Massively^™

When Warhammer Online releases later this year do you think there will be a skewed realm population? The GREENSkin blog seems to think so, but history would disagree with them. Whenever a game has been faction-based the "evil" races tend to be popular during the beta period. This fear of imbalance was a issue in Dark Age of Camelot and in World of Warcraft. During both of those instances beta testers expressed worry that the more evil of the realms would be entirely overpopulated post launch. However, the exact opposite happened to the complete befuddlement of beta testers everywhere.

With the announcement of the White Lion as the final career in Warhammer Online, we finally have a good idea of what the class dynamics will be in the long-anticipated MMO from Mythic. Obviously, the specifics of each aren't set in stone, as some classes don't even have their masteries announced yet, but one finally gets the sense that it's all starting to come together. With this is mind, we've put together an overview of the game's classes, including a comparison to their tabletop equivalents, to give you a better idea of what you've got to look forward to with the upcoming open beta. In the first part of this feature, we take a look at the careers on the side of Destruction.

And if you like what you what you see here, make sure to check out our on-going Massively goes to WAR features!

From Sony Online Entertainment this morning, we have a pair of exclusive images for you. Above is pictured a Dark Elf, astride the brand new racial mount coming to Vanguard: Saga of Heroes in Game Update 5. The newest chunk of content for the game will be arriving on the test server very soon, and these racial mounts are one of the content drop's big selling points. Each race is going to have its own mount, which will be earned through faction questing for the race's capital city. This Dark Elf, for example, would have earned her spider by questing for Hathor Zhi.

The best part is that this earned faction (another new system coming in Update 5) can be achieved by anyone! So even if you don't like your race's faction mount, you can go earn yourself another one. We're told to warn you in advance: earning faction with one city may earn you the ire of others. If you plan to travel extensively, you may want to be wary of becoming overly honored with any one racial city. These mounts are first earned at level 30, but we're assured there will be level 50 mounts available for questing adventurers as well. For a peek at another of these mighty beasts, click on through to our Update 5 gallery to get a good look at the Half-Elven mount: the Dragon Turtle, earnable from the city of Tanvu.

Full details on the mounts, the new faction system, and much more will be appearing on the Vanguard Players site very soon. Stay tuned!

In the latest news from the Warhammer Herald, the Mythic crew updates those unlucky souls still wandering on the outskirts of the Warhammer Online beta on the progress that's been made in live testing over the last several months. The most recent beta push has focused on the down and dirty combat between the High Elves of Ulthuan and their dastardly neighbors to the north, the Dark Elves. The update picks up the perspective of the Dark Elves, and includes some small chunks of lore, specifics on the various Chapters that underwent testing, and some beta journals from those lucky SOBs who got a beta invite.

For my part, I think they've really done a good job of capturing the spirit of the Dark Elves. Whatever your feelings are about witches, worshiping the gods of Chaos, or scantly clad ladies, the overriding drive that unites all Dark Elves is an undying hatred for those haughty, do-nothing fairy-boys, the High Elves. There's just something endearing to me about a race of people whose primary motivation is spite. Only in the Warhammer universe could they pull something like that off.

The update also says that the next phase of testing will focus on Empire and Chaos. Let's hope that once that's done, they'll finally move into guild beta.

The racial pairing we still have the least information for has been the High and Dark Elves, but that is starting to change. Enter the Saphery zone -- a third tier zone for High Elves -- that is chocked full of magical energies and ancient High Elf beauty. This makes it a target for Dark Elves who want to twist and malign those energies, the Greenskins so they can smash all the pretty stuff and the Chaos so they can, well, bring chaos to everything in sight we suppose.

There's actually quite a bit (actually, more like tons) of background lore in the zone overview of Saphery. We've noticed for some time now that a lot of structure designs in Warhammer Online are very, very tall. However it looks like High Elf architecture trumps all other height-imbued buildings, but that makes sense since High Elves are all about being tall and uppity. Oh, we're digging the blue-leafed trees as well.

There's always a draw to the Elven races in MMOs, especially when they've got some seriously wicked personality. So when we saw this article we had to jump in head first and absorb all the information from within its gooey bowels. It's a long read, but we've got the skinny for your Warhammer Online needs -- including lore and class information. Be warned though, we may ramble on a bit about Shadow Warriors and how cool they're starting to sound.

Those looking to read some interesting lore concerning a PQ boss that Order players will face in the Dark Elf lands look no further. Well, we're sure that there aren't many of you who have been specifically looking to read something like that, but maybe you just haven't realized you want to. In fact, if you look around the Warhammer Online website you'll find quite a few little pockets of knowledge that you might have never realized you wanted to know.

The November edition of the Warhammer Online newsletter has been mailed out to all the eager WAAUGH fans out there, and it's a doozy. Building on the most recent Beta Updates, the dev team lets loose with a huge pile of goodies. Highlights include:

• Mounts! Aside from the handsome porcine steed above (a Greenskin favorite), they have images up for an Ale-powered Dwarven carriage, felsteeds for Chaos riders, and beautiful beasts for the Elves and Empire.
• A lengthy screed on the mysterious Tome of Knowledge. Their article runs down what you're like to see in the book, and what kinds of tales it will record for your own character.
• A Paul Barnett special presentation on the Dark Elf Sorceress ... and Sorcerer! Yes, boy and girl evil mages. As Paul puts it, "They're both emo, and they both live forever!"
  
• A first look at work on a new Warhammer cinematic trailer (you know, since you're probably tired of the first one).
• An in-depth look at the High Elf Archmage class.
• An overview of the Shadowlands zone, an elven area.
• A look at another Public Quest! My favorite idea from the game, as of yet. They run down the IronClad confrontation with King Byrrnoth Grundadrakk.
• One of the always-enjoyable animated game design presentations, this one detailing major changes to the Careers and RvR systems.
• The video of the month walks us deep into the Inevitable City, the capital of the followers of Chaos.
• A bunch of other delights, like Paul's Video Diaries, a Grab Bag update, and another Beta Journal Entry.

There's a ton more stuff exclusive to the Newsletter. This is my not-so-subtle way of saying you really should be signed up to get it. Go check it out!