//Warhammer - Land of the Dead

//Beyond the Sands...

In the land of scorching heat and swirling sands, the undead pharaohs await in their trap laden tombs for unsuspecting victims.

I logged on last night and got a taste of the new LoTD zone that was added on Monday. Destruction had access to the zone at the time so I lucked out. First Impression was it looked dazzling. I really like how much effort they put into the design of the place and it's a huge contrast to the other existing zones. I started out trying to cross the river in the middle but ended up drowning because the river was filled with poison. Note to self, avoid the purple river. My Guild started doing the PQ in front of the Largest Pyramid, I ferget what it's called but it looked like "necropolis of STFU" but it's actually SETFU or something. Friggen HUGE skeleton of the undead Pharaoh came out to stomp on us. Apparently the only way to defeat it is if you pull it and fight it on the "glyphs" stones on the floor. Tricky, huh? It didn't help that some Order bursted out of the temple to attack us but we rolled them since there was a huge Zerg of Destruction in LotD, must have been between 500-1000 people in the zone.



So after doing that and being stuck in the Pyramid door for about 15 min, we were inside the Pyramid lair instance. The lairs are filled with booby traps, ala Indiana Jones so you have to figure out how to disable them. There was a hallway filled with swinging sharp axes that you have to run thru and if you get it, it's an insta-death.
All the sudden we got booted from the instance. I don't know why but some people rage-quited the WB due to it.



Anyhoo, so the premise of getting access to the lairs are that you need to have specific glyphs that you earn from doing certain PQ's. You can check your tome of Knowledge for that. There are 2 annoying PQ's that are mobile, so you need to track them down. You can earn 'scarab' currency from drops to trade in for amazing gear. I already got myself a Blue named Chalice and an Egyptian Trophy.



When the opposite faction unlocks the LoTD, you have to get back to your WC asap cuz if you die and release, you will be sent back to your capital city. So you'll need to get back to the WC asap to defend against the invaders.

and..that is my first look at the LotD. More later!

//Warhammer - Iron Rock Server

Yea so, we lost the LOTD live event to Order.

I have been disappointed with ORVR as of late. Order outnumbers us in TIV by many so it seems like the zerg always wins in this game. I die nearly instantly from BW's and WH's. No one listens and there is a huge lack of organization in warbands. Last night around midnight, Order attacked Inevitable City and people were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Plus, during the last stage of the PQ, there was a bug with the Lieutenant/Lord's guards and they kept despawning if they were pulled out too far. Everyone kept pulling them too far and they'd despawn even though the leader was telling people to not stray too far. To make things worse, we all got booted out to the maw when the gold chest popped. So no one got their bags of lewt.

// Cry Moar Lamers of the Week //

Destro: Faaty
This guy robbed us of many items in our guild vault. He also did the same to other guilds. Beware of him.

Order: Jaycub
This guy is a KOTBS and while he may be a good at his class, he could use better tact. He spams emotes at the person he kills and seems like a real jerk.

Warhammer Online - Age of Crafting

// Scavenging and Talisman making 101

I didn't pick up crafting until I was level 30, out of sheer laziness and ignorance. It however is very useful and brings in some income for us RVR'ers who spend a lot of money on gear, medical healing and traveling. I chose the pairing of Scavenging and Talisman making since it seems to go hand-in-hand. At first was confusing to me, since I didn't even know where to start, so I thought writing a guide would be helpful for those interested in crafting. There are crafting NPC's are located in Inevitable City (Destruction).

Scavenging NPCS: Lorne Foulsteel & Diedrick Goedbloed - Inevitable City, Map Markers: 17575, 24323

Talisman NPC: Dripnose Shinymaka - Da War Maker

From then on, you will be able to collect items from corpses from PVE or RVR. Simply loot the corpse first then a cursor that looks like pliers will appear and you can scavenge the corpse. There are 5 types of items you can get and they should appear in your "new" crafting bags post patch 1.3. To start, go to your abilities panel, to the last page and click the Talisman making icon. You need to drag and drop the a container into the slot first in order to begin. Then drag the rest of the items into the appropriate slot and then click "fuse" to craft the talisman. When you first start off, the talismans are very weak and only last for a certain amount of time, i.E. 8 hours, but as you level your skill, the power of the talismans will increase. If you need to buy any items, there are crafting NPC's located near the AH and also the Camp Merchant near the crafting NPC's sells them too.

Relic boxes:
Container to hold the talisman

Fragments:
Various items collected and are the base of the Talisman power, NPC's don't carry much, if any of these.

Curios:
They are usally coins, watches and the "odd" items that you will scavenge

Essence:
Magical Essence that can be bought from the NPC or looted

Gold Dust:
Gold Dust can be bought from NPC's or looted.

Once you start collecting materials, your bags will be full often so it's best to keep everything organized by level and type. Have fun!

Warhammer Blog Challenge, The Answer!

Warhammer Solve the Hieroglyphic Codes Blog Challenge

Quick! The amount of free scarab pets are going fast!
There are still some available for the code of LUTIMHUTT / LUTIMKHUTT (Massively.com's Cartouche).

Kotaku.com = XEMAN_OBEK
I think the Kotaku one is still borked, missing something in-between, could be a conjunction of 2 letters, as it is possible in the Egyptian Language.

MMORPG.com = DJHADTUMNA but all the codes are gone already.


There are still 2 more cartouches/Rossetta stones yet to be revealed. Enter the codes after you log into the account center on the warhammeronline site.
Good luck!!!

// Special E3 2009 Report

INTOPIXEL Gallery: Warhammer Art

I was able to attend E3 @ the La Convention Center this past Tuesday on company time and it was a big deal since E3 went away from awhile and then all the sudden it came back this year. It's not as grand as it used to be (pre 2006), as it seems they are testing the waters and were holding back a bit. Most of the cool news came from the Press conferences, which is only open to press and execs. On the exhibit hall floor, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Square-Enix, EA and many more companies were displaying their latest products and games.



The biggest shockers for me at E3 are as follows:
- Microsoft: Natal technology
- Nintendo: Metriod Other M
- Final Fantasy XIV Online
- LucasArts: Monkey Island
- Metal Gear Rising on Xbox 360
- Facebook on DSi and Xbox 360!

Most Impressive:
- EA / Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic
If you haven't seen the trailer yet, GO SEE IT!! To add even more awesomeness, EA had a bunch of Sith come out on stage during the press conference.




// MMO Report:
So..I am pretty shocked about Square Enix's announcement about Final Fantasy XIV. I thought they were done milking the series but I guess not. From the Q n' A, it appears that it is not based on the world of Vanadiel, but the character races are similar. Some people are skeptical since the game looks similar but we were only shown a short teaser trailer and there was no demo on the floor for us to try out. I'm guessing it will probably come out in 2011. I'm still happily playing FFXI so I'm not in a hurry to quit that game.

I haven't had much time to try out other MMO's besides Jade Empire, which was pretty mediocre but I liked the combo system. I also tried out Free Realms but I wasn't too impressed. The card game is confusing and boring. Then again, the only card game I liked was Triple Triad from Final Fantasy VIII and magic the gathering. Nothing Warhammer related was being shown on the floor by EA either. There was also a lack of Blizzard presence in E3, as they are probably going to show everything at Blizzcon.

//Exhibit Hall Photos:

Playstation's Both


Nintendo's sleek booth - They were demoing Wii Sport Resort and a bunch of DS titles such as the new bowser game.


The new King of Fighters XII!


Assassin's Creed II and Splinter Cell giant posters outside


FFXIII's Lighting Figure


INTOPIXEL Gallery: Guild Wars Concept Art