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Guild Wars 2 Wintersday Event Announced

December 11, 2012 by

Guild Wars 2 Wintersday

ArenaNet keep churning out the world events and as you’d guess for this time of year, they’ve announced a Christmas-themed event that goes back to the original game: Wintersday. There’s a short vid that previews what’s coming up between December 14th and January 3rd. Check it out for yourself here:

Even though it’s a short video, I like what I see. I’m also impressed that this isn’t just a bog-standard world event with some fairly static content – there are different events planned throughout the weeks of it being live.

Will you be jumping in and taking part?

Filed Under: General News, Guild Wars 2 Tagged With:

GW2 Game Update December 3rd: Full Patch Notes

December 6, 2012 by

GW2 Game UpdateA pretty meaty game update this time from ArenaNet, with a huge number of bug fixes.

Read them all in full:

 

Release Notes:
General

  • Fixed a bug that would cause a crash when repairing armor while transformed.
  • Area of effect heals and boons now prioritize players over minions and NPCs.
  • Guild leaders are able to demote other players of the same rank.
  • Weapon skills will now properly display their PvP and PvE split variants in the Weapon Skills tab of the Hero Panel instead of displaying both.

Events

  • Fixed a bug that caused NPCs not to resurrect other NPCs in various Orr events.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Warmaster Jofast and her caravan to not advance properly through Cursed Shore.
  • Fixed a rare bug that could prevent the event “Protect the trained skelk gathering kindling for Raintimber Mill” in Diessa Plateau from progressing.
  • Fixed a bug that could potentially prevent progress with the event “Protect Orl’s research krewe” in Metrica Province.
  • Fixed a bug that could prevent progress with the event “Stop the Inquest operatives from kidnapping adventurers” in Sparkfly Fen.
  • Fixed a bug that could prevent progress with the event “Raid the Separatist camp with the Warhound Village veterans” in Iron Marches.
  • Fixed a bug that could prevent displaced spirits from rejoining their bodies in Iron Marches.
  • Fixed a bug that could prevent progress with the event “Protect the armory from the Flame Legion” in Plains of Ashford.
  • Fixed a bug that would prevent “Ireta the Smasher” from team switching correctly during the event “Prevent the brawl between the three legions.”
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Suwash from confronting Captain Jetsam in Lornar’s Pass in the event “Defeat Captain Jetsam.”
  • Fixed a bug that preventing events from running properly near Eldvin Monastery in Queensdale.
  • Fixed a bug causing skritt thieves to stop stealing harpy eggs in Harathi Hinterlands.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Crusader Soma to give up searching for the lost caravan in Timberline Falls.

Dungeon
Crucible of Eternity

  • Front door path: Fixed a bug that affected the aggro range of the Destroyer Specimen Boss.
  • Submarine path: Fixed a bug with Bjarl’s armor not going off when he charges and hits a tower.

Ascalonian Catacombs

  • Detha’s Path: Fixed a problem with Detha’s script where she would sometimes not start the event to fix the cannons.
  • Hodgin’s Path: Fixed a problem in Hodgin’s script at the “Collect scepter fragments” event that prevented the event from starting.
  • Detha’s path: Fixed a bug that caused the Ghostly Oozes not to use their basic attack properly, and spend a large amount of time loitering around players instead of attacking them.

Sorrow’s Embrace

  • Fixed multiple problematic doors that would not open and close when intended.

Twilight Arbor

  • Fixed a bug where Morrigu could die after defeating the final boss before the cinematic could start, which would break the dungeon and prevent players from receiving the final reward.

The Ruined City of Arah

  • Seer Path: Fixed an exploit where rangers using longbows could trivialize a fight by attacking at max range, and the Melandru boss would not fight back.

Fractals of the Mists

  • Cliffside: Fixed an issue where players could damage the final seal with their normal attacks.
  • Cliffside: Fixed an issue where players were able to attack and kill the first boss before triggering the cinematic.

PersonalStory

  • Minor personal story bugs in multiple personal story steps were fixed.
  • The story step “Forewarned is Forearmed” has been fixed to avoid an error that prevented completion.
  • The story step “Time for a Promotion” has been fixed to avoid a problem that caused it to stall.
  • The story step “Silent Warfare” has had the difficulty adjusted.
  • The story step “The Artist’s Workshop” has been fixed to allow players to rally when they defeat hypnotized performers.
  • Players who completed the sylvari “mirror” storyline are now recognized by the NPCs in the story step “Through the Looking Glass.”

World vs. World

  • Invisible & invulnerable players can no longer contest capture points in WvW. WvW capture points now follow the same rules as PvP capture points.
  • All players will now correctly receive WvW bonuses. Players who transfer worlds will still be locked out of bonuses for the current and subsequent match.

StructuredPvP

  • Heart of the Mists: Added light, medium, and heavy PvP Underwater Mask items to the PvP Armorsmith.
  • Battle of Kyhlo: The hit box on the trebuchets has been decreased so that they are less vulnerable to certain AoE skills.
  • Legacy of the Foefire: The red guild lord and his guards have been repositioned to more closely match the blue side.
  • Forest of Niflhel: Fixed incorrect names on the archer NPCs that guard each base.
  • Removed slots in the PvP locker for the Rawhide armor pieces, as they are not obtainable as PvP rewards.
  • PvP locker now can store consumable finishers up to rank 6, glory boosters, PvP salvage kits, and tournament tickets.
  • Updated the NPC names of archers in Forest of Niflhel.

Items

  • Updated the names of the level 80 rare armorsmithing boxes to match the names of the items they contain.
  • Runes of Balthazar and Orrian now properly apply quickness when the player is struck and below 20% health.
  • Updated Knight’s Jewel so that it appropriately grants Power rather than Toughness.
  • Updated the ingredients required to craft satchels and boxes of armor to match the ingredients required to craft the individual pieces contained within.

Commerce

  • Fixed an issue with the Boxing Glove skills remaining when players swap to armor from town clothes.
  • Mini pets are now usable in the Heart of the Mists.
  • Fixed Krait Tonic second skill description.
  • Fixed missing nightmare medium icons and pants using gloves icons.
  • Total Makeover Kit and Self-Style Hair Kit added to the Black Lion Chest as rare rewards.
  • Increased chance to get Mini boosters and Dye Pack boosters from the Black Lion Chest.

Profession
Elementalist

  • Updated elementalist conjured weapons to appropriately apply attributes to all players that pick them up.
  • Dragon’s Tooth: This skill’s blast finisher now triggers at spell location, instead of character’s location.
  • Electrocute: This skill now has a maximum range and line of sight requirement.
  • Impale: Fixed an exploit with this skill’s interaction with Signet of Restoration.
  • Arcane Resurrection: This trait now applies five seconds of aura to allies affected by it.
  • Evasive Arcana: This trait now has a blast finisher while attuned to earth.
  • Elementalists will no longer get into a state where they aren’t attuned to any element. This commonly results in the player’s skillbar being empty.

Engineer

  • Toss Elixir C: This skill’s underwater cooldown is reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds to match the land recharge.
  • Elixir S: Fixed a bug that would cause this skill to go on normal recharge when Fast-Acting Elixirs is equipped.
  • Smoke Bomb: Cleaned up skill facts.

Guardian

  • Ring of Warding: This skill will no longer affect non-attackable NPCs.

Mesmer

  • Updated the description for Blurred Frenzy to indicate that it gives evasion through “Blur,” instead of “Distortion”.
  • Phantasms will now properly have all boons applied to them via player traits.
  • Phantasmal Disenchanter can now be cast at the correct distance.

Ranger

  • Fixed a bug that allowed a ranger to have two traps of the same type active simultaneously.

Thief

  • Using a stolen bundle item should no longer destroy a bundle being wielded in their hands.

Warrior

  • Whirling Axe: This skill can now be cancelled by other skills.
Filed Under: General News, Guild Wars 2 Tagged With:

The Naked Gamer: #1ReasonWhy

December 5, 2012 by

#1ReasonWhy

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

When I applied to write for The Oceanic Gamer, I told myself that I would never write this article. It is something that has been talked about for so long and it’s really getting to the point where I feel that if people just don’t get it now, then they never will. It’s not like there aren’t already plenty of articles out there by people a lot more knowledgeable and smarter. People better at getting their thoughts, opinions and more importantly, their feelings across.

However I feel I should at least give it a try after seeing the recent twitter campaign #1ReasonWhy. This twitter campaign saw women and men raising awareness of some of the battles still fought by women within the gaming industry. These were women that are making our games, expanding our knowledge and bringing gaming to everyone.

Before I started writing, I thought for a very long time how I am going to write this. I thought about what angle I should approach this from, how I should handle it. How I could maybe bring something new to this subject. In the end, I decided to bare all and go for the all natural stance, just like my column is named. I figure if I can’t talk truthfully and honestly about our current situation than there really isn’t a point in writing about it at all.

I wanted to start over ten years ago. This is because while I’ve been gaming since before I went to Kindergarten, it wasn’t until the ‘90s that I got into online gaming and I guess I became a part of the larger gaming community. So much has changed so quickly and I feel that the gaming industry is actually getting worse and moving backwards instead of forwards.

Roughly twelve years ago, I was really getting into MUDs (Multi-User Dungeon). They were awesome and as someone with a crappy computer and an even crappier internet connection they were the poor man’s MMO. This didn’t make them terrible games at all though. MUDs were text based and so they ran off player’s imaginations. You could create anything in a MUD just by typing. There were fewer constraints and it meant that people were creating systems that are amazing even by today’s standards.

I got to experience this first hand and it was my first experience being on the other side of the code. I got to be a world builder for a pretty amazing MUD. There were only two of us that got to play around in the game and create whatever we wanted, and I felt very lucky.

You may have already noticed where this is heading. My world builder colleague was indeed a male. There were three of us working on this game and the owner/coder of the game was also male. You may be already cringing thinking of the horrible tale I am going to tell but the truth is, there is no horrible tale. Everyone knew I was female, I was even titled the Goddess of Chaos, but no one cared. I was never once told to go make a sandwich, get back to the kitchen or even to show people pictures of my naked body parts.

No one cared.

I created amazing areas in that game. My world building skills were centred more about creating zones that were filled with their own sort of story, with hidden passages and brain teasing puzzles. My counterpart tended to make more killing zones, packing in as many baddies as possible and letting the player kill or be killed. This partnership meant we created a world with something for everyone and was targeted to all gamers.

When I think back to this time, I can’t help but wonder where everything went wrong. My first experience as a part of the gaming industry was great. My last experience though was completely different.

I worked extremely hard running a Community Team for an Indy MMO developer. I did an amazing job but I still felt constantly that the only reason I was there was because I was female and not because of all I had done.

It started as jokes like when discussing possible competition prizes – it was actually suggested that they could give away game shirts that have been worn by me (including a photo as proof). It continued when I was working to make the community a better place and was told how the directors made the right choice getting in a ‘girl’. It ended when we were going through the job description and one of the perks was going to game conventions. I said that I can’t sell the game, I’m not hot enough. The reply was, ‘don’t worry you are plenty hot enough’.

It was horrible seeing the hours of work I put in be pretty much squared down to the fact that I am a woman. It was hard to feel any pride in the amazing direction the community was taking when it was simply because I am a woman. It doesn’t help that I would take my developers hat off, put my gamer one on and get the exact same treatment.

And people keep asking me why I left such an awesome job.

So these are my experiences from the beginning and the end – I won’t bore you with the middle. Next week I will be coming back to this subject and exploring why this is happening instead of just my experiences. I will also be explaining the full reason I am writing these articles when I said I never would.

So stay tuned for what I am hoping will be at least a slightly interesting take on the gaming industry from my personal experiences.

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed, Other Games Tagged With: , ,

Blitzkrieg: Chinese Tier X Heavy Tank – WZ-111 Model 5A

November 29, 2012 by

Blitzkrieg is a regular column devoted to the very popular MMO World of Tanks. If you’ve got a topic you’d like our resident expert Matthew “Scope” Pearce to cover, drop him a line!

G’day gamers. Recently, Patch 8.2 hit the World of Tanks PTS and I was able to try out  the new Chinese Tier X heavy tank: the WZ-111 Model 5A

History of the WZ-111 Model 5A.

WZ-111 Model 5A

The WZ-111 Model 5A was a prototype of a heavy tank developed in the early 1960’s with the aim of modernising the armoured forces of the People’s Liberation Army. The vehicle was conceived as a response to the Soviet T-10 tank, which was an evolution of the IS-2 and the IS-3 tanks. During construction and testing of the prototype, many shortcomings were discovered and in 1964 development was discontinued.

  

WZ-111 Model 5A

Not bad for my third game in the WZ-111 model 5A

 

 Survivability, Speed and Armour

The WZ-111 Model 5A has 150mm sloped frontal hull armour, 80mm side hull armour and 60mm of rear hull armour. I found the upper frontal armour to be rather bouncy due to the V-shaped slope similar to that of the Soviet IS-3 and IS-7 tanks. Unfortunately the WZ-111 Model 5A does not copy the IS-7 and IS-3’s lower frontal plate and thus it is a weak spot on the WZ-111 Model 5A along with the side and rear armour being easily penetrated.

The turret armour however is not to be scoffed at with a very bouncy 230mm of curved frontal turret armour, 120mm of side and 60mm rear turret armour. I found myself often bouncing Tier IX and X shells from the front and sides of my turret.

The WZ-111 model 5A has a top speed of 50km/h powered by a 750hp V-2-54SC engine with a traverse speed of 36deg. One of the great things about the WZ-111 is that it has good terrain negotiation and is capable of maintaining around 90% of its top speed in off road situations.

The WZ-111 turret does have a low traverse speed of only 26deg a second, but a good tanker can make up for that by turning the tank the same direction, adding the tank’s traverse of 36deg a second, giving you overall a 62deg traverse speed if needed.

The biggest problem I have with this tank is the lack of gun depression. You simply cannot aim the gun down making it very hard if you are fighting from a high place to engage targets lower then yourself.

A look at both guns

The WZ-111 model 5A comes with the 122mm 60-122T gun which has an average penetration of 257mm, damage of 440 while having an accuracy of 0.36 at 100m and a rate of fire of 5.77 rounds per minute. This gives a total of 2538.8 damage per minute.

The WZ-111 model 5A can upgrade to the 130mm 59-130T gun which has an average penetration of 244mm damage of 490 while having an accuracy of 0.38 at 100m and a rate of fire of 5 rounds per minute which gives the 130mm 59-130T 2450 damage per minute.

Both of the guns have slightly lower penetration values than their Soviet counterparts but make up for it with a higher accuracy and a faster rate of fire.

Comparison between the Chinese and Soviet guns

WZ-111 Model 5A: 122mm 440dmg 5.77rpm 2538.8dpm 0.36acc 257pen

IS-4 122mm: 440dmg 5rpm 2200dpm 0.38acc 268pen

WZ-111 Model 5A: 130mm 490dmg 5rpm 2450dpm 0.38 244pen

IS-7 130mm: 490dmg 4.38rpm 2146.2dpm 0.4 260pen

  

Will this tank be used in Clan Wars?

The WZ-111 Model 5A has the same frontal armour as the IS-7 as well as the same top speed of 50kmph, but it does not have the same side or rear armour. In fact, it has much less side and rear armour than the IS-7 but that lower side and rear armour allow the WZ-111 to traverse a lot faster than the IS-7 can.

The guns are very similar to the Soviet ones but with less penetration, a better rate of fire and better accuracy. So I think that the WZ-111 may have a place in clan wars where a more accurate and manoeuvrable  IS-7 is required – its higher damage per minute is an added bonus.

Will I be working towards getting myself the WZ-111 Model 5A in Patch 8.2?

To be honest no, but not because the WZ-111 Model 5A is a bad tank – I am busy saving up for the new German Tier X medium Leopard 1. Maybe in the future once I have obtained a Leopard 1 I may start down the new Chinese tree, but I’m currently still working on my British medium line.

So over to you my fellow tank commanders: will you be working towards getting yourself a WZ-111 model 5A?

Filed Under: General News, World of Tanks Tagged With:

The Naked Gamer: The Day the Heroes Left

November 27, 2012 by

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

On the 30th of November, Paragon Studios will be closing their doors and City of Heroes servers will be shut down. This beloved Superhero and Supervillain MMO has been operating for over eight years and will leave a giant hole in the industry.

This is something that no gamer should let pass in silence or brush off like it doesn’t matter. It does matter, it matters so very much.

It might seem like it won’t affect many people but this should be a huge wake up call for all of us that love our MMOs. You might think because the game was free to play and only had a small but loyal following that it was a prime target. City of Heroes though was still making a profit after all this time – it was still a fun game that many enjoyed.

It is a reminder that no MMO is safe since we will always rely on ongoing support and services to play. All it takes is a publisher or developer to decide they don’t want to keep going and they can sell it off to new people or shut it down completely. We should all stand together whenever we hear the talk of closure of any MMO.

Save City of Heroes tried everything to stop their beloved game from shutting down. They wrote letters, signed petitions and showed Paragon Studios and NCsoft that the game was still wanted but in the end, there was nothing they could do. It was really wonderful to see the community rise up and stand together (heroes and villains alike) to try and save their favourite MMO.

City of Heroes had some awesome features that I hope don’t disappear when the servers go black. It was a really fun game that was easily accessible and let you play as your very own made up hero or villain. Imagine the weirdest, intriguing hero you can think of and I can assure you, it could have been real within Paragon City.

My favourite feature was being able to design how my hero looked and that was how my hero always looked. I spent hours in the character creation making my amazing hero and imagining all the awesome feats she will perform. My favourite was the charming metallic Valkyrie hero with red lighting sparking around her body. When you look that cool from the start, would you ever want to have appearance changed by gear or a new outfit?

I also asked my friend what his favourite feature is because there are too many to remember. He has played the game a lot longer than I and so he knew it better. He said enjoyed how accessible the game was and how easy it was to find a group. With the Side Kick system, it didn’t matter what level you were. You could group with anyone, whether they were higher or lower than you. You could also affect the difficulty of the game easily so it was always a challenge.

After eight long, glorious years, it is sad that this is the end. It’s a little teary and a continued reminder than our favourite games are never safe. All it takes is flicking a switch to see all that we love fade away.

In only a few short days there will be fewer Heroes in this world and City of Heroes will become just another victim.

Let this game not become some forgotten piece of code, let us always remember the fun times we had and continue to keep up the good fight.

Over to you: are you sorry to see City of Heroes go?

Filed Under: General News, Other Games Tagged With: ,

Guild Wars 2 Patch Notes: 15th November 2012 Update

November 17, 2012 by

GW2 Patch Notes

Sorry for the delay in posting these GW2 patch notes from the latest update. For any regular players you’ll know this update has contained the latest big content update, the Lost Shores event. Aside from the extra Level 80 dungeon,Fractal of the Mists, there’s a heap of other stuff including a range of bug fixed.

The patch notes in full for you:

Dungeons

General

  • New dungeon rewards have been added to all dungeons.
  • Each dungeon has a new set of unique items with new stat combinations, ranging in rarity from masterwork to exotic. These items have a chance to drop off of certain bosses in the explorable mode of each dungeon.
  • Story and explorable bosses and encounters have a chance to drop Bags of Wondrous Goods, which contain coins and karma. Bags of Wondrous Goods obtained in explorable mode also contain dungeon tokens.
  • If the owner of a dungeon instance intentionally leaves his party to kick out players and invite new players, it will now also kick that owner out of the dungeon to prevent people from kicking PUG members and inviting guild members for the final boss of a dungeon.

Fractals of the Mists
There are new stories being told in the taverns of Lion’s Arch, usually in hushed tones by broken and bloodied adventurers. They weep into their ales and shake as they speak…not about dragons or the undead, but of something new, a mysterious portal that has emerged in the city, beckoning the bravest to venture through it.
Introducing a dungeon experience like no other—Fractals of the Mists! A series of unique “fractal” minidungeons, increasing in difficulty, offers players unlimited levels of challenge! With great risk comes great rewards, including new weapon sets, a back slot item, new Ascended loot, and much more!

  • New level 80 dungeon with dynamic leveling so you can bring your friends!
  • Endless and scaling. The deeper you go, the harder it gets!
  • The portal to the Fractals of the Mists will activate with the Lost Shores content Friday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Head west of Fort Marriner to the entrance and try your luck. Perhaps you’ll survive and reap the rewards, or perhaps you’ll be lost forever to the Fractals’ bloody secrets.

Items
There are two new major features added to items in this update. For more detailed information on these features and how they tie into the new Lost Shores content, check out this blog post!

  • Added new crafting materials as part of the Lost Shores update.
  • Crafted Halloween potions are no longer account bound.
  • The mighty Zommoros has slightly increased the drop rate on Legendary precursor weapons from the Mystic Forge from both Rares and Exotics.
  • The drop rarity of Rare and Exotic weapons from certain places in the world (champions, veterans, and players in WvW) has been increased. Rares and Exotics should be much more likely to drop and every champion should be guaranteed to drop loot. This was to ensure that world loot drops were not a significantly worse way of acquiring rare and exotic items than crafting and running dungeons.
  • The amount of loot that drops for downscaled players has been increased. You should now be able to receive level-equivalent loot until you are fighting at a downscaled level that is less than 2/3 of your actual level. You should also receive loot a greater percentage of the time as well as receiving a greater percentage of experience, gold, and karma. For level 80 characters, this means level 55+ areas will be able to drop level 80 gear and give about 75% or so of the other rewards. Previously, these areas would give level 77 gear at best and closer to 60% or so of your rewards.

New Rarity Type: Ascended

  • Ascended rarity falls between Exotics and Legendaries on the rarity spectrum.
  • Ascended items have higher stats than Exotics and come with slots for the new upgrade type, Infusions.
  • Ascended rings and back slot items have been added to the game.

New Upgrade Type: Infusion

  • Infusions are a new type of upgrade component that can only be slotted into a matching Infusion slot.
  • Added 12 new Infusions of the offensive, defensive, and omni types to the game.
  • Create Infusions through the Mystic Forge using new crafting materials.

PvP

  • Paid tournament rewards have been improved. We’ve spread out the rewards for paid tournaments, so that more finishing positions receive rewards. We’ve also made it so that qualifying points are rewarded to the following finishing positions:
    • 1st place—Tourney Chests, 500 glory, 500 rank points, 120 gems, 5 qualifying points
    • 2nd place—Tourney Chests, 400 glory, 400 rank points, 80 gems, 3 qualifying points
    • 3rd place—Tourney Chests, 300 glory, 300 rank points, 20 gems, 1 qualifying point
    • 4th place—Tourney Chests, 300 glory, 300 rank points, 20 gems, 1 qualifying point
    • 5th place—Tourney Chests
    • 6th place—Tourney Chests
    • 7th place—Tourney Chests
    • 8th place—Tourney Chests
    • Paid tournaments also provide each finishing place a small chance to win gems in the following amounts. The chance of winning one of these is approximately 1 in 4. No player can win twice.
      • 10 gems
      • 35 gems
      • 80 gems
      • 120 gems
      • 1000 gems
  • Free and paid tournaments will now use individual respawn timers. Public games played via the PvP Browser will still use time-based wave spawning.
  • A new map set in a kodan dojo is available. “Temple of the Silent Storm” is a beta version of the map, but we’re letting players play it now to give us feedback.
  • We will also be putting up some PvP Browser hot-join maps so that some are 5-on-5 and some are the current 8-on-8.
  • The map rotation for PvP Browser hot-join maps will be:
    • Temple of the Silent Storm
    • Forest of Niflhel
    • Legacy of the Foefire
    • Battle of Kyhlo
    • Raid on the Capricorn
  • Daily and monthly achievement rewards are now available in PvP.
    • Daily rewards: 1 tournament ticket and 1 glory boost
    • Monthly achievement rewards: 10 tournament tickets, 5 glory boosts, and 5 salvage kits
  • The /rank command will now show your PvP ranking. This only works in the PvP lobby and cannot be used inside an active PvP game.
  • Added tracking for Qualifying Point Leaderboards. The current leaderboards are being shown here: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/pvp/Leaderboards-for-Qualifying-Points/.
  • PvP Mystic Forge: You can now convert PvP Mystic Forge components into other components. This requires purchasing an Arcane Converter from any glory vendor. The conversion recipes are as follows:
    • 25 Arcane Orbs + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Crystal + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Crystals
    • 25 Arcane Crystals + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Sliver + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Slivers
    • 25 Arcane Slivers + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Orb + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Orbs
  • Raid on the Capricorn: Reduced the number of sharks from 10 to 6. They should no longer cover the Ruins capture point.
  • PvP downed health is now 75% of what it was. This change was made so that in fights where players are slightly outnumbered, they can win those fights by killing off downed enemies through damage rather than needing to use a finishing move. This should not have too much impact on 1v1 fights or big team fights, but it should help players win 1v2 and 2v3 fights if they gain the initial advantage.
  • The hit area for the trebuchet in the Battle of Kyhlo has been updated to prevent players from dropping massive AoE attacks (e.g. Meteor Shower) and having every single attack hit the trebuchet, destroying it without any counter. All normal attacks should still work against it.

General

  • The Fire Elemental encounter in Metrica Province has received a balance pass.
  • The Shatterer encounter in Blazeridge Steppes has been updated.
  • A UI confirmation window will now pop up on large vendor purchases.
  • Players will now be warned if they do not have enough inventory space to acquire an elemental fragment during the Dierdre’s Steps jumping puzzle.
  • Harvesting tools are now account bound.
  • Updated Rune of Water to provide 10% boon duration instead of 15% in PvP.
  • Updated Rune of the Monk to provide 10% boon duration instead of 15% in PvP.
  • Updated Rune of Earth to provide 15% protection duration instead of 20%, and 3 seconds of protection instead of 4 seconds in PvP.
  • Updated Rune of the Citadel to properly grant power instead of healing.
  • Rune of Svanir’s block of ice effect will no longer allow players to capture points while they’re invulnerable. Removing the stun from this effect will remove the invulnerability as well.
  • Rune of Air’s lightningdamage has been reduced by 25%.
  • “Unblockable” skill facts have now been added to various skills.
  • Rune of the Pack’s on-hit effect now works properly.
  • Many skills, items, and traits were applying healing to an infinite amount of targets and have now been limited to 5 targets.
  • You can no longer view opponents’ account names through reporting in WvW.
  • Fixed a bug that caused many piercing, boomerang, and bouncing projectiles (those that hit more than 1 target) to continually increase in damage the more targets they hit.
  • Fixed a bug preventing melee attacks from hitting static objects in the world if the character was not moving. As an example, this should help players using melee in Ascalonian Catacombs to hit graveling burrows, amongst other offending objects.

Commerce

  • The Consortium Chest has been added to the gem store in the Consumable category for 250 gems each or 10 for 1800 gems. No key is required to open these chests; simply double-click them in your inventory.
    • When you open the Consortium Chest, you will receive some number of crafting materials and one random item.
    • Some items in the chest include: shoulder skins, breathing masks, weapon skins, hats, and minis.
    • All items in the chest are new and have never been available before.
    • Weapon skins are rare, and the minis are very rare.
    • All items can be sold on the Trading Post.
    • The Consortium Chest will only be available for a limited time.
  • All the items found in the Consortium Chest can also be obtained as rare drops from any creature from the new Lost Shores event.
  • The Consortium Dye Kit has been added to the gem store in the Consumable category for 125 gems each or 5 for 500 gems.
    • The Consortium Dye Kit gives one random blue dye and one random yellow dye.
    • The Consortium Dye Kit will only be available for a limited time.
  • Dye Packs now come in bundles of 5 for 800 gems.

Events

  • Fixed a bug preventing Captain Penzan from retrieving his treasure in Bloodtide Coast.
  • Fixed a potential blocking bug for the event “Protect Orl’s research krewe” in Metrica Province.
  • Fixed an exploit with the “Assist the skritt with their fortifications” renown region in Mount Maelstrom.
  • Fixed a bug that would cause Fleshgrazer to turn permanently invulnerable.
  • Fixed a blocking bug that could occur during “Escort Brugh to Morgan’s Spiral” in Caledon Forest.
  • Fixed a blocking bug in the event “Help the Priory return the energy core to the Henge of Denravi” in Brisban Wildlands.
  • The Priory Explorer Plinx event chain in Cursed Shore will now occur less frequently.
  • The event “Defend Rimtooth, the pack marmox, from dredge” in Diessa Plateau has been updated to avoid situations that could block progress.
  • Fixed a bug that would occasionally prevent the event “Return the stolen cattle to Stonefall Estate” in Diessa Plateau from starting.
  • Updated the “Royal Forum Waypoint” in the Straits of Devastation so players will no longer get stuck in nearby props.
  • Fixed two bugs that could prevent progress with the event “Cull the undead horde gathering outside of First Haven” in Gendarran Fields.
  • Fixed a bug that could prevent progress with the event “Protect krewe leader Dobbs as the krewe clears the excavation site” in Timberline Falls.
  • Fixed a bug that would allow the player to remain transformed after the event “Disguise yourself and gather special roots for Drysdan’s medicine” in Mount Maelstrom.
  • Fixed potential blocking bugs with the event “Help the Soundless villager return home” in Caledon Forest.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the spectral weapons from respawning in the Malchor’s Leap event “Defeat spectral weapons and bring them to Byanca.”
  • Fixed an issue that caused Ghostnight to become stuck on his path in the Diessa Plateau event “Defend Faint Ghostnight as he searches for a new devourer egg.”
  • Fixed an issue that was preventing Nia from continuing on her path in the Fields of Ruin event “Help Nia rescue Cymbel’s hounds.”
  • Fixed an issue that caused NPCs to become stuck while reviving allies in the Straits of Devastation event “Escort the northern invasion Pact squad to the Pact rally point at Triumph Plaza.”
  • Fixed an issue that could prevent the Straits of Devastation event “Help the Pact reach the Altar of Betrayal before their morale is depleted” from starting.

Story

  • The story step “The Hatchery” has been fixed to allow players to progress.
  • The story step “Source of Orr” has been fixed to prevent a possible blocking issue.
  • The story step “Estate of Decay” has been fixed to avoid a problem where allowing Hekja to die resulted in preventing progress.
  • The story step “Conscript the Dead Ships” fixed a possible blocking issue if you used movement skills to board the ships or talked to Jeyne while she was building the gangplanks.
  • The story step “The Stone Sheath” has been fixed for engineers that were previously unable to complete the quest.
  • The story step “Dredge Assault” now progresses correctly when destroying either door into the dredge cave.
  • The story step “Critical Blowback” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.
  • The story step “The Ghost Rite” has been fixed to avoid a problem where players were able to defeat the final boss too early.
  • The story step “A Light in the Darkness” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress, and the difficulty has been reduced.
  • The story step “Ships of the Line” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.
  • The story step “Trading Trickery” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.

Profession Skills
Elementalist

  • Ride the Lightning: This skill should now track moving enemies more reliably.
  • Magnetic Grasp: This skill should now track moving enemies more reliably and end correctly when you reach your target.
  • Evasive Arcana: This trait no longer creates unintended blast finishers.
  • Ether Renewal: This skill’s cast time has been reduced from 4.75 to 3.5 seconds. There is no change to the total amount of healing.
  • Healing Rain: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 6 seconds.
  • Armor of Earth: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 6 seconds.
  • Churning Earth: This skill’s description no longer references “hold and release.”
  • Signets of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water: These skills should now have a cast animation while wielding a Fiery Greatsword.
  • Ring of Fire: This skill on Conjure Flame now lists itself as a Fire combo field.
  • Dragon’s Tooth: The blast finisher for this skill now triggers at the spell location rather than the character’s location.
  • Magnetic Wave: This skill’s missile-reflect portion now has an accompanying icon.
  • Phoenix: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 5 seconds of vigor that this skill applies.
  • Blasting Staff and Geomancer’s Alacrity: These traits now work together for the Eruption skill.
  • Mist Form: This skill now works with the Water Magic trait Cantrip Mastery.
  • Soothing Wave: This skill now properly applies regeneration to the elementalist when using Conjure Frost rather than only when the bow is picked up.
  • Healing Ripple: This skill’s scaling with healing power has been reduced by 50% in PvP only, as it had scaling that’s normally reserved for main healing skills. The maximum number of targets has also been reduced from infinite to 5.
  • Obsidian Focus: This Earth Magic trait now grants toughness when channeling the Stone Shards skill.
  • Ice Spike: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct amount of vulnerability when traited.
  • Conjure Frost Bow’s Deep Freeze: This skill now applies 1 second of chill per pulse, preventing extreme stacking of chill on a target.
  • Conjure Frost Bow’s Ice Storm: This skill now applies 5 seconds of bleeding per hit instead of confusion.
  • Tidal Wave: This skill’s responsiveness has been improved.
  • Tornado: Leaving this elite skill now removes the stability it grants in order to make it consistent with other elite transformation abilities.
  • Vapor Form: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to contest a capture point.
  • Flame Axe: This weapon now grants the wielder power and condition damage.
  • Frost Bow: This weapon now grants the wielder increased condition duration and increased healing power.
  • Fiery Greatsword: This weapon now grants the wielder power and condition damage.
  • Magnetic Shield: This weapon now grants the wielder vitality and toughness.
  • Lightning Hammer: This weapon now grants the wielder increased precision and critical damage.

Engineer

  • Elixir
    • Elixir X: This skill now only requires one cast to transform the user.
    • Toss Elixir R: This skill’s recharge is increased from 85 seconds to 120 seconds.
    • Elixir S: This skill is now improved by the Alchemy trait Fast-Acting Elixirs.
  • Tool Kit
    • Box of Nails: This skill now shows its proper area of effect.
    • Gear Shield: This skill now blocks for an extra second.
    • Magnet: This skill’s range has been doubled.
  • Grenades
    • The projectile speed of all grenades has been increased by 10-15%.
    • Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only.
    • Shrapnel Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 15% in PvP only.
    • Freeze Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only.
    • Grenade Barrage: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only. It also now works correctly with the Explosives trait Grenadier while underwater.
  • Turrets
    • Smoke Screen: This skill’s graphic has been updated to show the area of the screen. It now pulses every 2 seconds for 6 seconds instead of every second for 5 seconds. This makes it more effective against enemies using attacks at normal speeds but prevents it from being abused to shut down quick-attacking enemies completely.
    • Automatic Fire: Increased the duration of this skill’s Overcharge by 100% on Harpoon Turret and 25% on Rifle Turret.
    • Electrified Net: Increased the velocity of the Electrified Net by 100%.
    • Thump: Increased the damage of the Overcharged attack by 25%.
  • Bomb Kit, Med Kit, Tool Kit, and Elixir Gun: These skills can now be equipped in the air.
  • All kits can be stowed in the air now.
  • Toss Elixir C: This skill’s cooldown will be set from 60 seconds to 30 seconds when underwater.
  • Elixir Gun’s Fumigate: This skill will now be cancelled when using other skills on the weapon to improve responsiveness.
  • Rocket Turret: This turret can now be detonated underwater.
  • Power Wrench: This trait now applies to Gear Shield and Magnet.
  • Incendiary Powder: This trait now states that it can only trigger once every 3 seconds.
  • Elixir U and Elixir C: These skills have had outdated skill facts removed.
  • Potent Elixirs: This skill no longer grants improper boon durations.
  • Elixir B: This skill grants fury, retaliation, and swiftness for 10 seconds base, with might being applied for 30 seconds base.
  • Smoke Bomb: This skill’s radius has been reduced to 180 from 240 when traited. Smoke Bomb is now active for 4 seconds, pulsing every 2. This change also affects the Autodefense Bomb Dispenser trait.
  • Homing Torpedo: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Retreating Grapple: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Timed Charge: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Net Wall: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Harpoon Turret: This turret will now spawn at the engineer when the Deployable Turrets trait is equipped.

Guardian

  • Protector’s Strike: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to be cancelled and retain the blocking benefits.
  • Shield of Judgment: This skill’s protection duration has been set to 3 seconds from 5 seconds in PvP only.
  • Courageous Return: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Power of the Virtuous: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Orb of Light: This skill’s velocity has been increased by 50%.
  • Empower: This skill’s might duration increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.
  • Selfless Daring: This trait had an efficiency with healing power that was reserved for healing skills only and has now been reduced to its intended level. Heal scaling has been reduced by 50% in PvP only.
  • Merciful Intervention: This skill has been updated to be instant when traited and will now always be based around the guardian.

Mesmer

  • Moa Morph: Targets transformed by this skill have 5 new and less-frustrating skills, and this skill can also be used underwater to turn enemies into tuna. This skill now removes Death Shroud from the target instead of the necromancer being stuck in Death Shroud.
  • Portal: This skill’s recharge has been increased to 90 seconds.
  • Illusionary Duelist, Phantasmal Swordsman, Phantasmal Mage, Phantasmal Defender, Phantasmal Disenchanter, Phantasmal Rogue, Phantasmal Warlock, Illusionary Mariner, Illusionary Whaler, Phantasmal Berserker, and Phantasmal Warden: These skills must now be cast in line-of-sight of the target. These skills now behave as normal attacks that the mesmer must connect in order to summon the phantasm, and they will fail if the mesmer is blind or the ability is cast on an invulnerable target.
  • Phantasmal Mage: This skill’s confusion has been increased to 3 stacks for 3 seconds from 1 stack for 9 seconds. The recharge on Phantasmal Mage’s skill has been increased to 6 seconds from 5 seconds.
  • The Prestige: This skill’s damage has been increased by 100%.
  • Phantasmal Haste: This trait now works.

Necromancer

  • The Soul Reaping trait line now properly increases maximum Life Force.
  • Ghastly Claws: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10% and updated to indicate the correct life force gained.
  • Reaper’s Touch: This skill applies 4 stacks of vulnerability per hit instead of 3.
  • Mark of Blood: This skill now uses the standard staff scythe cast effects.
  • Spectral Wall: This skill now applies its recharge at the correct time instead of both during and after casting.
  • Dark Path: This skill now applies it recharge at the correct time instead of both during and after casting.
  • Spinal Shivers: This skill’s casting effects and audio are now consistent with or without the Spiteful Talisman trait.
  • Soul Marks and Mark of Revival: These traits now work together to grant 3% life force to players when triggered.
  • Death Nova: This skill now properly activates when using Taste of Death and Putrid Explosion. The internal cooldown has been removed. This skill’s field duration is now 4 seconds, and the rate it pulses has been increased to every 2 seconds. Its poison duration is 5 seconds per pulse.
  • Weakening Shroud: This trait now functions underwater.
  • Mark of Evasion: This trait is no longer a blast finisher when the mark is created.
  • Plague Blast: This skill’s casting time has been reduced.
  • Death Shroud: Moa Morph now removes Death Shroud from the target instead of the necromancer being stuck in Death Shroud and using their entire bar while in the transform.
  • Deadly Catch: This skill now pulls enemies to the necromancer in a reliable fashion.
  • Summon Blood Fiend: The Blood Fiend’s survivability has been increased, and its attack now heals the necromancer for 200% of its previous heal.
  • Spectral Walk: This skill now sets its underwater slot appropriately on recharge.
  • Corrosive Poison Cloud: This skill’s duration tooltip has been corrected.
  • Frozen Abyss: This skill now lists the vulnerability it applies.
  • Spectral Grasp: This skill’s projectile velocity has been increased by 33%.
  • Lich Form: Leaving this skill now removes stability from the player to make the removal consistent with all other transform elites.
  • Feast: This skill no longer causes damage to the necromancer.
  • Sinking Tomb: This skill now has a correct range of 1200, cannot hit targets above the water, and has to hit the target to cause the sink effect.
  • Vampiric Precision, Vampiric Rituals, and Vampiric: These traits have been updated so that they don’t heal enemies when in lower-level areas.
  • Signet of Spite: This skill’s description now indicates all conditions applied.

Ranger

  • Improved the effect chance on ranger spirits to 35% base and 50% when traited.
  • Beastmastery minor traits now use the correct icon.
  • Splinter Shot: This skill’s damage is increased by 150%, and its bleeding duration is increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
  • Counterattack: The blocking portion of this skill can now be used while moving. Ranged attacks will not trigger the second half of the skill.
  • Protecting Screech: This skill now states the correct duration of 4 seconds.
  • Call of the Wild: The Wilderness Survival trait Off-Hand Training now applies to this skill.
  • Throw Torch: The speed of the projectile has been increased.
  • Maul: This skill’s damage has been increased by 40%.
  • Sun Spirit: The tooltip for this skill now displays the proper burning time of 3 seconds.
  • Whirling Defense: This skill was updated so that it interacts better with combo fields.
  • Splinter Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Coral Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Feeding Frenzy: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Mercy Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.

Thief

  • Piercing Shot: Fixed an error in this skill’s damage tooltip.
  • Dancing Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 50%.
  • Blinding Powder: This skill’s recharge has been reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds.
  • Smoke Screen: This skill’s height has been increased to help it absorb projectiles.
  • Shadowstep: This skill is temporarily disabled underwater to keep players from circumventing walls when using it.
  • Tactical Strike: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10% in all formats. This skill’s daze duration has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds in PvP.
  • Leeching Venoms: This trait now scales based on the thief’s power.
  • Cluster Shot: This skill’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP.
  • Cloak and Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.
  • Body Shot: This skill now allows players to activate other skills sooner after the ability ends.
  • Sneak Attack: This skill will now only apply the Revealed buff on the first attack that hits an opponent.
  • Stab: Damage for this skill has been normalized so that it doesn’t deal less damage from behind the target.
  • Bountiful Theft: This trait no longer applies aegis at odd times.
  • Scorpion Wire: This skill’s range has been increased to 1200.
  • Shadow Trap: This skill no longer shadowsteps the thief when the trap is triggered. This skill now has two additional abilities: The first ability becomes available when Shadow Trap is cast and will destroy the current trap. The second ability, Shadow Pursuit, becomes available when an enemy triggers the trap. The thief may choose to activate this ability and shadowstep to the enemy that triggered the trap. If this ability is not activated after 10 seconds, the ability will fade and Shadow Trap will be available.
  • Piercing Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Ink Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.

Warrior

  • Dual Shot: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10%.
  • Bull’s Charge: This skill’s range fact now properly reflects the actual range of the skill.
  • Reviver’s Might: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Stick and Move: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Forceful Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Brutal Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Split Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Knot Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Repeating Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Triple Chop: This skill’s responsiveness has been improved.

Racial Abilities
Human

  • Avatar of Melandru: This skill now properly removes stability when players leave the transformation.

Sylvari

  • Grasping Vines: This skill now immobilizes enemies when the vines connect with the enemy.
Filed Under: General News, Guild Wars 2 Tagged With:

Marvel Heroes Developer Diary: Story

November 14, 2012 by

You may or may not know that we follow the development of the Marvel Heroes MMO pretty closely as yours truly is a rabid Marvel fan (albeit a pre-2000’s Marvel fan as a general rule), as is my podcast co-host and contributing writer Simon. So it was great to see another Marvel Heroes update released giving some detail on the story behind the game.

There’s quite a few snippets in there that you can discover for yourself but I for one like the fact Doctor Doom is the key villain. The vid / diary was put together by IGN:

After watching this, it’s hard not be be excited about this game. That said, all developer diaries are designed to do just that and the proof is always in the final product. If I was going to make a criticism it’d be that some of the dialogue sounds a little bit cheesy – yes it’s based on the comics but even so there’s some rough spots there.

Overall though, I’m very very optimistic for Marvel Heroes: what about you?

Filed Under: General News, Marvel Heroes, Other Games Tagged With:

Guild Wars 2 Free Trial Info

November 8, 2012 by

Guild Wars 2 Free Trial InfoArenaNet have announced that they’ll be running a Guild Wars 2 free trial for friends of current players, between the 15th and 18th November. The details:

We want you to experience Guild Wars 2 and Lost Shores with your friends, so on Monday November 12, we will turn on Refer a Friend Free Trial. You will be able to invite up to 3 Friends to play Guild Wars 2 with you for free from November 15-18.

To do so, you need a Guild Wars 2 account in good standing that was created before 23:59 PST (7:59 GMT) on November 6.

We will give you more details once the program goes live, but start thinking about who you want to invite!

I’d imagine this will be a fairly successful campaign given the momentum Guild Wars 2 has built up: what do you think?

Filed Under: General News, Guild Wars 2

Darkfall: Unholy Wars – What Is It?

November 6, 2012 by

We’re pleased to have one our of readers, Dylan Underhill, write a guest post on Dark Fall: Unholy Walls. He’s part of the Harlequin guild – thanks Dylan! If you’d like to share your thoughts on an MMO you’re passionate about, drop us a line!

Darkfall: Unholy Wars is an open world MMO.  No rules, no theme park – it’s a single instance world, everyone shares it. Total sandbox.  There is no targeting system other than you aim and you kill.  It is a game of jerks, circle jerking and jerkwads.  Oh, forgot to mention – it’s full loot PvP with siege weaponry and big toys.

Darkfall: Unholy Wars

This isn’t a game for carebears.  Strange things happen to these wonderful creatures in Darkfall.  Scientist from all over the globe have come together to deduce how Darkfall differs from other games. They were able to come up with this simple formula for the layman:

Full loot PVP Sandbox you say?

That’s right adventurer!  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of a ‘sandbox’ MMO, a sandbox MMO is your typical MMO, but lacking a rigid structure.  Sure there are tools available to you, but at the end of the day you can do anything within the parameters of the game.  City building, raiding, mercenary work, city sieges, ship sieges, trading / merchanting – they’re all viable ways of playing the game. If you have the will, you could most probably accomplish it. The catch is, this isn’t a game that is easy to play solo.   Sure you can live your life on the sidelines or in the small scale, raiding, plunderering and pillaging at will, however, it takes a guild to build a city, an alliance of stout comrades to defend it and the resources, wit and ability to take one.

The rewards for taking a city in a game such as this, besides all the wonderful loot and plunder, along with the land, are the associated reputation and the fight. There is a certain satisfaction to be gained from this game as demonstrated by this infographic:

My mum told me this game had a grind

Your mother is a classy lady.  If she were talking about the original Darkfall, she would be 100% correct.  Aventurine has taken Unholy Wars in a direction similar to EVE Online.  They have a role system, which unlike its predecessor where you can level every skill and use them all at once (which led to people being almost required to level so many skills to be competitive).  In Unholy Wars, you can choose a role, which gives you the ability to use any of the available skills to that role.  These skills still require levelling, but there is not nearly as much required to max out a role versus its predecessor.

Furthermore, you can (almost – a limiting system is in place to stop it happening too frequently) freely swap between roles, so if you ever get bored of being a warrior and caving in skulls, swap it up and wear some robes for a bit.

TL;DR (typical!)

Being a heavily involved sandbox game, Darkfall is a great opportunity to join or create a tight-knit clan/community. The PvP players rely on the crafters, the crafters rely on the PvE players for materials, and the PvP players for protection, and the PvE players rely on the friendly PvP players for protection. It can certainly be played solo, but it will make life difficult..

It is also a great opportunity to get involved with other communities/clans via world politics. Meta Gaming is a huge aspect. You can become powerful through war, through the political propaganda machine, or through economic superiority. The choice is yours!

Filed Under: Darkfall, Other Games Tagged With: ,

World of Tanks Takes Out Best MMO Award

October 28, 2012 by

Congratulations are in order to World of Tanks team and players for winning the Golden Joystick Award 2012 for Best MMO beating League of Legends who came second, and Star Wars: The Old Republic who came third. You can watch the announcement here:

All World of Tanks players will now get the following bonuses as a reward, starting on November 2, 6:00 UTC till November 5, 5:30 UTC:

1. A bonus code, which will give you 3 days of Premium Account and additional premium consumables

2. High Tier vehicles discount (they will cost the same credits as their ‘predecessors’ in the Tech Tree). This will include:

*       Tier IX Medium Tanks

*       Tier IX Tank Destroyers

*       Tier IX Heavy Tanks

*       Tier VII Self-Propelled Gun Artillery

*       Tier VIII Premium Vehicles will receive a 15% discount!

*    x5 XP for 1st victory

*    50% Discounts on equipment

*    50% Discounts on garage slots

*    50% Discounts on crew (re)training

Again, congrats to the WoT team.

Filed Under: General News, World of Tanks

Blitzkrieg: New British Tier X Heavy FV215b

October 28, 2012 by

World of Tanks FV215b

Blitzkrieg is a new regular column devoted to the very popular MMO World of Tanks. If you’ve got a topic you’d like our resident expert Matthew “Scope” Pearce to cover, drop him a line!

G’day again folks, this week I’m going to take a look at some of the new British tanks coming out in the upcoming World of Tanks 8.1 patch that is currently on the test server.

Patch 8.1 brings the long awaited British tank tree that includes the medium and heavy tank lines to World of Tanks. Artillery and Tank Destroyers are being added in a later patch much like the French line was.

Today, let’s take a look at the new tier X British heavy tanks that the WoT team are bringing into the arena shall we?

The FV215b

The FV215b was a proposed plan for a heavy tank on the basis of the Conqueror Mk II, but unlike the Conqueror the FV215b featured a fear placement of the fighting compartment.

World of Tanks FV215b

Ok, so let’s talk about the most important part of this tank the Gun

The FV215b comes equipped  with the 120mm L1A1 – the same as the American T110E5 but with better accuracy aim time.  The most important aspect of all is its insane ROF (rate of fire).

The 120mm L1A1 on the FV215b can shoot 8 rounds a minute – this means the British FV215b is now the new king of DPM (damage per minute) in World of Tanks. Its DPM with 100% crew is sitting at 3300 dpm and going up to 3840 with gun rammer, vents and brothers in arms all equipped.

The 120mm L1A1 has 269mm of penetration as well as an accuracy of 0.32 at 100m with an amazing aiming time of only 1.7 seconds, along with the 410m view range that makes this tank an excellent sniper / support platform.

The FV215b has decent acceleration and at a top speed of 34 km with a vertical stabilizer equipped along with the snap shot and smooth ride perks, you can easily shoot accurately while on the move.

What about the armour?

The armour is where the FV215b lets us down with only 130mm of frontal hull armour as well as  the poor 51mm of side and rear hull armour.

The turret is not that much better either with only 152mm of frontal turret armour with the side being 89mm and rear 70mm

The FV215b is a squishy tank but you have 2600 hit points help make up for it and with patch 8.1 making gold rounds purchasable with credits, soon everyone’s armour will feel squishy but it sure would not hurt to be able to bounce a shot or two.

Is this tank Clan Wars worthy?

While the FV215b’s DPM and accuracy would be a great asset in Clan Wars I still believe that most clans will still choose other tanks over the FV215b due to its low armour which will be easily penetrated in 8.1 due to everyone and their dog slinging gold rounds around the place.

I think some clans may still use the FV215b  as a Tank Destroyer replacement  due to its high view range, accuracy, dpm and high health pool instead of trying to force it into the T110E5’s role. I guess we will have to wait and see after 8.1 hits the live servers to see if they are being used in Clan Wars.

 Summary

After spending a few days trying this tank out on the test server it leaves me with a weird feeling of uncertainty. On one hand the accuracy and dpm is amazing but on the other hand there’s the lack of any meaningful armour – this could be because everyone on the test server is using gold rounds. Even with gold rounds being acquirable with credits come patch 8.1, the FV215b still has me questioning if it is really worth the grind to get or is it worth waiting until patch 8.2 to see if they nerf / buff it.

Another part of me is thinking that I should just wait until the next German medium line comes out with the Leopard 1 MBT so  I could compare the two and pick the one I like more – but that’s because I would love to see some newer German tanks in the game like the other factions.

If I was forced to pick one thing about the FV215b that really makes the tank stand out I would have to say the 120mm L1A1 gun will 90% of the time seal the deal with people interested in a new tank. Even if it is just going to be used for pub stomping and not clan wars, the FV215b will be a beast to deal with in game.

 Over to you: do you intend on getting a FV215b come patch 8.1 or are you thinking of saving your free experience for something else?

Filed Under: General News, World of Tanks

GW2: Extra Halloween Goodies

October 25, 2012 by

GW2 HalloweenFor those of you well into the Halloween fun in Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet have posted a quick note saying there’s some extra goodies on the way:

Our Halloween celebrations are in full swing, costume brawls are aplenty and the Shadow of the Mad King is falling across Tyria. Because we are as excited as you are, we will add another opportunity for you to get shiny Halloween goodies.

You will be glad to hear that we are adding recipes to the Mystic Forge that will allow you to throw stuff you get from the Black Lion Chests into it to get a special Halloween chest (no key needed for this one). These chests will include Halloween specific loot and give you a second chance to get one of the terrifying, rare Halloween skins. Here is the recipe we will add:

You need 1 Candy Corn, 6 Mystery Tonics, 1 Boost (any), 1 Boost (any) to get a Mad King Chest.

We hope you like this gruesome addition, we will let you know immediately when they will be in the game – enjoy the celebrations!

And we’d love to hear from you: how are finding the Halloween event in Guild Wars 2?

Filed Under: General News, Guild Wars 2 Tagged With:
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