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After our explanation of why gems are an issue in Age of Conan, the next thing to look for was a nerf, and probably quite a big one. It was with very little surprise, then, that we took a look at the notes for the latest patch to go to Testlive this morning and saw this lurking among them: 'Reduced the bonuses granted by all Invulnerability, Evade, Fatality, Offhand Chance, and Damage gems by a significant amount.'

Just how significant is 'significant'? Poster Threeze from the AoC forums has kindly put together a reference chart. As you can see, that is some epic nerfing. +8.9% one-handed damage down to +0.5% one-handed damage? The coders at Funcom are not messing about here. While bearing in mind that this is only a Testlive patch and isn't guaranteed to go live, it would solve the issue of extreme gem-powered damage in PvP. And judging by the rest of the patch notes, addressing PvP is a major priority.

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	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

If you've not yet reached level 40 in Age of Conan, you could be forgiven for not knowing a single thing about gems or gemcutting. There's no reason why you should; gems don't even drop before level 40. But gems are, right now, one of the most controversial subjects in AoC to date. There are even mutterings that the PvP patch shouldn't go live until gems are properly dealt with somehow. So what's the fuss about?

Here's the short version. Gems are a way to add extra magical effects to crafted items. They drop from foes in a raw state, and can be crafted (cut into a usable form) by characters who have the appropriate skill and equipment. They can then be socketed into player-crafted items, giving bonuses and other effects. On the face of it, this is a pretty swish crafting system, allowing for customizability and a personal touch. There are serious issues with it, however.

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	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

This morning sees the arrival of one of the larger patches for Age of Conan. To get the bad news out of the way first: the new PvP changes, including the fugitive system, PvP XP and PvP gear, aren't in yet. They are still in testing over on the Testlive Server, so interested players can experience the system first-hand and give feedback.

Changes that have gone live include revamps to several dungeons including the Pyramid of the Ancients, revised resource collecting areas, and an almost complete fix to the female versus male attack speed issue. The patch also includes changes to looting, with all green and blue drops now being either Bind on Pickup or Bind on Equip. This particular change has caused mixed reactions among the players.

A fairly severe rebalancing of gems is also causing some grief, with invulnerability gems revealed to have been overpowered all along by accident. Another extremely significant change is the adjustment to drops from epic bosses, notably those in the Field of the Dead and Cannibal Caves, which reportedly now drop around 5 silver instead of 30, making them nigh-on worthless for gold farmers.

There's no suggestion of when the PvP patch will go live, but further testing is obviously necessary. Unless it somehow goes live later today, which is frankly unlikely, this will place the PvP patch outside Funcom's revised estimate of July.

Details have now emerged of the Age of Conan changes announced yesterday, and a new patch is currently in testing over on Testlive. As promised, two of the popular AoC dungeons - Pyramid of the Ancients and Toirdealbach's Tomb - have been revamped. The latter has had its level shifted to 46-48, though no other changes are mentioned apart from a concomitant shift to loot levels.

Meanwhile, the changes to the Pyramid look much more interesting: 'New Quests have been added to enhance your questing experience. Bosses have been upgraded to present a challenge to solo (or small groups) of players. Pay careful attention to the items they drop - they could be the key to defeating more challenging enemies.' The Pyramid is a very popular questing area already, so more quests to do are always welcome.

The biggest uproar on Testlive comes from a major change to gems, which has drawn so much comment that the lead item designer has come forth to explain it in detail. Funcom also may be coming down on the gold farmers. We're seeing reports from Testlive that drops from grey bosses have been severely nerfed, with bosses that used to drop 18-30 silver now dropping 3-5.

At least a few people will be confused when opening their Age of Conan patcher to see that there is some downtime scheduled for today, after having the now-weekly patch take place yesterday. Today's downtime could be considered an "emergency patch" of sorts, as it is intended to correct an issue that arose from yesterday's update.

The offending bug causes certain socketed items to lose their sockets -- we are assured, however, that any socketed gems are still intact, and will reappear when the problem is fixed. The blanket figure of "5 hours" has been given for the downtime, which will commence at 7AM EDT on US servers, but community manager Famine has stated that it will likely be closer to 1 or 2 hours. The patch has already been deployed to the European servers, and their downtime was roughly 3 and a half hours going by this thread.

The building of a character in World of Warcraft can be just as painful as balancing a budget by hand without a spreadsheet. The number-crunching side of the game where you have to figure out hit ratings and mana regeneration rates and dodge percentages is something that few people can say they really enjoy. This is especially true when you are nearing the end-game in WoW and you can't just count on your fingers anymore. What if there was a tool that let you play "what if" games with your character (or your planned character) to see how different combinations of gear, talent points, gems, enchants, and even buffs would affect your character? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that day is here.

Chardev.org is not only a fantastic web application, it also has a gorgeous user interface that is simple to use. You can either build a character from scratch or import your existing character from the Armory. Once you've made it that far, it's as simple as pointing-and-clicking to swap out gear, switch gems, redistribute talent points and add or remove buff effects. The display of thirty-five essential statistics remains fixed on the left side of your screen during most phases of editing process. At the present time, it only supports gear from level thirty and up but that's no real drawback. There are way too many customization options on this site to describe every one. You really need to experience it for yourself.

The Chardev site is a dream-come-true for people who enjoy playing with numbers, but hate doing the math. Check it out!

Ten Ton Hammer has been giving us the lowdown on all the shiny new gear LotRO players can acquire in The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu, the new raid instance Turbine added to the game in the Book 11 update. First they listed the coin rewards. Second, it was the gem rewards for Guardians and Champions. They've just launched part three and this time they're covering all the sweetness Minstrels and Lore-masters can acquire with the elusive gems that drop in the instance.

Lore-masters can get a new armor set awesomely and appropriately called "The Elder Days," which gives mad stat boosts as well as some shadow damage mitigation. Minstrels can gather up the pieces of a suit of armor called the "Armour of the Wandering Bard," which provides similarly sweet stat bonuses and tactical critical modifiers. There are new weapons for both classes as well.

It's excellent gear, and all this on top of all the other lovin' Minstrels and Lore-masters got in Book 11. We'll let you know when part four of the guide hits the streets.

The second part of TenTonHammer's Lord of the Rings Online loot guide has been posted. Part one had a look at rift-coins and the rewards associated with them, but now we're getting to the really good stuff -- gems. Gems can be handed in for class-specific items, both armor and weapons. However, as each gem will be required by every class, expect to be raiding a while before you've finished your set.

This chapter of the guide details the loot that Guardians and Champions can look forward to. The guide shows the stats on each piece, and lists the set bonuses gained by wearing more of the pieces at once. There is also a table that shows which bosses drop which gems, and noted here is the fact that one of the bosses (as of the writing of the guide) is not giving up his gem.

The bugged encounter should yield a Dazzling Emerald, and the fact that he isn't translates into the shoulder pieces from each set currently being unavailable. No doubt, as reports are being sent in about the issue, it will be fixed soon enough. Click the related story to get a list of the item sets for Guardians and Champions, and we will keep an eye out for the next installment, which will cover another handful of classes.