Think you know your lore? Test your knowledge in our , and you might win a hardcover copy of the World of Warcraft comic book signed by artist Jim Lee! For years, World of Warcraft players have been waiting to learn the origin and fate of the missing king of Stormwind, Varian Wrynn. The story of his incredible journey has been chronicled in Wildstorm's fast-paced World of Warcraft monthly comic series, written by comic legend Walt Simonson and featuring art by Ludo Lullabi, Jon Buran, and Mike Bowden. or to make sure you're in the know on the world-shaking events that affect Wrath of the Lich King and beyond. Also be sure to check out , a hardcover collection of issues 0 through 7. It's on shelves and available online now at all major comic retailers. Once you've read up, you're ready to take the quiz. Complete contest rules, including requirements and eligibility, can be found . Good luck!
Do i need to have level 55+ character on some realm or i can create DK right away from the beggining?you need to have a level 55+ character on your realm of choice,before you can make a death knight and no it won't destroy your original level 55 character.
addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldofwarcraftquesthelp.net%2Fdeath-knight%2Fhow-can-i-create-a-death-knight-in-wow';
addthis_title = 'How+can+i+create+a+death+knight+in+WOW%3F';
addthis_pub = '';
With the Patch 3.1 patch notes as long as they are, even we miss a lot of the little things that crop up in them. Luckily, I was reading Kaliope's WoW Crafting Blog (which is fantastic) and happened to spot this little tidbit: All Engineers, regardless of specialization, will be able to get their hands on both Lil' Smoky and the Pet Bombling. You don't need to do the repeatable quest(s) for them and pray to the RNG gods anymore, either.The schemata for Lil' Smoky and the Pet Bombling are now Bind on Pickup drops from Gnomeregan. I know, I know, Gnomeregan is terrible, but most pet collectors are so overleveled for that place that this new method of getting the recipes should be dramatically easier. The Pet Bombling appears to be a 100% drop off of Thermaplugg, the final boss of the dungeon. Lil' Smoky is slightly less reliable, but not by much. He drops off of the Arcane Nullifiers and only the Arcane Nullifiers, as far as testers have found. That makes sense, considering Lil' Smoky shares their model.If you're going to be hunting down these bad (and smelly) boys come patch 3.1, Gnomeregan is the place to be. Kaliope even has some further advice on tracking down Lil' Smoky, should you need it. Good luck on your hunt!
With the Patch 3.1 patch notes as long as they are, even we miss a lot of the little things that crop up in them. Luckily, I was reading Kaliope's WoW Crafting Blog (which is fantastic) and happened to spot this little tidbit: All Engineers, regardless of specialization, will be able to get their hands on both Lil' Smoky and the Pet Bombling. You don't need to do the repeatable quest(s) for them and pray to the RNG gods anymore, either.The schemata for Lil' Smoky and the Pet Bombling are now Bind on Pickup drops from Gnomeregan. I know, I know, Gnomeregan is terrible, but most pet collectors are so overleveled for that place that this new method of getting the recipes should be dramatically easier. The Pet Bombling appears to be a 100% drop off of Thermaplugg, the final boss of the dungeon. Lil' Smoky is slightly less reliable, but not by much. He drops off of the Arcane Nullifiers and only the Arcane Nullifiers, as far as testers have found. That makes sense, considering Lil' Smoky shares their model.If you're going to be hunting down these bad (and smelly) boys come patch 3.1, Gnomeregan is the place to be. Kaliope even has some further advice on tracking down Lil' Smoky, should you need it. Good luck on your hunt!
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. This week Matt offers some tips and insights for the healing Priests that are struggling with Sartharion and his 3 drakes up Welcome to the toughest raid encounter that Wrath has to offer. By the end of the first night, you will wish you decided to stay home and watch the latest episode of House instead.
As a healing Priest, you're going to be extremely valuable to your raid group. It doesn't matter if you're Holy or Discipline. You will have access to either of the two skills that will help your raid get through this encounter.
Guardian Spirit: For the Holy Priests, keep this spell macro'd and on your main tank of choice.
Pain Suppression: Discipline Priests will want to do the same thing.
My guild employs both a Discipline and a Holy Priest and I'll present the strategies used from both perspectives. Is it possible to interchange their roles? Yes. But doing so means that the classes aren't playing at their most optimized positions. When engaging Sartharion with all drakes active, there is virtually no room for error. If even one player gets careless, it has the possibility of wiping the entire raid. Actually, if one player gets careless and gets caught it will wipe the entire raid.
Hazards
Beware tunnel vision: Keep your eyes and ears open for the extraneous hazards that come your way. Step out of the way of fire walls. Run straight out of void zones. Fade when your aggro meter goes off the charts because you crit healed right when whelps spawn. Most importantly, don't lose sight of your healing assignments. I find it extremely easy to avoid the environmental hazards. I also find it easy to heal one player specifically. But doing both can be a challenge to all but the most seasoned of raiders.
Aggravated guildies: I can't stress this enough. Priests, you are going to wipe. Sartharion with all drakes active is the hardest encounter in the game for a reason. This should serve as a reality check to you. You might have stomped your way through Naxx and Malygos without too much difficulty. Then you met this big black dragon and all of a sudden the game is back to being too hard. Deal with it. Be patient, be understanding. My guild clocked around 8 hours before we got this oversized turkey down.
For the Discipline Priest
There are a few tips I can offer. I regularly go through this encounter as Discipline. Here's a few things that I do:
Place myself in the tank group: This is mostly for Prayer of Healing use. Depending on where I stand and where the other tanks stand, I'm able to hit 2 or 3 of them with Prayer of Healing. This won't be that important when 3.1 goes live due to the fact that Prayer of Healing can target other players outside of your party.
Glyphed Prayer of Healing: I run the Flash Heal, Power Word: Shield and Prayer of Healing Glyphs. I find the HoT effect from Prayer of Healing helps if you're diligent about using the spell.
Assigned to the main tank: We usually bring around seven healers to this encounter and I'll put myself on the main tank. Discipline Priests really shine when they need to worry about only one player.
If you have the Grace talent, then chances are you're going to keep the buff up on your main tank no matter what anyway.
Pain Suppression is the key here.
Your clutch moment is when Vesperon lands. In most cases, Shadron will still be active. He should have around 40% health or less remaining. The combination of Shadron and Vesperon being alive that Sartharion's flame breath will one shot your tank unless you work together and time your cooldowns in such a way to help your main tank live.
We used a Feral Druid tank who busted out the Feral Instincts and Barkskin combo in order to survive one of the breaths.
We didn't use a Death Knight tank yet until we felt that his tanking gear was ready. Having a Death Knight tank on Sarth has the benefit of both Anti-Magic Zone and Anti-Magic Shell. That's two tank saving cooldowns compared to a Druid's one.
You have to set up a cycle in such a fashion that there is a defensive cooldown ready to protect your main tank from Sarth's fully powered up Sarth breath. Here's a list of abilities that will do the trick among healers:
Holy Priest: Guardian Spirit
Discipline Priest: Pain Suppression
Paladin: Hand of Sacrifice
Let your tank get the first breath (and second breaths) if possible. This is the time to be vocal. Your tank and healers should give a count of the current breath that they just prevented. Try to have a set order.
Here's an example of the back and forth communication that I have going on:
*Sarth breathes*
Tank: "That's one!"
*13 seconds passes, Sarth breathes again*
Tank: "Two!"
*11 seconds later, Sarth breathes again*
Disc Priest: "I got three!"
*10 seconds, Sarth breathes again*
Holy Paladin: "That's four!"
That time span between Vesperon going active and when Shadron dies is the make or break phase of this fight. As the Discipline Priest, you should be able to hold down the fort with relative ease.
For the Holy Priest
For the few times I went Holy on this fight, I found that I was better suited to healing the raid members or one of the drake tanks. Drake tanks have to be kept up. Once they've finished tanking and the drake dies, I switched and started going full time on the raid.
Some quick tips.
Position: I would often jump between the middle of the island and the west part of the island to dodge firewalls. As a contrast with Discipline, I dodged by going between the middle area and toward the east (to maintain range on the main tank).
Don't jump out of void zones: I don't want to get too much into details. But the game code translates your position as going from X to Y. That is, if you jump from X to Y, you're still going to be at X until you land on Y. You're better off strafing or running straight out of the void zone. This helps explain some of the early deaths I've had. I knew I was clear of the voids, but I'd still die because the void zone effect went off while I was in the air. The game code still interpreted my position as still being inside the void zone.
Again, the clutch moment is between Vesperon going live and Shadron dying. The issue here I found as a Holy Priest is that I had to make sure I get in range of the main tank. I was fourth on the tank saving cooldown list. Using the previous example above in regards to communication, once I heard the tank say "Two", I'd start hustling over and make sure that I could the tank from where I was.
On a side note, Twilight Torment is literally going to kill your raid. Every healer is going to have to work their butt off to try to keep the raid afloat during this crucial time. Keep cycling the Circle of Healing and the Prayer of Mending as often as they're up. Surge of Light procs are a godsend.
Keep plugging away. Don't be discouraged. It's a hard and tough fight.
Want to find more great tips for carrying out your Priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered with all there is to know! And don't forget to check out our other Leveling Guides as well as our Wrath Guides and Galleries!
"Our 14-day free trial program is an effort to give everyone a taste of Pirates of the Burning Sea game-play," said Russell Williams, CEO of Flying Lab Software. "People are really going to enjoy their experience with us, and I'm excited to welcome these new members into our community!"
Pirates of the Burning Sea is now offering a 14-day free trial that gives full access to Flying Lab Software's seafaring MMO for two weeks. If you haven't checked out Pirates of the Burning Sea yet, this is your chance to do so.
All you have to do to sign up is visit the free trial page and enter your email address. Soon after you'll receive an email from Flying Lab with details on how to activate your trial key, get the game, and begin plundering booty in the Caribbean!
Key Features of Pirates of the Burning Sea:
Build, capture, and customize 158 historical ships
Design your own personal flags and customize sail decals
Choose from 3 different styles of combat - deadly and formal Fencing, flashy, dual wielding Florentine or rowdy and treacherous Dirty FightingJoin one of the four loyalties - France, Spain, England or Pirate
Battle other players to control more than 80 conquerable ports in the Caribbean
Explore the world and make a name for yourself in more than 1,000 missions
Vie for power and wealth with the fully player-driven economy
Tags: Pirates of the Burning Sea
Additionally, players on the North American servers will be able to participate inside the virtual City of Heroes world to win prizes during an in game event.
Palit and AMD have partnered with City of Heroes® to offer the "Create a Character" Costume Contest! Now through October 17th players can submit screenshots and bio of their character and be entered into the contest to win great prizes, including award winning Palit video cards and the grand prize of Custom Gaming PC!
This was added to the game because we wanted to offer our players more flexibility when trading or helping friends out, without increasing the threat of real-world trading.From today we have doubled (in some cases tripled) the flexibility of the player trade system. All players will notice an increase in the amount they can trade with other players.
This means accounts with fewer than 10 quest points will be able to earn or lose up to 5,000 coins in wealth every 15 minutes from trading, free players will be able to earn a maximum of 10,000 coins every 15 minutes by completing the free quests and members will have access to a maximum of 60,000 coins per 15 minutes if they have 270 quest points. Your trade margin will increase with each quest point after 10 - for example, at 100 quest points you'll have a margin of 24,038 coins, and at 200 quest points you'll have a margin of 45,192 coins.
In other news...
We'd like to remind players that dangerous Clan Wars matches (including the dangerous free-for-all arena) now allow you to pick up some of your opponents' items to replenish your supplies - food, potions, runes and other ammunition - and that there are now NO gravestones in these arenas. This means that you will be unable to recover any items you drop, so only take items you don't mind risking.
Mod Mark
Lead Designer - RuneScape
Note: Currently there are only 269 quest points available in the game, so no player will be able to reach the 60,000 coin margin until our next quest update, scheduled for a few weeks' time. The trade margin does scale up to that, though, so players a few quest points short of 270 will have a trade margin only slightly below it.
Setting the Pace
Speaking of pacing, I found the pace of Warhammer Online to be absolutely optimal for a game focused around competition. While most massively multiplayer online games are loaded with various time sinks, WAR is chuck full of things to do and easy ways for you to do them. Want to go RvR? Simply jump in a queue. Feel the need to do some PvEing? Go run out and get it done! Want to do both? That's absolutely possible.
On top of all that, the leveling in the game is frenetic. In just a few hours each day, you can easily progress your character up to the midway point with two weeks, and it's entirely possible to move to the high end of the game - the level 40 areas - within a month with only a few hours spent each day. In a game focused on competition, it makes sense to really give players the feeling that they're driving towards a competitive level, and the quick way players earn ranks is a great way to accentuate this competitive environment.
 The pace of WAR is very fast; there are lots of things to do. |
 Many of the annoying elements of MMOGs have been cut out of WAR, leaving just the quick gameplay. |
We've even seen fantasy games show up, such as "Dungeons & Dragons Online" a property that has been around longer than EverQuest or World of Warcraft yet it didn't reach that mass appeal, why?
John Smedley: A lot of that is a matter of quality too. You have to have some new and something really cool to appeal to people. But there have been a lot of what I would consider high caliber and high quality games that haven��t done terribly well. What it takes to have that extra spark is making sure that you take the time to do the releases right. That is something we��re focused on. We��ve been invested in this game Free Realms since 2005 and we have the best in class for free MMOs. It is coming out in January, and we��re really proud of that.
We've even seen fantasy games show up, such as "Dungeons & Dragons Online," a property that has been around longer than EverQuest or World of Warcraft yet it didn't reach that mass appeal, why?
John Smedley: A lot of that is a matter of quality too. You have to have some new and something really cool to appeal to people. But there have been a lot of what I would consider high caliber and high quality games that haven't done terribly well. What it takes to have that extra spark is making sure that you take the time to do the releases right. That is something we're focused on. We've been invested in this game Free Realms since 2005 and we have the best in class for free MMOs. It is coming out in January, and we're really proud of that.
What can you tell us about Free Realms?
John Smedley: Free Realms isn't exactly high fantasy. I'd say it is more whimsical fantasy. Think of the movie Shrek, and you wouldn't be too far off. It is that kind of irreverent humor set in a fantasy world. But we still think that high fantasy has a key pillar spot in our company. We want to continue to invest in that, and we are doing so very actively.
Costs are rising in the MMO space, but are we seeing enough players to support the games for the developers to stay profitable?
John Smedley: First and foremost, you have to make great games. But a close second to that is run your business smart and profitably, and that's something we've been doing for many years. We believe very strongly that you have the investment spending with huge negatives. And now I see a lot of venture money going to this space and a lot of it is going into chasing World of Warcraft, and what we should be focusing on is what is the next best thing. Now we've seen some games come in at the low, low cost and there have been some very good examples of that, such as Eve Online. They started very small with that and its grown very well. But I think we'll see the Warhammer Onlines, and the next EverQuests. These are the high budget brands just like there are summer movie blockbusters. I think that is going to be the norm.
Sony's EverQuest was once the most popular, most talked about online role-playing game, but its been eclipsed by World of Warcraft. Do you ever see a way that an EverQuest property can recapture that top spot and regain the crown?
John Smedley: Ever Quest is a franchise that we have a lot of faith in, it's been around 10 years now and we've released "EverQuest 2�� very successfully. We've run both games very profitably, and they've made a lot of money. More importantly they've made a lot of players very happy. So yes, we're investing in the EverQuest franchise for the future. And you'll see more EverQuest games in the future. We liked the look of the crown, and we'd like to put that back on.
So maybe there will be a South Park episode centered around EverQuest?
John Smedley: It is my dream! That was one of the funniest South Park episodes [featuring World of Warcraft], and that might just have been the best South Park episode ever. Look, I'm a fan of what the guys at Blizzard are doing. I'm super impressed with World of Warcraft. So to get on South Park, that and [The Colbert Report], are the dreams.
All the of the most successful MMOs have had a fantasy element. The success of those games is something that not even "Sims Online" or even "Star Wars" could match, so why is the fantasy element such a draw for gamers?
John Smedley: It has more to do with the gameplay in them, and in the case of Star Wars I think that is an IP that can reach millions and millions of people. From our perspective, at least while we were creating, it was a different time and a place. But what we've seen is that gameplay has evolved so quickly to become a bit more of the casual play and less of the super hardcore that we had started with EverQuest. So that's something we're adapting to, and that's why we have [the free upocming MMO] "Free Realms" and we have "DC Universe Online" and why we have The Agency. We're broadening out our demographic to be sure that we have games that fit in a lot of different genres, and therefore appeal to a wider range of gamers. I think it is possible to do big games that don't have to be in the fantasy space.
Tags: Ever Quest, Online Games
Given that all US game publishers are traded on the NASDAQ, it was unsurprising that they, too, were down across the board. The share price of Activision Blizzard (World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero World Tour), the newly minted biggest third-party publisher on the planet, slid 13.8 percent ($2.26) to end the day at $14.12. Former top dog Electronic Arts (Madden NFL 09) saw $3.63 shaved off of its stock price, ending the day down 9.16 percent at $36 even. THQ (Saints Row 2) lost 7 percent, or $0.87, to close at $11.48, and shares in Take-Two Interactive (Grand Theft Auto IV) lost 4.52 percent ($0.73) to close at $15.43-nearly $10 less than its asking price one month ago.
Though the US economy has been listing during 2008, analysts have been touting game stocks as a safe bet. In a May online column for the financial weekly Barron's, Signal Hill Capital Group Senior analyst Todd Greenwald called the game industry "virtually recession-proof." In a piece aired last week, National Public Radio said games' are growing more popular because they offer cost-effective escapism, much like films did during the Great Depression.
Unfortunately, today's massive market loss affected even the most prosperous of publishers. As the Dow Jones industrial average shed a whopping 777.68 points (6.98 percent)-the biggest one-day point drop in history-the NASDAQ composite index was also clobbered, falling 199.61 points, or 9.14 percent.
But though today's losses in American markets came after the US House of Representatives voted down a $700 billion bailout bill, some game companies overseas were flagging even before the legislative decision. Worst hit was Paris-based Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed), which lost a whopping €12.47 ($17.92) per share in just hours, closing at €45.50 ($65.37) on the Euronext market. Eidos Interactive parent SCi Entertainment (Tomb Raider Underworld) lost £3.75 ($6.75) on the London Stock Exchange, ending the day at £26.75 ($48.16).
Large multinational companies with large game components also suffered. Software giant and Xbox 360 maker Microsoft (Gears of War 2) saw 8.72 percent ($2.39 per share) of its multibillion-dollar market value vanish in a single day, closing at $25.01. On the New York Stock Exchange, PlayStation 3 manufacturer Sony Corp (Resistance 2) shed 5.09 percent ($1.65 per share), ending trading at $30.76.
The intention with these articles – focused on RVR and PVE career mechanics for Warhammer Online ’s characters, is to really provide an in depth look at what each of the many paths has to offer.
Now you may find yourself asking, “Who the heck is this guy, and who cares what he has to say?” I wish I had a satisfactory answer that could convince everyone I’m 100% right about everything. I’m sure most of us would like that ability. I’m simply someone who’s been PvPing in online games (mostly MMO’s, earlier on in MUD’s) since their debut well over a decade ago. I look at myself as a fair and balanced writer with an approach to analysis that provides everyone with a fair and in depth glimpse of what they can expect as if they were actually playing the character.
I should note that I’ve beta’d WAR for the majority of their closed beta, and leave it at that. Each analysis posted isn’t from a 3-4 hour experience I had RVRing one day like so many others decide to throw up because they got rolled in Nordenwatch. They come from hundreds of hours of playtime in PVE and PVP scenarios. I won’t review classes I haven’t extensively played – and I won’t assume to provide you with any information I haven’t acquired first hand.
With that out of the way, I’d like to start with the Chosen career – A tank class that can best be described by combining EQ’s Bard class with Steroids and enough utility skills to fill up four action bars. I date myself a bit and reference a class from the first Everquest because the Chosen use auras to buff themselves, and/or debuff anything within 30 feet of them. These auras activate instantly, with a 2.5 second cool down; lingering for 12 seconds before they deactivate – meaning you can have as many as three active at one time if you constantly rotate their activation, and sneak in an attack every once in awhile. Granted, its worth the buffs, but as anyone who played a Bard back then knows its not very fun to constantly spam 3-4 buttons over and over and over while watching everyone else smash things.
The auras range from strength and toughness buff/debuffs, to adding resistances to yourself and your group and even making everything around you more vulnerable to magic. There’s a lot of utility at the Chosen’s disposal, and not just from his Chaotic Auras.
While some of your skills are general cookie cutter push X to deal damage, push Y to taunt skills, the Chosen gets quite a few skills early on that really stand out. As early as level 5, you’ll receive a melee attack that does entirely spirit damage (Ravage) which completely ignores your target’s armor and goes straight to a resistance check, which is lovely because lower level NPCs (and a decent amount of PCs until their 30’s) actually have nearly zero resistances to magic, and you’ll mow right through them, cleaving off about 1/10th of their total wounds each shot. While you obviously won’t be doing 10% of someone’s total hp in PvP using Ravage, you’ll still be dealing spirit damage and seeing a very irrelevant amount of it mitigated.
At level 8, you’ll get an attack that can’t be defended against (Cleave), however it really doesn’t do enough damage to warrant usage. With Ravage’s spirit damage, it just makes more sense to keep using what works – even if it occasionally gets blocked, it still does more damage over a period of time. Cleave does come in handy if you find yourself against another tank class that’s used a morale ability or just happens to be blocking everything you throw at them, whack then with Cleave a few times, while low on damage, its better then not doing any.
At level 9 you get your standard snare + damage ability (dizzying blow). It’s nice to have something to keep things from getting away, it cools down in just 5 seconds (it lasts for 7) so you’ll be able to spam it on someone attempting to get away.
Before mentioning the very tactical skill you get at level 10, I should state that the Chosen have very high Wounds, and coupled with some toughness points from your equipment and RR abilities, you’ve really got a character that can withstand a ton of punishment. Hold the Line is a shield skill that increases your chances to dodge and disrupt (essentially ignore) enemy skills by 45%, for 12 seconds. It also provides everyone in your group (behind you, up to 40 feet) with the same bonuses at 15% as long as they stay behind you. This effect can stack three times on someone, meaning a tank could have 75% (45 + 15 + 15) added to their dodge and disrupt chances if they had 2 tanks in front of them using the skill. Hold the line is a very cool and potentially life saving skill if you’re covering healers and/or ranged DPS while under heavy fire.
Another attack that should be noted is Withering blow, which deals damage and removes your target’s action points (great for shutting down healers). Along with Repel, a knock back ability with often hilarious results, as at times it looks like you picked up the player and threw them like a hail mary pass instead of just tapping them back a few yards. Try knocking someone off a hill when the opportunity arises… wave afterwards. This tactic is effective with all classes that receive a knock back ability, as you can literally propel your target completely out of a fight by knocking them down a hill or off a cliff. Instead of bothering to go straight for the healers, or to focus your damage on a particularly tough tank, just line yourself up and smack them out of the area – they’ll have to waste valuable time heading back, and will be completely taken out of the action for a while.
Another ability of the Chosen that really stands out is acquired at level 16 – a morale ability (built up over time in combat, triggered at any time you’d like – they’re found in the lower right hand side of the screen by default) called Grapple. Grapple holds you and your target in place for 10 seconds, and there isn’t anything they can do about it except hope you die. While you can still cast spells and use abilities, it effectively denies any escape, or tactical advantages some classes receive by attacking from the side/rear. A truly fantastic and menacing skill, usable once every minute as long as you’ve built up your morale bar.
Getting tied down too much in PvP? You’ve got the Juggernaut ability to look forward to; it removes all roots, snares, stuns and disarming effects immediately, and can do so again in 60 seconds. Later down the road you’ll receive a career tactic that reduces that cool down to every 20 seconds – aptly named Unstoppable Juggernaut. I really don’t see a need for that tactic, however, if you’re getting disarmed over and over, retreat and throw up a few auras to debuff your enemies a bit. Aside from in PvE, I rarely get disarmed in PvP at any level, its just one of those situations that doesn’t arise often enough to warrant tactical consideration.
Blast wave (level 15) is another notable ability, as it deals PBAOE (point blank area of effect) spirit damage to everything within 30 feet, which is also the range of your auras. I note that here because everything under the effect of an aura when this spell is cast also loses a ton of resistances for 20 seconds. And by a ton I’ll throw in some perspective. At level 5, your targets would lose 47 to all their resists. This scales almost ludicrously with your level. It’s enough to effectively negate any chance they have of not taking almost complete damage from any spell cast at them. You can use the Blast wave skill in conjunction with the level 25 aura, Dreadful agony, which deals moderate spirit damage every 3 seconds. This effectively makes you a walking DPS machine to an opposing group, dealing damage after nullifying their resists. Follow up a target of choice with an ability like Ravage, which just deals spirit damage, and you’ll watch them scatter or drop like files.
Maybe you’re still having a problem getting things to stick around when using the combo mentioned above. Are dizzying blow or grapple just not cutting off your enemies escape quick enough? Use the petrify ability (level 30); it’ll root anything within aura range (30 feet, up to 4 targets) for 10 seconds. Damage gives them a chance to break the root, however. So pick your target wisely when you decide to start swinging after activating petrify.
Finishing up the Chosen’s already insane number of aggravating abilities are the Bane Shield, and Touch of Palsy skills (attained at levels 35 and 40, respectively). Bane shield is one of those abilities you activate when you know you’re probably about to die anyway. Let’s say the enemy group finally decided to single you out and surrounds you, 8 or so enemies swinging away. Bane shield makes them all take a moderate amount of spirit damage every time they hit you. Every time. If they hit you 7,234 times, they take damage each time. Combine this with the blast wave and dreadful agony and you’ve got a decent chance at wiping out half the enemy group before they get you.
I mentioned touch of Palsy in the previous paragraph; however it really bears mentioning separately, as it’s absolutely devastating. If you haven’t figured out by now, it’s difficult to get away from a Chosen. However, now I’m going to say let them run – but cast touch of palsy on them first. They’ll take damage, albeit low damage, every half second they’re moving. Every half second. Even if it deals 50 damage, every half second, just about anything will be dead or close enough to it when it realizes what is happening. It only lasts 10 seconds though, so be careful when you cast it, if it’s a healer standing still, don’t bother; however if they turn and run, let em have it. Also, note the people that jump around and think that circling you makes them good at PvP, hit them with this too. Point and laugh after they kill themselves.
Now when it comes down to picking a mastery tree, really any of the three are viable paths. While you can’t directly enhance the Blast Wave/Dreadful Agony combo from one tree, splitting your points between the Dread and Discord trees is certainly an OK move in my book – as much as I’m usually opposed to that sort of thing. Doing this will enhance a lot of key abilities and really give you the spirit damage and debuff skills you need to tear through just about anything.
Throwing three points into Corruption for the Dire shielding tactic isn’t a bad idea either if you’re just playing around. This allows your Bane shield to also take hold on any group mates within 30 feet of you. Great for those situations when everything just turns sour and you’d like to walk away knowing at least a few people went down with you.
In terms of overall statistics for your Chosen, go with Wounds for . . . wounds, Toughness for the damage reduction and strength for damage. Ballistics and willpower are almost useless – but you can throw some extra RR points (if you have them) into intelligence to boost your spirit damage on some attacks. You can also consider the initiative tactic so you’ll have a slightly smaller chance to get critically hit and evade attacks.
I should mention two more things to wrap this up. Most people’s perception of 30 feet in real life is probably quite wrong. It’s just as inaccurate in WAR, as 30 feet roughly equals between three or four of your characters put side by side. Closer to 3. Line of sight applies to all auras, as it should. I should mention that anyone wishing to play a Chosen really needs to be aware when playing this class. To put it nicely, to be effective you need to know what your doing. If you can’t watch your targets debuff bar (under their picture when you target them) while timing auras and attacks correctly, you really won’t be much more than a glorified meat shield lumbering around aimlessly. Anyone looking to just run around and smash things should probably steer clear of the chosen class, as you won’t even be close to as effective as you could be if you weaved auras and used your debuffs and skills effectively. Anyone who likes to play a melee utility class, the Chosen really stands alone, I should note, however, that without timing and skill behind your ability activation, your dps will be rather low compared to most other classes. So what is the downside to all this? Action Points. Your abilities need to be used in constant succession and tactically in order to remain effective.
Tags: Warhammer Online
We would like to remind players that as well as adversely affecting game balance, the use of third-party tools or cheats can also have consequences that are not immediately obvious, such as introducing damaging viruses, and comprising the security of private account details. Usage of third-party tools will not be tolerated within FINAL FANTASY XI, and we will continue to severely penalize any players found to be in violation of the PlayOnline Member Agreement.
As we continue to ensure a fun and balanced environment for FINAL FANTASY XI, we hope that our players enjoy the game as it was intended and take care to avoid involvement in activities that violate the PlayOnline Member Agreement.
We would like to report the termination today of multiple accounts held by players involved in the usage of third-party tools or cheats, or engaged in RMT (Real Money Trading) activities.
Based on the results of our investigation, around 4640 PlayOnline accounts were terminated while around 340 accounts were temporarily suspended.
Additionally, we have increased the number of mass bannings against certain PlayOnline violations in order to prevent illegal acts.
Details of the violations are as follows:
- Usage of tools that allow enhanced character movement.
Week of August 24, Approx. 130 cases
Week of August 31, Approx. 290 cases
Week of September 7, Approx. 260 cases
Week of September 14, Approx. 270 cases
Week of September 21, Approx. 170 cases
- Usage of tools that circumvent game mechanics with respect to the timing of ability use,
etc. in certain areas or at points where Notorious Monsters appear.
September 25, Approx. 20 cases
- Using cheats to automatically repeat a particular action.
Week of August 24, Approx. 20 cases
Week of August 31, Approx. 110 cases
Week of September 7, Approx. 180 cases
Week of September 14, Approx. 200 cases
Week of September 21, Approx. 220 cases
- Gil and item exchange for real world money.
Week of August 24, Approx. 10 cases
Week of August 31, Approx. 20 cases
Week of September 7, Approx. 30 cases
Week of September 14, Approx. 310 cases
Week of September 21m Approx. 220 cases
- Instances of areas or monster monopolization.
September 4, Approx. 130 cases
September 11, Approx. 100 cases
- Involved in compromised accounts
Week of August 31, Approx. 400 cases
Week of September 7, Approx. 690 cases
Week of September 14, Approx. 710 cases
Week of September 21, Approx. 490 cases
The termination of these accounts has led to the removal of approximately 1.8 billion gil from circulation.
Tags: FFXI, Final fantasy XI
The event is currently looking for staff to make it come true!
-Judges is for the sponsored lists, open lists and archery tournament. The Sponsored and Open List judges will help running the contest and help keeping the bonfires making the arena light; other people are encouraged to help keeping the fires alive too. For the Archery tournament it is important that the judge will have a lot of HP. The contestants will shoot once at the archery butte and the loss of HP will be transformed into points.
The Eastvale Tournament will be held on October 11, 2008, it as same as two years ago, The realm is Argent Dawn and organized by Acrona according to official shows. They will start taking sign-ups on the October 1!
-Raffle ticket vendors: will require a lot of bag space
-Fireworks specialists: for making firework launchers say boom-boom every now and then during the event
-Entertainers: for greater atmosphere
-Traders: for greater atmosphere
-Catering services: for greater atmosphere
Bad Moons Rising is the first major update of 2Moons for 2008. Players will be captivated by all the latest content and new game features included in this major update, which includes brand new areas, dungeons, quests, monsters, skills and equipment.
Los Angeles (March 31, 2008) - Acclaim Games announces the highly anticipated release of the "Bad Moons Rising" game update with tons of new content for 2Moons, a free to play extreme action Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) for PC.
Two new maps called Space of Pilgrimage and Aquirai Ruins will feature all new and exciting content, with hordes of new monsters and bosses to defeat. New dungeons such as the Nest of Cherubim will also challenge players and test their skills. New quests have also been added for players to complete for various items and rewards.
"Acclaim is growing rapidly and our coordination of new content into our games has been massively improved, our goal is to deliver major updates like this every 90-120 days and the next two major updates are already on the way. It's going to be a very exciting year for 2Moons players," says David Perry, the game's Director.
Some new game modifications have been made specifically for beginning players. Low level quests have been renewed and new monsters have been added for beginners. Also, players from level 1 to 60 can receive special items to help boost their character's stats.
The latest game update will also feature increased security and spam control to help ensure a more safe and enjoyable gaming experience for all 2Moons players.
The Bad Moons Rising update introduces a new pet system, providing players with new companions that will accompany them on adventures and help collect items. You can choose from 3 pets currently available (Ariel, Woody, and Wiki) with more to be added in future item updates. Mounts have also been upgraded for greater speed, so players can travel much faster when riding these mythical creatures across the 2Moons environment.
Players can also check out some of the all new skills, weapons, and armor sets that are specific to their character class to enhance their characters for the bloodiest of battles.
Tags: 2Moons
This first ever online-only Star Wars® trading card game provides Star Wars Galaxies subscribers with an entirely new gameplay experience by combining the challenge of a trading card game with the adventures and community of the massively multiplayer game! For the first time onlineNow the Galactic Civil War released the Trading Card Game: Champions of the Force. players can:
1.Find more than 20 loot cards in the first release that Star Wars Galaxies players with a paid account, in good standing, can redeem for fantastic in-game items!
2.Plus, challenge their skills in solo play, or join with friends in epic one-on-one matches, cooperative Heroic Encounters and even official tournaments!
3.Choose between the light and dark sides of the Force and build their own Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game decks to fight virtual matches for the Rebel, Imperial, Jedi or Sith
4.Collect more than 250 beautifully detailed original Star Wars-themed digital cards
5.Enhance their digital card decks with 15-card Booster Packs
Just a week,a half a million people playing WAR online, and the ranks of Order and Destruction are growing at a record-breaking pace for a new MMORPG. WAR creator spent years on providing players with the most stable, epic, and polished online world, but it is the players that have truly brought the Age of Reckoning to life.Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning had fully launched for just a week,and the new players who registered have surpass 500,000. wow~
Based on Games Workshop's epic and longstanding tabletop fantasy war game, WAR is a unique MMORPG that features revolutionary Realm vs. Realm (RvR) gameplay that will attract players in a world of perpetual conflict for years to come. WAR has been recognized for its unique play style that appeals newbies while offering incredible depth for sensoned players.
WAR subscription options include:
Monthly Subscription: 14.99 USD
3-Month Subscription: 41.97 USD(13.99 USD per month)
6-Month Subscription: 77.94 USD(12.99 USD per month)
Fans looking forward to laying siege to their enemy's capital city will have several pricing options available, beginning with a ?14.99 monthly subscription. Additionally, collectible 30- and 60-day prepaid Game Time Cards will be available at many game retailers.
Tags: Warhammer Online
Although there are ten PvP levels, the gear available only goes up to level 5 so far. More gear will be coming in the future to take the system all the way up to level 10.
You can plan out exactly what you want to wear in your PvP career. You can pick the gear up from vendors, who you can find in the game's racial hubs. Each piece has a minimum PvP level required to wear or wield. Note that the minimum character level is 80; this is definitely endgame stuff. It took a while getting there, but PvP gear finally made it to Age of Conan. The PvP patch has caused a marked increase in enthusiasm for the game, and players are killing each other like never before in their haste to earn PvP levels. Unfortunately, the AoC PvP notoriety patch didn't go live yet, so nobody is being branded as a murderer or criminal no matter how many lower level passers-by they ambush and massacre.
Tactic Trainers: All tactic trainers in the main city libraries have been temporarily turned off, while we investigate an issue involving them. They will return as soon as this issue is resolved, we apologize for the inconvenience.
Troll Country: Players will no longer get the T3 scenario queue window when attempting to zone into the scenario cave in Troll Country
Open-RvR Servers: Players will no longer receive the "bolster" buff while in Kadrin Valley
The first patch comes in the morning of Sep.6. And the down time only lasted a little more than 1 hour and a half. The patch notes are below:
Patch Notes
Queues bypass system: Player's position in the queues will now be saved when disconnected for a short period of time.
Guild Tavern: All players in a guild will now have access to the guild tavern at the appropriate guild rank level.
Tags: Warhammer Online
PQ For Me And You
More interesting than RvR (for me, at least) are the Public Quests. Here's an example: I'm sent to kill some Annoying Squigs on a quest (with Squiggle, my Squig Herder). When I arrive at the killing field, the game tells me that the area also happens to be a Public Quest called Ugrog's Rage (Oh, that giant troll thing!) where the first objective is killing quite of few of the buggers. I notice another player in the area, and invite them to a party.
Parties are automatically labeled as open, and in the upper left there is an icon you can click at any time to see what parties are available, how far they are from you, and what they are doing. Everyone in the area knows we're here doing this PQ, and we can keep inviting people, too. Even players not in our party (or eventual warband, if enough show up—that's a group of up to four parties) are helping the cause.
Next we have to collect Ugrog some beer kegs, but there are still enemies to deal with as well. Finally, once he's good and boozed up he'll bust down the door to this dwarven fortress and the bosses first send minions charging, before finally running out themselves.
Most PQs seem to have three stages, and when it's over you get a loot drop (or not, if there were a lot of people involved) depending on how well you participated. The drop is a grab bag where you get to choose one item, and there is always something you can use, whether it's armor or a crafting material. If you help out a lot, you also get tons of influence (points—a bar that fills for each chapter of the story) and are able to pick up influence rewards from the rally master in town.
I love PQs. It's a great excuse to get a party together and once you have one you can just roam the zone from PQ to PQ. Or you can run one a few times in a row if it's crowded, since the more consecutive attempts you put in, the higher your roll modifier bonus will be.
I Made This For You
Gathering and Crafting skills are acquired in the chapter 2 zones for each race. Of the four gathering skills, Cultivating is definitely the most compelling, since instead of just picking over corpses or breaking down unwanted gear into magical essences, you're growing seeds. The process starts by opening the Cultivating window and choosing a plot. You place a seed and then add soil, water, and nutrients as a timer runs down. I didn't get far enough to see what sort of effect upgrading your soil types and watering cans would have, but you definitely run into higher quality ingredients as you go (or if you buy them from a Scavenger.)
So far there are two crafting systems in the game, one for making potions and one for making talismans. Talismans seem more difficult due to the rarer ingredients required, whereas many potion ingredients are readily available through butchery or cultivating. For that reason, I spent a lot more time with my Apothecary characters.
To make a potion you need a container, a main ingredient, and supporting ingredients for stabilization and added effects. For instance, you can turn regular green healing potion into pink healing-over-time by adding an ingredient that increases the duration of a potion’s effects.
Overall, I found myself actually enjoying crafting, for once. Even though I made way more potions than I really needed, the more active systems made the whole process more satisfying.
Bottom Line Time
I haven't said much about the Tome of Knowledge yet, but that’s because I personally didn't find it very interesting. It's basically a cross between a fantasy novel and an encyclopedia of your progress, which is great if you're super into Warhammer, but you can tell the designers don't even expect people to read all the quest text-the dialogue is in a rusty red color as opposed to the sharp black of the actual directions—so to include all this extra reading material is either a huge waste of time or a way to show the true fans how much they are loved. I guess we'll go with the latter, but it would be interesting to see what percentage of players reads every entry.
As far as audio/video goes, you'll want to run WAR with more than minimum specs, obviously, for the ultimate RvR experience. It's a pretty game, and less cartoony than World of Warcraft while still maintaining a clearly fantasy style. The main theme is hummable while you're waiting for the game to load-especially if your server is full; the game is definitely popular.
My biggest complaint, aside from the crashes that made me want to just quit completely, is the lack of official forums. I don't want to be part of a community, I want to be part of the community. Yes, you can report bugs in-game, but it still just puzzles me that Mythic doesn't run their own forums rather than check-up on fan sites.
Love Your Job
Warhammer is about a war. No kidding! The Order faction consists of the Empire (humans), High Elves, and Dwarves, and on the flipside lies Destruction, composed of Greenskins (Goblins and Orcs), Dark Elves, and Chaos. The careers are all tied to race, so it's more important to decide what your job will be than what you want to look like.
Maybe you want to be a Witch Hunter. I mean, you get a gun and the ability to pile up accusations until an execution move becomes available, and who doesn't want to follow the mastery Path of "Confession?" Actually, I spent most of my time with a Marauder, whose arm shapeshifts as needed, although the Brutality sword-like appendage seemed to rock the hardest, with its Convulsive Slashing move that just tears up your target.
From level 11 you start gaining mastery points with which you specialize your career. For instance, I started up the Path of Brutality which not only improves all the moves specifically using the Brutality-shaped arm, but eventually unlocks new moves and passive career tactics you can slot to increase your effectiveness. High Elf Archmages who not only heal, but shoot lasers out of their eyes, Goblin Squig Herders who attack at range while commanding one ugly-looking pet monster—I wasn't able to try every career, but the fact that I wish I could have says a lot.
RvR Puts Hair On Your Chest
Of course there are plenty normal MMO quests (Kill wolves, find this dude, collect mushrooms...) but you can play any game for those. If you're coming to Warhammer, you're coming for the Realm vs. Realm and the Public Quests. The Realm vs. Realm (or you could say, "epic PvP" with plural Ps) comes in many varieties from open RvR servers to zones within a "core" server, to specific instanced missions called Scenarios. Scenarios are great because they last just fifteen minutes, you get set up with a group as you arrive, and you can zap straight to one from anywhere.
In the upper right hand corner of the screen, near your mini-map (with handy red blotches that designate quest objectives), there is a button to queue for a Scenario. Once you sign up, you can just forget about it and quest, craft, or whatever. When the Scenario resets and slots open up, a window pops up to let you know and you can warp from the spot you stand to battle it out against the opposing faction. Obviously noobs will be overwhelmed in these situations, but it's only fifteen minutes and you respawn easily in the zone to just keep hacking away. There are also quest objectives for killing members of the opposing faction, and you get experience just for finishing the encounter. Then, of course, there's the added bonus that even if you managed to kill just one guy, it still helps your realm in the overall battle.
Unfortunately, that vague knowledge is as close as we got to the huge scale that the war ends up taking. The highly anticipated sieges of "living cities" (that are more or less prosperous depending on how your faction is doing) are for those a bit closer to the 40 level cap.
Tags: Warhammer Online
Hell is Other People
The biggest irony of Warhammer Online is that its greatest strength is also its biggest weakness -the reliance on other people. The vast majority of the game's content, especially its meta-game, requires an active and enthusiastic player-base committed to getting to the city sieges. In the game's opening days as everybody levels up and the game still exudes that "new game smell," that isn't a problem. Even in these first days, however, we've found that there are inconveniently located PQs that are virtually abandoned. We're concerned that as the player base ages, these areas may be abandoned, making the trip to level 40 the grind that Mythic worked so hard to avoid.
Fortunately, Mythic is aware of this and put systems in place to try to stem it. Since every zone in the game contributes to the push-pull city-raiding meta-game, there is certainly an incentive for players to level alts and leave them at specific levels in order to be able to switch to different content tiers when the situation requires it. The game also offers a "Tome of Knowledge" that in itself is a huge piece of content. The Tome is combination achievement/kill-counter system that tracks virtually every aspect of gameplay. There's a kill counter for every type of creature (and player) in the game, exploration unlocks for finding specific locations, well-written story snippets as a reward for following the PvE questlines, titles, new skills and much much more. In fact, there's even a whole host of silly and secret achievements in the Tome such as clicking on your own character 100 times, fighting while naked or just adding five players to your friends list cheap wow gold.
As players progress through the game, a fascinating melding of PvE and PvP content begins to occur. Certain PvE quests will send players into PvP "lakes" to complete objectives that have nothing to do with fighting other players. Others will offer players in PvE zones opposing PQ objectives conveniently located right next to PvP areas where players can slip over and try to kill one another when taunting and interference aren't enough. In higher-level PvP zones, capturing objectives entails dealing with very powerful NPCs that require raid-level coordination to take down. City sieges -the very goal of the game -are the ultimate fusion of the two. Once a city siege begins, players will have to compete in PvP events to unlock a whole instanced capital loaded with PvE content ranging from low-level quests to loot and kill regular citizens to high-level dungeons and huge raid-level bosses that will take the resources of a guild to destroy.
The Enemy of My Enemy is my Enemy
It doesn't take much play time before the PvP heart of Warhammer Online becomes clear. Scenario-based PvP is available from the instant a player logs into the game. All a player has to do is click the "Join Scenario" button on the UI anywhere in the world and they queue up. When in a scenario, characters will be leveled to the tier mean. They won't be given any extra skills, which means that very low-level characters will still be at a slight disadvantage, but the field will be more or less even and everyone feels useful. Scenarios run the gamut from simple timed slaughterfests for points to take-and-hold actions to king-of-the-hill games to capture the flag. As players level, they'll be asked to take part in more elaborate scenarios that will require more coordination and planning but even the simplest (Tier One) scenarios in the game offer a huge variety of play styles and a host of ingenious play mechanics.
The other part of Warhammer Online's PvP system is the Realm vs. Realm combat. This consists of PvP "lakes" within larger PvE zones (one for each side) that surround it. In these areas are a series of objectives such as castles or points of interest that are guarded by NPCs that can be captured by players to control the zone. This is easily the game's biggest individual attraction. First, it offers a ton of balanced PvP combat confined to limited areas under specific rule sets and avoids the annoying "ganking" phenomenon (for those who want it, Mythic has created a number of "Open RvR" servers). Second, these RvR lakes are amazingly fun. In a couple of days' worth of battles we accumulated more stories of brilliant assaults, sneak attacks, dirty tricks, desperate last stands and amazingly funny moments than in a year of another MMOs PvP. If the greatest piece of content in an MMO is other people, Warhammer Online offers an endless variety of PvP "content" to explore.
Unfortunately, all of this PvP combat comes at a price -fairly steep system requirements. While lag, stutter and chug are usually not a problem at the game's lower levels, in larger battles with dozens of players it's very possible players without a high-end system will see their game slow down. We never had a problem so bad it made the game unplayable, but even on our highest-end machines we had to tone down the graphics in some of the larger fights. That may turn off some gamers who were looking forward to the game but may not wish to upgrade their systems -especially that segment that's been playing nothing but World of Warcraft for the past four years without an upgrade.
Tags: Warhammer Online, World of warcraft, WoW News
There's also a host of smaller problems, though none of them rise to more than a small level of annoyance. Players in scenarios can "AFK" their way through, stealing experience and renown points they don't deserve. There's a weird graphic bug that will lock an avatar into one animation cycle (though you can still play the game). The crafting is confusing and feels like an afterthought. The UI, while quite good, could use a few now-common elements like the ability to hot-link items and abilities in chat. Considering how important player coordination is in higher-level PvP, the game could really use some type of built-in voice chat system. Some of the terrain in the scenarios and the PvP lakes could use some tweaking, as their proximity to spawn points sometimes gives an advantage to one side while the other faction faces an incredibly long post-death trek.
In the end, though, all of the problems, even the most serious one of lag in heavy player combat, are ultimately fixable. Warhammer Online has had the smoothest, most complete MMO launch we've ever seen. Game balance and other elements of the game need tweaking but they're all there, they all work and most importantly, they're all fun. This is a game that has 20 separate classes and while some may be overpowered or underpowered, none of them are boring to play. The game comes loaded with PvP and PvE content that -balance issues notwithstanding -is as good as or much better than that of any other MMO on the market. Warhammer Online is the next great game of Player vs. Player and Realm vs. Realm content and we have the feeling that somewhere on the other side of reality, the Chaos god Tzeentch is smiling.
Xbox Live's achievement system proved some time ago that people will go to incredible lengths for a score beside their name and a few virtual medals. The developers at Mythic took that lesson and ran with it. There will certainly be a large contingent of players who make it a goal to unlock everything in the Tome. For everyone else, the Tome is a sort of goad to experience everything in the game. It's worth playing that PvP scenario one more time to finish an obscure Tome unlock. It's worth going through low-level PvE quest lines in the other races' areas and doing public quests that one has outleveled just to get the unlocks. More than that, the Tome is just one of a host of meters to fill and counters to click and trophies to go for. The game's guild system treats guilds almost like players with their own system of levels and bonuses and prizes that players can work to unlock. There's an entire separate system of PvP leveling that unlocks access to high-level loot. One of the key benefits of all this is it keeps players circulating throughout the world and participating in all of its content.
Greenskins in the Woodpile
Despite all the well-deserved praise, Warhammer Online is not without its problems. While the game seems to have avoided the big technical nightmare of unstable servers, there's a definite danger of population imbalance. As players come on board, there seems to be a pronounced predilection for the Destruction side. While the developers at Mythic have taken steps to ameliorate this, the resulting low population caps on servers have contributed to long wait times for scenarios and 10- to 20-minute waits to log in at peak hours. Since balanced populations fighting each other are the key to this game -much more so than in World of Warcraft, which continues to wrestle with this issue four years after launch -this is something that needs to be carefully monitored and controlled as the game moves forward.
Tags: Warhammer Online
Lastly for today (I think I have taken a good deal of your time already, hopefully constructively so!) I also wanted to mention that we‘ve come very far with the DirectX 10 version, which we unfortunately had to keep on internal test-servers for launch. It’s now almost ready for the full test server. Once the next game-play update is out expect to start to see the DX10 functionality coming to the test environment. How long it will take to transition to live will depend on the testing of course, but it’s starting to shape up nicely. Having done some reviews of it internally over the last few weeks I can admit that a few of the features really do give some added visual punch. I know it’s a feature that is long awaited and I can assure you the technical folk here are working flat out to try and get the version in a state where it can be considered for live release.
There are two things on the immediate horizon that will very soon be on the test server for public testing in the shape of Ymir’s Pass and the second stage of the PVP update. There are a couple of things I want to address on these.
Firstly Ymir’s Pass is a large zone and has quite a bit of content to test. This may mean that it stays on the test server through several updates on live. We have the ability not to include a given playfield when we build new versions for live, which means that this testing won’t hold up the release of the other new content and Ymir’s Pass will still get the time on the test server that it needs. We want the experience to be as good as possible for its release and feel the public testing phase is important in that. We hope to be bringing the playfield to the test server shortly, and we all hope you will enjoy the many varied encounters it brings.
Then there is the second stage of the PVP update that brings with it the consequence system. This new system allows for players PVP actions to have real consequences in the world, and it will greatly enhance the entire PvP experience in Conan. As you know the system is meant to bring repercussions for repeated evil behaviour (i.e. killing players outside of your level range), so should you chose to “gank” other players, a whole new gameplay area opens up! For one, it will result in you no longer being welcome in many parts of the game-world, but in its place you will have to rely on a newly arrived network of camps and areas that function with a little more moral ambiguity. This is very true to the essence of the Conan lore, and a change I think many players will find intriguing.
You will be able to access the same services as you can in the “orderly” parts of the world, but you might find your new ‘friends’ have a price for their services. We felt it was very important to make the system as immersive as possible and not just a purely mechanical system on top of the game-world to support PVP. So to that end, these new camps and NPC’s function as a kind of “shady network” for those with more nefarious reputations. Be warned though. It also means that those who hunt for such criminally inclined adversaries might find out where to look for you!
The other new content additions are all shaping up internally, and I’ll let you know the order in which they will appear after Ymir’s in my next letter.
Moving on to some things a little further out I mentioned in my welcome letter that we are working on the itemization and gem systems, as well as how the budgets for character statistics are going to be refined and improved. This is an area I wanted to elaborate on a little in this letter.
One of the issues we have been working on in that regards is the limited budgets that were originally assigned to the in-game items.It was always the intention that Age of Conan would not be a game where items would be the deciding factor in encounters. This meant though that the statistics available for items, and their actual effect on your character, was simply too slim. The items do scale within very limited ranges and have quite a limited effect on your characters abilities, and this I feel we need to do something about. When we sat down and analyzed the way this worked and the impact it had on players actual sense of progression through the game, so we came to the hard choice that something had to change.
With that in mind we have been working hard behind the scenes to prepare for a shift in the range and meaningfulness of character statistics and items. So what exactly does that mean? Well, firstly it does not mean that we are going straight to the other end of the spectrum and making items the ‘be all and end all’ of progression. We will though be making items and statistics more important to your characters.
Currently the items account for a maximum contribution of 25% of your characters total in any given statistic or ability (if you had all the stat modifications available for that statistic equipped, which in itself isn’t always practical). We are aiming to increase that so that your statistics from items contribute closer to 50% (although it will vary slightly from class to class), while also adjusting the formulas so that ability statistics (strength, stamina etc) contribute more meaningfully to your visible abilities, like health and Damage per Second. Items do have an effect on those calculations at the moment, but just in numbers, and that mean it isn’t always all that visible or impactful given the vagaries of an inherently random roll system. The most telling factor is probably that many players felt these statistics were ‘broken’ when in fact they were working correctly, they just didn’t contribute enough of a variance for players to see or feel it properly in combat. Evolving this part of the game is therefore something we deem very important, and something we are actively working on right now.
Next up I wanted to cover two features that were talked about previously that will change significantly from what was originally mentioned, and that’s ‘Powerpoints’ and ‘Kingship’. While both are great concepts I felt that we needed to go back to the drawing board a little with both of them. They will however make an appearance in some form in the future.
The ‘Powerpoints’ type of concept will appear first in some form of loyalty program, although I think we might try and find a more suitably ‘Conanesque’ title for it! (…and yes, for those who have asked in the forums, any loyalty program will in effect be ‘backdated’ and take into account how long you have already been subscribed since launch).
The ‘Kingship’ concept will be taken back for another design round internally, before we announce our plans for building the guild and conflict elements of the game. It’s an area that I believe is key to the ongoing success of any MMO and is an area that we really want to do well. This means that we are taking another look at how to best achieve it. This will include looking at building more, and better guild support functions inside the game. Also we most likely want to include some other forms of ‘lateral progression’ at the same time, an alternate advancement path for max level characters, for example. It is an area that I feel will bring some great new content to the game in the new year, but we have to address it properly and put something in that will have lasting appeal.
Another aspect which has popped up in the forums recently is whether we are going to do a server merge or not, and I can today confirm that we are actively working on an approach to merge servers, both in Europe and North America. It’s important for us to ensure the best gameplay experience for you all, and more healthy populations on each and every server will make sure we maintain healthy communities for the game in the future. Still, there are many complexities involved in this, and we want to ensure that everything happens as fair and streamlined as possible. That work has now started, and we are naturally making sure that guilds and players can get to new servers in the best possible way. We will come back with more info on this, but I hope that this will serve as a positive injection to the social scene in the game.
So what does it mean to the game-play? It means that items will have more varied and more meaningful statistics. Existing items will be modified appropriately and you won’t have to go and find new gear (of course it might mean you want to, once the statistics start to be more meaningful!). We are aiming for the conversion to the new system to feel like players have not lost any relative power in their game-play experience. The key difference will be that if you don’t have your items equipped, or relatively up to date with your level, you will start to notice the difference! We feel this is important for the ongoing progression in the game to be more meaningful andwe are not doing it lightly. It will go through extensive testing and feedback cycles (this letter being the start of that part of the process!). We genuinely want to ensure that we have the ability to deliver a much more meaningful feeling of progression and achievement for players, but without going too far away from the action elements that makes the unique combat system what it is.
It is currently coming together internally and will require a good deal of testing at our end. We will be letting you all know when the new system is ready for public testing. In the meantime your feedback will be an important part of the process, so please feel free to give your initial thoughts and reactions. I am certain that this change will improve the overall gameplay experience, and that items dropping from encounters will matter more than it currently does.
Tags: Age of Conan
Some of you may be expecting me to tell you that Warhammer Online was just that sort of title. Other editors from various media sites have pushed hordes of flowered prose down the throats of their readers telling the various wonders and enjoyable encounters they'd been a part of during their short stints in WAR. Since I've been fairly positive with other titles in the past in my first impressions, it could be assumed that Warhammer Online deserved a heaping pile of praise right from the start.As a long time reviewer of both online and offline games, there's usually a point in the process of the game review where the game reaches above the below average status and begins to earn its stripes as a high quality game. Sometimes a game never reaches that average status, either because of nagging bugs or just a thoroughly unimpressive presentation and gameplay experience. Other titles take a few days to really sink in, with the depth of the control mechanics or competitive playstyles helping push the game into the average or above average status.
 WAR did not immediately appeal to my sense of MMO gaming. |
 Ranks are attained very quickly in WAR. |
 Eventually I found the RvR scenario experience, which completely changed the state of WAR. |
