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Learn about the Warrior in the newest Lime Odyssey development blog
Friday saw the reveal of information on Lime Odyssey's Warrior class, which specializes more or less in what you would expect from the description. (That does not include carpentry or specialized dance moves, if you're not sure.) Today, we've got a bit of a developer diary to follow up the reveal, with a bit more detail on how the class is meant to play and what prospective Warriors can expect in terms of equipment and so forth. For those looking forward to the game, there's still no news on when the closed beta will begin, although development is continuing apace despite the game's trouble in its nation of origin. You can still sign up for the beta, however, and all signs point to a testing phase on the near horizon. If you just want to learn about playing a Warrior, just skip on down to see how to unleash maximum destruction with massive weapons.
Charge into battle with Lime Odyssey's Warrior class
Aeria Games' latest free-to-play title, Lime Odyssey, is gearing itself up for closed beta, and to get players hyped up for the impending test, the studio has released a slew of new information about the Warrior battle class. Fans of the genre should know exactly what to expect: heavy armor, big weapons, and lots of bloodlust. Warriors can specialize in one of two trees: Attack or Defense. Both trees do exactly what it says on the tin. The Attack tree focuses on brute force and unrelenting offense with abilities that allow the Warrior to cleave, smash, and otherwise brutalize anything that stands between him and his goals. On the flip-side, the Defense tree turns the Warrior into a vigilant protector who can put himself in harm's way to protect his allies. If you want more details on the various classes available in Lime Odyssey (and get in on the closed beta), just head on over to the game's official site. [Source: Aeria Games press release]
Going toe-to-toe with TERA's first beta weekend
Over the past months, many fans of En Masse Entertainment's upcoming "real action combat" title TERA have been wondering whether the game will ever see the light of day. Between sparse development details and word of legal troubles, TERA's future seemed to be in constant jeopardy as cries of "vaporware!" grew steadily louder. Well, those voices can finally have a bit of a reprieve because over the course of this past weekend, players were able to jump into the world of Arborea and experience TERA's action combat firsthand. I was among those players, and after a joy-filled romp through TERA's gorgeous landscapes (thanks in no small part to my fabulous guild -- hi Territ!), I'm ready to conjure up some thoughts that will hopefully somewhat resemble my impressions of the closed beta weekend. So if you want to know whether the game's real action combat hits the mark or it's a swing and a miss, follow me past the cut and let's take a look.
A priest's guide to class romance
It's a troubling yet underpublicized fact that four out of five shadow priests respecced shadow for the first time after experiencing a romantic break-up. Recent studies show that priests are 63% more likely to respec shadow within 72 hours of a break-up, while a separate poll found that 78% of healing priests had seriously considered respeccing to shadow after having an argument with their spouse or significant other. To the tenderhearted healing priest, shadow probably seems like a quick way to steel yourself and mend a broken heart; unfortunately, too few priests realize the two points they're putting into Masochism 'til they're staring down into an empty bottle of Volcanic Potion and wishing they could do the same DPS as a warlock. The simple way to avoid all these drastic courses of action is, of course, to skip getting your heart broken in the first place. Easier said than done, you think? Perhaps, but knowing the battlefield of love will certainly help you avoid the more obvious pitfalls. Want to know what your best match is? What about your worst? This week, I've got the answers in a special guide to the classes.
How could tanking design be changed?
Tanking is designed around holding threat and using abilities to stay alive. The current paradigm, wherein tanks work hard to passively gear themselves for predictable incoming damage in order to make healing them easier, has its drawbacks. Tanks usually ignore stats that contribute to threat generation (to a degree that baseline threat generation has repeatedly been increased, currently sitting at five times damage dealt by the tank), which has led to the discussion of active mitigation in the tank design of Mists of Pandaria. The goal is to make tanks desire threat generation stats such as hit and expertise by making them not just threat stats, but also to tie them into survivability. By making threat gen stats also generate resources that are used to actively mitigate incoming damage, the goal is to make tanks want those stats, rather than simply aiming as close to complete coverage of the combat table as they can get, reducing incoming damage to something as reliable and easily anticipated by healers as possible. Tanks currently value dodge, parry, and their mastery stats well over any potential threat generation from hit and expertise. Since we've already seen quite a bit of the Mists of Pandaria talent calculator, we know that design of the new tanking system is probably fairly well advanced. We also know that the monk, another tank/DPS/healing hybrid class, will be debuting with the expansion. Therefore, it's worthwhile to examine tanking changes that could be implemented, even to stretch our vision of tanking significantly past where it is now and most likely past where it will go in Mists.
Star Wars: The Old Republic's Smuggler and Sith Warrior fight it out
We know you're all busy, Star Wars: The Old Republic fans, but try to pry your eyes away from the shiny new game for just a minute because it's time for the final Choose Your Side video. This time, the match-up is between the wily, conniving Smuggler and the vicious, rage-driven Sith Warrior. So who will emerge the victor and who will be left eating the pavement? That's ultimately for you to decide, but if you'd like a little bit of help formulating your argument, just give the video a look and see what the game's developers have to say. All you have to do is click on past the cut.
The Daily Grind: Now that all Guild Wars 2 professions are revealed, which will you play?
Earlier this week, the internet exploded with a leaked reveal of Guild Wars 2's eighth profession: the Mesmer. The official reveal soon followed, with some of the most amazing skill videos and game mechanics to ever hit an MMO class. OK, so I'm a Mesmer fanboi. Sue me. But now that we can flip through the entire array of Guild Wars 2 professions, we're left with the question about what class to play... or play first. Will you be burning stuff with the Elementalist, bashing stuff with the Warrior, or shooting stuff with the Ranger? Perhaps you'd like to pander to your inner kleptomaniac by playing a Thief or dance with the dead as a Necromancer. Throw in the Guardian, Engineer, and Mesmer, and it's fairly impossible to pick just one. So which will you play first? Let us know your profession plans for Guild Wars 2 in the comments below. Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
SWTOR: So you want to play a Jedi Knight
If it's true that gamers would rather play Luke Skywalker than Uncle Owen, then the Jedi Knight is the class to put that claim to the test in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The Knight is the Republic side's melee specialist and classic tank-mage, who supplements her melee attacks with taunts, buffs, and Force powers. She operates on the front lines of the war against the Sith, protecting her allies and representing the Jedi Order across the galaxy. Also, lightsabers. Two of them.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round 1
The character creator in Final Fantasy XI was my first exposure to character creation in MMOs, which is disappointing. There's no way to paint it as a good system, at least not to someone who is more or less powered by character customization. But it did give you your first six options for character class, and since we're starting the no doubt many-part series on character classes in both games as of today, it's relevant. At the beginning of the game, you choose a class selected from the same six classes that have made up the "default" arrangement for the series since, well, 1987. Today, I'm going to take a look at the three physical classes from that initial assortment: the Warrior, the Thief, and the Monk. We're going to be using the same initial criteria that kicked off this series, so take a moment to look at that if you're unfamiliar. Without further ado, let's get to classes!
Why We Fight: Roleplaying the warrior
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW. When you're roleplaying a particular class, you can either choose to ignore the class aspects of what you play, or you can fully incorporate it into your roleplay. A studious magic user or priest can be just as much fun as a sneaky, devious rogue or a dark and brooding warlock -- and death knights are a little bundle of joy, as we discovered last week. But what about the warrior class? Strong, steadfast and fiercely devoted to bashing heads in, it's a wonder to anyone what exactly goes through a warrior's head. Some incorrectly view them automatically as less intelligent -- after all, if you deliberately go out to get your head bashed in on a regular basis, what does that really say about your level of smarts? But warriors, as simplistic as they may appear to the outside observer, can be multileveled bundles of fun to roleplay, just as much as any other class out there. This is not to say you can't play your warrior as a character who is dumb as a brick -- heck, sometimes it's fun to do for comedic relief. But there are other aspects to the class and to the character to bring forward, even if the warrior class is lacking in a particular organization dedicated to their cause.
BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes
If you wanted to look at the new talents that will be debuting in Mists of Pandaria, I would hope you followed our liveblog of the talent system overhaul. The short version is you get to pick 1 talent from a pool of 3 talents every 15 levels. By the time you hit the new level cap of 90, you will have 6 talents. Each set of talents does the same thing, more or less, in different ways. Now, for your perusal, we present a class by class gallery of the new talent system as it stands today. Remember this is subject to change, alot, before Pandaria, launches. Make no mistake, this is a significant game changer for everyone. This is the dawning of unparalleled flexibility in personal customization choice. Arms warriors with Shockwave, fury warriors with Bladestorm. This is the biggest change to the game since reforging. There are no tree examples for the upcoming Monk class yet. Galleries of each class's talents after the cut.
Aeria reveals new Lime Odyssey website, trailer
Aeria Games' new Lime Odyssey MMO has been in the works for a while now. We first caught wind of the free-to-play fantasy game in late 2010, and since then news pickings have been rather slim. Now, though, Aeria has ponied up a press release that adds a few more details into the mix (including a new website as well as a trailer comprised of the game's opening cinematic). Lime Odyssey: The Chronicles of Orta will feature three races -- Humans, Turga, and Muris -- as well as three adventuring and three crafting classes. Players may choose from traditional Thief, Mage, or Warrior archetypes for the former and Tailor, Chef, and Blacksmith disciplines for the latter. Gameplay revolves around the collection of a sacred substance known as lime, and players will "traverse mountains, deserts, and oceans on [a] quest for peace and harmony (while killing lots of mobs, of course). Hit the jump for the cinematic. [Source: Aeria press release]
Massively Exclusive: WindSlayer 2 dev diary looks at melee classes
Last week, Ignited Games announced the upcoming 2-D side-scroller WindSlayer 2. This week, the title is back for more with a new developer diary that looks at the game's melee classes. Those who prefer to go wading into battle on the front lines will have three choices: the valiant Warrior, the dexterous Rogue, or the enlightened Monk. For the full details on each of these classes, head on past the cut for the full dev diary. And once you're done, don't forget to head on over to the game's official site (linked below) to register for a shot at a spot in the closed beta test.
Leaderboard: Magic vs. melee
Magic and melee: the yin and yang of the fantasy world. It's hard to imagine one existing without the other, the spell-slinging wizard without the mace-wielding hedge knight, the Gandalf without the Conan. Do they exist in a strange symbiosis of mysticism and steel, or is one the clear superior of the other? On one side, magicians have all the power of the elements at their disposal, able to do supernatural feats of wonder with a snap of their fingertips. Of course, this comes at a cost: namely, a terry cloth bathrobe dress code and approximately six-and-a-half hit points. On the other side, melee fighters spend their lives honing their bodies to physical perfection, becoming the Olympic athletes of the fantasy world, if the Olympics had 50-meter Beheading as a category. Then again, fighters tend to have the intellect of a dull brick and try to solve every problem, including PTA meetings, by headbutting it. Who will be crowned the victor today: the wizard or the warrior? Cast your vote -- and the fate of humankind -- after the jump!
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: PVP with a PVE spec -- protection
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host. This is part 2 of our look at PVPing with a spec mainly thought of by others as a PVE spec. Protection has waxed and waned in popularity as a PVP spec since Wrath of the Lich King launched. Its mobility, stun potential and kite resistance (as well as some nice spell interrupt utility), combined with excellent survival, weigh against its lack of raw burst potential. Protection can do many things well in PVP, from carrying a flag or protecting a tower or cap point to tanking in Alterac Valley or the Isle of Conquest, but its strengths are balanced by one factor. Compared to other warrior specs, protection in PVP just plain lacks the raw killing throughput of arms or fury. This doesn't mean a prot warrior can't get off a Shield Slam that will make another player cross-eyed, because it can and does. But unlike arms, when prot charges a target and stuns it, even using Shockwave immediately afterwards, it simply isn't likely to burst out anything close to the raw damage of the non-tanking specs. If you're prot in PVP, you should be maximizing your strengths, not dwelling on your weaknesses.
Patch 4.3: Warrior tier 13 armor revealed, looks like Deathwing
Oh, what a wonderful day to be a warrior. Blizzard has just released a preview of the tier 13 warrior set, Colossal Dragonplate, releasing with the raiding content in patch 4.3. Blizzard decided to fashion this warrior set after Deathwing himself, giant metal chin and all, and it looks absolutely fantastic. Included in the blog post is a retrospective on all of the warrior tier sets from the beginning, which hints at retrospectives for each class coming up as patch 4.3 approaches. Check out the Blizzard blog post for the images from all of the previous tiers as well as a great picture of the new warrior tier set coming in the next patch.
Is it time to kill pure DPS?
Hi guys, you may remember me from last week when I threw a rock into a hornet's nest. I was frankly blown away by the responses, some of which were very well thought-out, that supported, refuted, or elaborated on the issue of tanking and if it is here to stay or on its last legs. Since I find that kind of discussion valuable, I thought, "Well, I can always find another rock, right?" And so here we are. The DPS classes in World of Warcraft present us with a conundrum. If we consider the holy trinity of tanking, damage dealing and healing to be a pyramid that the game relies on, then the base of the pyramid is most easily envisioned as cornered by the tanking and healing classes and the apex occupied by the DPSers. The issue is, only four classes can hold up the tanking corner, only four can hold up the healing corner (and two of those classes are also in the tanking corner), and absolutely every single class in the game can stand on the top of the pyramid. This results in a pyramid that's metaphorically heavier on top than at the bottom. Furthermore, of the game's 10 classes, four of them (the rogue, mage, warlock, and hunter) can only stand at the top. Whether or not they want to do something else is immaterial (although one assumes that they do not, elsewise they might have chosen a different class), because they simply cannot do so -- at least if we continue to visualize the game as based around the tanking/damaging/healing triad. So what to do? Well, we can get rid of DPS classes entirely.
Is it time to kill tanking?
Please note I said "tanking" and not "tanks." If you know a tank, give him or her a hug. He or she isn't clad in cold metal or an angry bear that will tear off your face because of you; it's those pesky mobs. The tanking system has long been somewhat problematic in World of Warcraft. While it scales to some degree, from 5-man dungeons to 10-man raids, the scaling falls apart when we get to 25-man raiding, which currently demands about the same amount of tanking as 10-man. You can get through most of Firelands with two tanks, no matter your raid size. Majordomo Staghelm only requires one tank, again, no matter your raid size. This means that the scaling from five to 10 works, but as soon as you go from 10 to 25, instead of needing 2.5 times more tanks, you need no more tanks. The other problem is simply that there already aren't enough tanks for every 5-man group. When the Call to Arms feature was announced for the Dungeon Finder tool, it was created out of the simple fact that we're not seeing the distribution we'd expect in the playerbase. In order for the Dungeon Finder to work without significant group queues, we would need 20% of the people queuing up to be tanks (1 in 5 = 20%). This is not the case. People simply don't want the perceived group responsibility of tanking. It's why changes were made to CC mechanics that allow groups to CC on the fly without pulling. It's why Call to Arms exists. And yet, despite both of these changes, tanking was still so unattractive to players that threat itself needed to be redesigned. All of this work to try and get people to tank. Maybe the problem isn't the players here, though. Maybe it's the role.
Gamescom 2011: WildStar reveals first three races and classes
After yesterday's unveiling of Carbine Studio's colorful entry into the MMO races, we've been understandably curious about this WildStar and could have s'more, please? Fortunately, a fan site has dug out some details about three of the game's races and classes, all of which can be seen in the hilarious trailer that Carbine released. On the racial side, players have the Granok, Human and Aurin to choose from. The Granok are hulking, cigar-chomping slabs of rage, the Humans are exiles looking for a new home, and the Aurin are cute bunny-people who must go through Q-tips like mad. As for classes, players who prefer to get up close and personal with their enemies would do well to choose the Warrior, who boasts a number of strong tech and melee attacks, which are powered by fuel cells and adrenaline, respectively. Spellslingers use a pair of special pistols to stay on top of ranged damage, relying on a balanced rotation of magic and gunplay to keep up with DPS. And finally there's the Esper, your standard Mage class, who uses psychic spells like Telekenetic Strike to do massive damage to helpless enemies. There are reportedly more classes and races than just these, and we'll keep our eyes on Carbine as more details pour out about this promising title.
Choose your abilities with ArcheAge's custom class creator
ArcheAge's skill and class system is still something of a mystery to most folks in the West, due to both the language barrier and the fact that XL Games hasn't outlined all the particulars in detail. The company has updated its English-language website, though, and the ability-combination page gives a bit more insight into what players can expect when building characters in the upcoming sandpark title. The page features a charted list of abilities that, when combined in groups of three, result in a particular class name being displayed. We're assuming that the resulting class will then get to select specific skills from each ability tree. For example, selecting the artistry, calling, and wild abilities results in a class called a Plainsrunner, and reading between the lines on each ability description indicates a Ranger-like class with a pet, stealth, support buffs, and ranged attacks. If you're looking for a traditional fantasy class, XL provides premade Warrior, Priest, and Wizard templates just above the chart (as well as something called a Chaser), and you can also view brief videos of 10 of the listed abilities via the link in the left margin.
