This only focuses on understanding the core basics of the game. If you really want to see some in-depth details, just look at Codex's thread
Also, the 'Reviving' section here may seem sloppy cause tbh, I was annoyed when I was writing that and only wanted to get the point across. Have been too lazy to edit it since.
Introduction
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The, 'How To' thread will be a series of posts that I'll be making in the future to help players understand the core part of DoW2 Elite. In this thread, players will learn the very basic of DoW2 Elite that all players should be familiar with. If I missed anything, please feel free to leave a comment on it. And if you have a valid arguement regarding this 'How To', don't be afraid to raise the issue for the purpose of this group is to help players improve.
*Note
Resources are represented as Requisition/Power
Table Of Content
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Economy
Weapon Family
Micro vs Macro
Retreating
Splash Damage
Bleed
Concede
Reviving
End Note
Acknowledgement
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The Basics
- Economy
Requsition
- Easily, the most used resource in game. Requistion is used for doing almost everything in this game to make your army stronger, be it purchasing/reinforcing/upgrading units or to buy power
Power
- THIS RESOURCE WINS YOU THE GAME. Okay maybe that's an exaggeration but in all honesty, power is used to upgrade units and allow them to fulfill specific roles, to tech up and more importantly, to purchase STRONGER units
Upkeep
- Easily one of the most overlooked aspects of the game by many new players. Upkeep only applies to you once your population exceeds 30/100 "What's so overlooked about this? You just capture points to increase your resource income dummy ^^!" Well, did you know each unit in-game has an upkeep?
What is an upkeep you say? Upkeep is basically how much requisition it is taking from your requisition income ONLY in order for you to field those units. Upkeeps are unit specific, that is to say that each unit has their own upkeep cost. For example, Tactical Marines have an upkeep of 12.75 while a Scout Squad only has an upkeep of 7.65 per model(needs confirmation) etc. Upkeep thankfully only drains your requisition income and the more powerful a unit, the higher the upkeep. Therefore, ONLY field units you need and not for the lulz or risk having a Req income of +150/min compared to your enemies +250/min
Increasing your income
- Points/Node are the only way to increase your Req/Power income. There are two types of points in DoW2 Elite called Natural Points and Contested Points.
Natural Points are Requisition/Power Points/Node which are extremely close to your team. If the enemy keeps on capturing and holding onto to this, you're in deep trouble.
Contested Points are points which are usually in the middle of the map and is where the action usually happens. Unless your is team is holding the middle well, NEVER build your power generators here.
Each point is special in its own way. For example, a requisition points matures over time. while a power point can have its income increased. A requisition point produces more Req/min the longer you hold on to it before capping at a certain income. In a 3v3, this cap is usually at +15 Req. However, when decapped by an enemy unit and recapped, it only produces +5 Req and needs time to mature again.
Power Points however never mature. Instead, its income can be increased by spending Requisition points in it. First, it needs to be activated which cost 125/0. When activated, enemy teams will be unable to capture the point unless they destroy the activated power node which takes time. Time for you to defend the power node. Then, once activated, by spending 100/0 to purchase a generator, players will dramatically increase their power income from (in a 3v3) +2 power when unactivated, +4 when activated, and +5 for each generator placed (up to 3) up for a total of +19. Thus, for 425/0 players will bring a power income of +2 to +19. An activated power node with 3 generators is usually called a, 'Gen farm'. As it cost 425/0 to create a Gen farm, it can be seen why most players highly advice destroying the enemies Gen farm at every possible moment. - Weapon Family
All weapons in DoW has a base DPS.(Damage per Second). This means how much damage the weapon deals to an enemy target at a mean rate of every second A weapon's DPS in based of
1)Base Damage/Hit
2)Damage type
3)Weapon Accuracy
- Base Damage/Hit
All weapons begins with this set damage upon hitting an enemy target. However, upon hitting a target, the base damage will then be multiplied by its damage type.
- Damage Type
Each weapon belongs to 1 of many Damage Type. Each damage type has its own unqiue multiplier to be applied upon a successful hit. The full list however can be seen here. As an example,
Tactical Marine has a bolter which belongs to the, 'Bolter' Weapon family. This weapon family deals a, 'piercing' damage type. The Bolters base damage is 25. When hitting an enemy target with heavy infantry armour, a multiplier of 0.67 is added. Thus, the final damage, assuming that the target is not in cover/garrison would equal to (25 x 0.67) 16.75/hit. This is later multiplied by the bolters reload duration (3 seconds) and reload frequency (6-8 shots fired), burst duration (2 seconds) and the weapon cooldown (1 second) after every burst made. All this multiplied will finally give the weapons final DPS of 9.77 to Heavy Infantry
- Weapon Accuracy
Weapon accuracy is based of three factors.
1) Cover
2) Damage Type & Target Size
3) Movement
Cover not only decreases incoming damage but also, the accuracy of incoming projectiles (excluding explosive and flame based damage) The amount reduced however depends on the cover type with garrison reducing the most and light cover reducing the least amount.
All damage type in DoW2 has a base accuracy depending on the target size. There are 5 sizes in DoW2.
Tiny
Small
Medium
Large
Huge
In practice, The smaller a target is, the lesser the accuracy will be. However, some weapons, mostly Anti-Vehicle weapons that are Slow Firing, Single Shot such as Lascannon or Rocket Launchers have an accuracy penalty on Large< units while Fast Firing, Multiple shots weapons like Heavy bolter has only an accuracy penalty on Tiny Units.
Most if not all infantry based weapons suffer an accuracy penalty when they being fired whilst the shooter is moving. Exceptions to this however include walker-vehicle based range weapons such as a Wraithlords with shoulder-mounted Brightlance or a Melta-Gun Dreadnought which still have 100% accuracy even while being fired on the move. - Micro Vs Macro
What is the difference between macro and micro? And why is it so important to be good in both micro/macro-ing your army?
The Difference
- Macro
Is the management of basically, all the simple generic stuff such as using your GLOBAL ABILITIES, moving your army, capturing points, assisting an ally, not floating resources or attacking an opposing army.
- Micro
Is the management of the smallest detail in your army such as using cover in a huge battle, using your units abilities, Shift clicking your vehicles so as to not expose their rear armour or kiting melee units.
Why master Macro&Micro?
- Both macro and micro are an important aspect in EVERY SINGLE RTS GAME. If you can't master this then you are never going to improve.
Good macromanagement can help you control the map and have an economical and/or technological advantage over your enemy.
Poor macromanagement will leave you out-teched with no requisition point, no power node, and having 1000/30 resources cause you failed to purchase power generators.
Good micromanagement can help you win battles, wipe out enemy units and preserve/save dangerously low hp/fragile units such as Single-Model Tactical Marines, Fire Prism etc
Poor micromanagement will make you lose battles, lose isolated units and make you retreat 3 Dire Avenger squad and 2 Weapon Platform just because 1 Dire Avenger squad was at low health.
What to work on?
- Though most people are good in both areas, new players (me included) tend to slowly but surely forget to micro their units as the battles get larger and the framerate goes to the toilet. Micro is arguably more important than Macro as these abilites can change the tide of a battle that you may be losing and give you all the advantages you can get. Examples include Banshee's 'Fleet of Foot' which greatly increases their speed and reduces oncoming range damage or a Warp Spiders haywire grenade which slows and disables a vehicle's weapon. - Retreating
If you do not work on this. You will never win a single game. Ever. 'X' and 'Alt+X' are your best friend in DoW2
What does retreating do?
- By retreating your units, players will lose complete control of that unit until they have reached their base. One expection to this is the Imperial Guard Commisar who can execute a guardsmen to cancel retreat (useful for escaping from enemy AoE damage).
Who can retreat?
- All Commanders and Unit EXCEPT for (Super Heavy Infantry) Terminator-based units such as Paladins, Assault Terminators etc & Vehicles
When retreating
- Retreating units will gradually have their Movement Speed increased after a few seconds worth of delay
- Will break suppression/snare/stun immediately.
- Will receive only 20% range damage.
- Will receive 90% explosive damage such as Grenades, Plasma Grenades, Grenade launcher
- Will receive 130% melee damage.
- Will gain immunity to weapon knockback. (Grenades, Special Attacks, Manticore)
- Will NOT gain immunity to ability knockback. (Plasma Cannon Shot, Singularity, Nukes)
- Will still be affected by domino knockback. (Getting hit by another model who was knocked back and just so happened to collide with retreating model.)
How to retreat
- NEVER drag a box around the units you want to retreat unless said units are isolated. This is to prevent you from accidently selecting and retreating a nearby Full HP unit by accident and make him run all the way back to HQ. Instead, look at the top right of your screen and see which number hotkey they are assigned to, (can be modified by selecting a unit and pressing Ctrl + number) press it and then MASH the X button until it flies of your keyboard. Why? Because if its not 'Lag' its the System that does not register the retreat button when you first order it. If you find yourself in a very BAD situation such as being outnumbered and outgunned, press, 'Alt+X' to retreat your entire army.
When to retreat
- 'Pff!! Retreat when your units are at low health of course!' Sadly, thats not the case. Dont forget that retreating units still take 100% explosive damage (grenades) and 130% melee damage. So before you even press that retreat button, look behind your army and what do you see? If you see melee units or units able to throw nades such as Scouts or Dire Avengers, DELAY THAT RETREAT and instead, try your best to position them away from those melee/explosive units so as to create a new retreat path for your units and preserve them. - Splash Damage
What is splash damage?
- Some weapons deal splash damage. This is to say that these weapons affects MORE than 1 model as long as they are nearby of each other and this even nearby squads can be affected by the splash damage. More models being hit = more damage being handed out to the squad.
How effective is splash damage?
- Most splash damage weapons tend to be good against Quantity based units such as Slugga/Shoota Boyz, Imperial Guardsmen as we can easily hit 4/5 models etc.
However come T2 and units such as Zoanthropes comes out. This is significant as Zoanthrope does psychic spash damage which hurts Quality units more such as Tactical Marines and Chaos Space Marines etc as psychic damage deals more pain to (S)HI targets such as them.
Examples Of Splash Damage Weapons/Units
- Flamers
- Lightning Claw Terminators
- Bile Spewer
- WraithGuard
- Melee Dreadnought
- Melee Wraithlord - Bleed
What is bleed
- Some players might be thinking,' Hmm, this guy only has half health tac marines with 3 models. Why does he retreat?' The answer is simple. Why lose 75 if not more Requisition to reinforce them when he can just bring them back to base and let them heal to full HP?
'75 Requisition? HAH! That's so little!' Well, a Devastator Marine cost 250 Requisitition. Losing 2 Tactical Marine Model means 150 Requisition spent on reinforcing them. To tier up you need 300 Requisition. This is what a bleed means. Wasting Requisition over and over again reinforcing your units due to poor micro and combat odds.
How to Prevent bleed?
- Simple. Retreat full model, half hp units etc rather then letting them die needlessly. Always take note of a units HP to Model Ratio. - Concede
What is concede?
- Concede is basically giving up and letting the enemy team win. This can be done by pressing 'Escape' and hitting, 'Concede Game'
Why concede?
- Because you're wasting the time of your teammates and opponents.
When to concede?
- Concede when 1 or more of the following criteria have been met
- Most of your team members have lost Majority/All of their army
- You have no power
- A player leaves the game early
- After numerous attempts, even with teammates, you are unable to capture either the contested or the enemy VP's
- The enemy owns all your natural Requisition Point, Power Node and/or Victory Point etc for a very long time and you are unable to recap it - Reviving
What is Reviving?
- Reviving is basically tickling a downed Hero back to life and saving your teammate at the very least 250/0 to buy him/her/it back to life. The higher your commanders level, the higher the initial buy back cost.
Why Revive?
- For starters, reviving a downed Hero saves your teammate resources and helps in preventing a major bleed on his/her economy. In addition to this, you also gain around 75% of your current total Experience Points which help you to easily Level Up your Hero to gain improved health, energy, melee skill , melee damage(?) and range damage.
When to revive?
- Revive a friendly hero after every successful push but make sure to keep your eyes on your hero so you don't end up losing them. In addition, try to revive them as well during a lull in the fighting. NEVER try to revive a friendly hero who is close to the enemies base unless you have achieved amazing map control and are holding on to it.
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End Note
This is pretty much all I can think of that all new players, both Elite and Retail, needs to know. If you think that there are more stuff that needs to be addressed here for Newbies to understand, or you disagree with some parts, feel free to leave a comment and I'll start working on it.
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Acknowledgement
- All statistics and information taken from
The Dawn Of War Elite Codex
Dawn Of War Retail Wiki
- Special thanks to Wise Windu, Lulgrim and everyone in the DoW2 Elite forums for their part in the creation of the Elite codex and making this possible
- Caeltos for founding the Elite mod. And also, Gay Knights