Ten Ton Hammer

Guild Wars 2: Road to TwitchCon News Dump

Lewis Burnell — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 17:37:42 +0000

268835

Guild Wars 2

MMO

On the run up to TwitchCon there’s a fair bit of Guild Wars 2 news knocking around. With that in mind, I’ve pulled together another news dump so that you don’t have to go looking for it.

First up is famed data miner that_shaman informing us that Heart of Thorns is exactly one month away. Thanks to him I’m now breaking into a cold sweat at the thought that I’ve only 30 days to finish World Completion on my necromancer.

Next on the list and with the official Heart of Thorns trailer due to release this week, Gamespot have a preview of what went on behind the scenes when it comes to the voice actors. As well as the video they also have an interview with Nolan North who plays the voice of Mordremoth. The interview and video are both worth a look at.

As for TwitchCon coverage, ArenaNet have both days pretty jam packed. The druid reveal and “skill balance preview” on the Friday has me particularly excited.

The Quaggan are next and are part of a recent ArenaNet Tweet. What does it mean? Who knows. Maybe the Quaggan know that bubbles, the secret underwater dragon is intending to devour all the water in Tyria?

Over on the official forums, there’s a couple of red posts. Firstly, it doesn’t sound as though the daredevil is getting any new animations but it is being tightened up when it comes to the new dodge mechanic. Here’s Karl with the details, with some more here.

Still with the red posts Mike Lewis, ArenaNet’s lead programmer, has published a lengthy post discussing latency and experiments surrounding trying to improve it. Rather than me dissect it, have a read here and here.

If you missed it, the Druid teaser has been released and there’s some interesting theories on it over on Reddit. Personally I really hope we get Aspects, less reliance on a pet (or at least allow it to evade) and a re-work of our spirits. I’m always hoping the staff is power based and a mid to long range weapon.

Finally, there’s an interesting post by Colin Johanson discussing structured PvP and how the sPvP playerbase is actually growing, rather than shrinking. I find that particularly interesting because I haven’t noticed any difference in my queue times. Maybe it’s a regional thing?

Oh and before I forget, Dulfy has an awesome round-up of the scrapper. I'll keep you posted of TwitchCon news as I have it.

How to Get the Touch of Malice Scout Rifle - Destiny: Taken King

Halfshell — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 16:20:43 +0000

268870

Destiny

MMO

Gameplay

Getting your hands on the Touch of Malice one of the new Exotic Scout Rifles in the Taken king is a multi step process that requires you complete a couple different quests and gather a lot of calcified fragments. We go over the step-by-step instructions below and offer some tips on how you can make the experience a little easier.

Be warned though, this weapon will take some time to get, probably more than you can do in one sitting.

How to Get the Quest

Your quest begins on the Dreadnaught after you find your first calcified fragment. When you do, you’ll immediately be able to pick up the first of a long line of quests from Erin Morn in the tower.

Collect 5 Fragments

The first step in the chain is pretty straightforward; collect 5 Calcified Fragments from the Dreadnaught. You can find the fragments located in chests and placed in specific areas all around the Dreadnaught.

Reddit user BYF9 has put together a DestinyTheGame/comments/3lb4oo/calcified_fragments_sorted_by_location_and_videos/">great collaboration on the different locations of the fragments, which you should definitely use in tandem with this walkthrough.

When you turn it in it you will not be able to pick up the net leg of the quest until you have gathered a total of 15 fragments, so get back out there and start looking for them.

Defeat the Cabal Boss

At 15 fragments the next quests opens up and it’s probably the easiest part of the whole thing. You’ll be given a mission to go to War-4 Bunker to kill a special Cabal Boss. The fight is pretty straightforward and shouldn’t offer you too much trouble.

When you’re done head back to Erin for the next step.

Kings Fall Raid

By far the most difficult portion of the quest, you will first have to enter the Kings Fall Raid, and as soon as you do exit it to return to Erin to pickup the quest (the quest appears after your first entrance into the Raid, so just backup grab it and rejoin).

When you’ve got the quest and have rejoined the raid, you’ll be tasked with defeating three bosses in it. The Warpriest, the Daughters of Oryx, and of course Oryx himself must all be killed in order for you to complete this leg.

Collecting Materials

Hope you aren’t sick of collecting stuff yet because there’s a lot more to go. This part of the quest requires that you gather Dreadnaught specific materials, specifically 50 Hadium Flakes, 50 weapons parts, and 25 Wormspore.

You can find the best Hadium farming location in our Hadium Farming Guide.

Undying Mind

Before you can start this section you’ll need to have found at least 20 Calcified Fragments. When that’s done you’ll receive a quest to complete a unique version of the Undying Minds strike. It’s exactly the same as the original one only a special target will spawn for you at the end of the boss fight. Kill it to move on to the next step.

The End

Before you can pickup the last mission you’ll have had to collect at least 45 fragments.

The last mission is quite hard so you would be wise to bring along at least one other person to help you complete it. The tough part comes in at the end when you have to defeat not only an Echo of Oryx, but the main target that spawns when you kill it, a powerful Wizard. Complete the mission and turn it in to collect your long awaited prize!

Bungie Changes Xur's Inventory and Role - Destiny

Halfshell — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 14:40:39 +0000

268870

Destiny

MMO

If you were a fan of Xur's massive loot drops every weekend you may be a little disappointed with this news. BUngie has statsed that Xur will no longer be quipped with a large inventory of Exotic Weapons, Armor, and Engrams, now he will only come with either one of two options: an Exotic Engram or an Exotic Weapon/ piece of Armor. Bungie's Tyson Green had this to say about the changes:

In Year One, Xur was a community 'loot drop,' a shared rallying point that everyone could cheer or curse. In Year Two, Xur's offerings have been changed so that he will select either a specific Exotic Weapon or an Exotic Engram for sale every week, this change is due primarily to our desire to give players more direct paths to acquiring the Exotics they want through Quests and gameplay experiences, and to avoid repetition in his inventory.

Some good news out of it though, is that Xur will now also sell an item called the Coin of Threes which increases thte chance of an exotic engram dropping for you off of the next boss.

Riot Lyte Goes More In-Depth on the Details of Team Builder Draft

Jeremy Waxman — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 01:32:59 +0000

268875

League of Legends

eSports

We've heard talk of Team Builder Draft, and while we've gotten some details, a lot has remained unclear. Today, Riot Lyte went more in depth on his ask.fm to give us a pretty clear idea of exactly how this will play out (I've made some minor formatting edits, but all text is presented verbatim):

Been getting this question a lot recently, so going to compile all the current information into 1 post.

History:
We learned a lot from the original Team Builder launch, and although the queue had better player behavior (lower reports, lower leavers/AFKs, lower Champ Select conflicts, higher honors), queue times were a major issue. We also saw a demand for no mirror matches, and a "draft" version of Team Builder that incorporated picks and bans.

Current:
Although players have been asking for a Team Builder "draft" since the original launch, we spent some time filtering down all the lessons we learned from the original launch and did a fresh design for Team Builder Draft while working on other features like LeaverBuster, Instant Feedback, Party Rewards and more. We started work on the new Champ Select earlier in 2015, and have begun internal testing the system with some players and pros to get their feedback. We're pretty confident in the new experience, and now intend for this to be the new Champ Select experience for some queues in the future assuming the feedback continues being positive after launch. Side note for a second, there's a pretty fun moment in the new Champ Select experience where most of the players in the last playtest did a collective "Ooooo." So, we're curious to see what the rest of the playerbase thinks as well.

Our main design philosophy of the new Champ Select was to retain as much of the player behavior benefits as possible, while drastically reducing queue times. We also wanted to retain the strategic elements of drafting. This philosophy led to us to getting rid of the "Captain's Mode" where you can accept or decline potential teammates, getting rid of mirror matches, and no longer asking players to choose a Champ prior to Champ Select.The new Champ Select flow is now:

1) Players can invite friends into a Lobby.
2) Each player is required to select at least 2 Positions (such as Top/Mid, or Mid/Jungle). On average, Ranked players only play 2.2 positions, so we wanted to start simple with a Pick-2 design, but have some backups like rank-sorting all 5 positions if there are queue time issues. We also have designs to incentivize mastering all positions in the future.
3) There's a new position called "Fill."
4) We're currently asking Duo Queues to cover at least 3 unique positions, to further improve queue times. Duo Queues will still have a higher chance of getting the exact 2 positions they want, but it is not 100% guaranteed.
5) Once you've chosen your positions, we match you into a full team and you enter Champion Select.
6) We've made some changes to how drafting works; however, we'll be talking more about this in a future design blog.
7) During Champ Select, you can still negotiate with your teammates to lane swap or trade champs if you want a more favorable match-up just like Champ Select today.
8) Once drafting is done, your team enters the game.

Lyte has now painted us a pretty clear picture of how the new system will work, and it sounds like they more or less have things ironed out. I'm certainly curious to see what the new champion select will look like, and particularly as to what that "oooo" moment was. If you have any speculation, leave it in the comments below!

No Such Thing As Perfect Balance in Competitive Games

Jeremy Waxman — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 22:16:11 +0000

League of Legends

eSports

Editorial

In a variety of competitive games, such as League of Legends, Hearthstone, DotA 2, and others, there are many players who are constantly hoping for a “balanced” meta. It’s time to dispel that myth once and for all, and explain why the balance so many seek would actually be a very bad idea.

Let’s start by quickly defining what a meta is; short for “metagame”, it describes the current state of the game, with different characters, classes, decks, etc. being stronger than others. Typically, in games like these, the meta changes periodically, as new content is introduced, or certain characters are nerfed or buffed.

This guy went from unplayable to over-powered in the blink of an eye

As mentioned above, at any given time, there are going to be certain characters (which we’ll use as a general term to apply to all games) that are going to be stronger than others. That will simply always be the case. However, no matter what characters happen to be strong at any given time, there are always going to be players who are complaining about the current state of the game, believing these characters to be too strong, or “overpowered.” This leads us into the crux of the issue.

If these players’ comments were to be taken at face value, we’d believe that the only way they’d be satisfied is if every character in the game were at an equal power level, with any character able to defeat any other on a level playing field. At first, that might sound great. No matter what character you personally enjoy playing the most, you’ll always have an equal chance of taking down your opponent, since there is no inherent advantage in picking one character over another. You have complete freedom to express yourself by your choices in-game!

However, there’s a very good reason this doesn’t happen, and it’s not because every single developer is terrible at balance: it’s because a game with “perfect balance” as described above would quickly become very uninteresting to play, and would be one of the quickest ways to absolutely demolish a game’s player-base.

The elephant has more complete balance than these games ever will

What game developers strive for is a term that’s thrown around from time to time, which is “perfect imbalance.” With a constantly evolving metagame, it means there are always new things to learn, and to try. The game state is always changing, which prevents things from getting stale. One character may be incredibly strong right now, but in a month or two, you might need to learn a different one you’d never even thought about playing before. This is what keeps veteran players engaged in a game, and also lowers the barrier of entry for new players, since they only need to know what’s happened recently to understand the current state of the game.

In the end, take what you read from other players with a grain of salt. The fact is, no matter what the state of any game, no matter which characters are strong, there are always going to be players who are very vocal about what a terrible state the game is in. The fact is, there are plenty of players out there for whom the only way they wouldn’t complain about the meta is if they maintained a 100% win rate for all time.

This isn’t to state that all games are balanced completely correctly at all times. That’s not the case, but especially for very successful games, it’s usually much closer to the truth than the vocal portion of the community would have you believe.

Star Wars Battlefront Open Beta Starts October 17th

Halfshell — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 21:18:03 +0000

268771

Star Wars Battlefront

eSports

Star Wars Battlefront officially launches November 17th, but fans will be able to take the game for a drive a month early on October 17th. EA announced the beta yesterday along side the news that the beta will be open to all 3 official launch platforms, the PS4, Xbox One and PC.

You wont need any sort of invitiation or special status to take part in the beta, anyone with an internet connection can download the game and try it out.

There will be several game modes available to play including a Hoth based walker assault featuring 20 vs 20 big team battles, a survival mode on Tattooine (think horde mode), and Drop Zone a variant on the classic King of the Hill game type.

At the same time the beta takes place, EA will also be testing out their mobile and web based app that goes along with the game.The app will let you check your in-game stats, chat with your friends, and play a star wars card game that gains you points you can use in Battlefront.

Gigantic: Imani Build Guide

Lewis Burnell — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 20:50:38 +0000

268078

Gigantic

eSports

Classes

Overview

When I'm not playing Griselma, my go-to Hero is Imani. In recent weeks I've sunk many hours into Gigantic's sniper to not only get to grips with her, but to get to the bottom of her playstyle and strengths. As it currently stands she's a popular Hero but she's also considered weak by the majority of experienced players due to her limitations in comparison to Voden. Despite that, she can still be strong but she needs a skilled player to utilise her effectively. I will also stress that if you're seeking to play Imani purely as a sniper, this guide likely isn't for you. Imani might have the ability to scope with her rifle, but she's so much stronger as a guerilla skirmisher using quick scoping. That isn't to say you can't utilise her range, but if you just want to sit at the back sniping away you're doing your team a huge disservice.

Guide Updated: 22 September 2015

Pros	Cons
Has the longest firing range of any Hero in Gigantic	She really cannot fight opponents at close quarters - you'll just die
She's capable of dealing huge damage when utilising Boom Bolts	If there's a skilled assassin on the opposing team you'll spend most of the match running away
Her Smoke Bomb provides a useful and reliable means of escape when upgraded	No, really. If there's a skilled assassin on the opposing team, you'll die lots
Her ability to cause burning can heavily pressure the enemy	Her Autobolts are incredibly inaccurate and act more like a shot-gun than crossbow
Having such a long range means you can reliably poke the enemy in relative safety	Her Frost Bolt is "meh"

Skills

This section of our guide contains a list of Imani skills, what they do, which upgrades you should choose (and when) as well as what those upgrades are for.

Base Skills

Autobolts allows Imani to fire off a series of Bolts at an enemy in front of her. It's highly inaccurate and the spread of bolts means that you need to be particularly close to enemies if you want all of them to hit. If any miss, Autobolts hits for much less. As a result, it's actually a liability of a skill if you're expecting to be able to go toe to toe with another Hero 1 on 1. You're best only using Autobolts against creatures or once you've upgraded them.

Cycle Ammo is Imani's primary skill that allows her to use Boomb Bolts that directly boost her damage or Frost Bolts which slow enemies. You access Boom Bolts by pressing Q once and Frost Bolts by pressing it twice. Until you settle on a bolt choice for a few seconds you can continue to cycle your ammo. I'd always recommend you use Boom Bolts unless you see an assassin running towards you, at which point Frost Bolts are great for defensive use.

Silent Scope allows Imani to look down the sight of her crossbow. The longer you stay zoomed in, the more damage you will deal. Be aware however that when scoped, you'll be incredibly vulnerable as your sight is very limited. If you're busy trying to snipe away, there's every chance an assassin is working his way towards you. When the term "quick scope" is used, it's in reference to only using the Silent Scope skill for base damage modifier, as opposed to the x2 and x3 modifier you get when sniping for longer.

Your primary defensive skill and one that you can use on allies. When used Smoke Bomb will first from Imani's crossbow and erupt a cloud. Anyone in it will be stealthed and enemies caught in it will be weakened. Be aware that if an assassin does attack you, firing the Smoke Bomb takes 1.5 seconds to fire and land, meaning you'll likely be dead before it even goes off. Use it early.

Kill Shot allows you to fire a single shot at an enemy for huge damage. You can cancel the zoom at any time if your positioning isn't quite right. What I will stress is try to only ever use Kill Shot when an enemy is just below half health and aim for squishy targets. Usually it's enough to kill them instantly.

Skill Upgrade Paths and Order

Below is the upgrade path I would recommend for each skill. It's incredibly important as Imani that you follow this path as it provides you with much needed survivability instantly, allowing you to survive for long periods early game. This allows you to quickly gain experience so that you can then ramp up your power.

Level 2: Acrobatics (E)

Level 3: Blast Radius (Q)

Level 4: Die in a Fire (Q)

Level 5: Deft Hand (RMB)

Level 6: Snapshot (RMB)

Level 7: Time to Bounce (E)

Level 8: Drawing Power (LMB)

Level 9: Shaft Stabilizer (LMB)

Level 10: Resurgence (Focus)

I suspect my choice here is highly contentious because the vast majority of Imani players all choose Second Chamber and Quick Loader. Whilst that upgrade line is fine, it doesn't fix the fact that Autobolts is terribly inaccurate. Adding another bolt and a quicker reload doesn't address its inaccuracy. Yes you can do more damage with Second Chamber and Quick Loader, but it's entirely reliant on being close to uncomfortably close to enemies to squeeze the most out of it. In contrast and certainly how I play Imani, Drawing Power and Shaft Stabilizer helps you in far more situtations. As Imani you should regularly be moving and aiding your team where possible, that often means being mid-range as opposed to max range. Being able to reliably hit all your Autobolts during this time, especially against assassins means you'll be able to land your Cycle Ammo easier and deal more damage.

Deft Hand and Snapshot boost Imani's quick scope damage but also her firing speed. Deft Hand allows you to reload and fire again 20% faster after quick scoping whilst Snapshot allows you to fire scoped shots quicker and boosts their damage by 30%. In simple terms, instead of sitting in one spot waiting for the x2 or x3 damage modifiers, you now get a healthy boost to your output without needing to. Better yet, you can do it more often and much faster.

Blast Radius increases the explosion size of your Boom Bolt allowing you to cleave a group of enemies on impact. Die in a Fire allows your Boom Bolts to cause 3 seconds of burning, which also affects players affected by Blast Radius. It's one big AOE fire pit if players decide to group up. The damage is eye watering.

Acrobatics is a must for Imani because Smoke Bomb as a projectile just doesn't give you enough survivability. By pressing Jump + E you'll fire your Smoke Bomb at your feet, allowing you to stealth but also blasting you forwards. As the first upgrade the distance and stealth duration isn't huge, but it is enough to keep you alive during early game. When you take Time to Bounce the range of the blast is improved and the stealth lasts 2 seconds longer. Your escapes are almost always gaurenteed. Just remember to jump then press E.

Resurgence allows Imani to gain a full dose of Stamina when she has used Kill Shot. It's not an incredible upgrade but will allow you to sprint away if the enemy sees you.

Talents

Level 3: Secret Stash

Reducing your Cycle Ammo to 12 seconds, Secret Stash is a must if you want to not only deal high damage but also constantly pressure your enemy with burning Boom Bolts. If you manage your Cycle Ammo properly, you are rarely without them.

Level 5: Acrobatics

Imani is incredibly reliant on jumping, especially to reach cliffs or to trigger Smoke Bomb's Acrobatics upgrade. Having jumping and dodging cost 33% less stamina makes Acrobatics a must.

Level 7: Shredder

Shredder provides 30% armor reduction. Most light armored Hero's have 15 armor, so they'd have it reduced to around 10. This talent scales better against heavy armored Hero's (The Margrave) allowing you to deal much more damage.

Level 9: Hero's Vitality

I know Imani is all about damage, but I choose to take Hero's Vitality because the extra health allows me to survive for a longer period when being hunted by Tripp, Tyto or Wu. The extra health from Hero's Vitality has saved me countless times as it has bought me enough time to use Smoke Bomb.

Tactics

This section of our guide contains a list of tactics for fighting against other Hero's with Imani. I'm going to stress that the format of hers will be significantly different to that of others Hero's because Imani is rather unique. Considering you spend a lot of time at mid to long range, no one is really a threat. At the same time, the moment anyone crosses the threshold into your radius (to the point where they can comfortably hit or reach you), your liklihood of survival plumets. With that in mind, I've removed the threat list from Imani and the information below will only contain what to watch out for, rather than how to actually fight the Hero's 1 on 1. As Imani, just run if anyone gets too close.

If you see Aisling, the main thing to worry about is the immobilize from Cador. It's annoying, allows others to spike you and can see you get into trouble. As long as you dodge that, you're fine to escape or change positions.

Charnok's burning combined with his Hot Hail can be a problem for Imani because you can quickly die if slowed in it, or if you take too many hits to the face. Remember that your range is greater than Charnok's and you can fire quicker than he can charge his Heat Wave. If you can hit him early with Boom Bolt, he'll more than likely retreat.

Griselma is only a threat to you if she happens to be next to you, and summons a Portal Beast to herself. Otherwise you're fine to gun down her hands from afar. Just be aware that she's capable of healing her hands and if you see that she has chosen such an upgrade path, just nuke them down with Boom Bolts rather than your standard shots otherwise you'll be there all day.

HK 206 versus Imani is fairly easy because you're quicker and can pressure easier. Just be aware of his Mortar and Rail Gun. Fortunately you can escape HK-206 easily because he's ranged and you can fire further. If you can, just hit him as early as possible with Boom Bolt and repeat the process of ducking in and out against his fire.

Imani versus Imani depends entirely on who is the most accurate. Having said that, this build has the edge over an Imani who takes Combat Sniper because your shots are quicker. A good tip is to stealth, then fire at her from stealth with a Boom Bolt. She's gaurenteed to run or die.

Lord Knossos is only a threat if he gets near - if he does, you're likely to die if you don't have Smoke Bomb. From afar, try to keep him slowed with Frost Bolt. If he shows no sign of turning your way, just use Boom Bolt instead. Remember to avoid his Chuck as it can hurt.

Mozo is annoying rather than a threat because her Arcane Vortex is capable of blocking many of your attacks for a long time. The main thing you need to be aware of is her Dimension Door + Focus towards you, as it can kill you instantly.

The Margrave is tough on the basis that he can withstand so much punishment. If he gets close to you, he'll interrupt and deal high damage. From afar, he can do nothing but deflect your shots for a brief period. Just wait it out and then load your Boom Bolts.

I can't stress enough that if there's a Tripp on the opposing team, save your stamina, save your Smoke Bomb and always keep an eye out for her. If she's coming to you, try to Frost Bolt her early and Smoke bomb even earlier. If she gets anywhere near you and interrupts your Smoke Bomb, you're dead.

Tyto The Swift has the very same principals as Tyto. Frost Bolt him early, save your stamina and Smoke Bomb and just run. You cannot beat a good Tyto 1 on 1, so save yourself and Jump + Smoke Bomb away.

Uncle Sven can be tough for Imani because he can hide behind an object and still fire Flasks at you. Fortunately his range is short, and you can comfortably escape from him. If he does get close, his AOE fields combined with armor break (as well as his knockback) can kill you very quickly.

Vadasi is a nightmare. Her healing, immunity, burning and range make her formidable. Fortunately you have range on your side and a few Boom Bolts can pressure her early. Never let her get close or she'll use LMB + RMB on you to quickly melt your face. If you can, try to hit her with your Focus early so that she's under heavy pressure. It'll force her to use her heal or retreat, something that's beneficial for her

Voden is incredibly annoying because of his heal, his decoy and his poison. Having said that, he cannot outlast two Burning Bolts unless he runs, hides and heals. When he does return, it's common that you have Cycle Ammo ready to hit him once more. Just be cautious if struck with his poison arrows because your health can quickly vanish.

I'll state that if caught in Wu's Tongue Lash, you will die. There's no counter play, you can't dodge out of his crowd control after Tongue Lash and your Smoke Bomb has a too longer cast time to escape. If you see him coming, run. If he's at a distance, keep him slowed so your allies can pin him down. If he's by himself, hit him with Boom Bolts.

Xenobia is only a threat if she gets near. Her slow, burning, armor break and knockback can often be enough to kill you before you've even used Smoke Bomb. If you can, keep hitting her with Boom Bolt from afar so that she has to retreat. If she isn't near her allies, your team is much stronger due to her debuffs being missing.

Tips

This section of our guide contains a list of tips and tricks we think will help your Imani play. We'll continue to add to the list as required and if you have any tips you'd like to share, let us know in the comments below and we'll place them here.

1. Remember to use your Cycle Ammo based on context. Boom Bolts are for maximum damage, Frost Bolts are great for defensive measures if someone is chasing one of your team or coming for you.

2. The burning on Boom Bolt when upgrades is incredible at keeping high pressure on enemies even if they move out of your sight. If you can, try to keep pressure on squishy targets.

3. Don't just sit at the back firing shots. Your team will be at a disadvantage because your line of sight will be limited, and you'll also be very vulnerable when constantly looking down the scope. Imagine Imani as a guerilla fighter rather than a sniper who sits in one position constantly.

4. Always jump before using Smoke Bomb when it has been upgraded. The leap is fundamental in allowing you to survive.

5. When you're under attack from an assassin, a good way of confusing the enemy is to run one way, quickly turn > jump > smoke bomb and fly in an opposite direction. It's confusing, you're stealthed and can usually escape.

6. You have to preserve your stamina as Imani. You'll regularly be chased by assassins and you need it to run away from them once you land after using Smoke Bomb.

7. When creeping forwards with your team, use Autobolts rather than your scope. You can freely move, aim where you wish and still have maximum vision.

8. Try to maximise the use of quick scoping by using RMB, firing, and moving. There's no need to constantly sit looking down a scope when you can confuse the enemy with your movement and location.

9. Try to save Kill Shot for low health targets. If you don't, those hit will likely run away and they'll be free to regenerate health.

10. I cannot stress enough how vulnerable Imani is to assassins. If you see one coming, use Frost Bolt if you have the time and use Smoke Bomb to escape early. Reposition yourself and then get back into the fight.

All Dreadnaught Chest Locations and How to Get Keys - Destiny: Taken King

Halfshell — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 20:13:41 +0000

268834

Destiny

MMO

Exploration

The Dreadnought is full of secrets, some of which require a special key to access. One of these secrets is the chest of Wyrding. To get the chest you have to find it, and then possess the Wyrding Key. Below we’ll first go over where the chest is located, followed by the steps you must take to get your hands on the key.

Chest Locations

Wyrding Chest – Enter the Mausoleum and travel along the right side wall as you enter from the crashed Cabal ship. Go in the first door on your right and then take a left at the T.

Akka Chest – After entering from the Hull Breach into the Hall of Souls stay left and follow the wall until you see a door with 4 lights around it. On a platform to the left and in front of the door is a smaller unlit passage that will lead you to the chest.

Ur Chest – After you spawn into patrol mode go left and then drop down to the lowest point in the rubble. If you look back towards where you spawned you should se the entrance to a path back through the rubble. It will lead you to the chest.

Gnashing Teeth – Located under the central platform (the one slowing green with poison) in the Hall of Souls.

Xol Chest – After spawning into the Hull Breach follow the wall on the right and enter the second door. It will lead to a room with the chest.

Eir Chest – Go past the door to the Xol chest and look for some blue crates near the wall. There will be an entrance to a tunnel right next to them. Follow the tunnel and keep left to find the Eir chest.

Maggots Chest – Enter the Mausoleum from the Hull Breach and then head to the left side of the room. Enter the second door on your left and then take the maggot tunnel into a smaller room. Look up and you can jump to a small platform above. Here is where you’ll find the Maggot Chest.

Spawn Chest – At the bottom of the Mausoleum Room on the right there is a hidden platform you can use to cross the chasm to a farther platform that holds the chest. Use your ghost to see the platform and jump carefully!

Yuul Chest – Enter the Hall of Souls and take the first door on your giht that will be glowing green. After fighting your way through several rooms (just head straight through them), you will arrive at an area with a large open chasm on the right. Use your ghost to locate the hidden platforms and use them to jump to the room holding the chest.

Getting the Chest Keys

There are currently two ways to get Chest Keys. As a random drop off of enemies on the Dreadnaught, or by using a Wormfeeder Rune.

Wormfeeder runes also drop off of enemies but are more common to find. When you have one, head to the hull breach area and use the directions to the Eir chest but stop in the first room. There you’ll see what looks like a large green glowing control panel in one of the caves in the side of the room. When you insert one of the runes a Hive Stalking Party will be summoned and you’ll have to defeat them and the Hive champion that they summon at the end.

When that’s done you’ll pickup a Wormfeeder Rune that has a task attached to it “Kill 50 Hive on the Dreadnaught Without Dying”.

Note: Leaving the Ship will reset the progress of the Rune.

When that’s completed you will receive a random key for one of the hidden chests on the Dreadnaught. You may need to do it a couple of times to get the Key you want, but at least you’ll be gathering other keys as you do so.

Collect the key and head to the Chest location o bask in your rewards!

eSports Weekly Event Calendar

Halfshell — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 15:28:54 +0000

League of Legends

eSports

September 22nd, 2015

Game	Event	Time (EDT/PDT)	Stream
NA	NA	NA	NA

September 23rd, 2015

Game	Event	Time (EDT/PDT)	Stream
	Star Ladder Star Series Season 1	12:00pm/ 9:00am

September 24th, 2015

Game	Event	Time (EDT/PDT)	Stream
	GSL Code S Semi-Final #1	5:30am/ 2:30am
	DreamHack Open: Stockholm 2015 - Day 1	5:30am/ 2:30am
	Gfinity Champions	12:00pm/ 9:00am
	Star Ladder Star Series Season 1	12:00pm/ 9:00am
	Smite SPL Fall Split - Week 6	8:00pm/ 5:00pm

September 25th, 2015

Game	Event	Time (EDT/PDT)	Stream
	GSL Code S Semi-Final #2	5:30am/ 2:30am
	Gfinity Champions	12:00pm/ 9:00am
	Star Ladder Star Series Season 1	12:00pm/ 9:00am
	Smite SPL Fall Split - Week 6	8:00pm/ 5:00pm

September 26th, 2015

Game	Event	Time (EDT/PDT)	Stream
	Gfinity Champions	12:00pm/ 9:00am
	Smite SPL Fall Split - Week 6	5:00pm/ 2:00pm

September 27th, 2015

Game	Event	Time (EDT/PDT)	Stream
	Gfinity Champions	12:00pm/ 9:00am
	Smite SPL Fall Split - Week 6	5:00pm/ 2:00pm

September 28th, 2015

Game	Event	Time (EDT/PDT)	Stream
NA	NA	NA	NA

If you enjoyed our Esports Calendar consider supporting us on Patreon.

Dragon Con 2015 Wrap-up

Xerin — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 05:42:19 +0000

Miscellaneous

MMO

Respawn

Dragon Con 2015 is now two weeks in the past and the immense amount of content I’ve wrote for it has now come to an end. It was an amazing experience and to put the last page to rest, I figure I’d do a debriefing of the experience, what I brought, what I experienced, and a timeline of how it went – along with some advice for those attending.

For those who think this is too long and didn't read, I can sum it up by saying it was a lot of very nice people, a lot of fun, and well worth being there, and I'm looking forward to next year, if the chance arrises for me to attend again (location, location, location).

Dragon Con Advice

Sadly, I’m not the one to even begin to give a speech or discussion about what to do at the convention. I’ve spoken with some who are naturally very, very experienced and they weren’t even prepared, and I’m talking about those who have attended since the ‘80s. I will say wear light clothing, bring as little as necessary, and prepare to suffer in the name of your fandom because the crowd is huge.

I found that, the biggest advice out there I think is to be content with missing something. I actually missed a lot, but, I think it’s even more important to just be alright with it. There is so much to see and so much to do, missing one thing just opens another outlet for discovering another.

I don’t think there is honestly a right way to be prepared. I came with literally everything I thought I needed, and needed more and less at the same time. Being my first time going, I was overwhelmed even with a legion of friends who described everything.

Food was another interesting thing I wasn’t prepared for. Prices were skyhigh, but realistically rather reasonable depending on the amount of time and effort you wanted to put into it. The mall was completely overran, but if you wanted to wait in the long lines or go to the less frequented shops, the chances of getting a decently priced meal were rather average. If you went to the drug store in the mall and just got some candy bars then you were pretty much going to be in and out. If you went to any anything within the convention’s jurisdiction (the hotels) then odds are you’re paying sporting arena prices, but then again the food is literally in front of you.

Taking public transit away from the Peachtree Center area is a common trick locals know of. For a rather inexpensive ($5 both ways) train ride, you can get to Midtown or a plethora of other locations with easy to reach food, along with taking the bus if you’re brave enough. I didn’t do this, because I’m perfectly okay with being hungry, and went home rather early each day anyway.

What I Brought

I actually didn’t bring a lot with me. I had my Timbuk 2 bag with me, which has literally survived everything in my life at this point and still looks brand new. I’m not paid to say that, it’s just a matter of truth. In it I had a WiFi Camera (controlled with my phone so I can do video interviews without having to a camera person), my phone, a notebook, some business cards, hand sanitizer, pens & pencils, my archaic voice recorder that doesn’t have USB support, and an eyeglass repair kit, along with a spare pair of eyeglasses and sunglasses, oh and a tripod.

Well, I found out I couldn’t use my tripod, so the second day I replace the tripod with

Luckily, none of my emergency supplies were used.

What I Did

So I live about a few minutes away from a train station, so I rode the train to the convention early Friday morning. I’ve been to Peachtree Center a lot actually, lots of events happen there, but every single time I get lost. So the first thing that happened – I got lost. I spent a good part of 30 minutes walking in every direction but the correct one to the Hyatt to get my badge. Finally, after walking the wrong direction a sufficient enough times, I landed directly at the Hyatt, got my badge, and then immediately got lost on my way to the Hilton to see an Hour with Lord British.

Finally arriving, just in time for the Camelot Unchained panel, I was lucky enough to find a seat, as it quickly became rather packed. My original plan was to move between the Camelot Unchained panel and the Blizzard panel, but I quickly learned – these panels are full. I’m very accustomed to panels that don’t fill up nearly as quickly or with such zeal, but these panels were full nearly instantly.

After the panel, I quickly learned what a line was. Going casually over to the BioWare Voice Actor panel, I was met with a little bit of something called a line. Taking the habitrail or skywalk or whatever you want to call it, I took a demon wing straight to the eye, losing the ability to see out of it for a while. The humorous part was that this is such an occurrence, in the BioWare panel, I quickly found out what “you might not make it inside meant” as I was probably 10 back from the panel’s cutoff.

After the panel, which was rather fun, I had half an hour to make it to the An Hour with Lord British Panel and the HiRez Panel. Sadly, the HiRez line was full, so I ended up having to attend the An Hour with Lord British fully. Moving between panels wasn’t possible anyway, they were full and giving up your seat meant you might not get it back.

After that, I was pretty much on my way home, striking out at a few other panels I attempted to go to and figured the time was better put resting for the next day.

On the second day, I got there early because of the parade. Now I was an expert at making it to panels, until the Storytelling in Video Games happened. Ended up having to wait outside for a very long period of time, thankfully I got there about 40 minutes early, which was enough time to get me around halfway in line.

The rest of the day had a repeat of the same actions, wrapping up with the Star Citizen Q&A panel.

Sunday and Monday were mostly wandering around and experiencing things that I couldn’t do the previous two days, since there wasn’t any pressing panels to be at, and I could take my leisure on moving around. Needless to say exhaustion had set in by this point and I had taken a few too many hits to the elbow for my own comfort from people attempting to run through a convention where everyone is already shoulder to shoulder.

Conclusion

I found the event to be rather fun and exciting. Some things I noted was the immense Star Wars presence. I mean, absolutely immense. From Mandalorians to Jedi and everything in between, there was every representation of Star Wars you could imagine. I’d dare say from my limited exposure, Star Wars was the definitely the biggest fandom this year.

For highlights, it was the Camelot Unchained panel when a mother got up to ask a question for her son, who was trying to be at another panel, receiving cheers and a round of applause. Everyone welcomed her, knowing her task was difficult, and I really appreciate everyone being nice.

Speaking of nice, for the most part everyone I met was very nice and conversational. I think there was only one rude person at the entire event, and it was a woman who really, really, really liked her spot in the line and was hyper aggressive about it, but I mean, one not-the-most-polite (I wouldn’t even dare say bad) person in a sea of over 65,000 people isn’t specifically bad odds.

I’m excited to go back again next year, hopefully. It was a great experience and the video game panels were rocking – seeing fans get up close and personal with the developers was super nice and it was an amazing experience that I could pelt you with probably another 1,250 words over but I’ll let you go.

From here it’s nothing but fall releases, so stay tuned.

Interview with Mark Wilson, Dragon Age Inquisition / LA Noire Designer from Dragon Con 2015

Xerin — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 05:36:12 +0000

Dragon Con 2015

Dragon Age: Inquisition

MMO

Interview

I had the chance to sit down and talk to Mark Wilson, a previous designer at BioWare (Dragon Age Inquisition) and Team Bondi (L.A. Noire). Mark was one of the many great cogs in the BioWare machine, a company that isn’t afraid to leverage lots of big talent to make big games, while also working to create some of, at least what I believe, most interesting and in-depth levels a non-action game can have in LA Noire.

The thing about Mark that catches my eye the most is that he’s worked previously on a plethora of MUDs, some of which I had played in my early gaming career (Dragonball Universe as an example). When I was but a young man, I didn’t have a PC capable of playing some of the cooler games on the Internet, but one application ran perfectly fine – Telnet.

I got a few minutes to ask Mark some interesting questions about Dragon Age Inquisition, LA Noire, and his history of how he broke into game development from something as simplistic (especially now thinking back) as a MUD.

Getting into the Industry

Mark Wilson started his career in high school, playing MUDs. He was introduced to a Star Wars MUD by a friend’s brother and while playing, he noticed there was a bug, which admittedly he might have exploited a little bit, but he said you know, we should report this. The administrators didn’t have time to fix it, so he took it upon himself to download the codebase, learn C, and submit a fix.

From that point he never thought video games would be his career, even though he continued to work on MUDs, playing and creating them as a hobby. He switched back and forth on various things, mostly within music, until one day he met the General Manager of LA Noire at a convention, which got him in on that team, which led him to eventually working at BioWare on Dragon Age Inquisition, originally as a level designer, and then into technical designer.

Similarities between Small Scale MUD Development and Major Project Development

I talked briefly with him about taking his experience with MUD development and things he learned that worked / didn’t work into something bigger, like working on a project as large as Dragon Age Inquisition. For those of you who weren’t online in the late 90s/early 2000s, MUDs were literally the indie game scene for online gaming. You either made a MUD or a game in RPG Maker. The tools that are available to indie game developers now are far above and beyond what was available back then.

He found that a lot of game editors work similar to the way that MUDs do, and he successfully took that experience from one phase of his development work to the next. Back in the MUD times, you’d often build items and triggers and other usables that could be reused, even if it was in a different context. That experience replicated nicely when it came to level design and reusing various content to flesh the world out. Toolsets like this allowed a relatively small set of designers to create a large amount of content for Dragon Age Inquisition.

Dragon Age Inquisition’s MMO Inspiration

“Absolutely, a lot of designers were avid MMO players. Long time WoW players, we were all into all sort of games, FarCry 3 or 4, The Outpost, lots of games were inspiration. For Level Designers, Guild Wars 2 were a sticking point, the whole team played Guild Wars 2. The incidental caves where you could dive underwater, no other reason to go there for this little tidbit or moment of interest. The Inquisition Team tried to replicate a lot of that, which is what made it like an MMO. There are so many incidental stories across the world. For me Fallout 3 had a similar setting. Having a party there sharing the experience makes it feel like an MMO. It wasn’t a high level design decision, but it just emerged organically.”

Everyone at Ten Ton Hammer agrees that Dragon Age Inquisition is pretty much a single player MMO and it’s nice to see we aren’t the only ones who agree. While definitely nowhere near a bad thing, it’s interesting that there was that sort of layer where a lot of the development and design team did see the merits of some of Guild Wars 2 aggressive (but very positive) design decisions, such as the Vistas / Jumping Puzzles / easter egg bonanza throughout the world.

It’s also an interesting reminder that a lot of games, literally every one of them, in this modern era have a lot of inspiration from other games, not because people are on purpose copying them, but because they run into these inspiring and noteworthy ideas and enjoy them, and naturally want to recreate those experiences / enjoyment as they’re working on a game. It’s definitely something to think about whenever you run into something and go “oh, wow, that’s from X, neat!”

Circle of Influence – Moving from Small Time to Big Time Development

I asked a question that produced a very interesting answer, because of a discussion I had later at Dragon Con with Mark Jacobs and Andrew Meggs. I asked specifically what was the hardest part of moving from working on MUDs to something like a BioWare game, and the answer highlights one of the biggest things I think I learned at Dragon Con:

“The biggest difference from a small team to a big team is the circle of influence. If there is a problem in a MUD I can sit down and fix it myself, I just fixed that bug with my own hands and it’s magical and amazing experience when involved in a game. With Dragon Age Inquisition with a team of 100s of developers, to fix anything or create anything requires a lot more than one person. Being able to contribute in multiple streams is helpful, but you always have to work with other people. In smaller projects from start to finish you can add a new command or a new room. In a big team, nothing goes starts to finish as just your idea. It’s harder, but very much worth it.”

I think it’s interesting, because a lot of those starting out in game development do so as a solo thing – they load up an engine and start creating content. As their games grow, they bring in more and more help. No longer do the freebie models work, you want someone who can use Blender. You want someone who is good with sound. You want someone to help with content. Before you know it, you have a team going. Now grow this by the 100s and that’s what a professional large scale AAA environment is.

This actually is something I’ll discuss more in-depth later this week, but in the interview with the Camelot Unchained guys, they brought up the point that for them, having to work through a large team of developers would delay getting various fixes and updates into the game, which lowered the experience for the players on Warhammer Online. For an MMO, this time can really sour the experience, whereas in a single player game this is where a company leverages its strength, drawing from the experience and talent of a large pool of people, without having to worry about the development delays.

Wrapping Up

I had a very pleasant and interesting conversation with Mark Wilson and we’d like to thank him for taking his time out of a very busy convention for him to speak with us. I think it’s very positive to consider that almost anyone can get into the gaming industry if their passion is there. For Mark Wilson, it started with MUDs in high school (the same as it was for me) and eventually landed him on working on one of the biggest RPGs in recent history. So anyone out there who thinks that fooling around with something like Unity is a waste of their time, remember that for many game developers, it always started with a passion, and then led to a position.

Heroes of the Storm Medic, Artanis, New Mounts and More Showcased!

Jeremy Waxman — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 22:28:42 +0000

Heroes of the Storm

eSports

Link:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/GXlzocKSJmw

YouTube

Age Restriction:

We've known for some time now that the next Heroes coming to Heroes of the Storm will be StarCraft themed, with the Protoss leader Artanis and the Terran medic set to enter the Nexus. Today, Blizzard unveiled a new video showing off these Heroes (that Medic is named Lt. Morales, by the way), as well as new skins and mounts.

We don't have an exact release date for all of this content, but it's pretty exciting to see what's coming. You can check it all out in the video below.

Source/Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment

BlizzCon 2015 In-Game Items Have Been Revealed

Jeremy Waxman — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 21:01:48 +0000

Heroes of the Storm

eSports

The 2015 edition of BlizzCon is November 6th-7th, and anyone who attends (either in person, or buy purchasing a virtual ticket) is entitled to cosmetic items in every one of Blizzard's current games. Here's a quick rundown of what you'll get if you attend:

Diablo III

BlizzCon Pennant, Pet and Portrait

This year's BlizzCon items are notably Murloc-themed, and if you've ever wanted to know what your Diablo character would look like inside of a Murloc's mouth, now's your chance. Or, if you just want to have one follow you around Sanctuary, that's now completely possible.

Hearthstone

Blizzard 2015 Card Back

The decision to go with an ice-based theme is a complete mystery. Some have speculated this might have something to do with the company being called "Blizzard", while others have dismissed this speculation as being far too simple of an explanation. Either way, there's only one way to obtain it.

Heroes of the Storm

Nexus Battle Beast Mount

If the envy of other players helps you to win games, then picking up this mount is going to significantly boost your win rate. Just look at that majestic creature.

StarCraft II

Portraits

Show your excitement for Legacy of the Void with these brand new portraits, representing the mysteries of the Xel'Naga and the Spear of Adun.

World of Warcraft

Murkidan Pet

Because your life was incomplete before you saw Illidan as a Murloc, and now you can have him as a pet!

All of these items will be available to anyone attending BlizzCon live or through the virtual ticket, and will be unlocked after the event begins.

Source/Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment

ArchLord 2 Rides off Into the Sunset in November

Xerin — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 17:14:17 +0000

ArchLord II

MMO

ArchLord 2 is going to be going bye-bye on November 24th, 2015. ArchLord 2 is the successor of the original ArchLord, interestingly enough one of the first games I ever reviewed for Ten Ton Hamer then some and forever ago. Thankfully, due to Webzen's Wcoin working across a broad range of MMOs, players won't be missing out on any specific loss of currency, outside of using it in the recent timeframe, so that's good at least. Oh and another positive is that if you did spend it in the last six months, you do get it back, so honestly this is a rather nice sunset in terms of player investment coming back. Here's what they said on the official notice:

Today, we have some very sad news for you. Unfortunately, the time has come for Archlord 2 to close its doors for good. In roughly 2 months’ time, on November 24^th 2015, the servers for Archlord 2 will be deactivated and it will no longer be possible to play the game after that.

Archlord 2 has been a great adventure for all of us, and we sincerely hope that you have enjoyed your time with the game and the friends you made while playing it. We know we have.

Going back to Wcoin, if you spent any in the last six months, you'll get it back in your account and can use it to go play something else from Webzen, like Age of Wulin, C9, or Flyff, plus a few more. So that's nice, at least. This should be done by October 7th and, in addition, you'll receive coupons for the other games in their lineup. So be sure to check your email.

I don't have much to say about Archlord 2, I never played it, but I hope this sunset isn't too painful on those who are playing currently.

You can read the official announcement here.

Taken King Takes Number One Spot in UK Charts

Halfshell — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 16:56:44 +0000

268827

Destiny

MMO

Destiny's Taken King has reached the number one spot on the UK games sales charts and broken a Playstation record in the process. The expansion passed Metal Gear and the latest Forza title to claim the space, although it sold just 16% of the total copies of Destiny that were sold.

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg had this to say about the release.

Destiny: The Taken King is officially the most downloaded game on day-one in PlayStation history and set a new benchmark for both total Destiny players and peak online concurrency on day-one, so it’s safe to say the Destiny franchise continues to gain momentum.

The Playstation 4 was the biggest market for Destiny, followed up by the Xbox One, the 360 and then the Playstation 3 crowd which only represented a handful of downloads. Sales are expected to continue, as many players were waiting for the raid to be added this Friday.

Gigantic: Imani Viability and Potential Improvements

Lewis Burnell — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 15:26:13 +0000

268078

Gigantic

eSports

Editorial

It’s a question that has been raised on the Gigantic Beta forums and one I wanted to address. I will freely admit that when I see an Imani on my team my heart sinks a little. It’s not because I dislike the Hero but simply because, certainly in my experience, most Imani players are very poor. Of the Imani players I’ve encountered only one, in over ten months, has ventured from the back of the map alongside the rest of his team. The others have all sat as far back from the fight as humanly possible, sniping away to their hearts content. Although they’re well within their rights to do this (it’s their choice) I feel it does Imani, her kit and her team a great disservice.

As it currently stands and with the removal of Roland, Imani and Voden are arguably the only two ranged Hero’s that fulfill a skirmisher/guerilla fighter role. Despite her appearance and use of a scope, I’ve found that she excels if I play her as I do Voden. Constantly changing position, utilising Frost Bolt to slow and act as a long range nuisance makes her formidable. The problem is that the majority don’t play her in this way and when she’s compared directly to Voden, she falls slightly short.

Imani is always going to be vying for a team place against Voden and because of that, it’s inevitable that the playerbase will compare what both offer and if one comes out on top, the other will be pushed aside. At the moment, Voden wins out - by quite a margin - because he’s not only capable of dealing high single target damage, but his use of poison, bleeding, Green Man decoy and Hidden Spring provides a flexible and powerful kit, that also offers survivability and pressure. In contrast, Imani’s kit is somewhat limited. Yes she has some utility from Frost Bolt and can escape rather easily with Smoke Bomb once it’s upgraded. What limits her however is the fact that all of her utility is tied so heavily to upgrades and even once upgraded, it all feels a little...stingy?

At the moment all of Imani’s utility revolves around the use of Cycle Ammo and it’s this skill and upgrade line that should truly define her play style and group role. With two paths - one for each bolt - it’s sensible that Motiga chose to allow people to focus on a specific one. However, both Boom Bolt and Frost Bolt when upgraded don’t go quite far enough in providing Imani and her team with some much needed flexibility. In addition to some suggested changes to Cycle Ammo, I also wanted to raise a few tweaks to her other skills.

Cycle Ammo

Boom Bolt

By default Imani’s Boom Bolt has two charges and increases the damage of shots. Her first upgrade, Blast Radius, increases the size of the explosion if you hit a target, allowing you to cleave enemy Hero’s who are too close together. The second set of upgrades allows your Boom Bolt to cause 3 seconds of burning (Die in a Fire) or launch enemies on hit (All In) with the latter reducing your Boom Bolt count to just one. The problem with this upgrade line is that its utility is incredible limited and entirely reliant on landing all your attacks, as opposed to strategically firing. There’s no question that you can deal huge damage from Boom Bolt’s (especially with Die in a Fire) but I feel there’s much more room here to boost Imani’s team presence, whilst mirroring the principals of Deep Freeze.

The burst damage potential of Blast Radius is undoubtedly high and I’d propose a tweak to this upgrade path. Part of the reason why Voden and Charnok are so sought after is because they can close down an area with the likes of Hot Hail and Poison Spores. What I’d propose is the following:

1. Die in a Fire should be switched as the first upgrade. Direct hits with Boom Bolts cause burning for 3 seconds.

2. Blast Radius should be switched to a second tier upgrade. Direct hits with Boom Bolts explosion radius is bigger and enemies caught in the blast will be knocked back. Boom Bolts reduced to 1.

3. All In should be renamed Burning Intent. Boom Bolts also leave a flame area for 3 seconds.

The primary reasoning behind this shuffle is not only only give Imani earlier access to burning, but to also build on her strategic use of Bolts. Blast Radius causing a larger explosion on impact, not only allows for a spread of burning but with the knockback has a dual purpose, allowing Imani to peel or interrupt. Condensing both seems to make much more sense. As for Burning Intent, it mirrors Deep Freeze in allowing Imani to provide some area denial. She could then make the choice of purposefully firing at a point on the ground as a method of preventing the enemy advancing. The flame area would be slightly smaller than Uncle Sven’s Acid Flask when alight.

Amended Cycle Ammo upgrade paths

Frost Bolt

Although my favourite of the two Bolts, Frost Bolt is incredibly limited and at times, underwhelming for all the potential it has. A very short duration slow, a tiny frost field and then more of it when you upgrade is never going to allow it to challenge Boom Bolt upgrading. With that in mind, I only think it needs a few tweaks. What I’d propose is the following:

1. Chilled to the Bone should be switched in as the first upgrade.

2. Ice, Ice, Maybe should be renamed Frost Bite. Frost Bolts also leave a frozen pool for 3 seconds, causing a heavy slow to all those who touch it.

3. Direct hits with Frost Bolt when upgraded to Deep Freeze will interrupt and encase an enemy in ice for 2 seconds. During this the individual will be unable to use skills and cannot move. Any damage they receive will shatter the ice block. Frost Bolts reduced to 1 charge.

Deep Freeze and Frost Bite

The primary reason for these changes is to provide a longer slow on Frost Bolts from the beginning, but to also have Imani players make a difficult choice. Do they want to be able to lay down frost fields for slow based area denial, so that the team can capitalize on the reduced movement on the enemy? Alternatively, do they want to be able to incapacitate someone for a very brief period? Both can be used defensively, but both will bolster the value of Imani’s presence in the team. I’ve no doubt the change to Deep Freeze might be contentious based on the fact it incapacitates someone for 2 seconds, but the fact it’s only 2 seconds and that the individual cannot be struck during the time (or the ice block will break) I feel balances the change. In addition, reducing the Frost Bolt to 1 on the upgrade ensures you cannot encase two players at any one time.

Smoke Bomb

By default Smoke Bomb causes weakness when enemies are struck by her smoke and yet I feel that its at odds, thematically, with the flavour of the skill. In a thick cloud of smoke, surely you’d move slowly to find your way out? With that in mind, I’d like to see enemies caught in Smoke Bomb become slowed for 2 seconds. In addition, to make Choking Gas more attractive over the very powerful Acrobatics, I think it should not only stun but also cause Weakness. To build on this, Debilitating Haze should stun for 1 additional second and ramp up the Weakness strength from 20 to 50%. Finally, Smoke Screen is an upgrade no Imani ever takes because the value of the skill is the ability to escape, not using it offensively (doing so leaves yourself so vulnerable). With that in mind but still sort-of-liking the principal, I’d like to see the size of the smoke cloud become significantly bigger if you choose to take Smoke Screen, with it boosting the armor of allies in the cloud by +25%.

The most important change for Smoke Bomb however has to be its cast time. At the moment it takes about 1.5 seconds to launch your bomb, leaving you incredibly vulnerable for this brief period. Making the Smoke Bomb instantly would give you just a little more wriggle room when you want to escape, especially against the likes of Tripp, Tyto and Wu.

Silent Scope

Finally and because I like most of the upgrade paths for this skill, the only change I’d make is to Combat Sniper. At the moment a 10% speed boost and a minor amount of armor is absolutely tiny and a terrible choice in comparison to Snapshot. Instead, Imani should gain a 15% speed boost after a scoped shot, with +20 additional armor from the front. By making this small change there’s two distinct lines to the Silent Scope upgrade paths: the left for high damage sniping and the right for quick guerilla style engagement.

Final Thoughts

Overall I think Imani is generally good and as someone who, for the vast majority of my time with Gigantic, has played Griselma, she’s my go-to alternative when I want a break. Although Imani appears popular (she’s certainly picked often) she isn’t seen to be doing particularly great in the Beta right now. As I mentioned previously, I think much of it is to do with how people play her but also because her kit is lacking in certain areas and needs tightening up. The key to improving her however - I propose - is through Cycle Ammo, whilst making minor refinements to her upgrade paths. At the moment the biggest obstacle for Imani being viable, in comparison to Voden or Charnok, is the fact she cannot deal with Assassins. It’s run or die, there’s no inbetween.

Yes I’ve successfully killed Tyto, Tripp and Wu 1 on 1 but that was primarily against poor or new players. Against skilled opponents and friends, Imani lacks the toolset to do anything that can reliably counter an assassin. It generally means that if there is one on the opposing team, you’ll spend much of your time trying to escape as opposed to doing your job. In contrast and certainly when I play Voden or Charnok, I never once worry about assassins because the combination of skills and upgrade paths both these Hero's have allows me to comfortably deal with them. All I and many others end up doing with Imani when I see an assassin coming towards me is using Smoke Bomb and sprinting away. It feels a little odd that you're at such a disadvantage.

By tweaking Cycle Ammo so that it provides more utility, but retaining much of its damage and group support potential, Imani will just a few more tools to work alongside her team in a much better way. I’m not suggesting any of these ideas are right and I fully appreciate that Imani, unlike Voden or Charnok, has incredible ranged potential. However, the playstyle of Gigantic generally dictates that sniping from full range is not only detrimental to your team, but there's also incredibly limited opportunities for it to be effective. That said, these ideas are the direction I’d like to see her go in and I also hope it stirs up some discussion for a Hero that seems to have fallen down the pecking order.

What are your thoughts on Imani and my suggested changes? Let me know.

5 Reasons the Legion Should Win

Memnock — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 04:03:51 +0000

268489

World of Warcraft

MMO

Feature

It is way past time that Azeroth and the heroes that reside there had a good old fashioned ass kicking. Thus far, we have been able to face off against great evil and come away the victor. We are the prodigal hero and it seems like we cannot lose. Even when Deathwing showed up on the scene and changed the way our world looked, we still managed to throw a Hail Mary and win the day.

With the Burning Legion headed to our doorstep, it may be time that our winning streak ends. Let's face it, things are getting a little boring. If things keep going the way they are, we will always know exactly how the story will end. Perhaps it is time that the heroes fail in World of Warcraft and a new era in the game is rung in. Still not convinced? Read onward for 5 reasons that the Legion should win.

Undo the Drudgery

In World of Warcraft today every expansion has a set pattern. Something bad happens, we the heroes fight against it, then we win and the bad thing goes away. Everyone celebrates. Then we proceed to rinse and repeat. It is just like clockwork and just like watching a clock, things are getting a little dull.

While losing to the Burning Legion would be devastating, it could help make the spark of interest in the game burn a little brighter. Imagine an expansion where you weren't assured a win, where the future was unsure, and even the best heroes could be defeated. While this may not appeal to every player and may seem a little scary, if you sit and think about it, it almost can not be denied that the idea is a compelling one.

A Way Out of Artifacts

Besides upping the interest of the game, the Legion winning could potentially give us a way to get out of Artifact Weapons. Since their announcement I have had a mixture of excitement and enmity for Artifacts. They sound interesting, but what happens when the expansion ends? Do we have to hand in these super amazing weapons? Are Artifact Weapons something we will see in every expansion?

The Legion winning could be the perfect way to say goodbye to Artifact Weapons. The heroes will have lost and perhaps the Artifact Weapon will be taken, lost, or even destroyed. This would be an interesting and easy way to ensure that we get great use out of our Artifacts without feeling like we just discarded these super powerful weapons at the end of the expansion.

Brand New Worlds

We have spent a lot of time on Azeroth. We have discovered new lands and even new places on the places we know so well. It may be time we go beyond even that. It is rumored that Alleria and Turalyon may return in this expansion. These two have been missing in action for quite awhile and it is likely they have discovered new worlds along the way.

If the Burning Legion would win and our world would be lost, we may need to take refuge on one of the worlds that Alleria and her lover explored. A whole new world for us to explore and learn about. A whole new world for us to prepare and plot our revenge on the Legion.

An Epic Comeback

Besides giving us a brand new type of story line in Legion, our defeat could lead to many new and exciting story lines. As heroes, we are motivated to save our world. We would do almost anything to save it. The fight for one's home is always heartfelt and sincere. No one fights like those who are trying to save everything they love.

No one...except people who have lost everything and want to take it back. The story here is a fascinating one, one that has never been fully explored in the game thus far. Our homeland lost, a new one needs to be found, and a burning desire to drive the Legion from our old world. A fantastic lead in for the next potential World of Warcraft expansion.

Changed Landscape

Besides giving us a really cool story line, the Legion taking over the place would change the face of the world forever. Move over Deathwing, a new decorator is in town. Cataclysm brought massive changes to the world, a refreshing change from looking at the same old landscape and playing the same old quest chain again.

The invasion and victory of the Burning Legion would do the same, maybe even taking it one step further. Perhaps Orgrimmar and Stormwind would totally be destroyed. Whole zones would be revamped or obliterated. New quest chains and brand new story lines could be put into place. We haven't seen many changes since Deathwing shook the world, let's not allow it to become stagnant once again.

That wraps up our list of 5 reasons that the Legion should win. While it is likely that developers will probably stick to the same old song and dance in this expansion, but we may yet be surprised.

Blizzard and Random House Partner for New Novels

Memnock — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 15:52:03 +0000

268148

World of Warcraft

MMO

If you are a fan of the novels based off Blizzard games you have probably noticed that production on these books has all but become obsolete lately. However, this book dry spell will soon be broken. Blizzard has revealed that they have partnered with Random House to pump out new novels for our reading pleasure. The new publishing line will launch in March 2016 and will contain books from the Starcraft, Diablo, and Warcraft settings.

Being one of the biggest publishers in the world, we can expect to see some pretty big names writing about our favorite games. For instance, the first book in line; World of Warcraft: Illidan is written by none other than William King. King is the author of Games Workshop's Warhammer novels. This book will lead us directly into the next World of Warcraft expansion: Legion.

Even more exciting, at least one book will be written by Timothy Zahn, the author of the Star Wars trilogy Heir to the Empire. For those looking for the return of writers like Christie Golden or Rochard A. Knaak, you will have to keep waiting. As of now, no word has been released on if these writers will be an active part of the new line of books.

As a fan of the books, this is pretty exciting news. If things go well we can expect to see some pretty epic things from the Random House/Blizzard combination. Let us just hope that with such a big publishing company, nothing of the game universes we love get lost along the way. What do you think about the Blizzard/Random House coupling?

Amazon's $50 Tablet - A Good Thing for Mobile & Online Gaming?

Xerin — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 23:27:48 +0000

Gaming Tech

MMO

Respawn

Amazon is releasing a tablet that is $49 later this month, with pre-orders beginning now. This is actually a very notable event, especially for gamers of all genres. You might not think the world of tablet hardware has any impact on gaming, but it does – both in the mobile gaming sphere and in our world of PC / console gaming. First, let’s analyze what this tablet means, and then we’ll discuss why you should care.

In the $50 tablet range, there isn’t much in the realm of “useful.” Outside of the HP Touchpad fire sale, there isn’t many tablets that are notable in the sub-$100 realm. Mobile MMOs need a lot in order to be a satisfying experience. You first need hardware to run the game, a connection that’s stable (mobile data is far from that, still), and time to play. Therefore, the experience has to be boiled down to the point you could play for 5 minute blocks, able to leave at any time you absolutely have to.

This creates a lot of issues that aren’t easily solved, because if mobile data isn’t reliable, you’ll want players to play the game at home. Which is fine, but they’re not going to want to use a small screen like on their phone when they have a console or PC available. Therefore, they need a tablet, but tablets aren’t as accessible as smartphones. An iPad Air 2 is $399 and Samsung’s latest flagship is usually around the same price point, give or take $100.

In the sub-$100 arena, there is a lot of trash and nothing really notable, and something has to be at that price point to reach global adoption, otherwise no one is going to have the money for it. We all only have so many smartphones because of the $0 2-yr contracts. Let’s be honest, most of you reading this probably couldn’t afford the $899 sticker price of flagships of ye ‘olde time.

Amazon, who I believe loves moving the market around as if it was a ragdoll, makes its money off of consumption. It’s a consumption company. It focuses most of its attention on consumables – like books, movies, games, and household supplies. If you can consume it, Amazon really wants you to come to them for it. Look at the Amazon Dash buttons, so that you can easily reorder your washing detergent or the fact its emphasis has been on hardware to make eBooks a reliable business (Kindle).

Therefore, by releasing the sub-$100 tablet that you can literally buy in a six-pack for the price of a normal flagship ($249 for six) or buy one for the price of a tank of gas ($49), tablet adoption rates should skyrocket, assuming the hardware is everything they say it is. With a 1.3ghz quad-core processor, 1 gig of ram, and 8gigs of storage it’s rather not bad, good enough to play most games and run most any regular application in the store.

The consequence of this for Amazon is that they’ll have people clambering for the cheap devices as stocking stuffers for Christmas, greatly expanding the reach of their store (one is to assume). On the flipside, one thing we have to look at is gamers, is the fact that when players take surveys they will be more likely to indicate that they have a tablet, as obviously other hardware manufactures will try to move into the sub-$100 arena to compete (assuming that they have the desire to).

Thusly, when something like this happens, it means that game developers should look at something like second screen support much more seriously. One of the most requested features is the ability to manage inventory, auctions, equipment, etc. on a second screen, allowing you to manage your character leaning back in a chair, or while you leave the room, or the car ride home. Additionally, it makes finding info about a game easier – considering you can look it up without having to alt-tab out.

Additionally, mobile MMOs become more reasonable with the larger screen space, and the fact that there is WiFi. While it won’t revolutionize the industry, it’ll make tablets way more accessible, which will in turn make the idea of making tablet MMOs and MOBAs more enticing, for sure.

Of course, Amazon’s OS doesn’t use the Google Play store, and nothing is going to happen overnight, but rest assured, it’s a good thing for gaming, even if you never thought of it from that angle.

Thoughts, views, and opinions expressed in this article are that of its author.

League of Legends Season 5 Worlds: Group D Predictions

Jeremy Waxman — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 22:17:08 +0000

268825

League of Legends

eSports

Feature

After taking a good look at the first three, it’s now time to break down the teams in Group D of the upcoming League of Legends Season 5 World Championships. With China’s top team, an imposing presence from Korea, and two of the best teams the LCS has to offer, there’s a lot of different ways things could go.

Let’s take a look at the teams competing in…

Group D

While the Spring split wasn’t too kind to KT Rolster, they received a huge boost from the addition of Support Piccaboo. He made a name for himself as a roaming and play-making Support, often working with Jungler Score to create pressure all over the map. Nagne is still a player that commands respect, and Ssumday is one of the most feared top-lane carries in the world. KT highly prioritized vision, often aggressively, as they look to make plays all over the place. It will be up to other teams to punish them for their frequent roams, and their opponents will need to make sure their own vision is secure.

LGD Gaming boasts a couple players who are no strangers to performing on the world stage: former Samsung players Acorn in the top lane, and imp at AD Carry. Both will be counted on, but contributions come from all across the lineup. Mid laner GODV has proven himself to be a force to be reckoned with, and Support player Pyl is absolutely instrumental in this team’s success. As one would expect from a team with imp on it, they are extremely aggressive, and are generally very good at using that aggression to take multiple things on the map. It’s worth noting that they swept Edward Gaming in the LPL playoffs, showing that they’re unafraid, and able, to stand up to some of the best teams in the world.

Origen has an incredible story. They’re a mix of intelligent veterans and hungry up-and-comers, and the blend brought them all the way to game 5 against the previously-undefeated Fnatic in the EU LCS finals. Boasting legitimate carry threats in all 3 lanes, and a cunning jungler in Amazing, Origen has a lot going for them. However, we have seen weaknesses exposed, and not being able to keep up with the aggressive styles of the Eastern teams could be an issue.

It’s almost expected that Team SoloMid will just be at every World Championship, and they’re back again this year. However, this may the year that outside expectations are the lowest they’ve been. TSM’s style of “feed Bjergsen and hope he can carry the rest of the team” was exposed at MSI, and though they’ve been attempting more diverse tactics since then, they still haven’t appeared to truly find themselves as a team. Getting demolished by Counter Logic Gaming in the NA LCS finals should have served as a wake-up call, and hopefully the team will have new tricks up their sleeves. Dyrus and WildTurtle initially appear to be outmatched by every other team in this group, so TSM is going to have to get creative if they want to move on.

Group D Predictions

1^st: LGD Gaming

2^nd: KT Rolster

3^rd: Origen

4^th: Team SoloMid

Necromancy in Skyforge: A Tale of Joy and Misery

Reuben Waters — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 19:45:55 +0000

Skyforge

268836

MMO

Lifetap

When it comes to playing MMOs, I tend to approach each one differently. I’m a firm believer in playing an MMO on its own terms, rather than projecting some unattainable expectations on a product I took no active role in creating. So depending on how core systems are structured my focus will shift to account for the how one game naturally differs from the next.

One of the only constants tends to be that I would consider myself a very goal-oriented MMO gamer. The goals may be different in each game I’ve played, but they are always goals I set for myself rather than being part of a formalized system like achievement unlocks. There are definitely those times when my personal goals and things like achievements overlap, but for the most part I find more satisfaction in successfully completing objectives of my own design.

Skyforge is a very appealing MMO for players like myself who like to set multiple goals at once. With few exceptions, nearly every activity in Skyforge feeds directly into character progression in some way, and there is a very distinct freedom of choice that simply is not present in most triple-A games in the genre.

Having participated in each of the closed beta events, I had set a number of goals for myself by the time open beta arrived and things like character / account wipes drew to a close. Exposure to those beta events also proved to be somewhat of a blessing and a curse. I always had the goal of unlocking the necromancer, but also discovered that I enjoyed playing the witch / warlock even more.

The Curse of the Casual Player

Given the nature of what I do for a living, I tend to have less time than most to dedicate to playing a single MMO during any given week. I really enjoy Skyforge and play as often as I’m able, but have also fallen far behind the average when it comes to the player progression curve. I’m at roughly 10,000 Prestige which isn’t bad, but at times it feels like I’m crawling forward rather than making meaningful progress towards my goals.

A couple of weeks ago I finally managed to unlock the necromancer class, and naturally couldn’t wait to switch over to actively playing it. That’s when many of the weaknesses of the class unlock system became very pronounced for me, and helped me realize that I may never reach the ultimate goal of unlocking the witch / warlock without some serious time investment.

Considering it took the better part of two months to get the necromancer unlocked, it is going to take a hefty amount of sparks for the long stretch of the Ascension Atlas between the two classes. A part of me questions why some classes are nested so deeply within the Atlas to begin with given the fact that being able to play a class you truly enjoy is one of the biggest factors of player retention in an MMO. Having to spend months getting there really defeats the purpose, at least for me.

In the meantime, I’ve completely missed the first Invasion, and will no doubt miss out on the new Mechanoid Invasion as well since I’m spending sparks to get to the class I want to play, so have not been dropping the major chunks required to unlock the Divine Atlas. Mind you, to even make the necromancer playable I’ve also needed to spend sparks on the first run of skill and talent unlocks, setting me back from my other goals even further.

Pound Me the Witch Drums

Another questionable byproduct of the class unlock system in Skyforge is that it sets you up to fail when switching to a freshly unlocked class for the first few times when playing solo. For starters, my Prestige dropped a full 1500+ points due to having no class-specific gear, and no way to obtain even a starter kit for the class.

So with no weapons, amulets, or talents, and only a few skills available, the severe disadvantage my necro was at was readily apparent the first time I engaged a group of enemies in combat. The same groups of weak mobs that my berserker would whirlwind down in two seconds were suddenly unstoppable killing machines that could mow down my fledgling necromancer without breaking a sweat.

The Prestige system insures that you only have a narrow slice of content available that will give you needed drops, so it was an uphill battle for the past two weeks just getting some basic gear for my necromancer. That transition period was certainly painful, and one that the training simulator does very little to prepare you for when trying out new classes.

All things considered, the necromancer is one of the easier classes to unlock in the Ascension Atlas, so I shudder to think about how difficult things will be once I finally unlock the witch. Sparks are coming in at a snail’s pace, so it will no doubt be quite some time before I even get there.

While I think Skyforge is an amazing MMO and regularly recommend it to people looking for a new game to play, the class unlock system may ultimately be the silver bullet that kills my desire to keep logging in. I see some very major flaws in the concept of having to play something you might not otherwise given the choice for a period of weeks or months so that you can eventually unlock the thing you do want to play.

The goal-oriented MMO gamer in me wants to see unlocking the witch class as a challenge, but the practical part of me doesn’t understand why I can’t unlock it through a more direct means. I’d gladly purchase the class unlock directly were it an option, but only selected classes have been available through that method so far.

In the meantime, I’ll keep honing my skills on the necromancer and at least find some comfort in the knowledge that I’ve made it past the awkward gearless dirt nap phase.

The Mechaniod Invasion Begins in Skyforge

Reuben Waters — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 17:41:56 +0000

266712

Skyforge

MMO

Most MMOs feature some form of time-limited events, though most default to keeping them focused on major real world holidays with the occasional in-game event intended to help bridge the storyline gap just prior to a major expansion. A few games have taken the concept much further, as is the case with Skyforge Invasions.

The second major Invasion in Skyforge kicks off today, this time featuring the Mechanoids. As with the previous Invasion, players will need to have unlocked their Divine Form to participate, but by all accounts the benefits for participating are well worth it.

If you’re not quite sure what “unlock your Divine Form” means, you could almost think of it as something similar to Ascension in the original Guild Wars. You won’t necessarily be scampering around the desert doing menial tasks for a benign ghost, mind you. Or forced to fight a doppelganger of your character for that matter. Instead, you’ll be spending a sizable chunk of Sparks in the Ascension Atlas to unlock the Divine Atlas.

Given that I typically have limited windows of time to play Skyforge in any given week, I’ve primarily focused on unlocking new classes. I’m ultimately aiming to unlock Witch / Warlock, but given that it took me nearly two months to unlock the Necromancer I’ll be lucky to reach my final goal by the end of the year at the rate things are going.

For those players who set their sights on unlocking the Divine Atlas, you’ll definitely want to spend some time exploring the Mechanoid Invasion includes. Among other things, you’ll make some significant progress through the Divine Atlas with bonuses that are not counted towards your weekly limits. You’ll also get to experience some fresh content which is always a good thing in my books. While you’re doing that, I’ll continue putting up the good fight to keep Factory 501 clear of Mechanoids, though I have to admit it seems like a losing battle at this point.

Additional details can be found on the official Skyforge website, so be sure to check it out: The Mechanoids Have Landed!

Guild Wars 2: Druid To Be Revealed At TwitchCon, Last POI?

Lewis Burnell — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 17:38:30 +0000

268764

Guild Wars 2

MMO

The scrapper Points of Interest that goes live in a couple of hours is, according to Guild Wars 2's Twitter, going to be the last Points of Interest. Whether or not that's permanent or simply because they've covered all they want to with the format, it looks like the show in its current form is ending. Either that or it's just taking a break. Rubi Bayer who hosts Points of Interest also confirmed that the druid will be revealed in all its glory next week at TwitchCon.

I'm not entirely sure at this point how I feel about Points of Interest ending (if it is in fact ending) because the show is good, but not exceptional. It provides lots of brilliant information, but I think chemistry is often lacking between guest and host. I recently watched the Gigantic Clash Course show and it's incredible due to the excitement and chatty nature of MO_Thor. Being comfortable in front of the camera isn't easy and having tried it before, I found the experience absolutely awful. I really hope Rubi finds herself on a new Guild Wars 2 show.

As for the druid, can we start the hype train now? Oh and before I forget, there's a brief Vine video of the scrapper here. Choo, Choo!

TenTonHammer Talks!

Veluux — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 16:56:45 +0000

Gaming Tech

eSports

Link:

channel=tentonhammernetwork

Twitch

Age Restriction:

Hello TenTonHammerites!

We're excited to share another dose of insight with you via our livestream talkshow, featuring two of your favorite TenTonHammer authors.

Alexander "Veluux" Wall and Jeremy "Justice" Waxman will be running the show regularly with guest appearances by fellow TenTon Staff members as well as a variety of other guests that will include: Game Developers, Twitch Celebrities, Professional Gamers, and potentially even you !

If you never got a chance to find out what this show was all about back with Episode One: Welcome to the Show (7/17/2015), you should definitely go give it a watch. During that first show Alex and Jeremy spend some time introducing themselves and exactly what this show is all about. Barring death, injury, or other impairments, TTH Talks will air regularly at 3PM Eastern every Friday for about an hour. We'd love to have you along for the ride, engaging in the conversation live via Twitch chat where you can submit questions and topics for us to discuss.

So come join us this today for episode eight!

Episode #8- The Future is Live

Friday, Friday, Friday. Today we talk livestreaming, eSports, and community development with a special guest from within the competitive gaming industry: Charles Bathel. Charles is the Director of Community for Azubu - a notable and popular professional eSports sponsor that has just recently launched it's own broadcasting and streaming platform in Azubu.tv - if you're a fan of eSports or competitive gaming in general, you definitely don't want to miss this one!

As always, if you can't make this episode be sure check out the replays below that we've done.

Episode Archive

Episode #1: Welcome to the Show

Episode #2: Face of the Franchise

Episode #3: Entitled to an Opinion

Episode #4: Forget About the Fun (feat. developer guest Adam "Snipehunter" Maxwell from Illfonic's Revival)

Episode #5: Leveling the Playfield

Episode #6: Opening the Gates (feat. guest Reese "Neurotoxin" Holland from Who's Gaming Now?)

Episode #7: Competitive Gaming - Transformed

[We will also be porting all of our TenTonHammer Talks archive videos over to our YouTube Channel - so if you can't make the show live, you can still find the replays there and in our Twitch channel archives! Be sure to check out our inaugural first episode where we introduce ourselves, what our show is all about, and what our plans are for the immediate future.]

How to Earn Legendary Marks - Destiny

Halfshell — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 16:51:40 +0000

268827

Destiny

MMO

Gameplay

Farming Legendary Marks is one of the best ways to get your hands on some legendary gear. Previously Legendary Marks were known as two different types of currency, the Crucible Marks and the Vanguard Marks. Things are a lot simpler now with only one type of Mark you can use to purchase Crucible gear, Vanguard gear and even Faction Gear.

Costs for the legendary items will vary slightly depending on what vendor you’re purchasing from. In most cases a legendary weapon costs 150 Legendary Marks while a piece of armor runs 125.

Luckily there are lots of ways to farm legendary marks so if you do get board of one method you can switch over to another without losing much in the way of mark income.

There is no weekly maximum to the amount of Legendary Marks you can gather, but you can only hold a max of 200 in your inventory at one time. You must be lvl 40 before you can start farming Legendary Marks.

The Crucible offers a daily crucible playlist that rewards 15 Legendary Marks for completing it. This is an account wide completion, meaning you can only do it once a day for all of your characters.
Daily Story Missions operate the same way as the daily crucible playlist and reward an additional 15 marks for their completion. (Account Wide)
Weekly Heroic Strikes offer 10 Marks for their completion. They can however be completed by multiple characters for the reward, something that can’t be done with the daily story and crucible rewards.
Dismantling Legendary Gear gives around 5 Marks per piece of gear, but the gear must be Year 2. Year 1 legendary gear will not yield any marks when dismantled.
Quests can have legendary marks as rewards, particularly the Taken War quests. Check your quest screen to see what rewards you will receive for a quests completion.