Weekly Recap #461 July 30th – Grand Chase Returns, GW2 End of Dragons Revealed, Elyon CBT & More

JamesBl0nde recaps the MMO gaming news for the week of July 30, 2021! Transcript follows.

Sign up for a second dose of the upcoming MMORPG Elyon, the new class announced for Phantasy Star Online 2 is just a tad bit Braver, Guild Wars 2 is building up the hype for its next expansion and lookout on Steam for the return of a classic, Grand Chase Classic!

What’s good everyone, JamesBl0nde here with the weekly recap for gaming news and announcements for the week of July 30th 2021 and kicking off the news this week…

After all these years, RuneScape is still going strong, having just launched the latest part of their Elder God Wars story arc.  The Nodon Front update will task highly experienced players to band together to challenge the forces of Elder God Jas before an epic confrontation with Kerapac, the general of the Nodon dragonkin.  Should you prove the strongest, you’ll receive RuneScape’s first ever tier 95 weapon, The Staff of Armadyl.  This update is live now, so get some friends together!

From a classic to something brand new, the second closed beta for upcoming MMORPG Elyon is coming up soon, and you can sign up for it today!  From now until August 11, sign up on the Elyon site for your chance to test the game.  Pre-orders for the game are also live.  This second beta test offers a brand new class for players to choose: the slayer!  Plenty of class balance changes have been made, and dungeons have been separated into solo and group experiences.  Plenty of events await specifically for participants of the second closed beta, so if you’re interested, sign up today!

A new class can often breathe new life into a game, and the Bard class for Neverwinter looks to do just that!  The bard is the first class launched in the game since 2016, and this jack-of-all-trades class has specializations to focus on melee combat or ranged support.  The Jewel of the North expansion also improves the game in several other ways, such as streamlining leveling to bring it more in line with classic D&D — the maximum level is now 20!  This allows new players to quickly reach high end content the team frequently releases.  The Jewel of the North update is live now.

Speaking of a new class, Phantasy Star Online 2 has revealed its brand new upcoming class: the Braver!  Wielding a katana and a photon bow, the braver excels at both melee and ranged combat alike, and their class skill reduces Photon Points consumption for a period of time and allows them to launch a deadly finishing strike. Joining the new class will be a new side story and quest, featuring all new enemies like the self-destructing Boms.  Survive all the waves of enemies while defending your mining rigs, and you’ll come away with the prize!  This new update launches August 4, while the new quest launches later in the month on August 18th.

In other expansion news, Guild Wars 2 has announced its next upcoming expansion: End of Dragons! Set in the Asian inspired lands of Cantha, End of Dragons continues the story of Guild Wars 2 with new and unexpected twists.  Expect a variety of new things from the expansion, including nine new elite specializations, a brand new combat mount, and even the addition of fishing, complete with personal skiff to enjoy the skill.  Of course, look forward to new equipment, including a new generation of legendary weapons and precursors, as well as missions and more.  Its still a pretty long ways out but its never too soon for hype, End of Dragons is set to launch in February of 2022.

Probably the most recent game released in this recap, Swords of Legends Online has revealed a brand new raid will be coming soon.  The Xuanjiu Palace raid will challenge teams of 10 to 20 players with fierce bosses.  Keep in mind it’s recommended for players who’ve conquered hard dungeons and upgraded their gear to item level 60, but the rewards this raid offers will be significant.  The raid will be launched on July 29, and players can clear the raid once a week.

You may not hear much news about Lineage II lately, but the game is still pushing forward after all these years.  In fact, new life will soon be brought to the game with the upcoming Aden update.  Aden offers two new classes, options for solo play, new PvE and PvP content, and an improved, streamlined leveling experience that maintains what Lineage II is all about.  New to Aden are the death knight and storm blaster, utilizing dark energy and cunning respectively.  Six classes have also been updated for better balance and fun: sword muse, spectral dancer, doomcryer, dominator, titan, and Grand Khavatari.  Lineage II Aden launches on August 11.

In other news, the classic action MMORPG GrandChase has relaunched on Steam in a “classic” format. That’s right, after shutting down back in 2015, GrandChase has gotten a new life. We actually got caught off guard by this one but have known about it for a couple of weeks now from a viewer on my channel. Thanks for that mention. But if you’re not familiar with the game, take a side-scrolling action RPG, add massive anime elements, and give players the ability to customize the skills and abilities of any one of the 20 characters the game has to offer.  Set forth in dangerous dungeons, gather new equipment, and challenge others in engaging PvP matches! Its really cool to see this game come back to life like this, and at this scale. I remember announcing the game’s shutdown and hearing long time players were crushed about it.

On a slightly similar note, Dungeon Fighter Online has launched Season 6, act 17 this week, and with it comes four new NEO awakenings.  Players can look forward to awakening the Elven Knight, Chaos, Lightbringer, and Dragon Knight classes, complete with new and powerful skills.  For example, the Elven Knight changes the chain gauge for the class, allowing for further powers to enhance it, while the Lightbringer can grant a powerful damage reduction to whomever she is protecting.  These awakenings are live now, so enjoy your new found powers!

Finally, we have the Epic Games Store free games of the week.  Do you enjoy first person shooters but feel limited by your gun selection? I mean you could always play Borderlands 3… Mothergunship might just be what you’re after, as you’re in control of creating your weapons in this bullet hell FPS game.  If you’re into a more, shall we say, on rails experience, perhaps you should check out Train Sim World 2, also free this week on EGS!

But with that said, that’s about it for all the major news and announcements for this week. Be sure to stay safe, and keep your families healthy! Like always you can find more information on the news topics, linked in the description below, feel free to discuss the news or even more news in the comments below and don’t forget to like, subscribe, wash your hands a bunch, hit that little bell icon to get notifications and of course share this video! But until next time guys that’s going to be it for me… I’m JamesBl0nde… see ya out there gamers!