Floppy drives ftw

Saw this linked on denofgeek



Awesomeness.

Nigerian scam email lol

I do like reading the silly Nigerian scam emails I get. This one today made me lol in real life. It starts in standard fashion, buy just wait for his alternate email address that kinda shafts any vague chance at credibility...

++++++

From the desk of Mr.Sam Osierr
Union Bank of Nigeria


Dear Friend,

I Am Mr.Sam Osierr the director in Charge Of Auditing and Accounting  Section of (Union Bank Of Nigeria Plc) with due respect  and regard, I have decided to contact you on a business transaction that  will benefit the both of us at the end of the  transaction. In order to transfer out the sum of (US$10 Million) Ten  Million United State Dollars) from one of the leading banks in Nigeria Union Bank Of Nigeria Plc into a foreign account provided, I need a foreigner who is reliable and honest  person who is capable and fit to receive this money through a bank to bank  wire transfer. During the course of our auditing last month, I discovered a floating fund in an account opened in the bank  in 2008 and since 2011 nobody has operated on  this account again, after going through some old files, I discovered that  the owner of the account did not states any Next Of Kin, hence the money is floating and if I do not remit this money out urgently it will be forfeited for nothing by our
management.


The owner of this Account is Engineer{Fredrick} a foreigner, and an  industrialist, and no other person knows about this account or any thing concerning it, the ccount has no other beneficiary and my investigation prove to me to be perfect and risk free. However, I am revealing this to you believing in God that you will never let me down when the money is transferred into your foreign nominated bank account. at the conclusion of this business, I will give to you 40% of the total amount, while 55% will be for me and 5% percent will be used for any expenses we might run into during the processing of the fund Transfer.


Am looking forward to hearing from you. Reply me back at this alternative E-mail address: accountantsamosi@deepfistings.com  you can include your telephone or mobile number for easy Communication.

Best Regards

Mr.Sam Osierr
'
Urgent response needed.


The information contained in this message may be CONFIDENTIAL and is intended for the addressee only. Any unauthorized use, dissemination of the information or copying of this message is prohibited. If you are not the addressee, please Notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete this message. Thank you

F2P failed game nonsense

This isn't new news or anything, but I only just spotted this particular quote:
"Free for All... has drawn hundreds of thousands of new and returning players to the virtual world, increasing Champions Online's online concurrent user, unique login and revenue totals by over 1,000 percent."

That's from a statement by Cryptic (months ago I know). That's a pretty clear demonstration of how dramatic an effect F2P can have on an MMO, particularly as it has one of the magic words "revenue" seeing that huge increase. Not as nice as if it was profit going up like that and of course since Cryptic ended up getting sold by Atari we might assume that there were other issues regarding profitability for the company as a whole, but that's not necessarily related and regardless, you won't make decent profit if you don't have decent revenue.

Something I've heard from a game industry type people lately is that the MMO community needs to get over our self imposed stigma of a game going F2P meaning a desperate last throw of the dice after failure. Sure it can transform the fortunes of a struggling or "failed" game, but it can also be a hugely beneficial move for a game that is doing well. This should be obvious to us really with more and more game developers looking at going with F2P from the off. Planetside 2 for example is a proper big deal game and that's going to be F2P, in fact from the noises coming out of SOE it seems like all of their MMO games will be F2P in future.

I've spent a lot of time sneering at F2P games. Justifiably I think actually, what with them historically being all those eastern grind wank bollock games of hideousness. But that's then, not now. Things are moving on and it seems most people are saying F2P is the future and that SWTOR will be the last major subscription MMO. Will it be the last? I don't think anyone can really predict that with utter certainty, though there is a good chance of it I would say. Personally I think that the Guild Wars style of Pay2Start-Free2Continue will become the method of choice for the developers. Backed up by a cash shop of course.

Whatever does happen, we can however be sure that the MMO market has changed and F2P is no longer synonymous with fail. We just need to get over our preconceptions.

Rather posh fan trailer for SWTOR launch

Spigyboy, I salute you!



Or visit youtube for the HD version

Bits and MMO bobs

Right now I'm in that slightly awkward phase between MMO obsessions, so my attention is leaping all over the place as I hawk around for news on something to inspire me. So since my head is all random, here's a few random bits and bobs of MMO news I've read lately and felt like commenting on...

World of Darkness, CCP's vampire MMO (same setting as the legendary Vampire The Masquerade RPG), is going to have perma-death. Interesting, bold and a little surprising, but then CCP do have slightly bigger balls than most developers. Though apparently you'll get plenty of warning and opportunity to prevent it, so I'm not sure quite how much of a risk it is, yet it will at least be a genuine possibility.

Also, and this I didn't see coming, in World of Darkness you'll be able to play as a human?! I'm not sure why anyone would want to with the range of different vampire types in that setting (from bestial mingers, to psycho killers, to kinky boot beasts). Presumably there's something fancy planned there. Very little info out there about this game at the moment, but it's one I'm very keen on hearing more about.

On the WAR front the only glimmer we have is the line "And next year we are about encounter bloodlust in an additional way.", which I expect to be the Sylvannia stuff appearing in some form. It irritates me that something like this isn't appearing now, it would make so much difference to the game. Mythic desperately need to speed up their patch cycle. Dramatically.

Planetside 2 will be F2P. Instantly we could choose to start worrying about it being pay2win, but actually I'm not that concerned. The original Planetside's level system didn't work like most MMOs, in that instead of levels giving you power, they gave you options. It allowed you access to a wider range of weapons and vehicles that gave you options in what kind of gameplay you experienced, but it didn't make you better as such. For example the big MAX suits had huge weaponry and armour, but their mobility was terrible. A basic agile armoured infantry set up would still be lethal if played to it's strengths. So I am hoping that the cash shop (I presume it will have one) will sell options rather than power. This remains the big hope for my next long term game, unless SWTOR proves to have long term appeal.

Star Wars The Old Republic has a release date of 20th/22nd December US/EU. No news yet on the head start dates, presumably a good few days beforehand. I just hope people with boxed pre-orders (like me) are given a download option because having to rely on the post at that time of year is less than ideal.

It's a funny time to release the game really, I assume its being done to further break up people logging in (combined with the staggered launch malarkey) to help Bioware with a smooth launch. If it's not nigh on perfect there will be much rage spewing across the internet. Personally I don't care much, it gives me plenty of time with Skyrim :P I do feel sorry for those Bioware employees and their families that have effectively had Christmas cancelled.

Outside of MMOs, because THEY ARE NOT MMOs (Massively I am looking at you), I'm intrigued to see the makers of World of Tanks developing both World of Battleships and World of Warplanes. WoT is a very good game, if a little too cash shop dependent, and as someone with a Silent Hunter addiction, I'm particularly intrigued to see what Wargaming.net can do with the big shooty ships. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be World of Battleshops.

SWTOR release date confirmed

SWTOR releases 20th December in the US and on 22nd December EU. Oh and it has a standard sub fee, which is good as I know some people were worried it would be higher than normal.

Details here official post

A little update

Lots has happened, but I've had no time, kinda. My house is under quarantine due to throat/chest/pukey pox and I've lacked motivation to move, let alone think about writing :P

Kill Frenzy in WAR is pretty much on hold again. A lot more people than just little old me got narked off with the whole situation WAR is in right now. A few die-hards are sticking around, but most of us have now quit and are looking forward to new games. Slightly depressing to see our WAR communtiy floundering so, at least as much as a computer game can be depressing, but the future for KF is bright with us gearing up for SWTOR and quite possibly a few other games. Our KF-RIFT guild is still going very strong too ;)

What little gaming time I've had over the last couple of weeks has been spent pottering around in Star Trek Online. It's been bloody great too. From reading forums it sounds like there's a range of issues with the game (shock horror), but I don't care really, I'm enjoying it. The atmosphere is great, it runs really well, the storylines are very solid, the character/ship development and customisation is interesting, it has some pretty spectacular graphics at times and it's casual friendly. However, I'm not doing any PvP in it at the moment and I don't plan to with any real dedication or effort. I'm purely playing this for casual entertainment where I'm free to AFK or pay loose attention and in those regards it's come up trumps, just be aware that my expectations maybe different to those looking for a full time MMO. I wouldn't like to say how solid the game is in that regard, at least not yet. Anyways, there's been a fair few interesting changes in STO since I last played it and I'll talk about those soon. One in particular is a great example of when Devs do the right thing.

nn :)

WAR's 3 year vet rewards and some teasy stuff

Link to the herald for the full article.

Rewards are:

• Jack O Lantern Vanity Pet – An exclusive pet for players that is available in four different colors.  This awesome seasonally themed pet is available only through the veteran rewards program.
• Endless Chaos Black Dye – This item will give you an endless supply of Chaos Black dye to deck out your armor in style!
• Endless Blazing Orange Dye – This item will give you an endless supply of Blazing Orange dye to make you stand out in battle, plus the color is perfect for the season!

Also there's a couple of comments on the future:

"With 1.4.4 out the door, the Wild Hunt going on across the land, now’s a great time to get out on the battlefield!

After looking at the past and the present, let’s take a quick look at the future to conclude this note. End of next month the demon moon will rise again and Fortresses are looming on the horizon. And next year we are about encounter bloodlust in an additional way."

I hope for WAR's sake that the Forts are soon, that could be a nice boost if so as it could avoid clashing with other releases. As for bloodlust in an additional way, I presume that's something about Sylvannia, but whatever it is I just hope it's big.

It's not me, it's you. And them too.

You’ve probably heard about the new pets that 1.4.4 has introduced to WAR. They’re about £10, give you a 5% boost to certain stats that remain active in RvR and as a (related) result I’ve cancelled my WAR sub. However, this is not quite the rage-quit it may appear, as my cancellation is actually far more of a considered decision than that. The pets are more a case of being the straw that broke the camel’s back, as I was getting a bit tired anyway.

The power pets
5% is not a gamebreaking amount, it’s about the same as a liniment or a couple of talismans, so it’s not pay2win just yet, but it is a step on that path. I do not like any pay2win options in a subscription based PvP MMO and I will never, ever support or promote that as a good thing. It’s 5% today, but who knows what will be the next option to appear in the cash shop? Further stat boosts? Higher DPS weapons? You may think not and I would hope not, but I don't know.

If WAR was F2P I would still not like it, but would probably stomach it as that goes with the territory, but as WAR has a full price MMO subs fee... no thanks. For what little my thoughts are worth I will not contribute a subs fee so you can develop things like this whilst the following issue remains.

Lack of new content
The lack of new content for WAR compared with almost every other MMO is a problem. I’m so bored of Dragonwake, Eataine et all, Christ on a bike, even the glorious Praag has worn thin. I understand that Mythic have bugger all resources and actually I think that James Casey, Steven and Keaven are doing the best they possibly can, particularly when considering how little they obviously have to work with,. Seriously those guys deserve more appreciation than they get and I still have plenty of time for those lads. However, as much as I appreciate what they’ve done, frankly it’s just not my problem. I invest my sub fees so that the games I like can continue to keep my interest and unfortunately right now I am tired of WAR’s same old scenery and there are other new things to look at elsewhere. When you look at the incredible amount of REAL new content added to Star Trek Online since launch, from an investment of my own money point of view, it becomes hard to justify paying the same monthly amount for WAR where major new content is ruled out. Those two games are of course being run within totally different financial situations, but again, that’s simply not my problem.

I have a very long list of things I want to see in WAR and actually there is a chance some of those might happen, which will probably bring me back if so, depending on when it happens. Expanded RvR lakes and/or PvP in the T4 side zones would do it for me, before even considering things like new playables. However, I’m not so sure forts are enough of a lure considering the competition. Whatever happens eventually, we won’t be getting any of that stuff anytime soon and I have a bad feeling that the time of the fortress patch is going to clash with the other big MMOs being released. As such, there’s little point carrying on paying to play a game with minimal development, when there are so many others great games to play right now and huge new MMOs around the corner.

Wrath of Heroes
I was disappointed with the whole situation when WoH was first revealed to me, but Mythic did spark my mood back up with their talk of the potential implications for WAR. I honestly think Wrath of Heroes will be a great success, just not with the PvP MMO audience. Despite it looking to be a good and very accessible game, it’s a game that isn’t made for or aimed at a true MMO gamer like me, which obviously means I find it hard to give a toss. Alas, I’m back to feeling disappointed. Sure, it may well have good end results for WAR, but that won’t be in the near future and unfortunately for my WAR subscription, the near future is all that matters.

The near future
And this is the main thing that makes a WAR sub pointless for me right now. Over the next few months I’ve got limited gaming time due to having a real life and somehow I’ve got to fit in:

• Deux Ex HR
• Spacemarine
• Football Manager 2012
• Skyrim
• Minecraft 1.8 (and beyond)
• Star Trek Online (going F2P)
• Star Wars: The Old Republic
• +whatever else strikes my fancy

I decided a little while back to drop my multi-sub-madness and I would only have 1 active MMO sub. I was spending too much money and never completing any single player games. So I’m sticking with the 1 sub thing from now on, which will of course tighten up what I play or not. Last night after cancelling WAR I reactivated my STO for a 1 month period. My reasoning being I can get my characters set up ready to downgrade to the silver F2P bit when that kicks in and in the meantime I can explore the HUGE amount of new content it already has. When that sub expires I’ll probably be up to my arse cheeks in Football Manager 2012 and Skyrim until SWTOR comes out.

In the new year I imagine SWTOR will keep me busy for at least a month or two, possibly much longer, depending on how well our Kill Frenzy SWTOR goes. After that there are of course more games on the horizon. Dust 514 is a definite one for me and I would sell your mother into slavery to play Planetside 2.

So for me it’s WAR stuggling to compete and my subscription becoming untenable as result, yet really no matter which MMO you play right now, there’s a lot of competition for your attention coming. Not just from MMOs but from big games that eat up time. And hell, as much as I berate it now, maybe Guild Wars 2 won’t be a pile of wank after all. I’ll have a proper gaming crisis if that mutant space fantasy emo crap turns out to be good.

Star Trek Online goes F2P in an impressive way

Everyone was expecting Star Trek Online to change to Free 2 Play as soon as the news got out that Perfect World had bought Cryptic. It was pretty much a given with their track record. However what I wasn't expecting was for them to be quite so generous with what you get with the F2P accounts. Take a moment to check out this features matrix.

It's pretty.

That's a lot of game for nowt and before you say "yeah yeah isn't STO a fail game", believe me that since it's rocky launch STO has seen loads of excellent changes and a LOT of new content added, enough that I consider it to be quite easily the most improved MMO of recent years. I'm no Trekkie, but it's been good enough that I've reactivated every few months to play through some more of the storylines and see what else has been introduced. Sure, I normally only do a month and then go back to WAR, but the key point here is unlike most MMOs I dabble with, this is the only one where I have not once regretted reactivating and have never considered it a waste of money. It has always delivered plenty of entertainment, albeit mainly PvE based. The PvP is not too bad, it's certainly not great or anything but it's a pleasant change now and again.

Now you may wonder with so much being given away for free, will they make enough money with presumably minimum levels of gold subscribers and the bulk from cash shop purchases? I think they'll do more than fine. I already find their cash shop rather tempting for the funky looking ships and did actually buy one from it a while back and probably will again, but I expect for a Trekkie they must be like a kid in a sweet shop.

Very pretty.

If you've not played STO before it's definitely one I would recommend trying out when it goes live with F2P. After a dubious start it has turned into a very solid game and for me playing it as F2P is an absolute no brainer. If you want a pure PvP game then it's not going to tick your boxes, but if you want a very good looking, well themed game with enjoyable PvE and excellent storylines, STO should provide some quality entertainment. This is the first F2P game that I can see myself playing long term, most likely alongside a single subscription game which will undoubtedly switch around with the times.

Like this moon, STO has plenty of atmosphere.

HOWEVER!!!!11

There is another.... in spandex.

Now then, if STO isn't your thing, the other one you might be interested in is City of Heroes which is also offering a solid F2P package in the near future. Details can be found here. Purely on a personal front STO is the one I'm really looking foward to, but I'm sure I'll give CoH a spin again once it goes F2P. CoH is a very solid game and as it will be free, nothing to lose in looking eh!

1.4.4 patch notes are out

You can find them here.

Or below:

Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt Live Event introduces Kurnous, the Elven God of the Hunt. Players can test their skills tracking and slaying fierce animals, collecting sacred pelts, and sighting the elusive White Stag. On the RvR battlefields of the Elf lands, players can risk the Curse of Kurnous and seek access to the Hunter's Vale instanced, six-player dungeon: a mist-shrouded, twilight forest where dwells the embodied Spirit of Kurnous. Earn unique rewards by earning Event Influence as well as participating in the Curse of Kurnous Public Quest. Those who manage to face and defeat the Spirit of Kurnous may even obtain the sought-after Fleet Stag Mantle. Do you dare to challenge the God of the Hunt?

Keep Defense

Changes have been made to the Open Realm versus Realm campaign to provide incentive to successfully defend a keep against an enemy offensive. Push back on their attack, turn the tide of battle, and then take the battle to their front door. While you have them on the ropes, rebuild your outer keep door and take a breather. For full details of the new Keep Defense mechanics, see the Realm vs. Realm section.

New Packs!

A gaggle of new vanity pets have shown up in the capital cities! These pets are there to show off the new packs available on Origin (aka the EA Store). If you've run out of Barber Surgeon tokens or want more Trophies of the World, Personality Pack 3 has you covered. But wait, you also get a plethora of new pets... Order characters will get the Bulldog and Phoenix pets. Destruction will get the Ravenspawn and Mite pets. Both realms will get the Griffonling and Imp Skeleton pets. If you want a pet with some utility, look at the Booster pet pack and get a bonus to your skills based on the color chosen. Order will get the adorable Drumming Bear, while Destruction will get the fearsome Tzeentch familiar. These packs are available for purchase via account entitlements that can be found at the EA Store / Origin. Adopt a pet today!

Scenario Shakeup

The battle has shifted! With the advent of 1.4.4, the lineup of the Scenarios has once again shifted. A number of old scenarios are making their return, some are retiring for the moment, and others are shifting tiers. The line-up is based on player feedback from our Dev Discussions in the forums, so be sure to vote for the next batch of scenarios! For a full list of the new line-up, see the RVR section.

Realm versus Realm

Realm versus Realm

General Changes

* Roaming warcamp guards have been removed.

* Resources Carriers that successfully reach the keep will now apply a heal to the keep doors that scales with the Against All Odds buff.

* Players with deployable siege, including the ram, can no longer fly on Aerial Bombers.

Campaign

As part of the campaign in Tiers 2-4, we've introduced the concept of a 'successful' keep defense. This mechanic will allow defenders to concentrate their defense for a specific goal and if they succeed, they will get a bonus that will allow them to push back and turn the tide of battle. Specific changes are detailed below.

* A successful keep defense is triggered when the defenders destroy the attacking ram. When the ram is destroyed, the keep siege will briefly shift to a "Successful Defense" state to acknowledge the accomplishment.

* Defenders in the keep area when a "Successful Defense" is triggered are awarded the Heroic Defender buff, granting them the power to push back the attacking force. Once the brief "Successful Defense" stage is over, the keep siege returns to its previous state.

* TheHeroic Defenderbuff is designed to give the defenders a brief, but significant, leg up on the attackers. This serves two purposes: first, it gives the defenders the power to push back the attackers, underscoring the successfulness of their defense; and second, it takes the place of a physical defense-reward, by giving the defenders the ability to carve their own reward out of the hides of their attackers.

* The Heroic Defender Buff grants the following bonuses: Movement speed increase, incoming damage reduction, high resistance to incoming critical, increased chance of outgoing critical, and finally increased morale and AP gain.

* The Heroic Defender Buff will fade away quickly if the defender leaves the keep area.

* Fixed an issue with siege weapons and critical damage application.

* Ram strength and health have been modified by Tier.

* Rams now have Armor Plating to absorbing incoming damage.

* Doors have been modified by tier.

* Keep Foremen have returned to the keeps and can be located in the lower floor of the keep proper. They only accept Ordnance and Medallions.

* Bundles of wood can be purchased from Keep Foremen to repair keep doors.

* New Outer Keep Doors (Tier 3 and 4) can be purchased from the Keep Foreman to replace a broken outer keep door.

* The New Outer Keep Door replacement door can only be placed if the outer door is currently destroyed, there is no deployed ram at the inner door, and your realm owns the keep.

* If a New Outer Keep Door is purchased, the Keep Foreman will attempt to place the door. However as they are construction workers and not warriors, they will stop work on the door if an enemy is nearby or attacking them. They will return to work if the enemy leaves or is dispatched.

* If the Keep Foreman is killed before the door has been deployed, a new purchase will need to be made. No refunds on uncompleted construction! Defend your foreman.

* If the Keep Foreman is able to successfully deploy a New Outer Keep Door, the keep siege will push back to the "defend outer door" stage. When this occurs, the inner door is not repaired automatically, but players can use bundles of wood to repair it.

Scenarios

The line-up of scenarios that are permanently available has changed. The new list is as follows:

Tier 1:

* Nordenwatch

* Mourkain Temple

* Gates of Ekrund

Tier 2:

* Nordenwatch

* Mourkain Temple

* Gates of Ekrund

Tier 3:

* Nordenwatch

* Mourkain Temple

* Gates of Ekrund

* Reikland Factory

Tier 4:

* Nordenwatch

* Mourkain Temple

* Tor Anroc

* Temple of Isha

* Khaine's Embrace

* Howling Gorge

Combat and Careers

Combat and Careers

General Changes & Bug Fixes

* Engineer Warlord 7pc set will now reduce Redeploy's cooldown by 50%.

* Magus Warlord 7pc set will now reduce Resummon's cooldown by 50%.

Renown Abilities

To complement the new Keep Defense Mechanics introduced in this patch, the following updates to Renown Abilities have been made.

Physical Ranged DPS

* Bolster War Engine: Increases damage dealt by ranged siege weapons. The duration and cooldown have been adjusted. Stacks with other buffs of this type.

* Hamper War Engine: Increases cooldown times for ranged siege weapons. The duration and cooldown have been adjusted. Stacks with other debuffs of this type.

* Diminish War Engine: Decreases damage dealt by ranged siege weapons. The duration and cooldown have been adjusted. Stacks with other debuffs of this type.

Magical Ranged DPS

* Enhance War Engine: Increases damage dealt by ranged siege weapons. The duration and cooldown have been adjusted. Stacks with other buffs of this type.

* Hex War Engine: Increases cooldown times for ranged siege weapons. The duration and cooldown have been adjusted. Stacks with other debuffs of this type.

* Abate War Engine: Decreases damage dealt by ranged siege weapons. The duration and cooldown have been adjusted. Stacks with other debuffs of this type.

Healer

* Reinforce War Engine: Heals the ram over time. The cooldown has been adjusted. Stacks with other heals of this type.

* Cleanse War Engine: Now cleanses two negative effects instead of all negative effects. The cooldown has been adjusted.

* Shield the Skies: This ability is no longer a channel. The cooldown has been adjusted.

Tanks

* Deflect Oil: This ability is no longer a channel. The cooldown has been adjusted.

* Modify War Engine: Adds and absorb to a friendly ram. The cooldown has been adjusted. Stacks with other absorbs of this type.

Melee DPS

* Siege Wrecker: Decreases damage dealt by rams. The duration and cooldown have been adjusted. Stacks with other debuffs of this type.

* Bypass Defenses: The duration and cooldown have been adjusted.

* Faultfinder: Increases damage dealt by rams. The duration and cooldown have been adjusted. Stacks with other buffs of this type.

Rogues

* Booby Trap: Decreases damage dealt by rams. The duration and cooldown have been adjusted. Stacks with other debuffs of this type.

* Pick Lock: The duration and cooldown have been adjusted.

* Faultfinder: Increases damage dealt by rams. The duration and cooldown have been adjusted. Stacks with other buffs of this type.

Engineer

Balance Changes

Due to the nature of the changes in this update, the Engineer Career has had their Mastery and Renown training refunded.

* Flak Jacket: The cast time has been removed from this ability and a cooldown has been added. The value of the armor buff has been lowered and will now stack with other armor buffs. The duration of the ability remains the same, but no longer is removed after twenty hits.

* Land Mine: The cast time has been removed from this ability.

* Redeploy: This ability is now available at Rank 3.

* Shock Grenade: This ability is available at Rank 22 and replaces Field Repair. Removes stagger effects to the target and up to five targets around the target.

Bug Fixes

* Extra Ammo: The AoE AP gain should no longer cause neutral mobs to attack.

Magus

Balance Changes:

Due to the nature of the changes in this update, the Magus Career has had their Mastery and Renown training refunded.

* Daemonic Armor: The cast time has been removed from this ability and a cooldown has been added. The value of the armor buff has been lowered and will now stack with other armor buffs. The duration of the ability remains the same, but no longer is removed after twenty hits.

* Daemonic Infestation: The cast time has been removed from this ability.

* Resummon: This ability is now available at Rank 3.

* Shocking Jolt: This ability is available at Rank 22 and replaces Strengthen Thrall. Removes stagger effects to the target and up to five targets around the target.

Bug Fixes:

* Lasting Chaos: The AoE AP gain should no longer cause neutral mobs to attack.

* Chaotic Attunement: Resummon will now cost 0AP while this tatic is slotted.

Shadow Warrior

Balance Changes:

* Brutal Assault: Fixed an issue in which this ability didn't process the correct amount of damage.

* Eye Shot: The cooldown has been increased and damage has been reduced. This ability will now also knock down the target.

* Fell the Weak: This ability will no longer interact with Vengeance of Nagarythe. The damage has been adjusted due to the change.

* Festering Arrow: Fixed an issue in which this ability didn't process the correct amount of damage.

* Flanking Shot: This ability will no longer interact with Vengeance of Nagarythe. Ability will scale the chance to deal critical damage upward based on the amount of life lost by the target.

* Glass Arrow: This ability will now deal damage to a single target and reduce the range of their abilities to 75% of the intended range. The cost has been lowered.

* Keen Arrowheads: This tactic will no longer adjust abilities gained from the interaction with Vengeance of Nagarythe.

* Takedown: This ability will no longer interact with Vengeance of Nagarythe.

* Vengeance of Nagarythe: The ability no longer affects other abilities. The cooldown and duration has been lowered. The bonus has been increased.

* Whirling Pin: This ability will now snare targets instead of root them. The Shadow Warrior will be knocked back a short distance. The Action Point cost has been removed.

Squig Herder

Balance Changes:

* Finish Em' Off: Removed the buildup time on the ability and slightly lowered the stat contribution to damage.

* Shrapnel Arrer: This ability will now deal damage to a single target and reduce the range of their abilities to 75% of the intended range. The cost has been lowered.

* Sticky Squigz This ability will now snare targets instead of root them. The Squig Herder will be knocked back a short distance. The Action Point cost has been removed.

Content

Content

General

* Companion Keeper Patricia Farnswoggle has relocated her wares further up the street to the east after complaints from the library.

* Temple Warriors and Sigmarites in the Temple of Sigmar will stand up for combat and sit back down afterwards using their correct animations.

* Saldon Sharpspear: This NPC will focus more on tending the wounded soldiers.

* Skeletal Gebauer: These monsters in the Chaos Chapter 5 area will no longer aggro players from excessive distances.

* Deathwing: This monster will no longer get stuck in the walls of the cave, and shall drop Deathwing's Fangs more reliably now.

* Made some changes to the Name Change service that will update groups and warbands properly with the new name. This corrects an issue where if a player logged out and applied a name change immediately, the old name would remain in some instances in the group and warbands.

Dungeons

* Mount Gunbad: 'Ard to Feed's Corrosive Vomit ability will now correctly debuff healing received rather than increase healing received.

* Warpblade Tunnels: Master Moulder Skrot will now chase and attack players properly, perhaps braver than most Skaven but deadly nonetheless!

* Sigmar Crypts: the spirits that Necromancer Malcidious summons will no longer have strange characters in their name.

Quests

* Shattering the Will: Taking Zimmeron's Hold or Charon's Citadel will correctly grant credit for this quest once again.

* To Be Chosen: Quest text is now free of typos.

* The Eager: The quest text has been changed to be more clear.

* Ascension (part 5): The instructions on how to find Naruul Voidcaller are more concise and clear, and the waypoint is better situated.

* Wyrmbreaker: Orolos Feralbrow will no longer become stuck in an uninteractable state.

* Ascension (part 6): Naruul Voidcaller will reset correctly after each combat.

* Ruinous Daemon: The daemons needed for this quest will spawn once again.

* Justice Be Done: The level requirement to get this quest has been raised to reflect the Land of the Dead level requirements.

* Lost in Translation: The level requirement to get this quest has been raised to reflect the Land of the Dead level requirements.

* The Hunger: The quest waypoint now refers to Tarl Bretenbach.

* Saving Grace: Quest text is now free of typos.

* Sky's the Limit: Due to the zoning restrictions in Altdorf, there are now more merchants that are willing to sign the petition.

* Unholy: Quest waypoints have been altered to properly indicate the locations of the Dark Flames.

* Death in the Fen: The Dwarf Corpses have been moved so that none are too close to the enemy camp.

* Pillaging the City: Removed extraneous quest waypoints.

* Bloody Shame: The quest waypoint now indicates Gazrog Beardrippa's correct location.

* An Old Flame: Kildar Dragonbane will now properly chase his enemies if they attack him from outside his tent.

* Rallying Cry: The quest waypoint will now display the conditions correctly until all of them have been completed.

* 'Ow t'Steam Stunties: Quest text no longer refers to a scenario that is not part of the normal rotation.

* The Grudges of King Grolmunn: Quest text no longer refers to a scenario that is not part of the normal rotation.

* Spotting Trolls: Quest waypoints have been altered to properly indicate the locations of Trolls.

* Ghoulish Goodies: Quest waypoints have been added.

* Battle at Mourkain Temple: The level requirement to get this quest has been raised to reflect the changes to the Tier 2 Scenario level requirements.

* Boss Huntin': added a quest waypoint to indicate where to find the Murdogh Dwarfs.

* The Emperor's Mandate: The peasants and Innkeeper Svetla are now aware of Corrupter Bathshida's new location.

* Squig Shakes: The quest waypoints have been consolidated to display correctly.

* Local Beliefs: A quest waypoint is now available for Utlag Bear Slayer.

* 'Ow t'Steam Stunties, and The Grudges of King Grolmunn: The item that starts these quests will only be mailed once at the correct level for Tier 3.

* Shadow of the Hunter: added in a quest reward.

* Alone in the Woods: added in a quest reward.

* Price of Peace: Silverwind and other nearby corrupted steeds are visible once again.

* The waypoint for the quest "Trouble for Perthar" will now display the appropriate description on the map.

* Special Delivery: Journal text no longer cuts off mid-sentence.

* Grimmenhagen Burning: The Marauder Torchbearers will now become enraged and attack anyone that tries to rescue the Grimmenhagen Villagers.

* Anomalous Behavior: Removed extraneous quest waypoints.

* Bringing Down the Squig-Maker: This quest is no longer repeatable.

* Within Reach: Level requirements have been altered to match the current levels for Tier 3 RvR.

* Sacrifice: Quest shows up only once when you speak with the NPC that gave the quest.

* Grip of Darkness: The skeleton that appears after using the Worm's Fang will no longer have strange characters in their name.

* The Azure Rocks for the quest "Reluctant Hand" will no longer make a squelching sound when gathered.

Public Quests

* Bank Robbery: The Loot Chest in the First Bank of Altdorf will despawn correctly, and mail unclaimed loot as needed.

* Rescuing prisoners in stage 1 of the Public Quest "Da Drakk Cult" will now properly count toward completion.

* Pillage and Plunder: The Empire Wagons will always be attackable during Stage 2.

Tome of Knowledge

* Part 1 of the Destruction-specific tome unlock "Subversion" will no longer unlock for Order characters.

* The Zombies in Empire Chapter 14 will grant the correct Tome of Knowledge credit instead of Bandits.

WoH beta invites

Looks like all WAR subscribers will get invited onto the Wrath of Heroes beta. http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/232/index/8252301/3#8261677

Not sure when that will kick off, as I don't know how long this beta is planned to go on for, but at least we know all WAR subs will get in at some point...

(update) Further confirmation can be found on the herald. It sounds like you'll need to do an application for the beta still at https://wrathofheroes.warhammeronline.com/ but you should get in automatically in the near future.

Wrath of Heroes beta

OK so the closed beta has started, be sure to check your email folders... For now the beta servers are only coming online for set periods of time and I think its safe to say this is, for once, a genuine beta test. Your feedback is important. More test time details here. And you can sign up at https://wrathofheroes.warhammeronline.com/

There is unfortunately an NDA, so I can't say much about the game for now. What I will say is this... previously I had watched others play the game, thought it looked good, but I wasn't that fussed really. Interesting, but like whateeeever. Now I've actually played it, let's just say that the experience has upgraded my interest somewhat. It was a LOT of fun to play, more than I expected. That is both a good and bad thing, but I'll have to leave talking about that until I have more freedom to do so.