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Exclusive: A look at RIFT's Void Knight
Magic is a fact of life in any sort of fantasy setting, and RIFT is no exception to this. The Warrior, of course, is the last class you'd expect to be dabbling heavily in magic, an assumption that would be largely correct. But with the plethora of souls available to characters in the game, it seems nigh-on inevitable that a Warrior would have at least one option if he wanted to ensure his opponent was just as bereft of magic, to even the footing down to a contest of arms. And the Void Knight is precisely that. The Void Knight isn't just capable of enduring magical attacks -- he actively absorbs them, using them to power his most spectacular abilities. Although he's not up to a straight contest of arms against a non-magical character, he's more than the equal of a caster, easily capable of turning the most devastating curses or enchantments into the equivalent of an energy drink. Take a look past the break for the full rundown on both the lore and abilities of the Void Knight, and check back each day this week for another new RIFT soul reveal. %Gallery-101448%
RIFT reveals Warrior build-your-class video
The video hits keep on coming for Trion Worlds' RIFT, though this time the video in question is aimed at stat geeks and mechanics aficionados intrigued by the game's build-a-class-for-any-situation marketing angle. The two-minute clip breaks down the game's four base archetypes (Warrior, Cleric, Mage, and Rogue) and lays out the dozens of possible souls and skill trees for the Warrior via some flashy animation. There's a bit of gameplay footage thrown in for good measure, and you'll glimpse what looks to be some open world combat as well as a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl. The clip also boasts a few of the graphical ooohs and ahhhs we've come to expect from Trion's forthcoming fantasy MMO. Check it out after the break, and hit up the official RIFT website for more info.
Ten levels of RIFT: A guide to your first day in Telara
With two RIFT beta events under my belt, I was given the supreme honor of creating a guide to the first 10 levels of the game. Naturally, I fell apart under the stress, assumed the fetal position for a couple days while whimpering about "frame rates," and then was prodded into action by our editors. That's quite literally "prodded," mind you -- Massively purchased a pair of cattle prods last year at a police auction. It's going to be years until the scorch marks fade from my spine. The purpose of this guide is two-fold. First, we want to give anyone who's interested in RIFT but couldn't get into the beta a chance to vicariously experience RIFT's newbie path. Second, while RIFT is careful to hold your hand during your first steps into Telara, there are always a lot of things that can be easily missed while one is partaking in the wonders of a new virtual world. So this guide is here to share a few tips and pointers that beta testers may have missed. What are you waiting for? Roll up a new character by hitting the jump!
WoW Insider's Weekly Webcomic: Safe Passage
Welcome to another edition of the WoW Insider's Weekly Comic, Safe Passage. This comic takes place post-Cataclysm, so there will be minor spoilers. Our groups' unwanted -- and so far unseen -- visitor has made herself known. The tension in the air is palpable. On a more technical note, I'm trying something new with textures. It's not very noticeable, but I think it gives the page a little something. What do you guys think? Keep or toss? Check out the full comic right here, and tune in next Tuesday morning for a new page. You can also see all the previous pages in the gallery below. %Gallery-102091%
En Masse's Brian Knox details the Slayer's evolution
Is he a Rogue? Is he a Warrior? Is he an '80s thrash metal band? Whatever TERA's Slayer may be, En Masse hopes that you will find him bad to the bone. En Masse's Brian Knox sat down for an interview with ZAM about how the class was evolving and changing during development. Originally, this Rogue/Warrior hybrid had heavy armor, but due to his extreme DPS output, the devs decided to concentrate more on movement and dexterity instead of damage absorption, and they downgraded his armor to reflect this. When asked about the class' defining traits, Knox listed a combination of two skills -- Knockdown and Leaping Strike -- which, when used together, would both throw a foe off his balance and deal him significant damage. Knox spent time also talking up the Slayer's roguish abilities, such as being able to speedily dash up behind an enemy and backstab for big numbers. Unlike most MMO rogues, TERA's Slayer is limited to using one (1) big honking sword, but En Masse doesn't think this will hurt the class' appeal in the slightest. You can read the full interview at ZAM, and don't miss our exclusive Slayer lore piece!
Cataclysm Beta: Build 12942 warrior changes
Beta build 12942 is here, and with it, changes. Many changes. Some to talents, some to abilities; some merely to when you get them, and others to their power or functionality. It's quite a plethora of changes, and we're going to talk about them, because it's either that or I wander around muttering "worg" under my breath over and over again. Worg. It's infectious. Worg. So let's take a look, shall we? Worg.
Cataclysm Beta: Warrior glyphs
Unlike rogue and shaman glyphs, warrior glyphs do not appear to be finalized as of this beta push, but there have definitely been some changes and alterations that are worth discussing. We discussed the change to the philosophy of glyph design already this week but neglected to point out the specific new glyph options. Several glyphs are either entirely new or changed to reflect the "unambiguous increase" design goal.
Know Your Lore: Grommash Hellscream
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. He is the destroyer. Drinker of demon blood, first slave of Mannoroth, he who ushered in the Blood Curse and the bloody haze of rage and battle frenzy it woke in the orcish heart. He was in the vanguard of the army that stormed Shattrath, the last and greatest of the draenei cities, and no axe can be said to have slaughtered more of them. No hand was more stained, not Gorefiend, not Deadeye, not Bladefist. In a sea of names that denote battle hardened warriors, his name stands out. He is the savior. He is the last survivor leading his people when most of their kind were imprisoned and defeated. He was the one who showed the young Thrall a free orc, taught him their language and pointed him to those who would show him his ultimate destiny. Tripped up by his fury and guilt, twice he stumbled back toward the blood haze that dominated his people, the curse he himself brought upon them. Finally, goaded beyond endurance, it is the same bellicose anger that has granted him his greatest successes and his greatest failure that frees his people. Grom Hellscream drank the demon Mannoroth's blood and led his people into slavery. Grom Hellscream slew the demon Mannoroth and led his people out of slavery. Few beings can be said to be the best and worst of their people at once -- but then again, few people can say they are the Giant's Heart. Who was Grommash Hellscream?
SDCC 2010: TERA by the numbers
If looks were everything, then TERA would certainly place as a finalist in the Miss Upcoming MMO Universe pageant. Yet as visually sumptuous as it may be, we're more interested in its personality. Can the brains match the beauty? So far, it looks promising. We've been locked on to TERA's unique brand of fantasy play since this year's E3 (and before), and as such, it's great to check back in with the title, take it out for a quiet romantic dinner, and see how it's shaping up. We caught up with En Masse Entertainment at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con and spent a half hour putting the game through its paces and chatting up with TERA's devs. While TERA's dev team is working with a more recent build of the game, our hands-on demo was the same build as the one we saw at E3. Even so, it's always worth spending a few more minutes with an upcoming MMO to see what new facts and impressions can be gleaned. Hit the jump to read more about classes, races and an idea about not getting hit that's so crazy, it just might work!
TUAW's Daily App: Dungeon Hunter
Gameloft's Dungeon Hunter is probably the best Diablo-esque action RPG on the App Store right now -- it looks great, and plays just about as well as any touchscreen controlled action game can. As a Warrior, Mage, or Rogue, you can hack and slash your way through a fantasy world, picking up armor, earning XP and exploring a serviceable (if not particularly gripping) story. The save system is a little annoying, and the inventory can be a bit overwhelming, but the presentation does justice to the genre on Apple's small screen. In accordance with an ongoing sale, Gameloft has the title priced at just 99 cents. For cheap action gaming thrills on the iPhone, things don't get much better than that. There's no word on exactly how long the game will be so cheap, but if the idea of a portable Diablo clone appeals to you, open this treasure chest right away.
Exclusive video diary of the souls of Rift: Planes of Telara
You could be forgiven for not catching it immediately from our E3 hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara, but there are some unique things going on with the game's class system. It's hardly the first game to allow you to change classes, but the game also goes into combining them, shifting aspects, interplay between multiple class types... it's a maze of inter-relationships. Luckily, we have an exclusive video developer diary from the staff at Trion Worlds that discusses the whole setup at length, giving future players a much clearer overview of how the system works. When players start, they choose one of four Callings -- Warrior, Rogue, Mage, or Cleric -- which determines the player's core playstyle. As they level, they gradually acquire Souls, and it's there that the bulk of a character's abilities come from. It's a fusion of the talent tree system popularized via World of Warcraft with something much more interesting, and the possibilities for mixing the different Souls together can give rise to all sorts of interesting theories. But don't take our word for it -- watch the exclusive developer diary just past the cut.
Cataclysm: Reaching uncrittable
For those of you who don't know much about tanking, we're going to talk quickly about a stat that won't exist in Cataclysm. This lowly stat is called defense rating, and it's something that tanks need quite a bit of. The nice thing is that it's on just about everything that tanks wear, which means at higher gear levels, we've got it coming out of our ears. The primary point of this stat is to reduce the critical strike ability for incoming melee hits from the standard of 6% to 0%. Druids currently don't need this stat, as they've got a talent called Survival of the Fittest, which means that bosses don't need to drop defense leather. All in all, the stat is kinda boring, as while it does still do nice things after you reach the defense cap of 690 rating (or 540 skill), most people don't bother with it and stack stamina or other avoidance. So Blizzard decided that they're going to get rid of it. Around BlizzCon 2009, we were told that the crit reduction we formerly got from defense rating was going to be tied into things that were available to all members of each tanking class. Examples used were baking it into Bear Form for druids, Righteous Fury for paladins, Defensive Stance for warriors and Frost Presence (or rather, Blood Presence in Cataclysm) for death knights. That means that if a retribution paladin or arms warrior wanted to tank, all he'd need to do was swap to vaguely appropriate gear (or just over to a sword and shield), pop his respective abilities, and away he'd go. That's not how it appears things went down, though.
Guild Wars 2 devs answer questions about combat, gameplay, and traits
Last week's unveiling of the warrior class for Guild Wars 2 sparked a lot of excitement in the Guild Wars community. The introduction of the trait system came at the same time and was another hot topic of conversation. We at Massively were as thrilled as the rest of the community at the news, and just like everyone else, we had quite a few questions. Guild Wars 2 Lead Designer Eric Flannum answered our questions last week, but he's got even more to say. Eric and Designer Ben Miller spent some time going through quite a few of the more commonly asked questions, and added an informative new entry to the ArenaNet blog. Check it out for all the latest on warriors, traits, combat, general gameplay, and more.
Ghostcrawler in depth on warriors in Cataclysm
Well, it's no talent tree preview, but Ghostcrawler (lead systems designer) has given us quite a bit of grist for the mill in a recent forum thread. Here's one example of a question I've wondered for a while, about the fate of Mortal Strike, getting an answer. Ghostcrawler on MS debuff The problem of course is that if only you get the debuff or if only you get the best debuff then warriors are mandatory for anything PvP which might be fine for you but doesn't really feel fair to everyone else. Sometimes I wish we'd just remove the debuff because it's almost impossible to balance around both having and not having it. We can make sure Mortal Strike hits hard but we're unlikely to do anything that improves the debuff. source Honestly, I wouldn't mind their removing the MS debuff either. It doesn't really seem like it fits with the Cataclysm ideal for PvP, which is more health and less burst. Tune up the damage on MS so that the ability hits like a truck, and in general balance arms warriors to put out the same kind of DPS as other classes in PvP, rather than having to give them a debuff that makes everyone on their side's damage count for double. (Heck, you could even change the MS debuff so that it does something else, like lower movement speed or something else that would make sense for a "mortal wound.") Let's pick over and discuss several of these answers in more detail. Most of the discussion is PvP-related; so, too, are the answers.
Warriors, traits, and combat chatter: Massively's interview with the Guild Wars 2 Lead Designer
Yesterday's update to the Guild Wars 2 site brought news that made a lot of fans very happy: confirmation of the warrior class as well as the introduction of the traits system for Guild Wars 2. As always, once ArenaNet decides to give out information, they do it right. We got screenshots, wallpapers, video, and pages of detailed information on this new class and concept. We at Massively -- just like the rest of the Guild Wars 2 community -- were thrilled at the news and had plenty of questions about the new information. Lead Designer Eric Flannum generously spent some time answering those questions (and evading our sneaky attempts to wrangle a third class reveal.) He had some very interesting things to say, so follow along after the jump for our exclusive interview!
The cynic's guide to World of Warcraft
We tend to be very careful while composing articles here at WoW Insider. We're always mindful that not everyone plays the game in the same way, or has the same experience on different servers or factions, but every so often a certain madness seizes us and we feel the urge to ... tell the truth. In that vein, I am pleased (sort of) to present The Cynic's Guide to World of Warcraft. This article owes a heavy debt to Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary. If you want to see a real master at work, read that.
The Road to Mordor: Shopping for your skirmish soldier
Every Friday, The Road to Mordor brings you the latest in Lord of the Rings Online news, guides and analysis. Breaking up, as the song goes, is hard to do -- but sometimes very, very necessary. I'll admit that I have recently settled into a bit of a skirmish funk, firing up a session here and there merely for the XP and the privilege of filling my bags with 576 different types of marks (seriously, Turbine, couldn't we switch from this confusing British-like currency to something more streamlined, like the Euro?). When I couldn't find a partner for a skirmish, the sessions seemed like a drag, and even though I dutifully stabbed my way through them, I grew to resent their length and my death-prone Herbalist soldier. It wasn't until the other day that a friend challenged my choice of soldier, and in so doing, freed me up for a more enjoyable skirmish experience. "Why are you sticking with the Herbalist?" he asked. I shrugged -- I thought that's what you picked when you were DPS-y and lacked a lot of self-heals. After doing a bit of research on the forums, I made the switch from the decaf healbot to 100% caffeinated Archer goodness, and I couldn't be happier. Pew pew, stab stab, win win. The choice of a soldier companion for skirmishes may be the tipping point between a painful slog and a joyful battle, as it was in my case. If you're still trying to figure out which soldier might work best with your class, then hit the jump and see what other players recommend you try.
Breakfast Topic: Death by death knight
I was running through Borean Tundra recently, leveling my death knight alt, when a rather morbid thought hit me. That thought was this: death by death knight must suck. With all of the diseases, a ghoul often gnawing a limb off and the DK himself hacking into you with his weapon of choice, dying from a death knight may be the worst death that you could receive from a player class. With a max-level paladin as my main, I know that pallys are a relatively quick and painless death (so long as they're not fighting an undead mob, at which point it would have to be a terrible way to go). I've not played any other classes to high levels, so I can't say for them. The closest to me would have to be the warlock, what with sucking your soul straight out of you. Which class do you think would bestow the most painful death, and which the most merciful? Are death knights the masters of suffering, or are they merely pretenders to the throne? Are warriors or rogues, with their bleed tactics, a worse way to go? Would it be better just to get one-shot? Is there a particular spec that rules the roost? Let the debate begin. This article has been brought to you by Seed, Aol's guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Watch for the next call for submissions and a chance to submit your own article. The next byline you see here may be yours!
Breakfast Topic: What's new with you?
I've been having a lot of fun with my It Came From the Blog alt lately,(check the polls and updates to follow along with the latest adventures from the guild!) now that I've hit level 20 and I can ride around in comfort. With level 20 came a few milestones; getting a mount, the fact that this is the first time I've gotten a warrior beyond level oh ... 15 or so, and suddenly I had a level 20 warrior quest! I realized as I accepted it that this was something entirely new. I'd never done this quest before. For someone that has Loremaster on multiple characters, this is a rare and exciting thing -- I had no idea what it was for, or what I would be doing, or what I would get at the end! So I decided to go through the chain and deliberately keep myself in the dark. No Wowhead, no hints, no spoilers, just playing it through how it was intended to be played. I'm in the middle of the chain now and the quests are red, so I'll complete them as I go along, but I'm looking forward to finishing it! The warrior class is entertaining -- I find I'm enjoying the aspect of being the one that wants to be hit, rather than the one that's trying to avoid it. Speaking of having my head beat in, the other "new" thing I found myself doing was registering for the 2010 Arena Tournament last night. I don't arena. I barely PvP. I'm terrible at PvP, so I've simply never done it, because I figure it is better not to clutter up the arena and frustrate other players with my outright awfulness. However, a friend has convinced me to give it a try, and against my better judgment I am going for it -- after all, the worst that can happen is I will get beaten repeatedly. Arena scores don't go into the negatives, right guys? ... right? So what's new with you? What's something in game that you've never, ever done before? It's rare that I find these things and seek them out, but as Cataclysm approaches I find myself wanting to try the things I've never done before just in case they disappear or change. And an additional challenge to those of you looking for one -- that new thing that you thought of? Go out and do it! You may end up like me, somewhat bewildered by the experience but thoroughly enjoying it.
The Art of War(craft): Introductory guide to fighting warriors
Each week, Zach talks about his favorite thing to do in World of Warcraft -- PvP. That kind of makes him sort of one-dimensional. Like those folks from Flatland. Except, those guys were actually two dimensional. Come to think of it, being one-dimensional is a pretty groovy concept. Finally, we arrive at the conclusion of our guides to fighting everything. Warriors. The most "basic" class that, at least in Cataclysm, will be available to all races (the selection was unavailable to blood elves for some unknown reason). Fighters are a fantasy staple. Big, burly guy with a sword or an axe. Maybe a shield. Everyone else is optional, really. Some generic magic user, sure. Throw in a dude with a bow and arrow for good measure. But a fantasy setting without a warrior? That's just wrong. In PvP, warriors seem like a staple, too. They're central (or at least a warrior-like ability called Mortal Strike is) to a good number of arena team compositions. You could say Mortal Strike defined the PvP environment such that Blizzard had to dispense Mortal Strike-like abilities to other classes just so they'd be considered viable alternatives to a warrior. The good news is that Mortal Strike is actually a talent, so not every warrior will be walking around smiting every foe with it. The bad news is that even the fury tree has something like it. Not only that, when you're facing a warrior, you have quite a number of things to worry about aside from Mortal Strike or similar effects. After the break, let's take a look at warriors and the most common abilities you should expect on the battlefield.
