Patch notes:

Changes:

We've fixed a server-side memory leak related to posses. This memory leak was causing servers to crash on occasion.

We've fixed several crashers that have cropped up since the last build. Better code FTW!

Shivery the Incorrigible Snowman is back! You can find him in town for a limited time giving out his patent-pending holiday cheer.

We've added several new armor sets to the game.

We've added some new mythic items to the game.

We've fixed a bunch of small graphical issues with some existing armor sets.

We've seriously optimized the particle rendering system to improve performance. Faster game FTW!

We've added a new light bloom effect to the game. It makes things shiny and bright. You can enable this option in the graphics option menu.

We've added a new PvP queue to the game. Talk to the Pwnston Commander to enter this queue. It is an unrated queue that doesn't require balanced teams and will rebalance your character if outnumbered.

We've changed how the rated PvP match works. This match will now only last up to 5 minutes and no respawning is allowed. If you die in this match, it's game over and the other side wins. If you are part of a group and die then you will become an observer until the end of the battle. Timing for rewards on this match has been changed to compensate for the rapid pace.

We've added six new skills to the game:

Shadow Words: Bad Touch (Mage Trainer)
You dig long and deep within your psyche to release a bunch of your pent up teenage angst. Doing so causes several dark tendrils of Shadow energy to emerge from your soul and randomly grow. Any enemy that is inappropriately touched by a tendril will take Shadow Damage. In addition to that, the damaged enemy has a chance to be stricken with a curse that increases all Shadow Damage they receive for a while!

Fire Shot (Ranger Trainer)
You have only one itching desire, for enemies to stand next to your Fire... Shot! Just play with this and your target might get burned for some amount of Fire Damage! Each successful hit has a 25% chance to explode, scorching nearby enemies that are diggin' it too close to your target. Mover over Rover and let the explosion take over! Each enemy will get swept off their feet if the target explodes and they will take some Fire Damage too!

Dungeon Inferno (Ranger Trainer)
Burn, baby, burn! Dungeon Inferno! Your shot is lettin' loose a fiery chain reaction that sparks up a 4 meter radius Dungeon Inferno! The initial target will take some Fire Daamge. The heat is on! Any enemies that boogie into the Dungeon Inferno take some Fire Damage for each second they remain. Smokin! Also, they have a chance to be cursed for some time, taking more damage from fire!

Gosh's Glorius Shower of Gold (Mage Trainer)
You call upon the Almighty Gosh to intervene and aid you in vanquishing your heathenish foe. Gosh will see to it that some glorious golden rays of light shall rain down from the heavens all around you. Each golden beam will release its Divine energy at the time that Gosh's Plan calls for it (aka. randomly). Any enemy close enough to an exploding beam will take some Divine Damage. Each beam can damage up to two enemies! On top of that, should an enemy survive the initial barrage, Gosh sees to it that his follower's enemies will meet theri maker (Him of course) by potentially placing a curse upon them that increases all Divine Damage taken for a while - in accordance with His Plan (meaning there is a good chance it won't happen). Ask and ye shall receive!

Cold Snap (Mage Trainer)
You create a magical ice storm at a location you target that randomly spews out 12 frozen ice crystals in a circle. Each shard of ice dishes out some sweet Ice Damage. The crystals will also heal your Chill Bill!

Oh Snap! (Mage Trainer)
Place this in your skill tray to improve your Cold Snaps. Every time you cast a Cold Snap you have a 75% chance that it will spew out double the number of ice crystals! These crystals, if they hit, will also slow your target.

~Ripper

What are your thoughts on this build rhinok? I haven't been able to play much and when I do AoC grabs my time.

I'm just curious what you think of the new build.

I love the new skills, the new armor is pretty cool and the snowman quests are fun and different, albeit simple.  

All-in-all, this isn't a huge content patch. It's just a little heave.  I do have a couple of issues with it, none of which are big:

• The new skills and the two new armor sets are for mid-to-high level characters only.  Still, low level characters can partificpate in the snowman quests.
• The devs have made elemental damage available to almost every type armor and weapons.  As an example, I looted a level 5 ranger armor (on an alt) with a bonus to fire dps.  The only problem is that the first fire ranger skill is tens of levels away.  Still, I could take advantage of the +fire dps attribute if I had a weapon that did fire damage or if I used  a skill like fire shot.  Ultimately, having more attributes is both a blessing and a curse.  It's a blessing in that you have greater flexibility in builds, but it's a curse in that all elements aren't yet available for all "classes" AND because it can make it harder to find the gear you really want, since the pool of attributes is deeper.

Regardless, I've actually started playing my level 100 Ranger again, which I wasn't doing for awhile. Yes, there isn't any new content to explore, but I'm having fun playing with a new build and trying to find a nice set of gear to maximize fire damage.

I know what you mean about other games grabbing your time, btw.  WAR had mine for at least a month or two :)