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Gamescom 2010: BioWare reveals 10 new advanced classes for TOR
We've known for a while now that Star Wars: The Old Republic is planning to offer players two different specializations for each class, but up until now we've only heard of a couple of them. Today at Gamescom, however, BioWare unloaded the names and loose descriptions of ten advanced classes. The best part? No Bothans died for this information. Darth Hater reports that imperial agent characters will have the choice between specializing as snipers (long-range DPS) or operatives (who use stealth and short-range weapons to get up close and personal). If a bounty hunter is more to your liking, then the choice between a powertech and a mercenary should get your imagination racing. Over on the Republic side, troopers will sign up for either commando or vanguard training. Commandos are the tanking line, although we don't know much about vanguards yet. SWTOR-Station spied a Zabrak trooper at the BioWare booth, indicating another possible race for the class. Force-users are also in store for powerful upgrades. The villainous Sith inquisitors choose their path between a more Force-happy sorcerer or the twin lightsaber-using assassin. Their counterpart, the Jedi consular, has a similar decision to make: that of a shadow, who can use double-bladed lightsabers, or a wizard, who uses a single lightsaber but can heal. Are Star Wars fans ready for wizards and sorcerers in their MMO? Somehow, we think so.
Exploring Eberron: All aboard the Hogwarts express
So you want to be a wizard, eh? Whoa, whoa, not so fast there young whippersnapper! Just because you've lived under the stairs your whole life and can talk to snakes doesn't mean that you're the "chosen" anything around here. Wizardry is a dangerous profession, to be sure, and if a Beholder doesn't eat you alive, you'll most likely melt your own face off with a misplaced acid spray. Maybe you'd be better off going with a... simpler class, like a barbarian or janitor. No? Spells and glory is where it's at, you say? Fine. I'll teach you a few tricks, but don't go crying to mommy when the dark arts claim your soul just because you forgot to bring your eye of newt to the fight. Might as well come in, then, and I'll show you a thing or two about starting your own wizard before you jump into your first dungeon to fight your first dragon. Maybe you'll even clear the wax out of your ears enough so that you'll survive past the initial day, eh? I can always dream, I suppose. So let's get started!
SDCC 2010: TERA by the numbers
If looks were everything, then TERA would certainly place as a finalist in the Miss Upcoming MMO Universe pageant. Yet as visually sumptuous as it may be, we're more interested in its personality. Can the brains match the beauty? So far, it looks promising. We've been locked on to TERA's unique brand of fantasy play since this year's E3 (and before), and as such, it's great to check back in with the title, take it out for a quiet romantic dinner, and see how it's shaping up. We caught up with En Masse Entertainment at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con and spent a half hour putting the game through its paces and chatting up with TERA's devs. While TERA's dev team is working with a more recent build of the game, our hands-on demo was the same build as the one we saw at E3. Even so, it's always worth spending a few more minutes with an upcoming MMO to see what new facts and impressions can be gleaned. Hit the jump to read more about classes, races and an idea about not getting hit that's so crazy, it just might work!
Mythos reveals Pyromancer art
Redbana has released new artwork of the Pyromancer class in their upcoming Mythos MMORPG. The title, originally developed by Travis Baldree (FATE, Torchlight) at Flagship Studios but now the property of HanbitSoft, is a Diablo-style dungeon crawler, complete with isometric perspective and high levels of itemization and randomization. Redbana is the North American publisher for Mythos, and has released the Pyromancer screens as the first of what promises to be a steady stream of information that will lead up to the beta tests and full release later this year. The Pyromancer, as you might expect, relies on fiery magic to burn enemies into submission, and fans can get a leg up on checking out the sorcery and other game elements by signing up for the Mythos newsletter at the official website. %Gallery-10781%
Vanguard gets final 3 weapon sets: Druid, Necro, Sorcerer
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes doesn't get as much attention as other SOE games, but it clearly has a dedicated community of players. It's also a game that has seen a significant amount of change since it launched, and the developers are continually improving Vanguard through player input. The latest announcement from the Vanguard developers is about the new weapon sets they're going to introduce, specifically for the Druid, Necro, and Sorcerer classes. They write: "You might have thought that we forgot about 3 certain classes when we were featuring some of the new weaponry. Never fear, this week we were able to wrangle the final 3 weapon sets up for everyone to check out in all their glory."
Delving into the archetypes and specialty classes of Aion
The folks over at Ten Ton Hammer have been cranking out a number of features that examine the various class archetypes and specialty classes of Aion. So far, they've produced two game guides showcasing the Priest and Mage archetypes and had four interviews with NCsoft discussing the Gladiator, Templar, Ranger, and Assassin specialty classes.When creating a character in Aion, you must initially choose one of four available archetypes. Anyone who has played a fantasy MMO or RPG in the past decade or so will find them quite familiar. They are the Warrior, Scout, Priest, and Mage.Once you reach level 9, you're sent on a quest to discover your true identity and ascend to daevahood. The quest is like Red Bull - it gives you wings. At this point you must choose a specialty class defined by your original archetype. Warriors become Gladiators or Templars. Scouts become Rangers or Assassins. Priests become Clerics or Chanters. Mages become Sorcerers(esses) or Spiritmasters.By our count, TTH has covered half the archetypes and specialty classes so far, so keep your eyes peeled for the second half coming soon. We'll also bring you our own impressions of these classes when beta permits. So far, we've been limited to testing some pretty low level characters.
Warhammer Online 1.0.6 patch adds new classes, tidal wave of updates
All those Warhammer Online players who where playing along with the Heavy Metal event in November will be happy to know that today the fruits of their labor has arrived. That's right: Today, Mythic brings us Black Guards and Knights of the Blazing Sun! For those who didn't finish the full Heavy Metal event, don't worry, the classes will become available to everyone next week. Servers are going down at 3:30AM PST / 6:30AM EST for North American players with Oceanic servers following at 9:00AM EST. No specific time-frame was given for the updating process, so we'll just have to sit tight and wait it out.New classes aren't the only thing found in this patch, however. There's a ton of general game updates, performance updates, bug fixes and class tweaks coming with the 1.0.6 patch, too. In fact, there are so many class tweaks that Bright Wizards, Chosen, Engineers, Ironbreakers, Maguses (Magi?), Shadow Warriors, Sorcerers, Squig Herders and Swordmasters are all getting their mastery points refunded. Combat also seems to be a big focus, with a ton of improvements to auto-attack animations, ability responsiveness, morale responsiveness and root responsiveness.All in all, we're pretty impressed with Mythic on this patch, as it delivers some substantial changes that many players have been waiting to see. Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
The Digital Continuum: WAR's resistant early gratifitanktion
Crubz is standing on my screen with a choppa in one hand and a blocka in the other, waiting for me to select him and log into Warhammer Online for some RvR action. My cursor glides onto the "character" button. I'd feel bad for what I'm about to do if it didn't seem so right. I stare into the load screen for Blighted Isle and wonder if I'll come to regret my penultimate choice -- the career I truly want isn't available to me, yet. I doubt that I ever will regret the decision because it's going to happen again. Regret will only rear its ugly head if I don't take at least one character to end game level. My Dark Elf Sorcerer is nearly level ten now with a renown rank of eight and my class hopping has only just begun.
Massively goes to WAR: An overview of Ranged DPS careers for Destruction
Let's face it: DPS classes just have more fun. Tanks have to always worry about being between the squishies and the pointy things. Healers have to make sure their fellows are standing upright. All DPS classes have to do is be pointed in the right direction and relatively sober. That fun factor is even more true than the norm in Warhammer Online, as the Destruction races offer up some gloriously sadistic ways to squick the other side. There are three ranged DPS classes on the Destruction side, and with only their two melee counterparts to rely on they'll be taking up a lot of the damage-dealing slack once the game goes live. Players who choose these classes are going to have a heck of a lot of fun variously shooting, exploding, and damning the souls of their opponents. That's just how DPS players like it, too. Join us for a walk on the dark side with the Squig Herder, the Dark Elf Sorceress, and the Chaos Magus. 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: Sorceress levels 6-10
The first five levels of the Sorceress class outfitted her with the basics spell-wise. These next five levels, however, add plenty of tricks into the mix. There's still more direct damage to be had, especially with your first morale ability. However, a lot of what you're getting in levels six through ten are buffs and debuffs or Augmentations and Hexes, as Warhammer Online likes to call them. Umbral Strikes is going to be your bread and butter buff for a while after you get it, as the spell gives everyone in your group a 25% chance to cause extra damage whenever they attack. One particularly interesting ability allows you to deal slightly more damage to a target of your choosing over a period of time, but less damage to everything else as a cost. This one seems like an obvious choice for epic monsters or maybe that particularly annoying tank in RvR. Your level ten spell is probably the second most important spell, next to your brand new buff. It's a classic AoE root that no spellcaster should be without, really.
The Elves of WAR: Meet the Sorceress
Do dark magical forces beckon you? It could be that the Dark Elf Sorceress -- Sorcerer for males -- is just the class for you in Warhammer Online, so long as you don't mind being an Elf. The Sorceress is -- for all intents and purposes -- your typical mage-type class. Don't take that statement at face value, though. There is a nice twist to the class that helps keep things interesting while you nuke the snot out of everything in sight. The difference between, say, a Sorceress and an Archmage is the disdain for any adherence to the balancing act with magical energies. Where a High Elf crafts her magic with a careful touch, a Sorceress steals as much as she can and flings all of it at her enemies at once. This doesn't come without a risk, of course.
What we're expecting from BlizzCon
As we announced earlier, BlizzCon tickets are on sale. Sort of. Kind of. If you can fight past the store servers. I know I've been getting nothing but the fail murloc pretty much all day. Still, I and the rest of WoW Insider's crack live team will be there come hell or high water, and we'll bring you the news you need to know. In the meantime, we're stuck here refreshing the Blizzard Store. To pass the time, we did a bit of speculation about what we might see in Anaheim on October 10th and 11th. Here's what we decided: What we're sure to see The Wrath of the Lich King Cinematic: Though we still have no solid announcement, Blizzard's already stated that they want to get Wrath out before 2008 is up. Considering that, they must have the opening cinematic pretty close to done. I would be surprised if we don't see it open the opening ceremony, to be completely honest. I'm expecting Arthas and/or a "rebel" Human Death Knight to feature prominently, as well as our first cinematic Gnome shot.
Preview of Vanguard Game Update 5
The Vanguard Players site just released information on the upcoming Game Update 5. Slated to hit the test servers at the beginning of next week, this latest in Vanguard's ongoing series of large content updates looks to be another doozy. Highlights from this update incude: Racial Mounts: We featured two exclusive screenshots of the Dark Elf and Half Elf mounts this morning, but every race has their own unique ride. The folks at Ten Ton Hammer snagged their own shots, showing of the Gataro Raki mount, and the Kurashasa Scorpion mount. The full list of races and their mounts is on the site. A city faction system they're calling 'Citizen Favor.' Players will be able to complete quests to earn positive faction standing with each individual city. Certain creatures can be slain to earn tokens, which are then turned in to earn standing and rewards. Raid-level monsters will drop ancient coins of exceptional value in this system. Three classes received some TLC: the Psionicist, the Blood Mage, and the Sorcerer. Broken abilities were fixed, spells have been updated, and "all three classes should be more in-line with their intended vision." Exactly what was changed will be listed in the final patch notes. Performance improvements, new particle effects for a number of classes, and more will also be added in the patch. We'll have more on Game Update 5 in the days ahead, so make sure to check back.%Gallery-20844%
2 Aion character classes video
NCsoft's upcoming MMO Aion sure looks nice, doesn't it? Wired has posted a mini-preview of two of its character classes, the Assassin and Sorcerer. There's nothing revolutionary about these videos, but it's amazing how the right soundtrack can add so much to a simple video. Try watching them for the first time without sound enabled, and see if they're still interesting.Aion is scheduled to be released this year on an unannounced date.
Official Dungeon 2 Graphics and Stats
Rumor no longer - the official graphics and stats for the Dungeon 2 armor set (sometimes called tier 0.5) have been released by Blizzard, as well as information on modifications to the Dungeon 1 (sometimes called tier 0) armor set. I don't see anything unexpected here, but if you haven't been following the rumor mill too closely, it's worth checking out.
