Are you a Lancer in TERA who's tired of standing in place while Warriors gracefully dance about? Are you a Warrior in TERA who's tired of dodging everything when some attacks are just easier to block through? Are you just a person who likes to watch videos of new class abilities? All three groups will be happy with the newest TERA video, which shows off the two new Lancer abilities and three new Warrior abilities debuting in the game's next major patch.

Lancers gain Backstep, which does more or less exactly what it sounds like, and Wallop, which hits the ground hard and knocks over your enemy. Warriors gain Cross Parry, which functions as a block; Smoke Flanker, which teleports the Warrior behind the enemy and hits back; and Reaping Slash, a spiraling attack that knocks down your target. Click on past the break to see all of the skills in action in this short video.

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For those with the skills to enter competitive gaming tournaments, there are huge cash prizes to be won. The Major League Gaming League of Legends summer tournament ended this week with $10,000 US going to Azubu Blaze, and Moscow 5 narrowly beat bitter rival CLG.eu to win the $15,000 US top prize in the ECC Poland tournament. Dota 2 continued to update its in-game tournament access and spectator modes in preparation for upcoming major tournaments.

Firefall announced a massive €10,000 EU beta tournament due to take place this month live at Gamescom 2012. If you aren't the competitive gaming type, you might be interested in Blacklight: Retribution's 30 Days of Fight event that lets players win raffle tickets for daily prizes of $1,000 for an entire month.

Console MOBA Guardians of Middle-earth revealed its new champions this week, support mage Galadriel and tanky warrior Uglúk from Lord of the Rings lore. Heroes of Newerth showed off its new melee strength hero Rally, and SMITE revealed Egyptian god Anhur, Slayer of Enemies. Finally, Diablo III released a hotfix to address the rubber-banding problems that have been affecting players recently, and an odd bug has surfaced that could potentially be duplicating items.

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End of Nations has a large number of units, and each of them has a relatively fixed role. You know at a glance what any given unit is meant to do and how it works with other units in the game. And then there are hero units, which are specifically meant to throw that balance off. Heroes possess multiple special abilities, generally ones that synergize well with other units, allowing you to pull out an unexpected set of abilities on an unsuspecting opponent.

Some Heroes are willing to work for any side in a conflict, and these Mercenaries are arguably even more powerful. When you hire a company of Mercenaries, you acquire both a Hero unit and several sidekick units specifically tuned to complement the Hero's abilities. That means a full strike force tuned for maximum impact, one that might enable a strategy not normally available to your faction. Jump on past the break for the full video explaining Heroes and showing these powerful units in action.

[Source: Trion Worlds press release]

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The term "open beta" has kind of been kicked around in the world of free-to-play MMOs, with several games entering open beta and essentially remaining there for eternity. MechWarrior Online's latest developer blog leads off by describing this problem, pointing out that terms like "launch" and "beta" don't have the same meaning when applied to a free-to-play game. But the game is still progressing toward open testing and a launched state, and the timeline for both is outlined in the blog.

Starting on August 7th, all Founders will have full access to the closed beta, complete with currency to purchase items. All funds spent on purchasing items during closed beta will be refunded with each major patch and refunded again when the game switches to open beta. If you still haven't quite grabbed the Founder's Package yet, you've still got some time, as the package is being extended past the initial cut-off date of August 7th. For more details on the testing schedule and what's next for the game, look through the full rundown of the testing phases and the road to launch.

If you're familiar with World of Warcraft's elaborate online armory database, then you probably already suspected Diablo III was next in line for a character brag-board. Fortunately, your wait is over today because a new character profile system for Blizzard's hack-and-slash title is now live on Battle.net.

The new profiles allow you to poke around your characters' gear and stats, view your progression through the game's difficulty modes, and see just how much you love your Witch Doctor compared to the other classes. And when you tire of reminding yourself how awesome you are, you can paw through your friends' profiles too. Your flatmate could really use an amulet upgrade, and you should take any opportunity to tell him so.

Says Blizzard, "We like profiles so much that we plan to add even more functionality to them as Diablo III evolves, including detailed statistics and tabs for achievements and artisans."

Check out the new toys on Battle.net.

If you've been a heady mix of excited and confused over EverQuest's upcoming Hero's Forge appearance system, then it's time to take confusion out of the equation. SOE's posted a nine-point FAQ on the system, explaining its various features and specifics.

The Hero's Forge will not be free but instead purchased for each character you'd like to dress up. SOE defended this separate cost by stating that "because of the very intensive nature of developing features such as Hero's Forge, by selling this feature in the Marketplace [SOE] can make it immediately available to players who desire such content much more quickly and without tying it to an expansion."

The studio says that there are over 10,000 items created for this system and that even those who don't buy the system can benefit by selling pieces they find or make. SOE has plans to expand the Hero's Forge in the future, including the possible addition of wizard hats and holiday-related outfits.

Server merges are coming to Age of Conan this week, and Funcom has posted a lengthy FAQ on the game's official forums that answers most of the inevitable questions.

For starters, the big day is August 7th. American PvE servers Set and Wiccana will be merged, with the resulting server retaining the Set name. If character name conflicts arise, they will be resolved based on account status (with actives given priority), character level (higher levels get priority), and account age.

Guilds will keep their names but will have their server-of-origin name appended. Guild cities will retain their playfields and spots, with new instances being created when necessary. Battlekeep spots will be cleared, and currently, occupying guilds will see their resources reimbursed. Hit up the AoC forums for further details.

Less than a month ago, Arma II mod DayZ surpassed the 500,000-player mark. As of this morning, over one million of you have tried the game since its inception earlier this year. According to the counter on the mod's official website, players have killed over 22.5 million zombies and accumulated nearly 1,220 years of total play time since the game went live.

DayZ is the brainchild of Dean "Rocket" Hall, and it transforms the modern military shooter Arma II into a post-apocalyptic sandbox infested with zombies and murderous fellow players. The object of the game is to survive as long as possible. Hall added injury effects as well as the need to eat and drink in order to heighten both the difficulty and the sense of realism.

It's pretty obvious that League of Legends is a bona fide phenomenon at this point. What many gamers may not have known, though, is just how big Riot's free-to-play behemoth has become.

The company has just unveiled a new level-up initiative that aims to take the entire e-sports scene up a few notches via the creation of a new LoL-focused pro league. The league will feature salaried teams from multiple countries, regular streamed matches with television-quality production values, and what Riot calls "the largest, most ambitious investment in e-sports ever made by a video game developer."

The format for the new league mirrors traditional sporting leagues by way of regular season matches followed by regional playoffs and a world championship. You can see a trailer for the new league after the cut.

[Source: Riot press release]

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From Kraken hunts to deck-side skirmishes, previously released videos have shown that combat on (and under) the high seas is a given in the upcoming sandbox ArcheAge. At this year's Chinajoy convention, XLGAMES revealed that the seas will play an even bigger role than just a pirate's playground; resources acquired from the sea will be an important part of the game. Players will be exposed to PvE and PvP battles organically while trying to gain control of these resources and battleships will become more vital. And players who prefer a life at sea can forgo living on the mainland as aqua farms and houses at sea can be built in a designated area.

XLGAMES announced the addition of specific Chinese content as well, including Chinese-style castles and medium-sized homes. The studio also announced a new reinforcement feature for siege warfare but didn't release details. Players will be able to try the system out for themselves during the fifth Korean closed beta next week. As always, we will keep you updated with more details as they surface!

Can't get enough Guild Wars 2? You'll probably want to tune in to ArenaNet's TwitchTV channel today at 2:00 p.m. EDT for a live chat with a couple of developer notables. Lore guru Jeff Grubb and designer Ree Soesbee are slated to talk "fantasy, RPGs, and storytelling," according to the official Guild Wars 2 Facebook page.

ArenaNet is coming off its latest beta stress test, and we're counting down the days to GW2's official release on August 28th.

We know it's there. That line. The one that separates folks who have a clue and those who may need to rent one for a while. In Aion, as in life, many people see the line and tactfully veer away from it. Others might stumble across it occasionally (perhaps after being tripped by rambunctious friends?). Some, however... well, some are why we have a topic for today. Some choose to pole vault over the line and keep on going, much to all of our detriment.

Let's face it -- despite growing popularity and our hobby's movement farther into the mainstream, there are still plenty of negative stereotypes surrounding gaming and the people who enjoy it. If our favorite hobby already has a bad rap, we certainly don't need to add to it! So showing a bit of common sense, decorum, and class as a community is actually pretty important, especially with the influx of new players since Aion went free-to-play. After all, we want those people to enjoy and stay in the game!

After witnessing a few situations in-game lately demonstrating an utter lack of class, I wondered whether perhaps folks just haven't had a chance to obtain wise counsel in regard to their behaviors. So today, Wings Over Atreia is proud to debut "Dear MJ," the new column designed to dispense invaluable -- though not necessarily solicited -- advice aimed at bettering our Atreian community.

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Chances are that you weren't holding out hope that BBC One was suddenly going to announce Chuck Norris: Warcraft Ranger or that Syfy was going to sign EVE Online to a three-season deal. TV shows based on MMORPGs don't happen -- at least not yet -- but if there is any place that you could imagine one being made, it would probably be in China. Unfortunately, it looks like this hypothetical daydream is off the table for the time being, as the government ruled that no TV show can be made from an MMO property.

What gives, China? Why no love for the MMO? This strange restriction is one of several new guidelines announced over the weekend by the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television. Among the guidelines is the rule that broadcast TV can't be based on online games.

The only current show on Chinese TV related to MMO is Rift in the Sky (which is based on the game Sword of the Yellow Emperor). If you consider how popular MMOs are in the country, it seems odd that the government feels that they're unworthy of appearing on air.

When dispensing news about Planetside 2, John Smedley has been utilizing Twitter quite a bit lately for everything from beta key clarification to keeping eager players notified about the status of the beta test. Now, after being queried about the PS2 launch on Twitter, the Sony Online Entertainment president has announced that the highly anticipated MMOFPS will be available via Steam. He tweeted, "PlanetSide 2 will be on Steam. Yes it will."

Closed beta testing for PlanetSide 2 began today.

When it comes to partying up in MMOs, it seems like everyone has his or her own preference for what size is ideal. While I've dipped my toes into the waters of raiding, I found it far too chilly and impersonal for my temperament. Yet while I prefer small group instance runs, I'm not blind to the fact that raiding remains immensely popular among part of the population.

Small group content offers a more intimate setting for you and a few friends (or strangers with potty mouths) to tackle an instance. Because there are so few of you, each player needs to pull his or her own weight and become a hero. These runs tend to be less stressful and far more accessible to the game's population.

On the other hand, raids offer the most challenging content in the game. A raid requires all involved to be geared up, skilled, and knowledgeable in the ways of fight patterns. Participating in one can feel downright epic, especially when you consider that you can see content that many players will never witness.

So let's put it to a vote! Which do you prefer: raid or small group content?

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MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively TV.

Every week, the Massively Stream Team logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises each week, so you'll find a variety of titles to watch. During our streamed events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, or simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, streaming is subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.)

Follow along after the jump to see what's on this week's schedule, and let us know if there's a specific game you'd like to see streamed next week!

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Over the last few expansions, Blizzard has been attempting to transform antique World of Warcraft dungeons into modern, heroic experiences, from Cataclysm's reimagined Deadmines to Mists of Pandaria's level-cap Scholomance. But most of WoW's dungeons -- and most dungeons in ever-changing MMOs period -- languish in the past with outdated mechanics and loot surpassed by overland quest drops. You might go there as a tourist occasionally, but no one takes those places seriously.

I like a chance to go back to reworked older zones to get my nostalgia fix on boosted, endgame content. But I can see why players might object to the practice. After all, a fresh coat of paint doesn't really make it a new room. It can feel as if the devs cheaped out and just pasted some new textures and mechanics into an already-built zone instead of implementing something truly new.

What do you think -- is it lazy to retool classic dungeons for a new endgame?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post.

It's been a brutal week for both the old and the new guard of the MMO genre. World of Warcraft announced losses of over a million subscription players in the last three months, while Star Wars: The Old Republic dipped under a million subs and revealed plans to adopt a hybrid free-to-play model to counter its shrinkage. But don't panic! As analysts point out, WoW has Mists of Pandaria to look forward to, and F2P SWTOR will likely result in "significant profit" for EA, though Forbes predicts doom for Activision.

The rest of our top MMO stories lie beyond the cut.

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EVE Online has always been strongly focused on PvP, from the obvious activity of smashing ships together to the more subtle cutthroat nature of competitive market trading and corporate politics. EVE is testament to the fact that if you put enough people in one place and ask them to share and play nice, pretty soon they'll be tearing each other's eyes out. Though the lack of direct flight controls and steep death penalty turn a lot of people off trying EVE, I have to admit that I've yet to find a better PvP experience in any MMO -- when I can actually get a good fight, that is.

Everyone who engages in PvP regularly will have stories to tell of some of the awesome fights he's had, but in truth they're few and far between. For every fight so spectacular that its story is retold for years, there are hundreds of quiet nights, failed roams, and encounters that end in disaster. Lowsec is particularly troublesome as the lack of warp disruption fields can make it hard to deprive enemies of an escape route and get them to actually fight. Warp bubbles bring their own problems, so what can be done to add more PvP opportunities to lowsec without allowing players to use area-effect warp disruption?

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at some of the factors that prevent good fights and stifle PvP in lowsec.

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Massively reader The Platypus knows the secret behind taking a good One Shots entry: a good death! He sent in this amazing shot from The Secret World with a quick note:

Hey Massively -- long-time reader The Platypus here! Two friends and I decided to three-man the Polaris dungeon in The Secret World last night, and while it went more smoothly than I imagined it would, we still had a little trouble with the Ur-Draug (TSW's Cthulhu analogue). As I was dying the first time and the creeping inevitability of my fate overcame me, I did the only logical thing I could do with the last few seconds of life: I took a screenshot! Enjoy!

Tentacles past the break. Hit it!

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