Runes of Magic on its third anniversary
Runes of Magic's third anniversary is finally upon us. Frogster has been gearing up for the event by holding diamond sales and cash-shop specials. Each anniversary, you can also take part in multiple frog-related quests and events. Frog-bashing, frog disguises, and more frog-bashing have long been a staple. Frog-racing and frog etiquette have been added to the roster. What's frog etiquette? Why, it's either insulting or complimenting frogs, silly. During the festivities, various freebies are usually handed out to players who log in, as well.
The real question is what's new in the land of Taborea, but if you wanted to know about new lands or dungeons, you'll have to wait a little bit longer. There's no official word, but given the time that's passed and the unofficial images and information that are floating around the Internet, we know Chapter 5 can't be too far off. There are still players out there who are far from making their way through the Chapter 4 content, but many guilds on the cutting edge are starting to trample Tomb of the Seven Heroes into a well-worn path.
During this intermediary period, Runewaker added the random attribute extractor and the costume interface. This isn't a replacement to aggregating; it's more like an extension. Most recently, the team introduced a patch containing bug fixes and a sprinkling of changes to the user interface, guilds, pets, vendor NPCs, quests, crafting, and skills. Some of the most exciting information is sketchy but does point to two possible new classes. And what class (or race?) could possibly have skills with names like "forge" and "runecraft" in them? Hmm...
Round and round she goes
Right now, players are leveling their third class in Coast of Opportunity and Xaviera while questing on their main through Tergothen bay. I'm level 65, just five levels shy of the current level cap, but I haven't even started questing through Southern Janost Forest. Thank goodness for daily quests!
The ability to buy high-level stats with Phirius Shells was extended to match the hero stats coming out of Tomb of Seven Heroes. They cost a good deal more, but at least there's still a way to procure the best stats in the game without needing to run the dungeons.
Magical wardrobe
My new favorite feature is easily the magic wardrobe. The original aggregating system is still in place, but this new wardrobe overshadows it. Instead of changing your armor to a new skin, you move armor pieces into a new inventory window and assign them to the locations you want. It's like an overlay that you can remove at the touch of a button. What I like is that 10 costume designs can be saved. I have a full, colored samurai set and two other sets that I can switch between instantly. You get five free and can buy the others. It's made customizing easier and encouraged more creativity. Some of my guildmates have gone crazy with costume ideas.
Random attribute extraction stone
The random attribute extraction stone allows a player to pull a random stat from a piece of armor and make a mana stone with it. The extraction stone will be consumed and the item destroyed, but you could wind up with a nice new stat to put on armor you care about. It increases the ways you can obtain stats, but it's random. It's beneficial to weigh the odds. It just depends on how hard the item is to come by and how many stats are on it total. I never bother with the stones, but I'm also fairly liberal with dropping real cash in RoM.
Chapter 5 speculations
We haven't heard anything from the horses mouth about Chapter 5, but RoM-Welten, a German fansite, has some images and bits of interesting information in English. If you combine the time the information was found with speculated dates for release, you begin to suspect that all these discovered assets will be in Chapter 5. There's also a handful of world, instance and unfinished zone maps to drool over. RoM-Welten has dubbed Chapter 5 "Ancient Kingdom of Rorazan" and even has names for individual areas in each new zone. But I think even bigger news is what appears to be two new classes.
The names given for the two classes are Harpsyn and Psyron, but these are likely German titles yanked from the database. Information drawn from the database even includes primary, general and elite skills for many class combinations. Some of the Harpsyn's primary skills require focus, while the Psyron uses rage. If we follow the info to its logical end, this places Harpsyn as a Scout and Psyron as a Warrior, but given the growing number of classes and hybrid combinations possible in RoM today, I'm reluctant to label them that way.
The Harpsyn has a mix of mind-related powers that refer to psychic abilities in the descriptions as well as a number of skills utilizing dark damage, intelligence, and confusion. Necromancer, anyone? There's also some skills that call for soul points, which could be a secondary meter that works like the Elves' nature points. Jyr'na (Dark Elf) Necromancer, perhaps?
Psyrons look to have a spell that increases one- and two-handed hammer damage, lots of physical attack boosters, some shield spells, an aggro skill, and lots of skills with the words "forge" or "craft" in their names. Is it too farfetched to dream that this could be a class to accompany a playable Dwarven race?
What's got me confused, if the data is complete, is that Scouts and Knights are not in the class-combo lineup. Just as Druids can't combine with Priests, a Harpsyn should, logically, be restricted from combining with a Scout, but the Psyron isn't excluded from the rage-using Human Warrior. Druids and Wardens aren't mentioned at all, and both Harpsyn and Psyron share the same restrictions. This is the kind of game-gossip that keeps me up all night!
If these classes are legit, and if they are really going to be implemented, it means we'll be getting a new ranged caster and melee class. This is going to wreak havoc over the land of Taborea as severs tip to one side under the weight of players who are rerolling. Of course, it's common for developers to fill game clients with data far in advance, and in some cases it never gets used, but this information is too much for me not to mention, no matter how thin it is.
Conclusion
Chapter 4 ate up the bulk of the previous year, but some new patches and content were added since the last part was added, players are knee-deep in the digital confetti of a third anniversary, and Chapter 5 doesn't seem all that far away. RoM is still expanding around the world, too; a few months ago, Aeria Games picked it up for Turkish and Latin American localization. Overall, it's been another year of growth for RoM, and this next year already shows the promise of more content.
