Choosing a Warhammer Class / Career

Now that I received my open beta code for Warhammer Online, I have started turning my attention to the important questions I want to answer for myself in the WAR Beta. Specifically, which class (er.. I mean career) and faction do I want to play?

I began my research in the Armies of War section of the official Warhammer Online website. First and foremost I wanted to settle on a faction, so I brought this up on vent last night with a good real life friend who will also be playing WAR. In WoW, we both play Horde and were naturally leaning towards Destruction. Surprisingly however, after reading all the career choices, we both seemed to like what Order offered us a bit more.

The thing was, even after reading all the careers I still had some trouble processing how all they all fit into the different game archetypes. Then I recalled this article that broke out the careers into the different archetypes.

Tanks
(Black Orc, Chosen, Ironbreaker, Sword master)

Strong Vs Melee DPS (4)

Even Vs Tanks / Melee Healers (6)

Weak Vs Ranged DPS / Ranged Healers (10)

Melee DPS
(Marauder, Witch Elf, Witch Hunter, White Lion)

Strong Vs Ranged DPS / Ranged Healers (10)

Even Vs Melee DPS (4)

Weak Vs Tanks / Melee healers (6)

Ranged DPS
(Shadow Warrior, Bright Wizard, Engineer, Sorceress, Magus, Squig Herder)

Strong Vs Tanks (4)

Even Vs Ranged DPS / Ranged Healers (10)

Weak Vs Melee DPS (4)

Melee Healers
(Warrior Priest & Disciple)

Strong Vs Melee DPS (4)

Even Vs Tanks & Melee Healers (6)

Weak Vs Ranged DPS (6)

Ranged Healers
(Archmage, Rune Priest, Shaman, Zealot)

Strong Vs Tanks (4)

Even Vs Ranged DPS / Ranged Healers (10)

Weak Vs Melee DPS (4)

I most enjoy melee classes, so I wanted to know how the three melee careers stacked up against each other. In particular, I was most attracted to the Witch Hunter (DPS) and Ironbreaker (Tank) classes. After reviewing the above, I have to say that the Melee DPS is quite a bit more attractive considering that it is strong against 10 other classes. It’s a bit like playing Rock, Scissors & Paper and realizing that your opponent is going to choose Scissors 50% of the time. Whereas with the Tanks, you are only strong against 4 and even with 6.

If you simply look at the baseline of how many careers do I do poorly against? Then Tanks score the worst (10) and Range DPS score the best (4). This tells me that the odds are good that Range DPS will be the far preferred archetype. However, from my perspective, this just adds to the joy of choosing Melee DPS. Because what’s the counter-Archetype to Range DPS? Melee DPS. :)