Age of Conan Cheats

Age of Conan Now Free-To-Play

2011-07-04T14:08:00.000+02:00

Friday Funcom announced that its popular MMORPG Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has officially taken on the free-to-play mantle and is now re-branded as Age of Conan: Unchained. The news follows the launch of Blizzard's pseudo demo World of Warcraft Starter Edition and T3 Entertainments open beta of Hellgate, both of which also launched this week.

"After 1.4 million copies sold, having experienced fantastic critical acclaim, and still to this day going strong with a large active player base embarking on thousands of daily adventures, there is no doubt that ‘Age of Conan’ has made a significant impact on the online gaming genre," said Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing Morten Larssen. "The great potential provided by the hybrid business model, and with the ever growing interest for free-to-play games, bringing ‘Age of Conan’ into this market is undoubtedly the logical next step for the title."

Age of Conan: Unchained now offers a "hybrid" business model: players can roam Conan's backyard for free, or go old-school and cough up a monthly subscription fee. As seen with other free-to-play models, an in-game store will be inserted into the realm so that players can purchase exclusive content such as weaponry and mounts. But naturally there will be limitations placed on free accounts so that players get hooked to the point of going full-blown premium.

As seen here, several major differences divide the Free and Premium accounts. Those who don't want to take the subscription route will be locked down to four available character classes. They'll also have access to non-premium dungeons, two raids, two characters slots (although there's a max of 18), and only basic mount training. Free players can't partake in sieges, they only have 50-percent of the personal bank space available, they can't level offline and they can't earn veteran points.

"For the team working on the game, going free-to-play is great because it opens up this great fantasy world to an even larger audience," said Creative Director and Executive Producer Craig Morrison. "Not only can players now enjoy the content for free, we will continue to add new gameplay features and new content and make improvements to the game. ‘Age of Conan: Unchained’ will offer a fantastic experience for both new customers and players who have already roamed the online world of Hyboria. An engrossing story, brutal combat and savage world is waiting for those who dare explore the lands of Hyboria."

To jump in and explore the virtual world of Hyboria now, head here to grab the installer. The actual client is an extra 7.51 GB download.

Craig Morrison on success and failure

2010-11-28T04:27:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Sep 27th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, News items, Opinion

Last week's Craig Morrison blog topic brought a wave of interesting comments from readers and writers alike, illustrating why MMO number-crunching is always a hot-button issue. The Age of Conan game director takes another crack at a controversial topic with his followup post, and attempts to deconstruct the logic of fans who insist on labeling games "successes" or "failures" despite not having the information necessary to make such a judgment.

"Whether any title that displays a numbers trend similar to another can be deemed a success or a failure depends entirely on the budget, ambition and infrastructure of the project," he writes. While that's common sense to most folks, there are still some who insist that AoC and Warhammer are "failures" despite the fact that they remain open for business and profitable. Morrison acknowledges that both titles fell short of their ultimate subscriber goals, but also cautioned that equating lower-than-desired numbers to failure "is a very dangerous assumption to make."

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, blog, craig-morrison, dev-blog, failure, fan-logic, funcom, mmo-numbers, opinion, silirrion, success, Warhammer, Warhammer-Online

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Massively Speaking Episode 120

2010-11-27T23:49:00.000+01:00

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NewsReviewScreensVideoAchievementsGuidesForum Massively Speaking Episode 120by Shawn Schuster on Oct 20th 2010 1:00PM

Podcasts, Culture, Opinion, Massively meta, Humor, Massively Speaking

2 Massively Speaking Episode 120 marks the return of Rubi as she joins Shawn to discuss this distinctly slow news week. But there's still plenty to talk about! Topics include Aion's iPhone app, the rumored Elder Scrolls MMO, FFXIV's extended free period (and bad launch), the new Guild Wars all-hero party addition and.... Minecraft. Yes, we just had to talk about it. Also, Shawn found his first castle since the recording. And bought Fallout: New Vegas, as he said he wouldn't. Sigh.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to shawn@massively.com with the subject "Massively Speaking." We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
Listen here on the page:

Read below the cut for the full show notes.Massively Speaking is the official podcast of Massively.com. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief Shawn Schuster and Contributing Editor Rubi Bayer, Massively Speaking takes on the week's biggest news and dev interviews with plenty of opinion, rants, and laughs thrown in for good measure. Join us every Wednesday afternoon to listen in and see what we'll say next!
Show Notes For Massively Speaking Episode 120

Hosts:
Shawn Schuster Rubi BayerTopics:
Rumored Elder Scrolls MMO in the works Aion announces new iPhone app Final Fantasy XIV offers 30 more days of free time Guild Wars update allows full hero parties Rubi's Hall of Monuments guide is finished! Theme Music:
"Vanguard Forward," by Michael Gordon Shapiro. Used with permission. Tags: humor, massively-meta, massively-speaking, opinion, podcasting, podcasts
Reader Comments (2)Posted: Oct 20th 2010 6:58PM (Unverified) said Get well soon Rubi.
I may pop onto GW someday soon, I'm not really into achievements, but I could do with some social time. Starting to feel lonely. Reply Posted: Oct 20th 2010 9:05PM (Unverified) said YEAAAH.

Minecraft. Reply Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment. InfoDescription

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The most popular posts
in the last 7 daysDon't panic -- Massively's getting a makeover! [Update #5] 264 commentsUPDATED: Win a new Guild Wars costume pack from Massively! 128 commentsUPDATED: Get the full Rift beta experience with our VIP beta key giveaway! 70 commentsThe Daily Grind: Should trailers use only in-game footage? 50 commentsThe Daily Grind: What do you think about experience scrolls? 45 comments Engadget OpenVizsla hopes to bring USB sniffing to the ... AAXA debuts L1 v2: world's smallest 20 lumen pico ... Next iPad likely to get a new screen, ... WoW WoW Rookie: Cataclysm troll starting area ... WoW Moviewatch: Staghorn Gets a Pat Down ... Around Azeroth: Overheated and underdressed ... Massively One Shots: Life in a northern town ... The Road to Mordor: Community check-up ... Champions Online designer clarifies power changes ... Big Download Shogun 2: Total War now titled Total War: Shogun ... More holiday sales pop up for PC owners ... Activision launches "Murder Your Maker" teaser ... Autoblog 2012 Mazda5 priced from $19,990, hits dealerships ... First Ride: 2011 Harley-Davidson CVO models ... Report: Bernie Ecclestone beaten, girlfriend ... Urlesque Free Range Turkey Farmer Has His Own Built-In ... A Very EpicMealTime Thanksgiving ... Last Shot - Chlorophyll of a Woman's Touch ... Games.com Blog FrontierVille Winter is Coming Goals: Everything ... PetVille Black Friday Sale gets rid of those ... Happy Aquarium Black Friday Sale begins 10 a.m. ... UGO.com 25 Rappers Who Died Too Young The 100 Best Movie Spaceships AOL Tech Joystiq

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DDOcast host leaving to work for Turbine

2010-11-27T19:17:00.000+01:00

The feel-good news story of the day comes courtesy of the long-running Dungeons and Dragons Online podcast called, crazily enough, DDOcast. Normally a show's cancellation (or in this case, hiatus) isn't cause for celebration, but this particular story has a happy ending since podcast creator and host Jerry Snook is closing up shop to go and work for Turbine in an as-yet unidentified capacity. Snook posts a lengthy farewell on the podcast's website, and he also hints that the show may go on with a new host.

This Friday's show, episode 191, will be the last for the foreseeable future. Snook will also make the show's archives available to interested parties. "I will do my best to have the content available for as long as there is an interest in checking out the show and web site. It is also very possible that DDOcast will return/continue under new leadership," he writes.

View the original article here

Massively Speaking Episode 123

2010-11-27T16:16:00.000+01:00

Massively Speaking Episode 123 | Massively | Mail | You might also like: WoW Insider, Joystiq, and more

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NewsReviewScreensVideoAchievementsGuidesForum Massively Speaking Episode 123by Shawn Schuster on Nov 10th 2010 4:00PM

Podcasts, Culture, News items, Opinion, Massively meta, Humor, Massively Speaking

5 Massively Speaking Episode 123 returns this week with Shawn and Rubi discussing the week's biggest topics, including the upcoming launch of Perpetuum, more job cuts for the Fallen Earth team, SWTOR warzones and more!

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to shawn@massively.com with the subject "Massively Speaking." We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
Listen here on the page:

Read below the cut for the full show notes.Massively Speaking is the official podcast of Massively.com. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief Shawn Schuster and Community Manager Rubi Bayer, Massively Speaking takes on the week's biggest news and dev interviews with plenty of opinion, rants, and laughs thrown in for good measure. Join us every Wednesday afternoon to listen in and see what we'll say next!
Show Notes For Massively Speaking Episode 123

Hosts:
Shawn Schuster Rubi Bayer
Topics:
Perpetuum launching November 25th More job cuts for Fallen Earth Battlestar Galactica Online enters closed beta Codemasters denies picking up APB SWTOR releases more info on warzones and crafting Theme Music:
"Vanguard Forward," by Michael Gordon Shapiro. Used with permission. Tags: culture, humor, massively-meta, massively-speaking, opinion, podcasting, podcasts
Reader Comments (5)Posted: Nov 10th 2010 5:01PM (Unverified) said Vindictus, now your speaking my language.

I really love this game, so much that I even considered doing a podcast on it.
(going to wait until there is more content, and I'm further along)
But, I am doing a blog on Vindictus and Starcraft 2.

http://exnfrustration.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html

I also do guides, so far I only have one, How to connect to Vidictus via proxy server.
Yeah, I live in NZ, so I had to find a way around the IP block.
And now anyone who is interested can do it as well.

And I'm glad that you are liking Vindictus Shawn. Now we have one more thing in common.

~Yoh Reply Posted: Nov 11th 2010 5:09PM (Unverified) said It would be nice to know if there is any plan to release Vindictus in Europe.
I wonder a bit why Massively couldnt afford to go to gamescom in Germany but can afford to go to Korea. Reply Posted: Nov 11th 2010 7:55PM ShawnSchuster said I'm not sure I follow your logic there. The Korea trip comes later, so I was able to save up longer. Reply Posted: Nov 11th 2010 7:01PM (Unverified) said Most of the people who rant about SWTOR failing, are not ranting just for the sake of seeing a game fail. I posted on this before, but as usual, selective memory fails some it seems. SWTOR gets ranted on by some gamers because maybe those gamers have a little more experience in mmo's than some gamers and maybe know what works usually and what doesn't.

Ruby's comment that "if 'gamers' don't like it, don't play it" statement is pretty weak to say the least. How does someone get the position she has with shallow comments like that?

Not to mention she has the arrogance to end in saying "if you don't like a game, she doesn't want to hear it?" Wow. That is a pretty narrow view from someone in reporting mmo reviews and news.

Shawn I can understand about being where he is coming from, but I scratch my head every week about Ruby and why she is still around. Other than the obvious that she is just a "token female" for the show. Reply Posted: Nov 11th 2010 9:14PM (Unverified) said Fortunately Arenanet did listen to those that didnt like GW1 so they can have more fans for GW2.
If someone is beta-testing a game I dont have access to, I like to hear from those who like the game and those that dont. Reply Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment. InfoDescription

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Massively Speaking Episode 118

2010-11-27T11:43:00.000+01:00

Massively Speaking Episode 118 | Massively | Mail | You might also like: WoW Insider, Joystiq, and more

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NewsReviewScreensVideoAchievementsGuidesForum Massively Speaking Episode 118by Shawn Schuster on Oct 6th 2010 2:30PM

Fantasy, Historical, Podcasts, Culture, Interviews, MMO industry, Opinion, Free-to-play, Massively meta, Humor, Massively Speaking

7 Massively Speaking Episode 118 returns this week with Beau Hindman joining Shawn for an interview with special guests Susan Revelt (Producer) and Katie Simpson (Community Manager) from ChangYou to talk all about their new F2P MMO, Zentia.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to shawn@massively.com with the subject "Massively Speaking." We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
Listen here on the page:

Read below the cut for the full show notes.Massively Speaking is the official podcast of Massively.com. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief Shawn Schuster and Contributing Editor Rubi Bayer, Massively Speaking takes on the week's biggest news and dev interviews with plenty of opinion, rants, and laughs thrown in for good measure. Join us every Wednesday afternoon to listen in and see what we'll say next!
Show Notes For Massively Speaking Episode 118

Hosts:
Shawn Schuster Beau Hindman Susan Revelt Katie SimpsonTopics:
ChangYou's Zentia Theme Music:
"Vanguard Forward," by Michael Gordon Shapiro. Used with permission. Tags: changyou, f2p, free-to-play, humor, katie-simpson, massively-speaking, opinion, podcasting, podcasts, susan-revelt, zentia
Reader Comments (7)Posted: Oct 6th 2010 2:57PM (Unverified) said Wow, great show! It's always great to hear from TeamZentia, and there's a lot of information in this episode! Reply Posted: Oct 6th 2010 4:44PM Luxxicon said "Spoon" is the battle cry of "The Tick"... his sidekick, Arthur has a battle cry of "Not in the face".

A great name for the server would have been little wooden boy... again Tick fans would appreciate it.

Luxx Reply Posted: Oct 7th 2010 4:16AM NekoDaimyo said I'm glad some one had already said it. Reply Posted: Oct 6th 2010 5:57PM (Unverified) said a great game with a lot of fun.
I know many wow users in thsi game. Reply Posted: Oct 6th 2010 6:38PM (Unverified) said Awesome podcast. Heard some spoilers, wooo! Reply Posted: Oct 6th 2010 7:09PM (Unverified) said Loved the podcast! Very informative :) How can anyone resist the game after that??? :p Reply Posted: Oct 7th 2010 12:28PM winteratlantic said Went ahead and tried it, Zentia is pretty fun!
I wouldn't have tried it if not for the podcast.
Thanks!

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Breaking News EVE Online santa patch to get rid of learning skills Featured StoriesThe Road to Mordor: Community check-up

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Posted on Nov 26th 2010 12:00PM

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Massively Speaking Episode 121

2010-11-27T08:07:00.000+01:00

Massively Speaking Episode 121 | Massively | Mail | You might also like: WoW Insider, Joystiq, and more

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NewsReviewScreensVideoAchievementsGuidesForum Massively Speaking Episode 121by Shawn Schuster on Oct 27th 2010 3:30PM

Podcasts, Culture, News items, Opinion, Massively meta, Rumors, Massively Speaking

2 Massively Speaking Episode 121 is back with Shawn and Rubi giving their unwarranted opinions of the big news of the week. Yay! This week's topics include APB's possible purchase, Hi-Rez Studios' acquisition of the Tribes franchise and Champions Online's shot at going free-to-play.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to shawn@massively.com with the subject "Massively Speaking." We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
Listen here on the page:

Read below the cut for the full show notes.Massively Speaking is the official podcast of Massively.com. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief Shawn Schuster and Contributing Editor Rubi Bayer, Massively Speaking takes on the week's biggest news and dev interviews with plenty of opinion, rants, and laughs thrown in for good measure. Join us every Wednesday afternoon to listen in and see what we'll say next!
Show Notes For Massively Speaking Episode 121

Hosts:
Shawn Schuster Rubi BayerTopics:
Rumor: APB being picked up by someone... Codemasters, perhaps? Hi-Rez Studios buys the Tribes franchise to make an MMO, and we interview them about it Champions Online goes free-to-play-ish Sera Brennan has been stolen from us by Turbine! But Rubi got a sweet deal out of it Theme Music:
"Vanguard Forward," by Michael Gordon Shapiro. Used with permission. Tags: massively-meta, massively-speaking, opinion, podcasting, podcasts, rumors
Reader Comments (2)Posted: Oct 27th 2010 8:32PM (Unverified) said Congratulations on your promotion, Rubi =) Reply Posted: Oct 27th 2010 10:06PM Larry Everett said Yay!! Outtakes!

Oh yeah... and congrats to Rubi and Sera. Reply Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment. InfoDescription

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Breaking News EVE Online santa patch to get rid of learning skills Featured StoriesThe Road to Mordor: Community check-up

Posted on Nov 26th 2010 1:00PM

Champions Online designer clarifies power changes

Posted on Nov 26th 2010 12:00PM

Massively interviews CCP Greyscale on the EVE Christmas gift

Posted on Nov 26th 2010 10:00AM

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Massively Speaking Episode 124: Fallen Earth's Marie Croall

2010-11-27T04:32:00.000+01:00

Massively Speaking Episode 124: Fallen Earth's Marie Croall | Massively | Mail | You might also like: WoW Insider, Joystiq, and more

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NewsReviewScreensVideoAchievementsGuidesForum Massively Speaking Episode 124: Fallen Earth's Marie Croallby Shawn Schuster on Nov 24th 2010 5:00PM

Podcasts, Interviews, MMO industry, Opinion, Massively Interviews, Massively Speaking

7
Massively Speaking Episode 124 marks the return of the podcast after taking a week off while Shawn was in Korea for G-Star 2010. Not only does Shawn discuss his adventures there, but your hosts interview Marie Croall, Senior Game Designer for Fallen Earth where she talks about the latest State of the Game and the future of the post-apocalyptic MMO.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to shawn@massively.com with the subject "Massively Speaking." We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
Listen here on the page:

Read below the cut for the full show notes.Massively Speaking is the official podcast of Massively.com. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief Shawn Schuster and Community Manager Rubi Bayer, Massively Speaking takes on the week's biggest news and dev interviews with plenty of opinion, rants, and laughs thrown in for good measure. Join us every Wednesday afternoon to listen in and see what we'll say next!
Show Notes For Massively Speaking Episode 124

Hosts:
Shawn Schuster Rubi Bayer
Marie CroallTopics:
Guild Wars Heart of the North
APB's reloading G-Star 2010 coverage from Korea LotRO's newest expansion announcement Massively's makeover And an interview with Marie Croall from Fallen Earth Theme Music:
"Vanguard Forward," by Michael Gordon Shapiro. Used with permission. Tags: fallen-earth, interview, marie-croall, massively-meta, podcasting, podcasts
Reader Comments (7)Posted: Nov 24th 2010 7:02PM HitmanZeus said Why is Massively Speaking now directly linking into the Joystiq Podcasts in iTunes?

Just seems a bit odd. Reply Posted: Nov 24th 2010 8:05PM ShawnSchuster said @HitmanZeus Thanks for the heads up on that. It's another casualty of the site change, but we'll get it fixed. Reply Posted: Nov 25th 2010 8:02AM Lt Cobalt said @HitmanZeus Yeah, do fix that, the itunes feed is totally broken. Reply Posted: Nov 24th 2010 7:08PM ZoneOuT said Arche Age sounds awesome would be cool if it came to the U.S. I really wanna hear more about this game. If gamers first can revive APB they should revive TR also lol. Reply Posted: Nov 24th 2010 9:47PM Valdur said Thanks Shawn your coverage of G Star 2010 was great.I 'm a bit deceived that you were not able to bring us soem TERA news but anyway...

I was already impressed by your first interview of Jake Song and I think that Arche Age might be the AAA sandbox game I've been waiting for so long.Here are two videos of the same demo that you played and it's impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_jfGJrdlUA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzxGcY-y0J0

PS >during the transition of the website I had to change my forum name who was previously Goonja :( Reply Posted: Nov 25th 2010 2:16AM tororosso said im sure he's happy to be back in the States considering the bombing started while he's still up in the air flying home from NK Reply Posted: Nov 25th 2010 3:44AM tororosso said @tororosso fallen earth guest talked in bursts and was tricky to fallow what she's saying. Reply Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment. InfoDescription

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Breaking News EVE Online santa patch to get rid of learning skills Featured StoriesThe Road to Mordor: Community check-up

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Posted on Nov 26th 2010 12:00PM

Massively interviews CCP Greyscale on the EVE Christmas gift

Posted on Nov 26th 2010 10:00AM

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GDCO 2010: LotRO's revenues double as Turbine lays out a promising future

2010-11-27T00:22:00.000+01:00

According to Turbine, it's been a bonanza month for Middle-earth. At GDCO, the studio announced that revenues from Lord of the Rings Online have doubled in the past month since switching to a free-to-play hybrid model. What's even better is that Joystiq reports that LotRO has added a whopping million new accounts over these 30 days as well. Turbine is monitoring the server loads and have additional servers waiting if needed. It turns out that the F2P launch was even bigger than the original launch of LotRO back in 2007.

The good news doesn't stop there, either; LotRO has seen 20% of previous subscribers return, three times the numbers of concurrent players at peak times, and over half of the players using the hotly debated LotRO store for a purchase. Speaking of the store, the top-selling item has been an increase in shared storage, followed by tomes (stat boosters), the riding skill, and the Mines of Moria expansion.

Looking forward to the future, LOTRO Weekly wrote a summary of Massive Online Gamer's first podcast in which the Turbine devs outlined a few of the goodies in store for players in coming months. They are hoping to roll out updates every two to three months in a similar fashion to DDO's schedule, but are still committed to big expansions such as next year's Isengard. A new multi-boss raid is slated for early 2011, about the same time that the Radiance mechanic will be vanquished from the game forever.

View the original article here

Massively Speaking Episode 119

2010-11-26T20:18:00.001+01:00

Massively Speaking Episode 119 | Massively | Mail | You might also like: WoW Insider, Joystiq, and more

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NewsReviewScreensVideoAchievementsGuidesForum Massively Speaking Episode 119by Shawn Schuster on Oct 13th 2010 7:00PM

Podcasts, Business models, Culture, Opinion, Massively meta, Humor, Massively Event Coverage, Massively Speaking

0 Massively Speaking Episode 119 returns this week even more Beau Hindman! Oh, and Shawn too. But especially, Beau's wife Leala! All three of us discuss their recent trip to Austin, TX for the Game Developer's Conference Online 2010. We talk about the favorite and least favorite parts of their trip, plus get into some heated discussion about business models and the direction of online gaming.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to shawn@massively.com with the subject "Massively Speaking." We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
Listen here on the page:

Read below the cut for the full show notes.Massively Speaking is the official podcast of Massively.com. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief Shawn Schuster and Contributing Editor Rubi Bayer, Massively Speaking takes on the week's biggest news and dev interviews with plenty of opinion, rants, and laughs thrown in for good measure. Join us every Wednesday afternoon to listen in and see what we'll say next!
Show Notes For Massively Speaking Episode 119

Hosts:
Shawn Schuster Beau Hindman Leala TurkeyTopics:
GDC Online 2010 Theme Music:
"Vanguard Forward," by Michael Gordon Shapiro. Used with permission. Tags: featured, massively-meta, massively-speaking, opinion, podcasting, podcasts
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Breaking News EVE Online santa patch to get rid of learning skills Featured StoriesThe Road to Mordor: Community check-up

Posted on Nov 26th 2010 1:00PM

Champions Online designer clarifies power changes

Posted on Nov 26th 2010 12:00PM

Massively interviews CCP Greyscale on the EVE Christmas gift

Posted on Nov 26th 2010 10:00AM

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The Anvil of Crom: What's going on

2010-11-22T00:53:00.000+01:00

The Anvil of Crom: What's going onby Jef Reahard Sep 19th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Expansions, Opinion, The Anvil of Crom

Funcom's Age of Conan is a title that's changed quite a bit over the two-plus years it's been on the MMORPG market. Whether you're talking about the recent Rise of the Godslayer expansion, the game-changing 1.05 update, or the hundreds of smaller tweaks, balances, class revamps, and content additions that Hyboria has seen since 2008, there's never been a shortage of things to discuss.

Through it all, AoC die-hards have debated, pleaded, flamed, and in some cases, constructively discussed the merits of the title in one primary place: the official forums. Owing to its existence as a niche title with a smallish population, AoC doesn't feature huge third-party fansites like EQ2Flames, AionSource, or any of the legions of communities that have sprung up around World of Warcraft.

No, all the Hyborian meta-gaming action is centralized in one spot, and in this week's Anvil of Crom, we're going to highlight and discuss some of the more noteworthy threads that you may have missed over the last couple of weeks (including a definitive answer from Craig Morrison as to the size of the game's development team).

Flip past the cut for more.

Poor, poor, pitiful PoMs

It's not unusual for players of a certain MMO class to complain about being underpowered. What is unusual is the game developers' posting hard data that at least partially support their argument. PriestessLara, player advocate for the Priest of Mitra class, started an interesting thread that highlighted some numbers from Funcom's recent summer survey. Among other things, the survey found that PoMs are almost universally regarded as AoC's gimpiest class, and the thread (which clocked in at 15 pages as of press time) features some interesting discussion from both sides of the fence.

The PoM is one of the few classes I've not played much beyond Tortage, so while I can't chime in with personal experience from a player's point of view, I can tell you that PoMs are rare in Wiccana minis (though I have run with a couple of really good ones in Khitai 6-man PUGs).

Movie tie-in?

We've had MMOs based on movies, and MMOs based on books that were also made into movies, and even MMOs that might get made into movies. Now, it seems, we might have an MMO based on short stories that gets advertised with a movie inspired by those same short stories. Whew, kind of confusing isn't it? Well, not to worry, as Yarankash's thread isn't nearly so hard to grok. Basically, he's saying that the forthcoming Conan film reboot would appear to be a prime time for Funcom to spend some advertising dollars, perhaps in the form of a trailer or other ad attached to theatrical screenings of the film.

While I'm all for AoC increasing its player base, I'm not entirely sure that what looks like a B-movie (at best) is the place to hawk what most people agree is an AAA MMORPG. Hopefully I'm wrong and the remake turns out to be a stellar flick, but the fact that it's spent years in development hell, features an untested leading man, and has been passed around to more development studios than a bottle of cheap whiskey at an Aquilonian brothel doesn't exactly bode well. Prevailing sentiment in the seven-page thread favors keeping the game separate from the new movie, but you never know what Funcom is thinking. It says here that most people likely to play Age of Conan are already aware of the game, as the license and its source material are not terribly well-known or respected outside of hardcore fandom.

There's no app for that?

M4nk checks in with a thread highlighting the creation of a new iPhone app that lets you chat with your in-game buddies while you're stuck in traffic, at work, or with a list of honey-dos. Unfortunately, the app is developed by a third party (and therefore unsupported by Funcom), though community manager Glen "Famine" Swan does check in during the course of the thread to give it an unofficial endorsement.

There's also some interesting back and forth between Famine and Boomthunder, who opines that Funcom needs to allocate development resources to community-building tools such as mobile apps, databases, and character look-ups. I'd have to agree with that sentiment, as AoC is woefully lacking when it comes to out-of-game tools in comparison to other MMORPGs. While I'm holding out for a working Droid version of this newest bit of fluff, any attempt at translating AoC's in-game material to the web and portable devices is a welcome one.

Working as intended

Lots of AoC players love to gripe on the boards about Funcom's perceived slow update pace. Jokes about the number of developers are frequent, and the snark factor relating to their skill sets is quite high as well. Loaf-of-Evil started a thread asking about the planned time frame for the next big content update (2.1), and it quickly degenerated into a bit of flaming from the anti- and pro-Funcom forum camps. Normally we wouldn't call attention to such a thread (especially since it's been locked and is no longer active), but within it AoC game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison made his presence felt with a post that should put to rest any and all questions regarding Funcom's commitment to the game going forward.

"The Conan team is currently around fifty people directly on production alone (that's artists, designers, animators, programmers, scripters, writers and leads), with double that involved all told when you factor in the people working in tech, infrastructure and QA, etc.," he wrote.

There's your look at what's been going down in the Age of Conan community of late. While it's certainly not everything, it hits a few noteworthy highlights that you may have missed and hopefully provided you with some hope, some good information, or both. Until next week, I leave you with an image from forum moderator training school.

Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran, as well as the creator of Massively's weekly Anvil of Crom column, which chronicles one man's journey through Funcom's Hyboria while examining PvE, PvP, roleplay, and beyond. Feel free to suggest a column topic, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality via jef@massively.com. Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, conan-film, conan-movie, craig-morrison, droid, famine, featured, funcom, glen-famine-swan, iphone, mobile-apps, opinion, priest-of-mitra, rise-of-the-godslayer, silirrion, the-anvil-of-crom, underpowered

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The Anvil of Crom: What's going on

2010-11-21T21:22:00.000+01:00

The Anvil of Crom: What's going onby Jef Reahard Sep 19th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Expansions, Opinion, The Anvil of Crom

Flip past the cut for more.

Poor, poor, pitiful PoMs

There's no app for that?

Working as intended

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The Daily Grind: What's your favorite collector's edition?

2010-11-21T17:26:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Oct 26th 2010 at 8:00AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings Online, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Final Fantasy XIV

While many of you prefer digital downloads to retail packaging judging by a recent Daily Grind, collector's edition boxes continue to roll out of MMO studios for virtually every major release. Whether you've pre-ordered the Cataclysm or DC Universe packages, or you've recently picked up a sealed gem from the Amazon.com bargain bin, there's no shortage of MMORPG art books, figurines, maps, soundtracks, and in-game items to be had on the open market.

Quality varies widely along with quantity, from the sublime (Age of Conan's stunning 128-page art book and Final Fantasy XIV's leather-bound diary) to the sub-par (Lord of the Ring's Online's somewhat flimsy cardboard sleeve).

The question of the day, dear readers, is which of these packages is your favorite? Is it due to the packaging/contents itself or the in-game bonuses? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind! Tags: age-of-conan, cataclysm, collectors, collectors-edition, final-fantasy-14, final-fantasy-xiv, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, mmo-discussion, mmo-hot-topics, mmo-issues, mmo-topics, mmorpg-discussion, mmorpg-hot-topics, mmorpg-topics, opinion, tdg, the-daily-grind, World-of-Warcraft, world-of-warcraft-cataclysm

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The Anvil of Crom: Class guide #1 - The Demonologist

2010-11-21T13:24:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Nov 7th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Age of Conan, Classes, Opinion, The Anvil of Crom, Guides

This week I'd like to kick off something a little bit different. Thus far The Anvil of Crom has been somewhat reactionary, meaning things happen in the Age of Conan game world that make for good discussion, or things happen in the community surrounding the game that do likewise. Aside from my semi-regular Hyborian travelogue series (and an occasional guide or two), the column has basically reflected the current game-related news.

Initially that was by design, as I didn't want it to be yet another gaming blog that talked about more of the same stuff you'd find at 100 other destinations. The problem is, Age of Conan doesn't feature a large internet presence, and every time I look for a guide, I'm reminded of the fact that I should write one.

Beginning today, I'm going to embark on a series of class guides designed to give newbs and vets alike the information they need to determine whether a particular archetype is right for them. My initial thought is to offer three guides per class: a 1 - 40 examination, a 40 - 80 synopsis, and a look at the class at endgame. Obviously this will be an ongoing experiment, since Age of Conan boasts a hefty complement of classes (12 as of this writing), each of them fairly unique from the others and their conventional MMORPG counterparts.

Join me after the break for a look at the life and times of a young Demonologist, as well as a brief gameplay video of the class in action.
Ah, fire. Or, as Beavis would say, "fire, fire, FIRE!" Age of Conan's Demonologist is the penultimate firestarter, and I've spent the last couple of weeks burninating the Hyborian countryside to gather some impressions for this initial class guide. In the interests of accuracy, it's worth noting that the Demo also makes use of electricity-based magic (particularly at certain endgame specs), but for most of your leveling grind you'll be setting things aflame far more often than not.

So you want to be a Demonologist?

Demos are good for one thing and one thing only: blowing sh*t up. Feat specs vary (more on this below), but the long and short of it is that this class is for you if you like casters, extreme DPS (of both the AoE and single-target variety), and don't mind dying in a few quick hits in both PvP and challenging PvE situations. Demos are Age of Conan's proverbial glass cannon. Don't let the fact that they have demon pets fool you; if you're looking for a true pet-handling class, you should go with the Necromancer. Demo pets are primarily buff bots (though there is a pretty spectacular high-level self heal that can be feated, which we'll cover later in the Demo endgame guide).

Feats and builds (1 - 40)

The Demonologist is rightly considered one of the easier classes to play in Age of Conan, at least prior to endgame. Now, before all the Demo fans burn me at the stake, I mean that as a compliment. While there's something to be said for AoC's novel approach to combat button-mashing, circle-strafing, and situational awareness, there's also something to be said for a class that doesn't require you to have a Ph.D. in astrophysics (or a lot of time on your hands) to figure out a viable leveling build. If you're new to Hyboria, you'll notice that the game grants you skills automatically as you level. What you may not know is that at level 10 you can start earning (and distributing) feat points. The feat system works similarly to the talent system in World of Warcraft in that it gives players a range of specialization options under a particular class heading.

Each class has two feat trees, plus access to a third general tree that is shared among all classes of that particular archetype. In the case of our Demo, we can choose from the Havoc feat tree, the Conflagration feat tree, and the General tree shared with the game's other mage types.

It's generally accepted in the AoC community that putting all of your feat points into the Conflagration tree is the most efficient way to level a Demo. You certainly can dabble in the Havoc and General trees, and doing so will give you a better idea of what the class is likely to play like once you hit level 80, but for pure unadulterated speed, Conflag is the way to go.

I said before that the Demo is an easy class to play. This is due not only to its impressive DPS capabilities but to the fact that it relies much less on feat builds for its power when compared to other Age of Conan classes. Most of the Demo's utility is a result of powerful base spells, which makes your feat build something of an afterthought (particularly while leveling). It's a great class for those who are new to AoC or new to MMORPGs, simply because it's really hard to do it wrong. Check out my level 40 Conflag build in the margin for an idea of what I did on my latest character.

Skills and buffs

As I mentioned already, many of your skills come automatically as you ding. A few, such as Living Firestorm or Detonation, must be acquired using feat points as we discussed above. For the majority of your 1 - 40 grind, you'll be making use of Fires of Gehenna, Hellfire Stream, and occasionally Inferno of Amher (a large AoE effect). FoG in particular is the Demo's bread and butter, since it does an obscene amount of damage, has a quick recast time, and inflicts both a lingering incinerate effect and splashes nearby targets (and both of these aspects can be further enhanced via feats). You'll also want to find a place on your hotbar for Storm Chains, as its 10-second root effect will save your squishy hide when you pull a few more mobs more than you can handle. In terms of a spell rotation, again it's hard to go wrong as long as you're using some variation on FoG, FoG, and a bit of FoG. Throw in the occasional root and Wave of Flame and you'll routinely solo three to four even-con mobs.

Skill points, not to be confused with usable skills, are a matter of opinion. At the risk of repetition, this is also hard to mess up -- and you can respec -- so press "P" and click on the "Skills" tab at the far right to distribute your points (which you earn as you gain levels). You'll want to keep Casting Concentration and Run Speed maxed. I also dropped 200 points into Climb on account of certain ladders on certain Gateway to Khitai quests. Other than that, Renew Mana and Mana Attractor will probably speed you along.

In addition to your offensive and defensive skills, your demon pets offer worthwhile buffs, and you should never be out and about among all those crazy mobs or PKers without a pet by your side. Pet damage is negligible, but the buffs -- as well as the distraction they can cause in PvP -- make pets a must.

You can summon either a demon familiar, guardian, or slave, and each of the three gives you a specific four-hour buff (mana, health, and various regeneratives, respectively). Your pet's sex is purely a matter of personal preference with regard to eyecandy; there are no statistical differences. It's also worth noting that the Rise of the Godslayer Collector's Edition Loyal Kappa pet can be called simultaneously with your demon and offers several beneficial buffs including armor penetration, spell penetration, critical damage, magic damage, and more. Keep casting it until you get the buff you want (visible in the buff bar at the top center of your screen).

Finally, food and drink buffs are invaluable, and you can gather these via quest rewards or from the auction house. Various types of drinks (like sagewine) generally increase your total mana pool as well as your regen time, and certain types of food (crow-foot pie, for example) give you health pool and regen buffs. Roll over any of the items on the auction house for a full description. Be sure to check the level requirements as well. Items with an orange background are usually too high for your character or class-restricted.

Where to level

Leveling 1 - 40 is one of my favorite aspects of Age of Conan. There's a lot of variety after you're through with Tortage (generally at level 20, but earlier if you really know what you're doing). For newer players, I'd recommend rolling a Khitan character, which will take you to the Gateway of Khitai zone after you've defeated Strom. The quest lines here are well-written, and there are virtually no gaps in the leveling curve. You can easily go from 20 - 38 on nothing but quests, and you'll just as easily make 40 in the zone if you do a few repeatables and/or grind mobs for an hour. Cimmeria's Conall's Valley and Aquilonia's Wild Lands of Zelata are viable destinations as well, but the quest progression isn't as tightly focused as the newer Khitai zone. Stygia's Knopshef Province is your last option, but I'm saving comment on that for a future column, as it's the last newb zone that I haven't played (or written about).

Also new this week is my first attempt at using Fraps and some editing software, and the result is a brief look at the Demonologist in action. Check out the video below to see some solo PvE combat in the shadow of Khitai's Great Wall, and look for further video escapades detailing the high-level Demonologist, PvP, and other Age of Conan classes in future columns.

That's about all the info I've got for you budding pyromancers. Let me know about your firestarting (and demon-conjuring) exploits in the comments, and feel free to drop a message in ye olde inbox if you think I've missed something, messed something up, or if you've got any freshly baked white chocolate chip macadamia cookies. Until next week, I leave you with a room full of folks who wish they were Demonologists.
Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran, as well as the creator of Massively's weekly Anvil of Crom column, which chronicles one man's journey through Funcom's Hyboria. Feel free to suggest a column topic, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality via jef@massively.com. Tags: 1-40-guide, age, age-of-conan, aoc, aoc-class-guides, class-guide, class-guides, demonologist, demonologist-1-40, demonologists, featured, funcom, guide, guides, opinion, the-anvil-of-crom, video

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Age of Conan's official developer blog resurrected

2010-11-21T09:24:00.000+01:00

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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The Anvil of Crom: Squashing the negativity bug

2010-11-21T05:02:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Oct 31st 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Opinion, The Anvil of Crom

MMORPGs tend to attract a rather ranty segment of the gaming population. Actually, let me back up. MMORPG forums tend to attract a rather ranty segment of the gaming population. Whether or not a given game's general population is as perennially dissatisfied as the vocal folks on the official boards is a matter of conjecture, but conventional wisdom holds (and I happen to agree) that most of the people are contentedly playing while a subset are engaging in all manner of forum drama.

Writers aren't immune to this negativity bug either, as occasionally things will rub us the wrong way about our favorite genre (or a particular game), and we'll feel the need to speak out. I've been battling this particular demon lately myself, and whether it's a matter of burnout, stress, or simply observing that a lot of things really do suck, I feel it's important to occasionally step back and examine why exactly I'm playing a particular game as well as spending a part of my professional life covering this genre. It stands to reason that I wouldn't be here if everything were all bad all the time, so this is as fine a time as any to highlight some of the good.

Age of Conan is a title that, while still possessed of some fairly significant issues, manages to be fun more often than not. While I'm not here to blow smoke or pour honey, I will tell you that MMORPGs (like a lot of endeavors, hobby or otherwise) are what you make of them. While there are plenty of things I hope to see Funcom fix (*cough* crafting *cough*), none of them prevents me from enjoying the little things that make Hyboria an engaging experience.

Variety

Despite players' feelings that AoC has become a PvE-centric game after the 1.05 update, Funcom continues to give us a game that features a multitude of things to do. True, all of them involve grinding of some sort, but you kind of know that already when you sign up for a themepark MMORPG. The Tortage experience notwithstanding, AoC is one of the more replayable games I've been involved with over the last few years. This has to do with three things, all of them related. One is the variety of quest content, some of it existing very early in the game's life, but much of it released via patches and the Godslayer expansion. I'm thinking specifically of zones like Tarantia Commons, Ymir's Pass, and of course the whole of Khitai.

What can you do when you grow tired of all the questing? That's where the second option -- PvP -- comes in (assuming you haven't rolled on an FFA server already of course). PvE, and indeed the entire game, truly becomes a different animal if you choose to make a go of it on Tyranny or Cimmeria. If you opt to stay with the consensual PvP flavors offered on the PvE shards, you can start queuing for minigames while you're still a Tortage newblet, and this continues all the way through level 80. Yes, the queues are sometimes long depending on your server and the time of day, but rare is the occasion when I've logged off due to the inability to get a minigame going.

Crafting is the third option (even though it leaves something to be desired), as is the respectable amount of resource-gathering needing to master it. While obtaining some of the rare drops is a bit grindier than I'd prefer, the trade-off is that you've got an incentive to wander the vast wilds of one of the more picturesque MMORPG worlds.

The world

Speaking of worlds, it's almost too easy to point to Age of Conan's graphics as a positive, and in fact I don't really mean graphics when I say "the world." The sumptuous visuals are certainly one ingredient of the game's special sauce, but the game world itself is quite immersive due to the obvious amount of care that went into designing it and the myriad emotions it evokes. The vastly differing zone architectures are a marvel, and the way that Funcom has created bustling hubs that feel much different from one another both in terms of layout and personality speaks to brilliant art direction and world design. Khemi almost feels like it's part of a different world than Tarantia, for example, as it should, given the vast physical and cultural differences that separate the two cities.

Explorer personalities will feel at home in Age of Conan, at least until they've leveled two or three alts, as Hyboria is as big as it is brutal, and there's really no way to see all the sights without at least one max-level character who is able to navigate the densely packed mobs in some of the more challenging zones. Indeed, when I've burned out on faction grinding or become frustrated after a particularly humbling minigame experience, I often flit about the world snapping screenshots (so many, in fact, that I currently have a dedicated folder on my hard drive that clocks in at around 4 GB).

Aside from the physicality of the world, AoC has the added kick of the mature setting. This can rightly be considered both a negative and a positive, but for me, the world's dark overtones would keep me coming back even if I weren't being paid to do so. Brutality is a word that gets tossed around quite a lot in casual AoC conversation, but it's only part of the reason Hyboria feels unique when compared to other MMORPG settings. Perhaps a better word would be "ambiance." Age of Conan has an intangible grit and an air of seriousness about it that's hard to quantify. All of the flashy caster effects notwithstanding, the game possesses a certain harsh reality that light-hearted titles like EQII, WoW, and others mostly avoid.

The music

Age of Conan's music really deserves its own article, and as soon as I can get around to snagging an interview with Funcom's Knut Avenstroup Haugen, it will have one. For now, though, any mention of AoC's subtler pleasures would be woefully incomplete without a nod to the soundtrack. It is, in a word, incomparable -- at least in video game circles. With apologies and all due respect to Jeremy Soule, Nobuo Uematsu, and the host of other great musicians currently lending their talents to the gaming industry, they've all got miles to go before they approximate what Haugen has done with Age of Conan's score. Whether it's the bombastic combat marches or the lilting melodies that underscore journeys through the Cimmerian highlands, AoC's score is an indispensable part of the game experience.

And that's about all the time I have for this week. Hopefully you've enjoyed our little detour off The Anvil of Crom's beaten path. If, like me, you ever have one of those weeks when you're asking yourself "what am I doing here" with regard to your games of choice, a little perspective (and dare I say it, positivity) couldn't hurt -- either that, or some time off. Until next week, I leave you with what is still the greatest concept art of all time.

Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran, as well as the creator of Massively's weekly Anvil of Crom column, which chronicles one man's journey through Funcom's Hyboria. Feel free to suggest a column topic, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality via jef@massively.com. Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, bells-and-whistles, featured, funcom, immersion, knut-avenstroup-haugen, music, opinion, pve, pvp, the-anvil-of-crom, world, world-design

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The demise of Ensemble Studios

2010-11-21T01:10:00.000+01:00

February 27th, 2009 hexsane Posted in Other Games |

Age of Empires signed by the entire Development Team.

I’ve been under a rock. Until recently I had no idea good old Microsoft was closing them down (although I recall mentioning to Matthew Pritchard something about sleeping with the devil before they signed with Microsoft, but I digress). Matt had joined Ensemble in its infancy and was one of the key developers in Age of Empires. Having this friend within the walls of Ensemble allowed me to obtain a great prize - a copy of Age of Empires autographed by the entire development team. I had originally asked for a copy with his autograph and was quite surprised when I received it. The funny part of all of this - I’ve never actually played the game. Its still new and untouched inside the box.

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Age of Conan premiere

2010-11-20T20:20:00.000+01:00

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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GameRigs Age of Conan Sweepstakes

2010-11-20T16:15:00.000+01:00

February 11th, 2009 hexsane Posted in Age of conan news |

GameRigs AoC Sweepstakes

Enter GameRigs AoC Sweepstakes for a chance to win:

1st Prize
Custom Gaming Desktop PC System from GameRigs, including:
GameRigs Aluminum ATX Case with custom artwork
Intel Core 2 Quad processor
Crucial Ballistix DDR2 memory
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ video card
NEC Accusync 24? LCD Display
SteelSeries Zboard Gaming Keyboard
SteelSeries AoC Keyset for Zboard
SteelSeries Gaming Mouse
SteelSeries Gaming Headset
All Age of Conan preorder items
1-year pre-paid subscription to Age of Conan
1-Year Subscription to Beckett’s Massive Online Gamer magazine
BradyGames Official Strategy Guide
2nd Prize
SteelSeries Zboard Gaming Keyboard
SteelSeries Age of Conan Keyset for Zboard
SteelSeries Gaming Mouse
All Age of Conan preorder items
90-day pre-paid subscription to Age of Conan
3rd Prize
SteelSeries Zboard Gaming Keyboard
SteelSeries Age of Conan Keyset for Zboard
60-day pre-paid subscription to Age of Conan
Bonus Prizes 10 lucky winners will receive a 60-day pre-paid subscription to Age of Conan.

Its free to enter and looks like some great stuff.

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Age of Conan adding Conquest game mode, new PvP minigame

2010-11-20T13:13:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Oct 1st 2010 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, New titles

Age of Conan's Craig Morrison has been a busy man of late. When he's not generating discussion fodder on his personal blog or overseeing the setup of Funcom's new production studio in Montreal, he's finding time to chat up the AoC community on the forthcoming additions to the game via his monthly development update series. Morrison enlists the help of two additional Funcom developers in the latest installment, beginning with lead systems designer Einar Forselv, who talks a bit about the incoming PvP additions.

Not only is a new PvP minigame in the works, but an entirely new game mode is coming along with it. The new mode, called Conquest, will make its debut in the new mini -- The Call of Jhebbal Sag -- and will find players fighting for control of a strategic location in the Pictish wilderness. Funcom has also added a new wrinkle in the form of resource points that fluctuate depending on how well your team is doing at holding capture points. The new mini will feature two groups of six for a total of 12 players per side, and it will also allow players to bring their mounts into a minigame battle for the first time.

Lest you think the 2.1 update series is solely focused on PvP, Morrison also taps dynamic gameplay designer Tanya Short for a bit of an explanation about the social features coming soon to a server near you. She provides a bit more info on the activities briefly mentioned in last month's letter. "This patch introduces two major social content additions: guild events and horse racing. Both will hopefully provide guilds and roleplayers with some fun activities and offer an interesting diversion for everyone who wants to try them," she writes.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, call-of-jhebbal-sag, conquest, craig-morrison, dev-update, development-update, einar-forselv, funcom, jhebbal-sag, new-game-mode, silirrion, tanya-short

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The Anvil of Crom: Squashing the negativity bug

2010-11-20T08:32:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Oct 31st 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Opinion, The Anvil of Crom

Variety

The world

The music

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Conan and stuff

2010-11-20T04:08:00.000+01:00

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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Age of Conan NEWS

2010-11-20T00:01:00.000+01:00

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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One Shots: I have the power!

2010-11-19T20:50:00.000+01:00

by Krystalle Voecks Sep 27th 2010 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Age of Conan, One Shots

While you may not necessarily hear as much about raiding in Age of Conan as you do in other MMOs, that doesn't mean it isn't in there. Indeed, higher-level characters can jump into the Black Ring Citadel and see if their skills match up against the nastiness that awaits inside. Today's wicked-looking Age of Conan screenshot comes to us from Dits, who appears to love mixing games and pop-culture, much like many of us here at Massively do. He writes in: "By the Power of Greyskull!!! [This is from] Age of Conan, outside BRC."

Have you returned to an MMO after some time away? If so, snap a screenshot for One Shots! Send it in an email to us here at oneshots@massively.com with your name, the name of the game, and a note about your return experience. We'll post it out here for everyone to check out and give you the credit for sending it in!

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Age of Conan Lore (or lack thereof)

2010-11-19T16:59:00.000+01:00

September 25th, 2008 hexsane Posted in Age of conan news, Conan Fiction |

Age of Conan Lore Sidebar Menu

There have not been any Age of Conan Community Lore Library updates since May. In the ever growing world of AoC and the rich pool of resources available in the world of Conan fiction is there nothing more to be added to the lore of the realms? Although the frequency of updates to this library was slow at best and came mostly in spurts it is a great resource for new players interested in the history of AoC up to this point (or at least up to the 9th of May). If you read through it you might even learn something you didn’t already know about the places and people of the Hyborian Age.

Will the Age of Conan game content actually become a part of the Conan lore? There are already short fiction stories being written about adventures in the game. Will Conan, Inc allow it? Letting the people who enjoy the creation of Robert E. Howard control the path of the Hyborian Age might inject more interest in Conan and fresh talent should always be welcome. It remains to be seen if everything will need the stamp of approval from Conan, Inc. Time will tell.

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Age of Conan's Morrison talks progression, design

2010-11-19T12:44:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Oct 20th 2010 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, News items, Opinion

Armchair designers of the world, take note. If you've ever wanted a peek inside the mind of an MMORPG developer, Craig Morrison's latest personal blog entry might be right up your alley. The Funcom executive and current Age of Conan boss has posted a lengthy look at his thoughts on massive design, and more specifically, progression.

Morrison examines progression versus entertainment, and goes on to contrast the need for the former with the desire for storytelling. He also touches on the vast array of player motivations, ultimately concluding that while "progression, and the need for it, is a bedrock of the expected player experience," future MMO designers should be mindful of the differences between what they want the player to do and what the player wants to do.

Clearly, there is no easy answer to the question of how does one design a good MMORPG. After all, one gamer's soul-sucking grind of death and despair is another's relaxing evening at home. That said, Morrison's perspective illuminates at least one line of developer thinking and is worthy of a read-through whether you're a dev, a player, or both.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, blog, craig-morrison, design, funcom, leveling, mmo-design, mmo-development, opinion, personal-blog, progression, silirrion

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Age of Conan's Morrison on designing for challenge and accessibility

2010-11-19T08:28:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Nov 1st 2010 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, News items, Opinion

Funcom executive producer Craig Morrison is drawing on his game journalist roots of late, via a series of in-depth postings on his personal blog. Morrison, a former IGN editor prior to his Funcom days, has a lot to say about gaming trends, which is great news for industry watchers and anyone interested in occasional glimpses into the thought process of an MMO developer. In his latest opus, the former Anarchy Online (and current Age of Conan) game director discusses the challenges in developing, well, challenge.

In a followup post to his earlier discussion on progression, Morrison talks at length about the decisions developers face when it comes to providing players with a steady diet of dings and digital pats on the back, while simultaneously making it seem like something worthwhile is being accomplished. The post contains a number of interesting observations, among them the notion that most modern MMORPGs parcel out their challenging content in sideshows that are entirely optional (raids, dungeons, etc.) and, in many cases, tangential to the main event (questing and hunting).

While it would seem to be a relatively simple matter to add occasional challenges to the leveling treadmill, Morrison cautions that care is needed to avoid alienating segments of your playerbase. "If you are going to be able to inject occasional challenge or difficulty spikes into the standard progression as well, you need to have thought about it to make sure that it won't become a bottleneck, and that it will survive a review," he says.

Tags: accessibility, age-of-conan, anarchy-online, blog, challenge, craig-morrison, dev-blog, developers, difficulty, funcom, game-development, learning-curve, silirrion

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Age of Conan - siege battles

2010-11-19T03:37:00.000+01:00

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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Age of Conan's Morrison talks tech upgrades

2010-11-19T00:02:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Oct 29th 2010 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, News items

Age of Conan's Craig Morrison is back with his latest monthly development update. The October edition is very tech-heavy, with a lot of emphasis on the tweaks and additions that Funcom engineers have been making to the game's Dreamworld engine. While a lot of the details may go unnoticed to your average player, the goal is to continue improving the game's performance as well as add tools to further content creation down the road.

Of particular note are the additions of Lua scripting capability (to facilitate dynamic events), improvements to the game's collision detection (and the implementation of nVidia PhysX), and tweaks to both DX9 and DX10 clients.

Morrison also confirms that Guardians will be the next class to receive a substantial update. He also clarifies the upcoming PvP minigame changes. Check out all the details on the official forums.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, collision-detection, craig-morrison, development-update, Dreamworld, dreamworld-engine, funcom, lua, lua-scripting, nvidia-physx, technology-upgrade

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Age of Conan - Kill a Goat - Win a Prize Pack.

2010-11-18T20:17:00.000+01:00

December 24th, 2008 hexsane Posted in Age of conan news |

The Hunted

AoC Community has an interesting contest going on and you can win a nice prize package if win the hunt. Hunt is only to be held on certain dates though:

Keep an eye out on the Season Event entries on the portal at 23rd, 24th, 29th, 30th and 31st of December. These will be the dates the competition will be held.

Have fun!

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CPSIA - How to fail to make a good law.

2010-11-18T15:42:00.000+01:00

February 11th, 2009 hexsane Posted in Random Discussion |

A thrift store in Omaha, NE cleared its shelves out of fear of CPSIA

I buy, sell and collect some toys and toy related memorabilia. This thrift store in Omaha, NE is one of those places I visit almost on a daily basis. Out of fear of CPSIA this store has emptied its shelves of the toys and children’s books. I didn’t look if they had removed all of the children’s clothing but I am quite sure they did that also. I know what you’re thinking: This law doesn’t target them. It was designed to stop big manufacturers from importing lead loaded toys from China. Well, you would be wrong. This non-profit organization will have a drop in sales because they are afraid of getting a $5000 fine for selling a toy or piece of children’s clothing that was manufactured using the poor safety standards in China. I know Goodwill in Omaha is also ending its sales of toys (and probably children’s clothes). Other thrift stores and consignment shops are probably following suit. Thousands of dollars in sales that once HELPED EMPLOY PEOPLE, HELPED FIGHT CANCER AND HELPED PEOPLE IN NEED are now going into the trash bin instead. Excellent job law makers. I think its time to try again. Fix this law - you screwed it up. Swallow your damn pride and repeal it. Write it so it makes sense and stops taking money from non-profit organizations. Thinking about it now though, maybe something good will come from this stupid law - there will be a spike in the value of collectible toys.

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Groo: That Other Barbarian

2010-11-18T12:11:00.000+01:00

October 5th, 2008 hexsane Posted in Other Comics |

While digging through my older comics I came across Sergio Aragone’s Groo The Wanderer #1. Not having read it in many years I decided to add it to my reading list. Still hilarious and highly recommended for a good laugh, however, not easy to find. Luckily Dark Horse Comics released “Groo: Hell On Earth” last month with 112 pages of Groo idiocy and many of the older Marvel issues have been bound together in collections that can be found on Amazon and eBay. If you prefer the original issues and can’t find them on eBay go to your local comic shop you might get lucky and find a few issues.

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Age of Conan Rise of Godslayer

2010-11-18T07:22:00.000+01:00

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Conan

2010-11-18T03:27:00.000+01:00

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Age of Conan soundtrack turning heads in Hollywood

2010-11-18T00:18:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Oct 15th 2010 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Culture, News items

Long-time Age of Conan players need no introduction to Knut Avenstroup Haugen. Even though they might not know the name, Haugen's seminal score for Funcom's sword and sorcery MMORPG is instantly recognizable. It seems that Hollywood is finally coming around as well, nominating the composer for a best original score award in the Music in Media category.

Even if you're not an Age of Conan fan, Haugen's Rise of the Godslayer soundtrack (as well as the Hyborian Adventures suite for the original game) is well worth a listen, particularly if you're into big-budget fantasy soundscapes that rival the work of Howard Shore and Hans Zimmer.

Check out the press release on the game's official website, and have a look back at the Rise of the Godslayer Making the Music trailer.

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The Anvil of Crom: Wild times

2010-11-17T20:08:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Oct 17th 2010 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Opinion, The Anvil of Crom, Guides

Welcome back to the Anvil of Crom, your weekly peek into Funcom's Age of Conan. I'm your host, ranger rantypants, and today we'll be returning to a happier place, namely, the latest installment of my ongoing Hyborian travelogue. This week, I visited the well-traveled Wild Lands of Zelata, the third of the game's four post-Tortage regions and home to some of AoC's premier questing zones.

The trip was something of a homecoming, as my original launch character made his way to the Wild Lands after leaving Strom's broken body on the Tortage docks a couple of years ago, and playing through the zone again after numerous graphical and performance tweaks was quite an enjoyable experience and even a bit nostalgic.

Port past the cut for more.
Just who, or what, is Zelata, you may find yourself asking? In a nutshell, she is a powerful druidess who has taken up residence in the eastern wilds of Aquilonia. In Robert E. Howard's Hour of the Dragon, she reveals that the people of the region fear and mistrust her greatly, leading to her seclusion in the wilds. During the time period in which Funcom chose to set Age of Conan, Zelata is also blamed for the infestation of dark beasts that roam the hills around the village of Tesso and its outlying areas. In a nice nod to the source material, Zelata's first words to a hailing player are lifted directly from the Howard story. "I am Zelata," she says. "The people of the valleys call me a witch."

Playing through the Wild Lands again gave me a new appreciation for the job that Funcom did constructing the early to middle portions of Age of Conan. Say what you want about the endgame content and the faction grind, but AoC is a lot of fun -- and packed with options -- up through level 40. The Wild Lands will take your character from 20 to 38 or so, depending on how many times you want to run Sanctum or grind mobs. Looking back, I'm somewhat surprised at all the complaints about the smallish nature of Age of Conan's original old world zones. Perhaps my opinions have been altered by playing a slew of boxed-in themepark games since 2008, but the Wild Lands make up a big zone, huge in fact, with varying terrain and consistently lush visuals that convey a real sense of scale when traveling to and from the village of Tesso and into the wild. Certainly the new Khitai playfields are larger, but traversing Zelata's domain is nothing to sneeze at.

Speaking of Tesso, it's the region's major quest hub, and you'll find it just over a bridge after loading into the docks at the zone entrance. The village is an idyllic frontier settlement, surrounded by beautiful rivers, lakes, and rolling grasslands. Unfortunately, the aforementioned plague of dark beasts casts quite the damper on the villagers and refugees holed up inside the city walls, and there are many quests here that will level you through a good portion of your early to mid-twenties.

In addition to gobbling up the numerous quests and quest chains scattered throughout the village, be sure you speak to Keyx in Tesso's old mill (a large silo-like structure down by the waterfront). He'll start you on a series of quests that grants access to the region's first dungeon instance, a proper underground crawl called the Old Smuggler Route. Aside from the dungeon, Tesso is your standard MMORPG quest hub (though as you can see from the gallery, the eye-candy puts most games to shame). You'll be doing everything from killing tainted wolverines (which make the most god-awful noise imaginable) to re-lighting oil lamps and collecting piles of wood. There's nothing revolutionary here, but there's a lot to do, and it's covered in a coat of visual and performance polish that's hard to top.

Branching out from Tesso, the quest chains will lead you through the nearby village of Kerkyra, through the blasted rock chasms and scarred gorges to the northwest that lead to the lands of Poitain, and through the mountainous interior of the zone, which contains a nifty level 27ish public dungeon known as the Maze. Filled with regular-con mobs (mostly spiders and their nasty queen) and occupying an appropriately scuzzy outdoor area, the Maze provides one of Aquilonia's first real solo dungeon experiences and shouldn't be missed. Talk to Phaedra just outside the entrance to hear her tale of woe and pick up a few related quests.

To the south, you'll find the ruined remains of Corvo, overrun with Neimedian soldiers preparing to invade the Aquilonian homeland of their longtime enemies. There are several quests in this area and you'll alternate between working your way up the side of a precarious mountain path and passing through the enemy encampment avoiding their guard dogs and the watchful eyes of roving sentries.

As you progress into your mid to late 30s, you'll spend a good amount of time in the eastern and northeastern portion of the zone, alternately fighting the many mercenary mobs roaming the map and completing standard quests, and finally venturing into Sanctum of the Burning Souls. Given Sanctum's status as one of the game's signature dungeons, it really deserves its own article. I also haven't had a chance to run through it since the game's launch, so look for more on this noteworthy location in the coming weeks.

That about wraps up our zone tour of the Wild Lands of Zelata. If you roll an Aquilonian character (or just want to go against the grain on your Stygian, Cimmerian, or Khitain avatar), the Wild Lands will represent a substantial portion of your initial Age of Conan experience. As such, it's an appropriately large and diverse zone, one that is representative of some of Funcom's finest work to date. Whether you're into soloing, group quests, PvP (on the appropriate servers), or dungeon crawling, you'll do a bit of everything here, and as always, the visuals are the benchmark against which other MMORPGs are measured.

Until next week, I leave you with my favorite concept art.

Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran, as well as the creator of Massively's weekly Anvil of Crom column, which chronicles one man's journey through Funcom's Hyboria while examining PvE, PvP, roleplay, and beyond. Feel free to suggest a column topic, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality via jef@massively.com. Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, aoc-zone-impressions, aquilonia, featured, funcom, gallery, guides, hyborian-travelogue, old-world, opinion, questing, screenshots, tesso, wild-lands, wild-lands-of-zelata, zone-impressions

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The Anvil of Crom: Gateway to adventure

2010-11-17T16:46:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Sep 26th 2010 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Age of Conan, Opinion, The Anvil of Crom

I've been spending so much time in Khitai's Northern Grasslands lately that I'm starting to dream of wolves, 50-foot-tall golems, and crotchety warmonk bosses that mop the floors of their monastery with the remains of my asphyxiated assassin. As such, I figure it's time for a little change of pace, as well as a change of scenery. Ah hell, since I'm an incurable altoholic, let's go ahead and throw a change of character in there as well. Goodbye squishy 'sin, I'll miss you (not).

Anyway, several alts are in the works, but rather than focus on the hows and whys of a new class (more on that in the coming weeks), we'll chew the scenery in this week's Anvil of Crom.

Join me after the cut for a look at the majestic Gateway to Khitai, the latest stop on our tour of Hyboria's many and varied questing zones.

Funcom's Age of Conan is nothing if not a diverse collection of play fields that offer a wide range of pleasing environmental aesthetics. Whether you're into deserts, jungles, steppes, mountainous highlands, remote islands, or teeming cities, Hyboria has them all. Even in adjoining areas like the Grasslands and the Gateway to Khitai, you'll find quite a lot of variation in terms of terrain, NPC garnishes, and visual flair. So, while I'm a bit burnt on the higher-level Khitai zones, the Gateway is just what the doctor ordered.

The caravan

It's not just the purty graphics either (as the Grasslands are arguably even more beautiful). The Gateway to Khitai is fast becoming one of my favorite Age of Conan zones (apologies to Tarantia Commons) in large part due to its exquisite progression. I started out next to the smoking hulk of a familiar newbie caravan, ambushed and broken, its contents strewn across the dusty road through the zone in a trail of rubble winding its way to the horizon. This initial quest hub sets the mood for Khitai and for Hyboria as a whole, with its grisly mauled horses, carrion, and terrified merchants and soldiers who look to the player to help them weather the attacks of the ferocious Hyrkanian raiders that mill about just out of visual range.

You'll find a standard set of quests from various NPCs stationed around the wreckage, and whether this is your first AoC character or your twentieth, there's nothing really revolutionary about the quests themselves. Kill a few of these, deliver a couple of those -- we've all done this thousands of time before. What sets the Gateway apart is the overall story presented through the quest text, as well as the way they all flow smoothly together for those who would rather skip all the blah-de-blah-blah to get at the objective.

The Hyrkanian village and the Great Wall

The next hub is a small Hyrkanian village, the centerpiece of which is a giant rolling pleasure palace and home to the local warlord. Here you'll grab several interesting quests, including excursions into the nearby graveyard (the objectives for which differ depending on whether it's day or night), a dried lake bed crawling with scorpions and wild rhinos, and several tasks relating to hapless villagers who've gone and gotten themselves captured by marauding horsemen.

Around this time, you'll also want to check out the trading village at the far eastern edge of the map. Here you'll find your bind point, vendors, and a couple of quest continuations relating to the original caravan supply missions that you pick up early in your Gateway career.

The steppes, the hermit, and the Forgotten City

After roving about the middle portion of the map for a bit and ridding the steppes of many an annoying mounted archer, I ventured south of the wrecked caravan, past giant kappa skeletons (think the huge snake skeleton that C-3PO stumbles upon in the Tatooine desert, only much cooler), and into a series of labyrinthine canyons populated by hyenas, epic-level horses of death (don't laugh, they hurt), and a reclusive hermit who hands out a few more quests (a couple of which reward you with some pretty spiffy samurai-inspired armor). Funcom has clearly tried to spice up the questing in the expansion a little bit, not just through the dialogue and story elements but also by making some quests require actions other than going to the X on your map and killing everything that moves. You'll dig graves, kneel and offer respect, and generally have a good time engaging in themepark questing that is a welcome departure from the norm. Now, don't get me wrong -- the Gateway to Khitai is still 80% killing, whether you're on a PvE or PvP server -- but there's just enough variety to make it seem new and relatively exciting.

After running a few errands for the hermit, I came across a would-be Khan named Menudsjin and saved him from a pair of ferocious Zang Xin, devolved mountain men who dwell in the shadow of the Great Wall. This opens up another quest hub, as the Khan gathers his men and asks you to meet him when you travel north beyond the Hyrkanian village. From here, you'll be tasked with finishing some dark Hyrkanian rituals, exploring the ruins of the Forgotten City (and ridding it of undead and diseased animals), and collecting the rest of your armor rewards. Finally, around level 38 or so, you'll be given the chance to work with either Last Legion or Scarlet Circle operatives near the Great Wall, ferreting out spies and ridding the region of still more of the Zang Xin.

All things considered, the Gateway to Khitai is one of Age of Conan's more enjoyable zones. Funcom wisely made it both varied and accessible, and the fact that the high-level Khitai faction grind is completely absent is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it paints a less than accurate picture of Khitai as a whole, giving newer players a somewhat skewed sense of what to expect at endgame when the rest of the expansion's content becomes available to them. On the other hand, it's probably the best post-Tortage starter zone in the game, as it's vastly larger and more interesting than Knopshef Province, Conall's Valley, or the Wild Lands of Zelata.

That's all the time I have for this week. I've got to get back to ogling my new samurai armor and filling that dastardly Zang Xin chieftain full of a few more arrows. Until next time, I leave you with the requisite concept art.

Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran, as well as the creator of Massively's weekly Anvil of Crom column, which chronicles one man's journey through Funcom's Hyboria while examining PvE, PvP, roleplay, and beyond. Feel free to suggest a column topic, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality via jef@massively.com. Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, aoc-zone-impressions, featured, funcom, gallery, hyborian-travelogue, khitai, opinion, pve, questing, rise-of-the-godslayer, screenshot, screenshots, the-anvil-of-crom, zone-impressions, zones

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The Anvil of Crom: Roll the bones

2010-11-17T13:21:00.000+01:00

The Anvil of Crom: Roll the bonesby Jef Reahard Oct 3rd 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Opinion, Roleplaying, The Anvil of Crom

MMO guilds are complex beasts, simultaneously serving as competitive outlets, support groups, and even extended families for those of us who devote a good portion of our free time to this strange and marvelous hobby. Guilds come in all shapes, sizes, flavors, colors, and descriptions. Heck, sometimes they're not called guilds at all, but rather corporations, kinships, legions, or even supergroups.

Many guilds focus on powering through PvE content in the most efficient way possible, while others are driven to excel at PvP, conquest, or server firsts. Still others spend their time roleplaying and storytelling in a medium that seems increasingly hostile to it. Funcom's Age of Conan features the usual assortment of PvP, PvE, and roleplaying guilds spread across its four American servers.

Then there's Venja.
Originally formed on Star Wars Galaxies' Starsider server in early 2004, Venja is a self-described heavy roleplay guild and the brainchild of Dan "Khethys" McFatter (who's also responsible for the Darkenvane RP guild from Aion and Warhammer). What exactly is heavy roleplay? Well, aside from in-character guild chat, Venja roleplay consists of weekly interactive story publishes (and associated web-based chronicles), weekly events including fighting tournaments and gambling nights, guild rank progression that unlocks custom lore and benefits, and an elaborate "prestige" character-advancement system that makes use of in-game dice rolls and character statistics inspired by tabletop roleplaying games. Finally, lest you think it's all about sitting around the local watering hole and emoting the night away, Venja also runs old-world dungeons, raids, PvP minis, and Khitai 6-mans with regularity (and in-character, of course).

New world man

If all that sounds like a ton of work, especially for one primary gamemaster, it is, and I recently sat down with Khethys to find out why he goes to such great lengths to provide an immersive experience for his band of rogues. "The majority of roleplay in MMOs these days has been reduced to people sitting around talking in taverns or having a storytelling night where everyone stands around while one person talks for half an hour and everyone else listens. It has no pulse. There's nothing engaging going on. Coming from a tabletop background, it's just unacceptable. People need to be engaged on a dramatic level," he says.

Indeed, roleplaying in MMOs is rapidly becoming a lost art, in large part due to the genre's exploding popularity with muggles and the increasing marginalization of a small subset of narrative-loving nerds. As more non-traditional (and time-strapped) gamers have begun to throw their collective financial weight around, game companies have responded by moving MMOs away from their virtual world roots and towards a lobby/action game mentality. Fans of character- and story-driven gaming are left to use their imaginations and deal with simplistic, repetitive, and highly restrictive game mechanics, most of which are at odds with how creative types wish to play their characters. The prestige system, as well as Venja as a whole, is designed to mitigate the inherent "we can't do that in the game" roadblocks that MMO roleplayers constantly encounter.

Circumstances

The guild's brand of MMORPG mayhem isn't for everyone though, even those who consider themselves roleplayers. First, there's the NSFW nature of much of the content. In a world as dark and brutal as that of Robert E. Howard's Conan, it's only natural that would-be storytellers choose to explore the dark side, and Venja obliges by styling itself as a lotus-trafficking cartel with its hands in just about every type of Hyborian vice imaginable. Khethys, taking some inspiration from the gritty fiction of George R. R. Martin, set out to bring some fantastical realism to Age of Conan's Wiccana server in the form of his numerous NPC characters and their story arcs that intertwine with those of his guildmates. Due to the harsh nature of the game's source material and the amount of time and energy he spends creating stories, the guild also takes itself fairly seriously and is definitely not the amateur comedy hour that many online gaming clans end up resembling.

For players who are into it, however, Venja is a marvel of escapism, due in large part to the in-game dice-rolling that adds a bit of action and flavor to the time-honored MMO roleplaying tradition of describing what your character is doing (since most of the time she can't actually do it unless it involves killing). In an era when many roleplayers have either retreated to tabletop games, OpenRPG, or Neverwinter Nights shards, Venja operatives are arm-wrestling, drinking, gambling, and taking part in customized story vignettes that offer an alternative to epic lewtz and faction grinding.

The one caveat to the prestige system is that, much like its tabletop counterpart, it's very slow-paced. Newer gamers raised on consoles and MMOs instead of D20s will likely find themselves at the mercy of their digital ADD, as the lengthy roleplay sessions take precious time that could be spent on AoC's various progression treadmills. This is of particular concern for low-level players, as the style really cuts into leveling and gear-up time. Conversely though, it's a godsend for bored endgame folks who have exhausted all of a title's content and have nothing to do aside from rolling their 15th alt or moving to another game.

Subdivisions

Roleplayers have long been the equivalent of the dorky, bespectacled outcast (even in nerd circles); they're the kids lugging their books down the high school halls, oblivious to the kick-me notes stuck on their collective asses by the DIKU jocks who get all the chicks, loot, and development updates. It wasn't always so, however, particularly in the Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, and SWG sandbox days, long before Blizzard blew the doors off an underground geek pastime and invited the masses in for an extended soiree. Khethys aims to recapture, at least in part, these salad days of MMO roleplay despite the genre's current obsession with themeparks and disposable accessibility. If Venja's expanding roster is any indication, he's succeeding.

The only question in this whole manic endeavor is one of longevity, or more accurately, sustainability. Khethys puts a huge amount of time and effort into his events and story publishes, and, despite the occasional assistance of a couple of his senior guild lieutenants, he's largely a one-man show. Given the fact that he's generating more content than the majority of professional MMO live-event teams put together, it will be interesting to see how long he can keep it up, or if any of the guild's growing member roster steps up to the GM plate to help him out as opposed to simply consuming all the free content.

One little victory

At the end of the day, Venja is something of a paradox. It's a family guild featuring some of the most family-unfriendly content around. It's a "serious business" guild whose members nevertheless manage to have a lot of fun playing and hanging out together. And it's a hugely complex enterprise sprung largely from the mind of one man. It's also the round peg in the square hole of current gen MMOs that shoehorn players into a "you're The One" box while speeding them down the specified content track of their chosen archetype. Those folks interested in using MMORPGs as virtual tabletops have markedly fewer options in terms of in-game tools than they've had in years past, but, as long as there are in-game dice and guilds like Venja, there's also hope.

That's all the time we've got for this week. If your guild is doing something interesting, unusual, or outside the MMO mainstream, drop me a line that includes your server, character name, and a brief description of what makes you guys unique. The Anvil of Crom will occasionally highlight the most creative Age of Conan guilds and guild personalities going forward. Until next time, I leave you with an image from the latest Venja gambling night.

Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran, as well as the creator of Massively's weekly Anvil of Crom column, which chronicles one man's journey through Funcom's Hyboria. Feel free to suggest a column topic, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality via jef@massively.com. Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, featured, funcom, guild, guilds, opinion, roleplay, roleplayer, RolePlayers, roleplaying, the-anvil-of-crom, venja, wiccana

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The Anvil of Crom: Storming the Warmonk Monastery

2010-11-17T09:05:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Sep 12th 2010 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, PvE, Opinion, The Anvil of Crom, Guides

Woo! After a few weeks of toodling around Rise of the Godslayer's new Khitai zones, I finally managed to get in on the 6-man instance action that serves as some of Age of Conan's new endgame content. Life as an assassin in a small guild isn't all it's cracked up to be, so I bit the bullet and joined a PUG or two (when they'd have me). Pro tip for players thinking of taking a sin to endgame: be really good at your class, train up Tainted Weapons and Finely Honed, or join a big guild that doesn't mind taking along the most disposable of the game's DPS classes.

As I haven't yet partaken of the extensive raiding content in Age of Conan's old world, the Khitai 6-mans were my first taste of what Funcom offers for endgame folks. Read along after the cut for some impressions and advice.
The Warmonk Monastery, situated in the extreme southwest of the Northern Grasslands map, is a foreboding temple perched precariously along a snowy cliff face that overlooks a green, bamboo-forested valley. The visuals, as per usual, are jaw-droppingly gorgeous both inside and out, and the approach to the place reminds me a bit of Ra's al Ghul's Nepalese dojo in Batman Begins (only with a lot more vertical development).

Once inside, you're presented with four doors, each leading to a separate 6-man dungeon instance. My baptism consisted of four runs: unsuccessful initial attempts at the Reliquary of Flame and the Vortex of Storms, followed by one successful run of each.

Conventional player wisdom holds that the Warmonk instances are the easiest of the new Khitai 6-mans and therefore make a great training ground for newbs and/or under-geared players like myself. For a point of reference, I'm currently running in a full set of the crafted assassin culture armor and crafted blue daggers. These aren't bad, but they certainly don't hold a candle to epic purples from the old world raids. Ideally, you'll probably want to raid a bit in the original game and outfit yourself with some decent looted equipment before heading to Hyboria's far east. The Khitai content is much harder than anything you may be used to from vanilla Age of Conan, and you may not have the patience to wait on the new dungeons before you obtain your first piece of the spiffy Khitai faction gear (which is gated behind a considerable grind).

Both of my groups went through the Warmonk instances on normal mode. Hard mode is available and will up your reward as well as the difficulty level.

The Reliquary of Flame

The reliquary is broken into two sections, the first of which involves your party's tank(s) running down a set of stairs and breaking a couple of scroll stands to get at the three scrolls contained therein. After each stand is destroyed, two very pissed-off monks will attempt to exact vengeance, and your best course of action involves dragging them up onto the stairs, generating enough aggro to keep them off your squishy DPS types, and unloading until they all fall down.

After you've collected your six scrolls, your party will need to make its way into a large chamber with a fire/sand pit in the middle and four stone statues staggered around it. Place your scrolls in the small fire pit and light it with the piece of flint your group leader should have picked up from the NPC at the beginning of the instance. What's that, you say? You don't have the flint? Well, not to worry; go back and grab it, as you can't trigger the encounter without it. Once the fire is blazing, a wave of minions -- as well as some more angry elite monks -- will enter through the same doors your party just used, and the objective is to burn them down as fast as possible before they douse your fire. Once this is done, the big kahuna (otherwise known as Zhu-la) finally makes an appearance.

Killing him is pretty straight-forward, provided you have tanks with decent gear (and the ability to trade aggro if you've got more than one). If not, it could present a challenge, especially since squishies like your humble assassin tend to survive two, maybe three of his hits. The key here is to keep the group close in, almost on top of him while attacking. If you stray too far, he counters with a nasty damage-over-time spell that can decimate your group. Once his health bar reaches 75%, he'll set the floor of the chamber on fire, and your party will need to high-tail it to the aforementioned pillars and climb as far up their ramps as you possibly can to avoid the flames.

After the flames die down, the next bit of business involves grabbing the sand bags placed along the chamber's walls and running to the center pit to douse the fire that is feeding Zhu-la's buff (while avoiding the instant-aggro that happens when you pick up the bags). After the three bags are emptied, his aura will be gone, and you can get back to hacking away at him. The fight continues until he reaches 50% health, whereupon you'll need to do the climb-the-pillar-and-avoid-the-BBQ dance, followed by the same routine at 25% health. Aside from that, it's a matter of DPSing him as quickly as possible and collecting your phat lewt.

The Vortex of Storms

After the Reliquary of Flame, the Vortex seemed anything but. There's not as much running around, and the fight happens in a much smaller section of another cavernous room. Basically, the baddie hangs out at the bottom of a tiered set of steps (think the concrete bleachers at an old-fashioned football stadium, albeit smaller). As you fight him, water will rise out of the lowest level of the tier, and you'll want to avoid it at all costs. There are also some rather annoying tornados (or cyclones, as an Aussie group mate was quick to point out) that spin around and do quite a bit of damage on contact. The trick here is to burn him down quickly while advancing up the steps and dodging the rising water as well as the cyclones. Oh, and don't step on the topmost row of the bleachers unless you fancy instant death.

Double-tapping and side-stepping are your friends in this fight, as they help you avoid the numerous vortices as well as the knock-backs used by the main boss. After you've defeated the Air and Water monk, you'll have to fight a chest (yes, a magically animated chest, like the ones that contain loot). It's a pushover compared to the boss, so send it packing and collect your rewards.

That wraps up The Anvil of Crom's first look at Khitai 6-man dungeons. The Warmonk Monastery is a lot of fun with the right group, and offers a decent challenge for those new to Khitai. I'll be examining the rest of Warmonk, as well as the numerous other 6-man Grasslands instances, in a future column. Until then, I leave you with the greatest concept art ever.

Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran, as well as the creator of Massively's weekly Anvil of Crom column, which chronicles one man's journey through Funcom's Hyboria while examining PvE, PvP, roleplay, and beyond. Feel free to suggest a column topic, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality via jef@massively.com. Tags: 6-man-dungeons, 6-man-instances, 6-mans, age-of-conan, aoc, featured, funcom, khitai, opinion, reliquary-of-flame, rise-of-the-godslayer, the-anvil-of-crom, vortex-of-storms, warmonk, warmonk-monastery

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AoC Holiday Season Give Away!

2010-11-17T05:26:00.000+01:00

December 1st, 2008 hexsane Posted in Age of conan news |

AoC Snow Mammoth Mount

Age of Conan Community has announced they are giving away special items for this holiday season! Fire up those email programs and enter for a chance to win!

With a bit of luck you might win a whole set of in-game items for your Age of Conan account. Each set contains:
* The brand new Snow Mammoth
* The War Mammoth
* The Killer Rhino
* Ring of Acheron
* Drinking Cape
* Bag of Holding
* Amazon Bow
* Totem of Origins

This is some good stuff. If you’re one of the lucky ones you will definitely be the envy of others.

Good luck!

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Age of Conan - Hyborian Insider - PvP

2010-11-16T21:11:00.000+01:00

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Robert E. Howard and Conan

2010-11-16T17:22:00.000+01:00

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Age of Conan 2.0.7 coming today after extended downtime

2010-11-16T13:04:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Oct 6th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, News items

If you had your heart set on a little Hyborian hooky this afternoon, go ahead and cancel that sick day and head on in to the office. Funcom is in the process of uploading Age of Conan version 2.0.7 to the live servers, and according to a post on the official boards by senior community manager Tarib, the downtime has been extended from six to a full eight hours (it began early this morning at 7:00 a.m. EDT).

The good news is that the patch looks to improve performance in Khitai's Northern Grasslands zone (often called Northern Crashlands due to its low framerates and frequent lockups). While the jury is still out on the success of this aspect of the patch, it's gratifying to see Funcom taking action on the matter. 2.0.7 is also tweaking the ranger class (yes, again), in the seemingly neverending struggle to bring Hyboria's bow and crossbow crowd into line with the rest of the classes. This time it's not a nerf but rather a series of mini-buffs, including more damage for the deft stabs skill, a better snare effect on pin down, and more.

You can view the patch notes from the Test Live server, but you'll need to sign in with a Test Live forum account.

Tags: 2.0.7, age-of-conan, aoc, buffs, deft-stabs, funcom, lag, northern-grasslands, patch, performance-optimizations, pin-down, ranger, rangers, snare, tarib, test-live, update

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Craig Morrison on success and failure

2010-11-16T09:45:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Sep 27th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, News items, Opinion

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, blog, craig-morrison, dev-blog, failure, fan-logic, funcom, mmo-numbers, opinion, silirrion, success, Warhammer, Warhammer-Online

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Conan the Cimmerian #1 & #2

2010-11-16T06:26:00.000+01:00

September 11th, 2008 hexsane Posted in Conan Comics |

I decided to hold off on discussing the first official issue of Conan the Cimmerian until I had more of a story to work with. In these 2 issues the reader is introduced to Connacht, Conan’s grandfather, through the mysterious hermit. The hermit assists Conan by frightening away some Vanaheim raiders seeking revenge for the carnage Conan delivered to their kin in Conan the Cimmerian #0.

In Issue #1 (”Hunter’s Moon”) the hermit begins the tale of how Connacht saved 2 children from a gruesome death at the hands of the marsh folk by being bound and tossed into the depths of the marshes.

In Issue #2 (”Mark of the Wolf”) the hermit continues the story of Connacht with the discovery of the grizzly remains of Connacht’s horse. Forced to travel by foot the trio come upon a farm and Connacht attempts to make the children look hard working and useful in hopes the farmer will take them in. When night comes the farmer’s daughter and one of the children go missing…

The story so far is good. I’m not thrilled about the art used in the tale about Connacht. I’m wondering if it was intentionally drawn this way. Many of the characters seem to be distorted or caricatures and the creatures are, in a word, terrible. I’ll admit to not being an art critique but I would like to hear from someone else. Is it just me or is that art really just that bad?

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The Age of Conan First… That wasn’t.

2010-11-16T02:53:00.000+01:00

October 3rd, 2008 hexsane Posted in Age of conan news |

Today’s announcement of the first tier 3 city missed the mark by nearly a month. In reality Lords of the Dead completed their tier 3 in early September on the DeathWhisper server. Oops… Congrats to both guilds as it is an achievement. I guess someone fell asleep at AoC central and missed the Lords of the Dead achievement.

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The Anvil of Crom: Hives of scum and villainy

2010-11-15T23:05:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Oct 24th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Culture, Opinion, The Anvil of Crom

Once, a long time ago, I stood on the summit of a sandy cliff with my MMO mentor. His sage-like eyes took in the desert around us, surveying the burgeoning multiplayer landscape. On one side of us were MMOs; on the other, FPS titles and social networking games.

Surrounding us from all directions I saw a writhing, rioting mass of digital humanity, overlapping chat bubbles floating toward the horizon for miles around. Some of these bubbles were legible, though many featured bizarre butcherings of the king's English as well as certain phrases that I couldn't even begin to decipher. Almost all of them sported excessive punctuation and some variation on LOL.

Squinting his eyes against the glare and covering his ears with both hands, my mentor inclined his head down the slope. "Global chat," he said, a weary sign escaping his chapped lips. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
Ah yes, global chat. That anonymous playground where the men are men, the women are men, and the children are FBI agents... er, wait, that's the internet in general (or at least it was years ago when it was still primarily populated by neckbeards, nerds, and night owls). As online culture has expanded to cover a more representative swath of the population in recent years, it has also softened a little bit. That said, there are still places in the deepest, darkest dungeons of the internet where anonymity reigns and asshattery plays a very close second fiddle.

One of those places is the global chat of your favorite MMORPG, and Funcom's Age of Conan is, unfortunately, no exception. It doesn't really matter what server you're on -- spending more than a few minutes in global chat is guaranteed to offend, irritate, or otherwise induce eye-rolling.

The question is why do game developers even make global chat channels available to their playerbase? Particularly in a game like Age of Conan, where the player economy is a running joke and there is virtually no trading to speak of, it stands to reason that the entire exercise is unnecessary. AoC has a separate looking-for-group channel; it has regional channels for Cimmeria, Aquilonia, and Stygia; it has a trade channel; and it has an out-of-character channel. One thing it doesn't have is the ability to make your own chat channels (a convenience most appreciated for custom guild chats), but that's another column entirely.

The point is, Age of Conan has about four global channels too many, not counting global itself. The problem is that eliminating global number one would likely cause the troll convention to move to one of the other aforementioned channels, so in my estimation, Funcom might as well do away with all of them. Beyond the occasional instance of LFG being used as intended, I'd argue that the glut of global channels detracts from the game experience rather than enhances it.

Why?

Let's call it the 4chan effect, with a substantial helping of the Greater Internet F*^kwad Theory (NSFW) on the side. On any given night in Wiccana's global chat, the topics range from politics, to religion, to more weighty matters such as the ever-present "WoW was the first MMO" debate. In fact, I'd venture to say that World of Warcraft is discussed in more detail (and certainly with more frequency) than Age of Conan, which raises the question of why the conversationalists aren't playing it. The answer, of course, is for the lulz. Most of the genre's global chat trolls have probably played WoW, and it's infinitely more fun to rile up the anti-WoW populations of smaller games that it is to go back and grind another Azeroth toon.

So, assuming you agree with me and aren't one of those folks who actually like Age of Conan's global chat, what are the alternatives? Well, if you're using it solely as a LFG tool, you can safely disable it and use the actual LFG channel. People do use it properly on occasion, though it often gets lost in the global spam that clutters the default chat window. Also, if you're looking to sign up for PUGs, Killiki or Vissy raids, or Khitai 6-mans, there's nothing stopping you from simply showing up at the encounter start locations and asking to join the groups that constantly gather there (though, omgzors!! you might actually spend a minute or two on the outside of the efficiency curve).

Another alternative, though admittedly out of the player's control, is for game companies to actually use their GM staff to keep an eye on chat channels. This is a double-edged sword, as you run the risk of over-moderation (and of course it costs more money), but when it's handled correctly, you're left with global chats that offer some real gameplay value and good advice. EVE Online's help channel and Fallen Earth's global chat are prime examples of moderation done right. Funcom GMs are, sadly, nowhere to be found in Age of Conan's public channels. Whether it's because of the game's M-rating or some other factor, anything goes in the game's global chats, and I do mean anything.

Ultimately, I'm pretty sure my (formerly) secret desire to see all global chats die horribly gruesome deaths will fall on deaf ears. People simply enjoy trolling too much, and those who don't have grown accustomed to the convenience that global channels occasionally provide. We've forgotten what it was like to live without those channels, just like we've forgotten how to live without cell phones and texting. While some smaller sandbox-ish games like Darkfall and (purportedly) Earthrise get by with regional/racial chats instead of true global channels, Age of Conan and most other MMORPGs will likely continue to suffer epidemic levels of troll population explosions. It's not the end of the gaming world of course -- and for many people, it may even be the primary reason they play -- but it is relatively easy to curb if only developers cared enough to do so.

Until next week, I leave you with a screenshot of last night's Wiccana global chat.

Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran, as well as the creator of Massively's weekly Anvil of Crom column, which chronicles one man's journey through Funcom's global chat. Feel free to suggest a column topic, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality via jef@massively.com. Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, chat, chat-channels, featured, funcom, funcom-age-of-conan, get-off-my-lawn, global-chat, l33t, l33t-sp33k, leet-speak, opinion, slang, the-anvil-of-crom

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Craig Morrison talks MMO numbers (or the lack thereof)

2010-11-15T18:07:00.000+01:00

by Jef Reahard Sep 23rd 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Age of Conan, MMO industry, News items, Opinion

Ah, the numbers game. It's often quite comical when it comes to MMORPGs and their die-hard fans (or detractors, as the case may be). Aside from Blizzard, very few MMO development houses release real numbers relating to their playerbases, and forum jousters are thus relegated to citing guesstimates and, in most cases, pure supposition sprung from the likes of wildly inaccurate measuring tools such as Xfire or the late MMOGchart.

Funcom executive producer and Age of Conan game director Craig Morrison weighs in on the perplexing state of MMO number-crunching on his personal blog, offering a bit of insight as to why hard data is, well, hard to come by. He cites a lack of context for the near-universal reticence of developers when it comes to publicizing their community sizes. "Without standard definitions everything ends up in that vague, murky and entirely subjective middle ground... and a middle ground that very few could reasonably be expected to accept as being worthwhile exploring in a business sense," he writes.

So what's his solution? In broad terms, he mentions a rating system, citing television's Nielsen metrics as well as cinema box office figures as semi-comparable standards. While such a system probably wouldn't stop the endless fan bickering, it might at least provide an answer to the question of how each individual company defines success.

Tags: age-of-conan, blog, craig-morrison, forum-warriors, funcom, numbers, numbers-game, opinion, ratings, subscription-numbers, subscriptions, success, xfire-is-not-accurate

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The Perfect Ten: Halloween MMOs

2010-11-14T18:47:00.000+01:00

by Justin Olivetti Oct 28th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Age of Conan, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Fallen Earth, Events, in-game, Warhammer Online, Wurm Online, Hellgate: London, The Secret World, Humor, World of Darkness, Perfect Ten

We're only a few days away from Halloween, and already the Massively office staff is dressing up in anticipation. Shawn's post-apocalyptic gear is at odds with Rubi's tastefully modest Guild Wars Elementalist outfit. Greg's Squig is in the corner battling it out with Larry's Chewbacca. Bree is dudded up as a giant red corrective marker; Jef's free-to-play outfit requires microtransactions to view in full; and Kyrstalle is photographing it all with her Poloroid One-Shot camera. I think Eliot showed up in full plate armor and riding a mechanical bull, but that just may be his normal work attire.

So as everyone else is goofing off in the spirit of the holidays, it remains to me, your lovable intern, to hack out a top 10 list in honor of All Hallow's Eve. It's the least I can do since they're paying me in candy.

While every MMO incorporates horror at some point (even, yes, Hello Kitty Online's Cat-Tastrophie zone), and it's nearly impossible to escape a clutch of giant spiders in any game you visit, I've picked out 10 MMOs that best deliver a slice of October 31st. Some are old, some new, some canceled and some yet to come, but these are 10 of the spookiest MMOs in the world.
1. WURM Online

Are you afraid of the dark? No, not the normal MMORPG "dark" that's merely the daytime overlaid with a blue filter -- I'm talking about the pitch-black, inky darkness in which you cannot see your hand waving right in front of your face. Or more importantly, the wolf that's 10 feet away and preparing to pounce.

WURM Online may not look like a horror game (because it isn't, not really), but the developers tapped into a primal fear that many share. The combination of extremely vulnerable player characters, the danger that comes with the night, and the need for sanctuary and safety is straight out of the horror story playbook. If you've never heard of WURM Online and would like to learn more, please consult your local Free for All columnist.

2. The Secret World

If a mishmash of Lovecraftian mythos, zombie uprisings, Stephen King, sinister conspiracies, vampires, demons and the promise that "dark days are coming" doesn't get the heckles on the back of your neck, um, a-heckling, then just move along. For the rest of the class, The Secret World is one of the first major MMOs to take place in a horror setting, offering a subgenre buffet from the creepy to the bloodsplattertastic and everything in between.

3. Age of Conan

Age of Conan entrenched itself deep in an M-rating, which meant blood, bosoms and terrifying visages of what lurks in the shadows of this gritty fantasy world. Not only is this a place where angels fear to tread, but Hyboria is populated with monsters eclipsing anything you can watch on SyFy (although I have to admit that Mansquito was pretty boss).

I asked our resident Age of Conan expert, Jef Reahard, what monsters creeped him out the most. "Onyx Chambers is a pretty nasty horror show in terms of mobs," he replied. "And frankly, the player necromancers (actually their pets) gross me out with regularity."

4. World of Darkness

We may not know a whole lot about CCP's upcoming World of Darkness, but we have a surplus of information about Vampire: The Masquerade, on which WoD is based. Expect vampires, vampires and even more vampires in as many varieties as Crayola has colors. When an MMO is based around the non-romantic, non-sparkly side of bloodsucking undead, I'm guessing that it's going to be perfect for late-night gaming with the lights turned off.

5. Requiem: Memento Mori

Requiem should have stuck with its original subtitle -- Bloodymare -- considering that nearly all of the promotional screenshots of this F2P MMO feature gallons of the red stuff. I'm not even going to pretend to understand what Requiem: Memento Mori is about, seeing as how the Wikipedia story entry has more capitalized words than non-capitalized ones. The gist I got is that the world is now a horror theme park filled to overflowing, and you're tasked with culling the customers. However, since Memento Mori means "Remember you will die" in Latin, chances are you're going to join them sooner or later as well.

6. Fallen Earth

Newcomers to Fallen Earth are often surprised at the peanut-butter-and-chocolate combination of black humor and grim horror that exists here. Of course, what did you really expect to find after the world went to hell and is barely starting to come back? Cute fluffy chickens or freakishly mutated birds? Don't answer; that was rhetorical.

From prison rooms stuffed with corpses to a dog who ate his last owner (but, y'know, not all of him), Fallen Earth has a lot of fun with the world as a giant haunted house. It helps that it's so big and you often feel quite alone and unprepared for what may lie around the next corner...

7. Dungeons & Dragons Online

One second -- the above picture is making the lyrics to "Thriller" go through my head: It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark... Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart...

Anyway, what were we talking about? Oh, that's right, spooky MMOs! I couldn't in good conscience leave out Dungeons & Dragons Online, seeing as how DDO sends adventurers into a multitude of scary places, from crypts to more crypts to -- steel yourself -- even more crypts. Players become so immune to the horror they marinade in daily that they don't even blink when they walk right up to a dead girl's ghost and demand loot. Callous!

8. Undead Labs' unnamed zombie MMO

I have a theory as to why zombies are so popular in video games. I believe it's because the devs never have to justify why you are going around slaughtering these people, nor do the devs have to give zombies elaborate backstories so you know that they're ultra-evil and deserve the swift chainsaw of justice. No, zombies are the stinking undead, and everyone knows that they don't believe in a live-and-let-live world. Heck, you're doing a community service by taking them out!

This is why I believe that Undead Labs' zombie MMO has a shot at glory. A world full of human-looking things that we really must unload all of our pent-up aggression on, all in the name of civil duty? Perfection.

9. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Like its tabletop brethren, WAR is gritty, nasty world that sees its fair share of chaotic gods, walking skeletons, and people impaled on things that probably really hurt when it happened. There are plenty of zones in this game where hanging corpses, vicious beasts and mutated wonders make for splendidly spooky decorations.

I always felt that the Chaos beginner zone is one of the most atmospherically haunted locales in the game, especially if you take the time to wander off the beaten path and see the little Easter eggs the devs planted here and there.

10. Hellgate: London

If you want to find true MMO horror, then there's no place better to look than Hellgate: London. It wasn't just scary enough to portray the modern(ish) world overcome by demon spawn -- it is perhaps one of the few MMOs that can lay claim to making players pass out, scream and void their bowels when they discovered that their $200 lifetime membership went up in smoke when Flagship Studios folded.

Tags: age-of-conan, ccp, chewbacca, ddo, dungeons-and-dragons-online, easter-eggs, elementalist, fallen-earth, featured, flagship-studios, flagshipped, fluffy-chickens, free-for-all, guild-wars, halloween, halloween-2010, halloween2010, hellgate-london, hello-kitty-online, humor, hyboria, lovecraft, mansquito, microtransactions, one-shots, onyx-chambers, personal-record-best-for-number-of-tags, post-apocalyptic, requiem-bloodymare, requiem-memento-mori, squig, stephen-king, syfy, the-perfect-10, the-perfect-ten, the-secret-world, top-10, top-10-list, undead-labs, vampire-the-masquerade, war, Warhammer-Online, world-of-darkness, wurm-online, zombie, zombie-mmo

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The Anvil of Crom: Class guide #1 - The Demonologist

2010-11-14T14:22:00.001+01:00

by Jef Reahard Nov 7th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Age of Conan, Classes, Opinion, The Anvil of Crom, Guides

So you want to be a Demonologist?

Feats and builds (1 - 40)

Skills and buffs

Where to level

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The near-death of caravan escorts in Age of Conan's expansion

2010-05-04T10:17:00.000+02:00

Rise of the Godslayer is coming on May 11th, and if you're an Age of Conan fan the day probably seems like it can't come fast enough. While the developer letter for the end of April doesn't help hurry the date forward any, but it does highlight one of the smaller but interesting portions of the development process -- the sort of thing that can get lost between the more major systems. And interestingly enough, it was an element that director Craig Morrison originally looked at and declined to leave in the expansion!

Originally, the design team had included a feature where you could either hand over money and be automatically transported to and from Khitai, or you could volunteer your services as a caravan guard and make the journey for free. The trade was that as a guard, you would be expected to defend the caravan against assaults, resulting in a small instanced encounter. Morrison felt that the encounters weren't really adding anything that wouldn't be better served as a part of Khitai proper. The full story of the process and the change in philosophy can be found in the director's letter, certainly a nice tease for Age of Conan players.

Rise of the Godslayer: The Gateway to Khitai and Alternate Advancement

2010-05-04T10:16:00.002+02:00

It's an exceedingly rare feat when a game company, particularly a maker of MMORPGs, manages to capture the spirit and substance of a pre-established intellectual property. The landscape is littered with many a well-intentioned but misguided attempt at bringing a beloved novel, film, or multiverse into the realm of video gaming. While Funcom's Age of Conan suffered through a launch that contained a generous helping of bugs and negative forum buzz, one thing the game has always done well is transport the player into a lushly realized digital Hyboria, where lore and Howard references abound for those who care to look.

As we draw nearer to the May 11th street date for the Rise of the Godslayer expansion, Massively has managed to snag some time at the controls of the beta client, and we're happy to bring you our impressions of life in the eastern wilds of Hyboria. We touched on the extensive feature list for the new expansion in our earlier look from GDC as well as our Craig Morrison interview, so this time around we'll focus on the major mechanical addition, the AA system, as well as the general look and feel of the beta.

The Anvil of Crom: The Valley of Death

2010-05-03T12:55:00.000+02:00

It's been a crazy week here at the Anvil of Crom offices. Ok, I'm not really important enough to merit my own office, unless you count the spare bedroom with a computer and dozens of discarded MMORPG boxes spiraling towards the ceiling. Nonetheless, much Age of Conan playing, researching, and writing has gone on as of late. In addition to my characters on the live servers, I've been exploring the lands of Khitai thanks to the gracious folks at Funcom who have allowed me to take a peek at the Rise of the Godslayer beta. I'll be detailing my experiences with the expansion for you in the next couple of days, so keep your eyes peeled.

I've also managed to find time to advance my rangers a bit, and have played through the entirety of Conall's Valley with the exception of a couple of pesky group quests. At this point, approaching level 40 and having a decent feel for combat, feats, and the game in general, I feel safe in declaring myself a former newb. Certainly it's a big jump to 80 from where I'm standing, but after spending a few days exploring the Cimmerian highlands, it's clear that I made the right choice in returning to Funcom's Hyboria.

Hit the jump for some impressions of Conall's Valley.

Young Cimmerians fresh off the boat from Tortage will find themselves in Conarch village, an archetypal frontier settlement nestled among the foothills of the Eiglophian Mountains and home to King Conan's ancestral clan. From this central hub, the various Cimmerian play fields are accessible, including Ymir's Pass, the Eiglophians, the Field of the Dead, and Conall's Valley. This last one, a gaping wound in the Earth featuring treacherous ridges and rivers running red with blood from the invading Vanir, is where I spent the vast majority of my post-20 play time.

While many of the leveling guides available for Age of Conan will tell you to skip Conall's Valley and head for Knopshef Province after leaving Tortage, it says here that players are better off running to the Cimmerian hills, particularly if you've rolled a Cimmerian avatar and have the slightest affinity for the underlying Robert E. Howard lore. The Valley is a war-torn visual tour-de-force, with gruesome corpses littering the pathways and bloodthirsty Vanir raiders lurking in every beautiful glade. The ravine sits in the shadow of Ben Morgh, the mountain seat of Crom, and serves as something of a griefer's gauntlet on Age of Conan's PvP servers.

PvE is no less intense, at least until you climb above level 30, as there are large packs of aggro mobs looking to make mince meat of your fresh-faced Tortage graduate. As you make your way north through the expansive zone, the greenery gives way to the snow-capped beginnings of the Eiglophian range where Ymirish marauders have set up a forest of tents, camps, and fire pits that make for some of the more engaging visuals I've experienced in the massive genre.

The Valley is a war-torn visual tour-de-force, with gruesome corpses littering the pathways and bloodthirsty Vanir raiders lurking in every beautiful glade.

Quests are plentiful in Conall's Valley, and the majority of them are solo affairs. You'll run interference for the competing Cimmerian tribal leaders, sack various enemy encampments, and even assassinate Vanir wounded over a variety of missions that feature above average story lines and further the general ambiance of the zone. Sadly, the high quality voice-overs from Tortage are missing in action, but the writing remains top notch and the story will likely immerse those who take the time to read. Grouping aficionados aren't forgotten entirely, as the aforementioned Ymir camps require a decent sized party, but the majority of the zone's content can be experienced alone. As a result, the valley occasionally feels a bit isolated despite its impressive size.

If there's a downside to Conall's Valley it's that you'll often see players flitting to and fro but you'll have no real need to interact unless you fancy roleplay or are a quest completionist. I grouped a grand total of three times during my week in the valley, and on each occasion it was a transitory experience reminiscent of the worst PUGs: people dropping in and out, folks unsure of their class roles, and a pervasive "I'm done with my quest so see ya" attitude. The other downside, if you're a min/max type, is that the valley does feature a lot of running around (which is likely why most guides tell you to avoid it). Due to the mountain paths and the varied NPC locations, you'll spend a fair amount of time traveling about and it's probably more efficient to level in a smaller, more densely packed zone. That said, it's more about the journey for me, and Conall's Valley storylines and terrain more than made up for any extra time I spent in transit.

Conall's Valley is also where I started to feel the true power of the ranger class, at least in terms of PvE (PvP is still largely an exercise in getting the jump on the opposing player). My PvE character uses crossbows almost exclusively at this point, and it's a rare occasion that Armor Ripper and Piercing Shot doesn't kill a single target outright. I've also spent feat points to increase the column width of several attacks, and, provided I take the time to position the mobs correctly (via terrain, snares, or both), my ranger does pretty well against three or four mobs of equal or slightly higher level. At some point I'd like to try the melee weapons but there just hasn't been a need as targets very rarely close the distance. I'll examine combat in much more detail in a future column, but for now, it's back to Khitai for your humble columnist.

That's all the time I've got for this week. Check in with Massively early next week for my Rise of the Godslayer beta impressions, and also feel free to email me (jef AT massively DOT com) with your Age of Conan questions. I'll collect the most pertinent for a future column, as well as pass the best ones on to our friends at Funcom. Finally, thanks to munglejunkie for the updated Anvil of Crom banner graphic. Until next time, I leave you with the requisite bar brawl.

Catch Rise of the Godslayer preview on Xfire

2010-04-28T13:43:00.003+02:00

If you've been waiting for more information or a first look into Funcom's upcoming Age of Conanexpansion, Rise of the Godslayer, then you're in luck! This Thursday, April 29th at 12:00pm Pacific (3:00pm Eastern / 9:00PM CET), they're planning on holding a special preview streaming event in conjunction with Xfire to give everyone an early look into the exotic new lands of Khitai.

"Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer is now very close to launch and we are very excited to share our view of the expansion with the world through Xfire," says Game Director and Executive ProducerCraig Morrison.

All you'll have to do to catch the preview is to point your browser at the main Xfire site at the time mentioned above, sit back, and enjoy the tour. The game's developers will be taking players along as they adventure through some of the new content, offering a chance to see lands and sights as yet unexperienced. There is also a plan to do a question and answer session after the preview as well. If you've been waffling on picking up the expansion, it sounds like a great way to figure out if it belongs on your "must pick up" list -- or to ask any questions about Age of Conan that you may have.

Age of Conan unveils offline leveling

2010-04-28T13:43:00.000+02:00

Funcom has announced their new Age of Conan offline leveling mechanic, introduced in the 1.07.2 patch that hit the live servers today. Senior Community Manager Oliver 'Tarib' Kunz details the system in a post on the game's official forums.

The new feature kicks off by giving each active account four levels which can distributed to any characters above level 30. Every four days, an additional level will be added to your offline leveling pool, again enabling you to bump up one of your post-30 avatars. The levels accrue regardless of whether you actually log into Age of Conan every four days provided you maintain an active subscription.

if you've got a gaggle of level 80 characters sitting on your select screen, the additional levels will be waiting for any new character that you create and advance to 30 or higher. Finally, Tarib notes that levels are permanent once assigned, so choose wisely. "Customer Support would not be able to take that level away from your character and add it back to your pool. So please be careful when assigning these levels," he says.

Check out the official announcement and stay with Massively for more details as well as Rise of the Godslayer info.

Craig Morrison talks about the future of AoC.

2010-04-06T09:28:00.000+02:00

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (AoC) has undergone quite a few changes since its launch in 2008 and with its first expansion on the horizon with Rise of the Godslayer, players who have been thinking about giving the game another look couldn't pick a better time. Funcom's GDC 2010 presentation offered a look at the game and what's new and what's to come for AoC and the team over at Massively recently caught up with AoC Game Director Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison to talk about future plans for the game, in-game events such as the Night of Lost Souls event, PvP content, the coming expansion, and much more.

Events, yes for sure -- in fact the Update 1.07 that is hopefully going to the live servers this week (we are doing the final launch testing as I write this) includes a pre-expansion special event which introduces players to some of the Khitan elements and offers some great limited time rewards.

Click here to read the full interview.

Age of Conan's Shrines of Bori goes live

2010-03-31T12:22:00.000+02:00

Funcom has officially released Update 1.07 for its Age of Conan fantasy MMORPG. The sword and sorcery title, based on the literary works of the late Robert E. Howard, now features a new guild-based PvP challenge known as the Shrines of Bori that allows players and guilds to capture and defend both shrines and resources in the lawless Border Kingdoms.

In addition, the patch features new PvP levels, Tier 2 PvP gear, and an Expansion Teaser Eventcalled 'The Silver Atrium' that allows players to battle spies, assassins, and various scum and villainy from the far east in preparation for the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion.

Finally, Funcom has added a new regional fast travel system accessible via new wagoneer NPCs in major quest hubs and outposts, as well as various game system tweaks including mini-game XP, GUI optimizations, and a laundry list of bug fixes.

The much-anticipated Offline Character Progression system did not make it in to patch 1.07. Senior Community Manager Oliver 'Tarib' Kunz states that "there are some adjustments that need to be done to this new system first. But we didn't want to hold back the entire Update 1.07 so we decided to exclude it and deploy all the other fixes and additions for our players to enjoy. You can expect the Offline Character Progression System to be part of a future update."

Check out the full Update 1.07 patch notes here.

Age of Conan 1.07 update coming today

2010-03-30T12:02:00.000+02:00

Funcom is getting ready to take the wraps off Age of Conan's 1.07 update according to executive producer Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison's Twitter feed. Morrison, who also serves as game director for the sword and sorcery MMORPG, commented that the "update wheels are in motion, last minute hitches permitting, the 1.07 update should be hitting the live servers tomorrow."

The update will feature the much-anticipated Shrines of Bori PvP tweaks, which include a guild conflict mini-game system with a few new wrinkles thrown into the traditional capture-and-hold mix. Additionally, the system will be a new source of PvP reward tokens.

We'll bring you full details on the patch when it officially releases. In the meantime, check out ourShrines of Bori rundown as well as our new Age of Conan weekly column.

Age of Conan pushing Shrines of Bori towards quick release

2010-03-17T16:05:00.001+01:00

Age of Conan game director Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison dropped a lengthy post on the official forumstoday detailing some good news for fans of Funcom's Robert E. Howard-inspired MMORPG. In short, the new and much-discussed PvP update Shrines of Bori will debut prior to the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion.

Morrison confirms that the changes will be pushed to the test server in the next few days, and will roll out to the live servers as part of the 1.07 patch. "It is important to stress that this has been the result of some great extra effort put in by the team and will not effect the schedule of the expansion. When we saw the tremendous support for this feature, and the many very constructive and rational arguments from you, our players...we decided that we would find a way to achieve this," Morrison said.

He goes on to state that the 1.07 patch will feature some additional "mini-event type quests" which will lead into the Godslayer expansion launch, making today a great day to be an Age of Conan fan.

Look for Massively's impressions of Funcom's Rise of the Godslayer presentation from GDC 2010later this week, and check out our previous Shrines of Bori coverage.

Age of Conan PvP Guide

2009-12-10T15:10:00.003+01:00

- First and foremost: Make friends. Group often and if you're good, and not rude, people will be more likely to want to group with you again. If you already have friends you play with, group with them as much as possible when not doing the solo story lines.

- Stay alert. If you do decide to travel alone in Free-forall PvP zones, be aware of your surroundings. If you see players, check their levels and numbers. If you're not
already engaged with a mob then hiding can be your friend, no matter what class you are.

- Pick your fights. Size up each class, know their strengths and weaknesses, and learn what works best for each encounter.

- Use your potions. Potions in Age of Conan don't work like in most other games, they're not instant. So, if you think it's going to be a tough fight, pop your potion early. If you take it right before you start taking damage, it will be ticking throughout the fight, and could mean the difference between living and getting your head cut off.

- Chose your skills wisely. Not all PVE skills will help keep you alive! Chose the skills that will add to your survivability. The most important being CC or (Crowd Control) abilities i.e. stuns and fears. Also don’t forget about skills that can help you defend against crowd control.

- Live to fight another day! If you get caught off guard or out numbered, there is no shame in making an early escape to come back better prepared. Endurance is a good skill to train for this as it allows you to sprint for a longer period of time while holding the shift key. Watch out for your endurance though, as letting it drop to nothing will make you exhausted.

- Watch out for ambushes. Certain areas are more well traveled than others, and as the game progresses we will more than likely see high level "gankers". No area will be completely safe, but some areas of PvP zones will surely be safer than others. Watch out for “gankers” at spawn pointss. If all else fails and you're frustrated with being killed over and over, there are other options for leveling. Solo play and non-PvP zones come to mind.

- Have fun. You will be killed, don't take it out on other players. Trash talking has its own place in PvP servers and it will happen, it's expected to happen. Just watch out for who you trash talk, as they may have more friends than you! Being a KOS target can be fun, but it generally is not. Remember, this is a just a game and is not worth getting stressed over.

- Spawn Camping. Yes it is lame, yes it sucks to die before you even load in. Yes it sucks that it can happen over and over. Unless and until something is done about it, spawn camping is going to happen. Either do your best to run away and hide or just log out for awhile.

- Switch instances. I don't mean go to another zone. In the upper left corner of your mini map is a down arrow. Click on that and select instance. If you're getting ganked repeatedly, or you can't find a way to do a quest without running into other players, and are thus forced to PvP, try another instance, there may not be people doing that quest in a different instance.

Helpful Hints

2009-11-26T13:03:00.003+01:00

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.

Ranger class guide

2009-11-19T14:48:00.005+01:00

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.

Leveling and Character Development

2009-11-13T14:19:00.002+01:00

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:

Find a high level guy to apprentices you, which will bring you to within 1 level of that person.
You fight creatures which are the same level as the person who is apprenticing you, gaining you massive amounts of experience.
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.

Subscribe to Age of Conan and receive The Secret World beta access

2009-11-13T13:51:00.001+01:00

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?

Barbarian Class Guides

2009-11-12T22:40:00.006+01:00

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.

Assassin Class Guides

2009-11-12T21:38:00.003+01:00

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?

High single target DPS (Sneak attack goodness)
You enjoy stalking your target (the joys of a methodical kill)
Murder is a hobby (???)

Why would I pass on this class?

Identity crisis (again)
You are very squishy (one of THE squishiest)
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:

Vistrix Tank Tactic and Kylliki and Chatha Flaw

2009-11-06T11:32:00.002+01:00

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.

Leather Secret spots

2009-10-28T11:43:00.001+01:00

**The Secret Spots for Leather Gathering**

Here are some good very good spots to gather leather know of.-

-Rough Leather/Brindled Leather- Far NW corner of the Wild Lands. Specifically the diseased bears. Most of them seem to have about a 25-50% chance to have a drop.

-Along the River in Khopsef Province. The Crocodiles are known to do good drops.

-Prey drop Rough Leather as well, in any resource zone.

-Grained/Calloused Leather Along the rode to Yak, specifically the snow cat. (Unconfirmed)

Best Spot Known So far.
You can farm Rough, calloused, brindled and grained all at the same time here.-

-In poitan, down the hill from the "temple" looking building and right outside the city walls of whatever guild owns that spot (center/east of mini-map). There are 2 sets of cows that drop the leather quite frequently and the respond rate is so insane that you never have to wait for respawns. If your a melee class use your bow. In 1 hour of farming I usually have the following 35 rough, 35 calloused, 7 brindled, 7 grained. (on average)

How to solo Torgvall (Connal's valley)

2009-10-09T12:44:00.001+02:00

People hate group in CV for some reason, so you have to get creative. Here's an easy way to solo Torgvall without having to wait for 3-5 level 30s to come help you.

1. Buy health potions. I've never needed more than 5, but buy 10 in case you need to do it twice.

2. Clear the mobs around Torg, run off to reset Torgvall.

3. Observe the tents near Torg. You can hop over them and because he is too big, he has to run around. Basically, you can move between one side of the tent and the other while he has to move around them. So, he can be forced to chase you since the path he takes is always 2-3 times as long as the path you take.

4. Fight him, when your health gets about 50% hop over the tents (to the side he isnt on) and take a health pot. Hop back and forth until healed.

5. Keep fighting until you take him down.

Warning: you might have to fight adds more than once, so keep a thought toward respawns. Also, you have to hit torgvall every 45 secs or he will reset. This is easy as you only need 25 to regen with the potions.

I've done it with the necro, hox, ranger, and guard so far all level 30-34. It's easy, just a bit slow.

Infinite LV 50 mob spawns for exp

2009-10-05T19:59:00.002+02:00

Up in the Eig Mountains, at the whitehand camp. Theres a boss called Diabolist Aino, she's 54.

She will spawn 4 "Minions," but they are not labeled minions and you receive full exp from them.

Anyways, don't attack the boss, let her live, your group will out heal her damage.

Every time you kill the 4mobs she spawns, they respawn and you get endless waves of exp.

I did this for over 40mins, got a whole level at 55 in less than an hour. With a lvl 55 conq, 44(apprecntice to 54)HoX, 55 Bear Shaman.

Coords are @ 945,764.

Funcom to Cut 20% of Workforce

2009-09-29T19:35:00.002+02:00

Funcom is reducing its work force by about 20%. The planned launch for Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures in Korea will continue as planned, but the development of The Secret World has been extended by several months as the company adjusts its schedule. The Norwegian-based developer will be cutting jobs mostly in its Norwegian subsidiary. Our best wishes go out to those affected by the change and potential loss of their jobs.

Cost reductions and forced leave in Funcom

Funcom N.V has initiated a program of cost reductions, reductions in head count and use of forced leave (permittering) to better align the Company's operations to the current marketplace.

Around 20 % of the staff of the Company will be affected by headcount reductions or forced leave, mostly in the Company's Norwegian subsidiary.

The Company's development of the Age of Conan expansion pack and its preparations for launch in Korea will continue as planned, as will the preparations for the limited beta of its first free- to-play MMO scheduled to take place during Q4. The development of The Secret World will be some months extended due to the initiatives with even more focus on ensuring the delivery of a game that is fully in line with the high expectations amongst fans and gamers across the world.

Source

A Latecomer's First Impressions of Age of Conan

2009-09-28T20:17:00.000+02:00

Two reasons for the timing of this review. The game is officially a year old - yay go Age of Conan! Secondly, I've had the game a couple of days now. After hearing how buggy and awful the game was by the usual pack of naysayers, and a couple of generally reliable sources, I decided to give it a burl myself.

Ok, firstly, to point out my perspective. Currently I'm experienced in a number of MMO's (WoW, Tabula Rasa, Fury Online, WAR, I even had a short stint in LotRO among a week or two in countless others). Machinery wise - my rig should be able to handle pretty much any MMO throws at me - Quad Core Q6600, 4gb DDR2, Geforce 9800GT 512mb, 1.5TB total internal HDD capacity, 1TB external, 24" primary LCD monitor @ 1920x1200 res, 17" secondary LCD @1280x1024 res. All on Windows 7 RC1 64bit.

Oooh nasty a beta OS and 64bit to boot :O With a beta version of DirectX (11) installed by default. Surely I'm asking for trouble.

Ok, fresh from the box, I install it, it gets up to patching, informs me I need to upgrade from Directx 11 to Directx 9. Points me at the appropriate Microsoft download site. After boggling at this and trying to find any other solution than lose 4 years of DirectX upgrades, I bite the bullet and install Directx 9. Heh, turns out it's happy to run side by side with 11 and let each game choose which to run on.

After this it was just a matter of downloading the patches, approx total of 3gb worth of downloads later (ooh a year's progress in this game = 3gb, not too shabby, the dev's have been busy). I log into the game, notice that like WoW, they have "Oceanic" servers, boxes physically located in the US, but designed to run on upside-down time, and have raid clocks reset appropriately. On the recommendation of Mikes I roll on the Oceanic PvE server.

I get to the character creation screen, I'm greeted by a boat with people rowing on it. Three people tend to stand out, the slaver near the aft cabin, a scantily clad concubine looking woman inside said cabin, and one guy who's meant to be rowing, halfway down the crowd, that instead is busy daydreaming. The game asks me to pick male or female. Being that I wanted to make a big brutal melee character to follow along my tastes in other games (I like tanking, but I like giant weapons even more) I choose male. The camera zooms to the daydreamer who now stands up. It asks me to choose a number of options Race/Class etc, but more importantly, it allows me to customise my character to levels completely unseen in most major MMO's. The customisation is phenomonal. I can adjust the proportions of arms, legs, waist, chest, smile, brow, eyes so on and so forth. Brilliant.

After finally deciding I was happy my Cimmerian Guardian looked brutal enough, I accept, the boat crashes, I fall overboard, the boat sinks, I sink to the bottom of the water, but shock horror I come back up to the surface, and wash up on a beach.

The obligatory welcome happens, with an old guy, and a particularly fan-servicey lady who's tied up in a very skimpy outfit with a Russian accent to boot. I begin my adventure on the island of Tortage.

I work my way up through some quests, and come across an option to go to nighttime - as it turns out, all my story-driven questing is to be done at nighttime, solo. Like the new "phasing" system thats starting to take off in certain other major MMO's *cough WOW*. The first place I came across this concept for use of early levelling was LotRO. Worked wonders.

Turns out I didn't like the guardian as much as I'd hoped. Didn't seem right. So there he sits on my character selection screen, stuck at lvl 12. I'm sure I'll come back to him. I decide to roll something completely different, but generally my 2nd choice in fantasy games - the nasty, evil caster archetype - I want to roll a Demonologist. I choose female, camera zooms to the lady I thought to earlier be a concubine, but everything else works out the same.

I play my way through Tortage, following all the quests I can get, loving how this caster works. She's everything I dreamed my Warlock in WoW to do.

The city of Tortage really seemed alive to me. The npc's flirted, or poured their hearts into everything they said, the quests all meant something, you got to really hate Strom and Mithrelle. Every word spoken by an NPC had voice acting to it. It was truly a complete experience.

I complete the Tortage quests and get sent back to my homelands of Stygia. With designs heavily borrowed from the Egyptians. (yes I realise REH based Stygia on Egypt) The NPC's are silent. I'm sent to every corner of the world by the different NPC's - I have troubles grouping anything more than 2-3 quests to take me to the same area so I can bowl them over in succession.

The whole experience that was Tortage just did not seem to follow onto Khemi - the major port of Stygia. NPC's could not care less about me unless they had a quest for me, and then it was "I need this. Go get it.". The writing seemed to take a downturn. I'd heard among early reports that things beyond Tortage weren't completed by launch. Granted, it was by no means game breaking, but definately immersion shaking.

I had one quest that took me into an area, that while my quest was yellow to me (approx right for my level) - I died within a few moments there, and the graveyard I was sent to was surrounded by mobs 4 times my level. I hearthed, ditched that quest and found some more.

I traveled to Cimmeria, the landscape boggles me still - definately the most beautiful in game land I have ever seen. Green valleys and snow covered mountains, a rolling brook, pine trees, wolves, badgers and people with red hair I have to kill. Truly heaven.

It would seem that my fears were all misguided, as I found myself exploring smaller towns, they seem to be completely written, with well planned quests but still lacking some bits of voice acting, and nobody trying to get in my pants yet.

As with any MMO, one of the important factors is the community. Right from the word go, I noticed there was a "New Player Help" global channel, and a global general channel. I kept my eyes peeled for both. People requested help in the NPH channel and received solid, timely and friendly help from people at or near the level cap. I rubbed my eyes. I've never seen this in any MMO. Not one outburst of "Lol, noob, RTFM" to be seen. To even more amazement, the furthest general seemed to descend was when somebody tried to start an argument about how WoW was the only mmo worth playing. He didnt get any response. He shut up pretty damn quickly.

Some people were whinging about graphical errors and memory leaks. I've been monitoring my CPU and Ram load while ingame ( having a second screen with the gadgets on top of my G15 screen displaying them as well) with nothing really to report. There was use of the cpu. There was use of ram. Neither got particularly tough. I turned everything up to maximum on the settings and still no troubles. Granted I wouldn't want to try and run photoshop, maya and a hard drive defrag in the background.

All in all, I can see myself falling head over heels for this game, I'm currently lvl 22 with my main and absolutely loving it. Would I recommend somebody play it? Absolutely, grab a copy if you see it on the cheap, or if you're free to download 13gb, give the trial a whirl. You'll see what I'm talking about.

I will report back when I've tried group content, some pvp and/or hitting the level cap. Until then, I've got some leveling to do, and only 10 days left of being unemployed to do it.

Age of Conan Guides Information, Tips, Gold Strategies, Macro Guides, Exploits, cheats and more....all in a dynamic online eZine.

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Vangsoe, Mads "A Latecomer's First Impressions of Age of Conan." A Latecomer's First Impressions of Age of Conan EzineArticles.com. http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Latecomers-First-Impressions-of-Age-of-Conan&id=2880389

Warping back up a cliff

2009-09-17T16:16:00.002+02:00

In order to help players who get stuck in the Geometry, Funcom made a /stuck command that "Rewinds" the players movement so that they can get unstuck without having to call a GM to help.

This can be exploited to warp back up a cliff where enemies cant reach you.

First, go to top of desired cliff and drop off. Don't move from this spot and just nuke or range dps your enemies from where you landed. When it gets too hot for you down there, simply type /stuck and you character will warp back up the cliff.

If you think this article kicked ass, subscribe to the RSS feed or follow me on Twitter! Share with your friends, or leave a comment below (or better still, do both!) My entire concept of self-worth is in your hands, so that makes you kind of a big deal. Srsly.

Solomon Kane!

2009-09-14T18:48:00.004+02:00

Okay, first of all I need to get something off my chest.

ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG They're fricking doing a Solomon Kane movie and it doesnt look like it's going to suck! Oh sweet jeebus yes!

Ahem.

Yes, the next most well known of Robert E Howard's characters (first being Conan) is going to hit our lovely cinemas soon in what looks like a truly epic scale film. No cheesy Ahhhnowld, but unfortunately also no James Earl Jones.

James Purefoy is taking up the title role. If you don't know him, he's the one you have to do a quick double-take to make sure it's not Christopher Lambert but younger.

IMDB Linkage

Official site

Michael J. Bassett - Solomon Kane
by dreadcentral

Trader "Dirty tip"

2009-09-12T14:27:00.002+02:00

When someone does a search for an item on the trader, it will give a page of results. For example, do a search for Beguiler Blood and it will show various amounts from different sellers.

If you don't like the competition and want to own the market on Beguiler Blood, break up all your stacks and sell them individually 1 at a time. This way when someone does a search, only yours will show up (assuming you have that many to sell).

People can still use the advance search feature to find other sellers, but you would be surprised how many people are too stupid to do this.

It's also handy if you have an alt with a bank guild just to use as extra storage if you plan to flood the market with something.

Stuck Command when Stoned

2009-08-10T11:27:00.001+02:00

For those of you who get tired of getting stoned in BRC and then getting feared to all parts of the room, here's a simple exploit.

Normally, you have time to move to say the door before you are completely stoned. So most people walk slowly to the door and gather together so the the person with the sand can unstun the whole lot of stoned people. Well, if you don't make it in time or get fear away from the door, all you need to do is enter the /stuck command. It will march you to the door. Depending on how far away you are, you may need to do this a couple times.

That's it! From there the sand person can get the whole lot in one go.

Age of Conan Noble District gank areas

2009-07-18T10:41:00.001+02:00

There are two major areas that any long range class from rangers, ToS, PoM, Necros, and Demos can easily exploit!

The first and major spot that i find to help raise my KDR is by the second camp -before you enter the main city area - there is a large wall where you get on top of and stop everyone that has to go by in order to get to the main questing area.

In order to do this you climb on the junk by the wooden fence by the camp and face the small wall which when you press sprint and jump at the right moment you can get on top of! and there you are the first spot to help your KDR.

The second spot a little more obvious is past the first set of guards in the noble district, and you go down the bridge and there is a place to climb up on top of there is a great place to stealth and gank who ever come to kill the NPCs there which is really often. there you are two places to help get your KDR up

Age of Conan cheat - levathius "no limit time for trash mob" taktik

2009-07-16T15:52:00.001+02:00

- Tos activate Selfrezz
- Whole Raid run inside and die in front of Levithius
- Now Tos use Selfrez and rezz all People
- Clear left Trash Mob
- Clear right Trash Mob
- Now pull the 2 Guards at Door and Timer starts , Boss will spawn in 2 min
- Happy farming

Age of Conan Eploit: farm epic bosses with assassin

2009-07-01T20:24:00.002+02:00

For this you need an assassin with Death's Gaze specced. You simply need to get 2 soulshards, target the boss and doubleclick death's gaze. This will make any boss affected by it return to it's spawn point and stand there while you kill it. It won't reset and you can even kite if some other epic mob aggroes you while the boss keeps the same hp until you can come back to kill it.

They have shitloads of hp now though, I cba doing it myself for the 30s per kil.

AOC: Athyr Bast One Shot Exploit

2009-06-26T16:51:00.001+02:00

Tos activate selfrez. Have the raid move to the door. Pull the boss and have a total wipe. Tos use selfrez and then rez everyone. Nobody should accept the rez yet. Only have a tank, healer, and one other class accept it. The tank will pull Athyr Bast and tank for about 5 seconds, and then everyone else accpts the rez. This will only put the 3 people that took the original rez at risk to get the oneshot.

AoC Trick: Nice PvP spot

2009-06-24T20:56:00.001+02:00

If you are a ranger with a +5 range bow on whitesands, there is a nice spot which you can get to which will prevent most players from reaching you in time to attack you.

When you first enter whitesands turn right and swim out to the little island of stone. After that, swim over the the cliff which should be in front of you. Go to the corner where the two cliffs meet and sprint-jump on top of it. this may take a few tries but eventually you will get on the side of the rock. Climb up and get on top of the tallest rock. you now have a nice view of the entrance to whitesands and you can reach pretty far with your +5 bow, you can also shoot players who are swimming over to try to get you.

Age of Conan Necro Damage Exploit

2009-06-16T15:10:00.001+02:00

This works best from 1-75. After 75, the damage is so small that it isnt worth the trouble. Join a mini game. Once you are in app'd level up to the max cast, cast all of your buffs and despoil the foul. You can quit the mini game now if you want. Your buffs will not drop when you leave...even if you are killed. You will have the damage bonus from despoil of your app level, not your actual level.

Age of Conan Rabbit Snare Exploit

2009-06-09T15:17:00.001+02:00

There is a quest in Ymirs Pass that you get a rabbit snare when you accept the quest. The snare will spawn as a pet, so you can buff it, heal it, etc. You can spawn many of these and with friends grouped up, you can spawn even more. Have a TOS in the group use the buff for electric damage. If you and your group have spawned a ton of snares you can think of plenty of things to do I am sure.

ToS Exploit!, Massive AOE damage, Take out bosses easy!

2009-05-31T19:12:00.000+02:00

You Must be 50+ to get the quest, and 60 to have the spec required to use it fully.

Ok theirs a quest giver in ymirs pass named Daolric(or something close), he gives a quest to catch a rabbit, and gives you a rabbit trap. The trap spawns basically a pet which acts as a player, it responds to storm crown ability and many others. You can spawn unlimited amounts.

Dont finish the quest, just keep the trap, at 60 you can spec into TloS, or triumphant life of set, in the Thunder tree, which heals all team mates and ads pulsing AOE damage for each it heals. Spawn a ###### load of the traps, and do it up with the abilities mentioned and you can easily level, and put out so much xp that it is possible to solo some instance bosses(I was able to solo most of the Sewers under Tarantia, netting me some great items and amazing xp)

Unfortunately it only works for ToS, but if you group with a buddy, perhaps even another healer, you can level friends and yourself very quickly.

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