This Week: 5 Time-Savers Beginners Need to Know

In WAR, there are battles to win and a world to conquer, but first you have to know how to tie your boots and strap on a sword. With so many choices, what kind of sword should you use, or would a mace be so much better? Take the following 5 tips to heart when starting up your first few characters and you’ll shave hours off your learning curve.

1. IT’S ALL IN THE DPS

Sword, mace, dagger–it really doesn’t matter so long as you consider two points. One, can your career use that weapon? If you can’t use something, the requirements will display in red, so no need agonizing over that weapon type. Two, what is the weapon’s DPS (damage per second)? DPS is a great little stat that helps you figure out how powerful a weapon is at a glance. Generally, the higher the DPS, the more likely you’ll want to use it. Of course, you’ll want to consider other bonuses on a weapon, especially if you aren’t a melee class, though all things equal, higher DPS wins.

2. CAREER DECISION

In your starting town, career trainers are the ones that grant you your new core abilities. Don’t leave home without them! It’s tempting to keep going out in the wilderness, completing quest after quest; however, after you rank up, you should always return back to home base, seek out the career trainer and learn your new abilities. Each ability increases your power significantly, especially at early ranks, so you’re just handicapping yourself if you skip them. In a close skirmish where your foe narrowly defeats you, that new ability could have saved the day.

3. WE NEED A CRASH CART IN HERE, STAT!

Your stats are your lifeblood. Learn them well to beef up your character and avoid dying repeatedly. Remember, not all stats are created equal for your career. A Bright Wizard, for example, will want to increase Intelligence at all costs to maximize spell efficiency, while a Black Orc would never bother with that rubbish. Study your stats before you start heavily adventuring because, with each piece of magical equipment that drops, you’ll need to make a decision on whether it’s an upgrade or not to your current gear based primarily on the stat bonuses.

4. MAP HAPPY

I’m sure you know you need maps to navigate around the world, but did you know in WAR they’re an integral part of questing? From the first quest that you accept, your main map (the “M” shortcut on your keyboard) circles your quest areas in red. If the quest lies outside the zone, you’ll see a big red arrow pointing you in the correct direction (it’s then circled in the new zone for you). Gather as many quests as you can and then click open your zone map. Most likely they’ll be at least an area or two with more than one circle indicating overlapping quest areas, or if you scroll your mouse pointer into a circle, you may see multiple quests in the same circled area. Now while you’re out and about you can complete several quests in the same area and save time on running back and forth. As an added neat little effect, your mini-map (top right of your screen) also displays the red quest circles so you don’t have to even go to the main map if you don’t want to bother.

5. FLY, BE FREE

Walking is slow going. Running, only a bit better. Once you get through your first few ranks, make your way out to your local warcamp. These areas are controlled by your faction on the outskirts of the zone’s RvR (realm vs. realm) area, where the action against enemy players takes place. Besides things like renown trainers and siege weapons, each warcamp holds a flightmaster. For a nominal fee, a flightmaster will fly you to a new, friendly zone. Travel time turns from hours into seconds, and you don’t have to worry about hoofing it through dangerous foreign territory. Always check the flightmaster for travel options to see if one of your upcoming destinations is a gyrocopter away.