Design Notes

March 02, 2012

War in Etherstorm Wastes

Who will YOU fight for?

Fire, Water, Wind and Earth… and Desoloth! War has come to Etherstorm and the DragonPlane! Choose a side; fight for Good, Evil or Desoloth in AQW’s first 3-sided war and battle to decide a whole realm’s destiny. The winning side will determine Desoloth’s fate… and affect the end of the Chaos storyline!

The Cor Draconis is the heart of the DragonPlane.

Make sure you’re up to date in the Etherstorm storyline to understand everything that’s happening, but if you aren’t caught up, you’ll still be able to battle. (You’ll just be a bit confused at some of the life-altering events that have happened to the characters!)

What did you do to make Omom so ANGRY?!

The choice is yours, Hero! Will you fight for Good, Evil or Desoloth? Only ONE side can win this war, and whichever one does will determine Desoloth’s fate… and will have an impact on the end of the Chaos storyline in the future!

The positively Evil Paragon Pet!

Australia Day Items!

February 24, 2012

Betrayal and Bomb Blasts

The SkyGuard Saga continues!

BOOM! *blast* The Hoverbase is under attack! And when you learn that one of your closest companions has betrayed you, you’ll have to take matters into your own hands to keep the both the SkyGuard AND Lore safe from harm!

What the Pirate says changes EVERYTHING!

Get ready to go deep into the heart of the SkyPirate headquarters, where you’ll face bloodthirty pirates, the DreamWeaver’s most precious victims and a villain who will take everything you thought you knew about this saga and turn it upside down!

Don't mess with the SkyGuard!

But before you can learn about any of the shocking secrets and long-standing feuds, you'll have to go through the Chaorrupted SkyPirate General! 

You'll want to do more than just SWAT at the boss. Take him DOWN!

SkyGuard Grenadier Comes Tonight!

The long-awaited Member-only SkyGuard Grenadier Class is LIVE! This class will ONLY be available to members. This week you can obtain it if you have rank 10 Skyguard rep, but if you want a shortcut AND you're a member, then NEXT week you can purchase it at Itzachi for 2,000 ACs! Check Cysero's Design Notes post for an in-depth look at the Grenadier Class skills!

Coming Soon!

• 3-way Etherstorm War! Fight for Good, Evil, or Desoloth! His fate depends on your fighting!
• The Return of Xan – are you ready for things to get HOT?!
• Lucky Week minigame fun fair! Do YOU feel LUK-y?
• The Potionmaker takes up a sword and becomes the Battle-ready PoisonMistress!

Have a good week, everyone! We hope members enjoy this Member-only Explosion week! All member-content, all week long! And get ready next week for the 3-way Etherstorm War and Dage the Evil's Even-Eviller Birthday Shop!

February 24, 2012

Skyguard Grenadier

Courage And Explosives!

Later today we will be releasing the Member Only Skyguard Grenadier Class along with the new addition to the Skyguard storyline.

Before we get to the skills breakdown let me remind you of a few things.

1. The Member Only Skyguard Grenadier Class is, you guessed it, for Members only.
2. TODAY people who have already worked to get their Skyguard Rep up to Rank 10 will get a full week to preview of the class and master its skills.
3. NEXT FRIDAY we will be releasing an AC version of the class (Also Member Only)
4. The only way to get the rest of the set (Helm and Gun) are through the Skyguard Rep Shop (Rank 10 like the class)

Now that that's out of the way, let's get crackin'.

SKYGUARD GRENADIER CLASS SKILL SET

Many people don't know what a Grenadier is. Long ago, just after the development of the first hand-thrown explosives, they were bravest and physically strongest soldiers. They'd have to be brave to walk around lobbing explosives that could blow you to bits and they had to be strong so thew could toss them as far as possible.

This combo of traits meant that every Grenadier was half fearless and half insane. As the technology of warfare developed, grenade launchers were invented so you no longer needed to be the strongest but you still had to have that special mixture of courage and madness that makes the grenadier so unique.

The Skyguard Flightpack is not part of the set.

They are often chosen to lead special assault teams and used as shock troops. Each Grenadier is worth a whole squadron of less specialized soldiers.

WARRIOR is the enhancement that you want to use for this class. It's also built on the Warrior mana regen model so you get mana from both hitting and getting hit.

The interesting thing about this is that each skill is a different grenade and each applies its own state to your foe, but the last skill applies a secondary effect based on which state you have applies to the enemy.

AUTO ATTACK

2 second cooldown

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers.

Here is your basic attack. Nothing flashy but it gets the job done.

HAMSTRING

10 mana, 4 second cooldown

Light damage, lowers enemy damage output for 4 seconds plus applies Weakened State. Weakened State replaces any other state.

This is the first skill that you get. It's the cheapest and has the fastest cooldown but also the weakest. The debuff is nice but once the last skill applies the secondary effect this skill gets nicer. I know that it;s hard to hamstring someone with a grenade but somehow you manage to do it. You're that good.

FLASHBANG

20 mana, 8 second cooldown

Moderate damage, reduces enemy chance to hit plus applies Blinded State to enemy. Blinded State replaces any other state.

Twice as costly as the first grenade and with twice the cooldown time. Again, another nice debuff but again it's the secondary skill that makes Flashbang a sweet skill.

FIRE IN THE HOLE!

SLEEPING GAS

20 mana, 10 second cooldown

Moderate damage up to two enemies, reduces enemy haste and has a chance to stun for 4 seconds, plus applies Gassed State to enemy. Gassed State replaces any other state.

Again, this grenade has a longer cooldown than the two before it but has multiple effects even before you use the last skill. It's a multi-hit attack with moderate damage, reduces enemy haste on both targets and COULD stun both targets.

ADRENALINE RUSH & BATTLE HORN

Rank 4 passives

Increase Dodge by 10%

Increase Damage by 10%

Decent Rank 4 passives. Increase survivability a LOT and do more damage. What's not to love?

REACTIVE GRENADE

30 mana, 9 second cooldown

High Damage, plus has secondary effect based on whichever State was last applied to your foe. Weakened State secondary effect – Bleed causing Damage Over Time to enemy. Blinded State secondary effect – Rally causing Heal Over Time to to you.  Gassed State secondary effect – Elude causing increased Damage Resistance to you. Secondary Effects all last 6 seconds.

Ok, there is a lot going on here so let's take it one step at a time.

Each of the 3 earlier grenade skills apply a State. Weakened, Blinded and Gassed. In addition to doing High Damage, this will add a secondary effect based on which state you have applied.

• If your enemy has the Weakened State applied, then this skill will do High Damage and cause BLEED which is a fairly strong Damage Over Time (DoT) to the target.
  
  
• If your enemy has the Blinded State applied, then this skill will do High Damage and apply RALLY to you, which is a VERY strong Heal Over Time (HoT). This is a great heal, and one of the strongest HoTs in the game.
  
  
• If your enemy has the Gassed State applied, then this skill will do High Damage and apply ELUDE to you, which is a decent Damage Reduction buff.
  

TACTICIAN

Rank 10 passive

Rarely, you see your chance to turn the battle in your favor. You give this attack everything you've got causing VERY HIGH damage to up to 2 targets!

You've seen this type of passive before, but this one causes HIGH DAMAGE to up to 2 targets. If you're fighting a boss then it will just be a nice chunk of extra damage, but if you're farming then BOOM, you just cleared the field.

More To Follow

Keep your eyes here on the Design Notes for more notes on today's release!

301 days until Just Another Day

February 20, 2012

Monday Update

Apparently, No, You Can't Has Mod

Our first winner was given a full week to respond to the e-mail that we sent them and I'm sorry to say that they have missed out. I think a week is a very reasonable amount of time to give someone to respond but a lot of you want to get this show on the road and so do we.

We have sent a NEW e-mail to the NEW winner, so be sure to check the e-mail that you have attached to your account. If you, for some reason, can no longer access that e-mail then contact your e-mail provider and try to get access again.

Again, contact your E-MAIL provider. Player Support can't help you get your e-mail back. Nythera and her crew have many wonderful powers but all of them are related to AE's games and go no further into the real world.

We will be giving this new winner 3 full days to respond. Winner, if you have not responded by Thursday at NOON (server time) then we will pick again. Good luck, and hurry up! Everyone is waiting on you!

New Legion Quest Changes

Over the weekend we saw a lot of chatter about the new legion quests. TO ME it seemed pretty even, half of you were complaining that the quests were too easy and half were complaining that they were too hard. That usually indicates that we did well but Dage was unhappy with how easy these new quests seemed to be and they are his quests so he can make them as hard as he likes.

Today there will be some changes to the new quests. First, the Legion Soul Collector will be raised in price to 150 Legion Tokens. Second, each of the subsequent quests will require 50 souls instead of 25. To those of you who got it before the changes went through, well done. It takes a keen eye to appreciate a bargain when you see it.

Coming This Week!

Big MEMBER week this week. Wednesday will have another Mid-Week release for members which will add a little more story to the Bludrut map plus some nice new member rewards. Friday will see the next installment of the SKYGUARD storyline as well as the premier of the Member-Only Grenadier class!

MANY of you Members have already reached rank 10 in Skyguard and have been waiting for this class for a long time. You will all get a head start on this awesome new class as you will only be able to get it with reputation starting this Friday (Feb 24th).

Next Friday (Mar 3rd) an AC version of the class (Which will also require Membership) will show up Itzachi but by then the hard-grinding Rep hunters will already have mastered the class all the way to rank 10. I know that some of you will take issue with the class not being rep only but we are doing this because a LOT of people like taking the AC shortcut and it doesn't seem right offering the time-saving shortcut to non-members but not for Member classes. Any ways to save time and/or labor should always be available to Members.

Those of you who wish to earn it without spending a single AC will, of course, always be able to take the path of hard work. Any additional items to the set (helms, weapons etc) will also be in the Skyguard Rep shop for Rank 10 and you will ONLY be able to get them through hard work.

I will be doing a class skills breakdown a little later this week.

HeroMart Items!

In case you didn't notice, we have a new shirt in HeroMart for fans of Classic AQ!

The "I'M ON A BOAT" shirt features AQ Classic's Death on his gondola welcoming you to the underworld. It also comes with the VERY LARGE Death's Reaver scythe for your AQ Classic character!

We are running out of stock of MOD packs for the Battleon Battle Card game and we still have some  2012 Calendars but none of these items will last forever and once they are gone, we don't plan on reprinting them.

You may or may not be a calendar person but I can't tell you how much I love having my mods packs as a part of my card game.

Leaving Today!

Quibble and the Event Rare Shop for Love's Curse will be leaving a little later today! Just throwing that out there.

Forum Question...

This year is a Leap year which means that this month gets a 29th day this year (as it does every 4th year). It's a little late to do an entire event for Leap Day but what would you like to see happen on Leap Day? We might take one of your ideas and run with it.

305 days until Just Another Day