By Brock "Brokain" Ferguson

The new year is upon us and with the ringing in of 2009 comes the time honored tradition of the New Year's Resolutions! Things you want to do, things you want to change, things you want to accomplish, the New Year's Resolution is all about getting motivated to reach your goals. While most people set goals regarding weight loss or saving money, gamers have a different outlook. We want to achieve some goals we've been slacking on in our game of choice and in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, there are a ton of goals to aspire to, but just in case you haven't made any New Year's Resolutions yet, here are a few you could use.

I want to engage in some Open RvR and get good at it!

Very simply, if you play Warhammer Online and you've yet to get involved in Open RvR, then you're missing a huge facet of the game. What makes it worthwhile (besides adding a little excitement to your online life) is that with the recent ORvR rewards, you're not just out there killing for fame and infamy, but for some pretty phat gear too! The main key to enjoying ORvR though is to remember that it's just a game. If you die, they can't loot your belongings, you don't lose XP, de-level, incur debt, or have a corpse run, and the death penalty is so minute as to be nonexistent. The worst that happens if you die is that you have to run back to combat from the re-spawn point! So it's no stress and very minimal hassle for a ton of fun and a brand new way to play the game. With so little consequences involved, there just isn't a reason for you to not get out there and mix it up!

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You're a caster! Quit hitting it with your staff!!

I only tend to play (insert archetype here). I'd like to try something new.

If you're anything like I am, you have a specific archetype that you play and love. For some, it's the tank classes. Others like the sneaky DPS. However, sticking with only one archetype gets boring after awhile and can make your play experience feel limited. Luckily for you, WAR allows you to play on multiple servers and have up to ten characters per server! This means there's no excuse for you not to let your tank character know that you feel you should see other classes for awhile. Just remember that if you take on a new class, you have to adopt a new mentality. It's easier said than done. I'm a tank guy myself. Love to be able to take a beating and dish out some pain in the process. So when I started playing my Bright Wizard, I had some things to come to terms with. Things like not rushing into the thick of combat because much like a G.I. Joe action figure in the hands of a 10 year old boy with firecrackers, your chances of survival are slim and none, and slim just left the building.

So when you adopt a new archetype, you have to give it a chance for you to get into the groove of playing it. Don't give up on it because you don't "get it" right away. The more you play around with it, the more you'll get the hang of it and who knows? It might even become your new main character after awhile.

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For Cripes Sakes! Just pick one already!!

I'm going to cure my Alt-aholism and finally get a character to 40!

If you somehow manage to do the above, please drop me a line and let me know how you did it, because I have 15 characters and none have made it past Tier 3 yet. Alt-itis is a horrible disease that afflicts mostly those people who are easily distracted by A) shiny objects or B) What seems to be going on in the neighbors yard. there are many people out there who've played the game since launch, and yet to have a level 40 character. As easy as this game is to level up, I know that's hard to believe, but it's true. Everyone knows an Alt-aholic, but instead of asking them why they don't have a maxed out character yet, ask them what they do have and you'll get your answer. Chances are they'll have three Tier 3, between four to six Tier 2, and a host of Tier 1, characters.

Curing Alt-aholism is tough. Most people are alt-aholics because they want to play a caster/tank/melee DPS character, but none actually exist, so they get their fix by playing multiple alts. The only way to fix the problem is to pick your favorite character and just buckle down and play it all the way through. Avoid looking at anything shiny (like the recently released Blackguard or Knight of the Blazing Sun), or you'll wind up logging out long enough to make your 27th alt. Just focus on the Path of 40, stay on the Path of 40, and you'll achieve the Path of 40!

Once again, if you manage to do that, let me know... because I need help. So much help.

I plan to stop ragging on people in Scenario/RvR chat.

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Yes, I know I suck. Thank you for reminding me. Ow...

Yeah, you know who you are. The few, the loud, the 1337. We know you can play our class better than we can. We know you've mastered the strategies and subtleties of each and every scenario. We're all aware that we suck and should make room for one of the few who can actually succeed at playing our respective classes. If you haven't noticed though, folks don't care. The minute you attack someone in scenario chat, three people come to their defense or we all ignore you. Scenarios can't be won as a bunch of individual groups, you need to work as a team, and you tearing down another person only serves to fragment the team.

Instead, try sending them a /tell, and give them some constructive advice that doesn't contain the words loser, joke, suck, or noob. A quick "Hey, I have a level X Class, and this is what I do to overcome that" will not only strengthen your faction by building stronger players, but you also might make a friend or two in the process.

 

Hopefully you got a few ideas from this, or even just decided to take some of these for your own. If you have some that you want to share, make sure to head over to the forums here and share with the rest of us!