[Threshold] Holiday Season Events and New Content - 2014

[Aristotle]

1. BONFIRE EVENT: The Adventurers Guilds of Sable and Thrace are hosting a year long event saluting the many decades of adventurers that have graced their halls. This event takes place during December 2014 through January 5, 2015. Some of the festivities will include:
   • A huge bonfire in both AGs where you can obtain insignias to be worn and later offered to the fire as tribute to the guild of your choice.
     
     
   • Nightly STEA run events starting December 15th and running every night through December 31st.
     
     
   • Random Admin Run Events throughout the entire month of December!
     
     
   • Double XP December 25th through December 30th.
   
   
2. New Guild Ability for every guild. Every guild in the game will get at least 1 new ability during the month of December. The order in which guilds will receive their new ability will be determined based on their participation in the Adventurers Guild BONFIRE EVENT. This doesn't determine *IF* you get a new ability - every guild will get a new, awesome power. This only determines how soon and in what order the new abilities are gained.
   
   Guild size is factored into this as well, so all guilds have a fair shot to participate. Also, other rewards are possible based on participation. For example, new rooms added to your guild hall, more storage, etc.
   
   These new abilities are all very powerful, role defining type powers on longer cooldowns. A few examples:
   
   • Juggernaut (warrior/paladin/ranger): With this ability, you become an unstoppable juggernaut. For a short period of time, you gain massive resistance to all forms of damage, greatly increased endurance regeneration, and greatly increased health regeneration.
     
     
   • Planetouch (mage/templar): With this ability, you surrender your physical form to forge a connection with one of the elemental planes: Earth, Air, Fire, or Water. Spells associated with the connected plane become more powerful and you will gain near immunity to the damage type of the plane you have touched.
     
     
   • Soul of the Panther (thief/rogue): For a brief period of time, you steal the soul of a powerful, agile panther. You will dodge almost every physical attack no matter how numerous or well aimed. Furthermore, your chance to land critical strikes is massively increased. When the soul of the panther leaves you, it will take with it a large amount of the aggression your foes had directed towards you (lowering your threat level).
   
   
   
3. PK Moratorium: During the month of December 2014 there is a moratorium on PK.
   
   A number of PK related systems are being overhauled to make sure PK is used properly. REMEMBER: PK should only be used as a last resort after enormous amounts (ideally, many weeks or months) of RP. Player-vs-player stealing has also been disabled. There are only two places where PK/PvP is allowed for December:
   • Arenas
   • Exemplar battles - in the Exemplar room and immediately surrounding rooms. NOTE: This does not include getting revenge later elsewhere in the world. PvP is only allowed at the actual exemplar assault/defense.
   
   
4. Exemplar 1.1: Two new things for Exemplars this month:
   
   • Exemplar ability respec and new points added based on glorification performance. (Will happen before 12/15/14 MNF)
   • At the 12/15/14 MNF, Exemplar 1.1 will be implemented. The new system will give defenders new, interesting ways to defend, and will give attackers new rewards for successful attacks.
   
   
5. 2014 Holiday Threshold Reg Special: Double Coin, Special ThreshCredit Shop Acccess, and many cool items - including the brand new Holiday Fruitcake.
   
   Thread with more details on the 2014 Holiday Threshold Reg Special.
   

[Aristotle]

New Guild Ability for every guild.

These new abilities are all very powerful, role defining type powers on longer cooldowns.

In development, we call these "1 hour guild abilities" because they all have a 1 hour cooldown. They are to be used in really tough, high-drama situations or in emergencies. Some of them could also be called "OH SHIT!" buttons.

These abilities are very powerful and are designed to accentuate one or more of the primary roles of each guild. As we develop more group based content we will design with these roles in mind so everyone has a way to shine.

We will share more teaser information about these abilities every day or so while you all compete with each other in the BONFIRE event to see who gets their powers first.

A note about tradesmen: We didn't feel like this was the right context for a new trader ability, so instead Traders are the X Factor in the Bonfire event. They can still wear insignias and dedicate them, so there will hopefully be a lot of RP and diplomacy as guilds negotiate with traders to get them to dedicate insignias for their guild!

[Aristotle]

MINI FAQ:

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Q: Will these be inserted at mid-high levels or hegemon+?

A: For all of these "1 hour abilities", you earn rank 1 at level 11, rank 2 at 21, rank 3 at 31. They also tend to have 2-3 relevant skills that enhance the effectiveness.

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[Sier]

Will certain churches be able to decline respecing their exemplar?

Some of us do not currently have high priests or paladins to spread the old moolah back out.

[Qenton]

Thanks for rubbing it in, Sier.

[Pae]

Let's be honest the exciting thing about this isn't the skills per say but the discovery of what all the new stuff is. We love new stuff.

So with that said, please vote for clerics. Nobody knows what the clerics will get... why wait? Vote for clerics and you'll know even sooner.

** this message brought to you by the Sablean Cleric's Guild - saving your ass since year 1

[Rosuav]

Let's be honest the exciting thing about this isn't the skills per say but the discovery of what all the new stuff is. We love new stuff.

So with that said, please vote for psions. Nobody knows what the psions will get... why wait? Vote for psions and you'll know even sooner.

** this message brought to you by the Sablean Psion's Guild - being totally awesome for as long as you can remember

I'm just going to quote this, utterly unchanged, honest. We would never tamper with your memories, change what you're thinking, or in any way attempt to influence your decisions. However, it is worth pointing out that dedicating your badges to the Psions Guild is well worth doing. Thank you for helping us help you help us all.

[Aristotle]

Will certain churches be able to decline respecing their exemplar?

Some of us do not currently have high priests or paladins to spread the old moolah back out.

Priest/Priestess and up can now spend points. We made sure every church has at least 1 person at that rank or higher.

[Aristotle]

BREAKING: Exemplar Respec and New Points Gained

• Exemplars have been reset.
• Priest/Priestess and above can now control Exemplar training.
• Every church has at least 1 player at that rank or higher.
• Points were added to every church based on the last round of glorification.

[Pae]

1. Double XP December 25th through December 30th.

Thanks!