Aion Guides: Sorcerer/Sorceress PvP Guide

This is a list of how-to-fight different classes for the version 1.2. There are articles for each of the classes. As of right now (June 28, 2009) there are guides for Templar, Gladiator, Sorcerer, and Cleric, others are still in process.

The Sorcerer/Sorceress is a master over the elements of the world of Aion. They are a evolution of the Mage archetype and a wide arsenal of spells that will allow them bind and damage their enemies.

• PC means members of Opposing Factions (Elyos, Asmodians, Balaur)

Important Note: AionArmory's Database is from 1.0 so skills from it has lower damage value than the 1.2's actual values (Korean Powerbook values are higher)

PvP Chat Tab Radar

Make sure you drag it out to an easily visible location.
This radar will let you know if any opposing faction members are within just outside of your visible range.

Second, Aion’s Utility Damage Class, Sorcerer

Sorcerer's PvP

They possess the most diverse skill line out of all the classes in Aion.

They have many skills that shut down enemies as well as ones that deliver tremendous damage.

However, their HP is very low, and their robes provide little defense, will often get killed by attackers.

Despite this weakness, players have brought out secret abilities hidden within the Sorcerer profession, and those players have become the some of the best at PvP.

They have understood their own skills well, seen what their opponents do when confronted with these skills, and have witnessed their reactions as well. They were gracious enough to put these experiences into this manual.

Tips from Player 베베, Server Kidorun, Used to have 쭉빵그녀 as main

Most important thing to have is a complete understanding of the skills you currently possess.
Also, in air battles, use Flame Cage I - Skills - Aion often. Stacks quite often if you consider the Major Flight time scroll's duration.
Also, don't forget Summon Cold Air I - Skills - Aion and Grace of Protection, VERY useful.

PS: Cannot find Grace of Prot in AionArmory, (best I got, AionArmory doesn't have and its complicated to translate) skill lvl 28 minimum 352 mana, 10 min recharge, for 5 seconds, you block all melee attacks and your Stun, Knock back, Stumble, Rotation, and Aerial Thrust resistance values increases by 1000.

PvP Sorcerer's keyboard setting

For a class that has very low HP, many times a Sorcerer's PvP will be decided within a very short time.

To recover and counter attack requires fast reaction and decisions! For this you need a good keyboard setting and skill placement.

Tips from Player 민영공주, Server Kidorun, Lvl 50, Asmodian

Best to place skills that can be used while moving in keys Q,E,T,G whereas spells that needs casing time can be put on F1-F10 and the number keys. The DP should be placed at CTRL + 1. Consumables you should use your mouse to activate.

Its very hard to have every skill put into the number keys and F1-F10. Because while you are moving, if you want to use an instant cast skill, you need to use your mouse or put your fingers away from your Movement keys. So its best to put those instant cast into Q E T G Middle Mouse Click CAPSLOCK and Shift+.

Summon Cold Air I - Spell - Aion Q or E, most often used skill! You need to keep moving after you cast this spell. In the abyss, when you meet a pro gosu, you have to run like hell. And when you lose direction because of it, use this spell to find where he is!
Severe Cold I - Spell - Aion Q or E, or very close to it.
Blind Leap I - Spell - Aion Scrollwheel mouse click (middle mouse click)
Winter Binding I - Spell - Aion T or G rather than number keys! Its more comfortable that way.
DP skill: You don't use it often? and you need to be able to use it quick? so CTRL + 1 or 2 would do.

PvP Gear Setting

Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian

Defensive Gear: To become the top notch 1% player, you must have Abyss gear with HP or Magical Resistance bonus set + Magical Boosting Power bonus set. Using a macro, when you are fighting Glads or Temps you switch to the Magical Boosting set, then when you are done back to the HP set. You should have 8k HP, 1350 Magical Resistance, 1200 Magical Accuracy, 1250 Magical Boosting Power would be good.
Godstones: Out of 1% and 2% damage stones, I think 1% is better.

Tips from Player 중독된 보이, Server 페렌토, Lvl 50, Asmodian

Defensive Gear: HP, Mboost, Concentration and even 1 more socketable gear (Abyss Gear would be good) Speed 22%+ Boots/ ASPD gloves are needed as well.
Weapons: HP, Mboost, MAcc, and/or ASPD+ books. I trust that everyone knows why Sorcs need ASPD + (It gives casters faster spell motion, meaning lower aftercast delay).
Manastones: Magical Resistance seemed best to me.
To avoid being killed by Assassins, you need to avoid their stunning ability. Magical Resistance is helpful against them. I used buffs to get my hp upto 7k, but after experimenting, Magical Resistance was better against Assassins than HP.
GodStones: I'd like to recommend 1% or 2% damage stones. Blind/silence/paralysis ones are too expensive, and compared to dual wielders you cant wait for the godstone effect to kick in. And with the exception of Paralysis, if you Blind/Silence assassins, they can just run and wait for the effect to expire, and too fast to catch them as well.

PvP Stigma

PS: Its not in the guide, I had to find one on the list of comments because this section was somehow excluded? but the comment comes from one of the commenter's on most of the sections though. Also, couldn't find any list for Asmodian.

Tips from Player 프리샤 and Mebby Lvl 50s

The absolutely needed stigmas for Elyos are

• Vaizel's Wisdom I - Skills – Aion
• Curse: Tree I - Skills – Aion
• Boon of Strengthening I - Skills - Aion (Elyos) or
• Boon of Quickness I - Skills - Aion (Asmodian) (I'd go with Jikel's Wisdom myself tho, shorter recharge)

Rest can be any of these, depending on your preference

• Barrier of Severance I - Skills – Aion
• Frost Pillar I - Skills – Aion
• Volcanic Explosion (not in AionArmory, stigma version of Volcanic Eruption I - Skills - Aion, with stronger damage. AionArmory's damage for this skill is misleading, the non-stigma version has at least 3x+ damage, and the stigma has 4x+ damage)

PvP in the Field

Many opinions stated that in ground battles, Assassin's Ambush I - Skills - Aion was the most annoying of them all.
It has come to a point where ground battles = battle against assassins for Sorcerers.

Tips from Player 마리, Server Jikel, Lvl 50, Elyos

When you fight ground battles, the most fearful class is Assassin. Ambush + Aerial Thrust = wings folded.
Use Robe of Cold I - Skills - Aion when you are up against one. Makes running and fighting easier.
When an assassin uses Ambush on you, just bash on that Dimension Backdoor key!
Well, if it finishes before that, nothing to say? But if the door triggers, he'll have lost target. Use your snare on him. Once this happens, most assassins will use Contract of Evasion or Focused Evasion (both skills evade magical attacks) once that happens, don't panic! Use a cheap DOT skill, + another instant cast if he used contract, then use shutdown condition, followed by Aerial Thrust and most sins are done.
If AT fails? then use the usual technique, shutdown condition then burst damage.

PvP in the Abyss

 
Sorcs disable the enemy with conditions, then puts large amount of burst firepower to kill. When flight controls are added to this class, they become something like Gunships.

But to become like a gunship, you must get a few things straight.

First is the flight speed and items that give bonuses to flight time.
Flight speed can be increased by gears that give bonus flight speed and Major Flight Speed Increase scrolls.
If you got these, then you already are a Gunship.

Sorcerer vs Templar

One of the most annoying opponents to deal with, the Templers.

Not only do they have lots of HP, they have a skill that can raise magical resistance way up (Armor of Interception, look in Templar PvP translation) So its not an opponent you can defeat within a short time.

Time your condition skills with the time that their Armor of Interception would end, then plan your strategy from there.

Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian

Watch when that Armor of Interception comes down, then run down snare. The thing that makes Templars different than Glads in this aspect is that they have a skill that can release snare other than using a Greater CC Pot. Its Iron Skin and a skill that prevents anti-Flight magic (referring to Shield of Speed, look into Templar PvP thread). Snare, then use a shutdown condition, then deal damage. After this, you have go unload your instant cast skills then use a shutdown condition again, and repeat.

Tips from Player 프리샤, Server Kasaka, Lvl 50, Elyos

Use Stone Skin's 4 min duration 2 min recharge time carefully, and Grace of Prot well. When the Templar throws a stunning strike, immediately use Greater CC Pot then get some distance while using Flame Cage I - Skills - Aion and Erosion I - Skills - Aion. You stop running when the Templar's Armor of Interception runs out, then snare him with Winter Binding I - Skills - Aion or normal snare. Then turn on Vaizel's Wisdom I - Skills - Aion, and unload Flame of Hell I - Skills - Aion and Volcanic Eruption I - Skills - Aion (note, actual Kor version damage is more than 4 times than this). These do a lot of damage, and if they eat it, it breaks down about half their hp. Then unload your quick and instant cast skills in any order. While they are running, if their Iron Skin has cooled off, turn on your Shock absorption scroll so you don't get Stunning Striked.
For me, once I got 7k hp I could deal with a templar. Before I used to get burned? anyway, using this method I usually win 1 on 1.

Sorcerer vs Gladiator

You get the feeling that they are a little easier than Templers, but you should watch out for their Aerial Thrust! Just keep your distance.

As usual, use shutdown condition, then unload some burst damage onto them.

Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian

Once the opponent gets out of snare with a Greater CC pot, make him a tree. Then go upto him and hit him with WinterRestraint. Reason being, if you attack him under tree state, the Tree stigma's enemy magical defense buff will kick in, doing less dmg. Once you've hit him with winter restraint, under this state he cant do much other than throw ranged chain. These attacks shoudn't hurt unless your Stone Skin is down.
Use boon + Baizel's Wisdom, Then use Delayed Blast I - Skills - Aion > Lava Tsunami I - Skills - Aion > Flame of Hell I - Skills - Aion > Soul Freeze I - Skills - Aion > Frost I - Skills - Aion > Summon Cold Air I - Skills - Aion. If you even unload your DP skill, it's a damage amount impossible for Gladiators to survive.

Tips from Player 프리샤, Server Kasaka, Lvl 50, Elyos

Once you've used either Winter Restraint or Restraint and force him to use a CC pot, then restraint him with one of the two that you havent used, turn on Baizel's then unload Flames of Hell and Volcanic Explosion, unless he doesn?t have Armor of Balance. If he doesn't, turn him into a tree then put him to Aerial Thrust, and go from there.
Their Aerial Thrust is instant, so you should kill them from a distance. You can remove their Ankle Snare I - Items - Aion with Blind Leap I - Skills - Aion, but in Aerial Thrust not really. If you've been Ankle snared and cant DDoor, use tree/sleep/Grace of Prot/Barrier of Severance, and go from there.

Sorcerer vs Ranger

Scouts can use Hide, so to Sorcerers they are sworn enemies.

Not only that, Rangers have longer range, so many times rangers gets the first attack opportunity.

To fight rangers who can hide and fire devastating burst damage, using the Chat to your advantage will help a lot.

Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian

Using Silence, sleep, and hide ability, Rangers can pour explosive damage onto Sorcerers, leaving them wondering why they died. While you are fighting, if you receive criticals it will leave you speechless. If you don't receive criticals and your invincibility spell(s) (he means Barrier of Severance, Sorcs have 2 invincibility skills tho) are recharged, you can fight them fine.
But top notch 1% Rangers use sleep to prevent the invincibility spell, making it mind-boggling to fight them.
If you saw him first, unload your Frost (Severe Cold if you are Asmo) and other skills of same kind. If he saw you first, don't even look back and press that invincibility spell, or Dimension Door to make him lose target, then deal from there.

Sorcerer vs Assassin

They are called sworn enemies of Sorcerers: Assassins.

Even though Sorcerers skill line lets them defend against them, they are still very dangerous to the low HP class. If you've been hit with Ambush I - Skills - Aion and died in one chain, too bad. But if you see room, you must use Dimension Door, put him on shutdown condition then kill him with strong burst.

Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian

To Sorcerers they are a scary existence. They can use Throw Dagger I - Skills - Aion followed by one-kill chain. Also, the most of the top notch 1% assassins are now acquiring Paralysis Godstones. To avoid getting caught by this skill, two things you can do are raising Magical Resistance or using HP manastones. Once you've been stunned in air, you must get away quickly using restraints then go from there.
Use Flame Cage DOT's to take down their evasion skills, Once they released their restraint with a Greater CC pot, if you can unload a Soul Freeze onto them, it makes the fight easier. While you are fighting during flight, get away using DOT's and Cold summonings.

Tips from Player 중독된 보이, Server 페렌토, Lvl 50, Asmodian

Using the Chat If you look in the chat tabs theres a tab named Combat. Take that out to another place in ur UI, go into options, click on Combat ? Third, uncheck everything else, make the font colored Red, then click Change
Flight If you are in flight, they cannot use Ambush.

Sorcerer vs Cleric

Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian

Just make him a tree. If you are out of range, snare him then make the room. Once they are a tree, you do the combo. The combo that everyone knows that I listed in .vs Gladiator.

Sorcerer vs Chanter

The reason may be that its so easy for Sorcerers to kill Chanters, but there wasn't any good suggestion on how to fight this class. The little amount of suggestion was really generic.

However, to beat them, sorcerers should follow the same tactics to beat Clerics.

Sorcerer vs Sorcerer

Same class. It will depend on whose shutdown conditions succeed.

Knowing your class, it will be much easier to spot weaknesses. First sighted will put shutdown first, and deal damage first!

Tips from Player Mebby, Server Spatalos, Lvl 50, Asmodian

If you are fight the same Sorc class, the side who turns the other into a tree will be advantageous. If you can Freeze then Curse Tree, then owned he will be.
If you've been caught with no Stone Skin available or low hp, restrain him then run. He will eat Greater CC then come after you. Once you've got some def and cooltimes down, fly once he comes close, then DDoor then use Soul Freeze. Or you can just suddenly stop running, use DDoor Freeze then Restraint of winter. Since he used Greater CC on Restraint earlier, he'd be unable to use magic. Then you know what to do.

Sorcerer vs Spiritmaster

Same Mage school, but one of the most annoying opponents.

Especially you must avoid the Flight disabling skill and control disruption skills they possess. Try to hit them unnoticed.

Tips from Player 쏘스, Server Asphel, Lvl 33, 4th Sorcerer character

If you think the opponent is lower lvl, less-experienced, or worse-equipped, then fight.
Freeze (Spiritmaster's first skill to avoid against Sorcs) > Treee > Restraint > Soul Freeze > Burst damage.
If you think it's a fair match or better, don't do it. Very hard to win.

Sorcerer PvP Movie

Buff Low Level Players With Level 40 Sorceress – Warhammer Online

It’s possible to buff your low level group mates with buffs from a level 40 Sorceress granting them an unfair advantage in PvP/RvR. This probably works with other characters too, but I was only able to test it with my Sorceress.

• Meet your mates in a war camp
• Make sure none of you is RvR flagged
• Invite your mate
• Buff both of Sorceress group spells (Frozen Touch and Daemonic Chill)
• Both characters will get the buff. They last for 1 hour or until the character dies
• So far it’s normal. Normally the buff will be disabled when the Sorceress is there. Now comes the trick: The buff will only be disabled if the sorceress is alive.
• Now let the Sorceress die and the buff will be activated again
• DO NOT RELEASE THE SORCERESS! Stay on ground until the timer runs out.
• This time the buff will do full damage (as it does on level 40)
• For full 5 minutes you will now have an significant advantage over everyone other in the low-level zone

Have fun pwning Order!

This little exploits allows following advantages:

• If you get hit, you will deal reflect 200 damage to the attacker. As a tank you can rape your enemies this way and they will kill themselves by hitting you!
• If you attack an enemy you deal additional 180-300 damage, which is HUGE amount of damage in Tier 1 where most people run with only 1000-1500 HP! 

Leave Battleground without Deserter Buff Exploit – World of Warcraft

Sadly, this only works with Holy Priests.

• You need to have Spirit of Redemption skilled
• Die on one Battleground
• Die and become become an angel/spirit guardian (Spirit of Redemption proc)
• Enter /afk and leave the Battleground, while you’re angel/spirit-healer

Notice: When you get out, you will be dead. However, it better to run 2 minutes to your corpse than waiting 15 min before joining. If you have a friend, he could invite you in the group and always sign in for you, so you don’t even have to walk back and revive and lose precious time!

Win Wintergrasp in 5 minutes Exploit Tactic – World of Warcraft

There is a 100% easy way to win Wintergrasp in very short time. All you need to do is, gather a raid 10-20 min before Wintergrasp starts.

If you’re defender

Move your defense as close as possible to the spawning place of the enemy faction and/or to the western/eastern Workshops. Once the Wintergrasp Battleground starts, catch as many horde as possible on their way to the keep. Hold the workshop as long as possible to prevent them from having many siege weapons.

But nothing really spectacular! The real exploits comes in, when you’re attacking the keep!

If you’re attacker

Have a warlock and 2 people fly to one of the towers. They need to be quickly to get inside the keep to one of the towers, before they get dismounted or detected. On the tower let the warlock place a summoning stone.

Now port your whole raid to the tower and hide. Make sure they are staying somewhere on the outer lines where the gun spawns, so they don’t get ported out of the keep when the siege begins.

When the siege begins, you won’t be ported out of the Keep. Now simply wait until your enemy enters the outer yard, charge out of the tower and roll over the allies. You will get the necessary kills pretty fast for First Lieutenant. Who ever dies in the keep simply gets a Wintergrasp Demolisher or Siege Engine. And wait in front of it. Once your faction got 16 vehicles, zerg down the walls and go for the artifact room. Zerg it too and go in and win.

I guarantee you, your enemy will be surprised as hell and you will have easy game rolling over them. The main advantage of this exploit tactic is, that you can destroy the guns from within and don’t have LoS problems or allies who shot from above the small gun terraces (and if you’re melee you can get up there anyways) and of course very quickly gain your rank for the siege engines!

Have fun owning Alliance/Horde with this dirty tactic!

Wintergrasp Siege Weapon Exploit – World of Warcraft

Actually there is a little Wintergrasp exploit, which can be abused (current state: This exploit still works on PTR and will probably not be fixed with World of Warcraft 3.1 Content Patch featuring Ulduar), to make it easier/faster to win. Especially useful if you’re outnumbered by enemies or want to make the Within Our Grasp Achievement.

The bugged siege vehicle is Wintergrasp Demolisher! Many people already know it or think it’s common knowledge, but I’ve seen so many people who didn’t know it, so i decided to post it here so they get aware of it too!

The bug is simple: The Wintergrasp Demolisher has the “ability” to go through the small holes which are designed for the players to go through in the inner walls. There are two ways to exploit this bug.

As attacker in Wintergrasp

As attacker you can abuse this exploit to get quickly to the artifact room win the siege.

• The prerequisites: Tell everyone in your Wintergrasp raid to take the Wintergrasp Demolisher instead of the other two siege engines!
• Next go and destroy the outer wall (of course!)
• Once they are broken, everyone moves with their Wintergrasp Demolisher through the small hole in the inner wall
• Everyone who is not in or on the Wintergrasp Demolisher, will bind the enemy
• Go straight for the artifact room, destroy the door with the catapults (They have great range and can fire while moving)
• Once the gate is broke, use the artifact
• Win and hopefully get Within Our Grasp!

As defender in Wintergrasp

But you can abuse this also when you’re on the defending side of Wintergrasp, however it’s benefit is much lower than if you do it while in offense.

The trick on the defending side is, to move the Wintergrasp Demolisher to one of the towers. This allows you even when the tower was destroyed to shoot down at the enemies. And in the right position, they can’t fight back to you (no line of sight and you can shoot in an arc)

Main disadvantage is that the min-angle is quite high and you can’t directly attack enemies close to the tower, so it requires a bit experimenting with the positions where to place the catapult to be most effective.

On the other side: The really big advantage is that you can also shoot inside the outer yard of the Wintergrasp Keep! (which is otherwise only possible with the two Turret Guns on the inner walls which are usually destroyed very quickly).

Have fun exploiting!

Strand of the Ancients Guide – World of Warcraft PvP Guide

What is Strand of the Ancients?

With the release of Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard introduced new Player Versus Player content. Along with the new designated PVP content, a new 'subplot' battleground was incorporated into the endless World of Warcraft story line. To keep game play fresh, vehicles (known formally as Siege Vehicles) have been introduced. The concept between Strand of the Ancients is to knock down a series of walls with your vehicle, and to finally reach the Relic. Each team will have 10 minutes to do this, and the fasted faction to capture the Relic will be branded the winner. If no team captures the Relic in time, the game will be deemed a draw.

Tactics for Offensive Team

Alliance, for unimportant reasons, always attempts to breach the Relic first. This means that Horde spawns in the city itself and Alliance makes their dramatic entrance on two boats. This unique starting position proposes problems for buffs, sharing food and any other pre-game advantages (such as health stones) due to players only being able to access half their team. Therefore, when both boats dock, it is vital that they rejoin forces. A player will soon discover that even though not a huge amount of PVP takes place within this battleground, sticking together as a team is important. The first wall that is to be breached has two gates. Only one needs to be knocked down (blue or green), so your team should pick one and assault it with available vehicles.

Despite the defense, this tactic will ensure the first wall is breached in good time. If the first gate (or any gates for that matter) don't seem to be falling, then it would be recommended to pick up a seaforium charge. These as explosives that players can carry which, if detonated at the correct spot, will do great damage to the gate. These are vital in times when vehicles are in short supply.

Graveyards are also important to the success of the attacking team. Capturing the correct ones at the right time can result in resurrecting teammates being placed in battle faster, and also ensures that there is a sufficient amount of Workshops creating vehicles. The correct tactic for capturing Graveyards is to take control of the Eastern and Western ones as soon as possible. This lengthens the time it takes for the defensive team to get back into position and shortens your own time. The Southern Graveyard is to also be captured, but not until your team reaches the Relic door.

Tactics for Defensive Team

 

Defensive turrets are important when it comes to fending off the onslaught of vehicles. There are two at either side of each gate, which can be accessed from the back stairs leading to them. If shooting a moving vehicle, it is recommend that the shooter aims a little ahead of the vehicle, to account for movement time. If aimed correctly, these can do a huge amount of damage and can destroy vehicles before they get uncomfortably close to the gate.

Equally important is the ability to fall back in time. It will be rare to be up against a team who does not break through a single gate. Therefore, it is vital that when a gate is broken you and you teammates fall back onto the next gate. If you arrive there before the Offensive team, then you stand a much better chance of fighting them off. This ability also needs to work when the yellow gate has been broken. This means that the Relic is next on their attack list, so there is no point in protecting anything else.

As mentioned above, capturing Graveyards is important to the Offensive team. Preventing them from capturing the Graveyards can slow down an onslaught. However, this will by no means prevent the onslaught, so only take time out from the main battle when you see fit.

The last step in ensuring that the Relic is kept intact is to disable any seaforium charges placed at gates. They take 10 seconds to detonate, however if you are able to defuse them in time, you will be saving 25% of your walls health. Just because there are no vehicles around, it does not mean that the Offensive team cannot breach the Relic!
Conclusion

Due to the introduction of Siege Vehicles, player on player combat has been reduced significantly within this fantastic battleground. However, teamwork and perseverance are still required, whether you are battling to protect or fighting to capture. Attacking teams should always be moving together, with players both on the ground and also operating vehicles. Unlike Wintergrasp, the Defensive team does not have the ability to create vehicles, so the Offensive team's main priority is to knock down walls. Similarly, the Defensive team will also need to work together, both attacking vehicles and defusing charges. A whole team working together can easily take down an onslaught of 4 or 5 vehicles at once. However, to do this teamwork is required, and only when players are not working as a team does the Offensive team capture the Relic.

Darkfall Online: Siegesystem Information Leaked!!!

Finally the more interesting information are leaking (from internal Betatest Forums, which show us some insight of the more advanced and organized Guild-vs-Guild (GvG) PvP.

First report is from a group of players who tried to raid the city. Some very interesting (and some alarming) information can be taken out of this report, but first read on:

First, we were bored so we decided to siege a close by city, mainly looking for a fight, but also just to see what things were like.

There were no siege weapons, we went in with 13 or so people the defenders showed up with 1 hour left on the count down, they had 6 or 7 I think.

Once we started fighting inside the city limits the battle timer began, it was a three hour count down.

My first comment is that it will be impossible for attackers to win these battles with anything short of a MASSIVE numerical advantage.

While we technically outnumbered the defenders, in reality the dynamics of the system meant that they outnumbered us. They respawned with full stamina and full health 10-15 seconds away from the fight. In effect that allowed them to have an unlimited force to fight us. While we had a 5-6 minute run when they were able to suicide gank someone, they were back in action in a matter of seconds.

This isn't a total shock we know that people respawn with full stamina/hp already but in a siege this HAS to change.

This kills and deaths really don't matter in this situation. That said we probably took 10 deaths total, and I have no idea how many times they suicided into us, 30+ at the very least.

To attack structures you can't just club them down, you have to actually have special siege weapons. That was one of our goals and we confirmed it.

If the current spawn mechanics stay in game for sieges, the battles will go something like this.

Attackers will launch attacks from either their city or a chaos stone. Defenders will bind into the city, excess will bind at a nearby city or chaos stone. The defenders in the city will simply zerg into the besieging force keeping pressure on and expending stamina. The excess defenders will either defend inside the city as a mop up crew, or attack the attackers externally. Losses won't matter on the defenders side because by killing them you simply strengthen their position and weaken yours. You expend stamina/consumables/health while you simply give them a free refresh.

Sieges NEED to be decisive battles, not endless bind rushes. Once a city is cracked open and assaulted really the defenders should be able to make A (singular) last stand, not continue to spawn and rush until the attackers are worn down.

In any case it was amusing.

We hope, the developers will address some of this issues, especially the instant respawn thing with full stamina which will make it quite hard to siege anything without an numerical advantage of 3:1 at least in a reasonable amount of time.

Next leaked thread is directly related to the one posted above, with some suggestion/comparison to Shadowbane's siege system (Shadowbane was a great game, but it failed due to bad support and many bugs, how Aventurine won't do the same mistake).

Please refer to this thread:

the link is the text above

Shadowbane's siege system worked. Here are several simple solutions to make Darkfall's work.

1. When a city is under siege, resurrecting at the clan stone comes with a five minute timer on regening health and stamina. This prevents endless bind rushing and allows the attacker to gain ground. It could be two minutes or one minute, the point is allow the attacker to gain ground.

2. Get rid of this piece of shit shard system and go back to the gloomer. Dropping rocks in Shadowbane worked. Allow each side to beat the other side's siege engine down to some degree.

3. THREE HOUR SIEGE WARNING CURRENTLY?
Install Shadowbane siege system with a siege timer where the defender elects when they want to defend their city within a 72 hour time period. This stops 3am raids and ends up having far more primetime Epic Battles. The current system will simply have people raiding at 3am.

This is the part of your game that will keep people interested. Sieging is the most important feature to 90 percent of the guilds here. If you cannot have sieging done in a fair and fun manner, that bodes poorly for Darkfall.

I hope others agree.

This sounds quite reasonable, especially the respawn timer idea. Well I have another suggestion too, which is taken from Lineage II siege system and is very good in my opinion. In Lineage II the defenders would respawn inside the castle (if they belong to the defending factions alliance or clan who owned it) and there were some a few crystals which regulated the respawn timers. At the begin, respawn is like 1 min and as more crystals get destroyed by the attackers the respawn goes up to 5 min.

Additionally to that, the attackers had to place a banner somewhere inside the siege zone. The banner would be their respawn point. The clue: The banner was destroyable. So if the defender destroy them, the attacker of this clan have to walk a big way back when they die. This also adds an additional layer of strategy to the siege, as the attackers also have to take care and defend their "camp" instead of rushing with every single person to the city/keep to siege it and it prevents from defenders to barricade inside the city and wait for the attackers (if defenders come out and go for the banner of the attacker, it would make defending much easier if enemy has to run 5 minutes until they are back at the city ;))

The last leaked thread/post is about the beta testers feelings about the current state of the beta and shows how unhappy some of them are and it also gives you an idea how costly such a war declaration can be.

Warhammer Online: Stacking Standard buffs exploit

There is an exploit with the Warhammer Guildstandards. The Battlestandard on the keep is giving out a buff to everyone near the keep. If you run in and out of the keep range, the buff will stack up. If you're having Toughness, Armor and Initiative in your Standard, then you can stack them up to a reasonable high amount which will reduce the damage you receive by a great amount making defending of the keep ridiculous easy!

Sword Master review

PvE

For now, PvE is very easy. I can take on 2-3 mobs one after another without a period of rest at all. However, when you just finished killing your first mob and you suddenly have two on you, then it gets very difficult. I may live, I may die, it’s all up to how well I do (dice rolls mainly). I’ve tanked PQs as well, without too much of a problem. I feel that my DPS is pretty good considering my spec. It can kill stuff easily, but not as quick as my 2h SM counterparts, like it should be. Overall, even if PvE is boring, it’s still easy to do and enjoyable when RvR gets frustrating.

The Good

• Good spot in DPS
• Mechanic makes me use almost all my moves (aside from a few off-spec openers)
• Easy to take and hold aggro
• Bosses in PQ's are easily tanked, even with many other people beating on the mob
• Casting mobs are easily dealt with

The Bad

• Attacking two mobs at once can be dicey, most of the time I run away (unless it’s clear that I can win)

RvR

Completely different story. The 1-2-3 mechanic of the SM seems to hinder it some, as I may need a snare RIGHT NOW instead of having to wait a few seconds to cycle through my moves. Aside from that little quirk, the mechanic is actually quite nice.

While my DPS is lower (especially against other tanks), I feel that the debuffs I can do really hinder an opponent that chooses to ignore me. Plus, I can take a good amount of punishment unsupported before I go down. With a healer, I’ve taken on 4-6 Destruction and not died. Most of the time it was just one healer helping my out. In small scale engagements the SM does fairly well, but larger scale battles (roughly 10 or so) the SM really feels useless. I find that I use my rank 1 morale ability, demolishing strike, as my main form of DPS, rather then a supplement. Why? Because all the damage I can do can be undone in less then a second (I saw a Zealot heal itself from about 10-15% health to FULL in one cast). Sometimes I really feel like giving up because whatever I do can simply be brushed aside and ignored. All my debuffs, while great against one target, are HORRIBLE when facing multiple opponents, since your stance resets upon switching targets.

The Good

• Small scale battles (about 5 or so on each side) are good, I feel useful
• I can wreck havoc with my interrupts against a single caster
• Throw is a great ability, great for stopping runners! All classes should have something akin to this in my opinion…

The Bad

• The 1-2-3 Mechanic works against the SM in large scale battles, as the SM often has to switch targets
• No way to break out of snares and/or roots
• Goes down fairly quickly without healing support
• Heavily relies on demolishing strike for DPS, all other forms negated by healing
• Going against a healer is a joke, can’t kill it and they just wear you down.

Bright Wizard Class Review

Bright Wizard to Rank 26, RR 10

Bright Wizard is a TON of fun to play, and is definitely overpowered.

As a Bright Wizard I don’t really fear anyone, least of all Melee classes, lowest on the food chain is most definitely Witch Elf’s and Marauders. These guys are a joke, and can basically be ignored to you feel like dealing with them, then utterly destroyed in no time at all.

A witch elf gets at you:

• Shield of Asquishy (or whatever its name is) buys you second to finish your current target.
• Root, walk a few feet.
• Disarm
• Dot
• Dot
• Nova Stun

Fireball
If he is really persistent or you don’t want to fight, detaunt. 3 sets of CC without even trying. And that’s not even the most effective way of killing them, that’s just getting them off you, and still normally enough to kill them.

The only melee that i even ever be slightly concerned about is Chosen, and that’s only if they have dedicated healers. Only because once that chosen (tanked and getting healed) gets on you, you can’t shake him in the 8 seconds it takes to shake anyone else. However generally your own healer will notice and out heal his dps. At which case it just becomes interesting to see how long he will whack you before becoming disinterested and running off to hit the healer.

On a side note, there morale ability really hurts, hitting for 1/4 our health easy, but then, big heals crit at twice that, so I can only imagine how much some of our abilities hurt.

I can kill most targets with Fireball

Fireball Barrage
That’s pretty much it. If there still alive I either DOT DOT or just SEAR. I don’t really see how this fits the TTK at all, and I realize that Fireball Barrage is being looked at.

Since I got FB (fireball barrage) I pretty much just spam
Fireball and FB. They just hit so freaking hard. My
Fireball his for something like (not exact figures) 350 then another 350 over time. That’s 700 a hit without a crit. 2 of these and a
fireball barrage = anyone without a healer. That’s 3 second cast, instant, 3 second cast.

Changing from Barrage to Combustion

I don’t really use Combustion, I don’t really worry about it either. It doesn’t seem that a lot of the important abilities for Bright Wizards have combustion. There is SEAR, but it’s on a timer. Most of the others are AOE effects or skills I don’t use a lot. So it’s just not important at all to me. Not to mention that even without FB at all, I hit so damned hard, and kill so fast. That it doesn’t matter in the slightest.

Correct me if I’m wrong, (I’m at work so no in game reference and didn’t play yesterday so memory might be not so good) but the following are the skills I use a lot and whether they have
combustion.

• Fireball – No
• Ignite - No
• Boiling Blood - No
• Fireball Barrage - No
• Sear - Yes
• Nova - No
• Shield of Asquishy - No
• Flame Cage - No
• Disarm (name?) - No

Now I might be wrong about 1-2 of those, but as I stated, I don’t worry about it so much that I never really checked. I ‘think’ some of them might have chances to explode based on your current Combustion, but in truth, that’s never really a worry anyway. Healing is quite heavy now, so going absolutely full power will funnel popping 80 health of you every 1-2 seconds is NOTHING. Let alone the occasional explosion. 1x 3 second heal could fix an explosion and 10 funnels from massive nuking, let alone some dot heal sitting on you.
Combustion might be vital if I didn’t already annihilate people, but at the moment, it doesn’t factor for me at all.

Melee

• I have never lost a 1v1 to a melee.
• I have beaten a few 2v1’s against both melee.
• Just blow the crap out of 1 real quick while CC'ing the other, then finish.

Ranged

The 2 things that I watch for as a Bright Wizard:

• Sorceress'
• Zealots

Sorceress' hurt, and there Shadow Knives and (disastrous cascade ? ) are to be watched carefully. Most of the time I die, its to Sorceress' or Zealots (or just a bucket load of 10x people focus fire). Sorceress' have (from playing against them) a lot of the same issues as Bright Wizards, just in different spells. But having not played 1 this phase (I did last phase) I wouldn’t want to comment further.

Zealots I have only had a few 1v1’s, there the class that’s to be feared the most as a BW. Mostly before you have FB. They have some massive heals, shield spells and they can hurt, not in massive 500+ hits, but definitely hurt. I think its Warp Reality that really stings. Generally they can make the fight last long enough that funnel power combined with their dots really start to take there toll.

Problems

Healing really can throw out a lot of survivability. So you come up with some tricks to deal with it. Smack someone with a fireball. Healer goes to heal him.
Fireball the Healer, Drain AP of healer (morale), dot, Nova stun,
Fireball Barrage, Sear. If he is still standing and pops his big heal + shield, then dot dot and move back to original target,
the healer will right now be crapping himself so much and focused on restoring himself to 100% that you will kill the other target before he gets back to his group job.

A few zealots in there, and it started to become ridiculous. However it just became necessary to get 2-3 Bright Wizards to target the zealots first. 3x Fireballs hitting someone is GG. This is all without using any other little toys like the rank 3 morale, and the anti healer spell (playing with fire??) which I don’t spec.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love this class. And I guess that’s the problem, I know its overpowered, and id be terrified to play against it, especially is melee.

On a side note, RVR is still utterly dominated by range.

Mastery Tree Review

Incineration

This seems still far and away the best spec for a BW if you want to blow things up.
Fireball Barrage is just crazy good, and fun as hell to boot (who can’t love multiple fireballs raining from the sky in quick succession?). I don’t think it in and of itself is overpowered, it’s the matter of the stacking damage add procs. I also like that channeling ceases when the target goes out of LOS/range (which is what we Order all complained about Shadow Knives last phase, and you guys fixed….kudos!). I have noticed that the animation goes kind of wonky if the first hit is disrupted. Instead of getting the six quick graphical hits, you get more like pause, hit, pause, pause, hit, hit.

I think the tactic to make Sear heal for 25% damage 25% of the time should really be made 100% of the time to make it attractive. It might actually be worth using a tactic slot on then, as right now I think every BW pretty much stacks INT tactics, or maybe rarely takes the +AP on crit one (I do usually when Conflag specced).

Immolation

This line feels like it should have more potential than it does. Detonate is a fun spell, though frustrating when it gets disrupted since you can’t try again for 10 seconds. Also, since DoTs have been changed to not tick until 3 seconds after application, is there any chance we can get the 3s recast removed? It’s frustrating when you want to use an ability that requires the target to be hexed, you hit Ignite, and it’s disrupted (and Boiling Blood is on cooldown). Now you have to wait 3 seconds to try and hex again to use another ability that requires it.

Withering Heat feels underpowered compared to
Fireball Barrage. First off it channels 6 hits in 6 seconds instead of 6 hits in 3 seconds, and each hit is much, much less than FbB. The snare is nice, but even chain casting it on a mob, it takes like 4-5 withering heats to kill the mob, and it’s easily in my face after the second or 3rd. Channeling in one spot for 6 seconds is an eternity in RvR though.

Conflagration

Spreading Flames feels like it could use a bit of a damage boost since player HP were raised (not necessarily double, maybe 25-50%). It’s a fun spell, but really no more of an annoyance right now.

Annihilate is oh so much fun if you can pull it off, especially if you’re using it with Funnel Power (though you better have a healer watching you!). The channeling aspect kind of sucks though when you have to be such close range to use it, it’s too easy for people to hit you and (in the future) knock back your channeling. I’ll repeat what I said about spells like this in previous phases though, I hope you can find some way to make them not go through walls. I would hate to see keep sieges devolving into who can bring more AoE/PBAoE to bear on the door through the walls.

Choking Smoke is also nice, though the cast time feels kind of long, and the graphic is much smaller than the effect I believe (which is also a problem with Pit of Shades). This may be intentional to tone down graphic lag, however it’s probably pretty frustrating for people who suddenly find themselves silenced and never saw an effect to show it. Disable effects in general actually aren’t communicated real clearly, I frequently find myself disabled in a fight and have no idea what I was hit with to cause it (and mouse over debuff icons in the heat of battle isn’t really practical).

Marauder Class Review

Monstrosity

Switching from Brutality to Monstrosity, I’m firm in the belief that
Monstrosity is not gimp at all like people think it is. Monstrosity’s strength is threefold:

Survivability, AoE, and Healer Disruption. Arguably Savagery will be the better healer killer with the 75% debuff (would have to test), but the ability for me to AoE knockdown is certainly valuable (you can do the AoE interrupt in Savagery, so both specs/arms have that advantage), but Savagery can’t live up to the survivability power of Monstrosity. With the tactic to boost
toughness, and the monstrosity arm active, I gain a whopping 45 toughness. Combined with the +1 toughness per level
tactic, that’s 65 toughness in all (and brings a template level 20 marauder to 204 toughness). The difference in my survivability when switching these specs is astronomical.

Monstrosity, however, does not live up to it’s AoE name at all, and has a very weak single target game (flail being the main move, my tooltip registers a total 106 damage on flail, I’m 8 points in monstrosity). My AoE combo is Demolition (70 dmg), Concussive Jolt (93), Mouth of Tzeentch (70), Demolition (70)…and then I have to wait 17 seconds for concussive jolt to cooldown before I do it again. Total damage (by tooltip) of this combo is: 203.

In reality I’m sure it hits for more (seems to), but still is rather weak. Usually I can take out only 15-20% of a Bright Wizard’s health with this combo, and less on targets with more toughness. It’s honestly not worth AoEing anything. It could POSSIBLY work with stacking a bunch of AoEers in an organized group (I doubt it…1 AoE heal negates 4-5 dps’ers worth of AoE damage)… but Chosen are much better suited to doing this with Quake + Raze.

My suggestion to Monstrosity is to do 1 of these 4:

• Make Monstrosity into a AoE support line.
• Savagery is already a sort of single target offensive support line,
  Monstrosity could be the same but with AoEs.
• Make Demolition spammable.
• Make Demolition do substantially more damage, and give it a 3s cooldown instead of 5.
• Raise the damage on all our AoE abilities.

Overall

Monstrosity is much more enjoyable then Brutality imo. I have lower DPS, sure, but with some DPS support, we can actually kill a healer with a well timed Concussive Jolt and enough damage.

Problems with Marauder as a Whole

The biggest problem we have is that we’re extremely, as much as Chosen, healer dependent. It’s a requirement to kill anything that isn’t alone. In mass situations (5v5 or more) I still feel like we sit behind the lines way too much because of tab target -> death. Speccing Monstrosity has helped me enormously, but I still can’t contribute without a dedicated healer or 3+ DoKs spamming
AoE heals.

We lack appropriate damage. I’m well out damaged by any RDPS class, even when I’m on top of them (let alone when I’m not!). To me, if I have to brave the front lines, there should be some (huge) benefit to it. Either my damage should be superior, or my CC/control should. Currently RDPS outdo me in both categories, as well as having superior
AoE damage. It’s very frustrating to be rooted, break it, and then be rooted again right afterwards…then a 5s disable after that. I have no way of preventing a group of RDPS from doing these things to me. I’ve said it many times, and with all my heart and head believe it to be the right thing: but CC should be concentrated on defensively specced tanks (Corruption spec for Chosen for example). By putting the CC on tanks, you gain these benefits:

You can always do something about avoiding CC

Stay out of melee range. With the CC focused on the ranged classes as it is, you can’t do this as they CC you from range…or CC you to get out of range. Since healers/RDPS are the best first targets (you won’t kill a SM with a healer), and those 2 archetypes have a thing for standing next to each other, it’s pretty unavoidable that you’re going to have to run into them and be rooted.

Tanks truly become the “protector” types. Still, as they have been for all of the time I’ve been in beta, tanks are still the weakest archetype by far. They don’t contribute anything really meaningful when compared to other classes. Why bring a tank who can debuff things for -30% damage when you can bring a RDPS to root it for -100% damage, or disable it for the same? Their damage also doesn’t compare to RDPS or even melee DPS (to be expected, but I’m listing all the ways they could contribute). The only thing they do well is die well…literally, and most people have figured out they’re no threat, so they ignore them…making that role pretty much obsolete as well.
RDPS become the true squishies they should be (imo the challenge of playing a RDPS should be your own survival…prekiting should be a must), and gain a dependence on having other classes (tanks) around, just like everyone else does atm. This is my biggest gripe about RDPS atm: they depend on no one else in order to be effective, while every other archetype is dependent on another archetype to do their job (all melee need healers atm, and healers generally need DPS, with the exception of the melee healers, but I do know you guys are focusing a lot on adjusting the melee healers so I’ll leave that be). If everyone else is dependent on someone else, it’s only fair to make RDPS depend on something.

Praises to Marauder as a Whole

Ok, praises: first, Wave of Horror. I wish my tanks had this. It’s a (dark) godsend. Second, a renewable snare. Ya, I think it should last much longer (WE snare lasts 15 seconds, mine is 5…which allows for only 2 skills to be used before I have to renew it), but it is SO vital to have such a tool on any melee class. Third: Mutating Release. Consider giving tanks this skill too. Often enough I use it and am just re-rooted, but sometimes that isn’t the case and it allows me to get back in the fight.

I also think the marauder’s look is superb. He still needs tons of polish graphics wise (but that’s the whole game yet), but he looks like a barbaric psycho with a temper…exactly what he should look like! In addition, Convulsive Slashing is my favorite animation so far, and I do like seeing the wave animation of
Demolition spread out over my foes (although it’s bugged yet and doesn’t always fire).

Miscellaneous Improvements that Would be Nice

Some of the animations/sounds I don’t like, they don’t have enough impact. Flail is a good example. It only feels like I’m grazing my target’s skin, not Flailing it off. The same is with animations/sounds for a lot of different skills: they just don’t feel like they have BAM! impact. Take Slam (or any melee stun) in DAoC for example. The sound, the way your target’s body rocks, and the red streaks that circle his feet give a feeling of “BAM! you’ve just been stunned!” (or “BAM! AAAH CRAP!” if you’re the other guy). Eviscerate from WoW rogues produces a similar effect. The explosion of light and telltale sound let you know exactly what just happened. They’re crisp, impactful animations and sounds.

Mouth of Tzeentch, when it interrupts a target, should have some sort of after-effect. I know there’s a tactic that increases your target’s build times by 1s afterwards, but 1s more to spellcasting (and it’s an anti-spellcasting tool) is rather pitiful. It’s better used on melee due to all the instant casts. I rather see, “When
Mouth of Tzeentch interrupts a target, that target can not use skills for X seconds,” with X being approx. 3 seconds.

Monstrosity needs 1 more skill dedicated to it. It only has 4 skills (Flail isn’t listed on the appropriate mastery page btw), while
Savagery and Brutality have 5.

Witch Hunter Review

RvR Method

Obviously things are different with every encounter but I’ll try to describe my general strategy. Most important is to stay out of sight as much as possible. I use houses, trees, rocks, whatever I can find to avoid attention. The goal is to work my way around back of the main enemy group. When I’ve done so I stop behind some piece of cover and use Incognito. Then it’s a straight line to whichever target I have chosen.

My pecking order goes Zealots, Sorceresses, Disciples, everyone else. If I don’t go for the healers first it’s extremely difficult to drop my target. I take Sorceresses before Disciples just because I can typically kill them much faster, and I likely won’t get a chance at a second target. So, I open my attack with Sudden Accusation to build 2 accusations and slow them so I can keep applying damage.

My main damage combo is essentially what I use in PvE - Punish The False, 4x Torment or Fervor, Burn Heretic! The difference is I always have to interrupt the damage chain in order to manage the situation. For example, I have to use Sigil Of Sigmar in every encounter. The very first thing which will happen to me when I begin an attack is that I’ll be snared or rooted. Popping out of that as quickly as possible is vitally important. I’ve also been getting flung rather lengthy distances lately by, I believe, Zealots.
I have no counter for that one and honestly causes me quite a bit of grief. I have to pop a Snap Shot in combo with the Running Is Useless tactic, which I always have active during RvR, and run my way back into combat. Interference aside, as soon as the snare from Sudden Accusation wears off I use Pistol Whip to keep my target in range as well as to take the heat off for a couple seconds. By that point I usually have my 5 accusations and set off my Burn Heretic! All the while I do my best to catch the parries so I can whip out a Confess!

All in all, it’s a suicide mission. I may take one down with me but I won’t escape. This is partly because, I feel, most people don’t play aggressively enough. Sure, we can all complain that when you stick your neck out it gets chopped off, but if everyone is pressing forward, there’s no way the Ranged DPS classes can knock out everyone. Resultingly, I’m abandoned behind enemy lines. I might be okay (maybe) with this fairly high likelihood of demise if I could be more certain of making a kill. Right now I would say I have between a 60 and 75% chance of taking out my target. That may even be a bit generous.
My success or failure seems to hinge on whether the healers in my target’s party realize that I’m on to one of their squishies. I simply don’t have the burst damage to take out a caster with even one healer assisting them. You may say, “But it’s 2 on 1. You ought to lose.,” and that may be mostly right, but the nature of a stealth class makes it so you can almost always depend on being outnumbered.

I average between 20k and 30k damage in Talabec dam. I am totally not satisfied with that. I’ve seen Witch Hunters rack up high 30s but compared to the 50k+ I’ve seen Sorceresses and Bright Wizards score, I am highly disappointed. Heck, I’m competing with Warrior Priests and Disciples for damage scores. I think a large part of that is the fact that I both spend too much time setting up a kill and then spend further time getting back to the fight after being killed. I’m just not in action enough. Beyond that though, I do believe that Ranged DPS is overpowered right now. It seems to me the utility of being able to strike from range is not being properly factored into a class. The only way a Melee DPS class will be comparable to a Ranged DPS class is if the Melee class has a significantly higher damage output. The difficulties and dangers in applying that damage require it. As it stands now Ranged DPS can do more damage with almost no risk.

Unfortunately I’ve missed most of the keep action so far, but I’ve still been able to get some open field RvR in. I think I fare better in these situations. I devote my time to mopping up stragglers and reinforcements. 1v1 I tend to do well against any opponent, and using ambush I can keep it that way. Still, when I’m forced to go after a target within a group, even if I have an equal number of allies doing their little stare down, my results are frustrating.

Tactics

The deal with tactics is that right now only the top two mean anything. If it’s not the best then it never gets used, simply because I have limited slots. This is also why I only select passives for my renown abilities. The tactics are too specific and they require I swap something else for them. The passives are 100% bonus, no trade-off, and always useful.

• Currently, I use Jagged Edge and Brute Force for PvE, and Jagged Edge and Running Is Useless for RvR. Here’s the whole rundown.
• Brute Force - Damage is good. Damage is what I’m all about.
• Flanking - Might be good for boss raids when I have more tactic slots.
• Full Confession - Sounds good but not quite good enough to be used.
• Inquisitor’s Fury - Auto Attack just doesn’t seem to be important enough to use this skill.
• Running Is Useless - Love it. Makes my job possible in RvR.
• Righteous Steel - This isn’t damage. I need damage. I’m currently not certain whether Confess! can be used after you parry or your enemy parries or both. It’s possible this parry increase could translate into damage and disarms but I kinda doubt it.
• Unwavering Faith - Not Damage. I need damage.
• Emperor’s Ward - I tried this out for a bit and I don’t think I ever saw it go off. Either it’s bugged or it sucks. Don’t know.
• Jagged Edge - Adds some damage. Don’t know how much. Maybe I should look into that to see if I should keep using it.
• Trial By Fire - This might be good. Particularly for raid bosses.
  Persistent - Also not damage.

A Note Regarding Dyes: I’ve seen some of the dyes look good on certain classes, but Witch Hunters are not one of them. All the colors are too bright and are sloppily applied to our textures. I’d go around default color if it weren’t for the fact that the quests keep giving me neon green items.

Final Thoughts and Suggestions

Despite some of the difficulties this is still one of the more enjoyable classes. He has a great style and some fun skills. He needs work in two primary areas - damage and ambush. With the kinds of situations that ambush requires we put ourselves in, it’s important that we be able to act fast. If a healer is going to be able to save you from a Witch Hunter it needs to be a very quick healer and not just one who’s awake. We also need ways to be able to get out of those nasty situations. Addressing the first issue will naturally help the second. Also, I’m a little perplexed about the 60s Incognito cooldown. We have no other way to reach our targets alive, and yet I do not think it’s intended that we only make one attack per minute. Either Incognito needs to be more usable, which I think I’d rather not have, or we need other ways to get to grips with our enemies. This is a little tricky since it was Mythic’s lauded position that they would not have stealth in their game, and yet here we are testing out stealth for one class that it sort of makes sense for and one that it makes zero sense for. If they choose to make stealth and openers more important to the Witch Hunter’s play then they will not only have included stealth but created a class very similar to the stealther from that game which shall not be named. I’d much rather emphasize mobility. This would allow us to both get in and get out. Hit and run. Like a proper skirmisher.

Warhammer Online Builds: White Lion Template

This was rather a difficult choice for a template. You can choose to strengthen yourself, your pet, or both. I would normally select “myself”, however after quite a bit of debate I went with choosing “both” which is the path of “The Hunter”. This choice was made for no other reason then for the end game PvP viability of the build. Top three stats:

• Strength = Increased melee damage
• Wounds = Increased hit points
• Toughness = Lowers incoming damage.

The 25 points will be placed as follows: (There will be a few extra points due to RvR rewards, however we will not use them here)

15 in “The Hunter”
Buy all skills in “The Hunter” tree for one point each. I know this is very unusual as I do not like getting all the skills in a single tree line, however for this build I will make an exception.

The last 4 points will be put in “The Guardian” tree. Any additional points should also be placed in “The Guardian”, there is no reason to buy the bottom skill in the tree.

80 RvR points to be placed in:

• Might level 1 = 1 point
• Might level 2 = 3 points
• Might level 3 = 6 points
• Might level 4 = 10 points
• Might level 5 = 14 points
• Fortitude level 1 = 1 point
• Fortitude level 2 = 3 points
• Assault level 1 = 2 points
• Assault level 2 = 4 points
• Assault level 3 = 6 points
• Opportunist level 1 = 5 points
• Opportunist level 2 = 10 points
• Opportunist level 3 = 15 points

The purpose of this build is to be able to do your own thing with minimal management of your pet. While you will still need to keep an eye on him and manage him to an extent, you will not have to micromanage him. You will be able to kill caster easy and with “Pounce”, they will never know where you came from. This build will give you more then enough DPS and enough survival to rip up either the front or back of the enemies line of combat.

Here are the planned active morale skills:

• Level 1 = Sever Nerve
• Level 2 = Flying Axe
• Level 3 = Dominance
• Level 4 = Blade and Claw

Slotted Tactics can be changed “on the fly”, as long as you are not in combat. Since there are 5 quick slots available, I would use each one in a different situation. One for PvP fight, one for PvE Group, and one for PvE solo. Here is my choice for a “PvP fight”:

• Brute Force
• Pack Hunting
• Lion Heart
• Hack and Slash

Build Strength:
All around decent DPS and survival skills.

Build Weakness:

Since this is a well rounded build there really are not any weaknesses.

Warhammer Online Build: Ironbreaker template

I have to admit I am really upset with this class. I put a lot of time and effort into researching a class before I go and attempt a template, and in this case, it was a waste of time. Not only is the
choice so obvious, it is also very much OP compared to the other classes. This is not only due to the fact of the classes abilities and strengths, however the same tree is both extremely viable for PvP AND PvE, a simple slotted tactic change is all that is needed to switch between the two. The three stats:

• Strength = Increased melee damage
• Wounds = Increased hit points
• Toughness = Lowers incoming damage.

The 25 points will be placed as follows: (There will be a few extra points due to RvR rewards, however we will not use them here)

15 in “Vengeance”
Buy all the skills in the “Vengeance” tree for one point each. This is really a “no brainer” here.

The last 4 points will be put in the “Brotherhood” tree. Any additional points should also be placed in “The Guardian”, there is no reason to buy the bottom skill in the tree.

80 RvR points to be placed in:

• Might level 1 = 1 point
• Might level 2 = 3 points
• Might level 3 = 6 points
• Might level 4 = 10 points
• Might level 5 = 14 points
• Fortitude level 1 = 1 point
• Fortitude level 2 = 3 points
• Assault level 1 = 2 points
• Assault level 2 = 4 points
• Assault level 3 = 6 points
• Opportunist level 1 = 5 points
• Opportunist level 2 = 10 points
• Opportunist level 3 = 15 points

Let’s face it, this is War in “easy mode”. Build up your “Grudge” to max and use the skills in the “Vengeance” tree as you desire. Going from empty to full Grudge in a PvP scenario should take you about 10-15 seconds. The only two skills that you should use, that actually spends Grudge is “Ancestor’s Fury”,(As a temp buff) and “Away With Ye”.(For the knock back) The Destruction version of this class is the Blackguard, I greatly encourage you to look at that classes skills and skills in the class trees. You will not only see a great imbalance, but also that this class needs nerfed pretty bad.

Here are the planned active morale skills:

• Level 1 = Rock Clutch
• Level 2 = Raze
• Level 3 = Gromril Plating
• Level 4 = Strength in Numbers

Slotted Tactics can be changed “on the fly”, as long as you are not in combat. Since there are 5 quick slots available, I would use each one in a different situation. One for PvP fight, one for PvE Group, and one for PvE solo. Here is my choice for a “PvP fight”:

• Sweet Revenge
• Overprotective
• Great Axe Mastery
• Powered Etchings

Build Strength:

Overpowered DPS and abilities for a tank. To switch into PvE mode all you need to do is switch your tactics out.

Build Weakness:

While this build is OP for PvP, and you can switch into PvE mode with the change of tactics, you will not be the best of the PvE builds. While My focus is on PvP, just thought I would give this little warning: You cannot “main tank” in end game PvE with this build.

Warhammer Online Build: Shadow Warrior template

This will be a “Distance” build, concentrating on ranged and ranged AOE attacks.

• Ballistic Skill = Increases ranged damage
• Wounds = adds to hit points
• Initiative = Increases your chance to dodge ranged attacks, detect stealthed opponents and makes it more difficult for enemies to critically hit you.

The 25 points will be placed as follows: (There will be a few extra points due to RvR rewards, however we will not use them here)

15 in “The Scout”
Buy the following skills in the “The Scout” tree for one point each:

• Enchanted Arrows
• Glass Arrow
• Festering Arrow
• Guerrilla Training
• Fell The Weak
• Rain of Steel

Skills in the tree you do not buy: “Leading Shots”.

The last 4 points will be put in the “Assault” tree. Any additional points should also be placed in “Assault”, there is no reason to buy the bottom skill in the tree.

80 RvR points to be placed in:

• Marksmen level 1 = 1 point
• Marksmen level 2 = 3 points
• Marksmen level 3 = 6 points
• Marksmen level 4 = 10 points
• Marksmen level 5 = 14 points
• Impetus level 1 = 1 point
• impetus level 2 = 3 points
• Sharp Shooter level 1 = 2 points
• Sharp Shooter level 2 = 4 points
• Sharp Shooter level 3 = 6 points
• Sure Shot level 1 = 5 points
• Sure Shot level 2 = 10 points
• Sure Shot level 3 = 15 points

The purpose of this build is to be able to stay in the back and deal out decent single target and AOE damage to thin out the healers and nukers.

Here are the planned active morale skills:

• Level 1 = Lileath’s Forgiveness
• Level 2 = Unshakable Focus
• Level 3 = Explosive Shots
• Level 4 = Rain of Steel

Slotted Tactics can be changed “on the fly”, as long as you are not in combat. Since there are 5 quick slots available, I would use each one in a different situation. One for PvP fight, one for PvE Group, and one for PvE solo. Here is my choice for a “PvP fight”:

• Steady Aim
• Guerrilla Training
• Instinctive Aim
• Enchanted Arrows

Build Strength:

Decent ranged DPS, including above average AOE damage.

Build Weakness:

No melee skills, as such STAY at range using this build.

Guide Map to WINTERGRASP (Open-world PvP)

Wintergrasp makes up a large portion of the region between Sholazar Basin, the Borean Tundra, the Dragonblight, and the Icecrown Glacier. Wintergrasp is the first open-world PvP region for World of Warcraft. The main focus of the battle will be siege
weapon warfare and promises exciting action between the Alliance and the Horde.
The Alliance and the Horde fight for the control of a valuable mining resource. One faction will have to defend the keep while the other assaults it. Towers and siege workshops can be controlled and used for victory.

If the attacking faction successfully captures the keep, they will defend it during the next scheduled siege. Siege weapons are needed to destroy the walls and capture the keep. There will be daily quests and rewards in the area and can truly be a new experience for PvP and PvE players alike.

 

Points of Interest

Familiarize yourself with the zone and all the structures. Some building are capturable, others are destructible, and others can be captured or destroyed.

Offensive Outline

 

Here are a few tips when playing Wintergrasp offense. The main idea is to hit the keep hard with siege vehicles.

Defensive Outline

If your faction is defending Wintergrasp, remember that the best defense is a good offense. Destroy enemy workshops and man the cannons.

Daily Quest Zones

Aside from quests directly related to the battle, there is a daily collection quest that requires players to get drops from other players and elementals.

Elemental Farming Zones

Speaking of elementals, Wintergrasp is the best place in Northrend to farm for elements. Players controlling the zone can ’see’ greater elementals that drop 1-3 crystallized elements 100% of the time.

Wintergrasp Ranger

One of the more difficult Achievements in Wintergrasp is to slay 10 enemy players in several areas in the zone. Here’s a map to generally show where each area is. The hard part then is actually finding players to kill.

Ranks:
As you participate in Wintergrasp PvP, you gain ranks in the form of a buff. After defeating more enemies, you go up in rank and these grant you the abilities to use siege weapons and give you bonus honor and more. The ranks start with your first killing blow as Recruit, and then go on to Private, Corporal, and First Lieutenant as the highest.

Siege Weapons:
Siege weapons can be obtained from siege factories in order to capture or defend the keep. Players need to attain higher ranks to access the more powerful vehicles.
Vehicle Name Seats Rank Requirement

Siege Weapons

There are a number of tools you can use to win the battle, from rocket launchers to full-on tanks.

Future Weapons

Flying machines and goblin shredders were announced at the Worldwide Invitational but have yet to make it to the live realms. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, hoping to see more mayhem!

Stone Keeper’s Shards
Players are awarded Stone Keeper’s Shards when you complete the daily tasks in Wintergrasp.
These are used to buy heirloom items and enchants for PvP use.

• • Arcanum of Dominance – 29 spell power and 20 resilience (Head, 40 shards)
• • Arcanum of Triumph – 40 attack power and 20 resilience (Shoulder, 30 shards)
• • Inscription of Dominance – 23 spell power and 15 resilience
• • Inscription of Triumph – 30 attack power and 15 resilience