WoW guide to WAR pt. 4
by Michael Zenke 
Sep 9th 2008 at 9:00AM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Guides, New titles, Warhammer Online
Without a doubt the biggest departure from the World of Warcraft experience is the role of Player vs. Player combat. Where competition with other players is a sideline activity to inject some differentiation into your experience in WoW, it's one of the primary things to do in Warhammer Online. That's not to say you have to PvP, of course, but it's a much more important part of the WAR experience. Players who choose to engage in PvP will gain experience, money, and a sort of PvP experience called renown for doing so. Gaining levels in renown allows player the opportunity to select tactics, slottable improvements to your character that change and shape your play experience.
The most familiar WoW PvP element is probably the battleground, known in Warhammer Online as RvR Scenarios. Scenarios are short, 15-minute long directed experiences in instanced maps. They're joined by entering a queue, something that's as easy as clicking on the tiny Warhammer symbol to the left of your mini-map. Each Tier of content in each racial pairing has its own Scenario, and you automatically join the Scenario associated with the tier you're in and the zone you're in. Low level Greenskins and Dwarves join the Gates of Ekrund, for example, and a high elf, human, chaos or dark elf in either the dwarven or greenskin zones would join the same queue.
RvR also takes place in the game's open world, in what are called "RvR lakes". These are special areas of the map, highlighted in color, in which RvR combat is always enabled. Within these lakes are special objectives, including huge landmarks like fortresses and keeps. Warhammer features a full-fleshed out siege gameplay component, and capturing these landmarks is all a part of the game's ongoing struggle between Order and Destruction.
The 'end-game' activity for Warhammer Online is entirely focused around this struggle. At level 40 players compete over the highest tier zones, seeking to control them for their faction. By pushing the enemy back on all fronts, players open up the possibility of invading and sacking the opposing side's capital city! This elaborate endgame scenario is discussed in full in yet another of our in-depth articles. Despite some changes to how this mechanic works (there being only two capitals in the game at launch), the gameplay is still compelling and a very different experience.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Pidge said on 10:01AM 9-09-2008
Nice article. As a long-time WoW player and Warhammer newbie I think you hit a lot of the key similarities and differences.
However, you really should add is a section on grouping - especially open grouping.
Open grouping in Warhammer is radically different from WoW, and WoW players who don't understand that really miss out one one of the best innovations in WAR.
The three main differences I saw:
- IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE? there's a button you can click that will show all groups in your area and how close they are to you.
- WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING LFG! - you can invite yourself into any nearby group with an opening! You don't have to hang around a main city or spam general chat begging for a group.
- WARHAMMER REWARDS YOU FOR GROUPING. In WoW you wouldn't want random people just jumping into your group, because in a lot of cases it would make quests take longer to complete and would penalize your XP. The *opposite* is true in Warhammer, groups get XP *bonuses* compared to soloing and "kill 10 rat" quests get completed *faster* because everyone's kills are counted towards the total. Group full and you want to add more people? Turn into into a warband (think WoW raid group) and keep on going!
Open grouping works great and makes a lot of sense. This is one idea I hope Blizzard does crib from it's competition.
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crsh said on 12:10PM 9-09-2008
Nice, honestly I was under the impression that WAR was strictly going to be a PvP game, and while I don't mind the occasional PvPing I also like to PvE quite a bit.
Definitely worth checking out.
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Thachsanh said on 2:16PM 9-09-2008
Nice article!
I think you should add a paragraph or two on zone control in PvP. They are sort of like Halaa in Nagrand but done in a much better way, I think. Every thing each player does in a zone contribute to the domination of his realm.
If one realm domination reach a certain threshold, the zone become under control of that realm and every player of that realm gain a bonus while in that zone.
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Rarz said on 11:20AM 9-10-2008
Nice article. A few points, though -
Chaos isn't evil - it's just put with the evil side 'cause that's how humans see it.
While the game is dark and grim, it is not really as dark and grim as it should be. The Warhammer world breathes despair, as humanity fights (and loses) the war against Chaos.
Chaos as portrayed in the game is brutal. You get some inkling of it when you play the quests (there is a LOT of those and they all add good material to the background).. but few people realise just how insiduous Chaos is.
It's maybe just as well that they didn't stay canon completely, as the game would never have been able to be marketed to minors - there -are- Daemonettes of Slaanesh (one ripped my head off ingame), but you won't find them until the very last levels. (They're hidden in the human capital.. ;)
Still, if you like the Warhammer setting you'll love the game. :)
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ScytheNoire said on 8:29PM 9-09-2008
I've been involved with the Warhammer franchise since the PnP RPG came out, and trust me, Chaos is evil. They are downright, take-over-the-world, slaughter and enslave them all, evil.
Mythor said on 3:30PM 9-09-2008
Great roundup of some of the similarities and things WoW-players will recognise with another name, etc. Should be very useful.
I still predict you're going to have Warhammer fans howling for your blood though. Even daring to suggest there might be some common ground is enough to have many of them foaming at the mouth.
Good luck. ;)
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Grimjakk said on 4:26PM 9-09-2008
I'll second the comment on the importance of the Open Grouping system.
- In WAR, all groups are open unless the group leader specifically closes them.
- To join an group, you can open the Open Group window and find one close to you.
- or -
- type /join and the name of anyone in a group.
I've run into a few people new to beta who didn't seem to understand that in WAR, full groups are good things. And if you need more room the leader can turn the group into a 24 man warparty with two clicks.
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Grimjakk said on 4:26PM 9-09-2008
Ah... one more thing about the open group system:
it works across zones, and group members in other matchups can cue the group for scenarios in the other matchup.
For instance, an Empire group can /invite a guildie in the Dwarf lands, who then can cue the entire group up to fight in the Dwarf scenario.
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The Sigmarizer said on 2:39PM 9-10-2008
Seems to me we have a seditionist and chaos sympathizer in Rarz...let me go grab my torch...
Good article, it should help a lot with any WoW converts coming over
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Shannel said on 3:46PM 9-10-2008
Good article. My husband and I have discussed these things many times in the last few weeks as we've played. You've hit a lot of it right on the head.
The only thing I didn't see that others haven't commented yet is comparisons drawn between the crafting classes of the two games (as opposed to crafting in general). For the WoW player, one can say that the two available crafting classes equate to Enchanting and Alchemy. Salvaging equates to Disenchanting, Butchering to skinning, Cultivating to Herb gathering, etc.
Of course, the most important question that we've come up with is "If they are so similar, what sets Warhammer apart?" We have decided that it's the Tome and the Public Questing.
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Trippen said on 4:02PM 9-15-2008
Sure theres alot of similarities and the tome and PQ's are probably the biggest differences, but WAR has made the world pvp experience much better than WOW ever did. Personally I'm more of a pvp guy then a pve and WAR meets my pvp demands and wants much more then wow. That difference alone is causing me to put the wow account on hold and fire up WAR