Monthly Archives: May 2014

Howdy folks! Its Friday and that means its time for another fan-Friday interview! This week we have HowdyDoody taking to the stage. A regular on the early access forums, but what about outside? Here we find out a little bit about “Mr Doody” both in and out of the OMD community!

The Basics

Thanks for taking part Howdy. Good luck with the Hockey coaching!

Last weeks hero focus has been on Blackpaw and is the first hero of the Unchained alignment. He is a powerful melee hero and is best used in the thick of battle, he can be well considered as an attacker. His primary and secondary weapons and abilities are closely aligned to his melee skills.

His primary weapon called “Claw” allows him to swipe his claws at enemy units to damage them and deals 70 damage which is a decent punch. The claws are a fast moving attack and they encourage Blackpaw to get up close and personal during combat.His secondary is “Bite”. When used Blackpaw takes a gnaws on a target in range, he can recover his own health if this attack hits.

Blackpaw using his bite ability

On the abilities front his primary “Sic’Em” allows him to produce two spirit gnolls which fight along side Blackpaw. The spirit gnolls live for a short period of time, or until Blackpaw dies. His secondary “Ignore Pain” increases the armour of all gnolls near by allowing them to stick out the fight longer. (+150 to all types of armour).

Spirit Gnolls come out to play

One final thing that Blackpaw benefits is that he can double jump, unlike other heroes. This double jump lets him cover ground fast to get stuck into the battle.

Blackpaw is a powerful melee hero and is ideal for players who like to get stuck in the action. His skills and abilities do not take long to master which makes him an ideal character to begin playing melee with.

Hero Card

The results from the OMDU EU Alpha Access raffle are in! There were 796 entries in all, there is lots of interest in alpha access! Below are the lucky winners who will be getting their alpha access keys by email today. If you havnt been so lucky in this competiton, keep checking back on Robot Fans. We’ll be sure to let you know if we’re running any more or if there is anywhere else you can score some keys.

One of the questions we asked to get an entry was “What character are you most looking forward to playing as?”. It turns out the trusty War Mage is ruling the roost.

The War Mage is a popular fellow!

Winners

10x Orcs Must Die! Unchained Alpha Key’s – EU

Today is the last day for EU peeps to be in with a chance of winning one of 10 alpha access codes. Just head over to our competition page to enter. Winners will be announced tomorrow so stay tuned and good luck everyone!

Special event this week!

In other news this week marks a special event.  This weeks Robot Entertainment stream will be taking place Tuesday night at the later time of 8PM to 10PM CST (convert to your timezone). This week however will not be featuring a certain OMDU hero, instead it will be a two hour long stream called “Orcs After Dark” and it is jammed packed with stuff. First and foremost there will be a ton of Robot developers online ready to play matches with alpha players with some of these games being shown on the twitch stream. In addition to this there will also be interviews with some of the developers talking about the studio and Orcs Must Die! development.

Get access

The best way to enjoy Orcs After Dark this Tuesday is to get access to the alpha. Luckily we have some great news on that front too. As of right now anyone purchasing the War Mage level founder pack at www.orcsmustdie.com gets instant alpha access! Thats right, get in the game right now and be ready for Tuesdays event.

This instant access lasts from now right up until the stream for North American players.

Playing means prizes!

Five random players will be chosen from the list of everyone that plays at least one match on Tuesday between 8 and 10pm. These five winners will get a special OMD prize pack including shirts and comics! How about that! Even more reason to make sure you a registered and ready to play Tuesday evening.

There will also be alpha access codes given away on the stream as well.

Everyone that plays and completes a match during the “Orcs After Dark” event will get an email next week with an extra Alpha Access Friend Code. You’ll be able to share it with one of your friends and they can start playing the game with you immediately.

To find out more about this event, just head over to the Robot Entertainment blog.

This Tuesday’s stream is shaping up to be great fun. See you all there!

This week sitting down for Fan Friday we have the spotlight on Juicy. If you have been checking the Orcs Must Die! Forums you will have surely come across his posts as a regular. Here you can find out a little more about the fan behind the posts!

Here’s Juicy!

The Basics

• Name:

Juicy (Juicearific outside of OMDU) Also known as Josh – but I prefer Juicy.

• Home town:

 Dubois, Pennsylvania. Born here, live nearby. Haven’t moved away (yet!)

• Age:

18, for another few months.

Questions

• What does Juicy do outside of gaming – can you tell us about your day job?

Ivy has grown to be one of my favourite characters to play in the Alpha so far (along with Smolder and War Mage who I also rate highly). Ivy is a ranged hero equipped with her bow, she specialises at taking out minions from a distance. However there is alot more to her bow than it may seem. Ivy can shoot a special arrow as part of her secondary weapon. This is a penetrating arrow that can shoot through enemy minions but also more strategically it can be used to disable traps.

When Ivy uses her penetrating arrow any traps around the area where it hits will be disabled for a short while. This allows friendly minions and heroes to pass freely over the stunned traps. This is where Ivy’s main strengths lies and it also defines her role as a “Supporter” on the battlefield. When pushing your waves forward Ivy can be great at helping them get through enemy traps.

Ivy also has some other tricks up her sleeve with two abilities she can call upon using mana. The first is the heal ability, when called a circle will appear around Ivy which heals her and any allied heroes who step into the circle. This can be very handy in the battle-field especially when fighting other ranged characters, by healing Ivy can score the extra HP she needs to stick it out.

Her other ability is “Root” and lets her trap enemies in a fixed position by roots (a bit like vines). This is easier to describe looking at the below screenshot. When players are trapped in this position they can still attack but are unable to move for a few seconds.

Believe it or not Ivy has one last trick up her sleeve. Her passive ability allows Ivy to move very fast when she is low on health. Not only that but she can pass through traps unharmed due to her speed. This is a powerful passive and can save her from death. Because dieing in OMDU results in some time you have to wait until your hero respawns by escaping the danger zone Ivy can heal and continue the fight without so much delay.

Overall Ivy is a very strong hero and her skills and abilities make her a very approachable and easy to learn hero. She is a perfect choice for beginners or for those learning the ropes of OMDU. Ivy’s strenghts lie with her abilities, but she can suffer when her abilities are on cool-down or she is low on mana as her basic bow can feel somewhat week. But hey, thats balance!

Coming up this week…

This week Robot are featuring a new hero, Blackpaw. Quite different to Ivy, Blackpaw is a strong, fast melee hero. We’ll be finding out more about him this week with the Robot stream on Tuesday, the Community Stream on Thursday and of course, the hero review right here on REF.

See you all around!

Here we are again! Another Friday, another fan-friday! This time the spotlight is on WadeMcGinnis – a newcomer to OMDU with his recently acquired alpha access. Lets find out some more about Wade, who isn’t actually called Wade!

The Basics

Name: James “Wade D McGinnis” Johnson

Home town: Spokane Washington

Age: 27

Questions

• What do you do in your day job?

I am a manager at a local retail store and I start class here soon for Radiology Technician.

• Do you have any pets?

I have two dogs, ankle biters and one cat, who happen to destroy my first streaming rig.

• Which is better, Marvel or DC?

DC. While I love me some Spiderman, Batman, Green Lantern (GL), and Superman…can’t beat it.

• If you could pick anywhere in the world to travel to, where would you go?

Ireland.

•  Outside of gaming, what are your hobbies?

Other than hanging with friends, going to movies, and just having fun, I lift weight. Have my own exercising equipment. In addition I produce gaming related video content on my YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/silverdante87). Been making videos for almost three years now.  Also started to live stream on my Twitch.tv channel (http://www.twitch.tv/wade_d_mcginnis)

• What was the last film you saw at the Cinema and how was it?

That would be Amazing Spiderman 2. Never thought I would like the new Spidey but Andrew Garfield really pulls off the quirky attitude and the wit.

• How did you hear about OMDU?

By accident! I was surfing the internet trying to find something to talk about in a Holo Call episode when I stumbled upon an image of Blackpaw lunging for the Warmage. Did some research, found out Robot Entertainment had a new take on a beloved series I played way too much of, as told by my friends, and set out to pester the guys and gals over on twitter.

•  Which is your best and least favourite OMDU heroes and why?

Having had only a few matches so far and only able to see what other heroes do through the live streaming Robot has been doing, I would say my favourite is looking like Stinkeye because I really like totems. I played World of Warcraft for seven years and in that time the shaman was the one I enjoyed the most. Shamans in general are characters I enjoy playing. Love me some totems!

As to the hero I least like. I would say the Sorceress because at the moment she does not have her charm ability. What can I say, I really enjoyed charm when I played her.

• What can we find as must have items in your deck?

The usual. It’s like cooking you need tar trap for sauce, brimstone to lightly char them. Floor spikes to tenderize. Teleportation ring when you get a tummy ache after dinner. And frost arrow wall to save some for later.

Any remaining slots are situational for me. Sometimes its Anti-trap, sometimes it is improved ceiling ballista.

• Is there anything missing in OMDU that you would like to see?

For me it is the spore mushrooms. I can see players using this but making sure the creature in question stays tethered similar to how Guardians work now.

Only thing I know is missing is the physics traps. Have a fantasy of Blackpaw lunging for me only to realize too little too late that I am standing behind a spring trap and oh, there he goes. Off the ledge.

Shout out

• Is there anything you would like to say to all the OMD fans out there right now?

If you have a question, share it. The devs are listening. This is ORCS MUST DIE! There is no doubt in my mind. So make sure to keep an eye on the official stream to know where they plan on taking the game. Your voice has presence! Share it!

Thanks for taking part James! We’ll see you in game!