The Witch Elf: RvR Guide
Part 1
In this class guide for Warhammer Online, we'll be looking at the Witch Elf class in PvP. We'll be looking at various builds for the Witch Elf, as well as
various tips and strategies to help you unleash your killing potential in PvP.
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As always, this is just a guide, not a rule set. You should choose your class build to suit your style of play. If you're not having fun, then what's the
point? We'll look at various builds and offer some suggestions on how to improve your PvP play.
Class Overview
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Laying Smack Down
The Witch Elf is the Dark Elf Melee DPS (damage per second). You are the death dealer of the Dark Elves, the special ops of Destruction. Your job is to
kill the enemy and kill them quickly by unleashing unholy amounts of damage upon them. However, while you are a damage dealing machine, you are not
impervious. You have a decent amount of hits, so you can take a few shots in combat, but your armor is light and tanks will have an incredible advantage in
armor and hits. You have to kill the enemy as quickly as possible. Strike fast and strike furious should be the creed that you live by. Plus, the best
attack is to stab them in the back!
If you like long, grinding combats or to attacking from a distance, then this class isn't for you. You have to get into the thick of things as a Witch Elf.
You should strike fear into the hearts of your enemies when they first coming at them, bloodlust shining in your eyes! You will be the target of many ranged
DPS and spells, but that's ok. Your enemies target you out of fear! You need to kill your enemies quickly. A prolonged fight will mean your death. While
dwarfs cower behind their plate mail, you only have your skill with the blades and a loincloth to protect you. (At least that's what it looks like!)
Now, if you like appearing like a wraith out of the shadows plunging your blades into the soft flesh of an unsuspecting Bright Wizard, then read on! You
will learn how to unleash the frenzy that is pent up inside you upon your future victims.
Stats & Their Effect on The Witch Elf
To start off, we'll look at the various stats and their effect for the Witch Elf. Some stats are more important than others and everybody on the internet has their own opinion. It's always best to keep your build to yourself to avoid being called a noob or idiot by somebody else who spent way, way too much time running numbers through their own super-computer. Now, the math behind the stats can be complex and intricate. Various situations lean towards certain
stats, so we'll look at the most basic stats that are vital to a Witch Elf. We'll keep the computations simple.
Strength : Strength determines how physically strong your character is (duh!) and helps increase damage. Your strength/5 increases your melee ability damage
DPS. Your strength/10 increases your auto attack damage. Since you start the game with 55 Strength, that means that you get an additional 5.5 damage per
second with an auto attack, and you get 11 additional damage per melee ability dps. Since you live and die by inflicting damage upon your foes, strength is
a vital stat. Do you stab with the ferocity of a berserk Troll or a simpering snotling?
Weapon Skill : Your weapon skill determines your chances to parry melee attacks and to penetrate your enemy's armor. The formula for parry is (Weapon skill/ (Level * 7.5 + 50) * .075 * 100) = +% to parry. This means that at 1st level (60 Weapon Skill), your chance to parry is 7.8%. Armor penetration is
computed by the formula (Weapon skill / (Level * 5 + 50) * .25 *100) = +% armor penetration. Again, at 1st level, your armor penetration chance is 27%. In
addition, it seems that your chance of landing a critical strike is based upon your weapon skill. As that you will never have a high amount of armor,
parrying an attack is always a good thing. Increasing your chances of a critical strike is also a good thing. Armor penetration actually goes down as you
gain levels to roughly 19% at 40th level. However, this is based off of core stats and not counting any bonuses from armor, weapons, gear, or potions.
Wounds : Wounds are your health. Each point of wounds adds 10 hit points to your base. If an item gives you an additional 5 wounds, that translates into 50
more hit points. Only Tanks have more hit points than you do. However, they're wearing layers of armor while you're just wearing a chainmail bikini,
essentially. Wounds are great for spike damage, such as damage from Ranged and Melee DPS classes, such as those snivelling White Lions. I mean, just because I'm wearing a White Lion hide for a cloak doesn't mean they should take it so personally!
Toughness : Tougness decreases the amount of damage taken. The formula for this is (Toughness / 5 = Reduces damage by X DPS). Thus, for every 5 points of
Toughness you have, you reduce your damage by 1 dps per enemy. This stat is vitally important to Tanks as that they tend to get beat up on by mobs of
things. However, it is still an important stat for Witch Elves as that you will get targeted by multiple opponents (since they fear you!).
Initiative : Initiative deals with how fast your character reacts. This stat is used to calculate your chance to evade and decreases your chance to be critically hit. Evade is only for ranged attacks! The formula for evade is ([Initiative / (Level * 7.5 + 50)] * 7.5). Thus, at level 1 (Initiative of 65),
your chance to evade ranged attacks is 8.47%. The formula for the percentage of reducing your chances of being critically hit is ((Level * 7.5 + 50) /
Initiative * .1 * 100). At level 1, your critical hit reduction is 8.8%. Remember this; many classes get abilities that grant them a bonus to inflict a
critical hit.
Lots of stats seem important to Witch Elves, eh? Well, let's leave math class behind and get to the the important stuff, things you need for killing other
players in PvP!
Tier 1
If you don't enjoy yourself in Tier 1, then you're doing something wrong. You are an incredible death dealer at this time. You hit incredibly hard and can
take a few shots. You excel at pouncing on the more lightly armored foes, such as wizards and ranged dps, and should be able to take them out with a few
well-placed shots. Make their blood run down your blades for the glory of Khaine! Just remember that you're lightly armored. If you jump into a mob of tanks, you will go down. You're not made to take on multiple foes at once. The best news is that you'll actually get better in later tiers.
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Hot Elf Killer
Once you start accumulating Renown Points, you'd better spend them! You should definitely get the tactic that gives you a +5% bonus to your XP during PvP.
First off, you'll want to increase your Strength to inflict more damage for every attack you do. Ignore the gold tactic as that you should have no problem
with gold in the game. You can also ignore the Willpower, Intelligence, and Ballistic Skill advances as that you'll never use them. After strength, you
should pour your points into Weapon Skill and Toughness. Your every choice should reflect your desire to inflict damage upon the enemy while staying alive
as long as possible. A higher Strength will drop your enemies that much faster, while a higher Toughness and Weapon Skill should increase your chances on staying up. Don't forget to buy Renown Gear when it comes available. You should always be upgrading your gear, especially your daggers. You don't want to
use butter-knives on those cowardly High Elves, do you? Look for gear that increases your Strength, Wounds, Weapon Skill, Initiative, and Toughness.
Strength, Wounds, and Weapon Skill should be your priority (in that order). Items that add corporeal Resistance and Elemental Resistance are nice, if they
already add to your stats. Elemental Resistance is handy against those pesky Bright Wizards, who'll try to char you to death with fire spell after fire
spell. The best way to make them stop is to stick your daggers in their innards!
Combat is all about your special abilities. If you're just using your auto attack, then Khaine weeps for your soul. You want....no, NEED... to build your
Blood Lust. You can build up to a total of 5 Blood Lust. These are represented by spiky bits on top of your action bar. In the beginning, start with"Slice" and "Envenomed Blade" to build your Blood Lust. When you've hit 5 Blood Lust, then use "Puncture" or "Heart Render Toxin" to inflict heavy damage.
Once you get a Kiss, use it! You'll get "Kiss of Agony" at level 4, then "Kiss of Death" at level 9. Each Kiss lasts for 2 minutes, so keep an eye on the timer (under your health and action bars on the upper left of your screen). Your Kiss should never run out, unless you're not attacking anything for an extended time. (Which you should be! This is WAR, not bass fishing!) "Sever Nerve" is a cool morale ability that you pick up at level 8. This ability
inflicts a lot of damage and is a great SURPRISE during PvP combat. I wouldn't worry about "Agonizing Wound" as that you have to be behind your opponent for the secondary ability (of ignoring armor) to have any effect. During PvP combat, you'll rarely get a chance to be behind someone (unless they're fleeing).
Now, you can use "Feinted Positioning" with "Agonizing Wound" but the cooldown is a minute long and it takes 25 action points. Basically, you want to use a
Kiss first in combat, then begin to "Slice" while perhaps stacking a few "Envenomed Blades" upon your foe until you build 5 Blood Lust. At that point, then
it's your choice to use either "Puncture" (which is straight damage) or "Heart Render Toxin" (which reduces their Wounds for 10 seconds).
Towards the very end of Tier 1, things change drastically. You get..."Shadow Prowler" and "Vehement Blades." "Shadow Prowler" allows you to go into stealth, which means that enemy players will not see you. There is a chance, modified by their Initiative, for them to see you. This ability is awesome as that it allows you to sneak up undetected and attack the most vulnerable prey out there. Once you've sneaked up to somebody, then you can spring out of the shadows using "Vehement Blades", which builds 2 Blood Lust, reduces your action point cost for abilities by 50% for 10 seconds, and each melee attack for the next 15 seconds deals an additional 15 damage! With luck, your opponent won't have time to scream.
Summary
In combat, your priority will vary upon the situation. Normally, you'll want to take out the enemy healers and ranged DPS. Sometimes, you'll act as a protector to your side's healer by killing anything, usually an enemy Melee DPS, coming to take out your healer. You should kill tons of Empire Witch Hunters as they seem drawn to take out Destruction healers. In capture the flag scenarios, you should rock after you get "Shadow Prowler". A great combo is to have a healer escort you while you sneak up to the enemy flag and capture it. Then, run like the wind back to your side. The healer should be able to
keep you up long enough for your side to get to you and protect you. Nothing irritates Order like believing that everything is quiet until you steal their
flag right from under their noses!
Fight in RvR as much as possible to gain Renown and XP. Always stay queued up for Scenarios while you're running around. Enjoy your time slaughtering your
foes, especially High Elves. Khaine demands it!
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