Warhammer Online
From Sinister
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Warhammer Online is based off the tabletop game produced by Gameworks. The basic premise centers around a struggle between the forces of order (Human, High Elf & Dwarf) and destruction (Chaos, Dark Elf and Greenskin).
The reality of gameplay doesn't follow this closely; while the different regions have a "look and feel" associated to the racial pairing, it is trivial to travel between the regions and group across races on the same side.
[edit] Empire vs Chaos
[edit] High Elf vs Dark Elf
[edit] Dwarf vs Greenskin
[edit] Classes
There are 4 main archetypes followed by the game designers: Tank, Healer, Melee DPS and Ranged DPS. Each race has one of each archetype. Note however that this is only the case once one considers the expansion classes. The following classes were not yet in the game at release: Knight of the Blazing Sun (Human Tank), Black Guard (Dark Elf Tank), Choppa (Greenskin MDPS) and Slayer (Dwarf MDPS). Also note that one healing class on each side is considered a "hybrid": Warrior Priest (Human) and Disciple of Khaine (Dark Elf).
For details on a specific class see Warhammer Classes
[edit] Gameplay
The general look and feel of Warhammer is best described as a less cartoon-ish WoW. Character movement is primarily done via "WASD", skills are triggered via hot keys (or mouse clicks to on-screen buttons). The game employs a typical 3rd person view from behind the players avatar (with mouse driven options to rotate / zoom the camera).
Leveling is accomplished via traditional NPC killing and associated quests (kill X NPCs, Kill named NPC, gather Y items, etc). Character advancement is divided into "chapters" ranging from 1 - 22, with each chapter intended to span 1-2 levels. There are 22 chapters for each racial pairing, resulting in a total of 66 chapters for each side (not including warcamps, which do hold a few quests but are more oriented towards facilitating PvP). Max character level is 40.
In addition to traditional experience "levels" avatars also have a "renown rank" which measures the amount of "renown", or points associated to PvP. Renown is assigned for killing players, participating in scenarios, and taking open RvR battlefield objectives. Renown ranks provide additional mastery points, as well as renown points which can boost specific stats (slightly).
