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FFXIV final beta phase 3 test begins tomorrow
One million beta testers strong, the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is poised to possibly deliver a comeback story unlike anything we've seen in the MMO genre to date. The rebranded makeover of the flopped 2010 fantasy title is currently preparing for the conclusion of beta phase 3, which has been announced as starting tomorrow. Square-Enix tweeted that the final test for phase 3 of the beta will begin on July 10th and conclude on the 15th. This test will take place for both North America and Europe. Following phase 3, FFXIV will move into phase 4, also known as "open beta." Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn's launch is scheduled for August 27th. We covered the heck out of this title at E3, including its PlayStation 4 plans, a hands-on with its demo, a look at its PlayStation 3 user interface, a video overview of the FATEs system, and our thoughts on its convention appearance. [Thanks to Space Cobraaa! for the tip]
Enter at Your Own Rift: A carnival recap and a war on the horizon
Over the past few weeks, RIFT has been celebrating its first birthday with the Carnival of the Ascended. It started off pleasantly enough, with games, prizes, turducken, and fireworks. But recently, some of the revelers got a little too rowdy, and players had to help subdue drunk and disorderly guests. Now, the event has entered its fourth phase, and the two sides have begun to attack rival outposts that have been set up along parade routes. If you haven't had a chance to check out the Carnival of the Ascended, now is a perfect time. In this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, I'll highlight the carnival as it prepares to pack up and leave and peek at what's in store for Telara as this world event wraps up.
Forsaken World devs outline Phase 4 Beta
Perfect World Entertainment is just about ready to unleash its latest free-to-play MMO creation: Forsaken World. In the fourth developer video diary, Director of Marketing Jon Belliss outlines the development and testing process up to this point. He states that Forsaken World's closed beta testing has had the largest number of participants in Perfect World's history. The team expects great results from Phase 4, which arrives on February 23rd. This phase will allow all players to join in the beta if they wish to test out the game. Phase 4 also introduces the highly requested PvE server along with new realms and a level cap of 60. The level cap will open up a new world of gameplay and areas never before visited by players. Catch the full video diary after the break and then hop over the Forsaken World website for more information on how you can sign up. This is your chance to get in before launch on March 23rd.
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
Face of Mankind: Rebirth goes into closed beta phase four
Face of Mankind: Rebirth, the revitalization and recoding of Face of Mankind, has hit their last beta milestone as of last week -- closed beta phase 4.Phase 4 is the final phase of their beta, the one where they let the flood gates wide open. If you have ever signed up for an FoM beta account, your account has been activated and you can log in to play the game. All you need to do is download the game client, which is available through links provided in your account activation e-mail.
EU Arena Tournament standings posted in anticipation of phase 4
Vaneras has posted the latest EU Arena tournament rankings over on the forums (after the latest phase ended), and it looks like PMR has found their way back on top across the pond: Priest/Mage/Rogue teams have taken over the top three spots. The Death Knight/Paladin/DPS teams, formerly dominating, have fallen down to just two spots out of ten, and two Shamans have made an appearance, one partnered with a Druid and a Mage, and the other with a Lock and Hunter. Very interesting.We should see the US standings posted soon. You can see the rest of the EU teams in the big listing over on the Armory if you want. Phase 4 of the tournament, Vaneras says, will be an invitational, and will start next week on April 14th. Congrats to all of the winners so far, and good luck in the rest of the tourney!
Zombie infection down to 1 minute
This just in... you now become a zombie after only one minute.After you kill a zombie infect player, creature, or NPC you'll become infected the plague that turns you into zombie. This plague now only takes one minute to increase your brain eating needs to epic levels.Does this mean phase five is about to being? Update: Yes, it appears phase 5 is beginning.We can't tell just yet, but we're all on the lookout for it. Phase 4 has brought lots of new rewards, events, and other fun things. Keep your eyes peeled, and if you see anything drop us a tip on our tip line! Update: Almost all Argent Dawn Healers are gone. The only ones in IF I was able to find were near the flight path and the King's room.WoW Insider likes us some braaaains!Thanks to the many people who sent this in!
WoW China gets all-access pass in Quel'danas
According to our tipster Gwwfps of the blog Potato Skin, World of Warcraft distributor The9 has manually set all the quests in the Isle of Quel'danas to be fully completed -- that is, all quests on the Isle are now open to all players as though Phase 4 had been opened. With the help of Babelfish, as far as I can make it out, this decision was arrived at to "make up several weeks the partial servers to appear returns to the files question for generally to play the loss which the family brings". If my Engrish serves me right, this means that the move was a drastic resolution to having massive downtime for numerous servers which resulted in realms-wide progression rollbacks. Some servers reportedly had their Isle of Quel'danas progress rolled back several times over the course of one day.Gwwfps explains it better in his blog, noting that Patch 2.4 resulted in poor server performance across the board. Apparently, WoW China has been suffering from performance issues for quite some time and some have suggested that the servers upon which the game runs aren't quite up to par with Blizzard's standards. Others argue -- with good reason -- that the forced unlocking of the phases makes the game "less immersive." The sweeping measure also demonstrates an apparent lack of industriousness on the part of The9, who in theory could simply roll back individual servers to specific progress levels. On the other hand, players can probably get all ecstatic about getting their hands on epic gems so early (blast my slacker server!).
Report Card: Phase 4 daily quests
Phase 4 is now well underway, with about 50 servers having it unlocked according to us.gorgonnash.info at the time of this writing. There's still a few more things to unlock, but for the most part, the Sunwell Isle is complete, and what you see is what you get as far as resources and places to fight. So, once again, it is time to ask the question: How do these quests fit into your busy up-to-25-daily-quests-to-do lifestyle? They fit pretty well, actually!
Make way for maintenance day
Maintenance day is underway until 2pET/11aPT and many WoW fans are searching for something to do, while players with day jobs log on to point out that they can never play during these hours. Fortunately, we have lots going on today, as well as some highlights from the past week that you won't want to miss. Wrath of the Lich King: Compilation of everything we know of to date about Death Knights, the new hero class we'll be seeing with the expansion. The new expansion is now in alpha testing! Read on to find out what this means, as well as what it doesn't mean. Arena Season 4: A great analysis of when arena season 4 might begin.
Proudmoore server hits Phase 4 first
Scant hours after the false alarms from the Burning Legion and Area 52 servers, it looks like we have a true winner in the race to Phase 4 of the Shattered Sun Offensive on the Isle of Queldanas. Continuing their streak, the Proudmoore Server activated phase 4 early this morning. Currently, it looks like they're the only ones legitimately at Phase 4, with Cenarius 2nd with 86% accord to us.gorgonnash.info. Congratulations to Proudmoore on continuing your streak. Be sure to check out our Phase 4 daily guides for all the information you'll need to finish strong. The rest of you, check out our Phase 2 and Phase 3 daily guides to get the edge you need to power up to Phase 4 yourself. %Gallery-19980%
Burning Legion server either exploits us.gorgonnash.info or is first to Phase 4
Apparently, the Burning Legion is either as deadly and implacable as the army they are named for, or as false and tricky. Us.gorgonnash.info is now reporting them as having come from behind to unlock Phase 4 the first of all servers. Given that they are a PvP server, this would be an especially amazing show of determination and server togetherness. However, given that, until only a few hours ago, they were only 37% according to the site, according to Trade chat on the Burning Legion server (Thanks, Zulama), and according to a poster on this thread, it seems more likely that someone tampered with their upload file to fool the site. It's honestly rather disappointing that someone has decided to tamper with a trustworthy group effort like the gorgonnash.info website. I know we're all better than that. So to all of you who've been faithfully uploading legitimate info to the site, and to all of you who have been working hard to help your servers unlock each phase, I say congratulations, and thank you. Hopefully, one jerk from the Burning Legion server doesn't dampen our spirits. %Gallery-19980% Edit: Thanks to Unagieater of the Burning Legion server for confirming via screenshot in the comments that this is a hoax. The server is only about 41% complete with Phase 3 as of this edit.
Sunwell Phase 4 daily quest walkthroughs
As many servers approach Phase 3, we're going to be one step ahead as always and make sure you're all prepared the day Phase 4 hits. It'll be some time before anyone reaches it I'm sure, but if you're anything like me, you always want to know what is on the horizon.Phase 4 concludes the taking of Quel'Danas and the progressive content, thus some of the quests are simple things like putting the finishing touches on the new Shattered Sun Stronghold. However, there are still a few things that need some work. This phase will focus on an Alchemy Lab and a super cool statue to plant in the middle of the freshly taken town.Read on for more information on Phase 4, as well as links to guides for each of the new quests you'll encounter!%Gallery-19191%
Phase 4 Dailies: Open for Business
Once you've opened up the Alchemy Lab through many turn-ins of Discovering Your Roots, the quest Open for Business becomes available.If you've been looking at those sparkling bushes scattered through Quel'Danas funny since patch 2.4 hit, be confused no longer! Those bushes are for this quest. Dear Mar'nah has discovered a new elixir here on the Isle! Bloodberries are a naturally growing plant in the wilds of Azeroth, but it seems being exposed to the Sunwell has made the ones in Quel'Danas special.Mar'nah needs five Bloodberry samples to show you what it is that she found. This quest is hit or miss. Sometimes you can get strong circuit around the island and get the five you need in under a minute, sometimes you go batty competing with others for bushes. If there's one quest on Quel'Danas you want to do in hours other than peak time, this is it.My recommendation is that you shouldn't pick just this one quest up and set out to do it. When you have access to this quest, progression on the island is just about over, so no need to stop and do just this quest. If you're going to do it, do it with some of the other quests. The frustration of the bushes being camped melts away if you have other things to occupy your time. Since these grow on the entire island, you can be sure you'll end up with five before you're done.Unfortunately for you, the elixir is not as unique and she leads you to believe. The elixir, the Bloodberry Elixir, is identical to the Elixir of Mastery, adding a flat 15 to every stat. The Bloodberry Elixir can also only be used on Quel'Danas. I suppose it is good to use in Magisters' Terrace, or perhaps save for the following day's round of daily quests. Even if the potion is lackluster, the other rewards are about equal to the others. 11 gold, 99 silver, and 250 Shattered Sun Offensive reputation.As always, if you need further information you should take a look at Wowwiki or Wowhead!
Phase 4 Dailies: Discovering Your Roots
The first daily quest of Phase 4 of the reclaiming of Quel'Danas is Discovering Your Roots. This quest begins at the newly unlocked Alchemy Vendor, Mar'nah. Of course, she has been unlocked, but not her stock. She claims to need a special reagents for that: Razorthorn Root. She says it's fairly difficult to harvest, but this quest shouldn't give anybody too much trouble.After accepting this quest, fly out to Razorthorn Rise. This region is directly on the border between Terokkar Forest and Hellfire Peninsula, up in the mountains. If you cant find it, just look at the picture above.This is similar to the quest I Was A Lot Of Things... from Shadowmoon Valley, in that you need to use some local beasts to dig up your plants for you. Luckily, you don't need to rely on the intelligence of some dumb pig that gets massacred by all of the nearby monsters and turns on you if you accidentally hit an AOE. You get to control the Ravager you'll use to dig up your five required Razorthorn Roots.
Phase 4 Dailies: Disrupt the Greengill Coast
Disrupt the Greengill Coast opens up as soon as Phase 4 begins, and is given by Captain Valindria. She can be found on board the ship(known as Silvermoon's Pride) parked in the Harbor which you took in Phase 3.Captain Valindria is apparently the SSO operative in charge of dealing with the Naga infestation on the southeastern section of Quel'Danas. Like most people in Azeroth, she needs our help. This isn't just another kill quest, but it is a kill quest in disguise. I recommend doing it alongside Don't Stop Now... because you'll be killing the required mobs simultaneously.It turns out the Darkspine Sirens are mind controlling the Murloc slaves you see throughout their camps, and they're doing it using some fancy orbs. An Orb of Murloc Control is what you want, and they drop off of the aforementioned Sirens. You want to throw and smash them into a camp of murlocs to release them from their control, and turn them on their Naga masters.What these means is the Orbs work like grenades, targeted AOE spells, et cetera. When you right click the item, you'll get a targeting circle that the previous bombing quests have trained you to use, and throw them at a pack of murlocs. You need to free a total of 10 murlocs, so try to get as many of them in the ring as possible to cut down on Orb hunting.Simple quest, and fantastic to do alongside Don't Stop Now... as I mentioned before. Doing them together will net you some easy money. Even if you don't do the other quest with this one, you'll still get a pretty decent reward. 11 gold, 99 silver, and 250 Shattered Sun Offensive reputation. Note that this quest doesn't help to progress anything on the island, and will not change once the Alchemy Lab is acquired and the Monument to the Fallen is completed.If you need more information on this quest, please head on over to Wowwiki or Wowhead!
Phase 4 Conclusion: A Magnanimous Benefactor
Unfortunately for Anchorite Ayuri, it seems that not so many people were willing to donate 10 gold to her thoughtful cause. Luckily, Anchorite Kairthos is here to tempt those of us with overflowing wallets to donate a little more.A Magnanimous Benefactor is a one time only quest found at the top of the Sun's Reach Harbor inn that can only be acquired at Exalted reputation. If A Charitable Donation was a money sink, A Magnanimous Benefactor is a money black hole. The reward is very, very cool, though. For the low, low price(donation!) of 1,000 gold, you will be awarded a title, 'of the Shattered Sun.' For example, I would become Alex of the Shattered Sun. Sweet.Now, a thousand gold is a steep price, but in my opinion this is one of the cooler titles in the game. My main has Hand of A'dal, but Of the Shattered Sun sounds way, way cooler, even if Hand of A'dal has more prestige. This title is also unique in that you can acquire it purely through solo play. Justicar/Conqueror can be gotten through semi-solo play, but you need to join groups and raids in Battlegrounds. Plus, it takes way longer to get.If you're Exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive, you probably have far more than 1,000 gold. All of those daily quests(and/or Magisters' Terrace runs) up to Exalted? Go ahead, spend 1,000 gold. Have something to show for that work.
Phase 4 Dailies: A Charitable Donation
Acquired from Anchorite Ayuri just outside of Sun's Reach Sanctum, A Charitable Donation marks the final step on the reclaiming of Quel'Danas and the construction of the Shattered Sun Stronghold. It isn't a daily quest so much as it is a daily reputation vendor.It's easy to look at the quest and get angry, because it's a fairly obvious money sink. Give 10 gold, get 150 reputation. Keep in mind that it's completely optional, and the only thing it unlocks is a little flavor for the world. If you don't want to do it, don't do it, don't feel bad avoiding it. It won't hurt anybody.If you do want to contribute, though, donating that 10 gold moves the server toward earning a pretty neat thing. After enough donations, a statue will be built commemorating those that died in the battle for the Sunwell Plateau, and the friends and family they left behind. It is also a sign of unity between the Aldor and the Scryers; the monument has two sides, one with a Draenei and one with a Blood Elf. It has no real effect on the world, but it's pretty cool to look at.As I mentioned, this quest is basically a reputation vendor. You buy reputation, and this can only be done once a day. You pay 10 gold and get 150 SSO rep, so if you run one of the easy dailies(such as Distraction at the Dead Scar) for roughly 10 gold and 250 rep, you can turn that into a total of 400 rep. That sure beats buying Coilfang Armaments for 25 gold each, to turn in for 75 reputation. If you do this quest regularly, you can shave a few Magisters' Terrace runs off of your grind to Exalted.As always, if you need to know more about this quest, take a look at Wowwiki or Wowhead!
