PvP won't be confined to the endgame, however. Every zone leading up to the racial capitals will have areas within them dedicated to PvP. Players entering them will be automatically flagged as eligible targets and will be able to join the ongoing festivities. Mythic also seems to be focusing much of its PvP efforts on a more structured manifestation of this sort of gameplay -- what it's calling Battle Zones. You can make the obvious analogy, and you'll probably be correct. These Battle Zones will be instanced matches between preset groups of players. The number of players on each side won't necessarily matter, mind you. Rather, true to Warhammer's legacy, it's all about their "point" value. A given Battle Zone scenario might have, say, a 1000 point limit. This could permit ten less-powerful players go up against five who are significantly stronger, while theoretically keeping things balanced. It works just like this in the tabletop game. Mercenary units -- belonging to the Dogs of War faction from Warhammer fiction -- will be on hand to make up for any point deficiencies. Above all, Mythic wants to keep queue times to a minimum and emphasize the RvR elements. This is wise, being that they're the primary focus of the game.

The game's quest system will play no small part in nudging players in the direction of the opposing faction. Among your everyday array of time-fodder will be PvP-specific quests that will require players to trade blows, in one form or another, with living and breathing enemies. These could be a simple as a collection quest -- say, one that requires an Orc player to kill ten Dwarves and collect their beards. Another may require Orc players to collectively gather enough flagons of beer to rouse a giant from slumber, in order to have him wreak havoc on the Dwarves. That last one is an example of a "public quest." Players will automatically acquire these upon entering an area in which they're active. Any appropriate tallies will appear on the player's interface upon entering, and if the given task is completed while they're in the vicinity, they'll get full credit, regardless of whether or not they were around for its full duration.


All of this ultimately leads, of course, to city sieges. This will be the culmination of RvR gameplay, and where Mythic is expecting all PvP-centric players to spend much of their time in the endgame. The incentives to laying waste to an opposition city aren't yet clear -- several things were hinted at, most strongly being worldwide faction buffs for the conquering side. Players won't be limited to their racial pairing when it comes to sieges, either. As a matter of fact, it will be easily possible for say, a Dark Elf to leave her lands and join the Greenskins as soon as she can safely traverse the areas in between them. As such, defection is not only accepted -- it's encouraged, as it could lead to more diverse populations.

Killer Players

Diversity will likely be paramount to success in the RvR game for one key reason: each race will have access to entirely different classes. Not to say that they won't be self-sufficient -- everyone will have access to healers, tanks, and DPS. It's just that they may not resemble each other very much past those very basic roles. So far, we're only privy to the Dwarves' selection of classes. They are as follows: the Ironbreaker, which will be a defensively-oriented warrior class; the Hammerer, which will primarily deal with melee DPS; the Runepriest, which will heal, buff, and enchant the weapons of its allies; and the Engineer, which will utilize quirky gadgets to wreak havoc on the battlefield. Each race can be expected to have anywhere from three to five classes available to it, and I would be surprised if the number weren't consistent between them all. We all know how seriously a playerbase can take these kinds of "imbalances."