Looking for MOAR in WO:AR

You knuckleheads have driven me to altaholicism…

There’s been much idle gnashing of teeth in Warhammer Online for me lately. It started back last week when I was writing my strategy guides, or perhaps even earlier as I was playing my Archmage, and realized that, “goodness, when it comes to allowing a team member to live, a Tank is even more influential than my healer…”

It's a less cute word when you know it was coined by children demanding more pornography over 4Chan.

… and this was not an incorrect thought – while a healer may attempt to counteract enemy damage, a competently played Tank can nullify between 50% to 85% of the damage applied to whatever they’re guarding.  Healers may cure what ails you, but it was the Tanks that save lives.

Thus, the seeds of flow-ruining altaholicism were planted… but, as we’re about to see, in this case it wasn’t entirely my choice.

Warhammer Online Order Class Capabilities Simplified Guide

Having decided to do a bit of shopping from my Archmage last night, I came under an interesting realization that the balance in Warhammer online is even simpler to grok than I previously thought  This is good for altaholics like myself as it causes a marked reduction in time spent spinning my wheels.  I thought I’d share the spoils.

The Drawing Board

At rank 18, I’m still probably well ahead of the casual players.   However, I surprised myself by playing absolutely no Warhammer Online this Saturday, probably very little on Friday or Thursday.  Maybe the game is starting to wear on a bit… I’m starting to notice things that need improvement.

For example, the grind decelerates a little too sharply by my current rank, leading to my least favorite thing in MMORPGs: monotony.   As an apothecary/cultivator, my inventory restrictions are murderous, giving me another reason to believe I should already by rank 20 (where, among other things, I get another bag to hold my inventory).  Finally, it’s just a tad counterintuitive to lock players out of earlier PvP tiers as they level past them.  (I apply this mostly to RvR, but this applies to the scenarios as well.) I could understand dropping them in potency as to not bully the lower rank players, but turning them into chickens that can’t fight just isolates players from their fellow guild members.  (My brother has been afraid to take his Ironbreaker over 20 for days.)

At this point, I'm mostly looking forward to Fallout 3. End of October, baby.

That said, the game is still fun.  Though my ever-erratic inner muse is ever hard to gauge the motivations of, I anticipate that I’m far from canceling my account.  If anything, I’m likely to start some alts now that the grind on my Archmage is beginning to wear.  I’ve already noticed a lack of Order Tanks (or else capably played Order Tanks), and have a fledgling Swordsmaster in development for when the Archmages seem to be running overly thick.  I think all my harping about the power of a capable tank when I created the PvP guide has twisted my mind towards this end.

Better news is that I’ve redirected much of my leisure time back into my BYOND game development.  Generally speaking, this is a good idea. I’m learning a craft (albeit one that I’d be pleasantly delighted if I’ll ever get paid for) and producing genuine tangible artifacts of toil as opposed to the usual intangible pissing away of time.  BYOND hobbism is actually very good mental exercise – as arrogant as it might sound to you to say it, I believe that taking a little time to program makes me genuinely smarter in a noticeable way.  All that patient discussion of real-world logic to a stupid adding machine is the mental muscle building equivalent of refrigerator moving.

For the rest of this entry, that’s pretty much what’s on the menu: talk about what I’ve been up to in BYOND, and a little talk about the virtues of the drawing board.

Game Design: Rested Experience, Flow, Emergence

With a little suspended judgment, you can draw many awkward if interesting tangents in life, and one of them is this tangent between BYOND and Warhammer Online’s “rested experience.”

The idea behind rested experience (perhaps originally pioneered by a temporary Ultima Online change) is that by not playing constantly your character builds up a bit of a buffer in which they advance faster.  This was done to give the casual players a bit of an edge against the hardcore.

However, in terms of game design, I’m finding I’ve gained a bit of real life rested experience as well.

Warhammer Online PVP Survival Guide

I’m done venting about my Internet pet peeves (for the time being) and am noticing that the most popular entry thus far is clearly my Warhammer Online Survival Guide.  Why not?  Hot new game off the presses, everybody’s picking up the ropes, so perhaps I aught to bend some of that game playing expertise of mine towards tips that may assist in mastering the PvP.

Primarily, I play a combination healer/nuker – an Archmage.   It’s an interesting role because I’m basically at the center of offense and defense of a team.  I think I picked up some pretty good insight as to how things work in Warhammer Online PvP, as opposed to the dozens of MMORPGs I’ve played before.

Know Your Role…

The best way to succeed in Warhammer Online PvP is in recognizing you’re not going this alone.  You have an important role to play alongside your fellow players, and your ability to perform this role well will determine your success or failure in the game.

Your roles have changed.  To its credit, Warhammer Online tries to make this easy by slapping on the labels we know so well: Tank, Healer, Ranged DPS, Melee DPS.  But it changes what you do to play those roles well.  That’s the major focus of this guide.  (Hey, if we know how to play the game from the start, that would be boring, right?)

1. Healers

There’s essentially three kinds of healers in Warhammer Online.  It is here where the mirrors are best preserved, and you can see how they differ in execution based off of type of healer.

Melee Healers: Warrior Priest (Order)  and Disciple of Kaine (Destruction)

These enhance their healing effectiveness by fighting up close and personal.  They have access to a goodly amount of melee attacks, few ranged attacks, and armor mitigation just a step below the Tanks.  They’re not as durable as tank, but they’re closer to it than any other healer.  Consequently, they tend to operate at close range.

Support Healers: Rune Priest (Order) and Zealot (Destruction)

These are pretty traditional healers in that they heal, have some nukes, and throw buffs/debuffs.  Rather than have a specialty that enhances their spells, their buffs/debuffs allow them to shift the odds.  They’ve a smattering of melee attacks, ranged attacks, and medium armor.  They’re more durable than Nuker Healers, but not as durable as Melee Healers.  Consequently, they can operate fairly comfortably at medium range.

Nuker Healers: Archmage (Order) and Goblin Shaman (Destruction)

These are for fellows like me who want the power of a flimsy cloth mage but can’t seem to make up their mind on if they’d rather be nuking or healing.  Even though their primary function is healing, they can do enough ranged damage (mostly damage over time spells) to make a difference, and their specialty rewards them for doing both.  They have no melee attacks and the lightest armor.  Consequently, they operate most comfortably at long range.

The Healer’s Role

In short (greatly one-sided) skirmishes, healing may not be necessary, because everybody regenerates health rapidly between fights.  The Healers really shine during longer (more even) fights, where damage can add up and needs to be counteracted.  In these fights, the difference between the team with and without a healer is incredible.

By all means, heal (and resurrect – I know a lot of my fellow healers are bad at that. ) After all, it’s your primary function… but don’t only heal.  If all you’re doing is healing, you’re doing a very poor job. Yes, I know that (thanks to the balance in many other MMORPGs) you may have been ridden by pushy tanks in the past to just keep spamming those heals.  However, Warhammer Online gives you a valid excuse not to because it’s balanced in such a way that your secondary function is required to support your heals.

How?  I broke down the healers into their subclasses because the execution of this is quite different:

• For melee healers, getting shoulder to shoulder with your tanks and participating in melee combat provides the necessary fuel to cast the spells that keep everyone near you alive.
• For Support Healers, you’ll not need to heal as much if you make sure all the applicable buffs/debuffs are in place, and throwing a bit of nuke in there when no healing needs doing is only efficient.
• For Nuker Healers, that Nuke/Heal seesaw specialty means that you need to be nuking as well as healing, even if it’s only 1 per every 5 of the other, for optimum efficiency.

A healer is especially effective when paired with a tank, so stick with one and keep them healed.  If you’re lucky, they’ll keep you alive as well via their Guard ability.  If not, well, at least your heals are well spent on a fellow whose mitigation is that good – try not to get attacked by too many enemies if you’re being that poorly screened.

The Healers’ Crux

By default, healers are the first people who need to die.  If the enemy team was smart, you’re going down.  Healers are persistent targets in that a solo Tank or Healer is not going to be able to inflict enough damage to take them down, and even a specialized DPS class will find them tricky.  However, by focusing fire on the healers and defeating them, victory becomes possible: only then is damage inflicted to the enemy permanent, and the battle can then be quickly concluded in your favor.

However, if the defending team is smart, they’ll change the default.  They realize that the enemy team will know the healers need to die first, and so they’ll use many means to help the healer survive.  As I’m about to explain, the Tanks play a large role in this.  However, the DPS and other Healers can also contribute greatly to assuring the survival of the Healer.  A healer can help do this by making their defeat extremely difficult, by using the terrain and range to make them difficult to engage or by dragging out their defeat to where the enemy should not tread.   However, do not neglect healing if the diversion is not worth it.

2. Tanks

With the elimination of the Knights of the Blazing Sun and Blackguards, there’s not as many types of tanks as there are healers in Warhammer Online, and the mirrors don’t hold together as well.

Going through them quickly, the Swordmaster counters the Black Orc in using a variety of combos to bolster their offense and defense, the Chosen is essentially a mutating and debuffing tank, while the Ironbreaker builds up grudge points that make enemies regret attacking the target they are protecting.

The Tank’s Role

In PvE, the Tank’s role would seem to be the same as any other MMORPG: constantly taunt, keep those NPCs on you while the healers keep you vertical.  Warhammer Online changed the Tank’s function a bit, and this has some major ramifications in PvP.

First, there’s a minor balance adjustment to consider in that Tanks can do some pretty decent damage – all classes in WO:AR can, really, though DPS classes naturally can do more.

What this means in PvP terms is that you can now be a genuine threat, at least against a target that is not receiving additional protection.  It also means that it is here where the Tank gets their own if you’re only doing one thing you’re not doing your best argument.  As a Tank, you’ve got decent damage and probably other offensive secondary affects.  So don’t just be a meatshield, use them!

Second, there’s a major function adjustment in that Tanks have a number of powerful guarding moves you won’t see in most MMORPGs.  Mastery of these moves is a vital part of success as a Tank in WO:AR.  All four Tanks – the Black Orc, Chosen, Swordmaster, and Ironbreaker – get these moves.

• The first is “Guard” and this moves half (50%) of all damage inflicted on that target to the Tank.  The Tank has a whole lot more hitpoints and better damage mitigation, so taking half of a weaker classes’ damage comes out as an incredible bargain.
• The second is “Challenge” which is a taunt-like ability that affects all foes in a 30 foot cone in front of you.  This can take another 30% of damage off targets you are protecting.

I would not use Challenge instead of Guard because it’s not much compared to it, but combined it adds up to 80%.  Also, unlike Guard, Challenge’s damage is not applied to you so it’s essentially a 30% “Tank Heal” every time your challenge goes unheeded.  Consider that you could not find armor or a spell that would reduce damage by 80%, yet using Guard and Challenge alone give 80% worth of protection to even a cloth-wearing ally.  If you’re not using these abilities, you’re throwing away what might be the most influential abilities in the game.

These are not the only two means you have to protect your allies.  Check abilities, tactics, and morale list for a wide range of class-specific means to make the enemies lives hell if they fail to acknowledge your role as a tank.

A Tank’s Role From A Healer’s Perspective

As a healer, I know that there’s a general misconception that healers like me are the ones who decide who lives or dies based off of who gets healing or not.  I apply my heals over time as much as I can, but emergency heals are generally rare or slow.  What I need to do my job is time to heal.

Whose role is it to mitigate the rate in which damage is taken long enough that I can keep them alive?  The Tanks: they wear the best armor and have abilities which allow them to mitigate damage for others.  That’s why I say that tanks are the ones who decide who lives or dies.

Because so many Tanks do not seem to understand this, it is my belief that for now and many months ahead, success or failure in Warhammer Onlne PvP will be based on how many Tanks know how to use Guard or Guard-like abilities effectively.

The Tank’s Crux

The other two types of classes detailed in this guide have a crux that they’re priority targets trying to avoid attention while remaining effective.  As a tank, your crux is the opposite along one extreme: while you’re still trying to be effective, part of that effectiveness is in forcing the enemy to pay attention to you.  When the enemy is hitting you, and not the Healer who is healing you, the DPS specialist who is killing them, or even the other Tank they’re trying to focus on, then (in most situations) your team is winning.

That said, there’s much more to being a Tank than just taking damage, and it involves being able to think on your feet.  A good tank is able to take and deal damage better than the average player.  However, a master tank takes and deals damage with a purpose in mind.   What this means is that you need to learn how to recognize the situation you’re in and calculate if your sacrifice is worth it, as opposed to just being a pointless respawn.

3. Damage Over Time: Ranged or Melee

You know, I’m just going to lump you guys together.  Witch Hunter, Witch Elf, White Lion, Marauder, Bright Wizard, Sorceress, Engineer, Magus, Shadow Warrior, Squig Herder.  You’re all “DPS”, and I’ll drop the “Ranged” or “Melee” between you so long as you understand that you’re built to operate a short range (e.g. Marauder, White Lion) medium range (e.g. Witch Hunter, Witch Elf) long range (e.g. Bright Wizard, Sorcerer) or even variable ranges (e.g. Shadow Warrior).

I know this is doing a disservice to secondary roles of these classes.  However, generally speaking, whatever you’re playing your main role is to do damage, and that hasn’t changed much from most MMORPGs.   What has changed, however, may be the importance of doing damage.  Consider how prevalent mitigation and healing is in Warhammer Online, and understand that as a DPS class, you’re one of the few who has the power to overcome this.

The DPS Classes’ Role

Lets be clear: the DPS classes role is equally important to a Tank and a Healer.  If you have no Healers or Tanks, your defensive line is undermined by a critical weakness.  Yet, if you have two teams built up entirely of Tanks and Healers, nothing gets done, and you’ll probably be in a perpetual stalemate.  In this way, a holy trinity is well in tact in Warhammer Online.

To play a DPS class acceptably, you need to be organized: loose cannons accomplish little.  Focus fire on specific designated targets.  If the designated target is proving too difficult to kill (perhaps because the Tanks and Healers are doing their job right) then rapidly shift en masse to another target.  Kill em’ quick, don’t give the enemy enough time to react.

To play a DPS class well, you need to also use your secondary functions.  Like the Tank who only guards or attacks, or the Healer who only heals (or nukes), if you’re only doing one thing, you’re not doing your best.  Not coincidentally, DPS classes are also the ones that tend to get potent effects like snares and roots, and applying these to the right place at the right time can make a massive difference.

The DPS-class Crux

As I’ve tried to make clear, you DPS guys are the deciders.  You make things happen.  Consequently, you’re next on the target list, right after the healers, to die.  Sorry, that’s the breaks, you can’t be an effective DPS player without being a juicy target.  DPS classes are even less durable than either Tank or Healers because the first is by definition durable and the second has the persistence of heals.

So, much like a healer, you and your team should make prioritizing you a costly choice.  When you’re injured (or about to be) healers should be healing you.  When you’re under fire, tanks should be guarding you.  If you’re not getting enough of either, try making taking you down costly – make the enemy chase you to where they shouldn’t be or simply buy as much time as you can.  If you have enough of a lead and the enemy is smart, they’ll break off.  Otherwise, while half the enemy team is foolishly chasing you down, your allies may well be securing victory.

The trick to playing a DPS-class is to be clever in your damage doing.  Don’t boldly run up to the front of your team and start hitting things: you’ll come under fire by too many enemies at the same time, and dead characters do 0 DPS (at least once their DoT effects wear off).  Back off and choose your targets, and put your damage where it’s needed the most.  Focusing fire on what everybody else is hitting is likely to generate a successful kill, but keep an eye out for ideal targets of opportunity, such as Healers or enemy DPS who you can estimate won’t survive a sudden onslaught.

Conclusion: Work well with what you have but, above all, work together!

The Shadow Warrior is spun as generally the tactician who decides where and when to land his abilities most effectively.  Really, that’s what all well-played classes do.  Learn how to exploit each of your abilities well, and you’ll find your influence in battle increased several-fold.

As I said at the beginning of this, each class has a strength and weakness.  Hopefully, it’s a little clearer now just what those weaknesses and strengths are, and how you can apply them well.  How you overcome this is to work with others.  If you play it alone, you’ll find your strengths aren’t strong enough and your weaknesses overbearing.

I titled this as “Warhammer Online PVP Survival Guide” because this is the core truth behind all the PvP in the game.  Whether it’s Scenario or Realm versus Realm, the team that wins will always have a combination of two things: the most players who know how to use their individual abilities most effectively, and the most players who know how to work together.  Keep that in mind, and you’ll go far in Warhammer Online PVP.

An Internet Antibody Simulation

I can understand the concept of freedom and capitalism, and that standing up against fascism and ruthless oppression is only possible thanks to each individuals’ capacity to tolerate the flaws of their neighbor.

That said, there’s a number of things that have occurred in my monkeysphere lately that cause me sympathize overmuch with the Dr. Horrible approach to world reform.  My inner dictator fantasy has crossed well over the level of “freeze ray,” even past “death ray,” and into “horde of robotic death machines.”

Zappo!

The thing is that there once was a time, back when the Internet was young, that there were adequate moderation to keep things relatively under control.   No place was immune, of course, but at least the disease of Internet tomfoolery was kept to a reasonable level.  That’s no longer the case.  Either our online police are sorely outnumbered, or too many outsourced clueless ones have taken their place.

When organized arbitration fails to resolve the injustices of the world, it’s human nature to eventually reach a breaking point, and grisly consequences result.  Lets see who’s on my list.

Clone love: My own little pocket of hypocrisy

I like to be honest fellow whenever I can.  Not because I think divine forces will smite me for my dishonesty, but rather for the most legitimate reason: because one can logically reason that being an honest fellow is simply a better policy in accordance to forwarding the agendas of the human race.

So it is with some concern that I notice I tend to lie inadvertently.

For example, I say I’m absolutely sick of EverQuest clones, over and over again for months or perhaps years.  I notice I can’t stop wanting to try out those new EverQuest clones when they’re released – that should have been an early warning sign.  Finally, I play Warhammer Online, a game which (despite its many advances) is essentially another EverQuest clone, and (currently) feel it’s fan-freaking-tastic.

Forgive me.  After all, the more you learn about life, the more you realize you don’t know.  Thus, any learning person is fated to become their own little pocket of hypocrisy in time.

What is it that WO:AR has taught me about game design that makes me feel so pensive, anyway?

Dear Tabula Rasa Team

My tendency to procrastinate hint at an underlying muse that refuses to be harnessed.  In today’s escapism, she had something to say about Tabula Rasa.

Warhammer Online Survival Guide

About to play a bit of Warhammer Online and want to know how to get good and established in this game?  Here’s the master plan of somebody who sampled it a bit in open beta.

1. Classes in Warhammer Online

Choosing your class

I’m a notorious Alt-A-Holic myself – somebody who has a difficult time settling on one class – but I’ve found the classes in Warhammer Online remarkably easy to deal with.

Whether you chose Order or Destruction, you’ll find the classes sorted between the following categories: Tank, Healer, Melee DPS (Damage per Second), or Ranged DPS.  These labels are basically the role you’ll play in the group, but not the entire capability of the class.

Once you’ve chosen a role, it’s a matter of flavor.  Most races will have a class that matches that role, and you should be able to arrive at a choice by considering one or both of two things: the unique mechanic and the feel.

Each class has a unique mechanic.  For example, the Archmage will gain Tranquility from nuking and Force from healing that converts to more potency whenever he switches from nuking to healing or the other way around.  Feel out the different mechanics within your choice of role (e.g. Melee DPS) to determine which you prefer the most.

Each class also has a unique feel and backdrop to them.  If you can’t decide on a class whose role and unique mechanic you like, try to instead go for the feel of the class that appeals to you the most.   You will probably find it easier to enjoy playing that class if it’s compatible with your mindset than trying to find one that plays perfectly.

For more details on the individual classes, there are very detailed writeups on them on the official Warhammer Online website, here: http://www.warhammeronline.com/armiesofWAR/index.php

Your core abilities are not there from the start

A tank without a means to taunt, a healer without effective emergency heals, and damage-focused class with relatively average damage capacity.

What do these all have in common?  Answer: They’re the default state of classes in Warhammer Online.

What this means to you is that you should not let your early experiences with a class cause you to believe them ineffectual.  You probably won’t have a really good idea of your strengths until at least rank 7, and maybe as late as rank 15.

Choosing your server and side

Note that if you join a popular faction (Order or Destruction) on a popular server, you may be confronted with a login queue.  The overall cap of players allowed to log into that server is restricted by faction, so (for example) even if Destruction players must wait in the queue you will still be able to log on as a member of Order so long as Order has not reached the cap for that server.  The best tactic to avoid being stuck in a queue is to play the less popular faction on a less busy server.

2. Gaining Levels Ranks and Equipment

If you’ve played other MMORPGs, chances are you’ve learned to earn experience points from two different sources: Killing monsters and performing quests.  Warhammer Online introduces additional methods of mechanics that allow you to both reduce the tedium of grinding through diversification and ease yourself into new methods of play.

The old-fashioned mechanics: Quests and Killing

There are indeed quest NPCs that, stereotypically, will have icons floating above their heads that reflect your stage of quest.  Go ahead, pick up those quests and perform them: This is not only good from a lore-accruing perspective, but also the bonus experience and gold is superior to just going out and killing everything.

If you get confused about how to perform quests, there are a few handy tools available:

First, you can open up your map (M key by default) and you will see shaded red areas that reflect areas of your map in which your current quests take place.  These areas will be approximations – the challenge of finding exactly where the quest goal is located is up to you.  Temporarily hiding quests or moving your mouse pointer over those areas may help to understand which area is associated with which quest.

Second, you will find additional tips about how to perform your quest in your journal – just double click your quest in the quest tracker on the right side of your screen to pull up the pertinent journal entry.  Alternatively, you can just thumb to the quest section of your journal and find the quest there.

Generally speaking, your earliest adventures will involve quests like these, and you will find following those quests to lead to a linear advancement through the map.  Love or hate linearity, it makes it hard to get lost.

Public Quests

A new innovation of Warhammer Online are “public quests,” which are areas of the map in which all players can cooperate to advance to later stages of the public quest.  If you are in an area with a public quest, you will see in the upper right a public quest tracker with the current goal.

In addition to the typical experience and drops related to kills, participating in Public Quests grants two rewards:

First, there are influence points – these are accrued for participating in Public Quests and can be traded in for bonus equipment at NPCs you will find along your linear advancement path.

Second, there are loot bags. Once the last (usually the third) stage of a public quest is complete, a random roll is performed in which the top participants of that public quest are rolled against (along with a bonus for level of contribution).  If you score high enough, you can take a loot bag out of the special chest for that Public Quest.

This chest has a large, glittering aura and is hard to miss.  It will typically be near where the boss mob spawned, and it may also be visible as a chest icon on the map.   Once acquired from the chest, right click on these loot bags to take out a powerful item of your choice.

Player versus Player Advancement

In stark contrast to most games, you can actually advance your character’s experience points and loot by participating in Player versus Player combat in Warhammer Online.  In fact, the rewards can be quite lucrative.

Scenario PvP can be participated in by using the scenario button on the upper left of your mini-map.  Click on that button to place yourself into a scenario queue.  When the scenario is ready, you will be asked if you wish to join it, and agreeing will temporarily teleport you to an organized PvP match.

Participating in organized PvP matches reward you experience and “renown” points which advance your “renown” ranks.   With adequate renown ranks, you can purchase prestige gear off of the prestige gear merchants.  This is greatly superior to standard PvE gear.

It’s a good idea to pick up the supporting quests for the PvP matches.  You should be able to find NPCs which reward for participating in these scenarios, and those quests are repeatable for more coin and experience.  Further, you may be able to find an NPC who rewards you for defeating a number of players – players killed in scenarios count, and these quests too are repeatable.   Doing these supporting quests in conjunction with scenario PvP is a great way to bolster your experience gain.

Realm versus Realm PvP is significantly trickier, but carries greater rewards.  You will notice that parts of the map are designated Realm versus Realm areas and have keeps that can be captured.   Like in the scenarios, defeating players in realm versus realm rewards renown.  Further, capturing a keep may result in getting a formidable loot bag not unlike those found in Public Quest areas.

If you look in the upper right, you may notice a gauge that shows the current standings of Order versus Destruction based off comparative victory points earned through the RvR activities of the factions.  Having the gauge in your favor rewards many benefits which can be viewed by holding the mouse over the gauge.  If enough keeps are held by a single side, even capital cities may come under siege.

In these ways and others, it’s advisable to contribute to the war effort when you feel ready.  The end game heavily revolves around Realm versus Realm combat, so it’s a good idea to get used to that as soon as possible.  Besides, the quickest way to advance is when using powerful renown gear, and that can only be gained if you are willing to engage in PvP.

Whether it’s scenario PvP or realm versus realm, succeeding in PvP is often a matter of cooperating with your fellow players, using your own strengths to compensate for their weaknesses as they do the same for you.  Being a loose cannon is unlikely to produce good results (unless perhaps you’re very good).

Diversify the grind

It’s a good idea to diversify between all means of gaining experience in Warhammer Online.  It may be your quest areas are currently over hunted, so try the more populated Public Quest areas.  It may be that PvE is simply not very lucrative due to over hunting or some other reason, so put yourself in the queue for scenario PvP to boost your gains.  At the very least, diversifying your activities is bound to make the grind feel less like one.

3. Trade Skills

By about the point you reach your level 3-5 quests, you will begin to encounter trainers who will offer to train you in trade skills.  At the time of this writing, I’m aware of only a few trade skills and gathering skills.  You are allowed to take one trade and one gathering skill.

Once you have purchase a trade skill (and certain gathering skills) you may need to take it from your abilities screen (see the trade/gathering skills tab) and drag it to your hotbar to use it.

The two main Trade Skills I’m aware of are Apothecary and Talisman creation.

Apothecary is a trade skill in which potions are produced.  The same NPC who trains you will also have a shop that sells apothecary components, and you will also come across quite a few in your travels (especially with a gathering skill).   Considering the potency of gathered resources, the auction house is probably the best place to check for the highest quality resources to use.

To create a potion, first bring up the apothecary screen.  Then, drag the appropriate type of potion bottle (purchased) to the container slot (white).  Now, drag the main ingredient to the slot below it – the main ingredient determines the type of potion it will be, e.g. Restorative or Energy.  By default, your potion will fail, but if you put some water in the slot below, you will be able to boost your odds to be successful.  Other components improve variety of effects and duration of effects.

Other types of potions can be created besides effect potions, and these will require different types of containers.  Experiment to find the appropriate kind of resource to create those potions and see if you find them useful.

You can repeat potion creation by using stacks of components instead of just a single one of each.  Though it will only appear as a single item in the potion creation window, you will be presented with a repeat button after potion creation.  Note that if your formula fails the first time, it will continue to fail, at least until your skill or component used improve.  In other words, it is not random at all.

Talisman creation uses the same principles but a different interface.  Put the appropriate parts on the appropriate parts of the GUI, and attempt to assemble a talisman.  Unlike potions, not all parts can be purchased off the merchants, but may be found through gathering or from other players.

Where potions are imbibed for a temporary benefit, talismans are slotted in worn gear for added potency.  Nearly every piece of gear in Warhammer Online has at least one slot for a talisman, and talismans cannot be removed once slotted (though I’ve read they can be swapped).  Because so many players are running about with empty talisman slots, this trade could potentially be quite profitable if you can overcome the rarity in materials.

4. Gathering Skills

Gathering skills are used to produce additional items that can be used in trade skills and can be sold.  At the time of this writing, complete gathering skills include Cultivation, Magical Salvaging, Scavenging, and Butchering.

Cultivation is the most interactive of the gathering skills.  You will find many seeds throughout your travels.  By bringing up the cultivation screen (by clicking on its icon you have dragged to your hot bar from the abilities screen) you are able to eventually raise up to four seeds at a time into plants.  Typically, these plants are used for apothecary purposes.

Cultivation is fairly simple, but demands patience and a memory for when the right time to treat your plant is.  After you have planted the seed (upper left slot on the cultivation window) you will have a certain amount of time to add the soil.  Then, you may add the water.  In the final stage, you may add some additional fertilizer (usually gore).  Finally, the plant is ready to harvest, and you can begin anew again.

Adding soil, water, or fertilizer to your plant is not always necessary.  Doing so is primarily good for accelerating the growth process, but probably also improves the probability of success.  My experience has been that “critical failures” (resulting in a low value weed) and “critical successes” (resulting in bonus reagents) are relatively rare regardless of if you use additives or not.

Though cultivation is not too profitable (especially if you are adding nutrients) it can be used to generate some additional income because some plants (such as parsley) often produce their own replacement seeds.  Thus, if you remember to continue planting, you’ll constantly build up piles of plants that can be sold for a little extra coin.

Magical Salvaging involves breaking down magical gear into components.  Magical gear has a name that is a different color than the usual white or gray – e.g. green, blue, purple.  There is a random chance to recover magical essences this way.  (Note that some magical essences can also be found for sale on merchants.)

Scavenging is, in my opinion, the most profitable of the gathering skills mentioned here.  If you have the scavenging skill, you will notice that looted corpses of sentient (pocket-possessing) creatures will have flies buzzing around them and putting your mouse over them will create a forceps pointer.    At that point, you may click to find additional things on that body.

What you find through scavenging may be useful for trade skills or simply gross, but it will always have one thing in common: it can be sold to merchants for additional coin.  There’s currently no controls over who scavenges what.  If you want the scavenge off your foes’ corpses, be sure to not loot them until you are ready, because any player can scavenge from that corpse once looted.

Butchering works identically to scavenging, but it applies to non-sentient creatures.  Because Warhammer Online takes place in an age of perpetual war, you will more typically find yourself up against sentient foes.  Nonetheless, it may be worth it to some to take butchering for the unique materials it produces.

Conclusion

That’s pretty much all you need to know to get started in Warhammer Online.  If you get lost, use the question mark icon near the top right of your screen to pull up the in-game help.  You can also spam your fellow players by typing /1 along with your message to chat up every player in your current zone, but go easy on that or else you might annoy others.

For more detailed information, a good community resource is the Warhammer Online Wikia page at http://warhammeronline.wikia.com/wiki/HammerWiki as well as the official references at http://www.warhammeronline.com

Warhammer Online Release: What Few Difficulties

So far, Warhammer Online’s pre-order collector’s edition head start is going relatively well, but there has been a few sticking points.

Traffic Jams

First off, people are running into massive login queues.  They think more servers are coming up, but that’s not neccessarily the case, but what they don’t realize is that they’re being blocked deliberately.  The evidence can be found here: http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/108599710/p1

Basically, the server caps are at 33%, and as several thousands collector’s edition customers attempt to log in they run smack into these arbitrarily low-set caps.  Over the next few days, these caps will be slowly bumped back until finally they’re at 100% by the time head start is over.

It wasn’t the smartest move in terms of customer satisfaction.  I’m guessing the reason for this move is to promote better health of the game in the long run by spreading out the players.  I can think of a few reasons why.  For example, people who don’t have the box may have agreed to meet on a specific server and if it were full of pre-order customers they’d be SOL.

As per their plan, they haev been steadily raising the caps throughout the day, and finally things are looking a bit better now:

“Folks,

Okay, as per schedule another cap was raised and almost all queues are gone now. Only 2 have any queue over 100. We’ll raise the cap again soon and that should take care of things unless a whole lot of new people flood in later.

Mark” (Source)

What’s the matter with Order, anyway?

Other concerns expressed during my prolonged stay at the MMORPG.COM forums today – not a really well moderated forum, but an active one – appear to revolve largely around matters of the Destruction side seeming to have more population.

Why is that?

It’s not the balance.  I know this because I participated in many scenario battles between Order and Destruction and when both sides were doing a good job it was actually an extremely even fight – battles would end with only a couple point spread out of potentially hundreds.  Player skill made the difference in the case of landslide victories.

It could be the look.  The Chaos side just looks a whole lot more radical, while the Order side looks normal.  It’s mostly a problem with the character creation screen, as if you actually enter the game you’ll be pleasantly surprised to discover hardcore dwarves or edgy humans awaiting you.  The High Elves are definately nausating goodie-two shoes, but not without good reason: In the game lore, they discover that negative emotions fuel chaos, and strive to conquer those emotions so they don’t get eaten in the long run.

It could also be a matter of incorrect assumptions.  A lot of people are joining Destruction because they, “The horde from World of Warcraft.”  Then they get into the game, and eventually get deep enough to realize that Destruction’s downright evil and actually a far cry from the cutesy horde races in WoW.

Overall, if you don’t mind hour-long waits to login on the Destruction in some servers, day 1 of release sounds like it has gone well.   I haven’t played it myself, I get to play it on Monday.