Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Seventh Edition - November 2011

RE-RUN: WoD Herald - Who wants to participate?

If anyone is interested in writing an article for the Herald, message me with your topic, and if it sounds fun, I'll invite you to wow me with your compositional competence!

Simply message me, Jasvyr, in WoD on Caledonii or Aberon to give it a shot! (No guarantee an article will be run, of course...the big guys upstairs have to approve and all...)

As always, happy dungeoneering!


Ravenfort Fair in Full Swing!

Sign up for everything!  As usual, this year for the Ravenfort Fair, we celebrate in numerous exciting ways!

  1. Balloon Popping!  Throw, shoot, or blast those balloons to win your prize!
  2. Fortune Telling!  Pick a number, any number!  Madame Uniana can tell your future with her magic tarot cards, and the ebst part is, you get to keep one (or two)!
  3. Golem Bouts!  Buff your rock-monster and watch him pound another rock monster into the ground!  Winner-take-all!
  4. Good-Old-Fashioned Fighting!  What better way to celebrate than to beat each other into unrecognizable pulps?  Sign up for the tournaments!
All interested can sign up for the events in the Tavern > Forums > Royal Marketplace > Ravenfort Fair.

You can sign up for the tournaments in the Arena.

Good luck, and have fun!


RE-RUN - Intra-Clan Leagues

What better way to show the close bond you've developed with your clan-mates than to brutally assault them on a semi-regular basis?

Sign up for a clan-league now with Hasta!


Caledonii League Run-Down - Groups - 2000

Believe it or not, The Heretics have done it again!  With Ignis breaking 300 consistently on cross-position magic attacks, they just couldn't be stopped, even by the Lucky XIII!  It seems no one can take the crown from this dominant group!

Rounding out the upper division, Lucky XIII and OOG's Revenge performed extremely well, beating out the rest of the competition.

Since The Twelve Warriors moved up into the top division, the top spot went back to Valor Friends, and The Body Snatchers maintained their second-place position yet again.

Congratulations to all our participants!


New World - WoD Revision

In a rare appearance to us little folk, the game administrator of the .net servers, Code_Red, (also known as Darkblade) has agreed to an interview regarding the up-and-coming changes we can expect in the next world in WoD!

Keep in mind, not all the changes are listed here, and anything that IS listed here may end up being revised, so nothing is totally set in stone just yet.

All the same, enjoy the interview, and hopefully you are all as excited about the potential the new world has as I am!

WH:  So, a new world (or reset) is going to drop sooner or later. Which is it? Sooner or later? What kind of general time frame can we expect on seeing the new digs?

DB:  I would love to say sooner, but we all remember what happened with the Caledonii launch, and I would like to avoid having that happen again if at all humanly possible. I want to personally make sure that this next world is solid and everything is in place and working before the players flood in.

WH:  This world is going to be rife with overdue changes, balancing, and some major overhauls. What are the biggest changes?

DB:  Where to begin... Overdue changes? I think that the fame titles and medal updates are significant. When you gain fame titles, you will be able to choose between the standard medals that we have all seen over the years, but now there will be racial and class based medals as well. These will push some of the crucial skills or abilities that pertain directly to your hero. This should give people a reason to actually want to gain fame. Recruiting, voting, etc for extra fame will finally have a good incentive bonus to it for the player, aside from the player base growth.

We will also see the addition of some new classes and races, and a change to how these are played in general. Also finally making its way into the game will be backpacks. The standard backpacks will directly influence how many pocket slots a player has. These standard backpacks are indestructable. Other unique packs will allow players to use the pack itself as a limited usage item for their trade skills. These packs will not be exempt from damage. Discovering just what is out there should really heat up the markets and trade forums or the "offers" area of the market.

WH:  So, class changes, huh? What's the goal here, and what will these changes look like? Will the builds we know and love disappear?

Some races and classes will be changed. There will now be 4 "free" classes, and 2 new premium races, as well as quite a few newer premium classes. Some builds, even those I myself am known for, will be replaced by new ones. The knife combat Juggler for example will fade into legend, and be replaced by the knife combat Rogue.

WH:  Can you break down one of the larger changes in more detail? For example, what can we expect the mage class to look like now?

DB:  There will be a few different types of mages now in fact. The free to play mage class will now be the Mages Apprentice class. These will have most of the features that the mage class has been known for in the past. Then there are 2 different premium mage classes. The mage, and the seer. Each of these is unique in its own way. For example the mage will focus on fire, ice and energy based attacks, but will also have some new options for spellcasting from scrolls. The seer will be somewhat similar, but will have a bit more power in elemental based magery.

WH:  What about races? Who's changing, why, and how?

DB:  The races themselves will not change too much, they will be joined by the new Sha-Jin and Half-Orc races.

WH:  Anything completely new?

DB:  Aside from the backpacks, there will be some restrictions on which classes can use certain types of weaponry or armor.

WH:  Just to put all this stuff into perspective for our readers, how much time and effort went into all these changes? Do the designers get a decent paycheck at the end of all this?

DB:  Tell me more of this.. "pay" of which thou speaketh... Seriously though, this has all been work done freely by designers on their own free time. The only thing we can do to say thank you is reward them with free premium time, or a monthly sapphire bonus. This sapphire bonus is not limited to designers though. As most players know, Textmasters, Greasemonkey Coders and other players who help the community in general also receive decent sapphire rewards for their time and efforts.

WH:  Any closing comments, anything else you'd like to mention about the changes that I've missed?

DB:  I would love to discuss the changes in length, but I think with the new information made available, there will be a lot of new questions to answer soon. I would like the new players as well as the old players to have a new sense of discovery with the new systems and changes being put into place.


The Herald Wants YOU!

Got an interesting build you'd like to share?  An idea you want to get out there?  Too much bundled up creativity and no outlet?  The Herald is looking for interviewees.  To sign up, send a message to Jasvyr and shout your glorious information to the world (figuratively...there's no yelling allowed in journalism...)!!!  Seriously, message me in game, I want to interview you (assuming you have something even REMOTELY interesting to say)!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Sixth Edition - October 2011

Herald's Sixth Run - Who wants to participate?

Well, sixth issue, pretty much business as usual now.  It's been a half a year since I started running the Herald, and now it's time to expand!  If anyone is interested in writing an article for the Herald, message me with your topic, and if it sounds fun, I'll invite you to wow me with your compositional competence!

Simply message me, Jasvyr, in WoD on Caledonii or Aberon to give it a shot! (No guarantee an article will be run, of course...the big guys upstairs have to approve and all...)

As always, happy dungeoneering!


Upcoming - Nemean Festival

Heroes, prepare yourselves!  The Nemean Festival is up and coming!  Expect it in the next month or so, with unique items and equipment, and potentially some awesome hero-on-hero competition, provided by your friendly local Colosseum Administrator!

Details are forthcoming!


RE-RUN - Intra-Clan Leagues

Do it.  You know you want to!  Who's the best one on one fighter in your clan?  My clan knows.  Does yours?

I promise, it's easy to run and worth the time.


Caledonii League Run-Down - Groups - 2000

It's official, The Heretics are at the top of the groups league!  This time, though, the Warriors of Kesmet didn't participate in the league, so there's a certain air of conspiracy completely-made-up-by-the-author-of-this-article* amongst the groups.

Once again The Heretics dominated the top league, not even dropping a single match against the top groups in Caledonii!  Yet again, quite the tour de force by the group, with strong performances by Ignis and Finmall

The second division of the groups league saw a small change-up of the leaderboard, with The Twelve Warriors taking the top spot from Valor Friends, and The Body Snatchers maintaining their second-place position.

Congratulations to all our participants!

*ADJECTIVES ADDED IN FOR ACCURACY BY WoD STAFF


Winning Every Duel Ever

Please enjoy this interview with Dwargon of The Heretics. While some newer players or lower level players may not know him, those of us who have been around since the start of the world know him as "that guy who always beats me at duels".  Lots to learn from him here!

WH: First of all, what made you think of building your knight? Social attacks aren't always what people think of when talking about a knight.

D: It all started with my old rager barbarian and how helpless he was against debuffers, not to mention the item damage he received in dungeons. I wanted to make a unique, universal defensive build that could challenge anyone. I chose Order of Lion knight because he had everything i needed. Talent: Gallant helps against opponents with high social defense, but i don't have to use it very often. Talent: Steadfast is very important, majority of duelists are melee attackers and this is one of the best defensive skills against them. I used it in my first pre-round until just recently. Talent: Convincing Smile is my cherry on the top. A very strong debuff that i use as my first action. Another reason why I chose a knight is a good selection of items. Seal of the General of Nahkpur, brass brush and many others allow me to raise my social skills to high levels; he also has a good selection of armors for both defense and offense, but they aren't exactly suited for this build. I'm using several pieces with maluses to Dodge Blow and initiative. The last reason was that I like unique builds and I haven't seen many social knights around. In fact, I think that I'm still the only Order of Lion knight on Caledonii.

WH: Your knight is designed, more or less, to shut down the opponent entirely. Is that sort of build possible with other classes?

D: I think it's doable with many other classes, definitely with those that have Throw Net. There are also very strong items for skills like Amulet of Weakness or Ancient Wisdom (offensive) - amulet of agony/bone staff of the troll shaman being the best examples, but it's generally harder to make an effective build with focus on those skills. You need to be fast enough to debuff your opponent and strong enough to withstand or avoid a few hits. That's often the hardest part.

WH: How do you balance your emphasis on strong social attacks with being effective in a dungeon (for readers who might not be aware, many enemies in dungeons are immune to social attacks, limiting a social build's use to a group in dungeons)? What skills do you use that translate in both places?

D: Before i joined my group i told them what kind of knight i want to play. It's best to clear thing out at the beginning, it's not a good thing to pour hundreds of thousands of EP into social and defense skills when everyone expects you to raise leadership skills. It also helped that i played a second pure support hero in the group.
At the beginning i thought that there would be a few dungeons where I could be useful with my social attacks, but in reality, those skills were totally useless. At least that was the case with my build. I'm also a decent attacker, so with a poison coated Skalantie the dusk blade in my hands and a lecture from our scholar in my head, it's almost a sin not to attack. Dead monsters can't kill you, not to mention that debuffs must hit first and you need to be really fast which is not my case. Most common monsters aren't worth the trouble and when it counts, they are either immune or have such high social defense that even mockery bard would have a hard time. Of course I also have a few skills to help my group. Captain is always above master rank as i use it in duels against armored opponents and archers. It's my default pre-round skill in dungeons. I also raised Field Marshall and Vassals Loyalty when needed. With bonuses from items and other skills, they can be on a decent level without going past the master rank.

WH: I've started to see some people finally able to challenge you in duels recently; it seems your debuffs help, but don't COMPLETELY shut down opponents anymore. Do you see a natural fall-off for debuffs in the game currently, or did you just change your build around?

D: My opponents got better. While I have to spend my EP in many different areas, fast attack builds just have to concentrate on attack and initiative, plus some decent hp. It's only natural that they act first and often score a hit. My gear is heavily focused on melee defense, so it's not THAT uncommon that I dodge the first hit, but they have the upper hand there. If they can take me down with two hits, it's problematic for me and that's the case here. They have quite a high damage so they just need to get a lucky second shot - either by getting a very high attack roll or a very low defense roll on my side. The same can also happen with initiative. Mostly I get to act before their second action, but sometimes they get two actions before i can even debuff them and that's trouble. If I get to my second action, it's over. It's still probably possible to hit me, but I've never lost a duel versus a melee opponent when I got that far. The following debuffs and buffs on my side are just to make sure they don't have even the slightest chance to hit me. So the duel is usually decided after our second actions. I wondered why I constantly beat them before, even though their builds should have won at least some of the duels. That's what's happening now, the differences in our rolls got bigger and I'm starting to lose some of the duels, but that's how it should be. I think I still have the upper hand, not to mention they have problems against many builds that I can deal with. And then there are archers and ranged hunters. I have to knock them out before they defeat me and it isn't that easy, even with Alawins ring of agility. I also have to prepare for a duel against them so it's normal to lose some of these duels too every now and then.

WH: What other interesting, and potentially rare, builds are there out there? Any other ways players can take a fresh approach to an old class and try to make it new and exciting?

D: I think there are still many unique duel builds out there that can be deadly in the right hands. There are many new combinations thanks to the new grafting system and the reworked classes could also offer new options in the next world. You can make a similar debuffing build to mine with a brawling gladiator or a juggler. Especially juggler can be very versatile as he has access to many strong skills, items and debuffs. I've been thinking about one for the next world - dexterity based with focus on Use Throwing Weapons and nets. People usualy go for agility with this build so it could be interesting. Another build i've been thinking about is a Demosan priest. I did some math on his skills and he could be a real killing machine at higher levels, although you'll have to sacrifice defense, especially against ranged opponents, which also means nets. So he probably won't be as versatile as other builds and his damage won't be that great, which is also a problem against armored opponents.  But, he could be very fast, maybe even the fastest, with a good amount of HP and actions. Then there's the drifter. Not many people play him, but he can be made into an excellent duelist. A duel bard is also a very unique and versatile class with good buffs, debuffs and healing. He can be fun to play in the right hands. When making these builds, it's important to know what you're doing. Plan your skills, find suitable items and make some basic calculations to see what you can expect at the end. It's not a good thing to blindly build your hero as you go, not knowing what skill or items you want to use only to find out that you're useless or that you can't raise even half the skills you wanted.

The Herald Wants YOU!

Got an interesting build you'd like to share?  An idea you want to get out there?  Too much bundled up creativity and no outlet?  The Herald is looking for interviewees.  To sign up, send a message to Jasvyr and shout your glorious information to the world (figuratively...there's no yelling allowed in journalism...)!!!  Seriously, message me in game, I want to interview you (assuming you have something even REMOTELY interesting to say)!