RF Online Guide for World of Warcraft Evacuees

[Xarith]

First off let me start by saying this is not an all-inclusive guide to RFO and things could change before release. Please see the other guides for greater detail about each system referenced. This is a guide meant to ease WoW players into RFO.

Updated: minor tweaks as suggested in the thread and added info about crafting/mining.

Moving and killing things

Moving:

You click to move, and can switch to “keyboard” controls to use the WASD style moving as well. Running drains stamina (SP) and when it reaches close to 0 you will switch to walk mode. W or Ctrl-W if you are in keyboard mode will switch you back. There is no autorun where you press one button and run while you steer.

Ctrl-click another player for a menu that allows you to follow them.

Targeting:

You click to target, there is no “tab” ability (yet). Mobs don’t show you a static level, instead they use a more traditional system called “consider”. This works by letting you know how strong “up” or “down” from you a monster might be. Use your radar to find mobs to kill, see next section. In general the more “stars” in the target frame, the harder the mob is for you at your current level.

Combat:

To start combat, select a target and click again or press the space bar. Attacking a target will move you into position/range to start attacking, and follow the target if it moves. This reduces a lot of the WoW spam errors such as being out of range, not behind the target, target not in front of you, etc.


Leveling your character

Basic Stats:

There are three stats to look at on your character. HP, FP and SP. HP is just like health, FP is mana and SP is new for WoW players. SP is the Stamina and controls how far you can run. All increase over time and all have potions sold by an NPC to recharge them. Potions do not have a global potion timer. They have a moderate timer each so you can use many potions in the same fight.

Classes:

The Ranger is closest to your Rogue class. They use guns mostly and can get up to some real heavy weapons. These are best on the Accretia side who can use the Launcher. Available to all races.

The Warrior is a melee class much like the WoW Warrior, but they do great damage on their own. Available to all races.

Spiritualists are casters and are your equivalent to Priest, Mage, Druid Warlock. If you like being a Warlock be a Cora Spiritualist. Priest and Druid fans will prefer the Bellato Spiritualist. Available to Cora and Bellato only.

Specialists are the crafters. No crafting selections are available for your other characters, so if you want to get into making armor, weapons and ammo you need to create 1 character dedicated to that purpose. Available to all races.

Skills:

You won’t see the same complexity of skills as in World of Warcraft. Instead each skill has an XP % and a level. You can only increase in level if you have available TP in that skill category. You gain TP each level, and will never have enough to max all skills, so focus your skill levels. You gain levels by using the skill, so be sure you have a lot of FP available as needed. Open the skill window with "S" and drag/drop the skills to your taskbar just like in WoW. You can also see the progression and future skills in the skill window.

Quests:

You get new quests when you reach the level required for the quest, look to the bottom right for new quests as they pop up, and follow the prompts. Quest objectives are displayed center right and turn ins are automatic. No more running from Westfall to Redridge to Stormwind to Redridge to Westfall again! To open the quest log press "J" for Journal.

XP Loss:

Yes, there is an XP loss if you die (not sure on when it applies, or how much). When you lose XP you can use an item to restore lost XP 30-70%. You also will not drop below your level, it’s only XP gained since your last level up. On death you return to your bind location, just like a hearthstone. You are all healed and ready to go (minus any XP loss).

Finding your way around

Maps:

Maps are fully explored when acquired. You purchase maps from vendors. Maps are interactive; hovering over an icon will show you what something is. Clicking on the “+” symbols will zoom into that area of the map (usually an allied structure). The vendor will have a map for the area you are in, and other areas you can travel to from there, but will not sell maps for all areas on one vendor.

Radar:

This is more useful in RFO as it works a lot like the Hunter scouting abilities. You see yellow dots, blue dots and green dots all over the place. Purple dots show where guild members are, Blue are your party members, green allies in your faction and yellow are the mobs you can attack. It does not provide terrain mapping, just black background with dots.

General Chat:

Each area is a “Map” and you access the area chat with /Map then your text. Note the capital M as it is case sensitive in the current beta. There is also an all-race chat with /Race just like /Map. While in a party you can use /Party to communicate to all party members.

Whisper:

This is going to be just as hard to get used to as the /Map command, but you preface the player name with / and then your message. If you want to say hit to Xarith you type: “/Xarith Hi there!” and I would get the message.

Transportation:

Besides walking you can buy portal scrolls that instantly send you to a new location. Each city with a vendor will have a scroll for that city and some other locations, so check vendors as you travel to leap-frog to new areas. Unlike the hearthstone there is no 1 hour cooldown, you can use another scroll almost as soon as you arrive in a new location to teleport somewhere else.

Inside each HQ there is a central teleporter that takes you to locations listed for free. Be aware that it might drop you in a location that does not have a teleporter back (bring a scroll).

There is also a shuttle you can buy tickets for, and travel to other locations. This is one aspect of the game I haven't really tested out yet. Once I know a little more I'll put it in here.

Equipment and Storage

Weapons:

Ranged and Melee classes each have one, two or dual handed weapons. One handed weapons allow you to use an off-hand item such as a shield. Two hand weapons show up in the right hand and make the left unavailable for another item. The kicker is the dual wield class where one weapon shows up in both hands. The shown stats take into account the total weapon, so you can’t have two different weapons (this saves ammo, so it’s a good thing for ranged weapons). Each basic weapon has two other types as well. One is called “Intense” and is vastly better with the same requirements as the basic. The second has a purple name and will have differing attributes that could make it better or worse than an Intense of the same level item.

Armor:

You don’t have Cloth, Leather, Mail, and Plate. Instead the armor will be limited by your skills and race. Some armor can only be worn by Accretia for example and will be focused on giving benefits to their Launcher skills. Requirements that you do not meet yet are in red text so it's easy to identify armor you can or can not use.

Bank:

The Coin Exchanger allows you to also store things that can be later picked up by other characters. You should be aware that removing items costs credits, hover over a stored item to see how much it costs to take it out. For this reason don’t use storage for items you plan to sell later, instead vendor or auction them right away. All characters share the same storage unit, and you can purchase expansions for a high price.

Potions:

There are potions for your three stats as well as some to give major benefits. The timers are rather short and they are cheap NPC vendor items so use them regularly. Good use of potions ensures for the fastest game play, very little down time compared to WoW. You can link potions into your task bar, and they stack to 99!

Repairs:

The equipment you use/wear does not incur repair costs. There is also no durability lost on items so you won't break anything. The exception is for Bellato using a MAU. These MAU are large mechs that they sit inside and pilot. The MAU cost a lot of cash, but are a strong advantage in the PvP battles. The MAU can also be destroyed meaning many Bellato will bail out and be left weaker (you tend to be below your MAU level as the pilot). Bailing out will make you more susceptible to defeat from nearby enemy forces, but saves you some cash from repairs. You shouldn't encounter a MAU very eary in your play of the game unless you teleported to an area you shouldn't be in yet.

[b]Crafting:]/b]

Unlike WoW you don't craft items that don't drop, you actually craft exactly the same items that could drop in the world. This may scare some folks off at first, but realize you can't buy high level armor off the vendors and in that level it drops less frequently. Only the specialist class can make items.

You mine for ore, process the ore and use it along with "farmed" materials (monster drops) to craft an item. Be aware that as items go up in level, the level of monster needed for the farmed items becomes higher. For this reason the Specialist will either also go fight, or have a fighter alt. All classes can mine and refine ore. Mining is a time consuming process of standing in one place and allowing the character to do all the work. This sounds easier than WoW at first. That is until you learn about the "core". This is a place where you can mine very fast, but the other factions might kill you while you try.

[Xarith]

OK, draft 1.0 is up. Feel free to provide any feedback, additions, deletions, etc and I will get them added (if the forums allows a late edit).

[Kyliee]

well thats helpful Lol! thats cool about the XP loss system ummm...the big thing about WoW players is their used to super quick lvling up, i think RF i s opposite??? idunno cuz i never played any version hehehe

[Xarith]

I think the RFO method is very direct and there for very fast for leveling up. Sure you can get a 60 in 2 months in WoW as a dedicated player (with a job). I don't think that's the norm for most players though, and the vast ammount of content, travel systems, character crafting, quests (pick ups and turn ins) makes WoW consume more time overall than what I've been seeing in the RFO beta.

The big thing is that WoW players will try to "play WoW" when they get to RFO. The differences are not easy to work out and cause frustration, trust me, I've been there. I'm also coming from playing many MMOs so some of the systems weren't as new as they will be to those who only played WoW.

EDIT: part of my motivation for creating a "WoW Players Guide" was running into a lot of WoW players while in the Beta. My personal prediction is we'll see more former WoW players at release than any other MMO.

[Stalif]

Great guide!

About not being able to repair items, do items have durability that can go down to 0 in WoW? Im just thinking, it really sucks if you have awesome gear that breaks and is unrepairable...

[Xarith]

No, you have no durability to worry about unless you are Bellato with a MAU. I guess I'll have to re-word that bit to make it more clear, thanks for the feedback!

[Omoikanex]

very nice, and thank you very much

[Nazgar]

Very cool guide.

As an ex-WoW player, i had some difficulties for the first hour. Mainly with understanding the skill system. Now I understand it a little better now. And the thing with potions.... way better than in wow. I mean.. i survived a 5 creature add because of that while in WoW, that would mean instant death lol. Oh in traveling you might add that you can warp to the last bound point by using an item you can purchase... without waiting an hour like with the hearthstone.

Now... most npc have a quest button you can click but nothing happens. Will they offer quests in the final version?

[Nazgar]

Oh.. one thing I would like to know.
Is it possible to unlevel a certain skill and then use that point to level another one?

[Xarith]

This is meant to be a guide for the WoW player's first hour or two. The re-skill system is still a bit beyond my ability to explain fully.

As far as transportation goes, I found the teleporters and scrolls to be very obvious. I'll add those in since they are different and in many ways better than in WoW. Same with the potions, no huge cool downs. That's the big avantage here, you spend your time playing, not running around between NPCs or sitting waiting for a cool down. Healing potions, not food with a very low cooldown.

I used up 30 potions on 1 mob the other day, solo'd something that in WoW would have killed me without a chance. Not the most productive use of those potions.