Western Localization: True Horror.

Localization. I hate that word. It always gets flagged as a reason for why we don't get nice things, a catch-all excuse to not bring an eastern game to the west. I hate it when I see it on an MMO announcement because you can consider it shorthand for "You'll get it in like...two years?" which is just a bad day for everyone involved. We live in such an interconnected world at this point it just shocks me that some of this stuff just gets tossed on the back burner for a hell of a lot longer than it should.

Obviously localization is a necessary part of the development process for any game making the jump between hemispheres. Translation, in particular, shines as the primary component in much of the localization done, and that's great! If they just translated it and shipped it I'd be a happy camper, we'd see great games coming out at or near their peaks of interest and a lot more diversity in content. Instead, localization is used to justify changing or "westernizing" mechanics, cultural details, and the kicker...difficulty. This whole stereotype that western game players are stuck with basically insists we have the attention span of a spastic hamster and the willpower and coordination of a particularly listless sloth. I can't stand it!

There is evidence that counters the idea of localization being this lengthy "westernizing" clusterfuck everywhere. Dark Souls, a franchise with origins in Japan, has done quite alright in the west despite its incredible difficulty and steep learning curve. It's proof that not all of us fall into these groupings that so many developers seem to think we do and an indication that we don't need all this back and forth to get a game pushed out.

Console games typically have less of a release gap than your average MMO which is fine in some ways. MMOs typically come with a whole lot of content to work through in localization so some delay is understandable but I'm lost on the concept of not just doing the localization during the initial development cycle. What is it about an MMO that makes localization something you do AFTER the game launches? All too often you end up seeing things like Blade and Soul or Phantasy Star Online 2 that have been out for years without seeing a western release. It's so bad for those two in particular that translation patches are made for free just so we can try them out. People did what the developers could have done in the first place and we all end up playing anyway, so why the pointless bullshit? Even without going through the painful process of finding a western publisher (all of them are just so....ugh.) you can still open up international servers and at least capitalize on the ever-growing western playerbase.

It makes me grumpy how our interconnected world is and disconnected the game industry remains. I find it harder and harder to get excited for games when I see that they're from South Korea or Japan (less so) since I know I won't see it for so damn long. I'm going to be forced to learn Korean/Japanese/Russian at this rate, think of how productive I'll end up being! Oh the humanity!

All that grumpy blathering aside, I have the utmost respect for studios like XSEED since without them we'd lose out on things like Ys and Shadow Hearts...I don't wanna live in that world, man.

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Game Theory: Teaching Players

When designing a game there is a huge degree of freedom when it comes to teaching your players how to play your game. Many games often fall victim to the typical default tutorial menus, a theme so common in mainstream gaming that often refuses a player the right to figure things out for themselves.

That isn't to say all tutorials are evil and should henceforth be banished from the gaming world but they need to be informative, not definitive. When a game explains itself to a player it loses that bit of mystery, and the room for player involvement dwindles. A tutorial that works is a tutorial that shows a player their tools but gives them the ability to learn how to use them and, as a player, learning in your own way just feels good.

Continuing off this idea we can look at an example of a game that embraces this type of hands-off approach to at least some degree, Wildstar. Now, if you don't happen to know what Wildstar is...well you should. It's an upcoming Sci-Fi/Fantasy MMORPG by Carbine Studios and published by NCsoft; it features a bunch of wicked cool stuff but what I'd like to talk about here is the game's telegraphed combat and how that changes how players will learn how to play the game.

This telegraph concept is a bit of a twist on traditional MMO combat as it takes a previously unseen element (Attack hitboxes) and displays them for the players, showing both their own attacks as well as the attacks of opponents/allies. So what does this do? It basically allows the use of Wildstar's free-form targeting in addition to acting as a learning tool for players. Since this discussion focuses on the latter we'll stick to that, for now.

So how does showing skill hit boxes help players learn? In essence it's exactly what players need to see in order to learn how to handle the various scenarios they'll be encountering while playing the game. It's a system that caters to players learning with a degree of freedom in order to figure out what works for themselves. It grants a sense of autonomy that isn't always present in today's game market, especially when it comes to MMO's.

Personally, I enjoy the idea of being able to approach situations with a level of diversity as it changes player experience in a way that grants a bit of empowerment when you figure out how to overcome a particularly tricky encounter. Giving your players a sense of accomplishment is something that is both hard to accomplish from an MMO design perspective and differs depending on player type, a tricky formula, but I digress.

Let's get back to the telegraphed combat and look at what that means for accessibility within group settings whilst fighting bosses. Let me paint a picture that I'm all too familiar with in an MMO setting: I'm heading into an instance in a pick-up group (PUG), we've all got a fair idea of what to expect but some members of the group haven't run this encounter before. Enter the boss. Despite your long winded pre-fight explanation of what to expect, half of your group ends up dead because they didn't know what they were doing. So, you get upset, swear off pugs for the rest of your days and retreat into a tiny anti-social bubble, we've all been there.

Now, the above situation isn't uncommon simply because everyone starts as a novice when they run something for the first time. If people honestly didn't know what to do how could you blame them? It's not like they could see what the boss was about to do or anything.

Boom. Telegraphed combat. This is why I love this idea so much. Not only does it preserve the difficulty of boss encounters (Knowing what's coming isn't a surefire way to avoid failure, but it sure helps!) but it also allows people to pick up the fight strategies quickly even if they have no prior experience. I hear the word "accessibility" all the time when people talk about their MMO's but it typically ends up meaning that the content is cushioned so as to avoid alienating the casual player. I don't feel like Wildstar is doing that at all from what they've shown thus far with the telegraphed combat. All it seems to do is open up the door for people to learn the encounters which is a fantastic way to make the game more accessible while also maintaining a sense of difficulty and strategy.

It's tough to cast a definitive statement about Wildstar right now as it has yet to even enter beta but from what they've shown so far I can't help but look forward to it. If you'd like to hear the actual developers talk about their combat (and other things) you can watch a nice big video here!

I'll be revisiting Wildstar in the near future with some of their other game features under the microscope. If you enjoyed this article feel free to drop a comment or strike up a discussion!

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Guild Wars 2: Lost Shores

Today marks the start of a weekend long event in the vast world of Tyria. This will mark Guild Wars 2's next content expansion and allegedly some game changing events that will culminate on Sunday the 18th.

I've enjoyed Guild Wars 2's extremely well designed world quite thoroughly, it may even be my favorite aspect of the game as a whole. In addition to the slew of events this weekend there will also be a new PvP map introduced, a long needed addition to the stagnating PvP content that pushed me to shy away from the game to begin with.

So, what can we expect this weekend? My current expectations are quite lofty considering ArenaNet put on some absolutely fantastic events while I was playing GW2 such as a map-wide Zombie PvP match and a survivor-type attrition event. Both of these were incredibly well done so I have high expectations for the events this weekend. My main question right now is one of direction. I want to see how ANet defines itself with this weekend's events. They will largely determine, for me, what kind of game GW2 will become.

From the sound of the advertisements I'm expecting some colossal boss encounter on Sunday that changes the world of Tyria in a significant way(s). If GW2 wants to preserve their initial intent to have a constantly evolving, dynamic world then this kind of content is exactly what I've been waiting for and completely justifies my return to the game this weekend.

This is GW2's chance to pull some of its more reluctant audience back into the fold and keep them interested. I'm very excited to see where things go!

If you're interested in participating in the Lost Shores event then please drop a comment so we can see about sending out some invites perhaps.

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Aion 3.5 Chronicles: Tiamat Stronghold

Hey! This guide will serve as a general instance knowledge and boss strategy guide fully fit with any bugs encountered along the way. Tiamat's Stronghold is definitely one of the more challenging instances in the game right now so I figured a nice how-to guide was in order. Let's get started.

H'okay so  let's talk party composition. The group I typically run with is as follows:
1 Sorcerer
1 Gladiator
1 Spiritmaster
1 Templar
1 Chanter
1 Cleric

That setup is one that works quite well as spiritmasters can dispell key buffs off the bosses that simplify the fights considerably. Anyway, I want to talk a little bit about melee dps' role in this instance as it isn't traditional in the sense that up until now there have been no instances that really call players to respec to a more PvE friendly stigma build in a long time. This instance has one boss in particular that absolutely requires maximum dps to be dished out and having ranged dps as opposed to melee seems to make the fights a lot easier. We had no trouble with any boss when running mostly melee dps except that last one. So, I urge caution if you choose to run melee dps in this instance as they will need to spec for maximum dps to ensure the final boss goes smoothly.

Let's talk bosses.



Boss #1: Invincible Shabokan
This guy is quite easy and his rotations are predictable and easily avoided, provided people are quick on their feet. This instance has a lot of bosses that use kind of progressive AoE attacks that will continually deal damage the longer you stay in them. This boss in particular uses a skill called tremor. The tank and all melee dps should be out of the range of this attack whenever he uses it, you just don't need to get hit by it at all. The range is quite small, it's a very visible circle around the boss, so yeah, don't stand in it.

Aside from that he'll just use a skill called Earth Upheaval that is reminiscent of Raksha's Earth Fragments in Raksang. It'll spawn several rock formations under the party's feet, just move away from these to avoid taking some pretty heavy damage. They do explode quickly so be ready to move and be sure to have someone in vent or chat calling out when he uses upheaval.

Once you have a firm grasp of these two skills you can avoid the boss is really just cake. He has one more single target skill that he'll use on random members of the party which isn't a big deal at all. The only other thing to watch out for is at the last 20%~ or so he will pop a buff, it's a little yellow icon (I'll insert the actual name later) which increases his attack power and speed but stops him from using any of his skills. At this point in the fight you just focus dps on the boss to burn it down, shouldn't be much of an issue.

Known Bugs: None

Now, after this boss you enter a large plaza area with three branching paths, which I'll refer to as "Top", "Left", and "Right". You can attempt these in any order you want but for this guide the boss numbering will be as if you went down the left hall, then the right, finishing with the top.

Left Hallway:
Boss #2: Brigade General Chantra
The next boss you encounter is quite easy. The only thing to take note of before starting is that the room is circular and consists of three rings. This boss will do a skill called "Activate Drana Reactor" and sections of the floor with blink red. Do not stand on the red areas. Your group needs to be ready to move between the rings as the fight goes on. Aside from that, this boss is a simple tank n' spank. He will pop the typical attack/speed buff during his last 15% or so.

Boss #3: Brigade General Terath
Before starting this boss you need to position yourselves properly, near one of the two circular panels on either side of the boss. These serve no purpose until the boss does a very obvious room AoE which will kill anyone left inside of it for too long. All ranged dps and healers should be near one of the platforms at all times while the melee fights the boss near-ish the middle of the room. Once the boss teleports she is about to start the room AoE and everyone needs to get on the platform. Just run on top of them and stop moving completely, lest you be thrown off. These circles function as bounce panels that keep you out of the range of the room AoE.

Aside from the room AoE this boss also makes gravity distortions appear around her feet on the floor. These will inflict 3-4k damage per second you stand in them so pay attention to your footing and be ready to move around or back off completely if you're a melee class. Once you understand these two things this boss should be quite easy as the only other skill that is used is a frontal cone AoE (Commander's Strike) that does moderate damage. Just have the tank face her away from any of the melee dps.

Pro tip: While bouncing on the panels you can't use skills but you can use potions, if you need healing.

Right Hallway:
Boss #4: Traitor Kumbanda
This boss can be a bit tricky for a few reasons. First of all, don't stand on the elevator that leads down to him until everyone is ready. Once you go down there you'll begin to be hit with a DoT that will constantly hit the entire party throughout the fight but it starts as soon as you get down there. This boss isn't aggressive but you'll want to start him quickly to offset the DoT damage. Also, do not aggro the boss until the whole party is out of the elevator, as it seals once the boss is pulled, this can trap party members. (If you do trap a party member you can either have them try to jump the rail up at the top of the elevator or reset the boss by running back around the elevator.)

Fighting this guy is fairly simple but you really have to be on guard against a few things. First off, you'll notice you're very slow. This is an effect that can be counteracted by standing in the middle of any of the clocks that will appear around the boss. These clocks speed cast and attack speed significantly. Ranged will need to move around to different clocks throughout the fight, this is especially important for healers. Melee has it a bit easier in this fight as there is always a clock underneath the boss, all melee dps and the tank should be right under the boss. If you want to simplify your life you can have your entire party stand under the boss, the only drawback is that it is a bit hard to see the adds when they spawn. It's best to have a designated add manager who is tab targeting every ~20 seconds.

As mentioned above, this boss also summons adds. They are to be the absolute priority for the group whenever they spawn. Have at least one person on dedicated add duty. I filled this role in my group while on my Assassin, spamming tab while just auto attacking the boss to ensure I jumped on the adds as soon as they spawned. These adds will paralyze the person they have targeted. As you can imagine this is incredibly costly if they target a healer, they are the #1 reason a group would wipe on this boss.

Once you have the adds under control and keep yourselves on clocks this fight is fairly straight forward. At the last little portion of the boss' (10-15%) he will pop that little yellow attack buff like the rest of the bosses and the clocks will stop spawning and you just have to dps him down as best you can.

Pro Tip: The adds can be silenced! If you have a ranger or sorcerer in your group have them start off by silencing the add to ensure nobody is paralyzed. (Stuns work too!)

Boss #5: Laksyaka
This is probably the boss people have the hardest time with but it doesn't need to be! That being said, this is a strange fight and you'll need to come prepared to deal with a change of pace. This entire fight is tanked not by the templar, but rather whomever gets turned into a skeleton by the giant eyeball at the far end of the room, opposite the stairs. When turned into a skeleton the player will be given access to two skills, a taunt and an AoE lifesteal that works on the adds the Laksyaka will spawn.

As a skeleton it will be that player's express purpose to taunt the boss and run him around in circles while your group works on DPSing him down. In addition to kiting and  taunting the skeleton player must kill the adds as they spawn to prevent them from hindering the party. To do this all the skeleton has to do is use their second skill while near the adds, you do not need them targeted for the lifesteal to work and it instantly kills them. Use it several times to be sure the adds all die.

Once your group has the hang of these concepts this boss is cake. However, there are a few things to take note of. First, you need to be ready to switch roles on the fly if you happen to get turned into a skeleton, it happens fast and can be costly if someone doesn't keep aggro on the boss. Second, you can determine who starts as a skeleton by having your party wait on the stairs while the actual tank and your intended skeleton go in. The non-tank should end up as a skeleton.

Known Bugs: If two people are skeletons and both use their taunts there will be a small gap in the aggro hold and the boss will go attack someone else. If you have two skeletons make sure they are aware of each other so one can go after adds while the other taunts the boss.

Boss #6 Anuhart
This boss is a pain if you aren't running with a spiritmaster simply because he gets that nice little yellow attack/attack speed buff the other bosses get, except he gets it three times. More on that crap in a moment. The fight leading up to those buffs being put on is fairly easy but there are a few things to watch out for.

First off, if you're running any melee dps aside from your tank you need to make sure they're aware that they can't stand in Anuhart's 360 AoE. It is easy to figure out when it's coming since he says something ("I WILL CRUSH YOU ALL!") before he does it so listen for that. If you don't play with game sound turned on you can predict it by watching his AoE rotations. He'll do a frontal AoE called "Wave of Pain" three times before using his circular AoE, so be sure to count them for your tank and melee.

Once he starts doing the 360 AoE he'll be shielded and will reflect and close range damage so all melee MUST be outside of this range (roughly 10 meters). Ranged can still attack but they will do no damage. Just before 50% Anuhart will buff himself for the first time and his attack power and speed will increase. This isn't a huge deal if you've got a decent tank and healers but if you're running an SM then have them strip the buff off. He does this again before 25% and one last time at around 15%. If you are not running a spiritmaster you need to save all major cooldowns for this last 15%, your tank will likely need iron skin and the chanter should be pop aetheric field if needed. It is a race at this point and if the tank dies then the party is likely to follow.

Lastly, there is one last AoE he does that hits the whole party which involves him stabbing his sword into the ground and causing other swords to shoot up underneath everyone's feet. Don't worry too much about it but make sure the cleric is group healing everyone back up to full.

Known Bugs: Anuhart WILL drop aggro and reset if your tank doesn't run back in before his 360 AoE ends. It's okay for the templar to reflect himself a bit to make sure he doesn't bug and drop aggro.

Boss #7 Tahabata
This should be the last boss you run into as he will demand most of your big cooldowns. Do not start this fight if you're waiting for important 10 minute cooldowns such as Iron skin, Emperean Providence, and Aetheric Field, you will likely need them. Also, be sure to pop fire resist scrolls if you have them, Tahabata loves his fire.

Tahabata is not a hard boss until his last phase at about 15%. The fight will involve the room getting smaller and smaller as he loses health so be sure to tank him right in the middle of the room. There are a few things to watch out for during this fight. First off, he'll use a room-wide fire AoE every 25% or so that needs to be healed through, it cannot  be avoided but isn't too hard to keep the party alive through.

Aside from that, Tahabata will often teleport around randomly and use a skill called Piercing Strike which is a medium damage AoE but he uses it twice in a row so be mindful and move away from him if he teleports to you. In addition to this Tahabata will also spawn tornadoes around the room that will put players in aether's hold and damage them a fair bit, be sure to move away from these tornadoes as they spawn. He also puts a DoT on people randomly that looks like a tornado but it can be removed with a healing potion or a dispell.

Now, once you get him to about 50% have your chanter pop WoW in preparation for the only dangerous part of this fight. Once you see the boss switch phases for the last time the room will become covered in fire and the entire party will begin taking fairly heavy AoE damage. This can't be avoided so if your templar has it, pop Emp. Providence at this point. Chanters should also pop elemental screen and word of quickness at this point to improve DPS and healing capabilities. Once Providence is over chanters can follow up with aetheric field if you need more time with the boss. It is at this last phase that dps needs to pop their DP skills and pump as much dps into the boss as possible to ensure a smooth finish.

The last thing to do in the instance is porting into the last room through the central area of the instance. This last room contains six AP chests and one gold chest which can contain one of the new mounts if you're lucky.

Congratulations! You've finished Tiamat's Stronghold! If you have anymore questions feel free to drop a comment.

-Fest

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Aion 3.0 Chronicles: Elementis Forest & Argent Manor

Warning: This guide contains a ton of Fest-isms and due to this I have decided to give you all a key to decipher my ramblings.
List of known Fest-isms:

Safety Golem = Hetgolem (Things that spawn around Boss #5 of Elementis forest)
Rock O' Doom = Not a real "boss" but gives a loot chest
Yoda Monkey on Crack = Monkey boss (Boss #4 of Elementis forest)
Junkie Golem = Final boss of Elementis Forest who is overdosing on a tree.
Safety Golem Slavemaster = First boss in Argent Manor, utilizes safety golems to heal himself.
Where did my hp go? Final boss of Argent Manor, Zadra Spellweaver, hits like a truck throwing another truck at your face. Doesn't drop anything when "killed"
Where did my hp go? Pt. 2: The Reckoning: Final form of Zadra Spellweaver, is annoying until 25% Hits like a truck throwing another truck at your face and then firing a rocket at your nuts.

Well if you've taken a look around the map at all the new instances you may recognize Elementis Forest as one of the new twelve-man instances. This instance is part of a set, complemented by Argent Manor, similar in fashion to Upper and Lower Udas in the previous zones.

The Forest portion of the instance isn't setup like a dungeon or your typical instance at all. If anything it reminded me of an open zone and even contains some repeatable mob kill quests. There are a total of five bosses in the forest and I'll give a brief description of the strategy involved for defeating each of them. At some point in the near future I'll actually record these bosses and add commentary so stay tuned :D!

Boss #1 Canyonguard: This dude is a giant golem that you run into literally a few steps into the instance. He's a pretty standard tank n' spank boss that spawns some adds every so often that the group must shift priority to. His other noteworthy skill is Canyonguard's Wrath (Rage?) which is an AoE he will cast every two minutes or so, it has a range of 15 meters. Outrange this skill. It does quite a large amount of damage if you get caught in it and he repeat casts it three times before returning to normal.

In regards to the adds: The Canyonguard will spawn these boulders that don't really do anything for about a minute then they "hatch" into elite earth spirit adds. The dormant boulders can be burned down so you don't need to kill the actual adds. I believe there are a total of four or five adds to dps down during the last spawn so it's quite manageable.

Once he dies he turns into a bridge and spawns a chest which, from my two runs, contained Fabled accessories and one Eternal piece of armor (plate shoulders).

Boss #2: This next boss is a little more tricky since you need to have one group handle the invisible adds that constantly spawn at put a shield on the main boss. This can be done by using the plants on the ground that spawn around the boss. These will allow you to see the invisible adds and burn them down (they're really weak). Our group had the gladiators focus on these adds since a few AoE's is all it would take the drop the group of them.

More adds! This stupid horse also blips in and out of existence every phase and summons a literal wave of adds that encircles you. The first three waves are no big deal but towards the end, especially the final wave, things can get bad if you aren't careful. The final wave of adds consists of these jellyfish things that must be either burned down immediately or kited until they de-spawn. IMPORTANT NOTE: Never attack them from the front, they like to do frontal explosion AoE's that do some nasty damage. These adds do de-spawn after a relatively short period of time.

Aside from all the waves of adds this boss is fairly easy and shouldn't give groups much trouble.

Boss #3 ROCK O' DOOM: At the top of a hill your party will encounter a large rock. It has a legendary health bar and is most easy piece of crap the hardest boss in the game. You gently push the giant boulder of death down a hill where it slams into another rock and gives you a chest with some golds, haven't seen an eternal out of this one yet.

I hesitate to call that a boss.

Boss #4 Yoda Monkey on Crack: After carving your way through adorable monkeys wearing leaf hats you'll encounter a large version of the Yoda-monkey pet from Esoterrace. This guy is like a mix of the first two real bosses and will blip out of existence and spawn adds. These are much more manageable than either of the previous bosses though as they don't have much health. This boss does nothing special outside of the adds just focus fire and you'll be fine. Also, mark the main boss so you can tell when he reappears, helpful for your tank since the adds look identical to the boss.

Boss #5 Junkie Golem: IMPORTANT NOTE: There are a bunch of adorable circle golems surrounding the area that the boss is in. These are used in the fight and I strongly suggest burning them all down before starting the fight.

This boss likes to put DoTs on people that can only be cleared by using the corpse of one of the aforementioned adorable circle golems, we'll call them safety golems. The boss will frequently resurrect all the golems and you can just have your gladiators AoE them down without much issue. It is important to keep the boss away from the safety golem pile.

When you get two debuffs on you it is important to cleanse them so your healers don't get overwhelmed. One debuff is manageable and waiting for two keeps the supply of safety golems high.

The one important skill this boss uses is Overload. When he uses this it puts a 20 second buff on him that makes him hit for 6-8k per hit. The tank and probably DPS need to back off when he does this skill. Kiting is not needed as the skill will make the boss stop moving completely, just sit back and let the buff run out before continuing the killing.

That concludes the Elementis Forest portion of the guide. Onto the fun part.

Argent Manor: This is a lot harder than the forest portion of the instance and the bosses are much less forgiving.

Boss #1 Safety Golem Slavemaster: This boss is a dick. Not only because he yells at the safety golems but because they heal him and buff him if you don't murder them first. This boss is surrounded by five safety golems that he will call over at random to heal and buff him. These MUST be killed before this happens. If more than two reach him he will likely wipe your group. We discovered that, while these golems are invincible until called, they can be hit through their shield by DoTs and any delayed activation skill (Lava Tsunami, Delayed Blast etc.). This is a good way to get a start on the dps before they're actually called in. It is advised to have at least 10 people for this fight. We did it with nine on our first run but the dps was a close call.

Once all of his adds have been called he's a very easy fight and you just tank n' spank him down.

Boss #2 This wall is stupid: After defeating the first boss head down the stairs into the room with a big wall and some elemental transformation things. Basically all you do for this "boss" is transform into the elemental spirit that can do damage to the wall. It will shift what it is vulnerable to every 30 seconds or so. Aside from that, there is nothing to this fight, it doesn't even hit you back.

Boss #3 Safety Golem Roller Disco: This guy is actually just another big robo-golem and does a couple of annoying things that don't really do anything at all. First off, as my name for this boss implies, he summons two safety golems to roll around him in a circle. Presumably to make himself look cool. These golems take no damage and appear to do absolutely nothing. The only real skill of importance to pay attention to is the ranged reflect he puts up. To remedy this all you need to do is make sure everyone is within seven meters of the boss. Then you just dps him down.

Also, avoid the jelly on the floor it appears to drain mana and debuff you. He does something to the main tank at some point that would essentially insta-kill him so watch for that and make sure someone is ready to alt-tank.

Boss #4 Where did your hp go?: This is actually just phase one of the final boss. He is a bastard. There is no freaking strategy for this boss. The only thing you can do is pray your clerics/chanters can put out the heals to keep your templar up through this guy's ludicrous amounts of damage. We had a level 58 templar in full stormwing gear in full tank spec do this fight and he was still barely living through some of this guy's attacks.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Similar to the first manor boss this dude has three crystals he summons one at a time starting from the far right, then middle, then left. When these crystals become vulnerable EVERYONE needs to burn them. If one happens to cast a buff on the boss he will begin one-shotting everyone.

This boss also loves randomly targeting people and pulling them towards him while doing about 7k damage. Depending on how many healers you have (We had two clerics and a chanter) they may be too busy spamming every heal possible on the tank so be ready to pot back up.

Once you get him to around 25-30% he will run away. No loot will be given. It's okay to be mad.

Boss #5 Where did your hp go? Pt. 2: The Reckoning: So this jerkbag decides to get even stronger now. The first phase of this fight is the hardest. You have to deal with his linear AoE's that do massive damage so stay spread out, healers and ranged on the right, melee dps on the left, have the tank stick to the wall with the boss facing away from the group.

The boss now has several new AoEs and still loves to pull people randomly to him. He also spawns fire on the floor that damages you so mind your surroundings. We had our tank die about 35% in and continued the fight by having whoever had aggro kite around the circular room. This worked well since the boss likes to stop and AoE a lot, giving the group time to recover. Then we worked our way through the aggro list until the templar had it back.

At about 25% he enters his final phase and calls a stupid golem to start shooting lasers at the group. AVOID THE RED DOT! Thankfully this part of the fight is the easiest. Zadra will frequently stop and just float in the middle of the room, allowing you to focus dps on him. Aside from that, he is exactly the same as before. You can have your group kite him around until he stops in the middle to simplify the fight further.

Extra Notes: Most (if not all) bosses have an enrage timer so mind your dps and try to limit the length of these boss fights so you don't wipe from enrage. Also, for anyone curious about our party setup for these two runs we had:
Fest - 60 - Assassin
Hikosejuro - 57/58 - Gladiator
Iamthelaw - 60 - Gladiator
Arkadies - 58/59 - Cleric
Etherea - 58/59 - Cleric
Bennyhinn - 58/59 - Chanter
Vengefulone - 58/59 - Templar
Zenji 58/59 - Ranger
Spankmi - 57/58 - Sorceror
Vikarious (2nd Run) 60 - Sorceror
Congratulations, you've completed Elementis/Argent!

I'll try to add videos next time I run this with Void :D!

Thanks for reading!

-Fest (Tiamat - 60 Assassin)

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Aion 3.0 Overview & AP

After trying several times to write about everything Aion's 3.0 update contains I realized that I was generating what I could only describe as a small book. So I decided to divide it up into a series of "guides" and general information posts discussing the various aspects of 3.0 and how to go about them. Some of these posts may be small tid-bits on quests I found or secrets discovered.

This first post will be on the new ways to gain AP in 3.0 that weren't previously available. The first thing I'd like to mention is the new Tiamaranta's Heart fort sieges and how awesome these sieges are if you participate in them. These forts go vulnerable three times a day and are a great way to assist both yourself and your faction in the AP department.

How these sieges help you: From all of the sieges I've attended thus far I believe the lowest amount of AP I've gained from dps'ing the fort boss was about 2.9k. This makes the paltry 800-1200 AP you gain from Gelk/Ing forts seem irrelevant considering it takes significantly less time to do the new TH sieges.

Typically both Asmodians and Elyos take two forts each and should a player participate in both forts during a vulnerability the total AP gain could be close to 6k. If you siege all three vulnerabilities you're talking 18k AP a day just from 20-30 minute sieges. Supplement this with frequent T-Dredges and PvP daily quests and you've got a rather large chunk of AP coming in every day.

How these sieges help your faction: The TH fortresses operate in a similar way as the Gelk/Ing forts, if your faction owns two or more forts a portal will open up. This portal will take you to Tiamaranta's Eye, a map that contains several daily quests, both PvE and PvP, that assist players in their AP gaining process.

This map also contains AP chests, like the ones found in Esoterrace, that come in varying sizes and may be opened by keys of the corresponding level. This is a fantastic way for people to gain AP since it is like having access to a 24-hour Esoterrace with PvP and a distinct lack of soul crushing-ness.

There is also a nice world boss in the Eye that spawns at weird times (on certain days), Governor Sunayaka. This big ol' dragon drops eternal grade weapons and accessories (Hairpin +?) at a high rate. These are some of the best weapons 3.0 has to offer and are on par with the Vasharti weapons from Rentus Base. Protip: This boss takes significantly less time than an instance and potentially spawns multiple times in any given spawn day. <- Great option for gearing up.

Unfortunately many players (On Tiamat-Asmo) don't take advantage of this zone and have displayed a minimal interest in fort sieges and the Eye's goodies.

That's all on this for now, more to come soon!

-Fest (Tiamat - Assassin)

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TERA Online Closed Beta 1 Impressions

So, I get to be a part of all five of Tera online's closed betas as well as their open beta and head start event and that's pretty awesome. I love beta testing MMO's, always have, I love seeing them in their pre-launch phase since it really shows the developer's true colors in regards to how they respond to player input and where their focus is. One thing that never fails to wreck an online community is poor leadership on the developers end. I've seen Aion, one of the more interesting MMO's, fail almost entirely due to a lack of proper and professional management from NC West. I'm hoping En Masse Entertainment is able to prove just how much they care about their players and the virtual community as a whole.

The first closed beta began last Friday and lasted until Sunday, giving us about two and a half days to explore the first areas of the game (Levels 1-22). The whole thing started out a bit rough, due to either En Masse underestimating how many people were in the beta or just a faulty server, and both the open servers took a nose dive after a few minutes. Not a great start but they recovered well and we were happily playing Tera shortly after this crash. The only other thing I'd like to mention here is the queue, oh boy that was a long one...my friend and I waited about an hour to log in, probably why the server crashed, tons of people were part of this test. En Masse quickly sorted everything out and I wasn't stuck in another queue the entire beta, yay for them, it took SWTOR half a month to rid us of long queues.

The Gameplay: What do I need to say about this? Oh yeah, its awesome. I love Tera's gameplay, it gives the player such a high degree of control over their character's movement and combat unlike any MMO I've played before. With the lack of a targeting system Tera forces players to constantly think about their positioning in relation to their targets and making their strikes accurate. This is not the game for people who like to sit around and press 111 222 111 333 5 and expect to win a fight. No, the combat is extremely demanding on the player and your success in combat is ultimately dependent on your ability to be strategic with your fights. This goes double for the Warrior class, which I ended up choosing to play for this test.

The Warrior Class: Widely regarded as one of, if not THE hardest class to play. It is the only class you can select with a 5-star difficulty rating (Yes, En Masse categorized their classes based on difficulty). I'm typically a guy who plays the rogue/assassin type character and I was sorely disappointed by Tera's lack of "rogues" until I realized that the Warrior might as well just be called an assassin. They utilize two swords, focus on evasion, backstabbing, high attack speed, and poisons. Yeah, they're pretty much Tera's assassins minus the focus on daggers (Sadface). My experience with the warrior was a good one, I enjoyed the fast paced combat simply because it keeps me engaged and even when I'm grinding stuff for Guild Quests I still enjoy fighting against the AI.

PvP as a Warrior: Yikes, this was a bit rough at this stage in the game, I was finding myself having trouble dealing with many of the other classes at 22. I know PvP isn't balanced around low levels and you'll typically find more balance at endgame but it was just damaging to the ego when I can't come close to dropping a Slayer despite having similar gear/level. I had the opportunity to fight several slayers (the dudes are everywhere), a few Berserkers (went better than slayers), and some Mystics (Did not go so well). The PvP is fun but I do foresee some balancing issues if not just from observing the reactions and class populations from the Korean/Japanese servers. Slayers essentially dominate most other classes in 1v1 PvP which is somewhat frustrating since most games struggle with balancing their heavy DPS classes for PvP. Aion's Templars and Gladiators were some of the easier classes to play and were near impossible to beat as another melee class unless you were another Glad/Temp. Hopefully the feedback from KR/JP servers will be enough to get some balance for future PvP.

BAM's: "Big Ass Monsters", the "Elites" of Tera Online. These guys are tough at first but the game is based on player skill so much so that you can solo these titans without much issue, aside from how long it takes. People constantly post videos of them soloing these and trying to look awesome. Well, it does kinda look awesome to see a little dude fighting a behemoth all by himself, nimbly dodging through waves of attacks and shelling out damage all the while. Killing a BAM is a lot of fun and typically very rewarding, the drop a lot of loot and crafting materials.

Boss Experience: My friend Shiggy (Slayer) and I (Warrior) decided to take on a field boss to see just how far we could get with two people against a large boss. The result was: We killed it, but it wasn't easy. The particular boss we chose was level 25, three levels above the first beta cap for us, so right away we were put at a level disadvantage. The fight started easily enough, I tanked him while Shiggy put DPS on and tried to stay behind him. This worked until about 70% when the boss started glowing and lighting began to cover over its arms. His attack speed went through the roof and he began a near non-stop barrage of powered up attacks directed at me. Eventually there was one I just couldn't avoid, I figured it was fine to get hit once...I was wrong and died immediately, crushed under this thing's titanic ass. Shiggy took aggro and kited him around while I res'd up and headed back (It was near a teleporter thankfully) and by the time I had gotten back the previously powered up boss was back to normal so we kept bringing him down slowly but surely. Every five or ten minutes the boss would "enrage" again and we were forced to kite him around until it ran out. This became difficult because he started launching projectiles at us if we got too far away...eventually we did kill him without wiping but it was an incredibly lengthy battle and really kept us on our toes. We got some good loot from him including a whopping seven uncommon boss runes which I can use for crafting in the next patch. (Typical BAMs of that level don't drop anywhere near that many). Bosses can be incredibly tough but are quite fun and rewarding.

Instances: I only did one instance that was called "Secret Base". It was a pretty fun experience, lots of elite mobs to fight through and two dynamic boss battles. The bosses are the cool part of these instances, they feel more fluid than typical bosses on MMOs, the ones we fought rarely stood still long enough to let us get in many hits. The bosses don't just sit there and let you hit them, the move around, use long range attacks, I almost felt as if the boss was kiting the players around, how backwards is that? The video of our first encounter with the boss of Secret Base can be seen here.

Overall: Tera left a good impression on me after the first test, I really feel like En Masse is invested in giving us a good gaming experience and providing consistent, innovative content for us in the future. Tera's gameplay definitely makes it stand out from typical MMOs that we've seen in the past. I'm extremely excited for the second closed test beginning on the 24th of February. Thanks for reading! If you'd like to contact me in-game I'll be on Serpentis Isle (I think?) under the name "Cross".

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SWTOR: Meet the Sniper (PVP)

Alright so my main character on SWTOR is a Sniper and I've really enjoyed the playstyle despite it being a bit odd for me to play a ranged class in an MMO as I am typically an assassin. But yeah, the sniper is a heavy ranged DPS class that utilizes a cover system to demolish opponents in both PvP and PvE without taking any damage, ideally. The particular specialization I chose to pursue is the Engineer, a spec that focuses on explosions and other area of effect skills (AoE).

The sniper's role in PvP is definitely in the vein of covering your teammates as well as blowing up high priority targets before they have a chance to do their thing. An Engineer is focused on putting a dent in a large number of players to change the tide of larger fights by using things like grenades, probes, and even an orbital strike to inflict massive damage on other players. Snipers also have some damage mitigation skills that allow us to either absorb damage with a shield or dodge it altogether which makes us viable even at close range. Our ideal distance is between 20 and 30 meters since most other classes need to be closer than that to do the majority of their skills. We're also given skills that slow other players down or immobilize them completely in order to kite (the act of maintaining distance from a target by use of slows and strategic movement) melee classes that can close distances quickly.

Despite the value of our ranged combat, Snipers can still be useful at close range if we use our skills properly while paying special attention to the placement of your area skills. If you see a warrior or two...or three (there are lots of warrior classes) coming at you its not a bad idea to pop whatever defensive buffs you have and put area skills down right over yourself. Nothing is more hilarious that watching three frustrated melee classes chase you around in a circle while being hit by an orbital strike, burned by a probe, and having grenades chucked in their faces every few seconds. Snipers can be extremely effective in a sort of one vs. many scenario provided the player knows what they're doing it is possible to drop three or more people at once as an engineer due to the extremely high AoE damage you can put out.

I'll just briefly mention the other two specializations you can choose from. First you've got your basic marksman spec which, as the name implies, is entirely focused on ranged skills and your fundamental sniper skills. The spec's main benefit is that it powers up critical hits on a lot of your skills and offers a very high amount of chain-able skills such as instantly cooling down "Series of Shots" and allowing you to use two more without a cooldown. So basically that means you can put heavy dps on a target for a solid 20 seconds without consuming much energy. My favorite part of the marksman tree had to be the skill "Followthrough" which, again as the name implies, follows up one of your snipes or ambushes with a powerful shot that takes no time to prepare and does extremely high critical damage. This spec, as well as the other two, is very viable for PvP and PvE alike.

Next is the Lethality spec. This is a tree focused on dealing damage over time with your poison skills and is widely regarded as the "best" spec for PvP, an opinion with which I strongly disagree. However, this is still a great spec for dealing with a lot of the heavier classes under the label of "tank". It's very possible to tag a target with multiple DoT (damage over time) skills which just pile up damage and is very difficult to out heal or even get away from. If a lethality sniper has you in it's sights then you better focus on killing it quick.

Engineers like making things go boom and so do I. It's a perfect fit. That's pretty much all I've got to say about Snipers for the time being. I'll probably do a Meet the Operative after I finish mine and they get nerfed.

Thanks for reading!

-Fest

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Star Wars the Old Republic: Overview

Alright so this will just be a moderately brief look at the overview of the game discussing things like various classes/roles and gameplay as well as some aspects of what makes SWTOR a good game and also some things that need touching up. I'll start with the class system.

Classes: SWTOR takes a pretty typical approach to an MMO class system. You start out as a basic class and advance to one of two advanced classes at level 10. To add more depth to this fundamental system Bioware added specialization trees to each advanced class which essentially changes your playstyle based on what spec you choose to pursue. You can also mix and match to create your own spec that suits your playstyle the best. People will always try to figure out the "best" one but that is totally subjective and most specs are viable in PvP. The class list goes as follows

Imperials: Agent, Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor (Mage-ish), Bounty Hunter

Republic: Smuggler, Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Trooper

Imperial Agent: Sniper, Operative

Sith Warrior: Juggernaut, Marauder

Sith Inquisitor: Sorceror, Assassin

Bounty Hunter: Powertech, Mercenary

Smuggler: Scoundrel, Gunslinger

Jedi Knight: Guardian, Sentinel

Jedi Consular: Sage, Shadow

Trooper: Commando, Vanguard

I personally play a Sniper as my main character so I'll discuss that in depth in my next post. The cool thing about all the classes is that there are multiple roles that each can fill based on which skill tree you pursue (same as a spec). For example, the "Assassin" class has a basic DPS (damage per second) spec that makes for a great PvP tree but it also has a spec for tanking that is filled with defensive skills. What kind of assassin can tank stuff? Point being, SWTOR has pushed some classes that are, by themselves, very traditional into very non-traditional roles. There are also options to turn your character into a healer for three of the four basic classes meaning that depending on your group's needs you can fill the role of healer if need be. This also makes things interesting in PvP because you can have a mercenary who sits there firing missiles off his back and another one healing. It makes it difficult to determine target order until you're part way through a match. That's enough about classes for now though I'd like to move onto some of the aspects of the stories that make SWTOR stand out.

Story: Story? In an MMO? Nonsense! Is what many people might say about your typical MMO since, by in large, MMOs have basic lore and not much else in the story department. But even the lore in most MMOs is shaky at best and eventually it develops into something really, really stupid. Like pandas. Yeah, thats right WoW I'm looking at you. Thank the lord I never touched that game. Anyway, WoW's megafail isn't my point here. SWTOR's story is actually quite well done and plays out in a similar manner to it's predecessors, KOTOR and KOTOR II. Each class has a unique story that follows the same underlying plot and it takes you from level one right to level 50. My Sniper's story quest was actually the last quest I completed that leveled me right to cap which I found to be quite amazing that they pieced together a three part story for every class that brings them straight to the level cap and through all the different planets SWTOR has to offer. So lets think about that real quick. There are eight classes in total with their own unique story that lasts, if you did them all in a straight line without stopping or factoring in your level, about 15-20 hours in total. Multiply that by eight and you've got the content that Bioware developed just for the story.

Having a story you can experience by yourself is a strange concept to me since most MMOs focus on the group aspect of playing. However, this was incredibly nice since my satisfaction was not based on how many of my friends were playing at the time, I didn't have to wait for a group to get on to experience content. In reality the story plays out more like a single player game with the option of inviting friends along for the ride but you can complete the story all by yourself if you want to. Giving players the option to play and level their characters solo or questing with a group is a nice change of pace from other MMOs.

Leveling: The typical grind of an MMO is not present in SWTOR. There are hundreds of quests and a large amount of content you can use for leveling via questing but that isn't the only way to level. You can also level using space missions which essentially play out like a Star Fox 64 level where you fly around in your spaceship on a pre-determined course shooting down baddies for experience and commendations to buy things for your ship. Any space mission of "heroic" mission will also reset every morning allowing players to repeat content at their leisure to gain significant experience without having to log on for five hours a day just to get a level.

Yet another way to gain experience as well as money and even gear is the instanced PvP or "Warzones" which net you the average quest experience for your level and it scales up as you level as well so it remains a constant option for leveling, money, and gear. Warzones also buff up your stats to that of a level 50 character which allows for equal play in the non-50 bracket despite the level gaps.

So that went a bit longer than I expected...more later as I do a sort of "Meet the Sniper" kinda thing.

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Lineage 2 Rebooted: Goddess of Destruction

Me and a couple friends decided to leave Aion to give Lineage 2 (L2) a shot since they turned it into a free to play and overhauled a lot of features to try and make it a competitor with other newer MMOs. However, L2 is not a new game by any means and this update doesn't change that as much as I had hoped. That being said, I know I had pretty high expectations for the update and since I have yet to reach the level cap (far from it) I can't exactly pass judgment on it but from what I've seen so far it's essentially the same game with just a few tweaks and added content. I'll talk about what I liked and what I thought they really needed to improve and didn't.

Starting with the negative!

Things I think needed improving that got completely/partially ignored:

1. The User Interface (UI)

2. I WANT TO JUMP.

3. Combat is still very much point, click, win, at this point (As I get more skills this will lessen)

4. Movement remains clunky and obstacles cannot be jumped over

5.Graphics are still "meh" but that's not a big deal to me

The User Interface: To me, having a shoddy UI is inexcusable for any game calling itself a current generation game or in L2's case, a game that can compete with current gen games. A good UI is not hard to accomplish by any means, games like Aion and WoW have fantastic UIs that are player friendly and don't require you to dig around through tons of boxes that are either unnecessary or just painfully difficult to access. This was probably the one thing I would have loved L2 to fix since it has a rather cluttered mess of a UI that might have been okay five years ago but that doesn't exactly fly. Now, you might say I'm too picky about this and people have no problem with it and I would tell you to eat a shoe if you've played L2 previously. You get used to it, no question about that, but when trying to appeal to a non-nostalgia market a good UI is critical and makes everything smoother for everyone playing. Maybe I've just played Aion for too long and it killed other MMOs for me :(

2. There is a reason most MMOs have a jump button. I mean when I am traipsing along through L2's absolutely MASSIVE world it gets a tad bit annoying when my character encounters a tiny rock and is like "WHAT IS THIS WALL I HAVE RUN INTO!?". Then I have to admit that the tiny rock is too much of an obstacle for my poor feet and walk around it shamefully. There is also this funny thing where some mobs will spawn ontop of rock formations, and they have bows...it then becomes a game of "find the spot" while you run around the rock looking for a way up onto it whilst being shot with arrows. You're still allowed to fall off things though, they couldn't take that away from me but you just sort of trip your way down hills and such. I want to vault myself off cliffs.

3. Fear my cursor. L2 still has its old combat system which was disappointing but I can't say I honestly expected them to rework their entire combat system since you could essentially label it Lineage 3 and people wouldn't find that to be outlandish. However it is still a point of annoyance for me since I like dynamic combat (they promised this by the by but we shall see if endgame delivers) and I especially like dynamic PvP and somehow I feel like I'm going to get blown straight to hell by mages and such since I can't move properly, which brings me to....

4. WHY DON'T MY FEET WORK?! After watching PvP videos of various L2 servers (Private and Retail) I still think they have made their PvP entirely dependent on planting your feet and getting into an immobile slugfest which I hold in the same regard as a rock em' sock em' robot battle. When I can't kite around my opponent and add that dimension of control it just encourages gear based PvP which I do not like (I put a bucket over my robot's head, you lose!).

5. Graphics. This is 50/50 for me because I actually kind of like how L2 looks but honestly when you make such a massive update I expect the graphics of this ancient game to be absolutely overhauled completely, totally, any other word that means something similar. Hell Aion even underwent a graphics upgrade about a year after it was launched (I like this a lot even though it is cosmetic it shows that the game is trying to stay current). That being said, I like the graphics they are definitely nostalgic from when I used to play avidly.

What I liked:

1. The world

2. The leveling curve

3. The gear curve

4. The player base

5. Quests are worth doing!

The world of L2. It is the single most massive world I have ever encountered in a game. If I walked from top to bottom it would take me hours. There is just so much terrain in this game and no loading screens to break the continuity which is just great. Despite every major town and grinding/quest area being packed full of people I was still able to find my own little personal leveling area simply due to the fact that the world they have made is big enough for everyone to do their own thing in. Since the update most of the main towns from before are now ransacked and lay in ruins and a lot of the previous leveling spots people used are far different than they were before the patch (I found this out the hard way).

Leveling! L2 was infamous for its debilitating leveling curve that either devoured your soul or made you quit the game. This has changed. Drastically. Essentially the first 20 levels take almost no time at all thanks to the new opening quest line and the rest of them are significantly lowered in terms of required exp which reduces the previously insane grind down to a pleasant playing experience.

I'm so shiny! The gear curve is better simply because they provide it for you. Since this patch was supposed to make L2 accessible to multiple playerbases and also involved a lot of people starting fresh on brand new servers they decided to implement a "Path of awakening" system that rewards you at various points along your leveling experience with weapons and armor suitable for your level. Some would complain that this makes things too easy and there is no doubt that it does make things incredibly easy compared to before but a lot of the playerbase consists of returning players who have experienced the grind for levels and gear before and don't exactly want to re-do that entire experience. It boils down to what will get them players and what will make them want to stay. The gear you receive is also limited though (The highest rank gear lasts 90 days) and they don't give you end game gear so this essentially levels the playing field on the way up to cap.

SO MANY PEOPLE *trampled*. I think it is absolutely hilarious that Aion can barely populate 2 servers and L2 had to open up a 4th server because all the others were running at capacity. You can be playing the best MMO ever but if you don't have a solid playerbase then you will undoubtedly fail, hard. Conversely, if you take an older game and give it an overwhelmingly huge amount of players you'll see a reinvigorated game. I firmly believe that the players make the game fun, MMOs are built around having that community, that competition.

Excuse me, I have to go save some maidens. Questing used to be a piece of crap before this patch. L2 was almost entirely a grind with very little quests since they few they did have were terrifyingly useless and time consuming. Now, we have quests that are simple and level you up quick, which is nice but the ease is offset by the sheer number of people trying to farm a limited number of mobs. I still found it easier to grind my way through the levels but once I get to a point where the quest areas are a bit less densely populated I'll return to questing.

Last thing I swear! It is incredibly important to remember that L2 is a free game now. How many free games sport all these things with such few flaws? L2 is a fantastic game and I love it to death, I am immensely happy to see life breathed back into it after such a long period of only having one server of bots/old players. Such a long post...kudos if you read it all.

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