Yearly Archives: 2013

OnRPG Shotgun News 5/24: Neverwinter, GW2, Defiance, and More

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), She of Many Hats

 

Neverwinter Announces New Content

In a recent State of the Game dev diary Andy Velasquez, Lead Producer of Neverwinter discussed what has gone on since Open Beta began and even went into details about things that were coming. From mounts to a new “ranged” class. In addition to Gauntlgrym, new raid sized end game content. They even mention that they’ll keep working on improving Gateway so it has less bugs and does more. And finally, he mentioned that more information on Module 1 would be incoming soon.

 

Guild Wars 2 Addressing WvW Matchup Problems

Tired of going up against the same shards in WvW all the time? Well ArenaNet is! And they’re doing something about it. By partially randomizing the process as well as doing a bunch of math voodoo that only an Asura would understand you’ll now be facing different people when the WvW matchups take place. Of course they won’t put the higher performing shards with the lower ones, there will be some restrictions. But lookout world! The RPers, TarnishedCoast and Piken Square are coming for you!

wvwgrump

Defiance Steam Trial Weekend

If you’ve been wanting to jump into Defiance this weekend is your chance as they host a free trial weekend to correspond with a Defiance Memorial Day Weekend marathon. So jump in and take a look.

 

Tales of Laputa Becomes Tales of Solaris

NGames has announced Tales of Laputa will be becoming Tales of Solaris. The name change is set to take place on May 28th. Not only will the name change but new things will be coming too, like the addition of three brand new gameplay systems. And that won’t be all. Keep an eye on the official site for more information.

Dota 2 Elder Titan: Sleep, not Stun

By Mohammad Abubakr, OnRPG DotA Reporter

The past few weeks have been packed with Dota 2 action due to the upcoming International. In an attempt to secure the final three spots for the International 3, teams across the globe are giving it their all. While the Western Qualifiers have come to a conclusion (congratulations Mouse Sports!), there is still a lot to be seen in the Eastern Qualifiers. New strategies and heroes you would never expect to see are bound to be seen.

Being busy with the International, it is not expected for Valve to release many major patches until after the conclusion of the International. I suspect that there will be only one hero and balance release until the end of the International. However, before this patchless period Valve has gifted us with another hero to keep us occupied.

Elder Titan, the Worldsmith is the latest hero to be added to the massive Dota 2 hero roster. Elder Titan was present during the original creation of the world. The Titans wanted to continue on as the creators themselves. By shaping matter to their will, they created the world as we know it. When this became too easy, the Titans turned their tools upon themselves, reshaping their minds and reforging their spirits. While doing tasks with such ambition, there are bound to be those that have erred. Elder Titan broke his soul and fell down to this world. Now he spends all his time seeking to repair and rejoin parts of his broken soul.

Elder Titan is a strength hero that plays the initiator role. Although he is able to effectively setup and decide entire team fights, Elder Titan relies on his team’s cooperation in order achieve strong initiations. It is a sleep, not a stun. We’ll get more into that by going over his skill set.

Elder Titan’s Skill Set Defined

Echo Stomp is Elder Titan’s first ability dealing both magical and physical damage to nearby enemies, knocking them unconscious. This composite damage is due to Echo Stomp being cast by Elder Titan himself and his Astral Spirit. Elder Titan deals physical damage while his Astral Spirit deals magical damage.

This ability can knock many enemies unconscious due to Echo Stomp being hit in two locations and hitting a decent sized radius (475). However, one important point to keep in mind about Echo Stomp is that any damage done to unconscious enemies will cause those targets to gain consciousness.

A lot of area can be covered with the Astral Spirit.

The most frustrating part about playing Elder Titan is getting a full team stomp and setting up your ultimate only to have your team wake up the enemies. Remember, it is a sleep! Not a stun.

Astral Spirit is Elder Titan’s second ability which summons a controllable spirit damaging enemies it passes through and granting bonus attack damage and movement speed to Elder Titan upon return. The bonus attack damage and movement speed is calculated depending on the number of enemies hit by the Astral Spirit. It has already been mentioned that the Astral Spirit may cast Echo Stomp but it is important to note that even the Natural Order passive effects exist on this spirit. Finally, this spirit has the ability to pass through units and impassable terrain making it easier to chase after enemies.

Moving on to Elder Titan’s third ability, Natural Order is a passive ability reducing armor (base + that gained from agility) and magic resistance to nearby enemies. While this ability may seem weak early on, cutting off 80% armor and 26% magic resistance at max level, it is not an ability to underestimate. While it may have a measly 275 range, keeping close to important targets to aid team carries can cause team fights to change in your favour.

Elder Titan’s ultimate is the main reason he will be considered as a pick. Earth Splitter is a massive ultimate with a length of 2400 units and width of 300 units and a casting range of 1600 units, allowing you to hit and slow enemies from afar. To make this ultimate even better, Earth Splitter deals 35% of the targets’ maximum health. Oh and it is able to hit more than one enemy.

In order to balance this great ultimate, it has a 3 second delay before the crack in the earth implodes and deals damage. Therefore, it is essential and basically required to setup Earth Splitter by knocking enemies unconscious with Echo Stomp. This goes back to my point on Elder Titan’s reliance on team cooperation when it comes to initiation.

Tactics

Now that we have learned about Elder Titan’s skill set, it is necessary to know which skills to prioritize and how to use them throughout the game. I have found that Astral Spirit is the most useful skill during the early phases of the game and should be prioritized over all other skills except for Earth Splitter. Echo Stomp should be leveled to at least level two early on to allow for three second sleeps in order to land Earth Splitter. However, in most cases it will be maxed out after Astral Spirit. Natural Order is only useful during team fights and is therefore maxed in the end.

Skill priority: Earth Splitter > Astral Spirit > Echo Stomp > Natural Order > Stats

Unlike Mystic Flare, Earth Splitter feels like an ultimate.

During the laning phase you will be using Astral Spirit to harass enemies and when possible hit creeps to gain additional damage. This damage can further be used to harass enemies or secure last hits and denies. You must be careful to not use Astral Spirit too much due to Elder Titan’s early mana problems and the danger gained by pushing the creep wave. Echo Stomp should only be used when it is certain that a kill can be made.

In team fights, aim to knock as many enemies unconscious with Echo Stomp around Elder Spirit and his Astral Spirit. Aim the Astral Spirit slightly behind your target’s location as they are bound to run away in an attempt to dodge the stomp. Remember that the spirit can be moved and can always chase after enemies before stomping.

Be sure to let your teammates know beforehand to not attack any enemies until Earth Splitter implodes. No team will intentionally ruin your setup, in most cases they are simply unaware of how abilities function. After the implosion, you will want to continue to attack high priority targets both to make use of the bonus damage and movement speed from Astral Spirit and to lower resistance to allow your carries to deal higher damage.

After this initial combo has been carried out, it is up to your team to secure kills. Elder Titan is not able to cleanup in most cases and is only there to give teams an early advantage in team fights.

Due to Elder Titan’s play style revolving around setting up team fights for his team, items that benefit the team should be purchased. This includes but is not limited to Urn of Shadows (the mana regeneration is a bonus), Pipe of Insight, Assault Cuirass and Drums of Endurance. With these items you will be further improving the odds of successful team fights and doing your job as an initiator. Unlike other initiators, it is not necessary to purchase positioning items such as Blink Dagger due to Astral Spirit and the long range ultimate.

Boots are not set in stone and are left up to user preference. If you feel that you are having too many issues with mana and always seem to be low when your spells are needed the most, Arcane Boots are not a bad choice. However, Power Treads are recommended to improve on the effectiveness of bonus damage due to its very welcome attack speed and stat boost. As always, Tread Swapping is a skill that separates the good from the great. You will be most useful during the mid to late stages of the game to setup team fights, at this point mana issues slowly fade away.

I could definitely see Elder Titan being played in competitive situations due to these teams having strong team coordination. Elder Titan’s ultimate will only seem useless when teams themselves cause it to miss. This will not be a problem for players that have spent countless hours practicing with one another. I do not predict Elder Titan to be unlocked for Captains Mode until after the International.

 

Will we reach $3,200,000?

Another major release to Dota 2 has been the introduction of the Compendium. This genius idea rewards players with in game items while also increasing the prize pool of the International. For every $10 purchase, an additional $2.50 is added to the prize pool. Amazingly, the prize pool has gone up from $1.6 million to $2.14 million and is continuing to increase.

Players are rewarded with items as certain goals are reached. For example, the $1.7 million goal rewarded all players with a Battle Point boost lasting until the end of the International. The highest goal is at $3.2 million and allows players to decide on the next Dota hero to be ported over to Dota 2.

As a result of the Compendium, the International is now the biggest e-Sports tournament when it comes to prize pool. Let us hope this trend continues and e-Sports as a whole continues to grow. I would love to see the day where e-Sports is able to compete at the same level as traditional sports such as Soccer.

Be sure to join the OnRPG community in our ever growing Dota 2 thread and follow the events that unfold as the International approaches.

LaTale Season 2 Storm Starter Pack Giveaway

To celebrate the launch of Season 2: STORM in La Tale, we’re giving you a free STORM STARTER PACK so you can get a head start in La Tale and quickly reach the level required for advancing to the next class!

LaTale Storm Starter Pack Giveaway

LaTale adds to its friendly community and long standing history of updates with reworked gameplay elements, the introduction of the 35th playable class (Soul Breaker), Reimagined class updates on the second and third tier, skill reworks across all classes, an improved enchanting system, and countless other updates.

Your Storm Starter Pack Includes:
3 Peach Cans to increase your EXP gain when battling monsters
3 Puzzle Coupons to get your hands on the new Puzzle items for enchanting gear
Gold Dart of Luck to try your luck at La Deck and win rare items
Yellow Motion Blur to boost your character’s movement speed

 

To get your key you have to follow these instructions:

  • If you are not a member of OnRPG Please sign-up here.
  • Enter your OnRPG username and password below to get your key
  • The key will appear at the bottom of the page. Copy & paste it to a safe place as you may not be able to retrieve it once you close your browser!

 

To Redeem your key:

  • Sign up for an OGPlanet account and download La Tale here.
  • Login and create a character in La Tale.
  • Redeem your items by entering the key code here.
  • Check your ‘Gift Inventory’ in-game with the Bank NPC to receive the items!

Planet Arkadia Star Tour

By Narfi Hungary Willem, Entropia Universe Elder

 Planet Arkadia Tour @OnRPG

Next week Planet Arkadia will celebrate its 2nd anniversary since launching on the 25th of May 2011.

Since launch Arkadia has seen a steady rise in population, and they continue to roll out updates and add content to keep their players happy on a fairly regular basis.

Arkadia is the fourth Planet Partner to join the Entropia Universe.  If you have not heard about Entropia Universe or understand how its business model or Planet Partner franchise system works, you might want to read the article I wrote here for ONRPG.com last month.

Planet Calypso – An Introduction to an Alien World

Each planet that joins the Universe has its own feel and theme. Planet Arkadia is focused around alien archeology and treasure hunting.

Planet Arkadia Mining

Treasure hunting is a new form of mining that is not available on any of the other planets.  You can still mine for ores and enmatter on Arkadia in addition to treasure. Treasure comes in different sorts of artifacts such as broken arrow heads or axes and pottery as well as other artifacts from long forgotten races on the planet.  Each of these may be refined and used by crafters for creating different tools, weapons or armor.

Planet Arkadia Special Armor Sets

When playing it is important to remember that this game is based on an RCE (Real Cash Economy) and you need to study the markets and understand what there is demand for and what is trash filler.  If you focus on what there is a demand for, then you will profit, if you mindlessly do stuff with no regard to the markets, then you will do poorly.

Archeology comes into play through a series of instances available by the use of different level keys.  The keys can be crafted or purchased from other players who crafted them to sell and will grant a team access to the underground ruins to battle monsters while exploring the mazes. Those skilled and coordinated enough to survive the various challenges can expect treasure chests filled with loot awaiting them at the finish line.

 Planet Arkadia Temple Run

I flew to Arkadia a week ago with the intent to explore and prepare for this article, but got caught up with the fun and different personal goals to accomplish. Honestly it took me a full week to shake off the addiction enough to jot down my thoughts on it all.

I had two goals I wanted to accomplish while there. The first goal was to mine for treasure quite a bit in order to gain some health points (HP) since this process is unique to Arkadia. Each type of mining has skills associated with it that increase your HP, and Arkadia is the only planet with treasure. The second goal was to complete the kill 75 and kill 400 Beladoth missions since the 400 mission reward offers knife fighter skills, and I have the perfect dagger I’ve been waiting to utilize once I acquire them.

I brought a bunch of mining amplifiers with me and started mining at the 8 Coins Land Area which is owned by Deathifier, one of the avatars from the early days of Entropia who has invested in land here to promote a Hunting and Mining paradise profitable enough to make a real life living off via the taxes he charges to visitors.

8 Coins was just the first place I tested for mining but since there was decent markup on all three of the ores, enmatters and treasures I was finding, I didn’t end up looking anywhere else, camping the zone for a few of days.  At the end of the third day I was met with a pleasant surprise in the form of my very first Drill Tower which is what you get for an exceptionally large mining claim.  Just under 10k PED (Project Entropia Dollars) worth, in addition to the 130% markup once sold, it will bring me over 12,000 PED ($1200 USD). Needless to say I was pretty excited and had trouble sleeping that night.  It was my first tower in over 5 years of playing the game on a daily basis and only my second ‘big hit’ worth over $1000 USD (the other was a hunting loot a few years ago).

 Planet Arkadia Hall Of Fame Mining

Since I was obviously ahead, I decided not to press my luck anymore with mining and put the remaining mining amps in auction while I headed out to take on the Beladoth missions.  After the tower, the hunting mission turned out fairly routine with a few globals and a couple rare parts that sold for 50-100 PED of markup each.  I was able to finish the kill 400 mission this morning before heading to work.

One of the evenings after mining I was at Celeste Quarry (which is where people gather to chat as well as a prominent meeting point for Traders and Space Transporters).  I met a new player who ended up becoming my newest Disciple.  The game has a system in place for experienced players to mentor new players with a reward system for each upon completion of the program. The graduating Disciple gets a full set of armor in addition to a Hummer/Jeep-looking vehicle, and the Mentor gets a random Mentor Edition item.

I flew him around in my Quad Wing Interceptor and showed him some of the planet, as well as some new teleporters, and then showed him where I had been mining, helping him get set up to do some mining of his own.  He has been at it a few days now and seems to be catching on pretty quickly. He is able to target the higher markup resources and is currently learning the best ways to sell depending on individual markups and quantities he has.

 Planet Arkadia Quad Wing

If starting to play the game for the first time, I would highly recommend you find a good Mentor to help you learn the ropes.  There is a steep learning curve, and having someone advise you will prevent a lot of needless mistakes.

There are a variety of mission NPCs where the new players start on Arkadia, and the typical player will spend their first couple of hours doing these in order to orient themselves with the game.  As you get more familiar with everything you will start choosing missions that are more detailed and take some time commitment to accomplish as well as start to get an idea of the direction you want to take for yourself in the game whether it be hunting, mining, trading, crafting, medic, etc.

The official storyline can be found here, and the missions and events you participate in tend to follow the story to one extent or another.  Knowing the story is not necessary for game play, but if role playing, or learning the lore of where you are is important to you, then becoming knowledgeable of storyline should help get you pointed in the right direction.

A large part of the storyline centers around the humanoid aliens known as Oratan, who are a primitive race able to utilize technology but unable to create it themselves.

“The Oratan are believed to be the race warned of in The Signal, intercepted by the Celeste Space Probe, which would mean this species inflicted genocide on the Ancient Arkadian People.”

As time has gone on and players have worked to explore and colonize Arkadia, the Oratans have grown bolder and stronger and have been recently seen riding animals and wielding weapons believed to have been pillaged in raids against us.

 Planet Arkadia Local Ruffian

I mentioned the Aakas instances earlier so I will end the article with a video of what can only be considered a gamer’s wet dream.  Svena, the avatar in the video, is just finishing a run in the Golden Door instance which is the highest level possible.  The parts to create the key are looted from lower level instances and cost 1000s of PED to craft for a run in the Golden Door instance.  So she put a lot of work into collecting and buying what was needed to prepare for her runs behind the Golden Door.

Some of the highest level armor in the game can be looted from the Golden Door instances and she has had some really nice offers for the different pieces. ($1500 USD for one of the pieces).

 

 

The Lore, the landscape, the community, and the personal drive to succeed are all great reasons to try out Planet Arkadia. As a mid-level player already in the Entropia Universe, I enjoyed my time there and would love to have been able to finish some more missions and meet more of the local people. It has a growing population even after two years, so they are obviously doing something right, and from the new players I talked to, they are having fun as well.