Dragon's Nest

I have been accepted for closed beta! I just checked out the DN Home page and there was a new message saying that you could log in to check your closed beta status. I logged in and saw that I was in. Beta starts the 15th, so I'll let you guys know how it is.

Looks like I'm in too.

Well that's pretty awesome then

Here is a link with the times of beta each day.

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So, at the very latest the client should be available at 3pm today. That's if they put out the client when beta starts (a stupid idea mind you). If they do put it out exactly when beta starts, I may not get to play at all today since I work all but two of the hours of beta, and those two hours would be spent downloading the client.

Got my client downloaded finally. The speed was between 10-50 kb/s and was sucking up my bandwidth, till I found out how to limit my upload, then it went to 300-400 kb/s. You can change that by going to Control Panel->Pando Media Booster->Advanced Connection Settings and check "Limit upload speeds" and set it to 1 kb/s. (If you're using 64 bit, you have to click "additional options" to see Pando Media Booster in Control Panel). Should help your speed alot.

I'm on Dragon Nest East server, name is Mistro (cleric class).

Note: Closed Beta Title now only requires 4 days, rejoice.

Got to play for about 2 hours and made lvl 5 (mostly exploring and whatnot). The graphics are pretty nice, I run them at max settings easily. Gameplay is also excellent and reminds me somewhat of PSU. The only thing is dungeons can get a bit repetitive (doing them over multiple times) but that might be because I was progressing beyond my level so quests weren't available yet. The NPC dialogues are particularly funny, at least as a Cleric. I'd say this is a great replacement till PSO 2 comes out.

Controls:
Mouse controls all vision, automatically, so hotkeys are a must as you can't click on them really.

Space is jump and the game uses standard WASD movement. Double tapping a movement button will dash that way allowing you to dodge.

Left click is standard attack, and right click is special attack, special attack is good for combos and knocking an enemy off balance or removing their defenses, but it uses some mana supposedly. I never really noticed much mana use at all as a Cleric, and it regened pretty quickly. I don't have healing yet, but i do have a few lighning spells, though I mostly melee as they have cooldowns.

Other stuff:
Item enhancement right now is really easy and cheap, only costs one copper and mine didn't fail up to +2 tries, going to give it a go and see how far I can next time before it breaks. I saw someone with a +16 item... so I'm suspicious of that right now.

Skills are earned via a tree type enhancement, and are available only at certain levels and if you have enough SP earned.

Clearing dungeons is pretty easy solo on Easy and Normal, and harder modes can be unlocked (I got Triple S rank on Easy and Normal modes, didn't try Hard yet). After you beat a dungeons you can click one of four chests on a screen and get a randomized item.

It seems that certain classes start in certain areas. Clerics and Sorcerors start in Mana Ridge, so the other two must have their own place.

Some quest lore revealed that 6 heroes vanquished a black dragon (probably the main boss), so possibly there will be 2 new classes down the road.

Dungeons (pretty much every map besides towns and some fields it seems) are instanced to you and your party, so no kill stealing, yay!

okay so you guys made it inside.... now when security isn't looking sneak over and open the door so we can also crash said party

Only get 2 hours of time tonight :S, won't be enough... Closed Beta is only 6 days though, hopefully it goes to open beta quickly. Can't wait till Friday, the servers will be 24/7 (unless patches/maintenance happens).

Edit:

Also looks like sorcerers and clerics are separated from archers and warriors till lvl 9, then you can go to Caderock Pass, which is pretty much the main town for awhile. Shouldn't take long to reach lvl 9 anyway.

Got more info on the Empowerment system. You start out with a full gauge, and each dungeon takes some pwr based on the difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the more pwr, and the more exp you get. Destroying barrels, bookshelves, tables, and picking up loot all contribute to your score, which is displayed for you and your party in numerical form. However, if you party up, you use less pwr, and get less exp, so its best to use higher difficulties (you also get points for combos, which are harder to chain up unless the monsters have more HP and defense, etc.). You also get a friends list exp bonus (partying with friends on your list grants a percent bonus), so that helps things along. To off-set this, I hear soloing gets harder once you hit lvl 14 or so, may just be opinion, hard to say since I haven't got that far.

Found some lore on Dragon Nest Wiki behind each character:

Archer:
"Willowy and flexible as her bow, the Archer attacks multiple enemies at once! The Archer hails from Arendel, the birthplace of all elves. As part of the lifecycle of the elves, she is on a quest for "Telezia", the realization of her destiny and the discovery of her true name. Should she succeed, she will return in honor to Arendel to enter her "second life"- a transformation into a beautiful tree at the moment of her death. To fail in her quest and die elsewhere means oblivion as she turns into a pitiful mound of dust."
-Don't die Sara!

Sorceress:
"Known as a child prodigy among magicians hated and despised by humans, the Sorceress was expected to become the greatest of her kind. Instead of bringing peace and prosperity to the land though, she turned her back on her destiny and lost herself in gambling. Now she battles monsters to collect the gold to pay off her gambling debts while being unaware that destiny is not so easily thwarted."
-Sounds like Lina Inverse

Warrior:
"Quick and agile, the Warrior relies on fast-paced melee combos! The Warrior comes from Ironwood Forest. Legend has it that he was brought to the town as an infant by his mother under mysterious circumstances. Even as a young boy, he was always quick and strong. As he grew, he found himself easily outstripping his peers in the arts of war. In his heart though, he always longed for the truth of his birth and his lineage and now finds himself on a path of personal discovery."

Cleric:
"The Cleric spent much of his childhood forgotten and alone. Placed in a brutal boarding school at the behest of his cold and distant father, the Cleric might have become bitter and angry. Instead when he came of age, he entered a monastery of his own free will and learned the disciplines of a highly principled holy man trained to use both mind and body in the service of good."

More info:

Empowerment system gives you 700 pwr daily, and 1000 weekly allowance once the 700 is used up. Easy dungeons used about 40 pwr, and normal used 45 I think. This may varry, not sure till I get home and try it out.

Also here are the main stats of the game and what they do:

Strength
Strength is the measure of a character's physical ability. Warriors naturally have the most strength because of this. The more strength a character has, the stronger their physical attacks and skills will have. Strength also affects the chance of resisting getting paralyzed, and the chance of stunning an opponent.

Intelligence
Intelligence is the amount of magical knowledge a character has. The sorceress class naturally has the most intelligence. The more intelligence a character has, the stronger magic and spells will be. It will also boost max MP and magic defense.

Agility
Agility is the measure of how nimble a character is. An archer naturally has the most. The more agility a character has, the more they will be able to damage an enemy with ranged attacks. Agility also affects the chance of scoring a critical hit as well as lower the chance of an enemy scoring a critical hit on the player.

Vitality
Vitality is the amount of physical strength a character's body has. Clerics have the most stamina naturally. The more vitality a characters has, the more defense and HP they have. Vitality also decreases the chance of getting stunned.

Will
Will is the amount of willpower a character has. When facing an enemy, if the character's will is higher than the enemies, they will do more damage based on how much higher their will is. Conversely, if an enemy has a higher will stat than the player, then less damage can be done on the monster.

Going home early today at 3, so going to get on some massive play time.

lvl 14 now, can't wait to class change next level, and one more for the title.

Ok, it is 4:13 AM, Monday morning, and I finally hit level 16. The last little bit of leveling took a little more effort because they didn't release the entire main story arc quest in closed beta. But, it's done for now, and it was a blast. An amazing game that I can't wait for open beta to come out for.

Yep. I got 16 yesterday morning and hit 10 on your server. Difficult dungeons are very nice for drops, still haven't tried Master solo yet. Still no deaths, though that "Temple of the Sleepers" Minotaur boss gave me a run for my money. Can't wait for Open Beta and everyone can join us. Nick, you'll want to use a controller or a mouse for sure.

Closed Beta is now over. Got on a little today, and ran Abyss mode Marauder's Lair with a random party of 3 others. I died once even with other members, but it was fun and pretty epic. There were about 3 mini bosses throughout, meaning they had their own boss like hp bar. So it's basically impossible to do solo I think, would be for me at least.

As you people already know, open beta will start July 26th. I am psyched. Just watched a new trailer that I though was pretty awesome.

MAGICAL VIDEO COME FORTH!

I found this page a while back, but it is always hard to find the information contained on it when I decide to search for it again. I finally bookmarked it this time, but I am also going to post the link here for you guys. Keep in mind that the information is for the Korean version of Dragon Nest, and therefore will not be seen on our server for quite a while. Still, it's always cool knowing whats coming, especially since the article gives off some vague information about a new job (there are more current articles on the Academic job) and job advancements.

MAGICAL LINK COME FORTH!

While I'm at it, I'll post the most recent article I've found detailing information about the Academic class.

MAGICAL LINK CO.. ::COUGH COUGH:: Sorry about that...


MAGICAL LINK COME FORTH!

I'm less concerned with the new profession as I am with some of the new job advancements for current professions. However, the Academic seems to be from the future with a separate story arc than the other classes. I have a theory that if they have made a new female class, they will eventually make a new male one to balance out the ratio, and I might be interested in that class if it meshes with my play style.

Its a magunner, eh? Pretty rare to see. As I said before, the story tells of 6 heroes, of which 4 are available (and have backstories). Magun summoner sounds fun, but a bit out of the Dragon Nest gameplay style.

New upcoming content on the Korean server, so again, we won't see this stuff for a while. It looks pretty awesome though. Guild Wars (no, not the game Joe) are being implemented. I know most aren't into PvP, but this is group PvP. That means, we being in the same guild, can join together and battle another guild in a tournament that spans the course of a month. There are rewards for just participating, but there are better rewards for getting to preliminaries and finals.

MAGICAL LINK COME FORTH!

A new article under the News tab on the Dragon Nest main page was released. No new information really, just the lead producer's take on the games PvP.

MAGICAL LINK COME FORTH!

I have found a site with some decent information on Dragon Nest. You'll be able to find things like skills so you can map out a build, something I've been trying to find for a while now.

You can find it HERE!

Dang it... You see what happens when I don't say it?

MAGICAL LINK COME FORTH!

The translation isn't wonderful, but it'll do for now. I'm sure better organized DN wikis will become available when the NA version has been released for a while.

Here is information about second job advance!

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i notice the second site isn't laced with cartoon porn like the first one... i'm watching you sir.... WATCHING!

I just learned how to tie my shoes 60% faster.

It is time....

Let the leveling commence.

We're on the Gerrant server. Our in-game names are:
Joe-Mistro
Jake-Jayke
Jon-Jonth

I think we're all above level 9 so far, and Jayke says we have a guild too. We could use at least one more for Abyss missions.

Tap-tap, is this thing on?

Our Guild name is "Slayers"

I'm currently lvl 15 and 75%
Jake is 12 ish
Jon is 10 ish

I'm enjoying being a priest quite well, especially with my holy lightning rod of doom. I have still not died, even soloing master difficulty, I think I may try Abyss mode (seen videos of priests soloing the lvl 24 dungeons on Abyss while being a few levels under, in 30 mins no less...). The PWR system kinda sucks now as we do not get weekly empowerment, just a set 800 per day when dungeons detract 125+ most of the time. Partying does not reduce the PWR used either, and its actually less efficient than soloing, but soloing is also less fun... In the money department I've made over 23g already on the auction house, though I think I'm down to like 13 or so now. Cleric gear is the most expensive by far...(1-3g for most classes, 4-8g for clerics) but I got a full set of blues for lvl 16. If anyone needs cash or gear, I have money to burn so...yeah. Really enjoying the game, can't wait till we have more people playing.