Classes

Welcome to my Prime World castle! Enjoy the mountain air, the multiple residential buildings, the fountain and bench I decided I had room for, and the general atmosphere. No, really, enjoy them now because you sadly can't even see them in the game. While a few of my mates and I had the pleasure of experiencing Prime World via the English client on the live Russian server, there were a few oddities that popped up during our prime-binge, and I'm not referring to my Russian comrades.

For those who haven't heard of Prime World, let me giver you a primer: It's set in a fantasy world where a new material called "prime" has revolutionized both the scientific and natural world. Players are tasked with building their own little base to gather resources, make friends, hire heroes, and fight for more prime against the other faction (unless your side currently heavily outnumbers the other faction, in which case the game allows you the option to fight other people of your faction in order to speed up the queues). Really, it's like StarCraft and League of Legends had a baby and asked Facebook to raise the kid, except that you needn't make use of the Facebook integration to play the game and can opt to use an email address instead. However, you'll still find a need for a social network when it comes to the non-MOBA part of the game.

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Goblinworks' CEO Ryan Dancy recently guested on the DM Fiat podcast. The Pathfinder Online producer had plenty to say about the tabletop RPG that's invading the MMO space, including nuggets about Pathfinder's extensive guild/settlement system, the River Kingdoms and expanding beyond them, and player-generated content.

Dancey says that Goblinworks would like for players to create their own PvE content modules and sell them to others, likely via some sort of app store format. He also mentions Pathfinder's archetype system and its numerous advantages over traditional class mechanics. Head to DM Fiat to listen to the podcast.

[Thanks Mark!]

Star Wars: The Old Republic has finished up the last of eight dev diaries featuring changes to the game's classes following Rise of the Hutt Cartel's release. On the docket for today is the Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular, mirrored classes that have mirrored adjustments.

Both classes now have stronger heals (Dark Heal and Benevolence), cooldown-free shields (Static Barrier and Force Armor), and class-wide access to 10 seconds of faster casting and interrupt blocking (Polarity Shift and Mental Alacrity). Both classes also have been treated to a new skill, Force Barrier, which offers total protection for up to 10 seconds of channeling.

There are plenty of other detailed changes to the advanced classes and roles, so check these diaries out if you're in tune with the Force in a way that makes the rest of us jealous.

During the last week, I've witnessed two excellent unions: My good friend married his college sweetheart, and a MOBA reached out to the ranks of turn-based gaming. Sure, the former had an open bar, but no amount of free booze can quench my desire for something new within the MOBA genre. Enter Arena of Heroes, a new turn-based free-to-play MOBA that can be played on PC, Mac, iPad, and eventually, on Ouya, iOS, and Android.

I spent the morning with Sneaky Games CEO David Godwin and Zattikka Director of Product Alexandra Tinsman to find out why this game will make me bring my iPad everywhere I go.

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The dev diary march to cover all of the changes to Star Wars: The Old Republic's classes continues, with today's twin postings focusing on the Bounty Hunter and Trooper.

Bounty Hunters should have an easier go at it now, as BioWare's handing out Hydraulic Overrides and Chaff Flares to everyone. The team also redesigned the Kolto Overload skill to give the class a huge bump to survivability when it activates. Over on the Trooper side of things, the team's brought the class' resource mechanic in line with the Trooper's Bounty Hunter counterpart. All Troopers now get Hold the Line and Diversion skills, as well as a more survival-happy Adrenaline Rush.

The smaller but still significant tweaks to the advanced classes are worth reading carefully if you play one of these classes, as there are plenty to note.

As Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn takes shape, so does its website. Square-Enix has updated the official site with scads of new screenshots for many of the game's jobs and professions. We've saved you the time it would take to comb through the entire site hunting each of these down by compiling all of them in one handy-dandy gallery. Behold!

Ready to play some Neverwinter? It looks as though Cryptic is ready to pull the trigger on this bad boy, with a soft launch (open beta with no wipes) starting on April 25th for founders and April 30th for everyone else. While I'm not surprised that the studio is moving ahead with the launch, I still wish that Neverwinter were being held back a few months to get more testing time and to add more classes.

You see, five classes doesn't seem like enough to me, especially in a D&D MMO. Yes, there's plenty of room for growth here, and I'm sure that Cryptic will be charging for each new class rolled out, but five? That's pretty paltry, especially when you read this prospective list.

But I'm not in charge of development and schedules; I'm just a humble gamer and writer. So I'll lift my chin and get excited for the fact that, hey, we're going to be playing non-wipeable Neverwinter soon! That means that we all have just a couple of weeks to make a crucial decision: What class will we roll first? Let's take a look at the big five and see what the options are.

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With Rise of the Hutt Cartel finally open for business, the folks at BioWare are doing their best to educate players on the significant changes in Star Wars: The Old Republic's first expansion. Today sees not one but two class dev diaries itemizing the tweaks and upgrades to the Smuggler and the Imperial Agent.

As both classes mirror each other and use similar skills, the twin dev diaries cover mostly the same basic topics. Alacrity has been buffed to genuinely speed up attacks, DoTs are cheaper to throw down, shields now absorb any type of damage, and accuracy's importance has been raised when you're fighting elite and tougher mobs.

The diaries also cover changes to specific advanced classes and skill trees. BioWare says that it will be releasing similar diaries for the remaining six classes in the near future.

There have been a lot of MMO classes thrown our way over the years, and if you add in a handful of skill-based games that let you create your own class, you end up with a decent variety of combat gameplay styles.

The vast majority of these styles fall under several broad archetypes, though, and whether we're talking about ranged DPS or crowd-control, we all have our favorites. For today's Leaderboard, let's see which archetype wins the title of Massively comment section favorite. Vote after the cut!

Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!

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Villagers and Heroes, formerly called A Mystical Land, surprised me. I had gone several weeks if not a few months without logging in to the game for longer than a half an hour, so you can imagine my surprise when I realized that the game not only had been improved but had added systems that I thought it never would. In other words, the game was suddenly a world, a fully realized browser-based MMORPG. Despite my feeling that the game was going to languish in state of semi-completion, suddenly it had housing, more crafting, a better UI, and a fully stocked cash shop.

I've streamed the game before, but now I find myself logging in a lot more than ever. And now, after hosting a livestream with associate designer Cameron England (embedded after the cut), I'm really having fun with the game and have noticed that it offers a lot more than games that are much more well-known.

This is why I play Villagers and Heroes.

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Some people are pretty good at fighting weapons, but sometimes you just need a great weapon fighter. Someone who really fights weapons better than...

Wait, we're sorry. Neverwinter's Great Weapon Fighter is a class that fights with great weapons, not a great fighter of weapons. The name can be read a couple of different ways, but since the class is on display in the latest spotlight (complete with video past the break) you can clear up any misconceptions about it fairly easily.

Of course, you can't quite clear up those misconceptions via open beta, since Neverwinter isn't opening the gates until April 30th. Founders and other beta testers can enjoy the game's latest beta weekend very soon, however, with the test period starting on Friday at 3:00 p.m. EDT. This latest weekend is featuring both the crafting system and the new Gateway system, so testers should look forward to several new features starting on Friday.

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Another classic hero is joining the Infinite Crisis line-up, a selection of champions that already includes variations of Wonder Woman, Batman, the Joker, and much more. Today Turbine released a video introducing Green Lantern, the fighter pilot-turned-superhero who uses a ring of power to decimate his opponents. As a ranged blaster, Green Lantern is built for kiting; he has low mana cost for shelling out his intense damage and frequent disable attacks, but low movement speed to flee from melee fights.

The trailer highlights the hero's passive ability indomitable will, which increases power damage based on missing will and regains health whenever you earn a kill or assist. Also demonstrated are several attacks including slam, constrict, missile barrage, and Green Lantern's Light. Check out the moves in the clip after the break and hear tips how to get the most out of using this champion. And for a look at how the game plays, check out Massively's hands-on experience from GDC. Beta sign-ups are going on now.

[Source: Turbine press release]

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Quoting beta feedback as a reason, Cryptic is changing Neverwinter's character progression to allow players to purchase new skills via power points. Previously, specific skills were handed out automatically upon hitting certain levels, but apparently choice was a big request of testers.

The new power points system, which will be available in the upcoming fourth beta weekend, allows for both skill unlocks and upgrades. There will be certain restrictions, such as keeping the third rank for all skills locked until level 30 and not giving players enough points to purchase everything by the time they hit the endgame.

The team says that this system will make the decision of feat choices more strategic, particularly in compensating for any power weakness.

Good news! (Well, at least for my police record.) As it turns out, I didn't have to resort to kidnapping to convince someone from NCsoft to talk to me about Aion at this year's GDC. I swear, Sean Orlikowski, the game's associate producer, came willingly.

It does, however, appear that in the fine print of the meeting proposal, I agreed to be outfitted with a special electronic device that would send massive jolts of electricity through my system if I tried to speak about something I shouldn't. So let's see how much I can share with you before this apparatus leaves me unconscious.

Can I tell you that Aion has a special celebration planned for the first anniversary of the Truly Free conversion? So far, so good, folks. Hmm... can I add that the next big expansion has a North American launch date planned without going unconscious... oh, appears so! OK, let's push this a little further: How about if I happened to mention that 4.0 will hit servers in June 2013 -- would I be zapped? Nope! So there you have it, folks: 4.0 is indeed going live in just two short months!

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Apart from Star Wars: The Old Republic, which has tailored half of the game to be such, class quests seems to be a concept on the way out of design popularity. These are quests that are specifically tailored to a class' abilities and story, while not being accessible by folks in other professions.

I rather like class quests when I encountered them. They made me feel a little special, like I was part of an "exclusive" club that the rest of the game's classes wouldn't be able to see. What's better is that these missions helped me get into the spirit of the class and identify more strongly with it.

What about you? Do you like class quests when you encounter them? Do you think there should be more class-specific activities or should they be eliminated altogether?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!