Few questions from a newbie WoW fan

[ShwaggyRogers]

Hello there! New player here
I used to play WoW a lot but Shadowlands came - and with it - plotlines that just became unbearable to me, so even though I still enjoyed clicking buttons on people - I quit. It was a blessing in disguise since that gave me more time to play different games, one of them being Vermintide 2, which I wanted to check out for what seemed like forever. Needless to say I got into Warhammer and its lore and I'm loving it.
A friend of mine from our ex-guild in WoW has been playing RoR lately and he got me intrigued, so while the game's downloading in the background I thought about asking few questions:

• First of all, how much of overlap, if any, is there with RoR and WoW? Any particular mechanics or classes that might be familiar to a WoW player?
• I know this is a private server and having played on some WoW privs I know they tend to be a bit wonky, which is to be expected given the fact they're fan projects. How are things here, are there many bugs in the game? Any particular bugs one should be aware of?
• I wanted to try RoR out with my gf and few of our friends. How's the experience leveling with a group? Is it possible to make parties like in WoW?

It's ok if I won't get any answers, I'll probably just see for myself how's things but any replies would be appreciated, even if to just say hi

[nocturnalguest]

Well, first of all - RoR is fully PvP game, PvE here is a burden and only done for gearing up.
1) I'd say that there are no overlaps with WoW, mechanics are different (immunities instead of diminishing returns for CC, huge reliance on dmg reduction effects and very proactive PvP tanking (guard, challenge), incredibly big dependence on proper GCD management for being efficient). Classes are different, unlike WoW many are very group dependent without decent self healing and ways to sustain solo.
2) As a newcomer you wont notice any bugs. However there are many, but they gonna start to concern you as soon as you learn the ropes and will have in depth game mechanic knowledge (around half a year probably, assuming you do that on your own). However this game only makes use of 1 core CPU, so it may freeze/lag in big battles. Nothing to do with it atm, rebuilding engine is hell of a task...
3) This game is all about group play. Parties consist of 6, most common meta setup is 2 tanks, 2 dps, 2 healers. Game is centered around oRvR, big battles where people form warbands of 24 ppl max and those warbands fight each other, so in EU prime you may find yourself in a battle of 100+vs100+ ppl and PvE (unlike WoW) wouldn't ever interfere.

P.S. Hi

[Fallenkezef]

As someone who likes the stories, I do recomend the PvE.

[CozyFren]

Welcome to the game. I only played WoW briefly so I can’t speak too much to any similarities but a big difference that hasn’t been mentioned is that in this game there are no food items to help with healing or regen. There are 30 and 60 min potions that will increase various stats and some can be used together for a total of 2 60min potions. There are also instant potions for health and action points, make sure to keep a stack of each in your bag.

Group leveling is a good move. If you play during NA times it can be slim in tier 1 to find a group in the pvp zones. Once you hit 16 you move on the the combined tiers 2-4 and you play with everyone else so it is only an issue for a short time.

There is some good pve in the game for sure but as mentioned the games focus is pvp. To that end there are 2 different leveling mechanics in the game, your experience level (which caps at 40) and your renown rank. When your xp rank is between 16 and 39 you get a bolster buff which brings all your stats up to roughly the equivalent of renown rank 48 (I think) and this allows you to be able to keep up with the higher level people you’re playing against. However at 40 that goes away. For this reason it’s a very good idea to make sure that before you hit xp rank 40 that your renown rank is 45 at a bare minimum, or if you can do it get it to 58. The reason for that is the way gear sets are tiered and for most classes the pvp gear sets are the most desirable. Pvp sets have a minimum renown rank requirement. 45 is the Conqueror tier and 58 is the Vanquisher tier. Having said that, there are equivalent pve sets in each tier that do not require a specific renown rank so you do have other options and sometimes the pve sets are better depending on how your character mastery tree is set.

A lot of folks will go for pve sets at lower levels to save up the crests you need for buying later sets because the costs scale up quite dramatically. There is a section in the wiki that shows all the different gear sets and I believe it says where the pve sets can be gotten - some are from dungeons and others are from public quests (quests that don’t require you to take them from an NPC, they’re just always going, and many people can join them as a group). At 16 you will definitely want to do the Sewers dungeon to get the Keeper set (I’m not sure what the dungeon is called on destruction side).

I hope this helps, joining an active is guild is probably the best way to learn the ropes and get help. This forum can be a little dead sometimes but in game is quite active. Good luck!

[ShwaggyRogers]

Thank you all for replies!

The fact the game's focus is PvP is not a problem for me, but I do enjoy doing all kinds of content, PvE included. I'll most likely try to both if possible. I already started playing a bit and did some quests in starting location for greenskins, it's pretty standard but fun so far.
However, that friend of mine who started playing before me dinged lvl 11 all the way from lvl 1 solely playing Scenarios (what I believe is an equivalent of WoW's Battlegrounds). Given all the stuff that CozyFren said regarding renown ranks and all, is playing PvP the only viable option or is it just for some minmaxing purposes? I wanna approach things a bit casually, slowly getting into all the aspects of the game one after another - will I gimp myself that way somehow? And will the game try to organically point me towards some gamemodes like those scenarios or do I just need to go and decide for that myself?

And speaking of casual, myself and my gf aren't looking for something to grind and sweat over about, we just want some clean casual fun. Now that doesn't mean that we're about to keyboard-turn our way through it all, just means that we're a bit weaker in games like these and don't want to stress ourselves too much and sweat over everything. Are we going to get absolutely curbstomped by everyone or are there some systems like lvl and gear scaling or ranking systems to make sure we'll be able to have some relatively even fights?

[nocturnalguest]

Thank you all for replies!

The fact the game's focus is PvP is not a problem for me, but I do enjoy doing all kinds of content, PvE included. I'll most likely try to both if possible. I already started playing a bit and did some quests in starting location for greenskins, it's pretty standard but fun so far.
However, that friend of mine who started playing before me dinged lvl 11 all the way from lvl 1 solely playing Scenarios (what I believe is an equivalent of WoW's Battlegrounds). Given all the stuff that CozyFren said regarding renown ranks and all, is playing PvP the only viable option or is it just for some minmaxing purposes? I wanna approach things a bit casually, slowly getting into all the aspects of the game one after another - will I gimp myself that way somehow? And will the game try to organically point me towards some gamemodes like those scenarios or do I just need to go and decide for that myself?

And speaking of casual, myself and my gf aren't looking for something to grind and sweat over about, we just want some clean casual fun. Now that doesn't mean that we're about to keyboard-turn our way through it all, just means that we're a bit weaker in games like these and don't want to stress ourselves too much and sweat over everything. Are we going to get absolutely curbstomped by everyone or are there some systems like lvl and gear scaling or ranking systems to make sure we'll be able to have some relatively even fights?

> is playing PvP the only viable option or is it just for some minmaxing purposes
It is. Toptier gear is PvP only, there is no PvE equivalent. PvE gear is a very nice preBiS alternative to save up crests for end game.
> I wanna approach things a bit casually, slowly getting into all the aspects of the game one after another - will I gimp myself that way somehow?
In general no. However keep in mind that once you hit rank 40 with low renown levels (40 and lesser) you will be pretty much doomed PvP-wise and your experience will be awful. So preparing yourself to hit 40 with at least 45 renown rank (visit alternative capitals, there is a quest that gives you 4 renown pots that last for 72 hours, thats more than enough to bring you to this spot assuming you use them effectively = pvp as much as you can while those pots last) is pretty important.
> And will the game try to organically point me towards some gamemodes like those scenarios or do I just need to go and decide for that myself?
Pointing system is been worked on by devs atm, much has been done already (like breakpoint rewards for hitting ranks etc). There was no such system in original game.
> Are we going to get absolutely curbstomped by everyone or are there some systems like lvl and gear scaling or ranking systems to make sure we'll be able to have some relatively even fights?
Well, great to hear that you are not expecting to keyboard-turn your way thru it all, hah. But i have kinda bad news for you. Take a look here viewtopic.php?p=527601#p527601 (this is a link to my post with explanation that fits end game sweaty meta, i advice to check it first and then look at the numbers in OP post)
This game offers most intense and entertaining PvP MMO's has to offer imho. I'd value AoR/RoR PvP way above 2 other games in which i enjoy PvP - GW2&ESO.
However, keep in mind that you dont need to be a full sweatlord to enjoy gameplay. But you are defintiely required to group up with proper compositions to casually run regular scenarious. If you dont mind losing once per 2 SCs then you will be absolutely fine as duo with your gf. For duo you'd better pick some fitting classes, assuming from your post you are destro side and start at greenskins SH+shaman is one of the greatest pick.

[Sinisterror]

Thank you all for replies!

The fact the game's focus is PvP is not a problem for me, but I do enjoy doing all kinds of content, PvE included. I'll most likely try to both if possible. I already started playing a bit and did some quests in starting location for greenskins, it's pretty standard but fun so far.
However, that friend of mine who started playing before me dinged lvl 11 all the way from lvl 1 solely playing Scenarios (what I believe is an equivalent of WoW's Battlegrounds). Given all the stuff that CozyFren said regarding renown ranks and all, is playing PvP the only viable option or is it just for some minmaxing purposes? I wanna approach things a bit casually, slowly getting into all the aspects of the game one after another - will I gimp myself that way somehow? And will the game try to organically point me towards some gamemodes like those scenarios or do I just need to go and decide for that myself?

And speaking of casual, myself and my gf aren't looking for something to grind and sweat over about, we just want some clean casual fun. Now that doesn't mean that we're about to keyboard-turn our way through it all, just means that we're a bit weaker in games like these and don't want to stress ourselves too much and sweat over everything. Are we going to get absolutely curbstomped by everyone or are there some systems like lvl and gear scaling or ranking systems to make sure we'll be able to have some relatively even fights?

1-15 lvl is tier 1. There you can/should do RvR to get some idea about it. While doing Scenarios as well. Lvl 16+ is t2-4 in RvR but Scenarios are 16-39lvl. So Doing scenarios Duo with your GF is best way to learn what classes can do. There is bolster even in scenarios but rvr as well. You need to have Armour potions + Stat potions up all the time lvl 16+. Heal and AP pots as well.

To maximize bolster, that is what makes bolster powerful and you need talisman in gear slots and lvl 16+ you should get keeper/obliterator/CHallenger gear set. Stalker/Mayhem set 22-24 and Rank29RenownRank 29 Devastator/Duelist sets.

When playing duo As someone said Shaman and Squig Herder is great duo but i probably would recommend Zealot as healer because it is easier to heal and is closest to pure healer this game has with runepriest. Any Tank is good with healer as well but i would recommend dps when startin game,its simpler that way.

[Cyrylius]

Fact that you are playing with a gf (as in with any other person to make a group with) will potentially already make your experience very good. To elaborate on what was already said: most classes are either reliant on support or incapable of making a big impact outside of said support (regardless of how huge this might be, for example for healers). Making a well composed duo can potentially change the statistics from 50% scenarios where you get to have a nice experience to 90% almost. That being said, there's comparably few players and where it shows the best is matchmaker, you will encounter pretty long loss/ win streaks if you get the same players for a long time in every match.

To add my own opinion, melee dps/tank seems to be a better pairing than mdps/healer, but possibly also requires more experience in the game to make it work.

EDIT: one bug you definitely want to know is that statdoll is lying to you. Check your stats with .getstats command.

[Fallenkezef]

as much as I enjoy the pve content, level in scenarios and rvr. You want your renown rank to be high as you level.

[BluIzLucky]

Hi, welcome, hope you and your friends will have a nice time

Played WoW a couple years WoTL to Cata.

• There's some overlap, though it's not a "wow clone". Warrior Priest and Paladin, Archmage and Priest, Shadow Warrrior/Squigherder and Huntet feels to me similar.

• General performance I think is better than live, there's a thread on forum to improve it if yours is struggling (usually from addons). Still plenty of small bugs around, but very rarely game breaking, not something I'd concern myself with as a new player.

• it's a group and large scale focused game, mid/end game usually involves joining active guilds and doing 24-48 player warbands roaming for pvp fights

I like the PvE, you got tons of PQs, epic quests and 8 dungeons (with 2 more being worked on), not really much compared to WoW which is why it's a chore for veterans that have run them all +50 times
And it's just a beautiful world to explore if you are into Warhammer!

You don't need to PvP only, I usually lvl with 50/50 pvp/pve keeping character lvl same as renown lvl... but the more you pvp the shorter the time at lvl 40 before you get to Vanquisher (first great T4 set at R55-58) or even Sov (BIS).
The lvl 40 dungeons provide decent gear (and some BIS items) but usually the sets are for specific specs and better when mixed with pvp sets.

The PvP is not like WoW, with tons of invulnerability, CC, escapes, mobility and heals on every class, you need a proper team setup and decent gear (some classes need BIS to be decent), so takes less imbalance to make it lopsided, that being said most play casually so is usually fine at least in my experience.