WAR (Warhammer Online)

First things first, I have to admit that I've never been a fan of mmo PvP / RvR. I couldn't stand it in Ultima or EQ1, and it was such a disgusting afterthought in WoW that it made milk curdle in the carton (seriously... it's been FOUR YEARS and now they have seige weapons? Please...)

With that out of the way, I also have to confess that I've not played the Warhammer tabletop games. I've always wanted to, but none of the guys in my standard gaming groups ever wanted to get into it. Most of their lack of desire was due to the cost and time that goes into the miniatures. My point here is that I'm interested in Warhammer, but I'm far from a fanboi, so I consider my opinions on this to be very subjective.

When I first heard that GW licensed EA/Mythic to create WAR, I was hopeful. When I heard about the heavy RvR focus the game would take, I was kinda deflated. As I said, I've never been into PvP that much. A couple of friends of mine tried to get me into DAoC by letting me play @ their houses, but it just wasn't my thing. I expected to not enjoy WAR very much based on my past experiences.

Lemme tell ya, I couldn't have been more wrong. It's hard to say that out loud. I don't like being wrong. No sir, I sure don't.

In my 15+ levels of playing WAR over the past couple of weeks (I don't get to play tons of hours per day), I've never felt forced into RvR battle. There is plenty of PvE content for those who want nothing to do with RvR. I've seen many people say that RvR is the focus of WAR - and I have to agree with them to an extent - but to say Mythic focused on RvR to the exclusion of PvE is a terrible overstatement.

SCENARIOS:

For those of you who will try WAR but aren't really interested in the RvR aspects of it, I'd really like to encourage you to try the RvR for a while. I must admit that it's REALLY grown on me. I find myself in the queue for scenarios constantly now because I have so damn much fun in them. The fact that they actually contribute to overall realm progress, plus you gain items / cash / and level up in Renown rank makes it very rewarding and adds an entirely new level to my gaming experience that I've been missing all these years.

OPEN WORLD RvR:

Mythic has done an unbelievable job of incorporating RvR into the game in a way that encourages you to small your fellow gamers to itsy bits. My first real taste of this was during the Kron Komar Gap PQ. I wandered into the area and saw the PQ updating with kills. Destruction has to kill dwarves, while Order has to kill Greenskins. However... I didn't realize that at first. I only saw a bunch of people fighting. So I waded into the fray. It wasn't long before I realized I couldn't attack one of the stunties. "Target is not flagged for RvR" I think was the message. He just ran past me and started whomping on Greenskin NPCs. Well as soon as I realized it was an "us vs. them" PQ, I thought "I show that lil' fugger." You see... I was drawn into the RvR for the sake of not wanting MY realm to lose.... not even a PQ. So I flagged myself for RvR and started thumping the other Order folks who were RvR flagged. It was A FARKIN' TON OF FUN! And it wasn't long before the stunty I wanted to smack around to begin with had flagged and joined the fray.

I kinda put those two things backwards since the open world RvR is what got me started and I later moved to the scenarios, but you get the point. I really can't overstate how much I've never enjoyed PvP before. And I likewise can't stress enough how much I'm enjoying the RvR of WAR.

GENERAL RvR STUFF:

Certainly, there are some balances that still need to be tweaked amongst classes (I'm looking at YOU, runepriest / ironbreaker duo. hehe. Those bastards are unstoppable!), but even as a tank (Black Orc) I don't find myself getting smeared all over the place by anyone. Sure, I have more HP and armor to live longer, but I'm not gimped even when up against casters. I can still dish out some dmg and use abilities to seriously turn the tide of RvR battles in my realm's favor. And I've done enough RvR now to comfortably say that ALL classes have the ability to affect the outcome of an RvR fight. I don't know every classes' abilities, but I can tell you that I pay enough attention to what's going on to know that everyone is viable in RvR.

No one has ever walked right through me - even in 1v1 - and I have never walked through anyone else - even in 1v1. Skill matters, yes. I'm sure I will pick a fight with a long-time PvP addict who will hand my arse to me, but it hasn't happened yet. And when it does, I'll take it like a man (orc) and go back for more.

It took me some time to learn how to fight players instead of mob AI, but the fun of the combat drew me in, and I'm really enjoying it to the fullest.

COMPARISON TO WOW:

Of course there's tons of comparisons to WoW floating around. That's just the way it's gonna be. So I may as well compare my experience with PvP in WoW and RvR in WAR.

The PvP in WoW (as stated above) was an obvious afterthought. There's never been any point to it other than bettering yourself (through gear), and that fact alone made my shy away from the PvP in WoW. When I heard about large scale battles and seige weapons (promised since beta) I was really interested to try it out. What ended up being implemented was a serious let-down for me, and I can't imagine how the hardcore PvP crowd must have felt. Farming honor is NOT PvP. Hell, I'm half-retarded most evening cuz my brain is fried from work, and even I could log into a BG and waddle my arse around long enough to farm honor for the next item I wanted. It was just SUCH a huge waste of time. And the worst part is.... the waste of time required almost ZERO effort. And the rewards? Another piece of gear! Yay!

On to class balancing in WoW (omglol). As someone's sig on these forums says:

"Paper is fine. Nerf rock

Love, Scissors"

if you think classes are balanced in WoW, you're either blind or a rogue. I can sum up the massive failure of class balancing in WoW easily : it's been FOUR YEARS and they're still nerfing / changing / adding & deleting talents / spells / game mechanics on a very regular basis. Had they put any forethought into the PvP system in WoW, I dare say that it wouldn't be in a state of perpetual modification 4 years later.

If you want to argue about the above point, just make sure you read about the new spell push-back limit that's coming. It's only..... 4 years overdue. For f**k's sake...

As for the RvR in WAR, it's my opinion that it is (mostly) balanced, quite challenging, and above all - insanely fun. Siege weapons are very well implemented, collision detection makes strategy and countering a must, and the amazing level of additional character customization that you can get through RvR makes it feel like an entirely different game built right in. You get morale abilities, tactics, stat / dmg enhancements, weapons, gear, and oh yeah... LEVELS.

SHORT SUMMARY:

If you're not a heavy PvP-oriented player, I'd like to encourage you to try what WAR has to offer. You can certainly play the game and focus solely on PvE if you like (as far as I have seen), but I truly believe that you'll be doing yourself a disservice to skip / ignore the RvR aspect of the game.

I never would have believed it, but I've been converted. RvR (when properly implemented) ROCKS.

Hope to see ya all on the battlefield.

WAAAAAGH!

<<Edit : Typos>>

Bumping because I think people need to see it, and because it was already tossed back onto page 3.

Nice write up, but I think you are a little misleading about OPEN WORLD RvR... the PQ you were doing isnt really the open world RvR...  Open world RvR is fought over Keeps and Battlefield objectives inside the RvR Lakes (marked areas of each teir). In Warhammer's open world RvR there are 2 major objective types, Keeps and Battlefield Objectives (BO). Keeps are more designed for Zergs to fight over, however the battlefield objectives are often located around bottlenecks and well placed terrain to promote small scale combat.

Yes, you got it!

You will never have to do RvR , but you find yourself doing it because of a sense of pride. In the days I have played, I never felt a battle I was inolved with was cheap. No gankers because I knew if I was flagged for RvR anything goes(and you just have to be a chicken at least once!). I havent seen spawn camping yet either. If I didn't feel like RvR I could waltz through an area and not be harmed, but even I spammed a heal on a non group member I was fair game.

I also noticed that early levels didn't cater to RvR in regards to loot. Good loot drops in PQs comparable to reknown loot. Maybe that changes later on, but so far so good.

Originally posted by fansede

Yes, you got it!

You will never have to do RvR , but you find yourself doing it because of a sense of pride.

Ah yeah that reminds me of a question I had, maybe somebody can answer.

Back in the day before cross server battlegrounds in wow, you would always queue up to fight members of the opposite faction of you own server.  And before that, before battlegrounds you would fight only members of your same server out in "the world" which led to alot of faction and guild pride as it were.  A great feeling that got diminished greatly due to eventually just fighting anonymous people you'd never see again from other servers.

So my question is, how is this handled or going to be handled in WaR?  When you queue for a scenario does it face you against people from your same server or are you pooled into a battlegroup style affair made up from many?  Thanks.

Wanted to make sure you know..

PVP in WOW IS!!!!!!!!! RVR.

People seem to think there is a difference between the PvP in WoW and the PvP in WAR.   Players are fighting a different realm in BOTH instances.

Originally posted by Random_mage

Wanted to make sure you know..

 

PVP in WOW IS!!!!!!!!! RVR.

 

People seem to think there is a difference between the PvP in WoW and the PvP in WAR.   Players are fighting a different realm in BOTH instances.

PVP IN WOW IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PVP.

RvR is EVERYTHING. RvR is PvP and PvE. WoW does NOT have RvR, there's no reason to fight the Horde except for honor or marks. There's no way you can contribute to whether Horde or Alliance is winning Alterac Valley if you do PvE. That's why WoW doesn't have RvR, it just has PvP.

they are not doing cross server battlegrounds like WoW.  some people think that maybe they will change to doing it later if the wait gets too long, just like WoW did, but thats only speculation.