Lord Barrius
Member
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Have you ever wanted to be a knight? I have. Oddly enough, while I can’t remember a lot of my Halloween costumes, I do recall one night in which I dressed up with an adorable little knight’s helmet and breastplate, and went around defeating evil and saving princesses....and getting candy, of course. Okay, so maybe it was just getting candy, but I remember having so much fun with it! I ended up going to a high school whose mascot was a knight, as well. There, my school embraced the knightly ideals and sought to raise gentlemen. And they succeeded with most of us, but to be fair to them, I’m not easy to deal with. ;) That short bit of my life’s history may seem out of place for an AdventureQuest Design Note post, but it’s there to help explain why it is that I’ve always felt a sort of link to knights. That fondness of knighthood never really left me, and I always loved the romanticized stories of medieval knights slaying dragons and rescuing damsels. So naturally, when it was pointed out how neglected the poor Knight Class was in AQ, I knew it was only fitting for me to take on the task of making Knight into the class it deserved to be. The task was a daunting one. With Wizard having NINE armors to cover all of the elements, I knew that making a decent warrior armor to pair up against that would be a difficult task. Especially given the original class’s skills, which were generally pretty weak and didn’t really provide either good defense OR good offense. I think you’ll certainly find it more useful than ever before. The class’s skill roster has been cleaned out entirely to make room for new skills that grant you some tactical offensive capabilities as well as superior defense for the times when you need to dig in deep and resist whatever the foe can throw at you. There was also the matter of the quest. In the original Knight Class, you meet up with Tathlin, a knight of Rennd, and train against other knights to become the very best, like no one ever was. Then you have to trek over to some ruins to beat the heck out of an evil potion-stealing demoness, and poof, you’re done. It’s very abrupt, very generic, and doesn’t have much of a knightly feel, does it? It lacks the epic feel that comes with the title of “Knight”. Plus, you have no idea where Rennd is, or what significance it holds. I decided that the best way to fix this would be to give the entire class quest a complete re-write. Tell me how this sounds to you....this is an actual story synopsis, taken straight from the class quest! Long ago, Lore had many powerful kingdoms that all lived in harmony...the mightiest being the kingdom of Rennd. But that peace was shattered one day with the rise of a new kingdom, the kingdom of Stormfallen. It is said that the demons emerged from deep within Heck and forged Stormfallen to gain a foothold in Lore. The mighty demon queen of Stormfallen, Tyranna, and her demonic hordes sought to conquer Lore and subvert it. Stormfallen’s legions pushed forward, conquering many kingdoms and weakening many others. But in order to pass into the East, to reach the city of Battleon and truly conquer the continent....they had to pass through Rennd. Rennd, a kingdom hundreds of years old, stood tall and pushed back their hordes, fighting with an intensity that the demons could not match. But Rennd, the last great kingdom in the West, has grown weaker over time. And should we fall, all of Lore could be swept away.... While many kingdoms fell into obscurity from the ravages of war, two others still stand strong to aid us. One of them is the kingdom of Deren, ruled by King Tralin. When they heard of Rennd’s plight, they sent their knights to fight at our side. The other is fairly young, born from the ashes of old Granemor. A fierce fighting force raised to defend Granemor from the mutant menace. The ‘Emoran Knights have joined in the war effort against the demonic forces of Stormfallen. And one day, when you are ready, you will be able to choose which of these great kingdoms you wish to serve. But you have much to learn about the basics of Knighthood before that day comes. Sound a bit more like the kind of story you’d want to sign up for? I figured as much! This post may be long, but I assure you, it’s only the beginning of all the amazing things we have planned for you with the Knight class! Starting this summer, you will experience the new Knight class as you never have before, in one of the biggest multi-week releases that we have ever done in this game’s history! You'll experience five brand new storylines and five amazing armors! You'll get to meet some new faces and some old, and I have every hope that you're going to absolutely love it! For now, I’ll leave you with this: a preview of Hollow’s majestic work on the training armor! And remember, this is just one of the armors....you still haven't even gotten to see what the kingdom armors look like yet! I'll post again some time this summer with more teasers and goodies!
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