Yearly Archives: 2012

TERA: For the Federation 2 – Idle Hands

TERA: For the Federation 2 – Idle Hands

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

 

 

 

 

My eyes began to grow heavy as my Pegasus continued soaring over the endless blue ocean and cloudy skies. I had found sleeping nigh impossible within the confining walls of Velika. The forests I had known for so many years were suddenly replaced by concrete walls that stretched taller than trees and blocked out just as much sunlight. Rather than rabbits and squirrels scurrying about the ground, far more pestilent merchants rushed to my side at every corner attempting to sell me a new set of earrings or perhaps a new gauntlet. All useless rubbish of course. Some discarded adventurer’s loot being marked up to unheard of prices so they could pawn if off on unsuspecting foreigners like myself. Who knows how the humans and Federation Elites put up with that miserable city. As I ran over the countless ways in which Pora Elinu would make a superior capital of the Federation, my eyelids finally gave way, and I fell into a deep sleep.



My dreams were serene at first, at least in comparison to my waking nightmare in which I constantly imagined my family dying to the blade of a blood thirsty demon. Again and again I dreamed of the Letter of Marque I had burned behind the queen’s back. I saw visions of her frantically sending out guards in search of me and then retiring to her quarters to meditate. I imagined battling great demons, cutting them down one after another with my superior skills. Finally I witnessed a parade in my honor as I returned a hero, with Wulynn and Surmun waving beside me. The queen stood far above the crowd on her palace perch, looking on proudly as her own Popori attendant had grown from a simple housekeeper to a hero of her people.

 

 

I awoke abruptly with a shock followed by a cold shiver down my spine. It was one of those strange dreams where you quickly forget the details upon waking, but know something important is left out of the details. Why did I feel so uneasy.. Samael. His eyes flashed through my mind, cold as ice and yet burning with some kind of unholy passion. I had only met him once during our expedition briefing, but his cold unfeeling tone left an unnerving impression that now had even infiltrated the subconscious of my dreams. I savored the thought of returning to Pora Elinu and not having to deal with career military types like him ever again.

 

Fadora the archer daydreams of Island of Dawn’s treasure

 

Much to my displeasure we were still a few minutes out from the island. I eavesdropped in on a pair of nearby expedition members hotly debating whether treasure hunting or adventure was the primary reason for volunteering on this trip. I scoffed at both motivations but had nothing better to do than join in. The Castanic was a female native of the capital Castanica named Fadora, and her family lineage went back many generations to the War of the Rose. The Popori, who refused to reveal his real name and simply insisted I call him Platy, was obviously a foreigner (I personally had seen to ensuring few natives embarked on this mission after all). He carried the markings of a raccoon, but his fur was tinged blacker than most, leading me to believe he had spent quite a deal of time in the deserts of Southern Shara. I figured it would be good to have some close allies at my side once we reached the cursed island, so I introduced myself and explained my situation.

 

Platy the mystic entertaining the troops

 

Our conversation was abruptly interrupted by the shout, “There it is! The Island of Dawn!” The announcement was made by my platoon’s first sergeant, who was literally on the edge of his seat and dangerously close to falling from his mount as he shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun, taking in the beauty of the scene before us. At first I could hardly bring myself to look, imagining all the horrors Wulynn and Surmun had surely suffered there. However riding a Pegasus blind is not advised and out of caution I finally forced myself to look ahead at this horrible cursed…. island paradise?



Before me floating amongst the clouds was the most beautiful tropical island I had ever laid my eyes upon, even within the royal library’s books. The obvious centerpiece, a massive tree, carried thousands of pink leafed branches stretching from one horizon to the other. The ground was covered in soft shades of green as smaller trees and grass swayed gently in the wind. Multiple piglings scurried about amongst the Norak beasts that peacefully grazed the endless fields. This didn’t seem real. This didn’t make sense. What was going on?!



Upon landing I immediately rushed to the central tree where the Federation had set up a basic base camp. I questioned Tribune Adria about the status of the island but was immediately dismissed as an over eager green recruit trying to make a good impression with my supervising officer. Despite my protests she passed me off to Adjutant Jorhop for assignment. Normally I would have pulled rank on her and demanded a status report, but this wasn’t an option. The queen’s message of my treason had undoubtedly reached Velika by now, and it was only a matter of time before head hunters would arrive to drag me back to Pora Elinu to face sentencing. I had to work fast and knew earning Adria’s trust was the fastest way to get to Elleon’s brother Leander, one of the few survivors of the Dawn Massacre crazy enough to have stayed behind to set up camp.

 

Leander pondering the situation at base camp

 

Turns out the Federation had other plans for me and my motley Popori and Castanic crew. Day 1 we were ordered to route a band of Ghilliedhus, trees brought to life by the magic of the rifts. These in particular held so little magical charge that they often would fall to pieces tripping over their own feet from a stiff stare of one of our soldiers.



Day 2 was an exercise seemingly designed to test my patience, as we wasted military issued bombs blowing up test dummies and breaking useless mud piles apart with our pick axes to learn the ways of mining ore. How green were the troops they assigned to this mission?

 

I declare you my Island of Dawn rival. The first to find Wulynn wins silly rabbit!

 

Day 3 was the breaking point for me as I was ordered to tend a fire at base camp until ‘I felt well rested.’ Once I reluctantly admitted that I was in such a state I was asked to climb the tallest mountain on the island to pick a flower. The reasons behind this were unknown but Platy complained during dinner that he had been forced to climb the tallest mountain to plant some native root. The same plant I had pulled from the peak and nearly died carrying back down earlier in the day. In hushed tones I whispered to Fadora and Platy telling them to meet at my cot at 24:00 hours. Every day wasted lowered the chances of finding my family alive and I wasn’t about to spend another sun cycle playing boot camp with my inferior superior officers.



24:00 was downtime for our platoon, which was conveniently stationed at the southern side of the great tree. I and Platy were assigned to keep watch that night for fear of wild piglings interrupting Adria’s beauty sleep. We reported in as the last sergeant turned in for the night. We immediately met up with Fadora and set out towards the forbidden east side of the island. First stop? The wreckage of the Audacious along the eastern shoreline. As we clambered over the increasingly rough terrain it became clear there was a sharp contrast in the natural order of the plain. At one point, Platy the mystic was so overwhelmed by the pressure in the air that he froze in place… at least until Fadora pulled his tail to wake him from his delusions.



“If my greed for treasure gets me killed, I need to know I have a mystic at my back to keep me from going into the light,” she joked.



Neither of us chuckled at the concept and the mood of the party quickly worsened. We tread carefully from that point on as neither Norak nor Pigling called this part of the island home. Instead starving two headed cougars seemed to prowl in the shadows, eying us for a moment of weakness with their calculating yellow eye slits.

 

 

Despite our eerie journey we arrived at the ghost ship rather uneventfully. We split up to explore the ship as quickly as possible and get back to camp if no clues were found. I already hoped to return to my warm cot as the fear of demons imposed on me just as strongly as the fear of discovering the fate of Wulynn or Surmun. As I climbed through a porthole blown wide open by a backfired cannon, I heard rustling within the ship. I extended my lance and lifted my shield and peered around the corner only to find an unlit aisle with open doors on both sides, no doubt the former location of the sleeping quarters.



I tip toed down the hall as stealthily as one adorned in heavy armor could, then slowly moved my right eye to the peephole in the door. I was met with a clear blue eye staring back at me, and before I could raise my shield I found the solid normetal forged door slam into me face first. I fell to the ground in a thud along with the rusted door as the clang of metal on metal echoed throughout the ship. I was comforted to know that I just had to hold out until my allies arrived, assuming they weren’t already half way back to base camp running like cowards. I immediately attempted to crawl to my training lance but felt the sharp pinch of a staff placed on the back of my neck just before I could grasp the mechanical handle.



“Turn over and state your purpose,” boomed the clear articulate sounding Elven voice.



I rolled over to find myself face to face with none other than Leander, Elleon’s brother and head of the Island of Dawn research and archeology team. Not seeing a reason to lie, I went against my natural instinct as a Popori and spoke the truth.



“I’m here to find the truth about Elleon… and the fate of two of his soldiers,” I stammered.

 

 

“Then we haven’t much time. You’re a brave one for meddling with a conspiracy that could shake the very foundation of the Federation. On your feet Popori,” spoke Leander as he forcefully dragged me to my feet, thrusting my shield back into my open paw. I looked to the porthole to see a lightly tanned Castanic female warrior, eyes narrow and face emotionless, holding Platy and Fadora tightly by their shoulders. I knew then I was no hero. My silly attempt at independence was going to get us all killed!

Requiem Scares Up Two Contests

Requiem Scares Up Two Contests

 

Requiem

 

Gravity Interactive, a publisher of exciting MMORPGs, today launch two simultaneous contests for the browser version of their popular dark-fantasy MMO title, Requiem, which players can now enjoy right in their web browsers courtesy of the Kalydo service. Players both new and old have the opportunity to win some of the sweetest prizes yet on the official website.

 

 

Whether beginning a new character or already an established player, Gravity has a treat in store for you. All users will be treated to a 40% EXP bonus when logged in using the web client or the full client. This bonus stacks will all premium items including pets and scrolls for the biggest boon found in Requiem yet! Use this time to build your character, preparing for the PVP sweepstakes. Win up to three entries into a drawing for a $100 Amazon.con gift certificate.

 

Requiem

 

One does not simply retire from Requiem. All inactive characters will be welcomed back with open arms, and their own competition. Go hunting for loot in Nightmare Crescent to gather the ingredients for crafting new Nightmare Accessory Sets. Collect from two to eight of these coveted components for a chance to win prizes including gaming gear, WP (WarpPoints), and other in-game items!

 

 

All players should keep their eyes peeled for GMs during the Hide and Seek event. Snap a screenshot beside any of the GMs, post it on the Requiem Facebook page, to win 500 WP and 5 Gift Boxes. Then join with three allies for the 4 vs. 4 Battlefield Tournament, open to all characters level 69 and above.

C9 $10,000 Tournament Accepting Final Registrations

C9 Opens Final Registration for its $10,000 Tournament

 

 

WEBZEN Inc. has announced the finale of the Tournament Registration Test for their Action RPG ‘C9 (Continent of the Ninth Seal)’ and has begun preparation for the first Global PVP Tournament.

 

 

On May 6th, the C9 Tournament Registration Test had come to an end after a month of non-stop action. Now is the chance to jump into the action as well as registrations will be accepted for the next test until May 9th.

 

 

The online tournament that starts on May 16th will determine the final top 2 qualifying teams that will head on to Los Angeles where the first official offline tournament finals will be held. Only one team will be victorious and win a grand prize of $10,000.

 

 

Currently among the registrations, there are many teams with diverse backgrounds. Some have experience in other competitive tournaments, while others are e-sports teams from ESL, or guilds from other well-known MMORPGs, masters of action games, and more. However, all have one thing in common; the goal to win the final grand prize.

 

 

Jihun Lee, Head of Global Publishing, said, “During the 2012 C9 Championship Final, the producer and developers of C9 will join us to add to the excitement.” Also he said, “We hope to see many participants for online tournament that will build the excitement for the finals in June.

 

 

Meanwhile, C9 will have its Final CBT during the online tournament and reveal the new class, Berserker. The Berserker is an advanced class from the elite fighter branch and brings to the table the highest dps output of any fighter class by wielding impressive two handed weapons.

OverPowered: The Middle and Continuity

OverPowered: The Middle and Continuity

By Jonathan Doyle (Ardua), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

Hello and welcome again to a special opinion editorial on OnRPG. I’d call it OverPowered, but that’d be silly.

 

 

Previously I hopped up on my soapbox to talk about The End. The end of Mass Effect 3 and endings generally in the lifetime of the games we play. This time around, I’d like to talk about the middle of the story. Yes it amuses me to be talking about the structure of a story in reverse, but hopefully at the end, if we end with the beginnings of stories, it will all make sense.

 

 

So, onto the meaty matter at hand. The middle of stories. The ever-present now in which we play.

 

 

For some people, this is going to be a complete non-issue. You play your mmos your way. Indeed there is no entirely wrong way to play an MMO, in terms of achievement. The goals you set yourself are the goals that keep you playing. Sometimes they are roleplay stories; sometimes they are getting to the end of a raiding treadmill and having the best gear in the game. Other times they are simply being the best pvper or perhaps even just wasting time in a mildly distracting online world.

 

 

Whatever your reason, for a decent number of you, the world itself does in some way matter. There are so many shared mechanics and tropes between the various online worlds available to us all that to be perfectly honest, there aren’t many major breaks from the genre as a whole. Don’t get me wrong, there are some stand out stand alone games out there that do some or all of its mechanics, setting and gameplay different to everyone else, but for the most part our online worlds are broadly similar.

 

 

That contributes to it being a genre after all. First Person Shooter games are broadly similar across the board but don’t let that sound like I’m saying every Call of Duty is the same as Battlefield.

 

 

What separates those two examples, and in fact the genre games as a whole is a mix of mechanics and story. The mechanics, well we would be here for hours upon hours if we were to tease apart the nuance of every game’s engine that is out there and how they are applied differently. That doesn’t even include upcoming systems like Storybricks. We’re here to talk about stories, and the middle of them.

 

 

A persistent world is exactly that. Persistent. You don’t load the opening chapters any more than you use level skips to bounce to the end and complete something quickly. The world is more or less the same as when you left it and always will be barring patches.

 

 

The Azeroth of today doesn’t look like the Azeroth of two years ago, but it does look like yesterdays. The changes made were given a proper story rationale, a proper story setting and allowed to play out. You yourself may have missed it, but it is a chapter of history now for World of Warcraft.

 

 

History is important after all, if there is no sense of continuity, no sense of belonging to a world you are playing in, why would you keep playing? Some of us mark that continuity through gear, others through friends. Some of us mark it through the events that unfold as the game continues to live. Story is a binding force, keeping us with the game as it unfolds to some climax. However, not everyone plays at the same speed or in the same fashion, so we in our persistent online worlds find ourselves suffering under another general trope, one familiar to comic book readers. The Status Quo is God.

 

 

The problem with everything, barring patches and expansions, always being the same …. is exactly that. Everything is the same. How often can you eat the same sandwich before you crave something, anything, different? It is in every game’s interest to keep us eating that same sandwich but to make sure that we never hunger for anything else. Patches and expansions are the spice that shakes that up. Changes the tempo and keeps us interested.

 

 

But what happens when the story becomes muddled?

 

 

No problem there in World of Warcraft generally speaking. Deathwing got mad, Azeroth got a makeover. No problem in RIFT; Ascended heroes killed Greenscale and Akylios with accompanying events to mark their passing. Sure if you personally have never gone on that raid you still can, but the canon, the official story is that they are dead and time has moved on. Continuity is maintained and the world is better for it.

 

 

However. There’s always a however. Cataclysm was a clean break. A RIFT update is a clear progression of time. Events like these in any game are well understood and accepted. However what happens when you don’t go for the clean break? What happens when for whatever reason, be they resources, money or time, you drag out the alteration of your game?

 

 

In this I have my sights set squarely on City of Heroes.

 

 

The ever present now of Paragon City is becoming snarled and complicated. Statesman is alive! Oh wait, now that you’re level 2, he’s dead. Skyway, Steel Canyon and Kings Row are all destroyed quite violently! Only they aren’t. No where is that more glaring an issue than in the Sutter Task Force where one zones from a wrecked and ruined Skyway into a pristine (relatively speaking) one. This pattern is continuing in the future. Issue 23 is coming, Praetoria is being evacuated! Except it’s also still there and business as usual. This isn’t simply an issue of quest chains painting different pictures of the time at hand, this is one of the game mechanics reflecting one reality while the story isn’t yet showing the same. The mechanics and updates to make City of Heroes sexy, vibrant and still popular after so many years are starting to disagree with the stories being written. If all you ever do is raid in a game, you probably think I am making a mountain out of a molehole. Perhaps I am. In this day and age where we demand more polish, more expertise and more… more from the games we are being given, is it all that bad to want a coherent picture of events as my character and I experience them?

 

 

There’s really only one hope if this gets worse.

 

 

After all we already accept that certain tropes are in force. There’s clearly only one saving grace for a continuity snarl, and to be honest a comic book super hero game is the best place to try it. It’s time to pull a Batman, pull a Superman, pull a Marvel Ultimates. It’s time for an infinite crisis on infinite instances. It’s time for a reboot.

MEAD: Communication

MEAD: Communication

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

Have you ever played a game where the dev team was held up on a pedestal, unreachable to all the little players and communication was something they knew nothing about? Well that isn’t RIFT. When something goes wrong they make sure everyone knows about it right away. When events are organized by the community team they’re actually there with us. Even when that means staying awake for 24 hours for charity. We are a community and that extends beyond what it normally means in the MMO world.

 

 

Sometimes things go wrong. Just yesterday we were told that two things the community had been looking forward to were going to have to be postponed. The raiding community had been looking forward to Laethys being unlocked. She was scheduled to be unlocked today. And while yes, some people had babysitters set up and others took the day off from work for it, things happen. Trion let us know it wasn’t going to happen. They even went so far as to say it wouldn’t be this weekend instead of saying it would be coming “Soon” and leaving people hanging. Another disappointing postponement announced yesterday was that the week long community campout event would have to be put off until another time. I was quite looking forward to the event personally and had intended to write about it for this week’s article. I’m still looking forward to it even if it has to be put off and I know the event will still be just as awesome when we do get it. When Trion wanted extra time with 1.8 to make sure it was perfect they extended one of the stages of the 1.7 event to give themselves more time. But most importantly they admitted that was what they were doing.

 

When the shards are being brought down there is always warning and plenty of it. Typically the day before there is an announcement made on the forums. Then a reminder the next day well in advance ending with a countdown. But the communication doesn’t stop there. An estimated time for the servers to come back up is always posted. And if they haven’t been brought up by then an announcement is made on the forums. Even if things have gone well they keep us updated. They let us know when the servers are coming back on and when they’re unlocked. To me this entire process is the best example of how well Trion communicates with the players. It is where we get most of our communication from since it is a fairly regular occurrence.

Things don’t need to be going wrong for us to hear from someone at Trion. The name of my column comes from a community event where several devs were in attendance. Walsingham, the assistant community manager made his love of mead quite well known throughout the 24+ hour long gaming marathon. The devs are also quite active on the forums. Not just answering questions but interacting, talking to people. That’s not even mentioning the fun little community events like the community trivia contests.

But you know, communication isn’t just about the devs, the support structure has a lot to do with it too. A couple of weeks ago I was riding around Iron Pine Peak and picked up some much lower level potions that were of no use to me. Now I was out in the middle of nowhere collecting artifacts and these things were taking up precious bag space. I could have kept them and sold them for the little bit they’re worth but that would have taken away from my artifact collecting. So I tossed them. Click, drag to emptiness, confirm destroying it, goodbye health potion.

 

Repeat, only this time instead of getting rid of that annoying mana potion I accidently got rid of my staff I got for defeating the creature in the level 50 Meridian ceremony where you become planar attuned! I was crushed! Quickly I started researching, could I earn it again? Websites didn’t say. I asked the 50 channel, I couldn’t get the quest again! Depression was setting in. Such an awesome staff and I lost it. I stood around for a solid hour feeling sorry for myself. Then I decided to contact a GM. I knew it was a longshot and I figured they would likely laugh in my face and tell me I was a moron. I waited around a few minutes to see if I would get a reply right away. When I didn’t I just logged off and had a good mope. Just when I had started to think it was final I got an email from Trion account services! My staff was restored! I wanted to reach through the computer and kiss GM Wedge. Of course I got a warning to be more careful, and a reminder that they can’t always restore items for me. But this was my first experience with needing a GM. And I’ve never heard anything but praise anytime anyone has had to have something taken care of.

 

Trion has done a lot of things right in the year that RIFT has been live. Communication and community being number two. (Awesome new content on an insane timescale is number one.) They’re easy to talk to, passionate and understanding when people do stupid things. They’re swift to take care of problems and make sure the players are always in the loop. Other studios could learn a lot from them. Thank you for being awesome Trion!

Heroes of Newerth: A Freeze is Coming

Heroes of Newerth: A Freeze is Coming

By Jon Thorp (Speedohdk), OnRPG HoN Specialist

 

 

 

Editor’s Note: Abubakr has been reassigned to other pending projects. Speedohdk will be taking up the banner of providing Heroes of Newerth coverage in his place. Enjoy his first column reviewing Ellonia!

 

 

 

 

With Heroes of Newerth‘s patch 2.5.21 comes the release of the highly anticipated Ellonia, an intellect teamfight oriented hero based around her extremely short cooldowns and large aoe (but high mana cost) abilities. The range on her abilities gives her the power to be a large threat and have a strong presence in the game even if played as a support role; but in this review we will be looking at her from the eyes of a solo / carry / ganker / initiator role (since those are the playstyles I have been most known for).

 

 

Nearly all of Ellonia’s abilities are skill shot and combo based, giving her a high skill cap yet still being accessible and enjoyable to newer less experienced players due to the extremely short cooldown of her abilities. To fully understand what I mean by this, we will need to take a close look at her skills and analyze how each of them will synergize with each other.

 

 

 

Glacial Spike: This ability is the bread and butter of Ellonia, being both her most reliable nuke and longest range spammable spell. Early game glacial spike has to be used selectively because of both the cost of the ability and her low starting mana pool (luckily she has an unbelievable int gain of 3.2 per level). Every landed glacial spike applies 5 charges of frosted, slowing the target’s movement speed by 10% and slightly increasing the stun duration and damage of flash freeze. Mid and late game after Ellonia’s tremendous int gain has kicked in this ability can be used fairly often to both nuke down creep waves and harass or set up kills. With good aim you can make incredible use of this ability’s cooldown and continue snaring a target and applying more and more stacks of frosted while doing a large amount of damage from 1000+ units away.

 

 

Frigid Field: Also having a 2 second cooldown, when used properly in combination with glacial spike Ellonia can completely shut down a team’s movement speed while at the same time doing a tremendous amount of AoE damage. This ability must always be used carefully though because the max range is much shorter than glacial spike and can put her in danger of being caught by a stun or ultimate if not used at the right times.

 

 

Flash Freeze: Being her only targeted ability, flash freeze may ironically be her most difficult skill to use correctly. Because of the nature of how frosted charges add damage and stun duration to flash freeze, people naturally want to stack up a bunch of charges before casting this ability to have the greatest effect. Using this ability though almost always requires a full commitment(or kill attempt)because of the 500 max range putting you dangerously close to one or multiple enemies who would be delighted to kill you in 3 spells. Ideally flash freeze should only be used after absolute zero is cast because of the speed it applies large amounts of frosted, but more often than not it is more important to use a flash freeze with just a few charges of frosted to get a nice ultimate off. Knowing when to use flash freeze on the target is the most difficult part of Ellonia but should come naturally with practice.

 

 

Absolute Zero: And now we reach our most exciting ability, the reason people both love and hate Ellonia! Absolute Zero is cast in a way similar to how frozen orb works for sorcerers in diablo2. The closer you are to the center of this ability when hit, the more damage will be dealt to you. So that means in teamfights you should wait until an ally uses a stun or other crowd controlling ability/ultimate to hold someone still and then go bananas with absolute zero and frigid field and glacial spike until your entire screen looks like Antarctica!

 

 

Ellonia making use of the large range of glacial spike

 

Here we can see Ellonia making use of her ability to harass from afar even though she is a level under wretched hag. If this hag were to try and turn around and fight me with the 60% health she has I would likely be able to burst her to death in the time my stun gives me from the frosted already applied on her. A very powerful harassing ability when used correctly.

 

 

In the next section we will be going over how Ellonia should be built item-wise. You should understand though that I have a very unique play style and some people might find these suggestions controversial, but I will try to go over why I find this build and the luxury item options superior to what you would consider a more traditional build for Ellonia.(A VoD of a VERY in depth 5 hour long Ellonia only session I made to help mid level players can be found at the bottom of this article).

 

Solo mid / side lane Ellonia build

 

First, let’s go over the starting items. This is an amazing build for newer players for a number of reasons; it has a good amount of regen, it offers a tremendous amount of survivability via +4 to all stats and +armor from RoT, and once ring of the teacher is finished it will allow you to hit much harder than almost any other starting build as well as giving you a consistent source of mana regeneration for the majority of the rest of the game. The single downside to this starting build is that great attention needs to be paid to the initial waves of creeps because you will likely hit for less than your opponent so glacial spike may need to be worked into your last hitting rotation to ensure you finish your ring of the teacher at a decent time.

 

 

The laning phase (or early mid game) items can be bought in no particular order, so long as they are gotten as soon as possible to increase your mobility via phaseboots, survivability by finishing a grave locket, ring of the teacher, major totem, and of course always carrying a town portal scroll in case your team needs you! Bottle is completely optional and depends on how far your initial runes of blight take you and how much rune control you will be able to hold over your enemy.

 

 

The only item I truly consider to be necessary to this hero (and most int heroes in fact) is tablet of command, also known as “push stick”. The utility brought to you and your team as far as initiation/chasing/fleeing and most importantly your ability to continue farming safely by this item is almost unbelievable for the price (2050 gold). If you are a HoN player and do not actively buy push sticks on intellect heroes I STRONGLY encourage you to get in the habit of doing so, even if you are not used to it at first. If you are a newcomer to HoN it will take a good deal of practice to master push stick but you will thank me later, it is legitimately one of the best items in the game, and insanely cheap to make.

 

 

If you have kept up your farm as a solo laner and lategame is on its way you have to decide what to make after push stick. A number of factors come into play at this point and some things you need to ask yourself are “what does my team need?” “what will increase my ability to farm safely?” “what will grant me the most usefulness in teamfights for the gold?”. If your team is lacking initiation I would suggest picking up an assassin’s shroud. If the game looks like it will be going extremely late you may want a nullstone for the sustainability and safety it gives you while farming. If you think your team needs raw damage or if it needs you to be able to absorb some attacks you may want to consider hellflower or frostwolf skull.

 

 

The ability to choose the exact right items in every game for every situation that may arise is a very difficult thing to master. However with consistent analysis of why you pick up what items and if there could be a better solution, then over time you will start to notice it becoming easier to see what item is needed when. Overall knowing what is most ideal in a moment’s notice will make a tremendous impact on how your game is played out!

 

 

If I were to give a one word description of Ellonia, it would have to be awesome! A job well done by S2 for creating a hero with new concepts in mind that are accessible to both new players and advanced players alike. I am extremely pleased with this release and hope to see more great releases like this in the near future by S2.

 

 

Speedohdk’s Ellonia Learning Day: http://www.twitch.tv/speedohdk/b/316392034