Advancement (aka leveling) is a Warhammer Online functions in part like other MMORPGs, in that your character accumulates rewards for completing quests, accomplishing tasks and killing monsters and enemy characters.
Progress and achievement in the game is measured by accumulating a range of rewards:
- Earn experience to increase your rank and thus gain new skills and career tactics.
- Earn renown through RvR combat to gain renown tactics, trophies and other rewards.
- Earn influence by completing public quests to gain new equipment.
- Earn money to increase your wealth.
- Use your Tome of Knowledge to gain special titles and tome tactics.
There are also three kinds of advancement which indirectly benefit your character:
- Increasing your guild's guild rank by participating with them.
- Increasing your Capital city's city rank to unlock new content.
- Earning victory points to improve your realm's position in the RvR campaign.
As characters advance, their appearance will change to reflect their growing status. Each army will have their own strength indicators which are a visual measure of their advancement. This feature won't be immediately available as it was shelved to be developed on later.
Tiers and Ranks[]
Advancement is measured by tiers and ranks. There are 4 tiers for characters to rise through, each of which consists of 10 ranks; a total of 40 levels of advancement. RvR-Tier 1 covers ranks 1 to 15, RvR-tier 2 covers ranks 12 to 26, RvR-tier 3 covers ranks 22 to 39, and the final tier covers ranks 32 to 40
In scenarios or battleground, there are only three tiers. Scenario Tier 1 is identical to RvR-tier 1, ranging from rank 1 to rank 15. The second tier ranges from rank 12 to renown rank 69, while the final tier contains all caracters above renown rank 70.
As you progress through the PvE-game, your status changes as you rise through the tiers - tier 1 (rank 1 to 11) characters are known as "Apprentice", then "Journeyman" at tier 2(rank 12 to 21), "Expert" at tier 3(rank 13 to 31), and finally "Master" at tier 4(rank 32 or higher).
On a server with the core rule-set, players entering RvR areas of a lower tier will be turned into a chicken to prevent hunting lower-ranked players. On open RvR rule-set servers, players entering an area of 2 lower level tier will be turned into a chicken. For example, if a rank 40 Shaman went to a tier 2 zone they would be transformed into a chicken.
| PvE-Bracket | Scenario-Bracket | RvR-Bracket | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | rank 1-11 | rank 1-15 | rank 1-15 |
| Tier 2 | rank 12-21 | rank 16 to renown rank 69 | rank 12 to 26 |
| Tier 3 | 22-31 | renown rank 70+ | rank 22 to 39 |
| Tier 4 | 32-40 | - | rank 32-40 |
Renown Ranks[]
- Main Article: Renown
There are a total of 100 renown ranks in the game, and advancement is achieved through participating in RvR gameplay. Unlocking higher RvR ranks unlocks greater rewards.
Guild Ranks[]
- Main Article: Guild
Guilds can progress through 40 levels of advancement, each unlocking new features and abilities. These include access to guild vaults, guild heraldry, standards, and more.
Advances[]
Advances are abilities which can be gained by earning experience. They are divided into "actions" (attacks, spells, etc.), "morale" (morale abilities), and "tactics".
Actions[]
As your character's experience increases, actions will be gained according to milestones on your experience bar. These are irregularly spaced, and different careers will receive actions at different points during their career advancement. Actions are the fundamental progression of upgrades every character receives as they advance, and they will be geared towards the core abilities of each career archetype.
By the time they reach rank 40, a character will have learned every action available to their career.
To learn a new action, characters may have to visit a trainer, who will charge a fee to train them. However a currently known action/ability can be upgraded on the spot.
Tactics[]
There are three types of tactic: Career, Renown and Tome.
- Career tactics are general improvements that are useful in any fight.
- Renown tactics improve your RvR combat performance.
- Tome tactics improve your PvE combat performance.
Career tactics are gained by earning tactic points with experience, Renown tactics are gained by earning renown points, and Tome tactics are gained by completing sections in the Tome of Knowledge. When a new tactic is gained, characters will be able to see all the tactics available to their career to choose from (with a few exceptions).
Characters will not be able to learn every tactic available to their career. The latest information suggests that there will be 30 career tactics in total, from which a maximum of 18 can be learned by the time a character reaches rank 40.
Morale[]
Morale abilities are gained in a similar way to tactics, by earning morale points with experience. There are three different categories of morale ability:
- Career abilities are unique to a particular career.
- Archetype abilities are shared across career archetypes.
- Racial abilities are shared across racial careers.
As with tactics, morale abilities can be chosen from a complete list of abilities, and it will not be possible to gain every ability available.
Each morale ability can be used in one of the four slots on the morale bar, according to how powerful a particular ability is. Slot 1 abilities are the weakest and can be used the most often, while slot 4 abilities are more powerful but can only be used after spending a longer time in combat.
If you change your mind on point allocation, there will be a way to recover those points and spend them elsewhere.
Masteries[]
As a character levels up, he gains Mastery options in his chosen career. The mastery is a specialization option that allows access to a specific subset of abilities and enhancements to abilities not available to anyone else. Each career has three Mastery paths.
The Mastery system is a way to further define your role, and is meant to be a more permanent choice. However you can redistribute your mastery points, at any career trainer.
For example, a Sorcerer's or Bright Wizard's role is to unleash the pain via magic from a distance. Therefore their mastery paths allow a player to drill down on how they want to do this. For example, they may have lines that represent the following:
- Direct Damage - Focuses on really high, single-target damage
- DoT/Debuffs - Focuses on dealing damage over time & reducing enemies resistance to attack
- Area Effect - Focuses on dealing lower damage over a larger area & number of enemies
Each of these choices offers the player a different type of game play specialization. Most of the Mastery lines fall in line with this general concept, although the exact functionality varies on a class by class basis.
As you put more points into a path each of your abilities in that path get more powerful. Also, as you put more points into a path you get new abilities and tactics. When you fully max out a mastery path you gain access to a powerful Morale ability.