Classy as in elite specs, that is. Yes, Guild Wars 2 fully revealed its first three End of Dragons elite specs this week, making fans of the Mesmer, Necro, and Guardian happy. Or not happy; it’s really hard to tell with GW2 players.
Meanwhile, Astellia Online threw in the towel, Blade & Soul set a September 8th date for its UE4 upgrade, and we got a peek into Ship of Heroes. Oh yeah, and Blizzard is still on fire. Sorry, WoW fans.
Read on to catch up with the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions today as every Sunday (since 2010!) in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Guild Wars 2 reveals the Guardian’s new elite spec, Willbender, and new Virtuoso and Harbinger details - [AL:GW2]We've been buzzing all week over the impending reveal of Guild Wars 2 first three elite specs from End of Dragons. Technically, we already have some glimpses of the first…
Vague Patch Notes: The lesson hidden in the Astellia shutdown - A couple years ago, an MMO launched named Astellia. It was fine. It wasn't bad. It wasn't good. It was just fine. It was perfectly acceptable as a buy-to-play game,…
WoW Factor: What do changes in Blizzard management mean for World of Warcraft? - Blizzard is going through some changes at the moment. This is a good thing, as Blizzard has made it clear that it is a gigantic open sewer long filled with…
Blizzard workers address the drawbacks of boycotts, gamers lament WoW’s deep decline - Ever since California filed a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against Activision-Blizzard in July, the industry has been appalled, but it's also been squabbling over what exactly to do. And…
Into the Super-verse: First impressions of Ship of Heroes’ mission beta - With other City of Heroes spiritual successors lagging behind in development, the weight of our hope for the future of superhero MMOs lays upon the shoulders of Ship of Heroes.…
Blizzard apparently ousted three more key devs, including Diablo IV’s game director - Kotaku is reporting that Blizzard has parted way with several more high-profile developers this week: Luis Barriga was game director on Diablo IV, while Jonathan LeCraft and Jesse McCree were…
Lord of the Rings Online hopes to start rolling out monetization changes in the next year - One of the longstanding criticisms of Lord of the Rings Online revolves around the game's antiquated and frankly expensive business model. We found out earlier this summer that SSG is…
Overwatch League loses more sponsors as workers expose Activision-Blizzard’s toxic culture - The fallout from the sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against Activision-Blizzard just keeps on dropping. Yesterday, more sponsors of the Overwatch League pulled support from the esports giant. Kellogg told…
Blade & Soul is getting its Unreal Engine 4 upgrade on September 8 - It's time for Blade & Soul to look better with the game's upcoming engine upgrade to Unreal Engine 4. That feels like it's been something that's been "coming soon" for…
EA fires Apex Legends lead designer over past sexist and racist remarks - Daniel Klein, a lead game designer on the battle royale shooter Apex Legends, has been fired from his position by Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment as a result of sexist…
LOTRO Legendarium: Exploring Lord of the Rings Online’s choose-your-own-ruleset - Earlier this summer when Lord of the Rings Online kicked off its second batch of progression servers -- the slow Treebeard and speedy Shadowfax rulesets -- I wasn't on board…
Nexon CEO blasts crunch and the ‘charade of launch timing’ - It's Friday, which means it's time to play one of my favorite weekend games: Check out what a top-tier gaming executive is saying about the industry. Today's subject is Nexon…
ZeniMax goes into detail on Elder Scrolls Online’s latest graphics upgrades - If you haven't heard this already, Elder Scrolls Online is about to roll out some very nice graphical and performance upgrades to both its console and PC editions when its…
New World kicks off the Tales of Aeturnum series with the Angry Earth - It's going to be a little longer until you get to try out New World, but the development team is doing its bets to keep you entertained with a new…
Elyon talks up its skill system ahead of the MMORPG’s second closed beta test - Skills. Skills skills skills skills skills. Skills for kills and thrills. Skills that go boom. Skills that go zippity-zappy. Skills that don't have any actual visual effects but provide boons…
Krafton’s IPO launch didn’t go to plan thanks to China and Tencent - Yesterday was supposed to be a huge day for Krafton, the South Korean gaming giant behind everything from TERA to PUBG, as it launched its initial public offering. As GIbiz…
No Man’s Sky hits five years with a ‘stronger player base,’ teases next update - Five years ago, No Man's Sky was the eye of a nerdstorm of unbelievable proportions. The highly anticipated title launched with many of its promised features missing and bugs abounding.…
Astellia Royal has announced its sunset now too after less than a year online - Earlier this week, we passed along the sad but not unexpected news that Astellia Online, which had dwindled in playerbase and seen its forums overrun by spammers, was planning a…
$40M of Nexon’s $100M bitcoin investment poofed in the last four months - So Nexon's had an interesting financial quarter. Its revenues for Q2 were down quarter over quarter, in line with expectations. Why? Well, it turns out to be several reasons. First,…
Perfect Ten: MMORPGs that would actually benefit from a Classic server - Here's the thing about having a classic server for a lot of MMORPGs: It doesn't actually do much. In order for a classic server to really make a lot of…
Blizzard denies rumor that Overwatch League will take year-long hiatus after current season - If you're still a big fan of Overwatch and the competitive Overwatch League, we may have some bad news for you. A rumor being reported now by GGRecon is that…
Activision-Blizzard shareholder group blasts response to scandal, demands board reshuffle - There's already a would-be class-action lawsuit from shareholders against Activision-Blizzard alleging that the company withheld important information about its legal turmoil, constituting fraud against investors. But even shareholders not yet…
Guild Wars 2 confirms End of Dragons’ Necromancer elite is the Harbinger - Speculation has run rampant over the two elite specs that ArenaNet has been teasing ever since its Guild Wars 2 End of Dragons reveal in July. We thought we'd have…
Lineage II’s casual-friendly edition launches today - How about a beefy MMO launch to spice up your Wednesday? That's exactly what Lineage II is providing, as the game is pushing out a brand-new version that's specifically tailored…
Galaxies of Eden is a new sandbox MMORPG with all the Star Wars Galaxies trappings - So here's a new MMO that just landed in our inbox: It's called Galaxies of Eden, and studio MIR Cybernetics Corporation is billing it as an Unreal Engine "social sandbox"…
Choose My Adventure: A sample platter of classes and a taste of Geode boredom in Trove - You know what the problem is with Trove in the beginning? It just throws so much stuff at you that when you do something else that feels slow by comparison,…
Astellia Online has now officially announced an October 29 sunset - Yesterday afternoon, the MMO community raised a collective eyebrow at the realization that Astellia Online and Astellia Royal had vanished from Steam without so much as a word. Further digging provided…
Voidtrain is a survival sandbox where players build an interdimensional train and explore islands by rail - Looking through the description of Voidtrain and watching video footage, the closest I can come to in terms of a summary is that it looks a bit like Worlds Adrift…
Fight or Kite: Crowfall’s latest release brings RvR and ‘pop-up PvP’ to the forefront - It’s been about a month since the release of Crowfall, and the team at ArtCraft hasn’t let off the gas yet. This past week we saw the completion of the…
Massively on the Go: Niantic’s response to Pokemon Go’s community is painfully deficient - Well, the timing of my last Pokemon Go article on the release of the ill-timed spin/interaction nerf was interesting in that it coincided with what felt like a last-minute, 24-hour boycott of…
Wisdom of Nym: A letter to new players and old hands in Final Fantasy XIV - The population surge in Final Fantasy XIV must be stopping. It absolutely must be nearly over at this point or already over. It absolutely cannot be filled with surging population…
Lord of the Rings Online leak outlines legendary item revamp - Many Lord of the Rings Online players would finger the game's outdated, obtuse, and convoluted legendary item system as the biggest sore spot. And despite the studio making noise about…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 334: New World’s fourth delay
Battle Bards Episode 199: World of Warcraft tavern tunes
The Stream Team: Firing up the transdimensional steam engine of Voidtrain early access
The Stream Team: Further pirating life in the Sea of Thieves
The Stream Team: Live first impressions of Bless Unleashed on PC
Every week, get caught up on the MMO genre’s latest news and Massively OP’s best content in our MMO Week in Review! Want more roundups of content? Try Friday’s Betawatch for MMO testing highlights, Saturday’s Make My MMO for MMO crowdfunding updates, and Sunday’s The MOP Up, which mops up all the bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.
