Warhammer Online – The first 2 months, a “review” of sorts

If I someone were to ask me to review WAR in a phrase, my response would be “Warhammer is a victim of its own design”. What exactly does that mean? I’ll attempt to do just that. Of course, nobody has “asked” me to review WAR, but for some reason this “stuff” has been bouncing around in my head and it needs to get out.

Since launch I have leveled a Chaos Zealot (healer) to 19, started some other classes to get a feel, finally settled on a Squig Herder (RDPS) who is now 24. A couple of weeks ago I rolled a Disciple of Khaine (Melee Healer) and she is currently at lvl 8. So keep in mind that I’ve only experienced the first half of the game, whereas max level is 40.

All by meself

For those who don’t know, Warhammer Online is an MMORPG that is based on the Warhammer table top game from Games Workshop. The Warhammer is a rich universe to base an MMO. In designing WAR, Mythic has tried to stay as true to the Warhammer world as possible. Some good, some bad.

Based on the Warhammer lore, there are multiple clashes between the forces of Order and Destruction. Mythic chose to stay within the lore when designing the game world itself. The game is divided into three separate “storylines”: Dwarves vs. Greenskin, Empire vs. Chaos, High Elf vs. Dark Elf. And when I mean separate, I mean that literally. The only way for a character to travel to the different storylines is by fly point (i.e. loading screen) from a “war camp”. Each storyline is divided into 4 zones. (Max level in the game is 40, so do the math.)

You can walk between zones within a storyline however; you will experience a loading screen when doing so. Each zone is further divided by “chapters”.

A “chapter” is correctly named as the game has does a great job of presenting the background story via the “Tome of Knowledge”. The ToK is an online journal of your characters exploits. It automatically updates as your character progresses. So when you enter a new chapter, in your ToK will have a 1-2 page story of that chapter and the NPC characters that you will interact with. The writing in the ToK is some of the best in a MMORPG and is good as you’d expect from a single player RPG and not an MMO. Chapters are associated to an outpost/town where NPC’s will distribute quests for that chapter.

Each chapter also has anywhere from 2-4 Public Quests which are a great idea in a MMO and most likely be duplicated in future MMO’s. A PQ is an open quest that you simple wander into. The PQ is divided into 3-4 stages and at the completion a chest is dropped. All the participants of the PQ then have a chance of gaining some loot from the chest based on the player’s participation level. If you have rotten luck on rolls, don’t worry. Simply taking a part in the PQ will raise your “influence” in that chapter. Once you have maxed out your influence for a chapter, you are guaranteed an “influence” reward from that chapter’s NPC Rally Master. So the leveling process boils down to: enter chapter, complete quests in chapter, do PQ’s to max influence, get rewards, and move on to next chapter. All the standard quests are so “solo able”. The first stage of a PQ is also “solo able”, where as the later stages do require a number of participants to complete.

There are 20 classes in the game evenly divided between Order and Destruction. Each class has a “mirror” on the opposing side. For example, the Dwarf Rune Priest is a healer archtype with the Choas Zealot as its mirror on the Destruction side. Mirror classes don’t have the exact same abilities, but are very similar for the most part.

To follow the lore, the character classes are based on the units from the table top game. For balancing, some classes were created out of necessity. (i.e. Chaos Zealot) But by staying within the lore, it seems like your class choses are limited even though there are 20 available. For instance, if you wanted to play a dwarf, you can only chose from a Rune Priest, an Engineer, or an Ironbreaker. And since the world is divided into 3 separate storylines, as you level your dwarf, all you ever see are Rune Priest, Engineer’s and Ironbreakers.

The storylines themselves are extremely linear. You merely go from chapter to chapter as you level. There are no quest “hubs” or large towns where you might interact with other characters. No cross roads where different level players might meet up. You don’t cross over into the enemy territory at any point as well. You rarely even see the enemy. Just follow the road to the next chapter and move on from there. There is a “capital city” that you can fly (loading screen) to from any warcamp. But there is no reason to at the low levels. All the trainers, NPC, merchants, etc., can be found in every chapter’s outpost. Occasionally you will see a different race/class in your storyline. And usually it’s a couple of guildies helping each other out but that’s about it.

The world is divided into 2 sides, Order and Destruction. Each side is then divided into 3 storylines split amongst the races. Each storyline is then divided into 4 zones based on level. So the resulting affect is that there is no sense of a “community” in the game. You’re pretty much isolated from most of the server population as you level.

Da Waaaghhh Iz Strong!

So far I’ve only discussed one side of the game, where the game really shines in its pvp or RvR side. This is Mythic’s strength and WAR is primarily a RvR game. The PvE side is merely a leveling mechanism. But the RvR is not without its faults as well.

If you chose to roll a character on a “Core RvR” server, then you as a player can control when to participate in any pvp activities. Whereas on an “Open RvR” server, your free game to your enemy and need to watch your back. I have not rolled a character on an open server. But with how the world is laid out with the divided and linear storylines, I don’t think it’s that much different leveling your character from a core server. (Since you rarely see the enemy as is.)

RvR is broken down in tiers based on your character level. (Tier 1 is from lvl 1 thru 11, Tier 2 is from 12 to 21, etc..). T1 & T2 have 4 different scenarios with T3 & T4 having 6 or more to chose from. You can jump into RvR by either participating in “scenarios” or in “RvR Lakes”. At T4, there are the additional fun of city sieges and such, which I have yet to experience and can’t comment at this time.

Scenario’s are similar to WoW battlegrounds. Each scenario has different objectives like capture the flag, defend the zone, etc., and have a time limit or set score that must be reached to complete the scenario. Tier’s 1 thru T3 each have 4 different scenarios that you can queue up for individually or queue up for all 4 at once. You can queue up for a scenario anywhere in the world by simply clicking on a button on the UI. When a scenario pops, you’ll get a prompt to join or leave the queue. If you chose to join, a loading screen will appear and you’ll spawn inside the scenario. Upon completion you will respawn right back where you were when you joined.

While inside the scenario, your level will be adjusted to put your character at a more even playing field with the other players. So if your level 13 and you join the T2 scenario your stats and abilities will be increased to level 18 while in the scenario. Your armor and weapons will still be at level 13, and you won’t have as many abilities of a level 18 player. So you will have a slight disadvantage, but will be still able to contribute to your team.

“RvR Lakes” are open areas in the world where upon entering you become immediately flagged for RvR and your stats are adjusted just like if you where in a scenario. Each zone has a RvR lake, and for the most part, these lakes could be consider the “front lines” of the war. Each lake has a “war camp” where you can receive specific quests that occur in the RvR lake. (i.e. “Kill 15 Enemy Shadow Warriors.”) Throughout these lakes are objectives (capture points) and at least one “keep”. By controlling all the objectives and keeps in the lake, that side receives a discount on material purchases and access to special “renown” trainers and merchants that live in the keeps.

The Renown trainers/merchants are NPC that offer specific RvR gear based on your “renown” level. As you take out your enemy, you receive renown based on the enemy’s level and other factors. The higher your renown level is the better stuff the merchants have to sell. Max level is 40, but your renown max level is 80.

RvR in WAR is a lot of fun. Class balance in any new MMO is a problem, but as each side has mirrors on the other side, the overall “team” balance is pretty good. Scenarios are fun to run as the game does a pretty good job of dividing the teams evenly, but occasionally you might end up on a team with one healer or one tank and end up getting steam rolled. But that’s the odds of who is in the queue. Another little downer is that it seems like you always end up playing the same scenario over and over in the same Tier. Different tiers have different scenarios, but if I had a nickel for every time I played Nordenwatch in T1.

From reading on multiple WAR forums, the biggest issues in T3 & T4 are the crazy crowd control that occurs. Stuns, slows, knockdowns, and knockbacks are rampant such that melee characters feel like there are not effective at all. But again, this early in a MMO this stuff gets thrown into the class balances and bug fixes and will eventually be worked out. (Immunity timers seemed to be bugged and aren’t 100% effective at the moment.)

The best and worst thing about RvR in WAR is that you get experience from it. I always get a smile on my face when I’ve just taken out a Bright Wizard and the glow around my Squig Herder appears and I get the message that I’ve just leveled.

The downside is that running scenario’s seems to be the fastest way to level your character and the fact that you can enter anywhere at any time. As an experiment, I decided to do nothing but scenarios on my SH for level 11 and I hit 12 within in an hour or so. I got lucky that as soon as I left a scenario, I’d hit the queue and was back in another scenario within minutes.

So the quests are something you do between scenarios while you’re waiting for the next one to pop. As I mentioned above, the world’s design already does a good job of splitting up the populace. Now throw in a RvR mechanic that makes leveling that much easier and now you’re adding to that isolation. Chances are very good that if happen to be in a PQ with other players, players will simply disappear/appear when a scenario pops further adding to the player isolation.

Another effect from scenarios is that the RVR lakes are ghost towns. The bonus of controlling a lake is not all that significant and you can always fly to your capital city to get access to a renown trainer/merchant if you really need to. Additionally, the RvR in the lakes is an unknown. You may go in there and not see anyone, or you may just happen to run into a group of guildies that will easily own you. Either way the time spent versus the reward (exp/renown) will most likely be a bust. Whereas in a scenario you know the sides will be even, that you’re guaranteed at least some exp/renown for participating. (And it doesn’t help that scenarios are just FUN!!)

Occasionally, you might see someone in the regional chat trying to generate some interest to form a warband and take back a keep. If the enemy responds, the RvR lakes can be a blast. It’s unscripted chaos of destruction. I’ve only experienced a couple of keep sieges on my SH and it was very cool. Nothing like ramming down the door and having boiling oil dumped on you. Just don’t see that in every MMO. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t happen that often.

Da Smell Don’t Bother Me

Just like every MMO when it starts out, there are some design decisions that don’t turn out the way originally planned. This game screams groups and guildies and high populations. Cause when there are players, the game just rules. I mean it is after all a RvR MMO game!

Mythic needs to work on making the RvR lakes more worthwhile. They are aware that there is a problem and are working on some solutions. Here’s an excerpt from a recent post from Mark Jacobs, the lead designer.

Finally, I want to close this out with a brief explanation about the role that we believe that oRvR should play in WAR. It’s really as simple as this, oRvR should be a major focus for leveling, item gain, etc. in WAR. Some of the systems are already in place and in Tier 4, oRvR is alive and well. On other Tiers, however, oRvR is not being engaged in as often as we had hoped when we launched WAR. Our goal is to ensure that oRvR is the place where players can level the fastest, get the best items and overall, have a great time while doing it. It is supposed to be riskier, more challenging but ultimately, more rewarding than any other place within WAR. What is outlined in this letter are some of the ways we plan on making this happen over the next few months and beyond.

So far Mythic has been very active in fixing and updating the game as fast as possible. Every week is another little “hot fix” and the game gets more and more stable. In December, Mythic is adding two new classes back into the game that were removed months before release because they didn’t think they were ready. And there are plans of adding another two classes in the following months. If they can deliver and make the RvR Lakes the major focus they are describing, then that will help make the Warcamps the central hub of each zone. And really help out the PvE side of the game.

So it basically comes down to this. If you’re looking for an MMO game that offers a huge immersive world to feel free and explore, then look elsewhere. But if you’re looking for one whose main objective is to provide dynamic and fun player versus player gameplay, then Warhammer-Online just might be what you’re looking for.

Nice post Slim, and an excellent review

Good read, thanks for taking the time to write it up. PvP has never really been my thing but found it quite fun in War Hammer. I used to play healers a lot and just never really felt I had much in the way of healing tools.

A group member would be being beat up and there was little I could do about it. Other than that rather fun to charge into battle with 12 other players.

Cheers,

Kor

I wanted to give a little update. (If anyone is interested.) Yesterday, update 1.1 went live. I haven't played it much but the game seems to be even more stable. I usually have a random CTD each time I login and last night I played for close to 3 hours and nothing.

With this latest patch, the two classes were added so now both the Empire and Dark Elves have 4 classes each. The classes overall seem to be more balanced. Although the two new classes seem to be a little OP at the moment. (but not too bad...) Class balancing is a given in any MMO, so its not even worth mentioning.

The patch also added some PQ's in the ORvR lakes and implemented a influence system for the ORvR lakes with some really good rewards. There's more stuff in the works to continue to make the ORvR more inviting, but this is a start.

I now have gotten my Squid Herder half way into T3 and the leveling has slowed greatly. But I've seen more of the enemy in these last couple of levels than in all of the first 20. In T3, many of the PQ's are joint PQ's. Meaning that both sides are running the same PQ. I also found my first "dungeon". Haven't done a run thru yet, but both sides have access to it. So it appears in the later half of the game, the game world is laid out better for more char interaction. T3 also has 6 scenarios to play and the latest patch has definately made them more random.

I also wanted to make a statement about how "casual-friendly" this game is. When you receive a quest, your map is highlighted in red so you know where to go all the time. Quests are for the most part centered around the chapter, so you don't have to far to find them. The quest themselves are pretty standard, but there is no feeling of wasted time. For example, if the quest requires you to return 6 bear paws. Then it only takes 6 bears! You don't take hours killing 80 furbolgs just to get 10 freaking feathers!

The dungeons are designed in sections so that a party of 6 can accomplish each section in an hours time. You can join a scenario queue from anywhere and the scenario's never go past 15-20 minutes. From my experience other MMO's (WoW) at some point or other, you can't do anything without a 2-4 hour commitment. In WAR, you accomplish anything in a small 30 min to 1 hr sessions or multiple sessions. So for people who truly do have jobs, family, "lives", this game is the MMO game for you. I really can't stress that enough.

I also am starting to believe that how much you enjoy the game is largely based on the server you select. You definately want to play on a med-high populations server! Just for fun, I created an Order char at lunch. In the middle of the day, this server had a medium population. It is also an "OpenRvR" server and 2 minutes after creating the character the regional chat was very active because a lvl 20 Witch Elf was harrasing people in the starter area. The server where my lvl 26 Squid Herder resides has hardly any chatter at all. (Even in the evenings.)

Anyway, the game is getting better and better. Still some polishing to go, but if Mythic had waited a little bit longer and released it at the current state, I think they would have kept a lot more of their initial user base. WAR will probably never be as big as WoW, but I think it will have a good user base and will be around for a while. The combat is very addictive, and I am enjoying the game so far.