Design Notes

February 05, 2016

February 2016 Rare Gear

Don't Miss These Rare Holiday Event Items!

It’s double the festival fun and twice the number holiday exclusive items as we celebrate Carnaval AND Yokai New Year this week! 

Filled with member-only items and gear for AdventureCoins, the shop includes:

• Fiery Fenix Armor
• 2 Fiery Fenix Helms
• Fiery Fenix Armblades
• Fiery Fenix Plumes Cape
• Oni to Kijo Armor
• 5 Oni Helms
• 4 different Oni weapons
• 2 capes: Oni Rune Cape and Floating Oni Cape
• the Lucky Red Monkey Babies pet

Next week, the February Rare Gear shop will get all new 2016 Hero's Heart Day Rare items, too! Find the shop in your game menu until Monday, February 29th!

February 05, 2016

Double Festival WEEKEND!

This weekend: Carnaval, Yokai New Year, AND the Superbowl!

Carnaval and Yokai New Year are some of my most favorite events of the year -- I love the colors and how the story releases center around wicked /parties... and THIS year we've got a heaping helping of parties AND problems that only YOU can solve!*

Starting tonight, log in and /join terradefesta to begin the War of the Festivals! Talk to Samba to begin your quests, then get ready to untangle a knot of misdirection, mayhem, and SUPER-DEADLY yokai as Fausto and Lenjing fight to have you help THEIR events reign supreme!

You can also replay our previous Carnaval and Yokai New Year events starting tonight, too, plus get the returning seasonal rare gear from Frevo's shop in /terradefesta or Cysero in /carnaval.

* including a 2-stage boss with fight member-only and free player armor set drops!

Carnaval and Yokai Rewards 

And you know who likes to /party? WE DO! Head to the /parades map to see this year's new reward gear, available from the merge shop or as boss drops! 

Gong Xi Fa Cai -- happy Year of the Monkey! If you celebrate Chinese New Year, we hope your red envelopes are filled with happiness and luck (and some sweet loot, too)!

And don't miss the gear from our February Rares Shop! Get all the details and item previews in this Design Notes post: "February Rares Shop"! 

Also Happening This Weekend: Server Boost and Superbowl!

Like the sub-title said, this weekend we've got a Class Points server boost happening to help you CRUSH the enemy with your new StoneCrusher Class! (And if there's any other classes you've wanted to rank up, now's the time to get in and battle on!)

Starting tonight, the member-only Sir Ver server will have a DOUBLE Class Points Boost! All other servers will get a 15% boost to class points, ending Monday, February 8th.

Make sure you log on this Sunday for the Superbowl Half-time Show, the Punt Twilly Challenge, and all-new rare gear!

Gear Leaving Soon!

• Friday, February 12: Assassin's Commander Limited Time Shop
• Friday, February 19: Knight Commander gear from AdventureCoin and Membership packages!

January 26, 2016

2.5.15: Carnaval + Yokai New Year DOUBLE Release

When two festivals collide, it'll be up to you to save the /party!

Laken - one of AQW's most wickedly-Good artists - just sent me the concept art for next week's boss monster!* The Oni is floating up from behind the host (man, I would NOT want to have him looking over my shoulder!), and will attack with infernal ferociousness NEXT Friday as we launch the first-ever DOUBLE Carnaval / Yokai New Year holiday release**!

* All in favor of making the floating Oni an equippable cape, /cheer!

** Almost the entire art team will be working on this release! Written by the combo-team of Memet and Ergotth with art from J6, Blade, Tana, and Neihi... this will be TWO festivals to remember!

February 01, 2016

TRIPLE Event Weekend + Server Boost

This weekend: Carnaval, Yokai New Year, AND the Superbowl!

Log in this weekend at www.AQ.com for our TRIPLE holiday release! Carnval vs Yokai Festival war on Friday, the Superbowl Half-Time Punt Twilly show on Sunday, and a Class Points boost ALL weekend long to help you rank up the new StoneCrusher Class that released last Friday!

Gear Leaving Soon!

• This Friday: Nulgath 2016 birthday shop! This week is your LAST chance to get rare gear from this wickedly-awesome tribute shop celebrating Lore's favorite archfiend!
• Friday, February 12: Assassin's Commander Limited Time Shop
• Friday, February 19: Knight Commander gear from AdventureCoin and Membership packages!

February 20, 2015

Yokai New Year and Carnaval

Are You Ready To /Party?

Usually the end of the year is considered the holiday season, but February has just been FILLED with them - Valentine's Day, Friday the 13th, Pancake Day, and now... Chinese New Year and Carnaval! That means only one thing: the party continues!

This year, we're celebrating Chinese New Year and Carnaval in the same week, because bigger parties are better! So grab your beads, feathers, sparkly costumes, chinese lanters, and cheongams and get the celebration started! /join akibacny or /carnaval (or talk to Miko and Frevo in Battleon) to begin the adventure!

Don't Forget Your Party Clothes!

Can't go to Carnaval without a Samba costume! We have a ton of Carnaval gear to help you celebrate, including two gorgeous full sets for free players: Roroth's HarleQuint set and the voodoo-themed Samba costume pictured below...

It's Carnaval in Terra da Festa! P

Carnaval (or Carnival/Carnivale in other parts of the world) is the world's largest party. Every year more and more people from all over the globe celebrate this festival of fun and transformation but NOBODY does it like Brazil! It is a week-long party full of parades, food, fun and friends where your normal life is overturned and everyone generally goes nuts, and it's finally come to LORE!

Batista, one of our volunteers, translated the release!

In the town of Terra da Festa, the party is in full swing bringing you amazing party outfits inspired by those seen in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Some of out Brazilian players have complained that the previews of the outfits were not a revealing as the real deal, but we wanted to keep the game friendly for everyone so we had to tone them down a little. 

Members will find special bonus quests with special Member Only rewards, but there are shops and an AC Rares Shop and other quests for everyone to enjoy! In an AQW first, players from Brazil will find the ENTIRE release has been translates into their native tongue.

We've got SO MUCH for you in the permanent Carnaval map:

• Lots of Items, both Rare and permanent 
• Carnaval storyline
• Brazil Mythology Monsters
• Rio de Janeiro-inspired Map
• Day and Nighttime versions of Map
• New NPCs
• Carnaval music
• Cutscenes
• Member-only Quests
• Special surprises for Paymentez players
• Paymentez-exclusive Quests
• English and Portuguese translations, courtesy of Tendou no Mazo

We want to thank all of you for your support! Obrigado Pelo Seu Suporte Have fun and Happy Carnaval! 

Chinese New Year of the Sheep 2015!

This year you get a double dose of international celebration! On the other side of the planet in China, everyone is celebrating Chinese New Year . In /Akibacny the princess of Yokai Island,Ai No Miko, and the river dragon Panlong need your help once again.

In AQW it has become tradition that we sell a Non-Member AC pet to go with the theme of the Chinese New year. This year it's the Yokai Ram to honor the year of the sheep!  We are adding a few truly amazing Rare items that you will never see again in the Chinese New Year Shop too. Such as... Memet's Golden Yang set! 

You will also find a number of Member and Non-Member Seasonal Items returning to earn while Chinese New Years lasts! Happy New Year!

February 28, 2014

Dark Carnaval Comes to Terra de Festa

Are You Ready To Party?

It's that time of year again! Beads, feathers, sparkly costumes, samba dancing, and lots of celebrating! But before you can get to the party, you'll have to fight your way through hordes of zombies and hexed voodoo dolls - and one ornery ghoul!

What the heck, Samba Zombies?

You'll be able to play through all of last year's content if you /join carnaval. Once you're finished, head to /terradefesta to help Samba's cousin Frevo prepare for the party - assuming Baron Sunday and his zombies don't destroy the island first! 

Don't Forget Your New Party Clothes!

Can't go to Carnaval without a Samba costume! We have a ton of new Carnaval rares for 2014, including two gorgeous full sets for free players: Roroth's HarleQuint set and the voodoo-themed Samba costume pictured below...

Party Time!

New Carnaval Rares Include:

• HarleQuint jester set
• Firebird Carnaval set (above, right!)
• Firebird Maraccas
• Frevo Carnaval set (above, left!)
• Frevo's Voodoo Doll mace
• Voodoo Doll battle pet

New Stuff In Dage's Birthday Shop!

Dage the Evil's pre-birthday celebration continues with a boatload of new additions to his Dark Birthday Shop. That includes the new Hardcore Paragon quest pet, which - if you buy it - will also unlock access to the Living BladeMaster armor, as well as the heavily-requested Dual Blademaster Katanas.

Now Available in Dage's Birthday Shop:

• Hardcore Paragon Pet
• Legion Dreadrider armor
• Dreadmarch armor
• Blademaster Hood, Wraps, Mask and Horns

And don't forget! Once the BladeMaster class goes rare, we'll randomly choose ONE of the players who bought it and send them a free Undead Legion poster signed by Dage the Evil! That's right, you didn't need any extra incentive to get BladeMaster, but we're giving it to you anyway.

February 04, 2013

Design Noteworthy

Everything you need to know, right here, right now!

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend—and from all the positive feedback on our Twitters and Facebook, everyone LOVED Friday’s release!

You think last week was epic? Just wait until this Friday’s newest release. It’s totally going to blow your socks off… even if you aren’t wearing any!

Arriving Friday: Cultural Celebrations!

As you may know from my previous Design Notes post, Carnaval begins this Friday, February 8^th. Carnaval is the largest party in the world… and it’s coming to AdventureQuest Worlds!

Carnaval is the most joyous time of the year. Thousands of people will gather in the brand-new Terra da Festa map and dance down the streets of the Sambódromo. Everyone dresses up in fantastic costumes festooned in feathers, headdresses, and masks. But that’s not all—the Carnaval event will feature:

• Lots of Items, both Rare and permanent 
• Carnaval storyline
• Brazil Mythology Monsters
• Rio de Janeiro-inspired Map
• Day and Nighttime versions of Map
• New NPCs
• Carnaval music
• Cutscenes
• Member-only Quests
• Special surprises for Paymentez players
• Paymentez-exclusive Quests
• English and Portuguese translations, courtesy of Tendou no Mazo

Get ready to Festa like never before!

Chinese New Year in Akiba

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy New Year! The Chinese New Year begins February 10^th, but we are celebrating early starting Friday the 8^th in Akiba on Yokai Island. 

We will be re-releasing your favorite Seasonal Rare Chinese New Year items in addition to brand-new ones! It’s the Year of the Snake, ssssso you better believe thessseee Sssssseassssonal Rare Itemssss will be the coolesssst in all of hissssstory! You can really sssssssink your fangssssss into thissss sssspecial releassssse. 

Last Chance!

The Australia Day and Mod Birthday shops in Battleon leave later today! So make sure you get these items while you still can!

Leaving Wednesday

Groundhog's Day quest leaves Wednesday. Did he see his shadow? You better find out soon before he burrows away for a whole year!

Leaving Next Monday

Pick-up these touchdown items! The Half-Time shop and Punt Twilly minigame leaves next Monday. So if you wanna score big, score these Half-Time rares!

Thank you so much for playing AdventureQuest Worlds, and a super special THANK YOU to all our wonderful Members and AdventureCoin buyers for supporting us! We couldn’t have come this far without you, and we certainly wouldn’t be able to release new content every single week without your support!  

Battle on my friends! =D

January 31, 2013

Carnaval: One Week Away

The Largest Party in the World… coming to AQWorlds!
A Maior Festa do mundo.... vindo para o AQWorlds!

Hi my friends! Long time no PINK, huh? Well that’s about to change—right now!

Olá amigos! Tanto tempo sem ROSA, huh? Bem isto está mudando a partir de agora!

As you may know, the Carnaval of Brazil begins next Friday, February 8^th. This world-renowned party brings in hundreds of thousands of visitors to the festive streets all across Brazil. Carnaval is all about turning fantasy into reality, and just like AQWorlds, you can transform yourself into anything you want here!

Como você já deve saber, o Carnaval do Brasil se inicia na próxima Sexta, dia 8. Esse mundo novo trará centenas de visitantes para as ruas festivas em todo o Brasil. Carnaval é sobre tranformar a fantasia em realidade, e no AQWorlds, você pode se transformar no que quiser aqui!

Carnaval began back in 1641 in Rio de Janeiro. But there has never been a Carnaval in-game event in ANY game… until 2013! Starting next Friday, festoon yourself in beautiful Carnaval costumes and journey to the all-new permanent zone of Terra da Festa! In this magical party land, you will find:

Carnaval se iniciou em 1641 no Rio de Janeiro mas nunca teve um evento de Carnaval em qualquer jogo... até esse ano! Começando próxima sexta, se fantasie com grandes roupas e inicie uma jornada em uma zona nova e (bold)permanente(bold) da Terra da Festa! Nesta terra mágica, você irá encontrar:

• Tons of Items, both Rare and permanent 
• Vários itens, ambos Raros e permantentes
• Brazil Mythology Monsters
• Monstros da mitologia Brasileira
• Rio de Janeiro-inspired Map
• Mapa inspirado no Rio de Janeiro
• Day and Nighttime versions of Map
• New NPCs
• Novos NPCs
• Carnaval music
• Músicas de Carnaval
• Cutscenes
• Videos
• Special surprises for Paymentez players
• Surpresas especiais para jogadores que usam Paymentez
• Entire English and Portuguese translation
• Tradução em Inglês e português
• AQW player Tendou no Mazo will be helping us with Carnaval!

WOW! Now that’s A LOT to get your tail-feathers shakin’! And to all our Brazilian friends out there who have experienced Carnaval in real life, we just KNOW you are going to love the Carnaval of Terra da Festa!

WOW! Agora é tudo que você precisa pra entrar na folia! E para todos os nossos amigos brasileiros que vivenciaram o carnaval nós SABEMOS que vocês vão gostar do Carnaval da Terra da Festa!

Stay tuned for more updates while we prepare costumes, characters, floats, and more for the Terra da Festa Carnaval! All the fun begins next week!

Fique ligado pra receber mais atualizações enquanto preparamos roupas, personagems e muito mais para a Terra da Festa do Carnaval! A diversão começa próxima semana!

Festa On!

February 17, 2012

POWER week: Tradeskills+

Something's Fishy in this Release!

Grab your tacklebox and /equip your wading boots, because Fishing has come to AQWorlds! With 30 ranks to cast, catch and explode through, you'll find yourself rising from Fishmonger to Squid Kid all the way to the level 30 King Fisher in no time!

You'll have to fight to reel in the best catch!

With rewards ranging from the Mystic Fishstick Staff to the Runed Master Angler armor, if you have the skills to wrangle your fishing rod well, you'll be swimming in fantastically finned gear! (And you can bet none of the rewards will be carp-y! Ok... all except the Fish Armor.) AND you'll get 80 free ACs worth of Fishing Dynamite, so you can make your OWN Fish Rain!

Cannibalism?! You (Loch Ness) MONSTER!

Once you reach Rank 30 in your new trade and earn the title of King Fisher, you'll find a shiny badge in your Book of Lore! (Character page badge coming NEXT week, and that's no fish story!) And if you can catch a mysteriously DUM-fish, you'll unlock the Derp Moosefish Achievement! (But we're not telling you HOW to get THAT one.)

Fishy Rewards to Collect in Your Cooler:

• Rune Master Angler Armor
• Mystic Fishstick
• Mysterious Fish and Flopping Fish Pet (member-only)
• Fish Suit, Fishin' Rod
• Shrimp Axe, Boot Mace (to the FACE!)
• And much more!

And happenin' house items to show of your skills:

• Magical Aquarium (Will display your "rank up" fish!)
• Fishing Pole Collection
• Fishing Dynamite!
• Even more to store!

We're hoping to reel you in hook, line and sinker with this first tradeskill, because it's the first of a series we want to introduce throughout 2012!

Dance to the Carnaval Music!

Carnaval is here, so get your rear in gear and /dance the night away! Samba's in Battleon with a bounty of beautifully, birhgtly-plumed armors, helms, capes, a pet and weapons to equip!

And for those of you who feel like getting into the "bloco das piranhas" spirit, get your role-reversal armor by joining the /love map!

/Dance your way to great-looking gear:

• Vai-Vai Carnaval Armor and Headdress!
• Plumage of Pain 12!
• Capoiera Capybara Member-only BATTLE PET!
• Jungle, Ivory and Carnaval Headdresses 12!
• Alegre Carnaval Armor 12!
• Carnaval of Love Armor 12!
• Pink Carnaval Feather Cape 12!
• With so much more!

2 new emotes added for Members!

HEY MEMBERS! We've got a small but emote-ional bonus for you today: the /useweapon brings back the classic /use emote that we removed so long ago, and /danceweapon will let you /dance your way through the battlefield!

AQ3D Pre-Registration Delayed!

As we noted here at Artix.com (the AQ3D Design Notes page), the name pre-registration for ANYONE who has ever supported Artix Entertainment's games.* Pre-Reg moved to NEXT week! Keep up to date and find out all the latest news on our first foray into the third dimension in gaming at Artix's AQ3D Design Notes!

*HeroMart items do not count, sorry! We can only track game/secondary currency upgrades in relation to your game account.

Member Bonuses for AC Packages!

Hey AC-buying MEMBERS! If you've bought either the 2,000; 5,000; or 12,000 AC packages since January 1st, you have unlocked the following member-only BONUS items:

• 2k AC package: the Battle Wyvern BATTLE PET!
• 5k AC package: color custom Dreadnought Armor!
• 12k AC package: Mindbreaker Class!

Dreadnought Color Custom Armor (5k AC package)
and Mindbreaker Class (12k AC package)!

For any more questions on this SUPER-awesome new package deal, check out Cysero's Design Notes post! And remember:

HOW DO I GET THIS GEAR?
You can get all of this EPIC gear from the badge shops in the AE section of your Book of Lore!

Mia J. Park Music for You!

And Artix wants you to remember to be sure to support Mia J Park, up-and-coming indie vocalist, the guest star of this Valentine's Day's "Love's Eternal Curse" event! (Hint: She was the voice of the mer'angel and sang the songs!)

She was getting a lot of requests from you guys for her song "One Way Ticket" that she wrote specially for our event, so she put a free link to it on her website! Why not wander your way through the interweb to check it out? While you're there, why not listen to all the rest of her awesome music!

Coming Soon!

• SkyGuard Saga - Invade the SkyPirate Base!
• Desoloth Confrontation - War in Etherstorm!
• Return of the Xan Saga and the rise of the Battle PoisonMistress!
• Lucky Week!

February 16, 2012

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

February 13, 2012

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!