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THIS POST IS NOW DEFUNCT. Much of this information may be useful, but please use at your own risk :).
You can read the historical elements at just about any site, so I'm going to mainly be skipping those in this brief overview. Essentially, the Warhammer universe is HUGE! There are dozens of games and countless tabletop scenarios that have played out using the Warhammer brand, which is under the license of Games Workshop. Thus, when you see much of what is in the game, it comes in some form from this universe. No, WAR did not copy WOW... and in actuality it was WOW which referenced several elements from the WAR universe. I have a link to an article relating to that I will share with you later.
WARHAMMER UNIVERSE
Let's get the general Warhammer universe elements out of the way first, which are relatively consistent in both the overall lore and the game itself. To understand the universe is to understand what war is itself. You have two opposing factions/realms/sides; "ORDER" and "DESTRUCTION". Order are generally considered to be the good guys, while Destruction is the evil side. This isn't exclusive, but overall consider which side when viewing what type of character you want to become.
After you've chosen a Realm, you have to decide which Army within that realm is suitable for your play style. Choosing an Army simply refines your Career choice, which is the third selection. Here is a list of the following armies and careers in WAR. Keep in mind that gender does limit some of your career options. They are noted with an M or F (or N for no specific gender) below if they are limited:
ORDER - Dwarfs, Empire, High Elves
Dwarfs
Ironbreaker - Defensive tank using axes, hammers, shields, and heavy Gromril armor
Rune Priest - A healing career
Engineer - Short ranged damage using Grenades, Guns, Spanners, Black Power
Empire
Bright Wizard - Offensive spell caster using Fire and Magic
Knight of the Blazing Sun - A heavily armored fighter commanding the battle.
Warrior-Priest - Melee and Healer hybrid, giving you a mix of interesting skills!
Witch Hunter - My personal favorite... specializes in close and medium ranged attacks!
High Elves
Archmage - A caster using the winds of magic via staves and wands
Swordmaster - Tank for up close and personal melee attacks
Shadow Warrior - Ranged DPS, with a longer range than Witch Hunters
White Lion - Melee DPS with usage of pets!
DESTRUCTION - Greenskins, Chaos, Dark Elves
Greenskins
Black Orc (N) - Heavy tank with debuff abilities, uses shields and Large Choppas
Goblin Shaman (N) - Caster with a strong emphasis on healing using Waaagh!! magic
Goblin Squig Herder (N) - Ranged DPS with some wicked bow effects! My second favorite career.
Chaos
Chosen of Tzeentch (M) - Tank using some nasty looking weapons
Magus - Ranged DPS much like the Goblin Squig Herder
Zealot - Support caster hybrid with the Tzeentchian shamanism specialty and wearing some... interesting armor.
Marauder of Tzeentech (M) - Melee DPS for maximum damage. Uses mutations.
Dark Elves
Witch Elf (F) - Melee DPS with amazing feats of damage, also using bloodlust
Black Guard - A defensive type career, much like the Black Orc tank but with more offensive capabilities
Sorceress - Ranged DPS, a cousin of the High Elf but using the winds of chaos
Disciple of Khaine - Melee healer hybrid, my third favorite career!
CHOOSING A SERVER
While selecting a server comes first in the natural order of the game, it is important that you get an idea from above on which career you want first. This will help you to understand what role you want to play in battles, including if you want to focus more on PvE or PvP type of interactions. There are three types of servers at this time:
Core Servers - Ordinary PvE and RvR server with no special rules that one would need to understand.
RP Servers - Designed for the role player, they are naturally enforced by the community, so don't join one of these if you only "doodspeak".
RvR Servers - While soloing is an option of course, anyone can attack you at any time from the opposing realm!
INSIDE WARHAMMER ONLINE
Quests are somewhat unique, so you may want to understand the different types:
Normal Quests - Your average quest type found in any MMORPG, nothing special here.
Public Quests - Each chapter of advancement has at least two or three of these PQs. Join one of these and help others in an area, without having to ever talk with them!
Realm vs. Realm - Scenarios are a type of quest that involves larger groups, usually through objectives via the overall RvR battlefield. These are more popular the higher tiers you advance.
If you've played any other MMORPG before, you won't have any troubles getting into Warhammer Online. Chat menus, optional settings menus, navigation and spell/skill icon menus, and even the common hot keys you press to open up other menus are similar to other games. If you have any questions about these options, ask us in the forums and we'd be glad to assist you in the details!
Otherwise, we have our WIKI that you can begin to add details to regarding anything and everything in the game!: http://war.allakhazam.com/wiki/Warhammer_Online
Also, here are some interesting forum posts and wiki links you may wish to review:
More about Public Quests (PQs): http://war.allakhazam.com/forum.html?game=12;mid=1220847437236143716;num=0;page=1
Technical Info (UI, Mods, etc.): http://war.allakhazam.com/forum.html?game=12;mid=122072686340089776;num=5;page=1
WAR Terminology: http://war.allakhazam.com/wiki/Category:WAR_Dictionary
Advancing your character: http://war.allakhazam.com/wiki/Advancement
Join a Regiment (Guild): http://war.allakhazam.com/wiki/Regiments
Edited, Sep 18th 2008 10:53pm by Berek
Edited, Nov 8th 2008 10:52am by Berek
Edited, Dec 16th 2008 9:44pm by Berek
Edited, Dec 18th 2008 8:37am by Berek
