Newbie Q & A

- How do I add friends to my friends list?

If you would like to add someone to your friends list that you are not grouped or guilded with, type into your chat box /cc addbuddy charactername. Whether they are online or not, this command will add them to your friends list. If you are grouped with someone you'd like to add, right click on their name and "add friend".

- I've got too much stuff, where can I buy another bag in Tortage?

The merchant inside The Thirsty Dog during the nighttime instance has bags that you may buy, but they are pretty spendy for a low level character. Keep in mind that bags don't really stack. By this we mean if you have a 10 slot pack and you purchase a 20 slot pack, you get 20 slots NOT 30. The upgraded pack replaces the old pack.

- I couldn't accept a quest reward because my inventory is full, is it gone forever?

No! You'll see the same quest reward pop up either with another quest update or with zoning. If you've gotten the message that your inventory is full, either sell or make room so that the next time it comes up, you can accept your reward.

- I want to make a change to my feats. How do I do this?

Each city has a Trainer that will reset your feats for a fee.

- Can I change my feats and attributes as often as I want to?

You can reset them several times, but the cost of doing so goes up each time. The first feat reset is fairly cheap so don't be too discouraged if you made less than careful choices the first time around as it is easily fixed.

Resetting your skills work differently and you may reset them on your own. Resetting less than 130 skill points is free and the more you wish to reset, the more it will cost you. Open your Skills & Attributes menu and hold your ALT key down while clicking on the skill that you'd like to reset. A window will pop up asking for confirmation that you'd like to reset this skill.

- I'm not sure what all my skills do, how do I know which ones to spend points in?

There will be certain skills that you will definitely want to spend points in, such as Hiding for scouts. For other skills, hover over them on your skills lists to see exactly what each one does before deciding where to spend points.

- Is it safe to sell "generic" loot? Where can I do so in Tortage day? Tortage night?

If you can't use it, then you can sell it for coin! During Tortage nighttime, the only merchants are inside The Thirsty Dog and on the Tortage Harbor docks. During the day, you will find several merchants in the town square area just outside The Thirsty Dog.

- Will skipping my destiny quest help me get out of Tortage faster?

No, it doesn't really. You still need to make the minimum level to leave and you make a good bulk of your experience doing the destiny quests, not to mention if you do skip it, you miss out on some very nice usable loot. I found that doing the destiny quests gets me out of Tortage faster.

- Does Tortage have a bank?

Yes. The Trader is the NPC that works as your bank. He will be found outside the Thirsty Dog in the town square.

- Where can I send and receive mail from?

Along with being the trade system and the bank, the Trader also handles all your mailing needs!

- Can I solo Acheronian Ruins / the Underhalls / the Mausoleum / etc?

Yes you can! These three zones give you the option for "normal" or "epic" when you zone in. Choose "normal" if you plan on playing on your own. There may be a few places that are a bit tougher for you, but if you're careful with enemy aggro, then you can go just about anywhere.

- My friends and I are in the same zone, but we can't see each other! Why is this?

Instancing! Each zone will have multiple instances so if you are in one, and your friends are in another, you won't see each other. To change instances, you can either right click on your group members name and move instances, or you can click the down arrow next to your map to select an instance.

- What's the point of instancing?

Instances, while sometimes an inconvenience, do a great service for players. When a zone has a large amount of players within it, EVERYTHING slows down. I'm sure many who have played older games that haven't utilized instancing remember exactly what that was like. With instances, we can enjoy much quicker loading and smoother runs through busy zones!

- I have two pieces of armor with equal stats, but one is cloth armor and one is light armor. Does it make any difference which I should equip?

None that I can see. The difference between cloth armor and light armor seems to be that light armor tends to give a higher standard of stats at a lower level. Meaning, you can see level 10 light armor with similar stats to a level 20 cloth armor piece. It's not a rule though and much of the stat system is still being examined. At this time, if it has better stats and you can equip it, then use it!

- Is there any way to get back to Tortage quickly from inside an instance?

Yes! When you land in Tortage, or a new home town, you will be bound to your city. In your skills, you will find something called the Path of Asura. This will send you back to your bind point much like a soulstone or a call.

- At what level can I start riding mounts?

Mounts are available at level 40 when you are able to train for the skill.

- What level can players start gathering? Crafting?

You can learn to gather at level 20 by speaking with the appropriate NPC to train in this skills. Crafting starts at level 40.

- How do I claim a pre-order item?

Type /claim into your chatbox. You need to have registered your copy of the game at register.ageofconan.com for this to work. Be sure to follow the directions there exactly. It may take up to 30 minutes for your /claim to work after your game has been registered properly. Any items you claim will pop into your inventory, unless your bags are full in which case you will get a dialog message that your claimed items could not be given to you. Clean up your bags and try again!

- How can I optimize graphics if things seem sluggish?

The best way to speed up slow rendering is to turn off the graphics that tend to tax your connection and computer the most. These will be things like your shadows and water reflections. To turn these down or off, hit ESC and go to your video options menu. Select the "advanced" tab and here you can set shadows and water reflection to "disabled".

Some have also have had better luck running the game in windowed mode rather than fullscreen or vise versa. It's worth taking some time to play with your settings to see what works better for you!

- I've checked DirectX 10, am I seeing DirectX 10 graphics?

Currently DirectX 10 is not supported by Age of Conan. There is some rumor that using the DX10 option makes the graphics render a bit more smoothly, but then using the option has also caused problems for others. The only thing we know for sure is that DirectX 10 support is coming later this year, something I think we can all look forward to!



Commonly Used Slash Commands
To view the full list of slash commands in game, type into your chat box / then hit the Tab key on your keyboard. These are some of the most commonly used commands in game to get you started! Once you've learned the ones you use often, typing them will be second nature.



/afk - This gives you the option to set an AFK message.
/anon - Toggles to make you anonymous to listings.
/camp - This camps you to exit game. Wait out the timer to return to log in and character select or hit "exit now" to leave the game immediately.
/claim - To claim any in game items that are available with your account.
/emote - Used with any of the valid emotes such as cry, laugh, or rude.
/group - Precede message with this command to speak with your group.
/guild - Precede message with this command to speak with your guild.
/heroicmode - This will take your group to the group instance of your zone if one is available.
/hide - Toggles on your hiding ability.
/ignore - /ignore charactername will put a player on your ignore list.
/invite - Invites another player to group with you.
/kick - Removes a player from the group.
/leave - Removes yourself from the group.
/macro - Allows for you to setup a macro command.
/reply - Replies to the last person who sent you a tell. You may also hit the "r" key to do the same.
/say - Allows for you to speak to those just nearby you.
/sit - Commands your character to sit.
/stand - Commands your character to stand.
/stuck - Use this command before petitioning for help if you are wedge in somewhere you cannot get out of.
/tell - Preceded by a character name and message to send a private message to another player.

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Age of Conan Serverlist for Early Access

The gates to Age of Conan open in just a few days from now and legions of adventurers can hardly wait to set foot on Hyborian soil. Many want to chose their future home (also known as ‘Server’) beforehand and we know the list below has been eagerly awaited.

These servers are the ones that will be available on 17th of May when the Early Access play starts. The servers are scaled to modern industry standards, and will hopefully serve as your home for years to come! During Early Access we will closely monitor the number of players on each server to find out which types are the popular ones. Additional servers will then be made available for launch.

So, without further ado: here are the servers for the Early Access starting 17th of May:

US Servers (Early Access 17th of May)

PvE Servers
• Set
• Dagoth
• Zug
• Omm
• Derketo
• Thog
• Wiccana
• Gwahlur (recommended Oceanic)
• Anu

PvP Servers
• Tyranny
• Bane
• Deathwisper
• Bloodspire (recommended Oceanic)
• Doomsayer

RP-PvP Server
• Cimmeria



European English Servers (Early Access 17th of May)


PvE Servers
• Crom
• Dagon
• Ymir
• Bori
• Astoreth

PvP Servers
• Fury
• Wildsoul

RP-PvP Server
• Aquilonia



French Servers (Early Access 17th of May)


PvE Server
• Ishtar

PvP Server
• Ferox

RP-PvP Server
• Stygia



German Servers (Early Access 17th of May)


PvE Servers
• Mitra
• Asura

PvP Server
• Aries

RP-PvP Server
• Asgard



Spanish Server (Early Access 17th of May)

• Zingara (PvE)

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Active Blockig & Why I love The Combat mechanics: Read if you have a Low end machine

Let me start out by saying that if you have a low end machine, you absolutely need 2 gigs of ram to run this game, no if ands or buts.

I first started the PVP weekend with: 1 gig of ram, a single core 3.2 g cpu and an old x800 pro, The game was playable on the island for the intro questing, but in PVP as soon as another player approached me my fps went minus 70.

On sunday morning, while my brother was at work i decided to borrow the gig of ram he had in his computer. After putting the mismatch ram into my computer, Load screens become fast as hell, and the performance was great, i was even able to turn the settings on HIGH and keep 15-25 fps!

I am going to be using the barbarian as my main example for why i love the combat so far.

Overall the PVP did feel a bit a clunky and it definatly needs more work, but at the same time it was fun as hell and I truly love what funcom have done to melee mechanics with their MMO.

The barbarian was hands down the funnest melee class i have ever played.
The class had enough instant moves to mix with your combos to always give you an offensive option.

The barbarian relies on switching weapons during the heat of battle, Two handed swords unlock your INSTANT stun and knock back moves, while duel wielding unlocks a couple high DPS combos, and your main DPS combos are shared between your two weapon sets. With this design, as long as the player toggles his equipped weapons and stays alive it's possible to have an endless barrage of effective attacks.

This Brings me to the Combo system.

At first the combo system struck me as nothing more than button mashing, but i was wrong. There is a lot of strategy that is accessible, its just a lot more fast paced than what any of us are used to, so the masses tend to button mash.

When you start a combo, you have about 3-5 seconds before you have to push the next button in the combo chain and you can toggle your targets all the while before executing the combo.

You do NOT have to finish the combo on the same person you started with and you DO NOT have to franticly mash the buttons in perfect rhythmical timing like your doing a hadoken in the game Street Fighter 2. The combo system in this game is the complete opposite, it is The player who decides when it is the correct time to advance to the next step in the overall sequence of the combo. I was able to start my combo on one target, choose a different target, and left slash them while taking evasive maneuvers and waiting a few more seconds for an opening, if an opening arrived on even yet another target, i could switch to them and UP slash who ever i chose to complete the combo and trigger the effects of it on them.

In one situation, i was coming up a ramp taking fire from a ranger and in front of me was an enemy demonologist. I was able to instantly send the mage flying through the air with my clobber attack, and sprinted to the ranger where i started my butcher combo, after i pushed the first attack button in the sequence the ranger had already leaped backwards to evade the combo and was out of my attack range, by this time an enemy assassin with low heath was already unleashing an attack on me. Still targeted on the ranger and in the middle of my butcher combo sequence, I was able to ACTIVELY block the assassins attacks before i switched my targeting to him and pushed the last button needed to trigger high a DPS attack, severing the assassins head.

Thats right, not only can you move around and toggle targets at any point in a combo, but you can actively block at any point and it wont break the combo either. And there is noticeable difference in your defense when you actively block. 1v1 fights with other melee felt closer to a real sword fight and was more action and fast paced than any other MMO game i have played.

^ above is a prime example of people complaining about other players just simply "running away" from their combos and wasting them....well its your fault for not attacking effectively...no one is forcing anyone to trigger the combos, yes there is a time limit to the sequences but the time limit keeps you in the rhythm of the battle all you gotta do is use your head and don't panic! Also instant moves don't get used if your target goes out of range, so if the move doesn't actually get used like it was intended then it doesn't get spent and is till there for you to use when the time is right, (not counting a resist of course)

Edit: More clarification on the whole "combo" thing, The combo is not the move you are doing, the combo is the sequence of buttons it takes to unlock that move, and the second you unlock that move by hitting the last button of the sequence,(players choice) the effect is instant, they are animated, but they are animated to flow with the heat of battle. No one is standing around doing "Combo's" to the thin air, shadow boxing... unless they are retarded. (or trapped inside the PVP lobby all weekend)

Spell casting on the other hand seemed weak, i don't know if just because the casting is standard fair and the melee is so strong that it makes the magic seem worse than it is, but something just didnt feel right about casting and it needs some major polish from mechanics to animation IMO.

Ranged combat was very well done so far too i thought, I played the ranger after the nerf, so far the feeling of taking and holding higher ground for your survival is fun, and it all felt all felt pretty realistic.

Over all not its perfect by any means, PVP is clunky and needs lots of ironing but its by far the funnest i have played in an MMO.

I dont understand why people are calling this a skilless buton mashing system,sometimes there is no way around button mashing in any game well i guess if you are a skilless button mashing player, then its only natural you get out of it what you put into it.

I really hope Funcom keeps the pace up with the quality in this game, its going to get better and better and i cant wait,



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AoC Beta Questions: General Issues

How fast is leveling?
This has always been a hard question for me, so many answers so many variables. I'll say though that at least in beta lvling is faster than in WOW, but that will likely change, so think WoW pace, perhaps tiny bit slower. My opinion.

Will this game fail?
No, I think AoC will not fail. It will not be what some are expecting, but it will not fail. If game reaches 400K or 500K subscribers it will go way above my expectations, but it will not fail.

Will Funcom make their planned release date of May 20th?
It's gonna come out, finished or not, I don't think Funcom could afford another delay. That said, it will be fairly done game by May 20th.

AoC will be semi-ready for May 20th, and in my opinion even if it wasn't ready at all, AoC would have to launch on May 20. no more delays

Will the game be worth playing at launch?
Most probably yes. Depends how well sieging and pvp is implemented in the end.

Is there a master/apprentice system?
Not a word about this from Funcom, and it's not in the game of course.
And we have no clue about their so called Master/Student system or whatever, we haven't heard anything about that in ages, so I'm gonna say that it wont be in the game at launch. Playing with friends up to 5 lvl difference will be ok, but anymore than that will take it's toll on the fun.

Is there a size limit for guilds?
Nope, not at the moment

Is there /follow or /assist commands?
I know for sure that there is assist, but not sure about auto follow, I never used it or noticed it, it should be there though.

Is anything known about soul corruption?
Not a word from FC on soul corruption.

Can you rate AoC compared to other games on the market?
About rating the games, I guess you are looking for my personal opinion, as that's all that I can give.

-WoW - 7/10 (I hate wow by the way, but it's a good game)
-EVE - 9/10
-CoH/V - 8.5/10
-GW 3/10
-Tabula Rasa 8/10
-DDO 5/10
-LineageII 4/10
-Ragnarok Online 6/10 (because this was my first mmo, it has special place lol)
-Ryzom 7/10
-Everquest2 5/10
-Swords Of New World 4/10
-Silk Road 3/10
-Voyage Century 6/10
-Myth War Online 2/10 (My 3-year old plays this one, it's turn based lol)
-Dungeon Runners 3/10
-Anarchy Online 1/10 (I tried it 2 years ago and I simply hated it, it's not very "newbie" friendly)
-Rappelz 3/10
-9Dragons 3/10
-Dark and Light 1/10 lol
-RYL2 6/10

Now, for AoC, there are 2 ratings for AoC.

1. If border kingdoms, sieging, player towns and pvp in general are well implemented, I would have to say about 9/10.

2. If the above sucked, I would have to say 5/10.

Keybinding: is it in?
In short, you can customize everything and anything when it comes to keybinding, and that includes action bar as well. I think there might be some hard coded bindings which are bugs, by launch it should all work as it is supposed to.

Can you create additional chat channels, like in WoW?
No I don't think so, than again I never messed around with it. Dunno much about it, never took interest in it.

What server will you be playing on?
I'll be on RP-PVP server once game goes live. Hopefully I'll get lucky and get into server community that will not glorify senseless griefing...one can dream eh.

How are bag and inventory space handled (size, number of bags, etc).?Right now there is single bag, dunno..about 50 item slots. All items take 1 slot. There are also resources bag, which is a lot bigger, and there is "quests" bag, which is infinite as far as I know.

Is spell weaving implemented yet?
Nope, not yet.

How is drunken brawling?
I'm not aware of the drunken brawling being in the game.


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AoC Beta Questions: Zones, Traveling and Mounts

How is long distance traveling handled (ex. WoW’s gryphon/wyverns) ?
No horses or anything. Well you can talk to stagecoach or ship captain, and instantly you find yourself in loading screen, nothing like WoW's travel via the ship.

I have seen no information about the destinations after you leave Tortage. Are there starting zones for each race?
Just to expend on this subject, after Tortage (everybody starts in Tortage right now - tho if I recall correctly Gaute said that they will eventually have other starting zones). Anyway, after Tortage, each race goes to their starting town, Cimmerians to Conarch Village, Stygians to Khemi and Aquilonians to Old Tarantia. That said, you can talk to a stagecoach/ship captain and join your friends in matter of minutes.

How is world/zone size and design?
I can't get into this too deeply w/out upsetting myself. I still hate AoC's choice of zone design. As you mentioned a lot of times it is very linear. When you think about it, the world is decently big, but the way it was designed it feels like you are playing single player game.

Is there a lot to explore?
As for exploration...I'll have to say no. There used to be, thanks to bugs lol, you could scale up and down the mountain cliffs and get into places where you were never supposed to be, it was fun, but now that this is fixed, I think a lot of explorers will be let down. Sure there are some neat places here and there, and sometimes you come up on something that takes your breath away, but overall exploration is AoC weak point

Will funcom do something about the "restriction" to wander off the paths, giving you the freedom to run all over the map?
For the current zones, nope, we're stuck with it. Now, let's just hope that their future zones are more open.

Invisible walls: are they in?
Yes they are still in the game, but they have made huge improvements towards this.
Zone size has not changed at all. There are however big improvements on invisible walls. There are roughly 15 regular pve world zones, and 3 more resource/gathering zones. Instant travel is still in just as it was before.

You said zone are small; what did you mean?: Small rectangle, maze, etc?
I didn't say they are small, they just feel small. Some of the zones are actually huge in terms of geographical coverage, but because you find yourself forced down one or two paths and can't explore most of it, it feels like a tiny zone. So yeah, zones themselves are big enough, it's just that they feel like maze sometimes. (there are some pretty "open" zones though).

You say that exploration will be aoc's weak point? how many zones have you been to, and can you explain to me how exactly this is linear? is it like GW or even more linear?

Nor really sure how GW is but I'll try to explain about AoC.
Well, I've been in every zone in AoC, which amounts to about 17 zones now.

It's linear in a way that you are forced to take certain path(s) to get to certain location(s). Conall's Valley is one of the worst zones in this regard. You start on top of the hill/mountain, and from there you move on down to a valley. Your passage from top to the valley is like one big tube. Once you get to the valley, than you are in a big canyon kind of design. On both sides there are mountains, there are many camps within the mountains themselves, and there is usually one single path leading to each camp. Imagine a sitemap where you was no interlinking.

Zones can be accessed by everybody, but when a particular instance of the zone gets full (let's say 200 players), new instance is created. You can chose to which instance to go to. If you ever played CoH/V, it's just like it in that regard.

How fast can you team up with your friends?
Yes, as soon as you get out of the jungle, at lvl 5, you will be able to team up constantly. And we have no clue

Can you climb anywhere?
Nope, only at pre-defined climb spots, like fallen tree or latter. Climbing is a totally wasted feature in AoC. There are only 3 places outside of the Tortage where you can actually climb...3 places in 15 zones....., as far as I know anyway...and I know a lot lol.

MOUNTS

Have you ridden any mounts other then horse and if so how are they?
No, only horses are in at the moment.

How do mounts works? Do you have to be a certain level or can you just find them?
Lvl 40 to buy them right now, it's subject to change before launch. You don't find them, you can only buy them from mount vendors.

Are mounts an inventory item that you can click on (or put in hotbar)?
Yup, mounts are inventory items and you click on them to summon them, and yes you can put them on the hotbar.



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AoC Beta Questions: Classes and Races

I have heard healers are useless, how useful are they?
I couldn't disagree more about healers in the group. Team up bear shaman and barbarian and you got one mean machine. On top of that, taking group mobs (equivalent to WoW's elite mobs - actually tougher than elites) is practically impossible w/out healers. A healer and a canqueror can take on group mob, while 3 conquerors would probably die trying. Besides, healers do pretty good dmg.

Truth be told, I couldn't disagree more about healers being useless/uncompetative in PVP. Even 1vs1 battles.

What class would you recommend for the solo player?
Solo, it doesn't get much better than Guardian (sword + shield at least) and Bear Shaman, I love both of these classes and they do super well solo and are excellent additions to team. If I have to pick one, I would say Bear Shaman was overly more fun to play solo, but Guardian is still my #1 choice as I find it more durable and reliable. Another class that does very well in pve solo is ranger, HoX is not bad as well from what I hear.

What are the run speeds are there any way of modifying them?
All classes/races move equally fast. There are different modes which determine how fast you move: Walk, Jog, Sprint, in-combat, on mount. As far as I know nobody has any movement adventages over anybody else.

Wich is the best ranged class for pvp? Why?
I read that rangers are the best ranged dmg dealers, prob the best ranged pvp class.

What is the most common class?
As for right now, General Beta.
Assassins and Rangers are the most common, i would say.


Are there any differences between races regarding stats?
No difference at all, stats vary by the class/archetype not race.

Which class has the highest run speed?
All classes run equally fast (rogues sneak faster however)

3.1 BEAR SHAMAN

I want to play a Bear Shaman is it a good choice?
Yup, I love Bear Shamans, very fun to play...unlike *cough* Barbarians.

Since you like Bear Shaman so much, what appeals to you the most out of it? PVP, PVE solo, PVE grp, etc?
Survivability. I simply love Bear Shamans, and this comes from a person that never plays healers and always play tanks. I guess because I play tanks mostly, that's why I like Bear Shamans, they can take the beating too, thanks to their heals of course. But there is so much more to BS. They do pretty good dmg too, not to mention wear med armor. They play real well on teams. I can't even put my finger on what exactly it is, but I've had a blast playing Bear Shaman. It's easy to solo with the class and everybody welcomes you to groups, tho don't expect that you can tank for a group.

3.2 RANGER

From what you have seen/played/read on the forums, how is the Ranger in both PVP/PVE?
Overpowered in PVP at the moment, and I think they will always be an issue when it comes to PVP because of the world design. They will either nerf them too much to the point of useless or they will be overpowered. I would honestly be surprised if they get Rangers balanced enough for PVP few months into launch. In PVE they do just fine it seems and they work really well with a tank. Tank stands slightly in front of the ranger and waits for the mob to come at ranger so the tanker can finish him off (if the mob makes it that far lol).

3.3 HoX

From what you have seen/played/read on the forums, how is the HoX in both PVP/PVE?
Not too informed about this class, but I haven't noticed/heard/read anything unusual about them.

How do HoX play?
I can tell you that HoX is pretty popular and they should be pretty worth it. Demon form lasts for about 20 secs now, and I think recharge timer is 2 minutes. Can't tell you much more, expect that they are pretty damn fun to play, at least at lower lvls.

How well does HoX compare to melee classes?
I don't know how to compare this, but I'll say HOX is capable class.

3.4 DARK TEMPLAR

How well do Dark Templars perform pvp / pve wise?
They need some work in PVE, some of their buffs and debuffs are pretty lame and useless, from what I read on the forums. Can't really comment on about when it comes to DT specifically.

3.5 GUARDIAN

Is the guardian a good class choice?
Guardian is my bread and butter class. I LOVE IT. My favorite. It's so good that......errr, I'll stop. But yeah, really guardian is really well rounded class, and probably the most complete class in the game at the moment. Keep in mind that I tend to favor tank-type of classes, I've always played one, and Guardian absolutely delivers.

Are guardians viable in pvp?
Yeah I think we will be very viable in PVP, especially against high DPS melee classes, and especially the ones that hit fast (because of our counterstrike combo that deal dmg to enemy that hits you).


3.6 BARBARIAN

How does the Barbarian play?
In all honesty, I hate the class, it's by far the most annoying class that I've played. Once I got so frustrated with the class that I uninstalled the game for a while. Now, don't get me wrong, there might nothing be wrong with the class, it simply didn't fit my gameplay style. It's the worst solo class that I've played, and I'll go as far as saying that it's probably in top 3 "worst solo class list" in the game. Generally, if you are trying to progress like a normal person, doing your lvl quests and your lvl mobs, you'll probably spend more than 50% of your time doing the following:
1 - running from rez shrine back to the camp/quest area
2 - running from the mobs so you don't have to run from the rez shrine
3 - waiting around to get lucky so you can pull/kite-away single mob
4 - resting after each fight

THIS is NOT bullshit, trust me. Barb simply can't handle multiple mobs, 2 vs 1 is 50/50 chance, 3 vs 1 is guaranteed tombstone for Barbarian. Now, with that in mind, most of the camps are set up in a way that AT LEAST 2 mobs are standing together, usually more, not to mention patrols, so you get my point, Barb is not very solo friendly class.

Of course, you team Barb up with the priest and off you go, you are playing entirely different game. Once me, as a Barb lvl 26, and Bear Shaman, lvl 32, took upon lvl 30 "group" mobs. Now, group mobs are REALLY REALLY tough, think WOW elites x3 or x4 (it is probably impossible for ANY ONE class to take out group mob of their level on their own).

Barbarians good solo?
Yes I've played a Barb to 30+, and I've posted about this few times before in detail. In short, Barbarians suck at soloing, they are one of the worst solo classes in the game.

3.7 ASSASSINS

How do assassins play?
Sorry I don't know, I never reached "Assassin" stage (20+), I played assassin but under level 20, where all rogues are pretty much the same, and from the looks of it, it seemed even more fragile than barb when it comes to multiple mobs, given the class was very very unfinished when I played it. That said, in 1vs1 encounters, assassins will be kings.

Can Assassins solo well?
The answer is BIG NO, Assassins can't solo well, at least in PVE. As the matter of fact they suck at soloing in PVE. Perhaps they can do well in PVP because of their stealth, picking on clothed classes and killing them fast 1on1.

3.8 CONQUEROR

How is the conqueror class?
An OK all around class, I don't like their abilities though, there is nothing special about them. It's something between Barb and Guardian in many aspects.


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AoC Beta Questions: PvP/PvE Combat

How does the PVP xp work?
You get special PVP exp when you kill other players, and you have special PVP levels (20 is max I believe).

Is there any exp penalty in PvE combat after u die ((exp loss, armor durability, debuffs...etc))?
Nope, no exp penalty. You only get temp debuffs, like lower attack rating and lower defense rating. Debuff can stack up to 3 times (if you die before first/2nd debuff runs out). However, if you go back to a place where you died, there you'll find your tombstone, you can click on your tombstone to remove it, thus removing the debuff associated with that death.

Does gear matter?
It matters, but definitely not as much as other games. I made it to 80 with the most basic vendor sold gear, sometimes even using items from Tortage (headgear mostly) because of the looks. I'll copy paste what I posted in my first state of the game report. In my honest opinion, this is how PVE combat is weighted in AoC.
~30% Combos/Spells
~25% Gear
~20% Feats
~5 - 10% Potions
~5 - 10% Player Skill
~5 - 10% Luck and rest of the things that are out of your control

Can you give a quick description of the FFA server and how it works?
Every zone, aside from cities/hubs is a PVP zone of FFA server. Border Kingdoms, exclusive pvp area, is still not in the game so I don't know how that area looks like.

And yeah, you can just jump and kill both guys that are already fighting. Free For All.

How do enemies differ visually from friendlies?
No I must say there isn't much to identify enemy lol. It's funny that you should ask tho. I always got laughs when I wear Pict costume (pict feathered skull headgear, bone wrist guards, bone leg guards and bone robe), and you walk up to somebody engaged in combat with picts and they suddenly turn around and try to kill you, it takes them a little while to realize you are a player haha. PVP is no different really, tho in mini games you wear different colored capes hehe. No right now you can't die your gear, and this has not even been mentioned ever, so this feature probably wont make it into game anytime soon, if ever. I think in AoC guilds will be able to identify by cape, but I really don't know, right now there isn't anything as far as I know.

Is stealth a problem?
Stealth is somewhat broken in PVP, or at least perception is. Guardian can hide just as well as Assassin can, because the perception is not working right. There are also multiple reports of people staying hidden after they attack their target, so you get killed and not even see you killer until you die. This is of course a bug, but it's a problem at the moment nonetheless.

Do stealth classes dominate?
No

Stealth: is it easy to detect?
Not easy at all right now coz perception is broken. There is Perception skill (which is available to everyone), which will determine how easy or hard it is for you to detect hidden foe

Can you fire both from 3rd and 1st person from horseback?
Yeah you can use first or 3rd person on horseback.

Are archery skills disabled when on horseback forcing you to use standard attack?
As far as I know (Never actually played a ranger on the mount), all your combos are disabled when mounted. I could be wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure that's how it is.

Do you need to buy many arrows for ranger and do you think it will be very expensive like in past MMOs?
Rangers don't have to buy arrows, their quivers have infinite ammo. However, each type of quiver can add different effects, stats, etc.

What is this arrows in the UI? I guess the half-circle arrows is what direction you want to swing your sword? But what about the red arrows, what are those suppose to do?
Exactly the same thing lol. You could click on the combat rose or that little arrow to perform an attack or combo. Combat rose (circle) has been disabled by default now. Before it was there as it was used when executing combos, so you know which button to press. Now there is no more need for the combat rose, as those "arrows" that you call will highlight as well, so FC disabled combat rose by default.

Do pole arms give a realistic reach advantage?
Polearms do give good and realistic reach advantage. You can easily hit two mobs, one behind the other, whereas with 1-h sword this is usually not possible. That said, cone angle is something that sucks in AoC. You have the same cone with dagger as you do with polearm.

Can you stand behind another melee class and still hit people with pole arms?
That's technically possible, but not very practical because of a lot of movement during combat. It's far more practical to reach two mobs, one behind the other.

Full Plate: is it still in the game?
Yes, full plate is still in the game and exclusive to guardian

Do you prefer sword and shield or spear?
And i'm 100% sword and board type of guy. I have tried polearm build in early 20s, but I couldn't part with the counterstrike combo (board+sword combo only).

Do all classes have a chance to perform a fatality move in melee combat?
All classes that have melee combos can perform fatality moves (if lucky) in malee combat. I also think that all classes have some sort of melee combos (not too sure about all the mage classes however).

Are there fatalities for spells and ranged attacks too? how are they looking?
Yes and yes. I saw only one that HoX did with a spell, it looked pretty bad ass, as do all fatalities.

Can you give your opinion on instanced dungeons?
Don't know, I never did any of them and I don't hold much interest in them...wow probably has something to do with it (I did try Sanctrum of Buring Souls few times, solo when I was much higher lvl). I progressed just fine w/out them. Group size is max 6 people, raid size is max 24 people, that is 4 full groups. I'm not sure if perhaps 5 groups with 4 people in each group could be in raid.

Have you done much of the pve content, and if so how would you compare the dungeon design, boss encounter design, group dynamics/class balance in PvE?
Yes all raids are instanced. And I've spent far more time doing PVE in AoC than PVP, as the matter of fact I try to stay away from PVP at this stage because it's very unbalanced. Now, as far as PVE dungeons, I haven't done any, I hate raids. I've entered few instances though. Some of them are "outside", completely closed off from the rest of the world, but they are kind of outside. There are some very inspirational designs, though I have to say that I hate their approach on cave-type of instances, they are too tunneled and they don't look like what you would imagine a cave to look like 10000 years ago. As for PVE balance, I think they are on the right track. PVE seems to be balanced around groups, and very class brings something to the group. I never got the sense that any one class is "unwanted" or "useless" in a group, no matter the group composition.

What are the run speeds are there any way of modifying them?
All classes/races move equally fast. There are different modes which determine how fast you move: Walk, Jog, Sprint, in-combat, on mount. As far as I know nobody has any movement adventages over anybody else.

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