War Rock (open beta) Strategy guide
Written by: David Shi
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Table of contents
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-Version number and updates
-Copyright notice
-Contact me
-Intro
-General Game play Tips
-Sniping Tips
-Advanced Strategies
-Character Classes
-General Buying Guide
-Maps and their strategies
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Version
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25/08/06 ver. 0.5
31/08/06 ver. 0.7(updated tips from Blackwingdragon)
- Added many tips from Blackwing Dragon, updated character classes tips
and a
Map tip.
04/10/06 ver. 1.0* (major update and reformatting, many new
tips/strategies and
corrected several typing mistakes and probably made another motherload)
Note: * indicates it is the version that you're looking at.
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Copyright Notice
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*This guide may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except
for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or
otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission from
me. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public
display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright laws.
**All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned
by their respective trademark and copyright holders.
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Contact me
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My e-mail is airplane3666@hotmail.com
You can e-mail me for other tips and strategies I have missed or
errors in the text. Please enter an alias or name so I can give you
full credit.
Note: Enclose in e-mail subject the name of this guide or it will be
flagged as junk mail.
Note 2: my username in War Rock is ionwalker
Note 3: my xfire username is ionwalker
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Intro
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War Rock is, in my opinion, a first-person-shooter that takes the
definition of FPS to a whole new level. In this exciting new MMOFPS,
(massively, multiplayer, online, first-person-shooter) you can not only
use a variety of weapons to engage in intense, fast-paced firefights
but also a huge array of different vehicles such as the UH-60 blackhawk
and the M1A1 Abrams main battle tank. Turning what would have been a
man against man combat into a war complete with all the threats a
modern army soldier would face.
This game is free to play but when it comes out of beta, you will be
able to buy special items and weapons with real money. For those who
don't wish to spend, the game will still be completely free. How to get
the game? Just go to www.warrock.net, sign up, log in, then click
download now.
NOTE: There's a complete system requirements page and game guide at the
site.
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General Game play Tips
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- As with all FPS games, your stance is very important. The lower
your stance is, the lesser chance you have of getting spotted or shot
and I have noticed getting prone helps snipers alot in their aim.
- Use available cover, this goes without saying but some still walk
right in the open and snipers stand in the middle of nowhere to snipe.
- If you here a hiss or an sssk kind of sound, it means someone is
trying to snipe you! The most effective way to avoid getting hit is to
enter a vehicle other than a motorbike. Taking cover isn't a very good
idea since you don't know where the sniper is so you might actually be
giving him/her a better shot!
Running is not an option unless you know the sniper isn't very good. I
personally have no trouble killing/headshotting somebody who is
running! :)
- In this game, you have 5 character classes to choose from so you
must adapt. You must get used to each class's strength and weaknesses
as well as getting the right weapon for them. (I'll cover procuring the
right weapons and the character classes later in the guide)
- Energy management; In this game, like some others such as
America's Army(r) you have an energy bar situated under you hp bar.
This bar will decrease if you sprint (double tap w) or if you perform a
tumble (holding w, a, s, or d, and pressing shift).
My tip for energy management is as follows: don't use tumble unless
you're trying to evade enemy bullets or racing from cover to cover, I
come to this conclusion because by using the same amount of energy a
tumble requires to sprint, you'll cover a larger distance. Also, if you
wish to run quickly from a cover to another make sure to wait until
your energy bar is maxed, otherwise, you might find yourself walking
into an enemy's crosshairs!
- Reloading; War Rock has a rather realistic reloading system, in
other games like Call of Duty(tm) or America's Army(r), when you reload,
your magazine is conserved or the remaining bullets are added to your
total amount of bullets. Which kind of doesn't makes sense 'cause it's
kind of hard to imagine that someone the middle of battle would keep a
magazine with only 5 bullets left (America's army) or dig the remaining
out and fill it in another (Call of Duty)
In other words, don't reload your gun when it's magazine still has
half the bullets unexpended, but do reload if it is below 3/4 expended.
- Grenades; luckily most rooms have team kill turned off, if this is
the case, feel free to throw a grenade into a room with enemies even
though there's a friendly soldier right beside them!
- Easiest way to win is obviously to get all the bases so that the
enemy can only spawn at one point, their home base, which means if your
entire team is there, killing them all as they spawn is easy. This
strategy is quite frustrating for the opposing team, but nevertheless,
very fun for you.
- APC's (Armored Personnel Carriers) have a healing and replenishing
ammo capability, just sit in the back seats (4-6) and it will heal/give
ammo as if you were beside an ammo/health rack.
- Never wait for a vehicle on any of the maps, even vehicle combat!
Chances
are, you'll get sniped while waiting(engrene) and not helping your team
in any
way which means your team will quickly get spawn-killed!
- Combatants are an NESSECITY on any team, on any map! Without them,
and with
the teams being relatively fair, the team without combatants are surely
going to
lose. Why? It is because they are the backbone of any team! If you
think about
it, you'll find that the combatants weapon shoots reasonably fast for
close-
range combat, and is rather accurate, permitting you to engage at
medium to
long-range without too much difficult, contrary to the SMGs. AND they
still have
grenades.
- The heavy unit's weapon lack a strong close range combat ability
but they
do have somewhat multi-purpose capability. For example, you can kill
vehicles in
2 to 3 shots, kill people in one shot if they have less then 50% health,
and
blast those snipers into hell. That takes allot of skill 'cause the
shell
trajectory curves down at a distance. Stingers aren't very good at
taking down
a-10s but for helicopters, they rock, usually if you don't kill them in
a shot
or 2 the green pilot will probably crash it while trying to evade your
missile
anyways.
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Tips from Blackwing Dragon
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NOTE: Slightly corrected spelling mistakes, and re-worded these tips to
make
them more comprehensive.
- Never, EVER get too close to a wall crawling. (this game suffers from
poor
wall encoding and your feet will most likely poke out of the wall
giving the
enemy a good shot)
- First of all, when you know an enemy's around but not where, move in
the
crouched position. Moving crouched, *YOU MAKE ABSOLUTELY NO SOUND*. I
snuck up
on snipers a lot because I was crouching, sprinting/running or even
crawling
makes a sound.
- If you want to spare a few seconds of selecting weapons, simply
unequip your
FISTS (Right click on it and click ok), so the weapon you spawn with is
the one
in slot 2. This way if you are getting base-killed you can start
blasting right
away.
- An Engineer is valuable in Vehicle combat, but don't choose one
unless it's
not vehicle. Why? Medic is better because she can heal, while Engineers
cannot.
The two are the same otherwise. Engineers can heal 12% of vehicle HP
every 2.33
seconds on a vehicle. It's the big bad vehicle version of a medic.
Survive a
tank dogfight, fix it up and keep truckin :-D. Recommend P90 or an Uzi
as a
third slot weapon, just like for the Medic.
- When sniping, make sure you snipe behind a sharp edge of the
terrain so you can be easily masked by it.
- Leading, usually, this goes without saying but I'll explain it
anyways.
Leading is when you try to snipe a hit a moving target. Bullets travel
fast but
from a distance, you are likely to miss if you shoot with the
crosshairs on the
target. To compensate for the time the bullet takes to travel, you'll
need to
shoot ahead and therefore getting the target when he gets to the point
in space
at the same time as the bullet. In War Rock, most sniper rifles are
somewhat
inaccurate. You'll notice that the bullet goes, most of the time,
either
slightly to the upper left/right or lower left/right of your crosshair
intersection. It takes awhile to get used to but once you've got a feel
for it,
then, like me, you'll be able to actually HEADSHOT a moving target.
- Another thing to remember when sniping is mobility! Always move
after you
have killed someone who has seen you! Lazyness = death! The person will
probably
respawn as a scout or get into a vehicle and go to your original
location to
blast you off the face of the earth!
Here I elaborate on different strategies to be used to take a base or
just to
have fun and win!
Note: OPFOR means opposing forces
OPERATION 'NADE 'N STORM (for infantry maps)
Pretty self-explanatory, basically a group of combatants and a medic or
two
advance towards the OPFOR base. All the combatants throw each a grenade
at
diferrent points of the base, then quickly, the entire group except one
combatant will storm the place, getting rid of any remaining opposition
ant
moving into a defensive position to take the base. The combatant
outside is to
stop any OPFOR trying to help those inside getting slaughtered so it's
a good
idea for him to be somewhere where he can cover the entry-ways to the
base. (If
the base really has many routes in, then it might be wiser to have 2
player
standing guard)
OPERATION FLANKERS (infantry or vehicle combat)
Another one that's fairly straight-forward. General meaning would be to
attack
from all possible sides and angles. Really devastating for the enemy if
used in
conjunction with 'nade 'n storm. Best place to use this would certainly
be
Harbor IDA.
OPERATION HEAVY ARMOUR( for Havana and any other map with tanks and/or
armored
personnel carriers)
A few vehicles should be involved such as a tank, at least one humvee
whether it
is TOW Humvee or 50 cal. and another support vehicle such as an APC.
The basic
procedure is to establish a heavily defended place within the OPFOR
base, such
as around a repair and ammo point. So, here goes, your tank and humvees
move in
quickly, the tank sits either close to the repair point or on it, then
it start
blasting away at the OPFOR while the humvees cover the blind
spots/extremes of
tank. You can also bring along some combatants/medics in a truck and
bring along
an AA tank if there is one. The engineers (you haven't forgotten about
them I
hope) will of course be in the humvees. They can start repairing the
other
vehicles when necessary while the driver can act as gunner too while
the
engineer(s) is gone. After a while, either leave or go down fighting
because the
OPFOR will respawn will heavy weapons and eventually, you vehicles will
blow!
However, if this is pulled off correctly, then you can pulverize a huge
amount
of OPFOR in a short amount of time, which translates into your team
win's and
personal achievement.
Another variation of this tactic is to move, meaning that the motorcade
will
move through the base without stopping more than a heartbeat. That
means you'll
need gunners on every vehicle and replacements because you can bet that
there's
going to be snipers around.
OPERATION BLACKHAWK
First, get a competent pilot (like me) and 1 or 2 gunners. Fly to the
OPFOR home
base (to be known as Hbase from now on in this section) or another
OPFOR base
brimming with enemy activity to have some hardcore fun!
Pilot: Remember to never stay in hover but rather gently circle the
OPFOR base
and let the gunner blast away, when he says his gun is overheating,
change
direction so the other gun can start shooting. If there is heavy anti-
aircraft
threats such as the AA tank, the AA guns and stingers all together then
do the
following: Run a straight line over the OPFOR base cutting it in half,
flying as
fast as you can, as soon as you're past the base either drop lower if
possible
or change direction.
Gunners: If your pilot executes a circling pattern, one of you shoot
while the
other gun cools off. When your gun is overheated, tell your pilot, to
change
direction, and hence, permitting the other gunner to shoot until it
smokes! This
way, you have a gunship that delivers a huge amount of fire power in an
unstopped hail of bullets. Sadly, if your pilot does the direct line of
approach,
then both gunners will have to spray the base because in a few short
moments,
you'll either all be dead or pulling away from the base.:-)
I have just given you the ingredients now, it's up to you to combine
them
together to make a full scale assault!
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Character Classes
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The five classes all have in slot one: fists (beat up that S.O.B.)
and a Colt .45 automatic pistol plus their main weapon and grenades.
Engineer:
Pros: - Fixes vehicles to full hp after a period of time even though it
was on the brink of destruction.
- Has a good basic weapon-the MP5.
- Later on, his weapons will be compatible with the medic's, get
the P90
or some other kind of better weapon.
Cons: - His basic weapon while good for a start is rather weak compared
to enemy assault rifles.
- The engineer's weapons have no long-range capability whatsoever.
- The grenade slot is taken up by his spanner- the tool that
gives him the ability to fix things.
Medic:
Pros: - She has a first aid injection with 10 shots which each heals
around 2 blocks of the hp bar instantly!
- She can heal herself too.
- Good basic weapon-the MP5.
- Later on, her weapons will be compatible with the engineer's,
get her
the P90 because you will probably be base-taking/clearing with her so
the 50
bullet per clip of the P90 is perfect!
- Medics are rather good for base infiltration, basic procedure
would be
to go in guns a blazing and take out everybody as fast as you can, then
heal
while taking the base or hading in a good spot if it is the enemy's
home base.
Cons: - Her basic weapon while good for a start is rather weak compared
to enemy assault rifles.
- The medic's weapons, like the engineer's, have no long-range
capability whatsoever.
- The grenade slot is taken up by the first aid injection.
Scout( a.k.a. sniper):
Pros: - Powerful sniper rifle with 2 shot kill potential to the torso
and of course 1 shot kill to the head.
- Unlike the other two classes, the scout conserves his grenades.
- Help your friends by providing cover fire while they move in to
secure a
crucial base, works well in infantry mode combat.
Cons: - Unable to defend himself properly in close-range combat.
Combatant:
Pros: - Starts with a pretty strong assault rifle.
- Has slight long-range capability providing you can see your
target.
- Retains his grenades.
- A good all-around character, great for beginners.
Cons: - His basic weapon proves to be quite weak, forcing you to
upgrade his weapon later on, and since it is a very common and
essential class you'll have to use him at some point in the game.
Heavy Unit:
Pros: - The name says it all; this dude packs a powerful punch!
- Instead of grenades, he has awesome anti-tank mines.
- Later on, he will carry the most power weapons in the game.
Cons: - No close-range combat ability, his panzer Faust just doesn't
kill people in one shot.
- Basic rocket launcher is incredibly weak, taking up to five
shots to destroy a tank.
Eventually people will ask which class is the best. Well it all
depends on the map you are on mate! To learn more, read on to the maps
and their strategies section.
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General Buying Tips
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Here I will cover general buying tips and leave the more in-depth
look at each weapons behind for future in-dept FAQ writers.
NOTE1: The game does not let you buy the weapons but rather to lease
them for a maximum period of 30 days.
NOTE2: As you start, save all your dinars (the game currency).
For all characters:
- Buy a Glock or MP5K so that all your characters especially the Scout
and the Heave Unit have a chance to come out alive from a close-
quarters combat.
Engineer/Medic:
- If you play lot in infantry mode, upgrading their weapons
(particularly the medic's) to a P90 or better is a must.
Scout:
- For those snipers out there, getting a better sniper rifle helps, the
higher version of your basic weapon, the SSG, doesn't really deliver
allot more firepower, but more bullets.
Combatant:
- When you have a surplus of cash (ex: when you bought everything you
wanted) upgrade his weapon. Eventually, you will find the need to
upgrade it anyways.
Heavy Unit:
- Unless you are a freak about RPGs don't ever bother to lease a weapon
for him!
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Maps and Their Strategies
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Here I will write down the strategies I have used on different maps.
Of course I don't play all the maps so I will obviously only write the
strategies for the maps I have played on.
Vehicule Combat:
Engrene:
- If you aren't good at piloting leave it to others! I have seen
newbies countless times taking an A-10 and crashing it on take-off.
- Good A-10 pilots always stay high! The enemy doesn't see you, nor
hears you, and bombing is allot easier diving towards the target and
leaves the anti-aircraft guns little chance of retaliation because
you'll zoom back up in a flash.
- If you like sniping, take a helicopter, make sure it isn't the
ones with hellfire anti-tank missiles (we need that for anti-tank
duties) and fly it on either side of the map, above the mountains.
Ditch it around halfway to the enemy base and proceed on foot. A
helicopter crash-landing in the mountains just around the enemy main
base will just raise doubts of a sniper in the area.
- Sniping around other major enemy base is also an option if your
team is losing, always camp near the ones that are close to your main
base because that's where most of the people will spawn.
- If you feel daring, hole up in the control tower or some other
part of the base!
- When sniping, make sure you snipe behind a sharp edge of the
terrain so you can be easily masked by it.
- Oh yeah, you can also take a truck or humvee as transport for your
sniper transport needs.
- Using a tank in Engrene doesn't mean you're invincible; in fact,
you're actually quite helpless. Most people take a tank to the enemy
main base and wreck everything in sight while hogging the repair and
ammo refills. This is a good strategy but don't expect to get out of it
alive. Gradually, more and more people will spawn as the heavy unit and
the repair power-up won't be able to keep up with your damages. There's
always a chance of you getting bombed on the way there but that is
easily remedied. Simply take a tank from a base near the enemy main
base. No matter which team you're on, there's always a base very close
to your enemy's with a tank.
Paragona:
Note: I don't play this map much so the only things I used to do was:
- Get a boat, infiltrate the enemy main base, hide somewhere and as
they spawn kill them. This is known as the spawn camping technique.
Some consider it "cheap" but I prefer to call it exploiting a weakness.
- Get the armored, gray metal boat known as the Mark 5. Drive it to
the enemy's base and blast away with the grenade launcher and 2
machineguns.
Emblem:
Note: This map is present in Infantry Mode and Vehicle Combat without
and differences.
- Allot of good positions for snipers, total of 4 kills with sharp
terrain perfect for concealment.
- The 2 vehicles, the humvee, and an anti-personal tank, are quite rare
so try to make them last by going on the repair power-ups when
necessary.
- A good tip for snipers would be to only cover a small area and hide
themselves so someone from another angle can't see them because the map
offers a wide range of roofs and hills for enemy snipers so covering
them all will be quite difficult and getting yourself killed will
happen quite frequently.
- If you are going to spawn/base camp, make sure you don't take the
medic due to the fact health stations are everywhere and you won't have
time to heal yourself.
Cantumira:
Note: This map is also in infantry combat.
- A good sniper place is the highest tower THAT IS near the water,
sometimes you
do get shot but if you read on you'll see why it is a pretty good place.
Firstly,
you see allot of the map, secondly if a tank sees you can jump off and
into the
water without harm, and you can do this if enemy snipers are sniping
you.
Practice this a few times before you actually try it out though, and
make sure
you're sprinting towards the railing.
Infantry Combat:
Ravello/Ravello 2nd st.
- In the mission TEAMWORK is crucial, so unless you have a Chuck Norris
on your team, I wouldn't go "Rambo". Staying in groups of 2 or more and
covering each other is the secret to winning.
- Taking the church and holding it helps reduce the enemy team's points.
It has a 360-degree visibility and you can see, from the church roof,
all the bases. At least 2 to 3 people on the roof should be able to
hold it OK while covering all the entrances to the church compound.
Throw in an extra 2 on the ground to cover the alleys/underground
passages. A sniper on the roof should be covering the main routes from
the enemy main base to the church.
- A 1 or 2 could go in the underground tunnels and stop anyone trying
to get to the church by them or wait but the exits of the tunnels into
the church and nab anyone popping out.
- Eventually, you and your team (especially if you're on N.I.U.) will
want to take the other base near the enemy main base. This is
unnecessary but if your team needs to reduce the enemy's points down
drastically it is a good idea. This takes allot of planning because
while you're assaulting that base, the church will be relatively
undefended. As result, speed is crucial. Get 3-4 combatants to go by
the underground and another 2-3 by the main above ground routes.
Quickly, 2 people, usually a medic and a combatant should work on
securing the base, while the others sweep the base for enemy forces. As
soon as it is secured, leave 2-4 to guard it and the rest to either
proceed to the enemy home base, while meeting up reinforcements from
the church or going back to the church depending on the situation.
Note: Obviously there are many other strategies to take bases but this
one seems to work well with Ravello/Ravello 2nd St.
Havana:
- This map is huge and has many bases so it will be hard to work as
a team but try to since it helps allot. The main way to win is to get
all the bases, hold them, and bust the enemy as they spawn. Snipers are
crucial here; a few on the roofs of certain building with combatants
covering their backs can have devastating effects.
- APC's are good too seeing that they can heal and resupply you if
needed. We know all about spawn camping right? Well you can spawn camp
with a tank too! Drive a tank in the enemy main base once all the bases
(or almost) are yours, and blast away. Have some infantry support to
help you if needed, an engineer won't be bad here either.
- Usually, I get 2 tanks to the enemy base, along with an APC and an
engineer or 2. Then from there it's total massacre, none makes it past
the guns.
- There's allot of common sniper spots, especially on the building
across
from base 1 so obviously, don't snipe there instead, find a more
creative spot,
I personally like to sniper or shoot from the fire escape of the
building across
base 1.
