Yearly Archives: 2012

Meta’s Verse: War Witch Anniversary Interview

Meta’s Verse: CoH Anniversary Interview Melissa “War Witch” Bianco

Questions by: Meticulous Meta, OnRPG’s Paragon Reporter

Answers by: Melissa “War Witch” Bianco, Lead Development Producer

 

 

 

To finish off our three part Anniversary interview series I had the opportunity to interview Melissa “War Witch” Bianco. We talked about everything from herding cats to the inspiration behind Night Ward, the new zone that will be released in the upcoming issue. In between we discuss the anniversary and Melessa’s own personal anniversary with City of Heroes.

 

A little about yourself


Please state your name, position and responsibilities in Paragon Studios.

 

My name is Melissa “War Witch” Bianco and I’m the Lead Development Producer on City of Heroes. The official job function is making sure that we release awesome content-rich issues with plenty of MTX offerings in a timely manner. We have a very high development standard for quality and excellence at the studio and we constantly challenge ourselves to run as efficiently and productively as possible. It’s my job to ensure that we’re doing all of these things on a regular basis.

 

 

Unofficially, I herd cats. Kidding! A lot of my job is communication, planning, meeting deadlines, and making sure we’re all working together as a cohesive unit. There are a lot of moving parts in MMO development from Publishing, to Biz-Dev, to external partners, to the various development departments so I make sure that we’re all on the same page.

 

 

What experience do you have with the gaming industry? Both working in and playing games.

 

I’ve been working in the game industry, as of this last week, for over ten years now. I started at Cryptic Studios on City of Heroes as an Office Manager and then wormed my way into Design as an Associate World Designer. Cryptic seemed to like what I had to offer because I slowly worked my way up the ranks over the years to Staff World Designer.

 

When NCsoft purchased the City of Heroes IP in 2007, we formed NC NorCal (not very original, I know, but we were waiting on the perfect name – Paragon Studios!), I was promoted to Senior World Designer. A year or so later I was promoted to Lead Game Designer to get our next paid expansion, City of Heroes Going Rogue out the door and allow Matt “Positron” Miller the ability to focus his energy on designing the very cool Incarnate System for our most experienced players

 

I’d accomplished more than I ever imagined in the Design field and I really wanted to try production, so when we began development on City of Heroes Freedom, I got my shot. I began by leading the Early Gameplay strike team and then, eventually took on the responsibility for the Live/End-Game strike team. In January, I got called to the bigs when Nate “Second Measure” Birkholz moved on to another project within the studio. Finally, a creative use for my retentiveness and obsessive borderline compulsive organizational skills. Looking back, it’s really quite surreal when I think about it.

 

As a gamer, I started on the Super Nintendo and never looked back. I moved out of console and into PC with a little game called Noctropolis, and then MMOs in general with Meridian 59. I played every big name MMO you can think of. The Realm, to EverQuest (1 and 2), Anarchy Online, Star Wars (Galaxies and Old Republic), World of Warcraft, RIFT, Age of Conan, you name it.

 

I fell back in love with console games with Oblivion and have been steadily working my way through heavy hitters like Fallout 3, Deus Ex, Mass Effect, BioShock, Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim, and so on.

 

If my bottom simply cannot take a PC game, and I can’t get access to the TV, then I’m usually lounging in my office chair messing around on my iPad with games like Azada, Mystery Case Files, or about three more pages of apps with other hidden object, adventure, or puzzle games. I love Diner Dash, but I suck at it.

 

 

Which item released on the market has been your favorite so far? Why that one?

 

Oh man, well, that has to be Super Packs considering how many I’ve already opened up. I don’t know if I have a penchant for card clicking, a salivatory reflex for sweet goodies or what, but – for me – that is the most satisfying MTX offering. Second on the list (since it’s not yet released, I didn’t want to mention it) are Amplifiers. These are cool because you can get a buff for hour(s) rather than minutes. I’m surprisingly impatient and, honestly, too tunnel-visioned mashing powers attacks, so I much prefer long-duration buffs; otherwise, I simply forget to use my inspirations. And then I’m not as “best spec” as I could be, so this works well for someone like me who may not be able to play as long as I like and who loves to play solo.

 

 

What is your favorite Task Force/Trial in City of Heroes?

 

Well, considering they still have yet to do the War Witch Task Force, I’d have to say my current favourite is the Imperious Task Force. I love the fact that it’s held in Cimerora’s ancient Mediterranean landscape, so different from anything else we’d put out before it, and there are some really amazing “moments” and reveals, which I’m not going to give away even though it’s been out for a while. Suffice to say, it’s just epic and visually appealing.

 

 

What is your favorite location in CoX?

 

Well, the kernel of Praetoria came from Matt “Positron” Miller and fleshed out between Joe “Hero 1” Morrissey and me, so that is something I got to sink my teeth into from the beginning. Needless to say, there will always be a soft spot for it in my heart. All of the zones of Praetoria were built from the ground up with new assets, but I’d have to say that my favourite of all of them (and in comparison to Paragon City and the Rogue Isles) is The Magisterium. When you leave the dark Resistance Tunnels of the tutorial and come up for air to this “perfect” civilization (and those new assets), it’s quite something to behold. That is a great moment.

 

 

The Past


City of Heroes is celebrating eight years of being live. How long have you been with Paragon Studios?

 

I began working on City of Heroes in 2002 so, to be honest, I’ve been on this project longer than anyone else in the studio and that includes Brian “Crosscheck” Clayton, Vince “Dark Watcher” D’Amelio, and Matt “Positron” Miller, all of whom have been on this project quite some time. Ten years, baby!

 

I’m pretty proud of that, to be honest, mostly because I look back on where I started to where I am now and I think, “NEVER thought I’d be here. Never. Ever. Ever.” So I just pinch myself once in a while to make sure it’s really happening.

 

It actually helps in the job because I have some insight into past decisions as they pertain to development features, why we did or did not do them. Plus, it’s fun to look back on how the project and development teams have grown and changed over the years.

 

Any eighth anniversary plans have been kept under tight wraps. Is there anything you can tell us about this super secret event?

 

Sure! For the 8th Anniversary we gave away the Statesman Salute rewards to pay homage to a great hero, there will also be a new invasion involving the Nemesis (it’s a Nemesis Plot!) who will take over Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. In the Paragon Market, the Hecatomb Rare IO set, and – get this – you will be able to create a new VIP account for 99 cents. (This is pretty sales-y coming from me, ironic considering I hate to be sold to, but the VIP thing is pretty cool and everyone can appreciate IOs on sale.)

 

 

The death of Statesman and Sister Psyche are still very fresh in everyone’s thoughts. How did you feel about the decision to remove them from the game?

 

It’s a bit of a dichotomy for me, actually: bittersweet in that they’re such iconic figures in the lore and history of this game, but also opportunity for new heroes to emerge and take on the mantle of responsibility.

 

We were sensitive to the fact that this would be a challenging initiative since Statesman, especially, is such an integral character who has graced much of our promotional materials and even had his own Task Force in-game. Such interconnectedness presented some work to change or remove so, where possible, we opted to change. Sister Psyche’s Task Force evolved into the Penelope Yin Task Force. Statesman was replaced by Positron as leader of the Freedom Phalanx, and we looked at how to best tie up the loose ends in the mission content.

 

Sister Psyche’s death also created some great storytelling opportunities for us as Manticore dealt with her death in some surprising ways.

 

Interestingly, this also presented an opportunity for the studio to reinvent itself. We were always associated with Cryptic Studios (rightly so, since the game originated in that studio), but we have been Paragon for several years now, and this studio released the Going Rogue expansion, several free issues, added countless features and buckets of content. Not only that, we launched our incredibly aggressive City of Heroes Freedom initiative all on our own.

 

Which issue released so far has been your favorite? What made it your favorite?

 

I’ve worked on every single issue we have ever released and I have been really proud of each one. I love the fact that they’re free for subscribers (twenty-two issues and counting!), but honestly, the most recent because it sticks in my head the most. (Although I’m really partial to Issue 12: The Midnight Hour because it had all the awesomeness of time travel via Ouroboros back to Cimerora, a really unique ancient Mediterranean style location I mentioned earlier), we got to delve into the many secrets of the Midnight Squad and the Midnighter Club (I had a great time coming up with aster eggs), and I got to mess around with doing spawn makeover in The Hollows and, thus, the “girlfriends” meme was born. Plus, Percy Winkley, seriously, who doesn’t love saving him from himself over and over again?

 

 

What one thing that has been taken out of City of Heroes do you miss and would like to see make a comeback?

 

Well, it’s not so much what went live and then we removed (like Galaxy City, for example) but rather the things I wanted to do, design docs were written up, yet never made it beyond that point. The usual reasons: time, scope, technical constraints at the time. I would have liked to have seen Positron’s Archnemesis and Journal (an immersive visually-themed journal that would have replaced the Clues system for mission content, added a memoir section for player-notes, and even a photo page for screen captures of the mission) designs see some development love.

 

 

The Future

 

Signature Story Arc number two will be starting with the release of issue 23. What can you tell us about the story, the enemy groups involved or well anything really?!

 

The next Signature Story series is called Pandora’s Box and revolves around the aftermath of the death of Statesman: Positron is the new leader, Penelope Yin is all grown up and has joined the Phalanx, and there is some major tension with Manticore, who is unimpressed by her.

 

Villains, already established in the Rogue Isles, are growing a little restless under the thumb of Arachnos and so they’re starting to rebel to form their own group and if I were a name-dropping type, I might mention Captain Castillo and Odysseus actually working with you.

 

For some yet to be determined reason, heroes and villains are being granted great gobs of power (at random, apparently) and this is having an effect throughout Primal Earth so it’s up to Heroes and Villains to figure out why.

 

And, just for fun, I can drop a few spoilers: there’s time travel, allying with familiar faces, investigating some pretty iconic places, and dealing with the fallout of success.

 

The tagline of this series is: “Hope is not enough.”

 

 

The player summit is coming up quickly. Will you be attending? What are you looking forward to most?

 

Of course! I wouldn’t miss it! I’ll be there for Game Night, too. I’m bringing Jungle Speed. Every time I play it, I almost take one to the eye or get scratched but it’s a lot of fun.

 

By far and away, I like hanging with the players and just talking to them. I like to hear about their characters, their supergroups, what they like about the game. (Even what they don’t like about the game since they’re usually really reasonable and understanding of what our game can and can’t do.)

 

I’ve said this before and I still believe it to be true: our players are some of the best in the industry, they’re mature, respectful, and our really hard-core players stick with us through thick and thin so it’s nice to see them there, year after year, and get to know them not just as a forum name, but as a real person.

 

 

We’ve seen in the VIP beta that a new zone will be released called Night Ward. What was the inspiration for Night Ward?

 

Ever heard of the Slender Man online meme? Me either, but John “Protean” Hegner did and he and Chris Hockabout came up with “The Tall Stranger”, the basis of The Drudges visual style, from it.

 

There was also inspiration by Assyrian and Babylonian mythology. Some pen and paper games provided inspiration for the magical menagerie you see all over Night Ward. It wouldn’t be City of Heroes if we didn’t find some way to toss in popular movies so there’s also homage at the top of the Westerman building.

 

While it didn’t have a major influence, the Black Knights were loosely inspired by the Arthurian legend and since we had British on the brain in general, the Drudges were inspired by the Bobbies of London for their dashing style and witty dialogue.

 

 

There has been a lot of shake up in the structure in Paragon Studios. Some of our favourite people have been going over to work on that other project that we can’t talk about. What is the reason for taking people off one project and putting them on the new one instead of just hiring all new people?

 

The nature of any business is that some people stay and some people move on.

 

Like I said earlier, I’ve been on City of Heroes for over ten years and I’ve seen probably over a hundred people come and go (either to another project or to another studio). It’s just the natural evolution of this industry. Some people want to try something new within their discipline, others a new role, and some people just want a change in general. I’ve been really fortunate in that my role has constantly changed and evolved over ten years and so I’m quite happy and challenged, and it’s never a dull moment.

 

As for taking people off one project and moving them on to another rather than hiring new people, while we do both, it just makes sense to utilize your own people first. They’re talented, excited about the project, and willing to move over so it’s a natural choice. They already know each other, they’ve already established themselves as more than capable within their discipline, and they can hit the ground running since they’ve also established themselves within the culture of the studio.

 

I think it’s great that we provide opportunities for our developers to try new things and get their feet wet. This is one of the things that sets Paragon apart: opportunity and growth. It’s not like we on City of Heroes can’t walk ten feet and say, “Hey, can you help me with this?” (And we do, believe me.)

 

 

Last year I interviewed Nate “Second Measure” Birkholz. One of my final questions to him, and now my final one for you is; Where do you see City of Heroes a year from now?

 

I see us continuing to provide excellent content and Paragon Market offerings, and doing what we do best: telling some great stories, finding new and creative ways to do it, and listening to our players and incorporating their feedback. Oh, and we’re finally going to introduce Battalion to the game and see what kind of craziness they stir up because you KNOW they are going to be a problem. And, if I have my way, a Task Force that bears my name. KIDDING!

 

 

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Melissa for taking time out of her cat herding to sit down with me as well as a huge congratulations on her milestone. Come back for a special edition of Meta’s Verse this weekend for coverage of the player summit.

 


Happy Eighth Anniversary City of Heroes! We love you.

Elsword Goes Green with In-Game Arbor Day Activites

Elsword Goes Green with In-Game Arbor Day Activities

 

Elsword

 

Kill3rCombo is now offering Elsword players the chance to get eco-friendly the virtual way during the Elarbor in-game event. Starting tomorrow through Tuesday, May 8, fans of the massively multiplayer online (MMO) game will be tasked with obliterating menacing forces that threaten to destroy the forest. By planting trees to curb the affects of evil adversaries, players can overcome rivals and restore Elrios to beauty.

 

 

Features of the Elarbor festivities include:

New event dungeon – In addition to erecting trees and warding off enemies, players will also be able to experience the special “Tears of Ruben” forest dungeon. In this area, gamers will encounter different bosses each time they enter, increasing difficulty and adding a challenging twist.

Quests and rewards – Along with protecting the forest, players will be able to receive plenty of rewards, such as Enhancement Stones and El Shards. Additionally, gamers are encouraged to watch out for the descendants of Mandrasil, who will appear in villages to provide new quests and rewards.

Upgraded gear – Players can also go incognito to defeat opponents by crafting permanent Mandrasil Weapon Costumes and donning Monster Masks.

MEAD: RIFT 1.8 Fishing and Surviving in Telara

MEAD: 1.8: Fishing and Surviving in Telara

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

1.8 is upon us at last! And there are so many new things that if I wanted to list them all I would be better off just copying the patch notes here and calling it a day. But what a shame that would be! That wouldn’t do justice to the amazing content that has come out. Now unfortunately I don’t have a character to play the new dungeon on because raids aren’t really my thing so I’m not really up to the standards required to complete it. But it looks beautiful. The thing I’m really passionate about in RIFT is the crafting system. For the first time since the release of RIFT we have new professions.

 

 

Fishing

Fishing, it’s well…fishing. You get a pole to start with and a short chain of quests to get you started. There are two types of places you can fish: deep water and shallow. There are different types of fish in each area as well. Figuring out where the boundary between deep and shallow water is can be a bit tricky at first. But I found that in shallow water you can stand and in deep water you are swimming. The handy thing there is you can stand in shallow water to get closer to the deep water. Fish can be caught in just about any water but finding the scattered schools of fish will increase your chances of catching fish instead of junk.

 

 

But there are more things to catch than just fish! You can also catch artifacts, some of which are brand new collections. There are 27 new collections to be exact, which already has my inner artifact collector itching to stand around fishing all day. From time to time you can even get lucky and reel in a crate or box of sunken treasure. Inside is some money, anywhere from 10 gold to 7 platinum depending on your skill level and where you’re fishing. Finally, it does happen unfortunately but sometimes all you bring up is a bit of seaweed or some scales from a fish. These are worth virtually nothing and have no value in crafting or anywhere else.

 

 

As with just about everything else in RIFT there are achievements for fishing. There are 24 of them in total. The majority of them are for catching all the various types of fish in zones and around the world. Some are for finishing artifact collections, finding all the types of sunken treasure and getting to be the ultimate fisher.

 

 

So where does the actual crafting part of this come in? Well in order to get bigger and better fish. You need new poles and lures. You don’t have to go to any special station to make these. However you do need to keep your old pole to use in the creation of your next pole. Each level of pole will only accept lures that are within a certain range or lower. The ultimate pole is the Lucky Fishing Pole which will take any lure and guarantees you never get any trash. Every lure comes with a benefit of some kind. The first one you’re introduced to is the Irresistible Water Snail which reduces your chance to catch trash. The best lure which you can only use at a skill level of 300 is the Rare Artifact Attractor. It improves your chances of catching a rare artifact, but only in certain zones.

 

 

So what do you do with the fish you catch? You can’t just eat them straight out of the water as that would be slimy and gross. Well you have two options. Either you use them in recipes for the survival profession (I’ll talk about that next) or give them to the Fish Exchange in several zones. In return for a few fish they’re looking for they will either give you more notoriety with the local faction or you can opt for a tackle box which has some lures in it for you to use.

 

 

Survival

There are a few things I’ve always wondered about RIFT. Where do we sleep at night? How do we feed ourselves when everything we kill seems to be tainted or touched by a plane. This profession answers those questions. For the first time we’re able to cook and make our own bedding. This profession compliments fishing by giving us something to do with some of those fish we catch. The great thing about the food is that it all actually does something! It heals, regenerates your mana and all sorts of different things. Bedrolls and tents are used to replenish your rested xp. So you don’t have to worry about going back to your potentially lag heavy capital every time you log off. Just like fishing you don’t have to go to a station to do the crafting for this. Survival is a bit more straight forward than fishing but still just as fun. Leveling them up together at the same time is highly recommended. The beautiful thing I didn’t mention about Fishing or Survival is that they don’t count as two of your three allowed crafting skills.

 

 

There have been a few small additions to the game which are too fantastic not to talk about but too small to make an entire article of. My favorite that I discovered while wandering around is Mustafa. Back in September Trion released a video advertising the Ascend a Friend program. It was suspiciously similar to some beloved commercials which were a huge hit online.

 

 

 

Well now this has taken the leap into the game! I found them standing next to the gate to Meridian and you can even talk to our good friend Mustafa. He says pretty much the same things as in the video, with a few minor exceptions. Still, seeing him in game made me laugh like I’ve never laughed before.

 

 

There is also a new event going on right now which has to do with the further fight with the planes of earth and fire. We’re only in phase one right now. This time instead of covering each week as it happens I’m going to save it up until the end and do a big review of how it went, what happened and anything else that is important. Some exciting things have come out. Come back later this month when I’ll discuss the leaderboards and the guild finder tool!

Diablo III: Proxzor Impressions

Diablo 3: Proxzor Impressions

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

This past weekend many fans of Blizzard were given something that they have been suffering many sleepless nights waiting for. No it isn’t Half Life 3 I’m speaking of. Players from across the world received a last minute invite Thursday night to come together for a weekend stress test of the long awaited Diablo III! From the moment that the servers went up there was a huge storm of people trying to get online and test the game, likely far exceeding even Blizzard’s expectations as many of the servers were down for long periods of time, and when they were up, servers were flooded with people everywhere. And up until the last day of the beta there were still a few busy hours that forced Blizzard to test the limits of their server capacity.

 

 

Unfortunately I didn’t get an invite for the closed beta despite having spent close to half a year writing about this game in anticipation. But my time had finally come as I was one among the many staring with blood shot eyes at my monitor refreshing madly to see when the servers would begin to function again. When I finally got in nerd chills ran down my spine. This long awaited title has set itself apart as the top dog of the isometric dungeon crawling genre so it was no surprise to me that the servers were bottle-necking trying to allow access to such a long queue of people even for such a short beta test. Unfortunately the beta could be finished in a mere 90 minutes but there was still a ton of things the player is able to do beyond the main dungeon runs. Like many others I have been playing all the available classes and up until now I still have no idea what class I want to play at launch. One thing the beta did convince me of is I am 100% sure that I want to be playing this game on May 15.

 

 

The first class that I tried out was the Demon Hunter; this class is the archer type class in Diablo 3. With the use of hand bows, crossbows and one handed crossbows, this class is one of the few range classes that Diablo 3 has to offer. Unfortunately I did found this class the most boring during my play while I was expecting it to be the most fun; however this was not at all a design flaw in the class. Instead the other classes simply exceeding my expectations in a big way!

 

 

When I was finally in the game on my Demon Hunter the graphics immediately gave me a good first impression. We have seen many a Diablo clone in the past try to capitalize on Diablo’s success with sugary graphics, but they all pale in comparison to Diablo 3’s sweet sweet animations, environments, and character models. Wow, this game is really beautiful and even the little hamster in my computer had to run as fast as he could to keep up with the amazing graphics of this game. Everywhere you look you can see the painstaking details and delicate textures added in to prove that no one knows production value like Blizzard. Everywhere you will walk you will find a lot of structures and other environmental interactions that you interact with for profit. In the first place you will visit you will see a lot of dead corpses laying around that you can kick against in order to find some coins or items. There are also a lot of other stuff that you can interact with in the environment that will help you deal damage to the monsters that are crawling around in the area. For example you can kick away planks to collapse the roof on a group of monsters or you can bring down a wall so the bricks will fall on the evil beings. And if you finally get into the dungeons there are even more structures that you can bring down to fall onto your enemies.

 

 

Diablo has always been a game where you will have to bring down hordes of zombies or other monsters with an awesome set of skills while drinking enough potions to keep your health and mana up. In Diablo 3 however the game feels a lot easier because I personally didn’t really drink that many potions except for during challenging fights like boss battles. And on top of that all the monsters are able to drop health orbs that you can pick up to quickly regen HP and keep the action flowing. It’s debatable by some but I find the new design philosophy an improvement over past Diablo titles.

 

 

And the absolutely best thing that Diablo had to offer was the equipment drops. Luckily they didn’t change this at all, and it is still a lot of fun trying to collect the best possible equipment ever. They did however change the way equipment identification happens for the better. Blizzard decided to completely get rid of the ID scrolls system, and your character is now able to identify your precious loot with just a single ‘spell’.

 

 

I definitely had a lot of fun in this event. I really did try to get the most out of it and I have fiddled around a lot with the crafting system. Unfortunately there wasn’t that much to discover and make yet, since you would actually finish the beta around the level of 9 and all the really good looking equipment with the really good stats I could make were above level 15. The Auction House was also open and I had a good look at how it worked. The UI closely resembles the Auction House in World of Warcraft so it will be very familiar to a majority of players sticking to the Blizzard brand. First Impressions can make or break a title and Diablo III has one of the heftiest franchises in the gaming world to live up to. Thankfully if the first 9 levels are this much fun, than the game should easily surpass even the success of Diablo II and I will still feel the tingle of nerd chills down my spine when the game launches on May 15th!

 

League of Legends: Ghost Riders in the Rift

League of Legends: Ghost Riders In The Rift

By Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG MOBA Reporter

 

 

Welcome summoners, to the patch v1.0.0.138 article for League of Legends, the game that’s heading out on a Wild Hunt. This patch includes rune adjustments, UI improvements, yet another round of nerfs to Doran’s items and Hecarim, The Shadow of War.

 

 

Hecarim is a highly mobile bruiser with great initiation and loads of AoE spam. His kit is built around getting straight into the middle of an enemy team and injuring as many of them as possible before (most likely) dying. He’s an easy to play character, with most of his kit not requiring any targeting at all. He’s a similar character to Shyvana, Skarner or Renekton, but without their durability.

 

 

Hecarim’s strategy is very straightforward. He’s not a precision instrument but rather a charging ball of pain that hurls itself into the enemy like a freight train. Activate Devastating Charge [E] for its movement speed boost and begin closing ground. When you’re in range, throw yourself into the enemy team with an Onslaught of Shadows [R], using its directed fear to scatter your foes and hopefully cut an important target from the pack. Where Hecarim ends his charge will determine the direction your enemies run in, so it can be used in a similar way to Gragas’ Explosive Cask. Now jump on that guy with the second part of Devastating Charge to shunt them closer to your team. All done? Great. Now go nuts.

 

 

Bring up Spirit of Dread [W], and just keep hitting everything around you with Rampage [Q] to both hurt everything, and keep yourself alive. It really doesn’t matter who you’re hitting, provided you’re hitting as many targets as possible. This is important for Spirit Dread, which gives Hecarim health based on all damage that is inflicted on any enemy in his aura. So if your teammates are also throwing plenty of AoE spam around him, that will help keep his spectral ass in one piece. If everything is going to plan, you should live long enough to get a good chunk of the enemy team on low life before you try to make a break for it.

 

 

If things don’t go well, and your allies don’t follow up on your initiation immediately, expect to hit the dirt pretty quickly. Outside of the great amount of health Hecarim can gain from Spirit of Dread’s aura, he has no way of keeping himself alive. This is a real problem when there aren’t any teammates around to back you up during laning and roaming, making him a very poor duelist.

 

 

My favourite trick on Hecarim is to abuse his passive to deny enemies last hits during the laning phase. When an enemy moves forward before targeting the minion they want to kill, quickly move Hecarim directly on top of the minion, making your enemy only able to click on him instead. They’ll then hit Hecarim by accident, and hopefully the minion will then die to attacking enemy minions, denying them precious gold. This is best used against melee opponents because you can then trade on the damage by smacking them with an auto attack and a quick Rampage [Q] in return. For obvious reasons, don’t over use this trick though, since you are still being hit for a fair bit of damage. Many players will get sick and tired of these shenanigans after a few attempts and just try to kill you, so keep wary. While Fizz could also move through minions to try this trick, he was too small a target to make use of it effectively. Hecarim, on the other hand, is one of the larger characters in the game, so you can do this quite easily.

 

 

When jungling, Hecarim’s main strength is his ability to invade the enemy jungle with relative safety. His high AoE damage and incredible movement speed allow him to get in, kill something, and then leave before an enemy knows what’s going on. Beware though, because in a straight 1v1, Hecarim is very weak compared to most other junglers. If you see a Lee Sin or Shyvana heading your way, don’t fight them unless you have a massive health lead.

 

 

The other thing to remember when jungling as Hecarim is always to use his Rampage to last hit on smaller camps just before you move to larger camps. This is especially important at the start of the game when you clear your wolf camp and move to your golems. Doing this will keep the cooldown buff that Rampage applies to itself intact, allowing you to clear these camps faster, and taking less damage in the process. This is a very important trick to learn in the early levels, but becomes less necessary to perform as you level.

 

 

Take a level in Rampage to begin with. Spirit of Dread is next on the menu. From there, which ability you level is really up to you. Rampage has a higher damage output, but Spirit of Dread will help with sustain and team fight survivability at a higher mana cost. As a general rule, Spirit of Dread is better for farming the jungle, whereas Rampage is better for killing champions. Take Devastating Charge when you’re planning on ganking, or going for a kill in the lane, and max it last.

 

 

For items, start with boots and health potions, regardless of where you’re heading. Due to being so very squishy for an initiator, you’re going to need to tank up as much as possible if you want a chance at survivability in the late game. Trinity Force is the only worthwhile offensive option on him, given his AD scaling isn’t great, and only works on two of his abilities. I see far too many people trying to rush this item though. Don’t give into that temptation. Build Trinity Force in pieces alongside some defensive items so you don’t simply melt in early engagements. Force of Nature is a good choice against magic heavy teams, giving him more mobility to feed into his passive while also adding to his durability. Sunfire Cape works well with all the rest of his AoE spam, as does Randuin’s Omen. One thing to note though is that cooldown reduction on him isn’t worth stacking. Rampage, his most often used ability, cannot go below 1 second in cooldown, so exceeding 25% cooldown on him is a complete waste of gold. For this reason, I tend to avoid Youmuu’s Ghostblade, because the cooldown is a low priority, and the damage Hecarim would get from the item’s movement speed isn’t cost efficient. It’s also worth noting you should avoid Phantom Dancers for the same reason, as the amount of attack damage Hecarim’s passive will give you from them isn’t worth the cost.

 

 

You’re going to need a 9/21/0 page on Hecarim if you want to survive your own initiation. While getting the movement speed bonus from the utility tree might seem tempting, your passive isn’t significant enough to be worth the point investment. Armour seals and magic resist glyphs are necessary. If you want to be specific, I prefer three magic resist per level, and six flat magic resist. A combination of attack damage, armour penetration and/or attack speed marks are great for his early damage output. When using movement speed quintessences, I prefer attack speed marks. When using attack damage quintessences I use six armour penetration and three attack damage marks. The former is better when you’re getting leashes in the jungle, the latter is better for laning and solo queue jungling.

 

 

Hecarim, I think, is another one of those characters we’re going to see fairly heavily for a week or so, and then fade away into obscurity. He’s a passable jungler, and a so-so laner, but he doesn’t really excel at anything in particular. The fact that he really needs his team around to keep him alive, rather than having the means to do so himself means he’s simply not a good pick in anything outside of very coordinated teams. When he doesn’t have his team keeping him in one piece, he is far, far too fragile for a character that has to dive headlong into the enemy team in order to be effective. Even in premade teams, he’s still not likely to see that much play, simply because he doesn’t function that well in the mid-game, when independence is an important factor in the character’s viability. What he does isn’t unique, and there’s plenty of other characters that do exactly what he does, but better.

 

 

I really don’t understand the nerf to Doran’s items. Yes, Doran’s stacking is very prevalent at the moment, but surely the solution is to simply get rid of the stacking, or give diminishing returns on stacking. The current way of nerfing them is simply making the boots three health potions start even more dominant than it already is. I’m not even sure if that’s possible at this point.

 

 

The rune adjustments are a good change, making aggressive load outs more viable. I will confess, I hadn’t run the numbers on this problem, so I wasn’t even aware it existed. Looking at the numbers now though, the changes mean that stacking magic resist is still going to be good in the mid lane (especially if you’re Galio) but it won’t completely mitigate all damage from any offensive runes the enemy happens to be carrying.

 

 

This patch brought a bunch of small UI improvements. The best among them has to be the exp bar by the side of your level. This allows for more fancy trickery like heal baiting on the verge of level using catalyst and other fun shenanigans much more easily. The scrolling numbers are judging the exact rate of damage done to creatures in the jungle, but add a bit of visual clutter when fighting champions. While I’m fond of the addition as a regular jungler, I’m thankful you have the option to turn them off.

 

 

To discuss some of the changes yourselves, post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section, or post in the comments section below. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet, you’re missing out.

Runescape Announces Mad May

Runescape Announces Mad May

 

RuneScape

 

 

Jagex, makers of RuneScape, the World’s most popular and multi-award winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online adventure game, today announced their plans for Mad May, a month long series of community events, offers and competitions.

 

 

Starting today, RuneScape players old and new will be able to benefit from a host of Mad May offers for everyone who remains a member throughout May. These promotions include additional bonus spins for the Squeal of Fortune, the new light-hearted game of chance which was introduced to RuneScape last month, offering players even more chances to win from a wide variety of in-game prizes.

 

 

As an additional bonus, all those players who remain a member for the whole of May, will also receive 5,000 Loyalty Points to spend on numerous rewards including a vast array of new costumes, titles of nobility, exclusive emotes and perhaps most exciting of all, an arsenal of gameplay-enhancing auras. What’s more, all eligible players will receive up to a quarter of a million bonus XP on the 1st June.

 

 

If the free spins, loyalty points and XP weren’t enough, the RuneScape team will also be hosting Wild Weekends throughout May.  Full details of each Wild Weekend will be posted in advance on the RuneScape website.

TERA: The Life of an Outlaw

TERA: The Life of an Outlaw

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

 

 

Image credit to Ajka Bodika. Check out her Deviant Art Page here

 

 

Now that I’ve introduced the types of personalities players may come across in TERA, it’s time to discuss what it’s like living as an outlaw in an open world PvP server. I tend to choose the route of the Challenger these days as I’ve grown a little bored of standard Pking, so I go about gaining red hours through oddball ways similar to a cat playing with their prey. This of course builds up a reputation over time that makes a select group of players want to hunt you down… which is exactly what a challenger hopes for.

 

 

The first step to becoming an outlaw can be difficult for some members of the community. My girlfriend for instance had a surprisingly difficult time killing her first unsuspecting target due to her real world morality kicking in, making her feel bad about her action. It’s fascinating to see how closely people relate real world morality to in-game behavior and one of the reasons why I love going red named to see how people react to my existence in-game.

 

 

Anyway let’s break down the process of becoming an outlaw, the mental process involved with being an outlaw, and the process of building a legacy for your crew at end-game. The first step is choosing a target that is far weaker than you and putting them down in rapid succession before any nosy player can interfere in your work.

 

 

 

The Beginning

For someone new to being an outlaw, such as my girlfriend, this can be a difficult engagement for you to swallow. In our society actions like this is strongly punished, and now you find yourself going against everything you have probably been raised to believe to gain your red hours. As such my first time I found the motivation to pk a player by being an emotionless hitman for a multi-game faction known as RageQuit. It was expected of me to go about killing players as a griefer to fit in so through peer pressure I found the courage to overcome my initial inhibitions.

 

 

Once you overcome this initial hesitation it becomes much easier to go about on patrols Pking players as they go about their questing. Often when starting out you will be a loaner with no back-up so it’s wise to focus on attacking other loaners from lesser factions who are less likely to call back-up to take you on. Another wise tactic is to simultaneously mine nodes such as plants and minerals so that you are building up your character’s skills while pking. Offering professions in addition to PvP skill will make you highly desirable by major PvP factions if you are seeking to rise in the ranks on your server.

 

 

Of course this is the point where you have become accustomed to the ways of a griefer and need to decide what kind of a reputation you want to build on the server. Will you be a Hitman? A Troll? Your own unique brand of chaos bringer? Let’s go over the process of how to build a reputation as a major PvP enthusiast in TERA.

 

 

The Mid-Game

Assuming you’ve stuck with being a dedicated griefer this long, you will now be past level 20 and looking for recognition for your hard work. Depending on the route you take, you’ll need to go about Pking players in a specific style. In a game as large as TERA, there will likely be dedicated guilds for each type of player so the key is to set yourself up as an ideal candidate for the faction you wish to join.

 

 

As a hitman this is easily done by discovering who the primary enemies of a set faction are and adding their members to your personal KOS list. If you can provide screenshots proving that you are more than capable of taking their members out, you become far more likely to be accepted by the picky factions.

 

 

As a troll, it is advisable to research the overarching story being told by the playerbase and discover where tensions are rising between factions. You can then take a book from the Joker and seek to make the world burn by sneaking into one of these factions and secretly breaking the rules to initiate conflict between the two factions. If you prefer a more personal touch, you can choose a player who tends to overreact to PK and find what really goads them into action to create a true rival (aka The Grudge). Choosing someone of high standing on the server is best for this as they will likely complain about you to their fellow players, raising your infamy in the process.

 

 

As a challenger like me you will have to discover what special powers your class possesses and theorize ways to use that to screw with your foes in order to make griefing into a work of art. For instance as a Lancer you might choose to interrupt a target’s evasive skills to make them take massive damage from a monster they are fighting. Or along the same line of thought use your CC to force them to take damage from an ally’s slow hard to land charge attack, resulting in your prey feeling helpless as a major damage skill lands on them. You should also keep tabs on the opponents you face that put up a particularly difficult fight as they will make great rivals to hone your skills further as you approach end-game. Convincing one of your more cordial rivals to duel you on a regular basis is highly advised as you can discuss tactics afterwords and both improve your skills together.

 

 

As a roleplayer you will need to figure out your tale and what you are trying to achieve in the game. Build a personality through each kill, including an signature act that differentiates you from the standard run of the mill griefer. Acts such as using a particular emote, dropping a certain item on top of their corpse, or finishing with a certain skill seldom used in PvP are all ideal ways to leave a lasting memory on your prey so that they tell your tale to others. After all what is a roleplayer if the bards don’t sing your story long after it has passed?

 

 

If you choose the route of the White Knight, believe me you are going to need allies. Griefers tend to be very organized when overcoming opposition and without organization of your own you are just going to be griefed into a state where you can’t progress efficiently with your character. Finding a strong organized hitman with end-game plans that you believe in is the best way to go. If said faction has an established PK faction as an enemy, all the better. Just focus on gaining an advantage over Pkers in terms of level or gear so you can back your words in actual combat.

 

 

End-Game

So you’ve been playing TERA for a few months now and are level 50+ with a strong social network and a rising reputation among your peers? Well played. It’s now time to strive to attain legendary status on your server. To leave a mark that will stand the test of time. Let’s go about building a legacy. It’s time to claim a territory and bend the world of TERA to your ideals!

 

 

The first step to this you should have already gained in mid-game.. unless you’re a slacker. I have no patience for slacker griefers so don’t bother reading on beyond this point if you aren’t interested in taking on the world. Anyway the first step is acquiring a faction with the power to change the face of your server. This of course means at the core you have a guild leader with a plan to take over a territory with a strong political campaign, or an organized battleground group (come summer time) that can take over a territory by force.

 

 

How does a faction change the face of a server? The first step in TERA is to hone your equipment until your faction as a whole is considered a factor at end-game. Thankfully unlike most MMOs released these days, you can do so in TERA without having to cash shop one bit. The refinement system is almost completely removed from the dreaded refining RNG system that controls so many games so if you put in the time and dedication, you should be able to access some competitive end-game gear. Next you need to PvP… a lot. You need to learn every classes’ strengths and weaknesses and how you fit into the spectrum of both 1 on 1 combat as well as group combat. Is your class ineffective at soloing another class? Learn to immediately flee when facing a renowned member of said class. Learn to crush lesser members of said class to further build your reputation as a master of your own class.

 

 

If you follow a PvP enthusiast route that does not follow a set code of conduct, then learn to use safe zones to your advantage when your opponents outnumber you to the point that victory is impossible. Keeping a constant supply of buff pots, charms, camp fires, and bandages is also vital to ensure you can fight multiple battles in rapid succession. Nothing drives PK hunters, especially The Grudge, more crazy than losing a battle due to not being as prepared as their foe, only to see their foe escape to the safezone once they have organized a large enough group to take you down.

 

 

Next you are going to need to acquire a crew. An outlaw without a crew is just a cocky loud mouth when it comes to end-game PvP. Just like the famous cowboys in the Wild West, you can’t watch your back 24/7 and will need someone to cover for you from time to time when real PvP breaks out. With a trusted crew, not to be confused with a faction, you will be able to create your legacy. However a crew requires much more than just skilled PvPers to become notorious.

 

 

The Roles of a Crew

A crew requires a strong promotional team to make your group stand out among the many posers likely to arise on a server. A cocky group that is skilled at the game won’t get you anywhere without the right advertising for what you stand for. In a game like TERA that has a political system, this becomes even more important as a large following of fans can grant you both power over political policies as well as the tax income that comes along with said position. And believe me you are going to need that tax income to stay competitive as you will be spending far more of your free time fighting fellow players than you will running dungeons and grinding BAMs if you truly want to be known.

 

 

The first and most important role of your crew to fill is a spokesman. I suggest having two that live in separate time zones for more consistent coverage though. These leaders of the crew will represent your reputation through means such as area chat, forum posts, and other popular fan sites that may come to be as TERA grows. Once again something that makes TERA superior to rival titles is that you won’t need to spend real money in order to speak freely on the world chat system, so any player will be able to represent their crew no matter what their monetary situation is. Of course this also means more competition to make a name for yourself so be careful who you pick to represent your crew.

 

 

Next it’s common knowledge these days that everyone who is anyone is on Youtube. You absolutely must have a video editor in your crew who can document your activities and prove your exploits to players that aren’t present to witness it. Your enemies will almost never admit to defeat if you have no proof of your deeds and nothing shuts up the ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ crowd quite like a well edited video documentation of it. After all if you’re an outlaw a large majority of your PvP will occur outside the official sanctions of guild war declarations.

 

 

The next key group to add into your crew is the craftsmen. Whether it be armor, weapons, or potions, your crew is going to need dedication to stay well stocked and well equipped into end-game to be competitive. If you don’t see yourself as a great spokesman or video editor, I would suggest learning a craft from the early stages onward to bring value to a potential crew in end-game.

 

 

Another valuable role that may be provided from an outside member of your crew, but is much more comforting to have within your crew, is a VoiP server host. In an action title like TERA your hands are going to be very busy working the controls so typing out orders in the midst of combat is completely out of the question. If your vent, mumble, or teamspeak server suddenly disappears, you will be at an insurmountable disadvantage versus your foes, and that is not an option.

 

 

The final role of the crew is the juggernaut. This role is nice to have filled by either your spokesman or video editor, but it isn’t required. Juggernauts are usually the first one in, last one out in any PvP battle and must be very active players who are willing to drop whatever they are doing to rush to defend the name of your crew and faction. They tend to be either tanky classes or squishies that are incredibly skilled at surviving to be one of the last members of your crew standing in a losing fight. You will rely on your juggernaut to call targets and tactics on VoiP chat, organize fighters prior to massive PvP wars, and build a consistent reputation that strikes fear into your foes when they see him/her approaching a fight. In most titles this role is best filled by a massive cash shopper, but in TERA the role of juggernaut should be entirely skill/activity based so it is much more attainable by anyone who loves their character enough.

 

 

Alas I’ve gone on too long and there are limits to how far book-smarts can get you in a PvP server. Much of this must be learned through first hand experience and now that character wipes have ended, it is time for your journey to begin. Remember to keep your friends close and your enemies duly noted on radar and never engage in combat without a clear plan for victory. TERA is attracting some of the most veteran and hardened PvPers the MMORPG genre has ever seen so don’t expect making a name for yourself to be a cake walk. Many will fail as they try to walk this path so I wish you the best and applaud your decision to go down the road less traveled. Farewell for now. I hope you visit the Valley of the Titans server so that we may match sword to spear someday. Just remember that if you farm my mat route, your head will roll!