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ArenaNet devs dish on WvW, new achievements, and more
ArenaNet trotted out a trio of game devs yesterday to answer your Guild Wars 2 questions via livestream. The vidcast has since been archived on the company's TwitchTV channel, and we've also embedded it just past the cut for your convenience. Taking center stage are Anet's Mike Zadorojny, Jonathan Sharp, and Matt Witter. Topics include revitalizing deserted PvE areas, a new achievement system, and various world-vs. world tweaks.
Hyperspace Beacon: What does the future hold for SWTOR?
I really want Star Wars: The Old Republic to succeed in 2013. On the whole, I believe it's carved out its own niche in the MMO genre. Granted, it's not the niche EA or the developers had hoped for, but I believe it to be solid and stable at this point. Without offering a lot of new content, the current servers have had consistently high populations since the game converted to its free-to-play model. We are also witnessing a new group of fans come to the game, fans who appear to be a little less jaded about the years of pre-launch hype. This week, I want to spend a bit of time discussing the different aspects of SWTOR and give my predictions for the future. The developers of the game like to say that combat, exploration, progression, and story are the four MMO pillars. But as the game has grown over the last year, I have found that the true four pillars are story, PvE, PvP, and social interaction. With each update to the game, these seem to be the biggest focal points of development as well as the four areas the community seems the most divided over.
Are rogues a dying class?
If you remember, last year Cynwise launched on a study of Warcraft's class popularity that led to his producing a book, The Decline and Fall of Warlocks in Cataclysm. We talked about some of the conclusions he drew here. Now he's back looking at class population vs. popularity in Mists of Pandaria, and some of the numbers he's compiled from Worldofwargraphs and realmpop are extremely interesting. One of the most shocking pieces of information to come out of all of this is this stark graphic above, where you can see the rogue population plummet. Rogues went from 7.67% of max level at patch 5.0.4, the pre-Mists of Pandaria patch, to 5.51% of max level as of patch 5.1, a drop of over 2%. This is at a time when most other classes either held steady (Paladins, Druids, DK's and Hunters all held at about even with their Cataclysm and patch 5.0.4 numbers), went up (Warriors saw a jump from 9.25% at max level to 10.14% between 5.0.4 and 5.1, while Warlocks went up from 6.7% to 7%) or saw slight declines (Shamans, Priests and Mages all saw slight declines). By comparison, the rogue decline becomes stark. So, where have all the rogues gone? Monks have taken a slim 4.9% of the total playerbase, which means that they're hardly the dominant juggernauts that Death Knights became in Wrath of the Lich King, so can they explain the rogue decline?
Ragnarok Online 2 schedules closed beta events
Starting today, Gravity's Ragnarok Online 2 is throwing several closed beta events as the studio tests this fantasy-themed sequel. The events take place from December 7th through the 12th, opening up the game during a good chunk of each day. To encourage players to test the title, Gravity has plenty of activities and rewards in store for loyal participants. Testers can reserve their open beta names, win costumes and titles, snag real-life prizes, and meet GMs in-game. If you're in the closed beta, definitely sound off below and let us know what you think about Ragnarok Online 2! [Thanks to Ivan for the tip!]
Everything there is to know about EVE Online's Retribution expansion
EVE Online's PvP-focused Retribution expansion went live today, adding new features and balance changes players have been anticipating for years. Retribution is EVE's 18th free expansion, and introduces some very interesting new bounty hunting and criminal justice systems. Players can now place bounties on any pilot or organisation, which are paid out in chunks to anyone who deals significant financial damage to them. If that isn't enough revenge for you, players will even be able to hunt down criminals with open kill rights on them and exact mob justice. The expansion also brings overhauls to countless EVE ships as part of an ongoing effort to remove ship tiers and give every ship its own role in fleet combat. A new destroyer-class ship for each races gives new players more combat options, and the ORE mining frigate lowers the barrier to entry for miners. PvE-focused players have a new salvage drone toy to play with and advanced NPC AI to counter, while PvP is set to be shaken up with ship rebalances and a new micro-jumpdrive module. Read on for a full roundup of everything there is to know about EVE Online's Retribution expansion.
GuildOx debuts specialization tracking for PvP and PvE
Are you ever curious as to which specs are the most popular for raiding or PvP? Well, GuildOx has you covered. Both for PvE and PvP in fact. There's a lot of interesting things to pull out of this data. For starters, just looking at the PvP data, where are the rogues? Seeing rogues so low in PvP (an area they've dominated as recently as Cataclysm) is kind of a shocker. Frost mages, shadow priests, arms warriors, beast mastery hunters and frost DK's are the most dominant non-healing specs in PvP right now. Over on the PvE side of the fence, (drawn from the top 5% of raiding characters) we see that Blood DK's and Guardian Druids are the most popular raid tanks, but that all tank classes are fairly close together save for brewmaster monks. I don't know why but clearly they're not taking off as tanks yet, perhaps due to entrenchment. Most raids tend towards established tanks, after all. For DPS classes, fire mages and shadow priests are the most popular, followed by beast mastery hunters and affliction warlocks. This is interesting when contrasted with the actual state of DPS classes in normal and heroic raiding atm. Rogues are interestingly split between assassination and combat, keeping them from challenging any of these classes. As for healing, restoration shamans and druids and holy paladins seem to be on top, but discipline priests look strong as well, with mistweaver monks trailing behind. You can head over to GuildOx and dig around for yourself. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Hyperspace Beacon: Gearing up for SWTOR Update 1.5
Star Wars: The Old Republic fans have been anticipating this week since the middle of the summer, and many players who dropped the game shortly after launch are looking forward to trying it out again. Veteran players are most likely familiar with how gear progression works in this game, but those returning will probably need a refresher course. After all, BioWare has made some significant changes, especially to PvP, since the game launched. It's quite understandable if you return to the game and are completely lost when considering how viable your current gear is. Today, I'm going to speak to the returning players and help them put their gear to rights once Update 1.5 launches. If you are a solo PvEer who hasn't looked too hard at endgame gear progression, a PvPer who hasn't looked at the PvE side much, or a raider who wants to dabble in PvP, this mini-guide will help you get started and will give you the gear-progression goals you should shoot for.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Five of the purest joys of Guild Wars 2's PvE
I had a really bright idea to title this post "Five things that don't suck about Guild Wars 2's PvE." However, being a denizen of the Interblags, I paused as I typed out those words. "You know, Elisabeth," I said to myself, "someone somewhere would probably see that as an invitation to troll." "But Elisabeth," myself responded, "isn't everything on the Interblags an invitation to troll?" I had to confess that I made a fair point. I mean, it was probably a silly title anyway. There are a lot of things, I tend to think, that don't suck about Guild Wars 2's PvE, and I don't want to give you the wrong impression. Saying they don't suck is a pretty negative way to frame it, don't you think? I'm glad we agree. Anyway, read on to catch some of the most non-suckiest things in Guild Wars 2's PvE.
Massively Exclusive: Hailan Rising's devs on PvP, death, and player loot tables
Hailan Rising is more than halfway through its Kickstarter campaign with quite a long trek still to go for funding, but we took a good look at the game's description and really liked what we saw. It's a game that is labeling itself as "DAoC meets CoD" and being developed by some important industry vets. But as with any Kickstarter project, there are always questions. We see what's being promised with the game, but we want to know more. So we gathered together a few of our biggest concerns for the Reloaded Productions team to see what this thing is all about. As Kickstarter projects are still a dime a dozen these days, we want to know what sets the team's game apart from the rest. Follow along after the cut for our interview with Adam Smith and Jess Mulligan from Reloaded Productions.
10 and 25-man to no longer share lockouts on KR realms in patch 5.1
The Korean World of Warcraft community site has published some interesting news regarding the future of raiding in patch 5.1. An update posted earlier today states that 10 and 25-man lockouts will not be shared. It looks like this change will apply to Korean realms only (for now). There's no mention if this change is going to affect realms in other regions. The item levels of loot in 25-man raids will be increased with this change. For example, Terrace on 10-man would drop ilevel 496 items whereas the 25-man would drop 504. As a 25-man raider myself, I am greatly interested in this change. It's challenging to maintain a healthy 25-man raiding roster. While this change would benefit 25-man guilds, it would also have an impact on 10-man raid groups. Equal item level rewards meant that most players would choose the quickest and most efficient route. What do you guys think of this as a possible solution to the whole 10 vs 25s issue? If you're raiding in a 10-man group right now, would this cause you to look for and apply to a 25-man guild? Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Hyperspace Beacon: Will free-to-play save SWTOR?
Last week, I discussed the reasons I still play a game that literally a million people have quit playing. I believe a huge part of that discussion stemmed from my expectations of the game. I truly believe that many people expected Star Wars: The Old Republic to be the answer to all MMO problems and Wookiees. Of course, no game could ever live up to that dream. I attempted to curb some of those expectations in a few of my articles, but some community desires were just beyond the scope of BioWare's plans for SWTOR. This led to disappointment and a lot of unreal prospects for the game. On that note, I'd like to take a look at the free-to-play plans for our Star Wars MMO. Many players hope that F2P will finally launch SWTOR in the right direction. Others believe that if SWTOR had launched F2P, we wouldn't have seen the mass exodus that we saw in March. (Of course, there are also those who claim that F2P is just the next step toward fail and that the game will shut down in less than a year.) Personally, I'm a fan, so I'm hopeful. However, I take that hope with the realization that this could definitely be the beginning of the end for SWTOR. Ultimately, the potential for success hinges on the disparity between what the players want and what BioWare delivers. Will F2P save SWTOR?
The Repopulation goes in-depth on PvE mechanics
If you're a sandbox fan and The Repopulation has been pinging your radar, you'll be pleased to hear that the dev team at Above and Beyond Technologies has penned a lengthy articles detailing the features of the game's PvE mechanics. Previously, we've seen similar news for the game's housing, grouping, trade skills, engagements, and more. As a true sandbox, The Repopulation allows you to have several options. Missions are explained as similar to traditional MMO quests, but they're not necessary to the game. In fact, these missions are tailor-made for your character based on your skill level, faction, previously completed missions, personality traits, and more. The article also gives us extensive details on engagements, generated epic missions, rewards, exploration, branching dialogue options, and way more than you'd expect to hear on a game this early in development. Check out the full novel article for more information.
EVE Evolved: Player justice in Retribution
This week CCP released a new devblog on upcoming piracy and PvP changes heading to EVE Online with this winter's Retribution expansion. In addition to new ships and an as-yet unrevealed bounty hunter revamp, Retribution completely redesigns the Crimewatch system that decides whom you can legally shoot and stops players from docking or jumping out of the system in the middle of combat. EVE's aggression mechanics are notoriously complicated and buggy, but Retribution aims to simplify the system and put players in the driving seat of criminal justice. The new Crimewatch system not only gets rid of old, undocumented code that was written when dinosaurs roamed the earth but also has far-reaching consequences for pirates, people engaging in PvE and the upcoming bounty hunting revamp. Pirates will now be able to escape into high-security space without police intervention, loot thieves will be subjected to mob justice, nullsec ratters won't be as safe as they think, and neutral remote repairing will be a thing of the past. In this week's EVE Evolved, I delve into Crimewatch 2.0 and how the Retribution expansion will change the game for pirates, ratters, and people engaging in PvP across New Eden.
Hyperspace Beacon: The SWTOR Terror From Beyond experience
Last week, BioWare launched its fourth major update for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Terror From Beyond. This new game content also happens to be the fourth operation (or raid) for the game. Eight to 16 players battle their way across the planet Asation, hoping to close or destroy a rift in hyperspace that has opened on this ancient Gree world. Along the way, many strange creatures and beings from other worlds attempt to stop the strike force from reaching its goal. Just like the other operations (Karagga's Palace and Explosive Conflict), Terror From Beyond continues the story of the Dread Masters. With each new addition to the story, the goal of these six Sith lords becomes more and more clear. Mechanically, this operation consists of five boss fights and a fairly linear path to the ultimate goal, a swirling vortex about a kilometer away from the starting point. Thankfully, none of the boss mechanics is a simple tank-and-spank ordeal, and the trash mobs along the way might cause a bump or two as well. This weekend, my guild ran this brand-new endgame addition to SWTOR in story-mode to get a taste of what it has to offer. I'd like to break down the experience into three major categories: aesthetics, boss mechanics, and overall impressions.
CCP unveils EVE Online: Retribution, coming this winter
Earlier this evening at the VETO EVE fan gathering in London, CCP announced EVE Online's 18th expansion: EVE Online: Retribution. Due in December, this latest content overhaul promises to bring some of the biggest changes yet to the space-themed sandbox MMO, which is steadily ramping up for its 10th anniversary next May. We sat down with Jon Lander and Kristoffer Touborg, EVE's executive producer and lead designer respectively, to get a first-hand look at some of Retribution's key features as well as the enormous pile of tweaks, updates, and adjustments players might expect with any CCP-helmed update. One thing is certain: After Retribution, the world of internet spaceships will never again be the same.
Black Desert Facebook page hints at parkour system
Black Desert is rapidly approaching too-good-to-be-true territory, at least for this sandbox-starved gamer. While there are still a ton of unanswered questions regarding the newly announced Korean import, we have seen some spectacular visuals and an interesting twist on player housing. Today the Pearl Abyss Facebook page has updated with a look at the game's parkour system. Steparu.com reports that players will be able to "run up on walls, jump on obstacles, climb balconies, and stuff." There's no video as of yet, but there is a screenshot montage that shows a free-runner vaulting over ground-based obstructions and climbing onto a balcony.
Hyperspace Beacon: Six reasons to return for SWTOR update 1.4
I've been playing MMOs for many years, and in that time, I've realized that the big thing they all have in common is that they get better with age. Unlike most single-player games, MMOs are in a constant state of flux. Besides the social interaction, the fact that I can leave a game for a couple of months then come back to find things have changed makes this gaming genre more interesting to me than your average RPG or FPS. Oftentimes, it's fun to come back to a game that I liked but maybe wasn't sticky enough to play all the time just to see what has changed, and maybe I'd like it more the next time around. That's kind of what happened to me with Star Wars Galaxies. When the game launched, I thought it was great to explore the Star Wars universe I'd grown up with as a kid, but I couldn't latch on to the game because of the bugs and other minor issues. It wasn't until about six months after launch that I was actually able to grasp the game and play it long enough to find out why people were so smitten. Perhaps Star Wars: The Old Republic will be the same kind of game. When it launched nine months ago, there were bugs, though not as big as SWG's bugs, mind you. The content needed a little tweaking. And certain systems like the Galactic Trade Network did not function well. But now with update 1.4 coming tomorrow and free-to-play on the horizon, it might be a good time to invite your friends to come back or even come back yourself. Let's examine some of the reasons to do so.
The Soapbox: Diablo III's endgame is fundamentally flawed
Diablo III was arguably the biggest online game release of the year, but its predecessor's decade of consistent popularity left some pretty big shoes to fill. Despite being the most pre-ordered PC game in history and selling more than 6.3 million units in its first week, Diablo III has started to seriously wane in popularity. I've seen over a dozen friends stop playing completely in the last few months, and Xfire's usage stats for D3 have dropped by around 90% since June. Guild Wars 2's timely release accounts for some of the drop, but there's a lot more going on than just competition. The Diablo III beta showed only the first few levels and part of the game's highly polished first act, and soon after release it became obvious that parts of the game weren't exactly finished. PvP was cut from release, the Auction House was a mess, and Inferno difficulty was a poor excuse for an endgame. Poor itemisation made the carrot on the end of the stick taste sour, and the runaway inflation on top-end items is crying out for some kind of ladder reset mechanic. But there is hope for improvement, with new legendary items, the Paragon level system, and the upcoming Uber boss mechanic taking a few steps in the right direction. In this opinion piece, I look at some of the fundamental flaws in Diablo III's endgame and suggest a few improvements that would make a world of difference.
Ragnarok Online 2 trailer shows off upcoming Colosseum
Why settle for PvP or PvE when you can have a mixture of both, Colosseum-style? Ragnarok Online 2: Legend of the Second will be getting an update early next week that introduces a Colosseum where players will engage other players as well as monsters simultaneously. Besides the chance to earn a last-man-standing trophy from besting the entire field, participants can earn PvP points to use for purchasing PvP gear. Check out a preview of the Colosseum in the video after the break. Gravity's sequel to Ragnarok Online, Legend of the Second, is not available in NA or EU versions.
New interview sheds light on Black Desert's open world
Last week we told you about a new MMO called Black Desert. There was a trailer, it was gorgeous, etc. Today we've learned a little more about the Korean import thanks to an interview at Steparu.com. For one thing, all those beautiful vistas in the trailer are part of a seamless world. For another, the combat is action-focused and features the ability to dodge and block. There's also something called horse-drifting, which the devs say is part of a battle and movement system inspired by Red Dead Redemption. The game is class-based; current archetypes include Fighters, Sorcerers, Beasts, and Tamers, though the names will likely change going forward. Black Desert also looks to feature optional PvP as well as bind-on-equip items that don't drop if you're killed by another player. When can you get your hands on all these fine features? Not for a while, it seems. The devs say they're shooting for a Korean beta sometime in 2013.
