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).

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: Engineer Template

This build should get you up and running as a “medium” range specialist. This means that you will have to remain a little more mobile then a long range specialist, as you will always need to be “on the move“.

• Ballistic Skill = Increased ranged 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 Grenadier” The following skills should be purchased for one point each:

• Sticky Bomb
• Throwing Arm
• Strafing Run
• Bandolier
• Napalm grenade
• Artillery Barrage

The following skill should not be purchased: “Extra Powder” The last 4 points will be put in the “Tinkerer” tree. Any additional points should also be placed in the Tinkerer tree, 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
• Fortitude level 1 = 1 point
• Fortitude 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

As far as AP, range, and DPS go, this should be your best build. As mentioned you have to be mobile with this build, however that should not be a problems.

Here are the planned active morale skills:

• Level 1 = Point - Blank
• Level 2 = Unshakable Focus
• Level 3 = Cannon Smash
• Level 4 = Artillery Barrage

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
• Throwing Arm
• Tangling Wire
• Bandolier

Build Strength:

Great medium range AOE damage, with some added CC.

Build Weakness:

Cannot sit still in one place to long on a mobile battlefield

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: Archmage Template

This will be a PvP virgin healer build for the Archmage in Warhammer online. Before implementing this template please read the “Weakness” section. With this build you can easily keep your allies up, you will have the most healing possible on the Order side in Warhammer online.

• Willpower = adds to your % chance to disrupt hostile spells and adds to healing power in Warhammer Online
• Wounds = adds to hit points in Warhammer Online
• Initiative = Increases your chance to dodge ranged attacks, detect stealthed opponents and makes it more difficult for enemies to critically hit you in Warhammer online.

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 “Isha”
Buy the following skills in the Isha tree for one point each:

• Balanced Mending
• Balance Essence
• Funnel Essence
• Wild Healing
• Magical Infusion
• Winds’ Protection

Skills in the tree you do not buy: “Bolstering Boon”.

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

80 RvR points to be placed in:

• Resolve level 1 = 1 point
• Resolve level 2 = 3 points
• Resolve level 3 = 6 points
• Resolve level 4 = 10 points
• Resolve level 5 = 14 points
• Impetus level 1 = 1 point
• impetus level 2 = 3 points
• Discipline level 1 = 2 points
• Discipline level 2 = 4 points
• Discipline level 3 = 6 points
• Spiritual Refinement level 1 = 5 points
• Spiritual Refinement level 2 = 10 points
• Spiritual Refinement level 3 = 15 points

The purpose of this build is to be able to put out the most healing possible.
Here are the planned active morale skills:

• Level 1 = Divine favor
• Level 2 = Rampaging Siphon
• Level 3 = Divine Protection
• Level 4 = Winds’ Protection

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”(Heal):

• Master of Tranquility
• Discipline
• Balanced Mending
• Wild Healing

Build Strength:

No one on the order side in Warhammer Online can out-heal this build, this is simple raw healing that cannot be matched.

Build Weakness:

Extremely weak in PvE Solo. You may wish to play a “DPS” build and then implement this when you hit 40 for PvP healing. You will really be hurting if you try to use this build in PvE solo.

Warhammer Online: Mourkain Temple Scenario - Conclusions and Final Analysis

Final Analysis

Victory in Mourkain Temple comes down to two very simple things:
Grab the artifact first.
Kill more of them than they kill of you.

Holding the artifact means you do not have to kill as many of them as they have to kill of you, which is why turtling is such a powerful and effective strategy. A few helpful tips:

1) Make use of line of sight to protect yourself from ranged DPS. The temple, hills, roots, and trees all provide numerous places to duck behind.

2) Pick your moment to charge the carrier.
When the Artifact has been freshly passed off, the DoT will be small and the carrier will be the least vulnerable. This is the time to kill stragglers, aggressive enemies, and healers or ranged DPS. A few minutes after a swap is the ideal time to charge the carrier. The DoT should be ticking for 1500+ damage by then, and even with heals it will be hard for the carrier to survive an aggressive assault.

3) Attack the carrier from different directions. If a frontal attack fails, start circling around the sides. The only way to break the turtle sometimes is to surprise them. Hit from the side and focus all your damage on the carrier. Then try to book it out of there as quickly as you can.

4) Heal your carrier - especially a brand new carrier. Keep your carrier alive unless it is time to pass off the artifact. Speaking of which, healers should pay attention to scenario chat so they know when it is time to STOP healing the carrier. If someone on your team manages to gank their carrier and charge off with the artifact, heal them as much as possible as fast as possible.

5) Don't Turtle! It simply is not fun. There was a time on some servers where teams actually did not use the turtle strategy, and Mourkain Temple was a lot of fun. Players have the power to bring that back.

Conclusions

Mourkain Temple can be a very fun scenario, but the few glaring flaws often ruin it. The fact that it pops far more often than the other two Tier 2 scenarios means most players spend the majority of their T2 scenario life in Mourkain Temple. When every match is a turtle from one side or the other, it gets extremely repetitive and boring. I often find myself queuing for Stonetroll and Phoenix Gate only to simply mix things up.

When the teams are fighting instead of turtling, Mourkain Temple can be an enormous amount of fun. The temple is a fun place to fight, and frantically trying to grab the artifact from each other can be very exciting. It is almost tragic that the artifact does not reset every time it is dropped. One simple change could make this a really amazing and extremely fun scenario.

Warhammer Online: Mourkain Temple Scenario - More Suggestions for Improvements

Specific Improvements for Mourkain Temple

No Mounts

The rank range for this scenario is 8 to 21 (though honestly, 12 to 21 is the appropriate rank range). Rank 20 and 21 players have mounts, but everyone else does not. Mounts can outright determine which team starts with the artifact. Because starting with it first is such a huge advantage, it really hurts the overall "fairness" of the scenario to have such an advantage to the team with rank 20+ players. One of the many great things about RvR in Warhammer Online is that rank is not such a huge determiner of victory. The bolster system and the tier system let people of all ranks participate effectively in RvR. It would be best if mounts were disabled in Mourkain Temple (as they are in Tor Anroc, by the way).

The only problem with this idea is the fact that it would then change things to giving the artifact to whichever team had a Marauder/White Lion. This could easily be fixed by letting the artifact spawn after a certain amount of time (which is more than enough for all people to gather at the spawn point and already start fighting for control of the artifact spawn zone.

Do Not Allow Healing or Attacking from the Spawn Area

Players that have not dropped down from the spawn area should not be allowed to heal, buff, debuff, or attack. They should have to enter the field of battle if they wish to do anything to help their team or hinger the opposing team. This is particularly true since one realm has greater "reach" from their spawn area. If the first suggestion was implemented, this would be less of an issue, but it would still be worth doing just on principle.

But there is also a risk that the enemy team would do spawn camp the inferior team if the attackers are strong enough. Good example can be seen in World of Warcraft Battlegrounds where a high equipped/organized group would push back the other team to their spawn points and camp them there while 1 or 2 people complete the battleground objectives (i.e. capture the flag) without any resistance.

Warhammer Online: Mourkain Temple Scenario - Suggestions for Improvement

General Scenario Improvements

If you read my guides, you might notice I harp on this a lot. But it is very important, so it is worth mentioning.

Longer Delay Before the Scenario Begins

What's the rush? Give people time to zone in, get buffed, and discuss strategy. Another 1 or 2 minutes would not slow down the action. On servers or at times of the day when scenarios are not popping fast, the crazy rush makes even less sense. Help ensure a fun scenario experience by giving people time to get off to a proper start.

Immunity Timer When Zoning Out

What is the purpose behind zoning people out of a completed scenario with no immunity timer, so when they finish zoning they are dead or nearly dead to NPCs? What is the harm in a 30 second timer where they are immune and cannot attack? There seems to be an institutional belief that players should not be out fighting in the PvE world between scenarios. This makes no sense. A huge part of the fun of Warhammer Online is the fact that you can do so many things at once. You can PvE some, RvR some, do scenarios some, and go back and forth almost at will. It keeps your game play fresh and prevents boredom. Do they really expect people to just stand around idle in a warcamp waiting for scenarios to pop? What if someone plays on a low population server or plays when scenarios are not popping fast?

Warhammer Online: Mourkain Temple Scenario - Fun Strategies

Fun Strategies

Perhaps there are people who enjoy the ultra repetitive turtling strategy. I certainly do not, and from everything I have read in the Warhammer Online blogosphere it would appear most people dislike it. But fear not, there are actually some FUN winning strategies as well.

Hold the Temple, Crush Your Enemies

While it is still important to back up a little after claiming the artifact, it is not necessary that you flee all the way back to your respawn point. Simply backing up to the entrance of the temple on your side of the map is good enough to let your realm mates crush the enemy in front of you. This is especially true if your team has a lot of tanks and melee DPS. The structure of the temple provides excellent line of sight obstructions to duck behind when ranged DPS gets too heavy.

If you can keep the fight on the
opponent's side of the temple you do not even have to worry as much about passing off the artifact. You can simply recap it from its original location if your carrier accidentally dies with it. This is not ideal (it is much better to have someone nearby), but it is good to have this backup option. If you think you can safely control the artifact spawn location, this could open up the opportunity to let a ranged DPS hold the artifact and unleash high point death from afar. When he or she falls, you simply recap it.

Passing off the Artifact

The carrier of the artifact is subject to a continual DoT that cannot be dispelled. The DoT hits for more and more damage the longer the carrier has the artifact. Eventually it will get so large that it cannot be healed through. Once the artifact starts doing more than 1000 damage per tick, the carrier should inform his or her team how big the DoT is. When it starts to become unmanageable, the carrier should try to convince another team member (preferably a tank) to withdraw from battle and come stand next to him or her. At a lull in the fighting (if possible), healers should stop healing the carrier so the DoT can kill him and the designated new carrier can quickly pick it up.

When the artifact is dropped, there are only a few seconds to click on it before it returns to the original spawn point. The range for clicking on the artifact is actually very long. It can be grabbed from quite some distance away. So try to make sure there is a line of sight obstruction between the dying carrier and any potential enemies.

Know the Score and the Time

The score and the time can dictate changes in tactics. If you are losing a close game, but have the artifact, it might be a good idea to have your carrier go ahead and devote full effort to fighting. This is the equivalent to "pulling the goalie" in hockey. Kills by the artifact carrier are worth more points, and those points could be enough to pull ahead in the last minute of a scenario, or it might get you to 500 just before the other team.

If you are losing and do not have the artifact, you might as well forget the carrier in the last minute or so of the scenario and just try to get a few kills. Earning a little more experience and renown is a good thing.

Warhammer Online: Mourkain Temple Scenario - Winning Strategies

Winning Strategies

Mourkain Temple is a very straightforward scenario, which is both good and bad. The good part is that the lack of complexity generally results in a lot of action. The bad part is there is really only one way to win and thus little room for interesting, clever tactics.

There are really only two main ways to play this scenario. One is exciting and fun, the other is a pretty lame and repetitive. Unfortunately, the second is far more common. Sadly, it could all be remedied with a few improvements to the scenario.

Turtling or Hedgehogging

This is the standard strategy most people employ from both realms. It involves the carrier of the artifact immediately running back to their spawn location and hiding right underneath it. The carrier is then surrounded by members of his team, who (with the aid of ranged attackers from the spawn point) slaughter anyone who tries to kill the carrier.

Far too often, the only real challenge in Mourkain is getting the artifact first. The majority of scenarios are won by whoever gets it first. This is a real shame, because a lot of potential fun is wasted. The advantage to holding the artifact near your spawn point is enormous. Anyone on your team who dies is back in action really fast, whereas opponents who die must spend at least an extra minute or so before they get back. Ranged attackers, healers, and rezzers can often stay safely above the battle without even jumping down from their spawn point. This is especially true for order who tend to have more ranged DPS.

Order tends to turtle up behind a broken wall near their spawn point. Destruction tends to turtle up inside or behind a hut at theirs.

A team using the turtle strategy needs to remember that killing people is still the main source of points. If you are turtling but the other side out kills you significantly, they can still win. This happens sometimes when the carrier team is melee heavy and the other team is ranged DPS heavy. They can stand back and slaughter your "defenders" over and over. Any attempt to get at them in small numbers simply results in dead melees 1-99 feet away from the ranged DPS. This speaks to the huge imbalance in favor of ranged DPS in WAR, but that is a different issue.

Beating the Turtle

To beat the turtle, you need to either farm their defenders from range (as described above), or gather your entire team for a powerful attack on their carrier. If you wait a minute or two after the initial clash, you can get all of your respawns together and strike when the DoT damage from the artifact is starting to get heavy.

You will really have to fight effectively and focus fire if you hope to beat the turtle. The advantage to turtling is just enormously big in this scenario.

It might help to pick off a few stragglers or bored/aggressive members right before you make your big rush. This puts the numbers in your favorite for 1-30 seconds at least.

Warhammer Online: Mourkain Temple Scenario - Beginning and Basic Information

Scenario Basics

Type: Murderball

Duration: 15 minutes

Winning Condition: First team to 500 points, or highest points at the end of duration.

Tier: 2

Player Ranks: 8 through 21

Number of Players: 12 per realm

Score:

1. Killing a player: 5 points
2. Killing a player while holding the artifact: 10 points
3. Killing the artifact carrier: 10 points
4. Holding the artifact: approximately 3 points every 5-10 seconds

Once it Begins

Unfortunately, the first 30 seconds of Mourkain Temple are extremely important. You need someone to grab the artifact as quickly as possible so your team can start racking up points. If there are any level 20+ players on your team, they can mount up and get to the temple fast. Alternatively, White Lions and Marauders have multiple sprint-type abilities that can get there about as fast as a mount. 

You grab it by clicking on it and watching a 2 second timer. If there are multiple people there, you better hope you clicked first. Once you grab it, you definitely want to back up a bit towards your spawn location so your team can catch up. There is usually quite a battle right away as the team that failed to grab it tries to kill the carrier. The team with the artifact generally tries to retreat with it (sadly, back to their spawn area usually).

If you have any AoE roots or snares, use them here whether your team grabbed the artifact or not. Slowing the other team's retreat or chase are both good things. This is also a good time to AoE the enemy if you can, as most of your foes will be frantically trying to pummel the brightly glowing carrier into dust.

If you are the carrier, work hard to break line of sight at every opportunity. Enemies will be nuking you and dropping DoTs and CC on you as rapidly as possible. Help your healers by giving them time to let HoTs tick and dispel DoTs or CC abilities.

If you pull back only a short distance, you might be able to get a few quick kills on whatever overly ambitious melees charge forward. This helps your team get some quick points.

If your team fails to get the artifact, then it is off to the races. Most of your team will charge forward and try to get a quick kill on the carrier. Usually this fails. Most of the time the carrier is able to get safely behind his own lines.

Warhammer Online: Mourkain Temple Scenario - Summary

Official Summary

Find the Mourkain artifact and seize it for your realm. Killing the enemy while carrying the Mourkain Artifact will yield more points, but slaying the artifact bearer also yields increased rewards. Carrying the Artifact will inflict damage to the carrier over time.

(Source: Mourkain Temple loading screen)

Official Details

From the Warhammer Herald:

"Hold the ball and you'll get points over time, as well as points for killing other players - more points than you would normally! If you're killed while holding the ball, the other team will get double your normal kill value... and of course you drop the Murder Ball! As with all Murder Ball Scenarios, you will take damage for as long as you're carrying the artifact... power has its price!

Both Realms start this map on opposite sides of the Mourkain temple ruins. At the center of the temple lies the Mourkain
Artifact. The swampy terrain and temple provide an impressive backdrop for this Scenario. Players who are swarthy and use their sprint ability wisely will make it to the Artifact first, and gain the upper hand. Teams that stick together and protect the Artifact carrier will find this Scenario easy to win. In a way, Mourkain is reflective of our open field combat in the Marshes of Madness, but with the added satisfaction of chasing down a specific target. Teams that flank and use the whole terrain will be able to shake free the Mourkain Artifact from their opponents grasp. Use the swampy terrain and vines to break line of sight, and always be on the move in this Scenario. Staying still will net you a quick death, and possible loss of the powerful Mourkain Artifact!"

Where and How to Join

Mourkain Temple is located in the Marshes of Madness, which is part of the Dwarf vs. Greenskin pairing.

You can queue for the scenario from any Tier 2 zone by clicking the icon that is located at approximately 11 o'clock on your mini-map. This opens the scenario queue interface. You can then pick scenarios to join solo or as a group. You can also join all available scenarios with a single click if you choose. Note that when you use the Join All button the scenario code slightly biases you towards the scenario(s) located in the same pairing as the zone you are physically located in.

Quests

While you can queue for this scenario from any Tier 2 zone in the game, you can pick up quests for the scenario in the Marshes of Madness and Barak Varr warcamps. These quests can be completely an unlimited number of times, and they will net you a few thousand experience and a good amount of silver each time you turn them in.

Warhammer Online: Nordenwatch - Suggestions and Conclusions

Suggestions

Nordenwatch is an excellent, very fun scenario, but there are still ways in which it could be made better.

Longer Delay Before Beginning

This is a problem with all scenarios in Warhammer Online right now. They start too quickly. If you enter the instant the scenario window "pops", by the time you zone in you are lucky if it is 30 seconds until the scenario begins. Many members of your team will not even be in yet, as they might have been in combat when it popped, or they might load slowly. An entire scenario can be ruined simply
because a few people got in late. This can result in the first fight being a disaster for one side, and the other side setting up an unassailable defensive position before things are finally equal. The short delay also makes it hard to get everyone buffed, and virtually impossible for ANY kind of strategy to be discussed. They should add 1-2 minutes to the starting delay. This would improve things enormously.

Do Not Let Unbalanced Scenarios Begin

12 on 8 is no fun. 12 on 10 is rarely fun either. Hold the beginning of the scenario until both sides have the same number of combatants. This one is so obvious I do not understand why the system does not work this way.

Let People Join Even While in Combat with NPCs: This is another general scenario issue. Since the game lets you join when dead (with no death penalty) why does this limitation even exist? All it does is waste time as the player has to either finish the combat, run far enough away to get out of combat, or hurry up and die. This is nothing but a huge inconvenience.

Give People 30 seconds of Immunity when they exit the scenario

Again, this is a general scenario issue. There is no excuse for zoning out of a scenario and being dead before you finish zoning (or < 10% health). It is like they expect people to stand around in a war camp doing nothing between scenarios. This is impractical (as sometimes queue times are long) and pointless (as one of the strengths of WAR is being able to do so many things tat the same time).

Less Points for the Fortress Capture

Change it to 20 points. There is too much emphasis placed on the Fortress.

Less Points for Holding the Fortress

Some people think it is 2 points per tick, but in practice it appears to be 4. Change this to 3, and it would be much better. That would mean holding the other 2 is better than the Fort. This is a good reward for how much harder it is to hold Barracks and Lighthouse.

Conclusions

Nordenwatch is enormous fun and it is a great introduction to RvR in Warhammer Online. It is probably the best Tier 1 scenario, and in the end it is one of the best scenarios overall. You get into the action fast, and you get back into the action fast even if your team is losing. It is well designed, balanced, and a great way to start off any character's career.

Warhammer Online: Nordenwatch - Aftermath of the Fortress Battle

Aftermath: Your side won the battle at the Fortress

Congratulations! Your side won the big battle at the fortress. This usually means one of three things:

1. 
   Your team is simply better, and will probably crush the other team repeatedly in every massed engagement.
   
2. Your team played smarter, or their team spazzed and did not play smart. Perhaps your team focused fire better or you saw their key support faster. If the other team learns from their mistake (not typical) then later battles may have a different outcome.
   
3. Your team had all 12 of its people zone in faster and they all got to the Fort faster. Do not underestimate the effect of this. Scenarios in WAR start extremely rapidly for some reason. For this reason, a few slow loading players could give you a false sense of accomplishment.

After this initial win, you have two main choices:

1. Chase after your defeated foe. The reasons for doing this include: getting a few more kills, trying to capture the third objective, hoping to farm the other team at their spawn. No matter how crushing or slim your win was, there will almost always be someone yelling on scenario chat "HOLD THE FORT! DON'T CHASE!" This is good advice if your victory was slim. But if you rolled the other team hard, an aggressive strategy is probably more likely to yield fast points, heavy kills, and a quick and richly rewarded victory.
   
2. Hold the Fort. If you had a very close win at the Fort, this is probably a good, safe idea. Let your team respawn and get into good position to defend the fort.

Aftermath: Your side lost the battle at the Fortress

Click that RESPAWN button and gather your forces. If you are a leader type, encourage people to hold at the Lighthouse/Barracks and wait for everyone to respawn. See the above section for reasons why you lost that massed battle. You now have two choices:

1. Gather your forces and hit the Fort again, hoping for a better outcome. This is only a viable strategy if you lacked all 12 members in the first fight, if it was really close, or if you think your team could have won but for a few mistakes. Generally, if you lost the first all out battle at the fort you will keep losing them in a straight up 12 on 12 fight. Keep that in mind before charging off again to be slaughtered. An entrenched foe at the Fort has an distinct terrain advantage over the attacker.
   
2. Send a few people to the objective near their spawn to take it. This not only gives you points, but it will probably pull a few of their players away from the Fort. You may also get to kill a few of their respawning members and dump them back in the respawn queue. If you are able to hold the objective near their spawn against 1 or 2 small attacks, that inherently means their force at the Fort is now reduced in numbers. That is the time to strike the Fort - when you have a numerical advantage.

Warhammer Online: Nordenwatch - Specific Strategies

Basic Archetype Strategies

If you play the scenario enough, you will indeed develop tactics that work best for you. But in general, this works for the various archetypes:

TANKS

Get to the flag and fight on the flag.

That is your main role in almost every engagement. If fighting near a captured objective, you can then assist DPS in taking down the opponent. If your objective is in jeopardy, once again you should fight on the flag to prevent its capture. If you have enough people holding the flag, it may occasionally be a good idea to stand with your own team's support, guard a healer, and help them stay alive.

When skirmishing, putting guard on a strong DPS player on your team can help them stay alive longer to really crush the enemy (and see them driven before you!).

MELEE DPS

If your team has no tanks, get to the flag and fight on the flag. If you have tanks, help take down healers and DPS of the enemy. When not fighting for an objective, stay with your team and work to drop the other team's support as quickly as possible. Work together and assist with other DPS players.

STEALTH DPS

If your team has no other melees, bad news... you need to fight on the flag. Sorry. Otherwise, work together with your other DPS to drop their healers and DPS.

The nature of stealth in Warhammer Online is such that scouting is really not a significant role for stealth players. 30 seconds of AP draining stealth does not give you much opportunity to scout the enemy. But there are occasional opportunities for scouting, and you should be on the lookout for them.

If your DPS is high enough, you can occasionally sneak back into the enemy's healers and drop one fast. This is always very helpful to your team.

RANGED DPS

Get in a good position that limits the line of sight of oppposing ranged DPS, and work with other DPS to crush the enemy's healers and DPS. Failure to assist with other DPS can result in a lot of wasted damage that gets healed away. You want to drop people as fast as possible and then move onto the next.

Remember that staying alive usually results in more overall DPS than going berserk and dying soon after. Backing off so HoTs can tick on you is only a brief interruption of your DPS. Blasting away until you die is a much longer loss of DPS as you must wait to respawn and runback (resurrection is rare in Tier 1 since it is learned at level 10).

HEALERS

Keep those tanks (or melee) alive who are fighting on the flag. If they die, your enemy will capture the objective. Keep yourself alive! Many healers forget to heal themselves. If there are DPS who make a habit of killing people attacking you, keep them alive! They are clearly smart players who will help you survive.

Warhammer Online: Nordenwatch Begins!

How it Begins

Order (blue) begins near the Lighthouse objective (blue square on page 1 map) and Destruction begins near the Barracks objective (red square on page 1 map). After the initial objective, both sides have a straight path to the very strategically important Fortress. It should be noted that Order actually has two paths, the lower of which is faster to the Fortress than any route for Destruction. Both sides should be careful to make sure at least one person actually stays and captures the objective near their spawn location. Occasionally everyone is in such a hurry to get to the Fortress that nobody stays and
caps. Generally, it is best for a low level ranged DPS to handle this duty since it is actually helpful if they arrive at the Fortress a few seconds later than the massed army.

The first clash generally happens at or near the Fortress. Assuming balanced team composition, there is usually a large melee battle at the flag with ranged DPS trying to take out each other or each other's healers. Occasionally some members of each side will try to climb the walls to get an advantageous position. This works only if the opposing side is not paying attention. Usually it is better to make use of environmental hiding spots and line of sight for defense.

Sometimes one side will send some of their DPS directly into the back ranks of the foe hoping to take out their support. If they can drop a few healers or ranged DPS fast, this can be very effective. But bear in mind time spent away from the flag is time the other side can be capturing the objective.
What Now?

Follow your team's army. Pass through (or near) the objective close to your spawn and leave 1 person behind to capture it. The rest should move quickly to the Fortress and get in position as quickly as possible. As noted, the player(s) left behind should generally be lower level, ranged DPS. They generally lose no effectiveness from getting to the big Fort battle a few moments later.

The first battle at the Fort will be very hectic. Your first few times in the scenario you may have no idea where to go or what to do. You will eventually find favorite hiding spots or places that give your foes limited line of sight to attack you. If you are playing a tank or a melee DPS, you are probably charging right into the middle so knowing what to do here is somewhat simple.

Focusing fire on the squishiest members of their team is vital here as it is in any RvR engagement. As long as you have at least one person fighting on the flag (who can survive), it is acceptable for remaining melee DPS to move into the opponent's back ranks and try to drop their healers and ranged DPS. This has to be done quickly and all together. Failure to drop them fast means whoever you left at the flag is probably moments from death, and an opposing capture of the Fort will be quick to follow.

Warhammer Online: Nordenwatch Summary and Basics

Official Summary

This scenario takes place in the critical beachhead of Nordenwatch. The battle rages around the Lighthouse, Barracks, and Fortress. Take and hold these objectives while killing any enemies you find.

(Source: Nordenwatch loading screen)

Where and How to Join

Nordenwatch is located in the Empire vs. Chaos pairing, but you can queue for the scenario from any Tier 1 zone. To sign up for the scenario, click the icon that is located at approximately 11 o'clock on your mini-map. This opens the scenario queue interface. You can then pick scenarios to join
solo or as a group. You can also join all available scenarios with a single click if you choose. Note that when you use the Join All button the scenario code slightly biases you towards the scenario(s) located in the same pairing as the zone you are physically located in.

Quests

While you can queue for this scenario from any Tier 1 zone in the game, there is one major reason to consider queuing from the Empire v. Chaos pairing. In the Nordland war camp for either realm, you can pick up at least 2 quests that are completed by participating in Nordenwatch. One is for simply participating in the scenario, and the other is for killing 15 players. You do not have to get the killing blow yourself - someone on your team (not the whole scenario team, your specific team) must get the kill. Doing both of these quests is a couple thousand extra experience and a nice chunk of silver. If you are near the top of the tier in rank and do not want to level out, you may choose to stop turning in the quests and save the turn in for after you hit rank 12.

If Nordenwatch scenarios are "popping" slowly for you, then you might be able to simply fly back to your Nordland war camp in between scenarios to turn in the quests and pick them back up again. There is no limit to the number of times you can complete these quests.

Scenario Basics

Duration: 15 minutes

Winning Condition: First team to 500 points, or highest points at the end of duration.

Tier: 1

Player Ranks: 1 through 11

Number of Players: 12 per realm

Score:

Fully Capture the Barracks or Lighthouse: 15 points

Holding Barracks or Lighthouse: 2 points per tick

Fully Capture the Fortress: 30 points

Holding Fortress: 4 points per tick

Killing any Player: 5 points

Notes on Scoring: Flipping an objective from one realm's control to uncontrolled awards no points. If you fail to fully capture it, the other realm can then turn it back to their control and gain capture points.