Warlords Online

What happens when you don't appease a god in the Warhammer Online universe? They get angry -- very, very angry. And then they smash things. Unfortunately, it appears as though the High Elves have been too focused on the RvR campaign to properly honour Kurnous with their annual sacred hunt and it has greatly displeased the God of the Hunt and Lord of the Beasts. His retaliation sets the stage for a new Live Event called Wild Hunt, which releases August 31, 2009 and leads into the game's first anniversary.

Mythic just released Grab Bag no. 21, which is full of Hunty goodness. Players will be granted special access to a new dungeon called Hunter's Vale for one week. This dungeon is accessed from RvR areas and is not warded, which puts the tier 4 version on par with Bastion Stair. Each tier will get its own version and lower level players will even be bolstered once inside so they can contribute.

A lot of effort goes into the game's monthly Live Events and they seem to be quite a hit with players. Some of the events will be annual, like the Wild Hunt and Night of Murder and some of them will be unique and introduce game-changing content to the world (e.g., Rise of the Tomb Kings and Bitter Rivals). It doesn't appear as though Mythic will be letting up any time soon.

This may be one of the few times a market crash is seen as a good thing. Mythic just released a hotfix that greatly reduces the pricing of RvR quartermaster token set gear, improves the drop rate of RvR set gear, and gives tokens as rewards for keep and battlefield objective defense.

Players were begging for a token system shortly after Warhammer Online's launch in late 2008 and finally received one about a month ago. The only major complaint about the new system was that prices seemed extremely expensive. Some players on the forums even claimed they were leveling out of a tier before they were able to afford the gear for that tier. Rather than rush to immediately drop prices, Mythic stated they would monitor the new system and adjust prices accordingly.

We think it's pretty safe to say that most subscribers will be letting out a big "Woot!" for this news. The amount of medallions required for quartermaster sets has been reduced by up to 50%. Some set items are now much cheaper while the more rare pieces of the set are only slightly cheaper. Officer medallions now drop off players rank 30 and above. Invader city gear can now be earned more quickly. Finally, the repeatable chain quests from war camps and defense of keep and BO now reward tokens.

Claiming and defending keeps in Warhammer Online can be a costly endeavour, but it just became a lot more rewarding. Guilds that own a T4 keep when the zone their keep is in is captured will now receive a gold bag containing Annihilator gear. They will receive another gold Annihilator bag for each successive zone that is captured. If the fortress falls in the pairing where you own a keep, you will recive a gold Conqueror bag. Guild masters can transfer these gold bags to anyone in the guild.

Recently, Mythic added other incentives for keep claiming. In order to lock a zone with the new Zone Domination System, all keeps must be claimed. The most recent patch also included a keep upgrade system. Guilds who claim keeps can upgrade the the gate, guards, and add special merchants. The intrinsic incentive for claiming and defending a keep is of course guild pride. Wouldn't we all like to see our heraldry flying in the wind?

This world-first was over six months in the making: One of the realms finally managed to overtake their enemy's capital city in Warhammer Online without any known form of exploitation. Destruction of Karak Eight Peaks (EU) defeated Karl Franz over a 14-hour marathon run this weekend and successfully captured Altdorf.

In dramatic fashion, the Third Realm alliance finished the necessary public quests gating the king instance with only two minutes remaining. After a number of wipes, they had Franz caged and ready for rotten fruit and vegetable target practice. They were rewarded greatly for their efforts.

Taking out the king in WAR is no easy feat as it requires hours upon hours and luck upon luck to gain the necessary gear to do so. Hearty congratulations are definitely in order (no pun intended). Mythic recently announced plans for a new token system that should help players get into the necessary warded gear faster than before. However, it's hard to say how long it will be before we hear news of another city capture. Was this sacking a one-off or have the floodgates opened?

You can watch a video of the king fight after the cut.

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We will admit to playing hours upon hours of Puzzle Quest, but the problem with that game is there's not persistence to your accomplishments. Sure, some versions have an online mode but it's just not the same as having the entire game designed around a dedicated online space. Well with the launch of Warlords Online -- the newest game to come forth from Infinite Interactive -- our Puzzle Quest MMO ambitions have been realized.

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