Tuesday, 28 April 2009

How to Level?

Leveling is all about a mixture of everything, never stand still, never not be doing something and do a bit of everything to stop the game from becoming a grind. Always end the evening\gaming session in the guild inn as you'll get better rest bonus.

T1 - Is essentially a training ground, grab every Quest going and do them in a logical order based upon location. There should never be a point when you're not signed up for a scenario and unless you are in a guild group or are in the middle of a PQ, grab those scenarios whenever they pop. By rank 5 you should be at the WC doing some Warband oRVR to keep your renown in line and earning some renown INF gear.

T2 - The game is afoot! Rank up a little with Quests and Scenarios to say Rank14, then start joining WB's for oRVR renown and keep loot. Check the RVR INF rewards for each Realm and have a plan of which items you want. Some of the Obliterator kit will keep you going into T3 until you start to earn the Devastator kit.

T3 - Scenario, Scenario, Scenario ... but choose wisely... The Talabec Dam and the Blackfire Basin ones rarely end in a 500 point win for either side, meaning you don't get the full exp bonus. My personal favourites are Tor Anroc and Doomfist Crater as they are great for Melee games but don't turn down Isha's Temple or HighPass Cemetary. Isha's Temple is particularly good for healing spec as there are lots of hiding areas from which you can spam group healing, you will earn a lot of XP from this, I was repeatedly earning more XP from healing than characters of a similar level. The exception here was for wipes either way. Once you each say Rank 24 devote more of your time to oRVR if you're a WrathPriest it is particularly important to pickup as much of the Devastator set as you can. My Rank 36 is still using some Devastator kit because of the melee bonuses it gives. I have been unlucky with Bastion Stairs and not got any Bloodlord drops yet, I do have some Annihilator kit but the Annihilator is a "healing" kit in that it stacks Willpower instead of Strength. Also, in Tier 3 go for the RVR inf but again plan it well. For example, the Elven realm's elite inf reward is a book which gives a Strength bonus and... 12 Rightous Fury per second! Fantastic to take into T4, infact I'm still using it for Scenarios and Warbands when I'm needed as a healer. The only comparable books in T4 are other oRVR rewards.

T4 - Quest, Quest Quest! Until rank 37. Moving into T4 is quite different than for the other tiers, you will annoy people in your realm if you scenario below Rank 31. T4 Scenarios are nolonger such an XP earner for you as most of the XP will go to the Rank 40's (yes, they don't need it but the scenario XP mechanic still awards them the majority of the XP). Expect to earn less than you were in T3 unless your wiping destro completely, having said that, do them to keep your Renown Rank (RR) up, just like the lower tiers the better equipment has a minimum Rank / RR requirements. Don't Melee unless your side is wiping the other. Why? Because YOU WILL DIE OFTEN, after a couple of deaths the other healers will view resurrecting you as pointless and you will spend a lot of time waiting for a respawn. Winning the T4 scenarios directly correlates to the number of Rank 40's on your side. If Destro are doing a major push for Altdorf, stay away from the scenarios. No-one will stop to heal, resurrect or assist a low ranker and you are likely to get some hard comments in the chat window. Try to group up with your guild, even if you don't group outside of the scenario. In this instance agree your strategy with the group. Are you going to be Melee or Healer? One piece of advice is to make the Tank the leader, not in the issuing command role but the character who decides the direction the rest of the team will travel in, your tank will pick the fight and block incoming tanks, your melee will assist the tank or go for the squishies, your ranged will focus fire the destro tanks down. Please, Please, Please, Stay Together. You will all earn far more XP and Renown by doing this.

The best way to earn XP in T4 is to Quest, Dwarven chapters 15 & 16 both have 2 excellent easy PQ's which I soloed several times and gained massive XP bonuses. Chapter 17 has an annoying easy PQ which I simply got fed up with. Empire - Reikland has a bugged PQ and the Reikland bandits has an insanely difficult second stage. At one point I was in a group of 4 and we still didn't do it in time. Elven - Eataine has a few Quests which I struggled too hard with and abandoned not because I was being killed or couldn't kill, but simply because I couldn't find the item or person. I'm leveling hard for rank 37, the reason is at that point "Faith is Madness" quest from the chapter 20 camp in the Chaos Wastes opens up (the quest provider has a minimum rank to pop this), This is an epic quest which I've heard other WP's have soloed or some have called on guild assistance rarely. At the end you'll get one of the best weapons outside of the dungeons or T4 elite RVR renown rewards, it's a sledge called Faith. The elven realm has a similar epic quest called Unmasking the Enemy and ends with a sledge called The Noble Anvil, they both do the same damage but have differing speeds and bonuses. To be honest, I am aiming to do both but gathering Faith first. The T4 Dwarven epic, I think, is a helm based reward which isn't any use as by Rank 37-40 you should be actively seeking Bloodlord or similar ward based armour.

I know, I've told you I'm a Rank 36 and this says I'm only rank 31. Since 1.2.1, the update to WARDB hasn't been working.



UI Mods

Some good UI Mods for a WP. But please bear in mind, UI mods are more about personal choice rather than necessity. You don't NEED any of the following.... but .... there will come a time when the default UI doesn't or cannot cope with your playstyle.

Firstly, use Curse, it's by far the easiest way of managing (new, updating and removing) add-ons.

Basics first; in a later post I'll go through some of the more specialised mods.

LibSlash : A no brainer, almost every mod you install will refer back to this.

Auto Dismount : No matter your career, this is a great mod. It does exactly what is says on the tin.

Squared or Healgrid : I may be a Wrath Priest but I'm also a healer. I like to use a neat and tidy unit frame for spamming heals and buffs/debuffs rather than the default UI, which I find too bulky. Which one to use is for you to decide both are good, my personal taste is with Squared, but try both of them before deciding.

CleanUnitFrames(CUF) or Pure : After a while of collecting mods the screen starts to get a little confused, so clean it up with one of these. They both allow for additional editing of the default UI. One point to mention is that CUF is no longer under active modification, both are good editors. I would recommend going for Pure because it is at least active.

ResTell : It does what it says, it broadcasts who you are ressing based upon your last chat. eg. if you've just been talking to the guild then it going to tell the guild who you are ressing. So make sure when chatting you /sc /s /wb /p to whoever it is most appropriate to tell.

Miscellaneous mods :
Curseprofiler : This isn't going to improve your gameplay, it just posts your character details into WARDB. I like to compare my equiped kit against other players of a similar level, I also like to see where I am with INF be that chapter based or oRVR.

Having said that the profiler doesn't appear to be working for anyone as of patch 1.2.1.

In the future I will post about some of the more specialist mods.


First Blog

Ok folks,

This is my first post to the blog which is primarily aimed at the Warrior Priest career in Warhammer Online - Age of Reckoning (WAR).

Firstly, let me congratulate you in choosing or at least thinking about being a Warrior Priest. Is it the best career to choose? Well frankly they all are, however, the WP \ DOK are possibly the most versatile. Why? because you're a healer who can hit hard. If you spec for Wrath or Grace or a bit of both you've got the best of both worlds. Most Wrath Priests will tell you to use a sledge because of the higher amount of damage. My preference? Don't get rid of the hammer and book, for PUG scenarios there is usually a lack of healers, get the hammer and book out and spam those group heals. Using this method you will usually obtain a higher XP & Renown than WP's of a similar level. Do I use a sledge in scenarios & oRVR? Yes, if I'm in a group that already has 2 healers or we're steamrollering Destro get the sledge out and have sone fun.

Who am I? 
Currently my main is Maalice a R36 RR34 Warrior Priest on Karak Azgal an EU based WAR server. Maalice is a half Wrath, half Grace spec priest. I'm a member of the new but execellent Order of the Abyss guild, a friendly group focussed guild.