The Chosen: A Beginner's Guide to Control
Version 1.20 Updated 10/14/08
Current Patch 1.02
Updated information noted with colored itallics
Contents
Section 1:The need to know
Section 2:Tanking-A Guide to being beaten up! Productively!
Section 3:Chosen RVR-Manipulation and Direction
3-A: On the Offense!
3-B: Defense! *stomp stomp* Defense!
Section 4: Abilities and Use
4-A: Core Abilities
4-B: Career Abilities
Section 5: Tactics, Career and Core
Section 6: Renown! The spoils of WAR
Section 7: Final Commentary and Credits
Credit to the amazing community here at the warhammeralliance forums for their constant sharing of information on the class and advice. It is through you and for you that I've compiled this guide to the Chosen. I hope this contribution helps keep the spirit alive. Any additional information and suggestions to the class guide would be well received and added in with credit due to the poster providing it.
This guide will be updated as often as I can so that the information in it is as accurate as possible.
I thought I might shed some light on the Chosen class as I know them so far in play testing and research, and submit a guide for a powerful tanking force on the battlefield. The Chosen are, in my opinion, designed from the ground up to be a powerhouse defensive character with the ability to disrupt and control masses at once with their abilities. But that is really only half the battle to be truly effective on the battlefield. The other half is having the drive to see those openings, those weaknesses presented to you and use them to direct the flow of any fight to your advantage.
More on that later though. First, let's touch up on the basics.
Section 1: The Need to Know.
As you probably know if you're reading this thread, there are three distinct paths to consider for your potential Chosen's career.They are:
Dread- A pure offensive tree, focusing on improving damage with greatweapons (2handers), critical chance, and adding additional abilities for the more aggressive minded.
Corruption- The tanker's choice, this tree is full of abilities to further strengthen your staying power in combat, long duration stuns, and should draw the attention of those looking to be a sword & shield tanker.
Discord- A tree full of abilities to counter enemy abilities. It includes healing debuff aura's, aoe knockdowns, as well spell disruption abilities. This tree is made for people who want to insure they have a trick up their sleeve for any offense targeting them.
Now, as you know, renown aside you have 25 points to play with amongst these three paths. The choice you then must make is dependent on your choice of playstyle. Decide on what you want your strengths to be, and pick abilities and tactics that further strengthen what it is you want to excel at. Most career builds tend to focus on one tree with another tree as a minor supplement to the main tree's ability and tactic choices. It's important to note here, that while there are a number of very powerful and useful tactics in each tree, you have a core set of tactics in addition that are rather potent in their own right. It's my suggestion to browse over the core tactics and find what you can't live without, or what you would want for a pve and rvr setup and plan what career tactics you buy accordingly to how many open slots you have left to play with.
(In addition, I think it's important to note here that using the wardb.com career builder, as well as the in game career training that you have to spend a point to buy abilities on the tree. You do not receive the ability simply by gaining enough ranks to light up the tier it is attached to.)
I can't say I'm knowledgeable with the playstyle of a 2hander focused Chosen. I don't like it in comparison to sword & shield setups. That doesn't mean I have anything against the decision to specialize in greatweapons.There are already a number of heated discussions on the topic in the Chosen forums, and I'll leave that subject to be debated there.
That said, I do have experience with the sword and shield focused play style, and this guide is devoted to detailing out what I've found to be effective in both pve and rvr situations.
Section 2: Tanking-A Guide to being beaten up! Productively!
To begin with, I want to describe the sword and shield playstyle to better explain how it works within Warhammer online. Unlike most MMO's, a shield does not add additional armor to your character's armor rating. Armor rating is exclusively what you have equipped on your character's body. In that regard, you will notice that for the Chosen, most pieces of equipment have armor ratings comparable to what your chest piece has. Far more than most traditional mmo's or rpg's in general would grant gloves, shoulder pads, helms etc. This means that a 2hander wielding Chosen is entirely capable of matching the armor class of a defensive sword/shield equipped Chosen.
That said, you may be asking yourself. "Well, why not use a greatsweapon Hexmaul?" The difference is that the greatweapon only grants the ability to negate attacks with parry, which to my knowledge is only capable of triggering in response to melee based attacks. A shield on the other hand, in addition to the same parry chance, has the ability to block ALL types of attacks at a significantly high rate. Yes, spells, special abilities, auto attack strikes, arrows, bullets, knives, pointed sticks. All of it. As far as block chance goes, properly equipped currently my Chosen is enjoying roughly a 19% block rate against incoming attacks. This is what makes a sword & shield setup shine, essentially a 1/5 chance that each attack directed at you will simply be blocked. With renown point upgrades, I'm confident that my example block rate could be at least 12% higher if you include the Defender tier 3 renown ability.
Now, a 1/5 chance to block still leaves a reasonable chance to take a hit, and that is where armor rating and toughness come into play. For a sword & shield setup, these stats are king. As toughness reduces the dps of all damage received, it is key to keep this stat as high as possible. At time's I've vouched to take a piece of armor with lower armor rating than what I had currently, simply because it granted a substantial amount of toughness.
Finally, wounds. What tank would hold their head high without an impressive amount of hp after all? Hp is important, yes, but not so much as it was in other games within the mmo genre. In previous games, HP defined the tank, followed by armor, and then any additional threat mechanics or boosts. However, it's my opinion that while a solid hp pool is important, it's priority has shifted with the mechanics in play for tank types. With that in mind, I've set a series of priorities as far as tanking potential is concerned that I think works well for the tank oriented Chosen.
Block>Mitigation>Health
The reason behind this is the way damage is or isn't taken. In most games, block chance was a somewhat common chance, but not very often. In that setting, hp and armor was king as I mentioned, and was more or less solely the reason that character could tank to begin with. Here however, the block rate is at such a high percent chance to successfully negate an attack, and any attack for that matter, that it has become an absolute top priority for any aspiring tank in my opinion. The higher your block rate, the more damage you negate entirely, and the more it takes to even hit you much less bring you down. So with that in mind, it is my strong suggestion that your shield be the first piece of equipment you upgrade at any opportunity to do so.
After your shield comes Mitigation. This is achieved through Armor and Toughness. Now Chosen benefit from wearing heavy armor, and lots of it. No other armor type will match the armor rating you will achieve as a tank. And our armor comes in all flavors of stat bonuses, and this is where you further define yourself as a tank. It's very important to make sure that what your wearing grants you the most armor and toughness possible for you within your range of options. If those renown boots have somewhat more armor than what you have now, but significantly less toughness or none whatsoever, I would lean toward passing on it. After all, what you need to do your job is lowered dps on you from your opponents, and that's exactly what armor and toughness does. It's also important to note that toughness reduces the dps from all sources, not just direct melee. That means in raising toughness, you're raising your spell damage mitigation as well.
Finally, Health! Yes I remembered! Health comes most noticeably with levels, and at max level you will have more health than those you're protecting at a base level, and any extra wounds you can get to increase that is all the better. I would not take wounds over armor or toughness, but if it comes with those stats or I have the option of trading a minor amount of toughness for a significantly higher amount of wounds in an armor slot... Sure, I'll take the wounds. But only in those cases. Mitigation and avoidance is the name of the game here, and I promise you we do it well. Wounds have become a topic of recent debate on the Chosen forums, with the current state of toughness and how it determines damage received, and many Chosen are now opting to focus on wounds for certain high damage situations where dps is coming in large blows versus longterm smaller damage. Time will tell if this setup is superior, or viable as the game and levels progress, and I'll do my best to make sure this guide reflects the best possible methods of stat stacking.
Now then.. The boring tank mechanics lecture is over! You made it through the novel so far and if you're reading this now I appreciate your endurance, you have the strong will to push through! That's the makings of a fine tank personality! On to the good stuff, the tactics, abilities and strategies specific to Chosen.
Section 3: Chosen RVR-Manipulation and Direction
The Chosen have a role as a tank class unique to them in my opinion within the game. Our abilities focus on not only single target control, threat and damage abilities, but also area effect abilities as well. These include our various auras, ranged knockdowns, area effect bursts around us, etc. The trick, the real challenge is to not only use them, but use them in a way that makes your opponents close to you regret it, and those at a distance very inclined to keep their distance. Your job is to make it very clear that where you are is the last place they and their party want to be, and make it clear that they have to get through you to get to the people you intend to protect.
To accomplish this, first and foremost you need to see what you're facing and decide on the aura's that will benefit you the most in the encounter. Is it a melee heavy group? A strength/toughness combination would likely be best. Casters mostly? I would use resists/backlash aura's. If it's a mix of both, in my opinion you can't go wrong with resists/toughness. The beauty of the aura system is that in most cases, what protects you the most from your opponent will usually debuff their strengths against you. What's a caster to do against a Chosen who has increased his resistances and guaranteed retribution damage against all spells, while lowering the caster's resistances in the process? How much damage is that melee dps class going to do to you when you've increased your toughness and strength, while decreasing their toughness and strength in the process? These are the basic tools of the trade, linked into a mechanic called twisting.
Twisting is simple in concept, but can prove difficult in practice. The idea behind twisting is to keep two aura effects going on yourself at all times. The way this is accomplished is built into the mechanics of the aura's in that they persist 12 seconds after the aura is canceled or a different aura is activated. But their cooldown time is 4.5 seconds. What this means is you can keep alternating two aura's as they begin to fade in their 12 second lingering duration, and keep them going on you at all times. Now there is a lot of debate on the practicality of this technique and how much benefit it really gives. I'm not going to say there's a right or wrong here, if you don't want to do it, don't. It won't necessarily cripple your ability overall. I do when the situation calls for it. Generally speaking, I tend to leave toughness on all the time until I get into direct combat, and after identifying my primary threats, I twist a second aura with it to counter my opponents. This technique becomes even more viable later with one of our core tactics which makes aura's have no AP cost whatsoever.
Now that aura's have been covered, its time for tactics! The fun stuff!
I'd describe the job of a Chosen in RVR as a mix of flailing hooligan, unwavering guardian, and tactician all in one armor clad package. Regardless of the job variation mentioned previously the ultimate goal is to prevent your opponents from doing their job by doing your job. Block those close quarter fighters from getting where they need to be. Knock that pesky healer to the ground, or bat him away entirely. Charge those casters and keep them focused on you and not the members of your team that can burst damage them into the dirt. Snare, stun and cripple the tanks that are doing all they can to make it to their team members in time. Be aggravating, persistent and relentless. Remember, every enemy player you goad into a death wish of killing you is -not- killing anyone else, and that is exactly what you want.
Section 3-A: On the Offensive!
Don't let anyone by you without a snare, a dot, or any other horrible affliction you can bestow upon them when charging at an opposing enemy charge. If any one of them turns to take you on in retaliation that's one less member who is a threat to your team. Remember, you can take the punishment, they can't.
Give the enemy tanks a reason to pay attention to you! Keep their toughness and resistance down with your aura's, nail them with snares stuns and cripples. Anything to make them deal with you. The more you have their attention, the less likely that tank is going to notice the Marauders, Witch Elves and other nasties of destruction going by.
Don't be afraid to go to great lengths to stand out as a tank. Dye your armor ridiculous colors if you have to. The more people are looking at you the more they're inclined to attack you. If you charge into battle as the bright yellow and pink herald of tzeentch I promise you the enemy attention is going to be on you for standing out like a sore thumb, and just think how easy the more squishy players on your side will be able to find you like that too!
Change your aura's to suit the strengths of your team when a mass battle erupts! Lower the toughness of your enemies when they're dealing with melee dps, drop their resists if your team is mostly casters. Reduce their healing by 25% if you spec'd for it when their health starts to drop.
Ambush, Ambush, Ambush! Wait behind rocks, buildings, cliff sides, anything that can block their line of site to you where you expect them to have to travel. Once your victims come through, find the squishy and lay into them. You'll be amazed how many places you can hide simply because many players do not look behind them much or at all.
Timing is key. It's very easy to get in a no cooldown ability spamming fest when fighting someone, but knowing you have the ap to land a stun against that opponent in the key moment is just as deadly if not more so in the right moments. Don't be afraid to have reserved AP in the middle of a fight. Having the use of your abilities when your opponent is all but empty can make the difference in a victory or death.
Standards! No, not the moral variety, the flag kind! Chosen make, in my opinion, the best possible standard bearers. With our aura active prior to deploying the standard, your group can enjoy both buffs while the rest of your allies receive the banner bonuses. Don't be afraid to bring a banner out in the scenario battles either. 30% ap regen can make or break a stronghold defense team's ability to hold off an enemy attack.
When on the offensive with a fellow tanker, don't be afraid to pop guard on each other. At 21, and with a guild chosen at 20 with me, with guard up we stood fighting at the enemy flag stand of Pheonix Gate for 8 minutes straight supported by a single lvl 16 shaman. With our combined mitigation and guard spreading the damage it went on forever, and proved to be extremely effective in tieing up an entire team against us and allowed for many flag captures during that time.
On the subject of Guard, at any point that you're attempting to capture an objective that requires an uninterrupted channeling to achieve, it's in your best interests to drop guard on your current defensive target. The damage they receive can and will stop your capture, and that can make a huge difference in the outcome of scenarios and objective capturing.
Realize that your ability to completely negate and reduce the damage that is directed to you is such that you can survive dropping into the midst of a large group of enemy players and cause all flavors of havoc, while still having the staying power to make it out too. Disrupt those pockets of enemies that are on the edge of charging in. The fact that they aren't just means they already are unconfident in their success in doing so, and startling them with a quick aggressive maneuver into the midst is often enough to send them running. Especially if you kill their weaker members in the process.
Section 3-B: Defense! *stomp stomp* Defense!
Now for the moments that sword & shield Chosen really shine in.
Try to be the team leader out there. Granted there's no military Barrett on your head, but know that you are the front line. Melee dps need you to keep their attention to get in there and do their job. Caster classes need you to play linebacker and make sure they stay safe. Healers know your guard ability can make them nigh unkillable on the field. And everybody loves a free buff or two from your auras. They need you up front, which tends to make your routes and attacks lead the rest into joining. Understanding this, call out incoming, keep people from overextending if you see it starting to thin out too much on your front line. Guide them to fall back if the situation calls for it. After all, a successful push against the enemy is inevitably going to lead you to their safe haven of guards and that is always a losing battle. Call out to fall back and lead them away from their safety into their doom.(Having said that, the above does not translate into dictate everyone's job to them in all caps. I see too many tanks trying to tell everyone else how to do their job as part of a group or raid, and more often than not it is them who are lacking in their ability to perform their own duty as a tank. On that note, the highway to no heals is to detail a healer's job to a healer. Don't do it unless it's very apparent that they are not watching you on the brink of death -if- they should be.)
Don't be afraid to negate doing damage so that you can use hold the line as long as you can. If the situation calls for it, for example a heavy enemy advance, or bolstering a front line of your own, right down to a guarded retreat. Hold the line has many, many uses. Our damage isn't our strong point, eating and negating their damage is.
Guard the squishies. If you don't have a guard target, find one.Guard the Healers if they're being targeted, and in most cases even if they aren't. You want them to know you've got their back when it gets rough, and in doing so they'll be more inclined to keep a close eye on your health. But don't be afraid to guard melee dps, offensive casters, even other tanks! Use it at any opportunity on the most logical target.
Snare anyone that even looks like they're trying to run past you to someone else. A snared dpser is just a walking target for casters to kite and kill while you keep them slowed and helpless to the damage.
Repel repel repel! Use it, love it, use it more! This ability is king for singling out enemies from their group, knocking overextending keep defenders into a sea of angry from the ramp, sending poor fools to fiery deaths in lava and pits. The list goes on. Just be sure you don't knock someone to safety or into someone who's hurting on your side.
And finally, the most noble of moments we evil incarnate chaos warriors will ever truly have, charge in to your death if it means the difference in saving your team. If you can prevent that scenario capture point from falling into enemy hands long enough to have it captured to your side, or for reinforcements to arrive and protect it, go for it! Fight them with all you have and keep them locked down until you die. I promise it will take them quite a while to do that.
Section 4: Abilities and Use
I'm going to make it clear that my personal experience with the abilities available to a Chosen extends to rank 24. Anything beyond that level I will admit is a mix of speculation, combat theory, past mmo experience extending to the release of everquest, and heavy research into the Chosen's abilities as a whole. Any input into the rest of the abilities, both theory or more so beta experience with the template characters would be greatly appreciated to add in this guide.
The Chosen seem to start out a bit lack luster with the first few levels of skills. I was a bit uncertain of my choice as a tank until I reached level 7 and obtained my first true threat management ability Taunt which I will get to in a bit. For those in the early steps of the Chosen class, stick with it! It gets drastically more powerful and fast after that point.
Anyway, Onward to the abilities!
