Allakhazam.com News (full)

Wrath of the Lich King - Details Revealed! [World of Warcraft]

For many a World of Warcraft player, this latest expansion from Blizzard for their ginormously successful MMO is the most anticipated one, boasting everything from walrus-men to the fabled Death Knight. While increasing the level cap from 70 to 80, this new expansion also offers players a choice of starting areas, rather than everyone beginning their journeys from the same location, as has been tradition for WoW in the past. Players will also enjoy a vastly increased land mass on which to play, as the areas are so large several of the zones have been split into smaller zones. This is great news, as the expansion provides much more content for adventurers to enjoy in between now and the next expansion (typical MMO player... always looking forward to the next one!). Also, players will enjoy actual climate changes and scenery as they travel through Northrend, going from windswept plains to icy tundra, with everything in between.

New enemies, new zones, and new dungeons are the mantra of any successful MMO expansion, and Blizzard just may have done it once again. Wrath of the Lich King introduces the Vrykul, giant enemies with apparently some Norse and/or Scandinavian ancestry, who are anxious to become members of the Scourge. Players will also see dungeons such as Uthgarde Keep, with two tiers of play for those level 70 and up to challenge themselves with. Tuskar, the walrus-men, can be found on the Borean Tundra, which will be a nice quiet resting place for travelers exhausted from fighting their way across the enemy's lands. And, should you choose, you may stay for awhile and work to build your reputation with the "fisher folk", which will lead to making them your ally. And finally, in the Borean Tundra players will find Coldara, a land ravaged by lightning, and home to the blue dragons and dragon-kin. This area is meant to show players just how serious Blizzard is about providing a richer experience to dungeon-crawlers and quest-mongers.

One of the highlights of this expansion is also the introduction of the Death Knight as a playable class, which has long been only a creature of lore as knights who give their lives in service to the Lich King in exchange for immortality. However, some of the Death Knights have been mysteriously freed from their service and are now warring against Arthas, their former master. So if you wish to rail against the injustice of servitude, regardless of whether you are with the Horde or the Alliance, take up the visage of the Death Knight and begin your battle.

Here are the highlights from this expansion for everyone to drool over... please be sure to wipe your keyboards after!

Raids & Dungeons - attention has been focused on players with limited play time, loot rewards equivalent to difficulty to achieve, and:

A new token system will be emerging, but will remain similar to the current one used
5-man versions will have a heroic mode, with separate loot tables for both the heroic and non-heroic versions, and designed to be no more than an hour of time to complete
Every raid dungeon will be available to both the 10- and 25-person versions, and neither dependent upon the other
Access will be easier, with no keys or attunements required, and lockouts will not occur should players choose to attempt one version over the other first
Greater rewards will be available to those groups succeeding in the 25-person raids
Raid bosses are still undefined as of yet

Death Knights - the first Hero class in World of Warcraft, will specialize in tanking bosses who deal magic damage, and:
- Are available to all players with a level 55 character or above
- Only one per realm, per account
- A Skeletal Deathcharger Mount will be available for summoning
- Begin with a full spectrum of abilities, rather than needing to gain them through character progression
- Primary source of power are runes set into six available slots in their "blade", rather than Mana or Energy. Blood, Unholy or Frost runes in any combination will be used, and spent runes will act like a Rogue's energy bar, refreshing themselves after a certain period of time
- A secondary source, Runic Power, will also be available to Death Knights, which is generated through utilizing rune abilities, and use the same basic mechanics as the Warriors' Execute or Rogues' finishing moves
- "Presence" will be available to Death Knights, providing them with very powerful self-buffs, which will depend upon their role in the group
- Will have "Army of the Dead", which will spawn numerous undead minions that will attack all enemies in close range
- An ability similar to Death Coil (without the fear component) will be available, and is an instant lifedrain spell
- The first class that will use disease as a source damage
- Will be able to revive either an ally or an enemy as a ghoul for use as a pet, and which will also carry its own unique ability. Allies will see a window from which they can choose to control the ghoul or not

Flying mounts will be unlocked to players at level 77. Both the Outland flying mount and new ones will be available.

For more information, be sure to keep an eye out on WoW Allakhazam and Wowhead!

Maggie "AutumnKiss" Olsen
Senior Editor, ZAM Network

Server Transfers Announced! [Vanguard Saga of Heroes]

Julie "Ellyra" Burness, Vanguard Community Rep at SOE, has let us know that beginning Tuesday, May 13, 2008, players will be offered two opportunities for server transfers for both new and existing Vanguard players!

"Originally, we had offered one transfer per character created before the server merges, but due to a large amount of old friends coming back to the game, we’ve decided to do away with all those rules, and open up the server transfers to anyone – regardless of their creation date or prior move history.
We’re hoping this opportunity will let people come back to the game, and easily find a home on a server where their friends are playing."

Round one will start on May 13th, and round two will become at some point in the following week. According to Julie, "Requesting a move is simple, and only requires logging into the game and using the /petition command. Players will need to include the names of all the characters on their account they would like to have moved, along with the server they would like to be transferred to." She also pointed out some things to keep in mind when looking to transfer:

Players cannot transfers to the Sartok (PvP) server, but are free to move to any other server.
All broker items should be packed up before the move, tombstones and house items collected. Players do not need to tear down their homes.

So if you've ever wanted to be on a different server, now is the time! Mark your calendars and pack your moving boxes for the big day!

Happy Friday! [EverQuest II]

And with the coming of the much loved and ever anticipated Friday goodness, comes my Friday readings desperately clinging to the coat tails of the weekend kick-off hoping to soak up some left over love!

This week I ramble about games getting too easy and about how our little family is constantly changing.

Enjoy! Have a safe and happy weekend and happy mother's day to all the mom's out there!

Game Update 45 Preview! [EverQuest II]

Game Update 45 is slated for next week, and Gnobrin brings us more information on the goodness headed our way!

Read more!

Characters of Middle-earth: Dori [Lord of the Rings Online]

The development team for the Lord of the Rings Online has added another creature to their ongoing "Creatures/Characters of Middle-earth" series. Who gets the spotlight today? Dori!:

Of the thirteen companions of the great Thorin Oakenshield, Dori was often responsible for keeping an eye out for the Company’s burglar, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Now Dori acts as an emissary to the dwarf-mines of Othrikar in the North Downs. Learn more about this famous dwarf in this week’s content update!

You can read the entire write-up HERE, and HERE at the European website.

EQII Allakhazam Dev Chat Logs! [EverQuest II]

Today's EQII Developer Chat was a rousing success! We invite you to enjoy the logs of this chat, and stay tuned, we'll be going through the Free-For-All chat for tidbits and adding then soon!

May 8 ,2008 EQII Allakhazam Developer Chat Logs!

Scholar Series Job Build [Elf Online]

Play Elf Online? Want to know the proper build for a scholar? Check out the following release from the Elf Online staff!

So it seems to me that people have been asking on a consistent basis about the proper build for a scholar. Generally speaking, it really depends on what you will be choosing as your second job. Currently, although I only have experience in buildiing the stats for a doctor, I will try to explain a short summary of the other 2 jobs as well: Poet and Alchemist.

First off, it is very important that each of the 3 jobs has enough stamina to meet the requirements for wearing dream, hero and legendary armor. You can easily check by going to the NPC in Dragon City that exchanges armor for gold powder and hover over the correct respective armor which for a scholar, should be leather. After meeting the stamina requirements, the builds start to branch off a bit.

Doctor

Since your main job will be designated as the healer vs. an attacker, it very important to have the correct balance of mp and hp. The AOE (area of effect) heals and single heals can start to become quite pricey at higher levels and therefore, a substantial amount of mp is needed. However, your most important job is to keep yourself from dying, therefore as important as MP can be, a higher level of HP can become crutcial. I have personally pumped 2 Wis, 3 Stam or 1 Wis, 4 Stam into my doctor in order to ensure that by lvl 60 my HP will be over 4000.

Poet

Your main focus will be to cast party buffs and act as an emergency, not primary healer. While I believe it is important to have a secondary healer, the poet will be using most of it's store turn points in order to cast buffs to increase party attack, etc. I would personally go back to the old school build of alternating between 2 Wis, 3 Stam and 3 Wis, 2 Stam in order to keep a good balance of HP and MP.

Alchemist

Now here comes the tough decision. The role of an alchemist will play as a strong attacker, yet an emergency healer. Since the alchemist will primarily be attacking, I believe it is better to follow a Magician/Shaman/Hypnotist's build of 3 Wis, 2 Stam. It is really a hard decision on whether you would like to keep your HP high, or to forgo some HP in order to have enough MP to pull off all the attacks.

Final Notes

One thing to remember is that the builds I have mentioned above neither favor a pvp build nor a training build. I have tried to piece together what I have heard and it seems the conclusion was the balance that I have mentioned above. For example. if you would like your character to favor a pvp build, certainly pump more HP than MP.

Another common question was : What exactly does luck do?
I have personally heard that it decreases enmity towards the character, but seeing as I have a 0 luck build, I cannot personally say that I've tested this claim. If this statement is true, then it might not be a bad idea to pump in some luck towards a PURE training doctor, but certainly never towards a pvp doctor.

I hope this short guide helps and if there is any additional information people can add, that would be greatly appreciated

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About Elf Online
Elf Online is a turn based MMORPG which features for colorful, bright and cheerful game world with comedic quests and funny NPCs. In Elf Online, players assume the role of an adventurer fighting bravly with the King Darkness to save the Dreamland World and the Imaginary Godness. On the way of player's adventure, they will encounter hundreds of monsters with strong characteristic which may be captured and tamed by players. Five types of pets are available in Elf Online, Soldier type, Agility type, Assistant type, Magic type and the Control type each of which have their specialty and unique skill tree that help you alot both in PK or normal game play. PvP is also a importnt element of Elf Online. Elf Online allow PvP on the condition that the other player accept you challenge. RvR (Realm vs Realm) for the right to control a city is also included in Elf Online which usually takes place on a weekly base. The winner of the usually may have the priority to collect tax from the other player in the city the realm controls.

Legends of Norrath Allakhazam launches! [Legends of Norrath]

Today we've launched a new site covering the online trading card game, Legends of Norrath. Legends of Norrath is accessible from both inside the two EverQuest games, and as a stand-alone game.

In traditional Allakhazam style we have an incredible amount of data, guides, tools, and news. A few of the cooler things:

Card List: Every single Legends of Norrath card so far, complete with all stats, card graphics, and a user-updatable wiki for each card.

Deck Builder: Build your own deck of 50 cards straight from our site. Allow other people to rate your deck, search by the best decks, comment on other peoples decks and a whole lot more.

Wikibase: Just like our EverQuest 2 and Final Fantasy XI site, our Legends of Norrath site combines the best features of a database and a wiki. Almost every page is updatable by users using our customized wiki software, and we also have traditional wiki content such as guides and tutorials.

Forums: Want to discuss a build? What do you think of the new Raid Decks dropping from in-game? Have a suggestion for improving the site?

Of course there are also a lot more features, so check our the new site today!

LotRO: Mini-Game Launched for Mines of Moria [Lord of the Rings Online]

What goes better together than drinking and axe throwing? Not much, and the folks over at Turbine agree!

Turbine, Inc. and Codemasters Online today announced the launch of Swig and Toss, the second mini-game on www.unlocktheminesofmoria.com. Registered participants can challenge themselves and their friends to earn special deeds that unlock unique rewards including exclusive videos, images, and in-game items that will aid them on their journey when The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria launches this fall.
Swig and Toss is an axe throwing competition with a bit of drinking and wagering to make things more interesting! In this 10-round game, players try to keep a steady aim while attempting to hit a target with their axe. Hit the mark and win! Miss and hear the Dwarves around you scoff at your lack of skill.
Between rounds, players can take a few swigs from their mug to help quench their thirst. This will help boost their confidence and loosen their pocket strings, increasing the amount they can wager.

Swig and Toss is available today at www.unlocktheminesofmoria.com. Registration is free!

Wonderland Mother's Day and Photo Op Events [Wonderland Online]

The folks over at Wonderland Online are giving you a special way to celebrate Mom in their forums. Then head on over to the Aries server on May 11th for a GM photo op!

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, the Wonderland Online team is holding a special event celebration from May 7th to May 15th.
Players can make special cards with some passionate words or blessings and post them in the WLO forum to participate in this event. Player’s works should include characters or scenes featured in Wonderland Online. Player’s votes and official opinions will be taken into consideration to decide the final winners. Winners will be announced May 25th.
In addition, the WLO team will also be holding a photo op event in Aries server from 2:00am to 3:00am (GMT-5) on May 11th. Players can go to Starter’s Beach, Kelan Village, Welling Village and Holy Village to take photos with GMs. The photos will be uploaded to the WLO official website.

For more information or for official contest rules visit the Official Wonderland Online site.