People will think … why do the hell do you do that? I mean, you don’t know what to expect. You don’t know anything. Well, we don’t work for Gravity, but we have some information and based on the names we can make some, let’s call it “research.”

So far this is what we know. The names are as follows:

Hunter/Sniper ==> Ranger
Blacksmith/Mastersmith ==> Mechanic
Wizard/High Wizard ==> Warlock
Assassin/Assassin Cross ==> Guillotine Cross
Knight/Lord Knight ==> Rune Knight
Priest/High Priest ==> Archbishop
Bard/Clown ==> Minstrel
Dancer/Gypsy ==> Wanderer
Rogue/Stalker ==> Dark Chaser
Alchemist/Biochemist ==> Generic
Sage/Scholar ==> Sorcerer
Crusader/Paladin ==> Royal Guard
Monk/Champion ==> Shura

Now, let’s ask uncle Google for some help and see what we can find out and see if it applies to our Ragnarok knowledge.

Ranger

Wikipedia defines it as a keeper, guardian, or soldier who ranges over a region to protect the area or enforce the law.

In J.J.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium the Rangers were two secretive, independent groups organized by the Dúnedain of the North (Arnor) and South (Gondor) in the Third Age. Like their Númenórean ancestors, they appeared to possess qualities closely attributed to the Eldar, with their keen senses and ability to understand the language of birds and beasts. They were great trackers and hardy warriors—defending their respective areas from evil forces.

In Dungeons & Dragons they are protectors of nature, skilled woodsmen, and often live reclusive lives as hermits. Primarily based on the character Aragorn as warriors who use tracking and other wilderness skills to hunt down their enemies.

Corum Online has a class called Ranger. The ranger has the highest offensive accuracy and evasion skills of any class. She has high physical offensive and defensive power and skills that require the use of Chakra. The series of skills that use Chakra are mainly ninja skills such as concealment and poisoning

Mechanic

This information comes from RoWiki: based on image of a knowledgeable mechanic. Wears a one piece work outfit. Added more weapons that can be created. Can now create auto-attacking turrets that were originally slated to be released with the transcendent jobs. Improved skills that make use of items rather than direct battle.

Warlock

This information comes from RoWiki: The clothing is simple to allow easy movement. Focused on concept of a caster that is specialized in large-scale battles. Added poison property spells. Strengthened ghost property spells. Super strong very large AoE damage spells that can be cast when multiple Warlocks are together. Can mix different types of spells to achieve new effects. Powerful and destructive class.

One definition of a Warlock could be: warlocks are sorcerers who chose to follow a path of darkness, drawing much of their power from the souls of defeated enemies contained in soul shards. Apart from all the draining spells, a couple of spells from WoW Warlocks are: Demon Armour, which provides the caster with an armour protection increase or Curse of the Elements, which curses a target for a period of time increasing the damage taken from elements.

Guillotine Cross

This information comes from RoWiki: Appears similar to Loki from original Ragnarok manga. Tights made of bone and extended claws of sharpened blades. Like Assassins, a typical DPS type class. Based around on very strong damage, but when a skill fails, there will be backlash effect to the user. Many different types of new poisons will be added. Also, armed with many new skills using poisons.

Rune Knight

This information comes from iRoWiki: Appears similar to Chaos and his armour set from original Ragnarok manga. Looks like a fast attacking type. More offensive-oriented than Knights or Lord Knights. Reduced reliance on defensive gears. Skills will be more offensive-oriented. They will also use “Rune”, a special type of Mana, to perform their skills.

In Dungeons & Dragons, rune knights are oddities among the arcane adept, for they are trained in the use of counter magic, able to turn an enemy’s spells against them via the inscription of a single, yet powerful rune upon their weapons and backs. To supplement their runic powers, each rune knight also undergoes rigorous martial training and are taught to harness a small amount of arcane spells for their own use as a back-up measure. A rune knight uses a runic weapon in conjunction with the rune on her back as a sort of magical lightning rod, focusing a spell’s power into her body and breaking it down into raw magical energy. Readying runic is a move action that provokes attacks of opportunity and lasts until the rune knight either successfully absorbs a spell or spell-like ability, or performs another substantial action (immediate or greater).

Archbishop

This information comes from RoWiki: Males appear like those serious members of the clergy. Females look like the pope in Rachel temple. Improved existing supportive skills. Many new anti-Demon/Undead skills will be added. However, selecting them will reduce effectiveness or lose out on some of the supportive skills. Added skills that allows the Arch Bishop to do physical melee damage.

In WoW there is a boss monster called Archbishop Benedictus. A guide of the quest for him describes his tactics as : Besides melee with his staff, he uses 2 types of Holy Smites, one being 1.5 sec casting time and the other being instant. Both do 1400-1600 Holy damage. He also uses Holy Nova when there are at least 2 targets within melee range of him. It has also been reported has a Power Word: Shield spell which he’ll use randomly throughout combat.

Minstrel

In Lord of the Rings Online Shadows of Angmar the minstrels are described as skilled at maintaining their companions’ morale and stirring their hearts to perform greater feats of prowess. They ward against the forces of darkness and inspire their allies using their knowledge of ancient songs and lore. They are classified as healers. The Minstrel is the master of maintaining the survivability of the heroes of Middle-earth. Minstrels also are able to deal damage to their foes by using their damaging light-based attacks in the forms of songs of power. They have similar skills to the Clowns but some of them are much more offensive and some are much more supportive.

Dark Chaser

Haven’t found much information on this one but apparently Kingdom Hearts 3 has “chasers” on it and this is some information on them. They chase the power they favour, light, darkness, etc. There may be a chasers of the light, darkness, and twilight. Therefore, they may also all be evil beings. As supported by an old theory, they might chase the Keyblade Masters. But maybe the Chasers are a group of people who hunt down Keyblades for power. With each warrior they get, their power increases. Then this may be that there is/are an appointed chaser(s) for each type of Keyblade Master. Chaser of the Masters of Light, Chasers of the Masters of Darkness, and so on.

Regarding the same I found a rather curious story about them from the same game. This is some extracts from it. There was a great war. In a place between worlds and there were those known as “Chasers”. Those who had manifested great power and channelled it through weapons they expertly crafted known as the Keyblades. There were four Chasers.

The Chasers all had to power to create, save, destroy and lock world’s hearts. Their keyblade gave them enough power to unlock the energy of a worlds physical heart and be able to move from world to world. Two followed the path of light, bringing life to the worlds, following the paths of Light and Twilight. The other two, they grew unhappy and decided that those who did not respect them should perish. They followed the path of Darkness. They began to bring destruction to worlds, destroying them. One of the two Dark Chasers realized the faults in his ways and decided to back out. Much as Riku did, this Chaser follows the path of Dawn back to the Crossroads where he is forgiven for his ways. The final Chaser, the one they called Xehanort, would not give up, would not give in. The war began, it is unknown for how long this terrible time lasted. It has been recorded though and the Chasers are much like gods. The Chasers each had the ability to spread their power to a disciple or their spirits lived on through a bloodline or chosen ones. Passing their power on to make sure to Order of the Worlds was kept safe.

Sorcerer

In Dungeons & Dragons, A sorcerer is weak in melee combat, but a master of arcane magic, the most generally powerful form of D&D magic. Sorcerers’ magical ability is innate rather than studied. They do not need to prepare specific spells in advance, but each sorcerer also acquires a much smaller number of spells, since they do not use spell books and cannot simply copy new spells from others’ writing. They can cast more spells per day, but qualify for more powerful spells slightly more slowly than wizards. While they gain only a few noncombat spells, they have perhaps more sheer destructive force than any other character class. Sorcerers do not need to prepare spells prior to using them. They may call upon whichever spell they innately know and may cast it using only the trigger sequence. Reasons for this are speculative at best, but some philosophers believe that sorcerers continually subconsciously recall the bulk of the spell at all times that they are awake. Sorcerers, like wizards, do not wear armour or use shields. However, unlike the wizard, sorcerers are proficient with the complete range of simple weapons, including the spear and shortspear, as wizards devote vastly more time and effort to maintaining their magical abilities.

Shura

A game called Dream of Mirror Online has 4 ethnics and one of them is called Shura. They describe as a beast-like race that can resemble both a cat and dragon. An ethnic group based on the “Tocharian” in ancient Chinese myth. The Shura emphasizes on power, therefore male Shura look ferocious and female Shura look seductive. The Shura race tend to solve disputes with disputes. Adopting an eye for an eye may be a drawback, but it can be an efficient way to solve problems. Since the Shura is an aggressive race, they emphasize a lot on power and love fighting; they surrender to greater powers as well. A long time ago, the number of Shura race was sharply reduced from their killing each other. Later a human being defeated all top Shura fighters under the rule that the winner gets to lead. This stopped the Shura race from killing each other. That human being also established the monster buster sword school. The Shura emphasizes on the power and life value, they are therefore very suitable for front line occupations.

Unfortunately I haven’t found much concise information on the other names, but that’s what’s up to you guys! Leave your comments.

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First, we see that SPAM, once having the offensive advantage (with Algiz), and MENS, once having the defensive advantage, are slowly beginning to even themselves out. The fact that MENS and SPAM were once this way is supported by Ministry’s ability to hold Brit4 relatively consistently a few months back – though they were eventually broken by a well-timed Subconscious/Interlude rush. Since that time, MENS and SPAM have made alternating attempts at holding castles – whether it be Balder4 by sealed fate, Balder4 by n00bz/Shadowrunners, or Brit5 by n00bz, to name a few, they’ve certainly been attempting to defend against one another. Yet they are both consistently broken. You could conclude that both alliances just suck at defending. When you compare the adequacy of their defenses to those presented on Chaos and Loki, one would be correct. However, given Iris’ small population and the fact that the experience in WoE on this server for most is minimal compared to the seasoned veterans of the older servers, their defenses are adequate. Given that neither guild has been able to get a strong foothold in defending in recent weeks, it does suggest that MENS and SPAM are beginning to counterbalance each other, which is good for the rest of the server. Why, you ask?

Second, smaller guilds are able to reap the benefits of this stalemate. The fact that SPAM and MENS are practically even in strength means that the conflicts last much, much longer. Remember, the only way MENS’ defenses truly weaken is at the expense of SPAM’s offensive players, for example. Character cancel each other out until the stronger guild prevails. This is especially true with the prolific use of Acid Bomb and Guillotine Fist. And Rosette’s Falcon Assault, which is still painful, even with my reduction as a Scholar. Anyways, these longer conflicts allow for smaller guilds to be able to hold and grow practically unnoticed. For example, in the past few sieges, the last two defended castles standing were the SI Alliance and Alliance #6’s castles. This allows for smaller guilds to play a bigger role in the overall scheme, which is innumerably beneficial for everyone. SPAM and MENS members get constant action, and the smaller guilds gain in treasures and in strength to eventually be able to compete with the larger guilds. And so the cycle continues. But why?

Third, the updated treasure system has bolstered our sagging economy. Guild leaders: remember when your loots consisted of Chain Mails that you overcharged and Oridecon? Gravity’s long overdue update of castle treasures has added incredible financial benefit to the game. The Treasure Box item allows for raw zeny to be given to guild leaders, which allows for items such as Condensed White Potions (slims) to be produced en masse. This allows for more intense WoEs and improves the survivability of characters – I heard you live longer when you have pots to spam. This offers greater incentive to participate in WoE and a greater reward for doing well. Such benefits breathe new life into an old concept, which increases turnouts and makes it all the more interesting to participate in. The next several months will be marked with increasing WoE attendance in anticipation of 11.3 and all of its promises, as well. April promises to be a very interesting month, Iris.

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WI-FI Press Corp : Hi, Navy. Thanks for joining us today.

Navy : Hello there.

WI-FI : Today we are interviewing Navy, the leader of Holy Guardians. As many of us know, Holy Guardians was created at the dawn of Iris. What motivated you to become a guild leader?

Navy : Well, I had started a guild on Loki without much success. When I moved to Iris, I figured it would be easier on a place without so much competition. And it just snowballed from there. It’s never been about me being leader, more of a friendship-place to be in.

WI-FI : Holy Guardians broke in the summer of 2007 - can you tell us why?

Navy : Mainly due to personal reasons in life: I had a lot to deal with and had to quit iRO for a while. But the addiction came back and I started playing again.

WI-FI : Rumor around Iris is that you are planning to bring back Holy Guardians. Can you confirm this?

Navy : Yes, I’d like to have my own guild again, do my own stuff. I’ve always enjoyed that aspect of it.

WI-FI : Can you tell us if Holy Guardians will be a part of the M.E.N.S. Alliance?

Navy : Hmm, well first I will have to get members. I started spreading the word out a couple weeks ago so people would see that I was bringing back HG. If the guild gets successful again, I’ll check alliance then. Not stressing too much about it yet. I am friends with EV and SR, and people in Ministry - that will never change.

WI-FI : When it came to videos, you were Steven Spielberg of RO. Can we expect to see more videos from you soon?

Navy : Haha, yeah I had quite a bit of fans for my videos. I inspired a lot of people to start their own videos as well. I stopped because I didn’t have as much time due to my career. We’ll see if I can make some for WoE 2.0 and get the video business started again.

WI-FI : Speaking of WOE:SE, what’s the most exciting thing you expect from it?

Navy : I was hoping it would separate from WoE 1, so people could focus more on one or the other. That way, we would have more action. But I know a lot of guilds that will be focused on defending, so it should be quite interesting in those castles to be part of the action that will come.

WI-FI : Iris isn’t at its best state. If you can change one thing about Iris, what would it be?

Navy : Tough one. I love Iris, always been a nice place to me, always defended it also. I don’t think I would change anything. Maybe to iRO itself, but not to Iris.

WI-FI : Since you began your journey in Rune-Midgard, how has your RO experience changed?

Navy : It’s almost been 4 years now I think. I started playing with Panoramix, Heal bombing in Amatsu. Never thought I’d find myself being a guild leader of a successful guild in the future, make god items, get MVP cards. I thought Angel Wings was out of reach when I first played, lol. So yeah, I’ve done a lot, made a lot of friends. It’s been a lot of fun.

WI-FI : Aren’t those one of the oldest wings on the server as well?

Navy : Probably, one of my friends that was from jRO got them and sold them to me and Serra for 4 mil, around the first few months of Iris. It was a lot of money back then, but I really wanted them.

WI-FI : I wish I could wear some of those. Instead, I’ve got my cool Fish Hat.

Navy : Haha.

WI-FI : With the implementation of 11.3, what are you looking forward to the most?

Navy : Well, for Paladin, I want to have fun in the new dungeon, since all the monsters are made for my build. And for my Champion, I want Orleans Gloves, cause it’s a damn sexy gear.

WI-FI : Oh? Any chance for a noob like myself to get a tank there?

Navy : Maybe. We’ll get you a Heal clip and you can Heal bomb.

WI-FI : Oh, right! I’d better hunt one of those first. Well, Navy, that just about wraps up our interview! Are there any people you want to give a shout out to?

Navy : Well, I’m just going to say hi to everyone on Iris.

*Edited for style.

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Once we used some firecrackers to bust out the treasure to bring back to O’Riley, he made a deal with us to trade all the stolen coins from the snakes for some good Green Ale.

This year’s quest was pretty straightforward, and it had a nice experience reward attached to it. And who doesn’t love Green Ale? We once again had two kinds: one that restores HP and another that restores both HP and SP. Easy with decent rewards - couldn’t ask for more.

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During the first few months of Iris, most players were still considered to be ‘noob’ by the standards of the more mature servers; People lacked good gears, overupgrades, and high level characters. For the few of those in the upper tier, they took advantage of their power to abuse a certain MVP for farming quick experience and valuable drops.

With the right equipment and classes, it was possible for a group of people to farm several millions of experience off of the armor clad, white horse riding Lord of the Dead in a single hour. This was done by killing the MVP’s mob while taking all steps to keep him alive so he would continuosly respawn them. Compared to the monsters of the time, this was unheard of experience and deemed to be a major exploit by many vocal members of the community. Some of Iris’ early players earned their auras from this procedure, making a lot of others unhappy and prompting them to send in numerous complaints to Gravity seeking a more level playing field. In time Gravity took action and not only changed Lord of Death’s mob, but made it so they would no longer give experience or drops.

As time moved on the damage to the community caused by Lord of the Dead faded. However, people are always thinking up new creative ways to get the fastest experience they possibly can. The Abyss Lake update introduced us to the Hydrolancer miniboss. Like Lord of the Dead, it was discovered that this monster could also be farmed given the right classes and equips, and for even more experience than Lord of the Dead offered. Due to this coming after the server had started to mature, a lot more people were powerful enough to do a Hydrolancer party. It was possible for many people to gather together to leech, and help their friends and guildmates to get as much experience out of this monster as possible.

Like with Lord of the Dead, this caused a large division in the community. People would try to mob Hydrolancer parties to cause a disturbance in their leveling or in hopes of stealing their monster away for their own farming purposes. Much like with Lord of the Dead leeching, Gravity’s inboxes were flooded with people deeming it an exploit that needed immediate fixing.

Some people would claim that the ones who complained needed to just suck it up and deal with the fact that there are ways for people to level fast. It was a common accusation that the only reason people complained in the first place was because they were incapable of doing the things that other players could. Others really had no feelings towards the situation, and just wished to continue playing the game as they normally did.

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Pirote: not crowded

Bright Harvest: i like iris cuz its a small community.. most ppl know each other/ok

Musical Spartan: umm… less crowded leveling areas? :<

Tiptup: The community, but everyone left.

nephelee: variety of diff nationalities sometimes

Himehiko: LordSage is hawt

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Episode 10.4 brought to us the returning of the Valkyries. The discovery of a new village in the north of the Rune-Midgards, the forgotten city of Hugel. A festive rural fishing village that has grown apart from the other Schwarzwald cities. Unfortunately, this town has suffered from a surge in warriors traveling to the domains of the Thanatos Tower.

Nevertheless, Hugel provides to its adventurers a different ambient. A place of enjoyment and friendship. A final sense of tranquility in the depths of the world. At your arrival you soon hear laughter, a bright sun shining up the hills and the hectic gambling commerce. If you have the time to spare in your traveling, you can enjoy a day at the races or a nice game of bingo. Those lucky enough to win the events will be awarded with medals and the possibility to exchange them for valuable experience or even wonderful items.

Something has happened to the lands of Rune-Midgards. New warriors are arriving to our cities. Some come from the Dogu Clan of Amatsu, they call themselves Ninjas. They strike from afar, and use a variety of throwing, stealth, and magical means to dispatch their opponents. Others arrive from the Gunslinger’s Guild under the great tower of Einbroch. Gunslingers use a variety of different firearms, and can specialize in specific skills for firearms, or use the more broad but restrictive ‘Coin’ skills.

Away from the village of Hugel, in the fields of Juno, K.H. Corporation has prospered for 32 years, now under the direction of a man only of age 20 by the name of Kiel Hyre. By all accounts, K.H. Corp is a shining light of Schwarzwald. But Kiel Hyre himself has his own secrets. What kind of research might he be hiding? To all of you that want to investigate, the quest begins in the Juno Bar, where the troubled master will ask you to make a delivery to the Kiel Hyre Academy. From this point you will follow a clear path to unearth the secrets of Kiel Hyre.

This new discoveries have ascertained secrets and there is a need for adventurers to help investigate them. The medicine quest begins in Hugel where you will try save the life of an old man. But he is not the only sick person. Talk to Morriphen in the Einbroch Blacksmith Guild to discover that Siria was a biological weapon. Surely, by now you have enough experience in nursing to help another person in sickness. Go to Juno and help Euslan, who is sick and misses his boyfriend, who has gone to find a cure to her sickness.

There is also a boy in Hugel that needs help with some cow milking. There are some people in Hugel that want to cut down a tree. Talk to the people involved in the Hugel memory quest, but first wander around the Tree of Memory to find out what is going on. Beware! This cow sings! Someone is missing playing hide ‘n’ seek, please help Torpy in Hugel. Apparently the parents are missing since they were playing the game. The Lighthalzen Rekenber Corporation has more secrets that need investigation. Talk to Shede in Hugel to gather more information about the rebellion quest. If you are a bit more daring you can try and help with the Odin’s Temple Excavation. They want you to find out what Shinokas and something called “Giantes” have in common. Could it be ….

Long ago, on an island visible from Hugel, a shrine was built to enshrine a great god. The people gave everything they had to show their devotion to this great benevolent god. But this god was capricious and not as benevolent as they thought.

Eventually a struggle for power began, and before long the wounded followers left the island one by one. It wasn’t long untill the island was deserted, and no living soul remained, only the creations of the god existed.

In Grímnismál we have Odin reciting the following stanza.

“I want Hrist and Mist
to bring me a horn,
Skeggjöld and Skögul,
Hildr and Þrúðr,
Hlökk and Herfjötur,
Göll and Geirahöð,
Randgríð and Ráðgríð
and Reginleif.
They carry ale to the einherjar”

There are some names you would recognize in there … do you?
Go to the Odin’s Shrine and find them there …

Far and wide with fall of the dead
The warp is stretched and streams down blood
A spear-grey fabric forms on the loom
Woof of warriors we valkyries fill
Binding and crossing with blood-red weft

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The Staff and Volunteer pages have recently been updated. Get to know the WI-FI team in the Staff page, which lists short bios for each of our contributors. Want to be part of the team? Our Volunteer page has instructions on how to join us, and includes our general guidelines for writers!

Thanks again for reading, and we hope you’ll continue to stick around each month to see what’s new!

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1.chosen twilight: my favorite weapon is infiltrator because it works so well with its extra stat boosts ^-^

2.Aaya: Tirfing, cuz i spent a lot on it and it let me down

3.Moonlight Blade: Hmm…Ice pick! Cause its so useful

4.Terros Diar: +10 Quadruple Titan Violin for lvling in abyss yet low-lvl.

5.Senkenzo: My favorite is the Hurricane Fury, the most ungodly axe ever.

6.Cinnamon Rum: Sage’s Diary cause its hot (and i like to put knives in it)

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Programs Used:
Paint Shop Pro 7
Microsoft GIF Animator

Sites Used:
Character: http://www.ragnarokcs.com
Edits: http://www.geocities.com/fwuffleslunatic/?20087
Backgrounds: http://images.google.com/

*You could use any program for editing your image, even MS Paint!

This is what we will be making:

Now let’s get started:

1. First, get your images together.  You will need a background image, your character image, and the thing which you want to edit. Collect them all in your editing program. Either copy and paste the images, or you could take a screenshot by pressing PrntScrn “Print Screen” on your keyboard. Then paste that image and crop out everything but the area you want.

2. Make room for editing space. Copy your character into the empty editing space. Get rid of the white around your character. Then copy the part that you wish to edit onto your character. In this case, it is some head wings. Paste into the editing space. Get rid of the background of that.

3. Then, with the precision of a surgeon working on Bill Gates, slide the image on top of your character. Line it up to the head of your character. Eventually you will get it looking perfect.

4. Now for sizing the background image to fit your character. Delete the areas of the background which would be behind your character, right above the neck and below the feet.

5. With the wings attatched to my character’s head, I highlighted the character and moved it on top of the background and fit it to the right end. You should have something which looks like this:

6. Time for text. Use your text tool to write out your name. I chose a nice big font. (Try to use colors/fonts which match the background for now.) Line up your font where it looks visually pleasing. And feel free to add a phrase, other character names, character level or levels.

7. Now we fix the rest of the empty space to a color which is not used in the image yet. This is for transparency reasons. I usually use a bright green.

8. You can either save your image or copy and paste it into a program which can make images transparent. I use Microsoft GIF Animator. Depending on your program, you might have to hover around and get the feel of how to make a color transparent. All programs work differently. When you get that done, save it.

And voila!

You have your own forum siggy prepped and ready to go. Just upload it to an image host site, such as Photobucket. Link it, and you are done.

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