During the festival that is SOE Live, the Dragon’s Prophet team revealed that the full launch of the game will be on September 18, 2013; but what comes with such a monumental digital event?
A Brave New Zone
Senior Producer Todd Carson gave us a sneak peek at the new zone, Inartia, which will reside in the northern area of Wintertide, the most recent expansion for Dragon’s Prophet. Inartia will offer new antagonists, three new dungeons, new dragons and plenty of new and exciting quests. This will also pop the level cap up to 80, and potentially reset some of your stat points.
The new zone will have a similar geographic feel as Wintertide’s snowy surroundings. However, as you venture north into Inartia, the snow will begin to melt, revealing the ruins of the once sprawling palace of a powerful fire dragon.
Along with the new zone comes what everyone wants and needs: new enemies. One of the highlighted enemies are robot-like automatons. A faction of goblins that reside in Inartia maintains the hulking metal constructs; it wasn’t revealed how the goblins will react to your presence, but I’m thinking it probably won’t be with a favorable reception.
Of course, you’ll be able to battle and capture plenty of new dragons, including two new ancient dragons. While it was confirmed that there will definitely be two, only one was revealed: Scarlett Bloom.
**Nagafen of EQ fame will be making an appearance in Dragon’s Prophet.**
PVP
PVP will finally be launching when Dragon’s Prophet gets out of beta. PVP, an integral part of any MMO will require guilds to form alliances and capture what the developers are calling “Frontiers,” which reside in the floating islands on which houses can be purchased.
When the guilds capture the Frontier they will then don the title of “Overlord” of the area. Following their ascendance to Overlords the alliance will be charged with defending the Frontier from other alliances by using the omnipotent power to spawn NPCs to fight, in addition to other defenses, like catapults.
The Frontiers will also act as a sort of hub for the alliance that captured them. It was describes as being an area for the guilds to get together and just hang out.
Take to the Skies
A highlight of the reveal was the confirmation of aerial combat. Anyone that plays the game knows that there is a hotbar on the bottom of the screen while piloting a dragon. As of this moment the only skill in there makes the dragon sprint for a period of time, but hopefully soon players will be able to fill that up with some cool skills and spells.
**A portion of Inartia that should remind everyone of The Lord of the Rings.**
Get Ready To Raid
Raids will also show up shortly after the launch of the new zone. We haven’t heard too much about this yet, but it was confirmed that there would be 12 to 20 players. It is respected to release in October or November.
You Won’t Need to Be THAT Charismatic (Anymore)
A pivotal point of Dragon’s Prophet is capturing and training dragons. As of now, the best way to boost your skill in this is to spec your character with charisma, forcing you to sacrifice dozens of points to keep up with the feisty beasts. But worry not, for this will soon be no more!
A new stat will soon be available on certain pieces of armor (mostly accessories though) that will influence your ability to interact and capture dragons. I don’t yet know what the name of the stat is, or exactly what else it will influence, but I’m sure many players will be happy that they can amp up the power on their heroes and still capture dragons.
Be sure to keep it locked to GameSkinny as I continue to cover SOE Live 2013, including coverage on EverQuest Next and PlanetSide 2.
What are you most excited to explore when Dragon’s Prophet finally launches? Is it the PVP, or the sprawling new zone to explore? Sound off in the comments down below and maybe I’ll let you join me in my heroic siege on an enemy Frontier!
