Blade & Soul (KR) December Expansion Review: New Maps, Dungeons, the 9th Class

NCsoft has revealed the first part of the December expansion preview for Blade & Soul. Of course the expansion will be first released in the Korean server but there’s no harm to take an early look at what will come to the NA and EU server in the future. You may have seen the trailer before, and if you haven’t you can see the 9th new class at around 2′ 10”, the young man who fights like Kungfu Master.

New chapter 7 story

The story revolves around the kidnap of a little girl – you can see the scene in the video above at around 55”. Mysterious new character will appear and offer his help. In the journey you will encounter and adventure with new companions in a strange land. What’s the fate of the little girl that’s kidnapped?

Good vs. evil

The left side stand your allies who will offer you assistance during your quest to rescue the little girl. The right side stands the representative of dark power – who are they and what they are up for?

Capital city of the Cloud empire, the starting point of whole new adventure

The palace of the capital city and the place where powerful men and rich people gather around – it’s like a bastion nobody can infiltrate

The slum where beggars, orphans, and helpless people live. People are united there though  oast of coral – behind its beauty is the terrifying legend that a lot of ships have disappeared and sailors lost their lives in this place

Forsaken forest – an abandoned forest with overgrown trees and unknown relics hidden in the very deep area

The headquarter of Black Dragon

A mysterious fleet

New monsters

New dungeons
A lifeless place where ancient guardians sleep

This boss has deadly fist attack

Be careful for its thunder and lightning abilities

Assassin Class Week

Strike from the shadows in this week’s class overview.

In our ongoing series we focus every other week on a Blade & Soul class. This week the Assassin has emerged to stand revealed in our overview.

Check out our updated class page on the Assassin, where we’ve added some wallpapers, a class introductory video, and a page from the Hongmoon Secret Tome. You’ll want to join us on the official Blade & Soul Twitch channel December 3 at 10 am PST to watch us play the Assassin, and also be sure to check out Twitch streamer Mr Happy 1227 on December 2 at 9 am PST as he shows off his own take on the class.

he Assassin is a complex class that excels when they have the freedom and time to set up their attack, and can be defined by their strategic approach to combat.

Calculating and precise, Assassins need to be in the right position and have the right skill chains set up in order to ensure their opponent doesn’t have the ability to respond to the Assassin’s lightning-quick attacks. Unlike other classes that can get away with fumbling through some clumsy skill applications and still do some damage, the Assassin’s movements and skills are fluid—as sharp as the dagger they wield—and can seamlessly move from attack to attack.

Assassins are masters of confusion and disorientation. Their typical opening move leaves their targets clutching their heads in bewilderment, as they’re inexplicably struck by an invisible force. If they’re alive long enough to regain their wits, it means the Assassin has graciously decided to hold off on their devastating follow-through, and chances are they’ve already disappeared again.

Similar to a Blade Master, Assassin skill availability is dependent on their stance: Stealth stance keeps the Assassin hidden from view, allowing them to deal massive amounts of damage on the unsuspecting. Decoy Stance provides a versatile toolkit for the Assassin, including bombs and other abilities that stun, daze and knock down, as well as their Counter: a visually striking ability that prevents damage and puts them back into Stealth Mode.

This is your last chance to get in and play Blade & Soul before launch on January 19, 2016.

The time left to play Blade & Soul during the closed testing period is rapidly closing. This is the last test weekend before the full game release on January 19, 2016 at 12:01am EST/9am CET. This final beta weekend runs from December 18 at 10am PST/7pm CET until December 21 at 10pm PST/December 22, 7am CET. This is your final opportunity to play, provide feedback, and help us ensure a successful launch of Blade & Soul next month.You can search more information to buy the Blade & Soul Gold

We’re less than five weeks away from launch, and January 19 also marks the end of your ability to get a Founder’s Pack. Having a Founder’s Pack of course guarantees access to this weekend’s test, but most tiers also offer additional benefits and exclusive rewards—with sizeable amounts of NCoin included—as well as Head Start access to the game before launch on January 15 at 10am PST/7pm CET, and Name Reservation on January 11, 2016 at 6pm PST For NA servers, and 7pm CET for our EU servers.

With Head Start beginning a full three days before launch for Founder’s Pack owners, we have a big weekend planned for our Head Start players, and a big launch event the week after to help kick Blade & Soul off right for everyone. We’ll have more information on the January 19 launch—including how you can get involved—in the near future, so stay tuned.

If you’re looking for a key for this weekend you can grab a copy of the January issue of PC Gamer US and find a free beta key inside. We’re also giving a ton of keys to individual EU press outlets, as well as a bunch to CyberPowerPC—and you can grab one from them by clicking here. We’re giving away tens of thousands of beta keys to make this the biggest closed beta weekend!

Launch is of course going to be an exciting time to start new characters, but we really want to remember everyone’s achievements throughout the closed beta by building a virtual photo album. Take a screenshot of your character waving goodbye to the beta, and post it in this official forums thread. In addition to that you can also tweet them to us @Blade and Soul and we’ll retweet a few throughout this last beta weekend.

Blade & Soul: Outfits of the Martial Artist

While a martial artist relies on their physical prowess, mastery of their skills, and control of the elements around them, their clothes aren’t entirely purposeless. While clothing doesn’t impart anything to combat ability, both visual aesthetic and symbolism of what the clothing represents can be important.

The outfits players wear will have no effect on their abilities, but some do have additional attributes. First, players must be wearing an outfit in order to gain the benefits from their Soul Shield. Beyond that, certain costumes can also represent players‘ allegiance to a faction, and donning such an outfit will flag players for attack by those of the opposing faction. While their blue or red PvP costume will show they are either fighting for the Cerulean Order or the Crimson Legion, there are other, regional factions players will come across during their travels. By wearing their clothes, players can influence the faction’s members—and their enemies—to react to them in a different way. This can come in handy if players are being sent to infiltrate an enemy stronghold. But players’ allegiance is not bound to these regional factions. Players can easily obtain the costumes belonging to each regional faction, and choose to wear them at any point. You could get more information in the website:
http://www.blade-soul.com/

http://www.blade-soul.com/blade-soul/blade-soul-items
Wardrobe

The Wardrobe feature (F3) allows players to browse all of the costumes available within the game—including ones for the Summoner’s Familiar—preview their appearance on player’s character, and even tells players where they can be obtained. It also serves as a storage closet where players can keep the costume looks they’ve already obtained, and quickly swap to different outfits. Some outfits are just torso coverings, like shirts and pants, while others might also include a matching head item, like a hat or mask.

Costumes drop from enemies and bosses, can be rewarded from completing quests and challenges, are unique drops from limited-time events and holidays, or can be purchased from the Hongmoon Store. Players should try to collect as many as possible!

Blade & Soul Announced for Western Winter Launch

NCSOFT® has announced that Blade & Soul will launch in North America and Europe this winter with closed beta beginning as early as fall 2015! Blade & Soul is a game unlike any other, set in an Asian, mythological world where fast-paced combat collides with the visual beauty of a Far-East martial arts massively-multiplayer online universe. Since its initial launch in Asia in mid-2012, Blade & Soul has attracted tens of millions of players across South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Japan, while emerging as one of the top MMORPGs in the world.

“Blade & Soul is one of the most anticipated online games by Western consumers,” commented John Burns, senior vice president of publishing at NCSOFT West. “This is a tremendous opportunity to bring one of the most successful and fun online games in Asia to our Western audience this winter and we can’t wait to deliver this extraordinary and distinct gaming experience to millions of new players across North America and Europe.”

Blade & Soul delivers an engaging story and vibrant world for players to explore. In the game, players must fight to avenge the death of their fallen master in a classic Wuxia storyline. Wuxia, which literally means “martial hero,” is a broad genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. As players explore the world of Blade & Soul, they will see a fusion of Asian cultures that delivers stunning landscapes and vistas.

Blade & Soul defies typical MMO conventions, delivering action-based combat with ability combos and a flexible party role system that does not require dedicated healers. It gives players unprecedented movement abilities around the world as their characters leap over mountains and fly through the air.

The first major Blade & Soul livestream will take place on Thursday, May 21 at 10AM PDT / 17:00 UTC at www.twitch.tv/bladeandsoul. In addition, fans can receive exclusive and on-going information on all things Blade & Soul by signing up for the game’s newsletter at http://bladeandsoul.com. Player feedback will help shape the game as it evolves, so fans are encouraged to follow and interact with Blade & Soul via social media and other communication channels, including:

Twitter: @bladeandsoul

Facebook: facebook.com/bladeandsoul

Selected fans who sign up on the site will be given access to the closed beta that is planned for fall of 2015 in North America and Europe. At launch, the Western version of Blade & Soul will be fully localized into English, German and French (including voice-over). Additional information about the business model will be revealed this summer.

Recommended MMO :Blade and Soul will be released in January 2016

Blade & Soul

The game is going to finally release in the west on January 19. You should have added this game to your play list while you are pretty familiar with the game’s content. At launch you can choose from 7 classes including Blade Master, Blade Dancer, Destroyer, Force Master, Kungfu Master, Assassin, and Summoner. Looks like Warlock will be added in future update. For now we have no idea how exactly the cash shop will be like since there will be no open beta.

While most game play content remain the same as that in Korean version, the team modifies numbers of quests and quest dialogues for the purpose of localization. Some western players don’t like it, citing that the alternation “turns the player into a strict hero archetype with no moral failings or ambiguity. Villains are now stereotypical cartoon-tier evil.” We’ll see how the community will say about to the story and quests after the launch.

Recently, NCsoft unveiled a new class for Blade & Soul. In addition, the full version of previous musical titled “Wash Painting Succuba – Jin Seo-yeon” is unveiled.

The new class could change combat modes freely as usual depending on different conditions. They are not only good at melee but also range attack. They are also helpful in recovering team members

Besides, NCsoft offered a musical titled “Wash Painting Succuba – Jin Seo-yeon” during Blade & Soul 2015 World Tournament in last November at Busan. This musical interpreted Jin Seo-yeon again with imagination and wonderful Acousto-optic effect created by the production team and artists. So far, the name of this new class has not been confirmed. The official invited players to name this new class.

You can search more information in the following website:

http://www.blade-soul.com/blade-soul/blade-soul-items

http://www.blade-soul.com/blade-soul/blade-soul-powerleveling

 

The Wait Is Over! A Look Back at Blade & Soul’s 8-Year Road to the West

On the subject of the most anticipated MMORPG in 2012, Blade & Soul will be in everyone’s mind. Blade & Soul attracted wide attention and received good comments from players due to its gorgeous art, exciting windwalking system, beautiful characters, fast combat and facsinating story.
NCsoft, the Korea-based MMO veteran behind Lineage 2, announced the Unreal Engine 3 title Blade & Soul for the first time in 2007, and it’s been 8 years since it then. During the 8 years, western players leant about this game via news from Korea and China.
On May 21, 2015, NCsoft finally confirmed Blade & Soul will come out in North America and Europe this winter and enter first closed beta test on October 30th. The wait is almost over, so let’s take a look back at the 8 years’ time of Blade & Soul’s birth, growth, and how it get to where it is today.

On November 21st, 2007 NCsoft officially announed a mysterious new title with codename Project M

Developed by NCsoft’s Team Bloodlust, Blade & Soul is NCsoft’s first oriental fantasy MMOPRG. It is also seen as the company’s new flagship MMO after AION.
On July 31st, 2008 Project M had a formal name Blade & Soul
At NCsoft’s newgame press conference in 2008, Project M officially named Blade & Soul and it unveiled the first trailer and first batch of screenshots. Take a look at the video below and see how the game looked like 7 years ago.
On October 13, 2008, NCsoft released a new trailer for their next generation title Blade &Soul
On October 13, Pae Jae Hyun released an 8-minute trailer which uncovered more details of the game. More actions including dazzling skills and windwalking skill can be seen in the trailer and at that time people were sure of the development went smoothly.

On August 8th, NCsoft announced that Blade & Soul’s first CBT would be delayed to 2010
NCsoft confirmed on its financial report conference that Blade & Soul CBT rescheduled in 2010.

On December 11, 2009, Blade& Soul unveiled a G-Star interview video

In this interview video, Blade & Soul designer who was in charge of the graphics talked about Blade & Soul’s features and development.

On March 8th, 2010, Blade &Soul unveiled a video for all plyable races

At G-Star 2009, Blade & Soul released a video, officially introducing 4 races, including Gon, Jin, Lyn and Kun.

On May 9th, 2010, NCsoft announced again that Blade & Soul’s CBT schedule would delay again

At NCsoft’s 2010 Q1 financial report conference call, NCsoft’s managing board talked about Blade & Soul’s development status. They planned to start B&S CBT in 2010 and commercial service in 2011. During that time, Blade & Soul was in internal test and reviewed players’ feedback. So, they changed the schedule and delayed the CBT. However, they confirmed that they would not change the official release schedule.

At G-star 2010, players could get their hands on Blade & Soul for the first time

On August 13, 2010, NCsoft updated the launch schedule at the Q2 financial report conference. The next day, NCsoft presented Blade & Soul at G-Star and offered a trial demo which contained tutorial contents and early quests.

On October 29th, 2010, NCsoft unveiled a G-Star promotion trailer

On April 27th, 2011, Blade & Soul finally kicked off first closed beta test in Korea

The anticipated MMORPG kicked off a 5-day closed beta test on April 27th. The first CBT opened 20 levels of content including windwalking system, combo skills and grouping. Although the beta only lasted 5 days, the CBT key was sold at skyhigh price on the internet at third party websites.

On May 2nd, 2011, NCsoft announced that Blade & Soul’s 2nd CBT would due in August and released a brand new class for the game

 

On May 16th, 2011, Chinese publisher Tencent secured publishing right of Blade & Soul in China

On May 23rd, 2011, NCsoft released a trailer to celebrate the success of Blade & Soul’s first CBT in Korea

In celebration of the success of Blade & Soul’s first closed beta test, NCsoft released the first commemorated trailer. Players can see the game’s content in the CBT.

Blade & Soul – The Memory of 1st CBT

On July 28th, 2011, the second round of CBT started. It was said that the game had been hacked.

Blade & Soul entered the first closed beta test in the end of April, so the client was available to the public for the first time. A lot of foreign players can not wait to play the game and someone hacked the client. Later on, Blade & Soul private server appeared.

On August 18th, 2011, Blade & Soul unveiled the second CBT schedule and new class assassin

Blade & Soul announced to start the second CBT on August 29th, 2011 and end on September 10th, 2011. In addition, NCsoft unveiled new class assassin would be available in CBT2, along with optimized control and targeting system.

On September 8th, 2011, Blade & Soul unveiled the sixth new class summoner for the 3rd CBT

On April 23rd, 2012, Blade & Soul unveiled the 3rd CBT schedule and more about Summoner

The 3rd CBT ran from May 9th to May 22nd, 2012. At the same time, NCsoft released a trailer and some screenshots for Summoner.

The creature summoned by Summoner was pretty terrifying seeing from the promotion trailer in 2009. However, in the actual game the creature became an adorable cat. The class is mainly designed for female players.

On May 23rd, 2012, Blade & Soul Open Beta schedule unveiled

The third closed beta test of Blade & Soul ended on May 22nd, and shortly after, NCsoft unveiled the OBT schedule. The Open Beta will start on June 21st, 2012.

On February 19th, 2013, Blade & Soul confirm the game’s western version won’t be modified or censored.

A trailer of Blade & Soul published for the west featured censored content. Characters were less exposed than the Korean version. Rumors spreaded, saying that NCSOFT West was modifying the content. NCSOFT West made a statement clarifying that they would never alter the game content.

On February 7th, 2014, Blade & Soul set sail to Japan

On April 8th, 2014, Blade & Soul Japan Confirmed to Be Pay-to-play with Cash Shop

The payment mode of Blade & Soul Japan has been confirmed to be pay-to-play with cash shop according to Steparu. Details of the monthly packages have not been announced yet, but you can take a look at the two starting packages available on Amazon. They are the Standard package with a price of 37 USD and the Premium package of 95 USD.

 

On July 30, 2014, Blade & Soul Taiwan server officially announced with beta sign-up starting on July 30

On May 21st, 2015, NCSOFT announced Blade & Soul to Launch in North America and Europe in the winter

Finally, NCSOFT announced that Blade & Soul(Official Site: http://www.bladeandsoul.com/) will launch in North America and Europe this winter.Set in an Asian, mythological world where fast-paced combat collides with the visual beauty of a Far-East martial arts massively-multiplayer online universe, Blade & Soul is a game unlike any other. Since its initial launch in Asia in mid-2012, Blade & Soul has attracted tens of millions of players across South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Japan, while emerging as one of the top MMORPGs in the world.

On October 30th, 2015, Blade & Soul will start the first closed beta test in the west

Without any further notice or a big adverstising campaign, NCSoft suddenly announced that theFounder’s Packs for Blade & Soul are now available in North America and Europe, and revealed that the game will launch in the first quarter of 2016.