Design Notes

October 18, 2013

AE Ninjas vs Ultra BrutalCorn!

Dragon Ninjas vs Ultra BrutalCorn!

Login NOW to save the Underground Lab from a beatdown by ULTRA BRUTALCORN! The continuation of BattleCon 2013: an in-game convention continues this Friday with an expansion to the Secret Underground Lab map. Normally the SUL is invaded by ninjas or zombies roughly every couple weeks. We know how to handle those attacks.

Emergency Invasion Chainsaws!

NOT THIS WEEK! Something is hiding in the shadows of the Room of Gloom, racing through the Soundbooth of Horrors, shattering windows and dreams with well-placed blows of his hind hooves.

This is Beleen's "oh no BrutalCorn" face.

Here and there and everywhere... wreaking chaos in the Lab. It's up to YOU to stop ULTRA Brutalcorn, Hero! (You didn't think he was done with you after last Friday's battle, did you?!)

Tonight, get ready to:

• Avoid ambushes by BrutalCorn and the Invisible Imposter Guard Ninjas!
• Help Artix the WindowSlayer take out all of the OTHER windows!
• Knock out the Green Screamers in the Green Room!
• Battle through the Soundbooth of Horrors!
• Clean out the Skeletons in our Server Closet!
• Take on Ultra BrutalCorn in the Room of Gloom!
  (What is back there? NO ONE KNOWS!) 

5th Birthday Class: Dragon Shinobi!

You can buy the Dragon Shinobi class from Ragnar in Battleon for 2,000 AdventureCoins until the class goes rare around our NEXT Birthday. However, until the birthday event rares leave, you will be able to EARN the class and all the extras completely free and all you have to do is help clear all these monsters out of the Lab and BattleCon!

Summon the Dragon Ninjas!

Alina will give you the quests you need to earn the class and also has the merge shop where you can buy them. Legends can access a daily quest which will let them earn triple the number of tokens, but with a little effort, everyone can earn the class before it leaves! 

Who's our favorite Dragon Shinobi? YOU ARE!

Just REMEMBER, the chance to earn the class is a special bonus for those of you who were here to help celebrate AQW's 5th birthday and AE's 11th anniversary! Once the birthday event rare gear leaves on November 18th, you will no longer be able to earn the class. But 1 month should be PLENTY of time for anyone to earn it.

You will need to turn in the quests and re-accept them every time. We've been forced to take this measure to help combat botters so you can thank those people if you find that a little annoying.

5th Birthday Presents!

It wouldn't be a party without presents! The monsters in the Lab will be dropping permanently-available gear, and you'll find the Birthday Present rares shop when you talk to Artix!

Five Rings Fire Warrior and Dragon Shinobi

Much of this year's birthday gear is based on the Shinobi and Ninja culture to celebrate Artix's appearance on America Ninja Warrior, and because so many of us have read The Book of War andThe Book of Five Rings.

5th Birthday gear includes:

• Five Rings Fire Warrior set
• Five Rings Water Warrior set
• Five Rings Air Warrior set
• Five Rings Earth Warrior set
• Five Rings Light Warrior helm
• Five Rings Void Warrior helm
• Invisible Ninja Armor (AC w/ xp bonus) (drops from the Invisible Ninja)
• Invisible Ninja Armor (Legend w/ rep bonus)
• Green Screamer set (drops from the Green Screamer)
• Bearded BrutalCorn helm
• and more!

BattleCon 2013 and other updates!

We haven't forgotten BattleCon 2013: an in-game convention... or that today is Canada's Thanksgiving! Happy Turkey-day, Canadians! The Canada Thanksgiving Day shop will remain in-game until next Monday, October 21st.

Happy Thanksgiving!

• The shops for Beleen, Memet, and BattleGems have all been updated. 
• Veneeria's shop will be added once we know the release is bug-free. 
• The Livestream shop will leave Friday, November 1st.
• More details on HeroMart gear will be added.
• The "pet of the random month" is in production!
• Tomix's armor will come soon. He did not have time to create a female version this week due to the AWESOME DragonFable release!
• The BrutalCorn Character Page badge will be added to all those who should have it on Monday.
• Starsword hilt recolors are live! Find them in the shops attached to your Upholder badge.
• Dumoose is still working on the design for the Oracle Class.
• Stay tuned for more details on the Mogloween challenge fight and rewards!
• Guild PTR badges will be awarded once Yorumi returns from being sick.

October 17, 2013

Dragon Shinobi Class Skills Breakdown

READY FOR YOUR REWARD?

You've battled Brutalcorn, fought off con rot at BattleCon, and saved the convention guests and Artix Entertainment staff from certain doom at the hands of marauding undead ravers! Now, Artix needs your help again! Find him in the Underground Lab to unlock AQWorlds' 5th Anniversary class, which is... (drumroll, please)

What's better than ninjas? Dragon ninjas.

Dragon Shinobi! During our 5th Birthday event, you'll be able to earn this class by helping Artix save BattleCon (and the Underground Lab!) from a monster invsion. After the event ends, you'll still be able to buy it from Ragnar in Battleon. The class will be in game until our 6th birthday, at which point it will go rare.

To earn Dragon Shinobi, find Artix at the underground lab. Complete quests for him to earn Dragon Shinobi tokens, and then merge the tokens into class set items at his Dragon Shinobi merge shop. Just like last year, you'll have a month to earn the tokens you need. After that time, the only way to get these items will be to buy them. You should be able to earn enough tokens pretty easily though, since the quests can be repeated as often as you want. Plus there's an extra quest for Legends, so if you have a membership it will go even faster.

Anyway, on to the class itself...

Dragon Shinobi Skills Breakdown

Ninjas are hailed for their dexterity. Dragons are praised for their strength. And when the Ninja trains in the way of the Dragon, they shall become the Dragon Shinobi, master of brutal warfare! Dragon Shinobi have mastered the most effective ways of disabling their opponents while enduring their strikes.

Dragon Shinobi was designed as the evolved version of last year's Chunin class. Unlike Chunin, which was a brute force, multi-target sort of ninja, Dragon Shinobi focuses all of its damage onto a single target. Its damage is based on stackable DoTs, so it starts out slow and then ramps up the damage as the fight continues. And for a little something extra: you'll regen mana whenever you hit an enemy, and you'll regen both mana and HP whenever you dodge an attack.

Here's what I caught our playtesters saying about Dragon Shinobi:

"It's all about strategy with this class."
"It's a pretty powerful and tactical class."
"I soloed Desoloth with it, the one from the war... [though it] required patience."

Excited yet? Well, then you must be ready for a detailed skills breakdown!

AUTO ATTACK

2 second cooldown

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers.

SHADOW KUNAI

10 mana, 3 second cooldown. Requires rank 1.

Throw a deadly shadow poison tipped shuriken at your target. Shadow Shuriken will continually damage your opponent from afar. Each throw not only increases the shadow poison's damage but also has a small chance to apply Spinning Dragon to reduce your target's next hit to 0 damage.

Single-target DoT. Since the damage effect stacks, go ahead and use this skill whenever the cooldown comes up. The chance for Spinning Dragon is even more of a reason to use this skill as often as possible.

CHI HEAL

90 mana, 2 second cooldown. Requires rank 2.

Focus all your chi into restoring your life force.

Since this uses almost all of your mana, you'll have to be strategic with this ability despite its short cooldown. However, it is a FULL heal.

SHADOW SOUL

15 mana, 52 second cooldown. Requires rank 3.

Meditate, transferring yourself into the shadow realm to restore your mana. While meditating, you cannot attack for 7 seconds, and all attacks against you will deal greatly reduced damage.

This basically stuns you for 7 seconds (during which time you take a lot less damage), but it heals a large chunk of your mana. A cunning player could use this in conjunction with Chi Heal quite effectively. Note that using this ability will clear out your Shadow Shuriken damage stacks.

MIND OVER MATTER

Passive. Requires rank 4.

Increases Endurance by 18%.

SHADOW MASTER

Passive. Requires rank 4.

Increases haste by 10%, and Damage Over Time effects are 30% stronger.

FLAMING DRAGON

30 mana, 8 second cooldown. Requires rank 5.

Hit your opponent with a flaming strike for moderate damage to burn your target over time. This attack has a chance to apply Spinning Dragon to reduce your target's next hit to 0 damage.

This one isn't stackable, but it is a stronger attack than Shadow Shuriken, so it's a good supplement for it.

SHADOW DRAGON

Passive. Requires Rank 10.

Gives a small chance per attack to gain the power of the Shadow Dragon increasing the power of all Damage Over Time effects by 400% for 20 seconds.

This sounds more OP than it actually is. But it's still a really nice bonus for those longer fights.

So, there you have it! The perfect single-target complement to Chunin's multi-target awesomeness. Strength and dexterity are definitely your friends with this class, so be sure to choose your enhancements wisely . Have fun!

Edit: Shadow Soul no longer heals all of your mana; it brings it up to 65. Breakdown edited accordingly.

October 14, 2013

AQWorlds 5th Birthday

Dragon Ninjas vs Ultra BrutalCorn!

BattleCon 2013: an in-game convention continues this Friday with an expansion to the Secret Underground Lab map! Normally the SUL (secret underground lab) where Artix Entertainment games are made are invaded by ninjas or zombies roughly every couple weeks. We know how to handle those attacks.

Emergency Invasion Chainsaws!

NOT THIS WEEK! Something is hiding in the shadows of the Room of Gloom, racing through the Soundbooth of Horrors, shattering windows and dreams with well-placed blows of his hind hooves.

This is not the Ultra BrutalCorn you will face.

Here and there and everywhere... wreaking chaos in the Lab. It's up to YOU to stop ULTRA Brutalcorn, Hero! (You didn't think he was done with you after last Friday's battle, did you?!)

This Friday, prepare to:

• Avoid ambushes by BrutalCorn and the Invisible Imposter Guard Ninjas!
• Help Artix the WindowSlayer take out all of the OTHER windows!
• Knock out the Green Screamers in the Green Room!
• Battle through the Soundbooth of Horrors!
• Clean out the Skeletons in our Server Closet!
• Take on Ultra BrutalCorn in the Room of Gloom!
  (What is back there? NO ONE KNOWS!) 

5th Birthday Class: Dragon Shinobi!

You can buy the Dragon Shinobi class from Ragnar in Battleon for 2,000 AdventureCoins until the class goes rare around our NEXT Birthday. However, until the birthday event rares leave, you will be able to EARN the class and all the extras completely free and all you have to do is help clear all these monsters out of the Lab and BattleCon!

Summon the Dragon Ninjas!

Artix will give you the quests you need to earn the class and also has the merge shop where you can buy them. Legends can access a daily quest which will let them earn triple the number of tokens, but with a little effort, everyone can earn the class before it leaves! 

Who's our favorite Dragon Shinobi? YOU ARE!

Just REMEMBER, the chance to earn the class is a special bonus for those of you who were here to help celebrate AQW's 5th birthday and AE's 11th anniversary! Once the birthday event rare gear leaves on November 18th, you will no longer be able to earn the class. But 1 month should be PLENTY of time for anyone to earn it.

You will need to turn in the quests and re-accept them every time. We've been forced to take this measure to help combat botters so you can thank those people if you find that a little annoying.

5th Birthday Presents!

It wouldn't be a party without presents! The monsters in the Lab will be dropping permanently-available gear, and you'll find the Birthday Present rares shop when you talk to Artix!

Five Rings Fire Warrior and Dragon Shinobi

Much of this year's birthday gear is based on the Shinobi and Ninja culture to celebrate Artix's appearance on America Ninja Warrior, and because so many of us have read The Book of War and The Book of Five Rings.

5th Birthday gear includes:

• Five Rings Fire Warrior set
• Five Rings Water Warrior set
• Five Rings Air Warrior set
• Five Rings Earth Warrior set
• Five Rings Light Warrior helm
• Five Rings Void Warrior helm
• Invisible Ninja Armor (AC w/ xp bonus)
• Invisible Ninja Armor (Legend w/ rep bonus)
• Green Screamer set
• Bearded BrutalCorn helm
• and more!

BattleCon 2013 and other updates!

We haven't forgotten BattleCon 2013: an in-game convention... or that today is Canada's Thanksgiving! Happy Turkey-day, Canadians! The Canada Thanksgiving Day shop will remain in-game until next Monday, October 21st.

Happy Thanksgiving!

• The shops for Dage, Beleen, Memet, and BattleGems will all get updates. 
• Veneeria's shop will be added. 
• More details on HeroMart gear will be added.
• The "pet of the random month" is in production!
• Starsword hilt recolors are coming soon.
• Dumoose is still working on the design for the Oracle Class.
• Stay tuned for more details on the Mogloween challenge fight and rewards!
• We have removed the BrutalCorn badge from character pages. We will look more into this issue when Yorumi returns from vacation later this week.
• We are in final testing of the item deletion/stack bug. That should roll later this week.
• Guild PTR badges will be awarded once Yorumi returns.

October 12, 2013

BattleCon 2013

11th AE Anniversary / 5th AQW Birthday!

This weekend, get your /party on at BattleCon 2013: an In-Game Convention, as we begin two weeks of the most brutal and battle-tastic double-celebration ever! The only way we can meet ALL of the heroes who make our games possible is inside AQWorlds, so we’ve pulled in team members from ALL our games to create the most EPIC in-game convention EVER!

BattleCon 2013: An In-Game Convention

If you can't come meet the AE team in person at the conventions we attend in real life, join us in AQWorlds for BattleCon: the all-staff, all-player in-game convention... and all the con-swag you can handle!

Super Kathool and Doctor What armor sets!

BattleCon-vention Highlights!

There's always a TON of things to do at conventions, so make sure you hit ALL the booths AND the artist tables AND the rave AND the Cosplay Zombie Parade!

Vendetta Vampire and Kakarotting armor sets! 

And don't miss:

• Lore's most brutal boss battle! 
• Live-action tournament of Cosplay Champions!
• Live-draws and video tutorials from AE artists!
• Q&A session with Beleen and Kityana!

/dance the night away!

• Our favorite videos play throughout the day all week long!
• Vendor booths with gear from other AE games!
• Artist Alley - shops from your favorite AQW artists!
• Return of the Secret Underground Lab!
• Rave about the epic /dance party!

Anniversary? Awesome! What about the Birthday?

October is the month of OMG-SO-MANY-PARTIES! With AE's anniversary and AQW's birthday falling so close together, we're combining the events into one ginormous celebration... but with double (or triple?!?!) the number of rewards and quests!

5 Rings Warrior and AE Dragon Ninja sets!

After you've explored the Coliseum, head down the elevator into the Secret Underground Lab! This map, which we released last year, is returning and will become a permanent part of the game (but without the rare gear from last year). Explore a (mostly) true-to-life version of the Lab this week, then return NEXT Friday to battle through the expanded version with all NEW birthday rares!

Overcoming Con-tastrophe!

We usually try to release between 6 and 7 pm each Friday, but this with as much as we packed into this event, there were bound to be some unforeseen issues, like:

• Art randomly being deleted from the file
• Flash player dying... then mysteriously being resurrected mid-death
• Flash's memory refusing to cooperate as we prepared to go live.

This event is BIG. We've got a LOT of games and a LOT of fun stuff, and we didn't want to leave anyone out. But it got to be SO big that Flash said "nuh uh. I don't care HOW much you want to enjoy the event. Not gonna do it." So we sat down and made some modifications to how it handled its memory and voila! We were able to compile the file and get back to getting our party on!