MMORPG Grand Chase is getting an all new skill tree for Amy, the 7th character in the game, along with a new dungeon - Victor's Fortress - and Jin's new 4th job, Rama. Amy's Skill Tree and the new dungeon launch tomorrow, while Jin's new job is already available in the popular online action-brawler MMO, Grand Chase.  Players can visit http://grandchase.ntreev.net to check out the game.

"Amy is one of the favorites among Grand Chase players, and Amy's Skill Tree has been the most requested feature for the past two months," said Chris Lee, CEO at Ntreev USA. These new additions are what fans are waiting for and we are happy to give them something exciting like the skill tree and new skill attacks."

Amy's Skill Tree and Special Events
Amy, the 7th character of Grand Chase and a fan favorite is getting her own Skill Tree! Skill Trees are "upgrades" for jobs and characters that allow for new and different skills to be used to revamp the character and/or job. To celebrate the release of the new Skill Tree, starting tomorrow, February 24th through March 9th, there will be special limited items on sale and Amy will receive an extra boost when playing with others in the same dungeon, in addition to free Amy giveaway items!

Victor's Fortress
The Grand Chase, having arrived at the new dungeon named, Victor's Fortress, finds the Black Knights Soldiers armed with strong powers of darkness and equipment. While everybody is embarrassed to find the leader is Victor, who used to be the head of Silver Knights, Jin bursts into a rage at the fact that Victor has been behind the fall of Silver Knights and all the incidents so far!

Jin's 4th Job: Rama
Warriors - like the Warrior traitor Victor - able to achieve a heightened state of consciousness were called Ramas. Together with
the Grand Chase, Jin defeated Victor, who had once been Jin's master, at his castle. Rama's characteristics feature a more intense Burning mode and evasive moves as well as strengthened Chi. Charging his Chi while performing one of Rama's specials, will produce even greater results.

Rama can also change his stance, a skill unique to this job, allowing for continuous combos and a wide display of excellent offensive and defensive techniques. One does not become a Rama through simple training alone, rather only those whose mind and body become one can attain a new level of consciousness.

Players must attain Level 40 and complete the 3rd job change mission to begin the following Rama Mission. The mission scroll is available as a GP or Cash Scroll. Jin's 4th job skills include four exciting basic attacks and three compelling burning modes.

About Grand Chase
Grand Chase is an online action brawler set in a medieval fantasy world. It follows the story of a few brave young knights who join a group of nobles known as the "Grand Chase" to defeat an evil usurper to the throne, a villainess known as Kaze'aze. Grand Chase combines traditional side-scrolling dungeon crawling with intense, skill-based player vs. player (PvP) matches. Visit http://grandchase.ntreev.net for more information.

Item Shop PR Mess

As much admiration as Allods Online has gained since its first beta test, it certainly is not enough to keep the vast majority of the player base from crying out in frustration over the lack of information on its item shop and the prices that were eventually set. 

Today Massively brought the views of most of the Allods community front and center and Gala-Net, the publisher of Allods, has quickly responded to those views.

"We wanted to take an opportunity to apologize to the community for our lack of communication. We made a mistake by not letting you, our most passionate players know when the item shop was going to go live and we didn’t make the effort to learn more about how all of you feel regarding the contents of the item shop. Because of our lack of communication to you, many of you were wildly taken back by what you saw in the item shop today." - Stated, inarakatt, from Gala-Net.

This goes to show how important open communication is between the publisher and player base, even on an issue that would be more internal than transparent.  I guess if you want to launch an item shop for your mmo, you had better get some feedback during the process or you will be peppered with razor sharp criticism by your core users.

While I assume that the starting prices of the shop will remain unchanged, you can bet we will be seeing a discount sale in the near future to sooth the growing frustration of players.  Overall, I think this is a small issue in a great game that is certainly going to be the main contender in the free to play mmo genre.  Read the entire Apology here.