December Newsletter

Our December newsletter is now available.

Enjoy!
Stephen

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SWTOR Item Tooltips Support

We have added support for SWTOR item tooltips from TORHead.com. TORHead looks like it will be a quality item and info site just as WoWHead has always been. Info on how the popups work is on the TORHead.com site. The initial support will add a tooltip to any link on their site. We are working on providing name based lookups also so that the support for SWTOR is at the same level as the rest of our item tootips. That functionality will be out Soon(TM).

More info is on our support site.

Enjoy!
Stephen

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EQ, EQ2, DC Universe, Freerealms, etc. – SOE Server Status Widgets

Greetings,

Today we have added 6 new widgets to support server status for SOE games.

These include:

DC Universe Online
Everquest
Everquest 2
Freerealms
Planetside
Vanguard

The widgets look like this:

Forum Image

The info comes from here http://www.soe.com/status/ and is cached for 5 minutes.

You can add the widget from the Server Status widget section on the Widget popup.

Enjoy!
Stephen

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Rift, WoW, Ragnaros, Dragon Soul and Win a New Computer!

I just wanted to post some news for site updates that have happened recently.

1. Vladmal Prime is now in the Rift Raid Progression for Hammerknell More Info
2. Dragon Soul is now in the Raid Progression for WoW More Info
3. Ragnaros boss tracking has been fixed in the Raid Tracker More Info
4. The Raid Progression UI has been overhauled to be much easier and more intuitive to use More Info

Also, our November contests are still going strong. If you aren’t voting on the Rift Top Fan or the Eve Top Site then you are *missing* out on a chance to win a new computer, a graphics card, game time and much more. Basically, if you aren’t voting on these contests daily you are not taking advantage of the easiest way ever to win a new computer and much more.

Enjoy!
Stephen

Posted in Rift, World of Warcraft | 2 Comments

We talk with FigurePrints at BlizzCon

Here is another video of our BlizzCon coverage.  This time we talk with Ed Fries, the CEO of FigurePrints.  Ed shows off one of their beautiful prints and tells us a little bit about how they make them.

If you haven’t heard of FigurePrints, you should do yourself a favor and check them out.  They take your World of Warcraft straight from the game and turn it into a statue.  You pick the pose, base and change your gear in game to get the look you want and voilà, you have a real statue, or print of your character!  The process is amazing and they look really good.

Ed Fries with FigurePrints

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We visit MEGA Bloks at BlizzCon

As you may know, BlizzCon 2011 happened a couple of weeks ago.  GL Slater and I were there, getting pictures, playing games and checking out all the awesome stuff going on at the show.  We spoke to several people and got them to talk to us about what they do and what they offer.  The first two videos we want to share with you are about MEGA Bloks.

In our first video, Brendan – Senior Community Manager with MEGA Bloks tells us a little about the company, what they do, and why they were at BlizzCon this year.

Brendan with MEGA Bloks

Our second video is a tour of the MEGA Bloks booth, taking a look at some of their prototypes.

MEGA Bloks Display

We had fun talking with Brendan and look forward to seeing what these guys come out with!

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New Minecraft Template

We have a new Minecraft template. Enjoy!

Minecraft Template

Enjoy!
The Guild Launch Team

 

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Bluedots’ 101 Mage Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

This Guest Post is brought to you by Bluedot.  Bluedot is the owner/operator of the Rift fansite Bluedots.org, make sure to check out his fantastic Rift guides.

This list is basically a compilation of tips and tricks that I have learned or been taught. Before jumping into the bullet points I would like to thank Arcanas from Purge to Win and and Noodley from Aftermath for helping me compile this.


General Stuff

Activate Charge Draining spells while you cast the spell that will top you off. This is usually around 85 Charge.

Esc > Settings > Interface > Combat > Cast on target’s target. This will make assisting people, like the tank, much easier.

Esc > Settings > Interface > Screen Messages > This is where you can add the spell/ability names to the floating numbers when you take or deal damage.

When in doubt, go 0 point Archon.

You can change a 0 point soul while in combat. If you have 0-Archmage, switch back to Archon while Breakfree is on cooldown.

Your 0 point Archon Buffs can be stacked before you pull by dueling someone.

Diminishing returns on Spell Crit begin at 45% or ~1187 Spell Crit. Additional crit % chance from talents is not effected by diminishing returns.

Drake Filets (+10 SP for 30 min) from the Dragonslayer Quartermaster are cheap and easy to get the Notoriety for.

If your DPS spec doesn’t have a pet its not the best.

There are 2 categories of crown control diminishing returns, incapacitate (stuns, silences, disarms) and movement (slows, snares, etc). First spell of either category is full duration up to 8 seconds, second cats is half duration, 3rd cast is immune. The diminishing returns lasts 25 seconds (from the first crowd control ability). (Some spells like Disorient will last longer because they are actually 2 separate crowd controls)

In PvP when you get purged by an enemy player, the first buffs you cast on yourself will get purged first. When you buff yourself cast the most important buffs last.


Elementalist

Builds/rotations that use this soul:

You get the bigger/better pets with the Greater Elemental Affinity.

Tempest (30% Crit Damage Bonus) stacks additively. Your crits will cause 180% damage if you take this talent.

Tempest stacks with other crit damage bonuses. If you have Overload from the Archmage and Tempest your crits will do 210% damage, to players.

Improved Quicken Elements stacks additively. With 2 points in the talent your Quicken Elements will heal your pet for 25% of its life every second.

Channel Elements uses 15 charge to regen 10% of your mana. The pets summoned from Swarming Flames will cast a Fireball, then wait until it hits before casting another one. Stand close to your target to dramatically increase the number of Fireballs they will cast (The same is true with Split Personality in the Dominator tree).

The Air Elemental’s Electrify (increases raids Spell Power) does not stack with Bard buffs.

Elemental Forces will break Icy Carapace even if the random Element isn’t Earth. If you have Elemental Forces up when you cast Icy Carapace it will break it immediately.

The Greater Earth Elemental will hold threat better if you manually use his abilities at the right time, rather then letting him automatically use them.


Pyromancer

Builds/rotations that use this soul:

Burning Bright causes each point in the Pyromancer tree to increase your Fire damage by 1.2%. It is better to put points anywhere in the Pyro tree then in Soul Fire from Archon.

Heatwave resets the cooldown of Flicker. Double Flicker causes melee to rage.

Flame Bolt does less DPS then Fireball. If you take Wildfire, don’t prioritize it over Fireball.

Flaring Intellect does not stack with Archon Buffs.

Most melee abilities require a weapon to cast, so Burn is basically a melee silence.

Firestorm ticks for damage immediately and can be used as an instant cast.


Archon

Builds/rotations that use this soul:

Archons auras can pull initial aggro, stay close to your tank if you are on an encounter where adds spawn during combat.

Consuming Flames isn’t exactly the bee’s knee’s of shields, but it can help save your life when you do pull aggro.

Archons never run out of mana, save your Mental Flare for someone else, usually the tank healing Cleric.

Flaring Power drains charge, but does not prevent charge from being generated. You don’t need full charge to cast it, anything above 30 is usually safe.

Never combine Flaring Power with another charge draining spell like Power Drain or Arresting Presence.

Make clever macro use of the [notactive] modifier: cast [notactive] Flaring Power. This prevents you from double tapping and immediately canceling it.

For optimal up time on your temporary Archon buffs, make sure all of them are recently applied (Volcanic Bomb, Surging Flare, Earthen Barrage) before refreshing other buffs/debuffs.

Cleansing Flames is an AoE dispel and purge, with no cooldown. Almost every fight in the game has some sort of dispel or purge, use it often. Just not on Sicaron.

Archon Auras don’t stack. Only 1 Archon in a raid can get the benefit of Speed in Numbers and Power in Numbers.

If a mob is immune to a debuff, the Archon will still get the self buff. For example: Lingering Dust will still give the Mage the buff even if the mob won’t get reduced cast speed.


Chloromancer

Builds/rotations that use this soul:

Lifegiving Veil is for AoE healing and is the only thing you will use until level 50.

Lifebound Veil decreases your AoE healing, but massively increases the healing your Synthesis target receives. In short, tank healing.

Radiant Spores does not put you in Combat, apply it before the pull.

Radiant Spores does not stack, if there is more then 1 Chloro predesignate who applied it.

Wild Growth is a big DPS boost for your raid/group, especially on AoE packs. Use it often, and let your raid know when you do.

The DoTs left by Vile Spores and Ruin do not receive any damage bonus from talents/items that increase DoT damage.


Dominator

Thunder Blast is an interrupt, even if they are immune to the knockback.

If you keep wiping because you missed an interrupt, get a Dominator with Empowered Presence.

Pets don’t get diminishing returns on crowd control abilities. You can spam Transmogrify on an enemy pet to get the benefit of Controlled Opportunity and Swift Control.

Split Personality can be purged, be wary of when you use it.

Haunting Pain applies 10 stacks. If you use this on an enemy player, they will need to dispel all 10 stacks (10 casts) to fully dispel it. Make sure you use this first, before using other dispellable abilities.


Warlock

Builds/rotations that use this soul:

The global cooldown in Rift is 1.5 seconds, any spell that has a 1.5 second cast time is not benefited by Opportunity, unless you are moving.

Neddra’s Torture does not stack with itself or a better ability (Clinging Spirits) from DPS Clerics.

If you have an Archon giving you Burning Purpose you only need 2 points in Improved Void Bolt to make it under 1.5 second cast time.

DoT damage is calculated as a whole spell at cast time. Meaning the game decides how much damage a DoT will do when you cast it, the damage does not vary through the duration of a DoT. If you cast a DoT then use a damage buff cooldown the DoT will still tick for the original amount, not the increased about. If you cast a DoT right before a damage buff wears off it will tick for the buffed damage for the full duration.

Defile uses charge but does not prevent charge from being generated. Using it while above 20 charge is usually safe.

You don’t have to face a mob to apply DoTs.


Necromancer

Builds/rotations that use this soul:

There are things that increase your pet’s DPS: Looming Demise, Necrosis, Deathly Calling stacks.

The Skelatel Zealot does more DPS then the Revenant, but most be in melee range.

The Revenant will do very little damage without Deathly Calling on the target. Grave Rot is typically the best way to apply Deathly Calling.

Deathly Calling stacks can be shared between mages, keep in mind some abilities eat stacks.

Feign Death is also a threat dump and can save your life if you pull off a tank.

If you use Mass Graves you will need to spam Plague Bolt and Grave Rot to maintain enough Deathly Calling Stacks on the target.

Empty the Crypts takes charge, but does not prevent charge from being generated. Using it anytime above 30 charge is typically safe.

To prevent double tapping Empty the Crypts use cast [notactive] Empty the Crypts.

Lich Form increases the damage the pets from Empty the Crypts do.

The talent Clattering Bones does not help your Skeletal Revenant in anyway. The talent Vengful Spirit does not help your Skeletal Zealot in anyway.

The DPS difference between 0 stacks of Deathly Calling and 1 stack of Deathly Calling is much larger then the difference between 1 stack and 5 stacks.

Your Revenant will apply Necrosis and Looming Demise if you didn’t, however they will be attributed to the Revenant and not show up on the target unless you disable the “Show only my debuffs on the target” in Esc > Settings > Interface > Combat. (Note this is currently bugged on live and the pet isn’t applying the debuffs at all).

The Skeletal Revenant’s Ruination will remove (Number of Mobs – 1) stacks of Deathly Calling. If there are 5 mobs 4 stacks will be removed. 4 mobs and 3 stacks will be removed, etc.


Stormcaller

Builds/rotations that use this soul:

Hailstorm is one of the few abilities in Rift that does not have a max number of targets.

Ice Shear can only be applied if there is one or more stacks of Electrify on the target.

Charged Field (Lightning Field with the Charged Field talent) will remove (Number of Mobs – 1) Stacks of Electrify. 1 mob and 0 stacks will be removed. 2 mobs and 1 sack will be removed, 3 mobs and 2 stacks will be removed. 4 or more mobs and all 3 stacks will be removed.

If you have 3 Stormcallers it is better for one of them to not be able to use Static Discharge, then to put them in a group of non casters.

The grouping priority for Static Discharge is: Other Stormcallers > DPS Mages with pets > Archons and Chloromancers > DPS Clerics and Justicars > Physical DPS with pets > Physical DPS without pets > non Justicar Healing Clerics.

Use Lightning Field right before Intensify Elements, or other damage buffs like Flaring Power, wears off. It will get the damage bonus for the entire duration.

Hailstorm is like a DoT, it will get the damage or crit bonuses that were available when it was cast, for the entire duration.

Challenging someone to a duel atop the wall of Sanctum, followed by a clever use of Wind Chill can produce much amusement for exactly 50% of the participants.

Hypothermia has two parts, the debuff and the slow. Someone or something can be effected by Hypothermia even if they are immune to the slow. The debuff increase the damage of certain spells.

Cheers!

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Starting Eve – Making Your Character

This Guest Post is brought to you by Kirith from Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah.  Make sure to check out his blog as well as his Eve Online podcast – Broadcasts from the Ninveah.

Starting Eve – Making Your Character

So you want to start playing Eve and you are in the character creator trying to decide which of the four races to choose for your main character. Its not like a fantasy game where everyone has a good idea of what Elves, Dwarves, Orks, and Humans bring to the table, is it? They are all human and the descriptions give you a basic idea but not the whole story. This article will provide you with some more information to help you make your decision.

Faction

You are allowed to be one of four main factions which control most of the settled space in the game. Overall there is no large difference in terms of game play balance in picking one faction over another as the game does not prevent you from using the technologies of the other factions as your character develops. It is mostly an aesthetic choice for role playing purposes although the choice will determine which technologies will be easier to train early on due to their availability in the local area you start (e.g. it is easy to find laser skillbooks in Amarr space and not as easy to find projectile skillbooks which are the forte of Minmatar faction).

Amarr Empire
The Amarr are one of the oldest factions and have a very religious and spiritual background. They are led by an Empress and have a powerful military controlling the largest number of systems. While slavery is outlawed, the abolition was only very recent and is still practiced in many parts of the empire, or has been replaced by indentured servitude that is virtually indistinguishable. The overt rational for this treatment of other humans is that they are striving to lead them to the Amarrian god from their heathen ways but the implications is that the Amarr view themselves as a superior race / culture to all others in varying degrees.

In game terms, Amarr ships concentrate mainly on lasers and armour defences, with a smattering of ships that use mainly missiles.

Caldari State
The most militaristic culture is that of the Caldari. Born out of a civil war with the Gallente Federation and forced to abandon their home world, the Caldari have done everything possible to ensure they are as strong as possible for future hostilities. As such, they eschew personal comfort or frivolities and the majority live and work in a harsh environment without complaint. The basis of the State are several mega-corporations that compete with each other and other faction’s corporations for control of New Eden’s resources and markets. These mega-corporations defer to the state government in so much that they are the one’s propping the government up in a symbiotic relationship.
Caldari ships use mainly missiles and shield defences, and a number of their ships focus on hybrid railguns.

Gallente Federation
A democratic government is the hallmark of the Federation, that and a focus on the hedonistic lifestyles that an advanced society can provide. The Gallente are all about the intersection of technology and art or the functional and the beautiful. They strive to give the best opportunities to all of its citizens with a fair representative government and high quality of life. This brings them into direct philosophical conflict with both the Amarr (with a caste system, virtual slavery, and religious hierarchies) and the Caldari ( with a government controlled by mega-corporations that keep the average citizen trapped near the poverty line). Things are not all sunshine and roses though; the Federation government is rife with corruption and many citizens loose their souls and their lives to the easily accessible hedonism in the cities and stations of the faction.

Gallente ships are renown for both using short ranged hybrid blaster weaponry and extensive use of drone technology, while defending themselves with armour plates and repairers.

Minmatar Republic
The Minmatar (also known as the Matari) were a tribal society taking the first steps at interstellar travel when they were discovered by the expanding Amarr Empire and were conquered and enslaved. They became the single largest source of slaves in the Empire and finally won their freedom when the Amarr suffered a huge defeat to the Jove (a fifth, unplayable faction with ultra-powerful technology) and the Minmatar rebelled. Most of them attained their freedom and forged a new Republic from the ashes, but many Minmatar remained as slaves and that fact is a constant point of conflict between the Amarr and their former slaves. While ostensibly a republic, the tribalism of the Minmatar permeates all politics and industry and interactions with the other factions.

Minmatar ships primarily use projectile weapons but also have many uses for missiles and drones, and alternate between armour defences and shield defences, sometimes even on the same hull depending on configuration.

Bloodline
Once you have picked a faction you will be required to choose one of three bloodlines within that faction. Your choice has very little impact on your game play, only determining your starting system and NPC corporation as well as the default NPC corporation you fall into when leaving a player corporation without joining another one.

Ancestry
During character creation you will be asked to choose an ancestry for your character. In previous version of Eve this had impact on your starting skills and attributes but this is no longer the case and it is merely a role playing factoid about your character now.

Gender
Your gender has no game play impact other than how you look and what clothes you can wear.

However, the 24 possible outcomes from the combinations of 4 factions, 3 bloodlines, and 2 genders are all unique in terms of how you character can look. An Amarrian female Khanid character cannot be sculpted and dressed to look like a Minmatar female Brutor no matter how hard you try. The base bone structures of the face of each combination is unique and cannot be modified past a certain point, and the clothes and accessories (such as tattoos and piercings) are sometimes reserved for certain character types.

So if how your character looks and dresses is very important to you, it may override any other consideration when selecting faction, bloodline, and gender.

Done
Select a name and now you have a character to start your journey in New Eden. Remember that none of the choices made in this process lock out anything in terms of game play mechanics in the future for you except for the look and possible clothing options of your character. So relax, enjoying experimenting with the detailed character creator options, and get out into space. Good luck pilot!

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Rift Contest – Are you the Top Rift Fan?

Are you the Top Rift Fan? Do you think you can upload videos and images to prove it and convince people to vote for you? Head on over to our Rift Top Fan contest and find out! You could win a 1 yr. Subscription to Rift, or a GeForce GTX 570 just for voting and every single person who votes will receive an in-game item code for Dwarven Smithy Goggles!

Get your Dwarven Smithy Goggles!

So go check it out! There is no reason to not at least vote in this awesome contest!

-Stephen

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