WAR Patch 1.3.2: Big Changes For New Players

Mythic is giving its MMO, Warhammer Online, a good old shake-up, as seen in the patch notes for the upcoming  v1.3.2, which were released earlier.A couple of fairly interesting RvR changes are being made; the removal of Fortresses in capital city invasions campaigns and greater Keep battle rewards, with a new difficulty system.However, a big shift in the attitude towards new players can be seen. A new set of initiatives called the ‘New User Journey’ has been introduced to make WAR more accessible to new and returning players. All players starting a new character will begin in the same area, depending on their allegiance. All new players will also be automatically placed in a ‘new player guild’. This means that characters will not be so isolated when they start playing WAR, one of the reasons the executive producer, Jeff Hickman, gave for WAR’s poor performance. Content and quests in the starter area have been revised to improve gameplay, and a new voice-over tutorial will explain the basic concepts of the game. Finally, the in-game help manual has been totally revamped.In another move to help new players, an Apprenticeship System has also been introduced. Selecting the ‘Make Apprentice’ option for a group mate will either lower or raise that character’s rank to match yours. Their skills and gear will scale, allowing the two of you to quest together. Any abilities that are too high for the scaled-down level will be temporarily unavailable.Two new global channels have been added to the game, one called the Advice channel which, as the name suggests, is to help new and learning players. The other channel is for Realm Captains to discuss RvR tactics and manoeuvres.There have been masses of changes to careers, as well as several bug fixes and performance improvements, see the full patch notes for more information.