Going for the kill
Nothing beats the pure exhilaration of blasting an enemy to smithereens or hacking him to bits and Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning (WAR) offers plenty of opportunities for this. Right from the word Go, players from both Chaos and Order can plunge themselves into Player-versus-Player (PvP) scenarios where they face off against one another in battle to secure specific objectives on a small map. For example, there are variations of Seize The Flag, where teams have to control different locations to score points for their realm. As with most PvP-centric games, range is king. The much-lauded collision detection, which disallows players to simply run through other players or opponents, means that controlling or setting up choke points in certain areas of the maps will be vital for victory. This also means that when you are bolting from an enemy, you might well be blocked by the slow poke of a teammate in front of you, hastening your demise. With increasing levels, players are given more toys to play with, like "area-of-effect" spells which can harm or stun multiple targets at the same time. The PvP battles range from small, capture-the-flag scenarios to huge castle battles where you can access siege machines to lay waste to the enemy's battlements. Character classes are, generally balanced. Sure, stealth classes can get up close and personal to let you taste their cold steel blade, but they die easily because of their light armor. Wizards have high damage output but, similarly, get close to them and they are toast. A high hit-point melee class is only as durable as the amount of heals he has. The most crucial part of any battle is the coordination and, in the numerous battles I have taken part in, the successful ones tend to be those with players talking through their Ventrilo chat programs. Alright, charge!
