The next major content update, Ascension, is heading to MapleStory next week on September 28th. Following the huge Chaos update that took place over the course of the summer in multiple phases, Ascension will be a single update that will rise out of the ashed of Chaos.

The latest patch update will revamp three of the old classes, warriors, magicians and bowmen as they receive new skills and a graphical update. A new dungeon called Monster Park will become available for groups of five to explore.

New quests for whose who are married will be added as well as gifts for those couples who periodically renew their vows. Three new Party-Quests have been added with six others being updated.

To celebrate the Ascension update, new in-game events have been added which players can view on the in-game Events Calendar.

Tomorrow’s going to be extra hot for Maplers as the Biggest Hot Time Ever event takes place at 4:30 pm PST. MapleStory players who are logged in at 4:30 – 4:31 pm PST will received a minimum of 4 free items, one being the Strom Growth Potion which instantly levels your character one level.

• 1 SP Reset Scroll
• 1 Battle Mode type item (randomly chosen from a selection of 6)
• 1-3 Gallant Emblems (randomly selected)
• 1 Storm Growth Potion (characters below level 200)
• 1  100% Potential Scroll (characters at level 200)

Players also have a chance at almost 2 dozen of other items which are listed below:

For those of you that get their early or stick around afterwards, you can participate in the 2x EXP and drop event from 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST.  Just make sure you not doing anything at 4:30 pm otherwise you won’t be included in the Hot Time event.

Can you tell it’s a slow MMO news day?

The fourth update to MapleStory’s Chaos update, Ice Knight, is set to go live on servers in the next few hours.  Servers will be going down in about two hrs and should be back up at around 6:00 am EST.

The Ice Knight content update will introduce a new PvP mode called Ice Knight which players can enter through the Battle Square.  In this PvP mode, one player will be chosen at random to become the Ice Knight with the remaining players being teamed together.  They will then have 10 mins to defeat the Ice Knight.

Three new events are also planned for this update as well as new cash shop items.  More information about the Ice Knight patch update can be found at the official MapleStory site.

Part three of MapleStory’s: Chaos update, Age of Battle,  is about to go live on servers early tomorrow morning.  Age of Battles will introduce PvP combat to MapleStory for the first time in the way of a battle arenas.

The first battle zone is called Battle Square which features unique fighting maps, allows players to gain XP, Battle Points and bragging rights.  Players can trade in their Battle Points for Gallant Emblems which in turn can be exchanged for Battle Mode items.

Battle Mode is split into four leagues depending on your level and are listed below.

Battle Mode also features two match types, free-for-all and team matches.  Servers will go down tonight at 10:00pm PST and will come back online tomorrow morning around 8:00 am.

Tonight servers will be going down and when they come back up MapleStory will enter the Age of Artisans, which is the second of five updates that are part of the larger content update Chaos.

The Age of Artisans will bring with it a ton of new content including a new town Ardentmill, seven new professions, the new trait system and of course many new items and planned events.

Players level 30 or higher can now learn one of the new professions which include, harvesting, crafting, herbalism, mining, alchemy, smithing, and accessory crafting.  The new town of Ardentmill has trainers for all these professions.

The professions system gives players more ways to expand their character’s traits. Traits allow you to increase certain abilities of you characters, and can be leveled up. The traits are: Ambition, Empathy, Insight, Willpower, Diligence, and Charm. Players can view their traits in the Character Info menu or in the Production Skill menu if you are Lv.30 or above and each trait has 100 levels.

The update should take about 5 hours so servers will be back up early tomorrow morning for those of you who can’t wait.

The first content update for MapleStory: Chaos is set to go live on servers early tomorrow morning.  Age of Heroes is the first of five content updates over the summer months, the 4 others will be released following the schedule below. MapleStory players can start downloading the content update right now and start playing as soon as servers are back up.

• Age of Heroes – 6/29
• Age of Artisans – 7/11
• Age of Battle – 7/20
• Ice Knight – 7/27
• Unnamed Update – ?

Age of Heroes will allow players level 160+ to use the Temple of Time to travel to a time of terror. Explore an all-new area and face friends who have turned to foes in the hardest challenges ever seen in Maple World.  The first content update will also include new skills and improved balancing for the following three classes, Aran, Evan, and Dual Blades, as well as new voice-overs in Cygnus, Chief Knights battle and the Lion King’s Castle.

Servers will go down tonight for the update, which will take approximately 8 hrs, and will be back up early morning tomorrow by 9:00 am EST.

It seems that cheating and hacking in MapleStory is becoming more of a problem lately, so yesterday Nexon made an announcement to the community responding to the issue.

Despite many efforts to permanently eliminate hacks and exploits, we have not achieved a level of success we are happy with, or that you should be happy with.

They announce that new tools and updates to the game would be on the horizon in an attempt to stop players from using hacks or exploits within the game.

• Developing more advanced hack prevention and detection tools
• Updating the game to strengthen its defense against hacking

While all online games seem to have cheaters, it’s good to see that Nexon is acknowledging the issue and taking steps to stop it.  There’s nothing worse then your favorite MMO game or any game being destroyed by cheaters.  I can remember when Diablo 2 become flooded with cheaters back in the day and it was the reason I stopped playing it.

Chaos is coming to the lands of MapleStory in the next content update, Chaos: Age of Heroes, on June 29th. Travel from the Temple of Time to a time of terror. Henesys is in ruins and the Empress Cygnus is a feared foe. Explore an all-new area, and face down friends-turned-foes in the hardest challenges ever seen in Maple World!

The new area is open to players level 160 plus and the update will include new skills and improved balancing for the following three classes, Aran, Evan, and Dual Blades.

Voiceovers have also been added in the Cygnus and Chief Knights battle as well as in the Lion King’s Castle changing forever the way players communicate with NPCs in Maple World.

Below is the official MapleStory Chaos: Age of Heroes trailer. You can find more info about the upcoming content update on the official site.

In early March Nexon announced that MapleStory would be coming to Facebook via a new Facebook app MapleStory Adventures. Today MapleStory Adventures has entered closed beta testing and Nexon is inviting all current MapleStory players and Facebook users to try it out.

Limited closed beta keys are available and to get one simply head over the the official Facebook page for MapleStory Adventures and click the “Like” button.  MapleStory Adventures is a separate MMO game from the original MapleStory, so you won’t be able to play your current MapleStory character on Facebook if that’s what you were thinking.

After treating us to three new classes in the Big Bang update, MapleStory is now giving a character unlock reward to dedicated Cygnus Knight players. Once a Cygnus Knight character hits the max level 120, its owner will unlock the Ultimate Explorer which is a new character that can be played immediately at level 50, saving hours of level grinding. To make the climb to 120 easier for all Cygnus Knights, Nexon has equipped them with new skills like the Empress’ Shout and Empress’ Prayer.

Aside from letting you create your own Ultimate Explorer, the Aftershock Update also improves contribution tracking for guilds and delivers a new boss fight against Black Mage lieutenant Von Leon also known as the Red Lion King. High-level characters will be able to lay siege to his castle, while lowbies will have to settle for Von Leon’s dangerous pet Ani. The Aftershock update is now live, so start gunning for those Ultimate Explorers now.