Witch Hunter and PvP / RvR - An in depth look.

[Seldomslayer]

Hello all, this is my first "guide" type post of sorts, so please bare with me.

This is meant to answer or go over any general questions or concerns many of you might have about Witch Hunters in PvP or RvR combat. I have only gotten to level 20 and end of tier 2 game play so if anyone who has gotten higher see something different in their experiences than mine, please feel free to post. I will add more and make edits as I level and as necessary.

General PvP
This section covers many of the different uses of a Witch Hunter and their skills in general in a PvP situation in 5 parts; the purpose, the pistol, the sword, the armor, and the getaway.

The Purpose
The main two things to remember as you fight through PvP as a Witch Hunter are:

1. You ARE a squishy.
2. You ARE a melee killing machine.

The purpose of the Witch Hunter is to get to the target, take it out, and depending on the situation, get out.

Our main targets are the back row RDPS and Healers on an offensive role, and MDPS attacking our healers on a defensive role.

The Pistol
The pistol not only gives the Witch Hunter an awesome look, but also executions which are their high damage skills and finishers in some cases, as well as grants the Witch Hunter much versatility. The pistol; however, is NOT the main source of damage for the Witch Hunter. While, yes, you can stand on the top of a wall just for the mere reason of taking pot shots at enemies instead of going in the fray as melee, it is not going to get you very far, is frankly not much fun in my opinion. There is not many special pistol skills other than snap shot , which is the skill you use to shoot the pistol as it is not auto attack, and of course if you have any accusation points saved up to do an execution.

What the pistol IS good for, is of course the executions mentioned before, dropping someone who happens to be running away from you, if you are using skills such Absolution that snare the target, taking pot shots from a distance if you are either outnumbered or cant get to a target, etc.

The Sword
The sword is the Witch Hunter's primary source of damage and building accusation points to finish off an enemy with either pistol or torch. Not much to say here other than the obvious uses.

The Armor
The main stats to focus on when you are gathering your awesome pieces of armor (Most important to least) are:

Strength - Increases melee damage and reduces your opponents chance to block or parry your attacks.
Weapon Skill - Increases your chance to parry an attack and increases armor penetration on enemies.
Wounds - Increases the amount of health you have.
Initiative - Increases your chance to evade attacks, detect stealthed enemies, and lower your chance to be critically hit
Ballistic Skill - Increases ranged damage and reduces your opponents chance to block or evade attacks.

The Getaway
Witch Hunters have a few skills that can be used to get away in a bad situation.

Flee - increases run speed by 30 for 10 seconds. You immediately lose all of your action points, any career mechanic points, and your Morale will begin to drop, and you will not begin to regain action points until 10 seconds have passed.

Incognito - your stealth skill.

Declare Anathema - knocks your target down as you leap backwards, jumping away from them.

PvP - Scenarios
In my opinion, this is the type of game play the Witch Hunter excels in the most. The Witch Hunter in scenario PvP can play a vital role in much of the different changing battlefield situations. In many cases, I was one of the top damage dealers and killers of EITHER side.

Advantages:
1.) This form of PvP is arguably the easiest in difficulty for this class.

2.) You have the opportunity to succeed more as an individual here than in open world RvR.

3.) The number of players allowed in scenarios is somewhat smaller than what you would find in many open world battles. Smaller numbers of people equal less damage focused on YOU! This allows for you to stay up longer and devastate the back ranks of the enemy's line, which is further made easier with the Witch Hunter's stealth ability, Incognito.

4.) With the Incognito ability, you are often able to catch the other team off guard and "ninja" (take away while others are not paying attention/focused on it) certain objectives in the scenario.

5.) Witch Hunters are very versatile. Scenario combat implements many special terrain features, high cliffs over a choke point, buildings, bridges, high walls which you can sit on, tunnels, etc. Witch Hunters have many skills available to them to take great advantage of this scenery. We have our pistols which we can take ranged shots at players below, or if we have accusation points built up, do executions which further harass the players below, stealth to hide in tunnels or on the other side of a building to ambush, etc. The possibilities are endless.

6.) You have the ability to sit in the back lines of the enemy force and pick off people running from the battle with little health.

Disadvantages:
1.) With the smaller number of players, theres less people on your team as well, meaning less heals or support for you.

2.) The battles are not quite as epic and personalized as they are if you were to play in open world RvR and keep sieges.

3.) Much easier then open world RvR or keep sieges. (For some this is a disadvantage, others it is an advantage, depending on the player.)

RvR - Open World, Battlefield Objectives, and Keep Sieges
In these situations, depending on the size of the battle, the Witch Hunter's usefulness and effectiveness greatly depends on everyone else around you. You need your healer to make sure you stay up long enough to take down a back row target in a large battle, you need your tanks to make sure your healer does not die and to distract their tanks and casters. You need your RDPS to take out their tanks. You need other MDPS to help you FF (Focus Fire) on healers and other back row squishy classes. This form of PvP is more of a team effort than it is a solo person and their individual accomplishments, which is a major thing to keep in mind while playing.

Advantages:
1.) More epic-in-proportion and personalized battles. (e.g. Massive battle over a keep that lasts for hours, days, or maybe weeks that might be over your realm or guild's keep, making you want to keep it more)

2.) You have more of the ability to go in with your group or guild and do your own separate thing to help the overall battle, like take battlefield objectives around a keep while the main zerg forces on both sides are duking it out over the keep, or do a flanking maneuver on the back of the enemy zerg force, etc.

3.) In my personal opinion, people get to know your name more and the guild/group you fight with on both factions.

4.) With our stealthing abilities, we can go into the back ranks and distract or take out their healers and back-line support, allowing our side of the conflict to possibly take advantage of that and over run the opposing force.

Disadvantages:
1.) A bit harder to "do your own thing" if that is your thing.

2.) Since the Witch Hunter is so squishy, we go down fast if we are not getting heals to keep us up.

3.) To compliment number 2, I have personally noticed the Witch Hunter is very often the target of much focus fire, whether we are in fact in the back of the enemy's ranks dropping their healers, etc. Or if we're in our own side of the battlefield helping out the defense.

PvP - 1v1
This section includes my own personal experience when going toe to toe with each of the other faction's classes. This whole section is strictly opinionated. My mastery line is The Path of Judgement.
Black Orc

I would not say they are necessarily as difficult to fight as they are annoying. This fight usually ends up being more of a long, drawn out fight. And I have not had the opportunity to finish one out full 1v1 because its usually interrupted by either someone else from order or someone else from chaos.

Shaman

One of the easier targets. Somewhat quick kill in many cases, as long as their allies do not kill you first if they have any around.

Squig Herder

Not too difficult either, as long as you get the stealth advantage in.

Chosen

Similar to the black orc experiences.

Magus

Easy Target.

Zealot

Hard cookie to break. They have many DoTs as well as the ability to heal themselves and snares.

Marauder

Not much trouble with these guys when I have had encounters with them. Most of the encounters I have had with them was with a group, not 1v1. And at that point, they're usually focused on the rest of your team.

Witch Elf

I usually do not have many problems with them. The main thing I have to be cautious of with them is the fact that they have stealth too. Usually they're too busy attacking my support players than me.

Desciple of Khaine

One of my most troublesome of enemies to deal with. Good armor. Good attack. Heals. Buffs. Debuffs.

Sorceress

Depends on who gets the first hit, really.

Screenshots
For those of you who want some eye candy here is some screenies of the Witch Hunter and some of the unusual bugs I have found.

http://s241.photobucket.com/albums/f...t=4d501fde.pbw

Other Guides and Information

General skill use guide
http://www.warhammeralliance.com/for...ad.php?t=56701

Skill stats, morales, tactics, path builder:
http://www.warhammeralliance.com/for...ad.php?t=57005

Thanks! Hope this was useful to some people and feel free to ask questions or post anything I should add on or correct!

[Wray]

Great post, loved the detail and the Pros and Cons of each. Could you post your thoughts on 1v1 with whatever classes you have had the experience with?

Also, are WHs the only class with a stealth ability, or does chaos have a mirror ability?

[Elge]

Originally Posted by Wray

Great post, loved the detail and the Pros and Cons of each. Could you post your thoughts on 1v1 with whatever classes you have had the experience with?

Also, are WHs the only class with a stealth ability, or does chaos have a mirror ability?

Witch Elf is the Witch Hunter's mirror, complete with stealth and all.

[Seldomslayer]

Updates:

Section based on my experiences with the other side's classes 1v1 as per Wray's request.

Included helpful links to other guides and resources.

[Wray]

Thanks Seldomslayer, great info.

Also, (from my haven't played beta yet viewpoint) I thinks WHs have an edge on other classes, because our evil twin is a female, and i think that will deter a lot of folks from playing her. That means that we will own the market on stealth and the true burst damage rogue type (opposed to the other MDPS types).

[Vongard]

Great post. Thanks for the tips and the breakdown. Can't wait to get into some good open world RvR and Keep Sieges.

[Seldomslayer]

Yeah keep sieges are amazing... I started a random pug warband to do some PQs and we decided to take a T2 keep in ostland... the battle between order and destro over it lasted for 6 hours after that... was cool how my little pug warband started such a big battle. like 100+ people on either side fighting over it. Now imagine when the game goes live with 10x that many people.

[Tyrias]

So if I play Witch Hunter, and play it smart of course, will I be of good use to my team mates by taking out enemy casters/squishes? Or is it just sort of a 'bonus' for the class? Rather, will my role in the RvR, Scenario, or small skirmish be valued by my team memebers?

I know it's thrown around a lot here at the forums, but quite frankly no one has given a real straight forward answer. Luckily your write up cleared up many things I was a bit worried about, though I'm still afraid that my contribution to the encounter will be less valued as opposed to say, a White Lion.

[Seldomslayer]

Originally Posted by Tyrias

So if I play Witch Hunter, and play it smart of course, will I be of good use to my team mates by taking out enemy casters/squishes? Or is it just sort of a 'bonus' for the class? Rather, will my role in the RvR, Scenario, or small skirmish be valued by my team memebers?

I know it's thrown around a lot here at the forums, but quite frankly no one has given a real straight forward answer. Luckily your write up cleared up many things I was a bit worried about, though I'm still afraid that my contribution to the encounter will be less valued as opposed to say, a White Lion.

If you are taking out the healers and support keeping the front lines alive, that gives your team a chance to take advantage of the fact that the enemy front line wont have heals. Your group benefits from this the most

The thing to remember about the White Lion, is the pet. While it obviously has its uses, it can also be a burden as the White Lion has to look out for it. Also, they do less DPS as Witch Hunters would.

[Corvus]

For those of you who aren't properly manipulating ALL of the WH abilities, it can get rather boring and tedious just "Sinister Striking" and "Eviscerating". The WH is a powerhouse in PvP due to several awesome overlooked abilities. You do have a giant damaging morale ability which will end combat with just about anything but tanks. You can't just whip them out, you have to work for them. On top of that, there are several debuffs you can pull out to make your survivability just AMAZING! Try wading through 7+ Destruction while being targeted by all of them and surviving for 20 seconds without a healer. It's really just amazing. Get Thee Behind Me is what our squishie melee dps needs to make us viable in large scale pvp. Our stealth isn't as amazing as it could be but it definately gives us the advantage. I personally go after the casters. With the Spiritual Resistance that I've accrued through just questing, casters can't touch me. I destroy the disc riders, witches, etc. Playing this class is more fun than any other melee class I've ever played in any mmo.


-
"Suffer Not a Witch to Live"
Exodus 22:18

[Biggi]

Witch Hunters are really scary, and I always run away when one enters melee combat with me!

[DeaExMachina]

I assume you're talking about Holy Blade/Expurgation? Speaking of Morale abilities how often do Beta WH see themselves using Exoneration? As one of our two healing abilities it seems like a highly important ability you'll almost always be using as soon as the cool down is reached (That is if Rank 1 Morale can be reached within 1 minute, I'm still unfamiliar with how fast that bar can go up).

Anyways Corvus you are talking my talk, thats exactly how I picture WH is focusing on his defensive abilities and being able to survive multiple opponents even with his squishy self. <3

[scyld]

Originally Posted by Wray

Also, (from my haven't played beta yet viewpoint) I thinks WHs have an edge on other classes, because our evil twin is a female, and i think that will deter a lot of folks from playing her.

Hehe, no offense, but this comment suggests that you have not played many MMORPGS

Guys love playing scantily-clad sexy females.

Also, excellent guide with good insight into the game. Would read again etc.

[Tyrias]

Originally Posted by Seldomslayer

If you are taking out the healers and support keeping the front lines alive, that gives your team a chance to take advantage of the fact that the enemy front line wont have heals. Your group benefits from this the most

That's all I need to hear! Me and my friends will all be rolling together, but I don't want to have to be carried through a scenario. It's good to hear that the WH class is one that must be used very conjointly with our team for it be to good!

[Seldomslayer]

Originally Posted by DeaExMachina

Speaking of Morale abilities how often do Beta WH see themselves using Exoneration? As one of our two healing abilities it seems like a highly important ability you'll almost always be using as soon as the cool down is reached (That is if Rank 1 Morale can be reached within 1 minute, I'm still unfamiliar with how fast that bar can go up)

It usually takes a minute or less if you are engaged in combat the whole time.