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Massively continues it's pre-NDA blogging of the Elves of Warhammer Online with a look at the High Elf melee dps career, the White Lion. Wielding a ferocious axe and bonded with a lion for life, this pet class is fierce, able to take on two enemies at once or harass RvR opponents mercilessly. The White Lion can follow one of three specialty tracks, the path of the Hunter, Axeman or Guardian. Each path goes with its own special abilities and enhanced pet buff.

Like all WAR careers, the White Lion receives basic abilities that span across all three paths, but by putting mastery points in a particular path, they increase the effectiveness of that path's basic abilities and can unlock additional skills, tactics and morale abilities.

The Path of the Hunter focuses equally on the White Lion and his pet. The accompanying pet buff, Trained to Hunt, grants your lion a high damage attack, an AE attack and an attack debuff. It also buffs the pet's autoattack and crit rate while giving you and your lion a chance to proc a DOT on your enemies. Highlights in the Hunter tree include Pack Hunting, a career tactic that increases your autoattack speed by 50% while you have Trained to Hunt active on your pet and Pounce which sends you leaping 20 feet in the air, inflicting damage when you land to all in the area. This is an excellent path if you want you and your pet to be strong and effective in most situations.

One of the things we really enjoy in City of Villains is the ability to take on (and take down) some of the characters from the primary City of Heroes game. Wondering just what we mean by that? Read on for the scoop about this team:

I wanted to send you a City of Villains screenie from several months back. This shot is of the core members of our Supervillain team, The Rogue Sentinels, standing triumphantly over the body of a defeated Ms. Liberty upon completion of the Lord Recluse Strike Force. We had to battle through the entire Freedom Phalanx, including all the signature heroes: Numina, Sister Psyche, Manticore, Positron, Synapse, Citadel, Back Alley Brawler and the bug guy, Statesman himself. It was a very rough battle, but evil reigned supreme! My max-level Ice/Radiation Corruptor, DaBruuzer, is second from the left.

Do you have a screenshot of your guild, kinship, supergroup, or what have you tackling a major storyline point? If so, we'd love to see them! Just send them to us here at oneshots AT massively.com -- and be sure to include a good description of what's going on. We'll share them with the rest of the readers.

The fate of the former Flagship Studios staff is something a number of our readers have been wondering about, particularly after the confusion and drama surrounding the Hellgate: London and Mythos IPs. The writers at Massively have been curious about this as well, until now. We've gotten word from Joystiq that former Flagship Studios Seattle staff -- specifically, the Mythos team -- have formed a new company called Runic Games.

Max Schaefer and Travis Baldree are at the helm of Runic Games, and have stated that their forthcoming projects will be announced in the coming days. There are no further details at this time, but Runic Games now has a site where the announcement of their resurrection is posted. Massively extends its congratulations on making a quick comeback, and here's hoping Runic Games will bring some of that Mythos magic to their new projects.

As we have a dedicated site for World of Warcraft in our sister site WoW Insider, many of the smaller tidbits about changes in the game, or community news don't generally wind up in our news feed. As a way of bridging the gap, we bring you This Week in WoW news, now with 100% more World of Warcraft goodness in a bite-size weekly package!

	Ask a Beta Tester: The Argent Crusade The High Elves actually have a pretty strong presence, which I'm rather excited about. The High Elves (and Blood Elves to a much lesser extent) are one of my favorite Warcraft races ...
	Hybrid Theory: Spell Power hands on We've chit-chatted about the new Spell Power mechanic off and on, but we've never gone into serious detail about it yet. Why? Well, we didn't really know how it worked.
	Blood Pact: Is Demonic Circle the Warlock answer to melee? As some of you have correctly pointed out in my last article, most warlocks use rank 1 of Drain Soul to return a soul shard (I've covered this in tips and tricks).
	Ask a Beta Tester: Daily quests, skill trainers, and Arthas, oh my! Alex said these wouldn't be worth your while, and he was right. For those of you interested in specifics, though, you seem to get 3g 40s and 9,500xp for your average daily quest in Wrath.
	Where is Blizzard going with Paladin changes? "Like I promised, the paladin changes were more sweeping than most changes. As such, it's going to take us some time to go through a second pass on the abilities and get everything polished up enough to evaluate the shiny, new paladin." - Ghostcrawler, on the Paladin forums

Trust is a rare commodity in EVE Online, and is one of those aspects of the game that makes it at once interesting and frustrating. That friendly person who offers you assistance in a mission, wants to sell you a faction module, or seeks to join your corporation may very well be waiting to backstab you when you least expect it. This might sound bad, but it's not necessarily a terrible thing in terms of enjoying the game. Indeed, some may feel that it adds to the risk inherent in EVE, and thus the thrill. The fact that players can manipulate trust within the rules of the game is one of the aspects of EVE that sets it apart from most other MMOs.

The risk vs. reward stakes are raised when trust comes into play with groups of players. Collective action through corporations or alliances will, at some point in time, entail trust. It may be a CEO or director lifting restrictions on access to resources for a member of the corp, hoping that the faith placed in the recruit wasn't a bad move. In other scenarios, the situation is reversed -- a director decides to cut and run, seizing assets and leaving the corporation shocked and understandably enraged.

In EVE Online, there are few things as feared by highsec dwellers as going into 0.0 space. These lawless tracts of New Eden do come with certain perils -- as CONCORD isn't there to protect you -- but there are arguably more benefits to flying in 0.0 than there are drawbacks. Still, there will always be a dichotomy in EVE between players who like the game for the freedom 0.0 offers, and those who prefer the safety of highsec.

In 'Living the good life in 0.0,' EVE blogger Xiphos explains his choice to leave Empire space behind. "In 0.0, you are free. Free of Concord, free of hundreds of players, and free to set your own destiny... it is the untamed wild west, where fortune, power, and glory are right for the taking and few have yet to reach out and grasp it," Xiphos writes. Of course, being a member of Agony Unleashed, an EVE corp that provides in-game PvP courses, doesn't hurt in terms of knowing how to handle yourself in 0.0. Have a look at 'Living the good life in 0.0' and see Xiphos' take on the appeal of flying in lawless space. Do you agree with Xiphos' view of the game, and have you largely abandoned highsec in favor of 0.0 and all that comes with it, or simply to experience the most from the game?

[Via CrazyKinux]

Later this week gaming fans have a hard choice: will they be going to Gen Con in Indianapolis, Indiana? Or will they be attending Sony Online Entertainment's Fan Faire in Las Vegas, Nevada? It's just the first of several hard choices you're going to have to make this month, as nerdcore convention season officially swings into high gear. All month long events like Dragon*Con, Leipzeig, and PAX will vie for your attention. And guess what? Massively will be at almost every event, reporting on the MMO news as it happens.

But right now we're focused on this week. We've got bloggers going to both the palace of tabletop gaming (Gen Con) and the dark heart of SOE fandom (Fan Faire). Will you be there as well? Shout out below, and let us know what you're most looking forward to. Maybe we'll see each other there!

More information about the lore of Earthrise has surfaced, giving readers a preview of the post-apocalyptic MMO's setting of Enterra. Although still in a pre-beta stage of development at Masthead Studios, some details were already known about the organizations in Earthrise. The newest information comes from IGN's RPG Vault, which has released their first of three installments on the lore of Earthrise.

The IGN pieces will focus on Continoma, the corporate entity that governs the lives of Enterra's citizens. "Continoma: The Beginning" looks at how the Continoma Project developed into humanity's only viable chance for survival, via genetic rebirth which followed the cataclysmic Third World War. If you're a fan of the lore in your MMOs and sci-fi is your thing, check out the full story over at RPG Vault.

WoW Insider has a wonderfully Death Knighty (it's a word, we swear!) gallery up that features their recently upgraded look. Now your brand new Hero class will come with blue glowing eyes of despair that will haunt your foes for an enternity! Oh, plus Blizzard added in some new rune graphics for the Death Knight's class mechanic. They're apparently much improved over the last set, so it's a good thing.

After looking through the gallery, we were suddenly reminded of a particular blog post about Batman by a Mr. Warren Ellis. We've never been afraid of a Gnome (well, there was this one time on an RP server in Goldshire) but today, we have known fear and its name is Gnome Death Knights.

MMOs are constantly evolving games, from their earliest days as they're conceptualized to their final days when the servers shut down, forever. They evolve throughout their lifespan because they must. Players naturally pick up on ways to use the ever-changing game mechanics to best suit them, prompting the devs to either brand these tactics as an exploit or targeting them for rebalancing in a future patch. A case in point is the impending speed nerf in EVE Online, which is one of the biggest issues currently debated by EVE pilots.

But do players have the right to be this angry when the developers change the game? Jim Rossignol argues this point in "EVE Online and the Big Nerf": "EVE is basically a ongoing symbiotic process... perhaps this means the developer has to make some unpopular decisions for the good of the process as a whole. The relationship between player and developer is not one of equals, nor is it always at its best when it is entirely amiable." Do you agree with Rossignol on this -- and does paying that $15 a month entitle MMO players to pressure devs to change the game to fit their playstyle, or should MMO developers keep the game balanced as they see fit?

Linden Lab certainly showed signs of fear when Google's Lively kicked off its public beta. Now we're seeing signs more akin to terror, panic or desperation. 'Who wouldn't be concerned when Google comes after their business?' said new Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon to Bloomberg.

Given recent changes and marketing pushes, you can see Linden Lab's management showing a sheen of sweat. Curiously, it seems that Google isn't after Linden Lab's business -- Lively's certainly no competitor to the business that Linden Lab has. However, what Google represents seems to be a threat to the business that Linden Lab wants to have.

This week saw the hiring of Frank Ambrose (AOL's head of technology for infrastructure and network services for a decade) as Senior VP of global technology. While Ambrose has more tech knowledge than the average suit in his position, his primary competencies seem to be negotiations, coordination, contracts and costs -- which all marries up nicely with Linden Lab making a push into corporate, government and military sales, and hiring additional staff to do just that. We're not sure what they're going to be selling, exactly, but virtual environment meeting spaces are probably right at the top of the list.

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	Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Ah, sweet, blessed weekend. Time for relaxation, sleeping in, and occasionally long nights at the pub which perhaps involve a few too many drinks. This screenshot shows just what can happen if you decide to get too drunk in Lord of the Rings Online. Finudir's been tying one on recently, and we got this concerned note:

Clearly, an intervention is necessary. Seems that since being dispatched to Eriador by Faramir of the House of Anarion, Finudir Captain of Gondor has acquired a taste for the Hobbit brew. Here we see Faramir stumbling and staggering towards some pub or another, having taken part in a few too many activities of the Summer Festival. One wonders where he might have awakened!

All we can say is that we'll stick with our respective non-Hobbit alcohol. We've been blurry after one too many drinks before, but never had the world go sepia. Do you have a screenshot of you partying a little too hard in your favorite MMO? Or perhaps just of a celebration that you'd like to note? You should send those in! The email address is oneshots AT massively.com -- and be sure to include a description. Just remember: say no to Hobbit alcohol this weekend!

So we've gotten official approval to speak our minds early and often about the Dark Elf (High Elves too, but bollocks to Order, I say!) experience in tier one and two as much as we like. That led me to decide that it would be fun to give you my personal take on them. Especially considering that in the not-so-distant past I made my worries about Warhammer Online very well known. As worrisome as Mythic's decision to remove four cities and four -- but in reality, two -- classes made me before, I'm happy to say that overall my experience with the early Dark Elf starting zone has been a positive one.

From the moment you enter Warhammer Online as a level one Dark Elf surrounded by Black Arks and clanging metal, you'll be made to feel like an evil and menacing figure. This is done in various ways and I'm glad to say that it's never undone. One way Mythic invests you into your character is the first quest you ever receive and it's going to put a smile on a lot of your faces, unless you're an Order player. If you're an Order or player, you'll probably want to run into my sword for Malekith's sake. Trust me, it's really all for the best.

One of the strengths of EVE Online is that the game's professions can be freeform. Many players take the standard route of being a miner or a mission runner. However, new and deviant professions have arisen in a kind of symbiosis with the more established trades in the game. This is the focus of an article called 'Morality and Legality', written by ISD Magnus Balteus of CCP Games. 'Morality and Legality' looks at two of the sketchier professions that sprang from EVE's more standard career paths.

Mining has given rise to ore theft, which boils down to theft that has the side benefit of potentially baiting the victim into combat, even in high security space. If the ore thief or 'can flipper' is successful, he or she can make off with the ore that someone else mined plus the modules looted from the miner's ship wreck. The morality of this type of career doesn't even enter into the equation... this is EVE. CCP's unwillingness to change the game mechanics involved in can flipping means that this is not an exploit, it's a valid profession, albeit not in the mind of the miner victim.

Lead designer for World of Warcraft Jeff Kaplan is the man to talk to if you want the inside scoop on the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King. So MTV Multiplayer did, asking after some information on upcoming changes to the popular game's UI. Already well known for having one of the slickest interfaces in online gaming, it sounds as if there are going to be a lot of great improvements coming with the new expansion. Unsurprisingly, many of the upcoming improvements are going to be based on popular fan-made mods. Kaplan describes his own mod usage like 'candy', with stretches of gratuitous mod downloading interspersed with 'vanilla UI' cleansing.

WoW Insider has been all over this stuff, noting plans for a token system that will replace badges and a set of tabs to allow easy access to mounts and vanity pets. They also reported on plans for a threat-meter style addition to the game, which Kaplan describes as more like an 'aura'. "We're going to display threat by a glowing unit frame. Like if you're glowing orange, you're really close to a 70% threat threshold, and then if you turn red it means you've pulled threat. Because that's really all people need in a raid is to be able to look and go, 'Hey the mage is orange.'" They also hope to put in some sort of coordinate system, and it even sounds like a form of QuestHelper-like functionality will find its way into the game. Kaplan notes that last will probably not see inclusion until the first post-expansion patch, but that's still some great news.

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	One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!