In our last article, we covered where WAR is as of now. With this particular piece, we'll be talking a bit about where WAR is going – more specifically in the case of the Renown system, Character Mastery, and the careers of the elves.

For those familiar with EA Mythic’s previous success – Dark Age of Camelot – the Renown system will seem relatively similar. The same mechanic of gaining “levels” is there, and it’s earned in the same fashion: “experience” points which can only be obtained through Player versus Player or Realm versus Realm action. “Renown” is a fairly appropriate name for this system, too. More on that later, though – for now we’ll cover the basics of the system.

Renown is completely earned through the PvP and RvR systems. There are 80 “Renown Ranks” in total – think of them as levels in other games. You level up, gain access to new PvP-specific perks, and also unlock the ability to purchase and use higher quality PvP-specific armor and weapons.

Each Renown Rank works exactly like your normal Rank; when you level up, you gain a Renown Point which can be used to purchase some fairly cool stuff. We’re talking PvP-exclusive Tactics that you can’t get anywhere else, and probably the only form of non-item attribute advancement in the game in the form of “Renown Passives.” These passives will include both offensive and defensive variants; one example we were given was a passive that increases your critical strike chance, or one that boosts your hit points.

One very major caveat to remember; Renown Traits and Passives work everywhere – both PvE and PvP – while PvE-based Tactics, such as those learned from the Tome of Knowledge, etc. only affect PvE. Tactic and Passive costs increase exponentially for each rank of that specific effect you train, so you’ll either have to master one or two, or be a “jack of all trades” if you want to dabble in a number of various Tactics and Passives.

There will be two PvP-specific Tactic slots for a player to unlock. You start with one, and unlock the other once you’ve reached the appropriate Renown Rank. For now the Renown system is fairly open choice; you can pick whatever you want. However, EA Mythic does plan to introduce either a treed or tiered system, so that you have to progress through certain abilities to unlock another.

How to Master Your Career

Everyone likes to be rewarded for leveling up in an MMO. It doesn’t really matter how substantial the reward is, as long as it’s there. This is another lesson EA Mythic learned from their beta feedback; while people liked the more temporary impact of Tactics and Morale – something Josh Drescher referred to as “Fight-to-fight” and “Play Session or Area-to-area” choices – they wanted something that would impact their character throughout the life of it. This is where Career Mastery comes into play.

While you don’t gain Mastery points from the get-go – EA Mythic would rather introduce you to your career initially rather than inundate you with a mass of information and choices – you do begin gaining them starting at rank 10. Here’s a quick rundown of what you can expect out of the Career Mastery feature:

• Every career has three unique paths for Career Mastery
  • Example – Marauder: Path of Brutality, Path of Savagery and Path of Monstrosity.
    • Path of Brutality may improve the Marauder ability "Convulsive Slashing" while Savagery is related to claw-based mutation abilities, and Monstrosity is more geared toward the mace mutation.
• Career Mastery unlocks new Morale, Tactic, and ability choices.
• As you put more points into a path, you unlock more and more of these choices. Some are passive and boost current Morale, Tactics, or abilities, while others are brand-new, previously inaccessible effects.
• While you end up gaining more points than one path has choices (at least the initial choice), you do not gain enough points to max out all three paths.
• It will be possible to re-specialize your Mastery paths, essentially removing all current Mastery choices and refunding your points. However, this will have a monetary cost, which EA Mythic hasn’t decided upon just yet.

These are the posh British people; these are the posh British people on drugs

This has become a relatively famous phrase in the Warhammer Online community; a seed planted by Paul Barnett in 2007 when talks began about the High Elves and Dark Elves. After seeing them both in person I think Paul hit the nail on the head with that statement. The High Elves are very… uppity, with extremely exquisite architecture and clothing, while the Dark Elves are… well, they look and act like the washed up rockstars of the High Elven race. They hate the world and everything the High Elves encompass, and will do anything to point that out.

Swordmaster

The first career up is the Swordmaster for the High Elves. He’s their tank – though he’s designed as more of a “Light Tank” that will do exceptionally well against magic, whereas an Ironbreaker may be better for those meatier situations where you’re being pounded on by a 60-foot tall giant.

The Swordmaster works on a mechanic called “Blade Dance.” It’s very similar to Dark Age of Camelot’s melee combat system; in fact, it’s the only career in Warhammer Online that uses such a system. Essentially, you use abilities in a chain to maximize effect.

For example, first you would start off with a regular attack like “Graceful Strike” which will do damage and Taunt your enemy. You’d follow that up with an Improved Balance attack like “Eagle’s Flight” which damages and boosts your Parry rate for a short time. Finally, to finish things off, you perform a Perfect Balance attack such as “Dragon’s Talon” – an attack that damages and reduces your target’s damage output.

Other examples of abilities are:

• Sapping Strike – an attack that drains Action Points
• Phoenix Wings – a frontal-cone Area Effect sword attack
• Wall of Darting Steel – an ability designed to give the Swordmaster a chance to close in on ranged attackers; the Swordmaster begins whirling his sword and can move toward their attacker unharmed for a short time.

Swordmaster Mastery Paths

• Path of Vaul – Protection-based masteries
• Path of Khaine – Sword damage masteries, etc.
• Path of Loec – Anti-magic and magic-based masteries

Shadow Warrior

This career is, by all accounts, one of the first “Ranger” classes done right in an MMORPG – perhaps in any video game to-date. If you could play Legolas in an MMORPG, he’d more than likely play like a Shadow Warrior; it’s a class that not only can defend itself in melee and ranged combat, but also has the ability to be mobile while firing arrows at targets. How cool is that? Finally – a Ranger that doesn’t just sit there in one spot plucking their bow over and over again.

The Shadow Warrior mechanic is one of stance-swapping. Basically, you can equate it to the Warrior in World of Warcraft. The Shadow Warrior gets three stances: Scout, Assault, and Skirmish. Scout is fairly obvious – it allows more of the “sit and fire” abilities to be used. Assault is your melee stance; if things get thick and you need to stick your sword in someone’s chest, this is what you’ll use. Skirmish is the coolest introduction to the archery-based class any MMO developer has thought of: mobile ranged combat. This stance allows all of your abilities that can be used on-the-run, and even some borrowed from the Scout stance. Granted, you suffer a slight penalty for being on the move and firing, but it opens up amazing possibilities in RvR for the career.

You can change your stance at will, too, so you’re not locked into it once you’re in combat. That said, there is a cooldown timer associated with stance-swapping, so you can’t switch at will. If you go from Scout to Assault, you’re locked into that stance for a few seconds before you can either switch back to Scout or over to Skirmish. I also had the opportunity to play this class during a Hands On of a city siege – where I was defending Altdorf – and I must say it was a very fun class to play.

A sample of Shadow Warrior abilities are as follows:

• Will-less Arrow – Line AE (e.g. it shoots through targets in a line – hitting anyone within that line of fire)
• Flanking Shot – Back-positional shot
• Whirling Pin – Point-blank AE root on a semi-long cooldown (you won’t be able to use it constantly); meant as more of an escape mechanism so the Shadow Warrior can return to ranged distance against melee

Disciple of Khaine

The first Dark Elf career we were shown is the faction’s healer – a career EA Mythic and Games Workshop had to introduce to the Warhammer universe specifically for the game, as the Dark Elves weren’t really the “healer” type in the past. They’ve managed to create a career that fits in with lore, and fills the required role fairly well, though.

The Disciple of Khaine is primarily a melee-based healer. Their mechanic is called “Soul Reaping” – in that the Disciple must melee their target to steal their “essence” to power heals on allies. It’s also a unique healing-type class in an MMO because of the fact that the Disciple can either use Chalices in their off-hand which grant bonuses, or dual-wield to increase Soul Reaping’s effectiveness. It’s really up to that particular player how they want to play the Disciple of Khaine in that regard.

They’re best at being “spread healers;” a healer that performs best when in a situation where the entire group will need heals. At the same time, the Disciple can also activate special auras – one per Disciple, which do not stack, though obviously multiple Disciples in the same group can use a different aura each.

Some example abilities:

• Lacerate: Cripples the target, weakening their damage
• Flay: Deals damage; while Lacerate is active, Snares target
• Consume Essence: Converts “Essence” into a heal on the Disciple’s defensive target
  • The Disciple of Khaine can also transfer Morale from themselves to other allies (or steal from an NPC)

Disciple of Khaine Mastery Paths

• Path of Ritual – Direct healing-based masteries
• Path of Torture – Offensive melee line of masteries
• Path of Sacrifice – Oriented to life/attribute transfer masteries

Sorceress / Sorcerer

This career is the proverbial “Glass Cannon.” Literally. Josh Drescher commented that this career can both kill the fastest, and die the fastest. Sometimes you may actually be at fault for your death too, thanks to the career’s primary mechanic: Dark Magic. You see, the Sorceress receives two types of spells – the normal, minor direct damage and damage-over-time spells – and the more dangerous “Dark Magic” spells. Using a Dark Magic-based spell will increase your Dark Magic meter, which substantially increases your chance to score a critical strike with all spells.

There’s one minor little detail about the Dark Magic Meter that should probably be stressed; the higher this meter is filled, the higher the chance your next spell will backfire. This damages you instead of your target, and can potentially have dire repercussions in certain situations. That said, it also empties out your meter, which means you start over again at 0 Dark Magic and have to fill it back up to boost your critical strike change. The meter also decays gradually over time if you don’t cast a Dark Magic spell for 10 seconds, so the goal here is for the Sorceress to balance Dark Magic and “safe” spells to maintain a potent level of critical strike bonus, while avoiding the backfire effect from occurring too often.

Oh and just because this career is a glass cannon, it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to go around firing off Area Effect spells in RvR situations. Area Effect spells are all tied to Dark Magic, which means if you chain cast them, you’ll regret it pretty quickly. Play smart, and you’ll do just fine. Spam the same spell over and over, and well… you can guess what will happen.

Sorceress / Sorcerer Mastery Paths

• Path of Agony – Direct damage-based masteries
• Path of Calamity – Damage-over-time masteries
• Path of Destruction – Area Effect masteries (also known as “Sorceress Goes Boom” if you get spam happy)

Hopefully this article was rather insightful on the topics discussed. The next one will cover the Trophy system, Dyes, and Crafting, so be sure to keep checking back!