Sand and Jagged Rocks ep.4 - upcoming content

 I am here to bring you the latest and grates info on what is coming down the pipe:

The Coils of Ubah Kan dungeon looks like live ready (almost) and it is already itemized. Since I know that is all you care about here are some fresh screenies of epics and blues:

Assassin mask. I am not big fan of SDS armor design, but it beats HOC and Fort for sure.

Epics!

Assassin epic legs

More lootie

Let's look at new epic legs stats compared to the most commonly used Blades leggings of the hidden tomb 

Chaos pants

8 more armor

9 less const

468 cr + 25 dex = 468 +75 Combat Rating = 543 = 24 more combat rating

7 more hit rating

no difference in critical and critical damage ratings

So....seems like new Chaos legs are veeeeeerrrrrrrrry minor upgrade to Tomb legs.

The difference in health is +72 HP and whatever stamina loss from constitution is mitigated by +25 dex.

But we are talking here about +0.67 DPS difference, but still an upgrade and a way to gear up faster than "kill & pray" Yag runs.

The dungeon has several bosses and looks neat.

More so there is now a new quest in SDS that will reward you good blue pots for killing the bosses. I don't know if this will be an incentive alone to go into dungeons, but it's good that the Devs even thought about offering a little more than in Khitai.

What else do we know?

CirithGorgor Senior Designer

Hi, again thanks to everyone for the feedback, I'll take a look at the Unknown and make sure there are some changes done before this hits live. A quick note on the loot; there should be at least 1 guaranteed epic drop per dungeon run which can come from any of the sets, as well as a smaller chance of picking up epics elsewhere in the dungeon (including a possibility of from the trash (albeit very slim)). There is also a new quest you can pick up outside Coils of Ubah Kan and Sepulcher of the Wyrm, which will provide a consumable stat potion reward for completing it. We do realize that the itemization of the last few releases has not provided sufficient incentive to do the content (long term) and therefore your feedback is particularly appreciated in this regard for the Coils of Ubah Kan patch (including the repeatable quest).

This is great news, not only epic drops are guaranteed, but also clearing up trash can get you extra drops (like epic hands from Wyrm dungeon). Seems like Funcom decided to that Wyrm won't be re-designed (too bad IMO), but people will still be able to get it's loot via trash mobs in Coils (source).

But the exciting news keep on coming:

07-15-2013, 02:21 PM

#13

CirithGorgor Senior Designer

The final version of the Coils of Ubah Kan dungeon is now on the Test Live servers, this includes all the loot for the dungeon (including an additional quest with loot to complete both dungeons in the Dragon's Spine playfield). This version will be staying on Test Live so that we are able to get feedback particularly on the itemization, because as we realize the itemization of some of our last releases has not provided sufficient incentive to go there; we really want to buck that trend with this dungeon (without making it better than T4 of course). Therefore any feedback on the dungeon loot is particularly appreciated and important to us. As mentioned in the last GD letter we are looking at longer term solutions for itemization for later releases. What it does mean is that the dungeon will be on testlive for a couple of weeks so that we can acquire sufficient feedback; while I do understand it can be frustrating that the content does not go live when its so close to being finished I do think it will provide a better experience in the long term if we do take the time to get the loot right first and really provide something polished and balanced. Of course this does not mean we are just sitting around doing nothing while this dungeon is on testlive. Other content is in production at the same time and while you may not see the immediate benefits of that it should mean we can get the next batch of content (revamped & unchained versions of Halls of Eternal Frost, the Scorpion Caves and The Caravan Raiders Hideout) onto test live not too long after Coils goes live. (This is in addition to other unannounced content which is being worked on too). and FYI I'm not taking any vacation this summer, nor do I spend my time on TSW (I'm dedicated to this project).

We get to learn a lot from this post:

1. Funcom is aware of itemization problem.
2. Funcom is working on new content that we don't know anything about yet! I can't imagine that it is PVE content (with so so soooooooooo many dungeons coming) so it might just be....*gasp* ARENA SYSTEM???
3. At least 1 Funcom Dev is dedicated to Age of Conan only and he doesn't slack during summer (wow, just WOW!).

(source).

What about the mergers? According to this thread paid server character transfers are as of now disabled because of pending merge. This was supposedly confirmed my a GM.

Mergers in September? Could be!
There you have it. I think there is a lot to be looking forward to.