WAR Closed Beta has started!

[Wilfan]

There's your good old XP bar (called rank) and "PvP exp" bar (called renown rank). While the former fills a bit from PvP kills and objectives (but mostly from NPC kills and quests), the latter is exclusively filled by PvP kills and taking PvP objectives.

Rewards from renown rank are stats, tactics (kind permanent, switchable sets of self bufs) and vendor gear that has certain renown rank as prerequisite.

More: EA Mythic - Warhammer Online.

Then there's the fabled "realm pride", but that never turns out very well and has lolworthy name to boot.

[NativityInBlack]

Thanks Naj, Spronk and Wilfan can't even give you more internetz at this time.

By the way some news folks:

Declare Your Allegiance. Click on Register on the homepage. You will be prompted to enter your name, email, and state/province. You will also be asked to choose your Realm (Order or Destruction) and your army.

Gather Gold. 500 Gold will be added to your War Chest just for joining the fight. You can earn more Gold in a number of ways, including recruiting friends and interacting with embeddable content. The more you build your War Chest, the stronger you make your region and Realm.

Engage in Battle. Starting July 30, 2008, there will be a weekly battle on the Road to WAR. Participate in the weekly battles and fight for yourself, your state, and your Realm.

Win. Coveted prizes go to those who fight the hardest to defend their Realm. Every member of the Realm that controls the most territory at the end of the campaign wins a Never Ending Bowl of Custard and a special in-game title they carry into Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. In addition, all of the winning Realm's capital cities will start at Level 2. Top individual performers also win a special in-game item—the Signet of the Cursed Company.

The website: Warhammer Road to WAR

Takes 10 mins to load they are being hammered, if you guys want to setup anything to defend a realm so we can win a cookie I'm up for it.

[Face Gator]

Originally Posted by NativityInBlack

Thanks Naj, Spronk and Wilfan can't even give you more internetz at this time.

By the way some news folks:



The website: Warhammer Road to WAR

Takes 10 mins to load they are being hammered, if you guys want to setup anything to defend a realm so we can win a cookie I'm up for it.

Since the page isn't loading... I'm guessing this is a browser game?

[Wilfan]

Originally Posted by spronk

and you get something like maybe 500 after ~2 hours of playing RvR/pvp. So its a pretty massive grind.

While renown grind will be massive (definitely longer than leveling), you're doing it massively wrong if you're getting 500 per two hours. Even scenarios give 100-400 in under 15 minutes.

[NativityInBlack]

Yup browser game / hype machine (when working) etc.

Hope renown keep us busy for real, like a few of you I really miss the good old AAXP.

[Skrigg]

Originally Posted by spronk

and you get something like maybe 500 after ~2 hours of playing RvR/pvp.

You get 1600 points for capping and holding an objective in T4 RvR, and Im not sure how many for taking a keep. You also get at least 600 for winning a scenario, not counting the kills you get in there. Each player at level 40 and realm rank 35 is worth approx 300 realm points each. In the 9 hours played on my elder server black orc, about 4 of those hours solo I have gained 53,000 realm points out of 400,000 needed for realm rank 36, so there is a grind, but its not that bad, especially with new gear and points to spend almost every level.

Originally Posted by spronk

Re: instances, I asked around and from what people in beta told me (not the best source obviously) once your side captures the enemy keep (a long process, you haveta go through a couple zones then attack an instanced city) it unlocks for your side a instance or two inside the enemy city. Nobody seemed to know about any other smaller group instances, but it doesn't mean its not there. I wandered around the zones on elder looking for anything, found the occasional red portal thingie but I could just walk right through, dunno what they are supposed to be.

The red portals are entrances to the various scenario's in that area, it basically will que you up for it by walking into it, similar to the way you can que in WoW from the various battleground portals spread around. The PvE dungeons are located in PvE area's and are denoted by a blue portal.

[Hawking]

Originally Posted by Seig

I agree 100% except for the WoW part. I just feel that the game at it's core isn't fun or enjoyable no matter how many gimmicks are added the animations, combat, AP system (and various other things) turned me off. I don't think the PvP will be like DAoC where a group of 6-10 can roll a zerg. The uninstanced zerg combat is really boring but that has more to do with casters having insane range and low cast times.
The only feature that I really like are the public quests I hope future MMo's steal that idea.

I haven't tried out the beta in a couple of months, but I doubt class balancing would change how I feel about the game.

A small organized group can easily turn the battle. I have personally watched a 6 man team that was organized, flank a zerg of the opposite faction (who were siegeing a keep) and completely break them up/disorganize them and wipe the floor with em.

AP system has been redone a lot since 6 months ago, you need to use some brains to manage your AP in a fight.

There are all kinds of RvR fights. Some are zerg style, some are small group and some are 1 on 1.

7 months ago I hated this beta and stopped playing. 1 month ago I decided to try it again and I'm hooked. This game will be extremely fun for guilds that are into PvP.

[InterSlayer]

I've led a raiding guild (cleared BT) on WoW for 4 years and am pretty sold on WAR. It might not be a wow-killer, but definitely ranks up there as a viable alternative. I don't even plan on buying the wotlk expansion. It's just more of the same, or too little too late.

My guild is just waiting for the release now, and hoping more of us get into the beta =p

[Rica86]

Having been in the beta for about a month now, at first I was finding it hard for the game to hold my attention. But as of about a week ago, I ran into a couple guys and we started a guild to test out the functions, etc and going from playing solo 100% of the time, to even just grouping with 1 other person for questing/RvR/PQ's has made the game so much more enjoyable.

I've just come off an about 16 hour straight play time that we didn't even realise it how late (early?) it was until about 7am because we were just having so much fun just messing around. Me and the other guy from my guild that were RvR'ing for most the night, at one point we'd thrown together a group of about 5 people, and we're pretty much obliterating atleast 10 or so other players of the opposite faction. I can't wait for retail when we can get into more organized stuff.

My only thing is that as people have said, the game is solo friendly there are plenty of quests and you can just join up PQ's. But from what i've experienced thus far, I couldn't imagine playing it most the time solo without wanting to kill themselves it's so mind numbingly boring to try to solo shit, but that also could be due to the class I am playing.

Oh one more thing that annoyes me that I just learned up tonight, i didn't actually test it but it made sense as to the problem i was having. The mastery system seems like the stupidest shit ever. You build up a tier up to 15 points(there being 3 different ones, each having to be built up seperately), with a skill or tactic about every 3. But at every of those 3 points, you have to spend a point to unlock that tier, then drop a second point into the skill/tactic there to actually learn the skill, in essense, spending two points on the same exact spot. Seems really retarded. Maybe someone that's actually gotten far enough in the mastery trees could clarify, as I just recently had decided the tree i wanted to try? But that will really screw with how I had planned a build. :/

[Skrigg]

Basically every point you put in a specific mastery tree makes every skill from that school stronger. You have to spend an extra point in the tree if you want to unlock one of the mastery only abilities that are specific to each tree. So basically you are getting 2 things when you spend those 2 points to get that tactic/ability. You get the skill and all the skills in that tree get increased in power.

[Rica86]

Ah, that makes sense then. Back to the drawing board though.

[Kuro]

Originally Posted by NativityInBlack

Thanks Naj, Spronk and Wilfan can't even give you more internetz at this time.

By the way some news folks:



The website: Warhammer Road to WAR

Takes 10 mins to load they are being hammered, if you guys want to setup anything to defend a realm so we can win a cookie I'm up for it.

And the proxy spammers are already at it. 1st and 2nd place are 300,000+ gold ahead of every other participant

[NativityInBlack]

Someone call Punkbuster, already.

[Rhym]

Originally Posted by Skrigg

They finally gave defensive specced tanks a job in pvp. If you plan on playing a squishy or running any type of respectable gank group make friends with or have someone good roll a tank.

I know there is NDA still, but can you elaborate on this? Is it a combination of taunt actually doing something and the collision system? What exactly is the reason defense specced tanks work?

Also, on getting renown for killing people: if you are in a party is it split evenly over the group? Is it based on distance from the kill? I pray and am certain it isn't like AoC where you only get the kill if you did the killing blow.

[Kasi]

Originally Posted by Rhym

Also, on getting renown for killing people: if you are in a party is it split evenly over the group? Is it based on distance from the kill? I pray and am certain it isn't like AoC where you only get the kill if you did the killing blow.

From the article linked at the top of the page.

Renown for killing players is also awarded to members in groups. Group members must be active in RvR, and within a certain range of the nearly deceased individual to receive Renown. “Active in RvR” means that you must have performed an action against another player or benefited an ally who is also active. Renown is split amongst players on a percentage base.

For example: Bob, Joe and Mike are attacking Jack. Bob and Joe are grouped, but Mike is not. Bob and Joe do 70% of the damage it took to kill Jack and Mike did the remaining 30%. Let’s say that Jack was worth 100 Renown. Bob and Joe will split 70 Renown evenly, and Mike will get 30 Renown.

As for the game itself, I've just been reading about it and it looks interesting. Like many here I am sick to death of WoW and all the gameplay types they promote. I doubt I'll buy this early on, but if it develops decently I might pick it up at some later time. I'm just not sure that I want to get back into MMOs anytime soon.