Cryptic Studios took time out of the busy crunch period to unveil yet another powerset to the masses awaiting Champions Online.  The unveiling of the Ice power set marks the fifth power set unveiled in the last six business days.  Power sets are the basic building blocks of a “class” in Champions Online.

The sets have been known to Closed Beta Testers for some time, but no one was allowed to discuss them at length.  For the first time you can get a complete run down on these, and upcoming sets, over on the Power Sets gallery.

• Electricity – heavy damage dealing build with direct, chain and area effect abilities
• Fire -  damage over time and area effect specialist
• Power Armor – contains a payload of weaponry
• Force – focuses on knockback attacks
• Ice – excels at slowing down enemies

Naturally, Cryptic isn’t guaranteeing that everything listed will make it into the MMORPG when it launches on September 1; “all powers and power sets are considered unfinished and are subject to change at any time.”

Today we have some brand new Huxly screenshots which you can take a look at below.   Huxly recently entered phase 2 of its beta testing, but no release date has been announced yet.  I don’t know about you, but this game looks friggin awesome.  After Jumpgate Evolution this is the next game on my must have list.

Patch 3.2 is here. For us causal games there are many changes going into the game. One such interesting change is the changes to mount speed and the earlier level you may purchase them at. Faster mounts equals faster leveling. Blizzard apparently wants you to get out of the old world and into the expansions as soon as possible. This is great news for alts and the new player that faces the daunting task of going from 1-80. Here are the skills with levels and cost, enjoy.

Apprentice Riding (Skill 75)
• 60% land mount speed
• Requires level 20
• Cost: 4 gold
• Mount cost: 1 gold
• Mail will be sent to players at level 20 guiding them to the riding trainer

Journeyman Riding (Skill 150)
• 100% land mount speed
• Requires level 40
• Cost: 50 gold
• Mount cost: 10 gold
• Mail will be sent to players at level 40 guiding them back to the riding trainer

Expert Riding (Skill 225)
• 150% flying mount speed; 60% land mount speed
• Requires level 60
• Cost: 600 gold (faction discounts now apply)
• Mount Cost: 50 gold
• Can now be learned in or Thrallmar (Horde) Honor Hold (Alliance)

Artisan Riding (Skill 300)
• 280% flying mount speed; 100% land mount speed
• Requires level 70
• Cost: 5,000 gold (faction discounts now apply)
• Mount Cost: 100 gold

Tome of Cold Weather Flying
If you have a level 80 in Northrend you can purchase The Tome of Cold Weather Flying from the exotic mount vendor in Dalaran. This is an account bound heirloom item that can be sent to one of your characters that are at or above level 68. The price appears to be same; 1000 gold. This will allow that character to fly over Northrend much sooner than the original level 77.

It appears that the French language forums had it correct, World of Warcraft is headed to v3.2 as of today.  The latest content patch, dubbed Call of the Crusade, from Blizzard Entertainment brings subscribers one step closer to their battle with Arthas.

Call of the Crusade’s focus is once again on the Argent Tournament.  During the interim from Secrets of Ulduar (Patch 3.1) the Argent Crusade has managed to capture beasts from across the land to weed out the weak and reward the strongest in battle.

New content includes:

• Isle of Conquest Battleground
• Trial of the Champion
• Trial of the Crusader
• Trial of the Grand Crusader
• 5-player dungeon
• 10- and 25-player normal and heroic mode dungeon
• Crusader’s Tribute
• Expanded Argent Tournament

Interested parties can read the latest PTR patch notes here, and the live notes will be live here shortly.