Fenier
11-01-2007, 06:39 PM
The Druids Grove was extended a Press Tour into the unknown, and being the adventurous person I am, I jumped at the chance to take a Guided Tour into what is to come. I plan to have some Screenshots - but these have to be Okd with Sony and I am still waiting for them to reply.
After setting up the tour with Sony's Press team, I got a date and time, and met up with Rashere in the Plane of Knowledge along with 2 other people. We chatted a bit then we were wisked off to the Steamfont Mountains.
As you may have seen on Live, Steamfont got a face lift in the previous patch, and it's here that the wilds of Faydwer begin. This zone will see some action this coming weekend, as in game events begin to take place and Meldrath lifts his fortress into the air and begins his siege of Ak'Anon, setting the stage for the first half of SoF's storyline.
After launch, the Steamfont's Mino cave system opens up (exposing the area Meldrath kept his fortress before the attack) and new explorers can venture forth into the Dragonscale Hills and the Loping Plains.
The Dragonscale Hills are home to Cats, Brownies, some gnomes and a gigantic Robot which roams the area (and is a zone you can fight inside). The Robot is massive and while it doesn't attack you - it can step on / kick you if you get in it's way, which may result in death for people whom neglect to pay attention to the massive bundle of metal and bolts walking toward them.
The area is also holds the fortress of The Sleeper returned, Crystallos (which I will discuss more later) and allows you to reach Meldrath's Flying Fortress in true gnomish style - by catapult. Content in Dragonscale is roughly equivalent to Atiiki from the Buried Sea.
Once we finished in the hills, it was time to follow Rashere into the Loping Plains, home of Wereorcs, ghosts and so forth. We got to follow him as he showed us the areas, including a former village, home to one of the static raids in the expansion.
The Orcs are wereorcs and become lupine when angered enough. More then just a change of looks however, the morphing to their WereOrc form increases their combat abilities as well.
After watching them transform, we headed into their home - Bloodmoon Keep, former Elvish temple. This zone has several events in it, ranging from 12 man Tasks to 54 man instanced Raids. I must say the zone is pretty large, and it's one of the Tier 2 zones, designed for players mostly at a Ally Katta+ Gear level.
Saying goodbye to Bloodmoon Keep we went skyward to Meldrath's Flying Fortress, from which we could see his 2 Guardian towers and floating lab hovering nearby. The Fortress is a large outdoor zone, where players can venture into the Towers (again, by being flung at high speeds via a catapult) or head into the S.H.I.P (Somewhat Hazardous Industrial Prototype) Tower used by Meldrath to test his more dangerous inventions.
While floating above the Dragonscale hills we also had a chance to visit the Steam Factory and Meldrath's mansion - both of which are Tier 3 areas.
The Steam Factory powers Meldrath's fortress, and was where the Robot wandering around the Dragonscale hills was kept before a hole blown in the side of the zone caused him to fall out. The zone is home to Steamworks, Gnomes, Minios and 2 factions of Brownies, who's tunnels cross most of the zone (Shrink devices suggested!)
The Mansion is one of 2 locked zones, requiring a group quest to access. It plays home to several important progression events on the Meldrath Arc and is home to some interesting rooms. We caught a glimpse of a room with two large multi-colored checker boards and clockwork game pieces used in a event there, tho how, Rashere wouldn't say.
We finished off the tour with a trip into Crystallos, the only Tier 4 zone in the expansion and the end zone for both Group and Raid content. This zone is also locked with a access quest, and the raid events are also locked. It's a huge zone and home to The Sleeper and his 4 Dragon advisor's, whom have created many Golems, Elementals and Eyes to guard their lair.
After the tour we stuck around and chatted with Rashere a bit.
He mentioned Heroic items, and this is basically how they will work:
Heroic Items are more then just items, they add to your base stats and increase them in overthe cap fashion. So items instead of saying just +30 may say +30 STR (+15) to show the amount of overcap.
Using his example of Strength, getting a Heroic item wouldn't just raise your Strength cap, but would cause you to deal more damage meleeing as well as give you some sort of bonuses when using a shield for defense.
Since I am writing this for you folks, I asked Rashere what Druids had to look forward to in SoF. His reply was he hopes we're happy with the new healing ability which was given to druids in the expansion.
While I can't go into it fully, I must say the way they chose to address the healing gap is pretty interesting and is not something used before but something brand new for this expansion. I am looking forward to the spell on live and feel it has pretty good merit.
All in all, I personally find the SoF zones pretty awesome looking, the Art department really outdid themselves on a few areas. Some of the content is interesting and all the new models they've added are pretty well done.
I can't discuss spells, aas or items - so you'll just have to wait for my post in a few weeks on NDA lift, but if you have questions relating to what I discussed above I'll try my best to answer them. I will also have Screenshots posted once they are Okd.
-Fenier
After setting up the tour with Sony's Press team, I got a date and time, and met up with Rashere in the Plane of Knowledge along with 2 other people. We chatted a bit then we were wisked off to the Steamfont Mountains.
As you may have seen on Live, Steamfont got a face lift in the previous patch, and it's here that the wilds of Faydwer begin. This zone will see some action this coming weekend, as in game events begin to take place and Meldrath lifts his fortress into the air and begins his siege of Ak'Anon, setting the stage for the first half of SoF's storyline.
After launch, the Steamfont's Mino cave system opens up (exposing the area Meldrath kept his fortress before the attack) and new explorers can venture forth into the Dragonscale Hills and the Loping Plains.
The Dragonscale Hills are home to Cats, Brownies, some gnomes and a gigantic Robot which roams the area (and is a zone you can fight inside). The Robot is massive and while it doesn't attack you - it can step on / kick you if you get in it's way, which may result in death for people whom neglect to pay attention to the massive bundle of metal and bolts walking toward them.
The area is also holds the fortress of The Sleeper returned, Crystallos (which I will discuss more later) and allows you to reach Meldrath's Flying Fortress in true gnomish style - by catapult. Content in Dragonscale is roughly equivalent to Atiiki from the Buried Sea.
Once we finished in the hills, it was time to follow Rashere into the Loping Plains, home of Wereorcs, ghosts and so forth. We got to follow him as he showed us the areas, including a former village, home to one of the static raids in the expansion.
The Orcs are wereorcs and become lupine when angered enough. More then just a change of looks however, the morphing to their WereOrc form increases their combat abilities as well.
After watching them transform, we headed into their home - Bloodmoon Keep, former Elvish temple. This zone has several events in it, ranging from 12 man Tasks to 54 man instanced Raids. I must say the zone is pretty large, and it's one of the Tier 2 zones, designed for players mostly at a Ally Katta+ Gear level.
Saying goodbye to Bloodmoon Keep we went skyward to Meldrath's Flying Fortress, from which we could see his 2 Guardian towers and floating lab hovering nearby. The Fortress is a large outdoor zone, where players can venture into the Towers (again, by being flung at high speeds via a catapult) or head into the S.H.I.P (Somewhat Hazardous Industrial Prototype) Tower used by Meldrath to test his more dangerous inventions.
While floating above the Dragonscale hills we also had a chance to visit the Steam Factory and Meldrath's mansion - both of which are Tier 3 areas.
The Steam Factory powers Meldrath's fortress, and was where the Robot wandering around the Dragonscale hills was kept before a hole blown in the side of the zone caused him to fall out. The zone is home to Steamworks, Gnomes, Minios and 2 factions of Brownies, who's tunnels cross most of the zone (Shrink devices suggested!)
The Mansion is one of 2 locked zones, requiring a group quest to access. It plays home to several important progression events on the Meldrath Arc and is home to some interesting rooms. We caught a glimpse of a room with two large multi-colored checker boards and clockwork game pieces used in a event there, tho how, Rashere wouldn't say.
We finished off the tour with a trip into Crystallos, the only Tier 4 zone in the expansion and the end zone for both Group and Raid content. This zone is also locked with a access quest, and the raid events are also locked. It's a huge zone and home to The Sleeper and his 4 Dragon advisor's, whom have created many Golems, Elementals and Eyes to guard their lair.
After the tour we stuck around and chatted with Rashere a bit.
He mentioned Heroic items, and this is basically how they will work:
Heroic Items are more then just items, they add to your base stats and increase them in overthe cap fashion. So items instead of saying just +30 may say +30 STR (+15) to show the amount of overcap.
Using his example of Strength, getting a Heroic item wouldn't just raise your Strength cap, but would cause you to deal more damage meleeing as well as give you some sort of bonuses when using a shield for defense.
Since I am writing this for you folks, I asked Rashere what Druids had to look forward to in SoF. His reply was he hopes we're happy with the new healing ability which was given to druids in the expansion.
While I can't go into it fully, I must say the way they chose to address the healing gap is pretty interesting and is not something used before but something brand new for this expansion. I am looking forward to the spell on live and feel it has pretty good merit.
All in all, I personally find the SoF zones pretty awesome looking, the Art department really outdid themselves on a few areas. Some of the content is interesting and all the new models they've added are pretty well done.
I can't discuss spells, aas or items - so you'll just have to wait for my post in a few weeks on NDA lift, but if you have questions relating to what I discussed above I'll try my best to answer them. I will also have Screenshots posted once they are Okd.
-Fenier