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Darkfall Unholy Wars answers questions on custom roles
In the original version of Darkfall, skill selection was a wide-open field. When the game relaunched as Darkfall Unholy Wars, the role system was introduced, narrowing the field of options significantly. Now custom roles are incoming, and that means that players have questions about how the new mechanics will work. Those questions are being answered in a three-part series of community Q&A sessions, with the first two parts available now. Some mechanics are being removed -- Wobble, for instance, was introduced solely to balance roles, but with the new system the developers no longer need balancing specifically between roles. There have been significant adjustments made to some skills, in part to avoid the situation wherein everyone has a ranged kill skill and super-powerful healing. Despite this, the answers also point out that most characters will actually see a net increase in power overall. If you want to know more, feel free to glance at the full rundown of answers for more details.
Trove adds the Fae Trickster class
Sparkle sparkle, my butterflies! Trove's alpha program has expanded to include a new class, the Fae Trickster. The new class skews to the magical, with illusion and pixie dust being its primary weapons against foes. The Fae Trickster uses an Ego Blast to attack, Blinks to teleport forward while leaving a clone behind, and shakes its wild thing during a Faerie Dance to bring out additional clones. The Fae Trickster is Trove's third class, and is available in the store for 1050 credits or 5000 source. [Source: Trion Worlds press release]
Tree of Savior gets an English dev blog
Tree of Savior has apparently struck a chord with English-speaking audiences. Whether it's the 80-something classes, the unique class combos, or the lovely visuals, the result is enough interest to justify a new (and fully translated) dev blog. IMC Games touches on crafting, the size of the game world, character customization, and a number of other topics in its initial Q&A-style post.
Darkfall Unholy Wars unveils the new custom roles
You want to do your own thing in Darkfall Unholy Wars, but how are you going to do that? Simple -- you're going to make use of the game's upcoming custom roles to build exactly your sort of character. This represents a fundamental shift to the game's mechanics, and the latest development post on the official site stresses that this first iteration is going to be modified over time. But it's still something novel, and it's a chance to have more control over your character's development. Players will be able to pick out any 9 school skills (with 1 Ultimate skill) and several common skills for a given build, with a grand total of 16 skills from school skills and common skills. Players will also be able to mix and match armor types to create just the right sort of playstyle. Builds can be altered at any point if a character has been out of combat mode for 15 minutes, so you're not locked into one configuration. Check out the official post for more details on the mechanical shift.
The Mog Log: Whispers of what comes next for Final Fantasy XIV
When I find myself in times of trouble, friends of mine will comfort me, speaking words of wisdom: "There are more patches coming to Final Fantasy XIV." And it's true! While I'm not as happy with 2.2 as perhaps I would like to be, as odd as that statement sounds, it's not the end of the world. In fact, there's a lot of stuff around the corner that should make me a lot happier. We've heard rumblings about what we'll see at E3 next month, we're hearing discussion of what's next on the docket for patch 2.3, and there are tantalizing hints about what's going to be arriving beyond even that. Some of these are things that I've discussed elsewhere; some I haven't had the opportunity to chat about yet (we only got the live letter announcement on Friday, after all!). So let's go ahead and dive into what's on the horizon for the game.
Swordsman trailer introduces poison cultists and kung fu masters
Tell me, do you prefer poison or ice with your martial arts? Either way, Perfect World has you covered with the upcoming Swordsman. The publisher posted a trailer today highlighting the next three classes in the game. There's the Shaolin, a kung fu master; the Five Venoms, a cultist who idolizes poison in all its forms; and the Zephyr School, a fighter that uses ice control and air defense for the win. You can check out the trailer after the jump to see if any of these are a perfect match for you! [Source: Perfect World press release]
Leaderboard: What class are you playing in WildStar?
WildStar's open beta starts tomorrow, which makes this an opportune time to inquire about your class preference in Carbine's sci-fantasy MMO. But don't just vote in the poll past the cut! Tell us why you'll be rolling with said class in the comments. Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!
TERA's Reaper class heads to NA servers on May 13th [Updated]
The official Facebook page for TERA has posted an official North American release date for the Reaper class, already live in Japan and Korea, and that date is May 13th. According to fansite TeraToday, the Reaper is a free class available to players who already have a character over level 40; they're shadowy fighters who excel in close- and mid-range combat. We've included the Reaper trailer below. Pew pew slash slash and all that. [Update: The studio has just posted an official website for the new class.]
League of Legends introduces Braum, the Heart of the Freljord
For too long, there's been a hole in the many champions of League of Legends. Braum, the Heart of the Freljord, fills that hole, introducing the first truly impressive moustache to the game and allowing everyone to marvel at every perfectly waxed hair. Oh, and he also serves as a tank support character, which is also a first, but mostly it's about that glorious lip-blanket. Right, you probably want to know a little bit more about what Braum can do. Well, he applies a stacking debuff that stuns enemies with his basic attack, but once the first tap is in place, attacks from allies will also increase the stack count. He also attacks with line-based AoE attacks that snare targets, blocks attacks with his enormous shield, and can dash to his allies to help protect them from further attacks. In short, he's a traditional MMO tank tearing up the League of Legends lanes. And he has a moustache. Did we mention that?
WoW Source vid on WoD's PvP, class updates
WoW Source's latest episode features World of Warcraft lead designer Ion Hazzikostas, lead class designer Kris Zierhut, and senior game designer Brian Holinka. The trio discuss everything from Warlords of Draenor's class changes to PvP to skirmishes. There's also a sneak peek at the new Ashran PvP zone. Click past the cut for the full video!
ArcheAge boasts 120 class combinations
Forget MMOs that have a petty eight, 16, or even 23 classes; ArcheAge is strutting about with 120 builds thanks to its mix-and-match class structure. In a new developer diary and video, the team talks about the way classes are set up in the game as well as the crafting options at the player's disposal. Players construct their class by picking three skillsets at levels 1, 5, and 10, with the option to respec for a fee. Skillsets can be leveled up independently, allowing players to invest in far more than three of them, and those skillsets have certain synergies between them. The 10 skillsets in the game are Archery, Auramancy, Battlerage, Defense, Occultism, Shadowplay, Songcraft, Sorcery, Vitalism, and Witchcraft. ArcheAge wants you to know that you have the option to level to the cap entirely through crafting professions if desired. The 21 professions are leveled through a slowly regenerating resource called Labor, and eventually they hit a hard cap until the player chooses a handful for specializations. You can watch the dev video walk you through the intricacies of classes and crafting after the break!
Trion hosting ArcheAge combat and crafting livestream tonight
If you're an ArcheAge fan and you're not in Trion's alpha, you'll want to set aside 45 minutes starting tonight at 7:00 p.m. EDT to watch the latest dev livestream hosted by producer Victoria Voss and community guru Evan Berman. The duo will examine ArcheAge's combat classes and crafting skills live on Twitch. Trion also announced its first official AA competition which takes the form of a caption contest. The prize is a spot in the sandpark's alpha, and you've got until April 23rd to work on your entry. [Thanks WNxArcticwolf!]
Trove empowers community to pitch biomes and classes
Trion Worlds is empowering the Trove community even further by inviting players to pitch ideas for a new biome and class to be added to the game. A Reddit thread has the details of how this process will unfold. Players will begin by brainstorming ideas for biomes, and after some time, the dev team will pick the best (and top-voted) submissions and allow players to vote on the very best one. Following that, the team will poll players for decorations, dungeon designs, and enemy ideas, and then get the biome into the game within the month. There are also plans for a similar pitching-and-voting process afterward in regard to a new class. On a phone call, Trion told Massively that it's looking to push the crowdsourcing aspect further and further as time goes on. The team is incredibly impressed with what the community has created so far with weapons, hairstyles, dungeons, and hats, and it can't wait to see what comes from this experiment. One thing that the team revealed is the upcoming addition of music blocks: Physical objects that make notes (and even chords) when walked on. We asked if Trion was looking to crowdsource the soundtrack for the game as well, and while the devs said that no players had yet stepped forward, they promised that if some did with great tunes, those would definitely be included into the game proper.
LotRO launches The Breaking of Isengard, reveals new Beorning class
Turbine surprised us with its recent announcement of a new class coming to Lord of the Rings Online. This morning executive producer Aaron Campbell revealed that new class to be the Beorning. Campbell says that it is "a light armor casting class with a focus on control of the battlefield." "When a Beorning gathers sufficient rage, they may transform into a mighty bear," he continues. The post contains a few other nuggets, among them the fact that a housing revamp is officially off the table, at least for 2014. Meanwhile, the game has launched update 13, The Breaking of Isengard. [Thanks Darasimi!]
The Crew's five swappable classes, er, specs
What you call "classes" in other MMOs, The Crew calls "specs." There are five of them and they are swappable on the fly, offering the player control over his or her racing destiny. A new official blog post today details these five specs. Street specs are versatile jack-of-all-trade cars, Dirt specs are great for off-roading, Perf specs sacrifice maneuverability for speed, Raid specs are terrific for exploring rough environments, and Circuit specs are built for top-notch technical racing. If a player has not attained a certain spec yet and a mission requires it, the game will provide a loaner for the duration of the mission.
WildStar's beta patch expands character customization, balances classes
Carbine has just released WildStar's UI 2.0 patch notes, and while most relate to bug fixes and modest game enhancements, there are some real gems casually included in the list. Like these two: Added new character hair options in Character Creation. Character Creation now offers various body types for all races and genders. Oh, you care more about gameplay than about customization? Fine, fine: The patch notes have that too. All the classes got a hefty balance pass with plenty of bug fixes to boot. So did tradeskills. And the UI. And pretty much everything else. "Promise me no one's going to freak out about balance changes until you've had a chance to play with the new patch. Deal? Deal," the game's Community Lead David Bass implored on Twitter. If you're recovered from reading the Warlords of Draenor alpha patch notes, then enjoy another helping courtesy of WildStar's over on the official forums.
Breakfast Topic: Talented
With the release of the first set of patch 6.0 patch notes--I'm certain there will be many variants to come--talk is buzzing about all the major changes and adjustments we'll be seeing come Warlords of Draenor. In addition to reading about all this, I've been doing some perusal of the level 100 talents (as they currently stand). In particular, I think all three of the new feral druid talents sound great, though Lunar Inspiration is my favorite just for concept alone. The restoration druid options aren't quite as exciting, in my opinion, though they certainly aren't anything to sneer at. The other classes I play regularly are my frost mage and my retribution paladin, and a few of their talents strike my fancy as well--Comet Storm for the mage and Empowered Seals for the paladin in particular sound fun and useful, respectively. Have you looked over the talents in detail? Some haven't changed much since BlizzCon, but some haven't been documented publicly until now. What do you like? What don't you like? What do you wish were there?
Snail introduces Black Gold's Thaumaturge
Snail Games has added a new summoning class to its Black Gold Online steampunk MMO. The Thaumaturge "beckons dark spirits and miraculous forces for powerful long-range continuous damage casting," the company says. Thaumaturges may be played by characters from the Buvont and Lokemean races, and they use magic staffs, enchanted scepters, and mystic vials to do their dirty work. As you might expect, they also wear cloth armor. More details are available via the Black Gold website.
Star Trek Online shows off a revamp to player kits
Kits are your main method for grabbing ground combat abilities in Star Trek Online. You equip a kit and you're good to go. Despite that, they're also rather limited, as there are a limited number of different kit types and each kit of a given type contains a very set number of abilities. Season 9 is thus deploying an extensive overhaul of the kit system, allowing players to build the sorts of kits that they want to use in a more flexible framework. The core of the system is simple. Abilities are split into two categories for each profession: Assault and Strategic for Tactical, Medical and Research for Science, and Fabrication and Mechanic for Engineering. Kits will become frameworks that contain skill bonuses as well as slots to equip abilities, with each slot allowing any skill within a given category. For more details on how the new kits can be acquired and how the flexibility will benefit players, take a look at the full development blog.
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Elsword imports crossover character, Elesis, from Grand Chase
If you're a fan of KOG Games' Elsword or Grand Chase -- or better yet, both -- then this morning's character launch will be of interest. The studio is bringing Grand Chase character Elesis, who happens to be the sister of title character Elsword, over to the game named Elsword. There's some wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff in there, we're sure. According to the release, Elesis marks Elsword's first female melee character and a rare crossover promotion for the genre: "Elesis fights with steel and fire. [...] Starting her attacks by swinging her wicked fire-imbued Claymore, she gestures with her off hand for a flame-lash from below, all the while continuing to chain a sinister salvo of fire and blade attack combinations. [T]he more she attacks, the more powerful she becomes!" We spoke to KOG Games about today's new roster addition. Read on!
