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Guild Wars Ghosts of Ascalon: Impressions from a lore nerd
On July 27th, Guild Wars lore nerds the world over will be rejoicing. Why? Because that's when the first book in the Guild Wars trilogy of novels will be released. Ghosts of Ascalon is the book that we've been waiting years for, as it was first announced at PAX08. It will just begin to explain a bit more about that 250-year gap between the storyline of the original Guild Wars and that of the upcoming Guild Wars 2. We were fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of Ghosts of Ascalon last week, which I tore through at record speed -- not because of this embargo deadline today, but because it was just that good. Follow along after the jump to read my impressions of the first book in a series that will introduce us to the lore of Guild Wars 2.
Know Your Lore: Med'an, Cho'gall and the Prophecy
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. WARNING: The following post contains spoilers for World of Warcraft: The Comic. Players who are currently reading through the comics or simply wish to avoid spoilers from the series should avoid this post. We're taking a step back from Alliance politics this week in light of some new information from the 3.3.5 PTR. The servers have been laggy and somewhat unstable, but I've still been able to log on and play through a few things. One of those things is an interesting new quest chain available in Orgrimmar involving Doomsday Cultists who are suddenly making appearances in the Drag and talking about the end of the world as we know it. The biggest thing that sparked my interest was mention of Cho'gall. Matthew Rossi did an excellent write-up of the Twilight's Hammer and their leader Cho'gall, but what struck my interest was that Cho'gall's presence in game may lead to more interplay between story lines from the Warcraft comic series and World of Warcraft itself. However, while I made the connection readily enough, there are plenty out there who haven't read the comics and have no idea who Cho'gall, Med'an or any of the other characters I've referenced in previous posts actually are. In light of this, today we're going to be talking about the last half of the Warcraft comics series -- what happened in them, who was introduced, who died, what happened with Cho'gall, why Silithus was suddenly relevant again, and most of all, who the heck that Med'an kid is that I've been going on about. As I will be talking about these things in detail, this post is absolutely brim full of spoilers for the comics series; readers who are interested in picking up the comics and reading through them may want to veer away from this post.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Divinity's Reach to Ascalon City
We recently heard that Ghosts of Ascalon, the first Guild Wars 2 novel, is due out this summer. The plot of the book revolves around a group of adventurers traveling from Divinity's Reach to Ascalon City in search of the Claw of the Khan-Ur, a Charr relic that is the key to a truce between the Charr and the humans. Traveling from Divinity's Reach to Ascalon City is quite a hike, even in present-day Tyria (which is presumably much friendlier to travelers than the world of Guild Wars 2.) Since Jeff Grubb -- one of the principal designers of Guild Wars 2 -- is involved in the book, hopefully the tale will give us a look at the land of Tyria 250 years into the future. For now, we'll have to content ourselves with piecing together what we know of the world and taking a look at the path our (hopefully) intrepid heroes will be facing. Examining future lore based on partial knowledge is a tricky thing, because there are so many different opinions and schools of thought. Follow along after the cut for a ride on the speculation train, and feel free to add your thoughts at the end!
WoW Rookie: Reading about Warcraft
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic, and be sure to visit the WoW.com WoW Rookie Guide for links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's. Even if you're not a roleplayer, it's almost impossible not to find yourself swept up by some aspect of the hundreds of compelling stories tucked into the World of Warcraft. The question is, how can you dig deeper? Where do you find more? The answer: Books ... Manga ... Comics ... RPGs .... Page after page after page of glorious lore. Blizzard approves the storylines and lore included in the Warcraft and World of Warcraft line of novels, although you won't find a straight and clear progression across the whole line. Not every story and character crosses over from books to game (and vice versa). Besides the Warcraft novels, WoW-starved readers can chew through enough manga, roleplaying game books and gaming guides to sate any lore feeding frenzy. The best part? You enjoy +Lore bonuses to your online play experience. Even the RPG books add color to the overall picture. Follow us beyond the break for a basic reading outline to escort you down Warcraft's path of lore.
GW2 interview with Jeff Grubb goes deep into lore
If you're a Guild Wars lore-junkie, we have found the perfect Guild Wars 2 interview for you. Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats claims he can talk GW lore for hours and after reading the deep questions he put forth to ArenaNet World Designer and Writer Jeff Grubb, we'll take his word for it.If you're looking for information about instancing, world PvP, and progression rates, this isn't the interview for you. If, however, it makes you giddy that one of either the Bahltek, undeciphered Asuran banner, or giganticus lupicus will be further explained in GW2, then it might be right up your alley. Jeff also drops some hints about the origins of humans, the dragon prophet Glint, the complex relationship between the world of Tyria, the human gods, and dragons, and a number of other things. The anticipation for everything GW2 related is heating up, so stay tuned to Massively as our very own Shawn Schuster will be speaking with someone from ArenaNet soon.
Villain Patron Powers to get overhaul in CoX Issue 13
When the announcement broke that the Mission Architect feature for City of Heroes was being moved to Issue 14, some additional features were listed for Issue 13, including revamps to some of the powers. We got to quiz Matt Miller and Brian Clayton extensively about the PvP related changes coming to CoX, but some other overhauls have come to light since. From what powers specialist Floyd 'Castle' Grubb has told players on the forums, the Villain Patron Powers and the Hero Ancillary Power Pools are going to get a serious rework.Both these power pool types affect only characters at level 40 and above. Players have been protesting the lack of equivalence between them ever since the City of Villains Patron Powers went live in Issue 7: Destiny Manifest. The obvious place where the disparity between the two counts is in PvP. The heroes get uber powers like Focused Accuracy; the villains don't. The heroes get Power Boost as an ancillary power; the villains don't. But now, although he can't talk specifics yet, Castle has promised 'widespread' changes to the PPs and APPs.
