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Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's post-feature pack experience
On April 15th Guild Wars 2 got its first feature pack, as packed with features as advertised. After the first day or so of trying to figure out where our town clothes disappeared to, it's becoming clear how much has changed: There's a lot more to take in and adjust to than might be immediately apparent. The experience for new GW2 characters has changed so much that I rolled up yet another alt post-patch to try it out. That was my plan all along, and I didn't do it because I just bought another character slot and didn't have an Asura yet. I chose a profession that's known for being less fun without traits, so I could see what it's like to not have them before level 30. It was not because I wanted another Engineer and already have two Necromancers, two Guardians, and two Mesmers. It was also necessary to use a total makeover kit for legitimate data-gathering purposes. Aww, look how cute he is! I can use all of my unlocked dyes on him, and dress him up in outfits, and -- right, down to business.
Leveling a time capsule
I still remember the first day I played this game on live servers, even though it's been nearly nine years since I looked at the login screen and tried to muddle out what to pick. Friends of mine had already made an Alliance guild and encouraged me to join them. When I mentioned I wanted to play a rogue, I was told that they really needed healers, not rogues. However, my friend suggested I roll a druid, as they could not only heal, but they could turn into a cat and stealth around like a rogue does. That seemed suitable to me, so I rolled a night elf druid, logged in and began to play. Several months and sixty levels later, that experience remains full of fond memories of endless frustration with the class and how it played. It absolutely did not help that giant improvements for that class were rolled out in a patch shortly after I hit 60. I rolled Horde, and the rest is history ... or it was, anyway. The druid remained at level 60, years after I hit 70, 80, 85 and 90, frozen in a distinct period of time. Several months ago, while idly looking at the login screen and pondering what to play, I decided to actually level the druid and get it caught up. Furthermore, I decided to make the trip without heirloom gear -- after all, it didn't exist when I originally played the character. This is the story of a peculiar alt that used to be a main, and what happens when you crack open a time capsule from 2005.
The top five things you need to know about patch 5.3
Patch 5.3 has arrived, and there are a truly staggering number of changes to the game, many of them with significant effects to gameplay. You can check out Blizzard's complete patch notes on their blog, but for the sake of brevity, WoW Insider has compiled a list of the top five changes that are most likely to be of the biggest interest to the average player. If you haven't been paying much attention, this is the stuff you probably really want to know! 1. The experience required to go from level 85 to 90 has been reduced by 33% Mists of Pandaria has been called very alt-unfriendly, and while this particular change won't entirely fix that, it does help. Along with the changes to reputation factions -- the Shado Pan and August Celestials dailies are no longer hidden behind the gate of "Revered" with the Golden Lotus -- this will make it easier to get your army of alts up to speed to hop into max-level content.
Webzen readying Soul of the Ultimate Nation: Episode 2, preview server
New content is on the way for fans of Soul of the Ultimate Nation, and Webzen has just announced the impending release of a global trial server for the game's Episode 2 patch. The new shard will go live on April 28th, and it aims to give players a preview as well as collect feedback prior to the patch's official release. Episode 2 brings major changes to the game including a new leveling system, itemization changes, and new quests. Webzen's press release states that the revamp should "please various gamers with its simple yet strategic gameplay." In addition to the leveling adjustments, Episode 2 introduces the custom passives system whereby players may tweak their avatars' abilities via customizable buffs. The mechanic is intended to encourage grouping between new and old players, and the resultant buffs will stay active as long as the party remains intact. Head to the official Soul of the Ultimate Nation website for more info.
Pet leveling in the 2.3.2 PTR
Over the weekend (while I was chowing down on turkey and mashed potatoes), Mania headed into the new PTR, and came back with some great news for Hunters leveling pets-- it's going to be faster.Pets will require 33% less XP to level up on the PTR, which (I believe) is in addition to the player leveling changes. Pets still, however, don't earn XP from quests (which makes sense, in a strange way, I guess, because you could bring one pet on a quest, and bring another to turn it in), and they don't earn XP on grey kills, either. Mania's testing also shows that pets earn the same XP on both live and test realms, which means pets don't actually earn XP faster-- they just don't need as much of it.Good stuff. I don't ever plan to actually level up a pet on its own (I have enough trouble leveling up my alts as it is), but it's good to know that the pet I've got coming with my lowbie Hunter will be grabbing XP faster than ever.
Blizzard "stealing" XP with leveling changes
Warcry has a super interesting reading of the XP leveling changes that Blizzard is making in 2.3. Their style is a little more, err, informal than ours, but they're right-- Blizzard is basically stealing XP from you in the next patch. Vaneras confirmed the other day that players who have a certain percentage of XP before the patch will keep that same percentage of XP, but not the same amount of XP. So, if, for example, you're halfway through level 59 when the patch hits, you'll lose about 600,000 XP that you've already earned.But before you get all angry about Blizzard wasting all that time you spent leveling, realize that things will likely even out in the end. Even though you'll lose 600,000 XP from the amount you have, you'll still be halfway through level 59, and you won't need as much XP as you did before to level to 60. So you haven't really "lost" anything, because even though Blizzard has "taken away" some XP, you didn't need what they took anyway.As we've said before, these leveling improvements are going to be great news, not only for altaholics who are leveling up their third or fourth character by now, but also for guilds eager to see some new 70s to bring into the raiding mix. Folks who are leveling both before and after patch 2.3 are going to experience some strange math, but that happens all the time anyway (did you know that all the stuff you're killing at level 70 now doesn't count towards the experience you'll need to earn in the next expansion?). Blizzard is tweaking the numbers, but the experience will still be faster.
