Loong

So tried Loong this week and kinda don't know what to think about it. The login screen actually looks amazing.



To bad the loading screen was absolutely horrid. They had to change it within a day of game launching from to many people complaining. (it was a girl cosplaying with a sword)

The game in general was decent and the graphics were good. I think they even had set PVP events or something about capture towns and such that kept announcing.

The game had many features I usually look forward to, but for some reason the graphics don't come together and is turning me off.

I mean the backgrounds look amazing:


Chars look good too:


Problem in city and stuff together, everything looks out of place. The game is also been made extremely simple so when I hit a wall where I didn't know where to go I kinda stopped and never started again.

Either way I don't know what is really wrong with it, since it has most the features I wanted, just kinda didn't come together correctly.

~Pearz

From the depths of despair rises the dragon?


So for any others of you that attempted to play Forsaken World yesterday, you were in for a big surprise. Basically signing up early and the beta keys do not guarantee you into the first phase of CB.
So this has lost the meaning of "CB":
CB originally meant not everyone could play. Hence the "closed" part of it. Elite testers would get selected to post about bugs and such for the game while everyone else waits patiently for an OB to play.
Beta keys were handed out as events so the most diehard fans could get a chance to play it a bit.
With time most games lost this meaning Now CB for games are handed out in the billions and anyone that wants to join a game can easily get one. This is nearly no different from OB except games can now drop OB forever to avoid some liability. (though this is a whole different can of worms)
Now you come to FW, which totally lost the meaning of beta keys. Having a limited number of participants for CB is the original purpose but WHY MAKE USELESS KEYS? You enter a beta key that does nothing except give false hope to players thinking they can play come CB. I mean I was shocked to find I couldn't play yesterday and they beta key meant nothing. This has strayed so far from the original purpose of CBs and Keys. I mean I wouldn't be pissed if they didn't mislead me to believe I could play, mainly the lack of clarification was what hit hard. I was sad for a FULL HOUR staring at other people QQ on forums. So much spam in 1 hour, was pretty funny.

But this morning I came across something that made me happy. Pretty sure no one remembers but roll back 3 months, when I was still anticipating Soul Master I came across another game worth playing, Loong. Apparently the CB started yesterday, can't wait to try it today. (for those that don't know "Loong" sounds exactly like dragon in Chinese hence why game is hugely based on dragons and blog title)

For now Rho is in game and I can't yet and this is news from it:
It has 1 amazing feature like Megaten, no classes, instead your class is more based on skill tree. The jump in the game is real (~yay!)
There is stat points!?!??!?!!? I don't get it but every new age MMO has removed stat points. Why must we simplify things??? I love stat points.
The Quest autowalk system suppose to be really good. Color code the things so you can tell which are NPCs and which are mobs.

This is all what Rho says and I haven't tried it yet, either way, psyched to try this later tonight.

Other note: I rushed to beat Super Robot Taisen Og Saga: Endless Frontier on my DS (wanted to finish before FW came out which I failed to do but had plenty of time when I couldn't play FW)
Really long and fun game. Gotta be really good on the timing of attacks, the random encounters seemed less of a grind this way. Only thing was this game took a long time to play due to large amount of talking and billions of boss fights that each eat like 30 mins. Either way, loved the game though it was filled with fanservice, sigh, heavy Japanese culture game.

Vindictus patch came out early yesterday with introduction of their 3rd character, Evie. Normally I would be jumping for Joy but this is the crappier version of her. She is still mage only at this point. It isn't until later she is able to be a scythe user with a teleport for a dodge. Played her a bit to know I prefer Fiona over a have baked mage D:

Don't know why I keep posting about FF14 even though I didn't even try the beta, but since all eyes are watching and waiting for it to crash and burn, here:




That is their server stats for players logging in per day. Chunked off 18% of their player base in 20 days and during this time period they even extended the free trial period too. ~tsk tsk

~Pearz

So almost a week since last update

So played Iris for quite some time. In the end I realized that my initial choice for Pearz was the best. If I play Iris in Open beta, I will be a elf adventurer. My main toon for Iris made it to level 35 gladiator. Basically I stopped when GMs started handing out level 35 + 10 weapons to players. I was 1 of the few people that got one but it totally skews the balance of PVP. No point leveling my "main" character up to be wiped so done Iris for now. Got a pretty good grasp of all the gameplay stuff now.

For now, Forsaken World comes out on Wednesday. Looks decent and I would want to be a god (since I am already one XD) in that game.

Decided for the time between Iris and FW I ave picked up Super Robot Taisen Og Saga: Endless Frontier. Getting my ass kicked by this game but it is fun.

Side note: learned that Blizzcon happened this weekend. Showing Blizzard Dota (another one enters the power struggle for Dota fans) which I probably won't try.

The bigger news is the Diablo 3 news. With all the videos they showed, it makes me think the game is pretty much complete. Has got me thinking how badly I want to play D3. D3 might actually be a reality soon and not just a dream like every other Blizzard game........... unless were getting our hopes up again...............

~Pearz

First Look at Iris Online

So, it has been a couple of days since I started Iris, and I think I'm ready. Currently, I am a lv30 Guardian (just job changed). I am running under the name Phaze, since my first character was Pearz. I didn't like the class and there is a 24-hour deletion time. The cap is lv40, so I am reasonably close to it. If I buckle down and grind, then maybe it'll take another 2-3 days.

Pros:


Lots of Customization
This is what my skill tree looks like right now, for my first class' skills. (The second tree would be under the Guardian tab.)


Notice how there are four sections. Each class is like this; one tree for each weapon type of the class, and then one tree with passive stuff (the far right). Notice that even within the 2hand tree, I'm missing a lot of skills. It would take at least 2x the points to get the rest of the skills in that tree, not to mention saving a hell of a lot more points for my Class 2 skills. Basically, every class is like this. You're sporting three races with two classes for each race, making a total of six base classes. Each base class is split again, depending on your weapon choice, making fourteen classes (three melee weapons, two mage weapons, and two archer weapons).

On top of this huge customization, they have one feature that EVERY GAME should have. They have an NPC that lets you put your skill points into a template to pre-make your build. Rho, Aaro and I have all spent hours standing in front of this NPC, putting in points to see all the skills and our own various builds. Of course, at the moment, I've decided to wing it; it's CB, anyways.

Basically, the customization is huge for this game.

Graphics
This is more a personal preference, but I love the graphics. Here is my toon right now:




The Map
The map is like the Cloud 9's map. You can just click a quest you have and it will highlight where the mobs you need to kill are. You will never be lost for where to go to finish your quest. There's nothing like making life easier.

The PVP
I think this game has a nice blend of PVP. It's broken up into two types. One type I haven't tried yet is an Open PK map, which is 30+. The map isn't mandatory, but you could get your PVP action in there. The other option for PVP, which you can't miss, comes in two forms: Death Match and Flag Match (it's "capture the flag"). These matches happen once per hour (one of each),  and you get a warning 5min before the match when it's approaching. When the time comes, a pop-up shows up on every player's screen and you can join it from anywhere; when the match is over, you're sent back to a safe zone for the map you were one.

These matches give you points towards your Element (there are four elements to pick, which is basically a faction for your PVP), wherein you can buy some new gear and other items.

I love how they meld the PVP in nicely so you won't get those PVE people QQing about forced PVP, but also integrate it enough so that people will want to do it. The PVP gear isn't game-breaking and only marginally better than drops outside.

I'm really liking the PVP system here.

Upgrading System
For now, I list this as a pro since the upgrading seems to be linear. This is a big deal, since it means that you can't cash shop your way to 10 times your damage. I do not know much more about this, other than how-to basics.

Teaming
For all of us people that hate talking to people directly to find a team (or don't have guild), there is a nifty button right on the side to find a team. You can search for level range, and even see what type of classes they want. On top of that, this game encourages teaming. The difference between one person (100% EXP) and two people is tiny. You still gain 85% of the EXP with two people, which makes it a lot faster to level by teaming. I haven't checked EXP values of more players yet.


Cons:


The Grind
In general, the grind isn't that slow; the problem is that it is more mindless. All the quests are pretty much kill X mob Y times, or loot X item from Y mob. Basically, you're just running around killing mobs for no reason and NPCs can magically bestow you experience for that. I personally don't mind this kind of grind, but many do. I just watch something on the side and that way you don't even notice the grind. There are instance dungeons that have a 9-hour reset time, but we have not tried any yet.

The Engine
The engine this game uses is very outdated. Compared to the later games we've been playing, like Vindictus, this thing looks like a dinosaur. For instance, you can jump, but you can't actually jump over anything. The pathing in this game isn't horrid, but it you do hit some invisible walls occasionally. This engine is pretty much like the ones for Grand Fantasia or Domo. It wasn't horrid when Domo came out but, by today's standpoint, it is bad. I mean, Flyff came out before Domo and you could already jump and fly (mind you, that was revolutionary at that time). A game without something simple like a real jump feels kind of wrong now.

Crafting Jobs

I have personally not tried this out yet, but there are three jobs: Alchemy, Card Crafting and Chef. Only one of us have tried this, as Rho picked up Card Crafting. She says it's brutal to level. There's nothing else I know about this, though. Rho could just be doing it wrong. XD

O GOD Bugs! Squish'em
It is the first CB, but there are bugs EVERYWHERE. For the first three days, the PVP match was bugged and would crash everyone. The localization translations are bad, with strange sentences everywhere. Hopefully, they will be able to fix most of these bugs. They were pretty speedy on fixing the bug for the PVP matches; if only they could fix the patcher. The patcher likes to randomly re-patch to an older version (that had more bugs), which is annoying.

There are also some other features I haven't mentioned, yet like monster transformation and mounts, but I don't think they have much impact.

Overall:

I think this game, for now, meets the two biggest criteria I have for games: PVP and customization. Rho won't stop complaining about the outdated engine. I personally think it is fine. I guess the biggest factor, like any F2P MMO, comes down to the cash shop. How game-breaking will it be? Hopefully, they will be decent, like Allods since that's hosted by Gpotato too.

~Pearz

Dynasty Warriors Online and stuff

So Vind OB has been back up for a couple days. Problem is that they aren't doing a wipe from before. Some players have amassed millions of gold leaving the economy extremely inflated atm. No huge deal but seems that Vind lags like hell for me now. Not server lag, but my own computer lag. Couldn't keep up for some reason even on minimum settings. Might have tweaked code too much, making it eat more resources. Either way, having been playing that much.

I also spent time retagging most the older posts. Put the Megaten tag back on a lot of the old posts. Just need to go over 1 more time to double check i got everything. Stupid blog housework.

After many grueling attempts at the new FF game for DS (4 heroes of light) I finally beat it. Gotta say it was a pretty good game, been a while since they tried to make games a bit more challenging. Had to die multiple times to beat it.

Finally got around to finishing 1 episode of every 1 of the new animes. My person fall lineup (more for my own reference so I can remember):
Tuesdays: Glee
Thursday: Big Bang Theory, How I met your Mother, The Office
Saturday: MM!
Sunday: Bakuman, Oreimo, Psychic Detective Yakumo

So tried Dynasty warriors Online. Only played for a good 15-20 mins before I stopped. 1 Huge problem I had was the camera. Now I generally don't like playing games with a mouse, but I got used to using one lately to HON and play Vind. Problem is that the Camera won't Rotate unless either you stop your character down for a split second. So you can't rotate it around as you keep moving around to fight giving you random stopping. Very annoying. Didn't like the graphics much either, something just didn't click. 1 Thing I did enjoy was that you could pick exactly the hair/eye color you wanted. Don't know why more games don't just give you full spectrum and give you a few preset colors.

Currently lvl 20 in Iris Online. I'll review it later.

~Pearz

Dota 2


So don't know how many people that play HoN/DotA/LoL come to my blog but it was said quite some time that Icefrog was working with Steam to further expand Dota. Yestarday, it was finally announced that Steam would be hosting Dota 2 slated to come out next year.

Now since this post is dedicated purely to Dota, (considered adding in random stuff but I won't) lead me on a trip down memory lane. Going to be a nice long read that most people will find boring but owelz. I have time to write this at work right now. I'll start with my own brief biography of my life of Dota.

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I still remember my first Dota match ever. I don't even remember what Hero my friend was using but being Rho and my first match, he let us 2 v 1 him in Dota. I had picked Anti-mage for being the model using demon hunter that looked kool, while Rho picked Vengeful spirit being the hero a the top corner of 1 of the taverns. Even 2 v 1, we got slaughtered since we had no clue what we were doing. It only took 1 game though to be addicted. My first hero me going WTF about was Lina Inverse, The slayer. She having all these crazy nukes was WTF for me. From their, my next hero was Nerubian Assassin. He could go invisible and come out with all these nukes. Looking back, typical nub heroes for players with no skill *piff*. After this came the huge phase of swapping from hero to hero trying them all out and never finding one that really stuck. Now the biggest spur for my blast from the Dota past comes from my first real hero I could say took some skill that I liked and dominated with and was starting to consider myself a decent player. Nevermore, the shadow Fiend. He had amazing nukes that took skill to land, and some insane damage from his skills. Even now I play him as his HoN reincarnation, Soul Stealer.

Now my 2nd hero I moved to that I remember the most was Morphling. I really loved him and they even have him on 1 of the posters released for Dota 2.
He was so good. Changing to exactly what you need for the fight. An extremely versatile hero that even had a nice nuke, a stun and an escape move. He was the best. Though all good things come to an end, it wasn't long after discovering him that he was deemed too good and nerfed.

Now comes to my final hero of Dota that was unshaken-ably my best and favorite hero even now, the Nerubian Weaver. Weaving in and out of the fight, perfect escape and chase move. Late game potential without the fear of death early game with his ult and run skill. The perfect mix of pure ownage. If only HoN would import him over.

Now starts my HoN phase. Now during my whole time in Dota (maybe not near the end) I played purely EM(easy mode or short mode) games. This is deemed by my standard and general Dota standard as broken and for nubs. (Though thats a whole new can of worms of discussion that would last few pages) With start of Hon, I struggled with the transition from em to non-EM games. Just simply lowering the free gold you gain and exp by a bit and the whole game changed drastically. I look back now on my EM days and just shake my head, I was clearly nub. Nothing major for heroes, I pretty much run the same top heroes as I did when I first started HoN, Moon Queen and Dark Lady. Both heroes top my list and even in a horrible team I shine through with these heroes.
Side Story: Used to play Moon Queen alot with maphack abuse on Dota.
Only noteable thing about HoN was we kind of ran a set team for a couple months of: Me, Rho, JonGhost (the Aeria gamesage, he was godly at playing HoN), Jolt (the GM from Megaten, which told us many insider things of MT), and Kiroshima (or sometimes another person I forgot. Either way they were both horrid and fed XD Kiroshima still plays HoN and is much better) We won alot back then running a set team even with a feed since Jon would run around owning, I would play the carry in case things drew out, Rho had the support, and Jolt flipped around with int and sometimes carry, Kiro would do whatever XD.

I can say though, comparing my skill when I was in that set team to now, I think I improved alot due to using the TSR mod. Giving a numerical comparison with my peers made me buckle down and focus on always doing good rather then just killing and getting random nice games where I dominate.

Thus ends my journey though the past.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Now first let me start off by bashing the fact of anyone comparing LoL to Dota, and much stupider to think that Dota 2 will instantly end HoN and LoL like that article writers title.

1) HoN and Dota are pretty much the same with same map and even a larege sum of the same heroes. LoL on other hand is nothing like Dota. It lacks even fundamental mechanics like denying or losing gold on death. Many fundamental things were removed to shift focus to team fights and removed many elements elsewhere. Examples like emphasis on laning phase, ganking, denying exp, and juking through woods. Learn basics of how game works is fine, but as a player that played both HoN and LoL, Hon Moving to LoL takes 1-2 matches to figure ropes. LoL moving to HoN would take minimum of a week, closer to month to even have any semblance of looking decent. Many more months if you want to be pro which many don't reach.
Tl:DR; LoL and Dota is completely different.

2) The thought that Dota 2 can snuff out all the competition is absurd. Thats like claiming Starcraft 2 will end all other RTS games which includes another 1 of blizzard franchise, Warcraft. First thing, if Dota 2 is monthly subscription, it is instantly game over. It won't even take off the ground. Players coming from free (Dota), or F2P (LoL), or 1 box cost of 30 dollars (HoN) would never accept paying monthly. The costs would be huge and no one would pay. Even assuming they don't follow that model, what incentive does it have to move players from the HoN community to the Dota one? I mean personally, I paid 30 dollars already for HoN, why would I pay again to play Dota 2 if nothing big is changed?

The Major issue with Dota 2 will be finding a player base. Sure they will have the hardcore Dota fans that won't settle with HoN, but you need to give a reason for people to move. Category 1 would be Dota players still playing Warcraft 3 version. These people are already to cheap to pay 30 dollars for HoN, many won't pay for Dota 2 either, with only a small sum moving.
Category 2 would be LoL players. These won't move since the game is totally different and they play LoL for the different gameplay. Category 3 is HoN players. Since no real large change, many won't move. The conversion from Dota to HoN already fixed the biggest issues like voice chat, maphack, bugs and faulty engine. Only real "new thing will be the AI in Dota 2 which I'll go more deeply in point 3. Category 4 will be random players. Obviosuly these people will flock and try it just cause and can't really account for how many. This and hardcore dota fans will be majority of playerbase which I don't think will compare to LoL or HoNs player base right now. (HoN has a good 20k players online at any point in the day meaning like a good 60-70k people log in daily. Pretty hard to compete with.

3) Now the new features coming with Dota 2 in all the articles about it combined are summed down to these points, voice chat, AI, better graphics, and just more stable platform. Of these, HoN already has all but the AI so that is the "major" point. Now it is said that this AI is suppose to provide a training tutorial which I feel is good way to at least learn ropes. Afterall, the Dota community is by far the most harass community to newcomers in any game out their. People will complain about even the tiniest mistake so walking in not knowing what your doing combined with voice chat means you can hear them scream at you and not just cap locked typing.

The problem with the AI is the 2nd feature. This would actually deter me from playing Dota 2, substituting players that leave game with the AI bot. Now a game like Dota requires way to many on the fly decisions to create an AI for. To know when to juke, when to chase when not to, who to target in fights, which order, waiting for perfect time to initiate or join fight, or when know have ganking sense tingle and run away. just tons and tons of things to program into AI that would impossible task. Like any AI, will be tested thoroughly by players and abused and killed over and over again. Substituting a AI in a match would be worse then running 4 v 5.

Overall even being a fan of Dota and missing many of my favorite heroes from Dota while playing Hon, I would not consider moving to play Dota 2. They would need something amazing to make me want to move over to it. (especially if they use the old Dota hotkey system which would totally screw me over now that I'm used to the HoN skill keyboard map system. I still press some of the Dota hotkeys by instinct for some of the heroes when I'm playing)

TL:DR; Dota 2 will be hardpressed to find a player base without somehow overshadowing HoN.

~Pearz

Iris Online

Iris Online CB slated to come out on Oct 15th.

More stuff this week to try now D: Definitely been waiting on this one for a while. Hope it lives up to my standards.

~Pearz

New MMOs this week

Vindictus OB = Oct 13 (tommorow)
Dynasty warrior online CB = Oct 14th

We(Rho, Aaro and me) will be playing both when it comes out. Vind we willget boat 3 for another area to try out. Dynasty warriors doesn't seem like anything special, maybe it will wow and amaze me but I strongly doubt it.

For future stuff looking forward to:
Forsaken World = CB Oct 27th
Argo Online = CB Dec 28
Iris Online = Fall 2010 (I hope soon)

Also been playing the new FF game for DS, The 4 heroes of light. Must say it is pretty difficult that I'm not used to. Gotta talk to like all the NPCs to learn where to go, and I pretty much had to die to every boss to learn their element to counter it on 2nd try. Pretty fun game XD

So delayed on animes, haven't even watched 1 eps of all the new season lineup yet. All I know is World God only knows is off the list. I hate the voices and the anime seemed to make the overall story shittier.

Final Funny note: FF14 sure getting alot of rage. I wonder how people can really believe a content patch will come weeks from official release. You look at any MMO, that initial content it comes with makes up at least 50% if not more of the content the game ever has before it dies. Most games barely add anything after initial, hard to believe Sqnix will be much different. After all, You don't build half a bridge then open it up saying the rest will be coming very soon, that wouldn't float for anyone and FF is no exception.

~Pearz

FF14




Taken from here
Funny since you watch fighting the rat at start would take sat least 30 secs. He didn't even mention grind. Not to mention Gamespot usually gives like high scores to everything since they get like paid off to do so. Makes me think I should have attempted to try it to review it myself, owelz.

Kinda goes inline with Finella's Hard VS Tedious post.

Just found this review humorous, rare to see Gamespot bash so hard.

~Pearz

sigh sigh

So the new Allods patch hit. Took some time to patch and install but I was finally back in game. The interface and such does look more appealing.

Only major concern is the patch was more a balancing of the classes and nearly no content added.

Though I feel cheated, patched notes ( and RU version notes) told me firewall would get 80% speed reduc when they are in it, this is not true. D:



Only other notable mention was Cody was all "ZOMGZ WATCH YOSUGA NO SORA, SUPER FUNNY SCENE!1!!!!11!" Me not watching even the trailer for it yet, decided to watch it. See if it was another anime worth watching of the new season.

So me unsuspectingly watched this and all I can say is WTF? This was like softcore porn/hentai. I don't even get how it was considered an anime. Usually visual novel animes don't do it this way. And for those wondering, their was no funny scene. The whole thing was super serious and the "main" heroine your introduced is a bitch.
Sorry Cody, your recommendations will now be all rejected.


Last note is something that really happened.
*Rho has just bought FF13 for PS3*
*after some cinematic the game starts, extremely linear with literally 1 path you can walk down on a bridge*
*roughly 15 mins in Rho reaches a fork in the path, 1 is stairs leading off the bridge and other keeps going to a pile of rubble blocking bridge*
Rho: So we can't jump in FF games so clearly the stairs are the way your SUPPOSE to go. I'll check the rubble area then.
*Rho walks towards the rubble and sees this box*
Rho: OMGZ look a box, this is CLEARLY a secret.
*Rho clicks box*

~Would you like to save your Progress?~

At this point me and Aaro can't stop laughing. End of story: Save points are a secret in games :O

And turns out you hop over the rubble, the stairs had a treasure chest for some random item XD

~Pearz

TSR

Finally hit 5.0 TSR, I'm AVERAGE!!!!!!



Next goal, 6.0. God that is going to be far away. Still don't get how 5 is average when most people don't even reach it D:

~Pearz

Legend Of Edda (And Some Random Stuff)

I'll start off with the random stuff before my Legend of Edda review.

1) The subbed version of Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Bladeworks finally came out, after waiting half a year for raws. I really liked the story, but if only they could make it longer. I hope they can do the third universe too, with Saber going rogue. I think 8/10 for this, but you should watch the original anime or it might not make as much sense.

2) So, the new anime have started to air. So far, I'm watching MM (for being funny enough) and Oreimo (though it's borderline too weird for me). Let's see if anything else catches my eye as the week goes on.

3) So, the current list of new MMOs is:
Allods patch = Oct 5th
Dynasty Warriors = Oct 14th
Vindictus OB = Oct 13th
Kitsu Saga = open already, but I don't think it is good enough to even be worth downloading

4) So, I noticed Royce got a community all-star award for Megaten. I'm hopping I can somehow win, too, without even logging in. Go here and nominate me plox. XD If I win, you can have a Loli in a Can.



So, finally, onto the Legend of Edda Review:

I reached level 18 on my Archer. The current cap is level 30.

Pros:

PVP 
This is probably the best feature. They stress PVP with realm vs realm matches every hour, with a message every time it opens up. The Open PK on maps are fine, since they have one non-PK channel if you really want to get out of it. I think it's well-balanced between PVP and PVE.

Lag
Despite having large numbers of players duking it out in the realm vs realm matches, it is perfectly smooth. It's rare to find this, since almost every huge fight suffers from huge lag spikes, so it was surprising to find it lag-free.

Cons:

Lack of customization
There is quite literally none. I thought at first that with skill points, you're build might be different, but then it turned out that you get more than enough points to get pretty much everything. There's no real separator of your level 30 and everyone else's level 30, other than how deep your pockets are.

Grind
It is very, very, very, mind-numbing. If I'm not watching or doing something else, I'll fall asleep like instantly.

Item Mall
For sure the Item Mall will cost a fortune. Just how much cash shop items everyone spams for upgrading will show how much cash shop you're going to need. Basically, this game looks like it will be heavily dependent on the cash shop.

Overall:

The game was fun until I realized that the customization was near zero. It's too bad, since the PVP was very fun. For now, the game is done for me.

Side note: It's the first time I'm using the Megaten tag.

~Pearz

Rain on EDDA

Grade1 RvR results =c




Aaro's first time too, sigh, imba mages.
~*+ Rho