Mmorpg X News Blog

Massively.com interviews Star Wars Galaxies producer Lorin Jameson

Tue, 6 May 2008 20:16:29 +0200

In the wake of the Chapter 9 publish for Star Wars Galaxies, we had the chance to pass a few questions to the game's producer. Lorin "Deadmeat" Jameson has been with the project for some time, weathering the storms as they've come and gone. Today we have his responses, looking back at the impetus for the new Chapter and Update system of patches and ahead to future plans.

Read on below the cut for Mr. Jameson's take on the success of the Exar Kun instance, hints at a new expertise subsystem on level with the Beast Master, and hope for a better future in the Galaxy Far, Far Away. "We have fixed a number of long-standing issues and have added some dynamite new systems and a slew of new content. It is our intention to continue this trend and I expect to be saying the same thing about 2008 in mid-2009. We know we have a lot of work to do to meet our players' expectations for Star Wars Galaxies, but it is a fun challenge to have and we are lucky to have such a committed and loyal fan base."

Massively.com Interview with Lorin Jameson

How do you feel the player response has been to the Exar Kun instance?

Lorin Jameson: The reaction has been great so far. There is no doubt that this is the most challenging heroic encounter we have released to-date and it sets a very high visual bar. Players won't simply be able to go in and just blast away. Rather, you will really need to think about the encounter and come up with tactical strategies to win.

Now that you've had the chance to offer your first content update, after moving to the "Game Update" vs. "Chapter" system, do you feel like the concept has 'delivered'? Were you able to get what you wanted out of the Chapter despite working on the game updates as well?

LJ: The chapter and Game Updates alternating strategy has actually been going well for us. It is definitely a trickier process to manage from a production standpoint, but the ability to keep new and exciting game-play content and improvements coming at a constant rate definitely outweighs the challenges. In some respects I believe we have upped the quality and quantity of game-play enhancements overall with this new approach and we plan on keeping this system for a while.

The Storyteller system is almost unique in MMOs, and you've made great strides supporting it. Where did the idea for the blueprints come from? Can we expect more feature additions to the Storyteller system like this in the future?

LJ: A player had posted a 'battle arena' that he had constructed from storyteller parts which was just amazing. There were so many pieces used in interesting ways that it boggled my mind. When I spoke with the designers about the possibility of adding something like the arena to the game as a pre-made item, they said, "Why not just give the players a system to save what they have already made?" It always works best to give the players tools and let them [the players] be much more creative over time rather than limiting them to one item or option. We hope to add more elements to the Storyteller system with each new Chapter.

With the addition of the Exar Kun and Star Destroyer encounters, what lessons do you think the designers have taken away? Without giving anything away, is there anything we can expect to see in future instances?

LJ: With each new heroic encounter, we have increased the level of sophistication. With Exar Kun we added a lot of dynamic behavior and divergent gameplay based on strategy. There are a couple of interesting puzzles in that heroic encounter that really force the player to think about what they are doing and understand what they are seeing when an NPC's behavior changes. In the future, we are hoping to add some even bigger encounters that have multiple 'viewpoints.'

You've indicated a connection between the collections and other new content, and how that is enhanced by the tools you're using. Can you broadly talk about what tools improvements you've made that allow this?

LJ: The collection system itself is relatively straightforward and data driven, which makes adding new collections fairly easy compared to systems of the past. Having the collection system in place allows us to use different methods in addition to questing to allow players to earn rewards and get interesting loot in the game. Players are also recognized server-wide for completing many of these new collections first.

The game was not originally designed for themepark-like content, so adding new quests, etc. has always been a challenge. We still custom script most content in the game.

The idea of server merges has been on the table but not in the plans for some time. In response to player discussion of the population issue, the next Chapter Update will have a number of advanced search functions. Can you give us a few more details about what that will entail? Do you see this as a stopgap measure? Are there a set of criteria in the works that will give you a firm idea of when server merges are a must?

LJ: We are very sensitive to the population issues that exist on a few of the servers. It is our hope that this new community search interface will help players who are actively out looking to find groups as well as helping to facilitate players finding others that share similar interests in-game. The new search mechanism works server-wide and will allow players to more precisely pinpoint what they are looking for with respect to player groups and shared interests in-game.

Our goal is to help players on the lower population servers by actively identifying the issues and challenges they face and presenting ways to remove obstacles to increased game-play satisfaction. We are looking at a number of ways to help mitigate these population issues. With a game like SWG, which has player housing and cities along with server unique resources, it is difficult to use a standard merge approach without causing a lot of controversy and inconvenience. Quite honestly I want to avoid that by adding positive, experience-enhancing systems to the game that address the challenges by offering positive solutions in a way that adds something for everyone.

The collection system continues to see development and additions through this Chapter release. Can we expect to see new collections in every Chapter? Do you have any sense of what 'types' of collections we might see in the future?

LJ: I think it is safe to say that there will probably be new collections included with each Chapter, although perhaps not as many as we have added lately. I am truly amazed at the variety of unique types of collections our team has designed and implemented in the recent chapters. It is our hope that we can continue to come up with innovative and fun new collections as we move forward in the upcoming chapters.

We found the Rattletrap ITV collection really interesting, in that the item itself is a major break with Star Wars Galaxies' original thinking. The collection was very simple, essentially making this item available to every character. What philosophy or development goal did you have in mind with this collection? Do you see other 'quality of life' improvements being released to the players this way in the future?

LJ: In the past, instant travel vehicles have only been available as a premium with the purchase of one of our retail products, and it has been a touchy subject that such a useful item was only available as a value-added bonus with the purchase of a compilation pack or digital download bundle. We wanted to eliminate the perceived inequity but at the same time we did not want to undermine the value of the premium items. We set the instant travel vehicle up as a collection reward because we get feedback from our players that they get more enjoyment and value and have more fun from earning items as a reward than to just have it handed to them.

Recently there was a reference by a player on the boards to the concept of a "Droid Commander", with the official response from your team being that it's on the table for later this year. Would this be something similar to the Beast training system, only with droids? Can you elaborate on what it might include and when we might see it?

LJ: We have wanted to revisit the droid system and add Droid Commander to the game since last year. While not exactly like Beast Master, since building droids would still be the responsibility of droid engineers, it would share some aspects. Like Beast Master it will involve choices. To be a powerful Droid Commander you will have to sacrifice expertise in your profession. But also as with Beast Master, a high-level Droid Commander will have a lot of powerful options.

Moving into the middle of the year now, how do you feel SWG is compared to April of 2007? What do you hope you can say about the game in April of 2009?

LJ: I think the game has shown tremendous improvement in the past year as we have added new enhancements, collections, heroic adventures and upgrades. We have fixed a number of long-standing issues and have added some dynamite new systems and a slew of new content. It is our intention to continue this trend and I expect to be saying the same thing about 2008 in mid-2009. We know we have a lot of work to do to meet our players' expectations for Star Wars Galaxies, but it is a fun challenge to have and we are lucky to have such a committed and loyal fan base.

Many thanks for your time, sir.

Source : massively.com

Star Wars Galaxies: Jason Ryan Movin' On

Tue, 6 May 2008 20:14:14 +0200

Titling his swan song at SWG "Time to Say Farewell", Jason Ryan announced today that he's moving to Free Worlds and taking on the Community Manager position there.

Greetings, all!

The time has come to let everyone know that I'll be leaving the SWG team and heading across genres to become the Community Manager for our upcoming title Free Realms. There is definitely a bitter-sweet sensation to moving to a new title. I'll miss the people I have met and interacted with. I'll also miss the events themselves and the fun discussions leading up to them. I'll miss talking about schemes and plots and super-weapons and attacks and kidnappings and weddings and...you get the idea.

I know, I know. "How can you leave Star Wars for something...not Star Wars?" The decision to leave wasn't easy. I've been with SWG for almost five years now. I've lived and breathed Vader and the Rebellion and all the storylines ever run by. I've had a blast and I have never ceased to be amazed by the creativity and dedication I have encountered.
The opportunity to work on Free Realms is just too tempting so I applied for the position and got it. I'm ready for new adventures, even if they don't involve Ewoks, Stormtrooopers or holograms of the Emperor. I've always taken my job and the events I help support very personally and I am very proud of the work I have done. I hope that level of commitment has come across to those with whom I have interacted during my tenure on SWG.

The big question has certainly got to be "What about Event Support?" Currently there is no plan to continue player-run event support. The Dev Team will continue to upgrade and add to Storyteller, which already allows you to execute many of the abilities that I have provided in the past. Actually, it has a lot more functionality than I had for the first year or two of running event support. Granted, there will no longer be someone to show up to a player event as Leia or Darth Vader, or to officiate a wedding or decorate the inside of the Theed palace...so that will take some getting used to. The Dev team has been wonderful and very supportive of Storyteller and in-game holidays, so I look forward to more support for those aspects of the game in the years to come.

I am buoyed by the fact that Storyteller is getting bigger and better at putting event 'control' in your hands, so player events will get bigger and better too, even if I am on another title. The options that are open to you really are extraordinary and quite unprecedented in any MMO of this type. I know this will take some getting used to and will lead to more and more creativity when using the Storyteller system.

I'll be making the transition over the next month and will be full time on Free Realms by the end of May or early June. I don't have all the details yet, but I will let you know as soon as I have them.

Thank you all for your continued enthusiasm and support. I will always look back on my time with SWG as a wonderful time spent interacting with great people.

Source : WarCry Network

LOTRO : First Anniversary Celebration

Tue, 6 May 2008 20:11:33 +0200

Lord of the Rings Online has announced some special pricing to welcome players back to the game. In celebration of their first year anniversary, here's how they're trying to lure players back:

The Lord of the Rings Online� launched a year ago and we want you to help us celebrate! That's why we're giving you free LOTRO access from May 8-12, 2008!

Play your old characters, check out the LOTRO Anniversary celebration events, explore new areas, and tackle new quests. Just log into your LOTRO account from May 8-12, 2008 and we'll take care of the fun and adventure.

LOTRO Game Updates & Enhancements Since You Last Played:

* New Region - Explore the icy reaches of Forochel
* New Quests - Over 100 new quests
* Hobby System - Feel like going fishing?
* Enhanced Monsterplay
* Looking For Fellowship Enhancements
* Customize Your Character
* Guardians - major updates
* Burglars - major updates
* Champions - several improvements
* New PvMP dungeon - The Delving of Fr�r
* Return to Angmar - completely overhauled

For a limited time, there will be two new pricing options:

* Become a LOTRO Lifetime Member for $199 and never pay a monthly fee again**
* Choose any multi-month plan (90-days or longer) and lock in a monthly price of $9.99 per month**

During the LOTRO anniversary celebration, many monsters throughout Middle-earth will drop rare items when defeated. Exchange these rare items for a special gift box that will reward you with a variety of in-game items to aid you in your adventures in Middle-earth.

Source : WarCry

Warhammer Online's High Elf Swordmaster Class

Tue, 6 May 2008 20:09:46 +0200

Hey everyone, remember Warhammer Online? That one MMO that's supposed to come out later this year? Okay, step away from the Conan beta and listen up, because we have some news on the Warhammer front concerning the Swordmaster.
According to a recent MMORPG.com interview with EA Mythic's Adam Gershowitz, the Swordmaster of Hoeth is the High Elf's entry into the tanking profession. It uses a flurry of swordplay to deflect the blows of its enemies as opposed to simply using heavy armor, like most tanks. As with the other classes in WAR, the Swordmaster has three mastery paths that are variations of differing playstyles:

* Path of Vaul - Includes combos that draw aggro while still increasing your defense. This path caters to situations with multiple foes.
* Path of Khaine - This path is for your area attack combos, introducing more of an offensive twist for the more aggressive tanks.
* Path of Hoeth - This is the tank path that utilizes magical abilities to aid in both defense and offense.

Source : massively.com

EVE Online Speedlinking for May 5th, 2008

Tue, 6 May 2008 20:08:36 +0200

The last week was crazy busy with real life. With the Montreal Canadiens being eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers last Saturday, I'll now have more time for gaming, EVE and blogging! So here' s the items that caught my attention this past week.

* EVE Fitting Tool - We talked about it in The Drone Bay Podcast #9 (soon to be released)
* Reflection on the state of the economy - Part II! - from CSM candidate, La Vista Vista
* The Hiding of Treasure... - Van Hemlock's great piece on game design and keeping the game excited
* Documentary: History of Video Games - Thanks Xyliana for this video!
* On MMO longevity and MMO second versions - EVE for the next
* EON Magazine now has an EON Facebook group - Join us!
* PvP Communication - Phillip "Crovan" Manning's 2nd piece over at Massively.com
* EVE Newbie video - Here's a funny video of someone who really doesn't get EVE
* The Ancient Gaming Noob gets an offer from Goonswarn in "The proposition"
* The Cookie Monster Economy and "Guild Socialism" - via Terra Nova

Source : www.crazykinux.com

Exclusive video of updated Vanguard GU5 spell effects

Tue, 6 May 2008 20:06:08 +0200

Adding a few dozen new mounts to the game and improving the performance would be enough to fill up any ordinary patch, but the Vanguard: Saga of Heroes devs decided to buckle down and improve the spell and combat ability graphics. With a good group casting and using special moves, all with their own flashy graphics, it could get a little hard to see what was going on. Game Update 5 brings new spell animations for druids, sorcerers, disciples and others, which are both faster and better-looking than the old ones.

Click on through to watch the video, and get your fill of the new spell graphics. Then, stop by later today for an interview with Vanguard game designer Lenny Gullo. He'll talk about quests, mounts, hitching, factions, and ten easy recipes for cooking battle lobster.

Source : massively.com

Guide to Woodworking in Lord of The Rings Online

Mon, 5 May 2008 22:23:13 +0200

Woodworking in Lord of The Rings Online (LOTRO) is a profession with a few special areas of emphasis. It has ranged weapons, which is sometimes useful, and it has instruments, in addition to some melee weapons. Instruments are probably the most important part of the woodworking profession.

Why not ranged weapons? Because often better ranged weapons are available to hunters from their class quests. At level 30, hunters gain a bow that is (counting it�s damage type) better than tier 4 bows because it does Westernesse damage.Melee weapons are a valid part of woodworking, and some of the weapons you can acquire are interesting, especially spears (since they tend to do damage over time) but they are not particularly good compared to weaponsmith weapons. Metal weapons tend to be �flashier�, and are sometimes slightly better. Woodworking weapons do have staves, one of the major weapons of the loremaster, but again, loremasters can get better long term weapons in the quests of the Great Barrows (in Bree-land) and then in the loremaster quest.

Instruments, however, are always good for minstrels. They reduce costs for minstrels, it is always important for minstrels to worry about power availability, and this is the only way for a minstrel to control costs or gain similar benefits.
Woodworking Basics
Woodworking is done fairly easily. First and foremost, you need treated wood. For almost all the woodworker recipes, in general, you are going to need weaponsmith components or ingots from the prospector profession. While wood is not as expensive as the same tier ore and ingot in LOTRO, it isn�t cheap, and you will not be able to purchase your wood if you wish to be able to break even or make a profit with woodworking.

Stand near a workbench, simply make sure to have all the items listed in your recipe in your inventory (they will be highlighted if you do, grayed out if you don't), and have a woodworking saw near you. Then just click make and you will make one of your items. There are quite a few recipes you will need to find,

Collecting RowanKeeping yourself stocked with wood is not always easy. The wisest choice to make sure you have enough wood is to have a character with the explorer vocation, who then stockpiles treated wood, ingots, and earns money for components by using sold ore. Once prepared for woodworking, make a second character who is your woodworker. That takes a lot of effort to do, but often is worth it. Even more value is added if you also have other characters who use the ore for their professions, such as jewelers or metalsmiths. To keep you stocked, you also can make a woodsman vocation character, create boiled leather from skins (and sell those) and then prepare your own wood, buying components with your skin profits. Leather and skins are always needed, and the money can pay for those pesky components.

Once you have prepared your treated wood from a forester professional, you need to decide what you wish to make. Almost always, you are going to find you don�t need all the things you make. Which means selling your products.
Selling Your Products
An approach to improving your woodworking ability is the �long way� (which earns you money) by making items people need. A level 10 quest includes prepared rowan bowstaves (auction them in groups of 3). These take a while, but will get you some money as people buy these for the auction house. You also can make some money off basic bows for hunters, but usually this isn�t overly profitable.

For tiers 2 and 3, you will want to make instruments, and you won�t want to make a special effort to make critical items, these items do not provide enough of a difference to be worth it unless it is for your own use. For tier 3, consider making crossbows, some classes gain access to ranged weapons (though not a primary ability) and a lot of guardians and similar will want shiny new crossbows to use. Crossbows often do better than regular bows, because these are �shoot once and then enter melee� type attacks, meant for pulling opponents rather than drawn out damage (such as with hunters).

The short way to raise your woodworking ability is to simply pick the lowest component item and make a lot of them, selling them when you can, but basically just doing the best you can on simplicity. In the higher tiers, ranged weapons and instruments are the way to go to keep your woodworking profitable.
Woodworking Rules
Items you can makeOne rule of thumb for woodworking: never throw away wood, the only time you should walk past a node of wood is if you are in a party and in a rush, or if it would be rude to take it. Never throw away crit items. The crit items for woodworkers are particularly rare, and you should always bank those items when they are available. For woodworking, you need 3 treated rowan, on average, to make a tier 1 item. You need 10 treated black ash to make a tier 5 item, so make sure to collect your wood!
Woodworking Overall
Overall, woodworking is a simply somewhat easy profession, but this goes hand in hand with less profitable sales, and perhaps a less broad area of products than in other professions. You definitely can make a profit using woodworking. It is a good profession for a hunter or minstrel (because of the instruments, spears and bows). You will want to consider having a way to gain treated wood before making a woodworker.. either by having access to forester through being a woodsman, or by having an alt explorer.

Source : tentonhammer.com - Darkgolem

Age of Conan impressions

Mon, 5 May 2008 22:17:08 +0200

After starting up Age of Conan and making my necessary multi-core adjustments, I actually got to play for a little while this evening, without memory leaks, without gameplay degrading, without crashing.

Well, that�s almost true. The first time I logged in, appearing in the Inn in Tortage, I had graphic artifacting and I had to restart.

The second time, things went fine. I finished up one quest and started another, replacing a vial of blood atop the volcano outside Tortage. It�s another step in the storyline/single player progression, and it�s the first step I�ve been able to complete without laggy, stuttering gameplay.

I think there are some aspects of the 1-20 solo play that are attractive. It�s a pretty good way to learn the AoC combat system. Combat is quite different than other mmorpg�s, and by the time you�ve killed your way through a couple quests, things start to make a little sense. I could have stealthed my way through a lot of the volcano quest, but I think I gained some good combat experience.

The quest line is fairly simple, but I�m enjoying it. I don�t think I�ve seen a mmorpg put this much effort into a story, and breaking it out into single player sections is a good introduction to some of the factions in Hyboria. I don�t know how well Funcom will continue telling the story through questing once the single player portion is over at level 20, but so far, it�s a nice change of pace from your standard mmorpg conventions. I don�t think every mmorpg has to do this, or should do this, but Funcom should get some props trying something different.

Unfortunately, at the climax of the quest, when I stealthily exchanged a vial of blood to ruin a ceremony, the game switches to a cut scene, and the cut scene hung. I�m watching myself crouched before an altar (in pretty cool armor, another successful design point that I hadn�t been able to appreciate before today), with soot and ash from the the volcano falling behind me, waiting for something to happen, but I think I have to restart the client. I know I have to, and it�s a bummer.

I�m curious what prevented Funcom from finding problems with cut scenes in earlier betas. It�s possible that I�m expecting too much, but it feels like a bad sign that your scripted events, just switching to a movie, is breaking this late in development.

There�s a lot of talk on various message boards about the state of the game, and you get a couple points of view. Some people overreact and say they�re not going to buy the game (and people of course ask for their stuff, in this case their beta key), and other people overreact and say things like �I guess you don�t know what a beta test means�.

The truth is somewhere in the middle, I suppose. Sure, it�s a beta, and sure, it�s rough on various people at the moment. There�s a germ of truth in each reaction. But I think there�s a good game in here, if Funcom can overcome their obstacles. I do think it�s worth testing, bug reporting and feedbacking, and I don�t think overreacting and claiming the sky is falling is an enlightened reaction.

That said, I am concerned about all the problems I�m seeing, and the types of problems. I�ve been in a lot of betas, and I�ve been in a lot of games at launch. There are two extremes in experience. The first extreme is games that launched fairly smoothly, and probably includes WoW, DAoC, LoTRO�hmm, that�s all I can think of off the top of my head. There were server load issues, queuing, problems related to figuring out how to handle retail traffic. Those kind of problems, I really don�t mind dealing with. There�s no way to realistically test your game to scale, and if your game is successful, you�re going to have issues you have to deal with while the game is live.

The second extreme, in my experience, was SWG, Anarchy Online, Shadowbane, L2 (in beta for me, didn�t buy it). When I look back at those games, either in beta or at launch, I realize in hindsight that I probably knew subconsciously that those games were in trouble in one form or another, long before I admitted it out loud. See, I want games to succeed. I want to enjoy them, to experience a new world, a new place to adventure. But when a game goes bad, you kind of feel it. You see quests not finished, mobs falling through the ground, design choices that aren�t intuitive or don�t fit together smoothly, gameplay elements that feel tacked on or not well-integrated. For whatever server load issues WoW, DAoC, and LoTRO had at launch, they were coherent gameworlds; well-designed, the developer vision was communicated to the player and most of the gameplay elements just worked.

I�m not sure how I feel about AoC yet. There are things I like about the 1-20 storyline. I like that they tried something new with combat. The graphics are growing on me (although I haven�t been too excited about either WAR or AoC). I�d like to see more of Hyboria, and I�d like to see it while I have a solid framerate and no stuttering.

That said, I worry about the problems I�ve seen. I worry about a gameworld that allows players to climb down into areas, but not be able to climb back out of them without recalling or killing themself. I�ve found far too many dead ends, and that�s really frustrating. I don�t like that I have to mess with my cores to get the game to run stably. Whether Funcom fixes it or not isn�t really the issue; the decision to go with an older client that requires some people to disable cores, without communicating that clearly, was a bonehead move. I�ve had a couple BSOD�s today (display-related), plus the artifacting. The load times are still fairly significant, although much better with a core disabled.

I�m in the middle today. I�ve seen enough to hope that there�s a WoW/DAoC/LoTRO launch and future for AoC. Funcom has a lot of work to do between now and the 20th, but I prefer to hope, rather than hate :) Even if they fail, I give them credit for their ideas, their creativity, and for taking risks. I suspect we�re going to see some major fixes in the next week; just the fact that the PvP weekend code was newer and more stable gives me hope that the multi-core and load time issues can be addressed. I�ll keep my fingers crossed, and hope that I move from cautious to enthusiastic about AoC. We�ll see!

Virtual Worlds Help In Addiction Therapy

Mon, 5 May 2008 22:14:53 +0200

Virtual worlds are all too often spoken of as something you're in danger of becoming addicted to. We've all heard the stories of inertia, bloat, pallor and unemptied cat trays. But Professor Patrick Bordnick, associate of the University of Houston, is using VR to help treat addictions in the course of therapy.

As Professor Bordnick points out, imagination alone isn't a particularly powerful tool to recreate the situations in which a recovering addict learns to say 'no': 'As a therapist, I can tell you to pretend my office is a bar, and I can ask you to close your eyes and imagine the environment, but you'll know that it's not real'.

Rather than ask the patient to visualise a bar stocked with alcohol or a party where cigarettes are on offer, Bordnick uses a VR helmet along with other components such as olfactory stimulation and actor participation to create a highly plausible and immersive environment. Although the patient consciously knows he is taking part in a VR simulation, the immersion has proven sufficient to build intense cravings, just as if the focus of the addiction had really been present.

By supplying an enviroment that is realistic enough to stimulate cravings but remains controlled and safe, Bordnick can gradually train patients in the use of coping skills. As those skills will have been developed in the face of a close analogue of the real thing, the patient is much better equipped to contend with the challenge of the real-world situation.

EverQuest 2 Game Update 45 gives love to the Coercer

Sun, 4 May 2008 01:21:48 +0200

Yesterday when we noted the final patch notes for Game Update 45 on the EverQuest 2 test server, we neglected to mention one of the biggest changes: major tweaks to the Coercer class. The official patch preview on the EQ2 Players site makes it clear these changes represent a fundamental shift for the class. Possession spells have been improved all around, the material components used to control the Coercer's pet have been removed entirely, and Puppetmasters have gained the use of another pet.

This blogger is hardly an expert on every EQ2 class, though, so we turned to the real experts on the forums to see their reaction. In all it looks like the Coercing community is behind these decisions. The Active on Test thread is the epicenter for commentary, so be sure to check that out. Forum poster zuzer offers up some directed responses, while poster Kneemin opened up a thread discussing how these changes will effect PvP. For more details than you might be able to handle, check out XFnarX's screenshots of the new spells and his damage-tracking charts from the test server.