Mo’ Heelz, Runts!
Welcome to the first episode of Mo’ Heelz, Runts!. My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to bring you a steady stream of brilliant ideas and profound insights into the realm of RvR – or more likely, a bimonthly barrel of blabbering borderlining the bizarre and blatant boredom. Or perhaps with a bit of help from me friends (Gork and Mork that is) it be something in between.
As with all good beginnings I’ll start with a brief introduction of myself. I’m a 27 years old political science student with a passion for Warhammer and computergames (and beer, football and funny words that seems to be funny only to me). When I heard about Warhammer Online I was growing tired of WoW and the tedious geargrinding PvE mill. So a game with keepsieges, PvP-oriented and set in my favourite fantasy setting was easily sold to me. I got started one day after launch (due to massive hangovers) with a brand new computer (which, oddly enough, also relates to said hangovers) and after waiting in line for about half an hour I was busy bashing stunties with Obersten, Chefen and Preben – my trio of Greenskin lunatics. So far my focus has been on Obersten, a massive Black Orc with a somewhat dubious sense of honor. For the first few episodes I’ll stick to him here as well, but a few comments related to Chefen, Shaman Extraordinaire and Morks fave drinking buddy or Preben Lummerkrogh, Squiglover and flower enthusiast, is to be expected.
Anyways, this is all getting out of hand and I should be getting on with the actual article which will be themed around…
…RvR!
Realm versus Realm combat is, in my (and Marc Jacobs) oppinion the central part of WAR. It’s by far the funniest and most exciting element and it’s certainly what’s making me come back again and again after getting hammered by Order scumbags. And I figure battering my green behind is what’s making them come back as well, so everybody wins here. The perspective in the following ramblings will be that of a tank – a big, bad, fat, green, mean renown grinding machine! (that would be me, that is).
In the lower tiers class balance seems to waggle back and forth between the different archtypes and specific classes as you unlock new skills through levelling. The is true of the tier four as well, but most classes will be having their base skills by now and can perform their role adequately. For instance, it’s a real bitch to try and do some defensive tanking before you get your snares and guard skills. Getting knockbacks, knockdowns and disorient skills later on helps even more. What I’ll be discussing here will thus mostly relate to tier four, but most of it should easily adapt to lower tiers as well.
I’ll do a review of two examples of the two specs I've used so far and comment of the choice of tactics, morales and the skills available. I’ll touch upon the different uses of some of the skills, but strategies and the more nitty gritty tips will be presented in next part. Anyway, ‘ere we go!
Brawler or Toughest specced.
During the first ten ranks you don’t have to worry about which spec you’ll want to be, but after turning rank 11 those precious mastery points will start rolling in. Obersten has been specced both for the Toughest and the Brawler at various points during his carreer and I’ll start with a quick discussion of these two paths. As Obersten is more of a heavy metal kind of orc he never dabbled in the Springsteen styled path – soft rock is fer stunties!
So, what is the main difference here? A Mastery path focused on stabbin' things and a Mastery path focused on survivability which means mor' killin' later is what the description says. It could also have said a path focused on burst damage and a path focused on damage mitigation and slow, but steady damage. You can top the damage charts with both specs, but it would require different playstyles (also topping damage charts should not be your priority – that’s for wimpy elves and gobbos with small choppas!). The Brawler has a few skills that require you to have a Great Weapon equipped (Obersten prefers axes), but that is not the same as you need to have this in order to roll as a brawler. Sword and board (SnB) gives you a good survivability and still allows you to get a high crit rate and burst damage. On the other hand, the Toughest is somewhat set for the SnB-style. Quite a few of your core skills requires a shield, and let’s face it, if you specced for survivability then why wouldn’t you equip a shield?
I’ve drawn up two examples of how you could distribute your points between the two paths and give you the reasoning behind it. Both specs have spend all the points in the chosen tree. The example is made with Obersten in mind just after entering tier four. If you’re rank 40 you’ll have even more points to spend, but the distribution of these are the topic for a whole other article.
I’ll start with the Brawler.
Welcome to the first episode of Mo’ Heelz, Runts!. My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to bring you a steady stream of brilliant ideas and profound insights into the realm of RvR – or more likely, a bimonthly barrel of blabbering borderlining the bizarre and blatant boredom. Or perhaps with a bit of help from me friends (Gork and Mork that is) it be something in between.
As with all good beginnings I’ll start with a brief introduction of myself. I’m a 27 years old political science student with a passion for Warhammer and computergames (and beer, football and funny words that seems to be funny only to me). When I heard about Warhammer Online I was growing tired of WoW and the tedious geargrinding PvE mill. So a game with keepsieges, PvP-oriented and set in my favourite fantasy setting was easily sold to me. I got started one day after launch (due to massive hangovers) with a brand new computer (which, oddly enough, also relates to said hangovers) and after waiting in line for about half an hour I was busy bashing stunties with Obersten, Chefen and Preben – my trio of Greenskin lunatics. So far my focus has been on Obersten, a massive Black Orc with a somewhat dubious sense of honor. For the first few episodes I’ll stick to him here as well, but a few comments related to Chefen, Shaman Extraordinaire and Morks fave drinking buddy or Preben Lummerkrogh, Squiglover and flower enthusiast, is to be expected.
Anyways, this is all getting out of hand and I should be getting on with the actual article which will be themed around…
…RvR!
Realm versus Realm combat is, in my (and Marc Jacobs) oppinion the central part of WAR. It’s by far the funniest and most exciting element and it’s certainly what’s making me come back again and again after getting hammered by Order scumbags. And I figure battering my green behind is what’s making them come back as well, so everybody wins here. The perspective in the following ramblings will be that of a tank – a big, bad, fat, green, mean renown grinding machine! (that would be me, that is).
In the lower tiers class balance seems to waggle back and forth between the different archtypes and specific classes as you unlock new skills through levelling. The is true of the tier four as well, but most classes will be having their base skills by now and can perform their role adequately. For instance, it’s a real bitch to try and do some defensive tanking before you get your snares and guard skills. Getting knockbacks, knockdowns and disorient skills later on helps even more. What I’ll be discussing here will thus mostly relate to tier four, but most of it should easily adapt to lower tiers as well.
I’ll do a review of two examples of the two specs I've used so far and comment of the choice of tactics, morales and the skills available. I’ll touch upon the different uses of some of the skills, but strategies and the more nitty gritty tips will be presented in next part. Anyway, ‘ere we go!
Brawler or Toughest specced.
During the first ten ranks you don’t have to worry about which spec you’ll want to be, but after turning rank 11 those precious mastery points will start rolling in. Obersten has been specced both for the Toughest and the Brawler at various points during his carreer and I’ll start with a quick discussion of these two paths. As Obersten is more of a heavy metal kind of orc he never dabbled in the Springsteen styled path – soft rock is fer stunties!
So, what is the main difference here? A Mastery path focused on stabbin' things and a Mastery path focused on survivability which means mor' killin' later is what the description says. It could also have said a path focused on burst damage and a path focused on damage mitigation and slow, but steady damage. You can top the damage charts with both specs, but it would require different playstyles (also topping damage charts should not be your priority – that’s for wimpy elves and gobbos with small choppas!). The Brawler has a few skills that require you to have a Great Weapon equipped (Obersten prefers axes), but that is not the same as you need to have this in order to roll as a brawler. Sword and board (SnB) gives you a good survivability and still allows you to get a high crit rate and burst damage. On the other hand, the Toughest is somewhat set for the SnB-style. Quite a few of your core skills requires a shield, and let’s face it, if you specced for survivability then why wouldn’t you equip a shield?
I’ve drawn up two examples of how you could distribute your points between the two paths and give you the reasoning behind it. Both specs have spend all the points in the chosen tree. The example is made with Obersten in mind just after entering tier four. If you’re rank 40 you’ll have even more points to spend, but the distribution of these are the topic for a whole other article.
I’ll start with the Brawler.
Brawler specced.
Both examples includes the Rugged tactic. I find that it’s more benificial to reduce damage taken than to increase max hitpoints. That way the healing you receive is more efficient pr. hitpoint – you require less healing, but also suffer from not being able to stand as much spike damage. However, if you do suffer a hideous amount of spike damage you’re probobly getting focused fire by half the opposing team and no amount of healing is going to save you. So that’s why Rugged get a lot of love in my book.
The two last tactics focus on increasing your crit rate. When I’m going Brawler it’s to get burst dps and critical hits are a great way getting that. Also, after 1.06 Skullthumper gets a spiffy DoT bonus whenever you crit with it – so mo’ crits foo’ shizzle!
Both specs also features the same morale setup. I’ve found that Champions Challenge is great for both trapping squishies and beating them up as well as stopping the enemy melee from doing the same procedure on your buddies. Raze does decent damage whenever the enemy huddle up and draws attention like no other – good for making them hit you instead of the clothies, which should be a top concern even as Brawler specced. The same goes for Distracting Bellow. Whatever saves your squishy friends will often mean death to the enemy. We have to face it – they might go down if hit by a wet papertowel, but they hit like a brick. Better to keep the towels of them and the bricks flying.
If you go SnB-style instead of equipping a whopping twohander you could include Arm Breaka instead of Down Ya Go. I’d also suggest you’d be getting this little beauty with a level or two anyway. It’s really nice for whenever you’re beating up a healer or trying to kick a melee of your squishy buddies. 50 AP is not the end of the world though - still especially against healers you want them to run out of AP.
A quick look at the skills you buff by putting your Mastery points into the Brawler tree reveals that this is all about punching people in the face and making them stick around (if you want to go for the jibblies I’ll refer you to the next spec). Often my opening move will be Wot Armor, followed by Trip Em or Big Slash depending on whether I want the enemy to stay or go away. I finish with Skullthumper or Down Ya Go. If Skullthumper crits you’ll get the most out of the DoT by applying it early. By reserving Down Ya Go for the second rotation I find that I get more utility out of the knockdown. Often the enemy is doing their own rotation (and you disrupt that) or perhaps casting a longer duration spell. Second rotations Gud Plan will normally be a kick in the jubblies. Third rotation will be another Trip Em and the coup d’grace being T’ree Hit Combo. This last move can put some serious hurting on a clothy – and if that’s wrong I don’t wanna be right!
Da Toughest specced.
If the former spec was about doing damage quickly this one is about taking as little damage and doing a smaller, but steady bit back again. The tactics are suited for damage mitigation and for saving runts. Rugged and Good Wif Shield increases your suvivability and Mor’ Hardcore gives you utility when it comes to keeping the enemy melee of your casters. Mor’ Hardcore could instead be I’m Da Biggest for more wounds or a rank later you could pick up Less Stabbin’ Me for even more blocking goodness.
Toughest ChM spec:
Da Toughest is all above being ‘Ard As Nails and being able to take a beating like no other. Your armor and toughness will be impressive as will you blocking rate. My rotation normally opens with a Wot Armor for the damage bonus (less armor is less damage mitigation). Again depending on my target I’ll put a Trip ‘Em or Big Slash. Trip ‘Em is fer killing and Slashing is fer keeping da runts safe. If you got the time you can Trip ‘Em and then Slash them. It’ll give your runt even more time to get a way. My finisher is either Skullthumper (for not so impressive damage), Not In Da Face (if it’s a caster/healer) or Savin’ Me Hide (if I’m about get a battering).
Get the attention of the enemy and put up your shield with Can’t Hit Me or get in front of your dps crew and throw Hold the Line to increase their defenses. The damage you’ll do is not very impressive, but your survivability is! And every punch sent your way is not going to the real dps in your team – and dat’s a good ‘un. I find that RvR as Da Toughest is more flexible with the rotations than as Da Brawler (PvE is another matter), so rolling with the punches and either supporting your healers/caster or getting in the face of the enemys healers and putting that lovely 5-second delay on their heals can be switched between swiftly. At first it may seem a bit boring or monotome to tank Da Toughest, but it certainly ain’t. I’ll get back to the different roles of the tank in the next part and try to pass on some of what I’ve discovered so far.
Although a RvR minded article I’ll just add a comment on PvE.The above spec will allow you to grind through stage one PQ solo with little trouble. Gather eight, ten or more mobs a level or two above yourself. Roll through your first rotation and put up your defensive buffs, throw up your shield and hit Can’t Hit Me and watch the numbers fly! You’ll take very little damage, your marale will skyrocket and every hit you block will help kill the enemy. Grinding influence is a breeze and you’ll soon be decked out in shining blue.
Last bit and bellows.
As I see it a WAR tank has three different roles to fill which in some cases will be more or less overlapping. You can be a linebreaker leading the charge into the enemy drawing as much fire as possible. You can be a part of the dps train helping the squishier parts to stay alive, harass the healers and debuff the enemy. You can stick around and save the casters and healers on your backline. You can’t do all three at the same time, though. And the different specs will do the jobs differently – and with different degress of succes. The next part of Mo’ Heelz, Runts! will take a closer look at these roles and discuss what specs and playstyles that suits them.
Untill then, may your pugs be organized and your renown be plentyfull!
/Obersten
