Thursday, November 26, 2009

Helpful Hints

To add friends
/cc addbuddy NAME

/ Commands
To view a list of / commands. Type / TABTAB. This will bring up a list just like the emotes. Below is a list of / commands with descriptions. Those with a ? next to them means I do not know what they do.

/afk - Toggles afk on and off. Give you an opportunity to put a message in.
/anon - Makes you not show up in searches
/bank - ?
/born - character creation date
/bugreport - report a bug
/bugreportbtn - ?
/camp - logout
/cc - ?
/cc addbuddy - adds someone to your friends list
/ch - chatgroups
/chsay - talk in a chatgroup
/claim - get your reward
/emote - /emote + TAB to bring up a list of emotes
/fhelp - Brings up some /commands
/follow - Follow your target
/g - talk in group
/gm - ?
/group - same as /g
/gu - guild chat
/guild - ?
/guildsay - same as /gu
/help - field manual
/heroicmode - Takes you to a group instance of your current zone
/hide - makes you use the hide skill
/hotkey - ?
/ignore - Ignore a player
/invite - Invite a player to a group
/items - ?
/kick - a player from a group
/leave - leave a group
/list - brings up /list players
/logcombat - ?
/loot - loot target
/macro - /macro
/me - ?
/name - ? possibly to name pets
/ooc - talk in ooc channel
/org - ?
/petition - put in a gm ticket
/played - shows how much you have played
/quit - logout
/r - /reply
/ra - raid chat
/raid - same as /ra
/reloadhotkeys - ?
/reply - same as /r
/s - shout
/say - same as /s
/script - ?
/selectself - target yourself
/option - ?
/sit - sit down
/stand - stand up
/stuck - gets you unstuck
/t - pvp minigame chat
/team - same as /t
/tell - send a tell
/text - ?
/version - list version of server and client {{may or may not be correct }}
/w - /whisper someone
/whisper - same as /w

I hope these help and enjoy!

Help I'm stuck!
1. Try /stuck this has worked for me every time.
2. If it does not work. Try using your Path skill.
3. If you are still stuck then type in /petition and a GM
will be with you asap. Please be patient they may be busy.

/who command
The first button on the upper left (People and PvP I believe) has all the search options. There's one for Player, Group, Guild, and PvP.

Emotes
For a list of emotes type /emote TAB This will bring up a full list of emotes.

Claim
To claim your CE awards use
/claim

Walk and run
Autorun is the NUM LOCK button. Toggle between walk and run with Backspace.

Active Blocking and other combat tips
1. I didn't know this existed until today. The hot key is X give it a shot.
2. Double tapping a direction will give a short duration
'buff'. Backwards add evade, forward adds chance to stun- helpful in multiple situations.

Overflow
If you complete a quest and your bags are full. Your quest reward is not lost.
1. Look next to the mini map you should see a !.
2. Make room in your bags.
3. Click the !
4. Claim your reward. aka Profit!!!

Respec
If you mess up on your feats or your skills do not fear. Both can be redone.
However both do cost a small amount of coin. Skills are first up.
1. Hit P to bring up skill list.
2. Hold down ALT and left click on the skill you wish to
get rid of.
3. Confirm the skill respec
4. Add the points back to wherever you would like.

Next up Feat Respec
In each major city their are NPC's that will wipe your advancement tree for you. All that you do is talk to them confirm the wipe and pay the small fee. The first time it costs about 50 copper

Tortage - Feat Fixer - On the Docks - 1084, 718 { Has
been removed for now }
Khemi - Zahra - [Trainer] - On the Docks - 833, 1144
Old Tarantia - Minerva - [Trainer] Base of the Temple of
Mitra - 796, 541
Cimmerian - Cowal [Trainer] at (250, 490)

Climbing
1. Hit the P key.
2. Add points into climb. At level 20 I had 100 points allocated. I have found nothing as of yet I can't climb. Feel free to correct me or give feedback on this.{{ I was informed there is a quest that requires 180 in Old Tarantia}}
3. Move to the climbable object. Hit the U key. Up you go!

Guild Information
You can start a guild at level 20. To do so follow the below steps.
1. In the upper left hand corner of your screen you will see three tabs. Click the third one.
2. Fill out the information. Choose a guild name and a type of government. From what I can tell the type of government doesn't change anything. Just the names of the ranks.

To invite someone go to the social tab {{ the first tab on the left hand side }} and select add name. Type in the name and check add to guild. Click ok. That's all their is to it. Happy recruiting.

Zone instances
If you are grouped but can not see your party members. As leader of the group right click on the party member's name and select bring to instance. I am not sure of the
wording but it's easy enough to figure out. Also near the mini map you will see a drop down. One of the choices are change instance. You can tell who in your group is in what instance easily through this. A star next to an instance is where the group leader is at. A human symbol represents where group members are at.

Crafting
At level 20 you can take gathering skills. At level 40 you can take your actual craft skills.

Dual wield
If you have it. Put two one-handed weapons on the lower LEFT of your paper doll inventory page. The icons for those are a sword and a shield. The Right side sword and shield are for alternate weapons.
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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Ranger class guide





Rangers are the finest marksmen in Hyboria, capable of stalking an enemy and delivering devastating shots with pinpoint accuracy.

From the skilled woodsmen of the Bossonian Marches to the shortbow wielding horsemen of the Stygian desert, their skills with a bow set them apart from other warriors.

With an arsenal of specialist shots that can pin an enemy down, start bleeding wounds or pierce an enemy’s heart, they are difficult opponents. Knights fall to their fletched shafts and all the magic in hell cannot save a sorcerer with an arrow in their throat. They can fight in melee with swords and maces and wear medium armor, but their strengths lay with the bow.

Archetype: Rogue
Permitted Races: Cimmerian, Stygian, Aquilonian
Weapons: One-handed blunts, one-handed edged, daggers, bows, crossbows, and dual-wield
Armor: Cloth armor, light armor, medium armor, and shields

So what the ranger actually is.
Of the three highest DPS classes; Ranger, Barbarian, and Assassin (funny how they are all in the same archetype), the ranger has the highest hit points, the best damage absorption (medium armor/shields), and the greatest survivability. And ranks as the single highest ranged DPS
class by far, and is on equal footing with the Barbarian in raw damage output.

The Ranger might stand as the most powerful pvp class in AoC. It’s my opinion, but the way the class is designed with all its survivability, and its sick damage, they are almost impossible to kill if played correctly.


Available to them, they have two snares, one melee, one ranged—both 65%. And an instant, small radius AoE, 10 second root on a one minute cool down. The root is instant and can be cast on the run, has no stamina usage, and is “chance to break on damage” rather then null when damaged.

If this weren’t enough, in the sharpshooter line, they can spec for a talent that causes the target to burst into flames, running around in fear (can later be made to aoe…), giving it yet another oh **** button. It should also be noted, their stealth attack with a bow is a short duration mezz (about 10 sec), but its buggy as hell with Firestance.

II. Beginning-And all that it implies
For the first 9 levels and that beginning quest, you have about the same dmg output as any other “rogue” in melee at that point. Your bow damage is atrocious. No joke, in the time it takes to line up a shot literally dished out 4x the damage in melee. Your regular bow shots deal
only about ¾ of that of a normal swing, and you lack any true damaging ranged shot. Still, grab the bow from the quests, and use it to pull.

*Note*-If you are new to the game, you need to invest attribute points; this is done in the character & attributes tab. I highly recommend maxing out stealth and putting the rest into climbing and the one that increases your running speed out of combat.

And then it happens…you ding 10. Level 10 marks the unofficial beginning of the ranger career. Two very important things happen at level 10. First you can get a new bow (~20.1 dps bow) from the weapon smith, and you get the godly skill—Salvo.

The Ranger does not come into its own until 17+ and shines at 20+

III. Aiming-The frustratingly useless FPS aspect of AoC
As far as I know, the only way to enter first person is to mouse wheel in. Once done, a reticule will appear on your screen, where the best way to aim is to hold down the right mouse button.

Now that that’s out of the way, why is this skill so damned frustrating? Well, it has two checks; the first is the crosshairs check. Its applied to actually hitting the enemy. ALWAYS AIM FOR THE HEART/CHEST.

The second is the Uper-left, Top, and Uper-right shielding check.

With all of these “checks” you might ask what the hell is gained?

Three things; increased range, increased accuracy (as accurate as long as the target is under the crosshairs), and a 10-15% increase in damage modifier. Its gain is marginal, and you’re more likely to miss then to hit. it could be useful in keep defense situations however, other than that, do not enter into it, it will make you quit the class.

IV. Skill Breakdown
Salvo- What it is, and what it is not.

Salvo is the first 2part chain combo. It “shoots” three times before it begins the salvo induction. The “three times” comes from activating the shot, and then completing the chain, it then fires three .75(ish)drawn shots that seems to deal around 200%-300% extra damage. This shot is extremely potent and is enough to outright kill any mob without upper shielding once the ranger gets a stance.

*Salvo has gone numerous changes; currently it appears to be somewhat bugged, from my testing, the damage gained from stances aren’t applying to Salvo*

Heartseeker- This is gained at 40 and is the next big hitter in ranger chain. Although I cycle through all skills, it’s a quick recharge, and hits hard. Not as hard as salvo, but its only a 1-part chain, and has a quick induction time. It complements the other 1-part chains very well in PvE when salvo is on cool down. It also seems to crit much more frequently, but this is unconfirmed.

These are you’re two big hitters, the rest of the skills are self explanatory.


V. Feats-The 4-part split personality of the ranger
1. Introduction to the Sharpshooter Tree
As the awkward title hints, and previously mentioned, the ranger is really two classes rolled into one; the Ranger— Bow, and the Waylayer—Crossbow. And each of these has two “specs”. You can ignore the other line for now, as it does not benefit the ranger in any noticeable way in
raw damage, and complements stealthers end game. Im going bow, so I have no advice to give on crossbows.

The Sharpshooter=bow. And it’s the one to stick with, bow just seems to outshine crossbow in many important ways, the most prominent being salvo, which can only be performed with a bow.

2. Stances
There are two lines in each one. Both give “stances”. The Fire side gives Fire Stance, which adds 30.0 DPS to your bow, +20.0 fire dmg (rises as you level slightly) and a fire proc which seems to be about ~20%.

Sniper Stance gives 30.0 DPS +5 damage (rises by .5 per level it seems) and seems to give an overall additional 9.0 DPS to the bow. It also increase accuracy by 2%. That accuracy does not improve.

Both are great, and are about even in PvE. In PvP

Firestance will pump out slightly more dps, because it gives a nice elemental damage, and is unaffected by armor rating.

You can mix and match each side, grabbing many feats from each side that will significantly increase the ranger’s potency. One of them has a chance to root an enemy in place on any shot!

Eventually you’re going to want to stick with once stance, even though there is only a 5sec cool down between the stances. And stick with one “ultimate” skill. Volley, or Flame Barrage. Both make your attacks aoe for a short time.

3. Feats, and my recommendations.
These are what I view as the must haves; I will break them down by Tier.

Tier 1- Focused Fire
FF adds BIG damage. About 20.5 DPS to my bow for 15sec at 40 and grows every level, and is on a 1min cooldown. It’s amazing and your forced to take it.

Tier 2- Bow Specialization, Eagle Eye.
Bow Spec adds about 6.5 DPS. Take it Eagle Eye adds 5m to your attacks, take it, but only after
Bow Spec.

Tier 3- Rapid Stab, Splintering Puncture, Tendon Rupture, Ricochet
Rapid Stab blows, don’t get it. Splintering Puncture blows, don’t get it. Tendon Rupture is great. Allows the Ranger better kiting, by giving +5 sec to Pin Down. Ricochet is awesome, Adds a small chance to snare the target for 4s by 65%.

Tier 4- Quick Shots, Silent Shots
Quick Shots a good compliment, and best invested at 33 after the root ability in the tier 5 is maxed. Gives shorter CD’s to your combos. Silent Shots is more pve, and is required for sniper
stance. I don’t like sniper stance, and I don’t like this ability. Imo skip it.

Tier 5- Firestance, Sniper Stance, Knee-capping
Won’t go into the stances again. Knee-capping adds a small chance on ALL hits (salvo is
counted technically as one hit…sort of) to root the target for 4-5sec. its imbalanced in pve and pvp, and you’re an idiot to pass it up.

Tier 6- Sulfurous Burst/Blast, Cold Nerves, Deadeye.
Sulfurous Burst/Blast is an aoe stealth detection “flare”, blast makes it a small dmg in the aoe to knock people out of stealth. It’s great, but useless for leveling, so at the moment it’s a waste
Cold Nerves add significant stam reduction to all combos. Get it, love it, breath it. Deadeye adds a straight 9% damage increase to all combos. It’s a sexy 3 point talent. Get it

Tier7+
At this point it comes down to preference. For PvP grab:
Fire Trap It sucks, but it’s a pre-req. grab and max to move down.
Immolation and its follow up. The fear is a nice oh **** escape tool that will be invaluable later on.
Critical Aim has an irritating bug associated with it, and at the moment, does not cause the combos to crit.
Apparently this is by design…so skip it, white crit damage is not worth 3 talent points.
Flame Barrage over volley. Flame Barrage is a much harder hitting salvo that fires without directionals, and causes aoe burn damage. Great skill, defiantly pick it up.

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Friday, November 13, 2009

Leveling and Character Development


Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures features 80 levels of character advancement, and every level is reached by gaining experience points through completing quests and killing enemies.

Questing is the primary way of gaining experience, allowing you to see the world and experience the stories of Hyboria while advancing your characters. Killing enemies also provides experience points, and this is based on how difficult the enemy is. Every time you gain a level, you will have to make a range of decisions that impact your character’s future:


  • Attributes: Your attributes will gain automatically when you gain new levels.
  • Skills: You will gain a certain number of skill points that you can invest in your various skills.
  • Feats: You will gain a certain number of feat points that you can use to buy new feats or strengthen the feats you’ve taken before.
  • Combos: Depending on your character’s class, new combos may become available when leveling up.


The apprenticing system:
  1. Find a high level guy to apprentices you, which will bring you to within 1 level of that person.
  2. You fight creatures which are the same level as the person who is apprenticing you, gaining you massive amounts of experience.
  3. You will skip most of the questing and story line while gaining skills and abilities much faster than you can learn to use them.


While this is a great way for casual players to catch up to their hardcore friends, the questing in this game makes leveling very fast while at the same time not feeling like work. However there are some trouble spots where you may be required to do some grinding. Those spots could be better dealt with by making use of the apprenticing system.

MY LEVELING ROUTE

11-29:
I made my way through levels 1-29 the first day I played. There are tons of quests that you can stack to help you level. I was level 19 when I left Tortage, and hit level 20 after entering Conall's Valley. I then quested in Conall's until I was level 29; it was very easy and super fast. By the way, I did not play in closed beta.


29-39:
In the second day leveling, I managed to get through these 10 levels. Black Castle is a good place for these levels. However around level 35, I went to pyramid of the Ancients,. This was a great spot for leveling 35-39 which took almost the same amount of time as levels 29-35.

39-50:
During the third and part of the fourth day I leveled from 39-50. At level 39, I traveled to Old Tarantia Noble District, and was very surprised at how quickly I leveled. I stayed at Noble District until around level 45, then I went to Field of the Dead.


On a side note, I did some arena during these levels. Arena is in the tavern in Old Tarantia Noble District, and there are solo/group quests there for you to do. There is a level requirement on all of these quests, and I think you can do the final group quest at around level 57. These are well-worth the experience end rewards they give. I quested all the way to 48.5 in Field of the Dead, then went into Eiglophian Mountains for a short time.

50-57:
Fifth day leveling. At level 50 the game slows down with regard to leveling. I managed to quest in EM until around level 55, then I had to grind to 56. It
seems like some quests opened between 54-56, so I did those and got close to 57, then I had to grind out some more experience to hit level 57. It was at that
time I got the typical quest to head to another area - in this case, the place was Thunder River.

57-58:
On the sixth day, I found out that Thunder River was way too difficult for soloing at this level. Luckily, I heard that Atzel's Approach was much better for leveling.

58-63:
Atzel's Approach is awesome! When Upon arrival,I found the content to be very difficult. However, Once I got past that part of the zone, my experience flew.
I did all of the quests and ended up somewhere around level 63.

63-68:
The seventh day of levelingled me out of Atzel's Approach and back to Thunder River. I was able to finish the quests here much more quickly than before, so I hung out here for a while. There was a little grinding involved but nothing too terrible. After finishing all of the quests that I could, I went back to Atzel's Approach. I finished up the quests I had and headed to Ivoryvale at level 67. Ivoryvale is an icy canyon full of non-aggro mammoths, generally in pairs of two. Once I was out of quests here I grinded on the mammoths until I hit level 68.

68-72;
I started my eighth day out by grinding those mammoths until I reached 70. Level 70 was great since it led me to Kheshatta. Kheshatta is a sweet place, especially when you're the only one in the zone. I quickly cranked out two full levels from quests alone.

72-76:
I started the ninth day out with more grinding in Kheshatta until I hit level 73 and some more quests opened up at. I knocked out those quests very quickly,then grinded my way to 74 where some more quests opened up. Although they seemed to be group quests. So then I headed over to the Death Master Camps, where I managed to hit 76 that day.

76-80:
Death Master Camp AE group. In my experience this is the best place to tackle these levels. Basically, you pull the entire lower camp and level it. These levels would take forever solo. You need nearly 3 million experience to level from 79 to 80.
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Subscribe to Age of Conan and receive The Secret World beta access





Funcom recently announced their plans to get older players back into Age of Conan and boost multi-month subscription rates. Players with inactive subscriptions are invited to retry the game for two weeks and receive a double experience bonus. Those who sign up for multi-month subscriptions will receive these additional bonuses:

  • 3-month sub: Beta access to The Secret World
  • 6-month sub: Beta access + in-game helmet that boosts experience gain by 10%
  • 12-month sub: Beta access + helmet + a free copy of Conan expansion Rise of the Godslayer
Age of Conan has received many updates in the year and a half since its release. However, MMO players can be an unforgiving bunch, so these incentives to give the game another shot are quite necessary. And it's extra-smart given all the excitement around The Secret World. Considering how many players would be willing to pay for beta access, a subscription to a vastly improved AoC is just icing on the cake.

For those interested in catching up on AoC, check out the most recent game director's letter, new content, and revised subscription options. Have a burning question for Funcom about this or anything else?
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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Barbarian Class Guides

The barbarian is one of the most dangerous and feared sights on the battlefield. Their combat style focuses on strength, aggression, and relentless assault.

Whether wielding two-handed weapons that sweep through enemy lines or fighting with a weapon in each hand, when the opportunity to deliver that devastating killing blow Comes, they are ready.

Wounding barbarians enrages them, making them stronger and more deadly in battle and their varied array of powerful attacks can knock an enemy senseless, immobilize them, or make the very ground shake around them. Like other rogues, they excel at sneaking and the arts of ambushing.

Archetype: Rogue
Permitted Races: Cimmerian, Aquilonian
Weapons: One-handed edged, one-handed blunts, twohanded
edged, two-handed blunts, bows, thrown weapons, and
dual wielding.
Armor: Cloth armor and light armor

Feat Guide:

Great Weapons master build:




Butcher build:




Cheat the Reaper build:




Leveling/Straight DPS build:


I didn't take any of the aggro reducing talents, add them if you want a more group oriented build.

Now I am going to explain my reasoning for picking the feats that I did, and explain why I skipped some things.

Berserker Tree.
Blood rage: Grants the barbarian the Blood Rage Stance which increased damage inflicted and enemy attacks have a chance of increasing the barbarian's rate of Health regeneration and evasion chance. The ealth effect can be applied three times.

Required to advance.
Atrocity: Increases the damage done by barbarians Butcher combos.

Great Weapons Master: Increased the damage done by two-handed edged and two-handed blunt weapons.

Atrocity vs Great Weapons Master: For leveling, get Great Weapons Master until you get Butcher IV. Butcher IV is when the butcher line really starts to shine, and becomes a strong, cheap combo. Great eapons Master is supposed to scale with levels, but unless Butcher isn't that great at level 80 I am going to lean towards picking Atrocity.

Shock and Awe: Reduces the reuse time for Stunning Punch and Clobber combos.

Bread and butter PvP talent. Stuns and knockbacks are our only form of CC and this lowers the recast time on them. At max level it lowers Stunning punch by 13 seconds and clobber by 11 with 3 feat points invested. Staggering punch: Improves the Stunning Punch combos by adding an effect that also reduces the victims movement speed.

I've included this talent in both builds but that is subject to change based on the how well the talent actually works. Ive tried testing this feat out a few times and right now it currently doesn't seem to be snaring the target after the stun wears off. Theres a possibilty I didnt test it thoroughly enough, but as far as I can tell right now this feat isn't working properly. I imagine it will be fixed soon, which is why I left it in the builds. IF FIXED, this will be an amazing talent depending on the snare duration.

Reverse swing: Augments the Staggering Blow combo by increasing the damage the barbarian inflicts.

After spending some time using this feats after getting Staggering blow II my mind has been completely changed. This is another one of those feats that start to shine the higher you go up in level. After getting Staggering Blow II at level 34 the damage of Staggering Blow goes up a LOT.

Something every barbarian will learn is that when fighting elite mobs you will run out of stamina VERY quickly. At level 38 with 1500 stamina all my stuns/knockbacks are above 200 stamina with stunning punch costing a whopping 271 at the moment. The nice thing about Butcher and Staggering blow is they are both relatively cheap on stamina and they both do great damage after their level 30 upgrades. I highly recommend picking up this talent after receiving Staggering blow II as its damage is amazing. I've had a couple 1200 HITS with staggering blow on nonshielded sides, which is really high. Another thing to note about this feat is that its pretty much a 1 point or 5 point feat. I'm not sure it's bugged but at one point its 5% three points it was 6% four was 7% and 5 was 10%. If you use Staggering blow every time it's up you can basically keep the 10% damage buff up almost 50% of the time. It lasts 6 seconds and the cooldown on Staggering blow is 15 Seconds. I'm not sure if the cooldown will increase with higher ranks, so keep that in mind. I may make room for this in my level 80 pvp build depending on if Staggering blow is still a strong combo at 80.

Paralysis: Adds a brief root effect, preventing the target from moving, to the barbarian's Clobber combo.

Awesome one point talent. Adds a root to Clobber, which can be used as a CC. potentially even more awesome with Finishing blow thrown in the mix. Clobbering a group of enemies and than finishing blowing one enemy while the others are knocked down and rooted after the knockdown.

Eyes of madness: Grants the barbarian an ability that makes all foes in the vicinity less likely to focus their attacks on them.

PvE talent, skipped. Pick this feat up if you are running a pve build or just want the extra reduced threat.

Insanity: Permanently increased the barbarian's resistance to fear effects.

Passive fear resist; prereq for unstable mind.

Grisly wounds: The barbarian augments the Butcher combos with their own inborn brutality, adding more damage over time.

I no longer think this ability is worth it, even for the butcher build. The DoT damage is still fairly weak evenwith the upgrade, it's the good base damage that makes butcher strong. If you want to run a Butcher build I would recommend grabbing Reverse swing instead of picking up this talent. I've removed this from the butcher build.

No escape:
Grants an ability that enables the barbarian to throw their weapon, impaling their enemy, cause massive damage that lingers for a short time and also stuns the victim. This ability disarms the barbarian for a short time.

The damage from the frontload attack + dot damage is VERY strong, plus the fact that it stuns. If you are having trouble getting your weapon back, keep smashing your active block button until you get it back. This is probably considered our strongest ability at the moment. I was apprenticed to 75 earlier and my no escape actually one shotted a level 80 regular mob. It's awesome, pick it up. It seems they've fixed the bug with this ability as well, so no complaints here.

Combo - Earth Shatter: This mighty combo stuns all foes in close vicinity.

Another AoE stun. What more needs to be said? You want this feat. Although the stamina cost is pretty high, so use cautiously.

Finishing blow: Grants the barbarian a charge ability available after they knock back an enemy. Their charge caused severe damage but a high stamina cost and long reuse time.

Funcom recently fixed the bug that allowed us to do insane amounts of damage with that extra second attack, but in the process they broke this ability. It still takes no stamina, but it's only doing maybe 50 damage more then a white attack currently. Completely useless now, if you really want to put one point in it for being able to close in on a knockdowned target okay, but i think its better to start a combo and run up. This is going to be skipped until they fix it.

Arcane Marauder:
When hit by spell damage the barbarian gains natural health regeneration and drains mana from enemies around them.

After getting this ability I'm still not sure exactly how it works. It seems that it's currently bugged and procs from EVERYTHING. This includes running, sprinting, attacking, I mean ANYTHING. I haven't been able to test how much mana it regens but with 1 point in it it adds 9 natural health regen which isn't very noticeable. We will see where this feat goes, it may become useful at 80 in siege pvp but for leveling I would skip it, or add one point in it.

Unstable Mind: Grants the barbarian an ability which immunity for a short period of time.

Beastial Wrath anyone? The duration on this is around 9 seconds with 3 points, and has a two minute cooldown. From my experience with it only one point is necessary, atleast at the moment. You still get the snare break, and until end game PvP is around, thats about all you need. Even then it could be arguable that only one point is needed with a second snare break feat easily accessible by picking up Escape Artist in the general tree. Unless you need points to move further down the Berserker tree and don't want to put points into an earlier feat I would only put one point into this FOR NOW. This ability will start to really shine if there are snares that are easily reapplied continually with little to no cooldown, or in siege warfare.

Swarm Fighter: Grants the barbarian an ability that taunts all minions in the area for a short period of time. Every attack from a minion will trigger a heal effect when this ability is active.

Another pve talent, could be possibly useful against pet classes in PvP but doesn't seem worth the five feat points.

Hammer and Anvil: Enhances Stunning Punch combo by increasing the damage it inflicts.

You will be using stunning punch a lot, and this increased the damage and is also a prereq for Comatose.

Fearsome agility: When hit in combat there is a chance to gain a short evade buff. This can stack up to 5 times.

More survivability. There isnt really enough points for it with the butcher build but if you arent planning on using butcher it seems useful enough.

Rampage: When hit in combat you will occasionally damage every enemy around you for a small amount.

The usefulness of this talent depends on how much it procs and how much damage it deals which is information we don't really have access too at this point. Either way it's required for Thirst for Blood, so it's a must have.

Comatose: Enhances Stunning Punch combo by increasing the amount of time the victim is stunned for.

A longer stunning punch? Yes please.

Rampaging horde:
Grants an ability that increases the damage inflicted upon foes based on the number of friendly barbarians within range. Maximum number counted is 10.

Unless you and all 48 of your friends are barbarians, not worth it.

Combo - Scatter Foes: Grants the barbarian a combo that will knock back all foes in a wide cone in front of them.

Another AoE knockback. This is a very useful feat and anyone this far down the Berserker line will definitely want to get this.

Combo - Decapitation: Grants the barbarian a swift combo that inflicts massive damage and increased the chance of a fatality. This combo has a long reuse time.

Do I really need to explain why to get this feat? Huge damage and possible forced decapitation plus it's a prereq for Thirst for blood.

Welcoming death: Grants an ability that increases the damage inflicted by the barbarian's attacks based on the number of dead foes nearby, up to a maximum number of 10.

Doesn't seem very useful for PvP; if all your teammates are dead this feat isn't going to save you anyway. This feat doesn't really sound that great at all honestly, even for PvE. chances are if you are in a raid or instance you will be continually moving after each pull so this will never really take effect unless you are killing in a confined area.

Thirst For Blood: Grants an ability that drives the fellowship into a wild bloodlust. Attacking or being attacked can trigger a damage bonus effect and multiple applications of this effect eventually boosts health and stamina regeneration.

Extra damage, more health, and stamina regen. This is the end all feat of the Berserker tree.

General Tree:
Excellent balance: Grants the rogue an ability which makes them immune to being knocked back in combat. Additional feat points increase the duration of the immunity and shortens the refresh time.

Required. A nice feat to have anyway, especially if you are fighting another barb or a knockdown heavy class.

Natural protection vs Toughness:

Natural protection: Increases the rogue's elemental resistance ratings.

Toughness: Increases the rogue's physical resistance rating.

Physical or Magical resistance? I personally will be going for Toughness. So far with my experience as a barbarian, our toughest fights are going to be against other melee classes. I usually rip up the cloth classes, of course this subject to change at end game. For now i'll be sticking with Toughness.

Subtlety: The rogue's strikes are less likely to attract a foes attention in battle, making them less likely to break off from their current target to attack the rogue.

PvE talent, stake it if you want to PvE. Otherwise skip it.

Second Wind:
Grants a new special ability that gives a short duration but substantial stamina boost. Takes a moderate amount of time to refresh.

Just what barbarians need. I don't know about you guys but I burn through stamina like nobodies business, and a barbarian without any stamina is a worthless autoattacker.

Keen senses: Substabtially reduces the reuse time of the Search ability.

Not sure what it actually lowers the search timer too, although a very fast search would be useful in PvP situations, atleast more useful than an extra .5% physical damage reduction.

Quick recovery: The rogue instantly recovers stamina after being knocked back in smelee.

Stamina= good. Plus a LOT of classes have knockdowns, this way you can hopefully avoid knockdowns with Excellent Balance, but if you do get knocked down you will atleast get some stamina back from it.

Alright, I am going to break form here because I am going to be comparing a couple of the 2nd and 3rd tier General abilities together. The choice of what to pick
becomes a lot tougher choice at this point. Acrobat gives you more survivability. Endurance means a shorter cooldown on second wind, which means more stamina overall. Escape artist and Agile mind both sound extremely useful, but it's hard to tell how much of an effect fear and charm will have on people in PvP. At this point I am probably going to stick with Endurance and Acrobat. Depending on the cooldown of Unstable mind and how often I find myself snared I will be picking up Escape artist accordingly.

I hope this helps out some of you who are having a hard time deciding what feats to get.
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Assassin Class Guides

The much anticipated class guide section complete with PVP and PVE builds for each class This time we will look at the Assassin.

Assassins are the most lethal killers in Hyboria. Those aspiring to the top of this profession face the most deadly regime of training, discipline, and study, but the ones that survive are executioners supreme.

No other class can deliver blows as deadly as an assassin. Their arsenal of lethal combos is complemented by their ability to slip past enemies unseen. Assassins can dual wield daggers with lightning speed and can modify their attacks against specific targets, such as unholy attacks against heavily armored foes, or poison attacks versus mana users. Few can stand against an assassin in combat.

Archetype: Rogue
Permitted Races: Aquilonian, Stygian
Weapons: Daggers, crossbows, and dual-wielding
Armor: Cloth armor and silk armor

Assassin
I can't find any solid posts or info on assassin abilities, and hybes is very incomplete. If anyone has anything, I'd be glad to post it.

Why would I play this class?

  1. High single target DPS (Sneak attack goodness)
  2. You enjoy stalking your target (the joys of a methodical kill)
  3. Murder is a hobby (???)
Why would I pass on this class?

  1. Identity crisis (again)
  2. You are very squishy (one of THE squishiest)
  3. Near mandatory beginning spec (Lotus is nice though)


General Assissin Info: The assassin is your typical rogue class. Now, opinions vary greatly. According to some, you are unable to kill players 10 levels below you. Other say Crom himself has an account and he plays an assassin. Assassins are stealthy and deadly. Its real problem is that all the rogue classes are stealthy and deadly. The Ranger can engage from range, the barbarian can engage multiple mobs.

Assassin in PvE: Have a tough time. Mob in this game pop up in groups, and this is not a class designed for groups. You just have to pick your battles. Most PvE centered (and most everyone from 1-40ish) go into Lotus for its survivability. After that you can switch into another build to suit your tastes. In groups your usefulness goes up a great deal as you no longer have to worry as much about survivability.

Assassin in PvP:
For the problems they have in PvE, I'll bet you were hoping me to say they melt face in PvP. They are dangerous, no doubt, but not really more
dangerous than the other rogue classes, and that is where the problem lies at the moment. Corruption after 40ish is the spec of choice for PvP damage.

PVE BUILD:


PVP BUILD:


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Friday, November 6, 2009

Vistrix Tank Tactic and Kylliki and Chatha Flaw




Basically this is same as Bane tactic except you dont need bane - instead you have a tank far away from dragon while everyone nukes it, when the dragon is stunned, the tank simply charges it using irritate and cry of havoc to get aggro and points dragons fire away from group.

This saves everyones lives and without the use of irritating banes.

Also after the recent patch kylliki's healers no longer spawn, so she is incredibly easy. Chathas minions "Utamons" dont reflect damage anymore.
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