Age of Conan leveling guide: Tortage 1-20

For the first month of AoC I've been going through testing the different classes, finding which one suits me. So needless to say I've gone thru Tortage many many times. For those who want a leg up, or just want to level quickly, I hope this info helps out some. Just for reference I've gone from 1-10 in a little over an hour, level 15 in under 4 hours, and made it out of Tortage in about 8 hours at level 20 (still needing to do a few Tortage quests.)

Okay so you've started a new character. First part is basic, go through killing everything on your way to rescue and subsequently take Casilda to the gate leading to Tortage. Once you hit the gate you should be about 3/4 thru level 5 (give or take a bit).
After going thru the gate, head down the path and hang a left, there's a group of 3 panthers here. Kill them a few times until you hit level 6. At this point Turach the Blacksmith will have a quest available, which is why I grind on the panthers til 6. Go talk to Laranga, the gate guard, who will not only send you to Turach for your shackles, but will also have 2 other quests available. Grab them, talk to Turach about your shackles, and get the quest from him to retrieve his ore shipment.
Go get the 3 stones he needs, remove your shackles, and head into the city. At that point grab the quests in the area -- should be one to get tools, one to get thread, and one to kill pirates. Now head over and talk to Sancha to get a quest from her to kill 3 pirates right behind her.. erm.. business Kill them, turn it in, head towards the docks.
Grab quests there, get the tools, head to Redrik's ship and get the ore. From there head back to Turach, turning in the tools quest on the way. Turn in Turach's quest and get the sword and key reward, then head over to where you got teh stones, up the long stairs and get the spools of thread.

Now at this point, check your xp. You should be getting close to 7. What you want is to be around 300xp from level. If you need to grind on a few mobs to get to that point do it.. pirates respawn fairly fast there, or go for the panthers.. better xp from them but only 3 to kill at a time. Once your at that 300 xp from level mark, go turn in the Spools of Thread. This nets 330 xp, and will hit 7.

Okay, now do your Level 5 Destiny quest. Rogue classes are a bit limited here since they don't get many mobs to attack, but I think they may get more xp than the other archtypes, who all have to go to White Sands Isle. At any rate, if your heading to White Sands, wipe out the entire island (don't worry you can't cover the ENTIRE island, only the beginning areas are available.) You should be able to hit level 8 almost before even talking to Arias, and be around 9 when you leave White Sands. Keep going and finish Destiny questline by going thru the volcano and killing the Slavemaster. Most classes you should be at level 10 minimum by the time you finish all this (depending on how much of the Volcano mobs you kill.) Good way to judge how you're doing, I usually hit 10 right before I kill Slavemaster, so aim for that milestone.

Switch back to daytime, gather up any quests on the way to the boat, and head for White Sands. You should have at least 9 quests for that area now, do them all except for finding Horensia's necklace.. mobs are a bit higher level there and you need to come back anyways, but it is near where you get the bottles of rum and wine for Ninus, so your call.

Once all the White Sands quests are completed and turned in, you should be around level 13 or so -- maybe 14 depending on how many mobs you had to kill to get quests done. Pick up quests anytime you see them, btw, you'll do them all eventually. Make sure you grab all the quests for Underhalls you can, getting rings off the corpses is one that is missed sometimes since the questgiver is a bit out of the way.

Time for the level 10 Destiny questline. Do that, pretty basic, should be level 15 or so when you're done. Now to hit Underhalls, everything from getting Turach some wine, looting dead corpses of rings, the Hauler's corpse, killing a male and female guard for their heads, getting the key to Raboz's cell (and talking to him after getting it).. the only one not to be too concerned with is killing all 50 Red Hand, you'll get it eventually. Underhalls should net you to level 17 or so.

At this point you can do one of two things. Either hit the Destiny questline, or stay in daytime and head to the Ruins. I usually go Ruins, do the quests there, should have several by now, killing picts (30), getting brother's skull from demonic pict, killing and getting 5 ghouls and their heads, talking to Genzio, and grabbing the fruit near him. Turn those in and you should be about 18.

Now is when I hit the level 15 Destiny, it's fast and nets you about a level, pushing you to 19. DON'T TALK TO VALERIA AT THIS POINT YET!!! Switch back to daytime after finishing the Level 15 Destiny quest, and head back to White Sands to do the other quests, killing the plant, killing Black Ones (if you had grabbed the necklace earlier you can escort Horensia to safety here as well.. saves you a trip back and forth.) The trick here is to quest your way about 1/2 thru 19.

Okay, 1/2 thru 19, switch to nighttime and talk to Valeria to kill Strom. Follow thru this and once you kill Strom you get a blue wep based on your class.. Strom also drops a blue weapon, always had the sword drop not sure if he drops any other blue, and time to head to your homeland.

Now you should have hit 20 at this point. If not, your very very close. Your class wep requires lvl 20, but no worries. At your homeland, talk to the smuggler nearby and head back to Tortage. When it loads, talk to the smuggler nearby again, and head BACK to your homeland. Once there, talk to the smuggler once more to go back to Tortage... yes it makes no sense... wait, that 2nd time, you get over 3k xp for that! Easy xp and should ding you 20 if you didn't already.

From there finish off any Tortage quests if you like, or head off into the world... personally I finish Tortage quests since I hate leaving an area unfinished, but that's just me Plus at that point the Bat Demon quest is easily soloable, and nets you a blue piece of armor to boot.

And that about does it. So quick recap to simplify it, keep in mind grabbing every quest available:

Tortage gate at 5, level to 6, few quests to hit 7.
Destiny from 7-10.
White Sands Isle from 10-13/14
Destiny to 15
Underhalls from 15-17/18
Destiny to 19
White Sands, others to 19 1/2.
End Battle (Destiny) to 20.
Smuggler back and forth to get that easy 3k+ xp.

Level to 20 in about 8h, newer players that aren't familiar with the area and quests, where they are and such, will take a bit longer, but hopefully this will help focus you a bit on where to go and when, rather than running all over trying to figure out where to go and what to do. Happy Hunting!

If you enjoyed this guide, I recoment you to check out mmOverload This site have some of the best Age of Conan leveling guides on the net!

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Healing in Age of Conan

Healing in Age of Conan has been misunderstood by many and there is a load of confusion going on about it. I therefore thought it was time someone wrote about it. First off, what healing experience do I have in the beta? I've played a ToS from 1-28 then it got wiped. Started a new ToS, got to 52 then it got wiped, and now I have a bear shaman at level 23. I have done SoBS, been healing in a group for the ymrish multiple times, and done AoE grinding.

Let's start by looking the basics. Most of the heals are HoTs, ToS for instance have two HoTs, one which is AoE moderate healing and the other one is cone-based which heals twice as much on friends than on you. There is also a few "real" heals, which is AoE based, and heals for X hp and places a debuff on the target for 1 min which causes him/her not to get healed by the spell anymore. These emergency heals have about 2-3 sec cast time I believe but with feats it can be reduced to an insta cast.

There are three healing classes; Bear Shaman (BS (no not Bull Shit)), Tempest of Set (ToS) and Priest of Mitra (PoM). What roles do they play, and which one is the primary healer you may ask? All of them is the primary healer. Their pure healing power is about just the same, but they have different other ways of contributing to the group. The ToS is a AoE nuker and healer, it has some nice buffs and abilities which increases the damage of the group as well, and some insane mana regen stuff. And also one stun and a snare. The Bear Shaman does some nice melee damage, can do knockbacks and have nice buffs. And the PoM have some good nukes as well as it's supposed to be CC master. The PoM is also supposed to improve damage through healing.


The ToS and PoM is a bit special, as the ToS gain some bonuses to healing through doing damage, and PoM gain some bonuses to their offensive spells through their healing.

Now, lets look at the first 20 levels. This is where all the confusion comes from really, as healing in these low levels feels really underpowered, and many draw conclusions. During the first levels healing feels really underpowered, you star with heals healing you 1-2 hp a sec and so on. What people don't really get is that once a second is pretty often. If you've played WoW for instance your used to once every third sec HoTs, which will give bigger numbers. And I got to admit, the low-level healing is not that powerfull anyway. It helps a bit, but not much. I think FunCom should remove heals at these levels and give the healers some dmg or hp bonuses instead, so people won't draw conclusions on this weak healing.

If we look at how healing is after level 20, preferably 30, things start to get good. Your HoTs on yourself is fairly balanced, and in groups you really can heal, and it does help a lot. I have no numbers atm. In the groups I've been in, we wouldn't stand a chance without the heals, and due to the emergency heal and some nice timing I could keep us up against the spikes as well.

So how is it to play a healer in AoC? I find it very fun! I can like to stand behind and spam healing, but in the long run it's not that fun. However, to play a nuker, where you do damage, you buff, casts stuns, have CC while you must run around position yourself for your heals and keep them up at all times, while keeping an eye out for spike damage that has to be dealt with quick is actually so much more fun! To be honest, I simply love it. If you play a BS you even have to run in in melee, then run out when the heals is about to expire and position yourself (it is important to get all the people in need of healing in one heal, else you have to cast multiple heals).

What about PvP I hear you scream! What about if you try to keep up a guy versus big spike damage? Well, if multiple people is nuking your friend and you try to keep him up, you will do much better than in the 20 PvP tests thats for sure, but after all if they keep up the nuking, he will die. But you can probably triple his life-span which is enough. Who said that healing should be able to keep a person up in PvP? And remember that you can do damage, CC and a whole lot more while the healing is working on multiple friends. It helps a lot in PvP, but in the end, if you got enough nuking-power on one target you will get him down, even though he is being healed. But that is good, right? Do you really want it to be impossible to take down someone being heal-spammed?

I know it is a big change for many people, I was sceptic myself, but after some playing at higher levels and discussions with FunCom, I've found it to be really good and much more fun. Please do not let the early levels decieve you!

In conclusion; healing can keep you up in PvE and is strong enough (unless you try something stupid) and it will help really much in PvP, but ultimatily it can be taken down if you focus some high dps over longer time. But remember that you also got nice damage while healing. And it is really much more fun than traditional heal-spamming imo.

Now I'll add some quotes from the forums, some from the officials and some from other people in the post below. You see many people have been crying about potions being more powerfull at lower levels (which was not the case... The problem was that potions healed every third second, while healing is every second, after a patch potions now heal each second instead).


The emergency heal heals myself for about 60-70% if I remember correct, so it is really powerfull, and really bumps everyones hp to 100% every minute! Just to note that.

And even though the heal-numbers are lower than the damage you recieve sometimes, it often ticks 2-3 times between eadch mob hit.


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AoC Tempest Of Set Feedback 1 - 78

Levels 1-20:
Things are not easy here. Still getting the hang of things and with only one spell for nuking properly and having to melee a lot i had relatively tough time till i managed to get some points in Paralysis that gave me breathing room.Still i was managing mobs 1 by 1 but once another mob appeared i had to leg it fast while casting heals.

At these levels i was getting interrupted a lot on lightning strike till i started pumping up Casting Concentration. Things got a lot better then and i was able to hold good fights by placing 2 Heals Over Time (HoT) on me and pulling aggro.

I thoroughly enjoyed the quests in Tortage and the Destiny quests were very nice as well.I am not a Lore person more a hardcore gamer but i have to say that Destiny Quests of ToS captivated me and wanted to see more of the story.

I have to point out that during these levels i didnt face many spell casting mobs but 90% of the mobs i recall were melee or ranged (arrows)

I would like to see some variety maybe regarding mobs at these levels and some secondary effects dropped on the player as debuffs and maybe a spell early on countering stuns or roots.

Favourite Spells 1-20: Lightning Strike

Levels 20-40:

Now this is where things start get juicy.I got frustrated around level 26 and dropped for a period till ToS was a bit fixed. The features start expanding and started facing myself with dilemmas regarding my build.

Since i didnt know anyone in beta and soloed most of the time i decided to go for a solo build.So i started placing point in Lightning Tree increasing my damage,critical strikes, as well as mana return during fights.

This made soloing manageable and the best move was making sure to keep casting concentration maxed out always as well as trying to use gear that gave + concentration + mana +hit points +mana regen thus reduciung my downtime and survival.

As a weapon i used a polearm due to higher DPS always as well as 1HE and a shield as secondary weapons mainly for the stats that i mentioned above.

At some point i managed to get a team with a couple of people and i realised that my build was pants for teaming at that point. I asked the team to allow me a few minutes to respec which i did.

Placed around points in Radius,heal increases through damage and some hate modifiers and voila! Whole different gameplay with my priest nuking from the back in order to stack +heal effect.Was good fun and i was satisfied how good this nuker/healer hybrid performed.

I loved Connal's Valley and enjoyed Kopshef province quests although Kopshef at the time was a bit laggy to play.


Favourite spells 20-40: Still Lightning Strike which points out how much this class is depended on that spell.

Levels 40-60:

Here the real fun begins. More spells added,more buffs,different types of heals and more feature points really open up the game for ToS.

These levels i enjoyed Storm Field. i specced to a more AoE build with point in widening the lightning strike arc,Storm field,elemental fury and critical strikes.

Despite using the AoE mostly while ToS had the awsome HP bug and herded whole mountains of mobs pulling 17-20 chain killsi could already see this build being used in teams of 2-3 people.

ToS can place heals on Guardian who pulls mobs or even 2 Guardians pulling mobs and a maxed out storm field wiping out the mobs while the ToS is keeping alive the 2 guardians. This can be a great leveling build in teams where there is a damage absorber.

I still kept maxed out casting concentration and spent points in Mana Attractor.

Still kept using the highest possible DPS polearm for my level.

FoTD was the best place i visited this level.Engolphian was good too but FoTD i liked it a lot.The layout of mobs and the reasoning behind the zone and how it had shaped up was quite nice made me enjoy it a lot while playing there.

Favourite Spells 40-60: Storm field,elemental Fury

Levels 60-80:

Had a blast! You start gaining high ranks in spells like lightning strike and storm field and you have HUGE versatility with the feat trees.

These levels i went all out on solo build.

Maxed out electrical damage and cone of lightning strike added return of mana from melee attacks from the priest tree,maxed out points in making prayers less likely to interrupt,melee defense and immunity to stuns.

Casting concentration of course always maxed out this is a must in my opinion.

I went all out this level. I pretty much ran around killing things and chain pulling 2-3 mobs at a time depending on level difference usually handled 2 mobs at a time of up to +2 maybe +3 if i had precasted call of lightning and right after that sotrmfield.

Call of lightning = THE SEX of ToS in my opinion from the spells working at the moment.

The boom effect when its proc occurs is just awsome leaving mobs with very little hp, if it doesnt proc still has a very good buff on electric attacks making Lightning Strike and Storm Field hit for a lot and finishing mobs fast and the recast time is quite good.

I loved that spell and wouldnt change it with anything.

These levels i used mostly 1HE + shield for the added defense rating and some good stats i found and a polearm as secondary which i rarely used.

I have maxed out the Lightning Tree although Cyclones not work and some of the more "fun" in paper spells and feats dont work so will give feedback once they are changed.

Casting concentration managed to get hold of an awsome +360 Casting Concentration piece of gear which rocks and is just what i need making it even for +2 +3 mobs hard to interrupt me.

Atzel's approach was the best place i visited and with nice quests awsome design is by far my favourite zone atm in game. Khesatta was good too but its really hardcore zone.Any place you want to visit besides the main road is full of mobs being pulled all over the place making it hard for newly entering players to go around.Also plenty quests were bugged but managed with some help work things out.This zone of course i can see it being most busy high level zone with people gathering there for raids and team dungeons and maybe selling crafted gear etc.

Favourite Spells 60-80: Call of Lighting,Storm Field,Overcharge,Elemental Fury


This is not complete i will update this as soon as things get added in game which should be quite a few since there are no combos at the moment on ToS and quite a few spells and feats dont work in order to provide feedback.

I have to say my overall experience from ToS so far was really good.I had good fun on my own,i felt really useful in teams,loved the animations of spells which was a big plus factor for me and i love the versatility through features.

I have to say i am pleased that the devs announced that thunderstrike tree will be changed and there is more coming since i found Thunderstrike to lack the damage of Lightning Tree.

Very pleased about Mark of Set which is a really good buff given early on to players and with an awsome animation as well as the Paralysis spell being changed into a basic spell given through advancement which is what the ToS really need to get some breathing room for casting until the levels that Casting Concentration starts going up.

Regarding gear i would like to see some +elec damage which i already saw but only 1 piece of gear so i am guessing more to come and maybe some ToS specific gear with lightning strike procs would be nice as a class specific weapon.

One more thing i would like to add. The GM's were wonderful.I am more than happy with the way i was assisted and helped. I encountered the following GM's

Dencore,Maow,Raakam,Krysail,Fishbrain,Smashkilleat they all helped in the best way possible each time very polite and enduring all my questions and issues in best possible way so thumbs up to them as well and a huge thanks.

More feedback to come as i get to 80 and more stuff gets added to ToS,please excuse my not so good English since i am Greek and i am bound to make some mistakes

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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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