent the damage first and foremost – if you do not have access to that then Dread Aspect should be your last choice. Should be more then capable of keeping you alive with support however. One trick you can attempt to use in a close fight is to Dread Aspect them and charge a Doombolt face to face with a melee. During the cast time you take 50% less damage and any bit can help in a duel. Remember you don't have to be facing the target to use it.

Surging Pain

A PBAoE nuke. Tread carefully however as this can earn you a quick death by spam casting it. Maxing out your Dark Magic in 5 or less casts coupled with using it every 1.5 seconds earns you A LOT of backlash damage. It's damage isn't exactly incredible either. Use it sparingly when surrounded by enemies (you probably should be getting the heck out of there too!) unless you have some very capable healing support. I have used it in particular moments I know I'm going to die – but don't always give up hope and kill yourself off since a heal can be just around the corner. Combined with Piercing Shadows it can do some impressive damage but the cones do much higher damage so be sure to use them first. Pit of Shades and Shattered Shadows are so much safer to use though so don't TRY to use Surging Pain.

BUG: Currently generates Dark Magic and deals backlashes without hitting the target or dealing any damage. This includes spells that are disrupted or blocked. I believe it is a bug that this occurs.

Frozen Touch

One of the best buffs in the game. Gives your entire group extra damage including you. It's fairly simple to use just keep it always up and try to catch your group entirely with it. Can be dispelled but is fairly easy to recast and since the Action Points regen in 2 seconds you should always have it up before battle. In case it's not clear, this will trigger upon any successful cast of an ability including any DoT. It will not however trigger upon each tick of a DoT.

NOTE: Currently make sure in RvR that you gain the Bolster buff before casting it as it's level doesn't increase until that is cast.

Word of Pain

A lot of people love this ability to death. I have a different take on it. I do see it's uses for preparing a target for burst damage or destroying targets on the run, but after that I don't use it. The Willpower debuff is to say the least pathetic and the fact that it takes it's damage at minimum 13s to come through with a x3 stacking is a long time in RvR. Maybe I'm too spoiled at the higher levels where combat feels much faster and CC can change the day at any given time. Honestly, whenever I try to use it the target usually gets away or is killed prematurely. Even then it's damage is honestly NOT that impressive without Calamity specialization. I do more damage with a Doombolt → Gloomburst combo then I do with x3 Word of Pain. That's not to say it's not useful! If for some reason it all does follows the plan I can set up some very impressive simultaneous damage with x3 Word of Pain. It's main use to me however is when I'm chasing someone with instant cast spells since it can be used while moving. I'm not impressed with this spell in its' current form but it can be used well especially if you build your Dark Magic up quickly afterwards.

Suggestion to Mythic: Change the Willpower debuff to a bonus to crit the target affected and/or rework it so that it does x1.5 the damage and effect it does now except it cannot stack. Willpower is a terrible stat to debuff unless it was much, much stronger and although the x3 cast stacking is intersting once you realize the actual mechanics of it then it's no longer any fun to use except in very certain situations. Besides we shouldn't be able to time that much damage at once or people are going to freak out when they are “1-shot”.

Shattered Shadows

Once you get Pit of Shades this spell loses a fair bit of use but it does get used in between the castings of Pit of Shades. It's long cast time prevents it from being a rapid use spell and makes it difficult to position correctly in RvR sometimes as you have to guess where the target will be in 3 seconds. It does less damage then Pit of Shades per second as well. It's useful in between castings but it's not your gospel AoE. Also, be careful with the 80 range as you do have to stick your neck out in front of a group if there is a standoff to use it.

Obsessive Focus

Consider a 1.5s global cooldown (I know it's 1.4s, just simpler). You lose 1.5s worth of time (you can move while using it thought) to cast this spell to gain +10% damage. You should make up for that in 15 seconds worth of DPS. I know you can't quite make it that simple and there are other things to take into consideration but, the point remains that this ability should only be used if you can focus for nearly the full duration or you are setting up for some powerful burst damage. It's not worth using regularly however at least in my practice. If you can prove me wrong please do so, I can't figure out the right way to use it.

Suggestion to Mythic: Increase the strength to +20% damage and -25% damage on unfocused targets and/or make it not affected by the global cooldown. It's not very effective, noticeable, or even penalizing in it's current incarnation. Besides it'll give Vengeance Of Nagarythe a mirror of sorts.

Grip of Fear

Absolutely essential escape ability. Some may cry it breaks too much or is not long enough. I don't find that being too much of a problem since if the target is under attack they usually are being killed and 5s is more then enough time to get 3s of distance and turn around to use another spell. One thing to notice is this is a Hex which means things that require hexes (see skill below) can be used on this. While escaping to your party make sure you use this skill and don't look back. As far as I know this doesn't break during your dots and rather when they are cast but I could be wrong. If someone could verify it that would be awesome.

Arctic Blast
The 2s cast on this spell hurts is more then anything – the curse component isn't so bad. Makes it very difficult to use in PvE though. Use this snare to assist someone's escape (like your healer buddy!) or when the target is dilly dallying on his way to you. Chillwind is the easiest curse to throw on them beforehand but make sure you look across all your spells like Ice Spikes, Vision of Torment, and Absorb Vitality since they are curses too. The best way to use this in a solo situation is to have them cursed and then after you Grip of Fear them take 2.5s worth of steps away and turn around to whip this at them so it breaks and they are snared to boot. I actually don't use this much in practice other then solo situations and in aiding an ally.

Suggestion to Mythic: Decrease the cast time to 1s or 1.5s. It's very difficult to use and I acknowledge that it shouldn't be too easy but a small reduction in cast time would be great for the ability since it has a decent cooldown to it as well.

Ice Spikes

The first cone ability is unique in that it's not of the Destruction line but rather the Calamity line since it's a DoT. It ticks for a little over 3/5 of what Chillwind does and costs the same. If the target is in range you may as well cast it although you probably can find something better unless your Calamity. If there are two or three in range you should cast it. If there are any more... you probably should not be where you are without support or at least hope to be lucky – but cast it anyway since it's fun to see all the pretty numbers. Pretty effective in combination with Infernal Wave when you get a little close to a group of people.

Infernal Wave

Ah the direct damage cone ability. This makes it so you have two of them which is very handy when you are in range. Make sure you use this far before you consider using Surging Pain but you should probably use it after Ice Spikes. It's somewhat okay at quick instant cast damage but in comparison Impending Doom carries almost twice it's damage and even Gloomburst does plenty more. Make sure you use the cone AoEs when you can and don't forget about them for your AoE. Before Pit of Shades they are extraordinary useful and retain most of their power even after the fact being instant cast on the move.

Daemonic Chill

A blessing/augmentation to accompany Frozen Touch. These two give you a signature of sorts in a group since anyone will know when you have given them these buffs. The damage isn't all so great (even with Calamity) but it's something at least and is pretty much free to cast. It's most effective on tanks since you will be beaten down relatively quickly if this starts to cause a lot of damage to someone while a tank should survive with their toughness and wounds. At the very least it's dispel fodder.

Suggestion to Mythic: Increase it's damage a little so it's more noticeable. Taking low damage 25% of the time isn't a great combination. If it's 25% of the time then make it felt when it hits because currently it does very little damage in my experience and when it does you are usually dead fast enough before it does much. Something along the lines of a x1.5 to x2 damage increase would be far more fun and make us wanted.

Frostbite

The almighty 1s instant -travel disarm. It's what separates us from the Bright Wizards in my opinion. Use it intelligently but use it often. Witch Hunter just pop up on you with Sudden Accusation? This is the answer. Then nuke his face while hopefully you have support to take care of him. Shadow Warrior trying to pick you off? Warrior Priest feeding off the damage into healing? Tank disrupting your healer? It has many, many uses and my favorite of all of them is defending the healers or other Ranged DPS in the zerg by making them regret ever attacking. Watch out for it's cooldown however it's 30s of weakness once you don't have it.

Pit of Shades

This makes us the queen of AoE for Destruction. It's a GTAoE of doom. Positioning it correctly is key but it's fairly simple – catch as many as you can with it. Preferably somewhere you are sure they will stick around; the middle of a melee conflict, keep doors & hallways, or in the path of resistance. To use it most effectively build up to maximum Dark Magic and then cast it. You only suffer the chance of a backlash once right at the beginning of the cast and gain the benefits of super powerful crits throughout the channeling. Afterwards, your Dark Magic will likely be dropping back to safe levels. In a sense it's the safest way to use maximum Dark Magic there is although you are still likely to take a bit of damage. This is one of our defining abilities and should be used often when there are groups to AoE and the reason we should always place high in scenario for damage.

Reckless Gathering

Oh such a wonderful ap recovery ability. 3 seconds and you regain 210 AP which is nearly full (out of 250). While repositioning in RvR combat you probably won't be out too often, but in a focused attack such as killing off a tank you might run a fair bit low. Often it's all you need in RvR to keep your action point flow enough to where you never will run out. Remember it's considered “burst dps” while you have action points, and “sustained dps” while you are out just scraping for action points. This ability helps you keep in the “burst dps” phase for as long as needed in RvR only costing you 3 seconds of recharge time. If you would ever need more we have Devour Energy and Recover Energy to pick from as well – making action points one less thing you have to think about.

Vision of Torment

Just as a delayed nuke it's a little weak. The damage is far less then half of what Chillwind provides at the same cost, although it's effect comes in 5 seconds rather then 9. Also quite a bit weaker the Impending Doom in a straight comparison. What it's used for is Action Point denial. With Grasping Darkness you can effectively bring someone into “ap lockdown”. It works best on people with cast times, such as Support Casters and Magic DPS. You don't use the Action Points until you've cast a spell – if someone is low on action points and combined with casting a spell they have no ap regeneration. Combined you can lock out someone from casting spells. It's only really effective against someone standing through your nukes... such as a healer however. Also, 30 AP loss over 5 seconds is very meager and will only effect them if they are spam casting at zero action points – likely need to be affected by Grasping Darkness during this cast. I only use it on any support or if I'm deep in Calamity.

Suggestion to Mythic: Make this a 10s duration with damage equaling x1.5 what Word of Pain currently is and/or increase the AP drain per second. Currently the AP drain is barely worth it as you won't even notice the effect. I honestly do it simply because I think it has to be having some effect on support classes. Matching it with a 10s duration with a revised Word of Pain would be excellent having delayed nukes as a class feature.

Stricken Voices

Such a wondrous ability. AoE silence for 5 seconds. Dirt cheap at 25 action points. Only problem is the cooldown and 2s cast time. You will probably use it on that pesky healer healing themselves or others. You will probably use it on the Bright Wizard attacking you. Of course, if you can catch multiple healers under the effect then do so as soon as you think you have a chance at killing someone while they are silenced. I can only imagine what this could do in coordinated battles although the range of 80 makes you exposed and warns them of the possibility. Using this on a single target is viable as well as a ranged silence. Such a tragedy one has to wait until rank 40 for it...

Part1... ...Part3

The Sorceress Guide part 3

2008-10-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

V) Still to come: Morale Abilities

VI) Tactics

Dark Blessings

Useful when you have a healer although it's not the most effective tactic you can usually slot. 10% healing received is such a small bonus to take up a tactic slot you will most likely abandon this in a few ranks as soon as you get Devour Energy. Unless you are getting spam healed every few seconds it's probably not worth slotting.

Suggestion to Mythic: Increase this to 15% as 10% is simply to meager of an effect and it'll be thrown out compared to any other tactic. I do know that it's a racial tactic for the Dark Elves and would like to see a racial tactic have more use. I know that racially the Dwarves are more resistant to stuns with a tactic – why can't Dark Elves simply be noticed for the extra heals they can scrape up?

Devour Energy

Extremely useful in any PvE group environment. Often useful in RvR as well if you find yourself running out of action points at any time. Combine it with Recover Energy and Reckless Gathering to become a human (er dark elven) action point recovery machine. A key ability to sustained damage.

Grasping Darkness

Makes you a debuff machine. Drops an opponents damage by a considerable amount of whomever you hit with Doombolt or Chillwind not to mention makes it drain ever so slightly the AP of someone every time one of those spells land. Useful if you spam Chillwind around and useful if you Doombolt nuke a target – probably an RvR only tactic unless you really need to reduce the mobs damage.

Alignment of Naggaroth

Spirit Damage is the most common damage type from the Order. It is not used by the classes that excel at ranged damage such as the Bright Wizard, Engineer, or Shadow Warrior however. The classes that deal Spirit primarily is the Runepriest and Archmage. Classes that deal it in addition to physical damage are the Swordmaster, Witch Hunter, White Lion, and Warrior Priest. Most of the melee classes usually don't deal very much spirit damage however. So as modest protection against the enemy healers and an minor tool of survival against the melee of the Order equip this. I however, don't often use it simply because I try not to get hit in the first place and the ones that do hit me are usually not doing spirit damage.

Endless Knowledge

A pretty good boost to damage and anti-disrupt mitigation. Always the perfect tactic to equip when you need filler. In fact, I would only leave it out of very specialized builds. If and when we determine what the soft cap is for Intelligence then I imagine this tactic will become less useful as you fill out with gear letting you free up a tactic slot.

Infernal Gift

This is why you will be wanted for groups. Notice it doesn't effect yourself but you will probably still be dishing out more damage then them anyway if your healer loves you enough. Stick two Sorceresses in one group and it's nearly always up not to mention you can gain the benefit as well. Key to doing massive coordinated damage spikes.

Bathing in Blood

Hardly even useful for PvE. It's useful somewhat while AoE'ing if you are in danger of dying and begin killing off targets - but if you are that in danger of death it's likely a single tick of Bathing in Blood wouldn't save you. There are a lot of reports of it getting bugged while killing multiple mobs at once as well.

Sleight of Hand

If you pull aggro then use this. If you never do then don't. It's that simple. I'm sure tanks would want you to use it however, so keep that in mind. Obviously has no effect in RvR unless you pull aggro against Keep Lords or Heroes guarding the objectives. Course even then I doubt it's needed. Personally I'd suggest a tank Guard you, you get in Close Quarters, and give them as much aggro as you can.

Empowered Dhar

If you dump Dark Magic often with Dhar Wind and are in sustained fights then use this. Generally this will only happen without a healer in RvR. I would see it as counter intuitive that a healer couldn't give you a hot or two in PvE (unless he can't keep the tank alive). It'll probably happen though. PvE by yourself fights go too quick so you don't have to worry about it. You don't even need to Reckless Gathering much at all if you use this in RvR.

Close Quarters

A miracle bonus for when you can fight close up. Think PvE where you don't worry so much about being close – unless it has some crazy AoE in which the Melee DPS get to suffer from. It is possible to use this in RvR but from experience it'll earn you a faster death. It excels at “dueling” a Melee DPS and any solo conflict with one will be considerably easier. Such a damage bonus is nothing to sneer at while doing PvE alone either as I've killed mobs much higher level with this on and it is absolute excellent to use while AoE'ing in these cases. Although it's quite dangerous again and did get me killed once in a long while.

Manic Obsession

If Obsessive Focus was more worth it then this tactic would be pretty neat allowing you to keep one up indefinitely. This however is not quite the case. A 10% boost in damage using 1.5 seconds of every 20 seconds is hardly worth it. Instead I'd just slot Endless Knowledge and notice the effect without having to constantly use it.

Triumphant Blasting

It's amazing. Not as amazing as you probably think, but it is amazing. Knocking people around is great. You probably know by now that you crit a lot at high Dark Magic and therefore you will knockback a lot. Great with cone AoEs and Surging Pain to try and get someone off of you as well as pushing back the enemy with Pit of Shades. If however you want to do pure damage and kill the enemy you will be a fair bit disappointed as this will knock the enemy out of your Pit of Shades or out of any AoE range you cast it in. That's not to say it's not good because it is very, very good. Just not as good as it's first made out to be!

Hastened Fear

If you find you need Grip of Fear and Dread Aspect quicker then utilize this. I never felt I needed either as often as the cooldowns permit since I simply got used to the idea of preventing the instances in which I needed them most often. Of course, there will always be times I used them but when I needed them I very rarely noticed their cooldown ticking. So take it if you need it although I imagine this would be quite useful in a more dual type setting.

Glorious Carnage

Another on crit ability for the crit class. I never actually tested this as I was too hooked on other builds and to be honest I forgot about it. I'm not sure how much 200 points of Morale is but I can gather that is a fairly large bonus. Combined with a high Dark Magic setup you will likely do quite well with this active allowing you to reach Morale 3 and 4 much easier. If someone has a more exacting rate at which 200 points travels through the Morale meter (I know that it's slower at the end so it's not quite %) then please let me know.

Umbral Fury

Triples the damage from Frozen Touch for your entire group. Pretty interesting really and especially useful on a career that hits in rapid succession (Marauder, Disciple of Khaine, Witch Elf). Remember Frozen Touch only applies to being hit with an attack and does not occur within ticks of a skill so keep that in mind. Very powerful tactic in groups and I can only imagine what it can do in tandem with Tapping the Dark. The DPS increase is not considerable (If you average a single hit every 1.5s at max Agony it's only a 50 DPS increase by yourself) alone but in a group it must be weighed in.

Part2... ...Part4

The Sorceress Guide part 1

2008-10-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

Post by Ayestes

Ayestes' Guide to the Sorceress

I) Introduction to the Author
II) Formatting and Version
III) Mechanics and Basics
IV) Abilities
V) Morale Abilities
VI) Masteries
VII) Tactics
-Agony
-Calamity
-Destruction
VII) PvE
IX) RvR
X) Mastery Ideas
XI) Suggestions & Bugs
XII) The Last Stuff

Helpful Links
Curse Database
Database

I) Introduction to the Author

Age 22, Male, currently enrolled in college for Computer Science (BS).

Played MUDS (Tempered Steel & Forsaken Lands) for a long duration, Diablo 2, World of Warcraft, EVE, Tabula Rasa, and now WAR. I've been in closed beta for quite awhile now (since mid-summer 08 or before maybe?) and began wanting to play the Shaman to heal. As time progressed I loved the Shaman but ended up loving the Sorceress even more. I had a lot of fun with the career even while it was considered weak and unplayable. I've put in countless suggestions and bugs concerning this career and have enjoying being a factor in it's current incarnation. I will most certainly be playing a Sorceress come release.

II) Formatting and Version

Guide Version (0.5.2) Beta 10/25/08 (Quick Fixes)
Updated to Game Version 3.3 Beta

So there are things you can ignore. Suggestions to Mythic, BUGS, TODO, and maybe a few other things are probably not a big part of this guide. I wanted to throw out a few suggestions to what you guys think and some noteworthy bugs. They aren't all the bugs or all the suggestions I have rather the important ones. Some parts of this guide may not be finished and I apologize as I haven't had the time to do it yet or are simply waiting for some changes I cannot disclose.

Beware I'll likely go through this often and change things. I don't know if I plan on making you aware of these changes. There are times I've been a little... shall we say tipsy while creating this so if something doesn't make any sense don't hesitate to point it out. If you disagree that is great, please inform me of how you can use something effectively or something I can do to improve my play.

III) Mechanics and Basics

The Sorceress is a Magic DPS archtype. Note that there is a difference at least to Mythic in comparing a Ranged DPS and a Magic DPS especially when it comes to morales and tactics that each of them receive. The other big fundamental difference is one uses physical damage and the other uses primarily magical damage. The Sorceress uses primarily Corporeal and Spirit damage. More often then not your big spells will consist of Corporeal although the Sorceress is pretty well balanced in using each damage type so it's only a slight edge.

Specifically the Sorceress is the unofficially named the Glass Cannon type. It's mirror is the Bright Wizard for the Empire. This gives us a mechanic in our case called Dark Magic. Simply put you build this mechanic while you are casting spells. Each spell gives a varied number of Dark Magic depending on the spell. As you build in Dark Magic depending on the level you are at you will gain a bonus to critically hitting the opponent as well as a bonus to your critical damage. The side effect is the higher your Dark Magic level the higher chance and higher damage of a backlash. A backlash can only occur upon casting a spell of which builds Dark Magic which is the majority of spells in your arsenal. There are three ways to dispose of Dark Magic. The most common will be Dhar Wind. This ability returns your Dark Magic to zero upon use. Another method is to just not cast anything for a moderate amount of time. The least desired method is death. I can assume you would much rather use the first two. There is a chart below as to what the levels are.

Dark Magic Table

You should notice that it's an exponential growth. As you approach maximum Dark Magic you will deal an exponential increase in damage. You will also take an exponential increase in damage. If you simply sit at high Dark Magic levels you absolutely will kill yourself off. You will take damage very, very rapidly. So there are two ways to deal with this. One is to pace yourself and use Dhar Wind whenever you reach 70+ Dark Magic. The other is to receive healing. I won't lie to you, your damage is much higher at high levels and your burst damage is all the more feared. You can gamble a little with it if you need to finish someone off in RvR but without a healer I would advise you get rid of that Dark Magic as soon as the globe turns redish. (71+ is where I see a red tint)

Don't take this as necessarily gospel rather as an introduction to the mechanic. It is very advantageous to take a gamble for that extra damage. You can do much more damage at the higher levels and taking a few backlashes is often a good idea to output that extra damage before dropping down.

I myself like a less self-damaging approach. I've lived for an entire scenario without a death without scraping more then two hots by a Disciple. In that particular situation I had to minimize the self damage at all costs and I did that by running below 70+. In other words, that would be a very sustainable area to deal damage without injuring oneself too often.

It is a gamble in the end since you are chancing extra damage while you are chancing damage to yourself. If you bring yourself too low without a healer some Witch Hunter or Shadow Warrior could virtually one-shot you. You could very likely be doing some impressive damage though in return. You can go a little more wild too with Absorb Vitality and a lot of Wounds gear. It's very situational. I would recommend jumping above 70+ in situations to kill someone off or extremely close match ups but that's not always the case. I just prefer to stay above half health personally although I know for certain other players don't mind getting low and letting loose all that extra damage.

Now this mechanic makes it so that your base damage is a little lower then most. No one thinks it impressive when you are at low levels of power. Bouncing between low and moderate levels of Dark Magic is optimal for natural DPS. If you can afford a few heals then your damage output will be the highest in the game. This is at a great price even with healing however. Causing constant damage to yourself along with having the absolute lowest armor type of four in the game (Cloth) makes you the squishiest there can be. Base toughness values are pretty low as well making any enemy target see you as a target that makes their numbers look huge and mobs burn through your health quicker then anyone would ever expect.

Early on while leveling in your career you will have access to very scarce crowd control options making your character the most vulnerable career type in the game along with the Bright Wizard. As a Magic DPS it's natural that Melee DPS will absolutely destroy you if they contact you and have a massive advantage against you. The only chance is to catch them off guard at range and fully concentrate on them and even then it'll require careful use of crowd control. Tanks mostly harass you – although if you ignore them they can cause immense damage as well. Generally you can destroy a Tank around your strength especially if you catch them at a range. Tanks do not have options to catch you if they aren't within melee already. If they have support however then you are going to need to look for your own support as well. Ranged DPS have an advantage against you simply because you are weak to Physical damage. They will typically out damage you in a standoff but it's generally pretty even. Melee Support is a monster truck. Unless you have the strength to break their heals they are extremely tough to beat without assistance. You can best one but it's best to keep away and kite as they share the same weakness as a tank and have difficulty catching you. I'm not sure whom has the exact advantage in this case though. I'll have a more detailed analysis on RvR in another section. Just remember that your fragility is your downside and if you can keep yourself from ever taking damage from an opponent in the first place then all you have left is your strengths.

Advice on Attributes

Whether it's renown points, armor, weapons, or some other methods of gaining power through attributes you will always be striving to better yourself. What does a Glass Cannon Magic DPS do? Damage. What improves damage you may ask... it's Intelligence. It is the single simple key to improving how much damage you deal. When it far outmatches an opponents toughness then even your minor skills do impressive damage. Of course other things that factor into improving your damage are valued as well. Any bonus to crit is of course helpful especially at high Dark Magic. Any bonus to mastery levels is probably highly valued as well. Anything that increases damage is a number one priority in my book.

Now then there is your defensive stats. Armor, Resistances, Toughness, Wounds, Initiative, Willpower and a variety of other methods of gaining protection. Above all Toughness, Wounds, and Resistances are likely the best way to protect yourself. If you can find a decent Armor value (on Cloth) then by all means that would be the best defense since Order primarily consists of Physical Damage. Wounds is very effective in reducing the percentage effect of backlashes on your health as well. Backlashes do not scale with hp and rather scale with level. So the more Wounds gear you carry the longer you could gamble your damage at maximum Dark Magic without a healer.

Resistance choice is fairly difficult. Bright Wizards pride themselves on Elemental damage and Corporeal damage. Engineers do a fair amount of Corporeal. Shadow Warriors do Elemental and Corporeal but they can choose to ignore your resistances. Nearly all the melee classes do some form of Spirit damage from light to moderate. So it's up to you and how the game progresses to see what types you should specify.

Initiative is much better then Willpower simply to reduce the chance you are crit. The bonus dodge is helpful against the Engineer and Shadow Warrior. Willpower give s you disrupt. While disrupt is highly useful as many, many careers have magic effects this is very undervalued stat and you should probably choose all others before it.

If it were me, usually Intelligence, Wounds and Toughness are more then enough to concentrate on. Of course nabbing any +% crit is important as well. Often my Intelligence is double, triple, or even higher then that compared to my other stats. It really makes me a Glass Cannon but I can do some impressive damage in return especially with Dark Magic amplifying it.

One way to do it is a Renown build like this as an example, but it would certainly be a lot of personal taste.

....Part 2

The Shadow Warrior Survivalists Guide Part 2

2008-10-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

4. Kiting the Unstoppable: Probable and Possible

By the end of Tier 2 you will pretty much notice melee are nearly unstoppable. Marauders get a sprint buff that will out-run your Takedown snare, and later also have a few ranged tricks up their sleeve to keep you in their kill zone. Always be ready to react to these and foil their plan.

The number one objective of a successful kite strategy is to lure melee into over extension. This means pulling them into your back lines where they will get slaughtered, assuming your tanks aren't retarded and your DPS aren't tunnelvisioned on some black orc with Shield Wall up.

If you can lure them so far back into the line that they are still chasing you even when you're far behind your group, usually they are dead meat. One of two things happen, they either give up chasing you, and attack someone else, or they just keep trying and die. If they give up, now you are at a safe range to pelt them with arrows, and usually they are out of reach of their healers, meaning an easy kill.

The second objective of a successful kite strategy, is to realize when you can win in melee range, and teach them not to mess with you again. Which means more safety in ranged combat later on ;p. This is often called "peppering", but if you can successfully kite someone until their HP is sub-50%, and you feel like they're about to catch you, LET them. Fight preemptively, keep the fight tipped in your favor. As soon as they start to close distance, distracting shot. Often times melee will open with a stun (as I said earlier in this guide), the DS will make them hit with pillows until you can react. And make sure you're in Assault stance before they get close. As soon as you get up, Draw Blood and Disarm. If you're assault specced, Stun once the disarm is over. If they were kited below 50% you easily have the fight in your favor. Do as much burst as you can while they're stunned/disarmed, then ROOT, and start kiting again. You might want to go toe-to-toe to the end, but really in all cases it's easier to just NOT take damage when possible.

Typically a melee rushing you will use their snare break cooldown. You need to be aware how each works, and how to counter each one if you want to avoid melee encounters as much as possible.

Kiting Marauders: There's a few dangerous things you need to watch with these guys. They're brutal opponents 1v1, but if you're on top of your game, they'll never scratch you.

Root/Snare break: They have one, on a 60 second cooldown. It's not that big a deal because it provides no immunity. I'd suggest using Takedown as your initial snare because if they break that, they are susceptible to Whirling Pin once they close distance. If you want to do it the other way (Whirling Pin->TakeDown), have VoN up so your Takedown also knocks them down. If they still are too close for comfort, you can also just Point Blank them.
Charge!: This is the killer right here. They move at accelerated speed until they attack something. If you're caught with your pants down and no CCs up, they will catch you. Be aware of this. Also to note that you will only slightly move as fast as them even with Takedown up on them, so if you see the charge, don't get too cocky, just keep running until it wears off (it's about 8-10 seconds). Once it's off, you've got the upper hand.
"GET OVER HERE": They have a draw-in ability which can foil any good kiting strategy. This is where you need your Disarm handy to survive. I'd highly suggest using your distracting shot early in case they use this to buy some time to switch stances and get your disarm up, and also get a root up so you have a chance in hell.

Kiting Witch Elves

Root/Snare break + 10s immune: This is the hardest part about kiting a Witch Elf. They not only can break our snare/root, but they can also become immune to it by breaking it. You can usually tell if they've used it preemptively to avoid any interruptions if they throw their hands up in the air after jumping you (very common amongst better WE players). Use the aforementioned tanking strategy to outlast those 10 seconds, then use your root or snares as needed to get away.
Ranged snare: Their ranged snare will let them easily catch you. Make sure you kite using a strafing angle, don't run with your back to them at any time. If you feel it necessary, just run and flip shot in intervals before their throwing knives hit you, and you will NEVER eat the snare. The ranged attack they use has a cast time of about 1 second, so you can usually time your turn-around-and-fire SFAs around this in your head. One shot to each toss they send your way. If they do snare you and you're about to get caught, go Assault and distracting shot. Usually by the time they catch you, you are ready to go toe-to-toe with them.
Movement Debuff: If they open on you, DONT try to kite, this is where you have to tank them for about 10 seconds, and hopefully you have your Point Blank morale handy.

Kiting DOK
Note: Your only option vs. DOKs is to kite them. I honestly would not try to do this for an extended period of time, as they will easily outheal your damage unless you are scout stance, catch them under 50%, and open with a VON takedown before bursting with rank 2 morale. Otherwise kiting them to death is not even an option, and just delaying them catching you. HIGHLY recommended that you snare and get away. Live to fight another day.

-----------------------

These are some of the survival strategies I've picked up over time. It should be noted this is just a guide as to how to survive a melee rushing you or jumping you from stealth. If you keep a cool head and are one step ahead of your opponent (even good ones), you can come out on top. It should be noted that we can survive toe to toe with melee, but highly requires speccing into Assault, otherwise the best we should do is tank them until our team can help.

In all other cases, you will rarely live a melee ZERG (2-3+ melee on you and snared), but i've gotten away thanks to clever rooting/snaring, assault stancing, distract shot one, disarm another, and flee'ing as soon as a snare ticks off of me.

Know when to fight, know when to flee. That is the Shadow Warrior way

__________________
T4 Shadow Warrior
T3 Disciple of Khaine
-----------------------------------
Shadow Warriors: Skirmish is the official downie spec, going any deeper into it than Shadow Sting makes baby jesus cry.

......Page 1

The Shadow Warrior Survivalists Guide Part 1

2008-10-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

Post By Mephs

A lot of Shadow Warriors don't know how to handle themselves under pressure (I.E. a witch elf jumped me! What do I do?).

You have to juggle three stances a lot of the time, regardless of your spec. Whether you're an SFA spammer, a ranged Scout, or even if you like stabbing folks up close. This guide is just a compilation of how to handle yourself in the flow of battle, and a lot of it requires a good sense of prediction.

1. The first thing in any situation, and I believe Douglas Adams would agree with me on this. Don't panic.

It's easy to get stuck in an OH SH-T moment before you realize what hit you. A lot of the time it's usually too late, but there's still a shot in hell that you can make it out of a melee zerg, or being the focus target of a sorceror nuke-train. Instead of getting stuck in these "too late" situations think ahead of time and observe your position and the enemy's line. If you're at the front of your line and everyone has long retreated, chances are everyone is looking at you and applying their forehead to the keyboard for the easy kill, way before you might have noticed it.

2. Distracting Shot. Live it, learn it, love it.

Every 15 seconds you can reduce a target's damage against you by 50%. Most classes have this detaunt ability, but many never use it, or don't know *HOW* to use it. Detaunts in this game reduce a target's damage against YOU by 50%, but the effect disappears if you hit them. If you're going to detaunt, use it on something you aren't trying to kill, or use it on a target you are not saving a CC for.

Distracting shot has more than just defensive uses. It can be used OFFENSIVELY as well.

Vs. Ranged (Offensive): When you're going toe to toe with a ranged caster, open with Distracting shot immediately, first and foremost. Why open with distracting shot if you're going to shoot them? DOT damage calculation is done when the DOT is applied. If they toss a bunch of DOTs on you with a 50% damage modifier, you will take considerably less damage in the long run, even once it wears off, the DOT coefficient maintains this debuff. Also, a sorc will usually get one nuke combo off on you before you get a good hit off on them. Assuming you're Scout spec, Distracting Shot before a Festering Arrow gives you an absolutely HUGE lead on them toe-to-toe. It also works good for Assault/Skirmish builds since you usually won't be in range before they start nuking. I've often 1v1'd sorcerors this way and come out with over 50% of my HP intact.

Vs. Melee (Offensive): It certainly doesn't hurt to open against melee with a distract. The same rules apply. Often, Mauraders or Welves will open on you with a stun of some sort, a knockdown, or another incapacitation that can give them a huge lead on you in the dps race. A preemptive distract will stop that initial burst, and you can have 1 or 2 DOTs up on them before the distract, without removing the debuff, which means you have a bit of an advantage on their opening. I cannot stress this enough, DISTRACT them before they get in range. Especially marauders and chosen love to open with a knockdown, because it typically guarantees they'll have you under 50% before you even get to react. This is especially useful for the Assault spec who want to go toe-to-toe with melee classes (though I never would recommend going up against a tank 1v1, and don't try to 1v1 a DOK in melee range, ever. You just feed him Soul Essence).

3. Assault Stance, Armor, and You

Assault stance, if you don't know already, increases your Weapon Skill and Strength. It also increases your Armor by 100%. For this very reason, every point of Armor you have is effectively worth double, 2 Armor per 1 point, which can become really handy if you prioritize Armor as an option in your defensive stat choices. I usually run around with an Armor pot and Ballistic Skill as my two RVR pots.

The average shadow warrior runs around with about 18% armor mitigation, which is 36% in Assault Stance. This may be because they didn't want to sacrifice 3 ballistic skill for an upgrade that might have another stat or two on it, but they ignore the Armor value of the item. This may require losing a little Ballistic Skill or other melee stat here or there, but it is really helping your survival out a TON.

I have about 44% armor mitigation in Assault Stance, and still over 600+ ballistic at level 28. I have maintained 40+% armor mitigation at every level. This puts you near and/or equal to White Lions and Marauders in armor value.

Now, uses for Assault stance are pretty much universal. I am always in Assault stance if:

I think a Witch Elf is about, or about to jump me (see them stealth nearby)
A melee zerg is getting dangerously close to me
A Marauder is charging me and I have Takedown on CD
I am carrying an objective item (like a flag or whatever)

This should be common sense, but there's a few good reasons to use Assault stance as your choice of mobile stances. One, you're less susceptible to a surprise attack (i.e. WElves), Two, you're obviously just more survivable in general, Three, Opportunistic Strike will save you 9 times out of 10. Your 5 second disarm is quite possibly your most useful tool and is only useable in Assault Stance.

Even if that witch elf you saw go stealth doesn't jump YOU, you can efficiently dispatch their assassination attempt on a teammate by smacking them with a disarm, and a root. Those 5 seconds are pretty much putting any squishy melee into an "OH SH*T" situation where your whole team has enough time to focus them into oblivion, and pretty much nulls their attempt to off one of your back liners.

If they DO jump you, you are a lot more survivable than a BW, and can tank them long enough for your team to react. A good Shadow Warrior is possibly a WElf's worst target. A bad SW, is pretty much a free kill. Don't be a bad SW.

Most of all, if you are prepared for the opener, you will almost never die, assuming you are opened on at full or nearly full HP. As soon as you see the green ring around you, TAB turn around and disarm them. Hit them while this disarm is active. If Assault specced, follow with a Stun and Swift Strikes. If not, stay in Assault stance, and distracting shot them (it has no minimum range), hit ESCAPE and detarget them. You don't want to hit them at all, but also stay facing them. This is about 5-10 seconds of easy tanking their melee damage. If they aren't dead by now, your team is probably dead, or terrible. If you need more time, now is your best time to Point Blank, and follow with a Takedown. The running debuff will be gone, and you can safely escape, flee, whatever is necessary. And usually you'll get away with most of your HP in this scenario. Just remember DONT MOVE while you tank them either, or you're just making your own life harder.

Page 2 ....

The Archmage Guide Part 4

2008-10-26T06:13:00.003-07:00

Path of Asuryan
I like this line, sorta. But, oddly enough, I don't go into it for damage. When I do spec this line I pick up the T4 morale, Flames of the Phoenix, and Cleansing Flare. The ability to send a large amount of enemies at 100 range flying is arguably better than having a big heal. I still play mainly a healer when I spec this, I just use my built up Tranquility to instantly knockback people when they charge me or when the person I'm healing gets a lot of people on them. And Flames of the Phoenix is just fun. 600dmg per second in a GTAE is quite potent considering how miserable the rest of your damage is. I tend to mix this with Bolstering Boon in Isha so that during keep defenses I can build up Morale faster and use it on the door.

My main beef with Asuryan is that it doesn't really seem to fit the career. I'm a healer, I don't want to be a wanna-be RDPS who can heal himself instantly. I don't want a weak instant nukes. What I want is abilities that allow me to play an Archmage but play him in a way that focuses on Asuryan, i.e. offensive. Rather than focusing on funneling healing Life energies into an enemy, I want to conjure a phoenix that's flames sear my enemies and soothe my allies. I want to surround an ally in pure white flames that soothe his wounds and severely burn enemies.

Level of Mastery: 3
Forked Lancing
Path of Asuryan Tactic
**For those "cool graphics" junkies out there like me, just so you know, this ability does indeed cause 2 extra "lances" to fire from your staff at the other two targets. Unfortuantely, the rather pitiful damage of radiant lance makes this a rather limited use skill.

Level of Mastery: 5
Fury of Asuryan -As the enemy catches your ire, he is suddenly enveloped in in pure, white, burning light.
**Rather weak for it's excessive cooldown and really doesn't synergize well with the Archmage playstyle in my opinion.

Level of Mastery: 7
Dispel Magic
Path of Asuryan Tactic
**I like the blessing removal, if we were more sure what exactly counted as a blessing, there are so many different types of buffs and debuffs and I haven't looked closely enough to try and figure out a rhyme or reason. The damage seems sort low for a effect that is a 25% chance to proc and only *if* they have a blessing.

Level of Mastery: 9
Feel the Winds
-Enemies in the area become more susceptible to the power of the winds.
**A very very short duration for such a limited effect. My personal feedback on this ability has always been that it should reduce all resists. I mean, the "winds" would definitely include Bright Wizard magic, which is Elemental and Corporeal based. And yes, this spell is not linked to your mechanic.

Level of Mastery: 11
Increased Conductivity
Path of Asuryan Tactic
**Doesn't effect Radiant Lance or Searing Touch, and even with this the other spells are fairly low damage or have a long CD.

Level of Mastery: 13
Cleansing Flare
-A massive explosion of prismatic light bursts forth from the target, sending enemies in the area flying away from you.
**My favorite ability in this line, and arguably worth speccing the line for. It's a lot of fun to peek over a keep wall (while on the defense) and cast this on the enemy's ram. It hits anyone anywhere near the door and sends them flying back.

Level of Mastery: 15
Flames of the Phoenix
Path of Asuryan T4 Morale
-The Asuryan Archmage focuses on a spot, conjuring a Phoenix to rise from the spot, rapidly spreading scorching flames to nearby enemies.
**Fun fun skill, not only is the spell graphic cool..but, geez, it's just nice to be able to actually deal some damage.

Path of Vaul
What bothers me about this line is that it seems to be a pale remnant of the old Archmage hype Paul spoke to us of. Taking your enemy's potential and using it against them. Rather, now it's a debuff line with nothing truly unique in it except a healing debuff that you can keep on a single target practically constantly...very nice, but hardly creative.

Seriously though, I'm an Archmage. I don't want to do the same old stuff so many other careers can do. I want to take my enemy's potential and turn it on them. I mean, if it was such a good idea to hype us up with it..why not put it into action? I don't want to simply make my target take less from healing, I want to divert a portion of the healing energy directed at him to one of my allies. I don't want a simple buff that deals a small amount of damage every few seconds, I want a buff I put on an ally that absorbs a portion of the potential of attacks used against him and disperses it all around him. I want my enemy to feel the kinetic energy of his sword swing being sapped by my magic a split second before the energy is converted into a raw bolt of electricity with his name on it.

Level of Mastery: 3
Expanded Control
Path of Vaul Tactic
**Not a bad tactic if you are focused in this line. But, in general, the debuffs are too weak and too brief to make even the the expanded radius very useful.

Level of Mastery: 5
Scatter the Winds
-You set a curse upon the enemy that tears at the very fabric of their being while disrupting the flow of healing energies into them.
**The only other damaging spell in the Path of Vaul, it's definitely worth taking. In organized group play, the ability to reduce the damage on someone being focus fired is amazing. It will also help when going up against a Disciple of Khaine without enough people to overwhelm him.

Level of Mastery: 7
Arcing Power
Path of Vaul Tactic
**Last I tried this tactic it was healing a set amount and rarely, and only on direct damage spells. NOt really an ideal tactic for a line that only has 2 damage spells and both of them DoTs. If it healed a set amount each time you landed an offensive spell, it would fit this line..and even give a glimmer of the old idea of stealing your opponent's potential to help your allies.

Level of Mastery: 9
Law of Age
Path of Vaul Ability
-You invoke a potent curse on enemies in the area near the target, instilling infirmity into them as if they had aged many years.
**Not really a bad skill, but it suffers from the same thing as Rainlord does. Rather negligible effect, for an even shorter time. Also, it doesn't build your mechanic.

Level of Mastery: 11
Golden Aura
Path of Vaul Tactic
**Fun tactic, gives you a 100range AoE DoT (all base AOEs are 80 ft range). Misleading as it really racks up damage in scenarios but doesn't really kill anyone.

Level of Mastery: 13
Mistress of The Marsh
Path of Vaul Ability
-You magically change the terrain in the area. Enemies who try to pass the area will find passage difficult as if wading through a bog, while allies can move freely.
**Not a bad ability, but difficult to place. With a 3 second casting time, and not effected by your High Magic.

Level of Mastery: 15
Funnel EnergyPath of Vaul T4 Morale
-As an Archmage of Vaul you turn the tables on your enemy by making your allies abilities seemingly easier to use, while actually putting the extra strain of their efforts on your enemy's shoulders.
**Honestly never used this skill, 30 feet is a rather short range and I don't generally want to get in the middle of enemies to make it very useful. People tend to stay spread out to avoid AoEs.

If you notice any issues please let me know. For some reason, my original "spelllink" formatting to add in the icons only works the first time you view it. Testing has shown that they have since corrected this issue, but I still have to go through the whole thing again and redo the tags. Which I'll do when I have time

Changelog:
8/30/08
-Made some minor changes, mainly I added a bit more vehement feeling in my preface of each of the Mastery Lines.
8/22/08
-Added section in first post detailing current issues with the Shaman/AM shared mechanic.
8/20/08
-Guide was moved to Archmage Forum (Update: Will soon be moved to the Career Guide forum when implemented).
-Added a preliminary Healer Comparison section in the first thread.
8/19/08
-Added a couple of screenshots since the NDA is up and I can upload them.
-Went through and changed all of the ability listings to make use of the new Spell Link function. Wish I woulda known that was coming before I went through and typed out *everything* and formatted it for easy reading. /hug WHA Staff anyhow though, it's an amazing feature.

Recent In-Game Changes to Archmage:
* Storm of Cronos: The duration has been increased.
* Feel the Winds: The duration has been increased.
* Law of Age: The duration has been increased.
* Cleansing Light: This ability now removes one Ailment or Hex from your target.

....Part 3

The Archmage Guide Part 3

2008-10-26T06:13:00.001-07:00

Archmage Spells, Tactics, and Morales

Archmages do, indeed, use more than one Lore of Magic. Though this has no actual in-game effect, the Archmage's mechanic being based on the type of build-up a spell creates based on whether it is an offensive or support spell, but it is nice to know that the Archmage really does have quite a breadth of knowledge. Among the Archmage's spells, the Lores I was able to recognize were mainly of Life, Light, and, of course, High Magic though there is even one spell from the Lore of Metal.

Unless otherwise noted, all damaging spells are Spirit based. I chose to leave out the "numbers" since these are quite varied based on your spent Mastery Points, levels, and stage of beta we are in.

A Quick Intro to How Ability Levels Work
I'll try to keep this short, but most don't understand this about the game so it's needed. The level of a spell is not the level of the character casting the spell. Rather, spells level in a different way. Up until level 10, they gain a level each time you do. After that, they only go up in level every even level thereafter. This means that at Rank 40 the max level of any skill linked to a Mastery Line will be level 25. The remaining 15 levels come from putting points into the Path linked to that ability. Most abilities with an effect that grows as you level are linked to a Path, Lambent Aura, and it's reflections on other healers, is an exception as it is always at full level.

Level 1
Healing Energy
-With a quick spin of your staff healing energy surges into your ally, immediately healing them and healing them for over twice as much over 9 seconds.
**This is a basic Heal + HoT, the HoT portion is about 2.6x the value of the Heal. This is a much more viable spell now that they, recently, reduced it's casting time and upped the HoT portion's value.

Radiant Lance
-A prismatic beam of light lances from the tip of your staff dealing a moderate amount of damage to the target.
**Currently you don't have much use for this spell once you get all your DoTs and Channel DD, the same tends to go for the Shaman version... it just usually isn't worth casting even without your mechanic..nevermind with it. Most AMs eventually drop this off their bar.

Level 2
Law of Conductivity-Your hand crackles with electricity as energy courses through your target, dealing a high amount of damage to them over 15 seconds.
**Your only DoT without a secondary effect. It is also the weakest DoT you have.

Level 3
Lambent Aura
-You raise your staff above your head and it shimmers with prismatic light, a soothing aura surrounds your target, healing a high amount of damage over 15 seconds.
**Does not benefit from Mastery. All healer's get a basic HoT and it is always considered at full level.

Level 4
Radiant Gaze
-Twin beams of radiant light shoot from your eyes, burning the enemy and making it difficult to see. Deals a high amount of damage over 9 seconds, also reduces all damage the enemy does by 5% and reduces their chance to critical hit by 5%.
**Great spell I mean, come on..it's eye lasers! Probably your highest ticking DoT as it does the same amount of dmg as other DoTs but over 9 seconds. The debuff component isn't very noticeable, but it's a great spell when combined with Golden Aura.

Level 5
Searing Touch
-A searing beam of pure white flame leaps from your outstretched hand, connecting with your target and searing them over 6 seconds. (hits 4x for a moderate amount).
**Mythic recently changed all channeled DDs to deal their damage over 6 seconds. It just feels like you're wasting time. It may look efficient in it's damage, until you consider that you aren't regenerating any AP while you channel it. Which effectively increased the total AP cost of this ability by 75. It used to hit 4x in 3 seconds.

Level 6
Transfer Force
-You slowly transfer the life force of an enemy into an ally. Dealing a low amount of damage to the enemy over 24 seconds, healing your defensive target for the amount of damage dealt each "tick".
**One of the few unique sort of spells the AM/Shaman receive. But it's pretty weak currently.

Level 7
Prismatic Shield
-A prismatic shell surrounds each member of your party briefly before imbueing itself into them, raising all of their resistances.
**It's one of your few buffs.

Dissipating Hatred
-You drain the hatred out of an enemy, making them find it more difficult to bring forth the urge to harm you. They deal 50% less damage to you for 15 seconds. If you actively harm them in any way for the duration the detaunt immediately ends.
**Great ability, learn to use it and it will save your tail. One important thing to note is that DoTs already on the target will not cause this to be removed. I have frequently had to do 1on1 fights where I loaded the target up with DoTs, used this, then spam healed myself and repeated the process until I won.

Level 8
Boon of Hysh
-You twirl your staff above your head as lights and colors swirl about your form, finally you slam your staff to the ground directing the healing forces to an ally, healing them for a very high amount.
**This spell used to be Fragile, meaning it was always set back by 2 seconds anytime you took damage. Though it was not mentioned in patch notes (nor were many of the lower heal changes such as 1sec Heal + HoT, instance cast Flash Heals for the Runepriest/Zealot, boosting of the normal HoT, and making the group heal fragile). I will update this when I am more sure of the intended state.

Divine Favor
T1 Archetype Morale
**Probably your best option for a T1 Morale, it heals for quite a bit and instantly and you will usually have it available.

Level 9
Drain Magic
-You reach out your hand and draw both the life and potential out of your enemy.
**This spell is a bit of a sore spot for me, in the TT Drain Magic is a very unique ability of Archmages (and another race, but they aren't playable). It's essential effect is to make a target caster nigh useless, making his magic less potent and more difficult to cast. Seeing it made into a crappily done "Mana Burn" type skill (the dmg and AP loss aren't even linked, nor do you gain the AP they lose) bugs me. Especially when Mythic insists on trying to balance it as a DD. Meanwhile, the Shaman gets a skill that *steals* 180 AP from a victim over 9 seconds. Rant over, moving on...

Level 10
Gift of Life
-You aim your staff at a fallen ally, funneling life energies into them. They stand back up where they fell with 20% of their life total.
**Note that this spell can be swiftened, so you can instant rez potentially. As a point of reference, Runepriests/Zealots get a 3 sec Rez with a 6 sec CD, resulting in the same amount of rezzes in the same time frame, but giving the AM/Shaman the potential to rez quicker in exchange for a slower base cast time.

Level 11
Centuries of Training
Racial Tactic
**Not a bad skill, especially when used with AoEs. The damage type is unknown.

Level 12
Walk Between Worlds
-The Archmage phases himself out of time and space with those near him. Every nearby enemy is detaunted, dealing 50% less damage to the Archmage for the duration, and the Archmage is uninterruptable. Lasts 5 seconds. Detaunt effect fades automatically if you attack a detaunted enemy.
**This spell is nice, but could use an update. I wanted to mention this on the thread on WHA but could not..you see, 5 sec duration sounds nice. Until you realize that 1.5 seconds of that will be taken up by the GCD.

Rampaging Siphon
T2 Archetype Morale
**The healing is, unfortunately, not based on the total damage dealt but rather 1 "hit".

Level 13
Divine Fury
Archetype Tactic
**An excellent tactic to use while soloing or when there is plenty of healing about..or you just feel like dishing out some pain.

Level 14
Shield of Saphery
-The air around the target swirls, forming a barely perceptible shield against attacks. Absorbing a high amount of damage over 9 seconds.
**First off, unlike Runepriests and Zealots, this shield only works on groupmates. Secondly, it's no more powerful despite this restriction. In fact, it's weaker since the RP/Zealot versions also do a heal once they fade. Still, not a bad emergency skill for yourself or an ally, just sometimes difficult to use if you're in a scenario or warband and aren't exactly sure if someone is in your party.

Level 15
Empowered Lores
Career Tactic
**Not a bad tactic at all, not much to say. Definitely better used if you know you'll be doing both damage and healing frequently.

Level 16
Cleansing Light
-A brief purifying light sweeps over your target.
**These spells currently aren't used very often. The buff/debuff display has been getting some updates recently but it still isn't really easy to read or quickly recognize, plus it's difficult to predict what can be removed.

Steal Life
T1 Archetype Morale
**Sometimes a better option while soloing as it deals damage and heals you.

Level 17
Bend the Winds
Racial Tactic
**Perhaps useful if you're PvEing in an area where you know you'll need the resistances. I personally prefer they'd replace the Racial Resistance Tactics and just give each race a natural boost.

Level 18
Rain Lord
-With a wave of his staff the Archmage forms a magical rainstorm above all enemies in the target's area. This rainstorm saps both strength and magic, while obscuring sight.
**Cool effect and all, but really it's not a devastating or even very noticeable debuff except for maybe in PvE where you can keep it running on a boss constantly to really add up the effect.

Level 19
Discipline
Archetype Tactic
**This tactic is new, and I haven't used it much. But it definitely looks worth using.

Level 20
Blessing of Isha
-Twirling your staff above your head, you bring it down as purifying and healing lights radiate out around you, healing all party members within a long range for a moderate amount.
*The range is not listed, it seems at least 150 though if not longer.
**Apparently this spell is now fragile, there has been no mention in the patch notes about any of the recent heal changes. Luckily for you, you're an Archmage and can cast this spell instantly. Also, I'm going to be mean here and tell you that up until quite recently, we had a tactic in our healing line that made this a 2 sec cast. It was nice while it lasted, especially since that -1 second was taken off *after* High Magic was considered. Meaning, your group heal cast instantly with only ~3 Force.

Focused Mind
T2 Archetype Morale
**Definitely a viable second slot morale. It's pretty much 10 seconds of, "I do what I want". You can spam heal, run, ect. and you aren't going to be interrupted or stopped short of death and, better yet, you're casting twice as fast.

Level 21
Isha's Encouragement
Career Tactic
**Very nice tactic. There's nothing quite so nice as being able to cast 2 instant group heals or big heals in a row..sometimes even more.

Level 23
Discerning Offense
Racial Tactic
**I honestly have never used this on any of my High Elf characters. It was recently buffed from 5% to 10% with the big Tactics patch, but I still haven't found it more useful than my other tactics no matter what my career choice.

Level 24
Divine Protection
T3 Archetype Morale
**I have really never much used this since it's limited to melee only. Really, not bad, but if I have melee on me I'd rather use Arcane Suppression to get them off me.

Level 25
Wind Blast
-You slam your staff into the ground conjuring a powerful gust of wind to send foes flying. The magical winds continue to assail your enemies for a brief time.
**Very difficult to aim and the area in front of you is quite small. Also, if you aren't targeting someone in front of you, the autofacing utility will face you towards that person and make you miss those you wanted to hit.

Subtlety
Archetype Tactic
**I don't think I've ever really had an issue with healing aggro. Frequent use of Dissipating Hatred works perfectly well, without wasting a tactic slot.

Level 27
Master of Tranquility
Career Tactic
**Not bad, especially combined with other tactics that give bonuses when you crit like Empowered Lores.

Level 28
Isha's Ward
T1 Career Morale
**Absolute trash, 50% auto attack speed isn't worth not having your emergency heal or even Life Tap Over Time morales.

Level 29
Restorative Burst
Archetype Tactic
**This was nerfed slightly with the recent tactics patch, it now gives you the AP over 3 seconds. Also, notice it says "direct heals" meaning, just keeping HoTs ticking won't do the trick. Nor will group heals.

Level 30
Storm of Cronos
-Lightning leaps from the tip of your staff, striking at enemies causing them to become more sucseptible to spiritual magic.
**Short range, terrible damage, and 10 second duration(you'll find that most debuffs are a mere 10 seconds, yea i know..it blows). Also suffers from potentially missing because of auto-face if you don't select a good target.

Level 31
Hurried Restoration
Career Tactic
**Great tactic, potentially overpowered in PvE end game content. I haven't checked if the spell still consumes Force to "Swiften" while this tactic is equipped, but it really shouldn't.

Level 32
Blinding Light
T2 Career Morale
**Another situation where a potentially cool debuff is given way too short of a duration. I dont think I've ever used it.

Level 33
Master of Force
Career Tactic
**Same as Master of Tranquility, not bad at all, especially combined with Empowered Lores. Would I use 3 of my 4 Tactic slots on the combo? Unlikely, though I could see some real potential with Master of Force, Master of Tranquility, Empowered Lores, and Isha's Encouragement.

Level 35
Law of Gold
-The Archmage briefly locks away the magical potential of the target, dealing a low amount of damage and making them unable to cast any spells for 5 seconds.
**Silence is golden, it's a good spell. The damage is low enough to be rather negligible, but a silence helps. Sadly, this is probably your best anti-caster ability. You'd think the AM would be the best anti-caster around, but no such luck. This is essentially the same Silence that most casters recieve.

Transfer Magic
Career Tactic
**Possibly implemented with the recent Tactics patch in response to my vehement feedback about the spell itself. But I am very against "band-aid" tactics.

Level 36
Arcane Suppression
T3 Career Morale
**An extra knockback and silence is great for survival, this is regularly slotted.

Level 37
Run Between Worlds
Career Tactic
**Sorta an uninspired name. But if WBW was boosted in duration or made not to trigger the GCD it could become viable.

Level 39
Desperation
Archetype Tactic
**Not a bad tactic, but I dont think I have the room for it really. I haven't tested it very thoroughly to see if it is proactive on already running HoTs or when the spell lands, ect.

Level 40
Dissipating Energies
-The Archmage surrounds the target groupmate or himself with crackling energies that lash out and harm any enemies nearby for a short period.
**Kinda underwhelming for your final ability. It has quite a short duration combined with a long CD and requires a groupmate that is within 10ft of enemies for the duration. And all high magic does is get rid of the annoying 2 sec cast time. Hopefully this gets an update to be more interesting.

Alter Fate
T4 Archetype Morale
**Not as good as you may think since it only effects dead groupmates within such a short radius. And, if they are dead, you're usually long dead as well. It takes too long to get full morale for this to be of any real use.

Mastery Paths
One important thing to note is that the value I give for the ability/tactic/morale is the *requirement* to buy it. You must put that many points into the path and then spend another point to buy it. I chose to represent it this way since you can, technically, have 15 points in a line then go back down and buy an ability that only required 3 points.

My general impression of the Mastery Paths is that they are too strict. As a caster who specializes in "mixing it up" I'd expect all of the lines to have things for both parts of your Mechanic while having a "focus" on the aspect that line embodies. The Path of Isha is a good example of what I mean. It's meant to be a healing line, yet it has a Life Transfer DD in it. If this spell actually dealt decent damage (right now it's pitiful), you would be able to heal and then use your built up Tranquility to Transfer life through your base spell Transfer Force, and the Mastery Spell Balance Essence. None of the other lines encourage this sort of gameplay, I'll go into more detail as a preface for each line.

Path of Isha
This is your healing line. It focuses near purely on healing, with the only exception being Balance Essence. Currently, this spell, despite being useless, is the closest I've seen to an attempt to "mix it up" within our mastery lines. Ideally, you could be an Isha Archmage and focus purely on healing allies, using your built up Tranquility to cast an empowered Transfer Force or Balance Essence. Unfortunately, this is not the case and most of the abilities in this line actually encourage you to spam heal to get the most of them.

Level of Mastery: 3
Balanced Mending
Path of Isha Tactic
**Currently not working, better than the old version of this tactic that gave a flat +5% to healing done and -10% to healing taken. Right now this tactic feels like, at most, a band-aid for Healing Energy to make it somewhat more potent.

Level of Mastery: 5
Balance Essence
-With a wave of his hand, the Archmage draws the life energies out of an enemy and uses them to rejuvenate an ally.
**Ideally, this spell should replace radiant lance on your bar. Ideally, it should do more than 150 damage at rank 40 with full points in the Path of Isha. Unfortuantely, this is not the case. Note that this spell does 75% of the damage of the Shaman version.

Level of Mastery: 7
Bolstering Boon
Path of Isha Tactic
**While "in combat" you gain 10 morale per second. This results in 25 seconds worth of morale given each time you use your big slow heal on someone. As a point of reference, it takes ~15 castings to get someone to full morale. So it's not ideal for spamming for that purpose, but it's a nice boost. In two castings you more than have enough morale for a T1 ability, and 3 castings gives you enough for a T2..after that it takes much longer to build up.

Level of Mastery: 9
Funnel Essence
-Raising your arms in the air, you immediately begin channeling healing into an ally.
**The best ability in the Path of Isha currently, it heals your target for more than your 3 sec big heal(Boon of Hysh) does in the same amount of time. And it starts the healing right away rather than having to wait until the end of the casting. Note that it gains healing with High Magic, whereas the big heal casts faster. So both still retain their uses. As a side note, this ability used to be a channeled Life Transfer spell.

Level of Mastery: 11
Wild Healing
Path of Isha Tactic
**A pretty good tactic, but I think it focuses too much on spam healing, which isn't what the AM is about.

Level of Mastery: 13
Magical Infusion
-You infuse an ally with greater healing potential, causing his wounds to be easier to heal by anyone.
**I really dislike this skill. 3 seconds to give them a +25% bonus for only 20 seconds. This means, in order to be effective, you have to be in a sitaution where you know someone is going to need as much healing within a short amount of time, and yet have the 3 seconds to spare to cast this on them.

Level of Mastery: 15
Winds' Protection
Path of Isha T4 Morale
**Not a bad skill at all. For 15 seconds not only are you providing a very nice absorbtion shield, but also healing them in the process.

Part 2... ...Part 4

The Archmage Guide Part 2

2008-10-26T06:13:00.000-07:00

Playing as the Archmage
First off, let me say that there are a few things you can do to really help playing as an Archmage.
-Go to your options and set it to show ally's health bars when Hurt. This allows you to heal outside your group very effectively and also allows you to heal while watching the action.
-Knowing your own skills is important, but perhaps more importantly is knowing your enemy's skills. You need to know things like when a Witch Elf jumps out at you she likely put a Spell Barb on you and you're going to take damage for each spell you cast.
-You're a healer, heal. Most of the careers in this game can deal damage to a far greater extent than you. Your damage just isn't very noticeable. Feel free to stack up DoTs while on the run, but the extra damage you allow an ally to put out by keeping them alive easily outdoes whatever you could do.

Solo PvE: You solo fairly well, as should be expected. While you do have to stack all of your DoTs in order to do respectable damage and you don’t kill as fast, the fact that as you fight you’ll build up instant heals means you usually have little to fear unless you get in way over your head.

Group PvE: You can easily fill the main healer slot no matter what your spec. You will have to heal though, your damage is nowhere near good enough to compete with a DPS, even if you spec for it, and people will want you for your ability to keep people alive. Luckily, through healing you will gain more potent damaging effects. A good tactic if you are concentrating on just healing is to use your built-up tranquility on Transfer Force or, if you have it, Balance Essence for some added damage and healing.
**Note: At the time I wrote this Balance Essence wasn’t worth getting, but I threw that in there since I’m sure they’ll, eventually, give it a boost.

Solo PvP: If you happen to find yourself in a 1 on 1 situation, you will usually do well. Especially if you take advantage of stacking DoTs, detaunting, and spam healing yourself. It's slow, but it works sometimes. Okay, so it's only really worked for me once versus a Chosen before they got their aura buffs (i.e. they didn't have the auras that increase my cast times, increase their resistances, or hurt you whenever you cast an offensive spell). In normal RvR, you should stick to your allies for protection. As Duty so keenly put it, "My Maurader thinks you guys taste good with ketchup." You are fragile, and when under assault all you really have is a knockback and a prayer. And despite the plethora of Elven Gods... I've found it's better to just stay back or find a convient cliff to knock them off.

Group PvP: You actually do very well here. Archmages and Shaman have possibly the most boring line-up of base heals, but they get the job done. While your damage is usually negligible, it’s not a bad idea at all to build-up some force while running or when otherwise free to do so, as an instant Boon of Hysh is quite potent.

Current Issues with the Archmage
While the current version of the mechanic is by and large better than the old one, currently, the Archmage and Shaman mechanic share an issue. This issue is that while the idea is sound, the actual implementation runs into some issues. +25% to spells that do a noticeable fraction of the damage of DPS spells really isn't noticeable for one. It's a minor effect that you feel even at 5 points isn't much. Not in a game where TTK(Time to Kill) is meant to be so high.

Furthermore, a 20% decreased casting time per point is a terrible implementation of "speeding up" a spell. With full High Magic can you honestly tell me a reason to use it on Healing Energy rather than Boon of Hysh or Blessing of Isha or even Shield of Saphery? The last 3 options get far more from the mechanic than does Healing Energy, the only time you *might* use it is when someone doesn't need much healing but is taking steady damage. In that case though, you'd be better off doing a +25% Lambent Aura. At rank 40 5HM adds about 375 more healing to it, or 75 healing per tick. For steady healing purposes this is clearly the option. The fact is, these spells values were balanced around their cast times. At 5 HM there is no cast time so all there is is the values, this means that spells that are weaker because they are faster (Healing Energy) aren't worth using with your mechanic.

The fact that there is any single spell that it's never *worth* using the mechanic on is evidence of a severe flaw. Yes, an instant Boon or Blessing is amazing, who cares about Healing Energy right? Or Radiant Lance for that matter? None of them are really worth it compared to the other options. Yet, people seem to think that because the other options aren't entirely bad this is not an issue. I do not agree.

The next issue is our Mastery Lines. They are far too cut and dry. I'll go more into this further down on each thread individually... but I can sum it up rather quickly. Mix it up! Be creative! I'm an Archmage, I wield the winds of magic in harmony and am capable of feats that make other lesser mages gape. I don't want a mastery line that focuses on spam healing, or a weak RDPS wanna-be line, or a line that takes the "stealing the potential of the enemy and using it against them" description of the Archmage and turns it into a line of marginally effective, short duration debuffs. Most of which completely ignore your mechanic.

Agree or disagree, it's just an opinion. I am only speaking of the mechanical issues both careers share. The AM's "niche" still needs some work but this would go a long way towards letting both careers truly fullfill their role rather than just getting the occasional "boost".

Part 1... ...Part3

The Archmage Guide Part 1

2008-10-26T06:09:00.000-07:00

Post by Dastion

If you notice any errors or outdated information, please message me so I can update/correct this guide. Thanks!

This is an all-inclusive (read: long) guide to the Archmage. I will mainly focus on the details, giving opinions of the current state of abilities where I feel they are needed. Please, do not take my opinions too much to heart because they are, just that, opinions. The last thing I want you to do is finish reading this guide and be swayed that the Archmage is either incredibly overpowered, broken, useless, ect. My intent is to inform and guide your knowledge of this career so you can form your own opinion about whether or not you'd like to play the career. Though, if there is one thing you take from this guide it should be that Mythic has created a game where each career has it's own allure and unique feel. Every career is so fun in it's own way that you really cannot get by playing a different career, and often not even by playing that career's mirror.

With that said, let's move on to the one career that, despite my fickle nature, kept drawing me back whether I had to start at level 1, or was given a template.

http://i37.tinypic.com/w1uqgn.jpg

The Archmage

http://i35.tinypic.com/ezq5cl.jpg
Screenshot of mine that won a spot on the Herald

To play an Archmage is to be among the best practioneers of magic. No, this doesn't mean that you out heal and out damage everyone. It means you're exceptionally good at what you intend to do. This does not always mean being the best at each individual aspect, but, in this case, having a wide variety of options. Asking, why then, do Archmages not have an option to become DPS is much like asking why you can't play an Empire Wizard other than the Bright. The simple answer is that, yes, Archmages exist who specialize their skills around being purely destructive. You'll see plenty of NPC Archmages that fling lightning or other various effects. But, the fact is, just as the playable Empire caster happens to only include those of the Bright College, so then does the playable Archmages only include those who chose to follow mainly the Lores of Life, Light, and, of course, High Magic in order to better assist in all aspects of combat.

The State of the Archmage
I wondered whether to put this at the end or at the beginning, but I believe I'd rather tell you the blunt truth up front rather than dazzle you with all the goodies you'll get then, possibly, bring you down.

One thing that will be apparent is that the Archmage is a near duplicate in mechanics and abilities to the Shaman. Our button glow for our mechanic actually still has the "Mork and Gork" skulls among the flames. But, this just means Archmage is a career with a lot of room to grow. Most careers have started off very similar to their mirrors and then diverged. The Archmage has a lot of potential, he's just lacking his niche. His spells look cool and he has many of the same abilities of the Shaman and some very unique spells of his own, but he just doesn't excel at anything except potentially at widespread debuffs that aren't very effective at the moment.

The last thing I want is to turn this guide into an "An Archmage runs into a Shaman..." thread, but, currently despite all the physical impossibilities, the High Elven Archmage comes up short to the Goblin Shaman. This is not a thing of imbalance or favoritism, it's simply the fact that the Shaman has been around longer than most other healers, has had more time for design and time to 'grow' into his unique niche.

So, while I left my comments blunt and honest, please remember that this is an MMO and it's all about growth and change and the Archmage as a lot of room to grow.

The Archmage Mechanic - High Magic
**Note that this description is mostly of my own making. I felt Mythic's description of the AM mechanic was lacking and difficult to understand. Thus the reason people find it hard to understand why a shaman's Gork spells build Mork Waagh, and vice versa, yet an AM's Force spells build Force and Tranq spells build Tranq. Based off of the recent BW mechanic changes, I was able to ascertain a "trend" in how the Winds of Magic seem to work in WAR and used that in trying to make the mechanic sound "cooler" and less like they just dropped the Drain Magic Mechanic idea, gave us the Shaman mechanic, and gave us a vague and elfy description.

High Magic, also known as True Magic and represented by the runic word Qhaysh, is the Lore of the High Elves. To first understand High Magic, and how the Archmage wields it, you must first understand the cruder, yet no less destructive, way that Bright Wizards wield the Winds of Aqshy. As a Bright Wizard conjures the flames of Aqshy into being, a sort of lingering magic, called Combustion, fills his body. The Bright Wizard funnels this build up of magic into his spells, making them even more powerful than they would normally be. However, doing so results in even more of the volatile magic filling him, possibly even harming him in the process. The only way to rid himself of this dangerous build-up is to either refrain from using his magics, letting the lingering Combustion drain away, or, rather than using the Combustion to empower a spell, forming this raw power of Aqshy into a powerful blast called a Meltdown.

Elves are more suited for wielding the Winds of Magic than Humans. Not only do they not suffer from the detrimental effects that humans do, but they know the secret to using this magical build-up safely. Archmages recognize two separate types of magical build up in their bodies when they weave the winds, based on the intent for which the spell is woven. Destructive or offensive spells, build up a sort of magic Archmages call "Force", while healing or supportive magics build up what they refer to as "Tranquility". Whereas the Bright Wizard focuses his power into spells that further build Combustion, resulting in a net gain, Archmages focus the lingering magics into a spell of the opposing type. This counter balancing effect results in not only a more potent spell, but they negate any potential backlash and further building up of the magic to unstable levels. It is through this careful balancing of the winds of magic, and build up of magic, that Archmages are able to produce a variety of powerful effects.

In game terms, this mechanic is represented as a Ying Yang. As you cast either destructive or support magics one side of the Ying Yang will light up and build a "point" of High Magic per casting. Destructive spells build Force and Healing spells build Tranquility. The next time you cast the opposite type of spell all of the built-up magic is consumed. Spells which benefit from High Magic do not build it. Each point of High Magic will either swiften or empower a spell. Spells with a casting time will cast 20% faster per point of High Magic that goes into them, this even includes the 6 second cast resurrection spell "Gift of Life", allowing the Archmage to instantly resurrect allies with enough Force to balance the casting of the spell with. Instant spells are empowered, gaining +5% increased effectiveness per point, this includes channeled spells such as Searing Touch.

Archmage Spell Graphics
The Archmage gets a wide variety of spells and effects. Unlike other casters there is little "theme" to each of his spells. A Bright Wizard's spells are all fire, explosions, and smoke while a sorceress deals mainly in shadows and pain. But the Archmage spell effects are quite varied. Heals are generally represented by radiant lights and swirling colors. While damaging spells range from a prismatic spear of light lancing into your enemies to lightning that shoots from the tip of your staff. Mainly the spells seem to fall along the lines of shimmering lights, prismatic rainbow effects, and storm type effects. Though there are a few exceptions.

How the Archmage Compares
An important thing to note is that Mythic prefers we do not directly compare healers. Each career should be taken on it's own and for what it can attribute. Unfortunately, this inevitably results in comparisons since, how can you gauge your true contribution except by comparison to the rest of your archetype? So, while I will provide this section at the request of others, I urge you to not forget that I cannot possibly cover all of the pros and cons, similarities and differences, there will always be one thing a career gets it's peers do not. This is by design, even in DAoC Mythic built the careers and factions on a "similiar yet different" concept. Careers that fill the same role are similar at their core, especially those of the same sub-archetype (Melee Healer, Flex Healer, and Nuker Healer being those sub-archetypes), yet they will have intentional differences despite in order to give them their own unique feel.

The Goblin Shaman
This career is your mirror, or as some devs prefer to put it, your "analog". You share a mechanic and a playstyle. Both careers have a different "feel" despite this. To be quite honest, the Shaman is currently better at you in most things. You might have a slight advantage in the debuff area, simply by virtue of Radiant Gaze being able to be made AoE and having an anti-heal. But if it is an advantage, it's a slim one.

In my mind, the Archmage should focus on being pro/anti ranged/healer careers. While the Shaman should focus on being pro/anti tank/MDPS careers. Why? It fits their concepts. The Shaman is fueled, literally, by the energy of the Waaagh (War). While the Archmage is known for being one of the best magical users around. This seemed to be the way Mythic was going at first, giving the Shaman spells like 'Ere we go!, Gork's Barbs', and Gork Sez Stop. These spells seem ideal for buffing or hindering tanks and MDPS. Even their Mork mastery spells seem to encourage being used on people who are in the thick of things like tanks and mdps. Shrug it off is best if the target is taking frequent damage, and Do Sumfin Useful is the same.

Yet, on the counter point of being anti-RDPS/Healer he still wins. Sure you can debuff Intelligence and Ballistic Skill (Rainlord used to only debuff those stats, strength was added in later). But he can steal it, making the enemy's potential his own (sound like a familiar career description to anyone?). Yer Not So Bad quite simply blows Drain Magic out of the water. I mean, does anyone really think doing a little bit of damage is worth making the enemy lose less AP and not getting that AP for yourself?

But, at the same time, I don't feel jealous of the Shaman. I just feel he's had more attention, more thought, more of a "niche". Relatively speaking, the Archmage is extremely new. For the longest time, we all thought that the AM would use "Drain Magic" as a career defining mechanic. It was a bit of a shock when we found he had essentially become a copy/paste of the Shaman with a Elf'd up description of Waaagh. I am certain this guide will need a LOT of updating in the patches to come as Mythic gets the content more fine tuned and careers start getting more attention.

The Runepriest/Zealot
These careers are called the "Flex Healers" for a reason. In aspect of healing they want to persue they can excel in. One the one hand, they will tell you that it's a disadvantage that their heals are spread out, unlike ours. I would tell you differently though. While this is, in fact, a disadvantage of some sort. It also means that no matter what they specialize in they will have potent heals AND damage. Meanwhile, if you focus in heals your damage falls behind, if you focus in damage your heals fall behind. If you focus in debuffs...well, you get where this is going.

So, the question is, is being able to focus in a single sort of spellcasting worth the others falling behind? I mean, if you focus in healing role and spec so, then your mechanic will boost your damage..right? Yes, this is true. You can instantly cast your weak DDs or add +25% to your weaker instant spells. Does this occasional bonus outweigh the constant 30-50% bonus the Flex Healers receive to both damage and healing spells in the path of their choice? I tend to think not.

In addition to this, you also receive less healing options baseline. Every career gets the same basic heals. A Heal + HoT, a HoT, A Big Heal, and a Group Heal (Melee Healers receive special versions). And..that's all you get...the basics. Meanwhile, flex healers get an instant cast small heal, a shield that doesn't have a group requirement AND heals the target when it fades, and a HoT that bounces to 6 targets.

So, currently, less options overall and less versatility. This is an issue that effects both the AM and Shaman.

The Warrior Priest/Disciple of Khaine
It is quite difficult to compare the Archmage to these careers simply because they play so differently. The ability to use dual targeting, stay in melee range, watch health bars, ect. is so important and valued on these careers that I find it nigh impossible to compare them to any other career in terms of playstyle. But I'll try.

The Melee Healers are extremely potent if played correctly, I might go so far to say that a well played Melee Healer will outdo you. But it's difficult to say. Their mechanic is such a limitation that the requirement to be in melee or channel their AP->Mechanic skill is necessary. An Archmage can, if he chooses, just stand back and focus on healing. And he'll excel. No, he doesn't have as many options as other healers, but he has the tools to do what he needs to do. Meanwhile, if his group is getting hit hard a Melee Healer might find himself out of AP and either HAS to go melee or stand there and convert his AP. His group healing is excellent, especially if he goes into his healing path, and his heals are much quicker. Their "big heal" was long since converted into a channeled melee attack that heals your defensive target, which has some severe limitations since, if you're up against a tank, it'll heal little. And the lack of "Sticky Targeting" makes keeping an offensive and defensive target difficult at best.

This is one situation where I'd have to say the AM comes out ahead simply by virtue of the Melee Healers not currently being able to truly fulfill the healing role in combat as a true Healer Archetype currently. But, when it comes to "mixing it up" the Melee Healers do pull ahead.

......Part 2

Witch Elf Video

2008-10-25T12:56:00.001-07:00

Witch Elf Guide Part 3

2008-10-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Target Priority.
This will vary from player to player, from mastery to mastery, but I think I can safely say KILL THOSE DAMN BRIGHT WIZARDS. These guys will pump out so much dps its incredible, and they go down fast, what’s not to love about sticking a dagger into their back. For example, say the enemy team consists of 2 bright wizards, 2 healers, an engineer, some people would go for the healers, leaving the bright wizards free to cc you, burn you etc… while the healer (if hes decent) will probably get away. Going for the bright wizard will probably mean that he will be doing damage to himself while running from you, hes probably squishier, he will probably not get heals until a few seconds after the healer would have given them to himself if you’d jumped him (since he wont notice straight away the bright wiz has been targeted), and most of all, he wont be able to dps you back. Killing dps as a witch elf is what you should be doing, sure you can kill healers, but that means you’ll go down faster, and hence have less chance of killing one, killing all the enemy’s dps and their line will crumble, without much retaliation. Killing a healer will mean that their line can still crumble, but will be doing a lot more dps to your team while they are crumbling. TLDR – killing their dps is a lot safer.

Stupid things to stay away from –
Running in by yourself. The amount of times per game I see some random magus or sorc try to take on 10 people by yourself, its just stupid, your feeding the other team points, while reducing your own impact on the game. Don’t try to be a hero, that’s the tanks job to charge in first, because they can soak the damage. Try to time your charges for when your team has melee in with the enemy. This should make your chances of being focused a lot lower, since people wont notice you as easily (noticing one melee is harder than noticing the witch elf in three melee). Also, you’ll have backup meaning that the targets should go down faster. If your running with a team, the tank chucking guard on you, and snaring your target will make nuking it down so much faster.

Realise that healers don’t automatically notice you. If your behind the healer, they probably wont notice you as fast as if your in front of them. Yeah, there are some bad healers that don’t seem to notice you at all, but think of it from a healers perspective. There could be 5 people on your team all at 10% hp, if you pop a pot to live and the healer keeps as many of the 5 people getting hurt up as possible, he can hot you up after they’re out of damage and instead there’s more people alive at the end. Also, the other side of it, you stayed in far too long and got gibbed by 10 people focus firing you and you had no chance, take this with a grain of salt and respawn and move on, think to yourself, could I have popped my abilities better to allow the damage I took to be lower, and give my healers a chance to heal me? Could I have gotten out earlier to avoid the burst? Was I running in without support? Then again, if you get two dots on yourself, nobody else in your team is taking damage and you stand right in front of the healer and he lets you die, feel free to call him whatever you want.

Tips and tricks
These may not be classified as tricks or whatever, but I’m hoping that people will reply with their own tricks/tips so I can add them to the guide.

Popping a cauldron early – If your trying to stop damage taken completely (i.e. you don’t have a healer) popping the cauldron as you think the enemys will start to chuck their dots on you etc… i.e. where you think they have noticed you, chuck it up, I think ive had more than 50 spells disrupted by the one cauldron before, when 9 odd people started spamming me with dots only to see them all disrupted. Now, if you do have a healer, realise that you can time the cauldron differently, your job with a healer is to reduce the burst damage you take, as to make yourself more healable, but also to bring attention to yourself in that you will need healing soon. Using the cauldron after you have a few dots up, means that your taking stable damage, its not high enough to not be healed through, but it lets the healer know to heal you, this also means that once the cauldron runs out, you will have hots/heals incoming and are more likely to be healed through it.

Openers from Stealth
Protip: Openers from stealth (Enfeeble Strike, Treacherous Assault, Vehement Blades) do not invoke the GCD, so it is wise to bind your most often used ability directly out of stealth to the same hotkey as your most often used opener. This allows you to spam your opener and get another hit and bloodlust in simultaneously with your opener. This is great for either getting up a quick kiss/healing debuff, or to stun/throat slitter them to scare them right from the start. - Thanks Qpon

On the respawn run or getting back into the fight
After respawning and running back to the engagement zone you see an IB/Lion/SM deep in your lines, quickly throw a few hits at them for bloodlust before going off to look for a squishy. If carnage spec, feel free to pop a CoIP and you have quite a high chance of bursting them down. - Thanks lxyao

Feel free to reply, ill be updating this as much as possible

Cerberias of Darklands.
.....Part 2

Witch Elf Guide Part 2

2008-10-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

Tactic Choices –
Kiss Of Doom - <3,>Flanking – Great for both dungeons (or any group pve) and RVR, and indeed any situation where you can get behind an enemy, 15% is quite a nice chunk of damage. I’d say this is probably a must have unless your solo grinding, in which case its not so good (just about useless infact)

Sharpened Edge – I think this procs before the finisher goes ahead, in which case it’s a nice dps boost for finishers, especially ruthless assault (since it procs from each hit). Never used it myself, but I hear decent things at least.

Brute Force – Dps increase, good to have, I think it gives like 32 dps increase on specials, 16 on autoattacks. So that’s like… 45 damage increase to most skills.

Swift Blades – Might be useful for aoe farming when combined with riposte, cant really see a use in group pve and while rvring, but for soloing I can see it could have its uses. Especially as carnage while aoe farming.

Septic Blade – Sure, it decreases the amount of damage the enemy your attacking is going to be doing, but in rvr, how much dps do you think that bright wizard your stabbing in the spleen is going to be doing anyway? Could be nice for group pve with mobs that hit the tank exceptionally hard. (Bilerot anyone?)

Swift Pursuit – Heard it was bugged so never bothered to use it, would be good if fleet footed actually worked too. For 1v1 this would be great, but if your 1v1ing in this game your probably going to win quite easily anyway, or your doing something wrong. (at least imo)

Healers Bane – Could be quite nice, pity most people would never use envenomed blade as their main attack ever, might be good for a game with no bright wizards (since most witch elves go for bright wiz before healers). Cant imagine giving up on masterful treachery for it though.

Swift Movements – Heard this sometimes bugs out, cant see it being hugely useful, would only be useful if your attacking melee who are on you constantly, which means your probably doing something wrong.

Baneful Touch – Could be useful for group pve, but I cant imagine giving up other tactics for it. If anyone has any experience with this post, it might be really good, never know.

Masterful treachery – This is a little beauty. Get the drop on someone and your going to be doing some crazy damage, definitely enough to drop most targets pretty fast. Might just be coincidence but I notice doing a lot better with this tactic as opposed to without it.

Sacrificed Rewarded – Solo pve and if your playing very very defensive in RVR (doing something wrong again prolly)

Broad Severing – Aoe grinding, or if the other team has a lot of melee focusing you, can you imagine disarming those 6 melee attacking you? That’d be schweet.

Taste of blood – Solo pve is where I can see this being pretty good. Not much else though.

Bathing blood – Doesn’t give enough health to realllly warrant it over other things for solo pve, and it wouldn’t be useful anywhere else. (maybe a use for that wisdom gear mythic keeps giving us?!!)

For the hag queen – So people are telling me that this isnt bugged, and that it has a chance to proc from all hits of a relentless strikes. Could be good for lower levels but at higher levels youve probably allready got another stun which will kick up unstoppable, which i think will stop this from working. If anyone knows if knockdowns/stuns are both affected/start unstoppable or not, please post.

Exotic venom – Very rarely would the extra 5 seconds kill someone, they’re either dispelled or dead by 10 seconds in at the latest, can only think of one situation where the extra 5 seconds would have killed someone, and he died anyway from some random sorc.

Riposte – Could be good for aoe solo farming? Almost useless for rvr, if your being beaten on, that extra tiny bit of damage isn’t really going to win it for you, unless your going 1v1 with someone.

Alignment of naggaroth – Garbage

Jagged Edge – If this scales with strength it might ok for group pve… maybe, but I doubt it.

Dark Blessings – Could be useful with a healbot or three.

Frenzied mayhem – Couple this with Increased Pain and it could be quite useful to just sit at 5 bloodlust forever to keep 15% extra crit going? See what you guys think.

Whirling Blades – Great for carnage solo pve imo, get to that ruthless assault faster. I tend to be swimming in bloodlust anyway as suff/treach so I don’t really see a use for it, any carnage specced people want to testify?

Increased Pain – Extra burst dps, who can go wrong?

All that being said, currently im running with brute force, flanking, masterful treachery, and Kiss of Doom. This provides me with some very nasty burst damage to take down a target once I pop on them. For carnage specced I’d suggest instead of masterful treachery (which you wont have) use Increased Pain, get some hefty big crits. After all, the aim of a witch elf is to burst people down before they can react, hehe.

Morale Abilities.
Mostly just gonna say that Confusing movements > Sever nerve, that is all. 1200 damage at level 40 really isn’t that much when you can get heartseeker crit’ for like 1300 without Increased pain, and 7 seconds where your immune to physical (or very nearly) is a godsend when your being focused, like Elixir of the Cauldron, wasting the other teams action points and more importantly, time. Note, to parry an attack you have to be facing the attacker, you cant parry or dodge an attack coming from behind, this means you cant activate this ability and turn tail and flee and expect to live, you’ve got to sidestrafe or backpedal away from the enemy(s) for it to work.

I use web of shadows for rank 2 morale, since we run with a magus, and its nice to help with the aoe’ing down of the enemy team, hehe.

Broad swings, does more aoe damage than web of shadows unless you only hit the enemy 4 or less times (waste of a morale then) or if there’s a hell of a lot of enemies. Great for nuking down packs of champs (since they normally come in 3’s). Don’t think I’ve ever used this in RVR. Its very situational is all I can say for RVR.

Play style.
Personally I play like a guerrilla warrior, coming in from the sides, nuking down a bright wizard, and running back to my lines to protect the healers/ranked until my stealth comes up again. I’m not saying this is the best way to play, but I will say I hate suicide witch elves, you know, the ones that go in, try to kill as many as possible and die, respawn and repeat. Some people may say this helps the team more than what I’m doing, and if you can get down 2 enemies before you die you may be right, but while your running back you can be picked off and you cant do anything to protect or work with the rest of your team.

Also, these suicide witch elves tend to not know that once the enemy gets away, there’s not much chance that you’re going to be able to kill them. Sometimes its better to run away, pop a cauldron to absorb the enemy fire and waste their time, and then go again in a few seconds, than to spend a minute running back to the fight and giving the enemy points.

The way I see things, melee are mostly there to break the enemy lines and mop them up when they are breaking and running. Ranged are there to kill enemy melee and push the enemy back through concentrated fire (forcing the enemy backwards), and tanks/healers are there to hold the line in place. If you go in and kill an enemy, then run back to your lines, chances are their entire team is going to be focus firing you into the dirt, by running early, you have a much higher chance of getting back into my lines where you have the ranged dps to cover you and the enemy team has just wasted 10 seconds of their time trying to nuke down someone who didn’t die. This gives your team more time to kill or CC a couple more of their players. Hell, even if you don’t kill one (very rare against pugs), you’re still absorbing fire, and giving your team time. You know how annoying it is when that bright wizard gets out of your reach? That’s what you’ll be doing to them.

Part 1... ...Part 3

Witch Elf Guide Part 1

2008-10-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

Post by cypresshill
Witch Elf Career Video
Cerberias’ guide to rank 40 witch elf smackdown.
Background:
Gidday, im a rank 40 Witch Elf from Darklands. Currently renown rank 33. I’d figure myself at least a decent player of the Witch Elf class, but im no pro, so if anyone else has anything to add to this, ill be happy to try to update this guide as much as possible. This guide is aimed at rank 40’s, but I hope anyone playing the class will get at least some help out of it. This also means im not going to be talking about basic abilities and which ones more mathematically feasible, as I would expect people to know how the basic mechanics of the game work by rank 40. Note this is only the start of a guide, and will be added to as people respond. More of a group guide made by the community.

Mastery Choices:
So, we’ve got many different specs that im sure many people are using, but im only really going to discuss the two that I have found the most useful in rvr combat.

Carnage – http://www.wardb.com/career.aspx?id=...04:3:8:5:32:25
This spec’s main tools are On Your Knees, Kiss Of Doom (imo a must have for any spec, the damage increase alone from this is pretty nasty), and Elixir of the Cauldron (also imo a must have, were a squishy class, that’s going to attract a lot of fire, why not use that to our advantage in wasting the enemy time).

This spec, in my eyes, is more of a ‘pugging’ spec. That is, you can go in to the enemy ranks, and will usually kill one, without relying too heavily on support. The premise behind this is that you can pop on a bright wizard, throat slitter, get a kiss up, and on your knees everyone in the vicinity. This should give you the time to finish off that one enemy and either start working on the second or to get out of there leaving the enemy reeling from the incredibly fast death of one of their number.

Carnage does allow armor bypass with pierce armor, it gives us ~0 armor mitigation against almost all of our priority targets: RDPS, Runepriests, Archmages, etc... Make sure you get up an ailment on the enemy before using pierce armor so you get the armor penetration for 10 seconds.

Same with EoIP which gives us 0 armor against anyone for a nice burst, or the fact that PA works like a more powerful AW every 10 seconds (assuming they already aren't at 0 from the debuff) - Thanks Sogui

Pro’s
• Doesn’t need as much support to do its job,
• Gets you high on the damage meters (lol),
• Good for spreading a kiss of death over a few healers in the enemy ranks
• Less susceptible to CC, due to knocking down anyone who means to get you off the squishy your focusing.
• High damage, ability to deal with almost all classes attacking you.
• Relatively easy to play well, and kill people

Con’s
• No healing debuff, I cant stress this enough, if your playing with a team, without a healing debuff, against a premade or even a pug with good healers, they are more likely to be able to heal through your damage. (note that kiss of death isn’t a healing taken debuff, it’s a healing done debuff, hence why spreading a kiss of death over their healers is such a good idea)
• Needs weapon skill as a secondary stat to do more damage, since slice doesn’t ignore armour, this means less toughness/wounds and therefore less survivability.

Suffering/Treachery -
http://www.wardb.com/career.aspx?id=...520:11:2592:25
The only other mastery setup that I find useful for RVR combat. This build focuses on high single target damage, and utility. This is the build that I use so I may be a touch bias .

I find this spec very useful when in groups, and against other premades. The ability to put one black lotus up on someone that’s being focus fired as your running back to your healers after nuking down some poor schmuck of a bright wizard, and watching that person, being focus healed, still die, will keep the grin on my face for a long time. I started playing this build by getting an opener, then going for damage, and getting the healing debuff up on the person as soon as possible… but then when I started playing against better and better adversaries, I noticed… people can dispel your opener…. Damn those bright wizards. So, as it stands now I get up a heart seeker straight away after my opener to cover it for a few seconds, getting up a kiss and then a black lotus blade. By this time I should have 3 ailments on the target, which should cover your opener from dispels, unless the other team seems adamant in getting rid of it, instead of healing the person your mauling.

This build is very reliant on team mates. Your very easy to get cc’ed, so you will want at least a tank with you in the front ranks keeping snares up on the target your dpsing, guarding you, and knocking back those pesky Ironbreakers who try to knock you back. You will also want healers, this spec isn’t really designed to kill more than one enemy per stealth run. Go in, kill one, retreat and harass enemy melee/tanks while being healed back up.

Your mission is utility, your there to stun people, to get up debuffs on the right people to cripple the other team, while also nuking down squishy targets to thin the enemy ranks once in a while. This spec IS NOT, at least in my eyes, a suicide spec.

Pro’s
• Healing debuff – love to the black lotus.
• Nasty single target dps, but not hugely more, if at all, than carnage.
• Strength is the only dps stat that is really worthwhile to stack, since our main attack ignores armour. This leaves more room open for toughness/wounds, meaning that your more durable than some people might expect (which is good since you should have a healer, remember, this is a team play spec.)

Con’s
• Vulnerable to cc, moreso than the carnage spec listed above.
• Less aoe damage – don’t expect to top the damage meters with this spec.
• Hardish to play, since most of your moves require positional requirements, getting behind the enemy is sometimes quite difficult.

Gear – Now, im not going to make a full list of gear to aim for, because well, I don’t really have the time to go through all that effort. What I will do is tell you what stats I personally think, are the best stats for your witch elf.

Strength – What more can I say, it increases dps, if your having trouble nuking people down, stock up!
Wounds – Once you have enough strength to get people down, wounds is the best way to get survivability. Some people think toughness is the way to go, but theres a forum somewhere around here that shows that toughness is only the way to go as a tank. That being said, the wounds renown training gives you less wounds than any other stat, and the wounds talismans are the easiest ones to get permanent. I think you know what im saying there, get other stats from renown training and stock up your talismans with 19 wounds perma ones. They’re in our auction house usually for 35g each.

Toughness – Always a nice stat to get, not quite on the level of wounds, but renown training toughness is cheaper per point than wounds, and a lot of the wounds gear has toughness on it too. Basically, the way toughness works is that it reduces the dps taken by a certain amount per person attacking you, so say you have 100 people attacking you at 10 dps each, toughness could reduce that down to very very little (1 damage an attack I think is the lowest). Whereas its not as effective against burst dps (the type of dps were more likely to take). This makes toughness still a nice stat against low dpsers, like healers who are noob enough to try to dps you down while your ripping their face off, or turrets/pets.

Initiative – Although I personally haven’t stacked much of this, ive been hearing lately it’s a pretty decent stat to have afterall. Reduction in being crit is always nice to have.

Weapon skill – Great stat for carnage specced Witch Elves, not so good for the other two mastery trees, mostly because the main attacks of treachery and suffering should be ignoring armor (the dot part of envenomed blade, and if your attacking from behind with agonizing wound)

Willpower – this is for healers, heres hoping that Mythic gets this crap off our gear. Now before everyone says ‘BUT IT GIVES US SPELL DISRUPTION’! you should know that spells aren’t what normally kills us, and were quite good against them (see elixir of the cauldron) I’d much rather have an extra 100 hp than 10 willpower giving me a tinnnny bit of spell disrupt. That also being said, its not the worst stat to have some of, I think I’ve got like +20 of it due to annihilator having some, and my shoulders too.

Intel – If you have any of this, I pity you. Give us absolutely nothing, unless I’m missing something huge.

Ballistic skill – Throwing dagger damage, at least I’d assume, we don’t need any of this stat, were not going to kill anyone with throwing damage, and if we do, its probably because of that nice hefty kiss proc coming from the dagger.

Can anyone give me the link to the character finding profiley thingy website? Incase anyone wants to look at what im using and ask me where to get it.

Mastery Choices:
So, we’ve got many different specs that im sure many people are using, but im only really going to discuss the two that I have found the most useful in rvr combat.

........Page 2

Apothecary Guide 0 to 100

2008-10-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Post by Azureal
For a system so inherently simple, theres a metric arse load of confusion over how to level apothecary. So just last night I decided to zero my current 157 apothecary skill (after spending an hour looking for the talisman trainer) and starting from scratch with the full intention of writing a simple and easy to understand guide explaining how to get the first 100 points in Apothecary. If you havent figured it out by that stage, the next 100 points will be lost on you anyway.

To break it down, the Apothecary skill measures your current skill against the skill of the MAIN INGREDIENT youre using, performs a hidden skillcheck/roll and decides if you gain skill or not. Its that simple. So whilst it has been said that you can continually gain skill from using level 1 mats all the way up to 100 and beyond, you would be entirely at the mercy of the skill check/roll, and it would take forever to gain very much after around level 50. Not to mention the fact that if it were possible to gain too much skill from low level mats, the system would be basically broken/flawed, and the devs responsible would need to be fired/stabbed.

Containers.

Containers work in two ways. The first is obvious, its where the finished potion goes. You can do nothing until a suitable container is placed in the first slot of the apothecary window **PICTURE** Secondly, higher level containers provide a bonus to stability.

Basic Ingredients - Lowest Level Vial

Same Ingedients - Mid Level Vial

Main Ingredients.

These determine what potion you will make and let you know the minimum required skill to make that particular potion.

Stabilizers/Misc.

Stabilizers determine whether or not you will a) create a stable potion and b) succeed at creating a potion. PLEASE NOTE: YOU CAN GAIN SKILL FROM UNSTABLE/VOLATILE CONCOCTIONS.

Gaining Skill from Unstable Potions

I found the hardest level gains between 35-50, as the highest level main ingredient I was able to use was a level 15 Engorged Ribbon Leech, but after a quick search on the AH, I found what I needed and the gains kept flowing. Between 50 and 80 was extremely easy as main ingredients are available in an abundance of types (leech, ticks, dirt, spit) and with varying levels (50, 60, 65 and 75) allowing rapid skill gain **SKILL GAIN BETWEEN 50 AND 65 - 15 POTIONS** Between 85 and 100 wasnt too bad, with enough level 75 main ingredients it was too bad, skill gains slowed down during the 90s, but not enough to cause any major concerns.

Gaining skill in Apothecary is about testing yourself against the hidden skill check/roll. Youre very unlikely to gain a point of skill using level 1 vendor main ingredients at level 60, where as a level 60 main ingedient will basically guarantee a skill gain.
If youre looking at taking up Apothecary as your trade skill, you will either need to take up a gathering skill (cultivating, scavenging or butchering. I use Scavenging) or rely upon the AH to supply you with everything you need. I think most peoples problems arise from the fact that they grind their way through to 50 on the NPC ingredients and then wonder why the skills gains stop/drop off. You MUST keep using the highest possible main ingredients your skill allows.

Its late, and I really should be in bed by now. I will upload the screenshots I took tomorrow at some stage.

**EDIT** Screenshots added.

Critical Success - You Made Something Better! Whilst this is still quite buggy (ie - a crit success most times doesnt produce something better) its always nice when it does give you a potion thats a little better than standard.

Super Critical Success - You Made Something Awesome! And then of course there are super critical success, where you get something even more delicious.

Warhammer Online Guides (Sidebar problem)

2008-10-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

Warhammer Online Guides seems to be having a problem with the template! Please leave a comment if the sidebars are appearing on the bottom of the blog and any details you can about the overall look! I'm trying to pin point the problem.

Swordmasters Guide (scenarios, open world RvR, and in keep sieges) Part 2

2008-10-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

Weapon Enchants:
These are more about opinions than facts

Phantom's Blade: This is my every enchant. With the points I spent into Vaul, it's 303 damage shield. If the RNG gods love you, you can keep this and Vaul's Buffer up all the time

Nature's Blade: This enchant is too random for my liking. Sure, if you get +100 Strength it's god damn amazing. However, I've seen myself get +100 Intelligence and Willpower more than Strength or Weapon Skill. This is for some, but not for me

Heaven's Blade: Other than I'm hearing resists are buggy as all hell, the amount of resistance lowered doesn't add up to a 300 damage shield (again, in my opinion). If you feel as if the damage gained is better than a damage shield, feel free to use it

As for Morales, I suggest using Demolishing Strike as R1 because sometimes Champion's Challenge bugs with the lag, and I get rooted away from them, out of melee range. Also, in the likely event someone punts them away from me, I'm still rooted; a sitting duck if you will. Guard of Steel is also acceptable, since survivability for your healers is something they'd love to have

R2, use Wings of Heaven. This is amazing for catching runners, or picking off the healers in the back. I don't like using Raze because I have to stay in one spot, leaving myself open for RDPS to hit like a piñata

R3 use Bladeshield. It's not only another damage shield, but it deals damage back to those pesky MDPS classes. Witch Elves light up after I hit it. Distracting Blow is alright if you want to be more support

R4, use Immaculate Defense. No other viable options

Tactics: Ensorcelled Agony, Rugged, Winds' Force, and Vaul's Buffer

EA, plain obvious

Rugged, since I'm going two handed swords, I need every last survivability tool I can get

Winds' Force, if you feel as if Unstoppable Juggernaut is something you cannot live without, take the point out of this and throw it into Vaul to fill the tree

Vaul's Buffer is what keeps me alive, and gives me the ability to get the last hit in to kill them. This with Wall of Darting Steel is a god send

Rotation: Taunt, then Ensorcelled Blow, Intimidating Blow (Or Eagle's Flight vs. Melee), Dragon's Talon (or Crushing Wave when you feel it's needed). I use Gusting Winds when I have a ton of melee on me. Use it wisely, or there will be a lot of angry Bright Wizards

I don't feel Dazzling Strike fits anywhere in the rotation, but it deserves a note of approval. Use this against anyone for a massive drop in DPS and HPS

At level 40, Wall of Darting Steel is your best friend. 50% Parry, Dodge, and Disrupt is the best thing for survivability. Another thing to keep in mind is Taunt is an interrupt. Use it as one if the situation warrants it

Finally, the best piece of advice I can give to anyone that uses a two handed sword is, and I've stated this in a previous thread,"Don't see death as a 5 year old girl sees a bug. You will die, it happens. However, seeing chains of 300 followed by 700 white crits is too much of a sight for me to give up"

Remember my creed: "I may be going down, but I'm taking the lot of you with me"

.......Page 1

Swordmasters Guide (scenarios, open world RvR, and in keep sieges) Part 1

2008-10-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

Post by Aquila
NOTE: This is a thread about the Swordmaster in scenarios, open world RvR, and in keep sieges. None of this reflects on PvE tanking for PQs, level 40 dungeons, or any other PvE situations. Also, I'm talking from a level 40 perspective, not from 21

A lot of people are claiming to have troubles with the class to the point they're spouting nonsense onto the forums for our reading displeasure. I want to know what troubles you're having and WWAD? (What Would Aquilla Do?), because I'm absolutely loving this class; and there isn't another Order class I'd play. As mentioned above, if you're level 21 and are getting owned by level 21 Witch Elves, I can't offer you any advice other than to start leveling. If you have any questions, feel free to post them

To get this started this:

is my spec. Yes, I'm using a 2H Vaul spec currently. It's fantastic at what it's aimed to do. I deal incredible damage while sustaining some survivability for using a two handed sword. For those of you who say "go further in Hoeth for EB damage!" I say "Vaul is 2/3rds of my rotation. If I add damage to EB, I'm losing damage from IB and DT"

For those of you who are also dead determined to use a two hander while leveling, get Vaul's Buffer before anything else. This tactic should always be active no matter what you're doing.

My weapon:

Page 2...

Warrior Priest and Shadow Warrior Gameplay Footage

2008-10-16T05:59:00.000-07:00

Found this interesting video showing gameplay footage of a Warrior Priest and a Shadow Warrior.
Enjoy!

"Spam me not" New WAR MOD

2008-10-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

The third party add-on “Spam Me Not” will automatically detect ,block and report commercials and spam.

While this is not an “official” product nor is it supported or endorsed by Mythic, it is a valuable resource in helping to make your online experience more enjoyable.

“Spam Me Not” v 0.2 BETA can be found here.

Feedback is always welcome!!

The Swordmaster Guide (Part 4)

2008-10-14T06:23:00.003-07:00

What are some different ways to spec a swordmaster?

One of the best things about this game is that there is no one great spec. Everyone’s spec needs to be different if you plan to get the most out of RvR – unlike other games, you are not a hammer and every problem is not a nail.

Having said that of course, there are some generally cookie-cutter ways to play a swordmaster. First off, you can spec for DPS as mentioned in the tip above. However, there are various ways to do this… Do you want to be a pure DPS class with no regard for how fast you die? Do you want to be burst damage or sustained damage? Do you want to be single target or AoE oriented? The Swordmaster can fill all these roles… and that’s just if you want to DPS.

Swordmasters are also able to tank, even better than they can DPS. But again the question arises – what type of tank do you want to be? Do you want to be a mitigation tank? An avoidance tank? Do you want to use a greatsword or a sword and shield? Do you want to build yourself to absorb maximum damage, or would you like to be able to do decent damage at the same time? Do you want to tank single target encounters or multi-target encounters?

As you can see, there is no one way to play a Swordmaster, every encounter has a chance to require a different setup than the one you’ve chosen for maximum efficiency. That isn’t to say you won’t be able to do it, just that if you were speced differently it’d probably be easier.

I was asked to give a list of templates for swordmasters, however this game is designed to have you switch tactics between encounters, so there really is no static set of tactics you’ll be using all the time. Additionally, if you're anything like me you'll be respecing a lot - and not always to a template. Finally, I'm not here to tell you how to play. I'm here to tell you what the Swordmaster is capable of. Plenty of other people will try to tell you what buttons to push and what works best under ideal circumstances that never happen in real gameplay.

What are some common tactic setups?

As I mentioned elsewhere, tactics are meant to be switched around depending on the situation. So what are some common situations one might run across?

AoEing:

When AoEing mobs, you typically have up Nature’s Blade and use Gusting Wind (or Phoenix's Wing) and Wrath of Hoeth. Because you’re being hit by a large number of mobs (I normally pull 10-20 at a time) it’s a good idea to make sure you have Rugged equipped and Bolstering Enchantments. If you’re trying to hold agro on all the mobs, then Menace is a good idea to have as well. For any remaining slots, use Centuries of Training or Potent Enchantments to help bring the mobs down a little faster; or alternatively Blessing of Heaven for the extra healing to make sure you stay alive.

Recommended tactics for AoEing: Rugged, Menace, Bolstering Enchantments, Centuries of Training, Potent enchantments, Blessing of Heaven

Single Target DPSing:

If you’re trying to kill single targets, you want to dish out as much damage as possible while maintaining as little risk. This can be accomplished by making sure that Heaven’s Blade is in use and Taunt is kept up on your target. You also want to mix around the following tactics: Focused Offence, Centuries of Training, Balanced Accuracy, Deep Incision, Potent Enchantments, and Ensorcelled Agony.

The exact tactics to use depends on the length of the fight and your gear. In terms of maximum damage per second, Centuries of Training does more than Deep Incision or Potent Enchantments, but there’s no guarantee that it will be up as often. With Deep Incision you have absolute control on when it gets applied, and with Potent Enchantments you can have a higher probability of application by also slotting Volatile enchantments. However, Potent Enchantments is currently ticking every 3 seconds, which leaves open the possibility that it can be reapplied before a single tick goes off and hence you lose the damage.

Additionally, you’re mastery path has a very large impact over what skills will be available to you. If you don’t go down Khain, then Ensorcelled Blow with Ensorcelled Agony slotted is the best opening attack you can have; and one possible tactic setup for Hoeth spec might be: Potent Enchantments, Focused Offense, Ensorcelled Agony, Centuries of Training.

Tanking:

Tanking is all about holding agro and not dying. As a Swordmaster, you can tank one mob, or if you prefer, all the mobs. Tactic selection for this goal is more straight-forward than other roles. If you’re not speced into Vaul, you want to at least have Rugged and Menace. If you plan to be taking damage from elemental sources, it might be wise to think about using Bend the Winds since we have no other way to buff this stat by ourselves. Isha’s Protection is also nice since it makes healing a lot easier. Additionally, Bolstering Enchantments and Blessing of Heaven from the Hoeth line can really increase our survivabiltiy when combined with Phantom's Blade.

If, however, you have chosen to spec into Vaul, the tactics that you can use become much more interesting. Rugged is still a must, but the addition of Perfect Defenses and Vaul’s Buffer bring a lot to the table. If you find yourself being crit a lot, Lingering Intimidation might be worth looking into.

Typically, when I go Vaul without Hoeth to tank, I slot: Rugged, Perfect Defenses, Vaul’s Buffer, and Menace. If I'm Hoeth spec, then I'll use Rugged, Bolstering Enchantments, Blessing of Heaven, and Vaul's Buffer - but I'm still toying with the idea of dropping Rugged for Perfect Defenses.

There are of course many other combinations than the ones I listed here, and I doubt I could cover every single situation in which they might be used. As the game advances so will the strategies that are used to slot tactics.

Is tanking with a greatweapon viable?

Yes.

There has been much debate on this topic, and while it is true that a shield does increase you're survivability, especially if you're Vaul, it does not mean that tanking with a two hander is silly, stupid, or impossible.

Every fight I've done, I've tanked with a two hander and a sword and board. Both work. With the ability of Phantom's Blade to give you an absorption shield, and Bolstering Enchantments and Blessing of Heaven to heal you, it's even more viable now than it was in beta. Tanking with a shield will always be better, but it is not a requirement or even a recommendation. But I would offer a piece of advise... shields are your friend when you have 10+ mobs on you.
....Page 3

The Swordmaster Guide (Part3)

2008-10-14T06:23:00.002-07:00

Advice and Tips on Playstyle

What stats should be stacked?

It depends on how you want to play. If you want to DPS, stack Strength and Weapon Skill, then Toughness, then Wounds.

If you want to mitigation tank, stack Toughness and Initiative first, and then worry about Wounds, Weapon Skill, and Willpower

If you want to avoidance tank, stack Weapon Skill, Willpower, Initiative, and then worry about Toughness and Wounds.

Wounds really isn’t very important, as long as you’re getting healed. No player can burst out enough damage to kill you in a couple of hits (bugs excluded). The only way for you to get one shotted in this game is though being focus fired. (E.g. You get hit by 10 doombolt spells at exactly the same time)

What type of crowd control/debuffs can I use?

Swordmasters have a large number of crowd control skills, though not all of them are available on demand and some require tactics to use.

We have the ability to…

Snare (quick incision, wings of heaven),
Root (aethyric grasp, champion's challenge),
Silence (whispering wind),
Stun (gryphon’s precision),
Knockback (forceful shock, whirling geyser, gusting wind),
Knockdown (crashing wave)
Increase build up (dazzling strike),

Reduce Armor (demolishing strike),
Reduce Spiritual and Corporeal Resistance (wrath of hoeth and heaven's blade),
Reduce Elemental Resistance (heaven's blade),
Spell Interruption (crushing advance),
Drain AP (sapping strike),
Drain and Leach stats (Nature’s Blade),
Reduce damage (dragon’s talon, distracting blow),
Reduce mitigation (dampening talon)

What sort of group utility does a swordmaster bring?

Swordmasters are very group friendly. In addition to the wide range of CC and debuff options we bring to a fight, we also have various ways to reduce the damage done to our party and furthermore, if speced Khaine we have the ability to heal not only our group members, but anyone attacking our target.

Under what conditions should I use my blade enchants?

Swordmasters get three blade enchants – Heaven’s Blade, Nature’s Blade, and Phantom’s Blade. Each one of these has its own uses. One important thing to mention is that these enchantments have a chance to proc (base 25%) on each attack… this means both autoattacks and skill attacks. At first this doesn’t sound so great, and it isn’t… until you remember that we have a lot of multi-hit attacks. Dragon’s Talon, Whispering Wind, and Crashing Wave all hit twice… and ether dance can hit 5 times. Needless to say, these proc a lot in real play.

If you’re planning to be in a situation where you’ll be doing single target damage – grinding, leveling, RvRing – and you don't plan to take a lot of damage, then you probably want to use Heaven’s Blade. The other common condition is AoEing mobs that are fairly below your level – the extra damage from reduced spirtual resistence can make them die pretty fast. On the other hand, Nature's Blade can reduce your targets toughness, strength and weapon skill, while buffing your toughness, strength and weapon skill; this means that you'll do more damage and take less. The enchant to use depends on the type of damage you're doing. Heaven's Blade for spirtual, Nature's Blade for physical.

For AoEing mobs at or above your level, or tanking, Nature’s Blade is one good choice. On each proc, Nature’s Blade reduces one of your target's stats at random and gives you the amount drained for a few seconds. Often times you end up with something that won’t benefit you, like intelligence or ballistic skill – but after a while you begin to notice that you’ve drained toughness, strength, and weapon skill. Not only is this nice because it increases your damage, but it also decreases the damage your enemy is doing. For AoEing this can mean the difference between life and death. Additionally, since Nature's Blade is an AoE proc, the amount of threat it builds is simply remarkable. This makes it the ideal enchant for tanking multiple mobs.

Phantom's Blade is a good all-around choice for a blade enchant. Each time it procs it gives you a damage absorption shield that soaks up a good bit of damage. However, it can only proc when it isn't already applied, so the timer won't get refreshed and yield a shield that can potentially last forever.Using this blade enchant in combination with Bolstering Enchantments and Blessing of Heaven for the heals can yield incredible results in both RvR and PvE.

What is the best method to deal damage?

If you intend to deal damage (or DPS as it's often erraneously called) as a swordmaster, you are strongly advised to go down the Path of Khaine until at least Ether Dance. Additionally, you want to make sure you're using Heaven's Blade and keeping Taunt up everytime it comes off cooldown. Nature's Blade is a viable alternative to Heaven's Blade because it has a chance to reduce your targets mitigation stats as well as increase your strength and weapon skill. So far there is no conclusive evidence for which enchant is superior.

The ideal mastery spec and tactic selection for maximizing DPS is still being researched. However, a good place to start is by taking Centuries of Training, Focused Offense, Balanced Accuracy, and Adept Movements. This randomly adds a fairly decent DoT to your target, increases your damage by 15%, gives you a higher chance to crit depending on your stance, and reduces the AP you spend allowing you to get more damage out of each AP point.

Your attack chain is: Gryphon’s Lash -> Quick Incision -> [Wrath of Hoeth] / Ether Dance

In the event that Ether Dance isn’t off cooldown, wait until it is and then use it. DO NOT start trying to do a difference chain or use another finisher. You lose DPS because you increase the time before you can use Ether Dance again. Only use Wrath of Hoeth when the effect has worn off. Currently it lasts for 20 seconds.

(As a historical note, in beta Wrath of Hoeth only lasted a few seconds, hence you had to use it every other cycle. The result was lower overall DPS, but increased burst damage. Due to TTK issues in this game, it was ineffective. However the 4.1 patch saw an increased duration to 20 seconds, meaning you can get off two ether dance attacks before having to refresh it. This increases the viability of using it in the chain, but there is still no conclusive evidence as to if it really allows you to maximize your DPS.)
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The Swordmaster Guide (Part 2)

2008-10-14T06:23:00.001-07:00

Common Cycles

When in combat, the Swordmaster functions by cycling through the various stances of his balance mechanic. If one looks at the skills above, a few of them seem to have an obvious synergy - this is not unintentional. Many skills have been designed to work together. Below I have listed some of the more common cycles.

For convention, when a skill name appears in [brackets] it means that the skill should be alternated into the chain at that step. The arrow -> represents movement to the next balance state.

(1) Graceful Strike -> Eagle’s Flight -> Dragon’s Talon

This chain is your bread and butter tank chain. You open with a high hate attack, then follow it up with a blow that increases your chance to avoid damage, and finish it with an attack that reduces any damage you fail to mitigate. This chain can be used with a sword and board or a greatsword.

If you have chosen to put points into the Path of Vaul and taken Crushing Advance, then the following complex chain becomes available:

(1.1) Graceful Strike -> [Crushing Advance] / Eagle's Flight -> Dragon's Talon

In this chain, you use Crushing Advance initially and wait until wears off to use it again. This allows you to increase your armor well as your block value; the results are both an increase to physical mitigation, and a higher chance to outright avoid all types of damage. If you've gone even further up the Vaul path and taken Crashing Wave, it can also be alternated in the chain and replace Dragon’s Talon every time it's available in order to knock your target down, thereby preventing them from doing anything for the duration.

(2) Ensorcelled Blow -> [Dazzling Strike] / Intimidating Blow -> [Wrath of Hoeth] / Dragon's Talon (or Ether Dance)

This chain is your basic spirit attack chain that you can use against heavily armored opponents (such as destruction tanks). By alternating Dazzling Strike and Intimidating Blow you ensure that you're opponent is able to deal less damage because of increased build up time, and has less opportunities to use morale abilities. Wrath of Hoeth is an AoE attack that also reduces your targets spiritual resist, allowing most of the attacks in this chain to do increased damage.

(3) Graceful Strike -> [Gusting Wind] / Eagle's Flight (or Phoenix's Wind) -> Wrath of Hoeth

This is the chain you should use for AoE tanking. As long as your party members are attacking your main target, graceful strike will build enough hate to ensure you keep agro. The damage from Gusting Wind and Wrath of Hoeth will ensure that healers will not accidently pull agro. This chain can also be used to multitank when other classes are AoEing. The cravat is that they need to wait a few moments so that you can build initial agro. Additionally, the knockback (or knockdown) from Gusting Wind and alternating with Eagle's Flight helps to reduce damage taken tanking.

If you are tanking with a greatsword and have gone down the Path of Khaine and picked up Phoenix’s Wing, then you should alternate it with Gusting Wind due to the increased hate it generates in addition to the frontal AoE damage.

(4) Sapping Strike -> Dazzling Strike

If you've taken the Khaine Path, this partial chain can be weaved into other chains for RvR battles. The 10 second cooldown on each skill prevents them from being used in the same manner as other Normal and Improved balance sills, but their impact can be enough to turn the tide of battle in your favor.

(5) Gryphon’s Lash -> [Quick Incision] / Intimidating Blow -> Ether Dance

If you have gone down the Path of Khaine and plan to DPS as a swordmaster, this is the main chain you need to know. The ability of Gryphon’s Lash to bypass block and parry makes a huge difference in the DPS dealt compared to other attacks. Quick incision not only adds a large DoT, but it also ensures that your target stays nice and close. Intimidating Blow is swapped in every other cycle to allow Quick Incision to finish ticking while letting you keep up the damage.

As mentioned, these are only a few cycle. In actual practice, your tactics and mastery choices dictate what skills you are most likely to use. For instance, picking up Ensorcelled Agony makes Ensorcelled Blow much more attractive for general damage if you aren’t Khaine spec. And if you’re full Khaine spec, then you would want to use Ether Dance over Wrath of Hoeth in chain (2).

The ability to chain attacks is made infinitely easy if you use a mod that changes your hotbars based on your stance. (Personally, I modified the PlanB mod and use that)
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The Swordmaster Guide (Part 1)

2008-10-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

Post by SwordmasterCyris
This guide will provide an introduction to the Swordmaster and give advice on how to play the class.

Who am I and why should you care?

I’ve been in WAR beta since before the High Elf/Dark Elf pairing was created. Since the Swordmaster class was released, I’ve been playing it alongside nearly every other class. As a Swordmaster, I’ve leveled from 1 through 40 over the course of multiple beta phases, I’ve tanked and DPSed nearly every PQ in the Elf and Empire zones, and I’ve run every instance currently in the game – including the King battle in Inevitable City. So when I say I know a thing or two about Swordmasters, hopefully you’ll believe me.

An Overview of the Swordmaster

The Swordmaster is one possible tank class that Order players can choose to play in Warhammer Online. Originally designed as an anti-magic tank, the boundaries have since become fuzzy. The strengths of the Swordmaster stem from the ability to wear heavy armor, and the ability to deal large amounts of spirit damage instead of physical damage. (This checks against Spirit Mitigation instead of Physical Mitigation) Additionally, recent changes have provided the Swordmaster with the ability to mitigate vast amounts of damage through damage absorption shields as well as provide minor group and ally healing.

The Swordmaster Mechanic

Swordmasters use a mechanic called Balance. It’s a fairly straight forward system in which certain skills require either Normal Balance, Improved Balance, or Perfect Balance to use. When these skills are used, your balance level changes. This means that as a Swordmaster, you are always working through "cycles" when you're in combat.

The path of progression through balance is as follows:

Normal -> Improved -> Perfect -> Normal

It is important to note that skills used from Perfect Balance do not consume any AP by default. A tactic is available later that reduces the AP cost of skills that stem from the Improved Balance line. Because of this behavior, spamming a normal balance skill very rarely advisable and when done, can quickly drain AP.

Currently, the balance mechanic does not let you use improved balance skills while in perfect balance. You can use normal balance skills, but you're stance will be set to improved balance. This means it is impossible to stay in perfect balance for more than a single attack. However, it is possible to alternate between normal and improved skill - but you run the risk of using all your AP fairly quickly.

What can a Swordmaster do in PvE?

In PvE gameplay, the Swordmaster is first and foremost a tank. Their job is to gain agro on one or more mobs and hold it, ensuring that other players are not being attacked. To do this, a Swordmaster must be skilled at more than simply spamming high-threat skills such as Graceful Strike. They must also know how to position a mob and when to use their defensive skills to reduce incoming damage.

The Swordmaster excels at both multi-mob tanking, and tanking without a shield. However, just because a Swordmaster can tank without a shield does not mean that they should. Depending on Mastery spec, there are some options that will only be available when using a greatsword, and some options that will only be available when using a shield. Currently, however, the benefit of being able to block far outweighs those gained from using a greatsword; this is because in Warhammer, blocking defends against ALL attacks – ranged and magic as well as melee.

Swordmasters who do not enjoy tanking are not completely a lost cause. By specing heavily into the Khaine and Hoeth mastery lines, they gain the ability to do more damage than a traditional tank while still having viable debuffing and crowd control abilities.

It should be remembered though that the Swordmaster is a TANK class. Not a melee DPS class. Anyone thinking they’ll play a Swordmaster and be topping the damage charts at level 40 will be very disappointed. You can do enough damage to solo in PvE, but when it comes to RvR fights against non-healers will be long, and fights against healers are a nightmare. Do not be fooled by numbers in the scenario window, they’re horribly inaccurate of what a class can actually do.

What can a Swordmaster do in RvR?

There are two main schools of thought about a tanks job in RvR. Some players feel that tanks should stand in the back and try to protect healers, and other players feel that tanks are front line assault warriors who should charge into groups of other players and get beat on.

It is my personal view that standing in the back and trying to protect a healer is a waste. There is no mechanic to force a player to attack you (e.g. Taunt in EQ2) and you have no way to remove CC from another person. Nearly every class in WAR has ample methods of CC – if a healer gets attacked by a melee class, they’ll be snared, silenced, and debuffed before you can even blink. At best you can snare the attacker or if you’re an ironbreaker, knock them down for a short amout of time and hope the healer can get away. Although chances are the healer is being focus fired, so it probably won’t do much good anyway. If I was forced to pick a tank class to stand back and “defend” the healers though, it would be an ironbreaker. They have many more tools for this at their disposal than a swordmaster does. (knockbacks, knockdowns, snares, damage-on-move debuffs, and the all awesome oath-friend)

Let us say then, for the sake of argument, that a Swordmaster’s role in RvR is to act as a front line assault element. Their high mitigation, numerous debuffs and crowd control skills, and ability to spec for damage makes them very, VERY deadly in this role. With proper healing, a Swordmaster can charge into a full warband of destruction and cause enough chaos to create an opening that other Order players can exploit. The intention of the Swordmaster is not to try and kill players in an opposing army, but rather to create opportunities in which his teammates can.

Abilities, Tactics, and Morals

The Swordmaster is unique among most other classes in that nearly every skill has a well defined purpose in either PvE or RvR. Due to the Balance mechanic that a Swordmaster employs there is no one set skill that is best spammed until your target dies.

Exact descriptions of all the abilities, tactics, and morals that you can get as a Swordmaster have been done by other players to a much better degree than I am able in a guild. For example, the WarDB database has a very nice listing of all the skills and how they change with level. I will therefore not repeat their work. Instead, I will give a few short notes on the various skills and their uses.

A list of our skills that work off the balance mechanic is as follows:

Requires Normal Balance and leads to Improved Balance:

Graceful Strike – A physical based DD+DoT attack that also increases hate
Ensorcelled Blow – A spirit based DD attack
Gryphon’s Lash – A physical DD attack that cannot be blocked or parried
Sapping Strike (Khaine Master) – A physical based DD attack that also drains 50 AP over 5 seconds

Requires Improved Balance and leads to Perfect Balance:

Quick Incision – A physical based DoT attack that also snares your target
Eagle’s Flight – A physical based DD attack that increases your chance to parry

Intimidating Blow – A physical based DD attack that also reduces your target’s morale
Gusting Wind – A spirit based AoE DD attack with a 10 foot range
Dazzling Strike – A physical based DD that increases your target’s build times by 1 second for 5 seconds
Phoenix’s Wing (Khaine Mastery) – A physical based frontal AoE DD attack that also increases hate
Crushing Advance (Vaul Mastery) – A physical based DD attack that increases your Armor and chance to Block as well as interrupts your target

Requires Perfect Balance and leads to Normal Balance:

Bluring Shock – A physical based DD attack
Wrath of Hoeth – A spirit based AoE DD attack with a 30 foot range that also reduces spiritual resistance
Dragon’s Talon – A physical based DD attack that hits twice and reduces your target’s damage by 20%
Ether Dance (Khaine Mastery) – A spirit based DD attack that hits 5 times
Whispering Wind (Hoeth Mastery) – A spirit based DD attack that hits twice and silence your target
Crashing Wave (Vaul Mastery) – A spirit based DD attack that hits twice and knocks down your target
Protection of Hoeth (Hoeth Mastery) – Creates an shield around you that absorbs damage

In addition to skills which work on the Balance mechanic, we also have a number of useful buffs:

Taunt – Interrupts your target and increases damage you deal to them by 30%
Guard – Your target’s damage taken is split 50/50 with you and you gain 35% of the hate they generate

Juggernaut – Removes most CC from you, but does NOT make you immune to further CC
Aethyric Grasp – PBAoE root

Heaven’s Blade – Buff that adds a resistance debuff proc to all melee attacks
Nature’s Blade – Buff that adds a stat drain proc to all melee attacks
Phantom’s Blade – Buff that adds an absorption shield proc to all melee attacks

Aethyric Armor (Hoeth Mastery)– 30 minute buff that increases armor and disrupt chance

We also have a number of passive buffs, called tactics, that we can use. The number of tactics you can have depends on your level, capping at 4 class tactics at level 40. I’ll describe the more interesting ones that I typically use here:

Focused Offence – Increases all damage you do by 15%, but decreases your armor value by 33%
Rugged – Increases your toughness by 160 at level 40
Menace – Increases all threat generated by your attacks by 100%
Centuries of Training – 25% chance to proc a DoT lasting for 5 seconds
Ensorcelled Agony – Ensorcelled Blow now adds a DoT lasting for 5 seconds
Potent Enchantments – Each time your enchantment procs, a DoT is applied for 9 seconds
Gryphon’s Precision (Khain Mastery) – 25% chance to stun your target for 1 seconds when you use Gryphon’s Lash
Perfect Defences (Vaul Mastery) – Increases your chance to Block and Parry based on your Balance level
Bolstering Enchantments (Hoeth Mastery) – When your enchantment procs, your group receives a small Heal Over Time effect for 10 seconds
Blessing of Heaven (Hoeth Mastery) – 25% to add a reverse damage shield to your target when you use a Hoeth attack
Deep Incision (Khaine Mastery) – Increases the DoT component of Quick Incision
Vaul’s Buffer (Vaul Mastery) – On a successful block, dodge, parry, or disrupt you become surrounded by a small absorption shield for 10 seconds
Balanced Accuracy (Khaine Mastery) – Increases your crit chance based on balance stance
....Page 2

Remove Intro Logo's, Movies and Loading screens.

2008-10-13T02:50:00.000-07:00

Intro Mod provided to us by Kuntz
BIK is the worlds worst video codec, which is what those 6 movies you see every time you load the game are encoded with. They take up a buttload of memory and clock cycles, thus removing them from ever loading, and simply going right to the real load screen, means the game takes about 3 seconds to load on my machine rather then 25.
After that, the mod has no effect on your in game map loading or anything to that effect, just the initial load.
Make sure to read the txt file
The mod is available here Download....NoMovie v1.1
Feedback is welcome!!!!

Warhammer Online Guides (Tags)

2008-10-12T06:10:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for the support you have shown to Warhammer Online guides!!!
I decided to leave the tags column on the left so that navigating the site would be easier. But i found that as the blog grows, the column gets bigger and bigger! So i decided to ask you the readers, what do you think should I leave it the way it is or should I use the space for something else.
Let there be war!!!

Warhammer Online On a Mac

2008-10-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

For many years I was a PC fanboy, always claiming Mac's to be overpriced garbage...then I bought one. I love my Macbook Pro, and whilst it may not be able to run all games on high settings it should be fine running WAR...but wait? Warhammer Online only supports Windows...that shouldn't stop you.

You have three options to play Warhammer Online on a Mac:

Crossover
This is may not work, as not everything works through this app, but if it does it will be awesome. Crossover allows you to run quite a few Windows-based apps/games on your Mac without actually having a partition of Windows or anything. It creates a fake C: drive and you can use the applications/games just as you normally would. The FPS obviously takes a hit, because it's being emulated, but it should still be playable.
Parallel's Desktop
This is very similar to Crossover, except you install a full copy of Windows on your Mac (yes, as horrible as that may sound), so WAR would definitely work this way, but there is the disadvantage of having a few gigs taken up just by Windows...which is a lot if you're using a notebook.
VM Ware Fusion
This is very similar to Parallel's but I believe VM Ware is more established. This software is amazing in terms of ease of use and functionality, although I haven't tested it with a game yet. Still, it has a trial so check it out definitely.
Boot Camp
Okay, well this is basically the same as playing on a PC. Included with Leopard, Boot Camp allows you to install Windows on your Mac, and then choose to boot it up when you switch your computer on. The advantage is you'll get the better FPS, but you won't be able to switch back to the wonder of the Apple interface unless you restart your computer.

...or EA Mythic could just release a Mac version of the game....doubtful though.
Please give me your feedback if any of these methods actually work!!!

Warhammer Online Video- Order races, classes, and mounts.

2008-10-10T17:56:00.000-07:00

WAR Guide on Shadow Warriors Part 4

2008-10-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

Assault Stance
- Based off the forum posts, this stance clearly gets the least amount of love. As to why it is liked the least is beyond me, as it has the highest burst potential of the three stances.
- Due to the fact that most of the Stance's melee abilities being instant, you can pump out the most damage the quickest. Coupled with vengeful and/or your Morale Rank 2 ability Unshakable Focus (+100% damage for 7 seconds), you can get an array of quite impressive numbers in a seemingly instant amount of time. Needless to say, they won't be nearly as high if you're trying to out-burst a tank in hand-to-hand combat.
- Very effective against low armored targets and casters. When you're hitting more, you're knocking their spells back more in the process. Having a ranged battle with a sorceress will leave you losing almost every single time. The key is to charge them quickly and spam in their face. Couple that with being extra annoying and strafing in circles around them, having them try to keep up their line of sight with you, gives you a heavy advantage.
- Can still use many ranged shots. Don't be afraid to shoot all of the ranged skills you can use in assault. Break free of that mindset that "scout is for ranged, assault is for melee." You can, should, and will be using many ranged shots in assault stance. Make a note of which ones can be used. As mentioned, in some cases, you'll even hit harder with ranged shots than Scout Stance.
- Assault Stance brings your armor class from Light armor to Medium armor. Almost too obvious to point out, but it had to be done. Use it when fighting Squig Herders and other ranged physical dps, as well as when you're being assaulted by melee dps.
- Has the class' disarm, use it whenever it is up!

Skirmish Stance
- This is the forum's favorite stance, with many reasons as to why. It brings your class all the transitional skills that you can use when entering/exiting battle.
- This stance arguably has the most utility of the three stances. Most of your shots in this tree are either instant or can be done while moving. Strictly from my personal tastes, I usually travel in Skirmish Stance. It has all the tools I need to enter a battle and escape a battle, making it the most useful when on the move. Should I encounter someone, I have all the necessary skills to counter any type of situation and assess it further.
- Provides toughness, which further elevates the usefulness of this Stance when escaping non-physical dps. Meaning, if you're losing a battle against a Sorceress, swap to this stance, shoot a snare and/or detaunt, and run like a rabbit during rabbit season. The toughness reduces the magic damage, so keep that in mind.
- Has the class' only true Healing Reduction ability, low in the Skirmish Mastery. Very easy to apply, everyone can always use an extra, instant, no-cooldown DoT that also has a 50% reduced healing effect. Out of personal opinion, I'd say that most specializations should pick up this skill. There is no right way to eat a Reese's, as they say, and if you disagree with me, I'm not forcing you to get the skill. It's simply a very useful and easy-to-obtain skill, and something to bring to the table in terms of group-pvp. Note that you can even have multiple targets affected with this, so long as both targets were ailing beforehand. It only lasts 9 seconds, but can be reapplied endlessly, making this skill a treasured one.
- The Shadow Warrior's rank 40 skill can only be used in Skirmish Stance, and it appears to be one very useful and amazing skill. So keep that in mind. This was clearly done to keep you switching stances constantly to get the most "bang for your buck".

Alright, enough reading, go kill stuff!
The Conclusion to this informative guide:
In conclusion, I hope you've come to terms that each stance has many great uses that you may or may not have realized. Please be more thoughtful when thinking about the stances in terms of "which is best", but more as "what would be best right now". They are all wonderful, and all have many uses. As stated before, this guide is more of a way to get you on the right path and mindset, and not so much teach you how to play. Take everything I said with a grain of salt, and trust in your own abilities more so than the class' potential. The potential will always be there. The developer gods are watching. If there is true imbalance, and you feel this class is clearly too weak no matter how hard you try, by all means, give the developers constructive feedback.

If you've felt this guide was helpful and wish to comment, please do so. It'll let me know my effort didn't go unnoticed. If you wish to give me feedback, or state something that I said was an error, you're more than entitled to do so, and I encourage it. I just ask that you all try to keep this thread as mature and objective as possible

...Page 3

WAR Guide on Shadow Warriors Part 3

2008-10-09T09:12:00.000-07:00

*Added 9/28/08:
As for which stats, being a die-hard theorist, I use the point equivalency system. How I do this is simple, I value each stat as 1 EP (Equivalency Point):

1.25 Ballistic = 1 EP
1 Toughness = 1 EP
0.75 Weapon Skill = 1 EP
0.75 Wounds = 1 EP
0.50 Initiative = 1 EP
10 Resistance = 1 EP

Then, I take the item or items in consideration, and tally up their EP Totals, and that will decide which item I prefer for me. You can and should adjust the above numbers to your own personal desires and needs. If you find you rarely go in close-combat, maybe more weapon skill less toughness? Its all up to you. That's how I rate my stats, but I'd advise you make your own chart, as well as amending it after you see which stats you feel are lacking or too heavy on.

--------------- * Important * ---------------
While I could discuss the Stances way more than I'm going to, I feel the biggest learning tool is experience. Every minute you spend playing a Shadow Warrior, you will understand more and more about the benefits and details of each Stance for each situation. I encourage you aspiring Shadow Warriors to kill every monster differently, with different skill rotations. Switch up your stances often, even when it isn't even necessary, merely for the sake of getting a feel for each stance. Get use to which stance can use which skills. Get a feel for what each stance's main damage rotations are, as well as their escape techniques. No, Skirmish Stance isn't necessarily always the best escape Stance. The above mentioned technique is the best advice I can give you all. Practice always has and always will be the best way to reach full potential.
----------------------------------------------------

If I have left you unsatisfied, then this next part is for you. I won't evaluate and discuss every skill that every stance has. I will simply point out some good-to-know information that you'd probably figure out on your own. However, some things are good to note. Let's go in order based on the Mastery list, and start with...

Scout Stance
- Ideal for situations where you can find yourself a safe and distant spot to perch and spam. Elevate yourself. Use the landscape to Line of Sight enemy ranged DPS. Always keep an eye out for incoming melee dps, as Scout Stance is not an ideal stance to get caught in. Needless to say, you can still use both your aoe snare and ranged snare, as well as your detaunt.
- Potential for most damage overall, in terms of scenarios. When it comes to your ranged AoE DoT's, nothing deals more numbers faster. Note that if you choose to obtain Glass Arrow in the Scout Mastery, it can be used in any stance. Flame Arrow requires Scout Stance. Note their max range of 80ft, versus the typical 100ft or 65ft ranges for our class.
- Can obtain the class' hardest hitting nuke, Festering Arrow. While it appears that the number is indeed higher than the BW/Sorc equivalent, since BW/Sorcs can crit quite often and for double the crit damage of a normal crit, it tips in their favor. A good thing to note is that it is Corporeal damage, so it bypasses standard armor but is affected by Corp Resistance instead.
- Has the class' silence, so use it wisely and whenever it is up!
- Also contains a potential, but not so frequent, Healing Reduction ability. (Only while Vengeful.) I wouldn't make that such a deciding factor, as it is deep in the Mastery and only has the Healing Reduction effect when vengeful once every 3 minutes.

Page 2.........Page 4

WAR Guide on Shadow Warriors Part 2

2008-10-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

So you're thinking about becoming a Shadow Warrior?
A first glance at the class and what it brings to the table:

- Dedicated to everyone who feels compelled to ask the silliest, yet most common question, "Which is the best stance/tree?" Just about every single person will actually answer this with a single answer, their reasons for it, and then they'll put down the other two stances. The dead truth is, there isn't a single best stance. No matter how you swing it. If there was a single best stance, everyone and their grandma would be it, and there'd be no need to be the other two. While yes, you can get all the way to r40/rr80 in a single stance, you will not be the most effective Shadow Warrior you can be. All three stances are essential, no matter what mastery you choose to specialize in. For reasons I will state later, just because you're Scout-spec'd does NOT mean you can ignore the wonderful benefits of the other two stances completely. Well, you can, but you shouldn't. If you're looking for a class where you can stand still, spam dps, and get top numbers, I'd recommend looking into a Bright Wizard or Sorceress. Once again since I cannot stress this enough, no matter what you end up specializing in, if you stick to only one stance, you're not going to enjoy a Shadow Warrior nor should you become one.

- Yet another myth that gets thrown around quite frequently, "Shadow Warriors are weak and/or have absolutely no survivability." This is NOT the case. This simply means you're using the wrong stances and skills at the wrong time. Positioning, stances, targets, and snares have to be under constant regard at all times. If you're dying, you're not playing the class the way it is intended in order to reach full potential. Now, this does not mean I'm calling you all bad players. There's always time to improve and change your understanding of the class. That being said, you will not have the armor of a tank, you will never get any healing skills, and you get no speed boosts setting aside Flee - so try to avoid "zergs" and keep distances from sketchy situations. Your numbers aren't as high as a BW/Sorc, but you have a MUCH better chance of survival against classes that absolutely tear BW/Sorcs to pieces. If you Stance Dance correctly, you should have absolutely no hard counters to your class. Meaning, no single class will ever be the rock to your scissors. On the contrary, I do wish to point out that you are also not a Rock to anyone else's scissors. There will be no class that you can encounter and have them screaming uncle in under 3 seconds flat. If you were looking forward to such an event, you will also suffer having a hard counter. So keep that in mind when picking the Shadow Warrior.

- Yet another common newbie question, "Can Shadow Warriors get top damage and/or kills?" The answer to that, for anyone new and old to this game, is every class has the potential for top damage. (With the assumption your class' role is damage-focused.) Now I'll admit, since players always seem to compare all damage to that of a BW/Sorc's, we have to try much harder to hit the top damage charts, assuming we're comparing an equally geared, skilled, and ranked BW/Sorc to a Shadow Warrior. However, if damage is really your passion, as opposed to focusing on the objectives and supporting fellow players, if you master Scout stance and spam as many AoEs, DoTs, and AoE DoTs as possible -- it's very easy to become top damage in a scenario. This doesn't guarantee a high amount of killing blows, but you can get a decent amount of renown and sense of pride being on top in the damage dealin', if that's what floats your boat.

- And the last common myth I wish to address, "_______ Stance deals more/less damage than _______ Stance." Not only is this absolutely not true, and that all 3 stances have an equal opportunity to deal an equal amount of damage, as stated earlier in so many words, the single, most determining factor on which stance can deal the most damage is the situation and setting. This is a good way to transition to my next topic, which is on Stances.

Going down the Rabbit Hole.
An in-depth look at all three stances:

If any of you are a number nerd like me, I'm sure you've figured out by now that certain stances deal more damage than other stances, except not all the time, but some of the time. While leveling, I came across an interesting discovery, which actually led me to writing this guide. The sole reason being, people don't understand the full potential of the stances. The discovery was that I found when I used Eagle Eye (our bread-and-butter Ranged DPS Skill), Assault Stance actually hit harder than Scout Stance. Except there was one, even weirder twist. I realized that this was only the case some of the time, meaning Scout Stance's Eagle Eye sometimes did do more damage than Assault Stance's Eagle Eye. How could this be? I researched this for quite a while before coming to a final conclusion. The short answer, for those of you who don't like reading, is that in some cases, the armor penetration bonus from Weapon Skill (Assault) outweighs the DPS bonus from Ballistic Skill (Scout).

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WAR Guide on Shadow Warriors Part 1

2008-10-08T18:50:00.001-07:00

Post by MrMuffles
Hello Current and Future Shadow Warriors -- Welcome to the epic guide on Shadow Warriors. I apologize for the extremely long post, but at the same time, it's better to be overwhelmed with information than underwhelmed. I took the liberty of trying to ease your read by highlighting some key points. If you read the point and the topic interests you, step back and read the paragraph. Or, if you're very interested in everything that this class represents, recline in your chair, light a candle to set the mood, and enjoy the read.

*Added 9/21/08: The Concept and Mindset of a Shadow Warrior (IMPORTANT!)

It has become apparent to me that many people on the forums seem to want to out-dps other classes, and that is all they care about. Our ranged damage is compared and inferior to that of a Bright Wizard's, and our melee damage is compared and inferior to that of a Witch Hunter. Those seem to be the two comparison classes of choice.

Before you read any further, and before you level your Shadow Warrior any more so than you already have, you must pause and think it over long and hard. The key concept that this class offers, is that you aren't a BW and you aren't a WH. You are BOTH but to a lesser degree. As a witch hunter, you MUST take your lightly armored butt into the thick of battle in order to deal any significant damage. You do not have any "free damage from a distance" skills that compare to any ranged DPS class. Following the same pattern, as a Bright Wizard, you MUST keep your lightly armored butt OUT of the thick of battle, you must always avoid confrontation, even if it is 1v1, if you can help it. You have no choice, unless you have godly heals and/or you enjoy dying. Yes, the two mentioned classes excel more so at their one role than we do at the specified role.

The true beauty of the Shadow Warrior, is while we deal less damage overall (Keyword: less, not necessarily insignificant like most people say it is), we have the OPTION to play both roles. We can freely deal damage from a distance, and we can have substantial burst in a melee confrontation. We can pick our roles, and shift our roles, very frequently. Thus, making us a Hybrid class. We do not pack the punch of a BW or Witch Hunter in either category and with good reason, but we can pack BOTH punches. If this doesn't sound appealing to you, and you wish to excel in one field, then I'd suggest not picking a hybrid class, in any game for that matter. It would be simply overpowered if we could do multiple tasks AS EFFECTIVELY as a class with only one key role. With that discrepancy hopefully cleared up, read on.

A little information about me:
I started this game at the first preview weekend with the intention of playing a Rune Priest. When I found out my guild already had an insanely large amount of Healers and Tanks, I decided to help out our DPS and roll a DPS class. Reading up on the Shadow Warriors, this forum gave and still gives false impressions on this class, throwing around statements which, after experience at rank 20+, I've found to be utterly incorrect. I will do my absolute best to keep this a purely OBJECTIVE and MATURE post, so I ask in return that the responders do the same. Not to brag, but I consider myself an elitist and theorizer. I always compute numbers, test numbers, and test skill rotations. I go by numbers, because numbers are absolute and fact. Opinions are nothing more than opinions.

*Added 9/25/08:
Due to a handful of people asking me in a PM what my build is, I'm posting it here. But please keep in mind that a build is based around your personal playstyle. Don't spec the build unless you AGREE with it, not because someone else is doing it.
My end-game build.

In this thread, I wish to address some bogus claims, false statements, bad mindsets and views, as well as shed light on some mysterious topics and information. I came to these forums in the past searching for answers, only to later find out those answers were incorrect or simply not there.

For starters, I wish to point on the most useful information, and then later in the post I'll dive deeper into each Stance, and point out their Pros/Cons and some information the general public might not even know.

Page 2.....

Mini War Leveling Guide 1-40

2008-10-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

Tsavo213
Hello and welcome to my personal Warhammer online leveling guide! After spending alot of time in game myself and having talked with a level 40 of almost each class I feel I can share what I know with the community and help you max your rank the fastest way possible!.

Levels 1-16:
These are the fun/easy levels simply quest in your storyline you should easily hit 16 in T2.

at level 16 you will have noticed a pretty signifigant slow down

Levels 16-21:
Finish the remaning T2 quest and grind out the PQ in all the chapters (Go back to ones you skipped if you can still get exp from them). Always keep yourself queued for a scenario.

Levels: 21-26
Now the game feels like it is at a standstill. You have a couple of choices you can progress into the T3 area and start doing quest their (However you will soon be sent to fight yellow and red con mobs which have signifigan down time between pulls). Instead you have 4 choices.

Option A: Go to the flight master and fly to the other T2 areas and do all the quest you can (While being queued for scenarios). Many level 40 players agree that this IS NOT the best option since you will spend a very LARGE portion of your time running to various quest areas hurting your exp per hour.

Option B: Grind away at the first PQ quset in T3

Option C: If you go back into tier 2 you can find the repeatable quest to kill spiders for their silk or w/e. You can mass grind on these mobs and turn the quest in for a nice exp reward rinse and repeat that step.

Option D: The best option is AoE grinding (Mind you that you need to be an aoe class or have a guild group with one): Simply pull as many mobs as you or your group can handle and aoe to your delight.

Levels 26-40
Ugh this is the point in the game were you want to smash your head through a window. Quest exp is terrible and MANY MANY MANY people have found.

Your best option is AoE grinding (Solo or with a group) or grinding out PQ quest (While being queued for scenarios. Quest exp now is seemingly worthless for the amount of time you have to run and as such it severly hampers your xp/per hour.

Grind chapter my chapter till your max infl in each area while doing those REPEATABLE quest that let you kill xyz mob for an experience turn in....

Bright Wizard Guide for Noobz

2008-10-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

Post BY Dack The Hork
Anyway I have played a bright Wizard from Rank 1-24, and 31-34, I am an ex-Guildwars top guild PvPer and basically usually only play competitive games (I hate wow and never played it past 20).

Here is a shot of my damage score:
I usually finish first in damage, sometimes not but w.e. Also I have extensively ganked/dueled/scenario fought with a bright wizard. Mainly immolation spec.

Instead of going over everything in detail which would bore You I will start with the basics:

Dac The Hork's Guide to not sucking with Bright Wizard

First things first, you are squishy, you will need some heals with combustion mechanic or you will get fustrated,

immolation spec is the best spec for most cases. Incinerate is a far second to the power of Immolation, and AOE is situationally better in some cases like keeps (but you will have about the same power with rain of fire etc at 100 combust so don't sweat it.

Now then your utility tools will be:

A rank 2 Morale that stuns 30 foot PBAOE for 5 seconds <---- owns/demolishes/makes all Melee cry
Firecage: a PBAOE root that breaks when enemy is damaged, great in some cases
Smoke Screen: Your target does HALF damage to you,
Shield of Aqshy: Increases your armor a lot and reduces setback
Withering Heat: High level immolate skill that snares target 40% (they move slowerr) and delivers a lot of damage at high combust, possibly 4800 damage in 7 seconds, enough to kill some people outright.
Stop Drop and Roll: Knockdown 3 seconds with decent instant damage (500ish at high combust) comboes with ignite
Playing with Fire: Target recieves half the benefit from healing, and all healers who heal him take X damage (up to 500 with 100 combust zomgz IMBA)

So you have a crapload of utility you see. You should have a weapon for every situation and really are a juggernaut of Overpoweredness with the current combustion mechanic. If you want you can also AOE with Rain of Fire at 100 combust and hit for 900 every tick on up to 9 targets. Again there is no reason you should not dominate any scenario you enter.

Now let me get into how to play:

First things first learn to kite and cast. This is the most important skill you can learn, and it requires you not to be a noob clicker (you aren't a noob clicker right, and if you are this game you are gonna use hotkeys right?!).

Okay so you have mr marauder running at you, you obviously run BEFORE he gets to you because you understand that marauder running at you = marauder killing you in the near future if you don't. Now then, while you are running you can cast all your instants on him and ruin his day. This means you quickly whirly your face, get him in your cone of fire, cast, and keep running (easy and can be done VERY quickly). This allows you to continue running and casting at the SAME time gee wiz.

During this kiting and casting you can cast ignite, boiling blood, detonate, stop drop and roll, playing with fire, shield of aqshy, firecage, and smoke screen. AKA you still have a large portion of your arsenal besides withering heat. This means for all intents and purposes you should NEVER EVER let melee get close easily.

lets see it takes 6 seconds for them to reach you, you run away obviously now that time for them to catch you goes way up say to 30 seconds. Now you firecage them, knock them down, etc etc etc. You have escape mechanisms you just have to be smart and quick enough to use them.

Basically all you have to learn with BW is positioning! the key most element that good players understand. You have to keep awareness of where you are and kite/cast effectively while maximizing DPS.

A common Skill rotation for me:

Ignite-Detonate-Boiling Blood-PLaying with Fire-Withering heat

at 100 combust this will do ridiculous damage, with a high chance to do more burst with lucky crits. Basically at the end of rotation your target will be dead in most cases.

If the enemy is close such as a Witch elf who unstealths on you:

Ignite-Stop Drop and roll-ignite -> continue with DPS run, if target gets back on you shield/smoke up.

It pains me everytime I see the clickers sitting on the hill casting fireball (one of the overall worst skills in the game), while a marauder charges up to them (they don't run before he gets there), they die and then complain.

Basically the reason BW is overpowered now is because so many people are bad at playing it, get good and you shall own and dominate like no other.

Warhammer Online Video Crafting Guide

2008-10-06T18:16:00.000-07:00

Reparering Choppiness, Framerate Lag, and Overall Bad Graphics in War

2008-10-06T18:01:00.000-07:00

Post by Grondoth
Grass seems to be causing several problems on a lot of machines, I've found. Even monster, super machines that are used on the weekends at NASA. Most the issues with gameplay performance in outdoor regions are resolved once grass is disabled.

Texture filtering and Anti-aliasing are NOT being enabled by the game client. Should it? Yes. Will it? Hopefully. Is it? No. It looks incalculably better with those options turned on, and you can crank up the rez, usually, on most machines once the grass problem is resolved.

If these tips help you, please pass them on to others having similar issues. In leau of official forums, word of mouth is the only way this stuff is really gonna be passed on. And the game is LEAGUES more playable and enjoyable when this

Warhammer Low End PC Guide

2008-10-06T15:44:00.000-07:00

Post by Eladarand

* Before reading anything here i am going to tell you first hand that you will need at least 2g ram to enjoy this game. Warhammer and your operating system are memory hogs. After you run out of memory your game will stutter and freeze up making it unplayable. Ram is easily affordable (about 30 dollars on newegg for a 1g stick), even a hobo could afford ram so there is no excuses!

* September 5th we received an update via patcher for the preview weekend +. There are no new video options unfortunately... All you can basically do is view the options more in detail so don't expect any lower settings available. A huge let down!

I have had a lot of people request a guide for playing warhammer on a lower end system (minimum requirements). I run a 2.2 ghz amd rated at 3200+, 1.5g ram and a radeon x1650 pro 512 mb video card. I am able to run the game fairly smooth, however RvR with minimum is not going to happen, so please don't expect miracles.
When you get into a lot of action warhammer is going to take about 1.2g of ram memory and you have to also take into account your OS and other programs that need memory also. I am by no means a computer expert, but i found some thing threw research and trial and error that help. If you have any tips feel free to reply and i will add them, or just feel free to comment on anything i have listed.

How to:

1) This is not obvious to everyone, but the first thing you should do is defrag your hard drive. I will not go into step by steps, you can research how to do these simple tasks on google. After a defrag you will see better performance with everything you do, whether it is in-game or out.

2) Get rid of unnecessary programs in your task manager, you can research threw google to find out which ones you need and which ones you don't. This will free up memory thus making warhammer a little more tolerable!

3) I discovered this basically the last few hours of the preview weekend. You might think running full screen is best for performance, but for some reason it really isn't. Set your game for windowed mode, and set the resolution to match your desktop. It looks exactly the same but for some reason it runs so much more smooth and i wish i knew about this to begin with.

4) Settings for ati tools (and yes i recommend using this program). In case you have no idea you are using direct3d.

* Set both texture preference and mip map detail to performance (no brainer)

* Some say vertical sync is better for performance, some say it is not. I suggest trying always off and always on to see if you notice a difference in performance. For me it increased performance by having it always on.

* Enable both anisotropic filtering optimization and trilinear filtering optimization (this will increase your performance by about 15% when both are enabled and it even makes the graphics look better while maintaining good performance).

* Disable catalyst AI (this is mainly a tool for better computers and will slow down older systems even more).

* Geometry instancing is optional, but many recommend leaving it enabled. It will not really do much, but it will give your hardware better support.

* Under standard tweaks you will see force mip-map filter. This will boost your performance by making distance objects easier to render, however the graphics will look different. If you can get use to the change in graphics i recommend this setting.

5) The driver you choose for your video card is very important. For me the best choice is omega drivers, for some it is the official up to date drivers from ati / nvidia. I recommend trying both to see which you like more.

6) Set the 2 whole video options we actually get to high fps and self only. Please god lets hope there is more options for video by open beta.

7) You can choose to set your resolution to the lowest available, but for me it looks too blurry. I rather lose a few fps and have a clear looking game. All personal preference.

Thank you for reading, this is mainly information on ati systems but perhaps some of this info can help out the nvidia folks too. My gameplay was extremely choppy but after doing these steps i was able to play the game excluding features like RvR. If you want to do RvR you will have to buy a new computer or upgrade, no question about it. The coding is pretty rough in warhammer, people around you really eat up resources. Perhaps they will improve on this in the future, and you can always hope we will actually have video options by open beta.

Remember, trial and error! If i can do it you can also .

Black Orc Guide Part 2

2008-10-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

Here we go! It’s time for the show! Tier 4 is where the big guns come out to play and they are playing for keeps! Get it? Keeps? Yeah, sorry, I was in Beta for a long time. Tier 4 is the big battleground that sits at the top of WAR’s RvR experience. It is here that the biggest battles will take place as both sides try and push through to the capitals for the fabulous cash and prizes within.

Wait a minute though before you go willy-nilly all over the place. When you enter Tier 4 you are sitting around thirty and you may run into bunches of power-gamers who have not slept in weeks and already maxed their Rank at 40 and their Renown Rank at 80. They have more toys than Donald Trump and all they have to do is glance at a thirty to one-shot him. What are you going to do?

Well here I think I should finally bring up the Bolster buff. This will likely stay through retail since it is a rather clever way of evening the playing field without having to spend another couple of years tweaking the stats for everything to the umpteenth digit very far to the right of the decimal point. Basically as long as you are the minimum rank for that Tier all you have to do is enter the RvR area to be “buffed” up to a higher rank.

Now this does not give you a bunch of extra abilities. All it does is adjust the stats of your abilities, etc, etc… up to a higher rank. Currently 6, 16, 26, and 36 you will lose this buff as soon as you exit the RvR area even though the RvR Flag may hang over your head for another ten minutes. Of course there is no debuff so if you are higher than that already you won’t lose rank. So while this does not even the playing field it does go a long way towards at least giving you a chance to survive and contribute. Now the last few Chapters, 15-22, are in Tier 4 so there is plenty of Questing and Public Questing in PvE to do but the biggest battles will be happening in the “large” RvR areas.

You will also see the most crossovers to other Fronts as the fighting shifts back and forth. In Tier 4 you’ll see the Rank 4 Morales in use and here the hardcore RvR guilds will really start to shine as the drives to the capitals begin. Now because of the recent changes there will be a lot of work involved to get to the capitals. Scenarios, Objectives, and Keeps will be dominated by one side or the other and the fighting will get quite intense at times. So I might as well warn you now.

Expect your PC to scream out in agony! While Mythic has very intentionally kept a lid on going crazy with the pixels there is only so much they can do. When you get hundreds, yes I said hundreds, of players trying to kill each other on your screen at the same time your frames per second will plummet. WAR holds up better than most online games I’ve seen but they have experience with this so it should. There just really comes a point where it just can’t keep up and to be honest I fully expect that the biggest battles will measure over a thousand players doing their best to kill each other despite the incredible lag they are causing. Honestly I’ll be right there in the middle of it too.

In Mythic’s defense they are doing a number of things to combat it. There will even be options to turn off the graphics from effects so you can ease your PC’s pain. Still I’m sure there is only so much that can be done. It’s just the nature of RvR when you get a ton of people online with egos that need to be propped up through digital carnage. I should know… I’m one of them!

On the Chapter side of the house you actually enter Tier 4 in Black Crag and run into Greenskin Chapter 15. From there you can head south to get to the zone’s Warcamp and Flight Master or move north for more Chapters and to enter the Cinderfall/Thunder Mountain/Death Peak triple zone which is basically two half zones, PvE, tacked onto the sides of the Thunder Mountain zone which has a huge RvR Lake dominating it. Last I checked you still have to use the RvR Lake in Kadrin Valley or Black Crag to enter the respective “Fortress” zones.

Basically the Fortress zones are your last obstacles to getting to the capitals. Yeah, I don’t agree with Mythic cutting out four capitals either but I understand why they did it. Currently, if you hold the enemy fortresses in two Fronts you can attack the capital of that faction, Altdorf or Inevitable City. This starts another series of stages and events where you can attack the enemy’s home town. Included in these are three brutal public quests, finishing the first two unlocks the third. Fabulous cash and prizes are yours to be had if you got the guts and skill to do it.

Well that was long but covers the progression side of the guide. Yeah it’s lacking in a lot of details but I’ve done that intentionally because we are still in Beta so a lot of can and probably will change. I am also not a believer in the “follow my footsteps” kind of guides since they can dilute the joy, and pain, of discovery if you already know the boss mob’s name, stats, and what his turn-ons turn-offs are.

CAREER SKILLS

As you progress through ranking you unlock additional skills beyond the four you begin with. You will get access to Abilities, Tactics, and Morales that will round out your character and make them a much more formidable threat on the battlefield. The following is a rough guide that will cover the basics for you. This does not include the unlocks you get from the Tome of Knowledge since those are surprises I will leave for you to discover…

Career Abilities

Throughout ranking your character you will often unlock new abilities. These abilities will be of various types. Some are attacks, some buffs, some debuffs, some will be passives, etc... etc... While you don’t have to “retrain” these abilities as you rank you will have to buy them when they are first unlocked.

Auto Attack
Core Ability
Rank 1
No cost
10 ft range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Default attack with melee or ranged weapon.

Clobber
Path of Da’ Toughest
Rank 1
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Leads to Da’ Gud Plan
Slashes for damage and causes extra hate.
I stillz remembah dat time I picked up a choppa. Clobbered da’ first git I found right back into da’ ground. WAAAGH!!!

Here is where it all begins. Clobber is your best friend at first and you will use it a lot. In fact there are times when it feels like all you’ve done all day is hit that one freaking button. Don’t worry, it will pass as others open up but it will still be a good friend in case you need furniture moved or choose to focus on Da’ Toughest Mastery Path.

Lob Choppa
Core Ability
Rank 1
Action Points
5 – 65 ft range
1s cast
No cooldown
Basic throwing attack. May deal extra damage when hitting the back of the target.
When da gitz are to far to bash wit me choppa Iz lob it at dem.

The Black Orc is “not” a ranged class. However, when you need to pull a mob or remind that fleeing for their life Archmage that you are still on the hunt it’s nice to be able to reach out and touch someone. Even if it is just a tap on the shoulder. To be killed by Lob Choppa is a bit embarrassing too I hear.

Flee
Core Ability
Rank 1
No cost
No range
Instant cast
30s cooldown
Increases your speed for 10s but you lose AP, Morale, cannot regain AP until the 10s have expired.

I personally think Flee is not a good name for this ability. I think it should be named “Get There A Little Faster” instead. Unless you pop Flee right at the start of a fight and have a snare on them Flee doesn’t seem to do me any good in RvR. By the time you decide you probably shouldn’t still be there it is also usually too late to do anything about it. However when you are stuck legging it for the first two tiers Flee comes in very handy on the longer runs and I use it all the time.

Trip ‘Em Up
Path of Da’ Brawler
Rank 2
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
5s cooldown
Requires Da’ Gud Plan
Leads to Da’ Best Plan
Damage over Time and Snare

Oh yeah, a snare and a DoT at Rank 2. Isn’t life grand? While not so big in PvE, snares make all the difference in the world in RvR. As a mostly single-target career you need that snare and damage over time to add a little horsepower to your generally poor dps, damage per second.

Skull Thumper
Path of Da’ Brawler
Rank 3
No cost
5 ft range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Requires Da’ Best Plan
Overhead attack
Dis iz it! I hurtz dem, tripz dem, den thumpz em.

Hmmm... Three abilities by Rank 3 and two of them are from Da’ Brawler? Yep, your first couple of levels might as well be called Da’ Brawler levels. Since this is what you’ll be using most. Plus with Skull Thumper at Rank 3 you can now do your first complete chain. Skull Thumper remains one of my favorite finishers.

Follow ‘Me Lead
Path of Da’ Boss
Rank 5
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Leads to Da’ Gud Plan
Deals damage and buffs Defensive target’s Weapon Skill. Yours if you don’t have a defensive target.

Never really used this one much because it didn’t do enough damage for my tastes and I never noticed much of a change from the skill buff. If you do use it you might want to make sure your defensive target is a melee toon.

Tuffer ‘n Nails
Path of Da’ Toughest
Rank 6
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Requires shield
Requires Da’ Gud Plan
Leads to Da’ Best Plan
Deals damage and buffs Armor
Oi! I likes ta bash ‘em wit me Blokka!

This one I use frequently when main tanking. The buff is nice and it also just looks satisfying to shoulder a shield into them.

Taunt
Core Ability
Rank 7
Action Points
65 ft range
Instant cast
15s cooldown
Enrages opponent and forces mobs to target you. Cause you to deal extra damage against them.

Hallelujah! It is such a joy to finally get a taunt for those mobs. But to get one that cause extra damage from your attacks? I use this one constantly in PvE and RvR but its duration is short so I try to time it between Da’ Gud Plan and Da’ Best Plan so I can get the most out of my big hit and then my small hit. Don’t want to risk losing the boost for my big hit if there is a problem landing my middle ability.

Da Big Un’
Path of Da’ Boss
Rank 8
No Cost
10 ft range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Requires Great Weapon
Requires Da’ Best Plan
Deals damage to all targets in front of you.

This is a favorite of mine whenever I get into a pile-up in RvR. It gives me a chance to deal damage to multiple enemies and, therefore, get a bit of Renown for each above and beyond whatever gets parceled out among the group.

Right in Da Jibblies
Path of Da’ Toughest
Rank 9
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
20s cooldown
Requires Da’ Gud Plan
Leads to Da’ Best Plan
Deals damage and reduces target’s Weapon Skill
Nuttin’ beddah dan sum stuntie puntin!

Doesn’t do as much damage as I would like it to nor do I really notice the skill debuff very often. But come on, it’s easily the best name for an ability I have ever seen in any game. It’s also the only kick ability the Black Orc’s get so I like to use it often just for looks.

Save Da Runts
Core Ability
Rank 10
No cost
150 ft range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Only useable on other players
Splits hate generated by and incoming damage to guarded player evenly between you as long as they remain within 30 ft of you.

Mighty useful in helping to keep your healers alive. In fact since this is your real “guard” you should always put it on the healers so you are getting some of their hate which helps keep the agro on you.

Hold The Line!
Core Ability
Rank 10
Action Points per Second
No range
Instant cast
60 cooldown
Requires shield
Increase Dodge and Disrupt chance for you and players behind you.

RvR fights are very fluid affairs so not sure about the utility of this one. It’s “channeled” though so you can’t move or it will end.

Get ‘Em
Core Ability
Rank 10
Action Points
No range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Increases Action Point generation speed for your party.

Another one that squeezes a little extra Action Points out for you and your mates.

Deflect Oil
Core Ability
Rank 10
No cost
No range
Instant cast
5m cooldown
Reduces damage taken from Oil Siege Weapons for you and two others up to 1 ft away.

This is a “channeled” ability. What that means is you can’t move while it’s on or you’ll break the affect. With all the chaos going on at keep doors when enemy players defend it just doesn’t seem to do that much for me. Since you can’t use while manning the ram it just doesn’t seem to do me much good.

Wot armor?
Path of Da’ Brawler
Rank 12
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Leads to Da’ Gud Plan
Damages, reduces target armor, and is stackable.

This has become my favorite opener to be honest. It’s stackable and is a great way to make your finisher hit for more.

Savin’ Me Hide
Path of Da’ Toughest
Rank 16
No cost
5 ft range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Requires Da’ Best Plan
Deals damage and increases toughness.

Good for the Main Tank in PvE. I’ve tried it in RvR a few times and it just didn’t decrease the incoming damage enough to justify it in my opinion.

Juggernaut
Core Ability
Rank 18
Action Points
No range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Removes all snaring, rooting, stunning, and disarming effects.

A lifesaver when trying to keep up with those running squishies dropping roots.

Big Slash
Path of Da’ Brawler
Rank 18
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Requires Da’ Gud Plan
Leads to Da’ Best Plan
Damages to two targets up to 10 ft away.

This one is nice to use in RvR pile-ups when you want to spread the damage a little.

Challenge
Core Ability
Rank 20
Action Points
No range
Instant cast
30s cooldown
Taunts all opponents in front of you causing them to deal less damage to anyone other than you.

This is it. My favorite ability for RvR. I use this constantly in Scenarios. Anything to help reduce the damage they are doing to anyone but me is a good thing. It’s also your only pure AoE taunt so use it you git!

Where You Going?
Core Ability
Rank 30
Action Points
No range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Target is rooted
Iz yu stuck stuntie? Heah, letz see if Iz can pry yous out… wit me Choppa!

Another favorite of mine. Great to see the bobbers and weavers frozen and waiting for my choppa.

Modify War Engine
Core Ability
Rank 30
No cost
5 ft range
3s cast
5m cooldown
Decreases cooldown of Siege Engines

Nice to decrease the timer but I usually find that I don’t use it much.

Big Swing
Path of Da’ Boss
Rank 35
Action Points
10 ft range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Requires Da’ Gud Plan
Leads to Da’ Best Plan
Damages targets up to 10 ft away and debuff’s strength.

Another nice one to help spread the pain, and your chances for Renown, around.

Shut Yer Face
Path of Da’ Boss
Rank 40
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
20s cooldown
Requires Da’ Best Plan
Deals damage and silences target.

The nemesis of nukers and healers everywhere. Very handy in RvR when you are trying to stop them from popping heals.

Bulwark
Core Ability
Rank 40
No cost
5 ft range
Instant cast
5m cooldown
Only useable on Keep Doors
Repair over time for keep door

A useful way to keep those keep doors up when Order comes knocking.

Career Tactics

Love them or hate them Tactics can make a big difference on the battlefield. Using the right ones for the situation at hand makes a world of difference. They can change a fight from a “what the hell happened” defeat to a fun and challenging victory. There are actually three types of Tactics: Career, Renown, and Tome. Career you get through leveling and spending points in a Mastery Path. Renown you get through spending points at a Renown Trainer. Tome tactics are “unlocked” by certain events and actions. You start with three slots, one for each. As you rank you get more slots so you can have more tactics active at the same time.

I’m Da Biggest!
Rank 11
Increases your Wounds

Not a bad buff, not a bad buff at all to have and it’s available early on.

Focused Offense
Rank 13
Deal more damage, generate less hate, take more damage.

This tactic rocks, period, end of story, that’s the way it is. This is the tactic that pushes you near MDPS territory. I use it often in PvE and RvR because it lets you deal out more damage. Even though you take more damage in return you still have the mitigation of a tank which helps you stay alive longer. The only times I don’t use this tactic is when I’m up against focus fire in RvR, like Scenarios, or main tanking in PvE.

‘Ave Another One
Rank 15
Follow ‘me Lead deals additional damage over time.

Don’t Bother Me None
Rank 17
Increases Spirit resistance

Spirit Resist buffing would help against incoming Spirit type damage but does nothing for Corporeal or Elemental damage.

Rugged
Rank 19
Increases Toughness

Lookin’ For Opp’tunity
Rank 21
Clobber removes some of targets morale.

If you use clobber a lot, you should be putting points into Path of Da’ Toughest then, this is a good way to help keep them from firing off Morales.

Stab You Gooder
Rank 23
Critical hits deal more damage.

Another way to help push your DPS into what would have been Choppa range.

Menace
Rank 25
Enemy mobs hate you more.

If you Main Tank in Mount Gunbad you better be using this. Champions are hard on squishies.

Good Wif Shield
Rank 27
Increases chance to block when using shield.

Unstoppable Juggernaut
Rank 29
Reduces Juggernauts cooldown

Dat Was Great!
Rank 31
Increases Wot Armor? Duration and stacks it twice
Oi! Git face! ‘And me dat can opener!

Really like Wot Armor? Then this is a handy tactics to use.

Youz see me blok' dat'?!
Rank 33
Whenever you block you get extra morale

Bring ‘Em On
Rank 35
Makes Da’ Best Plan available when you Parry

While this sounds good it can mess up your “flow” when you are used to chaining.

Loudmouth
Rank 37
War Bellows now deal damage to your target.

Can Youz Hear Me Now?
Rank 39
Increases damage and reduces cooldown for Shut Yer Face

If you are going to focus on smacking squishies around, then this will help you use it more often.

Career Morales

For me these are my hardest skills to use since by the time they become available I have either almost killed the enemy or I’m just about dead. These usually only become a factor during tanking bosses or RvR battles. Remember to “always” use them though. They are not IWIN buttons but they can make a huge difference in PvE and RvR. I would be hard pressed to find Beta Vets that don’t know to use Morales as often as they can. The only big choice is whether to use a weaker Level 1 Morale or save up for a bigger one, gambling you’ll still alive to use it.

Demolishing Strike
Rank 8
Level 1
5 ft range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Damage over time and reduces target’s armor.
Dey feelz it wen I ‘itz dem wit dis!

A nice DoT that I use a lot in both PvE and RvR.

Shield Wall
Rank 12
Level 2
No range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Increases chance to block.

Grapple
Rank 16
Level 1
5 ft range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Snares your target and you.

While this one may sound good I never really used it much myself. It just doesn’t last long enough for me to slot it normally.

Raze
Rank 20
Level 2
65 ft range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Repeatedly attacks all enemies in front of you.

A good one for RvR. Its cone attack means you can even hit healers hiding behind the line so is a great way to get more Renown.

Distracting Bellow
Rank 24
Level 3
100 ft range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Reduces target’s, and enemies near it, damage.

Quit Yer Squabblin’
Rank 28
Level 1
No range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Everyone in party gains additional chance to parry and dodge.

Deafening Bellow
Rank 32
Level 2
30 ft range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Silences all targets within certain distance.

Walk it off!
Rank 36
Level 3
No range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Everyone in party gains additional toughness.

Immaculate Defense
Rank 40
Level 4
65 ft range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Reduces incoming damage for you and party members

Career War Bellows

War Bellows are the Black Orc’s passives. Basically they are buffs that stay up, once activated, until you are killed. They are not group buffs, they only apply to you, but they can make a significant difference in your performance.

Da Biggest!
Path of Da’ Brawler
Rank 4
Action Points
No range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Attacks have a chance of increasing your strength.
Dis iz da’ WAAAGH!!!

Da Greenest!
Path of Da’ Boss
Rank 14
Action Points
No range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Attacks have a chance of increasing your resists.

Da Toughest!
Path of Da’ Toughest
Rank 25
Action Points
No range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Attacks have a chance of activating shield that absorbs some damage.

MASTERY PATHS

The Black Orc has three Mastery Paths available, Path of Da’ Brawler, Path of Da’ Toughest, and Path of Da’ Boss. Each has a different focus and the following will go into details on what each path provides.

Path of Da’ Brawler

This path focuses on increasing your dps and can even get you near the damage range of the MDPS careers like the Marauder if you use the right tactics. If you focus here you will have a harder time tanking in PvE but will do better, usually, in RvR and soloing in PvE.

Keep It Goin’!
3 Points
Increases damage from Big Slash and reduces cost

Arm Breaka
5 Points
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
10s cooldown
Leads to Da’ Gud Plan
Deals damage to and removes action points from target.

A nice way to help keep your enemy from firing off his more expensive abilities.

Gork Smash!
7 Points
Increases Critical Hit chance

Increase critical hit chance when in Da’ Gud Plan and even more when in Da’ Best Plan? Oh baby, I think I’m in love.

Down Ya Go
9 Points
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
20s cooldown
Requires Great Weapon
Requires Da’ Best Plan
Damages target and chance of knockdown
Where ya fink yuz goin’?

Use this in RvR a lot, great for interrupting healing healers and stop them from running too. A great Da’ Best Plan follow up for Trip ‘Em Up since, if it lands, it’s a guaranteed knockdown.

An Bestest!
11 Points
Da Biggest! increases groups strength

Have not tried this one but apparently when your Da Biggest! War Bellow procs it buffs the whole party’s strength. Not that useful for the Shamans and Zealots in your group.

T’ree Hit Combo
13 Points
No cost
5 ft range
Instant cast
20s cooldown
Requires Da’ Best Plan
Damages target every second for three seconds
Once… t’ice… t’ree times a choppa...

Does a healthy chunk of damage but takes to long in my opinion. Still it does look cool as hell though.

Puddle o Muck
15 Points
Level 4
65 ft range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Damages all targets in front of you and snares them

Oh yeah, now this is the way to spread the pain and renown gain. Of course staying alive long enough to use it is rare in RvR.

Path of Da’ Toughest

The default path for tanking it mostly focuses on increasing survivability. This focuses even more on “outlasting” the opposition in PvE and RvR. It’s also an excellent way to PvE when in parties or warbands.

Less Stabbin’ Me
3 Points
Increases chance to block and parry when in Da’ Gud Plan and even more when in Da’ Best Plan

Ya Missed Me
5 Points
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
20s cooldown
Requires Block
Leads to Da’ Gud Plan
Deals damage and reduces target’s damage

Hurts them and reduces the hurt coming in? Yep, big one for tanking. Biggest downside though is it is only available when you block an attack.

Stop Hittin’ Da Runts
7 Points
Gain Action Points when Savin Da Runts target is attacked

Not in da face!
9 Points
No cost
5 ft range
Instant cast
20s cooldown
Requires Da’ Best Plan
Deals damage and increases target’s cooldowns

A great way to slow down the target’s abilities and, of course, reduces the amount of incoming damage and debuffs.

Mor’ Hardcore
11 Points
Right in Da Jibblies and Not in Da Face now knockback when used.

This is your only knockback as a Black Orc.

Can’t Hit Me!
13 Points
Action Points per Second
No range
Instant cast
No cooldown
Requires shield
Increases chance to block, deals damage when you block, and allows you to still move while active.

Certain skills require you to “concentrate” or “channel” when using them. This basically means you can’t move. If you do your ability ends “prematurely.” Stop snickering over there. Any skill that lets you still move while it’s on is a good one.

Can’t Touch Us
15 Points
Level 4
No range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Requires shield
Party gains actions points and absorb damage

Path of Da’ Boss

This is a path that I have honestly not experimented with much. It’s more of a group support role though it appears to have some interesting differences. This path seems to be a more useful for RvR instead of PvE.

You Got Nuffin’
3 Points
You can no longer be detaunted

We’z Bigger
5 Points
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
20s cooldown
Requires Da’ Gud Plan
Leads to Da’ Best Plan
Deals damage and buffs armor of party members who are within 20 feet.

Anything to help the squishies last a little longer is a good thing though they have to be near to get the buff.

Big Brawlin’
7 Points
Big Swing has chance to snare and disorient

Adding a chance to snare and disorient to a cone AoE attack? Yummy!

Rock ‘Ard
9 Points
Action Points
5 ft range
Instant cast
10s cooldown
Requires Da’ Gud Plan
Leads to Da’ Best Plan
Deals damage and absorbs damage

An okay effect that takes the sting out of incoming damage but doesn’t handle as much as I would like it too.

No Choppin’ Me
11 Points
Follow ‘me Lead will buff Black Orc and party members within 30 feet

WAAAAAAAGH!
13 Points
No cost
5 ft range
Instant cast
5s cooldown
Requires Da’ Best Plan
Deals damage to all targets within 30 ft and reduces targets resistance

This right here is a good reason to chose this path if you RvR. Black Orc’s can have problems keeping up in the renown department and this helps a hell of a lot.

Yer Nothin
15 Points
Level 4
No range
Instant cast
60s cooldown
Deals damage to all targets within 30 ft reduces their morale

RENOWN ACHIEVEMENTS

Beyond the skills you get from ranking you also get points for renown ranking. These points can be spent at Renown Trainers to get Renown Achievements. They are either passive buffs or tactics that have a variety of different focuses. Last I checked there were over sixty of them so if you expect me to list them all out for you too? Remember that ocean property in The Badlands? Well, I’m having a sale. They take up Renown slots instead of Career slots in your tactic’s sets so you are not loosing anything by picking up some.

TOME OF KNOWLEDGE

There are also tactics that can be unlocked through the Tome of Knowledge. I’m not listing them out either because it just so happens that I am a cruel, and lazy, bastard. Or consider it part of my efforts to maintain the “mystery.” Though my wife would say the cruel, and lazy, part is more accurate.
BACK........

Small Talisman Crafting Guide Part 2

2008-10-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

Ex. (In this example level 1 req. items are counted and +0 to the power level) Overall power level will determine the stats that are added to your gem when you are done.

Using White level 75 fragment and all level 1 materials and level 1 container.
0(Container)+75+0+0+0 = power level 75(or +1 stat). What would have been a +2 white talisman will now be boosted to +3 white talisman.

Using a White level 25 fragment, two level 25 materials and a level 1 material and container.
0(Container)+25+25+25+0 = power level 75(or +1 stat).What would have been a +2 white talisman will now be boosted to +3 white talisman.

Using a White level 75 fragment, two level 75 materials and a level 50 material and level 1 container.
0(Container)+75+75+75+25 = power level 250(or +2 stats).What would have been a +2 white talisman will now be boosted to +4 white talisman.

The +stats are added to the default starting stats depending on the rarity of the gem which can be found above.

This is just an example of how this mechanic works and how you could test it but has not been tested. The starting stats of the rarity of gems can be found above.

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Most white talismans you see will be +2 because most people buy the default lvl. 1 req. materials from merchants in camps/warcamps.

If you use all level 50 or 75 items with a white fragment the outcome will be a much more powerful talisman(+4 or +5) on a low rarity white talisman. This means it will still only be an 8 hour buff but with higher stats.

In otherwords using higher level items will increase the +stats you will end up with on a talisman and has no effect on the rarity of the talisman you make.

Small Talisman Making Leveling Guide

(Fragments are obtained from Magical Salvaging)

When you Salvage items you have a chance to Successfully Salvage an item. You can check if the item was salvaged successfully in your chat log shortly after you salvage an item.

If you successfully salvage an item you will receive a fragment along with magical essences, but if your salvage failed you will only receive magical essences.

The list of items you can and cannot salvage is currently trying to be figured out as it seems very very inconsistent. If you can't salvage an item you may first want to check your chat log to make sure it isn't because you are not high enough skill yet in Magical Salvaging. If you are getting no responses from the game it might be best to just vendor the item and move on as it is likely that it is an un-salvageable item.

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The major factor you need to take into consideration when leveling talisman making is the level of fragments you are using. You always want to make sure you are using the highest level fragments your profession can use at the time.

From what I can tell using high level and rarity materials with your fragments does increase your chance to level.

Did a test at level 81 Talisman Making: (I leveled 3 times in a row with all level 1 req. merchant bought materials and a level 75 fragment from levels 81 to 82, 82 to 83, and 83 to 84).

Appoximate chance to level seems to decrease with level.

TM lvl 50-60 using level 50 fragments(with lvl all 1 materials) = ~80-100% to level
TM lvl 50-60 using level 25 fragments(with lvl all 1 materials) = ~0-20% to level

TM lvl 60-70 using level 50 Fragments(with lvl all 1 materials) = ~50-80% chance to level
TM lvl 60-70 using level 25 fragments(with lvl all 1 materials) = ~ 0-5% chance to level

TM lvl 70-75 using level 50 fragments(with lvl all 1 materials) = ~20-50% chance to level

The same rules would be applied for each interval of 25 levels, while always using the highest level fragments you can use at the time.

If you use higher level and rarity materials with your fragment your approximate chance to level should increase a small amount.

TM lvl 70-75 using level 50 fragments(with lvl all 1 materials) = ~20-50% chance to level

TM lvl 70-75 using level 50 fragments(with better materials) = ~80-100% chance to level

This is from personal experience and may not be 100% correct, but it is something to look at until a real guide comes out.

As for now if you need any help, anything salvaged, or Talismans Crafted I would be happy to help you out free of charge as I am still trying to level.

Game Name: Soldier
Guild: Pride

Server: Averheim
...........BACK

Guide on Shadow Warriors

2008-10-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

Post By MrMuffles
Hello Current and Future Shadow Warriors -- Welcome to the epic guide on Shadow Warriors. I apologize for the extremely long post, but at the same time, it's better to be overwhelmed with information than underwhelmed. I took the liberty of trying to ease your read by highlighting some key points. If you read the point and the topic interests you, step back and read the paragraph. Or, if you're very interested in everything that this class represents, recline in your chair, light a candle to set the mood, and enjoy the read.

*Added 9/21/08: The Concept and Mindset of a Shadow Warrior (IMPORTANT!)

It has become apparent to me that many people on the forums seem to want to out-dps other classes, and that is all they care about. Our ranged damage is compared and inferior to that of a Bright Wizard's, and our melee damage is compared and inferior to that of a Witch Hunter. Those seem to be the two comparison classes of choice.

Before you read any further, and before you level your Shadow Warrior any more so than you already have, you must pause and think it over long and hard. The key concept that this class offers, is that you aren't a BW and you aren't a WH. You are BOTH but to a lesser degree. As a witch hunter, you MUST take your lightly armored butt into the thick of battle in order to deal any significant damage. You do not have any "free damage from a distance" skills that compare to any ranged DPS class. Following the same pattern, as a Bright Wizard, you MUST keep your lightly armored butt OUT of the thick of battle, you must always avoid confrontation, even if it is 1v1, if you can help it. You have no choice, unless you have godly heals and/or you enjoy dying. Yes, the two mentioned classes excel more so at their one role than we do at the specified role.

The true beauty of the Shadow Warrior, is while we deal less damage overall (Keyword: less, not necessarily insignificant like most people say it is), we have the OPTION to play both roles. We can freely deal damage from a distance, and we can have substantial burst in a melee confrontation. We can pick our roles, and shift our roles, very frequently. Thus, making us a Hybrid class. We do not pack the punch of a BW or Witch Hunter in either category and with good reason, but we can pack BOTH punches. If this doesn't sound appealing to you, and you wish to excel in one field, then I'd suggest not picking a hybrid class, in any game for that matter. It would be simply overpowered if we could do multiple tasks AS EFFECTIVELY as a class with only one key role. With that discrepancy hopefully cleared up, read on.

A little information about me:
I started this game at the first preview weekend with the intention of playing a Rune Priest. When I found out my guild already had an insanely large amount of Healers and Tanks, I decided to help out our DPS and roll a DPS class. Reading up on the Shadow Warriors, this forum gave and still gives false impressions on this class, throwing around statements which, after experience at rank 20+, I've found to be utterly incorrect. I will do my absolute best to keep this a purely OBJECTIVE and MATURE post, so I ask in return that the responders do the same. Not to brag, but I consider myself an elitist and theorizer. I always compute numbers, test numbers, and test skill rotations. I go by numbers, because numbers are absolute and fact. Opinions are nothing more than opinions.

*Added 9/25/08:
Due to a handful of people asking me in a PM what my build is, I'm posting it here. But please keep in mind that a build is based around your personal playstyle. Don't spec the build unless you AGREE with it, not because someone else is doing it.
My end-game build.

In this thread, I wish to address some bogus claims, false statements, bad mindsets and views, as well as shed light on some mysterious topics and information. I came to these forums in the past searching for answers, only to later find out those answers were incorrect or simply not there.

For starters, I wish to point on the most useful information, and then later in the post I'll dive deeper into each Stance, and point out their Pros/Cons and some information the general public might not even know.

So you're thinking about becoming a Shadow Warrior?
A first glance at the class and what it brings to the table:

- Dedicated to everyone who feels compelled to ask the silliest, yet most common question, "Which is the best stance/tree?" Just about every single person will actually answer this with a single answer, their reasons for it, and then they'll put down the other two stances. The dead truth is, there isn't a single best stance. No matter how you swing it. If there was a single best stance, everyone and their grandma would be it, and there'd be no need to be the other two. While yes, you can get all the way to r40/rr80 in a single stance, you will not be the most effective Shadow Warrior you can be. All three stances are essential, no matter what mastery you choose to specialize in. For reasons I will state later, just because you're Scout-spec'd does NOT mean you can ignore the wonderful benefits of the other two stances completely. Well, you can, but you shouldn't. If you're looking for a class where you can stand still, spam dps, and get top numbers, I'd recommend looking into a Bright Wizard or Sorceress. Once again since I cannot stress this enough, no matter what you end up specializing in, if you stick to only one stance, you're not going to enjoy a Shadow Warrior nor should you become one.

- Yet another myth that gets thrown around quite frequently, "Shadow Warriors are weak and/or have absolutely no survivability." This is NOT the case. This simply means you're using the wrong stances and skills at the wrong time. Positioning, stances, targets, and snares have to be under constant regard at all times. If you're dying, you're not playing the class the way it is intended in order to reach full potential. Now, this does not mean I'm calling you all bad players. There's always time to improve and change your understanding of the class. That being said, you will not have the armor of a tank, you will never get any healing skills, and you get no speed boosts setting aside Flee - so try to avoid "zergs" and keep distances from sketchy situations. Your numbers aren't as high as a BW/Sorc, but you have a MUCH better chance of survival against classes that absolutely tear BW/Sorcs to pieces. If you Stance Dance correctly, you should have absolutely no hard counters to your class. Meaning, no single class will ever be the rock to your scissors. On the contrary, I do wish to point out that you are also not a Rock to anyone else's scissors. There will be no class that you can encounter and have them screaming uncle in under 3 seconds flat. If you were looking forward to such an event, you will also suffer having a hard counter. So keep that in mind when picking the Shadow Warrior.

- Yet another common newbie question, "Can Shadow Warriors get top damage and/or kills?" The answer to that, for anyone new and old to this game, is every class has the potential for top damage. (With the assumption your class' role is damage-focused.) Now I'll admit, since players always seem to compare all damage to that of a BW/Sorc's, we have to try much harder to hit the top damage charts, assuming we're comparing an equally geared, skilled, and ranked BW/Sorc to a Shadow Warrior. However, if damage is really your passion, as opposed to focusing on the objectives and supporting fellow players, if you master Scout stance and spam as many AoEs, DoTs, and AoE DoTs as possible -- it's very easy to become top damage in a scenario. This doesn't guarantee a high amount of killing blows, but you can get a decent amount of renown and sense of pride being on top in the damage dealin', if that's what floats your boat.

- And the last common myth I wish to address, "_______ Stance deals more/less damage than _______ Stance." Not only is this absolutely not true, and that all 3 stances have an equal opportunity to deal an equal amount of damage, as stated earlier in so many words, the single, most determining factor on which stance can deal the most damage is the situation and setting. This is a good way to transition to my next topic, which is on Stances.

Going down the Rabbit Hole.
An in-depth look at all three stances:

If any of you are a number nerd like me, I'm sure you've figured out by now that certain stances deal more damage than other stances, except not all the time, but some of the time. While leveling, I came across an interesting discovery, which actually led me to writing this guide. The sole reason being, people don't understand the full potential of the stances. The discovery was that I found when I used Eagle Eye (our bread-and-butter Ranged DPS Skill), Assault Stance actually hit harder than Scout Stance. Except there was one, even weirder twist. I realized that this was only the case some of the time, meaning Scout Stance's Eagle Eye sometimes did do more damage than Assault Stance's Eagle Eye. How could this be? I researched this for quite a while before coming to a final conclusion. The short answer, for those of you who don't like reading, is that in some cases, the armor penetration bonus from Weapon Skill (Assault) outweighs the DPS bonus from Ballistic Skill (Scout).

*Added 9/28/08:
As for which stats, being a die-hard theorist, I use the point equivalency system. How I do this is simple, I value each stat as 1 EP (Equivalency Point):

1.25 Ballistic = 1 EP
1 Toughness = 1 EP
0.75 Weapon Skill = 1 EP
0.75 Wounds = 1 EP
0.50 Initiative = 1 EP
10 Resistance = 1 EP

Then, I take the item or items in consideration, and tally up their EP Totals, and that will decide which item I prefer for me. You can and should adjust the above numbers to your own personal desires and needs. If you find you rarely go in close-combat, maybe more weapon skill less toughness? Its all up to you. That's how I rate my stats, but I'd advise you make your own chart, as well as amending it after you see which stats you feel are lacking or too heavy on.

--------------- * Important * ---------------
While I could discuss the Stances way more than I'm going to, I feel the biggest learning tool is experience. Every minute you spend playing a Shadow Warrior, you will understand more and more about the benefits and details of each Stance for each situation. I encourage you aspiring Shadow Warriors to kill every monster differently, with different skill rotations. Switch up your stances often, even when it isn't even necessary, merely for the sake of getting a feel for each stance. Get use to which stance can use which skills. Get a feel for what each stance's main damage rotations are, as well as their escape techniques. No, Skirmish Stance isn't necessarily always the best escape Stance. The above mentioned technique is the best advice I can give you all. Practice always has and always will be the best way to reach full potential.
----------------------------------------------------

If I have left you unsatisfied, then this next part is for you. I won't evaluate and discuss every skill that every stance has. I will simply point out some good-to-know information that you'd probably figure out on your own. However, some things are good to note. Let's go in order based on the Mastery list, and start with...

Scout Stance
- Ideal for situations where you can find yourself a safe and distant spot to perch and spam. Elevate yourself. Use the landscape to Line of Sight enemy ranged DPS. Always keep an eye out for incoming melee dps, as Scout Stance is not an ideal stance to get caught in. Needless to say, you can still use both your aoe snare and ranged snare, as well as your detaunt.
- Potential for most damage overall, in terms of scenarios. When it comes to your ranged AoE DoT's, nothing deals more numbers faster. Note that if you choose to obtain Glass Arrow in the Scout Mastery, it can be used in any stance. Flame Arrow requires Scout Stance. Note their max range of 80ft, versus the typical 100ft or 65ft ranges for our class.
- Can obtain the class' hardest hitting nuke, Festering Arrow. While it appears that the number is indeed higher than the BW/Sorc equivalent, since BW/Sorcs can crit quite often and for double the crit damage of a normal crit, it tips in their favor. A good thing to note is that it is Corporeal damage, so it bypasses standard armor but is affected by Corp Resistance instead.
- Has the class' silence, so use it wisely and whenever it is up!
- Also contains a potential, but not so frequent, Healing Reduction ability. (Only while Vengeful.) I wouldn't make that such a deciding factor, as it is deep in the Mastery and only has the Healing Reduction effect when vengeful once every 3 minutes.

Assault Stance
- Based off the forum posts, this stance clearly gets the least amount of love. As to why it is liked the least is beyond me, as it has the highest burst potential of the three stances.
- Due to the fact that most of the Stance's melee abilities being instant, you can pump out the most damage the quickest. Coupled with vengeful and/or your Morale Rank 2 ability Unshakable Focus (+100% damage for 7 seconds), you can get an array of quite impressive numbers in a seemingly instant amount of time. Needless to say, they won't be nearly as high if you're trying to out-burst a tank in hand-to-hand combat.
- Very effective against low armored targets and casters. When you're hitting more, you're knocking their spells back more in the process. Having a ranged battle with a sorceress will leave you losing almost every single time. The key is to charge them quickly and spam in their face. Couple that with being extra annoying and strafing in circles around them, having them try to keep up their line of sight with you, gives you a heavy advantage.
- Can still use many ranged shots. Don't be afraid to shoot all of the ranged skills you can use in assault. Break free of that mindset that "scout is for ranged, assault is for melee." You can, should, and will be using many ranged shots in assault stance. Make a note of which ones can be used. As mentioned, in some cases, you'll even hit harder with ranged shots than Scout Stance.
- Assault Stance brings your armor class from Light armor to Medium armor. Almost too obvious to point out, but it had to be done. Use it when fighting Squig Herders and other ranged physical dps, as well as when you're being assaulted by melee dps.
- Has the class' disarm, use it whenever it is up!

Skirmish Stance
- This is the forum's favorite stance, with many reasons as to why. It brings your class all the transitional skills that you can use when entering/exiting battle.
- This stance arguably has the most utility of the three stances. Most of your shots in this tree are either instant or can be done while moving. Strictly from my personal tastes, I usually travel in Skirmish Stance. It has all the tools I need to enter a battle and escape a battle, making it the most useful when on the move. Should I encounter someone, I have all the necessary skills to counter any type of situation and assess it further.
- Provides toughness, which further elevates the usefulness of this Stance when escaping non-physical dps. Meaning, if you're losing a battle against a Sorceress, swap to this stance, shoot a snare and/or detaunt, and run like a rabbit during rabbit season. The toughness reduces the magic damage, so keep that in mind.
- Has the class' only true Healing Reduction ability, low in the Skirmish Mastery. Very easy to apply, everyone can always use an extra, instant, no-cooldown DoT that also has a 50% reduced healing effect. Out of personal opinion, I'd say that most specializations should pick up this skill. There is no right way to eat a Reese's, as they say, and if you disagree with me, I'm not forcing you to get the skill. It's simply a very useful and easy-to-obtain skill, and something to bring to the table in terms of group-pvp. Note that you can even have multiple targets affected with this, so long as both targets were ailing beforehand. It only lasts 9 seconds, but can be reapplied endlessly, making this skill a treasured one.
- The Shadow Warrior's rank 40 skill can only be used in Skirmish Stance, and it appears to be one very useful and amazing skill. So keep that in mind. This was clearly done to keep you switching stances constantly to get the most "bang for your buck".

Alright, enough reading, go kill stuff!
The Conclusion to this informative guide:
In conclusion, I hope you've come to terms that each stance has many great uses that you may or may not have realized. Please be more thoughtful when thinking about the stances in terms of "which is best", but more as "what would be best right now". They are all wonderful, and all have many uses. As stated before, this guide is more of a way to get you on the right path and mindset, and not so much teach you how to play. Take everything I said with a grain of salt, and trust in your own abilities more so than the class' potential. The potential will always be there. The developer gods are watching. If there is true imbalance, and you feel this class is clearly too weak no matter how hard you try, by all means, give the developers constructive feedback.

If you've felt this guide was helpful and wish to comment, please do so. It'll let me know my effort didn't go unnoticed. If you wish to give me feedback, or state something that I said was an error, you're more than entitled to do so, and I encourage it. I just ask that you all try to keep this thread as mature and objective as possible.

Thanks in advance guys, and enjoy the mysterious class, the Shadow Master!

Small Talisman Crafting Guide Part 1

2008-10-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

POST BY so1dier
Rarity of item:

Fragment - This is the most important piece when crafting talismans. This is the determining factor on what the rarity of your talisman with be.

Using a level 1 rare fragment will be the same as using a level 75 in the sense that they will both have the same chance to be a rare talisman on creation. The level effects what your bonus stats will end up as.

Rarity of fragments/talismans effects the length of time that the talisman will last when socketed into gear. (The time length is measure by actual game time played).

White = 8h (8 hours)
Uncommon = 2d (2 days)
Rare = 5d (5 days)
Very Rare = (Unlimited)
Mythic(?) = (?)

It also effects what range of +stats you will end up with.

White starts at ~ +2
Uncommon starts at ~ +5
Rare starts at ~ +8
Very rare starts at ~ +11
Mythic(?) starts at ~ (?)

(Stats will go up or down depending on what level materials you use)

Ex. Using an uncommon fragment will create an uncommon talisman. Using a rare fragment will create a rare talisman. (There may be a small chance that a gem will be a higher rarity on creation, but I'm not sure yet).

Gold Essence - (Unsure of how rarity of this item effects the outcome of the talisman. I'm guessing it increases the stability guaranteeing that a rare fragment will create a rare talisman. It might also increase the chance that an uncommon fragment could turn into a rare talisman, a rare fragment could turn into a very rare talisman, etc.)

Curio - (Unsure of how rarity of this item effects the outcome of the talisman. I'm guessing it increases the stability guaranteeing that a rare fragment will create a rare talisman. It might also increase the chance that an uncommon fragment could turn into a rare talisman, a rare fragment could turn into a very rare talisman, etc.)

Magical Essence - (Unsure of how rarity of this item effects the outcome of the talisman. I'm guessing it increases the stability guaranteeing that a rare fragment will create a rare talisman. It might also increase the chance that an uncommon fragment could turn into a rare talisman, a rare fragment could turn into a very rare talisman, etc.)

Req. Talisman Level of Items:

Fragment, Gold Essence, Curio, Magical Essence - The level Req. for these items comes in intervals of 25.

1,25,50,75,100,etc...

The higher level items you use the more powerful the talisman will be(+stat wise).

This is indicated by the bar on the right hand screen of the talisman making window. As you insert higher level items the bar will raise more and more. It does not raise by rarity.
(This may be a set number meaning if you reach certain percentages of the bar you may get an increase in a set number of stats)
(This could be added up and tested with an organized chart)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next........

Guild Renown Chart Guide

2008-09-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

post by eternalchaosFINISHED
Below I have listed the Experience that guilds are required to obtain to advance in their renown rank

xxx.x M = (million pts)

TIER 1

Level 1 -- 0 [0]
Level 2 -- 1.5 M [1.5]
Level 3 -- 3.0 M [1.5]
Level 4 -- 5.0 M [2.0]
Level 5 -- 7.0 M [2.0]
Level 6 -- 10.5 M [2.5]
Level 7 -- 14.0 M [3.5]
Level 8 -- 18.0 M [4.0]
Level 9 -- 22.5 M [4.5]
Level 10 -- 27.5 M [5.0]

TIER 2

Level 11 -- 33.0 M [5.5]
Level 12 -- 39.0 M [6.0]
Level 13 -- 45.5 M [6.5]
Level 14 -- 52.5 M [7.0]
Level 15 -- 60.0 M [7.5]
Level 16 -- 68.0 M [8.0]
Level 17 -- 76.5 M [8.5]
Level 18 -- 85.5 M [9.0]
Level 19 -- 95.0 M [9.5]
Level 20 -- 105.0 M [10.0]

TIER 3

Level 21 -- 118.0 M [13.0]
Level 22 -- 131.5 M [13.5]
Level 23 -- 145.0 M [13.5]
Level 24 -- 160.0 M [15.0]
Level 25 -- 176.0 M [16.0]
Level 26 -- 193.0 M [17.0]
Level 27 -- 211.0 M [18.0]
Level 28 -- 230.0 M [19.0]
Level 29 -- 250.0 M [20.0]
Level 30 -- 272.0 M [22.0]

TIER 4

Level 31 -- 296.0 M [24.0]
Level 32 -- 322.0 M [26.0]
Level 33 -- 350.0 M [28.0]
Level 34 -- 380.0 M [30.0]
Level 35 -- 412.0 M [32.0]
Level 36 -- 446.0 M [34.0]
Level 37 -- 482.0 M [36.0]
Level 38 -- 520.0 M [38.0]
Level 39 -- 560.0 M [40.0] **not confirmed**
Level 40 -- 600.0 M [40.0] **not confirmed**

Black Orc Guide Part 1

2008-09-29T08:41:00.001-07:00

POST BY SIRROBIN
Remember it's all still Beta so things may change.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Supplicium Reference BO3.3C

The Black Orc Guide
AKA
Sir Robin’s BOG

INTRODUCTION

The Black Orc is the Greenskin melee class. It covers both the tanking and melee roles. While the Shaman covers healing slash nuking and the Squig Herder covers ranged slash pet, it is the Black Orc that gets in close and keeps the target’s attention plus, supposed to, take the brunt of the incoming damage. In the following pages we'll go over the specifics of this career, how it works, and get some wisdom from a well known, if I do say so myself, Black Orc: Dagorc.

Dagorc Says:
WAAAGH!!!

Remember, this is an MMORPG that is still in Beta so things will keep changing. Still we are getting near retail so as long as I try to keep it somewhat vague this guide should remain accurate overall. As part of that “vagueness” I’ve tried to keep actual numbers out of it and stick with the feel of things instead.

THOUGHTS

Since the Choppa did not make the final "cut," if you want to melee as a Greenskin then the Black Orc is your only choice. You are a “slow and steady wins the race” career that cannot out-damage your targets, you outlast them instead. This can cause it to have a more “grinding” feel at times compared to other careers but its “chain” mechanic helps combat this to a degree.

You will also have some issues keeping up in the Renown department since you are more of a single-target career than the Squig Herder or Shaman. This makes it even more important to queue for Scenarios as often as possible and take part in any Open-RvR available. Otherwise you will quickly begin to fall behind in Renown Rank and not be able to buy the best RvR Gear. Still, depending on your preferences, there is no other career which captures the “look” of Warhammer better than the Black Orc.

Why did the Choppa get cut? Well we have the official explanation and to Mythic’s credit I think it’s pretty accurate. However, it seems go deeper than that. Pretty much there was no need for the Choppa to be honest. With DPS being covered by both the Shaman and Herder plus with the Black Orc for melee why have an extra just for fluff?

Yes, I was planning to have a Choppa myself. I even thought about making it my main because I enjoyed it so much last year. Always need MDPS I hear you say? Well with the right tactics, when they become available, the Black Orc enters MDPS territory damage-wise and endurance-wise so Choppa was pretty much an extra that wasn’t “really” needed.

MECHANICS

The Black Orc uses a "chain" mechanic for its most frequently used abilities. Chain means that using one ability opens up another set of abilities, and when one of those is used another set becomes available. The three sets are No Plan, Da’ Gud Plan, and Da’ Best Plan. Through different Tactics and Masteries the performance of particular "chains" improves dramatically. The other Black Orc mechanic is the “War Bellow.” These are passive, always on, buffs that can improve certain traits like wounds, resists, etc... The three passives are Da Biggest!, Da Greenest!, and Da Toughest!

SOLOING

When Mythic developed WAR they kept the soloist in mind. Because of this most quests can be completed solo. In the same vein you can usually survive fights with mobs two, three, and even four ranks above you. How well you handle multiple mobs at once though mostly depends on your career more than gear. Some careers are better at multi-target and some are better at single-target. The Black Orc is definitely more the latter than the former. So while you can “chain” mobs pretty quickly taking on more than two at a time, depending on their rank, can turn into a spawn at the nearest Camp pretty quickly.

Soloing is also a good time to break out the Great Weapon if you have one that isn’t too far behind your rank. The increased damage of a Great Weapon allows you to kill mobs faster and help minimize that “grinding” feeling. Using a shield is alright since you tend to take less damage but the fights last longer too. The same applies to RvR as well since you are basically choosing between fast or slow kills. Against softer opponents, like nukers, the increased endurance of using a shield can sometimes outweigh the increased damage of a Great Weapon. It really varies depending on the situation.

GROUPING

Honestly, if you are fighting other players you should be grouped. Staying solo in a Scenario or RvR “Lake” has a lot more disadvantages than advantages. Being grouped makes it easier for any healers in your party or warband to see that you need to be healed. In the same vein you share renown, experience, and loot from kills which really helps a more single-target career like the Black Orc keep up. Once you get “Save Da Runts” grouping makes it easier for you to find someone to place guard on and easier to see when they need your direct intervention.

Note: RvR areas in Tiers are often called “Lakes” because their borders often resemble the outline of a lake. Also there is usually blocking terrain, like cliffs, separating them from the rest of the Tier so it might seem like you are running down into that has since dried up. Smaller or skinnier RvR areas follow the water analogies like “River, Pond, Puddle” etc…

Grouping has a lot of benefits in WAR and to put it bluntly why bother being a tank if you’re not actually tanking for anyone. When you are in a party or warband the Great Weapon takes a backseat to the “sword and board.” While it still has benefits, in RvR or as the off-tank, tanking for a group is all about maximizing your endurance so your healers don’t have to heal as often and everyone else has more time to deal damage. Your main concern would be to keep dealing taunts in PvE and stay in the oppositions’ faces in RvR.

One key thing to remember though, while taunts don’t force enemy players to target you they do have some major plusses like increasing your damage output or decreasing theirs. So whether you are in RvR or PvE you should be using your taunts whenever they’re available.

QUESTS & PUBLIC QUESTS

Now would be a good time to talk about Questing & Public-Questing. Except for Chapter 1, which has only one, every chapter normally has three public quests within its area. These Public Quests usually have three stages with the final one involving one or more boss mobs. The later stages of a Public Quest are usually also timed which gives you a deadline for completing them. You do not need to be in a party to complete a public quest but unless you have a few other players participating, including a healer or two, you will not be able to finish all the stages. Since a number of final stages also have multiple boss mobs there is plenty of opportunity for off tanking too so don’t get discouraged if there is another tank around.

Public Quests have two mechanics for getting rewards. The first is a loot bag award based on contribution, damage and healing, plus a random roll. This occurs after completing the last stage of the Public Quest. These loot bags are bind on pickup and will have rewards specific to your career. The second mechanic is influence awarded as you participate in any of that chapter’s public quests. Your level of influence builds as you contribute and has three levels of rewards. The first level is a potion or talisman while the second and third level is gear.

Because the final influence rewards are some of the best gear in the game it is not unusual to find players grinding the first stage of a Public Quest over and over again until they max their influence for that chapter. While you can max your influence faster with more players participating, if no one else is around and its gear is something you want then grinding Stage 1 is an option. Since there is a timer for Stage 2 and then a reset timer afterwards it is more efficient to cycle through all the Public Quests in the chapter finishing the first stage for each. By the time you’ve done Stage 1 for the second or third Public Quest the first should be available again.

Quests are the same as those found in other mumorpugers and are hub-based. By hub I mean that the majority of quests are picked up from each chapter’s “Camp.” There are some quests picked up from roving or isolated NPC’s but most will begin within the chapter’s camp. Many quests are also of the chain variety where when you complete one it makes the next quest available within that chain. Again most of the chains are within that chapter but a few cross multiple chapters and there is usually one or two leading you to the next chapter’s camp.

Beyond these PvE Quests there are also RvR Quests which involve completing tasks within the RvR Lakes. These are mostly player kill or scout quests where you kill a certain number of enemies or get near certain objectives to complete. They are hub-based and are available from each Tier’s warcamp. Some are repeatable so it is possible grind some over and over again. This encourages players to remain within the RvR Lakes for a while and helps spur PvP encounters. Each Tier’s warcamp usually also has a couple of PvE style quests which take place within the RvR Lake too though these are not repeatable.

There is one more thing to mention about some quests and that’s your inventory. There is a “Quest” tab in you inventory and quest “related” items go in it automatically. While most of the time you don’t need to worry about it, sometimes you will find that you can’t seem to complete a quest. What you may actually need to do at that point is go to your inventory, click on the quest tab, and right-click on the appropriate item.

Below I’m going to try and list all of the Chapters’ Influence Rewards. I may never finish this though because, all told, there are sixty-six chapters each with four or more gear rewards to choose from. Since this is still Beta some gear may move around too. Yeah, it will be a big list and I’m not sure if I want to take up that much room. One way to try and save space will be to just list what type of gear it is.

Greenskin Black Orc Influence Rewards

Chapter 1
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 2
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 3
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 4
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 5
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 6
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 7
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 8
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 9
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 10
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 11
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 12
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 13
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 14
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 15: Red Dust Camp
Advanced: Shoulders, Helm
Elite: Shield, Sword, Gloves
Chapter 16: Da Great Big Food Pot
Advanced: Belt, Back
Elite: Boots, Sword
Chapter 17: Hot Foot Boyz
Advanced: Gloves, Body
Elite: Shield, Great Axe
Chapter 18: Da Scrappin’ Camp
Advanced: Shoulders, Helm
Elite: Body, Great Axe
Chapter 19: Da Big Bones
Advanced: Gloves, Boots
Elite: Helm, Sword
Chapter 20: Naguk’s Cold Camp
Advanced: Gloves, Helm
Elite: Shoulder, Body
Chapter 21: Ug’s Warband
Advanced: Belt, Back
Elite: Helm, Shoulders
Chapter 22: Badrot’s Bashin’ Place
Advanced: Boots, Belt
Elite: Axe, Axe, Sword, Hammer

Chaos Black Orc Influence Rewards

Chapter 1
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 2
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 3
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 4
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 5
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 6
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 7
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 8
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 9
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 10
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 11
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 12
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 13
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 14
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 15:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 16:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 17:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 18:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 19:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 20:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 21:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 22:
Advanced:
Elite:

Dark Elf Black Orc Influence Rewards

Chapter 1
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 2
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 3
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 4
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 5
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 6
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 7
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 8
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 9
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 10
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 11
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 12
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 13
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 14
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 15:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 16:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 17:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 18:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 19:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 20:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 21:
Advanced:
Elite:
Chapter 22:
Advanced:
Elite:

CRAFTING

Well it’s time for me too look guilty. I have not done much with crafting beyond Scavenging. Talismans and Potions have great potential for any career but with my real-life game-time limitations, I’ve just never devoted as much time as I should have too testing them.

PROGRESSION

If you examine the maps of WAR closely you will notice that it has a relatively linear feel. One chapter leads to the next chapter which leads to the next etc… This can cause a bit of a grinding feel at times but WAR is pretty clever about getting around that. The main way WAR helps to stave off the grind is Fronts, Warcamps, RvR Lakes, and Scenarios. You can rank from one to forty without ever leaving your race’s Front. However all the quests for your faction, Destruction or Order, are available to all careers. This means that you can go to the Chaos or Dark Elf Fronts and PvE plus RvR there too.

You can use the Flight Masters, one in each Warcamp, to move to a different Front and do the Quests & Public Quests there as well as take part in its RvR. Any gear rewards will be specific to your career so you really are not losing anything by moving between Fronts. Indeed it is sometimes a good idea to move between fronts for influence rewards since, as an example, Greenskin Chapter 5 may have a great one-hander for its top reward while Chaos Chapter 5 may have a great two-hander for its top reward. Be aware though that influence does not bridge to the same chapter number in other Fronts so you would have to build it up to max from scratch there too.

Each Front’s Tiers also have their own instanced scenarios so, as long as enough people are queuing, you can regularly take a break from Questing, Public Questing, and Open-RvR’ing to bash some other players’ heads in an easier to get to them environment.

Between you and me, as a Greenskin, High Elfs just seem easier to kill than Dwarfs. Not sure if there are any numbers to back me up or if it’s just a perception thing but it is nice to hop over and slaughter some squishier High Elfs sometimes than keep chomping on the more gristlely Dwarfs. Some of those heavily armored Dwarf mobs, the ones with shields, “feel” like they take forever to kill.

Tier 1: Mount Bloodhorn & Ekrund

Mount Bloodhorn Map

Ekrund Map
As a Greenskin you begin your journey in a cave in Mount Bloodhorn. As soon as you leave your cave you will start finding quests to do and stunties to kill. Within a few quests you will also run into Chapter 1’s only Public Quest. This serves as an introduction to PQ’ing so the cost to max influence and the difficulty is not hard. You’ll still need a few fellow Greenskins with you to complete all three stages so this will depend, somewhat, on how many are around at the time.

Dagorc Says:
I still fink ‘bouts me dayz at Stuntie Skull High. I was da’ boss of da’ boyz Stuntie Puntin’ team two yearz ‘n a roh.

Personally, I strongly recommend doing the first few quests even if you are a die hard, “I’ll level through RvR” type. They give you a chance to get used to how WAR and the Black Orc “work” before jumping into the fire. Good to get some frying pan first so you have a better handle on things because enemy players are not going to give you time to get “used” to things. You may even find yourself skipping a chapter or two later on but take some time and smell the roses first before squishing them.

As soon as you cross the bridge you’ll run into Chapter 2 and the first of its three Public Quests. Don’t stop to clobber the sprites and chop the trees, you can come back to it later. Keep following the road and over the hill you’ll run into most memorable Greenskin architecture in DvG (Dwarf versus Greenskin) Tier 1, “Da War Maker!” Its massive spinning blade will no doubt inspire many photo ops for months to come and makes it hard to not feel the call of the WAAAGH!!!

This is the Chapter 2 camp and the reason I told you to go here instead of mucking about with the sprites is that it is also the first place you can pick up your crafting and gathering skills. A gathering skill can make a huge difference in your early cash flow. Some of these skills also have certain rank restrictions based on mob level so getting it now will prevent you from having to grind lower rank mobs later to catch it up. I personally recommend Scavenging since it will let you usually get extra loot off humanoids, like those sprites, which can be sold to Merchants for extra cash. You can even scavenge dead enemy players so it also makes RvR more profitable.

Once you have reached Da War Maker and picked up a gathering and crafting skill you have completed the initial foundation for your character. It is now that you reach your first big crossroads in your journey. Why here? Well you’ve got a few quests under your belt, a Public Quest loot bag or two for gear goodies, a scenario or two, and probably even a nice influence reward. You also should have passed Rank 3 so you can finish your first “chain” Clobber, Trip ‘Em Up, and Skull Thumper.

The reason I consider this “the crossroads” boils down to another career that didn’t make the grade. Not for the Greenskins, nope, we are talking about the Dark Elfs. When the Blackguard was cut the Dark Elfs lost their tank archetype. While this may not be a huge deal in Questing, since most can be done solo, it does make a big difference in Public Questing. Stage III always involves some sort of boss mob and without tanks, and them getting heals, they can be a real pain to beat. It can also make a big difference in Scenarios since the Dark Elfs have no counter to the High Elf Swordmaster.

Since you have completed the initial foundation this would be the natural point where you would decide on whether to stay in DvG or go help your allies in HEvDE (High Elf versus Dark Elf) Tier 1. You don’t need to worry about EvC (Empire versus Chaos) because they have the Chosen for tanking needs. You also don’t need to worry about missing quests or gear because all the quests in HEvDE are available to you too and the Public Quests loot bags and influence levels will have rewards for the Black Orc. All you really need to decide is whether you want to go on the “long run” or not.

The map below will show you the safest and fastest route to get to the Dark Elf Chapter 1 Public Quest. Be warned that you may still die a few times on the way because there are a lot of aggro happy mobs along the way that will consider you to be a yummy meal. You will be using the Flight Master to go from Mount Bloodhorn to The Blighted Isle and the cost may be anywhere from 50 Brass to 5 Silver so have some cash on hand for the trip.

You may be asking why not just wait to get to the Warcamp before deciding to go to the Blighted Isle or not? Well the reason for that is your rank. If you wait to get to the Warcamp before helping the Dark Elfs then “you” won’t get as much out of the Dark Elf Chapters 1 & 2 because you’ll be ready for Chapter 4. By deciding in Greenskin Chapter 2 whether to go or not, you will save yourself from doing Dark Elf quests and public quests that would be mostly worthless for you if you waited until Chapter 4.

Mount Bloodhorn Route Map

The Blighted Isle Route Map
If you decide to remain in the Greenskin territories you’ll soon run into Chapter 3’s “competitive” Public Quest, Komar Gap. This PQ is different from the normal variety in that Stage 1 is actually a competition between Order and Destruction. Whichever side completes Stage 1 first begins Stage 2 for their faction and locks out the other side until the Public Quest resets. It is not uncommon for these competitive Public Quests to turn into mini RvR areas as both sides attack each other. Indeed, if your scenario is not busy that day, Komar Gap may be your introduction to RvR in WAR.

Note: How these “Comp PQ’s” are handled has varied a bit throughout Beta. Some sessions you had to flag yourselves, accidentally or intentionally, and other sessions they seemed to turn into RvR “Puddles.” Not sure which way it will end up yet.

Beyond the Public Quest you’ll find the Chapter 3 Camp and face another decision. You can either head southwest into Ekrund, through the Spider Cave, for Chapter 4 or head north into Tier 1’s Warcamp. The DvG Tier 1 RvR “Lake” straddles both zones so you can still get to it from Chapter 4’s Camp but the Greenskin Tier 1 Warcamp, and its RvR Quest givers, is in the Mount Bloodhorn zone. I suggest heading north first for RvR opportunities and picking up your first Renown Achievements from the Renown Trainers there as well as some RvR gear from special vendors there. You can even use the Flight Masters to do some exploring of the other Front’s Tiers. Once you finish up head west into Ekrund where you find more Dwarfs to kill and finally the entrance to Tier 2’s first zone, Barak Varr.
Tier 2: Barak Varr & Marshes of Madness

Barak Varr Map

Marshes of Madness Map

Well you’ve made it to Tier 2. You are probably around Rank 10 and can begin devoting points to the Mastery Path that interests you most as well as have a couple of additional abilities for your chains. You also have a taunt by now which makes keeping gro much easier than it used to be. Looking at the map though will show you that the Greenskin’s Tier 2 is quite different from Chaos or Dark Elf. The biggest difference is that there are two RvR Lakes! Yep, instead of having a shared “lake” you have two “ponds” instead. While this can make it harder to find RvR action it avoids that pesky zone border skip which can, sometimes, be a pain in RvR.

Another thing to mention is the lack of RvR Gear Vendors and Renown Trainers in the Warcamps. From Tier 2 on these guys are no longer in Warcamps. They are in the Keeps! So, obviously, if you don’t own a keep in that Tier it will be impossible for you to find gear with Renown Rank requirements or put points into Renown buffs or tactics. Of course the Flight Masters are still at the Warcamps so you can travel to other Fronts and head to one of their keeps. With six keeps across all of Tier 2 it would be hard to not find at least one held by your faction. Though this does encourage you to find some mates and start taking keeps.

It’s time for a quick note about keeps. These are not meant to be captured by a single six-man party! Please remember that because it will save you a lot of agony if you ever try to take one with just one party. You’ll need “at least” two parties to have a good chance of taking a keep. Especially if “any” Order are inside helping the guards defend it. This is definitely where Warbands come into play and since you can have up to four parties in one, twenty-four players, they are the best way to go after keeps. Keeps are also a sort of Public Quest. Yep, once the keep lord is dead you have the chance of getting some great loot. However there are no Influence Rewards or Stages for Keeps so only killing the “Keep Lord” will give you a chance for gear rewards.

One more thing… Each Front’s Tier has its own scenario so don’t forget to queue for the new one when you enter Barak Varr. Big however, however, you cannot queue for the scenario if you don’t meet the minimum rank requirement. For Tier 2 that is Rank ten so if you do enter early, eight or nine, you will have to wait until you hit ten before you can queue. You cannot queue for Tier 1’s scenario while physically in Tier 2 so that is another reason to not rush too much when WAAAGH!!!’ing, it’s a Greenskin thing, your trail through WAR.

Greenskin Tier 2 follows the same formula as Tier 1 in having one chapter in one zone and the rest in the other. In this case you will spend most of your time in Barak Varr with only a short stay in Marshes of Madness. They differ though in that the last chapter of Greenskin Tier 1 is in Ekrund while the second chapter of Tier 2 is in Marshes of Madness. You also have competitive PQ’s in both the second and third chapters of Tier 2 but not in the first chapter. In fact these RvR friendly PQ’s are literally right next to the Camps which make them a good way to get some extra Renown along with Influence and Experience.

Besides the pure Greenskin goodness of the keep in Marshes of Madness, worth the trip whether you like RvR or not, the biggest “cool” sight in Greenskin Tier 2 is Barak Varr itself. The Greenskin Chapter 8 Camp is actually in Barak Varr and if you have a thing for stuntie killing then you just died and went to heaven my friend. They are all over the place in there. The massive Dwarf architecture is pretty impressive and having a harbor “within” the mountain has a coolness factor on its own. I’m pretty jaded about it at this point but I still remember my first time there and working my way upstairs, killing tons of stunties, then getting out on the balcony where I saw the whole port spread beneath me. Yeah, it was cool.

One thing to remember, however, that I constantly seem to forget. You run down a long spiraling tunnel to enter the port and you have to run up a long spiraling tunnel to leave it too. The exit tunnel is in the “northeast” corner of the port, not the “northwest” corner. For some damn reason I keep going northwest and end up having to back track a ways. Actually the northwest corner is how you get to that balcony bridge so it’s probably nostalgia that keeps drawing me back there. Also, last time I checked, the northwest corner falls within the RvR Lake but it’s been ages since I ran into an enemy player there.

Well from the port’s Chapter 8 Camp, Chapter 9 is the last camp in Tier 2. Like Chapter 5 it is also a beach camp and has a PQ right next to it. In fact it is so close that you can literally sneeze on it. Even a wimpy Dark Elf sneeze might net you a little influence so don’t be shy and let those nostrils get to work! After Chapter 9 it’s on too Tier 3!
Tier 3: Black Fire Pass & The Badlands

Black Fire Pass Map

The Badlands Map

Still here? Haven’t moved to Chaos or Dark Elf yet? Sorry, couldn’t help it. For an RvR fan like me Greenskin Tier 1 & 2 can get a little tiring because there are far fewer Dwarf players than Empire or High Elf. Of course by Tier 2 you are already starting to get crossover but, maybe it’s just me, it seems like having two ponds instead of one lake discourages many players. There is more traveling involved to get to both keeps and less maneuvering room for Warbands. At least it feels that way to me.

However there is a big plus to Tier 3 that 1 & 2 don’t have, Mount Gunbad! This is the first “Dungeon” available in DvG and there are even Public Quests “inside” it. Yep, you guessed it; there are also Influence rewards too. It is an instanced dungeon so you don’t have to worry about Order messing up your game plan. Now you have probably heard about “Lairs” which are sprinkled throughout the Tiers. While cool I don’t consider them to be “Dungeons” mostly because they are not instanced. Another thing to make sure you’re aware of. All mobs in Dungeons are at least “Champions!”

I’m sure you noticed early on that there are several “levels” of mobs. First is the regular variety, next step up are the Champions who hit harder, last longer, and cannot be soloed unless you out rank them significantly. Above them are the Heroes, royal pains in the hindquarters, who you better have a healer keeping you alive if you plan to survive a fight with. Finally you get to the Lords. Yeah, unless you have a full party with a couple of healers you better run.

I don’t care how tough you think you are, Lords hit hardest and they last forever. Now running into Champions is not all that unusual. They like to hang out in Stage 2 of Public Quests and there are a few that just wander about. Think of the roaming Champions as the Orkin Man, except the pest they were created for is known as “bot.” Now that doesn’t mean they won’t kick your butt if you agro them but they were not put in to make your journey miserable. Nope, they’re meant to make bots miserable.

Now there must be some sort school in these Dungeons because Champions are everywhere. Not solo either, you’ve got packs of them just waiting for some innocent, cute, and cuddly, Black Orc to get a Mount Gunbad quest in the Chapter 11 Camp and think, “Pick some mushrooms? I can solo this easy!” Yeah, right, and I’ve got some ocean front property in The Badlands for sale.

The other big “hot damn” for Tier 3 are mounts, yes, you can finally stop running everywhere and ride in style instead. However you need to be Rank 20 before you can buy one and they don’t come cheap. They are thirty-gold right now and that is a big chunk of change for a Rank 20 to come up with. Of course this reaches way back to picking up Scavenging in Chapter 2 to help your cash flow. This can also have the side effect of making the Public Quests in Chapter 9 & 10 pretty popular. Since those who are short try to grind the rest of the way to that magic thirty-gold so they can buy the mount from the merchant in the Chapter 10 Camp.

Naturally I should now bring up the Black Orc’s mount, the Boar. Honestly this will probably be a divisive subject that will last throughout WAR’s lifespan. It will probably be a hotly debated topic lasting longer than even Mythic’s decision to cut four careers. Some love it and some hate it. Yes it may be pretty accurate to the tabletop game’s mount but many players look at the Goblin’s Wolf mount and turn even “greener” with envy. My opinion on this is between the two. While I would like it to be a little larger what mostly bothers me are the legs. They just look way to skinny for the WAR Boar, let alone one hauling a huge Black Orc around.

Of course once you get your mount you’ve got to show it off so go ahead and waste days running around Tier 1 & 2’s PvE areas making fun of the sorry sods that still have to leg it. Just try not to gro a roaming Champion and get killed in front of an entire Warband grinding a Public Quest in Chapter 7. Not that it ever happened to me mind you. No way, it happened to a… guy and I heard about it from a friend who had it happen to a cousin’s uncle. Yep, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Those screenshots were photoshopped by the way.

Dagorc Says:
Sod off!

What else is there to say about Tier 3? Well not too much actually. Of course the Greenskin Keep looks amazing in The Badlands and there are more PQ’s to frolic through but at this point my eyes tend to not look around nearly as much as they did in Tier 1 or 2. That’s because by Tier 3 you can almost “feel” Tier 4 coming up. I don’t want to stop and smell the roses before I squish them now when I expect the roses in Tier 4 will be much bloodier. Now I’m not saying Tier 3 is lacking, in fact it’s a lot of fun. Yet I now have a mount which lets me get to where I’m going faster and, therefore, speed up the pace a bit.

At this point I’ve gone a long way towards maxing my Mastery Path of choice too so its preferred chain is becoming more and more potent. Of course that doesn’t mean I’m ignoring the other abilities, I’m just getting more and more comfortable with using my preferred one. This is also where tactics begin playing a much bigger role too. You now have enough that you can really start making sets for different situations. Of course you cannot change your Tactic Set in combat but you can start making PvE or RvR friendlier sets so you are even more lethal when you prepare a little ahead of time. As a by the by, if you have not figured it out yet, Focused Offense is a fantastic tactic for any Black Orc who isn’t the Main Tank for his Party or Warband.
Tier 4: Stonewatch, Kadrin Valley, Cinderfall, Thunder Mountain, Death Peak, Black Crag, Butcher’s Pass

Stonewatch Map

Kadrin Valley Map

Cinderfall Map

Thunder Mountain Map

Death Peak Map

Black Crag Map

Butcher’s Pass Map

...........NEXT

WOW VS WAR

2008-09-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

This is all just my OPINION, but I've played World of Warcraft since release...and technically Warhammer Online I guess, lol. I have a Level 70 Warrior, Rogue, Druid, Shaman, Hunter and Warlock. Have a Level 24 White Lion, 20 Bright Wizards, and some others. So if you're looking for an honest unbiased mini-review, feel free to read and use your own judgment. Here is just my opinion, even though I love both games. I will not be purchasing the new Warcraft expansion, 4 years is enough for me.

World of Warcraft:
Easier to find groups.
Better raiding/grouping system.
More customization with weapons/armor
Better mounts, flying mounts, etc.
Easily runable on a crap computer.
Bigger community providing for easier chances to raid/pvp.
Not many glitches, and if there are they're fixed pretty much instantly.

Warhammer Online:
Queueing anywhere for Scenarios.
More variety for Scenarios instead of the same 4 Battlegrounds.
Renown System is better then Honor grinding.
Better graphics
Better class variety.
All classes are balanced well.
PvP aspect is better.
Better combat system/leveling path system
The tier system for levels.
Fort Battles/Sieges
Guild system is great, being able to access more abilities through leveling.
Action Points system is better then relying on mana. No long drawn out battles.
Morale Abilities add a nice variety to fighting.

Someone earlier on these compared World of Warcraft to Mc. Donalds earlier. Was a pretty accurate statement. While Mc. Donalds has been around for a long time, and is convenient and everyone has been there, a Mc. Donalds burger will never beat a home made or small town burger. We just all go to Mc. Donalds because It's all we know, and are use to it. Same for World of Warcraft, no? Most people are afraid to try something new.

I'm sure I am missing tons, but hey, whatever! Feel free to comment. Later hombres.

Low Level Engineer Guide to Surviving

2008-09-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

Post by Rexob
Having read numerous complaints and rants regarding the Engineer's lack of survivability and damage at lower levels here's an easy guide for leveling. I realize most of this isn't exciting, fancy or fun, but it works. Leveling 1-24 so far I've found this works best.

Anyone looking for a Long Range DPS class...the Engineer does not excel in this area. Later on in RvR you can go this route with the Rifleman spec, but from personal experience I've found the following to work quite well. If you have any questions or comments feel free to ask.

Levels 1-5:
Gun Blast x2 - typically can fire 2 and 3 at max range
Fire Bomb - until DEAD
Use Gun Turret starting at Level 3
Levels 6-8:

Flame Turret - be careful with placement to NOT agro multiple adds; this benefits from Acid Bomb
Gun Blast x2
Acid Bomb
Fire Bomb - until DEAD
Bombardment Turret @ Level 8
Level 9-11:

Bombardment Turret
Incendiary Rounds
Acid Bomb
Fire Bomb - until DEAD
Extra Tips:

Keep Flack Jacket up once obtained at Level 11 - I know it's annoying to rebuff every 3-4 pulls, but it does help
Do NOT use Blunderbuss Blast - this has a terrible Action Point to DMG ratio
Go Grenadier because the majority if not ALL your PvE will be done using grenades and within close proximity

Teef's guide ta' walkin in Warhammer!!

2008-09-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

Post by teef

RVR kiting.

2008-09-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

PVE kiting

2008-09-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

1st 1v1 narrated video.

2008-09-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

Nordenwatch video

2008-09-29T07:39:00.000-07:00

Guide Dwarf Grudges

2008-09-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

POST BY KUDOS

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.

Warhammer Online Guide to Statistics

2008-09-27T17:06:00.000-07:00

POST BY GARTHILK
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 hit points.

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.