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Otherland enters phase two of closed beta testing this Friday
Gamigo has announced that the upcoming Otherland MMO, based on the popular cyberpunk series of the same name, is about to enter phase two of beta testing. The new phase of testing is bringing with it a number of improvements and fixes for testers to enjoy. The new beta build includes a revamped tutorial, a new starter zone, a "refined" combat system, and more. If you're in the Otherland beta and can't wait to check it out, you'll have your opportunity when a "short preview and feedback round" begins Friday, December 14th at 4:00 a.m. Eastern time. The testing period will run until Monday, December 17th, so you've got all weekend to see what the new build has to offer. For all the delicious beta details, check out the game's official site.
Stay on target: SWTOR's guilds begin to align with phase 2
Star Wars: The Old Republic's release may feel like it's always going to be in a "galaxy far, far away," but at least BioWare is giving guilds something substantial to do in preparation for launch. Following up the first phase of guild formation, today the studio announced that guilds can now progress into the second phase: alignment. During this phase, guild leaders can establish up to three guilds as their Allies or Adversaries (depending on the target guild's faction). Not only will this help to cement friendships and rivalries, but BioWare says that these connections "will have the highest chance of being placed in the game together, allowing these guilds to coexist on the same server." This won't happen if the guilds have chosen different server rulesets, however. Another new feature that's come with this phase is the ability for leaders and officers to begin inviting people to the guild by email. The SWTOR website has a helpful FAQ for all three phases of guild preparations. The third phase, deployment, is scheduled to occur shortly before launch and will begin placing guilds on servers if these guilds have met certain criteria.
RIFT announces the second beta event
If you got to take part in the closed beta event for RIFT over the weekend... well, don't tell us about it. Seriously, don't; it breaks the NDA to even say you're taking part. But if you enjoyed it, you'll get another shot at playing the game sooner rather than later. The second closed beta event has just been announced to run between 10 a.m. PST on December 17th to 10 a.m. PST on December 20th. For the second testing phase, titled "Guardians of the Vigil," players will be testing the first 20 levels of the game, presumably on the Guardian side. Reborn as ascended souls of the Vigil, players are tasked with stopping the tyrant Aedraxis, although we suspect many players will mostly be focused on whatever cool tricks their characters can do with another 10 levels. RIFT is still allowing players to sign up for the beta, so if you're interested in the second beta, you might be well-advised to give it a shot. Not that you could tell anyone about it.
Time between Cataclysm pre-event phases ramping up
Many people have been concerned or complaining about the time between each phase of the Cataclysm pre-events going on right now in Orgrimmar and Stormwind, and Blizzard has responded with some excellent news. Zarhym recently posted that the time between the start of phase 2 and phase 3 was shorter than the previous phases, and players can expect the time between phase 3 and phase 4 to be even shorter. According to my calculations, there is the potential to see phase 4 at the beginning of the week, probably Monday or Tuesday. We live in exciting times. Re: Phase 3 of the Elemental Invasion Quote: I cant wait till the invasion starts, as right now the quests are over so fast that you get bored again in just a few mins : \ The time between the start of stage 2 and stage 3 was shorter. I can tell you the current plan is to make the time between stage 3 and 4 even shorter. ;) source
Phase 2 arrives tonight for Final Fantasy XIV's testers
Whether you're playing to find potentially game-breaking bugs or just to get a sense of the game before it launches, betas are a magical time for all involved. Specifically, the magic of Final Fantasy XIV's beta has been the sort of magic that ends the world every so often. But luckily for everyone involved in the testing, tonight is the start of phase 2 of the testing, and that marks an important change in the nature of the tests. Prior to this point, testing was only available when the servers were up, which was not constant. Starting tonight at 7:00 PM PDT (or 10:00 PM EDT), the servers will be up at all times for the second phase of testing. That's according to an official tweet on the game's Twitter feed, which is good news for any and all testers of Final Fantasy XIV. No word yet on whether or not phase 3 involves profit, but the increased availability should be profitable to the players.
Spiritual Guidance: Healing Mimiron
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 No Stock UI, a new UI and addons blog for WoW. Having some difficulty with Mimiron? Let me help! Mimiron. He is the bane of all healers. Even the most seasoned of raiding healers struggled initially with this gnome and his toys. Perhaps the class and spec that has the a difficulty adjusting to the challenges is the Discipline Priest. Let me help you get through it with a systematic breakdown of the four boss phases and how you can cope no matter which spec you are.
Arena Tournament Phase 2 begins
I'm actually a little excited. Phase 2 of the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament has begun! Start your engines and speculations now, folks -- which comps will make it to the top this time? Are we going to see a winner that looks like Frag Dominant? Or will the new Phase 2 winners basically be the same as Phase 1's winners? Vhairi's been tracking the performance of classes in the tournament so far. For the last week or two, this round's competitors have been honing strategies, experimenting with comps, and switching things around a lot. Now that the dust has settled, teams are what they are. As a result, the data should be fairly meaningful again pretty quickly, and hopefully Vhairi will put out another update. I can't wait to see how the class performance distribution will look in Phase 2 -- it might teach us something more about what to expect in WotLK for class balance. I don't think Phase 2 will be much different from Phase 1 however -- a lack of holy Pallies, scarcity of Hunters and Mages, and so on.
Report Card: Phase 2 daily quests
So, now that phase 1 of the Shattered Sun Offensive is over on many servers, phase 2 is in full swing. Phase 2 is a little bit smaller than phase 1, but you can still do all the phase 1 quests just fine, so it's more of a question of deciding how many you want to fit into your daily rotation. So what about the phase 2 quests? Progression needs aside, are they worth doing?
Phase 2 Dailies: Intercepting the Mana Cells
This Daily is located back in Shattrath, and given by a Draenei called Exarch Nasuun. He will be located in A'dal's chambers, in the northwestern Alcove where G'eras, the Badge of Justice vendor, used to be (G'eras himself is now on the walkway above the Alcove). He'll send you to the Bash'ir Landing, on the northern plateau of Blade's Edge Mountains. This means that this daily will require you to have a flying mount. Once you receive the the quest, you can fly to Evergrove in Ruann Weald via flightmaster, then fly northwest from there on your mount to reach Bash'ir landing. Once you're there, you'll want to kill any of the Ethereals until you receive the Bash'ir Phasing Device. The device is a very common drop, so you shouldn't have to kill more than one or two ethereals until you get one. This Device will put you, your pets, and your group members into a state not unlike the Mage spell Invisibility. You will not be able to see any non-phased players or mobs, nor will they be able to see you. This device, however, only works with Bash'ir landing, and any pets or groups members must stay within 100 yards of the person who used the device to get the benefit. As long as you stay within Bash'ir landing, the effect is permanent, although you can right-click it off. Once you're phased, you will need to start looking for your quest objective, the Smuggled Mana Cells, which will appear on the ground as translucent hot pink boxes. The boxes will appear mostly near the machinery and other stacked boxes around the camp. They will be guarded by Phase Wyrms, which should be relatively easy for a level 70 take out, and drop Motes of Mana for a nice little bonus. Once you have your 10 cells, you can drop the phased buff (Be careful for any ethereal aggro when you do. You can't see them while phased, but they'll be there when you come out of phased mode), mount up, and head back to Shattrath. Upon turning this quest in to Nasuun, you'll get 10 gold, 10 silver, a cache of Shattered Sun Supplies, and some credit toward the opening of a portal to Quel'danas on your server. All in all a very worthwhile quest, especially if your cache has a Badge of Justice. Once the portal is opened, this quest will be renamed "Maintaining the Sunwell Portal," but the objectives and rewards will remain the same. For more information, you can also read the pages for this quest on Wowwiki and Wowhead.
Sunwell Phase 2 daily quest walkthroughs
Starting early yesterday afternoon and into the night, quite a few servers have unlocked the 2nd phase of the Shattered Sun Offensive at the Isle of Quel'danas, known as the Sun's Reach Sanctum (We can't confirm for sure who was first, although rumor has it that Cenarius was a strong contender, and I'm sure accounts will differ unless Blizzard decides to establish a tracking page like they did for the Ahn'Qiraj event). This means a new building under control of the offensive , a tradeskill vendor (no ability to repair just yet, alas), and a handful of new daily quests dedicated to unlocking the 3rd phase, the Sun's Reach Armory. %Gallery-19191% Look after the break for links to walkthroughs for every Phase 2 daily quest!
Phase 2 Dailies: Distraction at the Dead Scar
One of the two dailies to unlock the Armory portion of the Shattered Sun Offensive on the Isle of Quel'danas, this quest will send you on a bombing mission down the Dead Scar, the giant strip of dead land that marked the Scourge's march to the Sunwell. There's still scourge there, but your target will be the Demons fighting them, in hopes that your attacks will disrupt their efforts to keep the Armory by drawing more and more of them away and to the Scar itself. You'll get the quest from Battlemage Arynna in the new sanctum building. She'll order you to kill 2 Pit Overlords, 3 Eredar Sorcerers, and 12 Wrath Enforcers, provide you with some Arcane Charges to drop on them, and send you to Ayren Cloudbreaker, who is located back by the docks where you first land when coming in by gryphon or bat. From there, talk to him to get your Dragonhawk. The Dragonhawk will fly on a predetermined course. You'll first pass some of Kaelthas' archers and fly over the Naga and Murloc villages before you hit the Dead Scar. Once there, you'll need to be on your toes, especially if there's other people trying to kill the demons. You'll see the demons both on the ground and on the balconies and ramparts and bridges to the sides of the Dead Scar. The Wrath Enforcers often come in packs, and will generally die in one hit, but the Eredar Sorcerers and the Pit Overlords may take 2 hits, so you'll have to watch for them to show and quickly hit them before you fly back out of sight. Once you hit the end of the Scar, you'll get a brief glimpse of Brutallus fighting Madrigosa before you turn around and fly back over the scar, giving you one more chance to hit a few demons. If you don't have your demons killed after the first run, you don't have to abandon the quest to try again. Instead, you can simply talk to Ayren to be sent on another pass. Luckily, after the first 2 or 3 tries, you should probably get the hang of it enough that you'll do it in one pass, assuming there's enough demons to go around. If nothing else, it's sort of nice not to have to dodge Kaliri or Fel Cannons. Once you have your demons, return to Arynna. You'll get 9 gold 10 silver for your troubles, and credit for your server towards the next step of the offensive. Plus, the fun of having totally ridden a Dragonhawk. Once this phase of the offensive is unlocked, this quest will be renamed "The Air Strikes Must Continue." For further information, you can also check this quest on Wowwiki and Wowhead.
Phase 2 Dailies: The Battle for the Sun's Reach Armory
The main quest to unlock the 3rd phase of the Shattered Sun Offensive is quick and easy. You'll report to Harbinger Inuuro at the new building. He will ask you to go to the Dawning Square and kill 6 Burning Legion Demons, and drive the provided Shattered Sun Banner through the corpse of the Emissary of Hate, who will come after enough demons are killed. To do the quest, you'll want to head south of the Sanctum to the Dawning Square. If you'll recall, you came to this same square for The Missing Magistrix quest (47,44 for those of you with location mods). Kill any six of the demons walking around here or in the nearby buildings, be they Shivan, Infernal, or Hellion, and you'll get your kill credit. Once the Emissary of Hate spawns, kill him and use your banner while targeting him. You'll drive your banner through his corpse and receive your quest credit. It should be noted that, as of this writing, you don't have to get angry if someone else grabs the Emissary before you do. Once he is dead, anyone can drive the banner through his corpse and get quest credit, and multiple banners can be used on his corpse, so feel free to plant your banner even if someone else did the killing. Once you've done this, you can head back to the sanctum and turn in the quest. You'll get 10 gold and 10 silver, and will help your server unlock the next step of the Offensive. Once this phase of the offensive is over, this quest will be renamed "The Battle Must Go On," but the objectives and the method of completing them will remain the same. For more information on this quest, you can also check out Wowwiki or Wowhead.
Phase 2 Dailies: Know Your Ley Lines
This quest, while technically part of the 2nd phase of the Shattered Sun Offensive, does not appear immediately at the beginning of the Offensive. Instead, your server must complete the portal from Quel'danas to Shattrath by doing the Intercepting the Mana Cells quest. Once you've unlocked the portal, a new NPC, Astromancer Darnarian, will be found inside the Sanctum building alongside the other daily quest givers. When you talk to him, he will complain that no-one appreciates the effort that it takes to do Translocations, and demands that you educate yourself by taking an Astromancer's Crystal and attuning it to 3 different places: The Bloodcrystal to the west, the Dawning Square portal to the south, and the naga shrine at Greengill Coast to the southeast. Be sure to use the crystal at each area to get your credit.
