There are three more closed beta weekends happening this year, with each of the upcoming weekends including the French and German versions of the game, on top of the English version. These weekends are:
November 24th to 30th December 11th to 14th December 18th to 21st
The last beta weekend ends with less than a month until its January 19th release, but that is certainly not nearly a month’s worth of inactivity.
Disciple and Master’s Pack holders will be able to log into the game client January 11th to reserve character names. Disciple Pack holders will be able to reserve one name, while Master’s holders will be able to claim two names. Details on this process are yet to be revealed.
Headstart for all Founder’s Pack holders begins on January 16th. You can bet your butt there will be plenty of level 45s running around at launch because of the game’s relatively fast leveling – so if you’re looking to get right into competitive PvP, a headstart is a must.
The launch announcement has also confirmed what we already knew: the maximum launch level will be 45 and Warlock will be coming with a later patch. This is similar to the Taiwanese launch, which held the level 45 cap at launch and implemented the Lyn Blade Master (now known as Blade Dancer in the international client) soon after launch.
The upcoming international launch isn’t the only exciting piece of Blade & Soul news we’ve gotten this past week. Chinese publisher Tencent revealed a new class coming to the game’s class roster.
The new class, roughly translated as Qi Master by MMOCulture’s Cinderboy, was shown briefly in a trailer during the Tencent Games Carnival earlier this week. You can watch the trailer in the header, with the Qi Master making its appearance near the end.
The class is reportedly a mix of Kung Fu Master and Force Master, in essence making it the type of qi-wielding monk often seen in games. More details on this have yet to be announced and NCSoft Korea has yet to make a statement on the Qi Master.
