Thoughts on First Tier RVR in warhammer online

Let me start of by describing my characters that i have created on warhammer online. The first is a level 14 warrior priest with who I am trying to have the full warhammer experience, that is RVR, PQ, dungeons, crafting, questing and scenarios. Then there is the rank 10 Bright wizard with who I just like burning kids in scenarios and RVR (I really love pvp and so i love this game). And then i have a Dwarf ironbreaker with who I am experiencing scenarios, PQs and questing along with my friend’s Engineer.

That said, i have experience first tier RVR thrice over. However this experience has severely been limited because of the low population of our server. The only scenario that pops up is Nordenwatch; I have probably played Khaine’s Embrace once and watched my roomate play Gates of Ekrund. I don’t know whether this is a result of this low population or that people don’t like the other two scenarios. The one time I did play Khaine’s Embrace, I truly enjoyed it because as soon as one team captures both altar’s, they have 10sec to get as much distance as they can or be killed in this massive burning shock wave unleashed by the fury of Khaine. My favorite thing to do is to ensnare as many people as i can with my Ironbreaker, slowing them down just enough that when Khaine unleashes his fury I can take them down with me.

One thing that i have observed in these scenarios and RVR, and I am really impressed by, is what I have dubbed Random Tactical Consolidation (RTC) simply because I want to sound like a smartass. Since most people in these scenarios are random individuals, the chances of them acting as a unified front is incredibly rare. We all have seen just how fruitless yelling strategies in Battlegrounds from World of warcraft were. Those strategies only worked if a single individual dedicated up to 5 hours of his or her time just to organize a premade group and assign a teamspeak or ventrillo channel. These pre-exisiting plans were limited and very rigid, thus were incapable of adapting to a changing battlefield situation. Meaning if one part of the plan failed the whole thing would come apart and only rarely would you be able to regain control of the battleground.

In Warhammer, because of the collision detection system, most of the time you will see people fighting  out of familiarity and instinct. They will see random situations and devise numerous ways to tackle them not as individuals, but as  a group. An example would be the fortress in the scenario Nordenwatch. I have noticed on numerous occasions a ranged dps class or healer would run up the stairs and a tank class would automatically assume position at the bottom of the stair to block them. I have also a group of marauders and chosen stop us at the bridge by fortress and a group of disciple of khaine and witch elves coming in from behind and slaughtering us at the bridge.

And remember all of these people are random groups of individual who never met before and discussed such tactics. People actually keep an eye on the battlefield situation and take actions according, the most common of which is the flee button. Regardless it is still pretty interesting to watch how these tactics play out without some 12-year-old yelling them out in full caps to everyone.

Also all the people I have met so far in this game are pretty mature. I have so far seen only one person use profanity and most people are really nice and helping.

The games only sin is that it is a game designed for way more people than there are really playing it. If you have a full server than this game will be a tonne of fun but if you don’t then you will find yourself repeating first and second stage of all PQ over and over again until you have enough influence for the chapter rewards. You will find your server getting pawned left and right in RVR, thus keeping you from advancing in Renown training and gear. It just becomes real tough.

I guess the game needs a little bit more time or increased server capacity in order to showcase its full potential. Hopefully Mythic will do something about that soon.