Game updates/20050622

Notes on the Next Update - Wednesday, June 22
Our next major update will be the introduction of PvP Rewards.

We know that many players right now are having difficulty unlocking items, runes and skills for use in PvP. On our private test servers, we have been testing a new reward system that lets you unlock items, runes, and skills for your pvp only characters through kills and victories in PvP. You'll unlock things faster if you are more successful, but we aren't implementing this system just for the elite players. Our goal is that every player will be able to make progress through normal play.

In that same light, these new rewards are not meant to overshadow other methods for character advancement, but rather to allow you to advance your characters in whichever way you prefer. Because of that, we will continue to examine the rate of item, rune and skill acquisition after ascension through cooperative play.

We expect polishing and balancing the new system to take another week and look forward to sharing the changes with you then. Response so far from our testers has been overwhelmingly positive, and we believe this addition will improve the overall experience for everyone who plays the game.

One final note: Some of you will wonder if we've forgotten that ascended characters with obsidian armor need challenges too... Don't worry. You're next.

~ James Phinney