Gamer Monkey » Warhammer Online

Warhammer Online Patch 1.3.5

Lifebane — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 23:28:27 +0000

Highlights

City RvR Improvements

The city RvR experience has been greatly enhanced to create a much more satisfying RvR endgame. Please see the “City Campaign Changes” section of the Patch notes for the full details.

Item Improvements

Career restrictions on many equipment drops have been eliminated (i.e. if a heavy armor piece drops and you can wear heavy armor, then you can use it.) The look of dyed items has also been greatly improved.

Mini-Map Edge Tracker

Edge Tracker – To help navigate around the world we’ve added a new Edge Tracker to the mini-map. When your party members are out of range their mini-map icons will stick to the edge of the mini-map to indicate which direction they are in. Also in Scenarios, Open RvR and Contested Cities objectives and keeps will be represented by icons on the edge of the mini-map as well. Mousing over any of these tooltips while they’re on the edge of the mini-map will also display the approximate range to the edge point as well. You can also filter what items are tracked by bringing down the Map Filters option box and unselecting the items you don’t wish edge tracked. Part of the Edge Tracker is a new border around the mini-map when you are tracking anything, if you wish to use the Edge Tracker with the old mini-map border check the “Old Minimap Border” option on the General tab in User Settings.

Combat Highlighting

To provide better feedback during combat in the playable game space we’ve added a new method of lighting characters when they are healed or damaged. At its default settings whenever your own player takes damage they will flash red briefly, a critical hit will flash a stronger red. Receive a heal from someone and your character will flash green briefly. Likewise any targets you damage or heal will also flash in a similar manner. This feature can be enabled just on yourself, others or turned off completely in User Settings on the General Tab.

Inventory Space Changes

To help players carry around their belongings, we’ve changed how inventory space is acquired as well as added new vault space to fill up! Backpack pouches can now be purchased at any time instead of waiting for them to be unlocked every 10 ranks. Additionally, we’ve added two more tabs of vault space, which can be purchased 1 row at a time for a total of an additional 160 vault inventory spaces. Guild vaults have also been expanded with another tab, which is purchasable 1 row at a time for a total of an additional 60 guild vault inventory spaces. See below for more details!

AFK Changes

To combat AFK players in scenarios and contested cities we’ve made some adjustments to how AFK is handled in these areas. Now in addition to the existing Idle Hands system if a player anywhere inside of a scenario or contested city idles for more than 2 minutes they will be flagged as AFK and given the Idle Hands debuff. Once flagged AFK and given Idle Hands the player will no longer receive rewards and after 60 seconds if the player does not return from AFK they will be removed from the scenario or contested city.

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* Fixed numerous tooltip issues with Renown awarded abilities.

* Fixed an issue in which players could sometimes still repair Siege equipment which was affected by “anti-repair” debuffs.

* Enhance War Engine: Fixed an issue in which players would receive an “Out of Range” message in error.

* Shield the Skies: Fixed an issue in which this ability would affect players outside of the caster’s group.

* Slam: Fixed an issue in with the tooltip of this ability.

* Dead monsters with loot on them have had their decay time increased to 15 minutes inside of dungeon instances.

* Changing your worn equipment will no longer cause the transparency effect to be removed when the camera is zoomed in so close that the player becomes transparent.

* Players who have been turned into chickens can no longer bolster other players.

* Players in the process of logging out that take a flight master will no longer lose control of the mouse when returning to character select.

* Players taking a screenshot while placing a ground target area of effect (GTAOE) targeting cursor will no longer have the GTAOE targeting cursor become stuck on the screen.

* In contested cities buildings in the distance will no longer fade out of view at a closer range than intended.

* Cloak and helm display settings will now be maintainedwhen zoning into a region with a moderate to heavy amount of players.

* Guild Heraldry may now be reset at a cost of 100 gold by clicking the “Reset Heraldry” button at the bottom right of the Guild Rewards tab. This will clear the current heraldry so that a new one can be chosen from the Heraldry Reservation option on the Guild Rewards tab at Guild Rank 10.

* Guild Tactics may now be reset at a cost of 10 gold by clicking Show Tactics on the Guild Rewards page and then the “Respecialize” button on the Guild Tactics List.

Combat and Careers

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* When attempting to use a knockback ability against a target that has immunity to knockbacks, the victim will now be displayed as “Immune”.

* The Chosen Career has undergone several improvements. Due to these changes, all Chosen players have had their Mastery points refunded. Please visit a Career Trainer to reallocate these Mastery points. Please see below for more details regarding these changes.

* The Marauder Career has undergone several improvements. Due to these changes, all Marauder players have had their Mastery points refunded. Please visit a Career Trainer to reallocate these Mastery points. Please see the below for more details regarding these changes.

* Pet Abilities: Fixed an issue which allowed players to manually force their pet to use an ability when its target was too far away.

* Fixed numerous damage reduction abilities to reduce damage multiplicatively rather than additively.

* Immaculate Defense: Fixed an issue in which this ability would not play effects or sound.

* The manner in which modifiers to Autoattack Speed are calculated has been changed. These modifiers now increase the number of attacks by the given percentage. In other words, a 50% bonus will now result in the character getting 50% more attacks. Please be aware that the numerical values of all Autoattack Speed -debuffs- have been reduced as a result of this change in order to keep overall effectiveness exactly the same. As an example, a “50% debuff” would previously have resulted in the victim getting 33% fewer swings, and so that effect will now simply be listed as a “33% debuff”.

* Player-controlled pets which are rooted will no longer be able to use their abilities and damage targets which are out of range.

* Fixed an issue that caused effects over time to occasionally “lose” ticks.

* Player-controlled pets will no longer lose their behaviour state after their owner summons a mount.

Archtype Morale Bug Fix

* Siphon Power: The debuff icon of this ability will now display a tooltip.

Archtype Tactic Bug Fixes

* The Archetype Tactic “Steady Aim” has been renamed to “Masterful Aim”.

* Riposte: Fixed an issue in which this ability could deal critical damage.

Bug Fixes:

* Balance Essence: This ability will no longer heal NPCs.

* Drain Magic: Fixed an issue in which an enemy could right-click to remove the effect of this ability.

* Funnel Essence: This ability will no longer heal NPCs.

* Transfer Force: This ability will no longer heal NPCs.

Black Guard
Balance Changes:

* 0Bolstering Anger: Increased the value of the heal granted by this ability.

Black Orc

Balance Changes:

* You Got Nuffin’: This Tactic will now heal group mates whenever your War Bellows trigger.

Bug Fixes:

* Fixed numerous tooltip issues.

Bright Wizard
Balance Changes:

* Boiling Blood: This ability will now debuff the target’s Willpower and deal damage at the end of the duration.

* Fuel to the Fire: This Tactic will now increase the value of Boiling Blood’s Willpower debuff, increase the amount of damage dealt, and cause the effect to expire and deal its damage more quickly.

* Ignition: This effect of this tactic has been adjusted. It will now cause Ignite to always reduce the target’s Corporeal resistance, and will also reduce Ignite’s Action Point cost.

Bug Fixes:

* Cauterize: The hotkey for this ability will now only light up when the Bright Wizard is affected by a Hex, Ailment, or Curse.

* Embrace the Flames: The effect granted by this Tactic can no longer trigger more than once every 3 seconds.

* Scorched Earth: The impact effect for this ability will no longer play on the caster.

Chosen
Balance Changes:

* Impenetrable Armor: This Morale ability is now available at Rank 36, has been moved to Morale Rank 3, and its duration has been increased.

* Sprout Carapace: This Morale ability is now available at 15 Mastery Points into Path of Corruption, and it has been moved to Morale Rank 4.

Bug Fixes:

* Crippling Strikes: The effect from this Tactic will now only be cleansable by abilities that remove Curses. Additionally, fixed an issue where the debuff applied by this ability could be right-click removed by enemy players.

* Repel: Fixed an issue in which the knockback portion of this ability would not fire if the damage portion was absorbed.

Disciple of Khaine
Balance Changes:

* Khaine’s Refreshment: Fixed an issue in which this channeled ability would not heal on the initial application.

Bug Fixes:

* Fixed numerous tooltip issues.

* Khaine’s Bounty: Fixed an issue in which this ability was not categorized as an “Absorb”.

Engineer
Balance Changes:

* Electromagnet: This ability will now use Ballistic Skill instead of Intelligence to determine defense chance.

* Friction Burn: This ability is now based on Ballistic Skill instead of Strength.

* Spanner Swipe: This ability is now based on Ballistic Skill instead of Strength.

* Spanner Swipe: This ability no longer requires the victim to be hexed before it snares them.

Bug Fixes:

* Fixed numerous tooltip issues.

* Concussive Mine: Fixed an issue in which this Tactic would remove the Stagger granted from “Land Mine”.

Ironbreaker
Balance Changes:

* Gromril Plating: This Morale ability is now self-only.

* Grumble An’ Mutter: Increased the value of the heal granted by this ability.

Bug Fixes:

* Fixed numerous tooltip issues.

* Away With Ye: The Knockback portion of the ability will now display “Immune” if it affects a target that has the “Immovable” buff.

Magus
Balance Changes:

* Conduit of Chaos: Fixed an issue in which the ability would not play effects or sound.

* Daemonic Maw: This ability no longer requires the victim to be hexed before it snares them.

Bug Fixes:

* Daemonic Resistance: Fixed an issue in which having a target sometimes prevented this ability from firing.

Marauder
Balance Changes:

* Marauders now have standard Dual Wield capability, and will no longer “clone” their mainhand weapon into their offhand. While un-Mutated, the offhand weapon will be displayed, and while Mutated, the offhand weapon’s graphic will be hidden so that the Mutated arm can be shown instead.

* Exhaustive Strikes: This ability will now remove Action Points over time. This effect will not refresh itself.

Bug Fixes:

* Forked Aggression: This Morale ability will no longer go through the combat formula and instead will apply damage directly to the target.

* Terrible Embrace: This ability is now more reliable when cast on the move. In addition, this ability will no longer drag targets inside the Marauder.

Rune Priest
Balance Changes:

* Grungni’s Gift: This ability’s heal value has been increased, and its Action Point cost has been reduced.

* Master Rune of Adamant: The heal value of the ability has increased.

* Rune of Burning: This ability now deals slightly less damage per tick, but ticks at a faster rate, resulting in an overall increase in damage. Additionally, its Action Point cost has been increased.

* Rune of Fate: This ability will now heal for 150% of the damage dealt.

* Rune of Fire: The damage of this ability has been increased.

* Rune of Fortune: The ability will now heal for 150% of the damage dealt.

* Rune of Immolation: The damage of this ability has been increased. Also, fixed an issue in which the Damage-over-time would unintentionally deal damage on the initial application.

* Rune of Serenity: The heal value of the ability has increased.

Bug Fixes:

* Rune of Binding: This ability will now show an effect on the Staggered target.

* Sundered Motion: Fixed an issue in which the snare applied by this ability would not always apply to affected targets if the Runepriest was moving.

Shadow Warrior

Balance Changes:

* Swift Strikes: Fixed an issue in which this ability would not always play the hit effect and sound.

Bug Fixes:

* Barrage: Fixed an issue that prevented the arrow animation of this ability from being seen by the player.

* Assault Stance: The armor buff from this ability will now always be exactly equal to the player’s total armor from items. This fixes an issue in which the player’s armor value would be increased by 100% after armor debuffs were calculated.

Shaman
Bug Fixes:

* Fury of Da Green: This ability will no longer heal NPCs.

* Yer Not So Bad: Fixed an issue with the effect timing of this ability.

Slayer
Bug Fixes:

* Fixed numerous tooltip issues.

Sorcerer
Balance Changes:

* Shadow of Disaster: This effect of this tactic has been adjusted. It will now cause Chillwind to always reduce the target’s Spiritual resistance, and will also reduce Chillwind’s Action Point cost.

* Vision of Domination: This tactic will now increase the value of Word of Pain’s Willpower debuff, increase the amount of damage, and cause the effect to expire and deal its damage more quickly. The ability “Vision of Torment” is no longer affected by this tactic.

* Word of Pain: Reduced the damage of this ability.

Bug Fixes:

* Absorb Vitality: Fixed a bug which allowed the healing portion of this ability to occasionally critically heal.

* Doombolt: Fixed an issue in which an impact effect would sometimes show on the Sorcerer.

* Glorious Carnage: The effect of this ability can no longer trigger more than once every 3 seconds.

* Paralyzing Nightmare: The root applied by this Morale ability can now be removed by abilities that cleanse roots.

* Surging Pain: The impact effect of this ability will no longer play on the caster.

Squig Herder
Balance Changes:

* Gas Squig: The armor buff from this ability will now always be exactly equal to the player’s total armor from items. This fixes an issue in which the player’s armor value would be increased by 100% after armor debuffs were calculated.

* Squig Goo: The snare applied by this ability is no longer removable by abilities that remove snares. This fixes an issue in which this Morale ability was not consistent with other Morale snares.

Bug Fixes:

* Drop That!!: Fixed an issue in which this ability could be fired without an active pet.

* Squig Frenzy: This ability will now grey out when your pet is out of range.

* Tastes Like Chicken: This ability will now grey out when your pet is out of range.

Swordmaster
Balance Changes:

* Bolstering Enchantments: Increased the value of the heal granted by this ability.

Warrior Priest
Bug Fixes:

* Divine Strike: This ability will no longer heal NPCs.

* Sigmar’s Shield: This ability will no longer heal NPCs.

White Lion
Bug Fixes:

* Fixed numerous tooltip issues.

Witch Elf
Bug Fixes:

* Enfeebling Strike: The Action Point Cost bonus granted by this ability can no longer be severed by an enemy.

* Ruthless Assault: Fixed an issue in which this ability dealt less damage than intended.

* Treacherous Assault: The Action Point Cost bonus granted by this ability can no longer be removed by Fleet-Footed.

* Vehement Blades: The Action Point Cost bonus granted by this ability can no longer be severed by an enemy.

Witch Hunter
Bug Fixes:

* Burn Armor: The Action Point Cost bonus granted by this ability can no longer be cleansed off by a friendly player.

* Dragon Gun: Fixed an issue in which visual “explosion” effect of this ability would play before the bullet finished its travel to the target.

* Fanatical Zeal: The Action Point Cost bonus granted by this ability can no longer be cleansed off by a friendly player.

* Sudden Accusation: The Action Point Cost bonus granted by this ability can no longer be cleansed off by a friendly player.

Zealot
Balance Changes:

* Boon of Tzeentch: This ability no longer requires you to have an active Harbinger.

* Boon of Tzeentch: This ability will now heal for 150% of the damage dealt.

* Flash of Chaos: This ability’s heal value has been increased, and its Action Point cost has been reduced.

* Leaping Alteration: The heal value of this ability has been increased.

* Ritual of Lunacy: The heal value of this ability has been increased.

* Storm of Raven: This ability now deals more damage per tick, but ticks at a slower rate, resulting in an overall increase in damage. Additionally, this ability no longer requires a Harbinger to activate.

* Tzeentch’s Cry: The damage of this ability has been reduced.

* Warp Reality: The damage of this ability has been increased.

Bug Fixes:

* Aethyric Shock: This ability will now show an effect on the Staggered target.

* Harbinger of Doom: Fixed an issue in which this ability would toggle off when attempting to apply it to a new target.

Content

Features

The rumors started first. Sickness. Deaths. Before long the rumors weren’t just whispers but screams echoing into darkness – The red plague had come.

In response to the virulent outbreak, merchants have abandoned their routes, preferring instead to remain in the perceived safety of larger cities. The Crafting and Training Guilds have issued a decree recalling all guild members to their respective capitals rather than risk the loss of their master crafters and trainers. For the first time since the war began, experienced Order and Destruction forces must now head to Altdorf and the Inevitable City in order to consult with career trainers, craft masters, and merchant kings – for until a cure is found no sane man will travel the battlefields of the land alone.

Service NPCs within peaceful Altdorf have had their respective locations adjusted. The following list now reflects the new home of these service NPCs:

* Temple of Sigmar

- Mailbox

- Career Trainers

- Renown Trainers

* Market Square

- Mailbox

- Auctioneers

- Apothecary Trainer

- Will now also sell Apothecary Goods

- Will now also sell Armor Dying Services

- Cultivation Trainer

- Will now also sell Cultivation Goods

- Hedge Wizard (Talisman Making Trainer)

- Will now also sell Talisman Making Goods

- Butchering Trainer

- Salvaging Trainer

- Scavenging Trainer

- Craft Supply Vendors

- Will now also sell Armor Dying Services

* Lord’s Row

- Mailbox

- Bankers

- Vault Keeper

* War Quarters

- Mailbox

- Renown Gear Merchants

- Medallion Quartermasters

- Emblem Quartermasters

- Mount Vendors

- Guild Registrar

* Emperor’s Palace

- Mailbox

- Name Registrar

Service NPCs within peaceful Inevitable City have had their respective locations adjusted. The following list now reflects the new home of these service NPCs:

* The Monolith

- Mailbox

- Career Trainers

- Renown Trainers

* The Apex (Central)

- Mailbox

- Auctioneers

- Apothecary Trainer

- Will now also sell Apothecary Goods

- Also Offers Armor Dying Services

- Cultivation Trainer

- Will now also sell Cultivation Goods

- Hedge Wizard (Talisman Making Trainer)

- Will now also sell Talisman Making Goods

- Butchering Trainer

- Salvaging Trainer

- Scavenging Trainer

- Craft Supply Vendors

- Will now also sell Armor Dying Services

* The Soul Vault

- Mailbox

- Bankers

- Vault Keeper

* The Undercroft

- Mailbox

- Renown Gear Merchants

- Medallion Quartermasters

- Emblem Quartermasters

* The Breaking Grounds

- Mailbox

- Mount Vendor

* The Viper’s Pit

- Mailbox

- Guild Registrar

* The Eternal Citadel

- Mailbox

- Name Registrar

Encounters

* Bloodfiend Flayerkin in The Inevitable City now animate properly.

* Kyara: This NPC will now maintain her look between Thunder Mountain and Cinderfall.

* Cleaned up excess quest objects in Marshes of Madness.

* Arremar Swiftblade: This Order quest giver has been set as non-aggressive, and will no longer attack Destruction players.

* Sheen Gloomleaf: This NPC will no longer get stuck on nearby trees.

* The Hierophant Eutra’ta: This Tomb of the Vulture Lord encounter will now begin when any player in the party steps atop the central platform within the chamber. Once the encounter begins, large sandstorms will form within the doorways leading in and out of the chamber. If a player enters proximity of a sandstorm, he or she will be afflicted with a debuff called “Suffocating Sands”. This debuff is a damage-over-time effect that deals 10% of maximum health in unmitigated damage every 3 seconds. This debuff will persist until the player dies or the encounter ends. Additionally, the following changes have been made to this encounter:

* Curse of the Jackal, Curse of the Asp, and Curse of the Vulture: These applied buffs within the encounter have had their duration reduced to 15 seconds.

* The Hierophant Eutra’ta will now teleport all players to the same location after erecting her Ancestral Aegis. Curse of the Jackal, Curse of the Asp, or Curse of the Vulture will be applied 6 seconds later.

* The Hierophant Eutra’ta will now mark four players with her Curse of the Jackal, Curse of the Asp or Curse of the Vulture. Each curse will be applied at least once as long as three players are alive within the encounter area.

* The Hierophant Eutra’ta will attempt to recast Curse of the Jackal, Curse of the Asp, and Curse of the Vulture every 20 seconds if her Ancestral Shield is erected and a player is not affected by Ancestral Malediction.

* The Hierophant Eutra’ta’s Furious Bolt ability can no longer critically strike. Additionally this ability can no longer hit the same target within a three second period.

* The Hierophant Eutra’ta has gained a new ability that is used after the fight lasts for 10 minutes.

* The Heirophant Eutra’ta will now despawn in the event that a party perishes and will respawn in 30 seconds.

* Cousin of the King’s Dervish ability has been redesigned. It is now a permanent aura that cannot be removed by any means. Negatively affecting the movement velocity of the Cousin of the King will stop the ability from dealing damage. Damage will resume once movement velocity is restored to normal.

* Cousins of the King will no longer directly attack players. They will instead travel on a set path and ignore all combat upon spawning.

* Cousins of the King will not be able to be affected with Unstoppable.

* [96488] Uncle of the King’s Cursed Ground ability will not deal damage for the first 3 seconds it exists in the world.

* Added tooltip text to the Curse of the Jackal, Curse of the Asp, and Curse of the Vulture debuffs.

* Added tooltip text to the Ancestral Malediction debuff.

Quests

* A Rock to Remember: The NPC Roland Steinhauer is still up on his rock, but now just wants to get home safely.

* Water Stunties Good Fer?: This quest now utilizes a cave waypoint.

* Georg Olenskaya: This NPC found in Praag is no longer attackable by Destruction players.

* A Shattered Peace: Players will now only receive credit for part 3 of this quest upon using the Purified Shyish Crystal on the Sundered Spirits.

* Ignoble Weapons: The Reaper Bolt Throwers have been adjusted so they now have a death animation.

* Legend and Infamy: Part II of this quest now properly decrements the amount of Shadow Warrior heads from the player quest inventory.

* The Grudges of King Grolmunn: Removed mention of the player being rewarded with a drinking horn at the end of this quest chain since the player is rewarded with experience bonus instead.

* Unmasking the Enemy: The Journal Entry text for part 16 of this quest no longer cuts off.

* Sweeping the Doorstep: The second condition’s waypoint of this quest is now properly placed around the Temple of Ualatp PQ.

Public Quests

* Echoes of War: Additional messaging has been added to Stage II of this Public Quest.

* Hall of the Crimson Shroud: The Stone of Shyish in Stage 3 of this Public Quest will no longer display “Target is not attackable” when taking damage.

* The Siege of Anyerrial: Uthorin Obliterators found in this Public Quest now appear riding on top of their Cold Ones instead of inside.

* Beasts of War: The Ravenherd Raiders found in this Public Quest will now attack the Griffon camp during Stage I.

* Trovolek: Trovolek Hunters found in this Public Quest can no longer be pulled to the Chapter 8 hub area.

* Murgluk’s Gits: Female Dwarfs found in this Public Quest are no longer missing the tops of their heads.

* Temple of Ualatp: The granted ability “Dig” will now be properly removed upon using a Book of Binding.

* Purge the Tomb of the Vulture Lord: This Public Quest has been renamed to Conflict Within the Tomb and has undergone many changes.

- This Public Quest now has three stages denoted as:

- Invaded: This stage begins once an invader enters the instance. This stage has no effect on either Realm other than notifying the defenders that enemy forces are present in their instance. Any direct RVR interaction between Realms will cause the PQ to transition to the Purge stage.

- Purge: This stage is where both Realms battle to the point a winner is declared. If the invaders win the Purge stage, all defenders are relocated to their capital City as the invaders claim their PQ loot and the instance is shutdown (this will not affect lockout timers).

- Secured: If the defenders win the Purge stage, the PQ transitions to the Secured stage where their instance cannot be invaded again for 30 minutes.

- Defenders will now respawn within the instance during all three stages of this PQ and will only be relocated to their capital city if the invaders win.

- Defenders will now have two methods to win this PQ: Outlast the Purge by allowing the timer to run out or by successfully defeating an invader by any means.

- During the Purge stage, players respawning or being resurrected will no longer decrement the non-timed PQ condition of the opposing Realm.

- Players are now able to see the enemy Realm’s status of this PQ.

- During the Invaded stage, if all invaders leave the instance the PQ will immediately end and all invaders will be disassociated from the instance. If all defenders leave the instance during the same stage, the PQ will also immediately end, all invaders will be moved to their previous location, and the instance will be shutdown (this will not affect lockout timers).

- When this PQ is in the Purge stage, all players within the safety of the zone-in location will be moved to the ground level after 10 seconds upon entering the instance or respawning.

* Halls of the Heavens: Players will now properly receive damage with the “Poisoned” effect when falling into the pool.

* The Poisoned effect from the River Mortis and pool within the Hall of the Heavens PQ is now properly removed upon respawning.

Items

Open RvR Currency Changes

With 1.3.5, players will notice that each of their Open RvR Crests have been renamed to “Ancient” Crests. These items are not the required currency to purchase set items, but will instead convert into 5 of their respective crests (e.g. Ancient Conqueror’s Crest converts to 5 Conqueror’s Crest). With this change, the price of armor on the Medallion merchants has been adjusted accordingly.

Crests now convert downwards on a 1:1 scale (e.g. 1 Invader’s Crest converts to 1 Conqueror’s Crest, which converts to 1 Officer’s Medallion). Additionally, all Fused Crests will now convert into 10 Crests. You will also notice that anywhere you were previously awarded a Crest, you are now awarded a stack of 5 Crests.

New to the Open RvR Stores

New unique Talismans are now available from each of the 4 Medallion Quartermasters! These Talismans of Aptitude and Celerity can be purchased with tier-appropriate medallions, and last a certain number of played hours based upon their quality.

New to the Open RvR and the Scenario Stores

Scouring Agents and Bleaching Agents may now be purchased from the Open RvR and Scenario stores, respectively, and cost either Officer’s Medallions or Officer’s Emblems. They can be used to remove dye from a piece of armor.

General Changes and Bug Fixes

* Alchemist Tonic: Fixed an issue with the tooltip of this potion.

* Evasive: Fixed an issue in which the detaunt granted by this ability could stack with the ability “Guard”.

* Firebrew: Fixed an issue in which the granted ability of this potion, “Breath of Fire”, was gaining benefit from the caster’s statistics and could deal critical damage.

* Fixed a tooltip issue with the Shadow Warrior’s Sovereign Armor.

* The bonus to “Radiant Gaze” granted by the Archmage’s Tracker set will now apply to the damage of the ability.

* All Currency items that could previously stack up to 999 can now stack to 9999. As a part of this change, “Fused Golden Scarabs,” “Cluster of Golden Scarabs,” and “Torn Page of Liber Mortis” can now be placed in your currency backpack.

* Armor items found within White, Green, Blue and Purple Chapter PQ bags are no longer career specific. Additionally, both armor and weapon items are now Bind On Equip.

* Armor items that drop from world monsters are no longer career specific.

* Broken items which are Bind On Pickup will now display that information in their tooltips.

* Fixed an issue that caused all Vitalize item proc tooltips to show incorrect chance to proc and incorrect value.

* Fixed an issue that caused Shadow Warriors to see 2 bows as their Advanced Rewards for Empire Chapter 4 Influence. There will now be a choice between a sword and a bow.

* Fixed an issue where Entangled Medallions showed the incorrect number of medallions it would convert to in its description text.

* Items of particular interest will now display item level in their tooltip.

* Magus mounts have been edited to have the correct spelling in the item name.

* Scenario Currency – You may now purchase Satchels of Emblems with higher-tier Emblems in order to down-convert. These new items can be found on each respective Emblem Quartermaster.

* Set Bonus – All Careers: 8 piece Sovereign bonus granted abilities will now display the correct tooltips and buff icons.

* Set Bonus – All Careers: 8 piece Sovereign bonus granted ability will no longer fade after death, requiring you to reapply a piece of armor to gain it back.

* Set Bonus – Blackguard: 8 piece Sovereign bonus will now properly grant the player Unnerving Hate.

* Set Bonus – Bright Wizard: 7 piece Warlord bonus will now work as intended and the tooltip will display the correct AP value.

* Set Bonus – Knight of the Blazing Sun: 8 piece Sovereign bonus will now properly grant the player Slowing Radiance.

* Set Bonus – Pilfer: 6 piece Sentinel and Sovereign proc “Pilfer” has been adjusted to do the intended amount of damage.

* “Silverwind Family Crest”: This item can no longer be converted into anything.

* The Healing Elixir and the Phial of Adrenaline found on the Officer’s Medallion Quartermaster have now been properly named “Officer’s …”

* The movement speed proc effect from a number of Land of the Dead talismans will now be immediately dispelled if you activate an ability. The following talismans have been affected: “Fractured Crystal of Quickening”, “Crystal of Quickening”, “Fractured Crystal of Haste”, “Crystal of Haste”, “Fractured Crystal of Alacrity”, “Crystal of Alacrity”, “Fractured Crystal of Sandstorms”, “Crystal of Sandstorms”, “Odjira”, “Ur Odjira”.

* Weapons that are 2H as well as having a slot type of EITHER have been fixed so they can only be worn in the right hand.

* The 3rd, 4th and 5th backpack pouches are now purchasable any time starting at rank 1 rather than having to wait for every 10 ranks! To purchase a pouch, simply click on the lock icon which appears within the inventory space. Pouch 3 costs 1 gold, Pouch 4 costs 5 gold, and Pouch 5 costs 15 gold. Additionally, players who have already unlocked these backpack pouches will not have to purchase those pouches again in order to unlock them.

* Additional bank vault space has been added! Two full tabs worth of space have been added, and may be purchased one row at a time for a total of 160 additional bank inventory slots. See any Banker in order to take advantage of this additional inventory space! To purchase more vault space and click on the lock icon which appears within each row of the bank space on bank vault tabs 2 or 3. The first row costs 6 gold and the cost of each additional row increases as follows: 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 22, 26, 31, 37, 44, 53, 63, 75, 90, 108, 129, 154 and 185 gold.

Item Stat Changes

* “Ghrond’s Greatcloak”: This item will now display its secondary stat correctly.

* “Notched Tome of Triumph”: This item will now correctly regenerate Righteous Fury.

* “Sigmarite Tome of Thunder”: This has had its resistance stats and the “Barrier” ability proc removed to be in line with other charms in the game.

* “Vanguard Trollsplitter”: This item now has appropriate DPS for its level.

Crafting Changes

* Salvaging

- “Bloody Matchlock”: This item will no longer allow players to salvage stats that are not on the item.

* Talisman Making

- Fixed an issue with “Selfless Crusader’s Soul” talismans that caused improper durations to be displayed.

- “Heroic Hierophant’s Soul” should now be able to be converted into “Massive Heroic Hierophant’s Soul”.

* Apothecary

- Fixed a tooltip issue with the “Liniment of Swift Tergiversation.”

- Lasting Strangulation Bombs should now display the correct effect on the target.

City Campaign Changes

Contested Altdorf and The Inevitable City will both be undergoing extensive overhauls with patch 1.3.5. With the contested cities as the capstone to the Tier 4 campaign, the emphasis for this patch was to make the cities RVR driven. To do this, the following changes were made to the Contested cities.

(Unless otherwise noted, the changes below apply to both Contested Altdorf and Inevitable City.)

General Changes

* City sieges will now be a 24-versus-24 battle.

* City sieges will now last a maximum of 2 hours.

* All PVE instances within the Contested city have been removed. The warlords and King are now part of the contested city PQ.

* The City siege is now split into three stages, outlined later in the notes.

* Players in the City Siege are now placed in an instance-specific warband. Looting rules are disabled for this City Siege warband.

Reward Changes

* With the removal of the PVE Instances, the rewards for those instances are now given at the appropriate stage of the City Siege (Stage 1 = Invader; Stage 2 = Warlord; Stage 3 = Sovereign).

* During each stage of the City Siege, both the defender and invader will have a chance to obtain rewards. This means that successfully defending your city can result in winning Sovereign equipment!

* At the conclusion of each stage of the City siege, players on both sides are rewarded for their efforts.

- The winning realm will receive a PQ Chest drop.

- Those who win the PQ chest roll will have to make a conscious decision on what they want from the bag.

- Players on the winning Realm who did not win a bag will instead receive 10x Invader’s Crests in Stage 1, 5x Warlord’s Crests in Stage 2, and 5x Royal Crests in Stage 3. Players on the losing Realm will receive less reward than the winning Realm but will be based upon how well the Realm performed during the PQ Stage.

- In the case of a stalemate, possible in stages 2 and 3 of the City Siege, both sides will receive a “consolation prize” equivalent to the reward normally given to the losing side of that stage.

* At the conclusion of each Stage of the Contested City, any players present will have a reward lockout timer applied to their character. This reward lockout timer will force a character to opt out of loot if they attempt that stage again within the lockout period. Players with a lockout timer can still participate in a Contested City battle; their reward will be spoils in the form of Crests in lieu of a chance at the standard reward bags.

* Upon entering a Contested City a player will receive a “Personal Preparation” buff. While this buff is active, a player may leave the battle without incurring any penalty. After this buff has faded, leaving a battle for any reason will result in the player receiving the “Quitter!” debuff and will be unable to rejoin any city battle for the debuff’s duration..

Zone Control

* Victory Points are no longer a factor in the Contested City stage. All instances of the City Siege will be independent from one another.

* Cities pushed to the Contested City state from the campaign will drop two ranks at the conclusion of the Contested City phase.

The City Siege is now broken up into three contiguous stages within Altdorf or Inevitable City:

Stage 1: Attacker Push

* Setup Phase: ~5 Minutes

* Duration: 15 Minutes (Maximum: 45 Minutes… details included in the description)

* Attacker’s Win Condition: Destroy the Palace Gates

* Defender’s Win Condition: Hold Out Until the Timer Reaches Zero

* Reward Lockout Duration: Approximately 20 Hours

Brief Summary:

During the setup phase of this stage players can prepare while the King briefs them on the battle ahead. Once complete, the invaders and defenders are released into the city and the City Siege begins!

The goal for the attackers is to destroy the palace gates within the time allotted. This is accomplished by capturing a series of chained control points around the city and destroying the palace gate.

* Control Points:

- Control points and their current status are clearly marked on the map.

- Capturing a control point will increase the available time for attackers by 5 minutes.

- Captured points cannot be reclaimed by the defenders during this stage.

- Control points gate access to the palace gate and will affect the final battle in stage 3.

- Control points are chained so that access to the next point is gated by capturing the previous control points. (see below)

- List of control points and how they chain:

- Contested Altdorf

- The Armory and The Siege Workshop are open initially.

- Capturing either of these will open Emperor’s Circle.

- Capturing Emperor’s Circle will open The South Dock, The Library, and The North Dock.

- Capturing The Library or the North Dock will begin the assault on the Palace gates.

- Contested IC

- The Slaanesh Chambers and Khorne War Quarters are open initially.

- Capturing either of these will open Emissary of the Changer.

- Capturing Emissary of the Changer will open Temple of the Damned, The Lyceum, and the Outcrop.

- Capturing The Lyceum or the The Outcrop will begin the assault on the Palace gates.

- Capturing a Control Point:

- To capture a control point, the invaders must first destroy the defender’s siege equipment at that point. Doing so will trigger their realm to send a sapper NPC to take over the control point. The invaders need to protect this NPC until it can make it to the control point and take it over. If the sapper is killed, another will spawn and repeat the process, until either the invaders take the control point, or the time for the stage expires. Sapper NPCs can be stunned, rooted, or snared, but will not directly attack the defending players. Sapper NPCs can be healed by allied players.

- Destroying the Palace Gate:

- To destroy the palace gates, the invaders need to capture at least one of the two closest control points to the Palace. Capturing one of these final points will spawn siege NPCs that will do damage to the Palace gates until they break or time runs out. Players cannot damage the palace gate directly, so taking one or both of these points is essential to winning this stage and taking out the palace gates.

* Altdorf: Capture The Library or the North Dock IC: Capture The Lyceum or the The Outcrop

* Capturing all of the points is not essential to winning this stage for the invaders, but it will give them additional time and give additional NPC to damage the palace gates.

* The goal for the defenders is to prevent the destruction of the palace gate. The defense is successful if the attackers run out of time. The default duration of this stage is 15 minutes, but the attackers can increase the time by capturing control points as noted above.

* After either side meets their winning condition, this stage ends and rewards are given out to each side. (See rewards section for more information on reward distribution.)

Stage 2: Warlords!

* Duration: 30 Minutes

* Invader’s Win Condition: Escort Either Allied Warlord to the Palace Gates or Defeat Enemy Warlords

* Defender’s Win Condition: Escort Either Allied Warlord to the City Gates or Defeat Enemy Warlords

* Reward Lockout Duration: Approximately 44 Hours

Brief Summary:

At this point in the City Siege, each side’s Warlords will take to the field. The goal for either side during this stage is to eliminate the enemy warlords or escort a friendly warlord to the other side’s entrance.

* Warlord Behavior:

- Warlords will spawn at each side’s camp and make their way along a path to capture or recapture control points.

- Warlords that arrive at a control point that is owned by the enemy will stop and take over that control point for their side.

- Warlords that arrive at a control point that is owned by their side will continue on towards the next control point.

- If two opposing realm Warlords cross paths, they will stop all action and fight each other to the death.

- Warlords will ignore combat initiated by players and concentrate only on control points or opposing Warlords.

- Warlords are not immune to any form of damage or crowd control.

- Warlords can be healed by friendly players.

- If a Warlord arrives at the enemy gates, the stage will end and the realm associated with that Warlord will be declared the winner.

* If one side eliminates both enemy Warlords or gets one of their Warlords to the enemy gates, the stage will end and both sides will be given their appropriate level of reward. (See rewards section for more information on reward distribution.)

* If the timer for this stage expires before any Warlords make it to the enemy gates or before one side loses both of their Warlords, the stage will be considered a draw. Both realms will receive rewards based upon their effort as if they lost. Regardless of a stalemate, the City Siege will then progress to Stage 3.

Stage 3

* Duration: 30 Minutes

* Invader’s Win Condition: Defeat the Enemy King

* Defender’s Win Condition: Defeat the Enemy King

* Reward Lockout Duration: Approximately 68 Hours

Brief Summary:

This is the final battle in the City Siege and involves the Kings of both Realms. Depending on who won stage 2, the battle will occur at one of two locations.

If the invaders won, the final battle will occur within the enemy King’s palace.

If the defenders won, the final battle will occur at the main entrance to the City.

When the stage begins the Kings will call forth all of their combatants for a final rally to battle. During this preparation time, the King will explain the situation and call upon four players to serve as his champions in the battle to come.

* King/Champions:

- Each King will select four players to serve as their champion.

- Each King will be immune to all hostile effects will these champions are alive.

- Champions are endowed with special abilities and powers to serve in this role.

- Damage Dealt is greatly increased

- Healing Done is greatly increased

- Maximum Health is greatly increased

- Immune to Guard effects.

- Damage Taken from Non-Champion Sources is greatly reduced

- Healing Received from Non-Champion Sources is greatly reduced

- Gains the stacking buff ‘Building Reprisal’ when struck with a critical strike at a maximum rate of once per 6 seconds and 10 total charges.

- Gains a temporary DoT ability (Destruction: Tornado, Order: Comet – both lasting 20 seconds) that expends all charges of the ‘Building Reprisal’ buff.

- Champions are chosen at random based on archetype. The selection method searches for players based upon acquired Wards. It prefers players with the most powerful Wards earned. In the event that no players with Wards are present, then selection will become entirely random.

- Tank (Black Orc, Chosen, Blackguard, Ironbreaker, Knight of the Blazing Sun, and Swordmaster)

- Healer (Shaman, Zealot, Disciple of Khaine, Runepriest, Warrior Priest, and Archmage)

- Melee DPS (Choppa, Marauder, Witch Elf, Slayer, Witch Hunter, and White Lion)

- Ranged DPS (Squig Herder, Magus, Sorcerer, Bright Wizard, Engineer, and Shadow Warrior)

- Each Champion can only be assigned if a player of the appropriate archetype is present for that side. If no player exists for an archetype, that champion will count as a loss of that archetype.

- Champions will need to remain near the King or they will lose the Champion buff and this will be counted as a loss of that champion.

- Once all four champions have been defeated, the King will be vulnerable for attack.

* Control Points:

- During this stage, the number of control points that each side controlled going into Stage 3 will affect the final battle. For each control point a side owns, that side will receive the following stackable bonus.

- Damage Dealt increased by 2%

- Healing Done increased by 2%

Outcomes:

Once the final champion of a realm dies, their King will become vulnerable. Defeating the enemy king will result in a win for that realm. Once that occurs, defenders will no longer be able to respawn and the surviving King will clean house. At this point, both sides will be given their appropriate level of reward. (See rewards section for more information on reward distribution.)

If the timer for this stage expires before either King is killed, the invading King will call for a retreat. Both realms will receive rewards based upon their effort as if they lost.

Art

Updated Armor Dyes

* [96538]Armor dyes (and the tech behind them) have been updated in order to significantly boost color clarity and accuracy. Shadow Warriors, Arch Mages, and Rune Priests are the first classes to undergo these improvements. More sweeping improvements will be rolled out on a per-class basis in upcoming patches.

New Heads and Hairs

* New face and hair options have been added to the Empire, Chaos, High Elf, and Dark Elf races.

Equipment

* “‘Andsplate of Upset Ithilmar” should now have the correct Black Orcs armor appearance.

* “Bloodharvester Feetsplate” should no longer appear invisible to players.

* “Carapace of Blight” should now have the correct Chosen armor appearance.

* “Primeval Mindstrap” should now have the correct belt art.

* The ‘Recruit A Friend’ Magus mount has been updated, and now has a unique appearance.

* Tomb King cloaks “Funerary Shroud of Settra” and “Funerary Shroud of Khalida” should now display correctly on all character models.

* RvR Weapons: The first round of art updates for the RvR Weapons has arrived! The following RvR Weapons have been updated with new art (listed by currency, race and weapon type):

- Recruit Weapons

- Empire: Books, Shields

- Chaos: 1H Axes

- Scout Weapons

- Empire: Pistols, Books, 1H Hammers, 2H Hammers, Shields, 2H Swords

- Dwarf: Spanners

- Chaos: 1H Axes

- Greenskin: Staves

- RR24 Soldier Weapons

- Empire: Pistols, Books, 1H Hammers, 2H Hammers, Shields, 1H Swords, 2H Swords

- Dwarf: Spanners

- Chaos: 1H Axes, Charms

- Greenskin: Staves

- RR29 Soldier Weapons

- Empire: Pistols, 1H Hammers, 2H Hammers, Rapiers, Shields, 1H Swords, 2H Swords

- Chaos: 1H Axes

- Greenskin: 1H Swords, Shields, Staves

- RR34 Officer Weapons

- Empire: 1H Hammers, 2H Hammers, Shields, 1H Swords, 2H Swords

- Dwarf: 2H Axes, Rifles, Spanners

- RR39 Officer Weapons

- Empire: Pistols, 1H Hammers, 2H Hammers, Rapiers, Shields, 1H Swords, 2H Swords

- Dwarf: 2H Axes, Spanners

- Chaos: 1H Axes, Charms, 1H Swords

- Greenskin: Spear

- Conqueror Weapons

- Empire: Shields, 1H Sword, 2H Swords

- Dwarf: 1H Hammers, 2H Hammers, Rifles, Shields, Staves

- Invader Weapons

- Dwarf: 2H Axes, 1H Hammers, 2H Hammers, Rifles, Shields, Spanners, Staves

- Warlord Weapons

- Dwarf: 1H Axes, 2H Axes, 1H Hammers, 2H Hammers, Rifles, Shields, Spanners, Staves

- Royal Weapons

- Empire: 1H Hammers, 2H Hammers

- Dwarf: 2H Axes, 1H Hammers, 2H Hammers, Rifles, Shields, Spanners, Staves

User Interface

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* Pressing the ESC key will no longer close an active loot roll window

* The system channels can now be enabled or disabled on all chat tabs instead of being forced on in the Chat tab and forced off on all other tabs

* The tooltip for items which are currently being worn now displays with a different background color and border than tooltips for items the player isn’t wearing so it’s more apparent which item is which when comparing two items

* Weapon tooltips are now clearer about which hand they can be held in. One-handed weapons which can only be held in the Right Hand now display as “Main Hand”, matching the slot location name. One-handed weapons which can only be held in the Left Hand now display as “Off Hand”, matching the slot location name. Two-handed weapons are now displayed as “Both Hands”, and one-handed weapons which can be held in either hand will be displayed as “Main Hand or Off Hand”.

* Two-handed weapons have had their item type on tooltips simplified. For example, instead of Great Swords displaying “Sword, Great Weapon”, they will now simply display “Great Sword”. Staves will continue to be simply referred to as “Staff”.

* With the other changes to item tooltips, the “Skill:” line in the tooltip for worn items is no longer necessary. Instead, the item type will be colored red on worn items if a player doesn’t have the appropriate skill to equip the item. If the player can equip the item in their Main Hand but doesn’t have the appropriate skill to equip the item in the Off Hand slot, the “or Off Hand” portion of the text in the tooltip will appear red to indicate this.

* Items will now display their item level in the tooltip information.

* Quest and Event items with decay timers will no longer show running timers before the player has claimed the reward.

* Players can now bind a key that, when pressed, loots the nearest lootable monster, player or object. Using this key will bring up the loot dialogue for the nearest lootable monster, player or object in range that the player can loot, as if they had right-clicked on it. This “Loot Nearest” keybinding can be found under the Targeting section of Key Mapping.

* Auction Mail is now deleted automatically when attachments are claimed.

* Chapter Hub and Warcamp tooltips now display if they contain these services: Apprentice Career Trainer, Apprentice Renown Trainer, Craft Supply Merchant, Recruit’s Medallion Merchant, Recruit’s Emblem Merchant.

* The Tutorial & Help Tips section of the User Settings window now has tooltip descriptions.

* The position of the Skirmish and PvE listings on the RvR tracker tooltip will no longer switch sporadically.

* Fixed an issue where binding Left and Right Ctrl, Alt or Shift would cause either the left or right binding to not function when pressed.

* Fixed an issue where players who had 17 items in their Quest Items inventory and removed one caused the Quest Items inventory UI to become corrupt.

* Fixed an issue where the in-game map would occasionally show a solid white texture piece instead of the appropriate map texture.

* When Post Processing is enabled, character names will no longer disappear at character select after logging out of the game.

* The results of /who searches and rest XP generation being activated or deactivated will now print to the System General channel.

* The Dungeon Lockout tab has been renamed to simply Lockouts.

Audio

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* Added new notification sounds when:

- Tells are received.

- Mail is received from another player.

- Mail is received from the auction house.

* Added an option in the Sound menu to disable communication notifications.

* Added additional UI/pregame audio enhancements:

- Map zoom in/out

- Auction creation

- Background scenes (character creation)

* Fixed issues with weapon draw synchronization.

Warhammer Online Mass Playtest for patch 1.3.3

Lifebane — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:47:24 +0000

Warhammer Online is about to kick off a Mass Playtest for patch 1.3.3 on its Test Server, Warpstone. All players are being invited to join in the fun for two nights of testing. Of course for motivation there is as always the ever enticing carrot to lure you to play in the form of possible in-game prizes. The event begins on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009, at 8:00 PM EST and will conclude on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009, at 8:00 PM EST.

Here is the original post:

“It’s that time yet again!

Time to kick off the 1.3.3 PTS Mass Playtests on everyone’s favorite Public Test Server: Warpstone. Come and join the WAR Dev team for two nights of testing and your chance to win an Enslaved Manticore or Imperial Griffon Mount and be amongst the first to see the all new WAR Report feature!

We will hosting two events next week, this first one starting on Tuesday, 12/1/2009, at 8:00 PM EST. This first test will be previewing and putting the WAR Report through it’s paces. On Thursday, 12/3/2009, at 8:00 PM EST we’ll be conducting a mass battle royale stability test, so come on out and check out the shiny (literally!) new HDR and Bloom graphic features as you storm the PTS battlefield!

As always, we thank you for your continued support and we’ll see you on the PTS!”

2 More Warhammer Online servers get axed!

Lifebane — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:11:47 +0000

Andy Belford over at Mythic Entertainment had the following to say in a forum post today. Yep, consolidating and eliminating 2 more servers, for population balance of course. I am sure it has nothing to do with declining subscription levels .. really. A sign of things to come…

“Here at Mythic Entertainment we have always placed a high value on our communities and the players that make them up. This is especially true when it comes to our special rule-set servers like Role-Playing and Open RvR. There are many different things that have to be taken into consideration in order to nurture these communities. At the same time, WAR is a game that thrives on player interaction; whether it’s Public Quests, fast paced Scenario action or the thrill of large-scale Open-field Realm vs. Realm battles. Both of these factors must be taken under consideration when deciding the future of our unique rule-set servers.

For the past 14 months the Dark Crag and Phoenix Throne servers have been the home of two vibrant and passionate communities. We have watched these servers with great interest as they have journeyed through some amazing accomplishments since the launch of WAR, such as the first ever king kill on a North American server.

And so, it is after careful evaluation and much discussion that we are announcing free character transfers off of the Dark Crag and Phoenix Throne servers. At this time we plan to enable these free character transfers on Wednesday, December 2nd. Below are the prospective destination servers for both Phoenix Throne and Dark Crag:

Phoenix Throne will be able to transfer to either Iron Rock OR Badlands

Dark Crag will be able to transfer to either Gorfang OR Volkmar

In order to welcome all of our players to their new homes we will be enabling a 20% bonus to experience and renown during the weeks following the open character transfers.

Have a happy holiday and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

Thank you for your continued support.

Andy Belford
Community Coordinator
Mythic Entertainment “

Warhammer Online’s Jeff Hickman speaks!

Lifebane — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:45:24 +0000

Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer for Warhammer Online, released a producer’s letter to address the recent troubling developments over at Mythic Entertainment. He tries his best to reassure the WAR community that the company is committed to supporting the game for a long time to come. But with employee layoffs and additional “cuts” likely to come it will be interesting to see how much support the MMO will receive. Below are the contents of his letter as published on mythic’s site.

“Hello everyone,

With all that is going on within Mythic Entertainment and EA, I would like to take a moment to reinforce the studio’s dedication to both our games and our players. At Mythic, we remain committed to our games and the passionate people who play them – we’re going to continue to deliver the content and service that keeps you playing. We want to assure our community that we will maintain the same high level of customer support you’ve come to expect and continue to improve our games with an exciting schedule of patches, live events and new content.

At Mythic, we are the torchbearer of three great gaming franchises that we love and nurture:

-Ultima Online is the granddaddy of MMORPG’s and it’s still going strong after 12 years. Thanks to the release of our 8^th expansion, there are now more players exploring Britannia than we’ve seen in quite some time. We have a passionate and committed team working on UO, and they have some really interesting plans for the future. Stay tuned!

-Dark Age of Camelot is over 8 years old and the Realm vs. Realm action keeps getting better. The development team loves what they do and never forget that DAoC was the first true MMO love for many of you (and for many of us!). They are dedicated to providing continued updates and support for this great game so the fighting in the Frontiers will never end.

-Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has had a solid first year despite some issues that we’re working to address every day. We’ve seen a great response to 1.3.2, which introduced tremendous performance improvements. A flood of new players are discovering the game every day thanks to the recently released Endless Trial and New User Journey. Moving forward we remain committed to releasing more great patches, continued performance improvements, and changes based upon your valuable feedback!

We want to thank you again for your continued commitment to our games. In return, we remain committed to providing you with the best possible gaming experiences and customer support both now and in the future. Be sure to keep an eye open for more information about upcoming patches and the exciting plans we have in store for your favorite MMORPGs.

See you on the battlefield,

Jeff Hickman
Executive Producer, Mythic Entertainment”

Mythic Announces “Endless” Free Trial for Warhammer Online

Lifebane — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:38:16 +0000

Freeloader alert! Mythic Entertainment announced today that a new endless free trial of Warhammer Online (replacing the 10-day time limited trial) is now available for download for both new and returning players on both PC and Mac. With the new free trial, players can create and play any of the game’s 24 careers all the way through Level 10, exploring the tier one Empire vs. Chaos zones of Nordland and Norsca, as well as the new tier one dungeon Hunter’s Vale and the Nordenwatch, Khaine’s Embrace and Gates of Ekrund instanced scenarios. That’s a lot of free gaming!

The new trial version is a streaming client that requires an initial 1GB download, after which content will just stream to your PC or Macintosh as needed. Anyone currently in the middle of the 10-Day trial, fear not: You’ve been automatically converted to the new endless version.

Both new and returning players can visit the demo site to download the Warhammer Online endless free trial. Read the official press release for all the details about this deal, and for more information about Warhammer Online in general, visit the Official Site.

–Jeff Green

Warhammer Online Patch Notves v 1.3.2

Lifebane — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:18:32 +0000

RvR Enhancements

The frequency of exciting capital city invasions will be on the rise in update 1 3 2 as Fortresses are removed from the campaign. Now, players of a Realm need only to control two pairings in order to open the enemy city to attack.

Keep battles are now more rewarding than ever before. The new Keep difficulty system ensures that the greater the number of combatants present during a raid on a Keep, the greater the rewards for both attackers and defenders.

New User Journey

We’ve made a number of changes, notably in the starting areas, to make the game more accessible to trial, existing and returning players alike. This set of initiatives has been dubbed the ‘New User Journey’ and covers a number of features and enhancements being released with version 1 3 2. Each of these features and enhancements will be covered below, or in their respective section of the patch notes. Some highlights are listed below:

* All new characters that join the Realm of Destruction will now begin the game in the Chaos starting area, no matter their race.

* All new characters that join the Realm of Order will now begin the game in the Empire starting area, no matter their race.

* A new voiceover tutorial will introduce the basic concepts of gameplay in WAR.

* The content and quest flow of both Realms’ starting areas have been revised and improved to provide a greater gameplay experience. As part of this change, the Hunter’s Vale dungeon has been re-opened for Tier 1 players.

* New players will automatically be placed in a ‘new player guild’, one for each Realm, to facilitate communication among those new to the game, or those who are rolling up an alt character, and to make finding a group a bit easier. The guilds are called the ‘Forces of Order’ and the ‘Forces of Destruction’.

* The in-game help manual has been completely revised and updated to be more useful, more accessible, and more current.

Apprenticeship System

Are you new to the game, and want to adventure with your friends, but can’t because they’re many Ranks higher than you? Or are you looking to bring someone new to the WAR and want to adventure with them, but you’re Rank 40 and they’re just starting out?

If the answer to either question is “Yes”, we have great news! The new Apprentice system allows players of differing Ranks to play together, whether battling it out in RvR or aiding your Realm’s war effort in quests and Public Quests. Just click on another player’s portrait in the group or Warband window and choose the “Make Apprentice” option, and that player will be scaled up to your Rank, no matter how much lower of a Rank they are .

See below for full details on this exciting new system.

Global Chat Channels

Two new global chat channels have been added to the game: The Advice channel and the Realm War channel. The Advice channel lets players get fast answers to important questions. The Realm War channel allows global communication by “Realm Captains”, special players designated by guilds that have unlocked the new Realm Captain Guild Rank reward. This channel can be used to discuss high-level RvR strategy, share information about enemy movements, and coordinate attack and defense efforts.

Career Balance Changes and Bug Fixes

Version 1 3 2 is loaded with career balance changes and bug fixes, with a special emphasis on the Crowd Control. See below for the full list of career adjustments and improvements.

Note that as a result of these changes, many careers have had their Core and Mastery abilities reset; if your character’s Core and Mastery abilities were reset, you will need to visit a Career Trainer to retrain your abilities.

Performance and Stability Improvements

We’re always looking for ways to improve the gameplay experience, and that means optimizing performance and fixing issues that adversely impact server stability. In version 1 3 2, we’ve made changes to the game’s figure and texture system that will boost performance, especially when many characters are on the screen at the same time.

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* We are pleased to introduce the new Apprentice system. Apprenticeship will allow you to ask any lower-Rank groupmate to become your Rank, so that the two of you may adventure together. To Apprentice someone, just right click on the portrait of person in your group or warband who you wish to Apprentice, and select the “Make Apprentice” option. Their stats and gear will transparently scale to become appropriate for your Apprenticed Rank! Please note that while under the effects of Apprenticeship, you will not be able to queue for Scenarios that are not available at your natural Rank. Abilities which would be too high for your Apprenticed Rank will become temporarily unusable.

* Fixed a bug that prevented abilities that boost the amount of Influence earned from working properly. For example, if a player participated in a Public Quest and killed a monster, that player might earn 100 Influence. If the same player was under the effect of a buff that increases Influence earned by 5%, the player should earn 105 Influence for killing that same monster; however, the bug was causing the player to still earn only 100 Influence. This has been corrected.

* Mounts will no longer appear to be inexplicably standing in front of water when they are actually standing in the water.

* All Orc heads have been adjusted in order to eliminate some clipping problems that were occurring with some of the race’s headgear.

* Fixed an issue that prevented the game from running on machines that have 32 or more processors.

* The game’s figure and texture systems have been reworked to improve performance. As a result of these changes, the majority of users will notice less hitching when in large RvR battles, particularly on Nvidia 8000-class video cards.

* Monsters: Flying monster movement will be less erratic when they quickly change altitude.

* Monsters: Fixed an issue that sometimes caused monsters walking across zone boundaries to become stuck.

* Objects: Players in the process of interacting with an object in the world (for example, a quest object, a flag, etc.) will now be interrupted using the same rules that dismount players who are riding mounts.

* Objects: Fixed an issue that could cause objects in the world to not be aligned with the ground properly.

* Pets: Fixed an issue where sometimes a pet returning to its master’s side would become visibly out of sync with the server.

* Pets: Sometimes, if a pet’s master moved while their pet was actively fighting, that pet would return to its master’s side. This issue has been corrected.

Combat and Careers

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* Many crowd control changes have been introduced with this update. In addition to reducing the number of disabling abilities, all “stun” effects have either been removed or replaced by a knockdown or “stagger” effect. Stagger is a new condition that acts similarly to the previous stun effect, but will immediately dispel itself as soon as the staggered player is damaged.

* Abilities will no longer be grayed out when the player is mounted. Using an ability while mounted will now automatically dismount players.

* Abilities that target group members will now work properly in Scenarios, regardless of whether the targeted group member is in a warband.

* Fixed a bug that was causing players to lose targeting on a stealthed enemy, even after passing the initial detection check.

* All Order careers will now start in the Empire starting area.

* All Destruction careers will now start in the Chaos starting area.

* Guard: Fixed an issue that caused this ability to display incorrect error messages.

* Modify Siege Engine: This ability’s tooltip will now specify which types of siege equipment this ability will not work on.

* Resolute Defense: Fixed an issue in which this ability’s snare immunity was ignored by some abilities.

Archetype Morale Abilities:

* Mage Bolt: This ability’s damage has been reduced, and it will now inflict a medium knockback to the target.

* Point-Blank: This ability’s range has been increased, and it will now inflict a medium knockback on the target.

* Scintillating Energy: This ability now staggers, rather than stuns, the target.

Bug Fixes:

* Gift of Life: This ability can no longer be used on living targets.

* Magical Infusion: This ability’s tooltip now clarifies that the target must still be alive in order to be healed.

Balance Changes:

* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Black Guards have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.

* Dark Protector: This new ability allows a Black Guard to watch over an ally and gain additional hatred whenever that ally is attacked.

Bug Fixes:

* Crush Vitality: This Tactic will now work correctly with area-of-effect abilities.

Balance Changes:

* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Black Orcs have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.

* Can’t Hit Me!: This ability is now obtained nine steps into the Path of the Da Toughest. Also, the ability’s cost has been reduced and its damage has been increased.

* Can Youz Hear Me Now?: This ability now receives a damage increase from Shut Yer Face.

* Deafening Bellow: This ability is now obtained at Rank 36 as a Rank 3 Morale ability. Also, this ability now deals damage, and the silence duration has been reduced.

* Down Ya Go: This ability is now obtained 13 steps into the Path of Da Toughest. Also, the ability’s damage has been increased, and it no longer requires a Great Weapon.

* Mor’ Hardcore: This Tactic will now affect Ya Missed Me and will no longer affect Not in da Face!

* Not in Da Face!: This ability is now obtained in the Path of the Da Brawler.

* Shut Yer Face: The damage bonus to Can Youz Hear me Now? has been increased.

* T’ree Hit Combo: This abilitiy’s damage has been increased and the cooldown time has been reduced.

* Walk it Off!: This ability is now obtained at Rank 32 as a Rank 2 Morale ability. Also, the ability’s Toughness buff and duration have been increased.

Bug Fixes:

* Big Slash: This ability no longer requires a target in order to fire.

* Da Biggest!: This ability can now be toggled off instead of re-cast.

* Deafening Bellow!: This ability will no longer fail to activate without a nearby target.

* Down Ya Go: The animations for this ability will now match up better.

* Loudmouth: This ability will once again be triggered by Da Greenest.

Balance Changes:

* Choking Smoke: This ability’s silence duration has been reduced.

* Crown of Fire: This Tactic will now increase the chance that Flames of Rhuin triggers by 50%.

* Magic Dart: This Morale ability will now deal instant damage followed by a damage-over-time effect.

* Ruin and Destruction: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the stun has been removed.

Balance Changes:

* No Fightin’ Back!: This ability has been renamed to “We’z Fightin’ Betta”. It is now a group damage buff.

* Sit Down!: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the duration of the knockdown has been reduced.

* Stomp Da Yard!: This ability’s damage has been increased and the duration of the knockdown has been reduced.

* Tantrum: This ability is now a self-only buff that deals additional damage each time the Choppa hits an enemy with a damage-dealing ability. This ability will trigger on up to eight individual enemies before it fades.

Bug Fixes:

* Furious Choppin’: Fixed an issue that allowed this ability to continue after death.

Balance Changes:

* Downfall: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and the duration of the knockdown has also been reduced.

* Quake: This ability will now stagger affected targets.

Bug Fixes:

* Auras: Auras will now properly persist through death.

* Corrupting Retribution: This ability’s heal value is now correctly tied to your Mastery level.

* Repel: This ability will no longer give NPCs both the Unstoppable and Immovable immunity buffs.

* Shatter Faith: This ability’s tooltip will no longer add damage based on Weapon DPS.

Balance Changes:

* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Disciples of Khaine have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.

* Chant of Pain: This ability will now pulse out damage around the caster for the duration, and heal the player for the damage.

* Consume Thought: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the duration of the silence has been decreased.

* Covenant of Celerity: This ability will now deal its damage directly, instead of over time.

* Essence Lash: This ability will now build Soul Essence even if no targets are hit.

* Fueled Actions: This Tactic will now give the Disciple a chance to gain Soul Essence when they are hit. Also, this Tactic is now available at Rank 37.

* Khaine’s Withdrawal: This ability is now available at Rank 32 as a Rank 2 Morale ability.

* Potent Covenants: This Tactic is now available at Rank 33.

* Siphoned Consumption: This Tactic has been removed from the game.

* Terrifying Aura: This Tactic will now cause Terrifying Vision to hit enemies around the Disciple as well.

* Terrifying Vision: This Tactic is now available at Rank 35.

* Transferred Focus: This Tactic is now available at Rank 39.

* Uncaring Dismissal: This ability will now build Soul Essence even if no targets are hit.

* Universal Confusion: This ability’s damage has been increased, the stun has been changed to a stagger, and it is now available at Rank 32 as a Rank 3 Morale ability.

* Visions of Torment: This ability has been changed to do damage over time, as well as prevent the target from generating Morale.

Bug Fixes:

* Bound by Blood: This Tactic will now correctly trigger off of direct heals only.

* Covenant of Vitality: The damage done by this ability will now correctly be affected by Mastery level.

* Rend Soul: The tooltip for this ability will now better reflect that the ability does magic damage.

Balance Changes:

* Cannon Smash: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the knockdown has been removed.

* Crack Shot: This ability will no longer be minimum-range restricted, and the duration of its disarm has been reduced.

* Land Mine: This ability will now stagger targets instead of knocking them down.

* Self-Destruct: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the duration of the knockdown has been reduced.

* Throwing Arm: The range gained from this Tactic has been reduced.

Bug Fixes:

* Concussive Mine: This ability will once again increase the cast times of affected targets.

* Proximity Alarm: This ability’s tooltip now has a more clear and detailed description.

* Static Discharge: This ability’s damage will now scale based on the Engineer’s Ballistic Skill.

* Uncontrolled Pets: Pets, such as Engineer turrets, will now attack properly when summoned.

Balance Changes:

* Punishing Knock: Inspiring Attack will now apply an outgoing heal debuff to targets, instead of the current knockdown.

Bug Fixes:

* Rock Clutch: This ability can now be cleansed by root removal abilities, and will now grant immunity to NPC’s.

* Rune Etched Axe: This ability’s tooltip has been updated to reflect that the ability hits targets in front of the Ironbreaker.

Balance Changes:

* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Knights of the Blazing Sun have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.

* Emperor’s Champion: This Morale ability is now available at Rank 32 and is now a Rank 2 Morale ability.

* Heaven’s Fury: This ability’s cost has been increased, and the cooldown time has been reduced. Also, the ability will now fire properly without enemies nearby, and will stagger affected targets.

* No Escape: This Morale ability is now available at Rank 36 and is now a Rank 3 Morale ability. The ability’s damage has been increased, and the duration of the root has been reduced.

* Shining Blade: This ability is now available at Rank 18 in the Path of Conquest. The ability will now deal damage on your target, and grants your group additional damage on their next ability activation.

* Smashing Counter: This ability is now available nine steps into the Path of Vigilance. The reactionary requirement has been removed, and the ability’s cost has been increased.

Bug Fixes:

* Commands: Commands will now properly persist through death.

* All Out Assault!: Fixed an issue that caused this ability to do more damage than intended.

* Shining Blade: This ability will no longer be dispelled by friendly cleansing abilities.

Balance Changes:

* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Magus have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.

* Daemonic Infestation: This ability now staggers players instead of knocking them down.

* Daemonic Mending: This ability has been replaced by “Daemonic Withering”, which causes a target suffering from Withering Soul to take more damage from all sources.

* Daemonic Reach: This new Tactic, obtained seven steps into the Path of Changing, increases the range of Path of Changing abilities.

* Endless Pandemonium: This ability is now obtained three steps into the Path of Changing.

* Infernal Pain: This is now a core Tactic obtained at Rank 33. The Tactic’s damage has been reduced.

* Instability: This ability’s damage has been increased. Also, the ability now deals Spirit damage, and its knockdown duration has been reduced.

* Redirection: This ability has been removed from the game.

Bug Fixes:

* Instability: Fixed an issue that allowed minions to sometimes attack after exploding.

* Uncontrolled Pets: Pets, such as the Magus’ Daemons, will now attack properly when summoned.

Balance Changes:

* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Marauders have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.

* When a Marauder uses a Mutation, the mutation will now place a nearly identical copy of their main hand weapon in their off hand. All bonuses will be copied, save for unique effects and any bonuses from Talismans.

* While the Gift of Brutality is active, the Marauder will have a chance upon hitting their target to trigger a buff. This buff increases off-hand damage by 25%, and raises the off-hand swing chance to 100% for five seconds.

* While the Gift of Monstrosity is active, the Marauder will have a chance upon being hit to trigger a self-targeted heal-over-time ability that lasts five seconds. Also, while this heal is active, the Marauder gains a 100% resist armor penetration buff. This effect cannot refresh itself.

* While the Gift of Savagery is active, the Marauder will have a chance upon hitting their target to trigger a debuff on the target. This debuff deals damage over five seconds, and reduces auto-attack speed by 50%.

* Concussive Jolt: This ability’s damage has been increased, and it is now available nine steps into the Path of Monstrosity.

* Death Grip: The cost and the duration of this ability’s silence have been reduced.

* Energy Ripple: This ability’s damage has been increased. Also, the stun has been replaced with a knockdown, and the duration has been reduced.

* Flames of Fate: This ability will now instantly deal damage and root the target.

* Thunderous Blow: This ability’s cost has been increased, and it is now available five steps into the Path of Savagery.

* Wave of Mutilation: This ability is now available five steps into the Path of Monstrosity.

Bug Fixes:

* Mouth of Tzeentch: Fixed an issue in which this ability’s tooltip displayed the ability as dealing more damage than it actually would.

* Rend: The damage-over-time effect from this ability will now deal its damage more consistently.

* Terrible Embrace: When successfully defended, this ability will now display as “disrupted” instead of “parried”.

* Wave of Horror: This ability’s effect is no longer considered an Ailment.

Balance Changes:

* Rune of Binding: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and it now staggers the target.

* Spellbinding Rune: This ability’s cost has been decreased, the damage has been increased, and the duration has been reduced.

Bug Fixes:

* Blessing of Grungni: This ability now correctly heals its target at full spell range.

Balance Changes:

* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Shadow Warriors have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.

* Enchanted Arrows: This Tactic is now available seven steps into the Path of the Scout.

* Exploit Weakness: The stun on this ability has been converted into a knockdown.

* Instill Fear: This Morale ability will now deal point-blank area-of-effect damage and stagger the affected targets.

* Leading Shots: This Tactic is now available at Rank 37.

* No Quarter: This Tactic has been redesigned, and now decreases the build time and increases the Action Point cost of Eagle Eye. It is now available three steps into the Path of the Scout.

* Opportunistic Strike: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the disarm duration has been reduced.

* Throat Shot: The duration of this ability’s silence effect has been reduced.

Bug Fixes:

* Blood Soaked War: This Tactic will now work properly when multiple targets are killed.

* Leading Shot: This Tactic will now work correctly with ranged attacks.

* Takedown: The animation for this ability will now play correctly.

Bug Fixes:

* Do Sumfin Useful: This ability will now fire properly at level 5 Waaagh! Also, an issue was fixed that sometimes caused this ability to act as a direct heal, rather than a heal-over-time.

* Eeek!: This ability can now be properly defended against.

* ‘Ere We Go!: Fixed a tooltip issue that caused the damage description to not increase based on the player’s Path of Gork mastery.

* Gork’s Barbs: Fixed an issue that allowed this ability to deal critical damage, and also fixed an issue that caused the ability’s base damage to be too low.

* Shrug it Off: The ability’s tooltip has been clarified to state that the target must still be alive in order to be healed, and that only one instance of this effect may be present at a time.

Balance Changes:

* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Slayers have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.

* Deadly Determination: This ability is now available at Rank 32, and is now a Rank 2 Morale ability. Also, the ability has been changed to a self-only buff that deals additional damage each time the Slayer hits an enemy with a damage-dealing ability. The ability will trigger on up to eight individual enemies before it fades.

* Doom Seeker: This ability is now available 15 steps into the Path of the Skavenslayer. Also, the ability’s damage has been increased.

* Incapacitate: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the knockdown duration has been reduced.

* Looks Like a Challenge: This ability is now available 14 steps into the Path of the Giantslayer.

Bug Fixes:

* Doom Seeker: This ability no longer requires a nearby target to fire.

* Rune of Absorption: Fixed an issue that allowed this ability to continue after death.

* Shatter Limbs: This ability will now always fire.

* Unleashed Power: Added text to the buff icon tooltip. Also fixed a bug that prevented the Slayer’s group members from receiving credit for damage done by this ability.

Balance Changes:

* Frostbite: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and the disarm duration has been reduced.

* Reckless Gathering: This ability is no longer channeled, and it will now grant Action Points instantly in return for health.

* Stricken Voices: This ability’s silence duration has been reduced.

Bug Fixes:

* Daemonic Chill: This ability will now trigger correctly.

* Echo of Power: Fixed an issue in which this ability would not trigger abilities that provide additional damage.

* Shades of Death: Fixed an issue with this ability’s tooltip to clarify that the additional damage triggers on direct damage.

* Stricken Voices: Fixed an issue with this ability’s animation playing too long.

* Swell of Gloom: Fixed an issue that caused Gloomburst to fire off the random backlash as well as the guaranteed backlash from the Tactic.

Balance Changes:

* Aimin’ Quickly: This Tactic now decreases the build time, and increases the cost, of Plink.

* Bounce: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the knockdown duration has been reduced.

* Choking Arrer: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the silence duration has been reduced.

* Death From Above: This ability will now deal damage to the target, and the knockdown duration has been reduced.

* Drop That!!: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the disarm duration has been reduced.

Bug Fixes:

* KABOOM!: The ability will now hit the correct number of enemies.

* Lots of Shootin’: Fixed a bug that prevented this ability from being fired at the correct range.

Balance Changes:

* Ether Dance: This ability’s damage has been increased.

* Whispering Wind: This ability’s silence duration has been reduced.

Balance Changes:

* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Warrior Priests have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.

* Avatar of Sigmar: This ability is now available in the Path of Grace.

* Divine Amazement: This ability will now pulse out damage around the caster for the duration, and heal the player for the damage caused. This ability is now available in the Path of Wrath.

* Divine Shock: This ability will now build Righteous Fury, even if no targets are hit.

* Penance: This ability will now do damage and then stagger the player.

* Vow of Silence: The damage of this ability has been increased, and the silence duration has been decreased.

Bug Fixes:

* Divine Assault: The tooltip for this ability will now better reflect that the ability does magic damage.

* Judgment: This ability will now reliably build Righteous Fury.

Balance Changes:

* Brutal Pounce: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the cost has been reduced. Also, the stun has been replaced with a knockdown, and the duration has been reduced.

* Feline Grace: This ability will now remove the effects from the White Lion and his or her pet, as well as bestow ten seconds of root and snare immunity for both.

* Throat Bite: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and the silence duration has also been reduced.

Bug Fixes:

* Ensnare: This ability can now be cleansed by root removal abilities, and will now grant immunity to NPC’s.

* Fang and Claw: The White Lion’s pet will no longer be able to fire other abilities while channeling this one.

* Fey Illusion: This ability will now properly increase the monster’s hate on the defensive target or pet.

* Furious Mending: This ability will no longer overheal you or your pet while either is at full health.

* Leg Tear: This ability will now be removed by abilities that remove snares.

* Leonine Frenzy: This ability will now prevent snares from being reapplied on the War Lion.

Balance Changes:

* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Witch Elves have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.

* Agile Escape: This ability will now stagger targets.

* Heart Seeker: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and it will now knock down targets.

* Kiss of Agony: This buff’s effect duration has been increased to 30 minutes. The effect can now freely be applied to the Witch Elf’s weapons at any time, and applying the effect no longer requires her to attack an enemy.

* Kiss of Betrayal: This buff’s effect duration has been increased to 30 minutes. The effect can now freely be applied to the Witch Elf’s weapons at any time, and applying the effect no longer requires her to attack an enemy.

* Kiss of Death: This buff’s effect duration has been increased to 30 minutes. The effect can now freely be applied to the Witch Elf’s weapons at any time, and applying the effect no longer requires her to attack an enemy.

* Kiss of Doom: This Tactic is now available seven steps into the Path of Suffering, and will now cause Kiss of Death to heal the Witch Elf for all the damage it does.

* On Your Knees!: This ability’s range, the amount that stats contribute to this ability’s damage has been increased, and the overall damage have all been increased. The radius of the ability will now increase with Frenzy.

* Septic Blade: This Tactic is now available three steps into the Path of Suffering.

* Sever Limb: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and the disarm duration has also been reduced.

* Witch Brew: This ability will now cause your next attacks to do additional damage to your target. The number of attacks affected increases with Frenzy.

Bug Fixes:

* Broad Severing: Players will now receive the correct amount of Blood Lust when this Tactic is slotted.

Balance Changes:

* Confess!: This ability’s cost has been reduced, the damage has been increased, and the disarm’s duration has been reduced.

* Declare Anathema: This ability will now stagger targets.

* Pistol Whip: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and it will now knock down targets.

* Reversal of Fortune: This ability has been changed to deal damage to targets in a line in front of the Witch Hunter.

Bug Fixes:

* Excommunicate: This ability will now properly fire at range.

* Silence the Heretic: This ability will now grey-out when the target cannot be silenced.

* Sudden Accusation: The accusations gained from this ability will now display correctly.

Balance Changes:

* Aethyric Shock: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and it been changed to stagger the target.

* Tzeentch’s Lash: This ability’s cost has been reduced, its damage has been increased, and its duration has been reduced.

* Tzeentch’s Scream: This ability will now heal group-mates, and replenish Action Points over 15 seconds.

Bug Fixes:

* Aethyric Shock: This ability will no longer go through multiple attack checks.

* Harbinger of Doom: Targets can now have multiple Harbingers on them, but only the most powerful Harbinger will actually affect the target. Also, this ability will now be properly removed when the target dies.

* Mirror of Madness: Fixed an issue that allowed this ability to benefit from stat contribution and deal critical damage.

* Wind of Insanity: This ability will no longer give the caster any sort of immunity. Also, players can now be knocked back by this ability a maximum of once every 1.5 seconds.

Content

Dungeons

* Gunbad: Fixed an issue that caused boss monsters to drop loot of a Rank that was lower than intended and, in some cases, of the incorrect Realm.

Quests

* Prove Your Worth: This quest will now issue the correct rewards.

Public Quests

* Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the Public Quest tooltip on the map to incorrectly report the number of players participating in a Public Quest.

* Quyl-Isha Temple: Destruction players will now be able to locate all of the banners necessary to complete stage two.

Crafting

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* It is now possible to place pigments used for dyes in their correct slot.

* Corrected an issue that caused the Liniment of Immutable Defiance to award extra HP Regeneration.

* “Saltwater Taffy” has now been renamed to “Salt Water Taffy” to avoid a conflict with the language filter.

* Legacy Curio items should no longer drop when scavenging monsters.

Apothecary

* The following hybrid potions can now be crafted: Liniment of Boundless Sight, Liniment of Immutable Defiance, Liniment of Inexorable Aegis, Liniment of Peerless Defense, Liniment of Quickened Blades, and Liniment of Swift Tergiversation.

* The following dyes can now be crafted: Dark Ivory Dye, Dark Peach Dye, Dark Purple Dye, Dark Red Dye, Dark Sage Dye, and Dark Sea Blue Dye.

Butchering

* A significant number of uncategorized monsters have been assigned harvest types.

* All trash loot items dropped from creatures are now standardized and stack to 999.

* The monster harvest system has been redesigned. Some monsters can now provide multiple harvests via butchering.

* New dye ingredients can now be obtained through butchering.

* Some butchering drops have been shuffled due to the redesign:

- Bats now drop Force Shield and Restoration main ingredients.

- Bears now drop Strength and Invigoration main ingredients.

- Birds now drop Ballistic Skill and Glue Bomb main ingredients.

- Boars now drop Restoration and Strength main ingredients.

- Canines now drop Invigoration and Willpower main ingredients.

- Daemon Beasts now drop Resist potion main ingredients.

- Dragons now drop Toughness and Molotov main ingredients.

- Felines now drop Willpower and Ballistic Skill main ingredients.

- Insects and Arachnids now drop Armor and Toughness main ingredients.

- Magical Beasts now drop Healing and Thorns main ingredients.

- Reptiles now drop Molotov and Armor main ingredients.

- Rodents now drop Glue Bomb and Intelligence main ingredients.

- Squigs now drop Healing and Intelligence main ingredients.

* Some hybrid potion main ingredients can now be obtained through butchering.

* Stabilizers are now significantly less rare.

* Trash loot variety has been reduced to one type per monster con level (Lord, Hero, Champion, Core, etc).

Cultivation

* Cultivation items will now have the proper crafting label showing.

* Cultivation plots learned at a high skill level will be locked when relearning cultivation.

Salvaging

* The following items can now be salvaged: Liegecollar of Calumny, Vambraces of Dominion, and Oath Shield.

Scavenging

* The following items can now be scavenged: Eboncreed Acolyte and Eboncreed Whisperers.

Items

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* Players will now receive a warning the first time that they attempt to equip a bind-on-equip item.

* Items where the talisman rules have been exploited to contain two of the same talisman will have the talisman(s) removed. The removed talismans will be refunded to the player.

* Several lower-Tiered equipment pieces were visually updated in order to better diversify armors that looked too similar to one another.

* The Engineer Sovereign armor has been updated in order to make it even more visually impressive and worthy of being called ‘epic.’

* Tooltips for items with passive abilities will display properly.

* Item cooldowns will update properly on the action bar.

* Weapon glow from talismans will now persist through zoning.

* Fleet Stag Mantle: This cloak no longer suffers from clipping problems with certain race and equipment combinations.

* Scorching Blast Potions: This potion’s effect will no longer hit more than nine targets.

* Sticky Bomb Potions: Sticky Bomb Potions will now correctly snare up to nine people who enter the affected area.

Generic Item Changes

* Chapter 18 Order Influence rewards have been changed to bind-on-pickup to match all other Influence rewards.

* The following Soul Talismans have had their duration display issues corrected: Agonizing Assassin’s Soul, Massive Dread Overlord’s Soul, and Suffering Overlord’s Soul.

* The tooltip for Crushing Strike, the seven piece bonus from the Slayer Warlord set, will now display the correct damage.

* The six-piece bonus for Melee DPS careers on the Tyrant set armor set will now display properly.

* Badmoon Deathsword: The tooltip for the triggered effect on this item will now match the tooltip of the item itself.

* Ironmane Tome: This charm will now function like other books when equipped.

* Golden eye of Rah-Nutt, Golden Ankra: The absorb effect granted by these items is now typed as an Enchantment, and can be removed by any ability that removes Enchantments OR any ability that removes absorb effects.

* Guardian Crusader’s Soul: Corrected an issue where Guardian Crusader’s Soul and its Massive counterpart were not displaying their tooltips properly.

* Nepenthean Tonic: This item will no longer share the same cooldown as the healing potions purchased from the RvR merchants.

* RvR Token Equipment: Changes have been made to the equipment available on Royal Quartermasters:

- Sovereign Armor – A new Royal Quartermaster will now sell all pieces of the Sovereign armor set. In order to accommodate these changes, the accessory that was previously offered from the merchant has had its cost reduced. These items can be found on Colonel Eisenburg or Colonel Faber in Altdorf, and Overlord Steelhide or Overlord Bloodtorrent in The Inevitable City.

- Warlord Armor – All of the Warlord set pieces can also now be found on the existing Royal Quartermasters. These items can be found on Captain Scholz or Captain Manon in Altdorf, and Hoardmaster Skinchange or Hoard Master Frerger in The Inevitable City.

* RvR Token Delivery: A Royal Crest will now be granted to each participant in the kill of a sub-boss within the King instances. Additionally, two Royal Crests will be granted for each successful King kill.

* Soul Talismans Soul Absorb I-V: Have now been typed as Blessings, and can be removed by any ability that removes Blessings OR any ability that removes absorb effects.

* Spear of Remembrance: The tooltip for the triggered effect on this item will now match the tooltip of the item itself.

Item Art Changes

* Anniversary cloaks can now be dyed.

* The following items have had their icons corrected: Bastquillox ‘Andsplate and Battlehammer of the Sandstorm.

* The unique weapons sold by the merchants in the Land of the Dead will now properly display as Mythic-quality items.

* The following items have had their art corrected: Armbraces of the Tyrant and Work Gloves of the Tyrant.

* Martial Trollsplitter: This weapon is now correctly set to be a two-handed weapon.

Item Stats Changes

* Chaos Chapter 4 elite Influence rewards will now be more appropriate to the player’s career.

* Corrected an issue where the Marauder item Brigand’s Midstrap had Block instead of Melee Crit.

* Corrected an issue where the Shaman item Initiate’s Waaagh Beads had Ballistic skill instead of Willpower.

* The following Warrior Priest items will now have Righteous Fury regen: Tome of the Sandstorm, and Tome of the Desert Storm.

* The following items will now have more appropriate stats: Highstaff of Perpetual Hope, and Kindlestaff of the Wanderer.

Mac BETA Notes

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* Removed problematic resolutions on Macs that were causing crashes.

* Resolved an issue where switching between maps, either in the scenario lobby, the map screen, or walking between two different zones was causing 3-5 seconds of lag.

* Added secondary default key bindings for morale abilities in lieu of the F9-F12 buttons. The additional buttons are Alt+H, J, N, and M.

* Clear is now set as a default autorun option on Macs instead of NumLock.

* Clear is now properly labeled in key bindings.

Realm vs. Realm

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* Assistants on a siege ram will now share in the contribution bonus when a door is destroyed. (Previously, that contribution was only awarded to the siege ram operator.)

* Artisan’s Gift: This ability will now only affect players with at least one Renown Rank.

* Non-combat pets such as the Imperial Hunting Hound or Warlord’s Fell Hound can now be summoned outside of cities on Open RvR servers.

* The Intimidation effect gained from the Forts will now give the correct reduction in chance to be critically hit.

* Early RvR lakes and Scenario battles will now bolster players up to Rank 11.

* Defense Buff: This ability will now only affect players with at least one Renown Rank.

* Defensive Boon: This buff now increases Experience gain and has been renamed to Experience Boon.

* Healing Boon: This buff now increases Influence gain and has been renamed to Influence Boon.

* Healing Buff: This ability will now only affect players with at least one Renown Rank.

* Merchant’s Gift: This ability will now only affect players with at least one Renown Rank.

Campaign / Open RvR

* A new Keep difficulty system has been implemented that rewards players with higher degrees of loot for Keep battles involving large numbers of enemy players and higher degrees of upgrades. Players will now be rewarded with loot for successfully attacking Keeps held by the opposing Realm as well as defending Keeps held by their own Realm. Players can view the difficulty rating of each Keep by the number of gold stars displayed under the Keep icon on the map. The difficulty ranks from 1 star (the easiest) to 5 stars (the most difficult). The higher the number of stars, the greater the rewards that Keep offers.

* Fortress battles have been removed as a part of the Tier 4 RvR campaign. Cities are now open to attack after two pairings are captured without the additional hurdle of a Fortress battle at the end of each one. The Fortresses themselves are currently open and free of hostile guards. There are future plans for the Fortresses, but we are not yet prepared to announce them.

* The Lost Lagoon Battlefield Objective in Norsca has been removed.

* All Champion-con Battlefield Objective guards in Tier 1 have been reduced to Core difficulty. As a result, players will find it easier to capture undefended Battlefield Objectives in Tier 1.

* Renown Rank 1 players will no longer receive zone capture rewards.

* All Tier 4 Battlefield Objectives and Keeps will now properly set their status as locked or unlocked according to the current state of the campaign after server resets.

Capital Cities

* Dungeons located within capital cties are now accessible at all times regardless of city Rank.

* City victory points will now only account for Objective points generated from the city Public Quest. The Scenario and skirmish pools have been removed.

* The captured stage for contested cities will now last for a maximum of six hours.

* Warlord instance lockout timers within the capital cities have been changed to 68 hours.

* Order players who have died and released within The Eternal Citadel, Bloodwrought Enclave, or Bilerot Burrow will now respawn inside near the instance’s entrance, beside a friendly healer.

* Destruction players who have died and released within Altdorf Palace, Sigmar Crypts, or Warpblade Tunnels will now respawn inside near the instance’s entrance, beside a friendly healer.

* Mechanics have been put in place to prevent players who have died and released from rejoining specific encounters until the encounter is completed. The encounters that this mechanic applies to are within Altdorf Palace, The Eternal Citadel, Bloodwrought Enclave, Bilerot Burrow, Sigmar Crypts, and Warpblade Tunnels.

User Interface

New Features & Enhancements

* Starting Area Relocation: As part of the New User Journey, all new characters will now start in either Nordland or Norsca, based on their Realm affiliation. This emphasis will bring a variety of races into the same starting areas, giving Tier 1 a boost to population that will help ensure a fulfilling experience for all players. Trial users will only be able to access the Empire vs. Chaos starter areas, but subscribers will be able to visit the other Tier 1 pairings if they desire by visiting a Flight Master.

* Tier 1 Dungeon: As part of the revamp to the starting area, we’ve added in a permanent Tier 1 version of the Hunter’s Vale dungeon introduced in the “Wild Hunt” Live Event. The entrance for the dungeon is accessible at the crossroads between the areas for Empire Chapter 3 and Chaos Chapter 3. A repeatable quest is offered to reward brave groups that venture into this dungeon.

* Open Realm vs. Realm Combat (Tier 1): As part of the starting-area consolidation, the only active RVR lake will be in Nordland. This will focus the Open RvR portion of Tier 1 and help ensure explosive battles over the Battlefield Objectives. As part of this emphasis, we’ve eliminated the Lagoon Battlefield Objective to ensure that all of the Open RvR Objectives are in the same lake and easily visible and accessible to all players.

* Tutorials: To help ensure that players starting in our enhanced starter zones have enough information to properly experience and enjoy their initial foray into WAR, we’ve added a graphic tutorial system. These new windows are triggered automatically at key moments in the journey. The tutorial window system can be disabled if a player feels they don’t need them by choosing to do so right on the tutorial window itself. Should they wish to turn back on the tutorials, this can be done in the User Settings in the help tips, and in the tutorial options section.

* User Interface: The following portions of the User Interface are now hidden at the beginning of the game and will become visible when first needed: Experience Bar, Renown Bar, Tactics Bar, Morale Bar, Zone Control Bar, and the Chapter Influence Bar. Players can opt to show all parts of the UI at any time in the User Settings.

* Enhanced Starter Area Content: As part of the New User Journey, we took a look at the content flow for the Empire and Chaos Tier 1 areas and made adjustments to the starting locations, quest flow, and rewards. Because of this, players in the Empire starting area will note that they are arriving down west of Grimmenhagen, just in time to help against the burning of the village, rather than in the center of town. Chaos players will find that their starting location is mostly unchanged, but there have been a number of small adjustments to the area outside the portal. The revamped content and flow have been tweaked to reduce travel time, ensure that players have an enjoyable quest flow, and give a more well-rounded introduction to the conflict encompassing the Realms as a whole.

* Loading Screen: We’ve added in a loading screen that displays if there have been features added since the player’s last login. The list of features will be tailored to the player entering the game, based on when they last entered.

* Map: When viewing a zone map, active Public Quests will now show up on the map with a highlighted icon. This will allow players to see, at a glance, which Public Quests have active participants. Players can still view the number of participants by then hovering over the icon and reading the tooltip for that Public Quest.

* Trainers: The wording for training has been modified slightly to clarify training being offered. Ex. “Core Training” has been renamed to “Buy Career Abilities”. New characters will no longer be shown the “Mastery Training” (renamed “Buy Mastery Abilities”) until they are the appropriate Rank. As well, training windows will now default to showing only the abilities that you can currently train/purchase.

* Tome of Knowledge: Unlock-alerts for the Tome of Knowledge will no longer show up for new characters until they have received the Tutorial on the Tome of Knowledge, or they’ve reached a certain point in their advancement. The unlocks are still given and tracked in the background, they are just suppressed to avoid confusion until the character has learned about the Tome of Knowledge.

* In-Game Manual: The in-game manual has been revamped, rewritten, and reorganized to ensure that it covers more information, and in a convenient format for users looking for specific information.

* Help Tips: A number of help tips have been turned off and replaced by the aforementioned tutorial windows. As well, we’ve added a repository for all help tips and tutorial windows off the Help Window to allow players access to all help tips at any point. This way, players can find the information they need, even if they’ve turned off help tips or tutorials.

* Character Creation: We’ve added in drop-down selection boxes for the character creation process when choosing features. These drop-down menus will give a description of the current choice as you scroll through, to make it easier to remember which version looked best. As well, any option can be chosen directly by clicking on the button and selecting that option from the drop-down menu.

* Campaign Tracker: The Campaign Tracker available on the map has been adjusted to reflect the changes to the campaign with the removal of Fortresses.

* Zone Capture: Players that have not reached Realm Rank 1 will not receive zone capture bonuses. This was done to prevent confusion to players that have not yet participated in open RvR in receiving rewards, and messaging that isn’t appropriate to them yet.

* Titles: Additional Titles have been implemented to support the addition of the Mac Client to the WAR experience. Get out there and start killing your enemies to find them!

* New Player Guilds: With the introduction of update 1.3.2, new characters will automatically be placed in a New Player Guild when they enter Chapter 2 of their respective starting areas. Characters can participate in the New Player Guild similarly to a normal guild, but will not have any specific permissions and cannot be promoted. Players may remain in this New Player Guild until they reach Rank 20, at which point they are automatically removed and encouraged to find a guild or start one of their own. Players will also be removed from this New Player Guild should they join another guild, or choose to leave on their own. Access back into the New Player Guild will be accessible from a NPC in the warcamps if players leave the guild, or an existing player wants into the guild and they are under the Rank restriction.

* Global Chat – Advice Channel: Players now have a global chat channel for advice that can be accessed by typing /advice. The channel is designed to allow players of all Tiers the ability to get answers to any questions they have during their play session. Players that so desire can now mark themselves as an ‘Advisor’ via the social options in the Social menu. This will give them access to a special ‘Advisor’ Title and make them visible via an ‘Advisor’ search feature in the Social menu. Like any public channel, the Advice channel will be moderated for proper usage and adherence to the rules of conduct.

* Global Chat – Realm War: Players now have access to global chat channels for each Tier of open RvR. Players will have the ability to monitor these channels anywhere in the game, regardless of their location, and can choose to filter which Tier(s) they want to monitor at any given time. The Tier 1-3 channels will be open to all players for reading and posting. The Tier 4 channel will be open for reading by all players, but posting will be restricted to designated ‘Realm War Captains’ to prevent information overload. Realm War Captains are a new guild rank reward that can be assigned in a manner similar to standard bearers and recruiters. A slot for assigning a Realm War Captain will be accessible at Guild Ranks 20, 30, and 40; giving a maximum of three captains per guild. Like any public channel, the Realm War channels will be moderated for proper usage and adherence to the rules of conduct.

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* Warbands will no longer treat each member as distant when the number of members changes.

* The maximum number of visible Core abilities in the Mastery Training window has been increased.

* Abilities that can be toggled and are currently active will now have the swirling animation on their action buttons, including after the player reloads the UI.

* The pet command bar will no longer disappear when exiting Scenarios.

* Bonuses to auto-attack speed will now update on the character sheet.

* Added a new backpack filter for siege items.

* All abilities will now remain on the action bars when zoning.

* Fixed an issue that caused a player’s original Rank to display in the party window even after that player’s Rank had been altered by something, such as the bolster buff.

* The stack-count on items will now show in the loot window and the PQ bag loot window.

* City Rank will now display on the UI when player is in their guild hall.

* Chat: Fixed an issue that would intermittently cause the client to crash if the chat limit was set to unlimited, and players switched between tabs.

* Character Select: Players will not be kicked out to character select if they press the “Play” button then quickly hit the “Create” button immediately after.

* Key Mapping: The tilde key ( ~ ) can once again be bound on its own, or with CTRL.

* Layout Editor: Exiting the game, or reloading the UI while the layout editor is active, will no longer cause most of the windows to crowd into the left corner upon subsequent login.

* Public Quests: Fixed an issue with the way the roll results are displayed and scrolled in the Public Quest scoreboard. The results will now scroll with the names to prevent confusion.

* Public Quests: Population counts will update on a more frequent basis, meaning that the tooltip information for a Public Quest will be more up to date.

* Scenarios: When capturing an objective in a Scenario, the center-screen message will no longer incorrectly refer to it as a “Keep”.

* Scenarios: The list of players in the scenario scoreboard will no longer extend past bottom of list box when the ‘Leave Now’ button is visible.

* Scenarios: The scoreboard will no longer lose the ‘Leave Now’ button if the player resurrects after the Scenario has ended.

* Target Window: Primary and secondary target windows will no longer randomly stretch out vertically.

* Tome of Knowledge: Fixed an issue where previously-completed armor sets were not showing individual pieces in the Armory.

* Trade: Players now have the additional option to type /trade while another payer of their Realm is targeted to begin a trade transaction.

* User Settings: The ‘Click through self’ option will now work properly if the player has a guild standard out.

Halloween Warhammer Online Style!

Lifebane — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:31:56 +0000

Mythic released a press release today announcing their upcoming Halloween themed in game event for Warhammer Online. This year’s event is called Daemon Moon Risingand will feature the Daemon Mask event quest, a new Daemonball Rally Public Quest, a special Realm vs. Realm™ scenario, and treats both fair and foul. Read below for the official announcement!

“The Moon Rises and Chaos Reigns October 23^rd through November 2^nd

FAIRFAX, Virginia – October, 15 2009 – Mythic Entertainment™, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio, today announced that the critically acclaimed MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning® (WAR), will host a special live event, Daemon Moon Rising, for a limited time during the 2009 Halloween season. Daemon Moon Rising, will run in-game from October 23^rd through November 2^nd, and will feature the Daemon Mask event quest, a new Daemonball Rally Public Quest, a special Realm vs. Realm™ scenario, and treats both fair and foul.

In Daemon Moon Rising, a fiendish sub-cult of Chaos artificers have bound savage daemons into innocuous carnival masks and smuggled them into the Empire. The Daemon Mask event quest will task players with collecting these possessed masks and defeating the daemons bound within. As a reward for halting the menace of the masks, players will receive a souvenir Daemon Mask and a chance to discover the rare and powerful Magus Daemonarium within a sack of sinister secrets.

The Daemonball Rally Public Quest will pit players of Order and Destruction versus one another in a battle to seize the Daemon Cradle and empower the essence of nightmares against their opponents.

“This is a terrifying time of year within the world of Warhammer and the Daemon Moon Rising live event is our way of fighting against the darkness that encompasses the land,” said Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer for Mythic Entertainment. “We call on all players to rise up against the malevolent creatures that threaten the land and keep safe the Realms. But beware, for under the cold, dark madness of the Daemon Moon, anything can happen!”

Players can also don their masks and participate in “Wake the Dead”, a special running of the High Pass Cemetery RvR scenario available to characters of all tiers during the Daemon Moon Rising live event.

Other fiendish rewards available to event participant include: the Fiendfang with bonus to healing, damage, renown, and XP; the Face of the Unborn mask; the Meatcleaver’s mask; the Face-Eater’s mask; the arcane Malleus Daemonarium; and special talisman components imbued with the might of Chaos itself.”

WAR Dev Diary – James Casey

Lifebane — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:00:30 +0000

James Casey, Associate Producer for the Features Team, recently took the time to talk a little about the New User Journey being introduced in Game Update 1.3.2. Read on to learn all about the apprentice system, changes to Tier 1, improvements to the in-game tutorial system, and more!

“With 1.3.2 on its way soon, I was asked to write a quick Dev Diary about some of the cool stuff you’ll be seeing in this patch. One of the more prominent features will be our Realm versus Realm changes, which include changes to the Tier 4 campaign, notably with Fortresses. This patch will also continue on the career balance changes started in 1.3.1, with a specific focus on crowd control. Another cool feature is our new ‘apprenticeship’ program where players can group up or down with players of varying Ranks and be adjusted to be competitive with the player that is ‘apprenticed.’ This will allow players of any Rank to play with any other Rank characters in the game and not be at a disadvantage.

As you can see, there are a lot of cool things going in, but I’m here to talk about a group of features that we’ve dubbed the ‘New User Journey’ around the office. The title ‘New User Journey’ might be a little misleading though as the features will be useful to all users, whether they are new to the game, playing currently, or returning to the game after an absence. This Dev Diary is dedicated to touching on a few of the new features in the New User Journey, and how they fit into our goal of constantly improving WAR!

Before we begin on any of the features, some background might be prudent. When planning 1.3.2, we were tasked at looking at what can make our game more accessible to all players. Accessibility covers a lot of ground from a philosophical point of view; it ranges from how you sign up for a game to how it feels when you play it. It can also mean different things to different people. The crux of the issue is making the game accessible to the greatest amount of people while also making it entertaining and engaging.

One of the biggest changes existing players will notice is that all characters will now start in Empire and Chaos, based on their Realm choice, regardless of their race. The reason for this in game terms is that there has been a big push by Chaos and Empire in these areas, and allies have been called to battle in Nordland and Norsca to bring forth glory for their respective Realm. The actual game-play reason for this is multi-fold. One thing to note is that regular players will still be able to access the other pairings in Tier 1 via the Flightmasters if they desire to seek out specific content in those lands, but the action and focus of the WAR effort will now be Empire and Chaos for Tier one.

Combining the starter locations for each Realm into a single pairing allows us flexibility and helps to provide a better population for players experiencing the game for the first time, or for existing players starting another character. Because we are dealing with a single starting location, we are able to tailor and revamp the content offered in the pairing to make the quest flow more intuitive, give better itemization / rewards for players’ efforts, and provide a better detailed and informative play session. It also ensures that players are in the same area in their formative Ranks to assist each other in Public Quests, Open Realm vs. Realm combat, and all the other concepts introduced in the first Tier of the game.

Along with the revamp to the first few Chapters that constitute Tier 1 (which you’ll see more information on when the patch notes hit PTS), we also took a look at the type of information and how we explain the game to new and existing players as they enter the world of Warhammer. To that end, we’ve added in a new Tutorial window system that will give players a more visual walkthrough of key concepts of game-play as they encounter them.

With the addition of the tutorial system, we took a look at the existing help-tips as well, tweaking and updating those, and even making them available at any time in the Help Menu. Speaking of the Help Menu, we completely updated the content and functionality of the in-game manual to make the information much easier to access and much more complete. The goal for these and a lot of the other tweaks we made are to provide a much smoother game experience for any character’s initial introduction into the game world.

There are a number of New User Journey features tailored specifically to the returning or existing players as well. One of these is our new Global Chat Channels. We have a global Advice channel available now that anyone can ask or answer questions in. Characters can even opt to flag themselves as Advisors if they want other players to be able to seek them out personally for specific questions. As well, there are now global chat channels for every Tier of RvR. For Tiers 1 to 3, anyone can participate and post in the global chat, but in Tier 4, we’ve restricted posting in the channel to a select few people called Realm War Captains. These individuals are designated by their guild for this ability, and each guild is awarded a Realm War Captain slot at guild levels 20, 30, and 40. This ensures that players can choose leaders among their guild and Realm to drive the forces for their Realm in the back and forth battle that is Tier 4.

There are quite a number of things I haven’t even hit upon for the New User Journey or other initiatives coming to you in 1.3.2. The big thing I wanted to touch on and reiterate in this diary though, is that we are always looking at ways that we can tweak existing content, add new features, and generally make the game more fun and accessible to all players, current, returning, or new! Because everyone that plays WAR deserves the best!”

New Fan Content and Live Event Pages

Lifebane — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:41:15 +0000

“We’re very pleased to announce that the newly redesigned Fan Content page is now live, and with it our very first monthly WAR Fan Fiction, Blood Tribute, written by Tomas Herbertson. We always love receiving your creations, so keep those stories and art pieces coming! You may see your very own creation on our site one day (and win some in-game goodies in the process!).

Also live today, the Daemon Moon Rising Live Event page is up. Check it out for all the details about the next exciting Live Event coming to WAR!”

Original Source article can be found over at the official Warhammer Online Site

Warhammer Online Press Release: WAR goes to MAC!

Lifebane — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:05:37 +0000

EA SOUNDS CALL OF WAR TO MAC GAMERS WITH RELEASE OF WARHAMMER ONLINE: AGE OF RECKONING FOR MAC ON OCTOBER 28

WAR for Mac will be Available via Digital Download for $19.95; Beta Version Available Now for Download to Current Players, New Mac Users

FAIRFAX, Virginia – September 29, 2009 – Mythic Entertainment™, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio, today announced that the critically acclaimed MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning® (WAR), will be released for the Mac® computer platform on October 28, 2009. WAR on Mac will be available to new subscribers via digital download at Gametreeonline.com for $19.95 and includes 30 days of game time. Current subscribers will be able to download the Mac client at no charge for use with existing accounts.

“We’re incredibly excited to bring Warhammer Online and its enthralling Realm vs. Realm™ combat to the Mac community,” said Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. “Come October 28th, the sides of Order and Destruction will be bolsters by a fresh recruit of Mac gamers experiencing for the first time exactly what we mean when we say that ‘WAR is everywhere!’”

The Mac version of WAR is currently being offered for beta testing and allows existing players to download the beta client to their Mac computers and play with their live game accounts. Players who do not have an existing live account, but are interested in playing WAR on the Mac, are able to participate in the beta by downloading a 10-day Mac beta trial. Players who participate in the WAR Mac beta test will receive an exclusive title and trophy reward for their characters within the game.

To download the beta version of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning for Mac or the 10-day beta trial, please visit: www.warhammeronline.com/mac.

Based on the popular tabletop war game from Games Workshop, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning features revolutionary Realm vs. Realm™ conflict that will provide players with an engaging battleground for years to come. Available now for PC and rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB, WAR will be available for the Mac on October 28, 2009. For more information about Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning or to download the 10-day free trial, visit http://www.warhammeronline.com/.

# # #

About Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning®
Experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm! Declare your allegiance and join hundreds of thousands of mighty heroes on the battlefields of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the new MMORPG from Mythic Entertainment, the creators of Dark Age of Camelot™. Enter a grim fantasy world of perpetual conflict to fight for the Realms of Order (Dwarfs, High Elves, and Empire) or Destruction (Greenskins, Dark Elves, and Chaos). Invade enemy lands, besiege imposing fortresses, and sack sprawling capital cities for the glory of your Realm. Wield devastating magic and deadly weapons, battle monstrous creatures, and join your brothers-in-arms in epic Public Quests™. Climb the Bastion Stair, carry your Guild Banner into battle, and unlock the infinite secrets of the Tome of Knowledge as you travel the world. So sharpen your blade and unleash your inner mutation. The Age of Reckoning has begun and WAR IS EVERYWHERE!

For more information about Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, visit: www.warhammeronline.com.

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA™, EA SPORTS™, EA Mobile ™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2009, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $4.2 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile, POGO, Dark Age of Camelot, Mythic Entertainment, Public Quests, and Realm vs. Realm are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer Online, Age of Reckoning, and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer world are either ®, ™ and/or © Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2009. Used under license by Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective licensors.

Warhammer Online 1.3.2 PTS Patch Notes

Lifebane — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:45:01 +0000

Highlights

RvR Enhancements
The frequency of exciting capital city invasions will be on the rise in update 1.3.2, as Fortresses are removed from the campaign. Now, players of a Realm need only to control two pairings in order to open the enemy city to attack.
Keep battles are now more rewarding than ever before. The new Keep difficulty system ensures that the greater the number of combatants present during a raid on a Keep, the greater the rewards for both attackers and defenders.

New User Journey
We’ve made a number of changes, notably in the starting areas, to make the game more accessible to trial, existing, and returning players alike. This set of initiatives has been dubbed the ‘New User Journey’ and covers a number of features and enhancements being released with version 1.3.2. Each of these features and enhancements will be covered below, or in their respective sections of the patch notes. Some highlights are listed below:
* All new characters that join the Realm of Destruction will now begin the game in the Chaos starting area, no matter their race.
* All new characters that join the Realm of Order will now begin the game in the Empire starting area, no matter their race.
* A new voiceover tutorial will introduce the basic concepts of gameplay in WAR.
* The content and quest flow of both Realms’ starting areas has been revised and improved to provide a greater gameplay experience.
* New players will automatically be placed in a ‘new player guild’, one for each Realm, to facilitate communication among those new to the game, or those who are rolling up an alt character, and to make finding a group a bit easier.
* The in-game help manual has been completely revised and updated to be more useful, more accessible, and more current.

Apprenticeship System
Are you new to the game, and want to adventure with your friends, but can’t because they’re many Ranks higher than you? Or are you looking to bring somenew new to the WAR and want to adventure with them, but you’re Rank 40 and they’re just starting out?

If the answer to either question is yes, we have great news! The new Apprentice system allows players of differing Ranks to play together, whether battling it out in RvR or aiding your Realm’s war effort in quests and Public Quests. Just click on another player’s portrait in the group or Warband window and choose the “Make Apprentice” option, and that player will be scaled to your Rank, no matter whether they’re a higher or lower Rank than you are. See further below for full details on this exciting new system.

Global Chat Channels
Two new global chat channels have been added to the game. The Advice channel lets players get fast answers to important questions. The Realm War channel allows global communication by “Realm Captains”, special players designated by guilds that have unlocked the new Realm Captain Guild Rank reward. This channel can be used to discuss high-level RvR strategy, shar information about enemy movements, and coordinate attack and defense efforts.

Career Balance Changes and Bug Fixes
Version 1.3.2 is loaded with career balance changes and bug fixes, with a special emphasis on the melee DPS careers. See below for the full list of career adjustments and improvements.
Note that as a result of these changes, many careers have had their Core and Mastery abilities reset; if your Core and Mastery abilities were reset, you will need to visit a Career Trainer to retrain your abilities.

Performance and Stability Improvements
We’re always looking for ways to improve the gameplay experience, and that means optimizing performance and fixing issues that adversely impact server stability. In version 1.3.2, we’ve made changes to the game’s figure and texture system that will boost performance, especially when many characters are on the screen at the same time.

General Changes & Bug Fixes
* We are pleased to introduce the new Apprentice system. Apprenticeship will allow you to ask any groupmate to become your Rank, no matter whether you’re higher-Rank or lower-Rank than they are, so that the two of you may adventure together. To Apprentice someone, just right click on the portrait of person you wish to Apprentice in the group or warband and select the “Make Apprentice” option. Their stats and gear will transparently scale to become appropriate for your Apprenticed rank! Please note that while under the effects of Apprenticeship, you will not be able to queue for scenarios that are not available at your natural Rank. Abilities which would be too high for your Apprenticed rank will become temporarily unusable.
* Fixed a bug that prevented abilities that boost the amount of Influence earned from working properly. For example, if a player participated in a Public Quest and killed a monster, that player might earn 100 Influence. If the same player was under the effect of a buff that increases Influence earned by 5%, the player should earn 105 Influence for killing that same monster; however, the bug was causing the player to still earn only 100 Influence. This has been corrected.
* Mounts will no longer appear to be inexplicably standing in front of water when they are actually standing in the water.
* All Orc heads have been adjusted in order to eliminate some clipping problems that were occurring with some of the race’s headgear.
* Fixed an issue that prevented the game from running on machines that have 32 or more processors.
* The game’s figure and texture systems have been reworked to improve performance. As a result of these changes, the majority of users will notice less hitching when in large RvR battles, particularly on Nvidia 8000-class video cards.
* Monsters: Flying monster movement will be less erratic when they quickly change altitude.
* Monsters: Fixed an issue that sometimes caused monsters walking across zone boundaries to become stuck.
* Objects: Players in the process of interacting with an object in the world (for example, a quest object, a flag, etc.) will now be interrupted using the same rules that dismount players who are riding mounts.
* Objects: Fixed an issue that could cause objects in the world to not be aligned with the ground properly.
* Pets: Fixed an issue where sometimes a pet returning to its master’s side would become visibly out of sync with the server.
* Pets: Sometimes, if a pet’s master moved while their pet was actively fighting, that pet would return to its master’s side. This issue has been corrected.

Combat and Careers

General Changes & Bug Fixes
* Many crowd control changes have been introduced with this update. In addition to reducing the number of disabling abilities, all “stun” effects have either been removed or replaced by a knockdown or “stagger” effect. Stagger is a new condition that acts similarly to the previous stun effect, but will immediately dispel itself as soon as the staggered player is damaged.
* Abilities will no longer be grayed out when the player is mounted. Using an ability while mounted will now automatically dismount players.
* Abilities that target group members will now work properly in Scenarios regardless of whether the targeted group member is in a warband.
* Fixed a bug that was causing players to lose targeting on a stealthed enemy even after passing the initial detection check.
* All Order careers will now start in the Empire starting area.
* All Destruction careers will now start in the Chaos starting area.
* Guard: Fixed an issue that caused this ability’s fail message to state that it required a dead player target.
* Modify Siege Engine: This ability’s tooltip will now specify which types of siege equipment this ability will not work on.
* Resolute Defense: Fixed an issue in which this ability’s snare immunity was ignored by some abilities.
Archetype Morale Abilities:
* Mage Bolt: This ability’s damage has been reduced, and it will now inflict a medium knockback to the target.
* Point-Blank: This ability’s range has been increased, and it will now inflict a medium knockback on the target.
* Scintillating Energy: This ability now staggers, rather than stuns, the target.
Archmage
Bug Fixes:
* Gift of Life: This ability can no longer be used on living targets.
* Magical Infusion: This ability’s tooltip now clarifies that the target must still be alive in order to be healed.

Black Guard
Balance Changes:
* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Black Guards have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.
* Dark Protector: This new ability allows a Black Guard to watch over an ally and gain additional hatred whenever that ally is attacked.
Bug Fixes:
* Crush Vitality: This Tactic will now work correctly with area-of-effect abilities.

Black Orc
Balance Changes:
* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Black Orcs have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.
* Can’t Hit Me!: This ability is now obtained nine steps into the Path of the Da Toughest. Also, the ability’s cost has been reduced and its damage has been increased.
* Can Youz Hear Me Now?: This ability now receives a damage increase from Shut Yer Face.
* Deafening Bellow: This ability is now obtained at Rank 36 as a Rank 3 Morale ability. Also, this ability now deals damage, and the silence duration has been reduced.
* Down Ya Go: This ability is now obtained 13 steps into the Path of Da Toughest. Also, the ability’s damage has been increased, and it no longer requires a Great Weapon.
* Not in Da Face!: This ability is now obtained in the Path of the Da Brawler.
* Shut Yer Face: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the silence duration has been reduced.
* Walk it Off!: This ability is now obtained at Rank 32 as a Rank 2 Morale ability. Also, the ability’s Toughness buff and duration have been increased.
Bug Fixes:
* Big Slash: This ability no longer requires a target in order to fire.
* Da Biggest!: This ability can now be toggled off instead of re-cast.
* Deafening Bellow!: This ability will no longer fail to activate without a nearby target.
* Down Ya Go: The animations for this ability will now match up better.
* Loudmouth: This ability will once again be triggered by Da Greenest.

Bright Wizard
Balance Changes:
* Choking Smoke: This ability’s silence duration has been reduced.
* Crown of Fire: This Tactic will now increase the chance that Flames of Rhuin triggers by 50%.
* Magic Dart: This Morale ability will now deal instant damage followed by a damage-over-time effect.
* Ruin and Destruction: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the stun has been removed.

Choppa
Balance Changes:
* No Fightin’ Back!: This ability has been renamed to “We’z Fightin’ Betta”. It is now a group damage buff.
* Sit Down!: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the duration of the knockdown has been reduced.
* Stomp Da Yard!: This ability’s damage has been increased and the duration of the knockdown has been reduced.
* Tantrum: This ability is now a self-only buff that deals additional damage each time the Choppa hits an enemy with a damage-dealing ability. This ability will trigger on up to eight individual enemies before it fades.
Bug Fixes:
* Furious Choppin’: Fixed an issue that allowed this ability to continue after death.

Chosen
Balance Changes:
* Downfall: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and the duration of the knockdown has also been reduced.
* Quake: This ability will now stagger affected targets.
Bug Fixes:
* Auras: Auras will now properly persist through death.
* Corrupting Retribution: This ability’s heal value is now correctly tied to your Mastery level.
* Repel: This ability will no longer give NPCs both the Unstoppable and Immovable immunity buffs.
* Shatter Faith: This ability’s tooltip will no longer add damage based on Weapon DPS.

Disciple of Khaine
Balance Changes:
* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Disciples of Khaine have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.
* Chant of Pain: This ability will now pulse out damage around the caster for the duration, and heal the player for the damage.
* Consume Thought: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the duration of the silence has been decreased.
* Covenant of Celerity: This ability will now deal its damage directly, instead of over time.
* Essence Lash: This ability will now build Soul Essence even if no targets are hit.
* Fueled Actions: This Tactic will now give the Disciple a chance to gain Soul Essence when they are hit.
* Fueled Actions: This Tactic is now available at Rank 37.
* Khaine’s Withdrawal: This ability is now available at Rank 32 as a Rank 2 Morale ability.
* Potent Covenants: This Tactic is now available at Rank 33.
* Siphoned Consumption: This Tactic has been removed from the game.
* Terrifying Aura: This Tactic will now cause Terrifying Vision to hit enemies around the Disciple as well.
* Terrifying Vision: This Tactic is now available at Rank 35.
* Transferred Focus: This Tactic is now available at Rank 39.
* Uncaring Dismissal: This ability will now build Soul Essence even if no targets are hit.
* Universal Confusion: This ability’s damage has been increased, the stun has been changed to a stagger, and it is now available at Rank 32 as a Rank 3 Morale ability.
Bug Fixes:
* Bound by Blood: This Tactic will now correctly trigger off of direct heals only.
* Covenant of Vitality: The damage done by this ability will now correctly be affected by Mastery level.
* Siphoned Consumption: This Tactic will now correctly heal your defensive target.

Engineer
Balance Changes:
* Cannon Smash: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the knockdown has been removed.
* Crack Shot: This ability will no longer be minimum-range restricted, and the duration of the disarm has been reduced.
* Land Mine: This ability will now stagger targets instead of knocking them down.
* Self-Destruct: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the duration of the knockdown has been reduced.
* Throwing Arm: The range gained from this Tactic has been reduced.
Bug Fixes:
* Concussive Mine: This ability will once again increase the cast times of affected targets.
* Proximity Alarm: This ability’s tooltip now has a more clear and detailed description.
* Static Discharge: This ability’s damage will now scale based on the Engineer’s Ballistic Skill.
* Uncontrolled Pets: Pets, such as Engineer turrets, will now attack properly when summoned.

Ironbreaker
Balance Changes:
* Punishing Knock: Inspiring Attack will now apply a 50% outgoing heal debuff to targets.
Bug Fixes:
* Rock Clutch: This ability can now be cleansed by root removal abilities, and will now grant immunity to NPC’s.
* Rune Etched Axe: This ability’s tooltip has been updated to reflect that the ability hits targets in front of the Ironbreaker.
Knight of the Blazing Sun
Balance Changes:
* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Knights of the Blazing Sun have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.
* Emperor’s Champion: This Morale ability is now available at Rank 32 and is now a Rank 2 Morale ability.
* Heaven’s Fury: This ability will now stagger affected targets.
* No Escape: This Morale ability is now available at Rank 36 and is now a Rank 3 Morale ability. The ability’s damage has been increased, and the duration of the root has been reduced.
* Shining Blade: This ability is now available at Rank 18 in the Path of Conquest. The ability will now deal damage on your target, and grants your group additional damage on their next ability activation.
* Smashing Counter: This ability is now available nine steps into the Path of Vigilance. The reactionary requirement has been removed, and the ability’s cost has been increased.
Bug Fixes:
* Commands: Commands will now properly persist through death.
* All Out Assault!: Fixed an issue that caused this ability to do more damage than intended.
* Shining Blade: This ability will no longer be dispelled by friendly cleansing abilities.

Magus
Balance Changes:
* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Magus have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.
* Daemonic Infestation: This ability now staggers players instead of knocking them down.
* Daemonic Mending: This ability has been replaced by “Daemonic Withering” which causes a target suffering from Withering Soul to take more damage from all sources.
* Daemonic Reach: This new Tactic, obtained seven steps into the Path of Changing, increases the range of Path of Changing abilities.
* Endless Pandemonium: This ability is now obtained three steps into the Path of Changing.
* Infernal Pain: This is now a core Tactic obtained at Rank 33. The Tactic’s damage has been reduced.
* Instability: This ability’s damage has been increased. Also, the ability now deals Spirit damage, and its knockdown duration has been reduced.
* Redirection: This ability has been removed from the game.
Bug Fixes:
* Instability: Fixed an issue that allowed minions to sometimes attack after exploding.
* Uncontrolled Pets: Pets, such as the Magus’ Daemons, will now attack properly when summoned.

Marauder
Balance Changes:
* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Marauders have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.
* When a Marauder uses a Mutation, the mutation will now place a nearly identical copy of their main hand weapon in their off hand. All bonuses will be copied, save for unique effects and any bonuses from Talismans.
* While the Gift of Brutality is active, the Marauder will have a chance upon hitting their target to trigger a buff. This buff increases off-hand damage by 10%, and raises the off-hand swing chance to 100% for five seconds.
* While the Gift of Monstrosity is active, the Marauder will have a chance upon being hit to trigger a self-targeted heal-over-time ability that lasts five seconds. Also, while this heal is active, the Marauder gains a 100% resist armor penetration buff. This effect cannot refresh itself.
* While the Gift of Savagery is active, the Marauder will have a chance upon hitting their target to trigger a debuff on the target. This debuff deals damage over five seconds, and reduces auto-attack speed by 50%.
* Concussive Jolt: This ability’s damage has been increased, and it is now available nine steps into the Path of Monstrosity.
* Death Grip: The cost and the duration of this ability’s silence have been reduced.
* Energy Ripple: This ability’s damage has been increased. Also, the stun has been replaced with a knockdown, and the duration has been reduced.
* Flames of Fate: This ability will now instantly deal damage and root the target.
* Thunderous Blow: This ability’s cost has been increased, and it is now available five steps into the Path of Savagery.
* Wave of Mutilation: This ability is now available five steps into the Path of Monstrosity.
Bug Fixes:
* Mouth of Tzeentch: Fixed an issue in which this ability’s tooltip displayed the ability as dealing more damage than it actually would.
* Rend: The damage-over-time effect from this ability will now deal its damage more consistently.
* Terrible Embrace: When successfully defended, this ability will now display as “disrupted” instead of “parried”.
* Wave of Horror: This ability’s effect is no longer considered an Ailment.

Runepriest
Balance Changes:
* Rune of Binding: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and it now staggers the target.
* Spellbinding Rune: This ability’s cost has been decreased, the damage has been increased, and the duration has been reduced.
Bug Fixes:
* Blessing of Grungni: This ability now correctly heals its target at full spell range.
Shadow Warrior
Balance Changes:
* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Shadow Warriors have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.
* Enchanted Arrows: This Tactic is now available seven steps into the Path of the Scout.
* Exploit Weakness: The stun on this ability has been converted into a knockdown.
* Instill Fear: This Morale ability will now deal point-blank area-of-effect damage and stagger the affected targets.
* Leading Shots: This Tactic is now available at Rank 37.
* No Quarter: This Tactic decreases the build time and increases the Action Point cost of Eagle Eye, and is now available three steps into the Path of the Scout.
* Opportunistic Strike: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the disarm duration has been reduced.
* Throat Shot: The duration of this ability’s silence effect has been reduced.
Bug Fixes:
* Blood Soaked War: This Tactic will now work properly when multiple targets are killed.
* Leading Shot: This Tactic will now work correctly with ranged attacks.
* Takedown: The animation for this ability will now play correctly.

Shaman
Bug Fixes:
* Do Sumfin Useful: This ability will now fire properly at level 5 Waaagh! Also, an issue was fixed that sometimes caused this ability to act as a direct heal, rather than a heal-over-time.
* Eeek!: This ability can now be properly defended against.
* ‘Ere We Go!: Fixed a tooltip issue causing the damage description to not increase based on the player’s Path of Gork mastery.
* Gork’s Barbs: Fixed an issue that allowed this ability to deal critical damage, and also fixed an issue that caused the ability’s base damage to be too low.
* Shrug it Off: The ability’s tooltip has been clarified to state that the target must still be alive in order to be healed, and that only one instance of this effect may be present at a time.

Slayer
Balance Changes:
* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Slayers have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.
* Deadly Determination: This ability is now available at Rank 32, and is now a Rank 2 Morale ability. Also, the ability has been changed to a self-only buff that deals additional damage each time the Slayer hits an enemy with a damage-dealing ability. The ability will trigger on up to eight individual enemies before it fades.
* Doom Seeker: This ability is now available 15 steps into the Path of the Skavenslayer. Also, the ability’s damage has been increased.
* Incapacitate: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the knockdown duration has been reduced.
* Looks Like a Challenge: This ability is now available 14 steps into the Path of the Giantslayer.
Bug Fixes:
* Doom Seeker: This ability no longer requires a nearby target to fire.
* Rune of Absorption: Fixed an issue that allowed this ability to continue after death.
* Shatter Limbs: This ability will now always fire.
* Unleashed Power: Added text to the buff icon tooltip.
* Unleashed Power: Fixed a bug that prevented the Slayer’s group members from receiving credit for damage done by this ability.

Sorcerer
Balance Changes:
* Frostbite: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and the disarm’s duration has been reduced.
* Reckless Gathering: This ability is no longer channeled, and it will now grant Action Points instantly in return for health.
* Stricken Voices: This ability’s silence duration has been reduced.
Bug Fixes:
* Daemonic Chill: This ability will now trigger correctly.
* Echo of Power: Fixed an issue in which this ability would not trigger abilities that provide additional damage.
* Shades of Death: Fixed an issue with this ability’s tooltip to clarify that the additional damage triggers on direct damage.
* Stricken Voices: Fixed an issue with this ability’s animation playing too long.
* Swell of Gloom: Fixed an issue that caused Gloomburst to fire off the random backlash as well as the guaranteed backlash from the Tactic.

Squig Herder
Balance Changes:
* Aimin’ Quickly: This Tactic now decreases the build time, and increases the cost, of Plink.
* Bounce: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the knockdown duration has been reduced.
* Death From Above: This ability will now deal damage to the target, and the knockdown duration has been reduced.
* Drop That!!: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the disarm duration has been reduced.
* Choking Arrer: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the silence duration has been reduced.
Bug Fixes:
* KABOOM!: The ability will now hit the correct number of enemies.
* Lots of Shootin’: Fixed a bug that prevented this ability from being fired at the correct range.

Swordmaster
Balance Changes:
* Whispering Wind: This ability’s silence duration has been reduced.

Warrior Priest
Balance Changes:
* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Warrior Priests have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.
* Avatar of Sigmar: This ability is now available in the Path of Grace.
* Divine Amazement: This ability will now pulse out damage around the caster for the duration, and heal the player for the damage caused. This ability is now available in the Path of Wrath.
* Divine Shock: This ability will now build Righteous Fury, even if no targets are hit.
* Penance: This ability will now do damage and then stagger the player.
* Vow of Silence: The damage of this ability has been increased, and the silence duration has been decreased.
Bug Fixes:
* Judgment: This ability will now reliably build Righteous Fury.

White Lion
Balance Changes:
* Brutal Pounce: This ability’s damage has been increased, and the cost has been reduced. Also, the stun has been replaced with a knockdown, and the duration has been reduced.
* Feline Grace: This ability will now remove the effects from the White Lion and his or her pet, as well as bestow ten seconds of root and snare immunity for both.
* Throat Bite: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and the silence duration has also been reduced.
Bug Fixes:
* Ensnare: This ability can now be cleansed by root removal abilities, and will now grant immunity to NPC’s.
* Fang and Claw: The White Lion’s pet will no longer be able to fire other abilities while channeling this one.
* Fey Illusion: This ability will now properly increase the monster’s hate on the defensive target or pet.
* Furious Mending: This ability will no longer overheal you or your pet while either is at full health.
* Leg Tear: This ability will now be removed by abilities that remove snares.
* Leonine Frenzy: This ability will now prevent snares from being reapplied on the War Lion.

Witch Elf
Balance Changes:
* Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Witch Elves have had their Mastery and Renown abilities refunded. Please be sure to visit a trainer to retrain your abilities.
* Agile Escape: This ability will now stagger targets.
* Heart Seeker: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and it will now knock down targets.
* Kiss of Agony: This ability is now a 30 minute buff. While it is active, if the Witch Elf uses a Fury, this ability will deal additional damage, and inflict an Initiative debuff on the Witch Elf’s target, while at the same time giving the Witch Elf an Initiative buff.
* Kiss of Betrayal: This ability is now a 30 minute buff. While it is active, if the Witch Elf uses a Fury, this ability will deal additional damage, and steal Action Points from the target, giving them to the Witch Elf.
* Kiss of Death: This ability is now a 30 minute buff. While it is active, if the Witch Elf uses a Fury, this ability will deal additional damage, and inflict a healing effectiveness debuff on the target.
* Kiss of Doom: This Tactic is now available seven steps into the Path of Suffering, and will now cause Kiss of Death to heal the Witch Elf for all the damage it does.
* On Your Knees: The amount that stats contribute to this ability’s damage has been increased, and the ability’s base damage has also been increased. The radius of the ability will now increase with Frenzy.
* Septic Blade: This Tactic is now available three steps into the Path of Suffering.
* Sever Limb: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and the disarm’s duration has also been reduced.
* Witch Brew: This ability will now cause your next attacks to do additional damage to your target. The number of attacks affected increases with Frenzy.
Bug Fixes:
* Broad Severing: Players will now receive the correct amount of Blood Lust when this Tactic is slotted.

Witch Hunter
Balance Changes:
* Confess!: This ability’s cost has been reduced, the damage has been increased, and the disarm’s duration has been reduced.
* Declare Anathema: This ability will now stagger targets.
* Pistol Whip: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and it will now knock down targets.
* Reversal of Fortune: This ability has been changed to deal damage to targets in a line in front of the Witch Hunter.
Bug Fixes:
* Silence the Heretic: This ability will now grey-out when the target cannot be silenced.
* Sudden Accusation: The accusations gained from this ability will now display correctly.

Zealot
Balance Changes:
* Aethyric Shock: This ability’s cost has been reduced, and it been changed to stagger the target.
* Tzeentch’s Lash: This ability’s cost has been reduced, its damage has been increased, and its duration has been reduced.
* Tzeentch’s Scream: This ability will now heal group-mates, and replenish Action Points over 15 seconds.
Bug Fixes:
* Aethyric Shock: This ability will no longer go through multiple attack checks.
* Harbinger of Doom: Targets can now have multiple Harbingers on them, but only the most powerful Harbinger will actually affect the target.
* Harbinger of Doom: This ability will now be properly removed when the target dies.
* Mirror of Madness: Fixed an issue that allowed this ability to benefit from stat contribution and deal critical damage.
* Winds of Insanity: This ability will no longer give the caster any sort of immunity.
* Wind of Insanity: Players can now be knocked back by this ability a maximum of once every 1.5 seconds.

Content

Quests
* Prove Your Worth: This quest will now issue the correct rewards.
Public Quests
* Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the Public Quest tooltip on the map to incorrectly report the number of players participating in a Public Quest.
* Quyl-Isha Temple: Destruction players will now be able to locate all of the banners necessary to complete stage two.

Crafting

General Changes & Bug Fixes
* It is now possible to place pigments used for dyes in their correct slot.

Apothecary
* The following hybrid potions can now be crafted: Liniment of Boundless Sight, Liniment of Immutable Defiance, Liniment of Inexorable Aegis, Liniment of Peerless Defense, Liniment of Quickened Blades, and Liniment of Swift Tergiversation.
* The following dyes can now be crafted: Bestial Brown Dye, Scab Red Dye, Scaly Green Dye, Shadow Grey, and Tanned Flesh Dye.

Butchering
* A significant number of uncategorized monsters have been assigned harvest types.
* All trash loot items dropped from creatures are now standardized and stack to 999.
* The monster harvest system has been redesigned. Some monsters can now provide multiple harvests via butchering.
* New dye ingredients can now be obtained through butchering.
* Some butchering drops have been shuffled due to the redesign:
- Bats now drop Force Shield and Restoration main ingredients.
- Bears now drop Strength and Invigoration main ingredients.
- Birds now drop Ballistic Skill and Glue Bomb main ingredients.
- Boars now drop Restoration and Strength main ingredients.
- Canines now drop Invigoration and Willpower main ingredients.
- Daemon Beasts now drop Resist potion main ingredients.
- Dragons now drop Toughness and Molotov main ingredients.
- Felines now drop Willpower and Ballistic Skill main ingredients.
- Insects and Arachnids now drop Armor and Toughness main ingredients.
- Magical Beasts now drop Healing and Thorns main ingredients.
- Reptiles now drop Molotov and Armor main ingredients.
- Rodents now drop Glue Bomb and Intelligence main ingredients.
- Squigs now drop Healing and Intelligence main ingredients.
* Some hybrid potion main ingredients can now be obtained through butchering.
* Stabilizers are now significantly less rare.
* Trash loot variety has been reduced to one type per monster con level (Lord, Hero, Champion, Core, etc).

Cultivation
* Cultivation items will now have the proper crafting label showing.
* Cultivation plots learned at a high skill level will be locked when relearning cultivation.
Salvaging
* The following items can now be salvaged: Liegecollar of Calumny, Vambraces of Dominion, and Oath Shield.
Scavenging
* The following items can now be scavenged: Eboncreed Acolyte and Eboncreed Whisperers.

Items

General Changes & Bug Fixes
* Players will now receive a warning the first time that they attempt to equip a bind-on-equip item.
* Several lower-Tiered equipment pieces were visually updated in order to better diversify armors that looked too similar to one another.
* The Engineer Sovereign armor has been updated in order to make it even more visually impressive and worthy of being called ‘epic.’
* Tooltips for items with passive abilities will display properly.
* Item cooldowns will update properly on the action bar.
* Weapon glow from talismans will now persist through zoning.
* Fleet Stag Mantle: This cloak no longer suffers from clipping problems with certain race and equipment combinations.
* Scorching Blast Potions: This potion’s effect will no longer hit more than nine targets.
* Sticky Bomb Potions: Sticky Bomb Potions will now correctly snare up to nine people who enter the affected area.

Generic Item Changes
* Chapter 18 Order Influence rewards have been changed to bind-on-pickup to match all other Influence rewards.
* The following Soul Talismans have had their duration display issues corrected: Agonizing Assassin’s Soul , Massive Dread Overlord’s Soul, and Suffering Overlord’s Soul..
* The tooltip for Crushing Strike, the seven piece bonus from the Slayer Warlord set, will now display the correct damage.
* Badmoon Deathsword: The tooltip for the triggered effect on this item will now match the tooltip of the item itself.
* Ironmane Tome: This charm will now function like other books when equipped.
* Golden eye of Rah-Nutt, Golden Ankra: The absorb effect granted by these items is now typed as an Enchantment, and can be removed by any ability that removes Enchantments OR any ability that removes absorb effects.
* Guardian Crusader’s Soul: Corrected an issue where Guardian Crusader’s Soul and its Massive counterpart were not displaying their tooltips properly.
* Nepenthean Tonic: This item will no longer share the same cooldown as the healing potions purchased from the RvR merchants.
* RvR Token Equipment: Changes have been made to the equipment available on Royal Quartermasters:
- Sovereign Armor – A new Royal Quartermaster will now sell all pieces of the Sovereign armor set. In order to accommodate these changes, the accessory that was previously offered from the merchant has had its cost reduced. These items can be found on Colonel Eisenburg or Colonel Faber in Altdorf, and Overlord Steelhide or Overlord Bloodtorrent in The Inevitable City.
- Warlord Armor – All of the Warlord set pieces can also now be found on the existing Royal Quartermasters. These items can be found on Captain Scholz or Captain Manon in Altdorf, and Hoardmaster Skinchange or Hoard Master Frerger in The Inevitable City.
* RvR Token Delivery: A Royal Crest will now be granted to each participant in the kill of a sub-boss within the King instances. Additionally, two Royal Crests will be granted for each successful King kill.
* Soul Talismans Soul Absorb I-V: Have now been typed as Blessings, and can be removed by any ability that removes Blessings OR any ability that removes absorb effects.
* Spear of Remembrance: The tooltip for the triggered effect on this item will now match the tooltip of the item itself.

Item Art Changes
* Anniversary cloaks can now be dyed.
* The following items have had their icons corrected: Bastquillox ‘Andsplate andBattlehammer of the Sandstorm.
* The unique weapons sold by the merchants in the Land of the Dead will now properly display as Mythic-quality items.
* The following items have had their art corrected: Armbraces of the Tyrant and Work Gloves of the Tyrant..
* Martial Trollsplitter: This weapon is now correctly set to be a two-handed weapon.
Item Stats Changes
* Chaos Chapter 4 elite Influence rewards will now be more appropriate to the player’s career.
* Corrected an issue where the Marauder item Brigand’s Midstrap had Block instead of Melee Crit.
* Corrected an issue where the Shaman item Initiate’s Waaagh Beads had Ballistic skill instead of Willpower.
* The following items will now have more appropriate stats: Highstaff of Perpetual Hope and Kindlestaff of the Wanderer.

Mac Version Notes

General Changes & Bug Fixes
* Removed problematic resolutions on Macs that were causing crashes.
* Resolved an issue where switching between maps, either in the scenario lobby, the map screen, or walking between two different zones was causing 3-5 seconds of lag.
* Added secondary default key bindings for morale abilities in lieu of the F9-F12 buttons. The additional buttons are Alt+H, J, N, and M.
* Clear is now set as a default autorun option on Macs instead of NumLock.
* Clear is now properly labeled in key bindings.
Realm vs. Realm
Realm vs. Realm

General Changes & Bug Fixes
* Assistants on a siege ram will now share in the contribution bonus when a door is destroyed. (Previously, that contribution was only awarded to the siege ram operator.)
* Artisan’s Gift: This ability will now only affect players with at least one Renown Rank.
* Non-combat pets such as the Imperial Hunting Hound or Warlord’s Fell Hound can now be summoned outside of cities on Open RvR servers.
* The Intimidation effect gained from the Forts will now give the correct reduction in chance to be critically hit.
* Early RvR lakes and Scenario battles will now bolster players up to Rank 11.
* Defense Buff: This ability will now only affect players with at least one Renown Rank.
* Defensive Boon: This buff now increases Experience gain and has been renamed to Experience Boon.
* Healing Boon: This buff now increases Influence gain and has been renamed to Influence Boon.
* Healing Buff: This ability will now only affect players with at least one Renown Rank.
* Merchant’s Gift: This ability will now only affect players with at least one Renown Rank.

Campaign / Open RvR
* A new Keep difficulty system has been implemented that rewards players with higher degrees of loot for Keep battles involving large numbers of enemy players and higher degrees of upgrades. Players will now be rewarded with loot for successfully attacking Keeps held by the opposing Realm as well as defending Keeps held by their own Realm. Players can view the difficulty rating of each Keep by the number of stars displayed under the Keep icon on the map. The higher the number of stars, the greater the rewards that Keep offers.
* Fortress battles have been removed as a part of the Tier 4 RvR campaign. Cities are now open to attack after two pairings are captured without the additional hurdle of a Fortress battle at the end of each one. The Fortresses themselves are currently open and free of hostile guards. There are future plans for the fortresses but we are not yet prepared to announce them.
* The Lost Lagoon Battlefield Objective in Norsca has been removed.
* All Champion-con Battlefield Objective guards in Tier 1 have been reduced to Core difficulty. As a result, players will find it easier to capture undefended battlefield objectives in Tier 1.
* Renown Rank 1 players will no longer receive zone capture rewards.
* All Tier 4 Battlefield Objectives and Keeps will now properly set their status as locked or unlocked according to the current state of the campaign after server resets.

Capital Cities
* Dungeons located within Capital Cities are now accessible at all times regardless of City Rank.
* City victory points will now only account for Objective points generated from the city Public Quest. Scenario and skirmish pools have been removed.
* The captured stage for contested cities will now last for a maximum of 6 hours.
* Warlord instance lockout timers within the capital cities have been changed to 68 hours.

New Features & Enhancements
* Starting Area Relocation: As part of the New User Journey, all new characters will now start in either Nordland or Norsca, based on their Realm affiliation. This emphasis will bring a variety of races into the same starting areas, giving Tier 1 a boost to population that will help ensure a fulfilling experience for all players. Trial users will only be able to access the Empire vs. Chaos starter areas, but subscribers will be able to visit the other Tier 1 pairings if they desire by visiting a Flight Master.
* Open Realm vs. Realm Combat (Tier 1): As part of the starting-area consolidation, the only active RVR lake will be in Nordland. This will focus the Open RvR portion of Tier 1 and help ensure explosive battles over the Battlefield Objectives. As part of this emphasis, we’ve eliminated the Lagoon Battlefield Objective to ensure that all of the Open RvR objectives are in the same lake and easily visible and accessible to all players.
* Tutorials: To help ensure that players starting in our enhanced starter zones have enough information to properly experience and enjoy their initial foray into WAR, we’ve added a graphic tutorial system. These new windows are triggered automatically at key moments in the journey. The tutorial window system can be disabled if a player feels they don’t need them by choosing to do so right on the tutorial window itself. Should they wish to turn back on the tutorials, this can be done in the User Settings in the help tips, and in the tutorial options section.
* User Interface: The following portions of the User Interface are now hidden at the beginning of the game and will become visible when first needed: Experience Bar, Renown Bar, Tactics Bar, Morale Bar, Zone Control Bar, and the Chapter Influence Bar. Players can opt to show all parts of the UI at any time in the User Settings.
* Enhanced Starter Area Content: As part of the New User Journey, we took a look at the content flow for the Empire and Chaos Tier 1 areas and made adjustments to the starting locations, quest flow, and rewards. Because of this, players in the Empire starting area will note that they are arriving down west of Grimmenhagen, just in time to help against the burning of the village, rather than in the center of town. Chaos players will find that their starting location is mostly unchanged, but there have been a number of small adjustments to the area outside the portal. The revamped content and flow have been tweaked to reduce travel time, ensure that players have an enjoyable quest flow, and give a more well-rounded introduction to the conflict encompassing the Realms as a whole.
* Loading Screen: We’ve added in a loading screen that displays if there have been features added since the player’s last login. The list of features will be tailored to the player entering the game, based on when they last entered.
* Map: When viewing a zone map, active Public Quests will now show up on the map with a highlighted icon. This will allow players to see, at a glance, which Public Quests have active participants. Players can still view the number of participants by then hovering over the icon and reading the tooltip for that Public Quest.
* Trainers: The wording for training has been modified slightly to clarify training being offered. Ex. “Core Training” has been renamed to “Buy Career Abilities”. New characters will no longer be shown the “Mastery Training” (renamed “Buy Mastery Abilities”) until they are the appropriate Rank. As well, training windows will now default to showing only the abilities that you can currently train/purchase.
* Tome of Knowledge: Unlock-alerts for the Tome of Knowledge will no longer show up for new characters until they have received the Tutorial on the Tome of Knowledge, or they’ve reached a certain point in their advancement. The unlocks are still given and tracked in the background, they are just suppressed to avoid confusion until the character has learned about the Tome of Knowledge.
* In-Game Manual: The in-game manual has been revamped, rewritten, and reorganized to ensure that it covers more information, and in a convenient format for users looking for specific information.
* Help Tips: A number of help tips have been turned off and replaced by the aforementioned tutorial windows. As well, we’ve added a repository for all help tips and tutorial windows off the Help Window to allow players access to all help tips at any point. This way, players can find the information they need, even if they’ve turned off help tips or tutorials.
* Character Creation: We’ve added in drop-down selection boxes for the character creation process when choosing features. These drop-down menus will give a description of the current choice as you scroll through, to make it easier to remember which version looked best. As well, any option can be chosen directly by clicking on the button and selecting that option from the drop-down menu.
* Campaign Tracker: The Campaign Tracker available on the map has been adjusted to reflect the changes to the campaign with the removal of Fortresses.
* Zone Capture: Players that have not reached Realm Rank 1 will not receive zone capture bonuses. This was done to prevent confusion to players that have not yet participated in open RvR in receiving rewards, and messaging that isn’t appropriate to them yet.
* Titles: Additional Titles have been implemented to support the addition of the Mac Client to the WAR experience. Get out there and start killing your enemies to find them!
* New Player Guilds: With the introduction of update 1.3.2, new characters will automatically be placed in a New Player Guild when they enter Chapter 2 of their respective starting areas. Characters can participate in the New Player Guild similarly to a normal guild, but will not have any specific permissions and cannot be promoted. Players may remain in this New Player Guild until they reach Rank 20, at which point they are automatically removed and encouraged to find a guild or start one of their own. Players will also be removed from this New Player Guild should they join another guild, or choose to leave on their own. Access back into the New Player Guild will be accessible from a NPC in the warcamps if players leave the guild, or an existing player wants into the guild and they are under the Rank restriction.
* Global Chat- Advice Channel: Players now have a global chat channel for advice that can be accessed via /advice. The channel is designed to allow players of all Tiers the ability to get answers to any questions they have during their play session. Players that so desire can now mark themselves as an ‘Advisor’ via the social options in the social menu. This will give them access to a special ‘Advisor’ Title and make them visible via an ‘Advisor’ search feature in the Social menu. Like any public channel, the Advice channel will be moderated for proper usage and adherence to the rules of conduct.
* Global Chat – Realm War: Players now have access to global chat channels for each Tier of Open RvR. Players will have the ability to monitor these channels anywhere in the game, regardless of their location and can choose to filter which Tier(s) they want to monitor at any given time. The Tier 1-3 channels will be open to all players for reading and posting. The Tier 4 channel will be open for reading by all players, but posting will be restricted to designated ‘Realm War Captains’ to prevent information overload. Realm War Captains are a new guild rank reward that can be assigned in a manner similar to standard bearers and recruiters. A slot for assigning a Realm War Captain will be accessible at Guild Ranks 20, 30, and 40; giving a maximum of three captains per guild. Like any public channel, the Realm War channels will be moderated for proper usage and adherence to the rules of conduct.

General Changes & Bug Fixes
* Warbands will no longer treat each member as distant when the number of members changes.
* The maximum number of visible core abilities in the Mastery Training window has been increased.
* Abilities that can be toggled and are currently active will now have the swirling animation on their action buttons, including after the player reloads the UI.
* The pet command bar will no longer disappear when exiting Scenarios.
* Bonuses to auto-attack speed will now update on the character sheet.
* Added a new backpack filter for siege items.
* All abilities will now remain on the action bars when zoning.
* Fixed an issue that caused a player’s original Rank to display in the party window even after that player’s Rank had been altered, such as by the bolster buff.
* The stack-count on items will now show in the loot window and the PQ bag loot window.
* City Rank will now display on the UI when player is in their guild hall.
* Chat: Fixed an issue that would intermittently cause the client to crash if the chat limit was set to unlimited, and players switched between tabs.
* Character select: Players will not be kicked out to character select if they press the “Play” button then the “Create” button really fast.
* Key Mapping: The tilde key can once again be bound on its own, or with CTRL.
* Layout Editor: Exiting the game, or reloading the UI while the layout editor is active, will no longer cause most of the windows to crowd into the left corner upon subsequent login.
* Public Quests: Fixed an issue with the way the roll results are displayed and scrolled in the Public Quest scoreboard. The results will now scroll with the names to prevent confusion.
* Public Quests: Population counts will update on a more frequent basis, meaning that the tooltip information for a Public Quest will be more up to date.
* Scenarios: When capturing an objective in a Scenario, the center-screen message will no longer incorrectly refer to it as a “Keep”.
* Scenarios: The list of players in the scenario scoreboard will no longer extend past bottom of list box when the ‘Leave Now’ button is visible.
* Scenarios: The scoreboard will no longer lose the ‘Leave Now’ button if the player resurrects after the Scenario has ended.
* Target Window: Primary and secondary target windows will no longer randomly stretch out vertically.
* Tome of Knowledge: Fixed an issue where previously completed armor sets were not showing individual pieces in the Armory.
* Trade: Players now have the additional option to use /trade to begin a trade transaction with their target.
* User Settings: The ‘Click through self’ option will now work properly if the player has a guild standard out.

Get WAR cheap!

Lifebane — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:33:10 +0000

The EA Store is offering a hefty discount on their MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The game typically goes for $ 29.95 for the Digital Download version but they’ve marked it down to half its normal price!

Buy it now and you can grab it for just $14.06 !! Keep in mind it will also have the free month’s prepaid subscription so you are basically paying 15 bucks for a full trial of the game.

The real question here is why the cheapness? Is this in honor of WAR’s first birthday celebration on September 18th and then the price will go up after that or is this a deeper sign of the state of this MMO. With Champions Online released recently and Aion around the corner you have to wonder how WAR’s subscription base is holding up.