Ranger class guide

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

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

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

Archetype: Rogue

Permitted Races: Cimmerian, Stygian, Aquilonian

Weapons: One-handed blunts, one-handed edged, daggers, bows, crossbows, and dual-wield

Armor: Cloth armor, light armor, medium armor, and shields

So what the ranger actually is.

Of the three highest DPS classes; Ranger, Barbarian, and Assassin (funny how they are all in the same archetype), the ranger has the highest hit points, the best damage absorption (medium armor/shields), and the greatest survivability. And ranks as the single highest ranged DPS

class by far, and is on equal footing with the Barbarian in raw damage output.

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

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

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

II. Beginning-And all that it implies

For the first 9 levels and that beginning quest, you have about the same dmg output as any other “rogue” in melee at that point. Your bow damage is atrocious. No joke, in the time it takes to line up a shot literally dished out 4x the damage in melee. Your regular bow shots deal

only about ¾ of that of a normal swing, and you lack any true damaging ranged shot. Still, grab the bow from the quests, and use it to pull.

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

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

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

III. Aiming-The frustratingly useless FPS aspect of AoC

As far as I know, the only way to enter first person is to mouse wheel in. Once done, a reticule will appear on your screen, where the best way to aim is to hold down the right mouse button.

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

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

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

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

IV. Skill Breakdown

Salvo- What it is, and what it is not.

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

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

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

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

V. Feats-The 4-part split personality of the ranger

1. Introduction to the Sharpshooter Tree

As the awkward title hints, and previously mentioned, the ranger is really two classes rolled into one; the Ranger— Bow, and the Waylayer—Crossbow. And each of these has two “specs”. You can ignore the other line for now, as it does not benefit the ranger in any noticeable way in

raw damage, and complements stealthers end game. Im going bow, so I have no advice to give on crossbows.

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

2. Stances

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Feats, and my recommendations.

These are what I view as the must haves; I will break them down by Tier.

Tier 1- Focused Fire

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

Tier 2- Bow Specialization, Eagle Eye.

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

Bow Spec.

Tier 3- Rapid Stab, Splintering Puncture, Tendon Rupture, Ricochet

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

Tier 4- Quick Shots, Silent Shots

Quick Shots a good compliment, and best invested at 33 after the root ability in the tier 5 is maxed. Gives shorter CD’s to your combos. Silent Shots is more pve, and is required for sniper

stance. I don’t like sniper stance, and I don’t like this ability. Imo skip it.

Tier 5- Firestance, Sniper Stance, Knee-capping

Won’t go into the stances again. Knee-capping adds a small chance on ALL hits (salvo is

counted technically as one hit…sort of) to root the target for 4-5sec. its imbalanced in pve and pvp, and you’re an idiot to pass it up.

Tier 6- Sulfurous Burst/Blast, Cold Nerves, Deadeye.

Sulfurous Burst/Blast is an aoe stealth detection “flare”, blast makes it a small dmg in the aoe to knock people out of stealth. It’s great, but useless for leveling, so at the moment it’s a waste

Cold Nerves add significant stam reduction to all combos. Get it, love it, breath it. Deadeye adds a straight 9% damage increase to all combos. It’s a sexy 3 point talent. Get it

Tier7+

At this point it comes down to preference. For PvP grab:

Fire Trap It sucks, but it’s a pre-req. grab and max to move down.

Immolation and its follow up. The fear is a nice oh **** escape tool that will be invaluable later on.

Critical Aim has an irritating bug associated with it, and at the moment, does not cause the combos to crit.

Apparently this is by design…so skip it, white crit damage is not worth 3 talent points.

Flame Barrage over volley. Flame Barrage is a much harder hitting salvo that fires without directionals, and causes aoe burn damage. Great skill, defiantly pick it up.

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Barbarian Class Guides

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

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

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

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

Feat Guide:

Great Weapons master build:




Butcher build:



Cheat the Reaper build:



Leveling/Straight DPS build:


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Passive fear resist; prereq for unstable mind.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A longer stunning punch? Yes please.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Toughness: Increases the rogue's physical resistance rating.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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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AoC Guide: Conquerer Leveling and Feat Guides

This was written from Early access session experience.

Starting out:

You can choose to be Cimmerian or Aquilonian. There are no starting racial differences or starting trait advantages between the two, so pick the one you think you can make look the best and enter into the world of AoC.

Levels 1-5:

These are fairly straight forward. After the intro cut-scene turn 180 degrees and swim out into the water and down for a chest. Just some quick loot to sell later on. Talk to the girl in chains to get your quest to enter the city. Walk around the island and kill pirates, smugglers, apes, and pics. By the time you get to Tortage you should be 5 or close to it.

Levels 5-10:

This is where things can diverge if you so choose. You'll get a quest from the guard outside of the city gate to talk to Tina at the inn which is right inside the city gate to your right. Talk to Tina and you can choose to start your destiny quest. I'm not going to give any spoilers here other then to say this is a solo quest you do and can take you to lvl 10 easily, 15 if you decide to kill everything you can.If you choose not to start your destiny quest at this time, just go around and get as many quests around town as possible and go to town (pardon the pun). Don't get overwhelmed by how many quests you get (BTW your quest log holds up to 32 quests if I counted right). Your map and mini map will point you to where the quests are, its very user friendly and is very hard to get lost. The quest log not quite so user friendly.You can choose to do your destiny quest at any time, just beware that the mobs level up as you do for your quest. So don't think you can level to 15 then blow through it.

Levels 15-20:

At level 15 you can restart up your destiny quest. Once again no spoilers as it is very linear and self explanatory. By this time you should be ready to port to your home city. Being Cimmerian I port to Connarch Village, Aquilonians I believe port to Old Tarantia (don't quote me as I'm too rough and gruff to roll a sissy la-la man).You'll get to talk to a Drifter for your destiny quest who tells you to come back at lvl 30. Once again, no spoilers, you'll just have to experience these for yourself.In the meantime, rinse and repeat the going around town and gathering as many quests as possible. You should be familiar with how the quest system works so check your map often and try and be as efficient as possible. There are a few quests around town that just have you basically be a barbaric Fed-Ex guy. So knock those out (avoid the drunken hobo!) After you're done with the stuff in town you'll be introduced to the real wilds of the game. Knock out the quests and work your way down to the Cimmerian Settlement where you'll get a bunch more quests. By the time you're done with these you should be close to 30, if not 30.

Levels 30-35:

You get Heavy Armor now so soloing gets easier if that is your style. Start doing the Gravesinger quests (starts with Korm Wolfeye at his camp)for some very nice blue heavy armor.By this time you should have a good idea of what is going on and where you need to go. I took a break from this area and went to Old Taratina and started working on quests over here. Doing grey quests (basically super easy quests) are a great way of getting some real quick and easy experience so don't pass them over!I'll leave the rest up to you as you venture forth into the wilds.

Skills:

I spent over 7 silver testing these this morning, so these are the conclusions based on the respecs. If I've mis-read the skill sets and what they do please feel free to chime in and let me know if something is amiss.Well you'll notice as you level up you get skill points for various things such as Hiding, Climbing, Bandaging, etc...etc... and you'll end up getting quite a few of them as you level up. Before I start I'll let you know as best as I can tell they are broke, busted, not working and any other adjective you can use to describe a borked system. With that said I'll introduce you to them briefly and let you know which ones work. (I thought I took a SS but apparently didn't so please forgive me as I forgot the names of a few of them)

Bandaging:

Increases the amount of health you heal as you rest. Doesn't seem to work as best as I can tell. With max bandaging it was the same or a tad faster then zero points in it. At higher levels you get an additional component of this I believe called Fast Recovery which gives you a chance to double the amount of Health gained while resting. This does seem to work as every so often I notice a jump of health returned.

Err..forgot the name of this one

Works the same as Bandaging but restores your Stamina as you rest. It does allow Stamina to be regenerated while resting. The additional ability gained at a higher level allows you to double the amount of the Stamina regenerated while resting. Same as above, as it seems to work every so often as I'll notice a jump of Stamina while resting.

Endurance: Reduces the cost of stamina usage as your sprint. Doesn't work. With max points invested it uses the same rate as it does with zero points invested.

Fast Running: Allows you to run faster out of combat. Doesn't work either. Speed is the same regardless as max points or zero points invested. I've heard that it works only while sprinting, but this didn't change anything either.

Climbing: It allows you to climb areas. IT WORKS! Throughout the game there are climb points that allow you access to different areas and the ability to climb these are based on how many points needed. i.e. some areas will require 150 points, 200, even seen a couple 600 point climbs. Not really sure how much we need these but atm, after my respecs this is where I'm putting points. I've found a couple areas out of the way with nice views and even quest areas that were out of the way from the over-camped areas.

Perception: This is hit or miss. Sometimes I had great luck with it othertimes I couldn't find someone 11 levels lower then me who stealthed right next to me. Caveat Empor with this one. Your mileage will vary.

Hiding: Allows you to hide and decreases your chance to be detected the more points invested. Doesn't seem to work. A few points into it is necessary for basic hiding, but I get busted with it all the time by NPC's from various distances. With max hiding I would get pulled out of hiding by mobs 20 yards away quite frequently. Besides as a Conqueror moving while hiding is a great way to drain stamina extremely fast, so I don't recommend it for sneaking past NPC's as if you get jumped with no stamina it gets quite brutal trying to fight with no stamina.

Taunt:Adds threat to your attacks. Can't tell if this works or not. When grouped with lower levels they couldn't pull aggro off me and when grouped with higher levels it was hit or miss.I do believe that is all of our skills we have at lvl 40.

Feats: And should I go Dual Wield or 2 Hand?Well women always like big burly men that use both hand to hold...nevermind. Anyways, which route to go is entirely up to you. I love the fact this class can spec either way, its great versatility so I recommend trying both out. Here is a Feat Calculator to use to see which route looks appealing to you and your playstyle.Conquerors as stated above can choose to Dual Wield (no daggers) or a single gigantic 2 Hand weapon (no polearms). We also share the generic Soldier feat tree which grants us more specialization for tanking, DPS, increased resistances. I have never been a fan of multi-specced classes, so my generic recommendation is choose a tree and stick with it. However, your playstyle will vary greatly from mine, but if you don't like your particular choice you can visit Feat Trainers and respec for a fee. The Dual Wield tree (Carnage) is based around fast hitting, blender chopping, DoT attacks. This tree's main weakness is that it lacks knockdowns and stuns. Please feel free to add if there additional strengths or weakness' to this tree and forgive my inexperience in regards to this tree.The 2 Hand tree (Brute) is based around slow, hard hitting, devastating attacks. This tree gets a stun and increases the damage of your knockdown attacks and counter attacks. Again, please feel free to add to this as your experience dictates.The General tree augments existing abilities and adds to the overall specialization of your playstyle. Straight forward and basic.

Playstyle: Or how do we do solo as well as in groups?

Solo: I spend a lot of time both solo and grouped. Being on a PvP server its nice to have a group of friends around, but I do find myself going solo alot as I work on crafting, catching up on quests that others have done, etc..etc..I generally don't have any problems taking on multiple mobs. At level 31 I was able to solo the Elite Ymir Frostgiants with about 10-20% health left at the end. Packs of mobs a couple levels lower went down fairly easy as well. I spent a couple hours grinding over the weekend and was able to chain pull lvl 30 Varnir Elite Captains getting 350 xp a kill. I was able to solo the Spider Cave right before the Plains of the Dead when the mobs were 3 levels or so below me as well as kill the Lurker inside.Potions, Food, and Sprint are your friends. All of my armor and weapons are quest rewards or drops so this isn't being twinked out or using the best of the best. I generally swing by the potion and food merchant and buy 20 stamina and 20 health pots and it keeps me self sustaining for a few hours. I give the class a huge thumbs up for solo playability.

Group: Groups are where we really shine. We have a variety of buffs, commands, auras, and procs that make us a very desired and wanted class in groups and instances. We get a mysterious ability called Furious Inspiration that as far as I can tell procs when our group mates get hit. It stacks up to 10 times and when it is fully applied will proc in-combat resses on fallen members, increase the damage of all in our group, and just make us really popular, sorta like the prom king (or queen if your a girl).

We get stances, Normal, Frenzy, and Defensive.

Frenzy: Our offensive stance. Adds 150% damage but we take 300% more. You do not, I repeat, do not want to be in this stance while tanking.

Defensive: Our tanking stance. Lowers incoming damage but slowly drains stamina while in it and decreases out offensive power.

I was originally disappointed with Defensive stance in Beta and considered the only viable stance to be that of Frenzy, but find myself staying in Defensive more and more often, especially solo now. (You were right Renuo I'm eating my words in release) I don't really notice the stamina drain from the stance and my damage input/output in Defensive is worth it atm over the input/output from Frenzy stance right now. Maybe when I take the Frenzy feats it will be more worthwhile but in solo and pvp Defensive is very viable, plus there are defensive feats which may offset the lower dps of being in Defensive Stance.

Soldier Skills:

We get Charge at level 20. Charge is an ability that uses out Stamina but propels us forward to a target and increases the damage of our next attack. Charge is wonky right now I feel. Sometimes I'll get teleported 40 or 50 yards away, or charge through players, get stuck in trees or rocks, or just get a message saying you can't charge your current target. It may be that I grew used to Charge from World of Warcraft, but currently if there is anything in your way, or if there is an elevation change between you and your target you're going to more then likely not charge. Not too sure why you'll get teleported. I've heard tell that it is because you queue an attack before you charge. That may very well be the case, but I've stopped queuing attacks and still get it on occasion.

Overall Impressions:

Well being out for only 3 days it may be premeptive to be releasing a review/impression thread, but with retail starting tomorrow I thought it would be worthwhile and beneficial for those coming in. I do apologize for any errors that may be present, if you do notice something that is incorrect please feel free to either PM me or post a reply and I'll do my best to look into it and change any incorrections.

My thoughts on the class are very positive and I'm enjoying the variety the class offers. It can do all things well from DPS, support, and tanking. Being on a PvP server I've already had quite a few battles. Getting jumped solo by a ranger or caster has been pretty rough and more often then not has resulted in a run back from the spawn point, but getting jumped by melee has been a different story. Head to head I've been pretty impressed with our damage and ability to survive. Charged being borked leaves a foul taste in my mouth regarding pvp but I'm sure that will be fixed or I'll just adjust to using it in its current state. Solo and group play I'm more then satisfied with my choice of the Conqueror and I look forward to the last half of the levels.



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