Choppity, Chop, Choppa

So I decided to roll a Choppa on the Karak Norn European server (now you can have both Order and Destro chars on the same server) of Warhammer Online, and I must say it's a blast! I can dish out plenty of damage and as long as I've got a friendly tank or healer around I'm a real force to be reckoned with.

I've been doing a big of research and found some some interesting stuff about these killing machines, notably around what they stand for and how you should spec them to compliment your play-style.

Choppa Lore


This is what Warhammer Online has to say about Choppas: “Orcs are always itching for a fight, and at the best of times their insatiable bloodlust is barely restrained long enough to form some sort of rudimentary plan of attack. Choppas don't even have that minimal self-restraint. Ornery and savage, their one-track mind is dead seat on getting stuck in and bashin' heads! Chopping is what they live for, chopping is what they are best at, and this one-track focus makes them ferocious fighters. As such, a Choppa who lives long enough quickly turns out to be the most elite fighter of the Greenskin horde, wreaking havoc throughout enemy lines purely for the sake of satisfying their own self-indulgent bloodlust.”



Playing a Choppa

Playing a choppa is all about walking the dangerously thin edge of control. While in Berzerk!, a choppa does a frightening amount of damage, but he is also extremely vulnerable. Proper management of rage through exhaustive blows and other abilities is essential to being a good choppa – it doesn’t matter how much damage you can do if you don’t live long enough to dish it out. Choppas have some of the most powerful AoE abilities of any melee DPS class, so its important for them to be aggressive and take the fight right to the heart of the enemy whenever possible. Keep in mind that Choppas have the worst defenses of any melee DPS class, so almost as much effort has to be put into staying alive as is put into dealing the hurt. A dedicated healer or guard will make your job as choppa significantly easier.


Choppa Mastery: Path of Da' Savage

Da’ Savage is all about utility and survivability. Many of the choppa’s most useful talents are in this tree, and many choppas choose this path as their secondary path even if they put the majority of their points elsewhere. Wot Rules? Is a tactic that many choppas claim to be essential, as it allows you to use exhaustive blows without removing your rage. The second to last learned skill in this tree, Furious Choppin’, heals you as you do damage, and is one of the best tools a choppa has for surviving a long fight. While perhaps not as high damage as the other two paths, for the beginning or jack of all trades choppa, this tree is essential.



Choppa Mastery: Path of Da' Hitta


The path of Da’ Hitta is all about dealing powerful exhaustive blows, and followers of this path are given new ones to work with and talents to make those blows more powerful. Da’ Hitta also requires the use of a great weapon, which does slightly less overall damage than duel wielding, but has greater burst potential. Follow this path if you want to take down healers and casters quickly, before they have a chance to flee or heal. The two exhaustive blows learned in this tree put huge debuffs on your enemies, so its hard not to recommend this path to people who like getting killing blows and wreaking havoc on RvR back lines. If you like two-handed weapons and you don’t mind a little damage inconsistency, then this path is for you.



Choppa Mastery: Path of Da' Wrecka


The path of Da’ Wrecka is all about dealing huge amounts of AoE damage, and it is arguably the most powerful tree. It fits the closest with the choppas playstyle and many of the skills in the tree are immensely powerful. Git to Da Choppa allows you to do damage and simultaneously pull your victims toward you while you prepare to unleash one of your many other powerful AoE abilities. Extra Choppin’ makes a good skill amazing, allowing Lotsa Choppin’ to hit three times as many targets. If you want to top the damage charts by large margins and cause your enemies to flee in fear when you approach, then this is most definitely the path you want to follow.


I'm personally leaning more towards single target damage therefore I'll probably be looking to spec Hitta with some Savage for survivability thrown in for good measure.


Ish