Dear AC2 subscribers,

In spite of our hard work and the launch of Legions, AC2 has reached the point where it no longer makes sense to continue the service. We will be officially closing the Asheron's Call 2 service on 12/30/05. Until then, we plan to run live events, but we will not be adding any content or features.

We deeply appreciate the many dedicated fans of AC2 who have stood by us over the years. You have our sincerest gratitude.

Best regards,

Jeffrey Anderson
CEO, Turbine

Don't look now, but Bonus-XP Weekend Returns June 3-5!

That's right...rest up this coming weekend and secure your copies of Legions, because the following weekend, June 3-5 is the sudden shocking return of Bonus-XP Weekend!

Details, as before:

http://ac2.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=354

The AC2 Team would like to do a little something special for our players to celebrate the debut of Legions. In that spirit, we've declared the weekend of May 20th "Double-XP Weekend"! What is this madness? In a nutshell, for all owners of Legions:

• Double experience-point rate for creature/hunting XP (quest XP will not change)
• Enhanced loot profiles – increased chance to find rare, retired, and never before seen items!
• Live events kickoff Friday night

Players will be able to take part in the event by speaking to special NPCs at the three nexus stone locations. The event will begin on the evening of Friday, May 20th, and run through the weekend.

Double-XP Weekend is a way to give players who created new characters after upgrading to Legions a little boost to help them catch up to their fellow allegiance-mates. It's also our way of saying "Welcome to Legions!" Hope to see you there!

In celebration of the upcoming launch of Asheron's Call 2: Legions, Stratics and Turbine Entertainment bring to you a chance to win some great Asheron's Call 2 prizes!

No need to jump through hoops, nothing to buy, just sign up for a chance to win:

• A Free Lifetime Account to Asheron's Call 2
• 10 Free 1-Year Accounts to Asheron's Call 2
• 25 Signed Boxed Copies of AC2: Legions
• 10 Signed AC2: Legions T-Shirts

It's almost here: Hero 2.0, a complete re-envisioning of post-50 game play. What’s changed? Well, it’s easier to say what HASN'T changed. The Hero quest remains the same. The level range remains the same. Everything else has changed. Forget what you know about post-50 gameplay: your preconceptions may mislead you. Hero skills, Focus, how you gain powers… all of this has been altered, often dramatically...

One of the things we were most proud of and excited to announce at this event was our pre-order bonus. There he stood, next to his fellow adventurers, ready to take his place amongst the free peoples of Dereth – the playable drudge. For those of you wondering why we haven’t announced the winners for the Skill-naming contest yet, well, it was because the winning skill name belonged to a Drudge skill! The Drudge exhibits the sense of humor that the AC franchise is known for in all it’s lovingly crafted glory. Wait till you see. Anyway, players who pre-order Legions will be able to create and play drudges right away. At a later date, a quest to unlock the race will be available, but this quest will have a pretty high level-requirement (60-ish). Personally, I plan to take the easy route and pre-order the bonus bundle - when it is available, which is not right now, but soon. You’ll be seeing more about the Drudge in the coming month.

How it Works:

Members of a Turbine service, such as Asheron’s Call® or Asheron’s Call 2: Fallen Kings®, may register for the program via a link on their service profile page. Prior to an upcoming beta program’s “open” phase, Turbine will create a pool of eligible members from those who registered and meet Turbine’s criteria. From this pool, select members will be invited to participate in a pending game beta. Members who are not selected for play testing will remain in the pool and could be selected for later beta activities or opportunities.

Players can now resize the hotkey box to have up to five rows of hotkeys visible and active at the same time by dragging the top edge of the bar. Keyboard shortcuts to access the second row may be assigned in the Key Configuration. Hotkeys assigned to the second row will only work if the player’s hotkey bar is at least 2 rows high (i.e. if the second row isn’t showing, the hotkeys for it won’t work).