Archive for July, 2008
July 29th, 2008
This week I got the DT to 79, and we did quite a bit of city building. One part of the game I am not focusing on (right now) is crafting, this is due to many reasons. The Devs have a lot of fixes to implement as well as the fact that my guild already has a lot of crafters in it.
AOC has a very tight coin system in play, even at level 70+ you will not be flowing with coin. From level 1 to 79 I made less then 20 gold, it is true however that at 70+ the coin does start to come a little easier. Most 70-80 level items sell for 20-30 copper to a merchant. Because the game is now in a state of power leveling, there are tons of loot bags left all over the high level zones, as people are trying to get to the higher levels quickly. (Free loot for all if you want to pick them up)
In the next week I will be working on a review of the DT with all feats reviewed/discussed. I will also be leveling the POM. As most players know your first character to cap is the slowest. (I expect the leveling time with the POM to be less then half of the DT) In the coming week I will also be working on a leveling guide, although from 50-80 the power leveling guide that I already posted will out run anything you can do solo, even if you are one of the over powered classes.
July 29th, 2008
Check out the official Age of Conan webpage for future content info that is going into AOC
While most of it seems to be coming along with good intentions, the info that I have on the upcoming PvP risk/reward system may cause more problems then it fixes. Basically a "fugitive" system will be in place. This system will give people that Gank players many levels lower them some penalty points. After you obtain so many penalty points, other players will have an incentive to kill you. What is the incentive? How about one of your equipped items! Of course other incentives may be implemented as well, and for this article, the incentives are meaningless.
So what is the problem? The problem is that this has already been attempted in many MMO’s before. You will always have kiddies that will try and exploit the system. If you get a penalty for killing lobbies, what if the lobie hits you first? What if the lobie is an app’ed member of an enemy group? What if the lobie is and un-app’ed member of the enemy group? As is stands now, a group of six level 40 players can easily kill a level 60 player, how will you figure the penalty in this example? Will it not then be beneficial for a group of six level 40’s to go around and intentional hunt level 50 - 60 characters?(Hoping that the level 50 - 60 character will simply try to run so that they don’t get any penalty points.) Should I not worry? Do you have an answer for all of these questions? O.K. I will give you an example that you cannot fix:
Let us take six level 80’s from guild "A" and put them up against six level 80’s from guild "B". However guild "B" has another guild member come with, un-grouped and un-raided. The level of this guild member is 30 and he does nothing more then stand in the middle of the "B" group. The level 30 does nothing, no attacks, no heals, absolutely nothing. Since AOE is so common in this game the level 30 player will die numerous times. (We have all ran by a fight and took a little unintentional damage before, If you are on a PvP server) So the death of one level 30 is not that big of a penalty, how about a group of six level 30 characters to stand in the middle of group "B"? Of course take off all gear and all buffs so that they die the in the quickest manner, after they die they move as fast as possible back to the battle area, most likely with only about half health since they did not heal or rest. Then they die again and again giving group "A" a huge amount of penalty points for killing lobbies.
Age of Conan Guides Information, Tips, Gold Strategies, Macro Guides, Exploits and more….all in a dynamic online eZine.
July 29th, 2008
The first thing you’re going to need to do when you start playing Age of Conan is to determine which race your character is going to be. The Age of Conan races determine which character classes you can pick and so you’ll want to think about your character’s race carefully instead of just picking one based on looks.
Currently, Age of Conan only has three different races to choose from, so it won’t get too confusing. Each race is more or less based upon a historical ethnic group. For example, the Aquilonians are probably most like the Romans at the height of the Roman empire and they are known for their culture, prosperity and great cities.
The Cimmerians, on the other hand, are based upon the Celts with probably a dash of Nordic influence and they are essentially a barbarian race from the mountains and highlands. Conan himself is a Cimmerian. And then the Stygians are desert people and snake worshipers and they are somewhat based upon ancient Egyptians and Babylonians.
There are some other races in the game as well, but they are currently only NPCs, though they may eventually become playable in future Age of Conan expansions.
Aquilonians
Priest of Mitra
Assassin
Ranger
Barbarian
Guardian
Conqueror
Dark Templar
Cimmerian
Bear Shaman
Ranger
Barbarian
Guardian
Conqueror
Dark Templar
Stygian
Tempest ofSet
Assassin
Ranger
Demonologist
Necromancer
Herald of Xotli
Each of the classes fall under a particular archetype, Rogue, Priest, Soldier or Mage and its fairly obvious from the class titles which fall under which archetypes. While each race has a choice of several class optons to pick from, since they also have some natural advantages in certain classes, you may want to let that guide your selection.
The Cimmerians are particularly good at the martial arts, such as swordplay; the Stygians are naturally drawn towards the dark and magical arts (and are the only character class that can be Mages); and the Aquilonian fall somewhere in the middle of the other two races, making it an ideal race if you prefer to play characters with a balanced skill-set.
July 29th, 2008
One of the greatest qualities about the new Age of Conan Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game or MMORPG is the fact that it has a brand new system for combat that is completely like anything else on the market today. Most similar games followed a more traditional target and click method of combat, which worked in the past but has been rendered obsolete based on what aoc is introducing. The Age of Conan combat system allows players to really feel like they are a part of the battle at hand.
The first thing that you are probably going to take notice of when it comes to the combat system in this game, is that you can actually swing whatever weapon you are holding by clicking on the directional keys, or moving the mouse. You do not necessarily even have to target an enemy on the screen, but can simply walk into the battle slashing and striking, and can do a great bit of damage this way. As you continue to fight an enemy in the same manner over and over, the AI or Artificial Intelligence in the game is of a high enough quality that your opponents will be better capable of defending themselves if your attacks become predictable.
July 29th, 2008
Now finish you Tortage city quests that you can complete, inside and outside of town. You will never have to go to the "ruins" and you still should not have been to White Sands. After you finish the Tortage quests, go to the Underhalls and just do enough quests to hit level 15.
At 15 head back into night mode and complete the quests.
Now go ahead and finish all the Underhalls quests and Head to White Sands. You should be between 16 and 17. You should have a ton of White Sands quests, do all of them, even the green and grey ones. (These usually take an extremely short amount of time.) The two quests that are optional, since they can sometimes take too long to complete, are the two kill tasks. (Kill 50 picts and another kill 50 whitehand) I only do these if they are already completed, I do not go out of my way to do them. You should hit 19 after turning all of these in at the same time. (Always wait until you are in town to turn in quests, never travel back to town to turn in a single quest or sell any loot).
Now it is time for the last mission to get you out of Tortage. Make sure you have 10 of each potion your class uses, and do not forget to sell all your loot before starting the last quest. (You will easily fill up on loot) Also do not start the quest until you are ready as I do not think there is a way you can leave the quest until it is complete. (You cannot path out) Finally you are out of Tortage.
Age of Conan Guides Information, Tips, Gold Strategies, Macro Guides, Exploits, cheats and more….all in a dynamic online eZine.
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July 29th, 2008
At start there really is not much of a choice. Just run through the tutorial area, completing it as soon as possible. There are two treasure chests that I do grab to get something to wear. The first is right at the very beginning, after you save the girl take the first left, it is at the end of a very short road after you kill a mini-boss. The second is after you drop the ape boss, take a right and after killing two more apes there is another treasure chest. (This is near the exit of the area)
As soon as you get into Tortage, jump into "night" mode. (This is inside the tavern) Do all the quests, until you run out. At this point you should be about level 9.
At this point get back into "day" mode and take all the quests you can find in Tortage. You only need to hit level 10 to go back into night mode, so you will only do the quests that you can actually complete in Tortage. There are two gathering quests as well as a few quests outside of the gates. As soon as you hit level 10 go back into night mode.
Again you will simply do all the quests in night mode until you run out.
July 25th, 2008
Like many MMORPGs, when you create characters in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, you can use different classes, or character archetypes. Some of the more common classes in MMORPGs are Paladin, Fighter, Priest, etc. In Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, the classes are based on actual characters or classes created from Robert E. Howard and other writers’ work in the Conan universe.
There are four archetypes of characters - Mages, Soldiers, Priests and Rogues. Basically, these are equal to black magicians, fighters/Paladins, clerics and rogues respectively. You don’t get any classes until about level 5. Until this point, you play as one of those four archetypes. Mages can use magic (obviously), Priests call upon the powers of deities from either Cimmeria, Aquilonia or Stygia, Soldiers kill stuff and Rogues act as thief-like characters.
After you hit level 5, you can then choose your class. Each archetype has three classes to choose from. Mages can become Demonologists, which work with summoning demons and other forces but risk having their own life force/mana drained from spellcasting, a Herald of Xotli, who can transform themselves and act as both warriors and magic-casters, or a Necromancer, which can wake the dead and use them to act as an undead army. The Herald of Xotli class is only available to Stygian characters, as in the Conan stories the Stygians worshipped the deity Xotli.
Priests can be Bear Shamans, Priests of Mitra or Tempests of Set. Unlike most other classes in the game, this one is dependent on your nationality. Cimmerians are very much into the whole nature aspect, so they can use Bear Shamans as a class. They’re almost like Barbarians. Priests of Mitra are your standard healing type characters, and they’re for Aquilonians. They generally don’t have a lot in the way of attack. Tempests of Set are for Stygians, and they can use black magic and call down the powers of Set, the snake god. The Priest archetype is a little more focused on physical action than the Mage.
Soldier…this is the archetype most people will likely pick when they play the game, because the Conan series is known for its brutal swordplay and overall violence. The three classes of the Soldier archetype are Dark Templar, Conqueror and Guardian. They all have the ability to utterly destroy pretty much anything you could possibly throw at them, Dark Templars are the evil or dark ones (hence the name) who use black magic to aid them. Conquerors are your mid-range ones that give a lot of charisma to surrounding units in battle, and Guardians are the ultimate in defense, somewhat like Paladins in other MMORPGs. Guardians have no magic, so are at a slight disadvantage there when compared to Dark Templars.
The Rogue archetype is composed of Barbarians (the obvious example here being Conan himself) Assassins are the first; they’re your basic thieves and murderers. Barbarians are your, well, barbarian class, and the rangers are long-ranged fighters who use bows, thrown weapons and short weapons, but can fight in-close.
July 25th, 2008
The first day AOC officially goes live, marks the start of the power leveling race to level 80. Both MMORPG newbies and hard-core veterans start from equal grounds regardless of their prior experience. Traditionally, this leveling route varies depending on each player’s preference. There are two schools of thoughts; one is based on grinding monsters and another favors questing. Each method presents different advantages and disadvantages. From level 1 to 80, these players experiment and try to create the best AOC guide that offers the most efficient leveling strategy.
Grinding strategy may be a viable method of leveling. Traditional click and slash MMORPGs allow players to click a button and auto-target monsters to their death. Age of Conan offers more involvement in the action-based combat system by having no targeting functions. Players get to control the direction of weapon swings and watchout for their characters’ and the monster’s positioning so as to complete each swing within range to do damage to the monsters. The same goes for ranged and caster type characters, they must actively watch and follow the target’s movements. Repeatingly killing monsters normally sounds boring and dull but the combat system in AoC makes it easier to grind from 1 to 80. Thus, offering top players to create grinding based AoC guides that tell others which mobs to kill and how to find them.
On the other hand, leveling by questing may seem to be the more appropriate choice for new MMORPGs. However, it does have some drawbacks. Coming up with original and meaningful quests, and storyline is not easy to achieve. Most of the quests in other MMORPGs we have seen so far, lacks creativity. Quests with killing X numbers of Y monsters are common in every game as well as picking item Z and delivering it to the NPC at another town. Age of Conan promises us deep immersion, interactive quests and an involving storyline which offers a variety of quests for both solo and group players. This presents another interesting solution for an AoC game guide that focuses primarily on questing from 1 to 80.
The author is an experienced strategy guide writer for online games. His Age of Conan guide can be found only at Killerguides. Killerguides.com provides unofficial Age of Conan strategy guides and offers other selections ranging from general strategy guides to more advanced gold making and class strategy guides.
The developer has estimated a total of nine days to hit the level cap, nevertheless players will look for and have always been able to discover more efficient ways to reach the goal faster. With trial and error, the time to reach level 80 will be shortened as players eventually hit the optimized balance for both grinding and questing. Once it has been achieved, these leveling secrets are published in the form of leveling strategy guides that everybody can follow. Within the first few months, you will see an abundant selection of free and commercial Age of Conan strategy guides in the market. However, the best AoC guide must offer a balanced mix of both the grinding and questing aspects of leveling as player’s personal preference differs.
July 25th, 2008
The Age of Conan is a MMORPG, or a Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game that allows players to choose from a number of unique characters, each providing a completely unique gaming experience for a number of different reasons. In Age of Conan, one of the most lethal characters available for play is the Assassin. The Assassin is well armed with an arsenal of truly lethal combination attacks. Because the assassin is armed with stealth, he can slip past many of his foes completely unseen. In other words, the assassin is an unseen deadly killer, but before he can be effective at his trade, he must go through a truly difficult regime of training and study before he can emerge supreme.
The Assassin class is a truly unique one for the Age of Conan, following under the rogue category of classes. Still, this class is available both to Aquilonians and Stygians.
The primary weapons choices for the Assassin class include daggers and crossbows. These are especially useful as weapons choices because the assassin can dual wield weapons for better effectiveness in offensive combat. Assassins can also deal out poison damage and can make unholy attacks as well. Depending on what foe the assassin is facing, he can make use of additional specialty combos. The Assassin’s armor choices are more limited, as only silk armor and cloth armor are available to him. These lighter forms of armor are required specifically because the Assassin requires stealth in order to be an effective character.
In terms of offensive capabilities, the Assassin class is definitely one of the most deadly both when it comes to damage and when it comes to power as well. There are a number of different ways that an assassin will be able to kill an opponent, with the assassin’s main focus laying on swift and efficient movements. When it comes to using stealth to their advantage, the assassin is absolutely the most efficient class available in this game, meaning that sneaking around effectively is easier than ever when you are an assassin in Age of Conan.
Keep in mind, however, that no class is perfect and there is a downside to playing the assassin. Just as stealth is a strength for the assassin character, it is also one of this character’s weaknesses. This is because the focus on stealth requires that heavier and more effective armors are sacrificed by the assassin in favor of lighter and less durable armors like the silk armor and the cloth armor. While the assassin may be a heavy hitter, they pack significantly less of a punch when it comes to defense. For this purpose, the assassin class must rely heavily upon healing and evading rather than taking direct blows from enemies.
Even still, the assassin is an excellent class to play in the Age of Conan video game, especially for players who enjoy stealth attacks and plenty of hand to hand combat.
July 25th, 2008
What are the AOC gold making professions? No there is not a single profession where you literally smelt gold, but there are a few that can feel like they are if you know how to properly use them. To start with, let’s look at what you should seek out in Age of Conan gold making professions.
The Criteria
What makes a profession stand out from the rest of the pack as one that can help you truly make gold? There are a few things you can look at; here are some of the most important factors:
· Investment:Return Ratio - How much do you have to put in before you start making a profit? If you spend 100 gold to make 115, how good of a profession is that? Look for the highest possible ratio of return to Investment.
· Time Consumption - How long is your potential Age of Conan gold making profession going to take to level up?
· Cross over- Is your potential Age of Conan gold making profession capable of crossing over with another profession? That is, will a specific harvesting profession help you better complete a separate crafting profession?
· The Demand - Who exactly wants the items that you will be making with your new profession? Is there a big enough audience to justify all that time and gold commitment?
The Choice
So, with those things in mind, what is the best Age of Conan gold making profession? When you weed out all the professions that cost more money than they provide (Architecture) and the ones that are fundamentally broken (Alchemy) and everything else that just plain isn’t profitable, you can look at three or four that have potential to be the best Age of Conan gold making profession.
Armorsmithing - This is probably your best bet as it not only allows you to save gold by making your own armor; it allows you to craft nearly anything other players will need in the game. It loses some points for costing so much to start up, but in end-game, there is no better return rate.
Weaponsmithing - Because it is both fun and profitable, weaponsmithing is a great gold making option for nearly anyone looking to craft their way to riches.
Skinning - It may be a harvesting profession, but skinning is a powerful profession because of the potential for higher drop rates, the ease of gathering skins, and the usefulness of the finished product.
Gemcutting - Gemcutting, like skinning is a mob drop profession, so it can make you a lot of gold if you find the right mobs and spend enough time with them.
The best aoc gold making profession is ultimately the one you most enjoy playing as. However, if you can effectively approach any of the above professions with the right things in mind, you can be incredibly productive and start reaching for that Guild City of yours in no time.
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