Wrath of The Lich King – Rune System

As the Wrath of the Lich King beta lives on, the world (and software behind it) is ever changing. Apparently, the rune system has changed a lot since its first inception. This requires a delicate balance, as the goal is a well rounded Death Knight class without epically overpowered features. Too much power and people will feel cheated while others feel overly destructive. End result, everyone would be a Death Knight.

The rune system that Blizzard has created is more straight forward than the initial system because it contains less variables. The Death Knight has a secondary bar, much like a Warrior, that starts empty and slowly climbs with “Runic Power,” an energy generated when you cast spells and expend rune energy. It works much like the warrior class, as it builds it will open up some abilities in your bar that were “grayed out” because they couldn’t be cast yet.

What the heck is a rune? Above your character profile you’ll have six little circles, called runes, these little guys work much like the rogues energy. The three styles of runes are: Blood, Frost and Unholy runes and they’re coordinated with your spells and sword strike abilities much like a paladin or warrior. Each rune “goes dark” when you expend its energy – this limits your access to use the Death Knights abilities much like expending all your rogues energy stops the rogue from using their neat features. However, once its energy is expended, it will grow your runic power a slight bit, “charging” it for later use.

To remove any additional confusion with the runes, runic power and all that craziness, Blizzard was kind enough to color code it all neatly for us. Blood rune abilities are red while Frost abilities are blue and Unholy abilities are green. So, when you break down the abilities on the bar, you’ll have them neatly colored for you!

Each time you cast a spell or use a strike-style ability you’ll use a number of “runes” from your profile image; they’ll go dark, in essence, disabled until they recharge (like rogues energy). This gives you the ability to utilize, perhaps, two frost attacks and then fire off two unholy attacks and end with two blood attacks without every stopping or resting your combat. Usually, once you’ve expended all your runes, the first ones you utilized with be recharged and ready to use.

Looking at the abilities listed above, you can see the quick key-2 is purple… it doesn’t fit the scheme we just mentioned at all! This isn’t a rune ability, but an “instant” that’s cast and has a longer cool down than typical abilities. Quick key-5, in our example, is disabled because it uses runic power (like rage) and does not require any specific rune to utilize, it just build as you battle. You’ll find runic power abilities fairly powerful, thus, they’ve been limited in execution time.

Abilities that use runic power can have varying degrees of power depending on how much runic power you’ve “charged” or stored up in your bar; beware, like rage it will drain slowly when out of combat. Each rune ability will list its required number of runes to utilize it, initially your starter abilities will all be “1 blood” or “1 unholy” or “1 frost” to fire off, giving you two hits before you’ll be holding out for that specific style of rune to recharge.

In most of my game play, thus far, I’ve relied heavily on Frost runes because the talent system works in conjunction with the rune styles. You’ll have a blood talent tree, frost talent tree and unholy talent tree to pick abilities out of and mine are primarily frost, so I rely heavily on my two frost runes (the second pair in the profile bar.)

What do the runes focus on? The three classes of runes each have their own primary focus and goals. The blood runes are focused on melee striking style attacks while the frost fit better with a damage per second (DPS) spell caster style and unholy works more like a necromancer.

You can mix your styles or try to generalize across the board, which usually leads to watered down character. A necromancer casting role may be great for high DPS damage with the ability to take a few shots in the field of battle so you may choose frost/unholy, or blood/unholy for more of a semi-tank necromancer. Some of the unholy abilities require close combat to infect enemies with plagues and pestilences so it may pair well with blood in some situations.

Overall, the system allows for a great variety of class builds and usefulness. Choosing your talents is just as important as ever and their new rune system for the Death Knight gives you a virtual unending ability to cast spells while not being too overpowered or dependent on a specific class of rune. The runic power gives you more abilities to surprise your target with strategy and entices the Death Knight class to continue battle without running away.

Paired with the ability to raise dead and form small temporary legions of death (and the cool ass sword) makes this class a worthwhile addition to the World of Warcraft environment.

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Rock and a Hard Place: Sony’s Japanese DilemmaRock and a Hard Place: Sony’s Japanese Dilemma

What a dilemma it is, Sony’s PlayStation 3 isn’t as hot as the Nintendo Wii in Japan. Even the Xbox 360 has had some minor success stories in Japan while Sony sits back saying “wtf?”

President, SCE Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida is pointing the finger at the publishers saying, “What’s happening is that lack of support from the Japanese publishers – not necessarily from intentions but from development capabilities.” (kotaku) Why, though, would publishers push to produce games on the console that’s currently losing market share?

Sony’s position is very tough to deal with because they’re not market leader so publishers are looking for the biggest bang for their proverbial “buck” and that’s not the PS3 right now. You can produce an expensive game for an expensive console or a cheaper game for a cheaper console and make more money.

How, then, can Sony get out of this situation? They must find a way to promote an incentive for publishers to create Sony exclusives or, at least, a Sony “port” of a game to build up their library of must-have titles. Perhaps Sony’s punishment at the hands of Nintendo and Microsoft in the States has a bit to do with their global marketplace issues — they need to put a concerted effort into one of their regions and champion themselves in one realm before trying for all of them. Right now, they’re a watered down expensive console with very few exclusive titles.

Metal Gear Sold 4, Home and Little Big Planet are great reasons to own a PlayStation 3 if the price was a bit more reasonable. Looking at the future, we’ve got Resistance 2 and a few other titles that may make some waves in the industry, at least in the United States, but it’s going to be an uphill battle in which they are the second best this time.

It’s always easy when you’re on the top. PlayStation 3 is not on the top so it’s time to start struggling, cutting prices or enticing publishers to build good exclusive titles.

Do HD Graphics Matter To Gamers?Do HD Graphics Matter To Gamers?

hdtvThe question of the day, “Do HD graphics matter to gamers?” If you’re currently rolling with a PS3 or Xbox 360 and you’ve got HDMI and or sweet component cables you’re probably saying, “duh, of course they do.” What about everyone else, those Wii consoles for instance, there are so many of those. What about gamers that do not know what HDMI means?

Let’s face it, an estimated 21-million people are still using over the air TV broadcast signal and a large portion of those think that their TV is high definition because it doesn’t have an analog dial anymore. Recent Nielson ratings are showing most gamers are still pushing PS2 hardware, which isn’t high definition.

In the US, HDTV sales only reach 25-30% of the population. Couple this with the fact that one in five HDTV owners can’t tell the difference between standard definition and high definition content and you’ve got roughly 20% of the population utilizing HD. Looking at the number of gaming consoles out there and the rate of uptake, it’s clear that a large majority of gamers are not using HD resolutions for their gaming needs. (loot-ninja)

We’d like to think 1080p looks much different than 480p but some people don’t seem to notice because, honestly, they just don’t care. We’d also like to think a PlayStation 3 buyer would be aware of the HD content and already have equipment at home to take advantage of the system. Although there are no solid facts to state otherwise, there must be a group of individuals that have purchased a PlayStation 3 and are rolling with SDTV (ghetto).

High definition graphics matter to people who want a true HD experience. Wii gamers don’t care about high definition because they’re focused on the game play environment or are just following the wave of hype and desire to own the infamous white box. The Xbox 360 gamers may go either way, a gamer wants to own the system because they can get a lot of cool new games for it secondary to the HD experience. The hot games just don’t get designed on the Xbox classic or PS2 anymore. We’d presume a PS3 gamer really wants to play a high definition game because the cost of the console is more and you’re getting a Blu-ray player all bundled into one.

HD graphics matter to us, we see the difference, respect the detail and use the HD portion of the console as an excuse for paying so much for the technology. The United States, as a whole, isn’t fully ready or equipped (mentally) for a full HD experience. When will they be prepared to experience high definition at its fullest?

My guess, five years after Nintendo makes the transition to 1080p. Nintendo is capitalizing on the “average Joe” and the average consumer is still catching up on the high definition. Hell, many gamers are still playing the dial-up game!

Maybe we need to start a new government funded orgnization: The No HD Left Behind Act. Everyone should be in HD.

Episode 388: Off To E3 AgainEpisode 388: Off To E3 Again

It’s the last episode before the start of E3, which both Jonah and Paul will be attending, as Paul fantasizes about having some fancy footwear for the conference.

The abbreviated episode includes the following news:

  • The $100 headset uses controversial electric shocks to make you a better gamer
  • Oculus unveils final model of the Rift, due early 2016
  • Xbox One exclusives Crackdown, Scalebound and Quantum Break will skip E3 for Gamescom

Question of the Week this time is, “Do you prefer a silent or voiced protagonist?”