May 02 2013

Closed Beta Q&A With Matt Firor

Category: General,News — admin @ 12:37 am

The Elder Scrolls Online closed beta has been underway since the end of March where several luckily players were invited to experience TESO behind closed doors. But with a recent 20 minute leak of the video, many fans looked around to learn more about the game. In a recent interview with Matt Firor at Zam.com, Firor shed some light answering some burning questions in regards to the game.

AMatt Firorlthough he chose not to comment on the leaked video, Firor commented in the game’s gameplay mechanics. As for the moment, beta testers will be experiencing a moment-to-moment gameplay which translates to combat and smoothly leveling up. Combat has been worked on over several months to flow (and look) better plus tweaking AI to be consistent providing players with rewards that they deserve. The point is to make the game fun and engaging rather than carrying out objectives which over a period of time becomes dull and unrewarding.

This points to another topic brought up by the ZAM team: Bosses. If mobs are tweaked to be consistent and fair how would bosses be modeled? Firor and the dev team has been creating challenging bosses for players to co-op and plan a suitable strategy to defeat them. It’s not all about raising swords or shooting spells; it’s about how players will tactfully take down bosses and reap the rewards. Bosses will appear in PvE leveling areas and in the main story.

Last but not least, abilities. ESO will contain an open skill tree so players wonder if there will be an implementation of a “deck” manager. What is known right now players will start out with 17 abilities and as they progress, more abilities will be unlocked. For players looking for the right build, it will take time since there’s a variety of combinations players can mix and match until the right build is found. Even for Firor himself whom uses a Dragon Knight was unable to find a build for his all offensive and no defense character. Builds are something players will continually pick, chose and evolve along the way.

These are just snippets to what Matt Firor has released so far. More information will be released soon regards the status of the beta testings and when the next waves of invitations will be released!

ESO Trailer

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Mar 29 2013

Elder Scrolls Online PAX Impressions

Category: News — admin @ 1:45 am

This year is quite the year with a lot of hot releases coming out; one of the games in particular which are turning heads is ZeniMax’s Elder Scrolls Online. Since the game’s official announcement in May 2012, a lot of rumors are surrounding the game. What classes are there, what are the available races, how are the game mechanics and so forth? Naturally Matt Firor, the Game’s Director has been keeping a lot of information under wraps… until now.

ESO Bone Collossus BattleOver the course of the year, Firor shed some light onto the game’s PvP and battle systems. Words can only go so much when the game debuted its glory at PAX East 2013 allowing players to play the game’s demo. The demo, which has been praised by critics and players alike is truly one of its kind. The dev team over at ZeniMax has modeled the UI to be easy to navigate and with minimal obstruction in the environment. Some UIs were a problem because there would be an abundance of hotkeys on screen along with health and mana bars which created a graphic mess.

ZeniMax addressed the issue by allowing the UI to disappear if the skill isn’t used for a period of time. Also, the hotkeys can be switched with a new set of commands. For example, if players are waiting for a skill to cooldown, they can switch to another skill set and continue spamming spells.

Next, the game’s zones. In most MMOs, players are restricted to their starting zones and aren’t able to move anywhere they’d like to. But in ESO, the dev team has made sure players had the ability to go wherever they’d like in the game. When players hit level 50 (which is the confirmed level cap) they can venture out into new zones to receive new quests and get new loot. It opens a door of possibilities in uncovering other characters’ stories or getting hard-to-get crafting materials. It’s a win-win situation really.

But one of the most important thing about The Elder Scrolls Online is the closely knit story with the quests provided. Initially, quests are usually about things that don’t matter; find this person, gather this item or slay this monster. In ESO, the quests are directly related to the storyline. You have the option (of course) to accept or decline a quest via the conversation. However, by undertaking quests, you get to experience more of Tamriel’s troubles. The plus factor with quests is the ability to choose how you wish to complete your objective. It’s all about choices how you wish to complete your quests. Go on a frontal assault or sneak around the enemy to help out others–it’s completely up to you.

Spider Daedra

It’s great that ZeniMax has allowed the game to be played more like an RPG rather than an MMO. The game is about user engagement and freedom; it’s about how players will go about venturing through Tamriel to bring glory to their Alliance and discover the unseen wonders of the mystical continent amidst war-torn factions and monarchies.

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Sep 11 2012

World of Warcraft Monk Impression

Category: News — admin @ 2:10 am

Since Blizzard unleashed the Monk class back in Diablo 3, it seems the class has been picking up momentum over the course of the months amongst players. Recently, the monk class is the newest class added to the highly acclaimed World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard’s newest expansion. The monk class contains three new highly specialized builds for players to take advantage of: Mistweaver, Windwalker and Brewmaster.

Here is a brief overview of the Mistweaver for interested players.

First off, the Mistweaver WoW Monk build. This build is aimed toward healing and reviving allies. To heal allies, the Mistweaver build contains 2 power resources they can draw from: Chi and Mana. Mana, like in other classes generates over a period of time where comparatively to Chi, which can be generated via several abilities. What’s interesting about this class are its passive abilities. The passive abilities possessed by this build can work toward the player’s advantage. For example, some passive abilities can convert damage into healing such as Eminence for example. This ability allows the monk’s special ability to be converted into healing (around ~50%) toward the ally with the lowest health. However, note that this ability can be stacked twice if the Jade Serpent Statue is dropped thus, the ability can give players enough healing power out of a pinch.

With all the passive abilities given to the Mistweaver, players will be able to create and maintain a successful build and skill rotation in the game. Stand back and relax and check out other Monk class builds and abilities which are of course, daily updated!

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