Warhammer Online August Newsletter is here!

Check those inboxes people!  We have a great deal of information this month that was well due to us given the nature of last month’s “Look at our pictures” podcast.  The podcast wasn’t the only improvement this month!  This month’s Grab Brag(#17) goes into minor (yet interesting) detail on spell resists and character specialization.  Let’s look at the grab bag first and I’ll share with you the two questions that I feel were the best.

Q: Are any of the spells going to be on a binary resist system, or will all spells be on a partial resist system?

A: Resists are basically magical armor. They mitigate but do not completely prevent magical damage.

Q) You have said in early editions of the Grab Bag that the eight winds will work as resistances. As there is only the Bright Wizard as an arcane magic career, will players have options in “skill trees” or “magic trees” to assume other stereotypes of magic users like shadow wizards, beast wizards etc? And will we see the Imperial Colleges of magic in action in WAR?

A) Not skill trees, per se, but players will be able to specialize fairly significantly via the tactics and morale systems. We’ve completely overhauled the advancement system over the previous couple of months to greatly expand the opportunities for differentiation and specialization within a career-path. In most cases, this will involve providing two major lines of specialization (more for certain careers) and offering players the option (not just with magic users) to choose to push their character in one direction or another, or create a hybrid of the two. Stay tuned for an upcoming podcast that runs through all of this in exhausting detail.

So that’s pretty simple and actually really cool that resists will be, basically, magical armor.  Making a total assumption, if your fire resist is 200 then it will mitigate a percentage of damage done by a fire source of a certain level.  This is a fairly standard way of thinking for those of us who are veterans to MMO’s.  This also simplifies the system and allows for spell casters to feel that they are perhaps not completely useless against “uber” geared players; I always hated when my fireball would be completely resisted in PVP… such a pain.

Next up we have August’s Podcast which is my absolute favorite part of this month!   Josh Drescher fills our minds with everything we could possibly want to know about the strengths, weaknesses, fighting style, engagement style, and specialty of every single class type!  If you were on the edge about choosing a melee dps or a ranged dps or any other combination this will definitely give you the info you need to make the decision that matches your play style.  For me I know for certain now that I am going to play a Goblin Shaman.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=iXQBjWuDPOk[/youtube]

The Beta journal this month is interesting but they can never really say much that we don’t already know.  It offers a small insight into playing a Dwarf Oathbearer but that’s pretty much it.   Paul’s video diaries deliver, as always, and offer yet again a look on the inside of the development of WAR with his touch of humor.  And of course I can’t forget to mention the Fan Art submitted by those with incredibly much more talent than me.

Alrighty!  Great month for Warhammer Online fans!  Who else is ready for September already?