Another Welcome Back Week. Beginning today and running through May 31st, all inactive accounts have been reactivated free of charge just in time to participate in the Third Anniversary Celebration.
Players can return for free, join the party, and catch up thanks to a 5% XP boost that stacks with rest XP for even faster leveling. The game isn’t the only thing you can enjoy free during the event — Stable-masters in the game are offering free travel as well.
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Castillans Lord of the Rings Online
The down side to EVE Online’s truly massive single-server design that puts all players in the same universe is that lag has been a constant problem since the game’s launch. For the most part, the game runs smoothly and lag doesn’t affect the day-to-day lives of players. It’s when too many players congregate in one place that the server node they’re on begins to grind to a halt. Circumstances can rapidly go from bad to worse, with server nodes collapsing under the strain and database failures occurring.
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Kins EVE Online
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast.
Last week we talked a bit about some addons that you may have found useful as a restoration shaman. Sadly though, shortly after that post, news broke that AVR/AVRE would be going away in patch 3.3.5. The addon did some things that Blizzard was just not too happy about. The week was not filled with all bad news, though. We have had some amazing Cataclysm screenshots every day, Rich Maloy had an awesome post on enhancement weapons and the loot tables for Ruby Sanctum 25-man and 10-man have been slightly updated.
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Castres World of Warcraft
Final Fantasy XI’s Chains of Promathia was a bit polarizing for the players — you either love it or hate it. No one can argue that it raised the bar considerably on the game’s cutscenes and storytelling, but it was also restrictive in many ways and limited player access to new zones (which were the only non-storyline elements added). It’s a sign of its nature that there are still many players who want to finish the storyline, even though the option has been there for several years. Lucky for players, the June version update is addressing that.
Although the removal of level caps was mentioned in passing at VanaFest 2010, the most recent news gives a specific list of what areas will be affected — all four Promyvion areas, Pso’Xja, Riverne Site #A01 and #B01, the Phomiuna Aqueducts, and the Sacrarium. The announcement goes on to confirm that mission battlefields will also be uncapped, and the monster layout and strength will be adjusted in some of the areas to facilitate characters at 75 and above. It promises to spark new interest in Final Fantasy XI’s most unique expansion and the corresponding zones, which is good news for anyone in the game.
Castro Final Fantasy XI
The team for Star Trek Online has been working on cleaning up bugs, deploying new features, and generally getting the game prepped for the upcoming Season 1.2 patch, which promises a variety of additions and improvements to the game. In order to help facilitate the testing of new features — and to enjoy getting into the mix with the players — the development team is going to be hosting one of Cryptic’s frequent play nights with the general populace.
Unlike normal, this night isn’t taking place on the live servers, but on the Tribble test server. From 4-6 PM PST (7-9 PM EST) on May 24th, the developers will be on the server, taking part in PvE content as well as on the PvP maps. Whether you want the developers to hear about your great idea for new task forces, want to tell them how much you want the game to have new content, or are just still recovering from the series finale of Lost, any player with an active Star Trek Online account is encouraged to mix it up with the development team.
Castiglione Star Trek Online
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that puts your words on WoW.com.
Burning with desire to slip into the Cataclysm beta test, grab a goblin or worgen and run wild? Not these players. We asked readers to tell us why they do or do not want to participate in Cataclysm beta testing — and while plenty affirmed their beta aspirations with desperately ardent pleas, we found ourselves more intrigued by the reasoning of those who said they weren’t interested. Why would they pass up this opportunity of a gaming lifetime? What could they possibly hope to be doing for fun, instead? Read on to hear the opinions of three players on why, when it comes to Cataclysm beta testing, they will be opting out.
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Castillans World of Warcraft
It was just another Sunday when Fox Van Allen woke to the mid morning sun on his face. He sat up groggily and looked around his quiet apartment. A moment passed before he realized something was wrong — it wasn’t here. “Not again …” he muttered, his brows pressed in frustration. It must have gone back to her again. “Dawn Moore …” he sneered while pulling himself out of bed. He didn’t know what it saw in her. “Priest healing … Bah! Who would want to do that?” Still, Fox sighed, his doubts gnawing at him. Why was Spiritual Guidance so fickle?
I love tanks. Likewise, there have been many tanks who have loved me.
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Catelet World of Warcraft
The dawning of another Saturday brings with it another edition of Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column delivered direct to your driveway by a paperboy who blinks from house to house, fending off overprotective guard dogs with the occasional conjured ball of flame and constantly demanding his two dollars (I really, really wish I could have found an actual clip of that, but yet again, YouTube has failed me). It’s all pretty impressive, especially when you consider that this paperboy is also wearing a dress.
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Kanghi World of Warcraft
Memory Alpha
Okay, so now that you understand crafting materials, it’s time to discuss using them. At level 4, you should receive a mission to deliver anomalous data from Earth Starbase to Memory Alpha, which is where all crafting takes place. Head to the Teneebia Sector of Alpha Centauri Sector Space and scoot on over to Memory Alpha.
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Kins Star Trek Online
Attention, Starfleet! It’s time again for Captain’s Log, your favorite Thursday Star Trek Online column. After last week’s roundup of incoming changes and improvements, let’s discuss the latest much-needed upgrade to STO: the Memory Alpha overhaul!
I am so excited about this change. Crafting in STO definitely got short shrift at launch. The system itself was not engaging, and progression was a confounding mess. While Cryptic Studios haven’t fundamentally altered the former, last week’s update to the Season 1.3 patch made such changes to the latter — it implemented a dedicated crafting window and actual progression — that I almost don’t care. After bidding a brief farewell to the previous system, allow me to explain the basics of crafting: materials, missions and Memory Alpha.
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Kocherberg Star Trek Online
Suffer, mortals, as your pathetic mod betrays you! Come patch 3.3.5, Blizzard is disabling the functionality of the ultra-useful Augmented Virtual Reality (AVR) addon. The popular mod allows three-dimensional images to be shared between party members in real time to aid in raid strategy and positioning. It is perhaps best known for making the Sindragosa encounter a snap during the ice blocking phase (and, of course, for sharing crudely drawn pictures of genitalia).
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Catalans MMOPRG News
When news starts coming from Famitsu regarding Final Fantasy XIV, it usually heralds information coming direct from Square-Enix shortly thereafter. Only a short time after the leak that gave us a look at the world map and some of the points of interest, the official site updated with more information on the world. While there was some information accessible from the prior scans, the new section on Limsa Lominsa details the city extensively, as well as adding sections for the two other city states, Ul’dah and Gridania.
Although the three states each bear some similarities to Final Fantasy XI’s great nations, they’re quite different in feel and in scope. The biggest similarity seems to be that much like the previous game, they’re filled with distinct personalities and locations. Limsa Lominsa is the only city to get full detailing on its landmarks, but those range from the former pirate dive that’s been turned into the adventurer’s guild (The Drowning Wench) to the city’s center at an ancient swamped battleship (The Mizzenmast). Final Fantasy XIV fans are encouraged to take a look at the official site for its updates, which continue to paint the world of Eorzea in broad strokes.
Castille Final Fantasy XI
New around here? See all our collected tips, tricks and how-to’s for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide.
Today’s WoW Rookie blows the whistle in a bit of traffic directing at the buzzing intersection of Raider Boulevard and Rookie Lane. This isn’t a casuals-versus-raiders debate — far from it. What we have today is more of a guide on how to peacefully co-exist with players who enjoy the game in a very different way than you do. While we’ve written on this topic before, reader Peter sent in a request that made us consider that it might be time to revisit the issue.
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Castres World of Warcraft
Wowhead is hosting the World of Warcraft Official Magazine forums. This is now the place to go to ask questions about the quarterly, subscription-only, no-ad magazine. Skaarjonic aka Andy Salisbury, one of the magazine’s editors, makes clear in the intro post that they are not Blizzard and will not be revealing any insider info that is under NDA.
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Catalans World of Warcraft
It’s been a little while since we’ve heard anything new about Final Fantasy XIV, although all signs point to the game continuing to do well for itself in testing. But we might be due for another gush of information, considering that the most recent leaked issue of Famitsu contains a few bits that we’ve not seen before… including a nice map of the world of Eorzea. Unfortunately, the translation team over at FFXIVcore hasn’t yet gone wild on the pages, but there’s still plenty to be discovered, from what we can see.
Eorzea’s map vaguely resembles a mirror image of Africa, with a large island off the coast. It doesn’t appear to have an obvious focal point a la Final Fantasy XI’s world with Jeuno at the continental intersection. There’s also a groundswell of information on the guilds and people within the city of Limsa Lominsa, While there’s not a bulk of new information on the game’s mechanics, it’s certainly a fair dose of lore that we haven’t gotten before, and we can only hope it signals the start of another round of big news on Final Fantasy XIV.
Castro Final Fantasy XI