MMORPG.com Warhammer Online Correspondent writes this article giving an overview of the three different Tier 1 scenarios available in Mythic Entertainment's Warhammer Online.

GATES OF EKRUND

Gates of Ekrund is the Tier 1 Dwarfs vs Greenskins scenario. 12 players on each side may take part in this battle. This is your typical hold an objective and get points scenario. Simply stand near the objective and you’ll notice a bar below your minimap moving to indicate your progress in capturing it. Up to six players can capture a single objective, the more players nearby, the faster you capture it.

Personally, I feel Gates of Ekrund is the best of the Tier 1 scenarios. Taking place inside the walls of, and on top of, the gate, this scenario provides for a fast paced, close quarters battle. The combat is so close in fact that my allies were rarely outside of my shaman’s 100ft heal range. There are three capture points within the gate. One point is on the left and another on the right of the gate and they’re both in small cubbyholes for rooms. The third, and most valuable, point is right in the middle of both of the other points and is rather exposed. There are ledges upon which casters and other ranged combats can rain down destruction while their melee counterparts are in the thick of things on the ground fighting for the objective.

Check it out here.

Only speaking on what I have found so far, I played Ekrund and Nordenwatch as a Order Warrior Priest more then 20 times each.

15 to 5 Chaos over Order for NordenWatch (NW)

18 to 2 Order over Chaos for Ekrund (EK)

It seemed in NW, the lack of a human tank really seemed to hurt, we might get a dwarf or two, but not many, which meant groups of Witch Hunters, Warrior Preists, and Bright Wizards to try and match the Tank heavy Chaos, with plenty of healer back up from many shaman. We were having a hard time with countering all the melee that comes to bear.

In the EK, it seemed like we were mostly dwarf based, which meant plenty of tanks, rune priests, engineers, and throw in some humans or elves who joined and we were holding our own against a mostly Orc Goblin team.

This is purely subjective to the group you queue in with so results will certianly vary.

I would like to point out, that Shaman at the sub 12 level is a pretty powerful character, but I'm sure it evens out later on.

on World Edge Mountians serv scenario gates of ekrund is win almoust 90% by Order i lost 2 perhaps 3 times today on it as Bright mage

I think it just depends on what time you are playing, what server and with who.  If I joined a scenerio solo, I would usually end up losing 70% of the time.  If I went with my guild where we were in vent talking we hardly ever lost.  I would say we won 90 to 95% of the time on all 3 scenarios.

I don't see the point in giving preview thoughts of a game because you have to praise it or the publisher wont want Mythic to talk to you in the future for slamming them. Also because you feel the game is in beta and will have some miracle change....... nope this is how the game is going to be on launch.

This is why I don't trust official opinions on games and have to play it for myself.

to me they played like WOW battlegrounds and will end up being a RP grind.

Originally posted by PapaLazarou

I don't see the point in giving preview thoughts of a game because you have to praise it or the publisher wont want Mythic to talk to you in the future for slamming them. Also because you feel the game is in beta and will have some miracle change....... nope this is how the game is going to be on launch.

This is why I don't trust official opinions on games and have to play it for myself.

 

to me they played like WOW battlegrounds and will end up being a RP grind.

MMORPG.com has posted plenty of negative reviews in the past about other games.  Just because their reviews don't coincide with yours doesn't mean they aren't any more realistic; even though it is just his opinion.

I might have missed it in the article, but another additional point can be made.  If you are below level 8 when you enter the scenario, your level is artificially raised to level 8 so that you have some degree of survivability.  You do not gain any new skills (so if you're level 1, you still only have 2 skills).  But at least in terms of hit points and damage dealt, you perform as you would at level 8.  This is a nice feature, as it allows people to immediately jump into the scenario without feeling totally helpless.

I wasn't a big fan of the dwarf scenario being a archer at all. but all were fun the human one is so far my favorite.

Ill only comment on the one map ive run. Playing the nothrend scenario as a choas marauder we win probably 70%. It doesnt have anything to do with favoring one side or the other, simply application of tactics. As op mentioned there is plenty of room to maneuver, a couple choke points, and different paths to different flags.

It all depends on how well you work as a team and what classes show up.

 It is only slightly different than Wow battlegrounds.  So much for innovation.....

Funny that you say "so much for innovation" when Wow got the whole idea of Battlegrounds from Mythic's DAoC.

DOH!

This scenario seems to heavily favor Destruction. Over the dozen or so times I played this encounter with my Gobbo Shaman, Destruction only lost once. While it’s possible that this could be attributed to the server I was on that seems rather unlikely given the incredible win loss ratio I experienced.

I'd have to say that's the most retarded statement I've read all day.

Originally posted by dj-wedge

Funny that you say "so much for innovation" when Wow got the whole idea of Battlegrounds from Mythic's DAoC.

 

DOH!

silly wedge, don't you know there weren't any other games before or after wow?  wow is the only game ever created, which is why *people* compare everything to it.

even though wow stole and slightly improved upon, pretty much EVERYTHING that is in wow.  so pretty much everything you see in wow, WAS done by another game (or several games) before wow.  but if you have someone whose experience is ONLY wow; then, what can you expect?

all the toons for warcraft were based off of the warhammer ip.  warhammer...warcraft... hmm even the name sounds similar.

so much for innovation in wow, eh ciredric?  ...  that's only three scenarios/battlegrounds for levels 1-10 in war, vs the massive 0 in wow.  wow has how many bgs now total?  3? 4?  so about as many scenarios as i COULD play in from level 1-10 (in war) is the total number of BGs i can play in wow from lvl 1-70?

 i mean every game has trophies you can wear, right?  they've all got public quests, don't they?  they've all got battles in which not only you can conquer the enemy's capitol city; but, you can also capture their ruler?

war will be like wow, hopefully, in that it will improve upon a lot of features already in other games.  war will hopefully be unlike wow, in that it will advertise itself as an all-out WAR and then not add any pvp features until about 9 months after launch. 

now don't get me wrong, if i'm having fun with a GAME, i'll play it.  i'm playing eve and cox currently.  the wife will most probably talk me into playing wotlk with her for at least the month that comes with the box.  if war releases and is pretty decent, i may take it up as well.

it's not game vs game, for us, the gamers.  it's -- is a game fun?  do the game developers completely BS us, or do they try to give it to us straight?  do the devs stick to their limited "vision" and ignore what is actually FUN in the game?  *cough* emmert *cough*

it's ok to like more than one game.  you really CAN play and enjoy eq2, wow, and aoc.. if you so desire.  but opinions are not facts.  facts are facts and if you present an opinion, be prepared to have other people counter it with THEIR opinion.  if you present an opinion as a fact, and it's wrong, prepare to be flamed.  if you present facts, prepare for idiots to act like they are just your opinion; because morons can't be bothered to read AND comprehend the funny words.

having said all of that, wow doesn't have the trophy system, it's introducing a badge system which is remarkably similiar to COx's badges, wow doesn't have public quests that reward folks for participating, wow certainly doesn't have rvr.

bleh, i guess i'm just tired of all the comparing every bloody game that comes out to wow.  wow didn't do anything new, they only improved upon a lot of features already available in other games, and (thanks to kaplan and pardo) they made wow into an incredibly raid/gear centric spinoff of eq.

bleh.

Playing a level 10 Shaman (Healer) on Iron server. With 25 runs at Gates of Ekrund (EK) Destruction have won 100%. Not been in a loosing team yet. This runs entirely contrary to the earlier claims that Order as the best equipped realm for this battleground.

EK is not composed of Orc Goblin team but Orcs and Goblins, which are also very different.

Originally posted by Ciredric

 It is only slightly different than Wow battlegrounds.  So much for innovation.....

Could Have sworn mythic did RvR before WoW was out. I also could have sworn World of Warcraft was pretty much a rip off of the warhammer universe. I assure you, WoW is not a diety, stop worshipping it.

Originally posted by Arcken

Originally posted by Ciredric

 It is only slightly different than Wow battlegrounds.  So much for innovation.....

 

Could Have sworn mythic did RvR before WoW was out. I also could have sworn World of Warcraft was pretty much a rip off of the warhammer universe. I assure you, WoW is not a diety, stop worshipping it.

Doesn't change the fact that WoW refined the concept using the IP in 2003 and it came first.  Only the oblivious will argue that warhammer didnt have the IP before WoW came about, but from a gameplay concept, sorry WoW came first.

The Tier 1 scenarios are basically just arathi basin....kind of hard to deny that, though im sure some will.

I like a LOT of what warhammer has done, and it will be a success, but it definitely looks, plays, and feels exactly like WoW.  Which isnt a bad thing since wow = $ and WAR is going to pull some people off WoW and do well for themselves. 

Lots of for and against arguments so far.

There's a whole lot more to this game than just the 1st type of rvr u have experianced so far in lvl 1-11, wait till you all get to try Keep sieges, they beat any previous pvp experiances i,ve encountered in any game in the last 30+yrs.

You can deploy as attackers: Trebuche's, Ballasta's and Battering ram

Defenders can Pour oil on those below at gate, deploy hell canons to shoot at attackers from keep paraphets, and shoot from top as mage, archer etc.

Wayyyyyyy fun.

In nordenwatch we won a fair 60-70% of the battles tonite, side ORDER thank you ;)

Really, it's about 50-50 for the wins in the tier 1 scenario, I don't see preference to any side..

I have years experience playing both WOW and DAoC and I can say DAoC was the first to do RVR and it is still the better system by far. I have always said and continue to say the thing WOW really got right was marketing. I have never seen any product pushed like Blizzard pushed WoW before release.

Wow made a solid game I will admit but no one aspect of the game was better than other MMo's .

Wow

Marketing - Excellent

Making a cross platform game that did not require a high-end graphics card - Excellent

RvR/pvp= very Good

Dungeons = Very Good

Everything else IMO gets fair to poor compared to what else is out there.

Anyhow I love Warhammer so far as does my wife but I wish the crafting system was much better.

I am also pretty sure Blizzard's WoW is the reigning king of all the MMOs, and as such it will be compared to 'everything' that gets released by those looking to move on. The attack you make shows my biggest gripe about a lot of people who post here. One sided rebuttals and arguments without attempting to see where the view attacked is coming from. 

Warhammer does feel like a muddy slower stepbrother to WoW. Sure the RvR and pvp are more flushed out, but that does not mean its going to be a better game. I've discovered several bugs in the game that should have been flushed out long ago, and for an open beta a mere week before launch they should not exist. Personally the RvR is the 'only' thing this game has going for it.

People who are fed up and frustrated with what is lacking in World of Warcraft are going to find more of the same in Warhammer Online and move on very quickly. I personally hoped, going into the beta, that it would be something that is a departure from the WoW formula and found its just more of the same I have been playing for nearly 4 years now. Someone please tell me why I should reset the clock and start back at square one in Warhammer. 

Sorry to say, the scenarios feel entirely too close to WoW's battlegrounds which will probably turn people off as its the same thing they've been doing before only this time they have to put up 'again' with the leveling factor which many just won't want to put up with again.

I honestly just don't know what in hell Mythic was thinking when they started making this game, "Hey lets copy the WoW formula and maybe we can pull 5% of the Blizzard customer base and turn a profit." Guess I will have to continue my search for an innovative MMO that is actually fun to play.

hmmm im a bit confused, see ive played wow and many other mmos out there...and yes i do see a similarity war has towards wow....but i really dont know why everyone compares those two.

imo war seems to be a lot closer to lotro than it is to wow....maybe im just missing something, idk.

well anyway ive gotta say, i love this game...now if only i could get it to run without lag, meh ill just upgrade instead lol

"I am also pretty sure Blizzard's WoW is the reigning king of all the MMOs"

Yes, without any doubt, but only because it is so popular not because it is so great. It is popular because of the reasons I stated earlier not because it is the best MMO ever. As far as one game copying another, they all copy from one another and most focus on wow because they want to use a successful MMO for reference not a failure. I don't understand why more companies don't increase their marketing budget.

WoW Vs WAR = beating on a dead horse = off topic

Please, let WAR mature a bit further - anyway this all depends on points of view, tastes, etc... so no real point in bashing WoW or bashing WAR. Not worth your and specially my time to even compare them.
It's just games, so have fun with whatever you fency.

Now to the topic of this thread. I found that I actually had fun with those battles and yeah it all depends if your in a guild (vent users), knowing a bit of the games strategic, server, time, people you play with. I may be wrong but I don't think Order is weaker than Destruction or the other way around which is good btw.

Cheers and see you on the battlefield!

Blood for the Blood God!

yeah we were off topic a bit but I am not bashing either game. I have had fun playing both games. WAR is going to be a blast.  I think it is far too early to tell how balanced things are. I do think balancing is a huge task and I think Mythic has got things close already.

Originally posted by marzguitarz

yeah we were off topic a bit but I am not bashing either game. I have had fun playing both games. WAR is going to be a blast.  I think it is far too early to tell how balanced things are. I do think balancing is a huge task and I think Mythic has got things close already.

Hmm.. I wasn't refering to anyone in particular nor did I even looked at the posters' names. It just that it is a bit tiring to have witness so many WoW vs WAR threads/posts since around '06 to '08 specially when its getting off topic.
But yes, I totally agree with you when you said that it's going to be a blast and that is really too early to tell how balance things are... Hell it's still beta. And yes, balancing is a tremendous task to deliver.
Mythic has learn a big deal with DoAC, we all know this imho but not only that. They also pretty much closely followed Games Workshop's IP with its RPG pen & paper/Table top rules, like morale as an example, which are actually balanced. But then again that's not a MMO. So, yes, let's see what this will all bring and like I said earlier, let WAR mature a bit (WoW and all other games have gone through the same process of trial and error - like you start as a noob to finally own the game).

Cheers and enjoy WAR!