PvP Battles in Warhammer can be daunting without guide and strategy. This guide was created by Darknoj to give a clear picture on PVP battles strategy.

Note: This guide was created by Darknoj of Warhammer forums.

Darknoj’s Warhammer PVP Guide

First I would like to say some of what you find below is not just my writing but also pieces have from others blogs, articles etc…across the web. I thank these various authors for taking the time to provide suck great materials for me to work with / copy (in some cases).

I would also like to thank Hailya for taking the time to edit this serious of articles so that others can read them.

Sections of the Battle Line

Warhammer is unique compared to most MMOs in that it is incredibly well designed for PvP fighting. Knowing the layout of the battlefield is extremely important in being able to orient your forces and concentrate your firepower – everyone from Sun Wu Tsu to Clausewitz can agree on this. In the case of Warhammer, the main battle line is Tri-Phasal. This means that there are three phases, or distinct sections, of the battle line.

1. The Front Line 0-20 feet – This is the phase of the battle line we are all aware of; it is where the tanks and melee classes meet to settle their differences in blood. Because melee power has a very limited range (under 10 yards, with some small 30-yard PBAoE’s) and the 30 yard limit on guard, the front line tends to have a narrow, high density formation.
2. Mid Line 20-80 feet – The mid line of a battle is populated with melee DPS, hybrid healers, some full healers, and some long ranged DPS classes. The midline’s density is moderate to high but it is generally the largest of all battle lines. In particular, here is where you will find Witch Elves who are falling back to get healed, Disciplines of Khaine or Warrior Priests who skirmish forward to deal damage and back to heal (especially their AoE heals) and, most importantly: Bright Wizards or Sorceresses and Magus delivering their 80 foot range AoE abilities, like Shattered Shadows.
3. Back Line 80-150 feet – Here you will find most full healers and some ranged DPS, who have chosen to forego AoE damage and instead concentrate on burning down single targets with 100 foot ranged abilities. If a DPS class is taking too much heat or if the line is starting to break, they will naturally fall back into this range. In the far rear, sometimes sitting at the very edge of their 150-foot range, are the full healers. The density here varies from low to high depending on group composition and if you are winning or losing. The width of this phase is the largest of the three.

What is important to note about this setup is that it often happens naturally as a result of class abilities in WAR; typically, it isn’t deliberately planned. What this means is that a careful player can strongly influence the deployment of classes and numbers in these three phases by the tactical application of force. Because these are the natural and necessary arrangements for classes to play at their peak of efficiency you can expect players to be in these ranges 9 times out of 10. We have all seen this in scenarios in particular, where numbers are controlled by the game and the situation often evolves into a stable melee.

The last thing to note is that on a mature melee, the front and mid lines become blurred into one cohesive and contiguous whole. This means that the back line is often drawn forward as it either chases targets that are falling to the back of the press, or the caster is manoeuvring for a choice AoE attack.

Field Eyes

Being able to read the situation and locate targets of opportunity or high priority is something that all players should work on. By being able to immediately assess initial contact to determine total numbers per side, the disposition of those forces and their intentions, you can get a strong feeling for who and what you are up against.

Having good field eyes helps you give a good SITREP:

1) Who or What You are Fighting

Check guild tags. Certain player names are Harbingers of a guild group and some guilds behave in a particular fashion. If you see 3 Corruption tanks charging at you, you know several things – they are on vent together, they have healing support, there may be more of them… a lot more. If there are many different guild tags, or none at all, you are dealing with PUG’s and they can usually be put to the sword like lambs taken to slaughter.

2) Disposition of Forces

Get a headcount. This is a no-brainer. If you are leading a 12-man scenario warband and you engage 18 enemies, expect to lose unless you have a serious tactical advantage. Getting a quick head count is essential to determining whether or not the fight is even worth making. Recognizing that other issues may be at play – such as the balance of victory points in a zone – you and your team may be better off to cut your losses in a badly imbalanced scenario, and to get out of Dodge.

Once you have a working headcount, the next question is the class composition of enemy forces. Destruction almost always enjoys a melee superiority when compared to Order, meaning they can often overwhelm our main line of battle and press into the backline in short order. They can also have an extremely high density of Sorceresses. By being able to assess a dominant majority of melee or ranged damage dealers in the enemy teams, you can make informed decisions about how you want to engage them, because fighting a melee heavy warband is not at all the same as fighting a caster heavy one.

3) Priority Targets

With some exceptions, the highest priority targets are healers. This is especially true when you have a healing advantage against the other team. If you already out heal the enemy, you have the opportunity to move extremely aggressively to eliminate their remaining healing power to and take the field.

Other priority targets are easily killed high damage classes, such as the Sorceress or the Witch Elf. If one of these classes is out of position, a Witch Elf deep in your back line attacking your healers or a Sorceress dangerously deep in the mid to front lines, they become the immediate priority. If your healers die, you lose. If the Sorceress can deal huge AoE damage they can outpace your healing and you will lose.

4) Targets of Opportunity

These are the most complex and important reason to have good field eyes. Targets of opportunity are other players who are out of position, are low in hit points, or are being ignored by their own warband but are not the current target of your forces.

These are often PUG’d tanks, such Marauders who got a little antsy and drew some hate from our damage dealers, received a few strong AoE attacks, but were not killed outright because your dps was called onto different targets. Essentially, there must be an opportunity which can be seized – the target must be killed – otherwise you are simply wasting your time.

Note that, the scenarios in (3) of a Witch Elf or Sorceress being out of position would seem to make them targets of opportunity. However, the high-damage threat they pose actually makes raises them to priority targets.

The Assist Train

In scenarios and PvE, a main assist train is critically important because it ties up enemy healing resources as they scramble to counter the incoming damage. If they fail, we get fast kills.

By forcing most of the enemy healing to deal with your main assist target, you are leaving the rest of their group open to local focused damage from a strong DPS class. If most of the healers are focusing on keeping your assist target up, they will often be slow to react to sudden damage spikes in their line at places other than their current focus.

So in combat, when the MA calls out a primary target and everyone is trying to cut that person down, a DPS player can break from the assist train and hammer alternative single targets. This is especially useful when the battle has stabilized the enemy has picked their targets: They have set their main assist targets, their main heal targets, and their Sorceresses are burning down their selected target. What you have the opportunity to do once these targets are chosen is to change the field slightly and force the enemy to reassess.

Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 7:51 amand is filed under Warhammer Online. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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