By
Cody “Micajah” Bye – Managing Editor



The smell of salivating MMOG players is in the air. The open beta for
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/war" target="_blank">Warhammer
Online: Age of Reckoning is only days away, and the beta keys
are beginning to creep out of their caverns. Soon, players from across
the globe will be target="_blank">bunny-hopping their way to success
in target="_blank">RvR and plowing
through target="_blank">Public Quests with their guilds.
But what should you be doing
while you’re in the open beta? With only a few days of actual
game time available before the headstart kicks off, gamers need to have
an idea of what they should really set their sights on before jumping
into the open beta.

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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/33714"> src="/image/view/33714/preview"
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In WAR's
open beta, you could try out all the different characters.

After having my own experience with the game, I’ve come up
with a number of suggestions for inspired testers and what they can do
to enjoy their time in the Warhammer world. As always, this is a
truncated list – many other options are available –
so if you have any other ideas, feel free to href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=33956"
target="_blank">drop me a line in
the
forums.



Try Out the Different
Characters



Although many gamers are sure that they have their mind made up on a
target="_blank">particular class before they even
enter the game, it’s in
many gamer’s best interest to really try out a variety of
classes during the open beta. Rather than spend all of your time
leveling up your target="_blank">White Lion only to have your
character wiped in a few
days time, why not jump onto a href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/42900" target="_blank">Dwarven
Engineer to see how their
mechanics work? Or perhaps Order isn’t your cup of tea. Take
a crack at a target="_blank">Squig Herder or a href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/43307" target="_blank">Zealot,
they’re both
interesting characters to play.



With target="_blank">six races and twenty classes
available for players to choose from,
there probably won’t be enough time in the open beta to even
target="_blank">try out every class, but
don’t let that undermine your
efforts. Most classes can be “felt out” within an
hour or two of play, and that should really give you a good foundation
of what you’d like to try when href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/88"
target="_blank">WAR goes live.



Get a Feel for RvR



If you’ve already gotten a handle on your preferred class,
perhaps you should really href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/30169" target="_blank">focus
your attentions on RvR. Unlike PvE,
tactics and strategies are alive and kicking in RvR, and the players
that have the best methods going into battle will be victorious. Even
if you’ve spent hours upon hours trying the classes on for
size, rest assured there is even href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/41060" target="_blank">more
to learn once you get into RvR.
Perhaps you’ll find your true RvR partner in a random open
beta skirmish. Or maybe you’ll find the one trick that allows
your Chosen to absolutely gank the competition.

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Planning an
opening day strategy during open beta isn't a bad idea.

If you’re in a guild already, perhaps you should spend your
time getting your perfect group together, one that will decimate
everyone standing in your way. Even lone warriors can find some new
strategies in their RvR tactics and href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29396" target="_blank">collect
some major trophies; there could be the best hiding place
in the game waiting for you to find it in the open beta. RvR is the
major feature in this game, so don’t ignore it!



Plan Your Opening Day
Strategy



To say that the headstart weekend will be hectic is an understatement.
Thousands of WAR players will be href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/war/zone/" target="_blank">flooding
into the realms, vying for
the fattest pieces of loot and ripping the innards out of each other as
soon as the servers go live. For those of you that haven’t
played through an opening weekend, you’ll need to maximize
your time in the world. Having a strategy before you enter the hallowed
halls of WAR will push you ahead of the competition and insure your
place of href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=39"
target="_blank">status and respect on your server.



So how do you plan a strategy? Find out what’s important to
you, and make sure you attempt it right out of the gates. Do you enjoy
target="_blank">RvR? Do it from the get go. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29403" target="_blank">Exploration?
Find every nook and cranny in
the world. target="_blank">Leveling the fastest? Go for it. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29393" target="_blank">Crafting?
Gather your
resources and craft away.



This may seem like a simple course of action, but so many players
(Editor’s Note: And writers!) lose focus of their objectives
when faced with lots of distractions. Cut away everything else and
simply do what you do best.



Check Out the Public
Quests



As I stated in my preview, the href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/41404" target="_blank">Public
Quests in WAR are fantastic.
Every time I jumped into a new area, I was eager to find the nearest
PQ. If you’ve already established your class, know RvR
forwards-and-back, and have your strategy all set, you’re
obviously way ahead of the game. Rather than simply churn your wheels
doing more of the same, go out of your way to explore every Public
Quest you can find.

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If you're
not doing something strategic, try out a bunch of the Public Quests.

target="_blank">Hunting around Nordland? Go check
out the Raven Host Vanguard PQ. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/43011" target="_blank">Or
perhaps the hunting ground of Ekrund is more your style? Then
try your
hand at Goldfist's Hole Recovery. If those two aren’t enough,
go take a wack at target="_blank">Ugrog's Rage in Mount Bloodhorn.
That should sate
your PQ appetite. It’s a wonderfully fun system, and I would
encourage everyone to try out as many as they can.



Test on the Elder Server



For those of you that have been playing on the Elder
Server for the past few months, please continue toiling away on the
content in those areas. While the rest of us will be merrily bouncing
away in the open beta, you can be helping to find those last few bugs
that mean gaming or no gaming for the rest of us. Without you, the game
wouldn’t be anything like it is today.



Truthfully, we owe this open beta to the Elder Testers. In forum
threads we may have cursed them for being able to play longer and more
often than the rest of us, but it’s been their hard work
(along with the WAR devs) that has made this all possible.



Thanks Elder Testers. Ten Ton Hammer salutes you.



So what do you think? Are you going to take any
of these approaches in
the open beta? Or are you going to do something completely different?
target="_blank">Let us know on the forums!