Stealth
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Encrypted Text: Leveling your rogue in Cataclysm
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. When I was selecting my first class, back in the early days of WoW, I chose the rogue for its awesome killing potential. Mindlessly grinding mobs used to be a valid way to level, especially since questing in the past involved so much travel and downtime. Our unique mix of stuns and damage allowed rogues to chew through enemies quickly and efficiently. My strategy was to find an area populated by caster-type mobs and then simply burn through them all day long. Over the years, rogues have continued to evolve, and we're now one of the strongest leveling classes in the game. Our past weaknesses were our lack of self-healing and our difficulty against elite mobs, but Recuperate and the near total removal of any quest-based elite mobs in Cataclysm has solved both of our problems. Leveling a new rogue today is an enjoyable experience, as we have the finesse to avoid unwanted encounters and the brawn to handle any combat that we do have to engage in.
Daily iPhone App: Spy Mouse
Firemint Games' latest title is finally out for iOS, and the early reviews are great. I played a prototype of this game over a year ago, and it's been through a few big revisions since then. But the same gameplay I saw in the very beginning is still there and as polished as it's going to get. Spy Mouse turned out to be a great game. The basic idea is you control a mouse chasing after cheese by line-drawing around a level. But there's lots of fun gameplay devices to play with, including pouncing cats, gadgets, powerups, and lots of other tweaks and tricks. Perhaps most importantly, the gameplay is like butter -- the graphics are bright and colorful, the spy music soundtrack is as delicious as the cheese you're chasing, and every bit of the gameplay is well-thought out and intuitive. Spy Mouse is a great title, and definitely a bargain. It's a little disappointing to see that there's no Game Center integration at launch (achievements would be terrific). Each level has three different goals to go after, and there are six whole worlds to play through, so there's lots of gameplay anyway. Spy Mouse has more than enough to justify the US$0.99 launch price. Definitely pick this one up.
Final Fantasy XIV talks about the new stealthy gathering
It's not always easy being a gatherer in Final Fantasy XIV. Sure, you get all of the features of a full-fledged class, and that's pretty nice. You are sent out into the wild amidst hordes of ravenous beasts, however, and you aren't given many defensive options beyond "try to throw a rock at things." At least, that's the case at the moment. Patch 1.19 is bringing a major change to the way Disciplines of the Land handle their trade, with a new ability known as Coeurl Step. Named after the cat-like monsters found across the series, the new ability permits gatherers to enter an undetectable state for various tiers of levels at the cost of a severe drop in movement speed. Stealth can be maintained even while gathering, however, allowing players to sneak right past aggressive monsters and take their bounty from the land with ease. While Coeurl Step is exclusive to the gathering classes, there are few players who haven't picked up one gathering class or another, so most of the playerbase will benefit from the option to go incognito.
The Anvil of Crom: Deconstructing the dev update - PvP Edition
It's been quite a while since I devoted an Anvil of Crom entry to deconstructing one of Craig Morrison's monthly Age of Conan development updates, and what better time to resurrect an old tradition than on the heels of one of the lengthier producer letters in recent memory. The end-of-July document took a decidedly pro-PvP approach, and since I've been spending the majority of my game time on the new Blood and Glory server lately, reading between the lines on the bossman's latest state-of-the-game manifesto seems like the thing to do. Join me after the cut for a bit of discussion on PvP, the future, and a bunch of interesting bullet points.
Deus Ex developers talk sneakery in new diary, 'Stealth'
Playing an FPS like a sneaky, underhanded rat will never be as rewarding as in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, according to the above developer diary, titled "Stealth." Deus Ex devs delve into the secrets behind sneakery, which include a cloaking device, x-ray vision, silenced snipers and a crossbow, and suggest players eavesdrop on guards' conversations instead of shooting them at first sight. Deus Ex already offers up to 40 hours of gameplay, but crawling on the floor and crouching behind every box you see might just bump that number up to 80. Or 800, depending on your crawl-speed.
Age of Conan dev update outlines PvP changes
Age of Conan game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison has posted his latest monthly development update, and the lengthy piece focuses heavily on the PvP side of the game. While class-specific balance fixes aren't given much lip service here (Morrison says they're addressed in each game update anyway, and are an ongoing process), Funcom is looking at quite a few changes to AoC's PvP component. Morrison tasks lead systems designer Einar Forselv with talking about the specific goals, and he gives us a general look at what's on the dev team's plate. First up is the problematic minigame respawn mechanic, and Forselv says that Funcom is looking to make it more like the systems found in your average FPS as well as address the loopholes people use to perform AFK exploits. Ranger tracking will also be "overhauled," which likely means a nerf since the feature is the subject of much QQ from the non-Ranger community. Siege performance changes are also on the table, as are stamina and aggro fixes, changes to animation and combat calculation interactions, and tweaks to the stealth system. Finally, this month's dev update mentions that new PvP world bosses are on the way to Hyboria, and teases the upcoming Savage Coast of Turan content that ties in with this summer's Conan film reboot.
Hyperspace Beacon: Find the Force
With E3 last week, I really considered devoting this article to opinions regarding the latest news for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Then I realized that Massively already published a ton of SWTOR related articles about E3 this week. During the show itself, Dan gave his impressions of playing the game, and all four of our attendees delivered impressions yesterday. It's good to read impressions from people who love MMOs but aren't necessarily die-hard fans of BioWare or Star Wars -- you'll get a different perspective than you would reading this column. So instead, this week I'll examine the announced abilities for the Jedi Consular class. The majority of this information stems from the advanced class page, but there is a little bit that comes from MMORPG's interview with Georg Zoeller. Hop past the break as we explore the abilities of this powerful Force-user.
The Daily Grind: What do you think about stealth?
I remember back when Warhammer Online was in development and the issue arose of stealth in the game. At first, the devs were adamant that stealth was a cheesy PvP tactic that had no place in WAR. This stance lasted for some time until they abruptly did an about-face and introduced a couple of stealth classes, much to the dismay of players looking forward to a PvP title free of the feature. So we learned that stealth comes to most all MMOs, whether we like it or not. For some, stealth is an empowering ability that allows players to bend the rules of mob engagement and attack them on their own terms. For others, stealth is an infuriating tactic in PvP battles that is usually followed up by stuns, massive damage and death. So what do you think about stealth? Is it a great feature or a horrible one? Is it so standard that all MMOs must include it from here on out? Do you enjoy playing stealth classes or secretly loathe them? 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!
Encrypted Text: The secret rogue skills
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any article suggestions or questions you have! The word "rogue" has several meanings. Some people envision a swashbuckling pirate, deftly wielding two maces and smashing faces in. Others imagine a trained ninja, assassinating marks silently in the night. Many of those with Dungeons & Dragons experience expect rogues to be similar to the thief, sneakily disarming traps and picking locks. I love the rogue class because it has enough versatility to meet all of these stereotypes and more. Before dungeons were the streamlined "on rails" encounters of today, they were complex and open-ended. There were several paths to victory, and rogues had the ability to use their unique flair to unlock alternate routes. While it's obviously not good for business to have rogues be a pivotal part of every dungeon, it was nice to see our utility actually being utilized. Young rogues today don't get the experience of playing their class outside the box.
Hyperspace Beacon: Your eyes can deceive you
I don't know about you, but this Friday's update surprised me. After the freighter-full of information we have been receiving, I was kind of expecting a meager morsel of facts from Star Wars: The Old Republic in this most recent update. However, just knowing that the update was written by Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller, I was excited about it. Zoeller is surely the most active developer on the SWTOR forums, and he always has some incredible nuggets of information to share with the community. This week, I want to talk about combat roles. Although BioWare mentioned that it supports the standard trinity, it was refreshing to read that the team is mixing things up a bit based on advanced classes. For instance, your Bounty Hunter easily slips into the DPS or the tank role, but developers have thrown healing into the equation, too. This week, I want to talk about another role I did not expect to see: the Stealth Tank.
Stealth unveils the LPC-670 mini-PC: small in size, vast in price
Stealth has been in the compact computing game for some time, and the company has just rolled out its most powerful pint-sized PC to date, the LPC-670. Packing Intel's Arrandale Core i5-520M, Core i5-580M, or Core i7-620M silicon, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, a DVD or Blu-ray burner, a max 750GB 2.5-inch HDD or 128GB SSD, optional 802.11g WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and DVI connections, Stealth's new mini-PC has the brawn of much bigger machines. The price of such lilliputian luxury? An account-emptying $1650, and that's just for the base model -- check the right option boxes and the final tally will run you over three grand. That should ensure the customer base will be just like the machine itself... tiny. Press release is after the break. %Gallery-120754%
Samsung's Droid Charge spotted in leaked promo material, multimedia dock in tow
Like it or not, it's a Big Red kind of day. The latest VZW news to splash down in our inbox is the shot you see above -- the first hint of promotional material surrounding Samsung's Droid Charge. If you'll recall, this phone began its (public) life at CES 2011 sans a name, but as a source correctly predicted, the name shown above will be the one that sticks. Proving that the Atrix 4G setup was more than just a fluke, Sammy's also showcasing a must-have peripheral: the multimedia desktop dock. Said accessory ships with a built-in battery charger and spare cell, but with no apparent signs of a video output, we're having a hard time getting too hot and bothered.
Confirmed: Samsung SCH-i510 LTE phone to be named Droid Charge
Remember that Samsung LTE phone for Verizon we saw at CES -- you know, that nameless one? Well, according to the picture you see above sent by a trusted source, Verizon has decided to undertake the Droid naming scheme. The newly coined SCH-i510, if you recall, packs an 8 megapixel shooter on back, a front-facing cam and a Super AMOLED Plus display. At this point, we're uncertain which version of Android the Droid Charge will be running once it hits shelves, but last we saw it was running 2.2 with TouchWiz. No word on pricing or a release date as of yet, but you can rest assured that we'll be keeping you in the loop.
ArenaNet interview gives new details on the Guild Wars 2 Thief
ArenaNet unveiled new information on the Guild Wars 2 Thief early this morning via an interview and skill video on Kotaku, giving eager fans more insight into the demo videos released last week at GDC. The interview with Eric Flannum, Jon Peters, and Isaiah Cartwright builds on much of what we already know: dual pistols, stealth skills, stealing, and so on. The skill video reinforces much of what the developers have to say as well, but what's new? Follow along after the jump for the latest scoop on the Thief!
Wings Over Atreia: Anticipaaaaaaaaaaaation
You know the feeling -- you learn about some upcoming goodness and you want it. Or do you crave it? You can fall anywhere along the spectrum of anticipation, provoked by things you just look forward to all the way to things that make you squeal in schoolgirl giddiness at the mere thought! It's a game in and of itself. Such is the way of Aion updates, which tantalize and tease players for quite some time before going live (and even longer if you can translate the original Korean patch notes yourself!). Not yet having a release date for updates is not dampening the anticipation of many Daevas but rather is fueling it instead. So what brought about my musings on this topic? I squealed! More specifically, an announcement this week that put me right into the giddy mode: Winter is coming! George R.R. Martin's fifth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series will release in July. Now, while my fangirliness in its supreme is reserved for this outstanding literature, I also have things that I am looking forward to in game. However, there are those who have a virtual heart attack when new goodies for Aion are announced; I have one legionmate who will only re-sub when update 2.5 rolls around and brings with it all the little bells and whistles he is pining for. It is quite interesting to listen as he randomly pops into Ventrilo to trumpet the greatness of this upcoming gaming salvation, then disappears again into the night. So what about 2.5 has my legionmate so excitable... and excited? Skip-to-my-lou past the cut to take a look at some of the upcoming features.
Encrypted Text: Patch 4.1 already a hit with rogues
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. This week, we discuss the upcoming PTR changes. As you've probably heard, patch 4.1 is now being tested on the PTR. We know about a few of the new dungeons and raid bosses, and Blizzard's developers have given us some sparse information about the incoming class changes. There wasn't anything earth-shattering in the notes -- at least until you reached the rogue section. Once I saw our class' name in that infamous Brittle Yellow hue, I was prepared for the worst. Patches can only go one of two ways for a rogue: awful or awesome. There's not a single patch note for rogues that is going to increase our DPS. There's not a single patch note for rogues that is going to lower our DPS. Instead, our section of changes features quality of life and survivability changes that have me more excited than a toddler on Christmas Day. You already know that I love Stealth, and it gets even better. Recuperate, the best leveling spell in the game, got buffed back to its Cataclysm beta values. Tricks of the Trade received a quality-of-life change that takes it from good to amazing. Patch 4.1 has taught me that I don't need to have my damage buffed to fall in love.
Arcade Table's Stealth brings high design, crazy price tag to tabletop arcade
The tabletop arcade market isn't exactly a crowded one these days, and for the most part we'd say that's for good reason -- remember those Pac-Man-induced neck spasms? Then again, most arcade tables don't look like this. The Stealth console system from the aptly-named Arcade Tables offers 60 classic games, including Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Galaga, in a high gloss cocktail table, sporting an HD LCD screen with an 89-degree viewing angle, built-in speaker system, and two-player controls. Okay, so the thing costs $3,300, which is more than a touch too rich for our blood, but wouldn't it be nice if more throwback consoles looked a little more, well, Stealth-y.
LotRO ramps up to Echoes of the Dead with new dev diaries
Speculation is on a head-on collision with fact, as Turbine has started to roll out information about the next Lord of the Rings Online update, titled "Echoes of the Dead." As players wonder whether the mysterious runes of a couple weeks ago indicate a new raid hub, or whether Echoes of the Dead is the name of the next book in the epic storyline, Turbine has at least shed light on class changes scheduled for this next update. Ken Burd caters to the thieves, er, treasure-hunters in the LotRO crowd with his Burglar dev diary. Several improvements and buffs for the class are in order, including additional stealth stances, bleed effects matching weapon damage types, beefier Fellowship Maneuvers, the ability to go faster in stealth, and a "Safe Fall" skill to safeguard against falling injuries (although Burglars can still be killed by falling too far). For the musically minded, Tim Lang has you covered with his Minstrel dev diary. Lang lists a huge amount of tweaks and fixes for the class, including shorter cooldowns for select skills, several new legacies, and an additional skill called "Anthem of the Third Age," which buffs either damage or healing, depending on whether you're in War Speech stance or not. Finally, in response to this past weekend's game and forum outages, Sapience announced that NA players will enjoy increased +5% XP gains from monster kills as well as token drops that can be exchanged for gift boxes from now through Sunday the 6th.
Exclusive: A look at RIFT's Saboteur
You can call them rogues, thieves, scoundrels, but by any name they're stealthy little bastards. RIFT's Rogues are no exception, with the difference being that the soul system allows them access to several unique flavors of sneaky little bastard. There are the backstabbing Assassins, the sniping Marksmen, and the defensive Riftstalker all under the same overarching aegis, allowing players a wide variety of different options. But none of them yet has been the truly annoying sort, the one who looks to be finally caught flat-footed just as you realize he's been playing you the whole time. Rounding off a week of new soul previews is the Saboteur -- and while it might seem a bit less glamorous to come last, that's exactly how the Saboteur would want it. An expert in preparation and subtle traps, the Saboteur is vulnerable without time to prepare his various battlefield modifications, but immensely destructive if he's in control. Click on past the break for more backstory and information on RIFT's resident schemer. %Gallery-101448%
Gank like a pro with the Ganker's Kit 2.0
WoW forums user Tantojutsu put together the great Ganker's Kit of Ganking 2.0, based off of an older and hilarious thread, detailing the wonderful items and abilities available to make stalking and killing player prey in game that much more fun. Rogues are already deadly and frightening, and when I hear that stealth sound, I immediately spin my head around looking for a sign of a shadowy attacker. Some of my favorite points on the list include a list of banners you can plant on your dead foes, the use of focusing lenses to quickly point toward a target, and using the 2010 Winter Veil MiniZep pet as air recon. Tantojutsu put together a great list, and all of you would-be gank artists should definitely check it out.
