Missing Left Sock Day

It Is A Tragedy That Touches All Of Our Lives

So many have gone missing and never heard from again. We search everywhere but the longer they stay missing the more people give up hope. Eventually, the victims just move on with their lives and learn to deal with their loss in their own way.

That's right. I'm talking about Left Socks.

May 9th is Missing Left Sock Day. A day set aside from our normal work-a-day lives to bow our heads and remember not just the left socks that we have lost but those that everyone has lost. It affords us the opportunity to come together as a community and say, in one voice, "You will be remembered".

To increase awareness of this all-too-common tragedy that touches everyone in one way or another we have assembled a small treasure trove of sock themed items.

Take whatever you like, because every time someone sees a sock-bladed sword or an adorable Missing Left Sock Dragon they will be forced to confront this issue. It's time to stop running from our feelings and our dryer-portals. It's time to face the facts.

Those socks may be gone forever but you have NOT been abandoned. All you have to do is reach out to a fellow player and we can all begin healing. Start a conversation about socks. Let someone know that you understand how it feels to have one cold foot because maybe the warmth of your understanding smile is all that they really need.

This just got real. Sock it to them and Battle On!

Friday: DoomWood and Nulgath!

THIS Friday we will be continuing Artix's increasingly insane DoomWood II storyline and we will also say goodbye to Dage's Dark Caster Shop as he returns to Shadowfall to prepare for war.

But what about Nulgath? The creature that was once semi-human before his monstrous form erupted from that shell and revealed his true evil self to us. Is he still the real master of evil or has be been secluded in the shadows of his cave for too long?

Friday, Nulgath arrives in Battleon with his OWN host of wares.

A special armor set will be sold tying in to his new project, Oversoul! There will also be a number of helms and capes which you can purchase to show your loyalty to and support for him.

It's starting to look like war in unavoidable but what will happen to Lore if these two amazingly powerful, evil creatures clash? One thing is certain... one of them will rise and the other will fall.

This war will change the face of Lore. If you are Evil, who will you side with? If you are Good, who will you fight to defeat? If you are unaligned then why are you even reading this? Get back in the game and pick a side.

226 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Socks Left Socks Missing Socks Remembering Lost Socks Clean Socks Dirty Socks Plain Socks Holey Socks Holy Socks Striped Socks Plaid Socks Dress Socks Right Socks Wrong Socks Cotton Socks Wool Socks Polyester Socks Acrylic Socks Sock Puppets Wind Socks Cysero

Action Figure Class Breakdowns

The Artix and Sepulchure Action Figures Are Almost HERE!

In fact, we've started to receive word that the action figures have already started to arrive in some U.S. Toys R Us Stores but they should be in HeroMart by around the end of this month!

The Action Figures will be available in EVERY Toys R Us location in the continental United States in the collectible card section, with our other stuff like the Card Game, Booster Packs and 2012 Calendars. Sadly, only U.S. Toys R Us stores will get the toys (Want to know why? READ THIS!) but as soon as they arrive on HeroMart, they will start being delivered everywhere that HeroMart delivers (69 countries and more added all the time)!

So today seems like a good time to do the skill breakdown for the DoomKnight Overlord and Paladin High Lord classes that come with the toys (in addition to 5 exclusive battle cards, a legendary helm, weapon and armor that matches the class art exactly and an exclusive in-game castle or fortress!).

Good guys won the coin toss so they go first...

PALADIN HIGH LORD CLASS SKILL SET

Everyone knows that the Paladin Order exists to battle the forces of darkness and the unnatural and unholy threat of the undead but there are more than one kind of paladin. There are Paladin Loremasters, Weaponmasters, Recruiters, Healers and of course the Paladin High Lords who are the elite branch. They are a relatively new branch of the order tasked with taking on threats that the outmatch normal paladins. They are put through special leadership and combat training that test their will, faith and might. Those who pass the tests are the very best of the best that the Paladin Order has to offer the world of Lore.

The Paladin High Lord is a warrior type class and some of their power is drawn from the Strength stat  but others draw their magical damage from Int. I suggest Hybrid for decent damage but higher heals. That depends on how you like to play.

AUTO ATTACK

2 second cooldown

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers.

PURIFYING FLAME

20 mana, 6 second cooldown

Shoots a ball of holy fire at your foe causing damage over time and a decrease in Crit for as long as your foe burns. Damage increase with each additional party member.

This is a pretty basic, magic based blast with a burn effect attached to it. Good for pulling from across the room. You will notice that we added some new functionality to each of these new classes in places... the skills are pretty good on their own but some skills like THIS one will get stronger and stronger with each additional player you add to your party!

This function will affect the base damage of the initial fire blast but won't change the DoT value.

WORD OF LIGHT

30 mana, 10 second cooldown

Heals you and your allies. The Heal grows strong with each person added to your party!

A very good AoE (Area of effect) heal that starts out good and only gets stronger and stronger with each player that accepts your party invite. It's a little costly but WELL worth the mana. This makes you VERY useful in party situations but contains more than enough healing juice to keep you patched up in a solo fight.

UNDERMINE

10 mana, 5 second cooldown

Stacks up to 5 times. Strike that does low damage but slows your enemy with each stack. Has a chance to stun Undead foes for 4 seconds.

Here is the pesky skill that you need to maintain. It's fast, light damage and costs next to nothing from your mana pool but the stacking haste debuff makes it one you should not underestimate. If you plan on skipping this skill just because you don't like keeping the stacks up that is your call but if I were you I would use it every time.

The pretty good chance that you'll stun an undead enemy is just gravy.

PURE BLOOD & SOUL GLOW

Rank 4 passives

Increase CRIT CHANCE by 12%

Increase DAMAGE by 10%

People tend to underestimate how much damage you get from these. A 10% damage increase takes a critical of 1000 all the way to 1100 and who doesn't like to crit 12% more?

LIGHT WAVE

30 mana, 10 second cooldown

You send out a wave of light that damages all enemies in range and reduces their damage for a short time. Effects grow stronger with more people in your party.

Here is your AoE Damage skill for taking out multiple enemies in a single room, It's a decent AoE with pretty high damage on its own BUT when you have a full party, with the right enhancements, you can take out entire rooms at once! It's also a good skill to use against bosses as well.

DIVINE HAND

Rank 10 passive

Your target suffers a massive blow from an unseen divine helper.

You've seen this before and you'll see it again. At rank 10, you suddenly gain a power that goes off randomly, costs no mana and does MASSIVE damage to a single target.

Now let's see the darker side of the coin...

DOOMKNIGHT OVERLORD CLASS SKILL SET

Empress Gravelyn is not pleased. Vordred, an undead soldier capable of resisting the light based paladin powers, was beyond her control. The necropolis, source of her undead armies, has fallen into the hands of an upstart little girl. Dage and Nulgath are fighting over the title of Lord of Evil which was a title that was hard won by her father, Sepulchure and hers by birthright. The time has come when Gravelyn has had enough. She has taken her elite DoomKnight soldiers, some of the strongest undead creates in her arsenal shaped in her father's image, and has superchaged them. The ritual was long, blindingly painful and mind meltingly complex. Most of the DoomKnights who entered the royal chamber on Shadowfall left as piles of ashes and bones but a few.. the darkest and strongest were reshaped into DoomKnight Overlords!

The DoomKnight Overlord is also a warrior type class and like it's lightside mirror image, draws power from STR and INT, so Hybrid is probably a good way to go. But you could try all Wizard or all Fighter enh and see what happens.

AUTO ATTACK

2 second cooldown

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers.

TORTURE

10 mana, 3 second cooldown

Magically torment your foe's mind, causing slight damage but also reducing their damage and crit. Damage increase with each additional party member.

This is a very nice lead-off power. The damage potential is EXCELLENT considering the tiny cooldown, strong damage and low mana cost of this ability. Tack the Damage AND Crit debuff onto this skill and it gets even better. Get a part full of friends and it becomes something staggeringly powerful.

SCREAMING DARKNESS

25 mana, 12 second cooldown

Causes all foes within range to burst into flames, dealing moderate damage and causing them to burn for Damage over time. Effects increase with each additional party member.

You get an AoE early in this class progression. Makes it easy to pull an entire room but dangerous if you don't have your third skill yet, but DOES significantly increase your damage output. The damage is balanced out with a pretty hefty mana cost and a long-ish cooldown. Remember that this power also gets stronger with additional party members and while the damage goes up the mana and cooldown never change so... go make some friends.

DARK CHALLENGE

25 mana, 10 second cooldown

Has a 50/50 chance of either stunning your foe a few seconds or giving you back some health. Healing effects increase with each additional party member.

Here is where you test your luck (not the stat). Either you are going to stun your foe (except for some bosses) OR you're going to cast a pretty beefy HoT (Heal over Time) on yourself. It's WIN/WIN! The advantage that this has over Pali High Lord is that your stun will work on a LOT more than just undead. The disadvantage is that it shares the skill with your heal so you can never count on what you're going to get.

As with any challenge you issue, you know what reaction you might get. You might need a heal VERY badly and only get a stun. If it enough to give you the upper hand? You might want a stun but get a heal when your lifebar is already full...

The HoT is decent on its own but gets REALLY strong with a full party, unfortunately a party does not affect your stun duration.

BLACK BLOOD & RAW HATE

Rank 4 passives

Increase CRIT CHANCE by 12%

Increase DAMAGE by 10%

The Pali High Lord has the exact same Rank 4 passives. More damage, more crits.

MIASMA

50 mana, 8 second cooldown

Deals massive damage and significantly lowers your target's ability to hit anything for a short while.

This is a HUGE damage power and it's strength is consistent even if you are on your own. The mana cost is VERY high and since you're on a warrior mana regen model the Hit debuff on your target is not your friend so be smart when you use this nuke. It's a great opener and a great closer and if you manage your mana well enough you can use it during battle too. Since the cooldown is only 8 seconds you should be able to use it as frequently as your mana allows.

DEATH KNELL

Rank 10 passive

Your foe is attacked by it' own shadow, dealing massive damage as it resists being pulled to the underworld.

It's a cool description but it comes down to the same thing as Pali High Lord's rank 10 passive. People who fully rank up this class will occasionally and suddenly deal a MASSIVE hit to a single target with no effect on the Doomknight Overlord's mana or cooldown.

The Big Picture

Looks like both classes are very good multi-purpose classes a lot like Dragonlord. Paladin High Lord has a more dependable heal but what it gains in survivability and party-usefulness it looses out in the raw damage potential which Doomknight Overlord enjoys. In PvP, if you party up, you will be a force to be reckoned with in BOTH of these classes.

Remember that we don't have unlimited funds so we've only made a fixed number of these toys and if we make more we want to make new characters so they are already Limited Quantity Rares.

Oh yeah, if you get both toys you can become the abomination I'm calling the DOOMPALADIN HIGH OVERLORD!

Ew.

227 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Cysero DoomKnight Overlord Paladin High Lord Toys R Us Action Figures Artix Sepulchure

Dage The Evils Live Draw!

Just A Quick Reminder!

Today, in about one hour (at 4:00 PM Server Time) the Stream Map will open and Dage The Evil will begin the last of our string of AE Artist Live Draws!

If you have never been to a Live Draw, all you do is /join the Stream map and click the START SHOW button. It will open up a video window right inside the game where you can watch as Dage does a drawing from scratch just for you! You get to watch it take shape right before your eyes AND we will take what he draws and make an in-game item out of it.

I will be taking questions for Dage from my Twitter and from the Forum Thread that pops up fpor this DNs post.

See you there!

Tags: Dage the Evil Live Draw Cysero

Returning to Doomwood!

Back For More Undead Fun!

And by fun I mean torture.

For us, not you.

Once again, Artix is personally crafting this story which means that we get to do a lot of things that the engine has never done before (which means a lot of new and interesting bugs). It also means INSANE cutscenes as the story continues.

I don't know if you were here for the last Doomwood but it nearly KILLED poor Samba. We asked an inhuman amount of effort from our (at that time) rookie animator, and while this amount of work would have killed, driven insane or caused a lesser animator to walk out of the AE Undergrounjd Lab never to return... Samba somehow rose to the occasion week after week (each week getting steadily worse for her) and somehow managed to pull off the equivalent of THREE MONTHS worth of weekly release animation in just under a single month.

Now we're back and while Artix DID learn that he needs to write fewer cutscenes, he seemed to think that meant that he could just make those few longer and even more insane than the earlier ones!

Needless to say this week it's all hands on deck as we return to Doomwood with an all new story which in nicely to the introduction of our first action figures!

I'm sorry to say that also means that I will be needed in the weekly releases for a while which means no time for Mid-Weeks, BUT we will probably have more MEMBER ONLY addition content in Doomwood than we have had in any other zone. Special fights, side storylines (which is much like a mid-week in itself) special armors, weapons, pets, capes, helms and other goodies and maybe even a special class (we'll have to see on that one).

Artix & Sepulchure Toys

They are nearly here!

My sources (at least the reliable ones) tell me that they are on their way to the U.S. Toys R Us locations right now. They should arrive there a week or two before theyn reach us here and become availible on HeroMart.Com.

People often ask us why we can't get them to Toys R Us locations in other countries and that's mostly because there are different branches of the company and our relationship is so far only with the American branch of the company.

If our stuff keeps selling well in the American branch then we might be invited to start up a relationship with various other branches of Toys R Us... but that's really up to you guys.

Toys R Us gets to set their own price and we want the HeroMart price to be competative with the Toys R Us price so we have to wait and see what they set their prices at before we can set ours. If we decided early and went too high with the HJeroMart price, then we would be shooting ourselves in the foot and losing sales to Toys R Us. If we go to low, then we undercut Toys R Us and they might decide to cut ties with us which kills any future deals we might make with ANY branch.

SO... soon they will get theirs, we will find out what the decide for the price and then we will be able to tell you the HeroMart price whicl will be very close to the store price.

For the special Limited Edition BLACK version of the toys, I'm pretty sure that the price will be $50. It comes with the same in-game items as the normal versions but we made a LOT less of these and you will ONLY be able to get them from HeroMart. These are for hardcore collectors ONLY (or maybe people who want to resell them on E-bay for double price when they sell our and go rare).

More news on that as it arrises.

Limited Time DOOM Starter Package!

A lot of you seem to be taking advantage of this deal and not just for the rare DeathKnight set!

Here's the deal: Right now we are offering our normal 3 month +1000 ACs Membership package (both on our payment page AND on the Portal Site payment page so you can get it with Artix Points) except for a limited time you get an ADDITIONAL 1000 AdventureCoins AND you get the DeathKnight Set (armor, helm, cape and sword based on the traditional DragonFable design) as a bonus!

It will at LEAST be here until the end of the week but this IS a Limited Time offer and once it's gone the armor set will go Rare (Any future DeathKnight class will have new art).

Even if you're already an AQW Member, getting DOUBLE ACs and a rare armor set for the same old 3 month price is a pretty good deal!

If you have already taken advantage of this deal and can't find the set, remember to look in your BOOK OF LORE in the AE section. You will see the DeathKnight badge near the bottom and you can open the shop from there! :)

The LAST Live Draw!

This Wednesday is the final of the five AE artist run of Live Draw events. Dage The Evil is on deck and warming up his drawing hand (by hand signing 500 of his Coffee Dragon prints which sold out over the weekend on HeroMart)

About the gauntlet.... don't ask.

As usual, we have no idea what he's going to draw beforehand but knowing Dage it will be EPIC. Like a banana with a hat or something!

Remember, we go live at 4:00 PM EST (Server Time) and the shop will stay up for only about 24 hours!

Beware Fakes

A lot of you older players have heard this before but over the weekend we got to hear from a whole new wave of NEW players telling us that Alina was promising them they could become mods or offering them free Coffee Dragon prints in exchange for passwords or credit card information.

THAT IS NOT THE REAL ALINA!

No member of the AE staff will EVER ask for your password or credit card information. Neither Alina or I have personal Facebook accounts... we only have Fan Pages. Here is MINE and here is Alina's.

Fake Facebooks and Twitter accounts pop up ALL THE TIME and there are LOTS of people who think that they have found the real deal, but use your head. Be smart. Look around the internet, talk to your friends... most importantly, don't believe everything that you see on the internet.

Tags: DoomWood Fake Facebook HeroMart Action Figures Toys DeathKnight Cysero

Thyton Live Draw TODAY!

Master Ninja and Lead Combat Artist

We will continuing our 5 weeks of AE Artist Live Draw sessions with Thyton a little later today.

Thyton came to work for AE not long after I did. He was one of the core developers for DragonFable once it was launched and one of the few AE staff members who have been around long enough to remember what it's like working off of Artix's kitchen table, when the Underground lab was just a dream.

Thyton is currently the artistic director for the upcoming AQ3D project but still lends his talents to DF, MQ and any other game project which require his skills.

As I write this it is 9:22 AM.

Around 4:00 PM Server Time we will open the live draw map again and you will be able to watch as Thyton goes through his process. You can check the current server time at any time by looking in the OPTIONS menu inside AQW. (see above)

If you have a question for him I'll be taking a selection from the AQW FORUMS and my own Twitter account. He'll need his hands to show you his craft so I will be feeding him some of your best questions and broadcasting his answers and protips in the game.

See you there!

UPDATE:

Be sure to check out NightWraith (from Epic Duel)'s Design Notes post on his trip to the PAX East conference in Boston! It's an epic convention geared solely towards gamers.

Tags: Thyton Live Draw Cysero

Interfector Deorum

The Final Golden Cheezburger Has Transformed!

As per Knave1's wish, the Final Golden Cheezburger has changed into a special armor that will tie into the mini-storyline that he wished for. The Cheezburger is now the rare Interfector Deorum Armor!

The name of the armor was changed to Interfector Deorum after some of our players didn't understand the usage of the original name, so remember... your Golden Cheezburger didn't disappear... just look in your armors for Interfector Deorum.

NEXT WEEK we will complete granting the winner's wish and add the quest line he wished for to the game as a permanant addition. It was a great wish for the last I CAN HAS MOD contest.

FRIDAY THE 13th IS TOMORROW!

Tomorrow Voltaire and Deady return for a brand new Friday the 13th special event, The Bunnypocalypse!

Join Voltaire and Deady as they face down one of Deady's least intilligent enemies... SLEEZTER BUNNY! Will you be able to sneak through Sleezter Bunny's army of clones Bunny Minions and stop him from hatching the giant DOOM EGG?! 

This event will feature an AC rare shop with Voltaire's new TOP HAT and other great items, lots bunny themed item drops for all players, new instrumental versions of Voltaire songs as well as his latest song "BUNNYPOCALYPSE"! Voltaire will be voice acting himself as well as Sleezter Bunny but can you guess which AE Team member did the voice of Deady? 

The floppy-eared fun starts tomorrow at around sundown-ish or so. Maybe.

You can read all about the event HERE!

Bring Deady Bunee and Sleezter Bunee Home!

Voltaire has released an all new line of Deady Bunny themed toys which tie directly into this AQW Special Event!

There are several versions of these new 5 inch tall vinyl toys that will be sold on HeroMart starting at 12:01 AM Server Time (EST or GMT-4) and will cost $25 USD + Shipping. We will have FOUR versions of the toys but Voltaire will have special versions.

Each version of the toy comes with a code that will unlock SIX in-game Deady themed NON-MEMBER pets.That means that it doesn't matter which of the toys you buy, each toy unlocks the same six pets. The Pets are all 0 AC for free storage and none of the pets are Battle Pets.

The six pets are...

and

And even the ones sold through Voltaire's site will have the code unlocking these pets.

Not many of these were made and judging by how fast HeroMart sold out of the last set of Deady Toys I would suggest that you try and get to HeroMart as close to 12:01 AM as possible if you want one or more of these little guys.

If you want to see more images of the toys CLICK HERE!

J6: Planetside and Earthbound

As many of you know, J6 entered a contest put on by the METRO and SXC to be one of the first private citizens to get shot into space. TENS OF THOUSANDS of you got behind the idea of sending J6 where he belongs and the results of the contest are in.

Here is a message from the man himself...

"Some of you may not know, but a few weeks ago I entered a local contest for a chance to win a quick trip to space. I signed up with high hopes but low expectations and with the stamp of approval from my coworkers I was able to put the link up in the design notes for all the players to see. I was really impressed by the overwhelming support from everyone. I quickly climbed to the top of the leaderboard and stayed ahead with a massive lead of over 30,000. Last night the contest ended and I found out that I had not won. The votes helped me reach the #1 spot but the winner was selected from the top 10 finalists. The winner seems to be someone who genuinely loves space and plans to make a career out of it, so I’m happy for her and hope she has a great time. I was only in it for the awesomeness of it all.

I live up in Canada, far away from the underground lab so sometimes it can get a bit lonely working alone. It really made me feel connected to all of you when I saw how many of you voted (without my needing to bribe anyone) and I am really grateful, especially to everyone I work with who spread the link every day to help support me. So again, huge thanks to you the players and Cysero for letting me use the design notes for my own evil plot to draw upside down going at Mach 3 up 100 kilometers in the air. Even though I lost I’ll still be doing a few space themed items in the near future so look out for those soon.

And if anyone happens to have a spaceship, I’m still looking for a way to get up there.

-J6"

We are all very sad that J6 didn't get picked by the judges but just seeing how many votes he got (the real winner only got about 2,000) really shows you what we can do as a community when we focus our collective will on a goal.

Well done, the lot of you.

Tags: I CAN HAS MOD HeroMart Voltaire Deady Friday the 13th Cysero

Happy Grenwog 2012!

Grenwog Menu

Would you like to hear about today's specials, sir or madam?

WE'VE GOT...

• A hot GRENWOG SEASONAL EVENT spiced with farm fresh Egg Hunts, free range Berserker Bunny 12 12 and EVOLVED Bunny Berserker 12 and ALL NEW organically grown Grenwog Items dropping from the Grenwog monster and new quests and quest rewards on Cabdury!
  
  Please note: We have MOVED the eggs in Battleon and Battleontown. You'll have to find them in their new locations.
  
  
• Your choice of EIGHT delicious new Player Suggestions in the Player Suggestion shop in Yulgar!
  
  Paladin's Vengeance Blade - Schillie
  Sarazen Armaments - CervantesMaxi
  Books of Power Cape - Championaustin
  Aspar Polearm - Unleashed Rage
  Enchanter Armor - Digyo
  Enchanter Mask - Digyo
  Luminous DragonKnight - Lord SlayR
  Luminous DragonKnight Helm -  Lord SlayR
  
  

• CHEF's CHOICE: SEVEN new TREASURE CHEST items!
  
  Paladin of Old Armor
  Horned Helm of Honor
  Winged Helm of Justice
  Helm of Wisdom
  Altar Of Sanguine
  Altar Of Ragnarok
  Altar Of Caladbolg
  
  The last three selections are our first HOUSE ITEMS, which give you in-game previews of the Sanguine and Ragnarok swords which will come with the Artix Button Collections coming soon to HeroMart.
  
  NOTE: You will need house item space to accept these Alter House Items when you open the Treasure Chests. Please plan accordingly.
  
  The Altar Of Caladbolg has a special treat for members of Dage The Evil's Undead Legion. Click on this terrifyingly beautiful House Item and it will offer you a quest which may reward you with the CALADBOLG SWORD, seen in the alter.
  
  Ask your waiter for allergy information.
  
  
• CATCH OF THE MONTH! Freshly caught Battle Lamb Pet-o-the month is available for AQW Members (Yes, it's a Battle Pet) in Aria's Pet Shop! The Baby Wooly Mammoth came to the shop a little late so he will hang around for a little longer. MARKET PRICE.

Happy Grenwog and enjoy your meal! OR ELSE!

COMING NEXT FRIDAY!

Next Friday is FRIDAY the 13th and Voltaire is returning for a brand new Friday The 13th event!

This event will (as always) feature Voltaire and a new Event Rare Shop which will stay open for a limited time. It will also feature Deady, his arch-rival Sleezter Bunny and a host of other nightmarish rabbit enemies! It will also feature a ton of new acoustic versions of his music which he is recording for the event!

Voltaire's in-game NPC will reflect his ever evolving on-stage look that he is currently wearing at his LIVE SHOWS!

Voltaire has some new limited edition collector's toys coming out soon and HeroMart will be selling a few of them. EACH of the new toys will come with a TON of in-game pets (like 7 or something) which will all be tied into this event so you really don't want to miss it!

And yes... you will be able to get his new Top Hat.

WE'RE NOT IGNORING YOU!

Did you read THIS? You should. It provides very useful insights into what it takes to keep this thing moving and we all have our part.

Tags: Cysero Grenwog Player Suggestion Treasure Chest Voltaire Friday the 13th

We Are Not Ignoring You.

We're Not Ignoring You (unless you're just looking for attention)!

Artix Entertainment tries to set it self apart from other game companies in a lot of ways but one of the most important is how much we interact with you guys. Any of you who follow my Twitter or like our AQW Facebook Fan Page know this to be true.

We love talking to you and even when we don't love what we hear, we love that you care enough to tell us what you don't like and we try and fix it. Unfortunately, we are not always logged in to Twitter (we do sleep on occasion) and when we are, we all have a LOT of people talking to us (at this time I have 31,035 Twitter followers and Artix has nearly 47,000!) so If we don't reply to you it's probably because we either missed your Tweet or because we can't reply to every single Tweet.

Please try and understand that there is no way that we can answer every tweet, much less meet up with every single person who asks to meet us in-game. We would never have time for anything else.

Another thing to mention is that it is mostly the Devs who are on Twitter. Devs (or Game Developers) are the people who spend all week building each new release for you to play, and fixing the bugs that you have reported on the BUG FORUMS. We also have a lot of other jobs dealing with game development and community outreach. All that stuff takes up the entire week (which is why some releases come to you a little later than others) and our jobs don't leave time for much else. In the rare cases when we DO find ourselves with extra time, we make a Mid-Week release or work ahead on new functionality!

So you can see that we Developers keep pretty busy with our own stuff. That's why we have Moderators to help you and protect you in-game and Player Support to help you outside the game with account and payment issues.

Nythera, Zazul, Memet, Neveya & Lady Tomo make up the Player Support team. Their primary job is taking care of you and your account issues. They do a fantastic job and are often overlooked for all the effort that they put into making AE function.

These are the brave and tireless people who read all of your HELP MAIL so you should always GO HERE if you've been hacked or find yourself with a payment issue.

The Player Support team receives THOUSANDS of e-mails EVERY DAY and they read every single one of them, but with so much to do, they can get a little behind sometimes and can't reply to you instantly so if you have a problem, please be patient.

Reens, Stratos and their team of Moderators handle a lot of in-game issues. Everytime someone is using foul language or trying to scam or trade accounts, it is THESE heroes to quietly step in and take action to try and keep the game as fun as safe as they can, and many of these mods are volunteers. They are giving their own time to sort through reports for no reason other than they really CARE about making AQW a safe and fun place for everyone, but they need YOUR help. 

If you see someone that they shouldn't be, click on their portrait and use the REPORT function to bring them to the attention of the Mods!

Let's Review:

• A Dev's Job is making the games.
• Player Support's job is taking care of account and payment issues.
• Moderators handle mutes and bans of in-game rule breakers.

Each team has their hands full. That is why we Dev's can't help you with your account or payment issues when you ask for help over Twitter. It's not because we don't want to, it's because it's not what we do and we literally CAN'T help you in most cases.

Telling the us DEV's over Twitter about your account issues is just about as useful as telling a bowl of soup to fix your broken TV.

It's the same reason that Doctors don't put out fires, Firefighters don't pick up your garbage and Waste Workers don't do open heart surgery. They each have their own job that keeps them quite busy.

If you are having account or payment issues the best thing you can do is head to the HELP PAGE and if you ask us for help over Twitter, that is why we direct you there instead of fixing your account.

Please understand that we really do want to help you (of COURSE we do... we WANT you to play AQW!) and we all do our very best to point you in the right direction to get you back on your feet as quickly as possible. :)

I DON'T WANT TO GET HACKED!

If you don't want to lose your account there are 5 simple things that you should do.

1. Pick a VERY GOOD PASSWORD. Make it hard to guess, use letters AND numbers. Avoid simple or passwords like AAAAAAA, qwerty, asdasdasd, 12345, 54321, or your character's name.
   
   
2. Never share your account with anyone (even your siblings or best friend).
   
   
3. Never tell anyone your password, no matter who they say they are or what they promise you. There are TONS of fake Cyseros, Alinas, Artixs and other AE fake AE staff ALL OVER Facebook and Twitter. AE STAFF WILL NEVER ASK FOR YOUR PASSWORD.
   
   We don't need your password. We have access to all of your accounts right now.
   
   
4. Hook your AQW account up to your BATTLEON PORTAL account! If something ever does happen, it's an extra level of security and helps Player Support fix your up faster.
   
   
5. Never use Hacks, Cheats or Bots. Many of these programs will secretly install a trojan virus called a KEYSTROKE LOGGER on your computer. This virus records everything that you type (passwords, credit card info, which websites you visit) and sends the information back to the creators.

Tags: Hacked Help Dev Mod Player Support Twitter Cysero

Something Weird is Going On

The Lab is Quiet... A Little Too Quiet

Which makes sense because it's Saturday night at nearly midnight, but still...

... something doesn't feel right. My guts are telling me that there's a storm coming and my guts are almost always right.

I guess I'm writing this to try and

Greetings Minions

Sorry to interrupt Cysero but I'm an important person and I have something to say.

I am Chairman Platinum, CEO of EBILCORP, the new owner of AdventureQuest Worlds... or should I say EBILQuest Worlds.

The face of your new leader. Get used to it.

EBILCORP has acquired EBILQuest Worlds and the former Artix Entertainment "Secret" Underground Lab in a very hostile take over.

I'm pleased to announce that the days of argument over non-member versus Member are over. The game's new center will be on profit at the expense of you, the little guy. All you new minions will be treated equally and you can expect to be charged more money for less game. We don't have time to do weekly releases so releases will be moved to a yearly schedule.

This is only the first phase of my master plan to infiltrate your lives, take what I want and leave you in the dust.

The best part is that it's already happened, and there's nothing you Cysero, Alina or even Artix can do about it.

Enjoy EBILQuest Worlds, Phase I and Happy EBIL Fools Day.... you fools!

haven't found me. hid inside giant AE coffee maker. hacked the site. don't worry. won't let this happen to you. play along and stay safe until resistance is set up. will contact you soon. Battle on! -C

Tags: EBILCORP OWNS YOU Cysero

Blood Ancient Class

Embrace Your Vampire Side

As I mentioned in yesterday's Design Notes, I have said before that I doubted that we would ever have time to create a class for the Mid-Week Mini-releases as they take a lot of resources and time and the Mid-Weeks roll out with a skeleton of 3 to 4 people, depending on the week.

BUT so many loyal AQW Members were asking for it that we decided to try and make it happen for you guys and it looks like we did. The Blood Ancient Class is the focus of this week's Mid-Week MEMBER ONLY release!

NOTE: You will need to do the Darkovia storyline quests until you reach Safiria's castle to complete this Mid-Week Release.

Unlock The Secrets Of The Blood Ancient

Orlok is Queen Safiria's Vampire Loremaster.

One of his primary functions is to uncover ancient secrets of the vampire race (yes, they are a race thanks to the transformations brought on by the vampire magi-virus). This week Orlok needs your help to uncover the secrets of an ancient ritual that was said to be able to give all the powers of a vampire to ANY creature but spare them any of the weaknesses.

And let's face it, Vampires are pretty weak. They can be hurt or killed by sunlight, crosses, wood, silver, fire, magic, beheading, holy water, and garlic... they can't cross running water, can't fix their hair in a mirror, can't even enter a house without being invited. My 2 year old son can walk into someone's house without being invited (and often does). Frankly, it's amazing that this Darwinian failure of a race has made it this far.

BUT, there are definite advantages. Immortality, being one step up on the food chain, improved strength and speed, very enviable mental powers, shape shifting powers, a certain undeniable appeal to the ladies and in some rare instances the ability to sparkle (Which I do consider a plus. Sparkles are pretty).

Imagine how powerful a creature would be with all of the strengths but none of the weaknesses...

One very clever vampire mage imagined just that and the idea of the Blood Ancient was born. Sadly the ritual was lost without ever being tested.

Now Orlok has gathered stories and rumors and followed the trail to Safiria's own castle. If you are able to complete all of his tasks, you will become the first BLOOD ANCIENT!

Now let's talk about the class.

BLOOD ANCIENT CLASS SKILL SET

This class is a warrior based soloing machine based on a vampire theme. As it is Warrior based, I suggest FIGHTER Enhancements. I haven't tried a lucky CRIT build but maybe you'll want to.

Mana should not be a problem for you which might, in itself, be a problem when you unlock the Regeneration Skill.

This class is very straightforward. It is designed to be a solo class, with good survivability and a LOT of damage potential but no AoEs at all so not the best for farming.

AUTO ATTACK

2 second cooldown

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers.

Smack and repeat.

HEMOPHILIAC

25 mana, 8 second cooldown

Does moderate damage applies the and both weakens and slows your opponent for 4 seconds.

This class starts with a very decent attack. It says Moderate damage but you'll feel strong just using this one power, plus it also slows your target AND reduces their damage. It's a little expensive but balances with the cooldown and mana regen so it's not bad.

DRAW BLOOD

25 mana, 10 second cooldown

Causes a moderate open wound on your foe. Smelling their blood increases your STRENGTH and SPEED for 6 seconds.

Once you draw blood, your new vampire senses kick in increasing your strength stat and your haste. So this skill not only does MORE base damage than the previous skill but also buffs your damage potential. An even stronger attack then the first one with the additional bonus of a very healthy buff for you.

REGENERATION

5 mana, 15 second cooldown

Steals some of your opponents life and causes you to heal over time. The less mana you have the stronger the Heal Over Time is.

Classic camp stuff going on here. a weak attack that also heals you over time. It's a pretty beefy heal and you can keep it going most of the time but here's where the mana regen comes in. The HoT (heal over time) gets STRONGER the less mana you have but it's really pretty easy to keep your mana up in this class so you have to time it against when you need the heal and when it will be the biggest heal possible. No real reason not to spam this skill as soon as it comes up, but to use it WELL takes skill.

POTENT BLOOD & ALACRITY

Rank 4 passives

Increase STR by 10%

Increase Haste by 10%

Very fitting passives here. As you master the class you get stronger and faster... like ya do, you know,  when you're a child of the night.

SOUL GRIP

50 mana, 15 second cooldown

Causes HIGH damage and stuns your opponent for 1 to 10 seconds!

Here's an interesting one. A High Damage power, which is great, but it also stuns every time. The only drawback is that it could stun for 1 second, or could stun for 10. The chances of getting a long stun are slim and the chances of a short one are great but a stun is a stun. This one is a mana pig so it's a good idea to use this before using Regen to get the most out of the heal.

ASPECT OF MIST

Rank 10 passive

Rarely, your body takes the form of a hazy fog which reduced the amount of damage that you take to nearly 0 for 10 seconds!

Some vampires can take the form of mist or fog and you are apparently one of them. Sometimes, your form will take on the aspect of mist. It will not appear different but swords and arrows will pass right through you doing little or no damage for a full 10 seconds.

The Big Picture

You can see with the solo damage abilities, self-buff, targeted debuff, self HoT and rank 10 passive which increases survivability that this class we designed to take on stronger foes with a lot more HP than most players can handle.

It will take a little farming to buy it from Orlok's Merge Shop once you complete his quests but far less than getting a reputation to Rank 10, or you can always take the easy path and buy it off Itzachi for ACs. But considering that it only takes a little patience and hard work I would save the ACs for this Saturday's LQS.

Hope you guys like it and happy Mid-Week!

Artix and Sepulchure Collectible Action Figure Toys Coming Soon!

This is more or less a repeat of what I said in Yesterday's Design Notes, but a lot more people read Skill Breakdown Design Notes so maybe more people will see this and it will answer some of your questions about the upcoming Artix and Sepulchure Toys.,

You can get Artix and/or Sepulchure! Each figures comes with their own weapon. There are rare BLACK variants of each toy (which look pretty awesome).

Artix (normal or black variant) figures come with:

1. Paladin's Castle In-game House
2. Paladin High Lord Class
3. Palaldin High Lord Armor
4. Artix's Helm (Legendary item!)
5. High Lord's Battleaxe of Destiny
6. Paladin High Lord Character Page Achievement
7. FIVE original cards to modify your AQW Battle Card deck! (different from Seppy's toy's cards)

Sepulchure (normal or black variant) figures come with:

1. DoomKnight's Fortress In-game House
2. DoomKnight Overlord Class
3. DoomKnight Overlord Armor
4. Sepulchure's Helm (Legendary item!)
5. Overlord's DoomBlade
6. DoomKnight Overlord Character Page Achievement
7. FIVE original cards to modify your AQW Battle Card deck! (different from Artix toy's cards)

These will be available in Toys R Us in the United States and on HeroMart shortly after that. I'm sad to say that I STILL have no fixed release date for you, but I keep getting told "Late April, Early May".

268 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Cysero Blood Ancient Class Mid-week release Toys Toys R Us

Mid-Week Member Class

Become a Blood Ancient!

Vampires are a VERY old race on Lore and with society full of immortals they don't really have much need of records. If you want to learn a spell that was created 2000 years ago, just go talk to the guy who made it.

But accidents, battles and wars can claim the unlives of even the most powerful vampires. Powerful secrets of vampire lore are lost get lost in the pages of history. That is where Orlok comes in.

Orlok is Queen Safiria's Vampire Loremaster and his job is to search what records there are and use his keen intellect to rediscover lost vampire secrets. Recently he has come upon one such secret and if you help him complete his research you might become Lore's first BLOOD ANCIENT!

Tomorrow, the Mid-week will take place in the Safiria map, where you will find Orlok standing outside Safiria's castle. Complete his tasks to unlock a single farming quest which will allow you to purchase the first Mid-week CLASS, the vampire based Blood Ancient!

Blood Ancient Class, armor and helms designed by Solrac.

I will be doing another Design Notes tomorrow with the skills breakdown but I will tell you that it is warrior based, good for solo-ing and PvP and, like all Mid-Week Releases, MEMBER ONLY!

Earning the class will NOT require any reputation. All you have to do is complete the Mid-Week quests and farm for the merge items necessary to buy the class (and either or both of the helm hairstyles shown above). It will take some time to earn it but far less time than grinding a Reputation to Rank 10.

For those of you who don't have the time for the Mid-Weeks and don't want to wait until the weekend to put in the time to earn it, a 2000 AC version will be available from Itzachi (class only, no helms). The 2000 AC version will ALSO be MEMBER ONLY. This class is part of a mid-week release and mid-week releases are intended to be Member Perks. 

Both versions of Blood Ancient as well as the both helms will be tagged as AC items so you can store them all for free.

I know that I said over Twitter time and time again that we would probably never have time to do a class in a mid-week considering the time and effort that it takes to create one and the skeleton crew that contribute to the mid-weeks, but considering how many of you have asked and that everyone who asked MUST all be Members, it became a priority for me to try and make it happen.

Come back tomorrow for the Skills Breakdown!

Limited Quantity Shop Reminder

10:00 AM Server Time on Saturday.

The die has spoken. Be there or don't.

Artix and Sepulchure Collectible Action Figure Toys Coming Soon!

I know that is a mouth full but some people don't know what Action Figures are. Just calling them toys doesn't do them justice considering the quality with which they seem to be made and the fact that they are in-game swag pinatas.

You can get Artix and/or Sepulchure! Each figures comes with their own weapon. There are rare BLACK variants of each toy (which look pretty awesome.

Artix figures come with:

1. Paladin's Castle In-game House
2. Paladin High Lord Class
3. Palaldin High Lord Armor
4. Artix's Helm (Legendary item!)
5. High Lord's Battleaxe of Destiny
6. Paladin High Lord Character Page Achievement
7. FIVE original cards to modify your AQW Battle Card deck! (different from Seppy's toy's cards)

Sepulchure figures come with:

1. DoomKnight's Fortress In-game House
2. DoomKnight Overlord Class
3. DoomKnight Overlord Armor
4. Sepulchure's Helm (Legendary item!)
5. Overlord's DoomBlade
6. DoomKnight Overlord Character Page Achievement
7. FIVE original cards to modify your AQW Battle Card deck! (different from Artix toy's cards)

These will be available in Toys R Us in the United States and on HeroMart shortly after that. I'm sad to say that I STILL have no fixed release date for you, but I keep getting told "Late April, Early May".

I CAN HAS MOD - LAST ROUND DRAWING

The final I CAN HAS MOD contest is coming to a close and the drawing will be held on Friday. Then, as usual, we will contact the winner through the e-mail that the character has provided to us. Remember that if you don't check your e-mail then you can't win.

Also remember that for every month of Membership you get one extra chance to win and with the new class coming it might be the right time to Upgrade (shameless plug). You can also get one extra entry for every AEXtra that you complete on the AEXtras offers page.

See you guys tomorrow for the Mid-Week mini-release and the skills breakdown.

Tags: Toys Blood Ancient Class Mid week release I CAN HAS MOD Limited Quantity Shop Cysero

The Astronaut & The Leprechaun

Let's Get Rid Of J6

At least for a while. The Metro news group and SXC (Space Expedition Curacao) are currently running a contest and the winner will win a trip to SPACE!

We all want to send J6 where he belongs and if they let him bring a pencil we've asked him to do a drawing for us while he's up there. He would be the first video game developer to go into space and when he gets back we could give everyone this item that he creates while floating above the Earth!

We're asking EVERYONE to help and it's really easy.

1. Click on THIS LINK.
2. Click the little VOTE BUTTON that looks like this.
   
   

That's it! Right now it appears that he is in 2nd place (you can check how well "Send J6 Where He Belongs" is going right HERE). Feel free to post this on your FaceBook and Twitter and tell everyone that you know.

NOTE: You can vote once PER DAY so be sure to vote for him every day until the voting is closed!

I want to emphasize that this is NOT an in-game event. If we pull this off, it will happen IN REAL LIFE! The actual Lead Artist for AQW will be actually going into actual space!

Together, we can lift J6 up amongst the stars.

For around an hour.

EVOLVED LEPRECHAUN CLASS SKILL SET

Lucky Day arrives this weekend and the Shamrock Fair will be in town. The fair will have all the fun fair games and seasonal rares from last year plus a few new rares this year. We are also adding the new Evolved Leprechaun Class to the game.

Before I get into the skills, let me answer a few questions that are being asked about this class.

• Will this class be rare? It will be a SEASONAL RARE (but with no tag) so it will return every year, much like the Evolved Clawsuit Class.
  
  
• Do I have to have the original Leprechaun Class to get this class? No. For those of you who DID grab the original class back in 2009, it will make getting the new class much simpler but it's isn't necessary.
  
  
• How will I get the class? There are three ways that you will be able to get the class...
  
  
  1. You will be able to purchase the class for ACs from Mog O'Rahilly in the Shamrock Fair or from Itzachi in Battleon, but only until the Shamrock Fair closes.
     
     
  2. You will be able to EARN it with a combination of Golden Tickets earned from Fair games and some farming quests which Mog O'Rahilly will give you. It won't be easy but if you're dedicated then you will be able to earn the class before the Fair closes.
     
     
  3. If you already have the original Leprechaun class from back in 2009, you will be able to earn it much faster using special quests designed just for you long time players, rare collectors and class fans. Don't worry, the original will only unlock these easier farming quests for you... you will NOT have to trade in your original Leppy.
     
     
• What do I need to do to earn the class? If you want to earn the class, it should be fairly simple compared to the reputation classes but still pretty challenging to do before the Shamrock Fair closes. (it will be up until April 16th, more than a month from Friday)
  
  You will need 2000 Golden Tickets from fair games, 20 Rainbow Shards and 12 Lucky Clovers. the Shards and Clovers you will earn from farming quests that Mog O'Rahilly gives.
  
  You will be able to earn the Tickets and Shards as quickly as you want but the Lucky Clovers you will only be able to earn by doing daily quests. Most people will be able to earn 1 a day but people with the original Leprechaun will earn 3 a day. They will also be able to earn the Shards at a much faster rate.
  
  Remember that ANYONE can earn tickets twice as fast by buying the Lucky hat from the sprites outside the fair.

Now, let's talk about this new and improved Leprechaun.

The class will be using the Evolved Leprechaun Armor art because... duh.

Again, we tried something new with this class. First off, it's on a rogue mana regen model which means it gets mana from every hit that connects and every dodge that you pull off. You will also get healed a little if you dodge but you won't be dodging a lot so don't count on that.

This class is specially designed to work with LUCKY Enhancements which I sell from the bathtub in Yulgar's inn. Every point of luck that you have ads more to your critical rating AND your damage modifier

The last thing that you should know about this is that it is DESIGNED to get critical hits often (as someone lucky would do). It has fairly low survivability with no heal and only one solid damage mitigation skill, but it can deal a TON of damage in a very short time. The idea is to do as much damage as you can as fast as you can, before you die.

If you don't want to die, find a healer or get some potions.

It's not great for farming as it has no AoE skills, and it's pretty decent at soloing because of the damage output but it's a beast in PvP. Petrify or no petrify, smart Vindicators will be running from you.

Another really nice thing about this class is, due to the fact that it does large damage consistently, rather than HUGE burst DPS occasionally, it's like a piranha chewing relentlessly through your opponent. And like a piranha, the more of you there are, the more deadly you are.

AMAS

2 second cooldown

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers.

The idea is to raise your crit and since your AA is your fastest skill, THIS skill will be your damage dealer. Once you add all your Crit buffs, you should see 600, 700, 800, 1200, 700, 800, 1000 floating off your enemies every 2 seconds.

SOILSIGH

20 mana, 20 second cooldown

Instantly cause 50% weapon damage, also applies Keen to you which increases your Crit Damage by 5% for 12 seconds.

Notice that it is not your Crit CHANCE but your Crit DAMAGE that gets buffed here. That means higher damage crits at your normal rate which should be pretty high if you have Lucky enh slotted.

AMHARACH

10 mana, 12 second cooldown

Deals damage based on how much time is left on Keen (less time means more damage) and reduces all incoming damage by 40% for 6 seconds

Here is a nice damage skill, faithful to the original Leprechaun Class design with an added damage mitigation bonus. You will have to decide if you want the higher damage from attacking when Keen is about to wear off or the 40% Damage reduction. In my experience the damage reduction was more worth it by far but when it's your class, it will be your call.

Swing and a miss!

TRODAI

20 mana, 20 second cooldown

Deals moderate damage, Also applies Stalic for 12 seconds which causes all attacks to do 110% damage, increases Crit Chance and Crit Damage by an additional 7% each.

This is where things start to get crazy. Once again you have the ability to increase your Crit Damage but also your chance to crit by 7% each. On top of that, it's a decent attack. When you unlock this skill, the fun really starts.

GASTA & GEARAIGH

Rank 4 passives

Increase Haste by 10%

Increase Crit by 10%

Even more crit chance and this one doesn't fade, plus an overall haste buff which you will appreciate as this class has some LONG cooldowns.

SLANAITHEOIR

30 mana, 40 second cooldown

Increases LUCK stat, haste, dodge, Crit Chance and Crit Damage for 15 seconds.

Once more, calling back to the original Leprechaun Class but with more suitable effects. Remember that this is a LUCK based class which affects Crit chance as well as overall damage so increasing your LUCK serves 2 purposes. On top of that you get ANOTHER boost to Crit chance as well as Crit Damage, an increase to Haste and to Dodge. This is a serious buff.

EIRINN GO BRASCH

Rank 10 passive

Rarely, your astounding luck allows you to do QUADRUPLE damage on all crits for 10 seconds.

 By now you will be feeling the power of the crit. Now imagine 10 full seconds of 4X crits on top of the fact that you're critting 90% of the time AND already doing extra crit damage if you apply your buffs right!

Summary

I think you'll have a LOT of fun with this class. It might make going back to other classes a little dull after seeing all those big, tasty, orange crit numbers flying around. It's also only the second time that we've had a Luck based class in-game but a lot of people really like playing a lucky warrior build for the crits. You people will enjoy this especially.

281 days until Just Another Day

Tags: J6 Space SXC Metro Evolved Leprechaun Class Cysero

Mid-Week Market!

It's Been YEARS In The Making.... Sort Of

Back in July of 2009, we first introduced Dwarfhold and since that time there has been a small nook of just inside the mountain that was once the Dwarven market but had been closed for repairs.

Finally, after nearly 3 years of waiting, this week's Mid-Week release gives you the chance to help in the clean-up efforts and open the Dwarven market again!

All you have to do (if you have completed the storyline up to this point) is enter the mountain and speak to Hartok Darksoil, Armorer and owner of the "Dwarven Defense" Armor Shop. Or at least the pile of rubble that was once the "Dwarven Defense" Armor Shop.

Once you help them clean up the entrance, you will find Domi, Hartok and Nathrae each have quests for you to help them build up their shops once more. As you complete their quests you will unlock all the items in Domi's weapon shop, both Armors...

and all the helms and all new Dwarf and Drow hairstyles from Nathrae the Drow Hair Stylist!

A sample sheet with some of Nathrae's hair options

As I mentioned on Monday, there is no Lore-shattering crisis to solve this week. Just helping to war torn people get back on their feet. Sometimes, that's all you can do and it takes a real hero to do it.

J6 Shirts Back In Stock!

Just letting you guys know that we got a few more J6 Shirts back in stock in HeroMart!

This shirt comes with a Character Page Badge and gives you access to J6's Helm and Outfit. If we are already out of your size, don't worry. This is only the first shipment to come and we will be getting more in stock as soon as they arrive from the printer!

282 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Mid week release Dwarfhold J6 Cysero

Is it your Lucky Week?

Everyone Can Use A Little More Luck!

Happy Monday, happy peoples!

Just a quick Design Notes to let you know what we're working on this week for both the mid-week and the big Friday release.

Back To Dwarfhold!

For the mid-week we are finally going to open the Dwarfhold Market!

It's been a LONG time since we have visited this area and if you walk to the area pictured above it has ready "Dwarven Market closed pending repairs" for FAR TOO LONG!

This Wednesday, you will get the chance to help make those repairs and get the Dwarven market up and running again!

No deep and dangerous plots this week. Sometimes a hero just needs to take care of business to either help the people out of a jam or serve their own needs. There's nothing wrong about getting your hands dirty doing a little hard work. It won't be easy but that is why they call it HARD WORK.

You will be able to re-open a weapon shop, a dwarven armorer and a hair shop all of which will have new items to sell you (not merge items, just plain old gold shops. Dwarves LOVE them some gold). As always, the mid-week and all of the shops and items unlocked are for AQW Members Only!

This IS one of the locked areas in the Vath storyline so if you have not yet been to the Pines to visit the Inn-ternet or Donna Charmer the llama farmer, then you will need to do those quests first before you head beneath the mountain.

Friday: LUCKY DAY!

It's almost Lucky Day again and that means that the Shamrock Fair is coming to town!

As we do every year we will be adding a brand new fair game to the Shamrock Fair this year, which means another way to earn Golden Tickets to redeem for awesome seasonal rares! AS it is tradition, we will also be adding one or two AC Rares as well that you will never see again.

We are also working on the long awaited Evolved Leprechaun Class. We released Evolved Leprechaun Armor last year (and we will again this year) and the Class will LOOK identical but will operate very differently.

Like the original Leprechaun class this class will also be for everyone, Non-Members and Members alike,.

There will be THREE ways to get the class:

1. You will be able to purchase the class for ACs from Mog O'Rahilly in the Shamrock Fair or from Itzachi in Battleon, but only until the Shamrock Fair closes.
   
   
2. You will be able to EARN it with a combination of Golden Tickets earned from Fair games and some farming quests which Mog O'Rahilly will give you. It won't be easy but if you're dedicated then you will be able to earn the class before the Fair closes.
   
   
3. If you already have the original Leprechaun class from back in 2009, you will be able to earn it much faster using special quests designed just for you long time players, rare collectors and class fans. Don't worry, the original will only unlock these easier farming quests for you... you will NOT have to trade in your original Leppy.

Please note that this class will be a SEASONAL RARE, it will return every Lucky Day.

I will tell you guys a lot more about this class when I do the Skill Breakdown a little later this week but Evolved Leprechaun is a CRIT based class with lots of skills to buff your Crit CHANCE, as well as some all new skills which will raise your Crit DAMAGE. Rather than doing double damage, your crits might do triple or even quadruple damage and you will be criting often.

It's based on the original class to some degree but each skill is new designed just for this new class. It will work best with LUCK Enh (as it should) and like all modern classes it will have a rank 10 passive.

So, get out your shamrocks, green shirts, horse shoes, rabbit's feet (Ampy, run for yo life) and lucky pennies! It's time to go to the fair!

284 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Dwarfhold Mid week release Shamrock Fair Lucky Day Evolved Leprechaun Class Cysero

Questions and Xanswers

The Insane Pyromancer Returns to AQW!

One of the AE Community's favorite villains returns to AQW this week. XAN is back!

If you have never played Dragonfable then you might not know who this guy is. I suggest you talk to Warlic at the top of the volcano map. He can fill you in on some backstory.

If you missed out on the first Xan release then you will need to make your way to the top of the volcano before continuing into the town of Basani which Xan has attacked.

The parents of Basani have been separated from their children and now their burning town swarming with fire monsters and the insane pyromancer himself separate them from each other.

You will need to take a little extra care in Basani as the monsters will attack you on sight! Be prepared to rest between spawns before you get to face Xan himself.

Fighting fire with fire using the new Elemental Dracomancer class!

You will be able to get the same monster drops from the Volcano or farm Xan for a bunch of brand new Member and non-member gear, such as the Molten Dragon Set!

It's been a while since we've seen Xan but hopefully we won't wait so long next time before we continue his story.

Spring Has (Nearly) Sprung!

Daylight Savings Time is coming up on Sunday. That is when we (well, some of us) turn our clocks ahead one hour (and lose an hour of sleep). To celebrate we will be having a Limited Time Shop (Button in Battleon) where you will be able to get some really nice spring themed rares all crafted by Solrac! SPRING into action before the clock counts down to 0!

New Treasure Chest Items!

It's been so long since we have added new treasure chest items so we've added a few this week and we will try to find the time to add more in coming weeks! This week you can expect to find these new items:

• Diviner of Power Armor
• Blood Spirit Staff
• Golden Spirit Rod
• Dual Blood Spirit Staves
• Dual Golden Spirit Rods

Remember, you can get more Treasure Chest Keys from Twilly in Battleon, or just sell the unopened chests for a little extra gold if you don't want to see what is inside!

Dage's Legion Shop Update!

Following close on the heels of Dage's Birthday Shop, Dage has decided to update his Legion Shop in Shadowfall with new items!

• Legion Titan (armor) which will cost you 1 Undead Legend Armor and 1 Essence of the Undead Legend.
   
  
• Legion Titan Crown which will cost you 200 Legion Tokens and 1 Undead Legend Crown.
  
   
• Legion Titan Cloak which will only cost you 150 Legion Token.

And speaking of Dage's Birthday Shop we have a LOT of Legionaries who are saying that they would like to see Dage stay in Battleon and celebrate his deathday for a little while longer so we've extended the shop just for you. It will be here until next Friday unless there is another round of demands to extend it. That is one long birthday party!

I CAN HAS MOD -  Final Round!

The semi-disastrous I CAN HAS MOD contest has now begun its last round. You can pick up the Last Cheezburger Deluxe from Cleric Joy in Battleon to get 1 CHANCE to win but remember that you get 1 EXTRA CHANCE to win for every month of Membership you have left on your account at the time of the drawing and 1 EXTRA CHANCE for every AExtra that you complete.

The drawing will be held on March 30th. We will then try to contact the winner and get their wish. Make sure that your AQW e-mail is an ACTIVE one that you check often. Or at least on the 31st.

Our last winner did unlock a new WISH RULE (by wishing for another class) so I'll list the updated rules...

Wish List Rules

#1: Unknown

#2: In the event that a wish will break fundamental game play, upset a player or group of players, or in any way result in problems or complications for the staff or game... a Genie Lawyer will be summoned from the forbidden plane of litigious wishes. If the wish was made with good intentions, the Genie will begin to negotiate a wish that will benefit the wish maker. If the wish was made out of spite, hate, greed or bad intentions, the Genie is allowed to use their powers of “wish legalese” to re-interpret the wish. If the genie is “unclear” on a certain part of the wish… even if it makes perfect sense to everyone else, the Genie is allowed to ask random players online questions and replace parts of the original wish with their answer.

#3: Any wish for an item will turn ALL Golden Cheezburgers in the game into the item that was wished for. 

#4: Unknown

#5: If a wish is made for something that does not exist, it will be created as long as it is original. If it is a selfless wish, it will be created with love and care. If it is a greedy or hurtful wish, another randomly selected player will be chosen to make a counter wish, which may produce unexpected and unfortunately results upon the original wisher. 

#6: Unknown

#7: Unknown

#8: Unknown

#9: Any wish that requires a lot of coding and might break the AQW programming team or make said team cry (i.e. Class, Entire Zone, All New Functionality) can only be wished for once per calendar year. Once that item has been wished for another items in this category cannot be wished for again until one year from the granting of the previous wish as elapsed.

#10: Unknown, and oh man, this one is 100% insane. Please never unlock it.

Remember that each of these rules can only be unlocked by people using wishes that attempt to break that unseen rule.

Once again, the reason that we're closing the contest down is that the last wish met with an insane amount of complaints even before the wish came out about receiving several completely free gifts. It's building unrealistic expectations, seems to bring out the worst in the community and takes up a lot of our time and resources. It's simply not worth running it again after this.

The contest may arise again in some other form with new limitations and restrictions, but then again it may not.

To those of you who have kept a positive attitude, thank you. We have been REALLY lucky so far and gotten several kind, selfless and very thoughtful winners and I can only hope that this last one is just as great as the others have been.

287 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Xan Dage the Evil Treasure Chests Limited TIme Shop Cysero

Elemental Dracomancer

UPDATE!!!

AQ3D Name Camping Is OPEN!
 

If you were not aware, you can now go to ARTIX.COM and pre-registern your character name for our next big game which is now called AQ3D!

You need a few things if you want to grab YOUR character name before anyone else!

1. You need to have supported any AE game by PURCHASING SOMETHING.
   
2. You need to have that game account tied to your AE MASTER ACCOUNT!
3. You need the Unity 3D Web Player plug-in! (it's just a plug-in like Flash Player which lets you play AQW)

Note that the intro fly-through is done in the game engine and what you're looking at will be very close to what the game itself looks like when it's ready for launch!

Good luck!

CAMP YOUR AQ3D NAME NOW!

www.ARTIX.com

The Long Awaited (But Not Nearly Long Awaited As Grenadier Was) Etherstorm Class Arrives Tomorrow!

Before I say anything else about this class, I'd like to mention that THIS IS NOT the Dracomancer Class from AQ Classic. If that's what you're expecting, look elsewhere.

AQW is a different game with different art and different artists. Sometimes (like with the Battle Tested Axe Master armor) we strive to get as close as we can to the original but this is NOT one of those times.

This is the ELEMENTAL DRACOMANCER! Like all Dracomancers, it is bound in spirit and power to the ancient dragon race, but unlike standard Dracomancers, it is also tied to the four new Elemental Prime Dragons of Fire, Water, Earth and Wind.

ELEMENTAL DRACOMANCER CLASS SKILL SET

We've done a few new things with and for this class.

First, you are able to click on the HEAD, FOREARMS and CHEST STRAPS of the class and each will set on a transformation bringing you closer and closer to dragonkind.

• Click the Head: Your face alters and transforms into the head of a dragon! Its skin color is the same as your own and it's lower jaw will match your eye color. It looks a little funny with some of the hairs which stay loaded but we had to add it.
  
  
• Click the Forearms: Your hands transform into deadly dragon claws!
  
  
• Click the Chest Straps and you will sprout color custom dragon wings from your back. These will load on top of whatever back item you have but will not replace it so keep that in mind.

Next, we added some special skill animations for this class. The coolest of which is the fire breath animation!

A Dracomancer is a caster class, built on the mage mana regen which regains mana based on hits and crits and varied depending on your current HP. Like most caster classes you will want to load up on WIZARD Enhancements to get the most bang for your gold.

This class is REALLY straightforward. It is designed to be a solo class, with good survivability and a LOT of damage potential but no self-heal at all. But that's what potions are for.

AUTO ATTACK

2 second cooldown

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers.

Whack. Whack. Whack. Whack. Whack. Whack. Whack.

SSIKARI'S BREATH

25 mana, 4 second cooldown

Breathes fire on your target causing moderate and applying the DragonBurn state to them for Damage Over Time.

Yup, that's me puking a fountain of flame onto Wolfwing in testing. The animation makes this really fun to use but it's a pretty basic attack. Initial blast of flame causes moderate damage, DoT causes more. VERY short cooldown.

LLIATH'S TORRENT

25 mana, 6 second cooldown

Summon the Water Prime's power and hit your foe with a crushing jet of water which has a slight chance to stun your target.

This is another fairly basic attack with a new animation. It does half again as much damage as the last power with a slightly longer cooldown and has a chance to stun your target. Since it's not something you can count on, it's more of a nice bonus when it does happen.

DURADUN'S SCALES

-30 mana, 12 second cooldown

Gathers mana from nearby ley lines and increases your damage resistance by 70% for 6 seconds.

This is where things get interesting. Notice that the mana cost is not 30 mana, it's -30 mana. You RECEIEVE mana for using this skill. It doesn't do any damage at all but it provides 75% Damage reduction! Dragon's scales are the stuff of legend. They are able to withstand the worst punishment imaginable and for 6 seconds... so can you.

You will want to use this a LOT. There's no reason not to. It feeds you mana and makes you touch as nails! If you spam it every 12 seconds, then half the time you're fighting, you are only taking a quarter damage, even if you're stunned or petrified.

DRAGON'S KNOWLEDGE & DRAGON'S SPEED

Rank 4 passives

Increase Int by 10%

Increase Haste by 10%

Very fitting passives here. You get a passive INT buff which means more damage for you AND you can dish it out faster.

ASTIALO'S WINGS

50 mana, 15 second cooldown

You gain the speed of a flying dragon, causing moderate damage to your target. This power also DOUBLES your attack speed and cuts all mana costs in half for 8 seconds.

Another decent damage ability, but the buff is really what you want here. By doubling your haste and halving your mana cost, you are attacking at 2x speed but still using the same mana as you would if you were attacking normally. It's a little costly but this is one class where mana management is NOT a problem.

This class we DESIGNED so that at rank 10, you CAN click all the powers as fast as they pop. In fact, you SHOULD. With no heals, your only recourse is powering through enemies as fast as you can. I even recommend using the number keys instead of clicking the powers.

PRIMAL POWER

Rank 10 passive

Rarely, you get in touch with the united power of Desoloth and ALL of your attacks are crits for a short time.

You can't embrace the Primals without accepting that Desoloth is also an elemental dragon. You get in touch with the source of his nearly limitless power and EVERYTHING you do for a short time is a critical success.

The Big Picture

Let's look at the entire class, as a whole. No heals, great defenses and AMAZING potential for carnage. This class requires no finesse AT ALL. You don't need to watch your life unless you have potions to heal you. You don't need to watch your mana unless you are just amazingly bad at this class. There are no multis to concern you with when you should use a certain power.

This class was not designed as a mutli-purpose or PvP class like Grenadier. It was not designed for farmers like Darkside. This was designed with the solo player in mind.

Tomorrow you will be able to get this class from any of the Dravix Priests in Etherstorm in the Etherstorm Rep Shop or you can get it from Itzachi (along with the Member Only Skyguard Grenadier) in Battleon for 2000 ACs.

Tomorrow also marks the start of the Etherstorm War against (or for) Desoloth, the arrival of the Australia Day NPC and items wished for by the last ICHM winner and Dage The Evil's Birthday with lots of Dage-made goodies.

295 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Cysero Elemental Dracomancer Class Skills

Another Busy Week

It Never Ends!

We've got a LOT planned for this week but before I get into what's coming this week let's go over some old business...

Fishing Badge

The King Fisher Character Page Badge is now up on your character pages.

Of course, you must be a King Fisher with maxed out Fishing Rep to obtain this permanent pendant professing your piscatorial prowess.

Grenadier Buff

The Members who have Rank 10 Skyguard Reputation (and a few who weren't rank 10, actually) got to preview the Member Only Grenadier Class this weekend. The overall impressions were that it's a lot of fun and an interesting class build but they had problems with mana regen and felt that it was a touch under-powered, especially considering that it was the first Member Only class is a long time.

So this week we will be BUFFING Skyguard Grenadier. Here's what we are doing...

• Increasing DPS overall.
• Decreasing the mana cost for Flashbang, Sleeping Gas and Reactive Grenade by 5 mana each.
• Flashbang's base debuff will be changed to CRIT reduction instead of HIT reduction.
• Rank 4 Passive Adrenaline Rush will be changed to 8% Damage Reduction instead of 10% Dodge.

In testing Stratos was able to solo Ledgemayne and I was able to solo both Ledgermayne and Wolfwing with the fully ranked class so this class is no slouch already if you know how to use it and how to manage your mana, but this should make it REALLY nice.

By the time you read this the changes will already be in effect.

Don't forget that Itzachi, the class dealer in Battleon, will be selling this Member Only class for 2000 ACs starting this Friday if you would rather take the shortcut rather than ranking all the way to 10.

Leap Day Is Coming!

Every 4 years the calendar racks up a full day of time that was left over from all the other days. The solution to this problem is adding a day every 4th year. This is why we have a February 29th this Wednesday and Feb is normally a 28 day month.

We've decided that we want to help you leap forward too.

Starting some time on Wednesday, Feb 29th, we will be adding a Leap Day NPC to Battleon who will give you 4 simple quests. Each quest will reward you with a one-time free hour long BOOST for your XP, GOLD, REPUTATION or CLASS RANK.

You will have 24 hours from the time that we release this to get the Leap Day Boosts and then they will be gone. Plan ahead and remember that this only happens once every 4 years!

I CAN HAS AUSTRALIA DAY?!

This weekend I got to hang out with the winner of this round of the I CAN HAS MOD contest, HERZER HERRING!

She is from Australia and her wish is that we add an Australia Day NPC to the game who would sell Australian Themed Items!

As per her wish, Mick "Crocodile" Dundoo will be coming to Battleon this Friday selling a number of AUS themed items and house items which were almost entirely suggest by Herzer Herring.

As for the Golden Cheezburger, this one will work a little differently. She wished that it be changed into an rare Australian Themed HOUSE, based on the iconic Sydney Opera House! In order to get your house you will need to talk to Mick Dundoo and trade the Cheezburer in for the house.

You MUST have a Golden Cheezburger Deluxe to get this rare house and once Mick Dundoo leaves, you will never be able to get the house again!

There will also be other items like dual Bowie Knives (that's not two knives, mate... THIS is two knives!), a Rugby Uniform Armor in AUS Olympic colors of Green and Gold, A green and gold "Boomer"ang weapon, A Cricket Bat with the AUS flag on it,  Kangaroo and Barry the Platypus pets and some cool house items like an AUS flag for your wall and A Croc skin rug!

ALL OF THE ITEMS IN THE SHOPS WILL BE FOR EVERYONE! NON-MEMBERS and MEMBERS!

I mentioned the rare house over Twitter this weekend and it was met with an amazing amount of complaining. I was really surprised and a little hurt to see so many people griping about getting a completely free house based on the wish of a fellow player who did not want any recognition for herself (she didn't even want to be the NPC when I offered) but only a little recognition for the country she loves and calls her home. Thanks to everyone who saw this gift for what it is and accepted it with an excited smile.

After brainstorming item ideas for the shop we farmed Skyguard for a while and I showed her some of the cool mod powers she could use while she was a mod, like going to secret mod only maps and even going back in time to closed events (While we were time traveling I let her pick up Alpha Pirate for herself as well as some other rares from past areas).

She is a heck of a player, a loyal AQW Member & Supporter and a lot of fun to hang out with. Herzer Herring, it was a true pleasure getting to hang out with you. Thanks!

We will probably only do ONE MORE ROUND of I CAN HAS MOD and we will let you know as soon as that starts!

Etherstorm Goes Out With A Bang!

The Eterstorm Saga is closing starting with this weekend's war. The outcome of the entire area will be decided by the outcome of the war. You will be able to fight on the side of Good, Evil or even Desoloth.

This weekend we will ALSO be releasing the Elemental Dracomaner Class for Etherstorm Rank 10. There will be an AC version in Itzachi as well but after this class we will probably start doing what we did with Grenadier and letting the Rank 10 people have it a week before anyone else so they can get a head start on mastering the class.

We will be posting a skill breakdown and some images of the class later on this week.

Dage The Evil's Deathday Party!

Dage's birthday is March 2nd! There was a typo (not mine) in the 2012 AE calendar that said March 22'nd but it's actually this Friday!

He has decided to craft some custom items for his birthday!

Here is a full list of the birthday items. They are ALL ACs, and he priced them a little higher than average but hey, he's evil, whatcha gonna do?

1. Paragon Mini Pet: 2000 acs
2. Legion Vampire Armor: 1000 acs
3. Legion Vampire Helm: 100 acs
4. Vampire Bat Cape: 200 acs
5. Legion Vampire Scythe: 500 acs
6. Dark Caster Hair: 100 acs
7. Dage’s DeathKnight: 800 acs

The pet is NON-MEMBER and it is also NOT a Battle Pet but does grant the person who owns the pet access to special quests and special additional Dage Rewards.

Tags: Cysero Skyguard Grenadier Elemental Dracomancer Class Fishing Dage the Evil Birthday Etherstorm I CAN HAS MOD Australia Too Many Tags

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

Tags: Member SkyGuard Grenadier Class Skills Cysero

SpiritHunter in BludRut

The New Member Only Mini-Storyline In Bludrut Keep Is Here!

Sorry for the one day (and 1.5 hour) Delay but the Mid-Week is here as promised.

Head to Bludrut and speak to Veddrian the SpiritHunter. Help her solve the mystery of her forgotten past and why she keeps dreaming of herself as a child and you will unlock the SpiritHunter Shop where you can earn your OWN SpiritHunter Gear.

This has to be my favorite Mid-Week release so far in terms of story. It was fun to tell but took 4 Cutscenes which is rather a lot for a mini-release but I wanted to do the story justice.

Oh yeah, you'll want to turn your speakers up for this one.

Thanks for being patient with us, have fun and come back tomorrow for the Skyguard Release and the first appearance of the Skyguard Class, Grenadier (skills write up in tomorrow's DNs)!

302 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Mid week release Cysero

Not Quite Mid-Week

Mid-Week Release Coming One Day Late

Sorry guys, I've been a little busier than usual this week with both Ae stuff and real-life stuff so I'm sorry to admit that the Mid-Week Blutrut Mini-storyline will be coming tomorrow instead of today.

I'd rather give you a well put together and tested mid-week than try and push through and give you something slapped together four hours late anyway. It's already 2:15 and I still have too much work to do to reasonably get done by the end of today, there is still a lot of database work to get done, special functionality for the quests, Cutscenes to animate and I have to replace all the ancient pop-ups in Bludrut with our standard ones plus a bunch of other stuff that you really probably don't want to hear about.

To give you a heads up, this week's mid week will introduce Veddrian, the SpiritHunter. She has trained her whole life to either destroy hateful spirits who wish to harm the living or help them move on to the next world. Recently, though, she has been having bad dreams of herself as a little girl in the halls of Bludrut near where her adopted family found her.

Solrac has made a number of great Spirit Hunter items...

... which will, as always, be unlocked when you finish the mini-story and are, as always, Member only.

Try to look at it this way: You're not getting the Mid-Week late, you're getting an expanded, extra long, weekend release one day early :)

See you guys tomorrow!

303 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Mid week release Delayed Sad Day Cysero

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

Tags: I CAN HAS MOD Dage the Evil SkyGuard Grenadier Class Cysero

Power Week Continues!

We Got Yer Updates, RIGHT HERE!

Power Week is continuing here at AE's Secret Underground Lab at lightspeed! I wanted to keep you guys in-the-know so here are some updates about the pile of stuff that is coming at you!

AQ3D Name Camping TONIGHT SOON!

UPDATE: There are SIGNIFICANT bugs that were just discovered in last minute testing (of course) which means that we will need to POSTPONE AQ3D Name Pre-registration until they have been sorted out. Sorry for the falst start.

AE's 3D game project will be opening its servers soon to past and present AQW Members (as well as Dragonlords, Star Captains, Guardians, HeroSmash Members, etc) as well as anyone who has ever supported AE with ACs, SmashCoins, Varium etc. Basicly ANYONE who has every purchased ANYTHING and helped keep us going can get their name!

Once things get rolling you will need to go to ARTIX.COM to pre-register your character name. This will give you the chance to get your name before anyone else. Don't bother trying to take our names (Artix, Cysero, Alina, etc) We've already taken them.

Things To Remember:

1. This is NOT Alpha Testing, this is JUST CHARACTER NAME RESERVATION! There might be some new stuff to see but there will be no game to play just yet.
   
   
2. You won't be able to reserve your name unless you have a MASTER ACCOUNT set up on the AE PORTAL SITE!
   
   
3. You won't be able to reserve your name unless you have your ACCOUNT LINKED TO YOUR MASTER ACCOUNT!

I imagine it's going to be CRAZY then the servers do eventually open with everyone trying to cram into the servers all at once so good luck! Keep your eyes on ARTIX.COM and our Twitter feeds to know when the floodgates open!

When the time comes you will register your name at

http://www.ARTIX.com

but only if you meet the criteria listed above.

Get On The Line!

FISHING is coming tomorrow. We are busy adding lots of amazing gear and at least 2 achievements to this trade skill. It really is a lot of fun!

FAITH has changed her hair color but she is still waiting to sell you bait, fishing poles and TNT as well as give you lots of advice about becoming a better angler!

As my grandmother always said... "There is nothing quite as satisfying as tossing a lit barrel of explosives into a cool, calm pond and wathcing it rain fish!"

Remember that this is only the first of AQW's trade skills and will have many uses in the future but this week it will just be a very fun and very deep fishing system.

Member Bonuses for AC Packages

Tomorrow we will be releasing the Member Bonus additions to the three standard AC packages. People still seem a little confused about them so I'll address a few questions here.

• Are the Member Bonus Items Member Only? Yes. I would think that one could have gone without saying but it turns out that it's still one of my top 10 questions about the items.
  
  
• Do the AC Packages Stack, IE. If I buy six 2000 AC packages do I get the 12,000 AC Class? No, the packages are seperate and do not stack. Each package unlocks it's own item or items. If you get the 12,000 AC package then you only unlock the 12,000 AC Badge, Shop and Class Set.
  
  
• Can I Use Artix Points to buy the AC Packages through the Portal Site? Yes you can. It calls the same function in the payment flow so no matter how you buy your 2000, 5000 and/or 12,000 AC Package, it will unlock the Member Bonus Items for you.
  
  
• Is there anything for the 1000 AC package on the Portal Site? Sorry, but no. These were added to the packages that are availible through AQW's payment page. Since there is no 1000 package there, there is no Member Bonus for that package.
  
  
• When I got my Membership I also got the 5000 extra ACs for 5$, Do I get the 5000 AC CC Armor? No, the Member Bonus Items are only being added to the three stand-alone AC packages. Getting 20$ worth of ACs for 5$ is pretty great on its own!
  
  
• Do I have to buy them after Friday? No, we are also reaching back to Jan 1st 2012. If you have purchased an AC Package in 2012, then you have already unlocked that bonus shop! We were only going back 6 weeks but decided to take it all the way back to the start of this year.
  
  
• Are these going rare? Nope, they are staying as Member Bonuses in-game for the life of the game.
  
  
• How do I get my Member Bonus Items? After you purchase the 2000, 5000 or 12,000 AC package, the next time you log in you will see a new badge in the AE Tab of you Book of Lore! Click the badge, open the shop that appears on the page and get your Bonus Items!
  
  
• What comes with each package? Glad you asked...

The 2000 AC Package comes with the Member Only Battle Wyvern Battle Pet. This pet works for anyone but if you have a Pet Class equipped it will attack for you!

The 5000 AC Package comes with the totally Color Custom Member Only Dreadnought Armor Set! Every piece of this unstoppable from the plate to the trim to the glow on the ram horns on the helm is color custom.

the 12,000 AC Package comes with the Member Only Mindbreaker Class Set. You have spent years training your body to be a fighting machine but you have ALSO honed your psychic abilities to work in unision with your weapons to create the ultimate psionic warrior!

Many of you have been asking about the class's powers so I've done a skills breakdown for you.

MINDBREAKER CLASS SKILL SET

This is a very good, very strong, multi-purpose class with a few single target atttacks and debuffs, a few multi-attack AoEs for farming and a decent heal to keep you going. It's not bad in PvP either. This class seems to come down to mana management.

Althought it is a magic based psychic warrior (which means WIZARD ENH fit it best), it's built on the Warrior mana-regen model which means you get mana for every hit you deliver or every hit you take.

PSYCHIC ASSAULT

2 second cooldown

Using your mind, you reach out and cause pain to your foe. This is the Mindbreaker's basic attack.

This is Mindbreaker's Auto Attack but we this is the first time that we have added a seperate animation to the auto attack.

You appear to focus for a moment and send a blast of mental energy at your target. This is roughly the same amount of animation as swinging your weapon for an auto attack so should not cause any frame rate drop (lag) and might even be better depending on your weapon.

MINDFIRE

15 mana, 4 second cooldown

A psychic fire engulfs your foe dealing light damage and applies Brain Fog reducing Haste and Hit by 3%, stacking up to 5 times and lasting 10 seconds.

This is a decent single target attack and reducing both your target's Haste and Hit up to 15% will keep them nice and slow and keep them missing a lot more than they should. I imagine Brain Fog is like giving your enemy a mirgane that gets worse with each stack and if you have ever tried to do ANYTHING with that kind of headache then you know it can really slow you down and keep you off target.

PSYCHIC WAVE

15 mana, 4 second cooldown

You send out waves of psychic energy dealing moderate damage to one or two enemies near you.

This is a very basic AoE. It will only attack up to two targets at once so you shouldn't get overwhealned by tons of monsters as you fight. Its power remains constant and has no draw drawbacks. Just a good solid AoE.

This is another of the new skill animations that we added just for Mindbreaker. Waves of psychic energy flow out of you hitting everything near you. This new effect is also applied during MB's last activatable skill, Esper's Might. Makes me want to yell "KANEDAAAAA!" when I use it.

If you don't get that, shame on you.

CEREBRAL SIPHON

20 mana, 6 second cooldown

You lash out with a mental spear, striking your foe for damage based on stacks of Brain Fog also healing yourself for half the difference between your max HP and your current HP.

A very useful attack and pretty cheap heal. The attack gets stronger the more stacks of Brain Fog you have on your target and it always heals for you half of what you're missing.

If you're at 50% HP, it heals you up to 75%. If you are at 90% HP, it takes you up to 95%, if you are at 1% it takes you up to 50.5%. It's a little deceptive because it will never FULLY heal you but if you're smart and manage your mana well then you will also never die.

DEEP INSIGHT & MENTAL FOCUS

Rank 4 passives

Increase Crit by 8%

Incerase Damage by 15%

Pretty basic Rank 4 passives. You crit more often and get a generous damage buff out of these skills.

ESPER'S MIGHT

20 mana, 10 second cooldown

A powerful psychic burst AoE which will hit one or two foes. Damage increases based on stacks of Brain Fog as well as greatly reducing your enemies damage output for a short time.

A stronger AoE than Psychic Wave, and can become fairly devestating with 5 stacks of Brain Fog up. Note that none of the skills consume those stacks so the only way you get weaker is if you let the Brain Fog expire. This is a very useful skill that can be used at its base level when farming (since most monsters won't last long enough to get 5 stacks of Brain Fog) or can be used in its powered up state against boss monsters or other players in PvP. The debuff is really the key. With the Haste and Hit debuff from Mindfire and the Damage debuff from this skill your enemy is reduced to little more than an angry kitten or slightly stale english muffin.

MIND OVER MATTER

Rank 10 passive

When you are at risk of being defeated your amazing mind will occasionally construct an invisible psychic shield around you blocking all incoming damage for 5 seconds.

A new twist on the rank 10 passive to increase survivability. It is basicly a random "OH $#!%, I'M GONNA DIE!" power. Due to its very specific set of circumstances, it goes off a lot more often than the average rank 10 passive but you probably won't notice that because by the time you're that low you'll be spamming your heal power. BUT when you're low on mana and waiting to get enough for a heal... you'll be glad it's there.

Tiny Member Perks

While I was in the engine adding the new psychic animations I also added one for the upcoming Member Only Grenadier Class (Skyguard, Rank 10) and added two highly requested emotes for Members. /useweapon and /danceweapon.

Long and long and long ago when you called the /use or /dance emotes you would have your weapon in your hand. A lot of players hated this and requested that we remove the weapon. We did as they asked but suddenly a whole different crop of players were demaning that we add it back. Having just removed it and quieted the first group, we didn't want to add it back.

So finally you will be able to decide to either /use or /useweapon, and /dance or /danceweapon but the weapon versions are only for Members. it's not a HUGE perk but more specialized Member emotes is always good.

CARNAVAL TIME

I have been learning more and more about Carnaval in Brazil since we announced our Carnaval Shop coming Friday... like a tradition called "bloco das piranhas" where dudes put on skirts and wigs and pretend to be beautiful ladies. The results are often nightmarish but pretty hilarious.

In OUR Shop we will have colorful armors, bongos, flamedancer torches, crazy masks and the world's largest and most dangerous martial arts rodent, the Capoeira Capybara Member Only Battle Pet.

Rumors About Nulgath

Lastly, I'd like to address some rumors that have been floating around about Nulgath. Sadly, some of the rumors are true. He HAS put aside his work on AQW to go build his own game under the EBILCORP corperate umbrella. He will NOT (cannot) delete his area and remove all of his stuff from the game. AE owns the rights to that game content and we are keeping it in the game. Finally, YES... his game looks pretty rad.

More Mia J Park Music For You!

From Artix - "Mia was getting a lot of requests from players for her song "One Way Ticket" that she wrote just for the AQWorlds event. So she put a link to it, for free, on the *coughs* You know, I never feel bad about plugging her music... we should just rename the the company to Mia Entertainment and make all game upgrades just buying her CD... of course... more than 30 of you would have to buy her CD for this to work!"

Here's the link to the free One Way Ticket download - http://www.miajpark.net/aqw.html

309 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Cysero Member Perks AQ3D Fishing Carnaval Mindbreaker Nulgath

Power Week!

Loads Of Stuff Coming This Week!

This is going to be a pretty HUGE week for us so I've started calling it POWER WEEK! (in my head)

Here's a quick table of contents of this Design Notes post so you can skip to the bits that interest you.

• Fishing Trade Skill!
• Old Heroes' Heart Day Returns!
• AQW's First Carnaval Shop!
• New Dage Quests In Shadowfall!
• I CAN HAS MOD Winner Selection today!
• MEMBER PERK: Bonus Member Items for AC packages!
• MEMBER PERK: Reserve your AQ3D Character Name!
• Stuff is Leaving!

So let's get down to it!

Have A Little More Faith!

Fishing, AQW's first trade skill is coming this Friday! It will be the first of several trade skills, including but not limited to fishing, alchemy and blacksmithing and eventually you will use your trade skills to help build up your Guild Town! Fishing might also have other uses if we continue to add trade skills like Cooking!

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's go FISHING with FAITH!

You may know Faith as the head of HeroMart but what you may not know is that she is a fishing FIEND in real life! She was the perfect NPC to help you when your line gets tangled.

You will be able to unlock TONS of different fishing Ranks, special items and even get an aquarium for your house where you can display your latest catches!

You will be able to use a regular fishing pole, special member only SUPER POLE that will let you catch up to 3 fish at a time or barrels of HIGH EXPLOSIVES which will make it RAIN fish down around you (the TNT is basicly the AC shortcut since it can't miss but each barrel only costs 8 ACs each)!

As I mentioned, Fishing will become a very handy skill in the future but this Friday it will just be a nice relaxing diversion (like fishing is in real life). It will give you a chance to build up your skill ranks, unlock some of the new items that you can only get from the fishing trade skill and enjoy the music and scenery.

Have A Heart!

Now that you have played through the Love's Eternal Curse Special Event (The event is staying in the game except for the Event Rares Shop which is leaving next Monday), you may be asking yourself where Big Daddy, the Godfather of Love and his LOVE map are this year.

Never fear, Baby! The LOVE map with the Heroes' Heart Day Adventures along with the return of some of your favorite pink (and blue... and other colors) seasonal rares will be reintroduced to AQW this Friday!

Don't Be Sad, It's CARNAVAL!

Many of you already know what Carnaval (not to be confused with a carnival) is but for those of you who don't it's a HUGE celebration. It's celebrated in several countries but in Brazil it's something truly spectacular. Most of the country grinds to a halt just to have this party-to-end-all-parties that continues both day and night for an ENTIRE WEEK! There are parades, dancing, food and CRAZY costumes in every corner of the country as every city and town try and out-party each other. 

It's kind of like Dragoncon if it went on for a week and had 5 million people attending.

This Friday AQW will be joining in the festivities with our first CARNAVAL shop which will contain special items and costumes just for just for Carnaval!

New Dage The Evil Quests Coming Friday!

Now that the portal to the Underworld has been opened (in last week's event) Dage The Evil will be adding several new repeatable quests to his NPC sending you there. The quests won't be any easier but they will give you more options to collect Legion Tokens to buy items from his insane merge shop!

I CAN HAS DELUXE WINNER!?

Today is the day. A e-mail has been sent to the new I CAN HAS MOD WINNER! Winner, you have one week to check your e-mail and get back to us or we will continue down the list! Make sure that you check the e-mail that you have provided for your AQw account to see if you have won!

Of course, we won't announce the winner until we've had contact with them, but as son as we hear back from them (unless they don't want to be known) then we will let you guys know the name of the winner!

There were 233,892 people who entered the contest this time which is more than DOUBLE the number of people who entered last time. REMEMBER: HOLD ON TO YOUR CHEEZBURGER (Inventory or bank, it matters not)!

Last time the Cheezburger was wished into the Darkside Class. Who knows what it will become this time, if anything!

Good luck! There is only 1 winner and 233,891 non-winners (you guys aren't losers) so if you're a non-winner THIS time, then there is always next time!

MEMBER PERK: Bonus Member Items for AC Packages!

In our continuing effort to give the Members more in 2012, we have decided to add Member Bonus Items to the existing AC Packages starting Friday. 

The AC packages will be exactly the same as they always have been. They will cost the same and you will still get exactly the same amount of ACs with each of the three largest packages but NOW they will also unlock achievements in your Book of Lore that will open shops which will give you different Member Only Bonus Items depending on which AC Package you got.

2,000 AC Package: This package will now unlock the badge and shop that will give you the Battle Wyvern. This is a MEMBER ONLY Battle Pet!

5,000 AC Package: This package will now unlock the badge and shop that will give you the Member Only Color Custom Dreadnought Armor Set! (NOTE: this only applies to the package itself, not the bonus AC offer when you Upgrade.)

12,000 AC Package: This package will now unlock the badge and shop that will give you the MindBreaker Member Only Class! This bonus class is a balanced warrior of the mind. Special animations have been added to this psychic warrior class.

You will be able to unlock these badges and items contained within when you purchase these AC packages through our site or by using Artix points on the Portal Site. These bonuses will be permanent additions to the game and EVERYONE will unlock these badges, so if you don't can't become a member right now, these items will be waiting for you when you decide to upgrade or re-up.

Each of these items will cost 0AC for free storage.

These are NOT collective and do NOT stack. EACH Package unlocks it's own shop, but to get all of the items you will need to have bought all three of them packages.

This offer is ALSO retroactive for 6 weeks from this Friday! If you have purchased one or more of these packages in the last 6 weeks (from Friday) then you will already have these badges and items unlocked for you.

MEMBER PERK: Reserve Your AQ3D Character Name!

Our game project with the working title AQ3D is progressing and we have decided that it's time to allow Members (both present and past) to reserve their character names for this game!

If you are currently supporting or have EVER supported AQW (or any of our other games) with a Membership, you will be able to reserve your name for AQ3D!

IMPORTANT! In order to do this you need your AQW account connected to your Master Account! Like EpicDuel, HeroSmash and Pony Vs. Pony, you will log into this NEW game with your Master Account info. If your AQW account isn't connected to your Master Account then YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RESERVE YOUR NAME!

If you have not yet created a Master Account, Do so by CLICKING HERE!

It's also important to note that this is NOT Alpha Testing. We are still miles and miles away from having something playable for you guys to test. This is ONLY to camp your name before someone else can get it!

We are aiming for Thursday Night but you never know what could go wrong between here and there. You will go to ARTIX.COM and we will have opened the Character Name Reservation Page!

If there is a change in schedule we will announce it here.

Read more about the AQ3D Project
On ARTIX.COM!

One Last Note...

The Punt map and Halftime Shop have left fot another year. Tomorrow Lady Azjurai will be leaving Battleon and taking all of her special wedding gear with her (presumably on her honeymoon. Gratz again Lady Az!). Lastly Quibble and Loves Curse Event Rares shop will both be leaving together next Monday!

Tags: Cysero Fishing Heroes Heart Day Carnaval Dage the Evil I CAN HAS MOD Member Bonus

Time Marches Ever Onward

Last Chances!

Today is February 6th. That means that the Friday the 13th House and Event Rare Shops will be going rare and that the Akiba New Year event will be leaving as well and taking with it all the great seasonal items and rares (like the non-member AC pet) with it. 

so long, PanLong!

New Beginnings!

Lady Azjurai is getting married tomorrow! If you weren't aware, Lady Az is a Mod on AQW but started out years ago as a player just like you, she was asked to help out on the forums then eventually moved to full AQW Mod and we count ourselves lucky for all the help and pre-release testing that she has been able to provide.

Finding love is a rare and wonderful thing and very often you want to share you feelings and celebrate with those who mean the most to you. In this case, she had decided that she wants to share her happy day with all of us in the AQW community.

Later tonight (or tomorrow at the very latest), you will be able to find Lady Azjurai in Battleon and she will be offering to share some items with you.

The Ruby Eternal Flame, Romantic Raccoon Helm (She has a thing for raccoons) and the Evil Toaster of Love.

I'm told that this was the first appliance that the two love-birds purchased as a couple and has given them nothing but grief since they plugged it in. It seems to actually have an evil face on it and it will burn the toast no matter what setting you put it on. Lady A and her bethrothed have many fond memories of running around their place, fanning toast smoke out of the window and laughing together.

Lady Az, we could not be more happy for you. Thanks for sharing your happy day with us and we all wish you guys the very best that life has to offer. Gratz!

I CAN HAS MOD Round 3!

It's been a while since we've mentioned it so this is just a wee reminder that the next I CAN HAS MOD winner will be selected on February 13th. To enter the drawing all you have to do is get the Golden Cheezburger Deluxe from Cleric Joy in Battleon. That gives you one chance to win.

Every months of AQW Membership left on your account on the date of the drawing and every AEXTRA that you complete will also increase your chances by one more entry.

Here is the FULL CONTEST PAGE if you have more questions.

REAL LIFE Limited Quantity Shop!

2012 is already in full swing, and pretty much everyone who wanted the ChronoCorruptor Class that comes with the 2012 AQW Calendar now has it, but I keep getting asked if this class is going rare.

Going RARE, one calendar at a time!

The short answer is that YES, it is going rare. We only have a few hundred 2012 Calendars left in HeroMart, and there are still a few floating around the US Toys R Us stores, but that's it.

We can't possibly print an infinite amount of calendars so, no matter what, there will only ever be a limited number of these classes in AQW.

Heroes Heart Day Is Coming Friday!

AQW's Valentine's Day Event, Heroes Heart Day, is coming so expect to be burried under a wave of pink hearts, thorny roses and chocolate with confusing cream centers.

This Heroes Heart Day we are going all out with special Musical Guest Mia J. Park so sadly there will be no time for a Mid-Week Release this week but you can expect this event to blow our previous Heroes Heart Day adventures out of the water. 

Special reporter Artix Von Krieger has more on the event. Back to you in the studio, Artix...

Artix?

Sorry folks, we seem to be experiencing some techincal difficulties. We'll check back in with Artix in tomorrow's Design Notes for that Special Report. See you then!

319 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Cysero Friday the 13th Chinese New Year Lady Azjurai Wedding I CAN HAS MOD Heroes Heart Day

Halftime Shop OPENS!

The Superbowl Halftime Shop is BACK!

It's the biggest American Football game of the year. The New York Giants are facing off against the New England patriots and it's time for the halftime show. When you've had your fill of watching madonna do her thing on stage... head to Battleon and look for the button labled PUNT!

Come join the PUNT map to celebrate this day and these two super-teams with the Mammoth and Loyalist armors and the return of other seasonal favorites like the Spiked Pigskin and the Moglin Ref pet!

Don't forget that this is the ONLY time of year that you will be able to get the Moglin Punter Character Page Achievement Badge and all you have to do kis kick Twilly the full 100 yards!

Good luck and no matter who wins we hope you enjoy the Superbowl!

320 days until Just Another Day

Tags: Superbowl Go Pats Go Giants Cysero