Morale

From HammerWiki

Morale is a combat resource gained while attacking that can be spent to activate various morale abilities.

Morale is represented by a blue bar in the center of the UI over the top of your character's facial animation that slowly fills up. Once combat has been entered a character's morale meter rises when they start killing opponents or if their group is fighting well. A portion of the morale gained by a group member will be fed to everyone else in the group, and in return all the members of the group will be feeding him a portion of the morale that they gain. As the morale meter builds up, it takes more and more effort to build it further up, so the longer you try to save morale, the harder it is to gain. The morale meter starts to decrease once a character is no longer fighting, and it can also decrease if a fight is going badly.

Morale abilities have four ranks, with each rank providing an ability of increasing power. At the lowest rank, abilities use 25% of the morale meter, then 50%, then 75%, and finally 100%. As the morale meter fills up, players can choose to use their lower level morale abilities, or wait for the meter to increase further so that they can unlock their more powerful abilities. It is expected that the highest rank morale abilities will only be used rarely, when players gather in large groups and they can take advantage of group morale mechanics. The most powerful abilities shouldn't provide one-shot kills, but they will look impressive, they will have a significant effect on a combat, and they could determine the outcome of a fight if used at the right time.

[edit] Acquiring morale abilities

Morale abilities can be learned as characters advance. Players will have to choose from the morale abilities that they have learned to fit into each slot on their morale meter before entering combat.

There are three different types of morale abilities:

• Career morale abilities. These are available only to your specific career.
• Archetype morale abilities. These are available to everyone of your archetype. For example, the tank morale abilities are available to Swordmasters, Ironbreakers, Black Orcs and Chosen.
• Racial morale abilities, that are specific to your race, regardless of career. Meaning, for example, the same of these are available to all Dwarfs, be they Runepriests, Engineers or something else.

With the points available, you will be able to mix and match between these three types as you see fit.

For a selection of early morale abilities, see Category: Morale abilities.