A new Fantasy MMORPG on Q1 2012, published by KoramGame, Glory Destiny Online has just ended it’s Closed Beta and entered Open Beta Stage yesterday at 17th January 2012. More in-depths reviews will be published on later date after becoming accustomed with the game system.

Official website link: http://gd.koramgame.com/

New game at last, hopefully it will get me entertained while waiting for Lime Odyssey, Ragnarok 2 and Guild Wars 2. RODE has just come out to Closed Beta yesterday (16 December 2011), and I’m planning to participate on this one. For anyone who would like to participate, this is their website: http://rode.netgame.com/main

Some of my friends are getting trouble to download the client using their browser based akamai client, so here is the direct link for each parts of the client downloads:

1. http://client-rode.netgame.com/service/20111215/data1.zip
2. http://client-rode.netgame.com/service/20111215/data2.zip
3. http://client-rode.netgame.com/service/20111215/data3.zip
4. http://client-rode.netgame.com/service/20111215/data4.zip
5. http://client-rode.netgame.com/service/20111215/data5.zip
6. http://client-rode.netgame.com/service/20111215/RODEOnlineSetup.exe

Installation is easy, download all 6 parts and then run RODEOnlineSetup.exe

I’ve just started playing my 3rd jobs at Wakfu, Feca. It’s surprisingly good and capable of giving a great buff (+resist and +hp regen based on Max HP). After leveling up to lv 30, I’m feeling that this class still need some empowerment, because:

1. The glyph & armor can only be used 6 times at 1 battle (they need 1 WP). The glyph & armor is the characteristic of this class, but since it uses 1 WP, the usage is fairly limited. After all 6 WPs are depleted, Feca is no longer useful in the battle. Other way to regain WP needs “Traid Mark” skill from Eniripsa.
2. Feca is growing more useful only when he reach higher level (50+), below that his buff is practically powerless.
3. Feca spell’s damage are not as good as other class, and he need to maintain a good balance of spell levels so we can have many buffs for many battle circumstances. While other class can literally spam only 1 or 2 spells and get a very high level (say 70), Feca will need to maintain 5 – 10 spells in order to have a good options of buff, which means it’s harder to leveling.

I think ankama team should re-think about overall Feca’s role and possibly, get him a way to regain the lost WP or better just remove the WP requirements from glyph & armor.

Again, Before starts, I would like to know that this guide is based on my personal experience, there is no guarantee that this guide is going to give you the best possible built for iop. Use it on your own risk.

• Abilities

Go for 125 Lock (this will give you 150 Lock Points because every point spent after 100 Lock give you 2 LP rather than 1), at this point, combined with expert locking Special Abilities, you should be able to lock almost every “mobs of choice” in this guide. And then raise your HP.

• Special Abilities

Go for lv 20 Compulsion -> lv 20 Expert Locking  ->  lv 20 Virility -> lv 9 Increase.

• Spell

This iop built is basically based on only 2 spells (Devastation & Gutting Gust)  & 2 active ability (Jump & Increase). Make sure to learn Devastation and Gutting Gust before leaving Incarnam.

• Equipment

The first equip set of choice is green piwi set + green googoo set (nice damage bonus!) and then switch to moogrr set (make sure to get 4 of them for pillar bonus) + Bellaphone set (all of them except the belle ring). Weapon -> choose anything that will give you the best earth damage. (Houze Shovel is a good start as soon as you reach lv 21)

• Mobs of choice

1. Level 1-8 : Wodent at Incarnam.
2. Level 8-20: Gobbette (must be alone).
3. Level 20-30: Evil Dandelion (Gobballfield Country, Amakna), or you can try Bellaphone (as you will need their set) at Brakmar.
4. Level 30-40: Exploding Sunflower (Gobballfield Country, Amakna), stay in diagonal position from the mob. No need to use Gutting Gust (if you stay in melee range, it will drain your HP!), stay in diagonal position and use Devastation to deal with it.
5. Level 40-45: Badskin (Holey Forest, Amakna,  the lone version), lock him again and again and you can win the battle with 0 damage on your part.
6. Level 45+: Get a party (if possible with Feca or Eniripsa) and then go to Maya Bay, search for lone kralove. The best possible scenario is 4-man-party (Iop, Cra, Feca & Eniripsa) and fight 2 kralove at once.

• How to play

1. Stay on melee range to the enemy and try to lock them (this will give you damage boost from Expert Locking).
2. If you’re outside of the enemy’s melee range even after using all of your MP, do not hesitate to use Jump! (rather than doing nothing and wasting your AP).
3. Use Increase 6 times (it stacks) -> Devastation -> Gutting Gust.
4. I’m lazy, so I don’t usually use increase when it’s not yet being leveled up (Lv 0), just plain Devastation -> Gutting Gust.

If you have feedback about this guide, please do not hesitate to comment. I’m always looking for opportunities to make this guide better and better!

I’ve just started playing DotA2 Beta (thanks to a friend who had a spare invitation), and I found that DotA2 bring a really good enhancement over it’s predecessor, DotA.

• Reconnect Feature

The reconnect feature is more or less like HoN. You’ll be given 5 minutes to reconnect to DotA2 in case you’re having internet connection problem. Nice feature that DotA (Warcraft III) lacks of.

• Regionalized, Lag-free Host Server

Instead of being hosted on player’s computer, DotA2 hosts it’s games on it’s own server, which resides in many countries across the globe. Every players who join the matchmaking system will be prioritized to have a team (for both allies and enemies) on a same regional, which will reduce the in-game latency and bring better gaming experiences.

• Great Match-making system

We knew that there are a lot of people playing DotA, with wide level of expertise. It won’t be a great game if a newbie having a match with a pro, right? There’s what DotA2 match-making system for, they find participant with comparable level and match them in a same game.

Before starts, I would like to know that this guide is based on my personal experience, there is no guarantee that this guide is going to give you the best possible built for cra. Use it on your own risk.

• Abilities

The best route to go for abilities is aim to get 2 AP (the first one will cost you 150 points, and the 2nd one will cost you 200). According to my experience, this will help you a lot in the higher level (when you reach lv 50+) because you won’t need to rely on equipment set’s bonus AP.

• Special Abilities

The first thing you need to up is 8 Level (not 9!) Long Distance Combat, this will give you 50% critical rates by sacrificing your movement points. One of the best abilities available in this game. After that, raise Powerful Shooting by 20 times and then Unbeacon by 9 times. Heightened Vision is also a good skill for this built, but it is up to your preference about when to start using it. For me, I raise this ability 1 times, early at around lv 10 because I need the +1 range and then will raise it again after all the other abilities are maximized.

• Spell

Spam the first fire spell (Blazing Arrow) you had. This is cra’s best damage dealt spell.

• Equipment

Aim for Gobball set (because you need the bonus 1 AP to cast Long Distance Combat), and then Scara (Not Scaraleaf!) Set (also for bonus AP & +Fire Damage), and then switch to Royal Piwi -> Riktus Set -> Gobboy Set and so on. For weapon, just find anything that might either boost your fire spell’s level or +Fire Damage or both. Field Shovel (+2 Fire spells & +5% Fire Damage) is the best to start as soon as you reach lv 15.

• Mobs of choice

1. Level 1-12 : Wodent at Incarnam.
2. Level 12-20: Gobbette (must be alone).
3. Level 21-25: Scarafly (Brakmar) or Young Wild Sow (Bonta). Hint for Scarafly: make sure to place your cra in the middle of the arena when the fight started.
4. Level 26-30: Scarecroolate (Amakna) or Scaramel (Brakmar). Fighting Scaramel is a little tricky, try to learn how he placed the bom and make his movement circling the bomb. On several occasion, you can finish the fight without any damages to your characters. (yes, it’s getting simple as soon as you can predict his movement)
5. Level 30-35: Evil Dandelion (Gobballfield Country, Amakna)
6. Level 35-40: Exploding Sunflower (Gobballfield Country, Amakna), stay in diagonal position from the mob to maintain line of sight.

• How to play

1. Try not to move your character at all while fighting. (Long Distance Combat is better with 3 MP available rather than 0-2)
2. You should have at minimum 7 AP at all times (8 AP is the best case).
3. 7 AP Battle Scenario = Long Distance Combat, 2 x Blazing Arrow.
4. 8 AP Battle Scenario = Long Distance Combat, Fire Beacon, Unbeacon the Fire Beacon, 2x Blazing Arrow. (Beware! Do not use Unbeacon until it reach the max level of 9, because it will use 2-3 AP which makes you incapable of doing 2 times of Blazing Arrow)
5. Make sure to keep line of sight available for you!

Special Thanks to Telemack for his feedback and input to bring this guide into a better one!

If you have feedback about this guide, please do not hesitate to comment. I’m always looking for opportunities to make this guide better and better!

An artwork of Lina Inverse casting dragon slave from DotA2 Beta, another lovely art work from Kunkka.

Well, I’ve been craving to play Dota2 beta for weeks, and I’m quite unlucky because I missed the first beta key invitation (which is around a month ago). After days of research, I found several ways to get the keys, which I would like to share with you:

• Fill the Dota2 beta invitation survey on Steam

You must have already installed steam before doing this. If you don’t currently have Steam account, you can sign up here. If you already have Steam installed on your computer, you can proceed to the Dota2 beta Survey by clicking here. This way you will have a chance to get the key from future invitation batch.

• A lucky draw inside playdota forum

Go to this link and reply to the post (you must have an account in order to reply to the thread). This is a lucky draw, the percentage of winning is small but it’s always worth a shot.

• Can’t wait any longer? Buy it!

People in playdota forum actively trading the key for either Steam Games or an amount of money. A key (which is worth 3 accounts, 1 main account and 2 invitation for friends) is being sold around $30-50 while a single invitation usually costs around $10-15. If you’re interested in this route, take a look at their forum here.

Play Audio

The best Anime Theme song I’ve ever heard. Originally from Guilty Crown Anime.

I’ve just started playing Wakfu recently, it’s fun and quite entertaining. I think I can categorize this as MMORTS (Massively Multi-player Online Real Time Strategy) Game. Although the game itself still in beta state, there are several thoughts I would like to share about this game:

• Classes

There are 14 classes as of know, and all of them has unique abilities, roles and strategies to be played with, like iop (swordsman) is the best damage dealer in the game, cra (archer) is the best one ranged unit but very weak on melee range. Most of them have each own pros and cons which make the game’s pretty much balanced. The only one that sucks is the healer (eniripsa), it’s job is only restoring HP with minimum buff which make playing it is going to be very boring, until now eniripsa’s population is kinda rare in the game (probably going to extinct?)

• Battle System

This is where the game’s excel, this kind of battle system (grid-based movement, tactical, turn-based) is actually the first to be implemented inside an online games. The only things needs to be repaired is the mob’s AI, which is a little funny, after several rounds dealing with a same mob, we can almost predict every movement he will make which makes fighting the same mob over and over again is boring.

• Crafting System

Unlike any other games, Wakfu’s crafting system is one of the most significant aspect you should do inside the game, without it we will almost powerless because there’s no NPC who sell equipment etc, so all the money, equipment, consumable goods and other items are either we craft it or we find it by killing mobs. A pretty nice, well-thought system. This way users can define the economy, market without any interference from the NPC’s based price (which is the usual limitation of other MMORPG games).

• Market Trading

Wakfu’s trading system consists of 2 parts, which is a “billboard” (with reverse auction method) where you can throw every items you would like to sell or you can sell it on your haven bag (like a portable house inside the game). The billboard is made so there will be “competition” because cheaper products will be preferred during reverse auction, on the other hand the haven bag is like a traditional shop-customer system. The only thing that’s not good is because the character itself should be inside the bag in order to open the shop (which is not practical), but in the other hand, each character cannot throw more than 10 kind of items to the billboard.