Last month, Game Update 52 alleviated this problem by spreading the set bonus a bit thinner. All sets offer a bonus at 2, 3 and 5 pieces (although some of these have changed slightly as well). For certain sets, there is now a bonus at four pieces so that mixing and matching shard armor becomes a little bit easier.

Void Shard Armor: The Ultimate Reference has been updated to reflect all the changes in the set bonuses, which only affect the Advanced Shard Armor. For quick reference, here are the current set bonuses for all the Advanced Armor Sets:

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

YouTube - Michael Jackson - Thriller

For those of us without the musical talent and dancing skills of Michael Jackson, zombies present somewhat more of a problem. I always aim to be prepared for emergencies and so I have come to eat your brains collected this set of weblinks to help you be prepared for the day when the zombies arrive.

Test Your Skillz

What Are Your Chances of Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse?

The Zombie Surival Quiz
Question 1 of 15

How much non-perishable food you keep in your home? (canned goods, etc)

1. Lots, I could last for several months without making a trip to the store
2. I’ve got a few weeks worth of food
3. Some, I could survive for a few days without having to leave
4. Very little / none

(Note: you do not have to sign up! Simply follow the link that says “No thanks, take me to my quiz results”)

Play Zombie Games to Test Your Reactions

PopCap Games – Plants vs. Zombies

Plants Vs Zombies
And don’t look now, but they’re coming for you next!

A mob of zombies is about to invade your home, and your only defense is an arsenal of zombie-zapping plants. Think fast and plant faster to stop the zombies dead in their tracks. And with five game modes to dig into, the fun never dies!

The Last Stand | Armor Games

Survive the night fighting off zombies from your barricade. Survive longer than a day by making use of the daylight hours effectively by:
*Repairing your barricade
*Searching for weapons
*Looking for other survivors to help repair
*Search and Defend the barricade.

Attend Real-Time Simulations

Terror4Fun: Zombie Fest 2009

It’s that time of year again, when our thoughts go focus on what we are going to do this summer and of course the one word on our minds was… Zombie Fest 2009…

This year event will feature, once again, zombie films, guest stars, games, shooting and archery with zombie targets and of course, The Zombie Experience…

Buy the Zombie Survival Guide

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead: Max Brooks: Amazon.co.uk: Books

“‘So meticulous and well researched that it’s more scary than funny. This book lays out everything you need to know to protect yourself from flesh-eating monsters’ – Esquire ‘A bloody-minded, straight laced manual for evading the grasp of the undead’ – Time Out ‘A tome you start reading for fun and then at page 50 you go out and buy a machete just to be on the safe side’ – New York Post ‘Ignorance is the undead’s strongest ally, knowledge their deadliest enemy. Personal choice, the will to live, must be paramount when the dead begin to rise. The choice is up to you.’ (from The Zombie Survival Guide)”

Accept that Zombies Can Be Cute

Left 4 Dead Super Zombies – CROCHET

When I purchased the Creepy Cute Crochet book a while back, my husband made me promise to make a zombie for him. Well, other projects kind of jumped ahead … but anyway, he recently started playing Left 4 Dead and I decided to make him all the super-powered zombies from the game for Christmas! Here are the pictures!

Adopt A Zombie Hamster

Zombie Hamsters

The Zombie Hamsters are mutating! They are disguised as soft and fuzzy plush toys. Don’t be fooled! We need your help because our team can not handle them all. Please adopt as many as you can to keep them from taking over.

If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them

YouTube – Jonathan Coulton – re: Your Brains

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

There are two book recipes per tier, one handcrafted book using the standard pelt and one mastercrafted book using the rare pelt of that tier. The mastercrafted books have a clasped design.

These books are crafted by sages with level 50 or higher. Sages learn these recipes via a quest on the Isle of Mara. You will need to have basic Far Seas Trader faction to do the quest. You can gain this needed by speaking to Captain Ingrid at the docks and completing her initial quest.

Books come in two orientations which alternate up the tiers. Tier 1, tier 3 and the rest of the odd-numbered tiers sit flat while tier 2, tier 4 and the other even-numbered tiers stand upright.

Once you have chosen a book, you need to have it in your inventory in order to begin writing. A blank book can be edited by anyone. Once the book has an author (that is, it has been given a title) only the author can edit it.

Right-click on the book in your inventory, choose the read option and then press the edit button on the bottom bar.

Each book takes a limited amount of characters which comes out to approximately ten pages of text. As you edit, you will see a progress bar that shows how much of the book has been filled to help you keep track of the space remaining to you.

Once you assign a title to a book, you can save it, even if it has no text in it. The book will then show with title and your name as the author and only you will be able to edit the book from that point. You do not have to have the book in your inventory to edit it once you have set yourself as the author of the book.

You can write a book in any language that your character is fluent in. There is a drop-down menu in the lower-right area of the book editing window. Other characters who are not fluent in the language chosen will be able to read the title of your book, as it appears in common, however they will not be able to read the content.

To create a copy of a book, you need to have the original book and a blank book in your inventory. With your inventory open, right click the original book and choose the “Copy” option and then click on the blank book that you wish to copy the content into.

To find books on the broker, you will need to use the advanced filter as books do not display in the standard broker lists. Choose the item type “Player Written Book” and you will receive a list which you can sort by title, vendor or price. If you include the word by in the Item Name field, your search will be limited to those books with content.

And if you’d like an autographed copy of any of my books, just send an in-game email to Blackburrow.Taymar and let me know. If you’ll supply a blank book, I’m happy to come to your server and fill it.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Here is a quick summary of information based on discussions on the forums with DominoDev.

On the 20th of each month, magical mushroom rings will appear in secluded woods around Norrath, tempting adventurers and tradeskillers into hidden instances.

The rings are all placed in relatively safe forested areas (which is why there are no rings in the Commonlands nor Gorowyn):

• Archer’s Wood in Antonica
• East of D’Abth Bridge in Nektulos Forest
• West of the Spires in Enchanted Lands
• Nerian Highlands in Darklight Wood
• In front of the Nursery in Greater Faydark

The mushroom rings lead to small, temporary instances which scale to your level. The instances are a simple type of mission which reward elemental tokens which can be used to purchase house furniture. You can collect up to six tokens per month (there are two quests in the Darklight Woods instance). The tokens are heirloom so you can trade them between characters on a single account.

These instances also include special purple shiny collections. There is only a single question mark in an instance, so it may take some months to complete these collections.

DominoDev posted yesterday confirming the Moonlight Enchantments mini live event

Last month folks on Test server noticed the appearance of some mysterious mushroom rings in various forested areas of Norrath.

These rings are only visible when the phase of the moon is right … which appears to correspond to the 20th of every Earth month (PST time zone).

Those who wish to investigate where the mushroom rings may take them should therefore keep their eyes open this weekend, and around the 20th of each month in the future!

We hope this regularly occurring little mini event will give you something to look forward to each month. And if you happen to miss it one month, it’s not long till the next time the rings appear! :D

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Research Assistants have come to Norrath to help adventurers upgrade their abilities. When you interact with a Research Assistant, he or she will offer you a list of the spells and combat arts which can be upgraded, along with a timeline of how long it will take to research the upgrade.

The upgrades available to you are based on the spell or combat art you already have in your knowledge book. You must have purchased the crafted version of the spell or combat art in order to upgrade to the next version. The versions you can obtain from the Research Assistant are in bold.

The researcher can only upgrade to Adept and Master so you must have purchased and scribed the crafted version (Journeyman and Expert, respectively) in order to get an upgrade. That is, if you have the Apprentice spell (which you receive automatically when you level), you will not be able to upgrade it. If you have scribed the Journeyman version of the spell (previously Apprentice IV), the Research Assistant will offer to to upgrade it to Adept. If you have the Expert level (previously known as Adept III) you will be offered to upgrade to the Master version. You cannot upgrade to crafted versions. If you want to upgrade from Adept, you will need to purchase the Expert version from a crafter, scribe it, and then the Research Assistant will offer to upgrade it to Master.

You can upgrade one spell or combat art at a time per account (not per character). If another character on the same account attempts to upgrade a spell, you will receive a warning that this will cancel the research for the other character.

The time required to research the item is based on the level of the spell or combat art. Low level skills upgrade much quicker as you spend much less time using that spell before moving on to the next tier.

Research Assistants have been placed in all of the starting villages. The guards will show you the direct route if you ask them for the location of Research Assistant.

Gorowyn

Researcher Byrche Di’Ervs
2611,119,1127
(on the middle level near the North Exit)

Haven

Researcher Lance Dra’Kol
-51,-73,-171

Kelethin

Researcher Eljas Aravirta
313,109,115
(on the upper platform near the bank)

Neriak

Researcher Miller Dramigan
129,20,71
(in the New Foreign Quarter)

Freeport

Beggar’s Court
Researcher Saltprow
28,2,18

Big Bend
Researcher Gromk
13,2,-45

Longshadow Alley
Researcher V’Tun
29,2,26

Scale Yard
Researcher Valseth
82,0,-10

Stonestair Byway
Researcher Fomondulus
-48,0,-54

Temple Street
Researcher Yurik
52,3,76

Qeynos

Castleview Hamlet
Researcher Bubbler
690,-15,-151

Graystone Yard
Researcher Oakfist
845,-21,-101

Nettleville
Researcher Tanglmayn
657,-20,290

Starcrest Commune
Researcher Andor Quist
805,-20,298

The Baubbleshire
Researcher Oatheaver
862,-15,-514

The Willow Wood
Researcher Sandsea
824,-20,-612

Choose a spell or combat art to be upgraded and you will see a progress meter at the top of the window for that research item. You can change to another spell and some of the time already spent progressing the research item you chose will be transferred to the new one. Only one character per account can upgrade a spell at a time.

When the spell research is complete, the Research Assistant will update the spell or combat art directly into your knowledge book.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

How many game references can you spot?

Click on the image for a full-size version.

(via wonderlandblog)

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

The European launch is on the 10th of June, 2009 and you can download the software from the Dragonica site on gPotato.

What’s special about Dragonica? This free-to-play game stands out due to its side-scrolling format combining arcade play with MMO content offering a frantic combo combat system, missions and PvP.

The game transports you to the land of Dragotaka, with dungeons and labyrinths as well as villages for meeting people and trading. PvP begins at level 20, with one-on-one battles and team death matches. Draconica offers standard communications: chat systems, friends lists, market trading and an in-game postal system.

However, there are also some intriguing new community aspects. If you form a couple with another player, you gain a special ability to warp to your partner’s location and you receive special skills and buffs when you play in range of that person. Larger groups pay out in Friend Points, which you can hand in for bonus experience after your group encounters.

For those who like backstory, Gala Networks has released three intro trailers on YouTube to whet your appetite:

• The Archer’s Story
• The Warrior’s and Magician’s Story
• The Thief’s Story

Their European website has a ton of information, including some gorgeous images of the different locations. I love the look of this underwater world.

Take a look at our Game Preview for a more in-depth look at the lower levels of Dragonica or head on over to the Dragonica site on gPotato and download it for yourself.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

But don’t waste shards! Although there are merchants in the Moors of Ykesha who offer all of these items, they charge a premium rate! This cheeky Quellthulian cartel will overcharge you by up to three Void Shards per item. Instead, speak to tradeskillers with Far Seas Trading Company Faction who can craft the items for fewer Void Shards (but probably wouldn’t mind a bit of coin for their efforts).

Don’t let the Quellthulians take advantage. All items except for the mounts can be crafted by players at a lower shard cost.

Armor, Jewelry, Weapons and More

Base Void Shard Armor

There are two sets of armor: base armor and advanced armor. The advanced pieces are created using the base armor – that is, an advanced chestplate requires the matching base chestplate in addition to the Void Shard cost. As a result, it may be worthwhile to purchase base armor pieces as you can afford them rather than waiting to “save up” for your advanced pieces. You will need the base armor anyway so you may as well gain the immediate benefits if they are an upgrade.

Void Shard Armor: The Ultimate Reference

The Automagical Table of Void Shard Armor just got better.

All of the Greater Shard Armor sets have been added. Sixes the Web Gnome has added in filters so that you can look at the Base armor or the Advanced armor separately or have them both on-screen together to allow you to explore the best upgrade path for your character.

Basic Void Shard Jewelry

The basic jewelry comes in sets of four or five pieces but do not include a bonus for wearing multiple pieces from the same set. Crafted Void Shard Jewelry is contained in recipe book Far Seas Strategic Pricing Manual Volume 2. The items can be inspected at a mysterious Quellthulian Shard Jewelry Merchant at 1681,452,897. Each basic jewelry item costs 4 Void Shards if crafted, 5 Void Shards from the merchant.

Void Shard Infused Jewelry

There are 24 sets of three pieces, where each piece costs 13 Void Shards to craft. Unlike Greater Shard Armor, the infused jewelry does not require you to purchase basic jewelry. Infused jewelry pieces are stand-alone and each type has three pieces which comprises the set. Each set has two bonuses: one for wearing two pieces and another for wearing three.

Void Shard Miscellanea

Far Seas Strategic Pricing Manual Volume 3 includes the Shard Miscellanea that can be crafted from Void Shards. These items include weapons, shields, baubles and symbols.

Each item costs 18 Void Shards to craft.

This equipment, which includes all the Void Shard crafted pieces for the secondary, ranged and charm slots, can be viewed in game at a mysterious Quellthulian Shard Miscellanea Merchant at 1680,452,890 at the Dropship Landing area of the Moors of Ykesha. If you purchase the items from the Merchant, it will cost you additional shards per piece (so don’t!).

Crafting Void Shard Armor

Special tips for tradeskillers.

Void Shard Guide for Tradeskillers

Far Seas Tradeskill Missions have recipe books that have a chance of dropping from the final chest of the mission instance. These recipe books are not the same as the faction recipes for sale by the Far Seas Faction Merchant. The books are scribable by all tradeskill classes at tradeskill level 70 and offer level 79 recipes to craft the adventurer items using fewer Void Shards. Thus, there is a great incentive for adventurers to have their items crafted rather than to purchase them from the merchants.

Far Seas Tradeskill Missions and Faction

Group up with your friends and craft together towards a common goal with the Far Seas Trading Company crafting missions. These daily missions, optimised towards crafter groups representing all three professions, require The Shadow Odyssey expansion and you’ll need to be at least tradeskill level 50.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

I started thinking about, well, what do I spend the money on? I mean, she doesn’t need armor, she doesn’t need spells – she barely uses food and drink. So in the end I started buying up missing bits from collections. I only bought items from collections she had already started and I stayed within her tier range. It seems silly to complete a level 50 collection on a level 30 toon. Also I strongly suspect I’ll be really hurting for ways to get experience at higher levels and then all the lovely collections that I could have used will be gone. But Paxmar had a fair share of low level collections that she wanted to complete and that was a pretty straight forward decision.

Meanwhile, Paxmar decided it was high time she found religion. It’s surprisingly difficult to find a set of Deity quests that do not involve killing! Here are her experiences so far.

Losing My Religion

When I was in Baubbleshire for Frostfell, my aunts made a fuss because I hadn’t committed myself to a god yet. “You aren’t getting any younger, you know,” they nagged. “Nice gods get snapped up fast, you really should stop putting it off.”

It started innocently enough but conversations about religion always seem to go wrong. At the family picnic at the Forest Ruins, Fidget asked me if I had any idea which god I might like to follow and a heated discussion broke out as to which god would be the best match for me. Auntie Mabel said as a pacifist I should obviously follow Quellious and Gertrude said as a druid I could only even consider Tunare and then Auntie Mabel referred to Tunare as “that witch” and Gertrude threw herself at Auntie Mabel and we managed to pull them apart but not before Auntie Mabel lost a big chunk of her hair. Now none of the Coggleheimer side of the family are speaking to the Gizmobottoms and we’ve been banned from entering the Forest Ruins in groups of larger than three.

This is why I’ve always felt a little bit leery about following a god as so many of them seem to wish to rain grief and destruction on Norrath. But once I stopped to think about it, I wondered if it was really the gods that were so violent? Or was it just my aunts? Clearly I should not rely on third-party information to make my decisions.

Having recently learned the secrets of the stone rings, travel was very much on my mind. I decided to go out and visit the prophets myself.

Quellious

Auntie Mabel did have a good point about Quellious and I was hopeful that I could speak to her prophet and sort out the entire question of religion quickly and easily. I found Pacificator Merrek sitting at the cliffs over Butcherblock Bay and asked him about Quellious and he offered to teach me the ways of the goddess of tranquility.

I can’t tell you quite what made me nervous – the conversation about peace of the body (which sounded to me a lot like always being prepared to fight) or the vehemence with which I saw Sister Sam sparring in the Steamfont mountains. I enjoyed the meditating but it was disconcerting to be told to focus my mind against my enemies. Perhaps this isn’t about Quellious so much as what her followers have become but I don’t think I wish to join their ranks.

Mithaniel Marr

Mithaniel Marr, the Truthbringer, seemed another obvious choice. I traveled to Kelethin where I spoke to Sir Bayden Cauldthorn, Lordknight of Valor. Paladins can be a bit fanatical about their religion but I liked the idea of a god focused on valor and love. However, Bayden (as he told me to call him) said he was unhappy with his role – better suited to a priest – and that he’d rather be on a battlefield. That did not sit well with me.

I asked him to teach me more despite my concerns – and to start he said I should make an altar. I saw no harm in that and began collecting Imbued Stones as per his instructions.

As a part of this, I went to the Statue of the Mourned and a huge blond-haired paladin was standing there. He was bigger than the mage tower, I swear it. I carefully walked up close and it became clear it was a Planar Manifestation. He blessed me but said nothing. It was all a bit creepy. I think I prefer my gods more subdued.

I dug in the area behind him and found the Valor Imbued Stones but the whole thing left me a bit shaken. When I returned to Bayden, he was still very focused on showing his merit as a warrior. I decided that I would prefer a god with less violent followers and moved on.

Bristlebane

The experience with Mithaniel Marr led me to consider the Trickster – his followers are at least not trying to prove their battle prowess! I found a halfling, Tobel Patadash, on the docks of Enchanted Lands. He said he wanted to play a prank on a goblin (calling himself a profit of Bristlebane) and wanted my help! It was all a bit silly – Tobel wanted me to help make a diabolical pumpkin pie with which to fool Garby Ginger Gigglegibber (a perfectly friendly goblin, even if he can’t spell).

I did it. But really, isn’t it a bit unbecoming? I felt sorry for the goblin and I couldn’t help but wonder: who is the real follower – the halfling or the goblin? I don’t think goblins are unable to follow a god, in which case the halflings are simply being horrid.

The whole thing just left a sour taste in my mouth and I decided that Bristlebane was not for me.

Solusek Ro

After my experiences with the halflings and goblins, I decided to return to Butcherblock, where I found Civean Il’Pernod claiming that the Flame of Ro burns as a beacon to those who have the desire to shape their world and remake it in their own image. This sounded much more godly to me! He asked me if I had the courage and conviction and I told him yes, with all my heart.

He gave me a torch and asked me to light torches at each of the shrines. I felt honored to be given such an important task. But then Civean recommended that I learn the stories of Solusek Ro and sent me around the world to piece together the story of the god.

Did he realise that I was being naive? I don’t know but when I read the History of Ro, I was shocked! Fire, nukes, burning, destruction – this isn’t what I had in mind when I was lighting torches! I thought I was bringing light to the world but not fire and destruction!

I went back to Civean who told me that Solusek Ro’s brilliant visage would serve as a beacon in my travels. He told me that I should find a way to spread the truth of flame to those who have chosen other deities. I think he meant for me to incinerate them. I made my excuses and got away from him, quickly.

Brell Serilis

I have to admit, I was feeling somewhat depressed by now. Although I had been avoiding the whole religion question, I had believed that the gods, well, most gods, were good and honorable. Now, meeting the prophets, I was finding that they were violent and selfish and closed-minded. They made Aunt Mabel look like a pacifist!

I ended up at West Irontoe Fort where I met Bronlor Stormhammer, Conservator of the Underfoot. He told me the most remarkable story about how he was saved by Brell when a mine crashed in on him. I didn’t actually say that I was looking for religion but he asked me if I’d ever considered following Brell. He told me that he could see that I was drifting and that the Underfoot could serve as the foundation in my life.

What really impressed me was that Bronlor told me that Brell was also the god of the gnolls. Bronlor expressed sadness at the abuse gnolls have suffered from the invading armies – it’s not just me who hates the battles! He is the first prophet I have ever met who was open to his god serving other races! So I agreed to accept Brell Serilis as my deity.

Bronlor told me to first build my foundation of faith – to travel to caves around Norrath and mine sacred stones. I’m a little bit worried about this – I can get quite claustrophobic in enclosed spaces. Perhaps that is part of the test?

Previous installments:

1. The Furious Pacifist – Introduction
2. The Isle of Refuge
3. Paxmar Smells a Rat
4. It’s a Wide World
5. Paxmar Goes Abroad
6. Tempest Chaser
7. Sinking Sands and Frostfell
8. Tunare’s Blessing

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

The webgnome has come to the rescue and we have all of the jewelry laid out for you by set.

Shard Infused Jewelry

There are 24 sets of three pieces, where each piece costs 13 Void Shards to craft. Unlike Greater Shard Armor, the infused jewelry does not require you to purchase basic jewelry. Infused jewelry pieces are stand-alone and each type has three pieces which comprises the set. Each set has two bonuses: one for wearing two pieces and another for wearing three.

The recipes for infused jewelry can be found in Far Seas Strategic Pricing Manual Volume 3. Crafters should read Far Seas Tradeskill Missions and Faction for more information about gaining this recipe book. The jewelry items can be inspected at a mysterious Quellthulian Infused Shard Jewelry Merchant at 1678,452,895 at the Dropship Landing area of the Moors of Ykesha. If you purchase the items from the Merchant, it will cost you an additional two shards per piece (so don’t!).

The full listing of the Infused Void Shard Jewelry, by set, can be found as a table with class filters in our reference section.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.