tactics
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Patch 4.2 PTR: First look at the Encounter Journal
Recognize the little guy in the top left corner? Yup, that's Crabby! He's back to help guide you and your party through the various encounters found in Azeroth. Who would have guessed a simple crustacean had so much to offer? If you don't want to spoil yourself for any specific lore reasons, you may wish to avoid using the encounter journal until you at least get to the encounter itself. A recent patch 4.2 build had enabled it, and already I can see this being a huge asset to players who wish to dive into dungeons or raids. The encounter journal effectively tells you three things: Loot drops Boss abilities Notable phases Some of the journal entries also provide a little lore background into the areas you're invading. If you're a person like me who doesn't read quest text much and just hits "Next" on everything, you might sometimes wonder why you're going into some dark part of the world to take down some villain. At least now we have some idea as to why. What the journal won't tell you is how to take down bosses. You get a full list of boss abilities and mechanics, but it's entirely up to the raid to determine what tactics should be used to respond to said boss abilities. Warning: Partial encounter spoiler ahead.
Wasteland Diaries: Don't give up
In Fallen Earth PvP, there is a pretty wide rift between the haves and the have-nots. A novice will rarely fare well in Fallen Earth combat, but there are rare exceptions. There are some groups that fight so well that it might even seem like they are hacking or cheating in some way. Usually, this isn't the case. What they are doing, however, is using every advantage they can get out of the game mechanics. They are also working together like a well-oiled machine. This takes a bit of knowledge and a lot of practice. A well-trained and coordinated team will make short work of a rag-tag pick-up group. In this post, I will lay out the basic knowledge that you will need to PvP. If you take these few pointers to heart, you will be more likely to understand what happens when you lose and what to do to correct it. Overcoming the learning curve in Fallen Earth PvP requires two things. The first and most important thing is patience. When you get knocked down, you have to brush yourself off and try again. The second thing you will need is a firm understanding of the game mechanics. If you understand the rules of the game, you will be more likely to figure out what you did wrong and what your opponents did right. I can't teach you how to be patient, but I can tell you a few things about the game mechanics that might help you stay alive. Even if you never plan to PvP (mobs can be vicious too), click past the cut to start your training.
Stay up to speed with WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm
Looking for the best approach to a certain boss? How about gearing guides for all flavors of 85s, whether you just hit the level cap, are working your way through rep rewards and heroics, or are already digging into raiding? What if you're just getting around to figuring out best practices for your newly 85 alt? WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm has you covered! We add fresh links every week to keep you up to date with the latest tips, tricks and strategies for the Cataclysm era. Here's what's new from the most recent weeks: Best class tips Cataclysm tanking for warriors, part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 Blood DK Tanking 101 Protection Paladin 101 Shadow Priest 101 Best gear Pre-raid gear for resto shaman Gear your tankadin for heroics Gear your tankadin for raids Raid-level gear for DKs Best raid tactics Raiding Blackwing Descent as a shadow priest, part 1 / part 2 / part 3 Raiding strategies for feral cats, part 1 / part 2 / part 3 Priest healing strategies Ascendant Council Cho'gall Maloriak and Nefarian Chimaeron and Atramedes Holy paladin healing strategies for Bastion of Twilight, part 1 / part 2 The enhancement shaman guide to Nefarian Best practices for healing heroic Chimaeron A Blackwing Descent healing playbook Healing heroic Halfus More Blackwing Descent and the Prestor legacy There's much, much more where this came from -- get the whole scoop on WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm! World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
The Daily Grind: What's your least favorite sort of boss fight?
If you study a fair bit of literary theory, you'll come across the idea that there are only a handful of different stories at the most basic level. The same is true of boss fights in most MMOs -- while there are variants, you can generally break a fight down to its component elements. DPS races, gear checks, endurance fights, add management, positioning battles... from World of Warcraft to Lord of the Rings Online to City of Heroes, there are going to be fights where you have to avoid standing in things while killing the boss gradually. Of course, each of these fights can bring different challenges, but not all of them are entirely welcome ones. So which set of mechanics do you find the least appealing? Do you find positioning fights irritating as they completely disregard character stats in favor of dancing? Do you dislike DPS races where everyone just brainlessly pounds on the keyboard? Are you sick of burning down non-entities in order to fight the actual boss? Or is there another mechanic altogether that gets your goat? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm helps you track down game details
Looking for the best approach to a certain boss? How about gearing guides for all your level-capped characters at their various levels of play: new 85s, heroic instancing and raiding? What if you're just getting around to figuring out best practices for your newly 85 alt? WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm has you covered! We add fresh links every week to keep you up to date with the latest tips, tricks and strategies for the Cataclysm era. Here's what's new from the most recent weeks: Blizzard's Tom Chilton discusses Cataclysm design, talent and zone revamps Bear weapons, trinkets and relics Datamining Cataclysm's legendary staff Entering the Bastion of Twilight as a balance druid Top 10 trinkets for the pre-raiding shadow priest Warlock strategies for Cho'gall Gearing your feral cat for raiding, part 3 and part 2 Balance druid strategies for the Twilight Ascendant Council Level 85 shadow priest gear Warlock strategies for the Twilight Ascendant Council Holy paladins tips for healing Chimaeron Balance druid strategies for Cho'gall Read WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
gamigo announces new Elements of War MMORTS
There's a new MMORTS in the works from gamigo, and the upcoming Elements of War Online looks to give players the opportunity to take part in an invasion of the United States carried out by a coalition of Russian and European forces. The game features eight-player (4 vs. 4) matches and requires a mixture of strategy, tactical prowess, and teamwork to control various sectors of a battle map set in the war-torn continental United States. Player commanders choose and train their units to create the ultimate army, and can even make use of "experimental element weapons such as artificial tornados and storms [that] can make or break a battle," according to a gamigo press release. Beta testing for Elements of War will kick off this quarter, and the game will feature 50 unique battle zones, 16 maps, two playable factions, 31 unit types per side, and destructible environments.
Guest Post: How to succeed in dungeons without really trying
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Make no mistake: Early Cataclysm dungeons are not the faceroll that we experienced at the end of Wrath. Not only have everyone's gear levels dropped dramatically relative to the content, but Blizzard has returned to a more BC-style design philosophy wherein crowd control really matters and one live mob can make the difference between an easy pull and a very difficult one. Of course, the ideal solution is to read up on the dungeons beforehand and make sure you're prepared for them, but we don't live in an ideal world. Sometimes, you'll wind up in a random dungeon that you weren't expecting, and you haven't had time to research. Additionally, dungeon guides don't always give tips for trash, and trash pulls now require some coordination. Luckily, instance design does not expect you to have an encyclopedia in your head. An alert dungeoneer can succeed on the fly by following a few simple tips.
Guest Post: 32 tricks for Icecrown Citadel
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Icecrown Citadel has been out for eightmonths now, and with the availability of i264 emblem gear and the 30 percent zone buff, it's become accessible to raiders with a wide range of experience. Some players have downed the bosses 100+ times on various alts, and other players may be just starting out. Regardless of your experience level, there are always interesting tricks about the fights that people learn over the course of time. Here are 32 of them. Warlocks, time your Seed of Corruption to hit as Bone Spike cast ends, and if everyone's stacked correctly in melee range, you'll be top damage on Bone Spikes. During Bone Storm casts, tanks should run to be farthest away from center of raid. Some 90 percent of the time, he'll target the farthest person away to move to. Any time you have to split your DPS into two groups (whether it's Thaddius or adds on Lady D or Valithria), an easy way to get balance is to go through Recount by damage done and put Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15 on damage done on one side and the rest on the other side. Spellsteal or Purge the Vampiric Might on fanatics. Boomkin rooting for Darnavan works especially well, but note that he's immune to Cyclone.
CCP changes deep safe spot nerf due to player feedback
On Wednesday, we brought you the news of CCP's plans to nerf deep safe spots in EVE Online. Deep safe spots are bookmarks far outside the outer boundaries of a solar system. Being several hundred AU from the nearest celestial body, ships in a deep safe spot are far outside normal scanning range. The spots have been created using a variety of exploits over the years, and with Tyrannis on the way they're headed for a nerf. The announcement of the change was met by strong opposition from some players on the official EVE forums, not about the nerf itself but the planned implemention. On May 18th, all ships and objects over 10AU further from the system's star than the outer-most planet were scheduled to be deleted. Any ships or items inadvertently left there would be gone and any pilots logged off in these locations would log in to find themselves without a ship. In response to player feedback, CCP have decided to rethink their plan to delete objects in deep safe spots. These objects will instead be moved to the outer edge of the solar system. In the new announcement, CCP took the time to clarify what objects will be moved with a handy diagram. The announcement was rounded off with some interesting statistics, showing that there are currently about 345 ships without pilots abandoned at deep safe spots across EVE. As these ships will eventually be moved to within normal probing distance, some lucky players may find them unexpectedly.
Deep safe spot nerf coming to EVE Online
Any EVE Online player that's spent time in nullsec or lowsec will know the importance of safe spots. By creating a bookmark while in warp, you can warp to areas of space several AU from any celestial objects. Although other players can still see your ship on the directional scanner, they'll need to narrow down your location with combat scanner probes to warp in on top of you. You can be stay relatively safe from hostile players by continually warping between multiple safe spots, an old and intended part of EVE's tactical gameplay. The creation of deep safe spots several hundred AU from the nearest celestial object, however, has never been an intended game mechanic. Over the years, several different bugs and oversights have allowed players to create them. Unfortunately for players that have been using deep safe spots, this particular tactical tool is going to change when Tyrannis hits on May 18th.
We'll never be smart enough to play Frozen Synapse
We don't possess what you might call a "strategic mind." This much is evident whenever we play Risk, where our "keep Australia on lockdown and never, ever leave" approach has yet to pay off. With that in mind, the trailer for the independently developed tactical action game Frozen Synapse just makes our brain hurt. Basically, it's a tactical turn-based combat sim where multiple characters with different specialties are controlled at once, and also there's time travel, and oh no our nose is bleeding. Check out the video after the jump, but make sure you've got some gauze nearby.
EVE Evolved: Five interesting combat tactics
Although EVE Online's combat isn't twitch-based, the outcome is often swayed by strong tactical and strategic influences. Whether you're running missions, battling Sleeper AI in a wormhole site or engaging other players in PvP, chances are you've pulled off a few fancy tactical maneuvers. Over the years, we learn these little tricks and teach them to each other. From mundane ways to avoid damage from NPCs to the cat and mouse games we play with other players, tactical maneuvers are a big part of EVE's gameplay. In this short article, I look at a few of the tips and tactics players use to gain an edge in combat. Angular velocity: If you've ever used a turret-based ship and found yourself missing enemies a lot, there are a few tricks you can do to even the score. Open the overview settings menu and under "column" select "Angular Velocity". This shows the transverse velocity of enemy ships relative to your own in radians per second, which is the same measurement your turret tracking score uses. By checking the show-info pane on your guns, you can look up the maximum tracking speed of your guns. Ships with an angular velocity greater than your turret's tracking speed will be practically impossible to hit so having this information on-hand means you can avoid picking targets that will just waste your time and ammo. Another useful trick to do is to match your course and speed as closely as you can with an enemy ship rather than just approaching it. This will decrease their angular velocity relative to your ship, allowing you to hit some fast ships you otherwise wouldn't be able to. Skip past the cut for four more interesting tactics and tips. Do you have a particularly useful tip or a clever tactical maneuver you use a lot? Leave a comment and let us know what it is.
EVE Evolved: Five interesting combat tactics, part 2
By warping from one stargate to another at a distance or using the align feature, you can anchor a bubble at the second stargate which is in line with the first gate. Anyone warping from the first stargate to the second will be caught in the trap. A neat trick is that you don't even need to put the bubble on the correct side of the stargate.
Hands-on: Dawn of Heroes (DS)
You might expect Dawn of Heroes, a tactical, turn-based RPG from Wicked Studios and Majesco, to be super serious. It seems games in this genre seldom stray into the territory of slapstick and humorous banter, but here's Dawn of Heroes, doing just that -- and doing it well! %Gallery-77827%
Breakfast topic: How do you learn tactics?
I was never one for these tabletop strategy games or D&D but thanks to WoW I have become quite a tactician. Tactics are so integrated in the game that they come into play figuring out how to down Hogger without aggroing too many of his numerous minions, to sneaking through hostile territory and avoiding NPCs who want to kill you all the way to confronting KT in Naxx or Ignis in Ulduar. The latter is especially true, Ignis is a nightmare where a knowledge of tactics is life or death. When your raid leader asks if everyone knows the tactics and you all nod heads and mutter yes, it's not actually courtesy, he or she is trying to figure out how many people will survive long enough to down the giant er ... giant. Once upon a time all you had to do to learn the tactics was play. Wiping on bosses and the depression of death, failure and repair bills can be a great motivator. At the same time, there are few unique boss fights in WoW. They all follow some kind of pattern and sometimes phases are even borrowed from other mobs. Others, such as Shade of Aran's Flame Wreath go down in lore and legend, even getting their own ever-so-catchy (nay beautiful) theme tune. I challenge anyone to move after having heard that (I even have that in iTunes and would play it just in case my raid forgot. No one ever did.).So I wonder, constant readers, how do you learn tactics? I can read WoWwiki, for example, until I'm blue in the face but because of the weird way my brain is wired (don't ask), the only was I can truly learn tactics is in the fight itself. Yes, there's YouTube, there's the pre-boss-fight sit down where the raid leader does a run though the fight because no one bothered to take ten minutes to do some reading up. What methods do you use?
Joyswag: Strategic double pack [update]
Update: Our contest has come to an end. Be sure to keep an eye on your email to see if you won! For our DS fans, we've got two strategy games up for grabs in our latest Joyswag giveaway: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (ARV $30) and Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (ARV $30). It's a pretty sweet combo, if we may say so ourselves, and should provide you with hours upon hours of distraction. So, check out the rules below to enter and best of luck to you! Leave a comment telling us what your favorite tactic is (examples: stealth, guns blazing, hang in the back and hope your team doesn't die, etc) You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) Limit 1 entry per person per calendar day This entry period ends at 11:59 am ET on Monday, May 25 At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon ($30) and Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift ($30) For a list of complete rules, click here
Tips for raiding faster
I am definitely an advocate of the fast instance or raid -- when I played a tank, I pulled pulled pulled (according to the healer's mana, of course), and even now, mostly as a Hunter, I still get impatient. When the healer's mana is full and the tank is not /afk, I sometimes just throw a Misdirect up and go. That's probably why I really liked Naissa's tips for speedy raiding -- she lays out a few really practical things you can do to get your raid moving faster, from only marking skull and X when necessary to only worrying about the healer's mana. It's not the end of the world if the Mage or Hunter has to drink for a second after the pull. While you should always get back to full before a boss pull (and as she says, that's a perfect time to break down the basics, only the basics, of the fight), usually as long as you've got the tank and healer ready, a quick pull will give you time for aggro to settle down as well.I don't completely agree with her DPS meter remarks -- I do think that beating the raid is much more important than trying to win the DPS meters, but as a DPS player, I like viewing the meters as good feedback on where I should be. If I'm super low in the meters, it's time to look at my gear and rotations and try to figure out why so I can get better, and I think it's valuable for DPS, as long as they can keep their attention on the raid, to do the same thing.But all of the other tips are great, and in general, "pull pull pull" should be the order of the day. Some groups are better at rolling through content than others, obviously, but as long as you've got a solid tank and healer in play who know the instance and know how to handle what comes, most raids and groups can move through the content pretty quickly.
Earthrise videos show game mechanics and zones
The post-apocalyptic MMO title Earthrise from Masthead Studios has caught our attention, perhaps even moreso since we heard of their involvement with the much-rumored Fallout MMO. Massively ran a fairly comprehensive look at Earthrise from our meeting with them at GDC 2009 and the game seems to be coming along rather well in terms of development. We came across something else interesting today over at MMORPG.com that might interest our readers. Masthead Studios CEO Atanas Atanasov gave MMORPG.com a demo of Earthrise which they captured in video in two parts.The first video introduces some of the core aspects of playing Earthrise, with the system of skills, abilities, tactics, and stances explained briefly while moving about in a starter zone. The second bit of in-game footage focuses on Earthrise's zones. It shows off the contrast between the utopian Eastern Gardens and a devastated region, once a city and now a buffer between the game's civilized areas and the wasteland. Both videos are worth checking out over at MMORPG.com.
GDC09: Massively previews Earthrise
The futuristic game Earthrise is one of the upcoming sci-fi massively multiplayer games that we can see on the horizon. It's the first MMO developed by Sofia-based Masthead Studios and features the post-apocalyptic setting of a world divided between utopian idealism and revolution. Massively had a chance to sit down with Masthead Studios CEO Atanas Atanasov at the Game Developers Conference 2009 where he gave us a walkthrough of Earthrise, shedding some light on what this new title may bring to the MMO world.%Gallery-48760%
An insider's account of galactic warfare in EVE Online
Prolific games journalist Jim Rossignol is an avid EVE Online player, who has made regular contributions to Eurogamer focused on this particular sci-fi MMO. His latest piece, "EVE Online: Battle Reports", is a brief account of how his PvP-focused corp (EVE's version of a guild) fared in a conflict against some steep odds. His aim is to explain a bit about how the game works while telling his story, hopefully holding appeal for those who don't play the game as well as those who do. "Because of the open structure of the game world, player-versus-player battles happen in all kinds of contexts and situations, and the sheer number of variables means they can make for a great story," Rossignol writes.
