Curse

Runes of Magic Launches New Server and 75% Off 4th of July Sale!

DoranM — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:58:51 GMT

Runes of Magic, an incredibly popular free-to-play game we support with Runes of Magic Addons, has recently launched a new PvE server! The new server is called Reni and is fully functional, including the item shop, which means it will also benefit from the 75% off Item Shop specials this weekend to celebrate the 4th of July!

Here's the new server announcement from Runes of Magic:

Our new PvE server Reni is up and running! The new server will allow us to better accommodate our ever-growing population and will give players a chance to start anew. Feel free to be one of the first to move over and get a head start on completing quests, reaching the highest level and building reputation.

Just a reminder, in celebration of the new server and the Independence Day weekend, we will feature 75% off Item Shop specials for players of all levels. For a single Diamond, players can buy a Bundle of Fireworks and join in the festivities. The celebration also will kick off our summer events, including a community screenshot contest, a new batch of item giveaways, a leveling contest for players and guilds on the new server, and many amazing prizes!

Happy Fourth July Weekend and have fun!

SWTOR New Gameplay Footage and Lore Video!

DoranM — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:10:49 GMT

Star Wars: The Old Republic had an excellent showing at E3 and offers players and fans a very unique game experience. While the game is still a ways off we recently stumbled across some new gameplay footage of the game being played in early alpha. It looks incredibly good for a game this early in development - we expect big things from this title! There's a second video about the Treaty of Coruscant and should familiarize you with the lore behind where SWTOR will commence!

Here's a look at the SWTOR Video:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Here's a video about the SWTOR Timeline which includes The Treaty of Coruscant:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Blizzard Makes An Official Statement On Starcraft II Without LAN Support

DoranM — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:41:43 GMT

It was recently announced that Starcraft II will not have LAN support and the internet has been a buzz ever since! Blizzards' Bob Colayco has made an official announcement about why LAN support won't make it into SC2.

Here is what Bob Colayco had to say:

"We don't currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.

Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we're encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We're looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future."

There's obvious benefits to something being hosted entirely by Blizzard, and probably gives them flexibility for things they want to achieve with the game in the future, but lots of gamers are upset that they'll lose the ability to LAN, especially in places like Korea where the game is a televised sport.

Where’s the MMO in MMORPG?

freemmorpgs — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:32:26 GMT

I must have ranted about this before, but I dislike it a lot when I play an MMORPG with a low or medium playerbase. MMORPGs are supposed to be massively multiplayer. I don’t know about you, but when I hear the words massively multiplayer, I’d like to expect to see a ‘massive’ amount of players running around me doing things, but this is rarely the case, especially as a newbie. If you’re a newbie in established free MMORPG games like Rappelz, Last Chaos or even Twelve Sky, odds are you won’t bump into any other newbies remotely close to your level, as everyone is already ‘omg leet level 80+’ or at least that’s how it seems.

The only games that really feel ‘massively multiplayer’, at least to me, are brand spankin’ new ones. I remember when Luna Online and Red War first came out, the newbie areas were so incredibly packed that the game actually felt truly massive. I Can’t say these two particular games themselves were great, Luna Online being much better than Red War, but they felt massive, and for me that in and of itself was good. I remember everything a monster spawned, 5 newbies, myself included, would run at it to try and be the first one to attack it in order to secure myself some experience points. Aside from just trying to steal other people’s kills, a game with a large community, is just a more ‘complete’ MMO. More players means more interaction and isn’t interaction the purpose of playing an MMORPG?

Okay okay, I’m going to do something that I don’t usually do in my rants. I’m going to actually offer a solution to this particular issue, rather than just complain about it. I actually talked about this in another rant, but MMORPG publishers should just combine some of their servers into one or two big ones rather than 10-20 medium sized ones. This would instantly ‘grow’ the game’s community, as it would certainly boost player interaction. Super popular MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Silkroad Online don’t have to do this, as almost all their servers are loaded anyway, but smaller Free MMOs like Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu and EuDemons Online would certainly benefit. One good thing about Browser Games is that they tend to only have one or two servers, which ensures for a better community.

Maheen the Priest

Flamestriker — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:14:38 GMT

Been away from WoW for a while and when I came back, all my Alliance friends have stopped playing. Whether it was for cash problems, boredom, or sojourns to find oneself, the point is...I got lonely. So I did what any good altaholic would do. I started a Horde character.

Being a huge fan of the Instance, I decided to join Earthen Ring because that is where Scott Johnson, Randy Jordan and a whole other slew of internet celebrities are part of AIE. AIE (Alea Iacta Est) is the largest U.S. Horde guild. I think there are about 3,000 members! I heard a lot of great things about the guild and thought it would be a great place for a Horde-virgin like myself to get acquainted with the other side of WoW.

I've decided to start with a Blood Elf priest. I knew that in endgame, there is always a shortage of healers and tanks. I figured that if I wanted to be invited to a lot of groups easily, I'd better pick one of those classes.

I just got Maheen to level 15 last night. The Midsummer Fire Festival has some great buffs to help with leveling. Hopefully the new patch will be out Tuesday so that I can get my mount at level 20.

Diablo Community Manager On Dungeon Themes In Diablo 3!

DoranM — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:19:22 GMT

DiabloFans.com picked up more information today using their Diablo Dev Tracker! Bashiok gave some hints as to dungeons will vary aesthetically depending upon their level of importance to the storyline. Diablo 2 had an amazing combination of dungeons and themes based on where you were fighting or what quest you were working on completing, so if Diablo 3's going to expand on that we could be in for a real treat at Blizzcon 2009!

Here's a look at what Bashiok had to say about Diablo 3 Dungeons:

In what might be a hint of what we can expect to see at BlizzCon next month, Bashiok recently chimed in on the Battle.net forums to explain about how dungeons will vary aesthetically depending on how important they are:

Quote:

"I think there's a nice juxtaposition between the larger more epic dungeons and the others that may be less epic but have very specific tones and themes associated with them. When you step inside one of the more epic dungeons, like the Tristram cathedral (and considering its past, shouldn't it be epic?) you immediately know you're somewhere important. Somewhere that looks and feels magical in its presentation and lighting, as opposed to, say... a cave. Still cool! Caves are still awesome, but you probably don't want magical purple and green lighting in a cave, it's probably going to have a much different feel.

That type of theming adds a lot to keeping the scenery changing and interesting. If you're just fighting demons against a grey or brown backdrop for hours and hours, days and days, maybe years and years... it gets boring. Interesting, themed, and contrasting scenery all help ensure visual longevity.

I think before too long we'll have shown a nice cross section of the dungeon types and looks. It's been too long staring at the one dungeon. Each one has a very unique look and feel, so it's really cool going in to each one and having a total change of scenery. It's all very exciting."

Here's hoping we get to see that nice cross section of dungeon types at BlizzCon next month. Then again, all this really means is that the more epic a dungeon is, the more rainbows and unicorns we'll be seeing in them, right? ;)

Warhammer Weekend Update From WarhammerAlliance.com!

DoranM — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:03:52 GMT

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted the latest news updates for everything in the WAAGH!!! Not much from Mythic this week as they're on vacation for the fourth, but there's been some chatter around the net about LotD impressions and Tufmudda winning the special mount on his server!

Here's the latest Warhammer News from WarahmmerAlliance.com:

Warhammer Alliance News

Tome Tuesdays: Quoting Shcolar Timothy Ehrlichmann, Aeternis talks about some Land of the Dead bugs. No, not those kinds of bugs! We are talking about Giant Scarabs, Khepra beetles and Tomb Swarms.

Forum Fanatics. vbGuild is a vBulletin plugin for guilds to help organize their forumites. Unmoderated Info gives you the lowdown.

News From The Herald

All's quiet on the home front, with Mythic taking a vacation this week. Play on, my friends! May you be relaxed and refreshed when you return.

Around the 'Net

One Shard. Gotrek and Felix book review, plus some LotD impressions.

Tufmudda. Congrats to Tufmudda, who won one of the special mounts on his server, as well as his coverage of LotD.

CoTCast. Circle of Trust as a guild disbanded, but their podcast has one final tale to tell.

Diablo Community Manager On Possible Battle.net Charges!

DoranM — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:32:58 GMT

DiabloFans.com picked up this information from their esteemed Diablo Dev Tracker! It looks like Bashiok was recently on the Battle.net forums talking about some of the paid-for options that might make it into Battle.net and the next release of Diablo. One example offered up is that players could pay to have a fallen hardcore character resurrected. We'll keep you updated as soon as any decision is made either way!

Here's the original post from Diablofans.com:

A member on the Battle.net forums recently inquired about whether or not people would have to pay fees in order to play Diablo 3 online. Bashiok responded with the following information:

Quote:

"Mike mentioned it in an Activision Blizzard investor meeting [paraphrased] "A player that buys Starcraft 2 at retail will have the ability to play on Battle.net with no additional fee."

I'll point out that this is a very carefully worded statement."

Bashiok then went on to discuss how some pay-for ideas could possibly work for the game.

Quote:

"One pay-for idea that specifically relates to Diablo that I thought was kind of interesting was the chance to resurrect a fallen hardcore character.

I think this was mentioned by a fan, as far as I know we're not even thinking about these types of pay-for options yet. But, I think it's kind of interesting. I'm not sure if I like the idea or not, which is probably why I like thinking about it. There are some obvious pros and some obvious cons, but I'm not sure there's a clear cut answer as to whether it would work well or not."

Obviously, none of us would like to have to pay additional fees in order to use Battle.net. If nothing else, I believe anybody who buys the inevitably pricier "Collector's Edition" of Diablo 3 when it comes out should never have to pay Battle.net fees to play the game.

However, this does raise the question: What special features would you pay Battle.net fees for with Diablo 3 other than the chance to resurrect a fallen hardcore character? Is there anything that you feel would be worth spending a little extra cash on to make the online gameplay more interesting?

WoW Humor - The Ten Commandments of a Rogue

leemee — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:07:14 GMT

young rogue. These words are to be taken as law at all times throughout your journey to slay Arthas and bring harmony to Azeroth, or death to the opposing faction. I am the lord of rogues, Stow. These Ten Commandments of playing a Rogue shall be etched forever on this .... monitor.

1. Thou shall have no other DPS before me. I am the slayer of the Old Gods, and my DPS is without equal if I stay in melee range the whole fight.

2. Thou shall not make any likeness of me. Feral Kittens will be toned down with 3.2 and no longer pose any threat to our position as kings of the melee. We are the masters of stealth and combos, and no one shall ever come close.

3. Thou shall not take the name of the Rogue in vain. If you spell it Rouge, beg for forgiveness.

4. Remember your poisons, and keep them applied. Forgetting to apply poisons and taking five in the middle of a fight to reapply them can get you killed and effectively ruin your DPS for the fight.

5. Honour thy tank and thy healer, for without them we will last seconds, and with them, we are invincible.

6. Thou shall kill without remorse. If thou must Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot thy enemies to be victorious, do just that. Cooldown skills exist to be used, and used they shall be.

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery even if it is mentioned in the various steamy romance novels that we may come across as a result of the following commandment.

8. Thou shall steal whenever the option presents itself, and covet the junk that comes of it. We are potion junkies, and potions are a common result of theft.

9. Thou shall bear false testimony against thy tank, and Tricks of the Trade him when possible. For if we have to Feint or Vanish to lose our opponents, we are losing precious damage.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy raid member's gear, nor his pet, nor his mount. Our leather shall drop with time, and we are the only ones worth of it. Our daggers have our names etched in them. Our swords and axes have little competition as the other users tend to be unpopular in raids with us.

Rogues, keep these words close to your heart. They will give you strength in times of need. If you have faith, your blows shall land with critical force, and your poisons will be applied on every weapon contact with your victims. Now go forth, and spread the long forgotten word of the Rogue.

Tier 9 Previews: Mage, Hunter, Priest, Shaman and Warlock

Kody — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:48:33 GMT

Tier 9 Previews: Mage, Hunter, Priest, Shaman and Warlock

The official website was updated with previews of some of the tier 9 armor coming in patch 3.2! Check out the images below.

The Runes of Magic Wiki Tops 2500 Articles!

DoranM — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:15:59 GMT

The Runes of Magic Wiki now has over 2595 articles and some of the most up to date information regarding Runes Of Magic. We've compiled a list of important areas on TheRomWiki.com in order to help you find what you're looking for fast and start enjoying Runes of Magic!

We strive to keep our wiki as updated as possibly but would love any extra help we can get in keeping it in tip top shape! With nearly 500 contributors it's the largest Wiki available for Runes of Magic! If you haven't already feel free to Sign up.

Here's a list of some of the important features and areas on the Wiki:

Specific Classes

• Knight • Knight Skills
• Mage • Mage Skills • Priest • Priest Skills • Rogue • Rogue Skills • Scout • Scout Skills • Warrior • Warrior Skills

Transmutation is also incredibly important in Runes of Magic and we've got Rank 0-6 completed in our Transmutation Chart!

Guides Section Expanded and New Promotional Offer From Evony!

DoranM — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:44:24 GMT

We've developed a good amount of Evony players here at Curse and we're dedicated to keeping you updated about the game! On our end TheEvonyWiki.com is doing very well and we've completed an Evony Q&A Section to help people get started playing the game. We've also expanded our Evony Guides section make finding the information you need to play the game easier than ever!

If you haven't played Evony yet; be sure and checkout the Evony Introduction we recently posted!

Here's the official Promotional Notice from Evony:

Evony is keeping the deals rolling by giving you more bang for your buck! For our next promotion, we're bringing back one of our most popular packages ever: Bonus Package 2! From June 29th to July 6th, players who spend $30.00 USD or more will also get a FREE bonus gift worth $50.00 USD!

This package has it all! To see the contents, check the Bonus Package 2, accessible through the top left gift box icon. You can click on Bonus Package 2 to check out the medals, guidelines, Michelangelo's Script and tons of other goodies ensconced within. Don't miss out on your second chance to snag this amazing bonus!

Remember, you have to purchase $30.00 USD by July 6th!

For a full list of items and prices visit the Evony Items page.

Asteroids - The Movie Coming Soon From Universal!

DoranM — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:25:27 GMT

The movie industry has once again pulled through for gamers to give us a blast from the past! It looks like Asteroids is going to be made into a full-featured production!

Here's the update about Asteriods - The Movie:

Asteroids, the arcade game from the 1970s, is officially in development as a movie. Yup, you read that right.

Once again, news has arrived from the land of Hollywood that another major video game franchise is being adapted for the silver screen. Last week, it was announced that Uncharted would get a celluloid makeover; this week, it's a much older franchise that's being adapted. It turns out that Asteroids, the Atari game from 1979 (thus making it older than many in the current generation of gamers) will be coming to theaters sometime in the future.

Astonishingly, not only is Asteroids being made into a movie, but there was an actual bidding war between four major studios for the rights. Universal Studios has emerged the winner.

Warlock Q&A With Ghostcrawler at WorldofWarcraft.com!

DoranM — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:27:39 GMT

WorldofWarcraft.com has posted the most recent class Q&A segment with Ghostcrawler! This time they're focusing on Warlocks, what the class is about, what's coming for the class in the future, and what really makes the Warlock unique.

Here's a look at the original Warlock Q&A with Ghostcrawler:

Warlock Q&A with the Voice of the Class Design Team, Ghostcrawler

Community Team: We’d like start this Q&A off by asking a question that players of all classes often ask in regard to the very purpose of their class. In this case, we’re looking specifically at the warlock.

Where do warlocks fit into the larger scope of things currently and where do we see them going from this point forward?

Ghostcrawler: The warlock is a caster -- a ranged damage dealer. They can fill only one role, which makes them a “pure” class as opposed to a hybrid. Warlocks have a reputation for trafficking with darkness, and their spells and abilities reflect this -- demons, curses, drains, fears. All warlocks rely on damage-over-time spells and demonic pets to some extent. The Affliction tree focuses on damage-over-time spells, curses, and shadow magic in general. The Demonology tree emphasizes the damage and abilities done by demons. The Destruction tree gives up a little of both to become a little bit more like a mage with direct damage and fire magic. Overall, the vision is for warlocks to feel less fragile than mages. They have historically had higher health pools and easier to sustain mana, but fewer emergency escapes. Keeping the mage and warlock feeling distinct is a big challenge. They fill a similar role and share similar gear so sometimes even the profiles of their character art look similar.

Going forward, we want to try and make the warlock experience more different from the mage. Our new plans for Soul Shards will help here. We want to make them a core mechanic instead of a minor feature that can be neglected at best and feels tedious at worst.

We’re happy with the relative damage done by Affliction and Destruction. Depending on which Lich King patch you look at one or the other are slightly on top, but they’re close. Demonology still seems to lag a little behind. We think there is still room for a strong Felguard build in there. It might be that the pets still require too much management or it could just be that the rotation isn’t as interesting as the ones Affliction or Destruction use right now. Demonology suffers from a little bit of the same problem as the Beastmaster hunter, which is when the pet is such a big part of your damage you are crippled in moments when the pet is killed or ineffectual.

Except for a brief moment early in Lich King, warlocks have been under-represented in PvP and we want to see more of them. We don’t want to get there through fear bombs, though. In fact, we think the damage locks can do is in a pretty good place. The problem is survivability, especially when stunned. Now some of the 3.2 changes are going to chill out damage across the board and we are increasing the survivability of pets in PvP. Both of those changes should help warlocks, who historically have been a little better in endurance fights than quick scrums. If those changes aren’t enough, we’re prepared to make additional ones.

Lich King made the warlock pets more interesting but we think there is still a lot of opportunity here. Some of the pets have abilities that just don’t get much use (Imp Fire Shield anyone?) while other pets could benefit from a couple more abilities. The voidwalker for example does all of his damage through just a simple autoattack. While we are slightly positioning the imp as a Destruction pet and the felhound as an Affliction pet, we think we can make the choice of what demon to use at a particular time more interesting. The succubus has too narrow a niche, and the voidwalker is still used mostly as a level-up pet.

Community Team: What is it that makes them unique compared to all other classes?

Ghostcrawler: Demons are a big one. Warlocks are a pet class, but they gain more of their own power from their pets and can make their pets do more than say a hunter or death knight. The way they do damage is different from a mage because a lot of their damage, even for Destruction, comes from damage-over-time spells instead. Warlocks bring some utility that doesn’t strictly increase raid damage, so we feel like it’s fine to keep those abilities unique to the lock -- things like summoning and health stones. But again, we think the real way to keep warlocks from feeling like mages with pets is to do more with the Soul Shard mechanic.

Community Team: Soul Shards is subject that has been a constant amongst warlock players since the launch of the game. While we've made some minor improvements over time, players still find Soul Shards to be an annoyance. Are there any plans in motion to make further improvements to the warlock Soul Shard system?

Ghostcrawler: Yes. As we have hinted on occasion, we have a revamp of the entire system in the works. This is a big change, beyond the scope of the 3.2 patch, but we are confident -- CONFIDENT -- that the new system will be something warlocks finally enjoy. (I’m sure I will never, ever regret saying that.) We hope to be able to talk more about it at BlizzCon, but the basic idea is that shards provide a combat boost when needed without becoming a resource that needs to be farmed. Currently too many of the shard abilities are maintenance-like things such as demons and stones. Blowing a shard should be a big deal -- an exciting moment. We want to make shards fun and remove the hassle, but we want to make them a core part of the warlock experience and not a marginalized feature.

Community Team: Most DPS classes can spend three (or less) talent points to decrease their threat by 30%, while warlocks must spend four talent points in two different trees to gain a 10% drop in threat. What are our thoughts on this, and why the discrepancy?

Ghostcrawler: There are a couple of situations like this in the warlock tree. The essential problem is we want locks to be able to go down their different trees. When you have something important like threat-reduction or range, it either needs to go very high in the trees where everyone can reach it, or you need to have duplicate talents that essentially accomplish the same thing. The problem with the latter approach is that confusing things can happen when you get both talents -- either they stack (which is too powerful) or they don’t stack (which can be confusing or make talent builds difficult). The way we have tried to solve the latter problem is having some talents affect Fire / Destro and some affect Shadow / Affliction. Of course the problem with that approach is that warlocks use both kinds of damage spells. We recognize that we need to solve this problem, but sliding a lot of talents around is not the right way to do it, and also beyond the scope of 3.2. See below for a partial solution for the threat problem though.

Community Team: As a follow-up to the last question, would we consider giving warlocks a better "aggro dump" ability? Currently, their one "aggro dump," Soulshatter, has a long cooldown and costs a reagent.

Ghostcrawler: We are going to lower the cooldown of Soulshatter to three minutes. We don’t think the shard cost is a big expense in PvE situations. Threat-dump abilities are tricky to balance. We don’t want these spells to feel rotational -- you aren’t supposed to do say Curse of Agony, Immolate, Soulshatter, Curse of Agony, Immolate, Soulshatter. They are there for emergencies.

Community Team: In PvP, warlocks feel at a disadvantage against melee classes (and hunters), particularly rogues. What are our thoughts in this, and are there any plans to provide warlocks with a little more help in this area? Additionally, players have often suggested allowing Demonic Circle to be usable while stunned, is this something we'd consider?

Ghostcrawler: The reason we don’t like making Demonic Circle usable while stunned is that changes the ability from a remote evacuation into a stun-breaker. Our concern is locks would never use it except for the stun removal, which makes the spell a lot less cool. Circle is definitely one of those abilities that requires a lot of finesse. Clever locks can do amazing things with it and beginner locks might not get as much benefit out of it. It’s probably also fair to say that stuns (especially chained ones) have become too important in PvP, especially now that we have toned down the impact of some of the other forms of crowd control.

Community Team: Pet survivability is something that comes up often. Do we see this as a concern, and if so are there any plans to increase warlock pet survivability and/or consider decreasing the warlock's dependency on pets in PvP?

Ghostcrawler: It is a concern. We never wanted it to feel like it was stupid to attack the pet -- like they were so unkillable that you just have to endure damage from the pet while you chase down the lock. You have to remember that locks were once really dangerous in PvP (this was back when we added resilience for DoTs) and so everyone was nervous about making their pets too powerful. It’s just incredibly frustrating to be on the other end of that and finally get a pet down only to have to then face the warlock. However times have changed and we think pets are too fragile now. We tried buffing their health a few times, but we think it’s finally time to add resilience to pets and fix it right.

Community Team: Continuing off of the previous question, are we happy with pet scaling currently? One constant request by warlocks in PvP, is to allow scaling for resilience. Would we consider making this change?

Ghostcrawler: Yes, pets are never going to scale correctly as long as there are some stats that affect the master but not the pet. If the lock gains crit and haste, the demons don’t benefit as much as if the lock had gained spellpower. This is a problem. We need to make pets just scale with all stats. Technically, this is not a “flip the switch” kind of change. It’s complicated so it’s going to take some time to do right. We’ll get resilience and spell pen done first.

Community Team: Many warlocks often find it difficult to resummon or switch pets, especially when compared to other pet classes. Fel Domination with Master Summoner is nice for those who have the talents, but still somewhat problematic due to the long cooldown of Fel Domination.

Ghostcrawler: As you probably know by now, we are dramatically lowering the cooldown on Fel Domination.

Community Team: Talents that increase the range for spells is often a point of concern, particularly for PvE-focused warlocks due to the warlock's mixture of using both Affliction and Destruction abilities. Is it possible that warlocks can be given a merged range talent in a low tier of either tree?

Ghostcrawler: This is the same problem I mentioned above. Moving the talent up higher is one solution, but it would have to be very high and whatever talents are there now would have to come down. This then becomes a pretty significant re-architecture of the talent tree. It is something we want to address, but probably isn’t a 3.2 change.

Community Team: Do we have plans to add a little more burst potential to the Affliction tree?

Ghostcrawler: Yes, and Haunt is probably the right place to do it. Haunt is one of the few Affliction spells that can’t reach the 200% crit level, so we are going to make that change through Pandemic.

Community Team: The spell Hellfire is one that warlocks rarely use, due to that fact it's channeled, generates a great deal of threat, and has self-damaging properties. What are our thoughts on how this spell currently functions, and what might we consider changing in the future?

Ghostcrawler: We’d agree that the “interesting tradeoff” isn’t that interesting, and in fact it’s hard to find niches for so many different AE spells. Long-term this might be the kind of spell that gets cut.

Community Team: A common concern that comes up regarding warlock players is in regards to their minor glyphs. While they understand that these glyphs aren't meant to be game-changing, many of the minor glyphs focus on improving spells that aren't really used at all, such as Eye of Kilrogg. Would we consider looking at the minor glyphs available for warlocks and possibly making some improvements?

Ghostcrawler: We can look at the minor glyphs. We are more concerned at the moment with making sure the major glyphs are interesting without being overpowered.

Community Team: Green fire for spells has been something that's often requested by warlocks. Would we consider adding this into the game, possibly in the form of a minor glyph so that we're not forcing it on players who may not desire their fire spells to be green?

Ghostcrawler: We wouldn’t do it through a minor glyph. Originally, we were going to make the minor glyphs mostly cosmetic like this, but as we evolved the glyph feature we found that some spells just didn’t make sense to have a major glyph, so these became minors. We definitely understand some (many? all?) warlocks would love to have green fire and we’ll try and find a cool way to deliver on this. At this point, we’d probably rather do it with a flashy new spell rather than just change up an existing one, but we’ll have to see. As with the new druid forms, after waiting so long, we’d want to do it right.

Community Team: Would we consider adding a warlock-specific flying mount? Warlocks have promised to never complain again should such a feature be added. Okay, not really...

Ghostcrawler: I think it fits the warlock kit pretty well to have some kind of crazy flying demon. We don’t have any art for such a creature yet, but we’ll keep it in mind. You’d have to go back to Dire Maul to get it. Okay, not really…

Community Team: Are there any plans to allow warlocks to slightly customize or change the appearance of their pets?

Ghostcrawler: This is something we are discussing. There are several voidwalker and imp models we could use pretty easily and it might be nice to add more felhounds and succubi. This isn’t a high priority, but something we would like to eventually get around to improving. We are discussing whether this is simply just random variation (like the names) or whether it becomes an even bigger feature.

Jade Dynasty - a review and recommendation of a beautiful game!

Adeacia — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:26:47 GMT

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

WTF?

Jade Dynasty is a young, fresh and new MMORPG in the world of the internet! It's an ancient Chinese themed game (think Dynasty Warriors, people!!) with breath-taking scenery and gorgeous character designs.

OMG?

The designers have obviously wasted no time in creating what I think is the most beautiful MMORPG out there. In contrast to WOW, the characters are much morerealistically proportioned and considerably nicer to look at! My main problem with WOW was the ugliness of the characters, so personally, this is a very fulfilling

game. :) The outfits for your character are intricate and well shaded. The hairstyles are equally attractive and imaginative. One of my concerns, however, is that the hairstyles are confined to only certain factions/jobs and it is relatively difficult to customise your character away from the typical outfit of your faction (without spending real money). Despite that, the default stuff is still lovely. :)

The scenery is very pleasing to look at and I was very impressed by the gorgeous, dramatic images in the loading screens (which, can I say, loaded quickly - but not too quickly! xD). It is definitely not a game you will get bored with looking at.

There are several different countries to explore, each with its own individual look and feel, with different monsters and different quests, so again, very difficult to get bored here!!

OMFG?

You begin the game as an "Initiate" and are guided through several quests to help you get the hang of the game and the controls and upon reaching level 15 (took me about a day and a half), you can select which faction you wish to join. The options are Skysong - the healer, Vim - the close-ranged attacker, Modo - the mage, Jadeon - the ranged attacker, Lupine - the assassin. Some of these are aligned to good and some to evil, so pick carefully! (I'm a Skysong, because their outfits are the cutest and prettiest :D) I think the highest level you can reach is 150, but I may be wrong! I have a lot yet to learn myself!

BEATS? (lol)

Yeah there's some pretty groovy beats in JD. xD;; Well, there's very flowing, soothing Chinese-style music playing in the background, with varying choonz (tunes..) depending on whereabouts you are. It's relaxing and ambient, though not hugely energetic, not really "fight music". I love the music, but when you've been in a

certain place for a while, you end up singing along and it can get a bit irritating. xD So, I often choose to switch off the music (you can alter the volume of music and SFX ingame) and play my own music, but that's just personal preference. :)

SFX are not bad. Each monster has its own general noise, an attack noise and a death noise. I lol'd particularly at the Zaaras Spellbinders' noise, which goes something like "eheheehheheheeee.....!" xD I swear, it's like someone told a very funny joke down at the Temple of the Zaaras..!

The characters themselves have pretty good voices. None of those crappy cheap voices you get in many online games (....). The girls' victory shout is cute and funny. Oh, that's another thing! The actions/emotes are very well done! The girls have very cute moves, and the boys have super cool, stoic actions. :)

SKILLZORZ?

While I'm talking about moves, perhaps I should mention skills. You have a couple of quickslots on the bottom and right-hand of the screen (much like in WOW) to put your learnt skills in for easy access. The skills themselves vary depending on the faction (obviously), but in particularly they all convey a very different feeling and power.

For example, the modo has very dark, dramatic attacks (lots of black, red and purple cloudyness xD) in contrast to the Skysong's very light, sparkly skills. So how do you get them? Well....

LVL-ing?

Each time you gain a level, you get one skill point, which you can use on any available skill. You have a skill tree, so what you choose to level up can mean characters of varying strengths and specialities. :D Regarding strength, defense, accuracy etcetc, these are predefined. You cannot up them (unless you imbue your weapon or gear with talismans). Now I don't mind that too much, but what saddens me is being unable to increase your running speed. Increasing levels does not mean increasing running speed, so when you have a long way to run for a certain quest, it can get VERY boring and tedious. There is a Skysong skill to increase your speed, but it only lasts around 15 seconds with a 2min cooldown time, which is pretty irritating. Killing monsters initially gives you a nice bunch of exp, but the primary source for exp is gained through questing:

O RLY?

Ya rly. xD The quest window sorts the quests into different types and each one can be expanded or ..de-expanded (is that just "panded" then? lol..;;;), which makes it easy to navigate and read. The vast majority of quests involve going off to kill a certain number of monsters or getting items off monsters (by killing them). So even if the monsters themselves don't give much exp, the quest does. :D!

MONSTARZ?

There is attention to detail in the monsters too. :D Some look cool, some cute, some elegant and some look stupid. xD Whatever. Like I said before, they're not always great for leveling up, so that isn't cool. But there is a nice selection of monsters - I've noticed that monster species tend to come in pairs. Now I mean that in 2 ways (a pair of ways xD): Firstly, there tends to be 2 versions of monsters, e.g. Snaggletooth Whisker and Feline Felon. Also, entire species like to stick in pairs, e.g. Breakbeak Pikemen and Ruinous Bruin. Some of the names are pretty witty and/or lolsome, like the Feline Felons. They're not usually aggressive, though you do get the occasional cranky one who attacks you for no reason. xD

LET'S GET TECHNICAL!

Now, it took me a while to get used to running around and camera angles. If you're running forwards, for example, and you want to veer left, if you press the key to go left, you go the full 90 degrees! Also, the camera doesn't follow you automatically, you have to hold down the mouse button and move it around. I choose to just hold on forwards and move the camera around, it means you can turn more gradually and you can always see where you're going. Now, it does take a while to get used to, but you do eventually. xD

SPECIAL WEIRD STUFF

JD has some extra bits that no other MMORPGS I've encountered have! The first is "Meditation". Now, I like this. When in a safe zone, town etc, you press the orange meditate button and your character begins to just gain exp slowly and steadily. This is a good feature if you're going AFK for a while, as you can be safe in the knowledge that your character is still growing. :) It's a pretty good idea, I think, and is especially useful if you're making a second character and can't be bothered to go through all the initiate stuff. xD

The second magical, and slightly bizarre thing is called "auto-routing" or "tracking". I'm not entirely sure I agree with this feature... Basically, you access the quest in the quest panel and you can click on the name of the place, monster or person you have to find and your character automatically runs there. Hmm.. In result, a lot of time is spent just watching your character run by itself. :/ You can go search for things yourself, but they give you no clues as to where to go (e.g. "Go kill some -thingies- to the east of -place-.") A lot of the time, you have no choice but to use auto-routing. I think a better idea would be to at least have an arrow which points in the direction you have to travel so you can go to the place youself. After all, you want to -play- the game, not watch it.

KTHXBAI

Jade Dynasty's strongest attribute is definitely it's look and feel. Very genuine and exciting. If I could describe it in one word, it would be "aesthetic". :) I can't see why anyone wouldn't want to play it, to be honest, it's gorgeous! The quests are interesting, the worlds are exciting and the controls are generally easy! I love it.

I definitely recommend any MMORPG player to give it a go!

AionSource.com: New Fixes and Additions To the Aion Armory!

DoranM — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:38:21 GMT

AionSource.com has posted information regarding our second patch to the AionArmory! We're dedicated to making our AionArmory the number one resource for all your Aion needs, we've fixed bugs and added several new additions.

Here's a look at what AionSource.com had to say about the recent Aion Armory Update:

It brings a smile to my face to announce AionArmory's second patch has just gone live, a big thanks to Nic (Sank) for his continued great work as the Armory's head developer. As usual you can submit feedback/bug reports/questions at our AA forum. Oh and yeah I know the image I used in this post needs to be updated, that'll be done in a sec :D

Right off the bat you should have noticed the main page has changed and now sports a rather dashing young Asmodian, you may be seeing more of him very soon. Don't ask for details though, I'll take that secret to the grave ;)

Bug Fixes:

Crafting materials will no longer show recipes.
Cooking items will no longer display incorrect values.
Fixed some missing/hidden items (e.g. Od)
All spells should have correct values now.
General bug fixes in all areas.

Improvements/Additions:

Users can now submit multiple item drops at a time.
Users can now submit data edits which will go into an admin approval queue.
Users can also submit new entries(right now only guides) that also go into an admin approval queue, further additions/tweaks pending.
Items now include manastone/godstone stocks.
Recipes now display required level.
Items that start quests now show it on the item page, a filter has been added also.
Title list now shows the quest required to obtain each title.
Additional filters have been added for new item fields.
Spell filters added.
Description filter on items added.
SpiritMaster spells now show which pet they are related to.
Spells now state if they are stigma-based.
Recipes show rarity, filter added.
Weight-scale is now pinnable, upgrade tab on items.
Items can now be marked as World-drops or faction zone specific.
Enhanced editing bar for submissions (currently Guides)
Syndication search box support.
Latest edits menu added.
More items have been marked for their particular race/faction.
Latest edits/submissions added on user profiles.
Hefty increase in item drop data.

Please note that if you are unable to see the new image on the Armory itself you'll probably need to clear your cache =)

Patch one can be found here.

How to be a good paladin

leemee — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:46:19 GMT

Bad paladin, good paladin and great paladin, which group do you belong to? But how to be a good paladin, you may follow the following steps.

1. Know your class

Know what spec is the best for your role and why.

Know what rotation of spells will give you the best output (heals,threat/mitigation,dps).

Know what to judge on a boss. Ret=Light Prot=P. Justice Holy=Wisdom

2. Buff Well

Get Pallypower which makes it easier, not required but don’t give the resto druid might because there’s 3 feral druids in the group. When in doubt give kings…

Don’t buff might or wisdom unless you have the improved version.

3. The more you know the better

Use a mod so you can view the entire raid such as grid or configure Xpearl/Pitbull for the same purpose and activate aggro warnings (red dot or frame turns to red when someone has aggro).

4. Save your team members specially healers

Know where the healers are in the raid frames and if you see a mob going for them use your Hand of Protection on them. A macro for this is great and if you can add a whisper of “you owe me a cookie” when you apply it to them it’s even better (I have to find this last part to include it in my macro).

You wear plate so you might survive but guess what you have a guaranteed survival mechanic it’s your bubble. Use this with caution… Mob is loose and it’s going to kill a healer or is going around killing people…taunt it! Use hand of reckoning on the mob but try to be far away from it before hand and hopefully the tank would have had time to realize he needs to pick it up and before it gets to you bubble.

Hand of Sacrifice and divine sacrifice can also be used in certain situations so keep those in mind; your raid leader may want to use them in certain events.

5. You can save your self and others II

Salvation is great for retribution use it if you know you will pull from the tank as dead dps=no dps.

Salvation others; are you holy or prot? Want someone to squeeze out more dps or perhaps not have to heal them or rez them once they pull aggro? Apply salvation liberally.

Have healing spells key bound such as flash of light for that instant heal when your ret. You never know when you can stop and save someone this usually only happens on razor thing boss killing battles. Or a healer goes down and you just want to top off some people because there’s only one healer left and he’s busy keeping the tank alive just use good judgement.

Save the tank or give mana to a healer by using lay on hands. Again it helps if you have this key bound instead of searching for it on your bars and when you finally find it the tank is probably dead.
All in all it’s about making the best use of your class to benefit the raid and your self while still being able to dps.

Blizzard Trademarks Cataclysm

Kody — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:24:52 GMT

Blizzard Trademarks Cataclysm

This week gets more and more interesting every day. First it was the Faction-Change service announcement, then the latest PTR build sheding light on the Crusaders' Coliseum raid bosses, and now news of Blizzard Entertainment filing trademarks for "Cataclysm." World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, anyone?

We've already speculated a bit about a Maelstrom expansion, and it looks like Blizzard is readying their ammunition to head into BlizzCon with guns blazing. Companies usually only tip their hand on a game title when they're ready to announce it, so whatever Cataclysm is, we'll surely find out at BlizzCon. Sony Online Entertainment did this with their EQ and EQ2 expansions a few weeks before announcing them, and Blizzard will likely follow suit by sharing Cataclysm -- whatever it may be -- with the world in August.

So, again... how does World of Warcraft: Cataclysm sound? And would this be related to the Maelstrom? The Sargeras sound clip from yesterday suggests he's already gone from Azeroth (and was trying to get summoned back), so it likely won't involve him. Unless, of course, he's the cause of the cataclysmic events in this expansion. Another hint that this will be Maelstrom-related is this entry on WoWWiki:

Quote from: WoWWiki (Source)

The Great Sundering, also known as simply the Sundering or the Cataclysm,^{WRPG 185, 211} was a world event which reshaped Azeroth approximately 10,000 years ago at the end of the War of the Ancients. This event was triggered due to the Well of Eternity being destroyed.

Prior to the Sundering, there was only one continent on Azeroth, referred to as Kalimdor. In the catastrophic explosion, eighty percent of the land mass was destroyed,^{W3Man #?} leaving behind the major continents and scattered islands that are known today: Northrend, Kezan, the Eastern Kingdoms, and the remnant still referred to as Kalimdor.

The site of the Well of Eternity became a swirling vortex of power known as the Maelstrom.

At any rate, here are the three trademarks, which in some ways support this being World of Warcraft-related:

World of Warcraft EU and US Community News Update!

DoranM — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:43:45 GMT

We have received a World of Warcraft Community update today from Slorkuz! The update includes important posts from the EU & U.S. forums as well as important developer posts from the past week. There are also several updates from the official World of Warcraft website that are detailed below. Some of the hot developer topics this week include:

Proposed Warrior Rage Changes follow up

Known combat mechanic bug in current PTR build

On Protection warriors (+follow-up)

On Zombie Event and future events (+follow-up)

EU Forums:

Most Recent Poll:

What is your favourite Horde female dance?

Here are some of the most recent blue-posts made on the EU forums:

2009 Regional Finals Coverage
Regional Finals Coverage - Friday
Regional Finals Coverage - Saturday
Regional Finals Coverage - Sunday
2009 Regional Finals: Videos & Gallery

Upcoming Isle of Conquest changes

lass Q&A: Death Knight

On Stonekeeper’s Shards Achievement

Updated 3.2 Engineering Changes

Living Bomb on more than 1 target

On Crusader Strike

Yogg-Saron Hotfixes

Faction-Change Service in the Works

Upcoming Isle of Conquest Changes

01/07 Realms and Migration

US Forums:

3.2 lore

BlizzCon 2009 Live Stream Orders Open

regarding Pets #1

on Occulus Achievement

Headless Horseman cast #1 #2

Developer Posts:

About block (continued)

EXP-gain in battlegrounds probably not active yet on PTRs

DK tanking and design goals

Possible Warrior-changes in next PTR-build (+follow-up)

Eclipse Bug

on new FoL Hot

Proposed Warrior Rage Changes follow up

Known combat mechanic bug in current PTR build

On Protection warriors (+follow-up)

On Zombie Event and future events (+follow-up)

Website:

2009 Warcraft Regional Finals: Videos & Gallery - 01/07/09

Last Sunday, the 28th of June, the 2009 Warcraft Regional Finals for Warcraft III:The Frozen Throne and World of Warcraft in Cologne, Germany came to an end. We have prepared for you a video page with an overview of all the matches that were played during the event. We have also updated our Gallery with more photos from the event. Make sure to check it out here!

Please check back frequently over the next few days as we will be updating this site with after-event footage and commentaries on the matches.

New Fan Art: Heavencry! - 01/07/09

We’ve added Heavencry’s latest creation, a self-portrait entitled Heavencry. Dark and foreboding, this self-portrait shows a death knight mounted upon a frightful nightmare of a beast, surveying the dark landscape below him.

We're always looking for new fan art and if you're an artist, you can submit your work to us here. We update the Gallery regularly and encourage you to check regularly to see what new and talented submissions are on display.

WoW TCG: Fields of Honor Released! - 30/06/09

Fields of Honor, the latest expansion to the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, has been released! With all new loot cards, hero cards, and resource cards based around the World of Warcraft battlegrounds. This expansion also includes weapon and armor cards for the Death Knight hero class. Head over to Upper Deck’s World of Warcraft Trading Card Game site to learn more!

Win A Trip To BlizzCon Costume Contest Winners! - 30/06/09

We are pleased to announce the winning entries to the Win A Trip To BlizzCon Costume Contest. Congratulations to our grand prize winner, S. Quindt, who has won a trip to BlizzCon in August! Congratulations also to A. Oslén, E. Cochuyt, H. Cogan, M. Deconstanzi, and H. Coy who have won great loot from our partners SteelSeries, Panini, and Upper Deck!

Check out the winning entries now!

New Wallpaper: Wood Giant! - 30/06/09

We have just added a new wallpaper to our World of Warcraft Wallpaper Gallery featuring a Wood Giant from Northrend. Take a moment to check it out!

2009 Regional Finals: Day 3 – part 2 - 28/06/09

The 2009 Warcraft Regional Finals have come to an end! We shared exciting moments and thrilling matches with our visitors and viewers here at the venue in Cologne, Germany. Fast matches, breathtaking scenes and top performances shown by the participants of this tournament heated up the air in the halls of the KOMED venue during all three days.

The last day finished with the North American finals for both Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and World of Warcraft. In the final rounds of Warcraft III, LongWalk defeated SonKiE a second and final time with 2:1, taking back home $5000.00 and a spot at the Grand Finals in Anaheim for his impressive performance during this event.

Set to fight it out in the Lower Bracket finals for World of Warcraft were TSG and EG. The match was played out relatively quickly as each team won every second round, making good use of all five potential rounds. In the fifth round, we found TSG playing very aggressively and cooldowns such as BladeStorm were used straight off the bat in order to put that extra little bit of pressure on EG. The tactic proved successful as they managed to drop Azael after a well-coordinated target-swap, securing their spot in the Grand Finals.

Waiting for TSG in the Grand Finals was SK Gaming US who considered themselves very well-prepared for TSG despite having never faced them in a tournament before. The rounds went by quickly as SK Gaming justified their high level of confidence by winning the match 3-1 in some very fast-paced rounds. Their use of Mass Dispel against Zilea's bubble won them the round as they proved to the world that they are currently the best American team in the world , receiving a reward of $15.000.00 for their title.

Finally we would like to thank all players, visitors, and spectators for their dedication and commitment. We hope that everybody had as much fun as we did on this great event here in Cologne. Make sure to check out our Regional Finals page here. Don’t miss the latest live coverage for this last tournament day on our forum thread for today. Additionally we have updated our gallery with more pictures showing impressions and emotions we were able to catch here for you.

2009 Regional Finals: Day 3 – part 1 - 28/06/09

The second day of the Regional Finals in Cologne, Germany is over with plenty of fast-paced and thrilling games and matches. During the first half of the day, the last four games of the EU Regional Finals took place and we were able to see the champions for both Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne – LucifroN -- as well as for World of Warcraft -- team x6tence from Spain -- who managed to come back from the lower brackets and take the title once again.

The second half of the day, the 2009 US Regional Finals started, bringing us a lot of exciting and fast-paced matches. For Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne SonKiE and LongWalk reached the semi-final of the upper bracket while ShrieK and CrunCher are fighting their way through the lower bracket. The upper bracket of World of Warcraft was dominated by the teams EG and the tournament veterans SK Gaming US while in the lower bracket the teams TSG and eMg managed to beat their opponents.

We also saw several contests down in the free gaming area and signing sessions with Tom Chilton. The venue was crowded with spectators cheering for their favorite players while following the breathtaking fights which took place live on stage.

Today, however, we will be watching the last set of US matches. Expectations are high as we are left with the above-mentioned players and teams to duke it out not only for the title of North American regional champions, but for a chance to visit BlizzCon and participate in the Grand Finals of 2009 in Anaheim, California.

Be sure to check out our Regional Finals page here. Don't miss the live coverage for this last tournament day on our forum thread for today and stay tuned for more exciting coverage and additional images in our Regional Finals gallery.

2009 Regional Finals: Day 2 – part 1 - 27/06/09

The second day of the 2009 Warcraft Regional Finals here in Cologne has already started and we already know the teams and players who won a safe place for the Grand Finals this year in Anaheim, California.

For WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne LucifroN, Nicker, and Grubby won their spots for the Grand Finals, while for World of Warcraft team Woah and x6tence, who just defeated eDawgs in the lower bracket semi-final, earned their tickets to BlizzCon in Anaheim where the Grand Finals will be held.

Today Grubby showed his strength in the EU Warcraft Regional Finals, defeating Nicker, a night elf player, quite quickly in the first game. After a fight between two huge armies in the second game as well, Grubby emerged victorious as well. Later on team x6tence, the winners of last year’s EU Regional Finals, crushed the eDawgs RMP team in three very fast and exiting matches in the lower bracket World of Warcraft Semi-Finals with 3:0, leaving eDawgs in the dust.

The Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was staged between the two famous players LucifroN, winner of yesterday’s upper bracket, and Grubby, who got his chance for revenge after losing against LucifroN yesterday morning in the first Warcraft III game of the day. Grubby started strong and was able to beat LucifroN on the first map. LucifroN recovered quickly and showed his superior skills, defeating Grubby with 2:1 on the last two maps to become the winner of the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne 2009 Regional Finals, taking home $5000.00 as a prize.

Spanish domination kept on going when team x6tence was able to defeat team Woah -- led by the famous Inflame -- in two breathtaking rounds, winning both times 3:2. A thrilling moment was the match where Woah lost their druid but still kept on going, finally resulting in the defeat of team x6tence in that round. After two rounds, x6tence won the World of Warcraft Regional Finals and received a $15,000 check from Tom Chilton.

Stay tuned and continue watching the beginning of the 2009 North American Regional Finals which will start in a few minutes with more exciting matches on our website for the Regional Finals and make sure to check out the live coverage on our forum thread.

2009 Regional Finals Day One - Part 2 - 26/06/09

The first day of the 2009 Regional Finals has seen plenty of action loaded matches for Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. European players Grubby and LucifroN and teams Woah and eDawgs have fought and won their first round matches in this amazing tournament here in Cologne, Germany.

One of the most energetic matches in WCIII’s first round was shown to us by Grubby, losing the first game against Happy (download the replay), struggling in the second, but recovering amazingly to eventually defeat Happy 2:1 thus keeping his title "King of the Orcs".

On the World of Warcraft Arena side, “Rest in many pieces” lost against eDawgs in an awesome second round battle featuring two RMP (Rogue Mage Priest) teams, a popular class composition for the European competitors. In the second game, both spectators and Blizzard staff watched breathlessly while the two surviving mages hunted each other with DaisyD from “Rest in many pieces” finally triumphing over his counterpart, Saori of eDawgs.

Players including Happy, SaSe, VortiX and Nicker as well as teams Rest in many pieces, SK Gaming EU, x6tence and aAa will continue battling each other in the Lower Bracket of this tournament, fighting for a chance to reach the finals.

We’ve updated our photo gallery for the Regional Finals with many awesome pictures. Check out our gallery to get an impression of the tournament location, visitors, shoutcasters and of course the players on stage. Be sure to continue following the exciting action in real-time from our Regional Finals live Internet stream. You can also check out the live coverage on our Forum thread for Day 1.

Stay tuned for further exciting coverage from the 2009 Regional Finals!

2009 Warcraft Regional Finals Day One - 26/06/09

Today, Friday the 26th of June, the 2009 Regional Finals for World of Warcraft Arena and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne will open its gates to both pro-gamers and visitors looking forward to the start of the competition. The expectations are high, plenty of well-known players and teams have gathered in Cologne to fight for the European and North American Regional Finals title for 2009.

The first matches are slated to start at 14:00 PM CEST. Be sure to check out our information page for a detailed schedule and also our live updated brackets page for both World of Warcraft and Warcraft III.

Additionally we will provide you with live, up-to-date coverage on the Community Forums. Each day, we will be creating one forum thread and providing coverage, commentary, and perhaps a few responses to questions that come up over the days. See the Day One thread where we’re gathering some initial impressions from our pre-event coverage for your reading pleasure.

Warhammer Video Spotlight: Tomb of the Vulture Lord

DoranM — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:29:21 GMT

WarhammerAlliance.com has recently posted a new video spotlight on the Tomb of the Vulture Lord! This is part of the most recent Land of the Dead expansion which brought new PvE content to the world of WAAAGH!!!

Here's a look at the Spotlight On: Tomb of the Vulture Lord:

Werit(WCPI) has posted some fantastic footage of the Tomb of the Vulture Lord, a new RVR/PVE dungeon in the Land of the Dead which features two major boss fights within the a chilling environment full of heiroglyphed walls and skittering bugs.

In addition to minions slain and treasures found, the tomb features phased boss encounters, traps, and an element of suprise - the other faction can enter to wipe your party, so beware!

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Aion Beta News Update - Weekend Beta Event Schedule

DoranM — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:24:24 GMT

Aion has released new news for the 3rd scheduled beta weekend event! It will take place this weekend from Thursday through Monday; that's July 2nd-6th! There will be at least three more beta events and lots of discussion on the AionSource Forums so make sure you keep up with what looks to be one of the hottest titles of the year!

Here's the official Aion beta news update:

From Aiononline...

Closed Beta Event #3 News and Schedule

Take part in the sizzling action in Aion this Fourth of July/Canada Day weekend! The third closed beta event starts with a bang this holiday weekend on Thursday, July 2 (12:00 PM PT, 9:00 PM CEST, 8:00 PM BST) and ends Monday, July 6 (12:00 PM PT, 9:00 PM CEST, 8:00 PM BST).

For this event, it's time to choose where your loyalties lie in the explosive war for Atreia. Dedicated testers will focus on the first 20 levels of both the Elyos and Asmodians, including brand new localized content for both factions.

Are you playing in this weekend's hottest event? Drop by the official beta forums beginning on July 1 at 8:00 AM PST to share your experiences while testing Aion.

Thanks to the continued diligence from the first two closed beta events, the third event includes several updates and changes in the game content:

- Added GameGuard beta file for Windows 7; please note this file is still in testing and is not yet an official public release
- Added a new full installer (found on FilePlanet)
- Added new launch quality content for the following zones: Poeta, Verteron, Altgard and Morheim
- Various text changes that fixed broken quests and trainers
- Various text changes that fixed minor grammatical errors in quests and NPC dialogues

Don't forget about even more closed beta events coming your way this summer!

Upcoming Closed Beta Events:

Closed Beta Event #4 - July 17-July 20 Focus: Elyos and Asmodian levels 1-25
Closed Beta Event #5 - July 31-August 3 Focus: TBD
Closed Beta Event #6 - August 14-August 17 Focus: TBD

As always, stay tuned to the official web site and the Aion team Twitters (@aion_ayase, @aion_amboss, @aion_liv, and @aion_xaen) for more news and your chance to be a part of the closed beta.

Happy Fourth of July! And Happy Canada Day! from the Aion team, and we'll see you in Atreia this weekend!

Original Article.

Eve Online Dev Blog: Apocrypha 1.5 Coming in August!

DoranM — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:52:06 GMT

We recieved an update today from CCP and Eve Online about Apocrypha 1.5 and the new developer blog from Torfi! The Apocrypha expansion originally retailed March 12th 2009 and introduced players to unstable wormholes to explore, Tech 3 cruisers, epic mission arcs and more! It also marked the tenth free expansion from Eve Online! August will bring about Apocrypha 1.5, new epic arcs, factional warfare, fuel bays, and multi-sized rigs!

Here's the official Peak at Apocrypha 1.5:

A PEEK AT APOCRYPHA 1.5

Due to arrive in August, Apocrypha 1.5 will bring upgrades, enhancements and new content to all corners of New Eden. Here are some of the key features headed your way:

New epic arcs have been added for each of the factions, offering challenging level four encounters and exciting new storylines.

Factional Warfare gets some upgrades! The variety of awards has been increased, including new unique rewards for PVP kills. Missing faction variants for several modules were added, as well. Be sure to check the LP store once 1.5 arrives!

Fuel Bays have been created, allowing you to expand the storage capacity on your black ops ships.

Multi-sized rigs are now available due to new advances in rig development technology. Small, medium and large versions offer a wide range of affordable and effective rigging solutions.

Learn more about Apocrypha 1.5 in Torfi’s DevBlog

Ether Saga Officially Launches July 1st!

DoranM — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:34:40 GMT

Ether Saga, currently hosted for download in our free-to-play section, has ended beta and has officially launched! We've had almost 6000 downloads for the game and really enjoyed the demo given at E3. The game has over 12,000 quests and unique features like auto-navigation. For a list of unique features and a video on rare mounts available in the game check out a previous Ether Saga announcement we made! If you haven't had a chance to play the game yet checkout the official release trailer:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Here's an update from the Product Manager about Ether Saga:

Ether Saga Online entered Open Beta on March 17^th. The game has seen tremendous growth after the open beta launch, and we have gathered great data and feedback from the players. We are pleased to announce that Ether Saga Online will be officially released on July 1^st!

Moving from beta to commercial release, we have implemented some big changes. First, we’ve raised our level cap to 105 to give our players even more content. Two cities are now fully open for players to explore and receive quests. Players will also have access to 13 new skills, doubling their total base class skills.

We’ve also tweaked our 1-45 quest content. The beginning questline has been streamlined to introduce players to game mechanics earlier in their career. We’ve also added more quest content from the level 30-45 range to improve gameplay experience within this level range. Lastly, the main quests have been changed so that players never have to kill more than 20 monsters, making the game more Western-friendly.

Instances have also been improved. Many instances will now have two difficulty modes: easy and hard. The hard mode equates to the instance difficulty in the open beta, while the easy mode lowers the HP and damage dealt by enemies, but also decreases the loot. These two options give players the ability to adjust the instance to their skill level. With the easy mode, players will now also be able to complete an instance with a smaller group and with a lesser-geared character. It’s perfect for players who are looking to complete a quest rather than farm the instance for loot.

We’ve also added new and exciting content for the more hardcore players as well. First of all, we have added a new raid instance called the Obscurity. Meant for 6-24 players, the Obscurity will challenge adventurers.

There are also new elite monsters that spawn in the gameworld with valuable drops. One such item is a Shattered Void Stone. Twenty of these can be collected and forged into a Void Stone, which guarantees a socketing upgrade to weapons.

Lastly, there is also a White Dragon world boss that spawns every Wednesday evening. It is incredibly powerful and will take groups of players to defeat it. However, there are plenty of rewards for everyone who participated. One possible reward is an item that can ultimately allow you to tame a White Dragon pet. It is an arduous task, but it is well worth it!

In additional to all of this gameplay content, we are also adding more fashion outfits and mounts to the cash shop. There are two sets of outfits for each gender, both of which are more casual clothing for characters. The ground mount is the giant bunny, and the flying mounts are some of the most requested items in the game: the larger angel and devil wings.

Ether Saga has grown a lot in a very short amount of time. Our user base has been expanding day-by-day, and we will continue to strive to create the best gameplay experience for all of our players. If you haven’t given Ether Saga a try, why wait? It’s free register, free to download, free to play, and now it’s live!

Sister in law

leemee — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:44:14 GMT

Haha...first, just enjoy this joke......

I was happy. My girlfriend and I had been dating for over a year, and so we decided to get married.

My parents helped us in every way, my friends encouraged me, and my girlfriend? She was a dream!

There was only one thing bothering me, very much indeed, and that one thing was her younger sister.

My prospective sister-in-law was twenty years of age, wore tight mini skirts and low cut blouses. She would regularly bend down when quite near me and I got many a pleasant view of her underwear. It had to be deliberate. She never did it when she was near anyone else.

One day little sister called and asked me to come over to check the wedding invitations. She was alone when I arrived. She whispered to me that soon I was to be married, and she had feelings and desires for me that she couldn’t overcome and didn’t really want to overcome.

She told me that she wanted to make love to me just once before I got married and committed my life to her sister. I was in total shock and couldn’t say a word.

She said, “I’m going upstairs to my bedroom, and if you want to go ahead with it just come up and get me.” I was stunned. I was frozen in shock as I watched her go up the stairs. When she reached the top she pulled down her panties and threw them down the stairs at me.

I stood there for a moment, then turned and went straight to the front door. I opened the door and stepped out of the house. I walked straight towards my car.

My future father-in-law was standing outside. With tears in his eyes he hugged me and said, “We are very happy that you have passed our little test. We couldn’t ask for a better man for our daughter. Welcome to the family.”

The moral of this story is: Always keep your condoms in your car!

You're Favorite Music Ffrom Blizzard Games At MusiCON09 Coming July 18th!

DoranM — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:48:24 GMT

WorldofWarcraft.com has posted an update about the Blizzard Live Concert on July 18th! Video Games Live! has been putting on concerts of game music for years, and you may have had a chance to see them perform at BlizzCon in the past. The upcoming show in Houston has been expanded into an all-day celebration called Gamer MusiCON 09 that will feature a seperate concert for Blizzard games to kick off the afternoon! The festival also includes an interactive panel and Q&A session with Blizzard Entertainment music composers and an on-stage costume contest. For more information on Gamer MusiCON 09, or to purchase tickets, please visit the event website.

Here's the schedule for MusiCON09 and more information on the event:

Gamer MusiCON 09 with Video Games Live! & Blizzard Live!

The Houston Symphony, in partnership with Tommy Tallarico, Jack Wall and Blizzard Entertainment®, has expanded the visionary Video Games LiveTM concert to an all-day celebration of the cutting-edge video game music industry. The world premiere of Gamer MusiCON 09 includes two high-energy concerts featuring Symphony performances of the industry’s greatest video game hits with exclusive game footage and synchronized lighting. The first features the sights and sounds of Blizzard games World of Warcraft®, Diablo® and StarCraft® and never before performed music from World of Warcraft - Wrath of the Lich King. While the second brings back an all-new Video Games LiveTM with material from games like Chrono Trigger®, Halo 3: ODST ® and Mega Man. Throughout the day, a Game Crazy festival will offer playable game demos throughout all three levels of Jones Hall, plus a Guitar Hero® contest for the chance to appear on stage during Video Games LiveTM. The festival also includes an interactive panel and Q&A session with Blizzard Entertainment® game composers, and an on-stage costume contest for attendees dressed as their favorite video game character.

Gamer MusiCON 09 timeline:

2:00   Doors to Jones Hall open for lobby festival
3:00 – 4:30  Blizzard Live! concert
4:30 – 7:30  Lobby festival
7:30 – 10:00  Video Games Live! concert
10:00 – 11:00 Post concert autographs & merchandise sales

Event Highlights:

Game Crazy festival with playable game demos throughout all three levels of Jones Hall
Interactive panel and Q&A session with Blizzard Entertainment®game composers
On-stage costume contest
Merchandise Sales
Post concert autograph session
Guitar Hero contest in lobby - winner plays on-stage during concert

Stay tuned for more!

Curse

Runes of Magic Launches New Server and 75% Off 4th of July Sale!

SWTOR New Gameplay Footage and Lore Video!

Blizzard Makes An Official Statement On Starcraft II Without LAN Support

Where’s the MMO in MMORPG?

Maheen the Priest

Diablo Community Manager On Dungeon Themes In Diablo 3!

Warhammer Weekend Update From WarhammerAlliance.com!

Diablo Community Manager On Possible Battle.net Charges!

WoW Humor - The Ten Commandments of a Rogue

Tier 9 Previews: Mage, Hunter, Priest, Shaman and Warlock

Tier 9 Previews: Mage, Hunter, Priest, Shaman and Warlock

The Runes of Magic Wiki Tops 2500 Articles!

Quests

Skills

Classes

Guides Section Expanded and New Promotional Offer From Evony!

Asteroids - The Movie Coming Soon From Universal!

Warlock Q&A With Ghostcrawler at WorldofWarcraft.com!

Jade Dynasty - a review and recommendation of a beautiful game!

AionSource.com: New Fixes and Additions To the Aion Armory!

How to be a good paladin

Blizzard Trademarks Cataclysm

Blizzard Trademarks Cataclysm

World of Warcraft EU and US Community News Update!

2009 Warcraft Regional Finals: Videos & Gallery - 01/07/09

New Fan Art: Heavencry! - 01/07/09

WoW TCG: Fields of Honor Released! - 30/06/09

Win A Trip To BlizzCon Costume Contest Winners! - 30/06/09

New Wallpaper: Wood Giant! - 30/06/09

2009 Regional Finals: Day 3 – part 2 - 28/06/09

2009 Regional Finals: Day 3 – part 1 - 28/06/09

2009 Regional Finals: Day 2 – part 1 - 27/06/09

2009 Regional Finals Day One - Part 2 - 26/06/09

2009 Warcraft Regional Finals Day One - 26/06/09

Warhammer Video Spotlight: Tomb of the Vulture Lord

Aion Beta News Update - Weekend Beta Event Schedule

Eve Online Dev Blog: Apocrypha 1.5 Coming in August!

Ether Saga Officially Launches July 1st!

Sister in law

You're Favorite Music Ffrom Blizzard Games At MusiCON09 Coming July 18th!

Gamer MusiCON 09 with Video Games Live! & Blizzard Live!