daveGoyette

It seems as if ArenaNet is closer to an open beta that I thought. Lead designer Eric Flannum talks about the revamped combat system in place for Guild Wars 2 as well gives a preview of updated skills for the Elementalist. This, along with World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm, are my most anticipated released for Q4 2010/Q1 2011.

Elementalists have a number of special spell types:
Glyphs—These arcane spells enhance or modify the natural power of the Elementalist. She uses the Glyph of Elemental Power to increase the damage, range, and duration of her spells.
Signets—Signets provide an ongoing benefit to the Elementalist, but can also be activated for a greater effect. An Elementalist equipped with the Signet of Earth has increased damage resistance, but activating the Signet sends out a wave of stone, stunning nearby enemies.
Conjure Spells—The Elementalist uses Conjure spells to summon useful items and potent weapons that she or other party members can use. For instance, she uses Conjure Flame to create a fiery rock to hurl at the enemy.
Area Spells—Using Area spells, the Elementalist creates hazards and mayhem all over the field of battle. The Elementalist fires lava arrows in a cone-shaped blast or creates walls of fire that scorch any enemies passing through.

Visit the GuildWars2 website to learn more about the new combat system and videos of new elementalist spells.

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we’ll be making several changes to class talents and abilities across the board. Here, you’ll get a glimpse at what’s in store for the rogue class, including a look the new high-level abilities and an overview of how the new Mastery system will work with the rogue’s different talent specs.

New Rogue Abilities

Redirect (available at level 81): Rogues will be getting a new ability to help them deal with changing targets. Redirect will transfer any active combo points to the rogue’s current target, helping to ensure combo points aren’t wasted when swapping targets or when targets die. In addition, self-buff abilities like Slice and Dice will no longer require a target, so rogues can spend extra combo points on those types of abilities (more on this below). Redirect will have a 1-minute cooldown and no other costs.

Combat Readiness (level 83): Combat Readiness is a new ability that we intend rogues to trigger defensively. While this ability is active, whenever the rogue is struck by a melee or ranged attack, he or she will gain a stacking buff called Combat Insight that results in a 10% reduction in damage taken. Combat Insight will stack up to 5 times and the timer will be refreshed whenever a new stack is applied. Our goal is to make rogues better equipped to go toe-to-toe with other melee classes when Evasion or stuns are not in play. This ability lasts 6 seconds and has a 2-minute cooldown.
Read the rest of this entry »

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will bring with it several changes to class talents and abilities. In this preview, you’ll get a glimpse at some of the new abilities, spells, and talents in store for the death knight class, along with an early look at some improvements we plan to make to the rune resource system.

New Death Knight Abilities

Outbreak (level 81): Outbreak infects the target with both Frost Fever and Blood Plague at no rune cost. This ability allows death knights to apply diseases quickly when they are switching targets or when their diseases have been dispelled.

Necrotic Strike (level 83): Necrotic Strike is a new attack that deals weapon damage and applies a debuff that absorbs an amount of healing based on the damage done. For context, imagine that the death knight can choose between doing 8,000 damage outright with a certain ability, or dealing 6,000 damage and absorbing 4,000 points in incoming heals with Necrotic Strike — the burst is smaller, but a larger overall amount of healing would be required to bring the target back to full health. Read the rest of this entry »

[I will do my best to give a review of the changes done to each class. Although I am no expert in every class; I still will attempt to form some sort of logical opinion.]

Beginning Wednesday, April 7 we will begin releasing class previews containing an overview of some of the changes currently being planned for each of the 10 World of Warcraft classes. The type of information you can expect from these posts are a list of the new spells from 80-85, the new passive mastery bonuses for all talent trees, a brief outline of some of the talent changes we’re currently planning, and in some cases new low level spells for select classes.

These changes will by no means be comprehensive, and are subject to change between now and the launch of the expansion. It’s also important to understand that some classes are currently further along in the development process than others, and as a result the amount of information will vary from class to class. Please do not let this frustrate you should your class be amongst those which are on the “lighter” side of things, as all classes will receive the same level of design attention before the expansion is released. Additionally we’ll be providing more information for all classes, especially as we move into the beta phase.

Below is the schedule for each class:

Shaman – April 7
Priest – April 7
Warlock – April 7

Warrior – April 8
Death Knight – April 8
Rogue – April 8

Hunter – April 9
Druid – April 9
Mage – April 9

Paladin – April 16*

Source: World of Warcraft

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we’ll be making lots of changes and additions to class talents and abilities across the board. In this preview, you’ll get an early look at some of the changes in store for the shaman class, including a rundown of some of the new spells, abilities, and talents, and an overview of how the new Mastery system will work with the different talent specs.

New Shaman Spells

Primal Strike (available at level 3): Primal Strike is a new weapon-based attack that every shaman will learn very early in the game. Our goal with this ability is to make leveling as Enhancement rather than as Elemental more viable, since many key Enhancement talents become available at fairly high levels.

Healing Wave (level 4): While the shaman already has an ability called Healing Wave, we’re adding another spell to the class’s direct-healing arsenal and giving it a familiar name. The current Healing Wave will be renamed Greater Healing Wave, and the intent is for the ‘new” Healing Wave to be the shaman’s go-to heal. Lesser Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave will be used on a more situational basis.

Unleash Weapon (level 81): Unleashes the power of your weapon enchants for additional effects (see below). A dual-wielding Enhancement shaman will activate the effects of both of their weapon enchants. Instant cast. 30-yard range. 15-second cooldown. Undispellable. Read the rest of this entry »

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, warlocks will receive changes to their class talents and abilities. Outlined below are some of these changes. Keep in mind that this is an early preview and that these modifications are still under development, so you may see further adjustments to the listed changes as we get closer to launch. That said, here is a first look at these new warlock spells and abilities!

New Warlock Spells

Fel Flame (level 81): Quick-hitting spell dealing Shadowfire damage. This is similar to the mage ability Frostfire Bolt, in that the lower of the two resistances (in this case shadow and fire) on your target will be used for calculating its damage. Additionally, Fel Flame refreshes the duration of Immolate and Unstable Affliction. Our goal for Fel Flame is to provide a spell that’s good for mobility and for use by Destruction and Demonology specs. Also, did we mention it uses green fire? Yep. Instant cast.

Dark Intent (level 83): Increases the target’s chance for a critical effect with periodic damage or healing spells by 3%. When the target lands a crit, you get a buff to your damage for 10 seconds. This effect stacks up to three times.

Demon Soul (level 85): Fuses the warlock’s soul with his or her demon. This provides warlocks with a self-burst cooldown to use. The specific effects granted by Demon Soul depend on the demon chosen. Demon Soul lasts for a certain number of charges or until it expires (around 20 seconds), depending on the demon used. 2-minute cooldown. Read the rest of this entry »

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we’ll be making lots of changes and additions to class talents and abilities across the board. In this preview, you’ll get an early look at some of the changes in store for the priest class, including a rundown of some of the new spells, abilities, and talents, as well as an overview of how the new Mastery system will work with the different talent specs.

New Priest Spells

Heal (available at level 16): While priests already have a spell called Heal, the existing version becomes obsolete at higher levels, which is something we intend to change in Cataclysm. Introduced at a low level, the “new” Heal spell will functionally work much like a down-ranked Greater Heal did in the past, adding more granularity to your direct-healing arsenal. If you need to heal someone a moderate amount and efficiency is an issue (making Flash Heal the incorrect spell for the job), then Heal is what you want to use. Heal is intended to be the priest’s go-to direct-healing spell unless they need something bigger (Greater Heal) or faster (Flash Heal). We will be following a similar philosophy with all the healing classes. Read the rest of this entry »

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will bring with it several changes to class talents and abilities. Here you will get a glimpse into some of the changes we have in store for the warrior. The information you’re about to read is not complete, and is only meant to act as a preview for some of the exciting new things to come.

New Warrior Abilities

Inner Rage (Level 81): Whenever the character reaches a full 100 Rage, he or she will gain a buff that causes attacks to consume 50% more Rage and do 15% more damage for a short amount of time. This is a passive ability so it won’t need to be activated by the player. The goal for this ability is to provide a benefit for hitting max Rage instead of it feeling like a penalty. However, we also don’t want warriors to feel like they’re supposed to pool Rage and do nothing until they hit 100, so we’ll be closely monitoring how this plays out during the beta testing, and making adjustments as needed. Read the rest of this entry »

Found this post on the Star Wars: The Old Republic forums: Link Anyways here’s my response (page 4 if you plan on reading the entire thread):

Quote: Originally Posted by Ghostscore
I do ask for some constructive reply’s, not short 2 word reply’s. I am trying to get this all on paper for a project (non-school related) that i am working on trying to get gaming addiction on the map, as scientificly, people are stil debating heavily on wether it is a valid addiction. Wich i believe is, as a gambling addiction is seen as a valid one too. and i think a gaming addiction is similar to a gambling addiction

I’ve heard of ‘video-game’ addiction, and seen the effects of alcohol, drug and gambling addictions. I don’t believe in video-game addiction as much as I believe in sports addiction, or car addiction, or reading addiction. Putting video-game addiction in the same sentence as alcohol, drug, gambling addiction is wrong. Those are substance abuse that cause major bodily harm to the host as well as emotional, physical, and monetary damage to those around them.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ghostscore
To name an example. In asia a baby died, cause the childs parents neglected the child. The fact was, that they simply were to busy BOTH playing World of Warcraft. Wich they thought was more important then their child.

How many children die due to neglect from their drunken, high parents? Yes it is sad to see a child die because their parents neglected them while playing a game. These parents could have left the child inside a car while they went to lunch, shopped, work, or went to a bar and got shit faced and forgot they had a baby.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ghostscore
Also, several people had break-ups, or divorces. One quote that i could give you as an example, how your spouses feel like when you play to much Quote:”He would get home from work at 6:00, start playing at 6:30, and he’d play until three a.m. Weekends were worse — it was from morning straight through until the middle of the night,” she told Yahoo! Games in an interview. “It took away all of our time that we spent together. I ceased to exist in his life.”

How many divorce cases have happen because of a partner drinking themselves to the hospital, or here’s a new one; they were workaholics. “He would get home from work at 6PM, but the work day didn’t end for him then. He’d work until midnight and finally come to sleep, and wake up the next morning at 6AM. Rinse and repeat.” I believe that video games are a hobby and those that have addictive personalities use gaming as a mean to escape. Would you rather a parent see their child in the safety of their own home than in the dark alleys crawled up puking, or passed out with a needle in their arm? Couples break up over many things, and gaming was just a way for one of them to leave because there was something already wrong in the relationship.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ghostscore
You said you playED like that. So im assuming you are not anymore? If so, how did you overcome this?

You overcome it by quitting, by being “strong” and leaving the game. If you can’t do that then you’re lucky as hell you were “addicted” (as you think it should be called) to WoW than drugs, alcohol, or gambling. In these stressful times people need to escape from their lives and video games give them a safe way to do that. Should we put a stopper on euphoric moments? I don’t think so. Is it healthy to sit at ones computer for 18 hours a day? Of course not, but there are many jobs are out there created for computer, and demand that they sit at their desk working at computers all day. We don’t live healthy lives, period. The work day never ends for most people, and those that find a way to escape it are lucky. Personally I’ve played my fair share of exam-crunching all nighters, but also gaming all nighters. The ones that I’ve gamed through have been with friends and e-friends. I’ve also drank my fair share of beers, bottles of alcohol and to be honest I rather be at my computer than having a hangover the next morning and stumbling into work because I went out with my friends, even though we were sitting on their couches playing NHL before, arriving to the bars.

Life is about balance. Not many have achieved it.