Bring Ice and Scotch: welfare pvp gear and 1.7

Still got that ice? Bring Scotch now for I am lvl6 and AOC yet again cheated me out of my gear (or "epeen" to be exact). Back in the day when I hit pvp lvl 3 by doing minigames (which by that time gave no xp for winning or losing) that feat was meaningless. Large chunk of server's population was just farming each other and lvl 3 gear was nothing to show off. 

Lets forward that 1 year into the future. After months upon months of endless grind I had to make 14% more xp for pvp lvl 5. Then came the Bori and the 1.7 and changed the rules. All of sudden I am 15% into lvl6 and pvp 5 gear is neither uncommon nor really hard to get.  In other words: you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.

If you had huge epeen from having pvp lvl5 gear then it has been officially cut off and feed to the dogs. PVP 5 is meaningless now. Shit, guess I gotta kill more people now.

If you rage quited the AOC because of pvp xp farming abuse and Keshatta - this is the time to come back.

With that put aside, the 1.7 brings very unique twist on pvp (atleast compared to what we were used to)

1. PvP tier 2 = tier 3 pve or better 

About damn time. You get the proper pvp gear by doing pvp. Assassin's armor is looking gorgeous, almost celestial compared to pvp lvl 5 NIPPLE SET  What's not to like?

2. Tokens!

There are 4 quests for minigames, one for each map. By doining the quest (winning the minigame) you get 1 token. Quests are on cooldowns so no farmy-farmy premades. The quest have put all the maps in the rotation so no more HV horror, because there is no point in playing just one map (no rewards).

You get the other type of tokens for doing Bori content. For pvp items you need pvp xp, and both type of tokens (some minigames ones, and LOADS of Bori tokens). This I like. The system rewards consistency in pvp, prevents abuse (naked RP won't yeld any tokens and pvp xp alone is meaingless) and takes your attention away from pvp xp farm - it is all about winning now. 

3. Bori vs Keshatta

I like Bori content so far. There is no point comparing it to Kesh. I need to do a lot more of Bori to have a strong opinion thou.

The Excremental walks the earth

Remember Dogma? It had the "Shit Demon", an "excremental" formed out of the excrement of all who were crucified at Golgotha when they died.  Yeah, so I feel like The Excremental walks the earth again, but this time he is formed from shit that is coming out of people's mouths.  

The sad part is that I shouldn't be twitching about someone posting "Sin can have all cc types and chain cc together to cc you longer than any demo can", but I do and it's gets under my skin. I can't rember when was the last time I posted something on the forums that was not a guide. Somehow every thread can be turned into "as assassin issue" and how can you debate someone who writes "sin is the most retarted class to play atm besides necro pet"? (granted, miss spelling "retarded" is fucking cool). You can't so I don't. This kinda excluded quite a number of people (active assassins) from either forums, class or even game. I am almost, ALMOST sorry for asking for a revamp. Guess this is a classic example of "be careful what you wish for".

We asked for DPS, glass canon, in-your-face close up pwnage and hell - we got it. It was easy to predict that tuned up assassins would turn into wow rogue and yet we failed at that.

Just a heads up: this might NOT be the best time to resub if you are an assassin. Let the dust settle a little and come when xpac is out.

The Hour of the Dragon read by M.Saletta

Without doubt Hour of the Dragon is one of best REH's creation featuring King Conan. Age of Conan takes place shorty after events portrayed in "hour of the dragon" so this should be "must-to-read" position for any aoc player (except those dumb, illiterate ones, you know who you are).


However if you are to busy to read anything except forums (which you are trolling for hours) then http://dragonhour.blogspot.com/ is a place to be.

Mr. Morgan Saletta put a lot of work into recording himself reading "the hour" in plain, clean English. Check it out.

[Guide] Indepth miasmas - Face Stab

Introduced in 1.6, miasmas are probably the most misunderstood part of assassin revamp - mainly because of supposedly awesome power of GC + Soul Strike = Detonation. People feel like its the "be all" of all miasmas and it's what gives assassin "bad rap" in the aoc community.

The truth is that assassin is far from being "one trick pony" and the miasma system is in fact a deep and complex, just waiting for you to really tap into it.
 

This guide will take you trough more advanced areas of miasma management.


Face Stab (FS)

Soul Strike (Soul)

Lotus coated dart (Dart)


Miasma: Face stab, (FS)

Usage: FS will apply biggest damage out of all 3 miasmas when no base poison is present on the target. Merely using FS during any combo will do instant damage around 500, with a high chance for a crit. It is always good idea to use FS during combo like Swift Strikes to add a little extra dps, even if GC or SDS are not applied.

Another obvious use if consuming one poison like SDS or GC for 2 x dmg or both SDS and GC for  3 x dmg.

Would FS ever be preferable over Soul Strike or Dart when GC or SDS are applied? Yes: when you need fast, moderate damage to finish off your opponent. Detonation gives that 4 second delay and deadly venom is a very long dot that can be out healed. FS does wonders at finishing off your target with a high chance of nice crit. The best of all: there is nothing anyone can do about it since it is instant.

Synergy: both Necrosis and Unholy Stabs feats as damage and crit upgrades are highly recommended

Vile corruption is also a great supplementation to your already formidable FS: it does extra unholy damage when you consume SDS with FS.

Possible combinations:

GC + FS -> 2x damage

SDS + FS -> 2 x damage

SDS(Vile Corruption) + FS -> 2x damage, unholy damage

Soul + SDS(Vile corruption) + FS -> 2x damage, unholy damage debuff, unholy damage

Soul + SDS(Vile corruption)+GC+FS-> 3x damage, 2x unholy damage debuff, unholy damage

The last "combo" shows really how you can creatively maximize your damage output. Soul strike as miasma adds unholy debuff, so does the GC so if you have Vile Corruption feated in you can use the synergy between the debuffs and the unholy damage from vile corruption.

Tip:

FS does piercing damage so it will benefit from GC's debuff (psyhical wrack) even if GC was consumed by other miasma

GC + Soul-> Detonation, siritual wrack unholy debuff, psyhical wrack piercing damage debuff -> FS (piercing damage)

Now imagine how you can create really advanced synergy between diffrent miasmas

GC + Soul-> detonation, siritual wrack unholy debuff, psyhical wrack piercing damage debuff ,spirtual torment unholy debuff)-> SDS (vile corruption) + FS = buffed FS's damage and buffed vile corruption damage

This is however a whole diffrent guide.
 

Slith's cheesy exploration guide ep.6

I swear it: Mitra himself must have been watching over me as I pulled this stunt.

Without further ado I give you:

Old Tarantia

The temple of Mitra

Difficulty: *****

Getting to the place that will allow you to attempt the jump is a feat of itself so that is why I gave it 5 stars.

I haven't seen any screenshots of this so I hope that I am the first one (most likely not) to squat on the Temple of Mitra and gaze mysteriously at the people below. The view is surprisingly very very good. The temple itself opens up two routes so I am excited to explore that in the near future.

We are open

The forums are up thanks to no one else than Ayonyx who did all the server thingies that make forum do "go-go". I have no idea what he did, basiclly magic, ancient and black one most likely. For that Ayonyx I thank you.

http://forum.assassinshideout.com

Anywho I am super excited for the forums and for the potential it might hold for us.
Still, there is a work to be done and I am not the man to do it (hell, I am already paying for this shit :P)

I really really do hope that some poor sucker master will prepare the forum theme and gfx.

Now for the forum rules:
I am all about disscusion here and I am open to suggestions. Tasaio suggested an open forum so the Funcom itself could gather the feedback. Seems reasonable.
I myself have only 1 rule and 1 request: no trolling on the forum - it will be heavly moderated and I will be giving away the mods to atleast several people.
The request is: I would love for every forum member to have it's character's face in avatar. Don't ask me why, it somehow makes the poster seem more "real".
I will be keeping the boards list very short: pvp and pve and general for crafting, gear, rants etc. There is nothing I hate more than forums with +billion empty boards.

Now please register and speak your mind.

it's all downhill from here

Compadres,

It is imperative that we crush the freedom fighters before the start of the rainy season. 

Oh, and by that I mean, of course, it's time for you to again voice your opinions on Private, totally elitists jerks forums for assassins only, hosted on this very site.

I must admit that I kind hoped that official sin forums would eventually pick up the slack and the trolls would be long gone. Well it seems like the only thread alive is [Suggestion] Tone down the Detonation and Buff the Sins armor. 

The assassins are now part of "overpowerd" crowd and any thread made on the boards will spark up an explosion of whining. I don't get it: I too think that some classes are bullshit, but I don't go on their boards and shit all over every thread. Who has the time and the ill will to continuously indulge in such activity? I am not going to point fingers, but you know who you are :D

Anywho, its pretty obvious that community that we have worked hard to maintain through 1.5 era is getting torn to pices (US boards on the other side are BOOMING with non-troll, assassin posts).

My question is (again): if I build assassin only, recomendation invite, troll free forums will you come and join the community build around it for the years to come?

drop me a line in the comments.

And remember, a shiny new donkey for whoever brings me the head of Colonel Montoya.