9Dragons

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Anyone playing this? And if so, what server?

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Not that many eh?

Well i'm on Bardo (EU-server) with a Shaolin Monk called ZhengZi if anyone wanna try this game!

For PvP it's:

Good White Clans
Shaolin (Males Only)
Wutang (Chinese Straight Sword Excellence)
League of Beggars (They use drunken monkey style and similar)

Evil Black Clans
Brotherhood of Thieves (axes and stuff)
Sacred Lotus (Women Only)
Heavenly Demon (Demonic with fat Sabres)

[Winnow]

You didn't provide a link or anything!

[Sionistic]

http://www.9dragons.acclaim.com

[Winnow]

How about a review of it?

What's good, what's bad?

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

I thought everyone knew about 9dragons?

Pros:
Free
A Martial Arts MMORPG
Better Quests than Silkroad
Less grindy than Silkroad
Outrageous Martial Arts-moves often seen in teh movies

Cons:
Grindier than WoW at higher lvls.
Beside being a Martial Arts MMORPG with the classic schools of Shaolin, Wu Tang etc, nothing you haven't seen before.
Not supergraphics but it serves it's purpose well.

Kewl War of the 9Dragons-Trailer - "The Iron Fist VS The Divine Sword"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7vV3b_s9dQ&NR=1

Movie of some boss-fights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtoGiZmB10w

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Sacred Flower (Only females are allowed, their tanks fight with sharpened wheels)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=b1AHDSTP758

Wu Tang (Swordplay at it's finest! Using the straight longsword)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y3yxOzej4do

Shaolin (The good of the good, their tanks use polearms, the other classes(healer,hydrid and nuker) use lohan chuan)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=N_kiZQaE7KA

Heavenly Demon (Very popular clan for the players, but it's an evil clan and they use Sabers/Broadswords, so very nasty to people )
http://youtube.com/watch?v=a3KphJa-2DM

League of Drunken Beggars (Drunken style or Staffs!)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SmDs2wWh-BA

Brotherhood of Thieves (Axes and pointy stuff/spears)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DFCYFPWOGtU


Drunken Beggar-Heroine, Shaolin Lohan Monk-Hero, Brotherhood of Thieves-Hero and Sacred Flower-Heroine

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A Sacred Flower-Guild/Band


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Brotherhood of Thieves



Heavenly Demon

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First form


Second form (not as perty)

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JinLong

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[Winnow]

Looks better than WoW! I'll give it a shot soon.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

What's really cool are the leaping and extravagant attacks, just like out o a Foo movie!

If you choose Sacred Flower, Brotherhood of Thieves or Heavenly Demon, you will not group with me (since i am Shaolin), but you will meet me on the Bloody Plains in PvP!

Beggars: higher max hp
Shaolin: higher defense
Wu tang: higher min attack
Thieves: higher defense
Sacred flower: higher dodge
Heavenly demon: higher max attack

The roles and archetypes in each clan are

Tank/Warrior (for Shaolin they are called Luohan Monk)
Healer/Support/Strategy (for Shaolin they are called Diamond Monk)
Nuker/Mage (for Shaolin they are called Exorcist Monk)
Hybrid (for Shaolin they are called Deva Monk)

Warriors/Tanks have strong Physical attack and have High hp.

Healers have the ability to heal people but lack many combat skills.

Mages have the ability to deal damage from afar but have Low hp, High mp and defense.

Hybrids have some skills from all the classes but they have slightly lower hp and mp but have good defense and some of the skills from every class. Jack of all trades master of none.

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Wu Tang
Affiliation: White Clan
Available Weapons: Swords, Bracers, Hands & Feet.
Classes: Blue Dragon, Black Turtle, Red Phoenix, White Tiger.
Description: The Wu-Tang skills are based on the Great Absolute. This is the principle of Yin and Yang, where the universe is in balance but also in motion. Yin swallows Yang but is itself absorbed by Yin. Wu-Tang are also called the Clan of Heavenly Swords. In practice, this means that their skills are in harmony with the principles of nature. Wu-Tang skills emphasize smoothness and flowing moves. But mastering Wu-Tang skills generally takes more time because of the strong emphasis on mastering the basics.


Heavenly Demon
Affiliation: Black Clan
Avaliable weapons: Saber, Hands & Feet, Bracers.
Classes: Blood Demon, Storm Demon, Phantom Demon, Fire Demon.
Description: These are the counterparts of the Wu-Tang; both have chosen to be weapons masters. The Mo-Jiao are also called the Disciples of Evil. They prefer to use the brutal broadsword, with its heavy blade and razor sharp edge. Their style is fast, simple and fatal. The Mo-Jiao believe in the motto that the best form of defense is attack. In fact, they don't care much about defense. They prefer to rely on a strong and brutal attack. As they develop their skills, even normal broadsword fighting skills can have evil chi effects, adding to the potency of their attacks.


League of Beggars
Affiliation: White Clan.
Avaliable weapons: Stave, Hands & Feet, Bracers.
Classes: Vanguard Beggar, Dragon Beggar, Strategy Beggar, Spirit Beggar.
Description: The Gai-Pan are famous for their use of the drunken monkey style. This style originated because of the tough life of a beggar on the streets of ancient China. Their fighting skills are very practical. Training is mostly based around real life activities such as finding food and staying alive! Gai-Pan fighting skills use deception to get opponents off-guard. Since they are a clan of beggars, most of the skills began as real life activities such as begging, snake-hunting (remember it's ancient China), and chasing away stray dogs, before being stylized into a fighting art. Some of the skills like drunken monkey fighting actually require you to drink alcohol before use!


Brotherhood of Thieves
Affiliation: Black Clan.
Avaliable weapons: Spear, Axe, Bracers.
Classes: Warrior Bandit, Armored Bandit, Gold-Rogue, Taishan Bandit.
Description: Since life was so dangerous in ancient China, becoming a bandit was a lifestyle that many took to. While it was not glamorous, it did offer the poorer people a chance of survival. The great fighting skills that were developed here came from much experience of mountain fighting. These are straightforward fighting skills. They did not believe in embellishing their skills with decoration. Lu-Lin is a hard and direct fighting style. The Lu-Lin believe in winning at all costs. They prefer to use raw power and savagery.
As you might expect in a mountain range, the weapons that the Lu-Lin favor are axes and spears. These developed out of the mountain man's standard working tools. Axes that started as simple tools for chopping wood soon became double edged weapons of great beauty and power. Spears that were simple hunting tools now became strengthened and developed for fighting at a safe distance from the enemy.


Shaolin
[MALE only]
Affiliation: White Clan.
Avaliable weapons: Polearm, Hands & Feet, Bracers.
Classes: Luohan Monk, Exorcist Monk, Diamon Monk, Deva Monk.
Description: The Shaolin monk is famous for his fast and powerful unarmed style of fighting. In 9Dragons, the Shaolin are the masters of unarmed combat. Their moves are graceful and flowing, and often based on the movements of animals (e.g. the preying mantis style). They are also renowned for their ability with staves. Their main weapons, should they choose to have them, are padded gloves. However, in the hands of a Shaolin master, even a humble spade can be a devastating weapon. The Shaolin philosophy is based on Buddhism, and they have an innately good view of the world. They are opposed to death and violence, and will try to use their skills to control or incapacitate an opponent. However, the enemy sometimes does not leave them that option!


Sacred Flower
[FEMALE only]
Affiliation: Black Clan.
Avaliable weapons: Flying Wheel, Dagger, Bracers.
Classes: Mistress of War, Mistress of Spirit, Mistress of Heaven, Mistress of Cloud.
Description: The Mi-Gong were a race of warrior women. They trained in the deadly arts of assassination, using their beauty and femininity to get close to their targets. They use their skills for evil, and because they were, in history, an exclusively female clan, anyone wishing to play this clan must take a female character.
Mi-Gong fighting skills are based on the concept of "circles" and "changes". They have cunning minds, and are willing to be patient in a fight. This gives them an advantage against weak-minded or impatient opponents. Overall, their skills require less internal chi strength to generate power than other styles. Mi-Gong can use special mind controlling skills such as seduction. Daggers and flying wheels are the main weapons of the Mi-Gong. As assassins, they prefer weapons that can be hidden or disguised as harmless everyday objects. Players can train their skills in accordance with the weapons they choose.

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Monks checking out a chick


Fachang the head of Shaolin

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

I am pretty much sold to anything with martial arts, so my views may be biased, but here is a review from another party.

http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/698/698778p1.html

[Sionistic]

It's not a bad game at all. Doesnt seem to have a ton of depth to it, but im not very far into it either.

Pros
Its free! Well mostly. This is one of those mmo's that let you play for free, but you can buy things to help you. (clothes, items, exp multipliers) I dont know how much need there is to use the purchases, but I dont think its a ton.
The graphics are much better than I expected for a free game. Animations are pretty decent. Progression seems about normal.

Cons
I dont like how the game controls. I dont like using click to move, but as far as I can see there is no way to make the game use WASD or even arrows. I wish there was a better way to determine the course of your character from the begining. Picking up loot is a bit buggy, it drops on the ground just for you a bit like diablo, but sometimes i would click on loot and my character would run in some random direction.

Ill post more when I get a better idea of how the game works. For now, you cant complain much about free games. Good to pass the time.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

And the animations of the attack-moves are great!

People leaping into battle, doing twirls on the ground and machine-gun kicks and whatnot! Just like a Chop Socky movie!

Bardo Server is the place!

If you are on Bardo Sionistic, what's yer name?

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Cons
I dont like how the game controls. I dont like using click to move, but as far as I can see there is no way to make the game use WASD or even arrows. I wish there was a better way to determine the course of your character from the begining. Picking up loot is a bit buggy, it drops on the ground just for you a bit like diablo, but sometimes i would click on loot and my character would run in some random direction.

You can use the arrows for movement when you get the lightfoot-skill!

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Command List:
Left Click - Select item or character or Move to Location.
Double Left Click - Attack/Approach current target or Use/Sell/Buy Item
Right Click - Use/Sell/Buy Item or Mouselook
Mousewheel - Zoom Camera or Scroll Scrollbars
Double Click Middle Mouse Button or Mousewheel - Point Camera North
F2 - Command hint sheet
F3 or Numpad + - Zoom in on minimap
F4 or Numpad "-" - Zoom out on minimap
F5 - Disable/Enable User Interface
F7 - Messenger
F8 - Pigeongram
Print Screen - Screenshot
Delete - Point Camera North
Home - Zoom Camera In
End - Zoom Camera Out
` or ~ - Cycle through the 3 quickslot bars
CTRL ` or ~ - Clears quickslot bar (what a horrible bind)
1 through 0 - Use corresponding quickslot skill
Spacebar - Automatically loot any available item near you
TAB - Switch between peace and war mode
Left ALT (with Lightfoot skill active) - Use Lightfoot
Left CTRL - Temporarily shows all possible enemy NPC names.
ENTER - Access chat
ESC - Exit chat (useful when sending a tell) or Deselect currently selected target
! - Party chat
@ - Hero Band chat
# - Clan chat (or at least it SHOULD be)
/ - Whisper chat
R - Reply to recently recieved tell/whisper
U - Select self
P - Meditate. Uses last used Meditation skill if none is currently running.
W - Switch Weapons (You can ready 2 weapons in different slots in your inventory. This button will switch between those slots, even if one of them is empty. So watch it.)
A - Attack currently selected target
N - World Map
M - Area Map
I - Inventory
O - Option Screen
C - Character Sheet
D - Mastery
S - Kung Fu skills
Q - Quests
L - Living subscreen
V - Community subscreen
ARROW UP - Move Camera Down
ARROW DOWN - Move Camera Up
ARROW LEFT - Move Camera Right
ARROW RIGHT - Move Camera Left

Emotes on Numpad:
(Make sure numlock is active)
0 - Greeting
1 - Deep Bow
2 - Angry
3 - Forward
4 - Sit
5 - Cheer
6 - Laugh
7 - Cry
8 - Hand Clap
9 - Disappointed

Stats, Armor, and Death:
This can be a little confusing so I'm going to start with this. There is no immediately obvious upgrade path for armor in this game. You do not get a clothing item with 25 "ARMOR" that can eventually be replaced with 30 "ARMOR", or anything like that.

In fact, the majority of your defenses will come from stats. The relevant ones for the beginner are Strength, Dexterity, and, of course, Constitution. Here is a list of all the base stats and what they do:

Strength: Physical Damage, Physical Defense, and Balance
Essence: Maximum Vital Energy, Chi Kung Base Damage, and Chi Kung Defense
Wisdom: Chi Kung Dodge, Chi Kung Attack Rate, Chi Kung Skill Damage, Chi Kung Defense, Chi Kung Critical Rate, Unconscious Timer, and Manual Reading Ability
Constitution: Maximum Life and Life Regen
Dexterity: Physical Attack Rate, Physical Dodge, Physical Critical Rate

Some of these stats can be a prerequisite for high level weapon use.

Now for the terminology... Life is HP. Vital Energy is Mana. When you lose all your Life, you are rendered Unconscious. If there is a friend nearby, they can revive you if they are quick enough. The amount of time they have to do this is improved by Wisdom, as is indicated above. You can revive someone by double-clicking on them. If you recover in this way, then you will not suffer any penalty.

If the timer runs out, then you are dead and must choose a revive option. You can either revive where you are, which will involve a hefty experience penalty, or choose to revive at a saved Inn or your clan's hometown, which will give less of an experience penalty.

You can also sustain External or Internal Wounds, which reduce maximum Life or Vital Energy, respectively. These can be healed by either going to a Clinic NPC, or by using one of the items you can buy from them. (Having him/her heal you is a lot cheaper.) You won't be suffering any Internal Wounds until much later.

Most of the stats are pretty self-evident in what they do. However some, like defense, don't necessarily work how you might expect. As of now, details on anything but damage, and maybe critical rate, are pure speculation. Critical rate will increase the chance of getting a critical special strike in combat, which increases damage done on that attack.

There are clothes and accessories that can increase these stats, but...

What to do about the lack of money and the Silver Satchel:
It's generally not a good idea to spend money on anything but better weapons, if possible. (One possible exception is the +15 dodge hat available from a clan vendor, if you have high dex and can afford it. You can also refine weapons to reduce how frequently they need to be replaced. More on that later.) There is a definite shortage of money in this game and there is little you can do about it.

One thing you can do is to rely on quests to give you the clothes you need. One such quest very early on gives you the Silver Satchel. This is an accessory and requires either a shirt/jacket or pants/skirt with pockets. You COULD buy such an item from a vendor if you had the cash, but it's better to wait until you can do a certain clan quest. When you do you'll probably get some kind of apparel with 2 pockets for free. Even later on there will be a collection request for Wan (under the Character->Living subscreen) which will reward you with either a shirt or pants of your choosing, also with 2 pockets but with additional stat bonuses as well. As you keep leveling there will be a few more quests with similar rewards.

Getting back to the lack of money issue...there is one possible thing that can be done. What you should do...what EVERYONE should do, is try to support a player economy. This game doesn't have an auction system yet, so you'll have to go out there and start selling to other players directly. You know those weapons you get sometimes as drops? You're actually selling them to the vendor for 20% of what a blacksmith vendor would price a similar item. So even if you sell the weapon to a player for twice the sell rate, that's still 40% of what it would be in a store. And there's the added benefit of keeping all that cash within the player community.

There are two ways to sell. The first is the typical MMO "WTS losing self X XXXXX $XXXXX" spammed on the General channel in a populated city. The other, kinder and more afk friendly, method is to open a stand. The stand action is under the Character->Living->Action tab and lets you essentially become a vendor selling whatever you want at whatever price you want. You still have to be logged in for this I think, but at least you don't have to pay attention to the computer.

Prime selling locations are the middle of Hefei (as both white and black clans can reach there and the weapons are split by clans), the hometown of the clan that uses the weapon, and the first town in the first area other than Hefei when leaving your hometown.

It may be tough since there are only 7 hours of beta, but the rewards can be worth it I think.

Weapon groups are split as follows:
Almost everybody (Mostly non-tank classes I think. More on this later.) - Glove and Claw
Any Chi Kung attack user - Bracer
White - Staff, Sword, Polearm
Black - Sabre, Spear, Axe, Wheel, and Dagger

Levels:
This game has a very unique leveling system. Levels are actually grouped into 12(+1) "Chengs" with special names given to each one. The first 3 such names are Losing Self, Gathering Chi, and Opening Chi. What you do to advance to a higher group is reach cheng 12 in your current one, then go through the special 13th Cheng (which isn't counted), do the Chi Breathing Exercise, and then you've got it.

An easier way to refer to level than "Losing self 12" or "Opening Chi 1" is a single number indicating total level. You add up all the chengs of the groups, except for the 13th one, and that's your total level. (So when a dev refers to level 100, or whatever else, that's what they're referring to.) For example, Gathering Chi 1 Cheng is level 13, while Opening Chi 1 Cheng is level 25.

Skill Levels and Manuals:
Pretty much every single Kung Fu or Chi Kung skill you find you will be able to improve through use. The levels for these skills are also called Cheng. They generally have a max of 10 and get harder to improve the higher they are. They will also usually have prerequisites, such as your own level, at certain Chengs.

All the skills you can learn from Trainer NPCs are first tier. There exist 2 more tiers that can only be learned through manuals found in the world. However, it may be a while until you'll be able to find them. And even when you do, they may have skill cheng prerequisites from the first tier. Even after all this, it may be possible that there is a chance for failure while reading them. If this is true, then the Manual Reading Ability of the Wisdom stat may help reduce this chance of failure.

There are also manuals which can be purchased from the basic clan trainer that can double the experience gained while using a skill from that clan, though they tend to be limited to 3 or 5 cheng. These cost between 500 and 1400 gold each.

There are also even more advanced training manuals that can be found in the world that can give triple exp, or go to higher chengs.

Clans and Classes:
There are 6 introductory clans that are split into 2 groups, White and Black. Now, far from being simply good and evil, White and Black groupings instead refer to allegiance. White clans have sworn allegiance to the current Emperor of the land, while the Black clans have not. And this Emperor is far from a saint. Although White clans do lean towards a good alignment, and Black clans toward evil, it's not absolute. For example, the Wu-Tang is entirely about the Tao and showing proper loyalty at all times, however they probably wouldn't worry too much about a starving commoner. While the Brotherhood of Thieves is built entirely on the principle of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, though they've still developed a gangster mentality that can cause problems.

There are also 3 advanced clans, but they're not implemented yet. You will supposedly be able to join these clans after you've joined, and progressed along, one of the 6. Or at least that's how I understand it.


Within each clan there are 4 unique classes. You will pick one of these classes on the way to, or at, Opening Chi 1. At this point you will be able to redistribute your stats and masteries.

Now, with few exceptions they generally follow a certain type of template. Three of the classes make use of the so-called "Trinity" of common MMOs. They are the Tank, the Nuker, and the Healer/Buffer. The 4th class is a kind of "Hybrid" class. Each class has its own set of skills, which indicate what weapon(s) they may be able to utilize, and also one selected stat which costs 2 points to raise instead of 1.

The Tank generally has access to clan's main weapons skills, but has few Chi Kung abilities. (in the tank's case it's restricted to a few minor buffs and possibly status effects) Its costly stat is Essence.

The Nuker may or may not have access to a backup weapon skill line, but that shouldn't matter since its sole purpose are Chi Kung attacks and debuffs. They also have a skill or two that act as a damage reflection shield. Its costly stat is Strength, I believe.

The Healer generally only has the backup weapon skills to fall back on. Their purpose is to heal and buff while adding a good amount of damage. Its costly stat is Constitution, I believe.

The Hybrid class also only has access to the backup weapon skills, but they get skill lines that are similar to what the nukers and healers have. These skill lines generally don't have snares or revive (from death or wounds) abilities though. Its costly stat is Wisdom. The nice thing about this class is that you can pull with Chi Kung attacks very safely and then proceed to melee when they get close. Enemies generally do not add when the people around them are attacked, only if they see you. Though there are exceptions.


Since it can be tough to figure out which clan class fits which role, here is their information ordered like this:
NAME (OLD NAME) - WEAPONS (BACKUP WEAPONS) - LOCATION
1) Tank
2) Nuker
3) Healer
4) Hybrid

Glove includes Claw.

White:

Shaolin - Polearm (Glove) - Song Shan
1) Luohan
2) Exorcist
3) Diamond
4) Deva

League of Beggars (Gai-Pan) - Staff (Glove) - Tainjin
1) Vanguard
2) Dragon
3) Strategy
4) Spirit

Wu-Tang - Sword (Glove) - Wu Tang Shan
1) Blue Dragons
2) Black Turtles
3) Red Phoenixes
4) White Tigers

Black:

Sacred Flower Clan (Mi-Gong) - Wheel (Dagger) - Zixia Dong
1) Mistress of War
2) Mistress of Spirit
3) Mistress of Heaven
4) Mistress of Cloud

Brotherhood of Thieves (Lu-Lin) - Spear (Axe) - Tai Shan
1) Warrior Bandits
2) Brigands
3) Gold-Rogues
4) Taishan Bandits

Heavenly Demon Clan (Mo-Jiao) - Sabre (Glove) - Mount Yanmo
1) Blood demons
2) Storm demons
3) Phantom demons
4) Fire demons


Also, Bracers can be used to improved Chi Kung damage for any Nukers.

For more information on these clans, you can go to these previews:
http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/698/698778p1.html
http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/701/701245p1.html


Now, since there is a clear Trinity setup in this game, it is likely that you will not advance in levels as fast as you would if you'd get a well balanced team and went after the big game. So keep that in mind if you spend most your time soloing, especially after you've gained a couple dozen cheng.

Guilds:
Guilds are called Hero Bands. You will be able to take a Hero Quest at level 48 that will allow you to make a Hero Band at your Clan's Leader. It costs 5000 Clan contribution. I also believe you need a team of 5-6 unclanned people in order to found one, but it hasn't been verified yet.

Only people of the same Clan can join a Hero Band. However they may eventually be able to make alliances with other Hero Bands of other Clans as long as they're on the same side of the White/Black divide.

How to speed up travel:
There is only one way to speed up travel, and that is to gain the Lightfoot skill from a clan once you reach Gathering Chi 1. So you best start learning the shortest routes to get anywhere.

Started Gathering Chi, now what?:
Lightfoot! You can probably get it from a clan quest, but if you don't it can be bought. Either way I think you still have to visit a special NPC and do a sidequest to finish training it.

Besides that, there are many basic clan skills to be learned. You have to pay for them through clan contributions. You should have met the NPC that does this during your clan initiation quest.

Of special note are the basic clan steps and meditation skills. You should probably strive to have these active 100% of the time once you've learned them. While the effects may seem minor, especially for the steps, you need to raise the basic clan version to cheng 8 before you can learn the class versions of these skills. And the only way to raise these is to spend time with them on. Note that the basic clan trainer has manuals for sale that can give you double exp rate. They do cost a bit however.

Now while the class version seems to give a lot less benefit, that's because it's at cheng 1. When you level them you'll see that they can give a lot more. You'll want to do this with meditation anyway because it can mean faster regen. Also, you do NOT need to level the basic meditation to 8 cheng in order to get the basic clan meditation. So don't worry too much about that.

How to finish training Chi Kung skills:
If you get a skill that needs training and you can't use the dummies for it, there is a Chi Kung training field somewhere in your clan's headquarters. This is generally a field of small stone platforms. Find a selectable platform and use it. In the mini-game, the left mouse button pushes the object left, the right does right.

Started Opening Chi, now what?:
You can now pick a class and gain their class abilities. You'll probably have between 5 and 8 skills available at the start, so that's about 1000-1600 total possible clan contribution required.

Again, when you do pick your class you're allowed to redistribute all your stats or mastery points, if you choose to do so. So don't worry about which stats and masteries you picked as a beginner.

Note that after you picked your class you'll only have one more quest left in this closed beta and that will be to repick your class if you're not happy with what you got. So, basically, there's not much else to do now but play around with your class abilities, explore the few open areas, and PvP now that Hefei dueling is open for you.

Crafting and Tradeskills:
Ok. First of all, there are no actual tradeskills yet. At the moment all you can do is enhance items you already have using simple item combines.

However, according to the CEO, you will eventually be able to fish and mine. Maybe even other things.

As I have little experience with enhancing weapons and clothes, I'm just going to point you to this article:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setv ... gameID/235

For refining weapons, you have to go to the Master Refiner in Hefei. There you can show your weapon to the refiner and determine what kind of Dragon Blood you need. The kinds used for +1 and +2 refinement are purchasable from a General Vendor nearby. The rest can be traded for Blood Essence from the Refinement Material Merchant, also nearby.

Refining adds a damage bonus to the weapon, but generally keeps the rest of the weapon's stats the same. The process will also cost an increasing amount of gold and have an increased chance of failure (where the weapon is destroyed) as you commit higher levels of refinement. A highly refined weapon may also have an added graphical effect.

You can gain Blood Essence by both PvP and...

The Red Glyph and Number:
This is essentially a kill count with a reward for a very high uninterrupted count. If you reach 999 exp-granting kills, without dieing or logging off, you can click on the glyph to gain a Blood Essence.

Rage:
When you sustain wounds (or possibly create wounds on an enemy), you will slowly build up a rage meter 3% at a time. When this meter reaches 100% it will trigger and rapidly climb back down to 0.00%. It has been reported that you will do, and take, more damage while under rage. However, your visible stats will not change. It is possible to click the rage icon when it is counting down if you have yourself selected, and thereby activate some kind of graphical effect. But it is unknown if this does anything.

As you gain more maximum Life and get wounds more frequently, this rage will build much more quickly. You can also gain more rage meter while it is counting down to delay the end.

Epitaphs:
You will gain Epitaphs as you go up the clan ranks. I believe there are only 2 of them in-game atm. Eventually you should be able to get them from special quests. To utilize it go to your character screen, find and click the Epitaph button, select the one you have, and click apply.

Revealing Hand:
Supposedly this early skill only works in PvP. Eventually you'll be able to buy a mask that can hide your name. This skill should be able to reveal someone wearing such a mask.

[Winnow]

Not a bad game so far!

Dislikes:

-don't like that I have to use Internet Explorer to start the game.
-don't like that I'm stuck using a low res (screen captures below represent the max res and it's stretched to widescreen to fill my 24" monitor.
-don't like having to click to move although Guild Wars has gotten me used to it.

Likes:

-dig the oriental lady's voice for the NPC that acts as your tudor. Her mastery of the English language is comparable to "set us up the bomb" speak. Works great for this game though!
-game graphics, while stuck in lower res, are very nice (kind of get that cheap and dirty Wii graphics feeling)
-game feels rock solid. No crashes.
-like the battle stat breakdowns for head-to-head matchups (see screenshot)
-like the User Inferace and tutorial. Very easy to get started

Unsure:

-Not sure about mouse clicking patterns to heal (see screenshot)



Chose Wu-Tang as my starting location. Was there any doubt?? Was hard not to choose the "bun" hairdo but this one's pretty good.



NPC lady's voice is a crack up but tutorial is good.



If lens flare is detected in any game, a screenshot must be taken!



Kinda strange clicking left/right/both mouse button patterns to heal but I'll give a chance.



UI, pop up windows, stats, etc is all well done.



Like the stat breakdowns to make things more interesting!

Didn't have much time to play beyond loading it up and starting the tutorials. Looks promising for sure. More interesting than a few pay games that have been released lately.

Would like to change my res to 1920X1200 and have option to move using arrow keys or WASD.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Not a bad game so far!

Dislikes:

-don't like that I have to use Internet Explorer to start the game.

You don't! Just start with NDlauncher.exe, make a shortcut on the desktop etc.

-don't like that I'm stuck using a low res (screen captures below represent the max res and it's stretched to widescreen to fill my 24" monitor.
-don't like having to click to move although Guild Wars has gotten me used to it.

Why stuck with low res? I saw several options although i didn't try them since my system is subpar!

When you get lightfoot you can move with arrows if you want to move quickly! (No need for buying mounts/horses in this game)

Kinda strange clicking left/right/both mouse button patterns to heal but I'll give a chance.

That (left/right/both) is ONLY used when you do your Chi Meditation to advance a RANK (each 12 lvls) from lets say Losing Self to Opening Chi, and important, the quicker you finish this (without failures), the more stat and mastery-points you get as bonus to assign to str, con,dex, masteries etc for that level-up.

So be quick and don't miss!

If you're on Bardo, what's yer name Winn?

If yer on Bardo, i'm ZhengZi.

Add me to f-list or send me a tell or Pidgeonmail!

[Winnow]

If you're on Bardo, what's yer name Winn?

If yer on Bardo, i'm ZhengZi.

Add me to f-list or send me a tell or Pidgeonmail!

Thanks for the good info! Where is the option to change res? In game, I went to graphics under options and couldn't see a way to do it.

I'm on one of the US servers though. My name is in my screenshots! After lagging on the asian Grenada Espada servers, I wanted to go with a local one for this to give it a fair evaluation.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

If you're on Bardo, what's yer name Winn?

If yer on Bardo, i'm ZhengZi.

Add me to f-list or send me a tell or Pidgeonmail!

Thanks for the good info! Where is the option to change res? In game, I went to graphics under options and couldn't see a way to do it.

I'm on one of the US servers though. My name is in my screenshots! After lagging on the asian Grenada Espada servers, I wanted to go with a local one for this to give it a fair evaluation.

At the splash-screen you can change settings and reso as well (click Options), the starterscreen where you see a hero on the left side.

Ok! US-server for joo then!

I was gonna help ya otherwise with shinies, phat lewtz and buffs/heals!

[Boogahz]

I tried it, but I could not get past the click-to-move and ad-methods used in-game. I know this game is free, but replacing things like the in-game map with an advertisement is too much for me. At least Anarchy Online just put up billboards for their in-game ads.

[Somali]

I'm messing with this now trying out a few of the different character types. So far I'm liking the movements and attacks more than the other games. Now I'm trying to decide if I'm gonna play this for the eye candy of the flamboyant attacks, or go back to Rappelz and join the Ted Club. haha

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

I'm messing with this now trying out a few of the different character types. So far I'm liking the movements and attacks more than the other games. Now I'm trying to decide if I'm gonna play this for the eye candy of the flamboyant attacks, or go back to Rappelz and join the Ted Club. haha

Very flamboyant attacks! You going for weapons or unarmed FU fighting?

If you like drunken fist-style, go healer or hybrid from Beggar Clan.

If you like the deadly fists seen in several chop-socky movies and often used by the villains (eagle claw etc), go healer or hybrid from Heavenly Demon.

Imho the most spectacular fightingstyles used in the game animationwise.

[Somali]

I'm going to poke around with ShaoLin and Drunken Beggar on the Bardo server.
I made a wutang and a HD on the US server already.

I'll probably make the Drunken Beggar a Hybrid, I'm trying to decide if I want the Shaolin to be hybrid or warrior.

[Lalanae]

Started playing it this weekend. I like it! I'm playing Rappelz and Trickster too, so my play time is minimal, but it's a neat game, as good as Rappelz imo.

[Raindrops]

Hello all, was just googling for build guides for Luohan monks and found this primo looking forum

Thought I'd stop by, say hi and leave my ign.

Character name: Xiaofei
Clan: Shaolin
Class: Luohan monk (tank/warrior)
Level: Five Dragons 3 (lvl 63)
Hero Band: Buddhas_Chosen (Band Master, 31 members and growing)
Server: Bardo (EU)
Rank: Killer of Meng Mian

This thread has really good general information about the game, thanks.

With regards to the item mall in-game, in my personal experience there are several useful, and a few useless, items.
Of particular interest to most players after they reach Raising Light or Five Dragons levels is the Premium Membership option. This gives you two distinct advantages over non-paying players.

1. 20% experience bonus
As you rise through the levels, grinding to level becomes exponentially more time-consuming due to the experience gains getting lower as you go. At high levels, it could take days of grinding to gain the next level. 20% may not sound like much, but if you worked it out based on the amount of exp gained with and without the bonus, I'm sure you will see why it is to your benefit (and to keep your sanity O_O).

2. Cavity Press (Hermits Buff)
This little-known aspect of the game will become indispensible to you once you realise what it does for you.
Every village in 9D (as far as I am aware) has a resident NPC known as the Hermit.
The hermit offers you something known as a Cavity Press (or cp). Essentially, this is a stat/att buff. Non-paying players are offered a cp of +5 to any one stat/attribute of your choice for a duration of 30 minutes. Very useful trick to know and use.
However, as part of the Premium package you are given access to the Hermit's offer of +5 to all stats/atts(!). That is only the basic Premium package offer though.
The Hermit has only one better buff package than that to offer Premium players:
+10 to all stats/atts!!! and get this... it lasts for 120 minutes!!! That's two hours of grinding bliss lol.

The premium Cavity Press offers are only available if you purchase the premium membership status for any of the durations of 1 day, 7 days, or 90 days that are available.

Experience Bonus packages can be bought on their own, and are also part of the premium membership package.

I hope that info helps you make informed decisions about whether paying to play this outstanding game is something you would or would not like to do.

Thanks all, see you again soon!

P.S. before I go I thought I'd better elaborate on the 'useless things' available in the item mall.
In my opinion, these are the 'special' outfits that are on offer for purchase. I was a sucker and thought that looks were going to help me get further in this game
I purchased an outfit (which only lasts for 30 days before it disappears) because I thought it looked cool. I wore it for 4, maybe 5 days. Now it's sitting in my storage waiting to disappear. It has no special properties, offers no benefits. All it does is let other players know that you wasted money on a dud just to try to look cool, when in fact everyone knows it does nothing for you so you end up looking like a fool... albeit a rich one lol.

P.P.S. I was checking out the screenshots... Sakura, nice to see you rolling with [Phew]. He's one of the 9d forum mods/gms and he is also wearing one of those useless outfits lol