relics
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Darkfall patches in relics
Darkfall Unholy Wars really requires PvP to function properly; it's one of the big elements of the game. That's why the new Relic system was introduced to help encourage inter-Clan warfare, provide more benefit to Clan holdings, and generally shake up the established order of things. Nine relics randomly spawn throughout the world, and players who find them can bring them back to their Clans' churches to receive a global buff as long as the church is standing. Relics can also be destroyed by taking out the structure that holds them or via a special altar, both of which will cause the item to respawn at another random location throughout the game world. The intent is obviously to encourage players to go to war over the relics, stealing them from foes or ensuring that no one can benefit from their presence. Time will tell how successful the system is; take a gander at all the details if you're considering jumping in to hunt some relics yourself. [Thanks to Jane for the tip!]
Darkfall relics to add CTF mechanics, promote clan raiding
Relics are coming to Darkfall, sometime in November according to an Aventurine forum post. What are relics? They're basically items that will spawn randomly around Agon that players may pick up and transport to a clan holding. The mechanic is intended to add a capture-the-flag activity to Darkfall while simultaneously increasing the value of clan holdings and promoting clan raids.
Captain's Log: Star Trek Online Las Vegas recap
It's been a couple of weeks since my last entry, and to be honest, I'm still recovering. The Official Star Trek Convention was an absolute blast. Thousands of Trek fans descended upon the Rio Suites and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, for four solid days to celebrate all things Star Trek. One of those things, of course, was Star Trek Online. Contrary to its showing in 2012, Star Trek Online was the focus of not just one but two complete formal panels this year. The first featured two of the STO devs in a discussion with actress Denise Crosby, who voiced the characters of Empress Sela as well as Lt. Tasha Yar. The second panel was co-hosted by Massively and Trek Radio and featured a panel of STO devs who talked about the game and gave us some great sneak-peeks at Season Eight works in progress!%Gallery-196194%
Storyboard: Just the artifacts
There's something inherently alluring about objects of power. That much is obvious; games are already fairly littered with them, ranging from weapons to vehicles to various items whose powers are invariably decided by needs of the plot. It's inevitable that as a roleplayer you would want to create something of power for your own purposes, something that has a purpose that only you know, hopefully a purpose with more careful thought than "being the most scary thing ever." Items like this are what I'm calling artifacts. In some settings they're actual artifacts; in others they're just exceptionally well-programmed computers or bits of otherwise lost technology or whatever. They're useful for extended roleplaying, they create an additional element of your characters, and they're also really problematic in a variety of ways. Still, the drawbacks aren't significant enough to make them useless, just significant enough that you'll want to use a careful hand when adding in your own hidden wonders.
Guardians of Middle-Earth: A fun game doomed by its business model
The MOBA genre has exploded in recent years, with global giant League of Legends becoming the most actively played video game in the world and competitive tournaments getting more viewers than some televised sports. Today's MOBAs appeal to casual and competitive gamers alike, but until recently very few had crossed the console barrier. Released on PS3 and XBox 360 last December, Guardians of Middle-Earth took traditional DotA gameplay and made the quite experimental leap onto consoles. I'm not much of a console gamer (you can take my mouse and keyboard away when you pry them from my cold, dead hands), but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see how Guardians of Middle-Earth stacks up against its PC-based counterparts. Monolith Studios has done great things in adapting MOBA gameplay to a console control scheme and audience, and the core game really is a lot of fun to play. But in charging an initial purchase price for a game that relies on having a large community, publisher Warner Bros. may have accidentally consigned Guardians to the scrapheap. In this hands-on opinion piece, I explore Guardians of Middle-Earth and ask why it's already a ghost town just three months after launch.
Dark Age of Camelot updates Relic mechanics and classes
Some people no doubt see the venerable Dark Age of Camelot as a relic. But you know what's even more of a relic? The game's Relics. These powerful items have received an overhaul in the latest patch; the items have been moved to central locations in each Realm that cannot be captured or claimed. Players carrying Relics have also become more visible and slightly less mobile, and special Envoys have been added to help defend Relics from capture. The patch also updates several class abilities. Bonedancers get a new spell to target a region on the ground, while Friars and Valewalkers both gain a rear snare. On the flip side, toxic direct damage poisons have all seen a slight downgrade in effectiveness for balance reasons. Dark Age of Camelot players can see the full list of changes in the patch notes, and while it's not a major content patch, the changes should spice up the game's ongoing realm warfare.
2 crafting professions that won't make you rich
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen and Fox Van Allen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Check out Fox and Basil's reboot of Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! If you're trying to decide which professions to put on your character and you are considering their gold making potential, you'll want to avoid engineering and inscription. While they're not terrible if you consider their stat bonuses, they're not ideal for gold making on many realms. Of course, every realm has its own ecosystem, and as with all advice you'll read from this column, you should check that the assumptions hold for your realm and faction. That said, by far the most common problems I have trouble helping people with are related to these two professions. Inscription I'll start with the one that's going to get me the angry comments first. Inscription has long been touted as a cornerstone of the money making meta game -- heck, it earned my esteemed colleague, Fox, his first million gold on Darkmoon Cards. Before that, we had "glyphsmas" when 4.0 hit and a steady level of demand for glyphs before that. We still have the stupidly profitable fortune card market that lets anyone open a tiny, Blizzard-sanctioned casino. So what's not to like?
BlizzCon 2011: Goodbye, ranged slot
If you didn't see this coming, you haven't been paying attention: as of Mists of Pandaria and patch 5.0, the ranged slot is being dismantled. Relics are going extinct, hunter ranged weapons will become their only weapons, and wands? Those are main-hand weapons now, too. To be extra clear: Relics are going away Wands become main hand weapons (and will function as wands do now) Hunters can only equip ranged weapons (and hunter minimum range is going away) This is something we've expected for a long time here at WoW Insider, as it's a topic Ghostcrawler discussed at BlizzCon '10. It's a removal of superfluous stat sticks and that's a good thing. None of us will miss our librams with +10 to Character Sheet Clutter and absolutely no visual, no real effect, and no purpose. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
Patch 4.2: Crystallized Firestone makes gear heroic
The folks at Wowhead News have found a very interesting new vendor outside of patch 4.2's Firelands raid. Lurah Wrathvine, who is also riding on a Flameward Hippogryph for maximum pizzazz, will upgrade various normal tier 12 raid and valor point gear for the low, low price of a Crystallized Firestone. This is an item that drops off of the bosses therein when they are killed on heroic difficulty. What's interesting about this system is that it affects items that don't even drop in the Firelands, especially the difficult-to-upgrade relics like the Hardheart Relic that makes my shaman scream "Me want!" like a caveman. Since relics are usually a valor point purchase, this makes them difficult (if not impossible) to upgrade, in comparison to other items. In general, this whole system is currently only in place to upgrade 21 items, but with some of those items being weapons or armor pieces, we may see more soon. It makes me remember Sunmotes and the Sunwell Plateau's exchange system. Crystallized Firestone definitely seems like the next iteration. Also new on the test realms: The Avengers of Hyjal have a new strength DPS trinket. Looks like new itemization is being implemented as we speak. The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!
The Road to Mordor: Echo... echo... echo...
Last night before I drifted off to sleep, I was idly wondering what it would be like to actually live in Middle-earth. Apart from the extremely high mortality rate due to wandering wolves, bold bandits, and orchestrating orcs, it might be a pretty excellent place to dwell, as long as one didn't mind a lack of Wi-Fi and Starbucks. I think Hobbit pies and Dwarf ale would be an acceptable substitute. Next week our virtual world will grow a bit in girth and depth with the Echoes of the Dead update. When all is patched and done, it'll be a truly big update containing meaty piles of content to devour. I think many of us are still scrutinizing Turbine as we go through this first year after the free-to-play switch, watching to see whether all of this additional revenue will be pumped back into the game or not. Echoes of the Dead marks the second post-F2P update for Lord of the Rings Online, following last November's Journey to Winter-home, and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with just how much is being served up this time around. So in anticipation of the patch, let's walk through the major features of LotRO's latest update and see whether it was worth the wait!
The Tattered Notebook: Never leave home without it
This week, I decided it's time to dump the bag. My characters often accumulate items at such a rapid rate that my bags quickly resemble those of a typical teenager at the mall. Any time I resign myself to plunking down at the bank to sort my inventory, I end up shocked at some of the stuff I bring home. However, there are some items in EverQuest II that are lifesavers, and others that can really be handy in a pinch. Let's take a look at a few items that you should never leave home without.
The Daily Grind: Taking inventory
One of the great points of commonality for MMOs is the time-honored tradition of inventory management. Specifically, the minigame wherein you have to decide what to keep, sell, throw away, or hold on to with a limited amount of space. One of the major contentions regarding the Allods Online cash shop at launch (aside from the huge debuff only removable via cash shop items) was how much it used to cost just to make a minor upgrade to your inventory storage. The prices have since changed, of course, but the irritation at inventory management was obvious. Nearly every game has to decide how much of a management aspect should be involved and the right amount of space for a given character in any stage of their career. Moreover, these aspects usually change with time, as stack sizes increase and decrease with patches. Some players see space management as a relic of games like Dungeons and Dragons, which used it to try and maintain realism in broad strokes. Others see it as an obnoxious limitation on gameplay that's long ceased to have any connection with its original purpose. So what do you think? Is inventory management a good thing, or is it one of those gameplay elements you'd like to see go the way of the dodo?
Latest LotRO dev diary details legendary weapon changes
From the last "Ask the Dev Team" session with the Lord of the Rings Online developers, we knew that some changes were coming to the game's Legendary Weapon system. The latest Developer Diary entry is devoted entirely to filling in some of the details on these changes, which should come into effect when the Siege of Mirkwood expansion launches in December. First and foremost (and definitely one of the best tweaks) is that you'll be able to tell if a legendary weapon will ever turn into something good before you pour time and money into improving it.There will also be a brand new item type, a series of "legendary item advancement scrolls". They will provide an alternative method of improving or altering legendary weapons, and will be found both as loot from enemies and from the deconstruction process. In addition, crafters are getting a significant nod with the introduction of a fourth relic slot that can only be filled by player-crafted relics. It gets better: every crafting profession can make a different kind of relic, providing a range of improvement options, and ensuring that no crafter is left out of the fun. To read up on all the details of the upcoming legendary item changes (including specifics on how experience will be altered) see the full dev diary at the official site.
The Queue: Questions, comments, complaints...
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Allison Robert is your hostess today.I have absolutely no idea what the hell the above video is about, but have been required to place it there on threat of firing by Alex Ziebart. Questions, comments, complaints? Send them to him!Pyril asks...(On the faction champions fight in Trial of the Crusader): Why would Blizzard force PvE players to basically learn PvP skill sets now, when they've been so good about keeping them seperate to this point? Any chance the encounter will be reworked? GC has said he doesn't want to force raids to bring certain classes, but if you don't to this encounter it's a 3 hour wipe fest.Is the encounter likely to be changed? No, at least not its basic mechanics. Blizzard fielded similar complaints concerning the Priestess Delrissa fight in Magisters' Terrace, which could be an incredibly ugly experience on heroic if you didn't have CC or weren't well-geared. But are aspects of the encounter likely to be nerfed, or at least tweaked? Maybe, maybe not. It'll depend on how much trouble Blizzard sees people having with the fight. What's certain is that the Faction Champs encounter is a very common target for complaints right now. Some of this is the result of players still gearing up, but others are voiced by people who intensely dislike the arenaesque feel of it all, or who run a raid setup that's less-than-ideal for whatever champion comp they get that week. I think you're entirely correct in saying that the fight becomes significantly more difficult (or at least more gear-dependent) if you're running a raid with limited options for purging/dispelling the mobs' buffs or keeping their healers locked down, and it's probably that aspect of it that Blizzard's keeping an eye on.
Patch 3.2 T9 set bonuses and relics
Continuing on the data-mining train, we have now learned the set bonuses from the tier 9 gear that is coming in patch 3.2 (confirming, by the way, that there will be a real tier of gear in the Crusader's Coliseum raid). There is also information available on some new relics for the relic-bearing classes (Paladin, Druid, Shaman, and Death Knight). Information after the break. Keep in mind some of these are certainly placeholders. The priest healing 4-piece, for instance, is strictly worse than the priest healing 2-piece Tier 8 bonus; there's no way it would go live like this. Some of the bonuses don't even make any sense, like the Warlock 4-piece. Datamined info is always suspect.
Death Knights will use sigils
Exactly what weapons Death Knights will be able to wield has been the subject of some controversy. Originally, it was speculated by Blizzard that one- and two-handed swords and axes would be the extent of it. Currently in the beta, polearms and one- and two-handed swords, axes, and maces are usable. Daggers, fist weapons, staves, wands, and ranged weapons are not (updated with verified information). But not many people have talked about what's going to go in that ranged slot. A moment's thought reminds us that every other class that can't use ranged weapons or wands (Druids, Shamans, and Paladins) have Relics in those slots. If you're not familiar, Relics are class-specific items that typically provide a boost to particular spells; they come in different flavors for the different classes. Druids get Idols, Shamans get Totems (confusing, yes), and Paladins get Librams. Wrath will add one more to the list: Sigils, for Death Knights. So far only one has been implemented in the beta – Sigil of the Dark Rider, one of the first quest rewards in the DK's starting chain. Blood Strike, as far as I can tell, is meant to be a staple skill for many DKs, like Heroic Strike for Warriors, so this should come in handy. And unlike Paladins, DKs have plenty of ranged spells, so pulling shouldn't be problematic – they even have a spell that brings the enemy straight to them, Scorpion-style. Get over here!
Item stat changes on the PTR for Relics and Retribution Paladins
Retribution Paladins and "Classic" hybrids rejoice. Even in the midst of all these recent nerfs, Blizzard is working on a few buffs. The latest news from the PTR via MMO Champion is that we can expect to see a few tweaks to Relics and Retribution Gear alike, mostly on the good side. Various pieces of Retribution Paladin focused gear, mostly from the heroic dungeon level, has had its spell damage removed and replaced with strength. Not great news for Shockadins, perhaps, but good for Retribution Paladins, whose talents and skills have been moved more to the side of shedding all spell damage for quite some time. Druids, Shamans, and Paladins can rejoice at seeing a lot of their Idols gets a boost, with various stats and effects on them being boosted, sometimes by as much as twice their old values. There's also a somewhat interesting, but probably ultimately minor tweak coming to arena and honor weapons, as all three levels of Feral Druid and spellcaster PvP weapons have seen their attack speed reduced by 1 to 1.60 seconds. You'll rarely see any of those classes using those weapons to melee anyone to death, so it seems a bit superfluous, but perhaps it was done for consistency with the recent Vengeful Gladiator's Waraxe change. There will probably be a few more changes when the server comes back up, of course, and we'll be here to deliver you the news on them, so stay tuned.
Patch 1.10 News: Relic Items
Community managers on the Blizzard forums have recently announced a new relic slot for druid, shaman, and paladin players. As anyone who has played these classes knows, they have a ranged weapon slot in which they are unable to equip anything - thus leaving them without the stat bonuses enjoyed by other classes who can equip such items. Community manager Eyonix provided examples of the relics for each class, and I have to say they look interesting! [Image credit: fan art by Kendrick Lim]
