The Weekend Warhammer Wrapup

[Lately I've been reflecting that with so much coverage of the 360, PS3, and Wii here on the Weekend Gamer, we were neglecting a big part of the market--namely, the PC.  Another deficiency is the lack of MMO coverage.  Part of that dificiency is that playing an MMO usually eats up most of your leisure time, leaving less to play the myriad of console or PC titles on the market.

So, in answer to that problem, I turned to a good friend of mine, Chris Falzone, who is an avid PC fan, and conviently, a current subsciber to Warhammer Online. 

Warhammer is obstensibly the fastest growing MMO on the market, with 750k subscibers in just three weeks.  While it remains to be seen how it will do in the long term against the big guns of World of Warcraft, the future looks promising. 

Chris has agreed to write a weekly feature here at the Weekend Gamer, detailing his exploits in Warhammer Online in a semi real time format.  If you're curious about Mythic's newest MMO, or have exploits of your own to detail, leave us a comment.  Now without further ado, I give you the first Weekend Warhammer Wrapup--WG]

Welcome to Waaagh!

Hi, my name is Chris and I play Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning (WAR).  I am what one would call a medium-core gamer.  Meaning that most hardcore gamers would consider me casual, while most casual gamers would call me hard-core.  I have been playing MMORPGs for quite some time, starting with Everquest 2.  I didn’t become really serious with them until I started playing Dark Age of Camelot, where I have quite a few characters that are now retired.  Ok, now that that’s taken care of let’s jump into the first Warhammer Wrapup here on WeekendGamer.

First off, I’d like you to meet Spazter.  Spazter is a level 26 Warrior Priest.  Certainly Mythic’s staple in MMOs is their concept of Realm versus Realm (RvR).  A trademark they coined with the release Dark Age of Camelot back in 2001. Mythic actually takes the concept of RvR a little further with WAR.  In WAR there are three realms (Order:  Empire, Dwarfs, and High Elves) versus three other realms (Destruction:  Chaos, Greenskins, Dark Elves). These realms are then paired off:  Dwarfs v Greenskinns, Empire v Chaos, and The Elves.  The cool thing is, you can jump over to any pairing you want at any time. 

So, what is RvR you might ask?  Perhaps the simplest definition is:  “You and your allies, your Realm, do PvP battle against the enemy and their allies.”  Seems simple enough, but wait, there’s more to it than that.  One aspect to Mythic’s RvR that I think most other MMOs and players miss is that each Realm has different classes.  Think about what that means for a minute and then come back.  Most PvP MMOs have a hard enough time trying to balance one set of characters.  However, Mythic manages to pull off a near perfectly balanced PvP game on release with (count them) 20 playable classes.  I hope you’re following my train of thought and you are starting to get an idea of how massive Warhammer Online is.

To Fight or Heal?

As I said, Spazter is a Warrior Priest.  The Warrior Priest (WP) is what you would call a hybrid healer/tank archetype.  This means that he can run up to the fray, dish out moderate damage and be able to stay alive in most fights.  At the same time, he can also stay back and do moderate healing.  In WAR each character has a “mechanic” along with thier archetype (archetypes include healer, tank, and ranged DPS).  The WP’s mechanic is call Righteous Fury. Mythic puts it like this:

Sigmar is a warrior god, and his priests gain divine favor only by fighting to defend the Empire that he built. The holy symbol of Sigmar is a hammer, and the Warrior Priests have adopted the warhammer as their weapon of choice in honor of their patron. The Righteous Fury of Sigmar fills the Warrior Priest with each swing of their weapon, and this divine power can then be used to fuel their healing magic.

This becomes something of both a freedom and a restriction for the Warrior Priest – since all of his magic is powered by Righteous Fury, he can throw himself wholeheartedly into melee combat and then still have resources left to heal with, but at the same time, his healing capabilities become dramatically more limited when there are no enemies in arm’s reach.

Basically what that means is,  I have to be fighting in order to heal.  It’s somewhat crazy to try and juggle the two, but man, it’s tons of fun trying.  I can only hope that as time goes on I get better at balancing fighting and healing.

Something For Everyone

This weekend I focused on getting Spazter a little bit of experience.  I found myself getting quest rewards that were a little too high level for me.  I suppose it will take a little time for Mythic to balance out all the rewards and loot and such so that they make more sense.  My absolute favorite aspect of WAR is that you never, ever have to grind levels.  No matter what your play style is, there is something for everyone. 

The game currently has four major play styles incorporated into the game:

• Questing–Mythic has done a great job of moving you along in the story-line of your realm with questing.
• Public Quests–This will cater to the more social PvE players or the eight man groups.  Public Quests or PQs are stories that unfold in the area around you that you take part in with the rest of your realm. 
• Scenarios–Scenarios are small skirmish type RvR battles that take place in an instanced area.  They can range anywhere from 2-4 group on each each side and normally have some kind of mechanic.  FPS players will most likely find themselves at home here.  There is everything from capture the flag to territory type skirmishes. 
• Open World RvR–This is Mythic’s bread and butter.  RvR, Keeps, Battlefield Objectives and 100s of player going up against each other for the glory of their realm.

Hands down, the best way to level in WAR is scenarios.  And I actually hope they balance this part of the game out a little bit.  I’d like to see PQs getting a little more love.  So I hit the scenarios hard this weekend in a bout to gain a few levels.  I managed to take myself from level 24 to 26 this weekend without too much trouble and I had a blast doing it.  In each Tier (there are 4 in WAR) there are a number of Scenarios in each realm that you can take part in.

Well, I had better stop there and leave something to talk about next week.  Thanks for reading and until next time…

Get Your WAAAAGH on!
-cfalzone

P.S.  If you want to join me I am on the Badlands server.  And what would a first post be with a shameless plug for my guild, Immortal Minions.  Check us out on the Realm War Page.