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Warhammer Online career roster expands

Greenskin Choppa, Dwarf Slayer being introduced to Mythic's MMOG as part of live expansion event in March; new dungeon, official forums, free trial planned.

With Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's September launch deadline looming last year, Mythic Entertainment opted to make a number of cuts to the massively multiplayer online game rather than push back its release date once more. Along with excising a number of cities from the MMOG's beta test, Mythic chose to trim its selectable career roster from 24 to 20. However, general manager Mark Jacobs expressed a strong interest in reintroducing those classes at a later date.

In December, Jacobs and his company realized a portion of those plans, reintroducing the Dark Elf Blackguard and Empire Knight of the Blazing Sun. The developer also noted that though the remaining two careers--the Dwarf Hammerer and Greenskin Choppa--were en route, one would see a substantive change.

Today, Mythic announced that the remaining two classes will be reintroduced to Warhammer Online. Their introduction will be part of the Call to Arms "live expansion event," which is both an in-game event and content expansion. True to its word, Mythic has decided to sideline the Dwarf Hammerer concept in favor of a Dwarf Slayer model. Much like its Greenskin counterpart, the Slayer is a high-damage, lower-armor frontline melee fighter, specializing in dishing out carnage without regard for personal safety.

The Call to Arms event kicks off in March, but will extend through June with the introduction of a new dungeon and zone. Set within the new Land of the Dead open-world area, the Tomb Kings dungeon has been billed by Mythic as a spiritual successor to the Dark Age of Camelot zone Darkness Falls.

Mythic's planned tweaks extend beyond the game as well. The Call to Arms event will also usher in the addition of a new Realm Wars section on Warhammer Online's Web site, the introduction of official forums, and a free trial version of the game.

For more information, check out GameSpot's review of Warhammer Online.

26 Comments

  • CoupeD

    Posted Jan 30, 2009 2:42 pm GMT

    For someone who doesn't play the game you have an awful lot to say about it. Just because you rolled a tank to be a killer shows how you have no clue how to play an mmo. Oh yeah and rolling a shammy dps doesn't help make value out of your opinion.

    Anyway putting another choice for DPS for Destruction is not a great idea. We have too many DPS as it is and all they do is whine that they don't get healing. Its funny they roll a WE complain about healing then make a Magus alt. IF that's you please go back to WoW cause we don't need you!

    The cool thing is gunna be the RvR dungeon. That idea is friggin awesome and reminds me of Ultima type PvE and RvR to defend. GREAT WORK MYTHIC!

  • WeWerePirates

    Posted Jan 30, 2009 11:13 am GMT

    Actually I think this makes the game worse.

    I played as a chosen at launch but after a few weeks of playing it became a apparent that Black Orcs were much better tanks. In fact my character was distinctly crappy tank. Sure I could twist auras but I didn't pick a chosen to be a bard, I picked it to be faceless unstoppable juggernaut of death. Also they could maybe (though highly disputable) do more damage than black orcs when set up for damage... which would have made my character a bad marauder. I'd basically done all the starting areas with alts so in the end I decided the game wasn't enough fun to justify restarting because I'd picked the wrong class. The sad thing was I'd only ever managed one solo kill, on a character 8 levels lower. On the other hand my little Goblin Shaman was walking slaughterhouse unless I was outnumbered 3 to 1.

    The problem is while they're adding extra classes these classes still fit in the same roles as the existing classes, Tank, Melee DPS, Ranged, DPS, Healer. While there is utility in different versions of some of those roles (for example DoK and Gobbo Shamans) there is a lot of potential for one class to dominate all the other choices in that role.

    Adding more classes may add a tiny bit of variety it creates more wrong choices.

    This was also similar to my complaint about DAoC, Mythic seem to love to set up complexes of character choices which are impossible to truly balance.

    It's still a great game and I might renew my account and start again when I have more free time.

  • icym

    Posted Jan 30, 2009 8:25 am GMT

    Neooooo! I was just finally breaking away from this game... CHOPPAS!

  • majere613

    Posted Jan 30, 2009 4:03 am GMT

    It's a good thing to see Slayers turning up, they're an important part of Dwarf culture. Ditto it's nice that soon your choice as a greenskin won't be Tank or Grot.
    Not so sure about official forums. From my WoW experience they rapidly become a whine-magnet or a place for people with max level characters to tell everyone else to shut up.

  • MischiefmAker

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 10:54 pm GMT

    I like this game a lot. I wish the launch would have sucked in more folks though. While the launch was amazingly smooth with little to no major crashes (unlike WoW's first few months... those are some funny memories of aggravating times =D) it didn't have that, er, pardon me, "WoW" factor, with the smoother animation n' such.

    If it came to sacrificing a few easily patched-in perks and visuals for a smoother launch, like I suspect, then I'm glad they made that call. If it had been reversed then people would be complaining about stability anyway (with WoW's launch a forgotten memory.

    It probably didn't help that WoW's world is a hell of a lot gloomier than Azeroth too, haha.
    ...
    Oh right, new classes... yay, they've finally brought them all back in!

  • dkpunk

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 5:00 pm GMT

    @PolskaKing I've played quite a few MMORPG's including WoW (hit the cap etc). I prefer this to any others. If you've ever had the fortune to play Dark Age of Camelot, you should know what to expect and then some.

  • PolskaKing

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 4:09 pm GMT

    Hmm. I might try this game. This game any good though? I mean I played a WoW trial but did not buy because it did not effect me, but it was pretty cool.

  • dkpunk

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 3:22 pm GMT

    This is so sweet! WARRRGHHHH!

  • SteveTwo

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 3:10 pm GMT

    Subtitle is wrong, Dwarf's Slayer class ( the Troll Slayer, etc) isn't in the game yet and is the class many people wanted to play. Mythic has said that it hasn't found a way to work the class into the game yet due to problems with the lore. (All Slayer's are looking to perma-die in a big fight, doesn't work too good with the infinite lives MMOs use.)

  • GrimGravy

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 2:45 pm GMT

    ork choppa ftw

  • earlthecannibal posted Jan 29, 2009 2:39 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    earlthecannibal

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 2:39 pm GMT (hide)

    Fix the graphics fools !

  • bropie

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 2:37 pm GMT

    WOOT!!!!! CHOPPAAAAAA!!!

  • crazymoose99

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 2:26 pm GMT

    I'm stoked! For the first 5 months of this game compared to WoW they've done soooooo much better. It had a smooth launch and they have always listened to their players. Now that they are finally adding greenskin and dwarf mdps it's going get out of control. I can't wait to play me some choppa!

  • baystatethrashr

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 1:49 pm GMT

    im gonna get back into this just because the dwarf slayer is awsome.

  • Timbydude posted Jan 29, 2009 1:09 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Timbydude

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 1:09 pm GMT (hide)

    Meh, it was fun but nothing special after playing WoW. Say what you want about Blizzard, but it's almost undeniable that they put a ton of effort into every bit of content that they release, and it shows. With WAR, I just didn't get that same feeling.

  • Netherscourge posted Jan 29, 2009 1:04 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Netherscourge

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 1:04 pm GMT (hide)

    I tried WAR for a solid month last year, but the game was so choppy and buggy I just lost interest and went back to WoW.

    The RvR battles were the best thing in the game, but everyone was so busy grinding out levels in Scenarios over and over again that nobody bothered with any RvR.

    Oh well. Too late for me to get re-interested in the game again.

  • Hum_Wha

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 1:00 pm GMT

    Im all for free trials there needs to be some ground rules!
    No More than 1-2 mails per day.
    No Region chat.
    Limit tell's in some way. Lower rolls on PQ's. Some of these are kinda harsh but ur not paying and gold farms will exploit them if you dont do these things.

  • Vividnightmare

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 12:35 pm GMT

    To Sirkel28, how do you know glitches and such aren't being handled? Of course to gain interest from the public they are going to talk about new big shiny additions, but they didn't say there would be no fixes either. The trial will be good, get more people on there with me. I Love WAR and am looking forward to all this new stuff.

  • klugenbeel posted Jan 29, 2009 12:32 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    klugenbeel

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 12:32 pm GMT (hide)

    Still no WoW killer. EA can try, but they still fail.

  • chappy_man

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 12:30 pm GMT

    i wouldnt mind the trial, see what its like. Always loved Warhammer but wasn't sure about an MMO.

  • sirkel28

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 11:51 am GMT

    More fluff while core issues are still not fixed.

  • gamergallore

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 11:42 am GMT

    I dunno about posting it on the forums but I'm pretty sure theres a live podcast around 7pm est about all the bug fixes.. Happy to see the 2 new classes though.. free live expansions are hawt..brings back memories of DAoC

  • PunishedOne

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 11:40 am GMT

    Later on today, Mark Jacobs is suppose to post the bug fixes/balance changes on the Warhammer Online Vault forums at IGN. Be warned, that place is filled with tons of trolls.

    On-topic: I'z gotz da bigga choppa! WAAAGH!!!

  • Gamingguy87

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 11:25 am GMT

    I played WAR for the first 2 months and loved the game, but quit because of the lack of balance and players. If the free trial period can up subscriptions than I would love to get back into it. But until then I'm sticking with WOW

  • ColdfireTrilogy

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 11:11 am GMT

    Well I am glad WAR has succeeded in holding a player base. This should at least place some competition with WoW in terms of at least providing acceptable customer service and updates. WoW has always been spectacular in that there are consistent updates to the game world and new areas and dungeons to explore as patches are released. Its great to see another game that is willing to expand its repertoire without making its paying customers shell out for it as an expansion pack.

  • death919

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 10:53 am GMT

    Cool! But my account expired, maybe I will renew it in the future though. :O

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