In honor of the release of the Black Guard and the Knight of the Blazing Sun careers to the public servers, we've updated our Renown Items Guide !

Check out the new Knight of the Blazing Sun and Black Guard sections of the guide!

The final chapter of Cruel as Ice, Cold as Steel is released, continuing the adventures of Rathann and his serving of the Witch King:

“Our hated foes seek the Ring of Athan amid the ruins of Tor Agral. Find the relic and return here with it; slay any Elf who stands in your way. So commands the Witch King.”

    The parting words of Halghast, captain of the Black Guard at the Fortress of Malice still echoed in Rathann Darkmoon’s head as he loped like a wolf through the blasted landscape of the Mournwood. His lacquered black-and-gold armor was scarred by sword-strokes and spattered with streaks of gore, and a long, bloodstained halberd was held loosely in his gauntleted hands...

Update 11:25 PM EST: Log in servers are up!

Due to technical difficulties players are currently unable to log into the game. AT this time we do not have an ETA on correcting this issue, however please check back here to this post for an update as soon as we know.

Thank you for your patience and we apologize for the inconvenience.

If you haven't had a chance to test out the two new careers, tomorrow is the day they are released to all public servers! With the snow storm headed my way, it looks like I'll have a lot of time to officially start a new career tomorrow...

All servers will be brought offline tomorrow as we release the Knight of the Blazing Sun and the Black Guard to all players!

Starting at 9AM EST North American servers will brought down with Oceanic servers to follow at 10:30AM EST. We anticipate all servers to be back online by 12 Noon EST with the North American servers coming up shortly before Oceanic.

Don't forget, you can play these careers and all of the current changes slated for 1.1 right now on the Public Test Server!

Another round of Hot Fixes today!  Categories include: Capital Cities, Combat and Careers, Content, Items, Quests and Public Quests, and Realm vs. Realm

It's certainly been an exciting week in WAR. Players who have completed the Heavy Metal event have been enjoying the new careers, Knight of the Blazing Sun and the Black Guard, and we're eagerly anticipating unveiling some changes in the impending Game Update 1.1.0!

Not only this, but we're still hard at work with our Hot Fixes. Here's the latest batch:

Another weekly site update, sharing with you the latest information regarding WAR Allakhazam, as well as reviewing important announcements you may have missed earlier last week.

Categories include: News Highlights, Forum Discussions, WIKI/DB Updates, and Guide Updates.  Click "More..." below to view a summary of each category!

The developers let the community know they are aware of the performance issues with the huge raid on Dark Crag last evening:

While we continue to monitor every server and how the new open RvR performance changes are working out we wanted to specifically address Dark Crag. We are aware of the issues players faced on the server during last nights Fortress raid.

It appears the changes we made opened up the fortress to even more people and you've taken it to the next level! We've made some adjustments, however, we won't know how effective they are until another mass raid begins.

Rest assured we'll continue to monitor and improve the issue best we can to ensure all those who wish to participate in these massive battles are able to without issue. Thanks all for your cooperation and keep up the feedback!

In this issue of the Dev Diary, James Casey takes us through the blood, sweat and tears of one of 1.1's most exciting new features: Player statues!

Who’s the Man (or Woman)?
The central theme of WAR is well, just that: war.  It’s everywhere.  Defending your realm and taking the fight to the enemy requires blood, sweat, and tears.  Players in WAR are rewarded for their efforts through the accumulation of renown.  Renown gives you access to training, equipment, and abilities that show off your dedication to the cause.  But sometimes you need more; sometimes you need recognition.  After all, what good is fortune without fame?

Status: Update is Complete!

Due in part to Update 1.1, the servers will need to be brought down today for some maintenance, starting at 12:30pm EST:

We've been hard at work finding ways to enhance your experience in Open RvR. Patch 1.1 has a lot of great changes in the works; to compliment them we're introducing several changes that we hope will reduce the amount of crashing experienced during massive assaults. This is our first step to improve your performance during large scale battles and make Open RvR and Fortress raids even more exciting!

At 12:30PM EST all servers will be brought down for this update. We expect them to be back online by 4:00PM EST.

A lot of interesting dungeon itemization changes have been implemented today!

City Dungeon Itemization

Below are the patch notes for the upcoming 1.1 changes, we’ve updated the notes on the Herald and on the patcher as well:

• Game Update 1.0.6 introduced several changes to City Dungeon Itemization. These changes were intended to be part of patch 1.1 but were released prematurely with 1.0.6. They are part of our greater plan to increase the availability of rarer items in the dungeons as a whole. While the number of Sentinel Armor Set pieces dropped from bosses will remain reduced players can look forward to even more rewards with the arrival of 1.1!