March 05, 2012

Desoloth War: Evil Wins!

Desoloth the Final Battle

In the all-out battle against Desoloth the Final, heroes chose to fight for Good or Evil... or betrayed their compatriots and joined sides WITH Desoloth! In AQW's first 3-way war, Evil has prevailed!* The overwhelmingly Evil nature of so many of Lore's champions has determined Desoloth's fate. Now it's up to YOU to see it through to the final death!

Not only a dragon dies this day.

After your battle, Desoloth will be nothing more than a pile of bones resting inside the Cor Draconis. At least, as far as YOU know! But things aren't always what they seem on Lore, and Desoloth's final battle may NOT be his last!

* And we were so SURE that Desoloth's side would win!

A Prime Engine Change

Yorumi made some awesome changes to the game's engine for this boss battle! We won't go into the dry coding details, but know that in this battle, the Primes will be with you and they will aid you in your fight!

The Fire Prime's aid will increase your damage!

As you reduce Desoloth's health, each Prime will aid you in some way. We've never before been able to have art directly affect your character's stats before, so this is a really fun change that we can use again in the future!

Alignment notes

 Your choices WILL matter! In the pre-boss battle, you'll be able to choose between Good, Evil or Desoloth. That will set the tone for your boss battle. AFTER the battle, you'll be able to choose again. Choose carefully, because how you answer Hs'Sakar's last question will change the way the Etherstorm NPCs view you after you've completed their storyline!

The Final War Rewards!

There's a LOT of corpse to loot after this boss battle. (A big boss means big loot!) Desoloth has a chance to drop the member-only Elemental Dissonance armor and helm (goes great with the Horned Crown of Dissonance in the Rares shop!) as well Desoloth's Bane, a wicked weapon forged by Dage the Evil!

Will YOU adopt one Omom's babies?

And don't forget to look for an Omom's Babies pet while looting the boss! (Omom's Youngest, the cape, can be found in the War Rares shop!**) You won't want to abandon them after seeing the cutscene! Non-members can look forward to the cunningly crafted Crimson Dragoon armor and helm!

Which do YOU prefer: Dragoon or Dragon?

MAN you guys finished this war FAST! We couldn't believe it was over on Sunday. We had all three endings planned out, but didn't want to animate one until we saw which side was going to win. And when it became clear that EVIL was going to be the winner, we had to create a MAJOR new piece of art! J6 really rocked it out; you'll know it when you see it, and THIS creature will appear in the final battle against Chaos!

NOTE: More design notes will be coming in a bit. Right now, we want to release the boss fight and cutscenes!

What to Expect This Week in AQW!

• Xan returns! Look for this hot-headed pyromancer to really heat things up for some poor, unsuspecting townspeople!
• Dage's shop will remain until next Monday!
• Limited Time Shop: Spring Theme!
• Treasure Chest hoard update!
• The next I Can Has Mod contest starts this week!
• J6 t-shirts are sold out but we ARE ordering more, so keep an eye on HeroMart's website! 

More details of this Friday's release will come throughout the week! And thanks to multiple players on Twitter (like Bladebrawl and 1023404), tomorrow's Design Notes will see a more in-depth look into what we do to make a week's release happen. There's a lot of little things you guys never see, and more Chaos involved than ever makes it in-game!