Hunters
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Watch Al Pacino hunt Nazis in Jordan Peele's upcoming Amazon series
Amazon has dropped a new trailer for Hunters, a Jordan Peele produced series starring none other than Al Pacino. The series revolves around a group of vigilantes, led by Pacino, chasing a Nazi regime that has secretly risen to power in the '70s, three decades after World War II.
'Evolve' simplifies the hunt with free deathmatch arena mode
Evolve isn't a typical multiplayer shooter. The game pits four hunters against a quickly mutating monster, with the first task usually being to find and trap the player-controlled goliath. The experience can be a little bewildering for newcomers, so developer Turtle Rock Studios is throwing in a free Arena Mode that keeps everything simple. In a best-of-three match, the hunters and monster are dropped in a small, pre-determined dome with only one goal; take down your opponent(s). The monster starts at stage two with 50 percent armour, reducing the need to devour local wildlife, and when a hunter dies they're out until the next round. It's a bare-bones take on the Evolve formula, stripping away some of what makes the game unique. Still, if you're interested in shorter rounds where you can easily hone your combat skills, Arena Mode could be a welcome change on planet Shear.
WoW Archivist: 10 years, 10 amazing moments
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? In 2004, I bought a brown box with some discs inside it. On the cover was a close-up of a woman with crazy purple eyebrows and an angry bearded guy -- possibly Matt Rossi -- holding a gun. I didn't know anything about the Warcraft universe at the time. I'd watched someone play Warcraft III once (or was it II?). I remember chuckling at the peons' comments as they got to work. That was the extent of my experience. I'd been playing Final Fantasy XI and I loved the concept of an online world. I was hoping for a game that was more accessible than FFXI but with all the cool monsters, grouping, exploration, and loot. I never imagined the journey that I was about to take, the people I would meet, the opportunities that would become open to me as a result of that purchase. Many of us who played back then had no idea what was about to happen to the gaming world because of that brown box. With all the hoopla surrounding Warlords of Draenor, Archivist has been busy covering yesterday's precursors to current content, such as the zombie plague pre-expansion event, patch 3.0, and the original Upper Blackrock Spire. WoW's 10th anniversary events officially ended this week (after an unscheduled extension), and it is past time that I looked back on my own ten years in Azeroth. Here are ten of my favorite WoW moments, in order. 1. Showdown at Uldaman. One of my first PvP experiences in WoW was a complete accident. In late 2004, a friend and I were questing in the cave outside of Uldaman in the Badlands. We were in our mid to high 30s at the time on our first characters. One of the mushrooms we had to gather sat behind an Alliance NPC. I went to right-click to gather it but instead I clicked the NPC and started attacking him. We were flagged for PvP on a PvE realm. We knew it was now open season on us. And on Khadgar-US, Horde players were heavily outnumbered by the Alliance.
Fourth Evolve monster granted with pre-orders or separate purchase
Turtle Rock Studios' four-versus-one multiplayer shooter Evolve will receive a number of add-ons following the game's launch in February. For $25, the game's Hunting Season Pass will introduce four new playable hunters this spring, one for each class in the game. Each hunter will also be available for purchase for $7.49 each. Season pass holders will also get exclusive access to three monster skins at Evolve's launch: Magma Goliath, Magma Kraken and Magma Wraith. Turtle Rock Studios also revealed the Behemoth, a fourth playable "tank of a monster" that transforms into a rolling boulder, available this spring for $15. The Behemoth will also be part of the Monster Expansion Pack, a bonus for those that pre-order or pre-purchase Evolve. That expansion pack itself features a free Savage Goliath skin at the game's launch. Additionally, the developer revealed two special edition versions of the game today, each available for pre-purchase. Evolve's Digital Deluxe Edition features the monster-slaying game, its season pass and the Monster Expansion Pack for $80, available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. PC players get a special collector's edition to themselves as well: Evolve's $100 PC Monster Race Edition features the same goodies as the Digital Deluxe Edition as well as a fifth monster, two hunters and four monster skins that will be exclusive to PC Monster Race Edition players for 30 days. Evolve will launch on February 10 and is available to pre-download starting today on Xbox One. While you can find a new trailer for the game to showcase the Behemoth after the break, stay tuned to Joystiq Streams at 4:00 p.m. ET today for a livestream of Evolve in action. [Image: 2K Games]
Evolve's hunters tracked down in gameplay video
This trailer for Evolve introduces each of the game's four hunters in video form, showing their unique abilities in action as they team up to take beasts down. Turtle Rock Studios' four-versus-one shooter will launch October 21 for PC, Xbox One and PS4.
Tameable hydras for hunters officially on the way?
Hunters may remember with some sadness the brief moment in time back in 2011 when hydra pets were datamined from the patch 4.1 PTR. Unfortunately, the pet never made it to live servers, leaving those with hopes of taming a three-headed beastie for their very own to wait until a later time. Apparently, that time is coming soon. Game Designer Jeremy Feasel tweeted the tantalizing image shown above yesterday, along with the following tweet. Wish they'd stop biting each other and help me kill this thing! #Hunters #StopHittingYourself #3HeadsAreBetter pic.twitter.com/yfh0Lhsabh- Jeremy Feasel (@Muffinus) March 28, 2014
Scattered Shots: Siege tips and tricks, part 1
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing the finer points of pew pewing in Vale of Eternal Sorrows and Gates of Retribution. With the September 23 hotfixes, all three hunter specs have been brought up to relevance. In simulations, they are all within a couple percent of each other, but the real question is how do they perform for you in a real world setting? After an expansion of beast mastery and survival (which play very similarly), the jump to marksmanship will be tough for some hunters. This week, for my very first hunter column, we're going to look at how you can maximize your damage and survivability in the first two wings of Siege of Orgrimmar. Keep in mind that a lot of these are simply suggestions and that your mileage may vary. What works for me may not work for you, but this will give you an idea of how our abilities can be utilized on the first eight bosses. Stock up on some Tomes of the Clear Mind and let's get started.
Preparation, Readiness, and other cooldown resetting abilities may have grim future
Classes with cooldown resetting abilities probably won't find one of Ghostcrawler's most recent tweet all that surprising. The abilities (Preparation, Readiness, etc.) have been targeted by several nerfs and changes this expansion. Ghostcrawler wrote the following in reply to a tweet that said it may be time to stop adding cooldown resetting abilities to the game if they're constantly going to be nerfed. @Divine_Namjoo We agree. I'm not sure that design angle has payed out well. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) July 16, 2013 The abilities are particularly problematic in PvP, where players can chain several attacks or crowd control abilities together within a short period of time. What do you think? Do cooldown resetting abilities belong in the game? Are they overpowered?
Daily iPhone App: Warhammer Quest combines Rodeo Games' talent with the Warhammer setting
Warhammer Quest was originally announced way back in August last year, and now it's finally arrived on the iOS App Store, for a price of US$4.99. The game is indeed based on the old board game (set in the great and goofy British Warhammer universe), but it's also made by Rodeo Games, most famous for creating the popular Hunters series on iOS. Rodeo knows how to make turn-based strategy both interesting and easy to control on the iOS touchscreen, and that's exactly what they've done here, essentially translating their top-down, grid layout strategy title into the Warhammer universe. In Warhammer Quest, you pilot a crew of various fantasy-based heroes (warrior, mage, archer and shieldbearer are the core classes, though a few more are available via in-app purchase) through dungeons, clobbering orcs, goblins and any other baddies who happen to step in your way. Each hero has their own set of movement stats and abilities, and you pick up items and extra loot as you play, earning more and more options in battle. Just like the Hunters series, the interface is clean and clear, and it's very easy to navigate your heroes around the dungeon. It's not quite as easy to use spells and abilities (most of them are, strangely, buried in an interface rather than easily accessible), but still, the setup makes sense once you play with it a bit. There's an excellent meta-game as well, where you can travel to a town to train up your heroes and experience various random, lore-supported events. There are also lots of side quests to follow, offering all of the challenge and content that you'd like. There's even an expansion already ready to go via IAP, and I'm guessing (given what we've seen with the Hunters series so far), that we'll see lots more content for this game in the future. If you're a Warhammer fan, this is a must-buy, and if you like turn-based strategy at all, this is a prime example of a talented developer working side-by-side with a great property. This game is definitely worth $4.99, though Hunters seems to go on sale with some regularity, so you may want to wait and see if the price drops if you're willing to be patient. Given the size of the game and the quality of the content, however, Warhammer Quest is easily recommended.
Hunters series (and more) on sale this weekend
Here's just a quick note that the very popular iOS strategy series, Hunters, is on sale this weekend only. Hunters: Episode 1 is completely free, and the sequel, Hunters 2, is available for only US$0.99. I've got a big plane ride coming up on Saturday, and I think this turn-based strategy series might be the perfect thing to pass the time. Elsewhere on the App Store, Angry Birds Rio is also free at the moment, so you can grab that one if you haven't yet as well. In-place action shooter Starbase Gunship has also gone free for a limited time, and the very colorful and fun match-3 game Letz: The Story of Zed is on sale for 99 cents. So there's plenty for you to pick up and play this weekend if you need a new iOS obsession (if, that is, you've been able to put down Temple Run 2 already).
WoW Moviewatch: Hunters Are Just Awesome
Did you know hunters are just awesome? If you didn't, you may want to check out today's video. The song is a collaboration by many notable members of the hunter community, organized by WoW Insider's Brian Wood, also known as Frostheim of the Warcraft Hunters Union and the Hunting Party Podcast. The video isn't too complex, but the song should warm the hearts of our many hunter readers out there, and remind them how awesome their class is. It may also make the rest of us envious that our own communities don't have multiple theme songs (I guess rogues do, actually). This collaboration is two years in the making. I remember at WoW Insider's BlizzCon 2012 party, Frostheim ran up to me with a big grin on his face and said he'd just recorded one of our notable guests (Aron Eisenburg? Felicia Day, perhaps?) saying, "hunters are just awesome!" To find out who it was, check out the video. Oh, and don't forget to heal hunter pets!
Hunter glyph changes in patch 5.0.4
When the new 5.0 patch flips over on Aug. 28, will you be ready with glyphs? Blizzard is recycling old glyphs instead of making new spell IDs and charring old ones. Some glyphs are staying the same, some are new, but some share IDs with old Cataclysm glyphs. Below is our list of new or changing glyphs for hunters. This is not a list of changing tooltips, just which glyphs you ought to have if you want to automatically have the new glyphs when the patch flips over. Hunters have one new minor glyph that won't appear automatically anywhere, Glyph of Marking. Glyphs that are changing into new majors: Dazzled Prey becomes Animal Bond Arcane Shot becomes Camouflage Concussive Shot becomes Distracting Shot Bestial Wrath becomes Endless Wrath Immolation Trap becomes Explosive Trap Wyvern Sting becomes Icy Solace Trap Launcher becomes Marked For Death Kill Command becomes Mend Pet Silencing Shot becomes No Escape Rapid Fire becomes Pathfinding Steady Shot becomes Scattering Explosive Shot becomes Tranquilizing Shot Glyphs that are changing into new minors: Aimed Shot becomes Aspects Raptor Strikes becomes Aspect of the Beast Kill Shot becomes Aspect of the Cheetah Feign Death becomes Fireworks Scare Beast becomes Stampede Serpent Sting becomes Tame Beast It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Warhammer Quest coming to the App Store next year
Rodeo Games, the team behind the popular Hunters strategy RPG series, has announced a new title called Warhammer Quest, which is of course set in the excellent Warhammer universe owned by Games Workshop. Unfortunately, despite there being a short teaser trailer for the upcoming game, we don't know much about it at all. Given Rodeo's past, we'd hope that it's a strategy RPG title that borrows a lot of elements from the great tabletop game. There was an old Warhammer Quest board game released back in 1995, and considering that these two have the same logo, it's probably going to be very similar to that. The Warhammer license is definitely a popular one (I prefer the sci-fi oriented Warhammer 40,000 series myself, but I don't mind the fantasy version either), and Rodeo has already proven that it's got the chops to make a solid strategy action title. Warhammer Quest is due out on iOS sometime in 2013, so there will be a bit of a wait until we hear more.
Maverick Studios working on Unveiled: The Supernatural horror MMO
Apparently CCP and Funcom aren't the only development firms working on horror MMOs with sexy graphics. Upstart Maverick Studios has been slaving away on Unveiled: The Supernatural since 2009, and the game features four races (hunters, witches, vampires, and werewolves) in addition to some sort of skill-based advancement system. MMO Culture recently posted a few screenshots as well as some Unveiled concept art, and there's even a trailer floating around the intertubes that offers a glimpse into the game's brooding aesthetic (but sadly no gameplay footage). Can Unveiled satisfy our blood-lust for a horror MMO now that World of Darkness seems further away than ever? It's too early to tell, but you can bet that we'll be keeping an interested eye on Maverick Studios. Head past the break to check out the trailer.
Patch 4.1 PTR: New hydra pet available for hunters
Hunters have campaigned and begged for it, and now it appears to be on the horizon. According to a post on MMO-Champion, the patch 4.1 PTR contains a couple of spells that should be of interest to hunters. First is a tamed pet passive with a hydra icon, and the second is the ability Bellowing Roar, which includes the following: "The hydra lets out a bellowing roar, increasing the critical strike chance of all party and raid members by 5%." So get ready, hunters -- that elusive hydra pet you've been craving will (potentially) be yours soon, in patch 4.1. I'm going to name mine George. Editor's Note: Please keep in mind that this is datamined information from very early in the patch 4.1 cycle. That does not necessarily mean that the hydra will be a tamed pet in patch 4.1, only that Blizzard was exploring the possibility of allowing it. 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.
What hunter pets would you like to see tamable?
Nethaera posted a call for feedback on hunter pets on the official forums: Nethaera We're looking to get some feedback on the types of pets that hunters would like to be able to tame and the types of abilities that might be interesting for those pets to have. Is there a type of creature in the game now that you would like to be able to tame or an ability that you've always thought should be added? Here's your chance to share a bit more about what you think could be great additions for the hunter class. source Head on over and make sure to get your ideas in! Personally, I'd been saying for months on the Hunting Party that they should make pet special abilities debuffs to allow hunters to use a greater variety of pets in end game raiding and remain competitive with those nasty melee classes. Wolves are cool, and all, but are boring as sin when they're all you see. So far, they've announced that, in Cataclysm: Wind Serpents will debuff spell damage taken Ravagers will provide a physical damage vulnerability Hyenas will provide a bleed damage magnifier I'd like to see the whole list of debuffs available in some way from a hunter pet, if in slightly reduced form. Personally, I'd also love to see the Beastmaster spec's third tier mastery buff provide lower penalties on debuffs in addition to increasing pet damage.
Cataclysm Class Changes: Hunter analysis
After days of watching other classes cheer and complain over their Cataclysm class previews, we finally got a chance for a look into what Blizzard has planned for us with the hunter class previews. Like a good first date, it leaves us excited and intrigued with the possibilities, but mostly it leaves us wanting more! Let's roll up our sleeves and both take a deeper look at what these changes mean for the best-looking class in WoW and just how much more we hope to see on our second date. Before we get started though, we have to be sure to keep our reactions in context. Everything is getting rebalanced in Cataclysm, every number for every class and every stat. We cannot look at these changes through our Wrath experience. Since we do not yet know how the numbers will play out with every class and spec being rebalanced, we cannot say whether our damage will go up or down compared to other classes or specs. We just have no idea, so we can only look at these changes with the assumption that our DPS will be equivalent to any other class in most situations. We'll also be using the Frostheim rating system to evaluate each of the changes, ranging from FAIL to Awesomesauce.
Spiritual Guidance: Benediction
Though temporarily bested by Sindragosa's Ice Tombs, a well-timed Renew and some gnome mages have freed Dawn Moore just in time for her to wrench back Spiritual Guidance from the shady clutches of Fox Van Allen; just as she does every Sunday. After she finishes advising her fellow healing priests on the ways of the light this week, she will be waiting for a duel in Zangarmarsh atop the highest mushroom with a Flag of Ownership and Medallion of the Horde. Bring it! I've had a lot of requests recently from readers who want a leg up on gearing out their soon to be level 80, or fresh level 80 priest for raiding. This is certainly a worthwhile topic, one I intend to get to, but not this week. We get a lot of mail at WoW.com and this past week we got an e-mail from a player named Nemikahn who wrote a WoW version of the song Sunscreen. The various staffers read through the e-mail, groaned in realization at how old they were (the original song came out in 1998) before the e-mail got lost in the jumble of BlizzCon 2010 news. I really enjoyed the rewrite though, and thought it rather timely given we are nearing the end of this expansion. Cataclysm is coming, and it's supposed to change everything we've become familiar with. So, this week my fellow priests, my guidance is this: stop and smell the flowers. WoW operates at such a hurried pace these days. Don't feel like you always have to rush off to the next raid or complete another alt. Take more screen shots, visit your favorite zones, make sure you can contact your closest friends in the game outside of it, and most of all: create Benediction. I will, of course, help you with that last part.
The Art of War(craft): Introductory guide to fighting hunters
Zach once sat down with Thrall and Varian Wrynn and had a laugh over some glasses of cold, green tea. Two weeks ago we kicked off a series of introductory guides in PvP intended to give players a general idea of what to expect when facing certain classes. Understanding the behavior, capabilities, and limitations of a class puts players off to a great start in PvP, and after discussing the druid and the death knight in the first two installments, we now turn our attention to the hunter. Hunters have long been a force to reckon with in the Battlegrounds, an environment where they thrive. Also, as strong as they were back in vanilla WoW, they're even more powerful in Wrath of the Lich King, gaining new tricks, losing old limitations (e.g., traps can be deployed in combat), and having access to diversity of pets that make PvP encounters more interesting than ever. Hunters are the game's premier pet class. More than even warlocks, hunters rely on their pet to accomplish their goals, with the best hunters mastering the art of micromanaging their pets and its varied abilities. Recognizing a hunter's spec is only aspect of identifying a hunter's strength and weaknesses. Part of learning how to deal with hunters involves recognizing a hunter's pet type who now even have their own talent trees. Let's take a closer look at this master of beasts after the jump.
Blood Sport: Beginner's guide to arena, part III
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all-things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column. Listening Music: Modeselektor's Tetrispack. Allison Robert offered a challenge to our most beloved columnist last week. Ms. Roberts has chosen a clever and palatable piece with Richard Shindell's On-A-Sea-Of-Fleur-De-Lis. And now we come to my retaliation. My wife recommended our musical selection today -- it just happened to be on the absolute opposite end of the spectrum. How fitting. We love this song, albeit mostly for the intro. Upon your first listen, if you correctly predict the timing and type of shift in the first thirty seconds, serious e-props to you. To wit, Robert: pan flute > no pan flute. Your move. Last Week: part two of our beginner's arena guide. We featured the cute ukulele kid who pretty much controls the internet right now. After that, we discussed frequently asked questions from new arena players. We talked about how to spec and what team composition to choose, with two different types of answers (easy and long). Today, we'll be talking some very basic class strategy. If you know your class inside and out, you'll know what I'm going to say when it comes to your class and arena. You can still learn about other classes here. I've written over 2500 words about individual class perspective inside arenas, that's a lot. Full article after the break.
