Warhammer Online: The T2 New Player Guide

So you kind of liked T1. Your trial went well. You built 10 different toons and want to experience a bit more. So today you decided to part with $15 to see it.

Here are some things you should know:

Flying:

There is really no reason for Mythic to not allow trial users to fly to the other 4 zones while in T1. That way you get used to the travel and dispersed combat between zones. So the first thing you need to realize is: There is a flight master in each warcamp. This flight master can take you where you need to go. However, you need to realize where you want to go.

For instance, T2 Empire/Chaos pairings have the RVR lake in between Ostland and Troll Country. But the Order WC is in Troll Country, where Destro’s is in Ostland. If you are Order, you can certainly fly to Ostland, but you won’t land anywhere near the RvR lake.

Dwarf areas are completely different. There is a small pocket of RvR in each area. There isn’t one big RvR zone spread between the 2 major zones.

Objectives:

You may have or may never have taken a BO, but the RvR lakes have Objectives in them. They have flags to capture. There were 3 of them in T1. Now that you are in T2, each zone pairing has 2 Keeps and 4 BOs. Unlike T1 Objectives, the T2 NPCs are still setup the original way, with 4 Champs and a Hero. You can not solo the BO yourself. You need a group to take them.

Keeps are your first introduction into grand scale battles. Like Objectives, they need capturing. However, you must first take down the door, then kill the Hero. No flag capture. The major difference here is, it’s much easier for the enemy to defend these objectives.

Things you want to avoid; wasting money on buying wood to repair doors. It’s actually just easier and more advantageous to let the enemy take the keep, then take it back. Or, rather just keep defending the keep with open doors. That’s way more fun. As well, don’t stand in the oil. The major defense mechanism to the keep is burning oil. If you aren’t a tank with a shield, you will die to it. Stand back. I know you want to hit something, but need to stand back and do something else to help. Running in and dyeing to the oil, doesn’t help anyone.

Trainers:

Whatever genius that comes up with fantastic ideas at Mythic, came up with a very interestingly stupid and well farted hair scheme. As you can tell from my tone, I, nor can anyone else figure out what possessed Mythic to move the career trainers to the cities only. Maybe they desired more lag, or maybe they thought we would all meet up at Sigmar’s Temple and start a Cyber Orgy that they could watch; or maybe the idea guy at Mythic should be shot in the face with a brick gun; either way it’s retarded, but this is how it is now.

There are no Trainers in the zones, not in the chapters, nor can you go fly back to the T1 trainer, it’s not in your menu; you have to fly to either Altdorf or Inevitable City and go to the trainer area. I’m sorry.

If you are Order, you will land go out into the cluster fuck of a Market Square, maybe catch the play about Sigmar at the top of the hour, then you need to take a 2 minute stroll West to Temple of Sigmar, that’s where your trainers are. Enjoy that run, you’ll be doing it a lot.

If you are Destro, fly to IC, watch you step. Go down the ramp take a sharp right (West on the Map) and look for a giant pyramid with electricity holding a block above it. Ponder the idea and the physics for a bit, watch your brain explode on the screen, then run underneath to find a circle jerk of zealots, with trainers along the outside rim.

Training:

Once you hit rank 11, you now get to learn how training and career mastery really works. It’s not as simple as simply getting a new skill every rank you gain. When you were rolling through 10 you probably picked up each new ability joyfully and maybe, just maybe, you figured out the Renown trainer allows you to boost certain abilities.

You have abilities, then you have tactics. Tactics are simply passive abilities that are always on so long as you have it slotted in your tactics bar. You’ll get your first one when you hit rank 11. There are 3 types of tactics, Green passive ones, that you get as you level or from mastery purchases; Red renown based ones that are only purchasable from the renown trainer; and Blue tome tactics that aren’t really worth explaining in T2. You’ll get an additional Green passive ability tactic each 10 ranks. So you’ll get a second one at rank 20, a third at 30 and your fourth at 40. Renown will only ever increase to 2 slots at Renown Rank 20. Until you are Rank 40, it is probably in your best interest to slot Combat Awareness (cost 2 renown).

As well as buying new abilities and tactics, you also will get points use in your masteries. Each class gets three branches of combat type. You’ll notice most of your abilities say “Path of …” That means that ability belongs under a particular mastery. Buying points in that mastery will increase the damage or effect of those mastery abilities. As well, every 3 slots of the mastery are purchasable abilities and tactics, and even a Moral 4 ability. You’ll want to read carefully, don’t just buy it cause you can, it might be a completely useless ability and/or tactic. In T2, you get a mastery point every odd rank. When you get to T3 it steadily increases, and buy T4 it feels as though you are getting too much Mastery. By the time you hit 40 you will have enough Mastery points to basically fully spec in one tree with abilities, tactics and all with some left over to go a tiny bit up another tree. In some classes cases, purchasing abilities and tactics are kind of useless, so some people can spread their points to almost fully fill 2 trees of mastery. I have never heard of someone distributing within all 3. Don’t do that.

Remember to manage your Morals and Tactics as you earn them. Somethings are ungodly better than other things.

Mounts:

You are a newb, but those around you are probably not. They are a combination of veteran players ranking up a crafting alt, making a new alt, or are re-rolling. In many cases they have a cash cow to grant them Money when they need it. First thing they did: Bought a mount at rank 11 before going into the RvR Lakes. You can only technically use a mount if you are rank 20, but in the lakes you get a rank bolster to 21. Hopefully you saved up big time in T1 and didn’t get tempted at the auction house.

Ass-Hats:

T2 is filled with them. Those veterans that should be leading won’t. They just want to run SCs and run about solo or in small groups. If you are joining on Warbands and PuG groups, you are going to encounter all types. Not that they don’t exist in T4, but they are prominent in T2 and T3. Basically, those leading are those that don’t know better. Eventually the Nerd Rage will take them over, or they’ll lead a zerg and get too full of themselves. It doesn’t help that you have people like me, that help ensue nerd rage, but that’s besides the story.

Point is, if someone’s being stupid, ignore them or do something else. You can’t fight the zerg. If 24 people want to attack a fully defended upgraded keep knowing that they are outnumbered, let them. You can’t reason nor can you divert them. There is always something else to do.

T2 is a learning experience. As long as you know when to do something else, you won’t get the rage. Learn from it, and then you will be well versed to go and enjoy my favorite tier, T3.