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The Elves of WAR round-up
It's been a busy week here at Massively as we've been preparing for the eventual NDA lift while simultaneously bringing you early looks at the first half of the Dark Elf and High Elf content. With the announcement that the full NDA is being removed today, we've decided to go ahead and gather all of the Elves of WAR content written thus far into one easy-to-access place. Expect to see lots more from the Massively crew as we bring you information on all of the races that will be butting heads in Warhammer Online. Meet the Shadow Warrior, levels 1-5Our overview of the High Elf ranged dps career, the Shadow Warrior, may not be enough for you. So here we are with an examination of every skill from level one through five. Meet the Swordmaster. levels 1-5Maybe the High Elf melee dps and healer careers aren't your preferred playstyle. It's time to look at the High Elf tanking class, the Swordmaster, in our continuing exclusive pre-NDA coverage of the Elves of WAR. The Digital Continuum: Dark Elf days in WARSo we've gotten official approval to speak our minds early and often about the Dark Elf (High Elves too, but bollocks to Order, I say!) experience in tier one and two as much as we like. That led me to decide that it would be fun to give you my personal take on them. Meet the Disciple of KhaineThe Bloody Handed god has priests like any of the other gods in Warhammer Online, only his priests come with a twist. They are known as Disciples of Khaine and they relish dealing death to their enemies like the rest of their brothers and sisters. Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out all of our previous Warhammer Online features, and don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
The Elves of WAR: Meet the Shadow Warrior levels 1-5
Our overview of the High Elf ranged dps career, the Shadow Warrior, may not be enough for you. So here we are with an examination of every skill from level one through five. It's the latest installment of Massively's pre-NDA coverage of Warhammer Online, the Elves of WAR.Shadow Warriors are the quintessential bow-and-blade class, with skills in long-range, short-ranged and hand-to-hand combat. They have three stances they can switch between at a moment's notice that buffs each combat speciality. The first one, Scout Stance, is explained below along with the other beginning abilities.Level 1 - Scout Stance5 sec cooldownA long distance bow stnace that increases your Ballistic Skill initiative by 2 and the range of your bow attacks by 10%.Level 1 - Eagle Eye45 AP, 2sec cast, 5-100ft rangeA well aimed arrow that deals 53 damage.Level 1 - Grim Slash40 AP, Instant cast, 5ft rangeDeals 30 damage to your target.These are your two basic attacks, ranged and melee, with a ranged buff. Encounters are simple as shoot until melee range, then spam Grim Slash.
The Elves of WAR: Meet the Shadow Warrior
Massively continues its exclusive pre-NDA coverage of the Elves of Warhammer Online with this spotlight on a master of Ranged DPS for the side of Order, The High Elf Shadow Warrior. They come in three flavors, Scouts (long-range dps specialists), Assault (close-combat) and Skirmish (short-range bow specialists). Each one of these masteries has a corresponding Stance that boosts their key abilities:Scout Stance - Increases your Ballistic and Initiative scores and your maximum rangeAssault Stance - Increases your Strength and Weapon skill as well as increases your Armor by 100% Skirmish Stance - Increases your Toughness and crit chance.This career comes with a long list of bow attacks and a fair amount of blade attacks. Shadow Warriors also get the Vengeance of Nagarythe ability. Every 3 mins you can increase your damage by 20% for 15 seconds and unlock special additional abilities on many of your exisiting attacks for the duration.
From Tabletop to Desktop: WAR's Order careers
It's been a month since we last took a look at how Warhammer Online's Destruction classes have made the transition from the old-school tabletop game to a full-fledged MMO experience, and a lot has happened. We've shown you a huge amount of new coverage with our Massively Goes to WAR series, and even got some more hands-on details of each of the game's many classes. We know that the guild beta is practically within our reach, and the open beta never leaves our minds, though it still lies just over the horizon.Since our last look at the WAR's tabletop roots was so well-received, we went back to the drawing board to bring you part two - focusing this time on the races on the side of Order. If you plan on joining the ranks of the Dwarfs, Empire, or High Elves and lack the proper appreciation for how the game's classes came to be, read on! From Tabletop to Desktop: WAR's Order careers >>>>> %Gallery-26491%
WAR class info: High Elf Shadow Warrior
There's always a draw to the Elven races in MMOs, especially when they've got some seriously wicked personality. So when we saw this article we had to jump in head first and absorb all the information from within its gooey bowels. It's a long read, but we've got the skinny for your Warhammer Online needs -- including lore and class information. Be warned though, we may ramble on a bit about Shadow Warriors and how cool they're starting to sound.
WAR's November podcast previews Shadow Warrior class
Yesterday we saw a preview of the Swordmaster class, and today we've got a look at another one of the High Elf classes for the upcoming Warhammer Online, the Shadow Warrior. Mythic sent us their November podcast, in which they get a little wacky while telling us about what they're working on for the class that loves their bows. In the words of Paul Barnett, these are "indie, emo High Elves" that play as scouts, "but unlike scouts that sell you cookies, these guys only sell death."There are two specialties within the Shadow Warrior career-- one is all about increasing ranged damage as much as possible, and the other is about adding a little bit of melee effectiveness at the end of all that ranged damage. They make it super clear that it's only a little bit of melee-- as you can see from the still above, Shadow Warriors love their bows: "bow bow bow bow bow." But one tree of the Shadow Warrior class will let you finish off foes with melee, adding a little extra dimension to what is primarily a ranged class.There's also just a tiny bit of game video in the podcast, but way too little-- they even say that they couldn't get much approved to show off yet. At any rate, this looks like yet another interesting addition to Warhammer's already mixed bag of tricks.
WAR Online Newsletter out, it's elf-tastic!
Even though we knew beforehand that the October edition of the Warhammer Online Newsletter was going to be prefaced with bad news, it was still a welcome surprise when it greeted us in our mailboxes this morning. This month's issue (which marks the two year anniversary for the newsletter) focuses on those always-polarizing High Elves, looking down their noses at the world from their marble palaces in Ulthuan. On the list of goodies, players can watch a video on the High Elf Shadow Warrior (or emo elves, as Paul dubs them), take an in-depth look at the High Elf Swordmaster, read the general description of the High Elf army and the Chrace zone in the north of Ulthuan, and peep at a number of other video updates.As always, the WAR crew does a great job of inundating us with such a quantity of topical and behind-the-scenes content that we almost forget that the game still has a long way to go. While you can find all the information scattered about the WAR site, the easiest way to get it all is to simply subscribe to the newsletter, which we heartily recommend anyway.Make sure to stay tuned, as we'll have our first-hand impressions of Warhammer Online later this morning.
Researcher slams games for "blatant racism"
An interesting article on Next Generation details the findings of one Robert Purangao, a researcher from the University of British Columbia, who just recently completed a report on racism in video games. The conclusion is that, unlike the gratuitous violence and sex, the "blatant racism" in games has gone largely unnoticed. Luckily, Mr. Purangao endeavored to locate it for us and subjected himself to a sweeping total of four games. After playing Kung Fu, Shadow Warrior, Warcraft III and Grand Theft Auto 3 for hours on end, Purangao ceased pushing buttons and instead relegated his fingers to decisive pointing.Surprisingly, he blames GTA for featuring non-white gangsters being blown up by a white protagonist, the former being "stock characters" serving only as "narrative obstacles to be overcome." He's certainly stumbled onto something here -- evil gangsters are definitely stock characters and stereotypical video game villains (see also: aliens, nazis, alien nazis), but it has nothing to do with their skin color. If that were the case, we'd be especially excited about the table-turning report on San Andreas.Despite being obviously driven by parody, Shadow Warrior doesn't escape reprimand either -- it features a Chinese villain hero who screams "just like Hiroshima!" when he fires off a rocket. Purangao accuses game designers of using "a mix and match grab bag of Asian stereotypes that are often nonsensical," though he fails to specify whether or not all game designers do that. Another discovery he must have made here is that designers often make terrible games.Sadly, the article is bereft of any details regarding the other two games under investigation. It seems likely that Purangao came across Warcraft III's shocking portrayal of orcs as slobbering and brutal beasts obsessed with burning, ransacking and smashing skulls.
Gaming in West Africa: Only 7 years behind
To cut a long story short and to create a forced feeling of mystery and intrigue, I'll simply point out that, on my way back home from E3 last week, I was stranded for 24 hours in Senegal, a quaint little country situated in Western Africa. And by "quaint little country", I really mean a place that technology actively flees from in blind terror. When my laptop attempted to find an active Wi-Fi hotspot, canned laughter could be heard emanating from somewhere in the universe. And so, with Guitar Hero controller strapped to my back (simultaneously a piece of carry-on luggage and a bold image), I began to explore the vast and largely undeveloped wasteland that was the country's...airport building. Leave it to a gaming nerd to find a store selling games in such an obscure place. Judging by the veritable cornucopia of new releases lining the shelves, the country's gaming scene is sure to take off. Some of the games burning up the Senegalese sales charts include: Fifa '99 (don't worry, it plays the same as this year's version) Shadow Warrior Star Wars: Behind the Magic (which isn't even a game) Pong I would have taken the time to pre-order a Sega Saturn at the counter, but the French language barrier proved to be insurmountable. I'll be better prepared next time I get stranded here.
