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Demons ready for summoning, Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine goes open beta
Do you wish there was an MMO that allowed you to summon demonic minions under your control in order to restore a post-apocalyptic Tokyo? Well thankfully for you, Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine has entered open beta! Now all your world-saving via demonic pet needs can be addressed thanks to Aeria Games' and their hard work.For anyone whose played Persona 3 or the more recently released Persona 4, an MMO set in the world of SMT is a very interesting proposition. The game has all the demon fusing and combat from the other games (beyond even the Persona series) but it's all done in real-time instead of through turn-based combat. We're curious to see how this handles, as our guess is that it's likely more of a quasi-real-time ala standard MMO design in games like World of Warcraft.
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a Priest
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the seventeenth in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well, without embarrassing yourself. Priests in the World of Warcraft are a single class that incorporates a wide variety of characters. They are best known for casting spells that call forth the power of the Holy Light, but the priest using these spells in the game mechanics doesn't necessarily have much connection to the Light as such -- rather they have a connection with their own religion which grants them similar effects to those of the Light.When WoW was being developed, Blizzard realized that night elves and trolls, for instance, would not follow the Light in the same way humans and dwarves do, so they tried to represent a bit of this diversity through race-specific spells. It didn't work out, though -- some were too powerful, while others weren't worth reading about, much less putting on one's action bar. The end result was that they made some of these spells universally available to all priests, and completely removed the rest. Here the lore had to surrender to the game mechanics in order to provide the best game balance.In roleplaying, however, there is a lot of room for players of different races to behave differently, and draw their powers from totally different sources. Greater Heal, for instance, could come either from the Light or the power of Elune. A Shadowfiend could either be a spawn of the Forgotten Shadow, or a dark trollish voodoo spirit. If you are roleplaying a priest, the only thing that really matters is that your character have some sort of faith or profound belief, which could serve as the source of their divine magical power. A priest's magic revolves around his or her strong beliefs and ideas -- but what those beliefs are is entirely up to you.
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a Paladin
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the fourteenth in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well, without embarrassing yourself. You might say that paladins are the guardians at the gates of hell -- they fight evil wherever it penetrates into their world and they take the fight to the evil's source in the hope of quenching it forever. Although they focus on guarding their people from undead and demonic forces on the rise, paladins actually stand against evil everywhere, including the evil in their own hearts.Being a paladin means that you have a relationship of some sort with the Holy Light, that mysterious force of goodness and faith that flows to some degree within all living beings with positive intentions. Most paladins (and many priests) believe that when you do something that you believe to be good, the power of the Light increases in you and your connection to the rest of creation is strengthened, whereas doing something evil (such as acts of greed, despair, or vengeance) will darken the universe and weaken your connection to it. Whether this belief system is a religion or a philosophy is open to interpretation, and seems to depend in some part upon which race you are.There are three sorts of paladins in World of Warcraft, aligned with the humans, the draenei, and the blood elves. All of these share certain similarities, but each has its own differences as well.
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a night elf
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the seventh in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well, without embarrassing yourself.The night elves are probably the most difficult race to roleplay well in all the World of Warcraft, which is particularly ironic considering how very popular they are. Many a roleplayer has been disappointed by seeing player character night elves who are 21 years old, who were born in Darnassus or Teldrassil, or whose mother or father is human -- all of which would be next to impossible according to the actual lore of the game. The only way to make things like this is to change the lore to suit your own preferences, or to rely on cliche devices such as time travel and special magics which really go too far into the realm of the abominably self-centered Mary Sue.Night elves can also be difficult to understand, and full of contradictions: they can be over 10,000 years old, and yet they often do not possess the vast wisdom that would seem to come with such an age; they are deeply connected to nature, and yet they sometimes act without the blessings of nature; their women are supposed to be very fierce warriors, and yet their animation in the game has them bouncing up and down like teenage girls at their favorite boy-band concert.And yet much of this is just the sort of thing that draws people to the night elves. There's a youthful passion combined with ancient grace and sadness that many roleplayers just love to get into. Also, for those who love to develop long and complex background stories for their characters, there is a great deal of history about the night elves' ancient past which can serve as good inspiration for many of your own character's life events. We won't go into every detail of ancient history today, however; instead we'll cover the basics that you'll need to know in order to start out with a night elf that fits in the Warcraft story, and direct you to some more resources if you'd like to make one with a really deep and complicated background.
WWI '08 Panel: Warlock
Warlocks got a few mentions at this morning's WWI class panel, not only with confirmation of some previously mentioned spells in the form of Demon Form and the Demonic Circle, but in relation to the Mage, confirming the eternal struggle that seems to go on between the two classes. Still, what these mentioned changes do for the class, I believe, is mostly unclear. Demon Form and Damage Demon Form, otherwise known as Illidan form to the dev team, is something that a lot of Warlocks having been asking for for quite some time. Admittedly, it's pretty cool. Being able to morph into a Demon and gaining temporary access to a whole new skill set to devastate the enemy with? Yeah, I can't see that not being fun. But the question remains: How will it perform?%Gallery-26320%
Controversy never ends with Age of Conan
First it was the gore. Then it was the fatalities. Then it was the promise of nudity. Then it was the nipple toggle. Now there's more controversy in the Age of Conan - the Stygians.Richard Cobbett brought up a new area where AoC might offend some of the more religious people in the population in his online journal. The Stygians, the infamous followers of Set, love demonic magic. And when we say love demonic magic, we really mean that they can turn into demons if you're a Herald of Xotli or summon demons if you're a Demonologist. The word Stygian can even be translated as "dark" or "infernal".While this is pretty tame for those of us who are into fantasy settings, it's just another part of where AoC can be offensive to those around it. Funcom has no doubt pushed the envelope with this game, but as any good Conan fan will say, "It's just another normal day in Hyboria."
Phat Loot Phriday: Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer
Been a while since we did a staff, and considering how badass (and just plain weird) this baby looks, why not this one?Name: Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer (Wowhead, Allakahzam, Thottbot)Type: Epic StaffDamage/Speed: 145-323 / 3.20 (73.2 DPS)Abilities: +70 Stamina, +47 Intellect, which makes it perfect for Warlocks, though really any caster would probably benefit Improves spell critical strike rating by 36, spell haste rating by 55, and increases damage and healing by 259. In other words, it rocks. Having a two-hand weapon limits you a bit, but this baby is your one stop shop for every stat important to a caster. Definitely a beautiful caster staff. And it's in the shape of a stretched-out Felhunter, or, depending on any conspiracy theories you may have about Blizzard continuity, a Zergling (more on that in a second). I couldn't find a video for you, but apparently it writhes and the mouth opens and closes as you hold it, too -- pretty weird and wacky. So about the Zergling thing -- Zerglings, as you may know, are the lower-rung units in the Zerg race of Starcraft, another Blizzard game. They look very similar to Felhunters in WoW, and it's true, this staff does look a little bit more like a Zergling than any other Felhunter we've seen in Azeroth. Plus, the name of the staff seems to be a reference to a Devouring One, another Zerg groupie. And it comes from Outland (a place out in the middle of space), and we have already seen Zergling noncombat pets in game. So I submit to you the conspiracy theory of all conspiracy theories: What if Warcraft and Starcraft are taking place in the same universe? And what if, depending on timelines, Zerglings are Felhunters and vice versa -- what if the Zerg is an evolved (or primitive) form of the Burning Legion? Just something to bend your mind a little bit on this Friday afternoon. How to Get It: Drops from the marquee star of the last expansion, Illy Dan himself. Drops at a rate of somewhere between 10-20%, so not super rare, but unless you're seriously farming the guy and/or are a Warlock or high DPS-doer who really needs a nice staff, you might have to wait a bit.But who doesn't want this thing, really? Put an "of the Devourer" after anything, and it becomes instantly more desirable. Tell me you wouldn't want a "Cupcake of the Devourer." Have you heard about that new Apple product, the "iPhone of the Devourer"? And dude, I'm so jealous -- my friend just got a "Nintendo Wii of the Devourer"!Getting Rid of It: Sells for 18g 39s 48c to vendors, disenchants into a Void Crystal. You should keep it though -- if the Zerg do invade Azeroth, maybe you can hold it hostage or something.
Phat Loot Phriday: Shroud of Chieftain Ner'zhul
Finally, some resto Shammy gear! Not only is this sweet helm statted out (yes, I just made that up), but it's named after someone you may have heard of in passing -- that other half of the Lich King.Name: Shroud of Chieftain Ner'zhul (WoWDB, Wowhead, Thottbot)Type: Epic Mail HeadArmor: 902Abilities: In order to save space, I'm going to give you the lore behind this helm while I tell you its stats. So Ner'zhul was an old Chieftain/Shaman of the Orcs, and since this is Warcraft, he was powerhungry and it drove him to make deals with demons. Plus his helm had +48 Stamina and +41 Intellect, which actually made it nice for PvP as well. It also had a Yellow and Meta socket, and a socket bonus of 2 mp5. Ner'zhul didn't exactly knowingly make deals with demons, though -- he did what he thought was right, and aligned with Kil'jaeden, who he thought was actually a helpful "ancient ancestor." But realizing Kil'jaeden is evil is actually as obvious as the 33 spell haste rating and 13mp5 on this helm, and eventually Ner'zhul did. It was too late, though -- Gul'dan took over, and Ner'zhul only barely saved the Frostwolf Orcs from drinking Mannoroth's blood. Kil'jaeden wasn't thrilled with that, obviously, and stuck Ner'zhul in the Frozen Throne as the Lich King, until a young man named Arthas Menethil came along, shattered the Frozen Throne, and combined his bad self with Ner'zhul's in order to become a crazy powerful being (with lots of Wrath, which we'll see sooner or later). And oh yeah, the helm's got 134 healing and 45 spell damage on it. Ner'zhul was originally an Orc Chieftain and resto Shaman, so this helm came from back when he was still supposedly a good guy. But interestingly enough, he still kind of is -- both he and Arthas slaughtered a lot of people thinking they were doing the right thing, and both he and Arthas were corrupted by the deals they made for power. Maybe they belong in that Frozen Throne together. How to Get It: This is an interesting piece of loot that supposedly comes from the Sunwell. As of this writing, it hasn't been in player hands yet, but it actually comes from another helm, the Cowl of Gul'dan, which reportedly drops from Kil'jaeden. Since Killy Jay hasn't been killed yet, we're not sure about this, but this is what an "ancient ancestor" told us.Blizzard is trying something new with the Sunwell Loot -- if you don't like the loot you get or want to switch it out for another piece of gear, you can bring the old helm to a Transmuter, along with a Sunmote (that can be obtained from trash inside Sunwell Plateau), and they'll transmute the helm for you. So get the Cowl of Gul'dan (drop rate unknown), add a Sunmote in there, take it to the Transmuter, and voila, you've got (what's probably a replication of) the Shroud of Chieftain Ner'hzul. Cake, right?Getting Rid of It: Oh, you won't, not for a while anyway. All of the non-raiders will be switching out their casual epics for greens at level 71, but a helm like this you'll hold on to for a while. It does disenchant into a Void Crystal, though -- at least we assume it does. The ancient ancestor was unclear about that one.
Rock Vault brings heavy metal merchandising
Officially licensed merchandise for twelve bands can be found at the new Rock Vault in Second Life. Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, Funeral for a Friend, HIM, Kings of Leon, The Ramones, Trivium, Iron Maiden, Bullet for my Valentine, Nickelback, Stone Sour, and Cradle of Filth are the bands represented, though not every one of them has inworld shirts to buy. Whether there are inworld shirts or not (the price for all of them seems to be about L$150) each kiosk links to an online merchandise site where you can order the physical article. Don't go to to sleep quite yet, though. There's something much more interesting about this place than just selling tee-shirts -- thank heavens!
Brutallus goes ballistic on the PTR
Warlocks who have always been a bit frustrated when they go into Shadow Labyrinth and see all those huge, delicious demons who refuse to be enslaved will get a kick out of this: It seems that a warlock on the PTR managed to enslave one of the biggest, baddest demons we've yet seen in the World of Warcraft: Brutallus, the pit lord boss in the Sunwell Plateau. Not only that, he then managed to get him out of the instance and set him loose on the docks, where he proceeded to smash up all the level 1 sightseers and the level 70 Adventurers alike and generally make a huge mess of things. This is a bug that is almost sure to be fixed before the patch goes live, of course, and with good reason. It'd be a bit of a drag if life for the Shattered Sun Offensive was a constant stream of fighting off massively powerful pit lords unleashed by a stream of bored warlocks. But still, for one brief, shining moment, all you Demonologists can bask in the glow of true power, and know that you once caused one of the mightiest of the Burning Legion to bend to your whim. Yeah, that's right, it's good to be the Warlock. And your parents said studying the dark arts would never get you anywhere. Thanks for the tip and the screen shots, Pamine!%Gallery-15817%
Warlocks and demons: The next ten levels
It never really gets old speculating about what Blizzard has hidden away for the future, whether it be for the Sunwell Plateau, Wrath of the Lich King or something else entirely. The topic of Warlock pets comes up every now and then on the Wrath forums and while I don't play a Warlock, its an intriguing topic. Warlocks currently have six baseline demons, two of which have a slightly different summoning process. They can get another through being specced deep Demonology. If you count the Felguard as their level 70 addition in the Burning Crusade, they get one roughly every ten levels, so its safe to assume they have something coming in Wrath.First thing to consider is what role the pet would play. Everything but healer has been done already, and I don't want to even think about a Warlock with a pet healer. The Felguard is essentially a direct upgrade to the Voidwalker, so something like that is more likely. Personally, I think a Shivarra would fit the next demon well, and act as a direct upgrade to the Succubus.Second thing to consider is whether it would make sense from a lore point of view. As fun as it would be to summon a pet Pit Lord whenever you want, that seems unlikely. Same with the Nathrezim or the Eredar. Shivan or something we haven't seen yet seems the most likely choice.
New Age of Conan screenshots released at CES
Reader Griz sends us this link to some amazing new Age of Conan screenshots debuting at CES. At first I wasn't sure that these were in-game photos until I scrutinized them more closely, they look so good. But they appear to be the real deal. As if the anticipation over this thing could get any hotter.My favorite of the bunch, which include various demons and beasties, is the shot of a war mammoth being beset by spectral warriors while grey, hazy clouds mass overhead. What's going on in this shot? We'll know in March![Thanks, Griz!]
Breakfast Topic: If warlocks could summon any demon....
... What would it be? As it is, warlocks already have a variety of demons for seemingly every occasion, yet in my mind's eye, I imagine warlocks being able to summon a much greater number than just 4 (or 5, depending on your talents). I close my eyes and envision a mad little gnome cackling as 5 or 10 minor demons come popping out of a portal he has just opened up. In fact, a demonology warlock in particular should be able to do everything he or she needed with the assistance of demons, is it not? It's true the Felguard is a nice pet -- but is he that nice? So just for fun, let's play "imaginary abilities": what would you envision for walocks' evil little minions in the next expansion?
Lorebook describes things older and fouler than orcs
Another Lorebook entry has been featured on the official Lord of the Rings Online website. This time we get to learn a bit about the Rogmul -- a monster found in high-level encounters.While Turbine has worked hard to stay as faithful to Tolkien's literature as is practical, they've had to extrapolate a few new things from the texts to fill up the game world. For example; the Neeker-Beekers of the Midgewater Marshes are based on an odd sound described in one one line from the books.The Rogmul are also a Turbine invention. They're lesser demons that serve the Balrogs. "Wherever a Balrog is or once was," says the Lorebook, "it can be wagered that a Romgul or two is not far away."
Doomguard & Infernal getting buffed
Yesterday, a player posted on the official WoW forum asking about the current state of the Doomguard and Infernal Warlock pets. It's a hassle to learn how to summon these demons, requiring the completion of multiple quests for each, and summoning them requires reagents, including the death of one of your party members (for the Doomguard at least). With all these requirements, one would think the pets would be worthwhile, but their cost and unpredictability (they have to be continually enslaved, which is on diminishing returns and may break at any time) make them worse than the normal Warlock pets.Eyonix answers the original poster, saying that the devs are concerned about these pets and will buff them sometime in the future. That "future" may be the next expansion, but this is a better answer than the class has received on the subject in a long time. To the best of my knowledge, previous answers were something along the line of "These spells may have situational uses and will not be changed from that role". Now there is once again hope that these cool and iconic (watch the original WoW cinematic, if you don't recall) Warlock pets will become more than simple novelties.
Upper Deck previews MotL (and more loot card speculation)
Upper Deck has dropped three nice previews of their upcoming card set for the WoW TCG, entitled March of the Legion, set to hit store shelves in late November. The first preview is a look at how they're finally going to use those damage attributes on each card-- playing certain damage types will help open up new abilities on some card. The second preview looks at staff and dagger weapons for casters, and how UDE is bringing more of the online game abilities into the card game. And finally, the last preview looks at the addition of the Aldor and Scryer factions to the card game, as well as how Demons will enter into play. If you're a TCG player, are a must-read to find out how the new set is going to change the game.And Boubouille at MMO Champion has even more word on the three loot cards that will be released with the set. UD hasn't officially announced what they are (though not for lacking of trying on our part-- WoW Insider is doing our best to get an official announcement on what loot cards will be available), but it looks like, according to code in the game client, that those items we originally thought were more toys for engineers are actually the loot items-- a dragon kite, a robot chicken, and a paper gyrocopter. Bou even discovered a spell for the dragon kite that says "Upper Deck" right there on it, so this is about as sure a confirmation as they come. March of the Legion, and the new loot cards, all drop on November 17th.Update: Well there you go. Upper Deck apparently didn't like the leaks, and went ahead and confirmed all three loot cards. Look for a dragon kite, a paper airplane card, and a robotic homing chicken in a new deck near you.
Know Your Lore: Sargeras
Hard to believe that this friendly soul over to the right stabbing what appears to be an entire planet was once not just a good guy, but indeed, the goodest of the good guys, huh? (Goodest of the good guys? What, am I a drunken five year old all of a sudden? Sheesh, that's just horrible.) But it's true: the ultimate big bad guy in the Warcraft Universe, the ultimate evil, the guy who comes up with plans that involve possessing babies was once the champion of the Titans themselves, before he started stabbing planets and possessing babies.I guess there's no evil, be it big or small, that Sargeras won't engage in personally. He's a real hands on villain.So what's the deal with Sargeras, exactly? How did he go bad? Why did he assemble the Burning Legion in the first place? And what's he up to nowadays? With the Legion running around being killed for loot and Marks of Sargeras in Outland (seriously, what is the big plan for Outland, exactly? So far all the Legion seems to be doing is being mad at Illidan because he promised to be Kil'Jaeden's BFF and then went back on it. Did they pinky swear? I bet they pinky swore. That seems like the kind of thing Kil'Jaeden would do) you'd think ol' Sargy would be in the thick of it, but instead his sidekicks are running the show and he's nowhere to be found. Why?It doesn't help that some of Sargeras' history has changed in the telling. (Hey, I like the Draenei a lot, but you guys really changed the lore around.)Well, you may have a hard time believing this, but it turns out that his whole baby possession scheme wasn't such a good idea after all. I know, I know, how could picking on an infant have gone so horribly wrong? But rather than dwelling on that, why don't we start talking about Sargeras' early days.
Around Azeroth Extra: Kruul stomps Stormwind
As we all know, Kazzak has gone through the dark portal and left his lieutenant, Kruul, in his stead. It looks like Kruul got tired of hanging around the Blasted Lands and wanted to come see the cities of the world -- I've heard about Kruul sightings in at least Stormwind, Booty Bay, and Ironforge today. So I flew into Stormwind to try to get his autograph, but he seems to have accidentally one-shotted me with his Void Bolt volley. About six times.
AddOn Spotlight: Demon Trainer (Continued)
Hello, mod fans! Back again with a simple, should-be-in-the-default-UI fix for all you Warlocks in the crowd. This one's been around for quite some time, though it seems to have been continued by a new author for the new patch.Do you have a Warlock? Frustrated with the unnecessarily clunky book-buying interface on the demon trainers? Look no further! Demon Trainer (Continued) converts the demon trainer interface to look just like all the other trainers! What's more, it memorizes which spells your demonic pals already know, so there's no duplicate purchases or hunting through page after page to try and figure out which spells are next. Harnessing the dark energies has never been easy, so why not make this part of your every-even-level ritual a little easier: try Demon Trainer (Continued) today!P.S. Nerf Warlocks. (But not really.)Download at CursePrevious Spotlights
Hellboy director consults for game
Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro hopes to add some personal touches to the PSP's Hellboy video game that weren't present in the franchise's debut a few years back. You see, Hellboy was released in 2004 to some pretty lackluster reviews. The game has a 12-percent Gameranking score. Seriously. So you can see why del Toro, who is a consultant along with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, wants to give his two cents on the next game.Speaking to IGN about his new Hellboy game, del Toro said, "The essential weapon of Hellboy, and this I love, is not only his glove, which like in the movie can be charged with power, but he can use everything available. If he destroys a door, he can grab a piece of that door and start beating the crap out of someone! Or if he destroys a stone archway, he can pick up a stone and throw it. I think it's looking very promising. We played a few demo minutes the other day and we had fun."The game, which will be published by Konami, is del Toro's first foray into the video game industry, but it won't be his last. He's working with Terminal Reality to bring us Sundown, a game that combines zombies and a post-apocalyptic world together into a gamer's wet dream.Be sure to read the rest of what del Toro has to say by clicking here.
