MOGS

SWTOR Early access

Howdy folks!! SWTOR is going live right around the corner, Dec. 20th. Everyone that’s pre-ordered has been waiting for December 15th to get here because that’s when we’ve been told the early access will start. Well guess what, they moved it up to the 13th, WOOO HOOOO!! Here is the official announcement.

Early Game Access* for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ is only a few days away! Starting December 13, 2011, The Old Republic will begin emailing invitations to start your Early Game Access. Invitations will be sent throughout the Early Game Access period offering rolling access to the game in the order in which you redeemed your Pre-Order Code, so be sure to check your email inbox!

I’ll be checking everything out on Monday it’s gonna be fun. They made a few changes that I’ve read about and I’ll be looking for you in game!!

WOW Patch 4.3: Hour of Twlight

With the advent of patch 4.3, a multitude of new dungeons have been added.  We have End Time, which is a 5 player heroic dungeon that gives you a look at the future of Azeroth should you fail to stop Deathwing.  The Well of Eternity, another 5 player heroic, takes you back 10,000 years to retrieve the Dragon Soul.  Hour of Twilight is the last 5 man, where you must escort Thrall and the Dragon Soul to Wyrmrest Temple to begin the assault on Deathwing.  The 10 and 25 man raid dungeon is Hour of Twilight.  Here, you must help Thrall and the Dragon Aspects bring an end to the Black Dragonflight.  You take on Deathwing in one of three different difficulty settings.

Some of the new features that have been added are the Raid finder, Transmogrification, and Void Storage.  The Raid finder helps you find a pick-up raid for a certain difficulty setting of end game content, such as one of the three levels for Deathwing.  Transmogrification lets you change the appearance of one piece of armor into another.  Lastly, Void Storage lets you store items so that you can free up space in your bank.

Each class has had a number of important changes as well.  I will go over the most important tweaks.  In general, holding agro while tanking has been made easier.  Threat generated while in tanking mode has been increased to 500% damage done, up from 300%.  Also, all of the 10% increased attack power buffs have doubled to provide 20% more melee AP, while ranged AP buff stays at 10%.

For Death Knights, Death Strike will now always heal, even if the attack misses, or is dodged/parried.  This is great, and will alleviate some PVP frustration when you are really counting on that heal landing.  The armor bonus from Blood presence is now 55%, up from 30%.  The DK’s pets will now inherit their master’s crit and spell penetration stats, which will buff the ghoul and gargoyle in the already powerful unholy tree.

Feral Druids have had their swipe in Cat form reduced to 340% weapon damage, down from 415%.  Not surprising given the amount of damage feral druids can output so quickly.  In Bear form, you now have a Stamina bonus of 20%, up from 10%.  This, is coupled with 55% armor bonus for Druids under 40, will help them tank lower level instances.  Cyclone and Entangling Roots now suffer from reduced spell pushback.

One of the biggest changes for Hunters is that Widow Venom now reduces the target’s healing received by 25%, up from 10%.  This will make Hunters more powerful in PVP, increasing their utility and importance to an Arena team.  The Beast Mastery tree received some buffs, for example now Animal Handler increases Attack Power by 30%, up from 25%, and Burrow Attack now does approximately 20% more damage.  Lastly, Explosive Shot damage has been increased by 15%.  I will include Rogues here, since their only notable change is that Wound Poison now reduces the target’s healing received by 25%, up from 10%.  This will make it easier for Rogues to get kills in PVP, and increase the effectiveness of their surprise attacks.

Mages have had the biggest changes to their fire tree.  Fireball damage has been increased by 17%.  Also, Pyroblast’s direct damage has been increased by 26%, and its damage over time has been increased by 100%.  Moreover, Living Bombs damage over time has been increased by 10%, and explosion damage has been increased by 120%.  Combustion’s DOT’s can now crit.  All of these changes are great, and will increase the raw power of fire in PVP and PVE.

For Paladins, Holy Radiance now has a 3.0-second cast time, no cooldown, and requires a player target.  Group members within 10 yards of the target are healed instantly, and also receive a HOT that ticks every 1 second for 3 seconds.  The holy tree received a number of alterations, most of which are buffs.  Judgements of the Pure now increases mana regeneration from Spirit by 10/20/30% for 60 seconds, which helps Paladins mana management in long fights.  Ret has had Sanctified Retribution nerfed, it now increases the critical hit chance of Hammer of Wrath by 2/4/6%, down from 20/40/60%.

Priest’s Divine Hymn will now heal 5 targets up from 3.  Also Heavenly Voice is a new talent that increases the healing done by Divine Hymn by 50/100%, and reduces the cooldown of Divine Hymn by 2.5/5 minutes.  These changes makes this spell much more useful to save your party with when things go awry.  Also, Spirit of Redemption has been rebuilt to address a few functionality issues and responsiveness.

Shamans have had Wind Shear’s base cooldown increased to 15 seconds, up from 6 seconds.  This is a big nerf for Shamans in PVP, who have gotten use to have an on demand spell interrupt every 6 seconds.  The Reverberation talent in the elemental tree now reduces the cooldown of Wind Shear by 5/10 seconds to compensate for this.  Another talent in this tree, Elemental Fury, now removes the cooldown from Chain Lightning.  Being able to spam Chain Lighting in PVP and PVE will be amazing in those situations where you have multiple targets grouped together.  For Enhancement Shamans, Mental Quickness now causes spells to behave as though the Shaman has spell power equal to 55% of attack power.  Finally, Restoration sees Ancestral Healing causing the shaman’s heals to increase the target’s maximum health by 5/10% of the amount healed, up to a maximum of 10% of the target’s maximum health, for 15 seconds.

Warlocks received a buff to Soul Fire, it now scales with 72.6% of spell power, up from 62.5%.  The Destruction tree has had the most changes, most of which are buffs.  Fire and Brimstone increases the damage of Incinerate and Chaos Bolt on Immolated targets by 5/10/15%, up from 2/4/6%.  Moreover, Burning Embers now deals damage equal to 25/50% of Soul Fire and Imp’s Firebolt, up from 15/30%.  These changes should help Destruction have some more burst damage on demand, for when they need to kill a target quickly and can’t wait for their DOT’s to tick.

The most exciting change for warriors is that Charge (and related abilities) should now correctly path to a target even if the target moves during the Charge. This change should decrease the likelihood of the warrior Charging to a different location than the target.  Coming from someone who has played a warrior, there is nothing more annoying then charging into someone and landing in a spot they were at a few seconds ago.  This happened all to often, and made the move counter-intuitive.  Akin to Rogues and Hunters, Mortal Strike and Furious Attacks now reduces the target’s healing received by 25%, up from 10%.  Warriors often have trouble landing the killing blow due to being kited, so this should ameliorate the situation.

Lots of new changes!  These talent adjustments make me excited for the huge Talent overhaul coming with Mists of Pandaria.  The result should be everyone having very unique hybrid classes.  There will be hundreds of ways to spec toons, and the old cookie cutter builds of being either a Fire, Frost, or Arcane Mage will be gone.  Instead, you can select the talents most suited to your play style from each tree.

Jake@mogs.com

WoW Guild Services Are Here!

Blizzard has just made Guild Services available on all North American realms. This will allow guilds to transfer their structure of guild leader, bank, reputation and name (depending on availability) between servers and factions. Part of Blizzard’s ever-growing purchase services to transfer your guild’s info will cost $40 for a faction change, $35 for a server transfer and $20 for a name change. If you do transfer and the name has been taken, you aren’t charged for a name change but do have to choose a new name for the guild.

This is an additional cost to the regular character transfer fees, and it only sticks with the guild leader. When guild members transfer to the new realm/faction they will automatically be joined into the guild and their reputation will return to what it was previously. All guild perks will stay with your character as well. The only thing that will not transfer is your current rank in the guild, for the guild leader will have to recreate those and repromote their members.

There are only two instances where your guild transfer may falter.  If the guild member transfer realms before the guild master, or if the guild member quits the guild on the original realm before the transfer. So if you plan on staying in your guild on the new server, don’t quit the now level 1 guild, stay in it and transfer so your perks aren’t lost.

Many complain that the prices may be a bit steep, but for those who have invested the time and want a new start without having a COMPLETE new start the price seems reasonable. So if your guild decides to pack up their bags and try out a new faction/realm a new streamlined system is in place to insure just that. I wish this was implemented back when my guild transferred ages ago, but now that it’s in place if we find it’s time to move again, the option is available.

-Jon

Mogs.com

Blizzcon

Another year, another Blizzcon!  With Diablo III right around the corner, and a WOW expansion on the horizon, there was a lot to cover at this years event.  One of the most surprising announcements is that WOW subscribers who make a 12-month subscription commitment via the WOW Annual Pass will receive three unique rewards.  First of all, they will get a free digital copy of Diablo III when it launches next year.  Despite the cost of the Annual Pass, this is a fantastic kickback to Blizzard’s loyal WOW fan base.  Also, these customers will get Tyrael’s Charger, which is a flying mount that is available to all current and future characters on their account.  The last reward is a guaranteed invite into the beta test for the newest WOW expansion, along with a Fetish Shaman Spear which allows you to summon a Fetish Shaman.

The new WOW expansion, titled Mists of Pandaria, seeks to break ground with new gameplay mechanics while trying to recapture what made WOW so fun in the past.  The goal is to keep players engaged in the world, instead of just hanging out in Stormwind or Orgrimmar all day.  Pandaria will be one solid continent with 5 separate leveling zones containing an AH and Bank, which should help to minimize the travel back to the main cities.  Pandarens will be the new race featured in the expansion, and Monks will be the new class.

Pandarens can be either Horde or Alliance.  Their best racial talents are Inner Peace – Your rested experience bonus lasts twice as long, Bouncy – You take 50% less falling damage, and Quaking Palm – You touch a secret pressure point on an enemy target, putting it to sleep for 3 sec.  Monks sound like a very interesting class, as they will not have an auto attack.  They will have Chi, which is energy that slowly regenerates and is only used for their Jab and Roll abilities.  Jab generates light and dark force, which is channeled into finishing moves.  Monks will wear leather armor, pump their agility and intellect stats, and will use staves, fist weapons, 1-h axes, maces, and swords for finishing moves.  The monks available talent specs are Brewmaster, the tank spec, Mistweaver, the healing spec that allows you to stand up in melee while healing your group with a new healing style, and Windwalker, the standard Melee DPS build.

The next big change announced in WOW is the talent overhaul.  You will have your class abilities, your spec abilities, and your talents.  Class abilities are universal, and you will choose a spec at level 10.  Based on your spec, you will get some fundamental abilities as you level to help flesh our your character.  The twist comes in the new talent tree.  The three old talent trees are gone, replaced by a single talent tree.  There are also no more talent points, you will get a new talent every 15 levels.  There are 3 talents at each 15 level tier, and you only get to choose 1 of the 3.

What is interesting is that you can change these talents as easy as you change glyphs.  Therefore, it will be easy to tailor your character at your whim to fit your playstyle, or just to tinker with the new talents.  Looking over the lists of talents, some talents have stayed the same, some have gotten tweaks, and some are brand new.  I really like this new approach to abolishing cookie cuter talent builds.  Before, you always knew what you were going up against in PVP, and what exactly to expect from that class/spec combination.  Now, every character is going to be much more unique, which will result in even more individualized team comps in Arenas.

Jake

Mogs.com

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pokemon

Well it’s about that time of year again with Blizzcon upon us, Blizzard announces their new upcoming plans for their games. Well the new WoW expansion was just announced and like most expansions it’s a doozey. I’m going to focus on the feature that I’m most excited about; the pet battle system.

I’ve been reading over and over that many are unimpressed with the feature, since it is a very mini-game esque addition to the game. However, I’m extremely stoked. Why? Simply because finally, there’s a psuedo-pokemon MMO. This may seem like a silly childhood fantasy, but I’ve always wondered why Nintendo hasn’t taken their franchise in that direction. Blizzard taking the arbitrary vanity pets and giving them more of a fun role in the game. Not only can you show off your rare vanity that follows you, but level it up and fight people with it as well! I can’t wait to see Blizzcon pets in action. Granted I’m not fortunate enough to have one, but what I have is at least some kind of start.

Now we will be able to travel across the land searching far and wide searching for new rare vanity pets to grow and fill our collections. While traveling you have chances to run into rare pets in which you don’t pick up, but engage in battle with Pokemon-esque style. Upon defeat you can obtain the pet and add it to your collection! We’re still unsure if you will be up for attack if you’re in a PvP contested zone while in a battle with a wild vanity pet. But regardless there will be new rare spawns to look for and areas to camp, in hopes for some awesome new pets.

Some may say this is a quick fix and isn’t a big part of the game. But so far it’s the newest feature since implemented Arena’s that has me excited for an expansion. Be sure to see me running around leveling up my Mechanical Squirrel that’s been following me since level 13 in vanilla.

-Jon

Mogs.com

A Blizzard Benefit!

Starting Oct. 17 Blizzard will be listing servers on Ebay for purchase! Over the next month Blizzard will be auctioning off more than 2,000 original server blades.This is a benefit that Blizzard is having hosted by Ebay with 100% of all proceeds will is being donated to St. Jude Chidren’s Research Hospital. The last of the server auctions ending on Nov 14th. The developer has upgraded its hardware, and instead of throwing them away they turned them into a valuable collector’s item. Sign up to the Newsletter through the site and you can be reminded when the server of your choice is listed. So lay claim to your server that has been your stomping grounds for the last couple of years and support a great cause in the process. I know I’ll be watching the auctions weekly and am glad to see Blizzard supporting research that can better the children of our future.

-Jon

mogs.com

Blizzcon 2011

The time has come again for Blizzcon 2011! Within the next 3 weeks we will have all kinds of great announcements from Blizzard.

What we do know is those who are going are in for a fantastic time. Hands on Blizzard demos of Diablo 3, arena tournaments, card game tournaments, cosplay competitions, all in the celebration to the company we love (and sometimes hate, ooo those patches!) Blizzard. Those purchasing a ticket receive the awesome in game molten murlock pet, Murkablo.

It wouldn’t be a Blizzard convention without a musical line-up. The Foo Fighters are headlining the closing ceremony of the convention and are going to be rocking out hard. Along with the Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftains rocking out to Blizzard themed tunes.

One thing circulating the internet is the appearance, or lack of appearance “Titan” may have at this Blizzcon. IGN reported on the 28th that Blizzard would show off their project at Blizzcon. However the post was updated within 24 hours with information from Blizzard themselves denying that the MMO would be showcased.

It looks like Blizzard is trying to prevent their player base from being distracted by the concept of a “new mmo” when there’s an exciting game like Diablo 3 coming out in the upcoming months. I’m personally excited for both D3 and any new Titan information. I just recently began playing Starcraft 2 again and even that has constant new content in custom games and the competition is endless in normal play. Not to mention the best MMO to date WoW, Blizzard has a ton to showcase and will always deliver a solid game.

-Jon

mogs.com

Star Wars: The Old Republic release date announced!

Bioware and Lucasarts finally announced the release date for the much anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic.  The game will launch on December 20, 2011 in North America and on December 22, 2011 in the European Launch Territories. This was announced at the 2011 Eurogame expo in London by BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk.  The game comes with one month free, then will be $14.99 a month.

Electronic Art’s Frank Gibeau recently announced each of the games six classes will each have over 200 hours of solo game play.  This does not include any raiding or any sort of multiplayer, which is obviously the main focus of the game .  The developers really wanted each class to have its own distinctive feel and a completely individualized playthrough.  The 200 hours unique to each class is the realization of this goal, providing over 1,200 hours of game play to those who want to experience the solo side of each class.  Having all this class based game play should be a refreshing change from the standard MMO formula, of running through the same quest lines with every character class.

Huttball is type of PVP in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it was shown off this year at PAX 2011.  It is 8v8 PVP based off of the capture the flag formula with a ball that can be thrown to your other teammates.  A team scores when they cross the other team’s endline with the ball, but the ball can be turned over with incomplete passes or attacks on the ball carrier by the other team.  The ball can even be detonated in case of campers who just hold onto the ball and do not score.

The DPS classes such as the dual wielding Jedi Sentinel are charged with protecting the ball carrier.  The carrier will usually be a tank class, who has an ability that increases their effectiveness to run the ball.  The playing field has deathtraps such as acid pools and fire grates that turn off and on.  There are also cover obstacles, anti-gravity panels, and air vents that will blast you up to another floor.  The first to 4 points wins, or the team with the higher point total after 15 minutes of play.

We will see all of you Star Wars: The Old Republic players when the game launches on December 20th, 2011!

Jake

Mogs.com

Age of Conan: The Savage Coast of Turan

The Savage Coast of Turan pack adds over 50 quests and a lot of new instances to explore.  In addition to this, it includes references to the newly released Conan movie!  The pack takes place in the city of Ardashir, where you face priests, generals, and old evils that need to be extinguished.  The new instances include a level 80 solo instance, an instance that adjusts to your level, a team instance, and a raid instance with three new boss battles.

Dead Man’s Hand is a solo instance that scales to your level, provided you are between levels 50 and 80. You must contend with pirates and indigenous savages on the island of Dead Man’s Hand. Since this location is meant to returned to, there are side quests you can tackle in addition to the main quest.

Moreover, there are some tie-ins with the newly released Conan movie.  You help Artus fight to maintain his brotherhood,  and assist Ela-Shan in creating a thieves guild in Ardashir. There are more tie-ins, but the developers wanted to leave them as a surprise for players to find.  Also, there are armor sets to collect based on the Turanian culture, some of which you will see in the movie.

Concerning PVP, the content added in this pack is outdoor and objective based.  However, unlike the Shrines, the world bosses only spawn and are available at certain times.  Therefore, you must amass a group of players in order to take down the bosses in the limited window of time they are active.

The level 80 team instance is Fort Ardashir.  Going through the instance, the first boss encounter takes place in a courtyard.  Here, you must defeat Commander Kamangir on his war Rhino.  After defeating him, you traverse the halls of the fort battling other enemies, while making your way towards a secret cave.  This cave hosts the Ardashir fleet, in addition to General Arman who is a protagonist for this pack.  General Arman is working with a witch, who has tapped into an ancient evil and is channeling it to serve his malicious intent.

While this pack is not a full fledged expansion, it adds a little content to each aspect of the game.  Thus, there is something for every Age of Conan player in The Savage Coast of Turan pack.

-Jake

Mogs.com

IO Graph

As an art major I’m attracted to new forms of creating art using any medium. The conventional means of online art has most artists using tablets and drawing programs. A piece of art can take hours of concentration to complete. Well what if I want to draw while I game? IOGraphica has the answer to this question. The IO Graph, easily downloaded from Iographica.com, tracks all of your mouse movements while you go about your pc activities and records them onto a document creating a unique piece of art for every session. Whether you’re playing an FPS:

or World of Warcraft:

IOgraph can track any of your mouse movements and create a unique piece from it. These best look if photoshopped with color;

And they make great desktop backgrounds.

I recommend you check the program out and see what masterpiece you can game up today.

-Jon

mogs.com