Assassin's Hideout

Slith's cheesy exploration guide ep. 9

2012-01-28T07:21:00.000-08:00

"Know, O Prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars (...) But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west." - The Nemedian Chronicles

If you wanted to explain to someone what the exploration is all about in Age of Conan THIS is the place to show. I have decided to open my own "Cheesy Tours" agency and I have taken two tourists on a wild trip to the hidden city outside the Old Taratnia. We had Morgothday (Demo) and Vehl the Conqueror. It turned out to be vital that Vehl was present because we were constantly abusing his resurrection ability whenever Morgoth had slight issues with making the jump. Yes, you can resurrect someone up the building or even cliff :D.

The first part was easy: it was same route that I used in ep.4. Then we have managed to get on the other side of the buildings and finally reached the end of the wall. Here is the tricky part: you have to be absurdly precise to land in just the right spot. If you can make the jump you will survive with 600 HP left, if you miss the stone you are supposed to land on - you get splattered. Needless to say both of my companions were shortly no more than two mangled corpses. Then I have came up with devious idea: I ran to the guild city, bought death charms (1g per pop), climbed back up, made another (luckly) successful jump and resurrected the Conqueror with the charm. Once the Vehl was up Morgothday soon followed. I gotta say that getting to this spot back in 2009 was absurdly easy because all you had to do is jump into the river near the docks in OT, swim up and you could freely explore. Since then Funcom patched up that place TIGHT so I am very humbled that I could see whole map again and even show it to others.

After short ride we have reached the hidden city (old, unused content from 2008). Sadly we got foolishly stuck in geometry soon after so the rest of the screenshots are from my personal collection.

The Hidden City

Difficulty: ****

Very hard to perform due to the jump at the end. A lot of opportunities for mistakes. Great journey to take with your mates.

My player versus player evolution

2012-01-27T06:49:00.000-08:00

Seeing how close I am to pure, mini game grown pvp lvl 10 made me think about my own, personal progression as an active pvp player in Age of Conan. Did anything change in my style, tactics, builds - the works? Well, it most certainly has.

The controls

I am still using same setup which is G110 gaming keyboard and MX 518 mouse (known as G400 now). Right off the bat: G110 keyboard is a gimmick. I haven't found a SINGLE useful application of this gaming gear that goes beyond what regular "trash" keyboard can do. Perhaps "Microsoft key" locker is a nice feature, but I am always pulling those keys out of any keyboard (yes, with a dagger!). The MX 518 is no gimmick thou, it is quite essential to my gaming. So much that I have 2 spare, mint condition mices in my drawer, just in case (TM). Yes, I have broken one MX mouse before and can't imagine playing AOC with anything else. That is the curse of veterans you see, our brains are so wired to "tried and true" gaming gear that I don't think I could have switched to anything else and not bitten my own hand in frustration at the same time. I am using mouse buttons to execute all my combo steps plus some other stuff. Logitech software really allows for total customization of buttons. Over the years I have tried the legendary Nostromo gaming pad, but it lacked the essential "alt" key under my thumb.I have returned the pad to the store and got a refund.

Few weeks ago I have tried to swap some abilities with another with same key setup, but it has proven itself to be inefficient. I am quite sure that I have a solid key setup and I am not missing anything.

As for my UI I am using standard AOC UI. Weird huh? I just find it very clear and see no need to mess around with other UIs out there. The unique thing is that I have put one bar in vertical position in the right corner of my screen. I have put all my abilities, CCs and miasmas there so I can quickly glance over what is available to me in a given scenario. I think this one change made the biggest impact on my performance many years ago.

The tactics

I think I have matured as a player over the years. My goal in minigames now is to win and not slaughter for the most kills. Optimally I can do both. One big change is that I am constantly trying to grab the flag, something that I have despised in my younger, salad days. Having both accelerated and lotus overdose can grant you unparalled speed and massive stamina boost. No other class can measure up to that. Sadly I am using avatar based hybrid, but still taking advantage of that accelerated buff. Assassins should go more for the flag. Really, nothing feels as satisfying as you rushing with the flag to your base only to see enemy tank already in progress of picking up your flag. What do you do? From the darkness that fucker and during your charge animation you will score. Happened to me several times. Great stuff.

I often encourage scenario in which I am dueling the opponent during the minigame. As you can imagine more often than not his team mates will come in and not be very respectful of our dueling. This is one of my weaknesses. The weak spot is epeen.

The behavior

I have defiantly more relaxed, laid back, but still competitive approach to my gaming. I will always try to do my best, but I have learned to accept that sometimes you will end up with a group that might slightly underperform and thus get.. murdered. When it is only a disadvantage and the difference in performance is not humongous I will fight the good fight to the end. If it is a slaughter? I will leave the minigame rather to be frustrated by it. You have to keep your sanity. I am also more "troll-proof" for I have mastered the fine art of ignoring. I try not to get into any chat-fights and if someone whispers me with something obscene, insulting or just rude I will kindly inform them that I don't want to talk to them, and that from now on they are on the ignore list. Yep, my ignore list is quite long. Corpse jumping is a behavior that I simply cannot accept, but it no longer gets under my skin. It is all about sportsmanship. Yes, it is a game, but also a competitive environment, so I cannot see why I should behave differently here than in other competitive scenarios I get thrown in. My real life job is set in very competitive enviroment where very clear win-lose scenarios are happening on a daily basis. In this job virtually no team work is present (or needed) and it is you that either win or lose. Could it be the reason I am naturally drawn to the PVP? Well, we all know what is best in life, right?

The builds

I am not alternating my builds anymore. Current state of the assassin doesn't really support vide spectrum of viable choices and so I have settled for the avatar based hybrid. I have learned to pick and play only the build that gives me confidence. For example Lotus based build with 6 points in general tree just makes sense: it is rich in power and anti CC. But the avatar hybrid is a power horse and one that runs from no man. While lotus hybrid might struggle with soldier class the avatar knows no bounds. Sure, avatar is not without its flaws, but assassin is about efficiency - not cloak and dagger bullshit and gimmicks. Yes, we all like to maintain that romantic image of assassin jumping out of the shadows, doing what the Brittle Blade worships "the clean kill, the silent kill, the untraceable kill". Bah, that is rarely true in cold day-to-day pvp and when virtual metal hits the pixel flesh you better have the tools you need to make it bloody, loud and fully traceable your dagger wielding ass in the kill score.

I have also decided to specialize a little more and changed my stance on pvp perks and went from damage assassin to critical hits assassin when in comes to perks.

So there you have it: 30% more to ding pvp lvl 10 and I am fully ready to embrace whatever future PvP content that is coming down the pipe. One thing is sure: I am here to stay. Old love never rusts.

[Guide] Shadows of Jade Sanctuary

2012-01-22T05:36:00.000-08:00

Shadows of Jade are no mere thiefs and so their hideout "the sanctuary" lives up to its name.

Apart from being visually stunning this place is really well "guarded" by the walls and cliffs so the only way to gain access to this place is via "official" entrance. But finding the entrance can be a feat of itself. I remember how I used to pull my theeth in frustration trying to get inside the sanctuary. However once you have figured out the easy way to do this you will be suprised that you ever had troubles with this. Checked the video for details.

What makes your character yours?

2012-01-19T14:11:00.000-08:00

I am constantly amazed with how many different approaches people have when it comes to MMOs and and their characters. Everything from naming to color of the skin is usually well thought out...or not since the player might just not care. I want to talk a little about my personal style and what I have seen so far:

Number of characters: It is very common for MMO player to have several alts. By several I mean 2-4. This number allows people to play different classes, but at the same time to have decently geared toons. On the extreme side there is me: I only have 1 character and 1 only. Regardless what game I am playing I am feeling that every minute of playing counts and should be accumulated towards further progressing your character (AA system that came with Khitai rewards this behavior). If I have 2 characters that means I have to split my time and for some reason I am very uncomfortable with this.There is also a condition called "altisis" which is a state in which player creates alts almost compulsively. I personally know a guy that has 2 accounts so he can store his absurd number of alts. Ever thought about having two guardians: one for raiding and one for pvp? No? Me neither.

Name: I simply cannot play character with poor name. One could argue that "Slith" is not a master pice, but you can hiss it nicely through the teethes and people seem to remember it. On the extreme side people will go with most absurd names "for the heck of it". Usually on the RP servers players will go with name that don't mean anything, but sound "kinda fantasy". Ever met Shadror, Akhen, Melkal, Budhr, Jeale, Zaihe, or Kaile? I could keep going with those name since I am pulling them straight out of my ass. You come up with first 2 letters to get your going and then fill the rest with random letters. Works like a charm.

Appearances: Players tend to create idealistic versions of typical fantasy hero. Men are tall and muscular beyond belief and women and beautiful and slender. I really like more realistic approach. My characters are never too tall or buffed. I also like too add, if possible, some kind of flaw to the general appearance: with Slith I went for scared face. For some reason my MMO characters have blond hair. On the extreme side I have seen very few "freaking ugly" characters. Age of Conan really allows to create some hideous faces, but very few people dig abusing that. From what I heard back in beta very fat toons were possible to made, but FC changed that (same story is true for WoW).

Sex: Male. A lot of male players create female characters because they want to "stare at something nice when they are playing" (digital butt). Since I am treating my character like a kind of an avatar it would weird me out to be playing as girl. Do girl gamers create male characters so they can stare at them? Somehow I doubt it. Prove me wrong?

Race: First and foremost it is human in all games. Second thing: it is white human. Again it the "avatar" factor kicks in and it weirds me out to be playing as Khitaian or Stygian. The character must "reflect" me in some ways.

For those reasons I am feeling very attached to the character, more than to the game itself. I

f I have lost my toon I doubt I would have continue my journey in Hyrboria.

[Guide] Golden Perks

2012-01-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

There are 3 corner stones to assassindom: choking powder, cover of the dusk and master assassins. What say you? There is no such a word like "assassindom"? Urban dictionary thinks that too, but I say that you NEED all of those 3 perks to truly unlock the potential of assassin class. Perhaps then you will get the whole meaning behind "assassindom".

In this guide I will go over those perks and, based on my experience, give you few hints on their application in solo PVE, group PVE and PVP.

Before we go any further I want to make one thing clear: my criteria for perks are "what does it do" and "how well does it do it". There are other perks that will perform extremely good in their own niche (for example castration does wonders for you shard management), but I am looking for perks that are so universally applicable that become the very core of you assassin. You see, each time when I have had perks like the Sins of Flesh or Castration it felt like having extra finger: it was great when I needed to....you know what, this analogy is going nowhere so I am cutting it short: those combos are poor replacement for what you already have (Swift Strikes) and what you have doesn't really needs replacing. The other crap is so underpowered it is not worth even mentioning here.

Without further ado:

Choking powder - a lot has changed since my last guide. Choking powder is no longer instant, the silence is extremely short and what is left is interrupt.

Solo PVE - I have found choking powder to be irreplaceable for solo PVE. There are many mobs that are, in fact, casting spells and abilities (Yun, Children, Scholars, Scarlets are all casters). You can DPS your target right till the end of his casting and then deny the mob the damage he could have done to you. It also have nice cone damage so you can affect several mobs at once. With this perk I am able to slaughter the mages in the Refuge of Apostate and even pull whole room of them (the one after maze). This also works wonders on solo bosses. The big ape and spider bosses in the Isle of Iron Statues can be interrupted with CP and, considering the ape hits hard like a truck, you will be glad to be having this perk with you. Besides, I am finding the mobs to be already dieing fast enough and I need that little extra something to keep my character alive when going toe-to-toe with the more hard hitting ones. This is my solo PVE perk of choice.

Group PVE - not many applications here. Sure, it is nice to interrupt instance/raid mobs here and there, but the bosses are resisting choking powder thus making it useless in group PVE scenario

PVP - I have been using choking powder in PVP for a very very long time. Hell, I haven't seen another assassin with choking powder as I recall it. The problem is that this perk is extremely situational. Interrupting DT/Barbarian stun feels great, but I can remember games when I hardly used the CP for either lack of spare shards or lack of good moments to drop it in. If I didn't have master assassin then I would have been still using CP in group PVP and I would think twice whether to bring it to a duel or not.

Cover of the dusk - hands down the coolest perk there is when it comes to visual effect. It turns your character's body into black shade and there is also neat, pulsating dark aura. Not only this perk lowers your own aggro output, but also helps your tanks to keep it.

Solo PVE - this perk gives mere 7,5% evade chance (apart from aggro management) which is way to little to be viable in any solo encounters. Perhaps if it was around 30% I would consider it as a CP replacement.

Group PVE - amazing addition that will take any assassin from "DPS monkey" to a silent professional that keeps aggro where it belongs: with tank. This perk can be used in 3 ways. Preventive aspect of COD is using it before you hit the target with your biggest guns. Reactive aspect is helpful when you get aggro and you want to shake it off. If you have cat's paw + expanded sidestep then even without considering your gear's stats you are looking at around 60% evade which might just be enough to save your hide one more time. The last usage is activating COD when someone else catches too much aggro: you won't be able to lower it, but with COD's aura your tank will generate much more aggro than he would have been normaly able to.This is my group PVE perk of choice.

PVP - no applications whatsoever

Master Assassin - took me a while to finally recognize the power of this beast. You see Rise of the Godslayer brought in Khitai gear and PVP +5 gear. Those have 1 thing in common: critigation stat. Critigation = mitigation of critical hits. This stat is absolutely vital for PVE progression in Khitai and it makes ocean of difference in PVP. To combat this stat "tenacity" has been added as well. Tenacity stat gives percentage of added damage from your critical hits that cannot be mitigated by your opponent's Critigation Amount. With my minigame PVP set and Master Assassin perk I have 105% Tenacity making my critical hits always sink in, rather than be soaked up.The perk itself gives 50% tenacity so you gotta get the rest from your gear, but it is well worth it.

Solo PVE - I have read people's posts swearing that its "helpful" in solo PVE, but as far as I know mobs don't have critigation. Therefor tenacity doesn't affect the mobs in any way. Period.Proof? Only PVP gear has tenacity stat.

Group PVE - I have read people's posts swearing that its "helpful" in solo PVE, but as far as I know mobs don't have critigation. Therefor tenacity doesn't affect the mobs in any way. Period. Proof? Only PVP gear has tenacity stat.

PVP - Master Assassin (that is freaking cool name too) is passive so it is always there for you, in the background, working it's magic. I can really tell the difference when I am fighting anything above Barbarian, but even cloth users can be softened up. My character, for example, has almost 33% critigation amount and if you take that away what is left is just fancy "paper" armor with 14% mitigation.
This is my PVP perk of choice.

1 year review - 2011

2012-01-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

Another year went by so it is time to get savage with 1 year review of Age of Conan development.

First lets go over the most important patches:

Update Notes 2.1.2 - 18th January - the so called guardian mini-revamp. Guardian still does absurd amount of burst damage so I don't really see big difference there.

Update Notes 2.1.3 – Dreamworld Technology Update - this update brought many bells and whistles when it comes to visual eye-candy, but performance is not the name of the game. Hell, I am still stunned that my computer, despite of having card advertised as "the card to be playing AOC on", runs the game worst than it did pre-dreamworld update. This patch also introduced us to "Improved PVP mini-game & matchmaking balancing" which to this day is a joke.

Update Notes 2.1.8 - 7th of April - The refuge of apostate is introduced to Kara Korum zone. Delicious solo experience and one that I am still enjoying.

Update Notes 2.2 - 4th of May - The Ai District and the T’ian’an Distric went live. Visually very pleasing, but overall needlessly hard and thus not really all that popular. Faction Progression system in Khitai is revamped and upgraded from "this is retarded" to "it should have been like this since day one". Very positive change, but implemented way too late to keep large chunk of players interested in ROGS.This update also brought Crowd Control Revamp with tweaks to duration, cast time, range, immunities or max targets of each CC ability. These changes also included an additional step for most combos which has been added to the starter step.

Update Notes 2.6 – 30th of June - Age of Conan goes free to play as Age of Conan: Unchained. The model, for my taste, is well balanced and implemented. I have stayed as premium subscriber and will continue to buy subscription in the future. Cash shop has wide variety of items and I am often buying small buffing pots. Long awaited "vanity armor tab" makes into the game. I consider it a SMASHING success and no 1 addition to AOC in 2011. Solo dungeons called “The Breach” and “The Forgotten City” are added to Gates of Khitai zone. Khitai faction item's prices are reduced further making ROGS content more enjoyable and accessible.

New PvP Server Ruleset: “Blood and Glory” - 7th of July - complete and utter failure of B&G server due to players going after PVE rewards to gain an edge in pvp. For example freshly dinged assassin would go and farm KK hard modes to easily gain 6 epic armor pieces, 2 epic daggers and a loads of mastery points. On max level people were rather looking for more PVE than engaging in PVP. Lack of solid pvp content on max level also played huge role in that. Seems like B&G just came in too early. Interesting idea, but very poorly executed.

Update Notes 3.0 (Savage Coast of Turan) – 31st August - first addon pack for the Age of Conan:Unchained. Seems like it will be the new model for the Funcom since in Q2 of 2012 we can expect another addon. The Turan zone looks very well done, but making in lvl50 zone rather than max lvl was not the best idea. The pack also brought Iron Statues Isle solo instance (superb quality and gameplay) and group PVE content in a form of Tier 3.5 raid. The high light of this patch was the complete combo revamp and combo skipping exploit fix. This was really game braking exploit for a very long time and many welcomed it with open arms. This exploit fix also, as a consequence of melee damage nerf, made casters and rangers the best killing machines in PVP scenarios.

Update Notes 3.1 - 13th of December - another engine & data base patch. Not only this patch took for ever to go live, but it aslo has brought bugs that are still haunting players in 2012.

And now the regular "1 year review" template:

Crafting - crafting stood still in 2011. Nothing happened. Funcom wrote that the whole crafting system is getting teared down and build up from scratch. It is 1/10 for me since what we have now is beyond bad, but there is a hope for the future.
Rating: 1/10

Itemization - Big improvement. With Refuge and Iron Statues solo dailies everyone can get their hard mode tokes and build up their armor sets. The Khitai progression revamp also made MOAs more available without extensive grind. One can only hope for more open world, random drops so it is not at 10 out 10.
Rating: 9/10

PVP minigames - no changes. Still you cannot sign up with a group, still you will get ticked off by afkers and as a result of mergers there are more and more players that doesn't know a word in English. I was enjoying minis LESS in 2011.
Rating: 5/10

PVP XP and progression- With the addition of cash shop players can not only catch up with others faster (with pvp xp pots), but also can instantly obtain pvp lvl5 armor buy paying for it. Now I know that a lot of people are upset by this, but seriously you can get better armor buy doing less than 2 weeks of Khitai (yes! It is that easy) and if someone wants to just jump into the pvp with their under geared alt this is the way to go. I am taking 1 point away because no changes to Bori were made.
Rating: 9/10

Class balance - the combo exploit fix was pretty awesome and I cannot imagine how the hell I was enduring (not enjoying, enduring!) this game pre CC revamp. Definitely a solid improvement.

Nerf rangers -_-' .
Rating: 7/10

Open world PVP - Bori is here to stay. I am bumping the rating because Funcom disabled Bori on B&G server (not that it helped much...) and added looting system. Your opponents can now drop money, Bori tokens, rare potions and even armor pieces. With this system I got almost 1.500 Bori tokens out of minigames alone.
Rating: 3/10

Sieges - Still a feature that was supposed to be iconic for AOC ("experience epic siege battles!") but turned out to be poo on a stick.
Rating: 0/10 LEGENDARY FAIL

Guild diplomacy tools - There are none. There is no support for guilds and server politics in AOC. Come on! Alliance system! Where is that?
Rating: 0/10 LEGENDARY FAIL

Guild city - Nothing really happened in 2011 in terms of guild cities. The new renown levels are needed. I am taking away some points for slacking.
Rating: 7/10

RP support - Hard call. On one hand Funcom added vanity armor which made whole Hyboria more live-a-like, but at the same time the devs trashed every RP server and merged them with Fury and Crom. I haven't seen people RPing in the streets or taverns after merges. I miss that vibe.
Rating: 5/10

80lvl content for non Raiders - With 5 new solo instances there is plenty to do. With this 2011 addition Age of Conan became very casual friendly and more suited for it's population: people with jobs and responsibilities that want to squeeze some playtime here and there.
Rating: 9/10

Updates - Pretty good year with a horrible ending. At first we had constant stream of updates, but then we have hit the post Turan bottle neck with the database update. Definitely better than 2010, but still somewhat disappointing.
Rating: 6/10

Client improvements - the client improved a lot. The crashes, at least for me, are very very rare now. The performance leaves much to be desired thou.
Rating: 5/10

So to sum it up:

The good: the things that improved the most in 2011

- combo exploit fix

- CC revamp

- Khitai revamp

- vanity armor

- free to play model

The bad: the things that Funcom failed miserably at in 2011

- engine updates

- B&G server

- server mergers (putting together communities from couple different servers)

- Conan movie tie-in (but the movie was kinda horrible so I cannot blame Funcom for not making anything better that they did).

The ugly: the things that are still in game to haunt me

- poor crafting system

- non-existent player driven economy

- bugged sieges

- no group pvp content

Assassin lingo

2011-12-28T14:30:00.000-08:00

"I have KBed him and used LO with DWW and then followed with GC+SS and FC. Use that against hox and tos"

This is actual quote that I have seen on forums, posted as a tip for the newcomer.If I was that poor newb I would have been like: "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT".

So I have written this little guide to take you young cutters into the inner circle of Assassindom. First, as with all things, you have to learn the lingo. Hence here we are.

The most commonly used abbreviations:

Combos:
SDS - slow death strikes
SS - swift strikes (can also mean soul strike, see miasmas)
Kick - snap kick
GC - grim corruption
IL - impede life
GB, grave - grave's blossom
DWW, DW - death's whirlwind

CC and CC breakers:
CC - crowd control, effect that makes your opponent stuned, feared etc.
KB - knock back, can be applied via snap kick
Immunity - when lotus overload procs you are pretty much immiune to magic for 5s
OP - opportunistic strike (stun)
DG, gaze - death's gaze (fear)
Curse - curse of the lotus (fear)
EB - excellent balance

Buffs and Debuffs:
LO - lotus overload
Avatar - avatar of death
Kidney, KS - kidney shots
DP - dull pain
Burden, B2B - burden to bear (armor debuff)

Mechanics and Miasmas:
Shards, Souls - soul shards, those are consumed by miasmas and some combos, regenerated over time,
DoT - damage over time,
FS - face stab miasma
SS - soul strike miasma
Dart - lotus dart miasma
Buff - effect that makes your character stronger (like dull pain)
Debuff - effect that makes your character weaker (like armor ruin)
FTD - from the darkness (charge)
Explosion, Bomb, Detonation - essence detonation

Classes:
Sin - assassin
Hox - herald of xotli
Tos - tempest of set
Guard - guardian
Pom - priest of Mitra
Demo - demonologist
Necro - necromancer
Pet - usually necromancer's pets
Barb - barbarian
Conq - conqueror
DT - dark templar

Minigames:
HV, vault - hallowed vault
LT, temple - lost temple
BR - blood ravine
Totem, TT - totem torrent
SAG - The Call of Jhebbal Sag

PVE vs PVP

2011-12-18T23:55:00.000-08:00

Can't get into PVE. And the picture is my character inside fat PVE boss. See what I did there? Cleverness! The issue is a little more serious thou. Recently I have given PVE a fair shake. How fair one? Done few hard modes, tried the district instances in Paikang and even went 3 times for the Toth-Amon tier 3 raid. I really wanted to enjoy those activities and to some extend I did. Hell, I even used my over the time training for the PVE cover of the dusk golden perk. I kinda regret it now.

The problem is that I don't enjoy group PVE all that much. I think I have just missed the social part of my gaming, you know, signing up on vent, talking to people. That experience is pretty alien to PVPers. Yeah, I am slowly becoming a sociopath. There are a couple of things that just don't click with me when it comes to group PVE and here the list:

Time investment - By Crom! PVE is just a time sink. What I love about PvP is that you can just do *click click* join a minigame, pwn or get pwned in 10-20 minutes tops and you are done. Done! I really enjoy that I can cut my playtime into pieces, so to speak, and enjoy the game in such a way that I can make my gaming fit my schedule and not the other way around: setting everything to fit the raiding time etc.The group instances can take quite a big chunk of time and the raiding is just absurd. For the first time in a couple of years I actually got into argument with my significant other over my gaming. "But I CAN'T just turn it off, we are on second boss!" Of course I haven't said that, but what I really like about PvP is the predictability. I can merely check the time and say: "I will be done in 4 minutes". With raiding? I can only check my watch and think "I should have been done like an hour ago".

"Remember, Time is a greedy player Who wins without cheating, every round!"
The Clock - Charles Baudelair

Effort investment - The "looking for MT and healer" stuff is killing me. Seems like a pure waste of time. I know that Age of Conan is pretty ancient with how LFG work, but still you cannot compare experience to what you are getting with minigames: click & join. True, if you get a good group for PVE the experience will be much more pleasurable than trying to handle your random team mates, but I will take my random group of non-existent group because I can't get that damn tank).

Fun factor - It seem like I am just not cut for the group pve. From what I understand PVE is very much about team effort. There is no place for "I" in the word "team". As a person I aim for individual achievements and I am not really a team player. Sure, there is a team effort in group PVP, but it seems like in 6v6 or even 12vs12 I as a player have a significant impact on the outcome. In raiding I am just another "DPS monkey" and in group PVE it very much seems like the success or failure lies in the hands of tank and healer. I also very much enjoy the lore and story in my solo PVE. I literally read every bit of quest text. What I don't like in group PVE that everyone is RUSHING things: clickly clicky the NPC, get quest, rush in, bam bam the quest mobs, and we are done. Also I can get that sweet adrenaline rush whenever I am getting another player down, but I cannot seem to get same feeling when the Boss going down.

So there you have it. There is nothing wrong with Age of Conan group PVE content, but it seems like I am PVPer at heart. I am glad that I gave PVE a fair shake and will most likely try out new PVE stuff that will be coming out, but my daily gaming can only be PVP and that is the way I like it.

Update Notes 3.1 - 13th of December [Assassin]

2011-12-14T23:23:00.000-08:00

Assassin

The Corrupted Poison feat now also lowers the reuse time of the Grim Corruption combos.
Increased the finisher bonus damage of the Slow Death Strike combos.

Assassin's Hideout Podcast - ep.26

2011-12-12T13:44:00.001-08:00

show notes:

- patch 3.1 taking long
- AOC in 2012
- podcast on FTP and in mp3!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/516323/podcast/Assassins_hideout26.mp3

Edit: had some technical problems, the file is fucked up a bit :X.
Edit 1: the file is now hosted on dropbox.com

Age of Conan addon 2012?

2011-12-10T06:32:00.001-08:00

I have been thinking where the devs are going to take us in the next add on for Age of Conan. Hyboria is a very vast land (continent?) so there is plenty to pick from. Instead of trying to the the guessing I have decided to give you my top 4 wish list for the places I would like to see in Age of Conan

4. Vanaheim and Asgard - aesirs and vanirs are constantly raiding each others. I kinda miss the mountains in Age of Conan (haven't had a chance to visit them since last year's event) and it would be great chance for introducing two new factions to AOC. Since Funcom already used up the stuff from "Frost Gigant's daughter" story from REH it is very unlikely that we will see it.

3. Hyperborea - shrouded in mystery, high magic and decadence. It would have most interesting visuals for sure.

2. Zamora - with it's city of thieves: Shadizar. I am a bit tired of eastern themes in AOC, but I will like to visit this city for sure.

1. Nemedia - this is it! I want another epic struggle between Aquilonia and Nemedia, two mightiest countries of the dreaming west. You can see the very border of Nemedia and Aquilonia if you go to the Border Range instance. There are also two great stories from REH portraying the conflict between those empires: The Hour of The Dragon and Scarlet Citadel.

Nemedian armor

Nemedian architecture

Visit Border Range for a great place to RP in

World Drops

2011-12-08T12:26:00.001-08:00

I have always had 3 main issues with Age of Conan. First being the looks: everyone looked the same. Constantly looking at same, plain, dirty armor that everyone on your level is wearing. Luckily the vanity armor tab fixed that and now I am constantly amazed how creative people can get with their style.

Second thing is crafting. Lets not beat the dead horse here. Luckily, again, the current system is getting burned to the ground and rebuild from scratch. Last, but not least: the world drops.

Age of Conan has the hands down THE worst looting system I have ever seen. The worst. Pretty much all the mobs are dropping is trash, hardly worth picking up. I personally really like the world drops. To this day I remember my low level epic mace that dropped on my +30lvl Rogue in World of Warcraft many years ago. That felt great. I think that a large part of a pleasure that comes out of playing an MMO is that feeling of hope that perhaps, just perhaps, the next mob will drop something really good. When you could get epic weapons in the Villas people used to play those non-stop and there were no complains that it is boring or repetitive (hell, I like to re-visit those from time to time even now). Then the purple rain came. For those of you that weren't here in 2008 to experience it: the mobs in Potains (back then Potain was infestedwith demons for no reason whatsoever) were dropping blue weapons on each kill and epic weapons every couple of kills. It was insane, obvious bug. Funcom's solution? The removal of epic world drops from the game *face palm*.

With the Khitai expansion came the loot bags. Now, I like the very idea, but hate the execution. While epic weapons can pop out those bags (I have seen those on trader) it is very, very, very, very rare. That and the drops are not really comparable to vendor sold epics. I am running my Khitai quest rotation daily and on average I get about 12-15 bags (those advanced ones). To this day I got only about 5-8 BLUE weapons out of those. I think I have easily opened couple thousands of bags and got few mere blues. Great.

Room for improvements? I am not saying that mobs should shower players with epics (trust me, tried that with bugged demons and it gets boring fast :D), but player should be rewarded from time to time for his efforts. Social items, nicely looking blues, crazy mount, or even pet would have been welcomed.

If the crafting system was working I would have at least be pleased with the crafting materials drops. After 3 years I have 3 bank characters JAM PACKED with crafting stuff and that is after helping my guild reach renown lvl20 through crafting.

But seeing how vanity tab changed the game for the better (can imagine now playing without it) there is still hope that crafting will again turn the tables for Age of Conan.

What is the best stuff you have gotten out of your solo PVE in the open world in Age of Conan?

Get into (blogging) game

2011-11-26T00:38:00.001-08:00

Recently we have lost quite the number of Age of Conan bloggers. This takes me to the main issue of how little press coverage and media Age of Conan gets. Hint: very little. Looking back at what blogs we had I gotta mention:

http://aoaevii.blogspot.com/ - the grandfather of all blogs. If anything it gave me the idea of running class blog. Evii's writing was more of a "trial and error" type of guides, more of a journal if anything, where he was jotting his notes about his progression with the class.

http://kruellaofaoc.blogspot.com/ - the blog I loved for it's personalized touch on Age of Conan.Quite a few rants and insights about how the things were back in the days (of high adventure).I still do troll this blog by posting a comment about some major events in AOC.

http://ageofconanaddict.blogspot.com/ - now that was some major disappointment for me: the guy had such an energy to just go in and write his ass off. And yet here we are :X

http://irinirmusings.blogspot.com/ - a blog dedicated to conqueror's class. It had nice vibe, but it the end it seems like the author wasn't really all that into Age of Conan in the first place

http://templeofxotli.blogspot.com/ - a dear student of mine. Of all blogs this one had the potential to become this great, refined thing. Arcalimon had the dedication and the will to go on. Sad to see him go.

http://aocdeadlysins.blogspot.com - a very interesting and niche project. I have been following "deadly sins" with anticipation. Basically the blog was covering the whereabouts of assassin only guild.

And the honorable mention goes to this guy:http://www.aoconan.6x.to/ - "Our future is simple to expand, Recruit and to expand our knowledge to help our fast growing users of the website" indeed my good sir, truer words were never written...

If you are thinking about writing your own blog I highly recommend doing that. No, really do it. Here are few tips about the things I have learned the hard way:

1. Audience - don't get into blogging if you are not willing to write just for yourself. I find it very rewarding to just type in what I am thinking about and if someone reads that and enjoys it: great. When I started I had like 2-3 readers and now I have about 200 page hits per day. Even if all of you were gone I would still have kept doing it because "one bitten, forever smitten". That is how we roll in the bloggosphere (I HATE that word).

2. Content - I think most people have problems with finding the stuff to write about. Lets face it: Age of Conan ain't WoW, baby, and if you are going to rely only on re-posting official news you are not only going to bore your readers to death, but also starve your blog and end up like http://aocblog.com/ (prime example of what not to do). My rule of thumb is: share knowledge and opinions. Those are the two things that people are really interested in: finding crucial piece of information about their class that will help them to improve the game play experience or read some one's rants and that they hopefully agree with (if not they can always rage in the comments). Don't be afraid to post things that you think are nothing out of ordinary, you don't have to be in world's first T4 Emperor kill to write something interesting. Hell, if anything I am enjoying those "oh-not-so-epic" tales written by low level players that are taking their first steps in Hyborian kingdoms.

3. Persistence - if you are going to write then STICK with it.Just like with everything else by re-engaging in the activity on regular basis you will develop habit. If you are going to do 3 posts in 2 days and then go silent for 2 months then no one (except some crazy weirdos like me) are going to ever read your crap again.

4. Enjoy it - this is the last, but not least. This is not your second job, this is not your future carrier or gateway to "Internetz famez". It should, optimally, be something that you really enjoy doing. If you have this creative side of you that is screaming to get out then this is great opportunity to express yourself. The blog gives me a chance to vent some feeling about a game (it sounds super geeky, but we all got angry at a game at one point),criticize things that I don't like, give my appreciation to things that I love (so it is not "once I did wrong and that I am hearing ever, twice I did right and that I am hearing never") and finally share whatever knowledge I can with other players. I like giving tips inside the game when someone asks for help simply because I like helping people. The blog lets me to do same thing, but, hopefully, on a larger scale. These things I enjoy.

Yeah, that is about it, the four key factors. I highly encourage you to at very least give it a shot. Hit the "create a blog" button and give me your thoughts - I dare you.

Guess who finds out about PvP World Bosses :D

2011-11-15T10:33:00.001-08:00

[Guide] Lotus Dart miasma

2011-11-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the most misunderstood miasma of all: the lotus coated dart is also known as lotus dart. When lotus dart is used with Slow Death Strikes it creates DoT called Lotus Toxin: Deadly Venom, and if Grim Corruption effect is present the Lotus Dart will trigger Lotus Toxin: Grim essence. Wow that is a lot of lingo to memorise!

This is why people refer to both of those effect as simply "Lotus Dart" calling each of those "Lotus Toxins" as Lotus Dart + SDS (slow death strikes) or Lotus Dart silence (lotus dart + GC).

Lotus Dart
This miasma is our only ranged attack. I mean "attack" is really too big of an word: on it's own, without any poison present, it puts a DOT on your target and ticks for mere couple of hundred damage. Really, you can call yourself lucky if you get 500 dmg out it if. In comparison other miasmas are superior: face stab on it's own does 1 x damage which can easily crit over 1000 dmg (on players!) and soul strike can crit up to 600, but more importantly it applies holy/unholy debuff that can be stacked. So what can you do with lotus dart alone?

Pulling - I find it a great tool to pull mobs with out switching to cross bow. It is very fast (instant) and has quite a reach.

Chasing - it can be useful if you are chasing after someone in open world PVP. If your opponent runs long enough unmolested he can re-stealth which pretty much makes your kill go bye-bye. Throw lotus dart at him and he will again be marked as in PVP so not being able to enter stealth.

Lotus dart + crossbow - man, that is REALLY reaching for it, but yeah the sweetest kills you can get in PVP are those made with crossbow and since you can use your dart while holding and shooting crossbow why not add those pitiful damage numbers to whatever you can do with your ranged attacks.

Killing critters - nothing like using dart on chickens...*sigh*

Lotus dart + SDSIf the dot from SDS if present on the target (it will stay only for 5 seconds) and Lotus Dart is used then SDS dot is consumed and replaced by two new dots: Deadly Venom and Lotus Dart crappy dot. What is the main difference between SDS dot and Deadly Venom apart from damage? Well SDS does unholy damage and Deadly Venom is poison damage which means it is checked against armor. This means that deadly venom will take advantage from armor debuffs like burden to bear. Back when patch 1.6 that brought assassin revamp was on test server deadly venom did so massive and constant damage that your screen was almost blocked by flying damage numbers. It was nerfed pretty badly. Nevertheless it is still a very potent DOT. You can get 2 upgrades for this:

Steeped Lotus Extract - +15% damage and +10 spell critical chance. It is decent, but essence detonation gets one more stat which is Spell Critical Chance. This is why detonation based builds are turning out more devastating damage. It is decent upgrade, if you are going to invest heavily in lotus tree then take it.

Baneful venom - this is a second dot that gets added along with SDS dot. The trick is that Lotus Dart consumes only SDS dot and Baneful venom will stay. I like this upgrade.

Vile Corruption - this adds instant unholy damage when SDS dot is consumed by Lotus Dart. It is like mini (and I say MINI) detonation on top of your dot. I like this upgrade better than Baneful venom because it also works great with Face Stab. Face stab does instant damage and this Vile Corruption is in sync with it since it is also instant which creates great spike.

When to use Lotus Dart with SDS
After essence detonation - as explained in previous post about essence detonation it leaves the target softened up and vulnerable. Both armor debuff & poison debuff help the Deadly Venom poison damage and unholy debuff help SDS dot damage and Baneful Venom/Vile Corruption damage. This is why opening fight with essence detonation is superior to any other combination.

When the target has low armor - with armor up to medium lotus dart will have better effect than with heavy/full plate.

When there is high chance the target will run - I wouldn't count on Dark Templar running away from assassin, but you can pretty much expect this from ranged casters and rangers. The problem is that your target can be running away as you are going through your grim corruption animation which means the opponent will be far out of reach of your soul strike miasma. Same is not true for lotus dart: not only you can use SDS rank II to apply DOT super fast (it has no effect on how strong the DOT from dart will be), but also with dart's super long reach you will still be able to consume the dot with your miasma.

When target is trying to pick up a flag - nothing interrupts picking up the flag than constant DOT damage

Lotus Dart + Avatar of Death - DOT's ticks provide great, constant stream of healing if you have Avatar of Death running.

Lotus Dart silence (lotus dart + GC)
It lasts mere 3 seconds. Really, it is a waste most of the times. I guess it has it's uses when it is bundled with SDS so your opponent has both DOT and silence on him, but when it comes to quickly silencing your enemy I still favor Choking powder perk

Second assassin advocate steps down

2011-11-01T03:57:00.000-07:00

FURYBlakhart, action movie star, philanthropist and raider has made this announcement:

Not going to go into huge amounts of detail but I wanted to let the Sin Community know I have told Sil, Funcom, etc that I am no longer going to be the sin advocate and will probably not renew my sub past its current cycle.

In short; too many issues with varying aspects of the game and also trying to rationalize spending the extra time not only playing the game but also doing the Advocate stuff vs real life.

It's been great fun and this has been one of the better communities around in my opinion.

Hope for those who are enjoying the game that you continue to do so and have fun!

Take it easy everyone.

-Shadow-

This was our second and only advocate after Chillwhisper who quited long time ago.

Personally I am very surprised because I have always considered FURY one of the die hards. I am sure that real life stuff was a major factor in his decision however his bitterness about the state of the game is also evident (which I find totally justified).

Live long and prosper FURY, you will be missed.

You can check more on FURY in this interview I did with him a while ago.

When barbarian becomes a king

2011-10-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

I love re-reading Conan stories by REH. I find myself noticing those little informations about Hyboria that I have missed the first time and more so references to the real, historical events that most likely inspired Mr. Howard. Mind you Howard claimed that the Conan simply "materialized" in his mind as if Howard was indeed experiencing glimpses of the prehistoric past. This is, of course, not true considering how many elements of Hyboria are lifted from our history...but then again history likes to repeat itself, doesn't it? And the Conan stories do feel like REH was merely writing down tales told to him in random order, by a seasoned adventurer (this is what author claimed). Going back to the topic: so how did Conan become the king?

I am pretty sure that he had to be a high ranked commander in Aquilonian army to gain popularity

When I led her armies to victory as a mercenary, Aquilonia overlooked the fact that I was a foreigner, but now she can not forgive me.

- Phoenix on the sword

During his carrier Conan served in many armies often gaining rank of general so at his later age he was not only an able fighter, but also a competent commander:

    He was a professional fighting-man. In search of
    employment (he said) he had come to Keshan. For a price he would train
    the armies of Keshan and lead them against Punt, their hereditary
    enemy, whose recent successes in the field had aroused the fury of
    Keshan's irascible king.

    The proposition was not so audacious as it might seem. Conan's fame
    had preceded him, even into distant Keshan;

- Jewels of Gwahlur

For me it is pretty obvious that Conan has stormed the Old Tarantia with Aquilonian forces that were loyal to him. He was, after all, a very popular commander because even as a King he fought in the first lines along with his troops. It is pretty obvious that one cannot choke to death the king of the mightiest kingdom of the west if he is not backed up by thousands of swords. But there is another interesting thing that Conan mentions:

Looking back now over the wild path I followed, all those days of toil, intrigue,

slaughter and tribulation seem like a dream.

- Phoenix on the sword

People often think that Conan was this straightforward and brutally honest barbarian, incapable of cooking up any scheme or intrigue . That might have been true for the young Conan.

The Cimmerian glared about, embarrassed at the roar of mocking laughter that greeted this remark. He saw no particular humor in it, and was too new to civilization to understand its discourtesies

- Tower of the Elephant

But in fact in his mercenary days Conan was proficient enough to understand and exploit politics, faction's struggle and was already reaching for the power:

You will like Tombalku ! It was made for men like us to loot! There are half a dozen powerful factions plotting and intriguing against each other - there are continual brawls in the taverns and streets, secret murders, mutilations and executions. (...) I am high in favor and power!

- Drums of Tombalku

Going back to the comic that really inspired this post I find it very naive to present Conan as savior of Aquilonia, a man that "saw, came and conquered" because poor Aquilonians were oppressed by a mad man. He did it simply because he could and wanted to. His ambition was to carve out an empire of his own which he attempted for the first time, I believe in "The Vale of Lost Women" when he was war chief of Bamulas.

When King Numedides lay dead at my feet and I tore the crown from his gory head and set it on my own, I had reached the ultimate border of my dreams.

- Phoenix on the sword

Here is where the comics books idolize Conan as this romantic hero that slew Numedies pretty much in self defence (when Conan's back was turned Numedies rushed him with a dagger). Conan killed him because that is what you do when you are taking throne by force. He mentions this in "Scarlet Citadel"

I climbed out of the abyss of naked
barbarism to the throne and in that climb I spilt my blood as freely
as I spilt that of others

- The Scarlet Citadel

I am strongly suspecting that Conan was serving in Aquilonian army with a sole intent of one day reaching for the throne. This is something that he did before - numerous times. In "A Witch Shall Be Born" he joined Olgerd Vladislav and his Kozaki forces only to later become the chief, break Olgerd's arm and banish him to the desert. In "The Pool of the Black one" Conan climbs aboard of the Wastrel, a ship under the command of Zaporavo with an intend to kill the Captain Zaporavo and take over the crew.

"A ship can always use another good sailor," answered the other
without resentment. Zaporavo scowled, knowing the truth of that
assertion. He hesitated, and doing so, lost his ship, his command,
his girl, and his life. But of course he could not see into the
future, and to him Conan was only another wastrel,

- The Pool of the Black One

Now about Numedides himself: he very much resembles Nero of ancient Rome.

"Now in Mitra's temple there come to burn incense to Numedides' memory, men
whom his hangmen maimed and blinded, men whose sons died in his dungeons, whose
wives and daughters were dragged into his seraglio. The fickle fools!"

He idealizes the king whom Conan killed to get the crown,
remembering only that he occasionally patronized the arts, and forgetting the
evils of his reign,

- Phoenix on the sword

Nero's rule is often associated with tyranny and extravagance. He is known for many executions, including those of his mother and the probable murder by poison of his stepbrother, Britannicus. Nero enjoyed driving a one-horse chariot, singing to the lyre, and poetry

- Nero, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Recently I have also found some other reference to ancient Rome which might be a bit far fetched, but REH mixed and matched so many events of history and civilizations that you can never be sure:

State persecution of Christians ceased in the 4th century, when Constantine I issued an edict of toleration in 313. On 27 February 380,

- Christianity From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Why should you risk your lives for me?" asked the king.

"You were our friend when you sat upon your throne," answered Hadrathus. "You protected us when the priests of Mitra sought to scourge us out of the land."

- The Hour of the Dragon

So Conan protected the followers of Asura from persecution. The temples of Asura were hidden in Old Tarantia just as Christians in the Rome had their secret gathering places. Both of those religions were considered a cult at some point.

Lore whore

2011-10-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

art by Frank Frazetta

Not the best title of the post, but it will have to do. With the recent...shall we say..stagnation of Age of Conan I feel the need to change the focus of this blog just a little bit, otherwise you will get nothing, but constant stream of rants about how bad the things are. Sure I will be doing guides and regular stuff (I have few posts lined up like the lotus dart and penetration guide), but I want to explore a little bit the lore section of Hideout. I am big lore fan (or "whore" is you must) . I won't be covering any "basic", well known stuff, but rather give you my thoughts about all the things that are not obvious when you are reading the books for the first time. For example: assassins in the lore. Yep, if you read the books really carefully you will find some references about those men of the most noble of professions. There is just so much to talk about. Looking at the blog's stats I was really surprised that the all time most popular post on the Assassin's Hideout is.... Janosik = Conan. I doubt that Janosik is a popular Internet meme so I guess people are looking for more in depth information about Hyboria. Anyway I am preparing my first post about how Conan became the king of Aquilonia which will give you a taste of things to come. Would you be interested in more lore related posts? Let me know in the comments.

[Guide] Soul Strike miasma and essence detonation

2011-10-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

In this post I will be talking about Soul Strike. For many this miasma means only one thing: essence detonation. True, detonation is the main dish on corruption table, but it has other perks as well.

Since there are so many miss conceptions about detonation I will try to cover this subject from assassin perspective and from other classes perspective (not how OP it is, but rather how to defend yourself from it).

Testing your damage/penetration/debuff

Before we go any further I will let you on a little "secret" the test dummy in your guild city/social summon has 0 armor and 0 protection. This means that your damage will stay pretty much the same regardless of debuffs you put on your dummy. Furthermore the spell penetration will also have 0 effect because there is no spell protection to be by passed.

Soul Strike (SS) without base poision

Soul Strike (as opposed to lotus dart) has a basic utility even when used without SDS/GC (base poison). Shortly after it's usage it applies a debuff "Spiritual Torment". This adds -250 protection debuff against holy and unholy damage and can be stacked 5 times. The debuff time is 30s, but it can be refreshed. What this means is that it is beneficial for you to use Soul Strike on your target even when your grim corruption combo is on cool down because it will "soften up" your target for you and your allies. Furthermore Soul Strike on it's own can crit as a spell and add some small damage for "free".

Soul Strike + Slow Death Strike

This combination is our only "instant" CC. This means that as long as your target has SDS dot on him you can use Soul Strike to consume that dot and stun your opponent. It is a great way to break opponent's combo or spell if you see it coming. Furthermore you can stack both SDS and GC effects to, at the same time, stun and apply essence detonation. This is beneficial for two reasons: it prevent your opponent from using a bubble to mitigate the damage and prevents any healing.

Essence detonation

This is hot topic. Is is overpowered? Everything that you use against under geared opponent without AAs can feel that way. However things has changed since patch 1.6 that introduced as to detonation. You can now invest in AA passive perk that will give you better resistance against unholy type of damage and thus effectively lowering its effectiveness. So simple solution. Now I think that essence detonation is the king and queen of miasma and here is the reason why: everything that you do pre-detonation and the debuffs that you get post it will give you an advantage over any other miasma combination. In fact other miasmas get get more effective if they follow the detonation. Reason for this: GC will apply wrack that lowers resistance to all types of damages and debuffs against unholy/holy, you might also get burden to bear debuff if you have that feated in. After the detonation you will also get the above mentioned spiritual torment debuff. Your opponent will be greatly soften up for anything else you might throw at him afterwards, especially since large part of assassin's damage (if you are hybrid specced) comes from unholy type of damage (corrupted blades) and your vile corruption (feat that gives extra unholy damage when SDS dot is consumed) will also get a boost. Hell, even your SDS will get a boost since it does unholy damage.

The damage of detonation largely comes from your spell damage, rank of Grim Corruption is irrelevant - you won't get bigger bang from GCV than GCI.

You can upgrade your detonation via soul destruction feat. When maxed (which I do recommend) it gives +15 spell critical damage (and we all love when detonation crits) +15 spell critical chance (the more crits the bigger the damage) and 10% increase to damage. This feat makes an ocean of difference.

More so detonation does small AOE damage which is very beneficial in solo pve (since mobs tend to stick together) and in pvp to some extend.

Detonation, after you have used soul strike with GC debuff on, will go off in 4 seconds and will give visual notification in a form of large, black explosion.

Keep in mind one thing: Soul Strike as a miasma is a spell. This means that it can be resisted (detonation will not trigger) or in very unfortunate cases it will proc lotus overload on other assassin (which lasts 5 seconds so 1 second more than the detonation).

The reach of soul strike is slightly longer than your combos, but still you have to be pretty darn close to your target to apply it.

Detonation is also not always the super best choice. The damage is delayed and during that 4 seconds anything can happen, including your opponent getting massive heal or using a bubble/dull pain. Some times the face stab might be better (low armor targer with low health) and some times the Deadly Venom (aka lotus dart). As a rule of thumb you should use the detonation on highly armored target. There are 2 reasons for that: 1. tanks have more armor than protection and detonation is checked as protection 2. assassin have more spell penetration than armor penetration is detonation as a spell will have higher chance to by pass the protection (penetration is a topic for a another guide).

Upgrades to detonation

Lotus pet: gray lotus - this can destroy your opponents in open world pvp. Good for solo pve too.

Spell penetration - the more you have the better. You can get both feat and perk for this, or even gem your off hand cultural dagger with gem called Bel's Mirth.I will cover more about penetration in a separate guide.

How to defend against the detonation

Watch closely if you have this applied to you

By knowing how your opponent can defend you will get better at using it so lets go over the basic.

Bubbles - classes like Bear Shamans, Conquerors, Priests of Mitra, Tempest of Set and Guardian can put up a barriers (aka bubbles) that will absorb all of your damage from detonation. There is nothing really you can do except anticipate the bubble and using the CC at the right way. Against spell casters choking powder might come in handy to prevent the shield from going up.

Dull pain - the king of assassin vs assassin combat. This will reduce the damage of detonation to mere couple of hundred points. If you see the dull pain going up (golden leafs flying around assassin) then consider not using soul strike and leaving GC just for snare or consuming it for face stab (which is NOT a spell, it does piercing damage and thus will not be mitigated by dull pain).

Lotus overload - if it procs it will mitigate whole damage

Side step left/right - it will grant you some immunity. If you mitigate detonation this way you can call yourself lucky, but it is worth a shot

Silence - since Soul Strike if a spell silencing the assassin might save you from da bomb

Interrupt - grim corruption animation is pretty long (especially GCV) and it cannot be skipped no more so watch for assassin starting his combo and interrupt him at the very beginning. GC will go on cool down and you will be safe from detonation for a while.

CC - obvious choice

Running away - some times running away might be best option. Break snare that comes with GC and sprint away.

Night of the lost souls: the souls that got lost, but sadly they are back

2011-10-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

Playing through the NOLS content this year I have mostly focused of coming up with bad puns that I can throw at this content later on in the post. The content is nothing to laugh at: it is the same, freaking thing as a year before and a year before. I didn't have to pay attention to the quests because...well by know I know them enough to just: you take the necklace and shut up, you gimme the helmet and die and you spirit give me the reward and go away for another year.Why is that so? Why is it so hard to come up with anything more? It is just few NPCs and quest and few quest lines. Is it so hard to come up with something new? And the rewards....oh geez, I hate that it sounds like I am shitting over this event for the sake of shitting, but this year's rewards are craaaaaaaaap. Red hand tunic? Like that is probably one of the first items Funcom created for this game and, after being refried, we can also have it. It is decent at best. Last year's skull, NOW that is some cool reward. Just look at it:

Last year's skull mask. The essence of cool.

This year's red hand tunic. Decent at best. Check out the doll *face palm*

So how it went? Well first the haunted forest. Talk to NPC, get necklaces, put it on the altar, BAM BAM the chieftain and use your port spell to jump back to Tarantia.

I am crying, but those are not the tears of joy...see you next year, dear forest..

Talk to the spirit and then rush to the villa. You know what? I lied. Funcom does indeed give us a small twist to the NOLS chain (if you can call 2 quests a chain..) and that twist is: VILLA EFFECTS! That is right, the inhabitants of the villa spend their whole year preparing the decoration so the players can enjoy something bold, new and refreshing each time. This year's we got the red fog effect which makes things hard to see and can cause head aches.

Fun, fun, fun!!!

After downing the villa boss just rush back to the spirit, get your reward and be over with...unless you want to run group instance for another quest (no you don't). What is the deal with social pets anyway? I never see anyone with his pet out unless it is a combat pet. Anywho, here are the rewards for 2011:

And last but not least: the ultimate proof of just how lazy the Funcom developers are. The quest text is straight from 2009 where the reward was a horned helmet . The problem is that the devs didn't bother to change the quest text. Half-ass content done in a half-ass way.

See you next year, NOLS fans! You know I am going to be there to poke fun at it (I sure hope I don't)

Subscription based singleplayer

2011-10-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

So I have attended a wedding recently. I love weddings because one: it is a celebration of love and love is to be shared, and second: I am an excellent, eager dancer and I can go wild on this occasion (the magic ingredient is vodka). Turns out I have been seated next to a guy that, apart from running his own business and being a dad, was an avid MMO gamer. His fatal flaw was not being able to settle for one game, one character and he was constantly shifting from one MMO to another without being able to, in most cases, even leave the starter zones. Seriously, at one point he had 8 subscriptions running to a major MMOs with gaming time available to him being less than 1-2h per day. Having learned that my play style was "one MMO, one character - go" he got really interested in Age of Conan since he never have tried it before, but he has been Conan fan for a quite a while (mainly due to comics and paper&dice RPG). Our chat went something along these lines:

- I always roll on RP servers when I can, Hyborian setting must be incredible on AOC RP servers right?

- um....we don't really have RP servers. I mean anymore..we used to.

- ok, so how is raiding in AOC? The combat system is bound to be making raiding something more than button mashing,

- yeah...well I don't raid so I wouldn't know really.

- fine, so what do you do then?

- I pvp,

- what is pvp like in AOC?

- it is mostly instanced, it is called minigames.

- oh nice, I do like those in WoW

- well, not really like in WoW, think smaller, like 6 man

- right, so arena based pvp then

- no no, like 6 vs 6, something like capture the flag in FPS,

- WoW has that too. I have really enjoyed those BGs with my team from PVP guild I used to be in.

- well in AOC you can't sign up with a team, it is random.

- WHAT? What do you mean random?

- you sign up and kinda get a set of people for your team,

- but you can still join with a friend or two?
- no

- what? why the hell not?

- I don't know.

- so if you don't pvp with a group what do you do?

- mostly when I log on I do instance runs or minis,

- instances are cool, does AOC has that classic tank-healer-DPS stuff?

- yeah, but I don't do group PVE, I run solo instances,

- solo instances? What are those?

- like regular instances, but only you and mobs, and smaller rewards in a form of tokens. You can still get epics for those tokens,

- and you are paying for it?

- I do, but you don't have to. To be honest you have to stay subed to be competitive in pvp

- so let me get this straight: you are JUST doing those "minigames" with random people or doing solo instances alone?

- kinda am, yes,

- you are not playing an MMO then,

- what do you mean?

- sounds more like subscription based single player

- :X

true story...

Chained to Age of Conan: Unchained

2011-10-10T12:35:00.000-07:00

Chained to Age of Conan: Unchained? Oh the irony of it! I will be very blunt: AOC have caused me literally oceans of frustration. The devs have made (and will continue to do so in the future) bad decision after bad decision and the game in constantly in "course correct" as if, somehow, since 2008 everything has been done to "fix" broken game.

Examples? Three years in and we have non-existent crafting system (course correct: crafting revamp). Bad decisions? Bori. Upcoming bad decision? World PVE bosses. With so many woes one could (and rightfully so) ask: why do you even bother? True, I have been more negative about the game in 2009 that I am now (less negative) but regardless I would have quit the game in 2008 (easily!) if it wasn't for one small detail. What it's going to be? Combo system? Blood and guts being spilled both in PVE and PVP? Mature themes? Wrong! It is ALL about Hyboria. Since the very first Conan story I have read I knew that I have been bitten and once bitten forever smitten. Love bites! I can honestly say that I am huge Conan fan (or to be exact: REH's Conan fan) and, to my despair, where FC developers FAIL miserably, FC artists and writers show up to pick up the slack. FC's Hyboria is done right, both visually pleasing and stunning and stepped deeply in REH's Conan lore. Really, if this game had some unlicensed, low fantasy setting I would dropped my subscription faster that unwanted pregnancy on a prom night (whatever that means). What would I do if new Conan mmo came out? I find that very very unlikely, but I would go with this company that provides best representation of Hyborian era. All other "features" are, at least for me, secondary at best.

Besides all the negativity and yes, despite FC dropping the ball constantly on few issues (despite that the proper solution seems obvious to the community) I think that Age of Conan going free-to-play, going cash shop and announcing its schedule for 2012 is on a right track. I am not saying that the model and the plans will inevitably lead to superb results, but I would like to see what lies ahead, at the end of development road. Since actions speak louder than words I have bought King Conan's Royal Cache (12 month sub paid in advance).This might be me being Funcom whore, but above all I think it shows my dedication to the product as a whole. Trula, if Age of Conan all of sudden went off the market it would be a sad, sad day for me. No, really I would be upset. Very. There is so much I still want to see in this game and, despite all, it still shows so much promise. So what keeps me in Age of Conan? I think it is literally the "age of Conan",a savage era..

"between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and in the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars - Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. but the proudest kingdom was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the earth under his sandaled feet"

Slith's cheesy exploration guide ep. 8

2011-10-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

It's been ever so long since you a got chance to smell the cheese and visit some places that were not ment to be seen. I am talking, of course, about Slith's cheesy exploration guide and if you though about something else you are a sick fuck.

So I have already written how I was disappointed about city of Paikang not being a main city hub in Khitai. I know, after almost 2 years it is about right time to get over it, but I can't, I gotta have closure on this. Time to take it to the streets and visit the inside of Paikang. Traveling around the city (which is humongous) keep looking for a weak spot in the tight, high wall. Found it? Good. I little struggle and you are inside the city. What sasight...not really, it is ass. Half-finished buildings are "hovering" like a meter above the ground and it is all buggy and weird. Oh well, enjoy!

The streets of Paikang

Difficulty: ***

The only problem is finding the right spot to "attack" the wall. Once you are aware of it it is basic stuff.

Dagger and a bowl of rice ep.9: The final word

2011-10-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

"far to the east, beyond the devil hunted towers of Zamora and the wind toss weaves of the vilayet sea.."

This quote comes from the trailer to the Rise of The Godslayer expansion and it is a lore masterpiece of itself.What is more important it introduced the players to the lands of Khitai and initiated the launch of an expansion that changed Age of Conan forever. Or did? Lets find out.

The review

The following blog post is my attempt at summing up the good, the bad and the ugly that ROGS brought to the Hyborian table. I have been actively engaged in this content since day 1 and still am visiting the lands of Khitai on a daily basis.

The locations

The choice for the location of the expansion is weird to say the last. One could make a point that the sole reason for it was the AOC launch in Korea, but it's a pretty weak argument. Koreans still had to "burn" through 1-80 content and if they didn't like it then no amount of Khitai boobs would change that.It was a bold, bold move by Funcom and to be honest: one that was executed flawlessly (at least conceptually) Khitai and it's locations are what I have expected. Since Khitai itself is merely mentioned in several Conan books creating 5 zones is mighty impressive.

Gateway to Khitai

Honestly I haven't really checked this content out because its pre-80. The zone itself looks interesting enough and two solo dungeons added later on only sweeten the deal. Everywhere you move the great wall beacons with the promises of AA progression. The Hyrkanians inhabiting the zone are portarted wonderfuly: harsh, ruthless people of the steppes. One could only wish same would be true for the Hyrkanians Faction beyond the wall.

The Northern Grasslands

Very diverse visually zone, but sadly it doesn't excel at anything. Still it beats Chosain and it is a solid foundation for your further exploration of Khitai. This zone is much more open than others (especially damn Kara Korum which is super saturated by mobs) so you can sail this ocean of green on your mount without interruptions every 3 seconds. Sadly it doesn't have it's "theme" apart from fields of grass. Kara Korum is corruption, Chosain is war, Paikang is about emperor and Grasslands....meh. Still I like to revisit this place from time to time and have a lot of nostalgia attached to this zone. I remember how hard it was to beat down those Grasslands mobs in the beginning. Truly, pre 80 solo pve and ROGS solo pve are nothing alike. As a post 80lvl "starting zone" Grasslands does justice to the expansion, and it's good, but nothing extraordinary. The only memorable thing for me is The Gloom Forest (where animals are driven insane by lotus scent) and the temple hidden there (nod at REH's King Kull stories). I think Funcom could have made the conflict between Hyrkanians and Wolves more evident and more brutal. Furthermore the Last Legion doesn't really seem like having oceans of work to do and this is another lost opportunity to show the players that the Last Legion are really the last bastion of hope for Khitai.

Chosain
Ah dear Chosain, how I hate you. Seriously I find this zone to be an utter failure. First of all the zone doesn't really differ much from what we have already seen in Grasslands. Secondly the main theme of this zone was supposed to be the great conflict of two major cities. This conflict, instead of being massive battle as trailer clearly shows, turned out to be two "armies" of NPC standing idly in the middle. Some times one of the NPC wanders off to the other side and gets gang banged by all other NPC. Hardly a blood conflict. To add insult to injury the two cities at war look exactly the same so it all boils down to Scholars vs Tigers. Those two factions are bullshit on their own, but I will be covering it later. Needless to say Chosain didn't capture my imagination and neither did the factions present in it. The swamps on the edge of the map are kinda cool, but that is it "kinda cool". There is also a "Gray Leopard of Aquilonia" with his fighting crew hiding in the city. Like, obvious Conan is disguise is obvious, man. I hate to be this overly negative, but Chosain offered me nothing but boredom. If I could do anything to fix it it would be making the war in the middle of the map more war-like. More so the two cities should be fighting with soldiers and the two factions should only supplement those forces. That would be actually cool to see a squad of troops lead by 2-3 Tamarin's Tigers. Instead we get this massive clown show where on one side there are grown men in orange raiding tigers and on the other side we have biggest gathering of mages and unearth creatures the Hyboria have ever seen. And what is up with those children of the underworld? Those are massively overpowered compared to the resistance that Tamarin NPC can put up. It feels like FC was trying to slow down people grinding for tiger mount by making them fight those little buggers that can put up 2m shield that makes them invulnerable.
It might be that I am just jaded towards Chosain, but even the quests in this zone seem less fun, less imaginative, and just plain worst than in other zones. I am beating a dead horse here, I know that.

Kara Korum

"The land of jagged, razor sharp rocks and bitter windswept passes". I used to HATE this zone with a passion, but just like the corruption it first got under my skin and then took over my mind. Now I simply adore this wasteland and consider it the best location in ROGS expansion. True, it is a noob hell. The zone itself is very complicated to navigate and the mob saturation is ridiculous. I used to get lost in this place all the time and passing from one point to and in some places simply moving and inch in one direction was a battle of epic proportions (pulling 3 spiders and 5 hyenas on each step). After a year I can call Kara Korum my home. I know every nok and crany in this wretched place and what before used to bumpy road is now a highway. I simply cannot praise this place enough. First of all the theme is evident: the corruption and the crater. This is where all things started and I remember looking at the rocks around the crater (which can be seen from every point in Kara Korum) and wondering what I will find there. "What mysteries do you hold crater?" I thought to myself as I progressed closer and closer to it. I remember being a member of Last Legion and stalking through the corridors of the Palace. What a weird and alien place that was. The quests in Kara Korums are the most dark and epic I have encountered in ROGS expansion. This is especially evident with Brittle Blade which shows in true face during the Kara Korum quest line. Same goes for Last Legion: truly here they are the underdogs who fight the good fight and this is the feeling I have been missing in Grasslands. I don't really get the whole Valley of Giants concept. Sure, it is weird and the things there are larger, but after doing the quest I have never again set foot in the valley. It's just OK. But who could forget the Basilisk? This monster dwells in his on temple and turns it helpless victims into obsynian. The very first moment I have set my eye on this beast I thought "I am going to slay you one day" and I finally did because some factions have ability to do so. The music, the atmosphere and the corrupted themselves will send a chills down your spine. The Jiang Shi that are the hidden faction is this zone is was a great idea. The Vampires are not cool anymore (how could they? thank you very much TWIGLIGHT!!) and Funcom managed to sneak them back into the expansion in new, hardly teen-lovable package. All you have to do is visit the living forest and meet a Jiang Shi "hanging out" there to be convinced that there is love in Kara Korum, but just not the fluffy kind. The addition of Refuge of Apostate (even thou the writing on the quests is surprisingly weak) is just an icing on the cake. Oh and Kara Korum is a real place!!! Do I need to say more? Truly this zone is the very essence of ROGS and your should enjoy your stay.

Paikang

"..but you have never seen the place like Paikang..". This zone is a bit controversial for me. I have expected the capital of Khitai to be glamorous and breath taking, but I have came to witness ruined civilization rotting in a jungle. This is what the ROGS is all about to be fair, but I feel a bit cheated out of opportunity to experience Paikang city. When ROGS was announced I have imagined that Paikang
is going to be a next major hub for players to gather in same like Khemi or Old Tarantia. Sadly Paikang is closed and only crafty explorers can gain entrance to it (which I did, but the inside is less spectacular that one could expect). The jungle aspect of this zone is done in a superb way. I find myself lost quite often and then all I can do is ride blindly through the bush hoping to see open space at one point. This zone is the most diverse when it comes to looks and style: we have Barachian like beach and sea, deep jungle, magnificent Paikang, several small villages, mountain passage filled with undead, whole village of corrupted, rice fields, temple of Yun, demon infested forest, temple of Yag-Kosha, Hideouts of Jade and Brittle Blade and finally the nest of those Bird-men (which are hard as nails to kill). If you are REALLY into exploring then this zone will soak you up for hours on end. If I have to pick my favorite I would say temple of Yun. The ambiance in this place is just surreal and you can further enhance this, by meditating in the nearby lotus garden and listening to the rich, vibrant tones of the wind chimneys. Another marvel in this zone is the Brittle Blade base. While living in a cave might not be glamorous more important is what the cult is keeping outside, guarded by the Master himself. The freaking tree of death. This tree is filled with skulls and bones and it will literally kill you instantly if you will try to approach it. There is also a very cool lore tied to this tree which you will be able to learn working for the Blade. Shadows of Jades are hiding in the trees, deep in the jungle and finding the entrance to their base is a feat of itself. The Shadows faction is extremely paranoid about Brittle Blades raiding their sanctuary so the surroundings are packed with various traps. You will also have a chance to to team up with resistance, a militant group bound on overthrowing the emperor. During your stay in Paikang you will also visit a lot of small, charming villages and help solve day to day problems of common folks of Khitai. I don't know how this zone stacks up to others, but it very much feels much, much larger than others, especially that of Chosain (which, we all know, is small & smelly). Last thing I would like to mention is this big, dead kraken just lying dead on the shore. This picture very much reminds me a scene in the Pirates of Carabiean III where the royal navy forced Davy Jones's to kill his kraken and the poor thing ended up washed up on the shore in the same way. I have contacted a FC developer who did a lot of work on Paikang and sadly he couldn't answer me about the origins of this washed up monster, because another person did work on this and he is no longer with the company.

Faction system

As a whole I like the faction system and found it extremly fitting to the Khitai political situation. I think I would like some more cross faction interatction outside of main enemy. For example Brittle Blade works closely with Scarlet Crircle, but at the same time they are acepting contracts on them. Wolves steal some dragon powder from Priests of Yun and so on. Those quests were interesting because I was wondering how one faction feels about another. Brittle Blade (again) considers Yuns "spooky bastards" and Yuns think about Yags as dedicated to their faith (which is respectful) but missguided. There are also too many questes (yes, in DAMN CHOSAIN) that are pretty much same thing for both sides like kill X members of opposite faction or Scholars are destroying war machines X and Tigers are crushing war machines Y. Yawnfest. Again as best quests in game I am poiting to Kara Korums and that includes all factions. The "hidden" factions were nice touch and I felt like all of the zones could have that hidden, quasi-faction twist to discover. Before Khitai revamp progressing with factions was hell on earth, real insanity and major screw up that made ROGS unpopular. I mean that: stupid stupid decision. I have leveled 3 factions to rank 4 and bought several khitai items with MOAS (you used to get around1-2 of those per quest) and loads and loads of gold. Looking back at it: man, what a waste. I thought it was a real bullshit and I am as dedicated as once can be to Age of Conan. Can't imagine how people that were merely checking out ROGS felt about months and months of grinding MOAS and then putting up dozens of gold pices. That was just poor game design. And I can understand that FC didn't want people to "beat" expansion right away, but c'mon you waaaaaaaaaaay overshoted this. I have one character and I feelt like it was almost impossible feat to get items I want, but same for someone with several alts must have felt like in a personalized hell.

The Hyrkanians
I have already posted how I feel about this faction and I damn stand by that opinion. It is a bullshit faction. Sadly they are in no way, shape or form like their brothers from beyond the wall (Gates to Khitai zones) and are way too much into their horses and getting bitten by snakes (do the quests and you will know what I mean by that). The only good thing about The Hyrkanians is that they give better MOAs for easier quests than Wolves have, but that is about it.

The Wolves of the Steppes

The writers did justice to this band of robbers giving them a very "fight club" movie feel. This not a mere gathering of cutthroats, for them this is a lifestyle bound by rules. Those rules are so strong that even the leader of the Wolves is not above them. I like that. The wolves are cruel, deadly and efficient. I guess we could have gottem more "plunder" type of quests because as it is right now Wolves are more about causing havoc. I got to say that the Wolves are not as much defined by their wolf mount as Tamarin's Tigers are. I have really enjoyed raising my pup more than that doing same with with my lil' tiger. I would say that it is a very well done and defined faction and I could only wish to see them in other zones, for example how would they performed when pitted against Tamarin's Tigers? So much wasted potential *sigh*.

The Brittle Blade
"The blade is life for it can be easily broken". No other faction in the ROGS has left such a profound impression on me. Clearly the writers have put a lot of the work into the story line and the developers into the visual style of the Brittle Blade assassins. Love it or hate it the purple death dealers are wearing very detailed, ornate armor that cannot be mistaken for anything else.It is Brittle Blade. Personally I find the top tier armor a tad too heavy for assassin to wear, but that doesn't change the fact it is simply stunning. But enough about gear, lets see what this merry band of assassin is all about. At first the story of Brittle Blade unfolds very slowly: your contact in Grasslands is a fat assassin with very filthy mouth almost driven by greed alone. In Chosain you will be meet by an insecure assassin that claims to be "the best in the world" but you will beat every oonef his challenges. At this point you will very much get the impression that Brittle Blade is an organization of ...well assassins that simply accepts the contracts, executes the targets and cashes in fat wad of golds (can you get gold in wads?). The Kara Korum will destroy that image and take you into "inner circle". Your contact in Kara Korum is a professional and the Brittle Blade organization shows it's true face: it is a cult that worships the kill itself and the Death Goddess. It is said that when she comes to a dieing victim a man of courage can seize her and force to answer a single question. The organization is even trying to communicate with their deity (through very unconventional means I might add). What I found very surprising is that Brittle Blade is not only open to unconventional means of assassination, but also activly seeks and even develops means of ultimate destruction, so don't be fooled into thinking that Brittle Blade is about cloak & dagger assassination. After Kara Korum there comes Paikang and here you will finally meet the Master, head of Brittle Blade and at the same time assassin supreme (he really is..). Here you will also get a chance to experience Brittle Blade at it's best and grimmest. Every character you will meet is either devoted to the organizations cause or just a plain psychopath. Some are both. I won't spoli this particular thing but I can only say that the conclusion of the Brittle Blade faction quests is deeply satisfying (unlike other like Yun for example). A time spent amongst the Brittle Blade assassins will be undoubtedly cherished and remembered.

The Shadows of Jade

While Brittle Blade is a multidimensional faction (one that cross-interacts with others!!) Shadows are totally defined by their ongoing crusade against the assassin. Seriously, I know that Brittle Blades are not even half as much into this conflict as Jades are. The Jade organisation is about about wealth redistribution aka rampant and blatant thievery....with some rules and guidelines. Oh and don't be mistaken by "thieves" remark members of this factions are skilled and agile fighters and a force that even the assassins recon with. Still there is a dark humor to this faction, and it's members are often disrespectful towards the Brittle Blade (while Brittle, oddly enough, respects Shadows). Seems like Shadows are a bit lost: their quest is to find the source of corruption in the empire and restore the order so they can, again, profit from the rich. Isn't it fucking obvious that shit went sideways since new guy (aka the god emperor) took over? So yeah, Shadows idea of "fixing" the empire is pretty much "kill the emperor". How does that make them different from Brittle Blade? The quests are weak compared to Brittle Blade and it seems like less energy went into creating them. One of the good things about Shadows is their leader which I won't spoil, but it will blow your mind. Apart from some minor issues with quests and lore (very little is disclosed about this faction) Shadows can offer best pet in game (sixth con which gives +100% fatality chance, a sick sick stuff) as well as pretty bad-ass armor. I am a bit stun locked when it comes to armor: one hand Brittle Blade has this powerful, unique and stylized look but Shadows of Jade are sporting this slick, rugged, light-weight (you can't say that about Brittle armor-o-rama) thief look. Honestly I wish that I could I would join both of those factions at the same time.

Scholars of Cheng ho

Literally a joke faction. Not like an Easter egg funny or ha-ha funny, just plain joke that is insulting to the player. Hell, I personally feel insulted, by this nightmare of a faction. No other group in Age of Conan will offer you such bland, boring and unimaginative quest a long with dull back ground story. I know that I said same thing about Hyrkanians and I hereby apologize to those fine men and women of the eastern steppes. The title of "bullshit" faction officially goes to Scholars. First and foremost the visual style of this group is ridiculous. While for example Shadows of Jade armor is so realistic that it is almost believable that someone would actually dress this way. When it comes to Scholars all bets are off. I mean look at this...person to the left. Is this a dude or a gal? Whatever, it looks like someones aunt. I have NEVER seen anyone wearing this armor and for good reason: it is ridiculous. When it comes to questing you will spend most of your time rescuing....books, sabotaging war machines or pissing into enemies water supply (aka poisoning it). How is it possible that the ruler of the city enslaved the Scholars when 90% of the city's population consists of magic wielding battle mages that can command unearthly, magical creatures. I mean it: you have to suck pretty bad to have all those advantages and still be a slave. And now the final proof that this is, in fact, a poorly designed faction: I have leveled every single faction in ROGS to rank 4 except for Scholar.s I cannot bring myself to withstand the barrage of bullshit that is bestowed upon me with them. That and the faction has nothing I want which is pretty much a nail in a coffin. On a side note: I can understand how people can find the moon children cute. I will have to agree that the model on those little buggers is pretty rad and their look is very alien and mischievous. That is about it when it comes to cool stuff and this faction. Not good enough for me to sink my time into.

Tamarin Tigers

Exactly as stupid as Scholars. This faction doesn't even threats itself seriously: many quests dialog options end with "Master, grant me the vaaghasan now" (tiger mount). Yep, devs know why you have joined this faction and it is mount. Apart from flesh eating this faction is a regular militia. The quests are mirroring Scholars quests (destroy that, gather something, piss in in other things). I have leveled this faction to rank 4 by using my veteran points to buy insignia otherwise it would be HELL. Oh well, at least Scholars, in comparison, have their match. "And now young one, go gather some flesh for us to munch on" "Yes master, I shall, but before I go....can I have my damn vaaghasan now?".

The Yellow Priests of Yun

This faction is almost second to none (I still consider Brittle Blade lore the best). Almost everything about them is perfect: rich story, great armor design, cool rewards (different types of lotus). Perhaps just the leader - Kang - turned out to be a little of a fraud...or perhaps he is everything his followers claim he is? I can't really tell. I only find the quests Kang gives in Paikang a bit too grotesque.One of the most memorable quests for this faction was luring a village idiot to the altar, spilling his guts and then reading them to actually see (yes, in game animation!) the temple in Paikang. Yes, and the temple is a marvel by its own right. The great thing is that the actual leader of the religion is of a royal blood and choosing Yun you will get thrown into the big politics and main story line. The Yuns are very devoted to their practices and are definitely not an "evil" faction, their practices are just very strange and alien to the westerners. I do recommend participating in the "orgy" which is a pretty nice event: on the 21:00 (server time) the leader of the Yuns will come out of the temple and initiate a dance that end with naked women jumping into flames. Not exactly my kind of party, but I think it would work for most of use without "jump into flame" part. Great idea to have this kind daily event (you get MOAs for dancing during the event!) and I can only wish that Funcom implemented this in other parts of the game.In closing I have to mention that this is ONE OF THE TWO lore based factions in ROGS, all other are fictional (non REH based). Here is the very short section of the book that mentions them:

'It was made from the black lotus, whose blossoms wave in the lost
jungles of Khitai, where only the yellow-skulled priests of Yun dwell.
Those blossoms strike dead any who smell of them.'

- REH, The Tower of the Elephant

The Scarlet Circle

Big let down. Don't get me wrong, this faction is still pretty damn good, but definitely not close to what I expected from a faction that, for all we know, caused all the havoc in Khitai to begin with. The quests some times feel like I am doing evil for the sake of doing evil. I got that similar feeling from Yuns, but with that faction there is a burning conviction behind their action and cadaverous (is that a word?) wisdom to be learned. Scarlets are just assholes for no good reason. Just as Yun's temple Scarlet's Palace in Kara Korum is a jaw dropping sight and probably an most iconic and memorable experience that I have gotten out of Age of Conan. I didn't really get the reason for such a hatred for the Last Legion faction. Like why the all powerful mages of the east care about few, underpaid grunts? This faction doesn't one thing very nicely: it has cross-faction quests in which it is working hand-in-hand with Jiang Shi and Brittle Blade. I have mentioned in the beginning how I wished to see how one faction feels about the other and this Scarlets are providing. In closing I have to mention that this faction got the most stylized armors in game. It is totally not like Yag-Kosha or Shadows where the armors are half-realistic and believable, Scarlets are wearing stuff that will blow your mind. Wicked, wicked design and I like it.

This video illustrates my point about the Palace. It brings a tears of joy to think how I have fought to get into the Palace to make that movie. At that point I had my cultural set with Brittle Blade Blue pants. Man, those were they days of high adventure :D Nowadays I enter Palace like I own the place, guns blazing and face melting those Scarlet bastards. Yes, the gear/AA progression does its thing :X

The Last Legion

What a lovable faction. Seriously, you just have to have a special place for the under dogs and that is exactly what Last Legion is. This honorable men and women are scrambling to keep the empire together and doing their best to save their homeland. How could you not honor that? The NPCs feel like they have been pulled straight from every single military Chinese movie of the last decade and I mean that as a complement (movies like Hero, The Curse of the Golden Flower, The Last Emperor). In other words: men of great honor and a great conviction to the cause. This epic struggle doesn't really show all that much in Grasslands where the Last Legion holds a reasonable control, Kara Korum is where it's at. In Kara Korum the war against the corruption is unwinnable and literally every able sword arm counts. The armor of this faction has this vibe that screams "Asian" and it is definitely what you would expect. I was kinda afraid that Funcom would go for "samurai" type of stuff and I am glad that they keept the japanese influence out of Khitai.

Children of Yag-Kosha

In other words: followers of Yag. This faction is very nicely lifted from the lore as Yag-Kosha clearly had followers and it is mentioned in the book:

At last I alone was left, dreaming of old times among the ruined temples of
jungle-lost Khitai, worshipped as a god by an ancient yellow-skinned
race.

- REH, The Tower of the Elephant

I have expected a little more from this faction when it comes to questing. Sure, Children are helping people and all that, but their hatred for King Conan is hardly evident. I mean that guy LITERALY killed their God, like show some more anger. I really like how the writers have managed to explain how this peace loving faction justifies the violence it does in conflict with Yuns. One of the Yags gave me this explanation: Yag has a feets to dance, but also hands to break. A great, creative use of this quote from the book:

I will once more be Yogah of Yag, morning-crowned and shining, with
wings to fly, and feet to dance, and eyes to see, and hands to break.'

- REH, The Tower of the Elephant

Another good usage of the lore was when I confronted one of the priest about the point of praying to the dead god. Will this prayer even work? Sure it will for:

The life of man is not the life of Yag, nor is human death the
death of Yag.

- REH, The Tower of the Elephant

Hats off to the Funcom writers for they have squeezed so much from so little and have done it in a manner that does justice to REH's classic.
Compared to Yuns the Yags are simply dull and, by Crom, this is especially evident in a hell hole we know as Chosain. In this zone you spend majority of your questing time fetching various herbs and animal pices for an old geezer that creates pots out of them. Hm...that is interesting, but I rather do the exorcisms on a demon possessed woman and then capture that demon for Yuns - seems like a more engaging activity.
Last but not least: the bullshit factor of one simple quest astounded me. In Paikang priest ask you to acquire any item that will help him to discover who killed Yag. Lucky a thief from Zamora (conveniently serving as mercenary in Chosain) offers such item for sale giving you a bitching price of 25g. Twenty-freaking-five HARD ONES. I won't spoil what what the item is (its lore based), but the conclusion of the quest is: "Oh Conan did it, but out of mercy? Our organisation sucks then". Paid 25g for that? Enjoy being shafted! One last downer is the lack of harismatic leader: every other faction has their "main man" be it "The Master" for Brittle Blade, Kang for Yuns, Pra-eun ruling over Scarlets or hm...yeah, I don't think Last Legion has a leader. Snap! Well neiter do Yags.
This faction has it's ups and downs and is largely over-shadowed by Yuns, but still is playing a significant enough role in ROGS story. That is good enough for me (minus 25g, what the fuck were you thinking???).

Jiang Shi

Jiang Shi or 僵屍 are pretty much Asian vampires. Now I know what are you thinking: vampires? Those guys suck ! Vampires are now nothing but beautiful, misunderstood creatures the twilight series wants them to be. Wrong! Jiang Shi are still misunderstood, but ugly as hell. It is much more evident that you are Jiang Shi than having fangs. Interestingly enough some Jiang Shi are going feral because the transformation drove them insane, some keep their sanity but avoid the humanity by going on a exile to the Jiang Shi village in Kara Korum and some...well some I trying to pretend that nothing happened and are living their lives as they used to.. The Jiangi Shi feed on energy which is, conveniently, sucked out along with blood so the Jiang Shi are not bound on human pray, but can very much grab a hold of other creatures. Working for this faction will pretty much be a struggle to keep together their community in the wastelands and perhaps trying to help some of them to cure the curse. The Jiangi Shi are immortal, but can be slain with anything (no need for silver bullets) and don't posses any "super powers" or at least the game is not really showing that: fighting Jiang Shi is like fighting any other mobs. The great thing is that you can "become" Jiang Shi yourself by buying a permanent spell with your Rare Tokens. Great faction and the story it provides has an unexpected twist..

Insurrection
This faction pretty much has same feel to it as Last Legion: the under dogs are gathering strength to take on the big dog aka The Emperor. I have really liked the "winning hearts and minds of the common people" quest chain in Paikang. The NPC sends you on a wild ride around Paiking where you are solving every day woes and problems of the common folk of the Khitai in order to get them to support the Insurrection.
Neat! Even thou this is considered a "hidden" faction it is not even near as hidden (aka not hidden at all) as the Jiang Shi. Great story. One complaint thou: no freaking NPC to sell you stuff. Yep, this is THE ONLY faction that will give you sweet fuck all for all your effort. Not cool bro, not cool at all :(

Mounts
One of the ROGS selling points was getting those two mounts: tiger or a wolf. We were told that you had to complete quests of EPIC PROPOTIONS in order to have a honor of sitting on tiger's ass. Sadly, such is not the case for the quests to get your mount can be done in one playing session (a bit longish one) and grinding rep till rank 4...well, there is nothing epic about it. Here is my beef with Khitai mounts: those are ruining Hyboria. When you think "Hyboria" do you think horses or perhaps this

Barbarian with 2hander on his Tiger Mount

The wolf and tiger mounts are fine in Khitai setting, but when you are seeing them in Cimmerian then you know something is obviously messed up. I don't think it would be too crazy to ask for those mount to be Khitai only thing. I know that those are super expensive, but still allowing them outside the Khitai puts them out of context. Hyboria needs horses. The problem is that a large majority of veterans have tigers on at least one of their chars so you will be seeing those mounts reasonably often. Do not want!

AA system
Oh the AA system, how many QQs have you caused. I will be bold and say it right off the bat: I like the AA system, mostly. ROGS expansion clearly favors having 1 character (which I do) and so continuously playing that toon and getting MoAs, Mastery and Prowness will eventually lead to maxing out all the stuff the player wants. I am by no means a hardcore player (I don't raid, and play about 1-2h a day) and I can say that after a year I am near completing my plan for the perks. What I like about this system that it does work when it comes to progressing you through Khitai: same stuff that was insane to kill back a year ago is now either easy or manageable. The other thing is being able to improve your character, day after day. I remember back in 2009 when all I did, when not pvping, was running villas for no gain whatsoever (apart from little silver and trash drops). It was horrible. Now when I log on I know that this play session will add up with others and future ones. What is not to like when you can still progress your character? But all is not well in the Hyboria and the AA system is not without it flavs. First of all it takes SHIT LOAD of time and effort to gain perks. I couldn't even imagine re-doing the process nor starting another character. It is mind blowing. Second thing is that the AA system has WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too many passive stuff instead of having active ones. When the first AA system has been announced I was under impression that players will be able to build their "deck" of 6 different perks and then perform differently based on their choices... kinda like Guild Wars. It turns out that very few perks are usable (meaning they giver another spell/combo/ability after putting them on perk bar) and most of the stuff is passive (CC resists, Magic resist, combo damage upgrades). So this results in two major issues: one being that a lot of passive stuff over time "grows" veteran's characters in such power that they can roll over poor noobies by sheer power of their passive upgrades (more combo damage, more penetration, more HP, more stamina etc.). The other flaw being that everyone runs around with cookie cutter builds. If you have only few perks that can be used actively and even fewer of them will be remotely viable. I don't know about other classes, but assassin has like 4 perks that are worth considering for your perk bar. Hell, even our major perk is passive (master assassin).

Furthermore the AA system was designed to make old world content be viable for veterans. Sure, Funcom could have raised the level cap to 90, but they have decided to progress characters in other ways. Granted, they have succeeded at that. You can still do old world content and not feel like your are steam rolling everything in your patch. Sure, it will be much easier to run instances like Slaughterhouse, but don't pay attention and....oooops, you got killed! On another side tho it is super hard to make content for 80lvl that on one hand can be for freshly dinged 80, blues wearing noobies, but could also be for dinged out, kitted out 80lvl vents with pretty much maxed AAs and top notch gear. New instances in gateway to Khitai or Deadman's Hand showed that you simply cannot balance them for such a wide spectrum of players when on 80lvl it is not only gear that matters. Funcom is currently swifting from previous strategy and have already announced that Into the Breach, Lost City and Dead Mans will get their special versions for high end players. Good for you!

Instances
Waaaaaaaay too many. I am not a PVE guy, but Funcom went bat shit isane with the Khitai group instances. Granted, those that I did (Kara Korum) were pretty great, but I could never get group for others. Nevertheless people only do the Kara Korum Hard Modes (KK Runs) because it gives best rewards. Screw other bazillion of instance. Too bad. I am surprised that the Paikang instances are deserted so fast after their release. Guess those were never popular.

The music
I don't think this needs any special write up: ground breaking, jaw droping. Northern Grasslands pice is iconic for this expansion and the rest is no worst. Bow down!

The verdict
Time to give ROGS a note, a final score: it is great. This is not the best expansion ever made for sure, but considering all the above (especially story) I think calling it just "good" would not do it justice. It is a solid addition to the AOC and one that almost could be a new game of itself. I am still enjoying it profoundly and Kara Korum will always have a special place in my heart.Based on what I have experienced in Khitai I can only wish that Age of Conan was made like that back in 2008.

The Isle of Iron Statues - guide to beating hard mode

2011-09-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

Conan wheeled toward the gaping corsairs.

"Well, you dogs!" he roared. "I've sent your chief to hell. What says the law of the Red Brotherhood?"
Before any could answer, a rat-faced Brythunian, standing behind his fellows, whirled a sling swiftly and deadly. Straight as an arrow sped the stone to its mark, and Conan reeled and fell as a tall tree falls to the woodsman's ax. Up on the cliff Olivia caught at the boulders for support. The scene swam dizzily before her eyes; all she could see was the Cimmerian lying limply on the sward, blood oozing from his head.
The rat-faced one yelped in triumph and ran to stab the prostrate man, but a lean Corinthian thrust him back.

"What, Aratus, would you break the law of the Brotherhood, you dog?"

"No law is broken," snarled the Brythunian.

Oh Aratus, will you ever learn? Did you know you can meet this rat-faced fellow in the new solo instance called "The Isle of Iron Statues"?

I strongly urge you to read the story by Robert E.Howard "Shadows in the Moonlight". It is short, sexy, brutal and it will definitely make the instance more enjoyable. REH's writing at it's best!!

Now lets get down to business:

Gear
I am writing this guide as really decently geared assassin: most of my gear are Khitai epics and I have almost all AA Perks I want. For me the instance is now fun, but not challenging anymore. Sure, if I don't pay attention I will die or fail hard mode (didn't happen yet but its quite possible), but what seemed hard at first became much easier once I have learned the mobs/bosses. I am, however, pretty damn sure that some Khitai must be done before one can attempt this instance. Refuge of Apostate in Kara Korum is a great indicator: you can handle yourself in the Apostate? Give Isle a shot. You need to down 1g blue pots to even finish? Then Isle is not for you. I know that this is a half-assed answer about "what gear do I need for this", but I am not creating several characters on TL and then gearing them via NPC with various sets and test-running the Isle instance. I would appreciate (and others I imagine) your comments about gear/AA you had when you have beaten Isle instance.

At the very beginning, after passing the parrot, you will get "Hunted" timer. If the timer runs out the Boss will come out and beat the crap out of you (also you will die). The timer will be refreshed each time you have reached a "check point" and once you enter the place where the statues are you will unlock the hard mode.

The key to beating the time is:

- move fast,
- pull well,
- survive,

As assassin you can use FTD to charge mobs (saves both time and stamina) and accelerated (saves time) as often as you can. Keep in mind that snakes will be your deadliest foes so use dull pain to mitigate poison and attack them as priority targets. Also don't bother picking up loot: it will just slow you down and it is crap anyway.

Your first real challenge is the spider boss. I have never bothered to discover any tactic regarding this boss (if there is any) so I just tank & spank him in few seconds. You might want to interupt his "spell" devour to prevent the boss from healing up.

Now deal with couple more felines and you will reach the building with the statues. Congratulations, the hard mode is now unlocked. You should get an on screen message confirming that.

I am surprised how many people try to simply spank the statues to oblivion and not figuring out the mechanic. So there is this red gem that initiates the statues encounter. Using the gem will move it to your inventory as well as making the statues "alive". After picking up the gem the statues will become animated and will walk slowly towards center. Attacking them will be difficult because they are very resistant to all types of damage. However using red stone on them (3s casting time) will turn them back to "flesh and bones" and you will easily dispatch them. Once any statue reaches center it becomes vulnerable to your attacks without the red gem usage.

After dealing the statues you will be facing several undead pirates (this poor, drunk sobs killed in the book)by the statues). This is a very dangerous part of the instance so take extra care. The undead are archers (they are hitting hard) and they have interrupt. Don't rush things! After you have emerged victorious you can decide whether you want to try extra boss (Aratus) or go straight for the Ape kill. Let's see what the old man is up to, shall we?

After exiting the building with statues you will be able to take left or right. The patch on the right will have some boars and it will take you to the Ape. The patch on the left will lead you to the mountain where you will find a passage through it. At the end you will find poor, old Aratus, that apparently survived the fight with the statues over 20 years ago and ever since is stuck on this island. Needless to say the experience left the poor sod a little paranoid. The fight itself is ridiculously easy: either tank & spank him to 0 HP (kinda hard to do on Assassin, but possible) or use the intended boss mechanic: run, jump behind the trap laying on the ground, make the boss walk into the trap while chasing you and then spank him while he is trapped. Repeat.
I have seen him dropping a blue spear once, but as for now he is a trash loot boss, hardly worth the time and effort.

Now go back to the building and take another route. On you way you will be fighting boars and vultures.

At the end you will find entrance to the Ape Boss.

Out of the shadows of the cliffs moved a monstrous shamblingbulk--an anthropomorphic horror, a grotesque travesty ofcreation.
In general outline it was not unlike a man. But its face, limnedin the bright moonlight, was bestial, with close-set ears, flaringnostrils, and a great flabby-lipped mouth in which gleamed whitetusk-like fangs. It was covered with shaggy grayish hair, shot withsilver which shone in the moonlight, and its great misshapen pawshung nearly to the earth. Its bulk was tremendous; as it stood on itsshort bowed legs, its bullet-head rose above that of the man whofaced it; the sweep of the hairy breast and giant shoulders wasbreathtaking; the huge arms were like knotted trees.

Funcom rightfuly made this boss big and mean. Compared to this BEAST the gray apes in Paikang are more like these. Seriously, this monkey will mess you up if it reaches your ass. In order to beat this boss you have to take advantage of the mechanic related to the platforms in this stage area.

There are 3 platforms. One gives damage related buff (plus mitigation), one gives healing and one knocks the boss off it's feet. I prefer to do this encounter by starting with taking the buff from the first platform - the one you see me standing in front off on the above seen picture. I take the buff, wait for the boss to come to me and then sprint to the second platform. Again I wait for the boss to get close (but not close enough to hit me) and then sprint to the third platform - the knock back one. I get to the third, KB the boss and then go Grim Corruption + Soul Strike for detonation as well as quick Death Whirlwind and run to the first platform. I repeat this until the Boss is around 25% and then spank him to 0 HP with avatar running.

Here are tips:
- take advantage of accelerated to gain distance if the boss is closing on you
- if snared then remember to use double taping to crawl your way to nearest pad (hopefully HP regen one)
- do not underestimate the boss: the mechanic might be easy, but if you make a mistake he will kill you in few hits.
- both buffs and KB are on 20s cool down. If you reach the KB pad before the CD is up (you will usually reach it when there is 5-7 seconds left on CD) then kite the Boss around. REMEMBER that the knock back effect won't proc when you are standing on the pad while the CD is still up: even when the CD will be over you will need to step off the pad and then step on it again to send the boss flying.

And now the best part: looting. If you have done the hard mode then you will have 2 chests to spoil yourself.

Regular chest will have 2 or 3 rare tokens, some crappy blue ring and sometimes a blue social head wear (worth 50s when sold to NPC! loot it!). The second chest has also 2-3 rares and blue generic item that can summon boss in Ardashir arena (dust). Right after this instance you can do the Refuge run for more tokens. Overall it is possible to get in around 50m anything from 6 (2+2+2) to 9 (3+3+3) hard mode tokens. That should make all those items you want from Khitai within your grasp.

The savage rip off (coast not included)

2011-09-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

Brace yourselves for you are entering the muddy realms of my mad rants and complains. Not safe for forums.I have blown 2000 funcom points for early Turan access. It felt very wrong to pay for this content while being premium subscriber (since may 2008 I might add). I am really on the fence when it comes to paying larger sums for something that cannot be considered a full blown expansion (like ROGS). On one side I would like the map of Hyboria in Age of Conan to be filled with different places to visit (and the promise of such is tied to the biyearly adventure packs) but at the same time: what the hell am I paying the subscription fee for? This very much feels like a business model inside another model. Want free gaming? Pay for content access or enjoy what is given for free. What the whole package? Then welcome to the luxurious group of premium subscribers where for the monthly fee you will get royal treatment. Premium covers everything except expansions and...content we feel like slapping "adventure pack" sticker on it. This is exactly how I am feeling about Turanian expansion: content put together under "adventure pack" label just to squuize more nickles and dimes out of subscribers. Not cool Funcom, not cool. What I don't like is paying for crap that I am not going to use and/or enjoy. This very much applies to the adventure pack which consists almost exclusively of content that I will not touch or the very short-lived content.

3,5 raid - a weird concept of itself (considering the unfinished T4 raid in Khitai), but I have no say as non-raider. Not going to do it.

Ardashir Fort - group pve is not really my cup of tea. I have done several HMs runs in ROGS but that was only for those precious Rare Tokens and those I really easy to get now . For me not really needed.

Ardashir - 50-55 lvl zone, although it looks good, seems like a waste in post ROGS reality. I long for a one like ones in Khitai, Paikang for example. Zone with hard to beat mobs and a story with repeatable stuff to do. Ardashir looks great and I think it would provide such content if it wasn't for the fact that it is aimed towards low level characters. What a waste. There is even a faction in Ardashir and it's vendor (if it was 80 lvl zone) would make a great addition and I chance to spend rare tokens on some new stuff.

Dead Man's Hand - great concept, but very short lived. You can pretty much power through this content in 2 hours and that is with reading every bit of quest text line. I see no reason to ever come back to this zone/instance. The drops/quests are the major issue: there are none.Each time I have downed a boss or a mob those dropped some green trash worth mere coppers. Seriously, I would be more grateful to find a TURD in my loot box. This turd could be a white generic item and having it in my inventory would definitely bring me more joy than hoarding my greens to the nearest NPC and making 1 silver off that. The drops in aoc are worthy of another post, but the Dead Man's fail is a prime example how good content can be short-lived because people have absolutely no reason to come back (remember those two new solo instances in Gates to Khitai zone? Me neither).

The Island of Iron Statues - Hands down the best addition to the Age of Conan I have ever seen. Ever. I consider that a high praise, but in deed it is well deserved. Stunning visuals. Deep, rich lore with such nuances like the mysterious presence of one called "Aratus" (for me finding him felt epic!). Clever bosses mechanics that are not pure tank & spank (like both bosses in Refuge). Hard Mode version of the instance with extra rewards as well as social drops. Challenging experience even for veterans, no free rides! Truly, a benchmark instance for the future.

So as you can see out of the whole adventure pack I will, in fact, be using only Iron Statues and could easy pass on the whole Dead Man's Hand place. Really. The problem is that Refuge, which is also a very good solo experience, came free for subscribers. So pretty much I am "forced" to pay for the whole add on when I only want what I used to get for free (solo instance). It got me thinking: why not then PAY for each part of the adventure pack? You know, couple points for raid, some for group instance and....oh wait, isn't this EXACLY what free-to-play model is offering to players? Indeed it is. This is a very sticky situation. What if you are freshly dinged lvl80 and as such not fit for either raiding nor iron statues? Well then, it is 2h of Dead Man's Hand for you my friend.

It seems like Funcom wants to continue with this "something for everyone" philosophy of content development. My beef is this: I am ALREADY paying for the content "for everyone" because I am a subscriber. Subscriber's money is what keeps MMOs going (although that, apparently, is changing) for the free-to-play crowd. So you are charging me again why? My only hope is that next add on will progress the game as a whole, introducing system changes/additions like whole new crafting (I would gladly pay extra for that). Simply dropping some content (that we used get for free like Refugee solo instance) ain't going to cut it and I can only hope Funcom will not get encouraged by "lazy-money" made through Turan add on.

Update Notes 3.0 (Savage Coast of Turan) [Assassin]

2011-09-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

COMBO SYSTEM CHANGES (combo skipping exploit fix)

General
An issue that caused too low combo starter damage has been resolved.
An issue causing some weapon types to only do 75-80% white damage during the combo sequence has been resolved.
Hits during combo finishers are more accurately timed between the server and the client.
Combo finishers will no longer prevent you from moving at any point. Moving will still abort the combo though.
We have changed how the damage distribution works for combos with multiple hits. This change makes sure each hit represents the invested time in animation up to each hit in the animation.
Several minor/major issues have been fixed.
Stamina cost has been lowered for most combos.

Animation Changes
All charge impact animations have been normalized between classes and genders. All animations are now 0.9 seconds where the damage is inflicted at 0.45 seconds. Charge impact animations have no movement restrictions, so you can skip them at any point.
All stealth attack animations have been normalized between genders.
The last hit in a combo finisher is now normalized between male and female characters.
Most of the combo finisher animations should now be shorter.
Because of new damage distribution during the combo finisher we have removed double/close impact keyframes. This will not affect the total damage of the combo.

Initial CooldownTweaks
Rogue Archetype

Cunning Strike: All ranks changed to 10 second cooldown.
Vicious Strike: All ranks changed to 10 second cooldown.

Assassin

All ranks of Swift Strike and Sins of the Flesh changed to 3 second cooldown

Combo Damage

Due to shorter animations we have buffed the following combos:

Assassin
Death Whirlwind
Graves Blossom

Conan the Barbarian - spoiler free movie review

2011-08-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

As hardcore fan of all things Conan I have went to see new movie on the opening night. Went in the movie theater with a cautious optimism and went out with mixed feelings. Wait, wait, just to be sure before we get any further THE MOVIE DID NOT SUCK. There, now you can read further without worrying that I will shit all over the CTB and ruining it for you.

The world

The feel of Hyboria was captured perfectly. There are many references to actual places like Hyrkania and the architecture (particularly that of Acheron) is amazing. The visuals when it comes to weapons and armors are also nailed down to what should be expected. Apart from Cimmerians raiding horses (good luck with breeding horses in the mountains ;p) there were no major mess ups. The cimmerians could be a tad more hardcore, but overall the movie did justice to them. Everything was very dirty, gritty and rugged which I liked: if a character was cut (like Tamara) the scar will stay in the next shot, and if the characters are fighting on the dirt they will get dirty. That is just how things should be.

The gore

I was very afraid that the movie producers will go with that PG-13 crap and turn savage world of Conan into chick-flick. Not so. This is the most bloody and brutal movie I have seen without the director taking it to the absurd level of "The Saw" or "Tarantino" movies. Just right amount of savagery and blood splatter.

The script

By Crom, here we go. Time to take the first dump on the CTB. It is like the writers could not make the decision: should we go full nerd-core on this or go back to 1980 style where the only thing the movie has in common with the books is Conan. The end result is this half-baked story where it is "kinda Conan" story, but with references to actual stuff from the books (Artus, for example, talks how Conan killed Yara and stole the elephant hart gem). It very much feels like the writers wanted to throw a bone to hardcore fans, but at the same time make Conan easier to digest for casual movie watchers. This is unacceptable. The story of itself is cheesy Acheron magic power-flick (give the fucking Acheron a rest already, its has been gone for 3000 years at the time of Conan :X) and once again Conan is driven by the vengeance. I loved the books because Conan was just roaming the lands of Hyboria searching for riches and good fights, not because he had father-issues to deal with. Bah! It was a weak script, WEAK I tell you! And the scene when the Conan was born on the battlefield... it was so much rushed that it felt more like an abortion and not a birth. If you want to do a scene that portraits an event that supposedly defines the character don't rush things. Let's get over with this...

Fighting and magic

Both done very well. The sword fights are very artful and brutal and the magic that is shown in the movie fits what is portrayed in the books: mix of demonology, necromancery and mesmerism. Really, not much to say here other that well done.

The characters

No one annoyed me with their acting which is good. Did I say no one? Well apart from Zym's daughter when see was a kid. For some reasons the writers went with this goth-emo-chick and she very much felt out of place both with her acting and wardrobe. Geez, why not put some tattoos on her too along with a stripe of green and pink hair? I really liked Artus, he was a cool guy. Ela-Shan was obviously a character lifted straight from Conan the Destroyer for he resembles Malak in every way.

Conan

Ah crap, this will be hard. The acting on Conan was decent apart from Momoa trying to get that deep, low voice that Batman fails so miserably at. Its cheesy acting and it doesn't make the character feel tough at all. Geez, go see a throat doctor or something. Second thing and kinda important: Momoa was not in shape for this movie. There, I have said it. Being actively involved with bodybuilding for several years myself I know how hard it is to pack on meat on your bones. This is why I really appreciate actors like Stephen Lang who really busted his guts to look respectable for the role of Colonel Miles Quaritch (and Zym in CTB, can you believe that?). Just doing some weight lifting and eating some chicken with peanut butter (supposedly Momoa's pre movie diet) ain't gonna cut it when you are preparing to play the role of Conan, a character very much defined by his body and sword arm. I am not saying that Conan must be looking like 7 times Mr Olympia Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the looks of Momoa is pulling in Conan could do for shows like Xeena or other bull crap.I am calling for a happy medium. If you can't get a good bulk going then at least go for shredded, ripped appearance. Momoa has neither the mass nor the conditioning in the CTB. Why is this important? Well Conan is getting is ass kicked by almost everyone in the movie. Every major thug out weights him and throws around like a rag doll. In the books Conan had his speed and agility (to which Momoa did justice), but lets not forget that he had broken the neck of Cimmerian bull before he was 15teen. Also Conan strangled Baal-pteor (a man of amazing strength) and pretty much tanked Thak, a bone-crushing gorilla. In the the books at worst Conan strength is matched, but usually he just bitch slaps his opponents into submission. The movie lacked the feel of that raw strength which was replaced with "agile swordsman". If you are going to be playing Conan then please try harder, almost every actor in "300" would have done a better job with their conditioning for the movie. So Momoa could have done a lot better but he didn't and I don't think it was intentional.

The music

It was just there, in the background. Sadly no memorable tune. In that regards 1980 Conan is till a masterpiece.

The verdict

I don't think I would want to see this movie again any time soon, but over all it did not disappoint. It has it's strength and weaknesses, but the core (the world and the fights) is there. I wouldn't cry is Momoa was not hired for the second movie, but if he pulls his act together he can stay because for most part he did a good enough job. Hell, compared to Arndol he did a great job. I would say go see this movie, if anything it will make your appreciate Funcom writers even more. Those guys are worshiping Robert E.Howard and turning out gold when it comes to lore. Hey Lions Gate Movies, go hire some good folks at Funcom to get you the next script and have your current writers serve them coffee or something.

Ultimate Guide to Khitai Quests (max rewards per hour)

2011-08-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

A while ago I did a guide on how to get MOAs in Khitai (the guide is horribly outdated). I wasn't quite satisfied with that guide because it was about me trying to squeeze the best MOA per hour out of the factions I have picked for the gear they were offering. There had to be a better way. During my total faction switch I have discovered new and interesting quests and figured out the best possible way to chain them together to create optimal results. This guide will provide you with step-by-step tips on how to gain, in my humble opinion, the maximal rewards out of 1 hour playing session in Khitai.

Before we go any further I would like to state that this whole thing has been researched and written from the perspective and experience of a veteran Assassin with loads of AA points and mostly epic Khitai gear. I cannot tell if what I am describing below is do-able for other classes or with slightly lower amount of AA and gear score. Probably is, so worth a shot, ain't it?

Completing the quests in this guide should take around 55m-60m. This is how I am doing my solo PVE in Age of Conan: I have about an hour to play in the morning so I have been always looking to get the most out of my gaming. I suppose you could tweak the quest rotation to get even more MOAs, but without the Refuge instance and with Paikang included. I highly recommend doing Refugee runs, especially for casual players that will never do any Hard Mode runs. Just by doing daily Refuge runs I was able to buy 2 Khitai epics and the bag drops alone are worth the effort. I am giving out some tips on 3 quests that you can do while following my guide, but completing them would take little more than an hour (probably something around 1,20h). I am calling those "extra quests". The thing with extra quests is that during your 1h run you will always kill 2-3 mobs that are required for "extra quests" so you will do those quests eventually, as a result of your normal questing.

If you are an assassin you might want to consider the build I have suggested for solo PVE in Khitai.

What you will need:
Hyrkanians - rank 2
Brittle Blade - rank 2
Scarlet Circle - rank 2
Children of Yag-Kosha rank 2
Jiang Shi - maxed out (not sure about this)

Wagoner route maps - my guide uses very interesting mechanic that is present in Kara Korum. This zone has only one fast travel NPC which allows you to use Route Maps (can be bought from NPC standing next to wagoner) to "jump" around the map, saving you a lot of time.
Swift Horse - you need to be fast in order to get all the quests done in 1 hour.
Accelerated Feat - use it whenever you can to get around faster.
Pots and Food
Path of Asura bound to village in Grass Lands
Veteran reward path to Chosain

Here is what I had before I began my 1h run:

Gold: 44g 47silver
Insignias: 94
Marks of Acclaim: 282
Rare Tokens: 49

1. First you start in Grasslands. Bind yourself to this place if you haven't already.

2. Mount up and ride to Kara Korum. The entrance is very close.

3. Talk to Scarlet Circle NPC in Kara Korum and take "The Backbone of Khitai" quest. You will need to gather 30 bones from humanoid NPC. Don't worry, you will get those bones in Refugee solo instance.

4. Talk to Brittle Blade NPC and take "The Bones of the warriors". This is extra quest that you might want to do, but it is not in my rotation.

5. Talk to Children of Yag-kosha NPC and take "Lost Logs" and "Furnace of Fengu" quests.

6. Go around and pick up corpses.

7. Talk to Jiang Shi NPC and take "Infinite Matters of Trust" quest. You might also want to take extra quest which name I cannot remember (I had it on cooldown). You need to kill 30 Kang Zai and loot their skulls.

8. Jump down and burn the corpses on the pyre.

9. Go back to the entrance and talk to Jiang Shi NPC. She will follow you. Don't run too fast or the quest will fail.

10. Take the Jian Shi NPC to the entrance to the village. Be prepared to fight two weak NPCs.

11. Finish the quest and mount up. Next stop: the Palace.

12. Following the route shown above will take you safely to the corrupted village near the palace.

13. Talk to Children NPC and take "The Endless Curse of the Crater" quest.

14. Dig up the near-by treasure.

15. Use the "cure" on the neutral corrupted NPCs. Attack them and kill as soon as you have used the cure on them.

16. Return the quest to Children NPC.

17. Mount up and ride to the palace.

18. In palace talk to Brittle Blade NPC and take "The Pride of Pra-Eun". I will give the name of this NPC because she is so freaking cool: Szeto.

19. Go to the top floor of the palace and talk to Scarlet Circle NPC. Take the "Disarming the Defectors" and "Deciphering Reality" quests.

20. Use your Route Map scroll and you will be instantly ported to Fengu village.

21. Mount up and ride to the Ghost Hill.

21. Along the way, without dismounting, click two times on "Lost Villager" NPC. This will complete the quest for Szeto (do we love her or what?)

22. Ride to the Ghost Hill taking the route near the Living Forest. If you have armored horse or any other mount with added protection from knocking you off it NOW is the time to change the mounts. There will be loads of NPC trying to kill you, be sure to use accelerated and cat's paw if you are an assasssin.

23. In the Ghost Hill village pick up the medical logs and loot the hidden chest.

24. Dig up the treasure and pick up quest for the Brittle Blade. Turn around and run to the entrance to the Refugee of Apostate while killing the ghosts and picking up medical logs for the Children quest ("Lost Logs") until you are done.

25. Talk to the NPC near the entrance to the Refugee of the Apostate and take "The Collector's Agent" quest. I firmly believe that this quest is "broken" because it gives 1 insignia (I suppose it was intended to give 10). We will NOT go back from the instance to return this quest. You will finish it during your next 1 hour run.

26. Enter the solo instance. You will get bones for the "Backbone of Khitai" by killing NPC in here. Proceed to kill the Corpse Walker boss firs.

27. Fight your way to the maze. The screenshots show you the order in which you must use the switches to pass trought.

28. Before you enter the room with the boss use mouse scroll to zoom in to the "First Person Perspective" mode at pay close attention to the NPCs. The real Boss will be clapping. Remember which NPC clapped.

29. In the nightmare you need to reach the spots with the light and then use dubble tap backwards as the Boss try to knock you back. Make use you dubble tap in a direction that will allow you to land on the ground :X If you are an assassin then use accelerated and just run through the nightmare giving the Boss the finger.

30. Attack only the Boss that previously clapped. Use crossbow to get thim in the middle. If you are an assassin then this is simple tank&spank Boss. As the Boss prepares to unleash his devastating magical attack use Dull Pain to mitigate 90% of the damage and again, make sure to flip him off.

31. Loot the Boss, take notes and use portal to the palace.

32. Mount up and run to the palace. Talk to Szeto and return the quest. Run to the top floor. Talk to Scarlet Circle NPC and return the quests. Use Route Map to port to the Fengu village.

33. While in Fengu you can take extra quest "Collection of Cacti" from the quest board. The quest can be taken from the poster in the middle. If you didn't get the right quest first time then delete whatever quest you have taken and try again. Mount up and ride outside the village until you reach the statue (very close), jump behind the fence and ride down to the area where Kang Zais are.

34. Ride until you reach the end of the map. You can now do your extra quests: pick up cactai, kill the boss (for the chest) and then kill 30 Kang Zai. If you want to do the quests in 1h then skip this part and go to number 35.

35. Click on the circle and that will spawn Kang Zai. Run away from the spawned Kang Zai until you have lost the aggro and hide. Use you path to Shaulun.

36. In Shaulun take the quest "Bloodshed in the shadows" off the board and then talk to Brittle Blade NPC for the quests "Bloody Bargains" and "Contract killer".

37. Take the scrolls of the shelves to spawn the random quests. All of them are similarly fast and easy except "Kill Jiang Shi in Chosain". If you get the Jian Shi quest then delete it and talk to NPC to take the quest again. Repeat until you get new quest (should be pretty fast 2-4 tries max).

38. Kill 12 Shadows of Jade NPCs in their base and then, depending on your other 2 quests, kill the Kai-xi and the recruiter. Killing family members or the Herbailist is exacly as easy.

39. Return the quests to Brittle Blade NPC and then use your Path of Asura to port back to Grasslands.

40. Talk to the Children of Yag-kosha NPC and take "Demon in Disguise" quest. Take the flasks and run up the nearby stairs to the House of Healing.

41. In the House of Healing talk to the NPCs. The last NPC is upstairs and he is bugged (no "?" will be shown above his head), but talk to him anyway. After the dialog ends the priest of Yun NPC spawns. Kill him and run downstairs to the quest giver.

42. Return the quest and run towards the Hyrkanian camp.

43. Mount up and ride to the Hyrkanian camp. Switch your main weapon to crossbow. It is VITAL that you talk to NPC and take the quests in the order shown above because one quest has a time take will start asap you take it. Talk to Hyrkanian female NPC and take "Venom in the Blood". Talk to the bold male NPC and take "A Hard Course" first and then "The Stallion" and lastly "Target Practice".

44. Ride around the camp and shoot up the dummies. Then take the course challenge. Use accelerated to beat the clock.

45. Time to tame a stallion. Dismount and shot one of the large, black horses with a crossbow. The horse will aggro, separate from the pack and attack you. Use your whip (given by the NPC) and then use cat's paw and stay with active blocking up until the whip goes off the cooldown. The horse is immiune to CCs and you should NOT attack it. Use pots. The horse should be tamed after several whip hits. Run with the stallion to the nearby field where the demons are.

46. Find a snake and hit him with only your weapon ("white hits") in one direction so his shields stack up. You want all shields to be in same direction as you are hitting. The snake should NOT die. Keep hitting the snake until you get the nasty debuff and CC it and run away or kill it. Run back with your horse to the Hyrkanian Camp.

47. Again the order in which you return the quests is VITAL because you could lose the stallion. First go near the bald male NPC so the stallion disappears. Then return the snake quest to the female and THEN talk to male NPC to return all 3 quests.

48. Mount up and ride to the Kara Korum.

49.In Fengu village kill random NPC for the Birttle Blade quest you picked up in Ghost Hill.

50. In Fengu village return the quests to Scarlet Circle NPC, to Brittle Blade NPC, to Children of Yag-Kosha NPC and to Jiang Shi NPC. Open your expedition packs and the sell all random loot to the NPC. Buy back 2 wagoner route maps for future use. That is it!

The Stats:

Gold: 46g 51 silver - 44g 47silver = 2g 2 silver earned (extra quests would add 20 silver more)
Insignias: 103 - 94 = 9 gained (extra quest would add 7 more)
Marks of Acclaim: 554- 282 = 272 gained (extra quests would add 38 more).
Rare Tokens: 51 - 49 = 3 gained

Expedition packs = 10 looted

What mysteries do you guard, Wise Devil?

2011-08-13T15:39:00.000-07:00

There are no screenshots for you in this post because of this:

The new content in this update, including everything in the Savage Coast of Turan, is considered to be protected under the EULA that you accept when you launch the game on Testlive. (See the section of the EULA quoted at the end of this post). If you upload any videos or screenshots of the new content on Testlive to any third party site, or if you link any posted video or screenshots on any other site, it will be considered a breach of the EULA and your accounts can be permanently

If you want to check the visuals then go to this thread on TL forums. No TL access? Sux2bUm8 and I guess you will have to settle for my mad, mad ramblings.

Welcome to the savage coast..

The Ardashir is a port city. It is by no means the capital of Turan nor one of it's major cities (such as Akif). By AOC game standards I would say the city itself is somewhat smaller than Khemi. Visually it very much resembles the architecture of Turkey or Emirates and it is what Turan should be. The city itself is "integrated" into the zone so it works very much as cities in Khitai: you can do quest/pvp inside city, but you can also, without any loading, go out side. Both new raid zone and group instance are close by and accessible. You can also go to the port and take one of the two boats (sadly "take" means "click on") to the new solo instances. The zone itself is quite massive with diverse landscape. Surprisingly you will have a chance to interact (one way or another) with some of the most famous "factions" (in traditional sense, not Khitai grind :X) in the Hyboria: the Black Seers of Yimsha (check People Of The Black Circle), the Red Brotherhood (Shadows In The Moonlight) and the Kozaki (A Witch Shall Be Born). Hell, even our good friends Children of Yag-Kosha from Khitai (far, far to the east, beyond the devil haunted towers of Zamora and wind toss waves of the Vilayet sea) make an appearance. Sadly it is a lvl50 zone when it comes to out door PVE. I myself can see several reasons for that decision:

movie tie-in - it is quite possible that the devs want to put people drawn into Age of Conan by the movie into familiar setting fast. It would be awkward to say: "loved the movie? want to see what happens 20 years later? Ding lvl80 and then grind Khitai for 4-7 months and come see the Savage Coast". I think not :P
F2P casual population - I believe (and I am pulling this straight out of my ass) that the large chunk of F2P people will be in their 40-50' levels as the adventure pack hits live server.
Free level 50 character - Again Funcom is going to give us a free, instant 50 lvl character as they did after 1.5 (so says Massively)
Problems with 80 lvl content - I firmly believe that Funcom shot itself in the foot with Khitai expansion AA system. It can only be fixed by next expansion that is going to introduce 10 new lvls. You see there is an ocean of difference between 80lvl character and 80lvl Khitai veterans and I am not talking only about the gear. Having 80lvl population being split into several smaller groups (freshly dinged 80lvl, Khitai Beginners, Khitai advanced players and Veterans with most AA stuff unlocked) makes creating new content extremely difficult. Example? Refuge of Apostate instance: my assassin kills the last boss with 90% hp in about 20s (without breaking any sweat), other players need 1g HP pots running and some luck to bring him down and sometime several tries 0_o. Then again the new "Breach" and "Forgotten City" content is useless for me because the mobs can die due to my character talking too loudly or farting. Same will happen to the new "Isle of the Iron Statues" solo instance: the monkey boss gave me hell and I cannot see someone having problems with "Refuge" attempting this with much success. In other words: the 80lvl content is either too hard or too easy for 80lvl character depending on their progression in Khitai. Perhaps future expansion, by adding 10 new levels, will make all the AA progression giving players about +5% in total power (it is MUCH more than that now) and the end game content will be made same for everyone.

Fort of Ardashir

I will defiantly give this instance a try. As I was typing this the www.mmorpg.com posted an exclusive on this. So far no word on the lootie, but I would be horribly horribly disappointed if it was lower on the power scale than whatever Khitai has to offer. Oh and there is a new type of tokens: "golden taurus" (seriously Funcom don't we have enough of those already?), but I firmly believe those will be for raiding.

The Dead Man's Hand

The most interesting and bold content so far. Basically it is a "private" solo zone that will scale depending on your level. It is, however, by no means "a villa" type of place, but rather a large quest hub with several quest givers, main story line with a lot of side-stories. The island itself is very "moody" with dark clouds hanging above the pirate island. I am getting Tortuga vibe from it. I don't know the replay-a-bilitiy (is there such a word? Probably not) of this content, but it looks very cool.

The Isle of the Iron Statues

This one is very well done. It is a solo instance aimed at veterans. It has several bosses and it gives 2-3 rare tokens, some undisclosed items and social gear (I got some nice turban on my first run). First of all it is deeply rooted in the lore as it's an island from "Shadows In The Moonlight" story. Funcom, as always, does banging job with the immersion and the creative use of REH writing: when you take first step in this instance a parrot will fly by and scream: "Yagkoolan yok tha, xuthalla". Sounds familiar?

""Crom!" muttered the Cimmerian. "Here is the grandfather of all parrots. He must be a thousand years old! Look at the evil wisdom of his eyes. What mysteries do you guard, Wise Devil?" Abruptly the bird spread its flaming wings and, soaring from its perch, cried out harshly: "Yagkoolan yok tha, xuthalla!" and with a wild screech of horribly human laughter, rushed away through the trees to vanish in the opalescent shadows.".

Visually it is pleasing, but somewhat similar to "Dead Man's Hand" instance.

In closing:

The Savage Coast looks like a pretty sweat addition to the Age of Conan and us actually watching the movie and knowing all the tie-ins can only make it sweeter. I can only hope that it is going to replace my Khitai questing routine (as I can barely stand that place anymore). I give my firm support to FC's idea of adventure packs: the more the packs the more Hyboria we will be given chance to see.

PvP - on a stranger tides

2011-07-31T00:24:00.000-07:00

Monthly development update is in and, as foretold by Shaggy, it pretty much covers PvP additions/changes for the upcoming months. Let's go over these, shall we? (not that you have a choice).

Systems and Balance updates

Funcom already has proven that they are ready to take Age of Conan into a new, bold places and kick PVE in the nuts while doing so. Proof? The freaking CC changes. Thank you. Indeed there are many fixes and changes to be made in order to make more feats/perks viable choices in PvP. Rogue general tree would be such example and many, many other in Assassin tree. Good to hear that FC is willing to get down and dirty with most mundane of problems.

Resurrection system in mini-games
This one is pretty weird. Right now if you die you respawn and can re-joing the fray almost instantly. I would assume that FC will allow you only to respawn when every member of your team is dead? Sounds like slowing down the action....a lot. But on another hand it would enforce making tactical choices more meaningful. Example: the whole team bashing Priest of Mitra to a bloody pulp for 2 minutes only to find him re-joing the fight in less than 10s. Not with the proposed system. It would also make "kamikaze" style of play less effective (many assassins are guilty of this) because there would be penalty for dieng. I had my feel of this kind of game play when back on 1.6 on TL server assassins were losing all their shards upon death so it was very beneficial to last long in minis. It was a very different and intberesting experience. Honestly I can go both ways, bring it!

Tracking system & Stealth system

I would say it was most surprising and pleasing part of the letter. Both of those mechanics are CORE to the Age of Conan system and I would rather expect the Devs to roll back the game to 1.4 than to even touch that with a stick. And yet here we are. I find both of those features broken beyond belief and ruining open world pvp. Whatever changes we will get will be welcomed ones. One can only hope that the stealth changes will bring something new and interesting to assassin table. The stealth should be the name of OUR game, the rangers can keep some sort of nerfed tracking and the rest, I hope, will get shafted.

Animation and Combat updates

This will address the issue-we-are-not-speaking about. Oh wait, I am not on a forums right now? I meant the fucking combo skipping exploit. Some classes (like assassin) can literally shave-off good chunk of their combo animation while dealing same damage. Hell, assassins can skip the whole animation on Deaths Whirlwind, making the damage instant. On another hand some combo animations are so long that it really discourages the usage of such combos (Castration being one of those). The changes will make the combat more fluid, dynamic and above all: fair.

New PVP content - World bosses incoming...

"These massive foes will spawn in locations in the Border Kingdoms, and will challenge players to organise to take them down. However, they will always appear in an open and unrestricted PVP setting, so anyone wishing to take them on will have to compete with their fellow players as well.

It also appealed on the nostalgia level, many of us on the team have fond memories of pitched battles over open world bosses or locations that you used to see in games like Anarchy Online and Dark Age of Camelot, and we want to try and reproduce that feeling for this addition.

So the next content addition will take the form of new PVP world bosses that will appear in the other Border Kingdoms."

Ok, I won't go "HOLY CRAP" on you and freak out (althou I would really like to). I have never experienced this kind of content in other games, however these are my 2 cents:

Like many I have full time job and family to take care of. I do only pvp/solo pve in MMOs for various reasons, but above all because this kind of content is always available to me regardless what time I log on. So rather making my schedule fit Age of Conan I have made Age of Conan fit my schedule.

On a side note: I am very much aware that people with same lives have also found a way to fit Age of Conan into their lives. We have, however, different approaches to this: I rather have small gaming time here and there and some enjoy having only 1-2 "raiding nights" during the week.

Back to the bosses:
Creating pvp content that can only be done in specific time frame ultimately will "force" me to show up at certain hour in order to participate in it.

This will not be an addition to pvp that I could enjoy on a daily basis. And we all know its all about ME (My Enjoyment).

It would be "ok" to have this kind of "PvP raid bosses" as a minor and just one of many pvp additions that will be made during the year. But it seems like this will not be a minor addition and nor one of many in 2011.

In other words: if this content is "time frame exclusive" I am stuck with same minigames for 4th year in a row.

I REALLY want to see this in action, but as many have suggested this content might be very hard to implement in a game without two opposing factions. What will stop the major guild from "sharing" the bosses, picking the days in a week when each of the guild downs the boss? Obviously we know very little about this content, but just having it "time frame exclusive" (and I cannot imagine FC going any other route) makes me go QQ. Time will tell (as it always does).

PvP level 9

2011-07-30T03:06:00.000-07:00

Ok so it is here: old school, purely minigame-grown pvp lvl 9. It is also the very first level in my Age of Conan gaming that didn't give me squat. Nada! I have no desire for Bori gear (the stats difference is marginal at best anyway) so there is absolutely no benefit for me for reaching this level. That's some damn good game design!

However I have noticed a MAJOR shift in minigames quality on Fury: much less ass-hats, less complaining, better team work.
I remember how horrified I was when for the first few days on Fury I have seen people going for kills and nothing else. Such is no longer the case.

Overall getting to pvp 9 was suprisingly easy and fast.For the duration of the last 20% I was using pvp xp books and cash-shop pvp pots, but the rest of the level was pretty much unbuffed.

Another thing was how pleasurable and more skill based the pvp has become after the CC changes. Honestly I cannot simply imagine how we could ever have played this game in any other way that with casting time and being able to knock back all the classes.

Even the dreadful SAG 12 vs 12 minigame got improved since its initial launch and it is no longer "rush center + keep that sucker".

It is all good, but sadly there is simply no carrot to be had in this scenario: I will push pvp lvl 10 eventually and it will be pretty much same as getting lvl 9 with no reward waiting for me in the end. Part of the fun in pushing the pvp level progression was getting that sweet, sweet piece of lootie and non-Bori players are deprived of that "completion" feeling that was always associated with dining another pvp level.

And I don't expect Funcom to shower me with purplezz(ororor0r0r0r0z) at every level so I can

overpower any player that hasn't been pvping since 2008, but how hard would it be to allow me to buy new hair style, tattoo, social cloak or a pvp mount (yeah, where are THOSE?). You know: all the fluffy stuff that makes your e-peen all that little bigger.

And last, but not least: the tournament mode. It was supposedly designed as "Premade vs Premade minigames for bragging rights". That "bragging rights" made me go "oh noes!". Yep, that is a key word for "it will suck".

Since patch went live I couldn't get A SINGLE game in the tournament mode. Everytime there is a team signed you can bet its a Bori farmed pvp lvl 10s with pretty much perfect setup when it comes to class composition. In opposite corner we have: you and pvp lvl 3 friends and no tank. Enjoy! The rewards are also the same which says: more work, more preparation, harder fights for.... same reward. Totally makes sense. How come developers can think of "Hardmodes" with epic rewards for those that are willing to put in a little more effort, but the same rule cannot be applied to pvp. Remove hardmore tokens and epic items from Hardmodes and make them "for bragging rights" and see how many Pvers will flood those instances.

Bragging rights my ass!

Update Notes 2.7 - 20th of July [Assassin]

2011-07-27T23:38:00.000-07:00

Assassin

Grave's Blossom and Death Whirlwind have been adjusted. They will now scale somewhat differently for 1-4 Soul Fragments, and should still do about the same for 5 Soul Fragments. Both these combos will now also hit a second target with full damage, but will follow the normal rules for damage reduction on any targets beyond the second.
Grave's Blossom and Death Whirlwind damage has been reduced, but will now hit two targets with 100% damage.
Fixed an issue where the cone for Grave's Blossom was skewed and would pick targets on the assassin's right side.

I will be posting assassin related patch notes under "Patch Notes" so returning assassins will have easy time checking out what has changed.

Total rebuild

2011-07-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

As you can see I have done some re-designing on the blog (if you can use that word in relation to messing around with blogger's settings). Mainly I have ripped down the tag system and went for "folders".

Here is what you will find in those categories:

News - all the recent information from me, devs or straight forum madness

Rants - me giving you pice of my mind on various topics

PVE - all things PVE from exploration to content review and events

PVP - all things PVP so it is like PVE, but better (coz its PVP)

Podcast - things I do in my car when no one is watching (just kidding, I am doing it even when someone does)

Archive - placeholder for out-of-date guides. This way all the stuff published in other categories will be applicable to the current state of the game.

Guides - all my guides that you can find on official forums. All up to date.

Bombay Sin - all the silly stuff that is still worth keeping, but won't fit any other category

Lore - books, comics, movies, the works!

Hope that now the blog will be a little more user friendly.

On the totally unrelated topic: I have tried Facebook and I hate it :X

Thank you!

Age of Conan: The God in the Moon

2011-07-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

After reading all of REH Conan books I have been left hungry for more. Naturally I have turned to other, numerous Conan books, but quickly realized that those are poo (and by that I mean shit).

Not only the authors butchered Conan character (Conan praying to Crom? Me not think so!), but also continuously shown lack of basic knowledge about Hyboria.

Enter Age of Conan: The God in the Moon by Richard A. Knaak.

The book is about Nermesa Klandes, young noble officer in the army of Aquilonia. The young lad idolizes Conan and joins the army to fight picts in the battlefields of the Westermarck.

First of all the story takes place in the pictish wilderness. I didn't enjoy this setting whole lot in the "Beyond the Black River" so I might be biased towards "The God in the Moon" because of that. Like Picts? Then you will digg this.

The story unfolds very, very slowly and for the most part of the first chapters its a yawn-fest. But then again Mr. Knaak did very well when describing the sword fights and battles. It's not REH, but still very dynamic style of writing.

The book's strong points is that it is very well researched. At first it seemed like the author is trying to put as many Hyborian words in the first chapters as possible (Bossonians, Gundermen, The Iron Tower etc.), but as the story unfolds it becomes more and more subtle. I have really enjoyed how old pict was talking about distant future when they bring down Aquilonia (check The Hyborian Age).

The author also did justice to Conan. The King makes short appearance, and pretty much acts as Conan. Zenobia also is portrayed in "The God..", but the author clearly drew his inspiration from Dark Horse comics, by showing that Conan threats her as his equal (which doesn't come up in REH story). Whatever, both Dark Horse and Marvel (King Conan series) did it so I guess it is ok.

The only thing that really annoyed me in this book was author overusing "blurry shadow leaped from the tree" motive. Seriously, if you were taking a shot of vodka every time someone jumped down from the tree you could get yourself pretty messed up.

Verdict: The book is entertaining in it's decency. Its decent at best, but it seems to be sufficient.

If you have finished up with all REH stuff give those books a try.

Alternative Advancement Perks - ultimate guide to AAs

2011-06-26T03:26:00.000-07:00

Keep in mind that this guide is geared towards solo pve / pvp. If you want to raid then it might not be the best choice (most certainly it won't). I haven't covered PVE perks that are related to raiding at all.

I will talk about MPs (main perks, aka those you put on your bar) and SPs (side perks, those that are passive).

If you are just starting out..

Here is what you need to know about AA system:

Perks is what you get by investing AA points. Feats are what you get from you class tree and put on your regular bars.Perks need to be put onto your special perk bar before either you can receive benefits from them (passive perks) or put those on your regular bar (some perks give abilities that can be used just as regular feats). Some passive perks doesn't need to be put onto perk bar to benefit you.

There are 3 main "trees" or segments in your AA window: general segment, archetype segment and class segment.

For example assassin can get perks from general segment (all classes can), rogue segments (barbs and rangers can get those too) and assassin segment (assassin exclusive).

When it comes to perks you can only use 2 of each segment at the same time. So for example: 2 from general, 2 from rogue and 2 from asssassin.

Perks are divided into PVE and PVP perks. Some pvp perks work in pve, a lot of pve perks work in pvp and very few pve perks doesn't work in pvp.

You buy perks with 3 kind of points: mastery (you get those for doing PVE), prowess (you get those for doing PVP) and Expertise (special points).

Each time you ding you get 3 points (mastery or prowess) and 1 point expertise. Mastery points can be spent only on PVE perks, Prowess points can be spent only on PVP perks and Expertise points can be spent on everything you like. There are some perks that require both Mastery points and Prowess points.

There are 3 types of perks: Gray, Silver and Golden. Gray ones are passive so you just add points to them and they are providing benefits. Silver ones has to be put onto perk bar and take up 1 slot. Golden ones are sorta "ultimates" supposedly powerful perks that take 2 slots on perk bar.

Right now there are pretty much two viable paths for assassin to take:

Damage Sin and Critical sin.

Damage Sin: specc based on providing constant, high damage while cutting through armor via high amounts of penetration.

Perks:

Field of War - great source of damage. Upgrade to your pvp combat and magic damage ratings.

Precise Strikes - added penetration. It allows some of your attack to bypass armor/anti magic defences. Its a great addition to your Precise Strikes feat from corruption tree.

Liberation - anti CC and a source of damage. Pretty much the king of perks. Read up on this here.

Tainted Weapons - removes HOTs (heals of time) from your target. Mandatory for PVE, but also great in PVP.

Sins of Flesh - Costs 1 soul shard upon usage. I like this combo because it is better than Swift Strikes. If you use it on healer it also makes his healing less effective with it's debuff. What I also like about this is that you need just 1 point in this (1/5) to get maximum damage out of it. Even if you are going to get other perks later on you can still get 1/5 in Sins of Flesh to have great replacement for Swift Strikes.

Castration - Grants 2 soul shards upon successful use. It replaces lethargy combo. Bit slow animation, but you have to fill that second slot with something anyway. When it crits this combo can do massive damage and getting two shards out of it saved my ass more than few times. Regardless of points put into you get same damage, but the chance to get shards if higher.

1/5 - if you get 2 shards you can call yourself lucky (and I mean it)

2/5 - some times you can get 2 shards,

3/5 - it gets more reliable, also usable

4/5 - you must be very unlucky to not get the shards. Pretty much always works.

5/5 - shards are guaranteed. Getting 5/5 in this perk requires 900h training!!!! So...you might want to settle for 4/5.

Critical Sin: this build relies heavily on dealing critical hits (with proper gear you can get it over 25% chance to crit) and then making those critics bypass enemy defences.

Pressing Strikes and Decisive Strikes - your bread and butter. It upgrades your crit chances and damage those crits do.

Liberation and Tainted Weapons - some perks are irreplaceable. See above.

Master Assassin - Passive golden perk. It makes your critical hits harder to mitigate (PVP T2 & 3 and Khitai Gear has critigation stat which this perks pretty much neutralises).

Since the recent CC changes previous golden perk Choking Powder got changed and now it has casting time. It used to be great perk for Damage Sin build, but it seems like its no longer viable. You can still supplement Damage Sin build with Master Assassin perk if you don't like the combos.

Keep in mind that Master Assassin perk doesn't work in PVE at all.

And now which Side Perks to get:

All "Wards" perks - those are anti magic. Max them out.

All "Resistance" perks - those are anti CC. Max them out

All "Empowered" perks - those upgrade your damage with face stab/combos. Max them out.

Nimble - passive 5% running speed. Mandatory.

Penetrate Armor - added armor penetration. Penetrate!

Exploit Opening - makes passive shields (those ((( around characters and mobs) less effective.

Vitality - more health. You need HP to stay alive.

Invigoration - gives stamina and makes running drain less stamina. Mandatory!

Pit Fighter - gives 10% weapon damage. Very little damage upgrade for assassin, but every bit helps.

Frenzied Strikes - 5% offhand chance. Again, every bit helps

Expanded Sidestep - gives extra evade. Check it out here.

Finely Honed - removes bubbles and shields (but only mage shield and bubbles gained via AA points). Mandatory for PVE and great for PVP. The only passive perk that gives ability that you can put on your bar without it taking up the slot on the perk bar.

Which Side Perks NOT to get:

Quick Step - PVP evade. Very very low. Sucks!

Immeasurable Empowerment - gives good amount of all stats. Perhaps this is good for hybrid classes like BS and HOX but not for sin.

Empowered Momentum - gives damage if you stun someone with momentum (double tap forward to get "momentum" and attack to have a chance to stun). Fully upgraded it does 250 damage on Chosain Mob. Sucks beyond belief!

Arcane Plunder - gives magic immunity. Perhaps as we get more gear budget stats in further expansions it will make this interesting.

Elusive Nature - gives chance to mitigate crits. Tank perk.

Dance of Death - upgrades Impede Life combo with hit rating debuff. The problem is that everyone has insane amount of hit rating so this does next to nothing.

Disfigure - returns some stamina and burns mana on face stab. Very little return and no damage upgrade.

Which Side Perks you MIGHT want at some point:

Extended Lethargy and Impede Life - makes debuff from those combos last longer. Very very bottom of your perk priority list. Might want to get it 2 years from now.

Avoid Entrapment - makes root and stun CC last shorter. Meh.

Chromatic Warding - gives insane amount of anti magic. Might be interesting for sieges.

Fortifying Empowerment - gives good amount of Health. Might be interesting for sieges.

Dagger and a bowl of rice ep.8: Faction switch

2011-06-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

Can you tell who's chair I am sitting in this picture? Of course you can't. Let me give you a hint: its in Hyrkanians camp and this crappy pice of furniture used to accommodate some very important ass.

Used to, of course, before I slew the owner of this chair - the War Chief - and by this blood letting I have fulfilled my vengance that I have sworn against the Hyrkanians (aka BULLSHIT faction). Today I have actually completed my total faction switch. That is right: after dinging all factions to rank 4 I have decided to check out every single opposite faction. This is done purely for the story because that is ROGS strong point.

For example I simply LOVE the clever use of lore in Children of Yag-Kosha quest text:

Here is what can be found in the "Tower of Elephant":

Let me be free of this cage of broken blind flesh, and I
will once more be Yogah of Yag, morning-crowned and shining, with
wings to fly, and feet to dance, and eyes to see, and hands to break.'

Quest giver asked me to kill some Yuns and although he hated this act of violence he told me that Yag has feet to dance, but also hands to break. Delicious!

It gets even better: when ask why are they are praying to dead god the Children responded that their players are still working because the death of Yag is not the death of a man.

The life of man is not the life of Yag, nor is human death the
death of Yag. Let me be free of this cage of broken blind flesh, and I
will once more be Yogah of Yag.

I love how much lore Funcom writers were able to squize out of one mere story.

The Wolves are ruthless and it is a nice change from Hyrkanians which seems to be spending their time drag-racing on horses instead of fighting.

Scarlet Circle so far (rank 2) is a little disappointing. It is like the writer is trying too hard to make them look evil enough. I get it, they are evul!!

Since I have re-joined Brittle Blade (previously betraying them and getting rank 4 with Shadows) I have noticed an interesting thing: you cannot re-do the story. Once you have beaten certain faction you can only do the repeatable quests and not the main story. On one hand thats nice because some mundane, low level quests are best to be done once and forgotten, but at the same time I have been looking forward to meeting the Death Goddess again and asking her a question (probably something about next expansion).

Scholars in Chosain have PAINFULY mirror-like quests to Tigers. Poorly written faction for poorly designed zone. I hate Chosain.

I do have some hidden agenda too: right now I am actively looking for best faction quests to chain together into ultimate 55m minute run that will give MAX moas possible (I hope for something +300 moas and 2-3 rare tokens per run). Once I have discovered the route/factions set up I will be writing a guide on that. So far Children are proving to be great MOA generating faction, superior to all other.

I hope that next episode will include my total review of ROGS which I should have beaten by then. Damn, about time we have heard some stuff about next expansion!

The Savage Coast of Turan - who are you, Ardashir?

2011-06-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

Couple of weeks ago the "hidden" content has been discovered. It was the Turan zone and Ardashir.Now everyone knows Turan: it was very well penned out Rober E.Howard and featured in many Conan comics. The Turanian Empire is second to none in Hyboria and could rival the jewel of the west itself - Aquilonia.

What about Ardashir? Well my first reaction was: find it on map! Is it there? Well, no. Damn. se.

After doing a quick search on the Internets (all 3 of them) I have learned that Ardashir was featured in two issues of Marvel's King Conan (comics that are crappy ass hell, don't try it). Guess what...I went online and bought those two issues.

After couple of pages I have started to recognize the plot. The story in the comic was page-by-page Conan the Avenger by Björn Nyberg. Decent book. The story takes place shortly after the events from "The Hour of The Dragon" and Conan is already a King, traveling to.....far away Khitai!

Now the problem: Ardashir is a mere captain of Turanian army stationed in a lousy outpost in the desert.

Ardashir of Akif

We already know that the Savage Cost of Turan will take place 20 years after the events from the movie so if we have followed the time line Ardashir is still a mere captain in Age of Conan. I doubt there is a whole city dedicated to this sad slob.

Then came this announcement from FC:

Slated for an August release, ‘Conan the Barbarian’ tells the tale of Conan and his adventures across Hyboria. The new adventure pack launches players on exciting adventures, as they help Artus unravel the conspiracy and plots surrounding the city of Ardashir in Turan.

City of Ardashir? If you look closely on the artwork you will see that there is even Ardashir Fort.

So here you go, most likely Ardashir is made up by FC and not lore base at all.

See me bust a move!

2011-06-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

<p>&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;tja</p>

thanks to WoodExalted

Patch of Enlightened

2011-06-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

I had my eyes on this since ROGS day 1. It is a spell book from Jian Shi faction that gives you a permanent spell (spell, not a PET).

After weeks and weeks (and weeks) of daily Refuge instance runs (not that I mind, its a great content) I have managed to get 139 out of 150 rares needed for this item. It is true what they say: the last 100m dash is the hardest. So I did 2 x Kara Korum run (something that I almost never do) to get to the final 150.

Needless to say I have ran like a madman to the village of Jiang Shi to buy this (on TL of course, always test stuff first before you blow 150 rare tokens :X).

Here are my findings:

After learning the spell it appears in your spell book. For assassin this is our only spell (miasmas doesn't count apparently) so new, separate TAB is created. You can drag the icon to your hot bar.

Casting
The spell uses the animation from HOX: a lot of flames and smoke and the *poof* you are a Gnome, ...I mean Jiang Shi. The casting time is very short: about 1-1,5 seconds.

The spell is considered "transformation" so certain classes like HOX can have big problems with it because you can't use demon form and jiang shi form at the same time. Assassins are fine, you can use whatever with jiang shi form.

Buffs
Now the good stuff. The buffs are very marginal: some unholy damage rating, some magic damage and 5 life regeneration. It is nothing to be boastful about, but lets do some analysis:

1. Unholy damage is our bread & butter. Using soul strike miasma can debuff your opponent against unholy and having high magic penetration only furthers this. So in fact you can benefit from this a lot more than other classes.

2. Magic damage is always good for your detonation.

3. Life regeneration

All that is good, but the real treat is in Kara Korum because this spell removes all created debuffs for the duration. You WILL feel the difference going from -20 life regen to +5. Basically it gives you "Super Hero" mode in Kara Korum both against players and mobs.Seriously, the difference is staggering as crater gives some nasty debuffs. Something to consider for all of yo gankers out there.

CD
The cool down is 10 minutes and the buff is 1 minute. You heard me. First of all 10 minute CD is nothing extraordinary: remember second wind? Second thing is that the spell has a chance to refresh itself for another 1 minute upon melee or melee spell. So far I was able to chain-refresh this buff for whole 6 minutes. The best part is that the spell CD will go on even if you refresh the buff. After 6 minutes of using the buff the spell it self had only 4 more minutes for a complete cool down.

Conclusion.

It is "free". Get it. It might not be fabulous or ass-whooping damage, but it is:

1. permanent upgrade to your character

2. doesn't cost feat points or perk slots

3. pretty damn cool

4. Kara Korum god mode.

Tokens come and go and what is an epic item today might not be so epic 6 months from now, but getting spell/pet is something that you will always benefit from. I have bought it on live and I don't regret it.

Some updates:

1. the buff will last through pvp death, but will fade away on pve death (as all other buffs do, like corrupted body).
2. you cannot use your Khitai pets while the buff is running (weird, huh?), but you can use the pet and THEN use the buff and you will get all the bonuses.

a mug that only mother could love

so keep your mask on at all times

Bombay Assassin - assassins skip what?

2011-06-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

By "popular" demand, yet another Bombay Assassin: Death Whirlwind

Assassin's Hideout goes 300! Spartaaaaaaaaaa!

2011-06-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

I have posted 300 times yesterday. Can you imagine this? I know I can't. Looking back at all those years it seems so unlikely that I would have stuck around for this long.

So how did it all begin? I remember back in the day I have been done with WoW for several months and been messing around with Starcraft. Honestly I have sucked at SC (since ever ;p) so I have been looking around for something to play in my pass time. One day I have found some random crap on Age of Conan. Age of freaking Conan? Uh? Conan? You mean like that movie?

The hype machine must have been switched to "Erling Ellingsen crazy" because AOC was popping up in almost every MMO site's post. I have decided to give it a shot when it comes out. I have even read some of the Dark Horse Conan comics. It was a amazing read. I remember those two very vividly: The halls of dead and The Book of Toth. Both great and those made me hungry for more.

While going through some other Dark Horse Conan stuff I have came across a name....Robert E.Howard. I have NEVER associated Conan character with books before. I was under impression that it was the movie that started it all. I have bought the very first Conan book, Lancer edition with stunning Frank Frazetta cover. It blew my mind. Even thou the books were translated to polish (very good translation BTW) the unique and energizing Howard's writing style poured from every single page. It was this very moment that I knew I have been bitten, that I came across something that will cherish till the end of my days. Indeed the black-haired, sullen-eyed barbarian and his brutal world of Hyboria captured my imagination beyond any of my expectations. During those 3 years I have bough and read all the original REH books both in polish and english coupled with a lot of comics (both Dark Horse and Marvel).

So before Age of Conan went live I have already went through couple of books and I could really appreciate Hyboria for what it was.

The start was very bumpy. Even thou I have never experienced anything game breaking with AOC client its been very sluggish. First I have bough new computer and then new video card and processor. If AOC does something right its getting my money.

I came across a lot of bullshit in this game. A LOT. There is no chance in hell I would have put up with even half of it if it wasn't for it's Hyborian setting.

Now the blog it self. It was my way to give back to the community that have provided me with so much. Back in the days of Mephs and other AOC superstars forums were not filled with QQ and nerf requests, but rather helpful, insightful posts and even instructional videos. When the old school players quit I have decided to step up and re-distribute whatever knowledge of the game I have gained on my own and learned from others. That was my initial intention, but obviously it grew beyond that.
It became a place for me to share my ideas, hopes and yes, to vent some of my frustrations (a lot less of those as of late, this ain't 2009 ;p). Of course there were many times when I was like "fuck it, no one reads this" but I have pushed on. At last I have reached "critical mass" when I have poured enough of time and content into it and it became self propelling, a part of my life style and gaming. But it was always about the community. Friendly comments both on blog and in game kept me going because as it turns out I dig when people enjoy what I create. Furthermore the Hideout grew into a forum that apparently is more known that the blog itself since it got mentioned on massively.com.

It's been a fun ride and I can only wish I will be here for the years to come.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank YOU, teh read0rz : without you I would just be an angry weirdo talking to his iPhone on his way to work. It is you who make it "podcast done by angry weirdo" and this site an actual blog. Thank you, keep on readin' and I will keep posting.

Assassin's Hideout Podcast - ep.25

2011-06-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

show notes:

- 3 years of AOC

- AOC F2P model

- Rare tokens and rewards

http://www.assassinshideout.com/Podcast/Assassins_hideout26.mp3

By Crom! By Mitra! By Set! It is DONE!

2011-05-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

It has finally happened: I have acquired a full minigame armor. Back in black so to speak.

I am still needing 1 more dagger for offhand, but in truth I already have my offhand dagger and I have my eyes on much better one that can be bought from Hyrkanians (aka the bullshit faction).

It took a lot of minis, but its done.

It felt great to sell last pice of lvl 5 pvp "Nipple set" to the NPC. It was like snake shedding his skin and going off to a greener pastures (to bite sheeps no doubt).

In the end I am glad that I have not went for the Bori. I am feeling strangely fulfilled now that my set is completed. I cannot imagine how it must have felt to get the full set effortlessly via hitting rocks. Perhaps this is why there are hardly any "Bori-baked" assassins running around nowdays, at least on Aquilonia.

Now, I am not quite pleased about the head gear. I think it looks silly both for minigame gear and Bori gear - it reminds me for burqas.

This is why I am eagerly awaiting the social tab because I will be wearing THIS:

I will use this when social tabs are in game

or....Shadows of Jade armor. We shall see.

Anyhow, I will be focusing on getting my combo books now.

[Guide] Fatality and YOU

2011-05-22T02:01:00.000-07:00

It is time for a little update to my old old brutality guide. Some things have changed, some are now better and of course you can enjoy the stunning visuals of dream world engine's zoom in on fatality.

What is fatality?

Fatality is an killing animation that procs on killing hits. Not only it is a signature move of Age of Conan mmo, but it's also very beneficial to your character:

1. you cannot be harmed during the animation,

2. animation cannot be interrupted,

3. you are still healing/regenerating during animation (from pots, hots, etc.)

4. you are dealing AOE damage to mobs/players in close proximity to your victim,

5. you gain great +20% dmg buff for 10s and amazing stamina regen.

How do I gain fatality?

Fatality is a proc. It means that you have certain chance that your spell/combo will proc the animation.

There is but one catch: you combo, spell or miasma has to be a killing show. It means that the damage dealt is higher than your target's HP. High damage spike is preferable and more reliable. For some reason landing combos on the side of mob/players that has shields stacked will proc fatality less often.

Here is what can proc fatality for assassins:

1. All combos. Death Whirlwind and Grave Blossom are preferred for their great damage spike.

2. Spells. Soul detonation and Face stab + SDS/GC often proc fatality.

3. Pure miasma. Even pure Face Stab/Soul Strike can proc fatality.Lotus dart can do it too,but on chickens ;p

Are all fatalities the same?

No. Some animations are longer than others, while some finishers won't give you animations at all. Here is the breakdown:

1. All combo proced fatalities will give animation on human type MOBs and players

2. No combo proced fatalities will give animation on non-human, humanoids or animals.

3. No miasma or spell fatalities will give animation - regardless of target type.

Without animation you will only gain buff. You lose precious invulnerability time in animation and AOE damage, BUT you can use your the fatality buff longer and more actively because you are not locked in animation.

Is there cap/cool down on fatality?

No, you can proc them as many times in a row as you like. In fact fatality is most beneficial for its "chain-killing". You can get fatality, after fatality and by doing so you can take down LARGE amount of mobs which you wouldn't be able to kill otherwise because of your hit points.

How can I improve my fatality chance?

First of all your base fatality chance is 20%. That on it's own is pretty damn good. There are several means of upgrading your fatality chance:

1. fatality rating stat - utter crap. For example 40 fatality rating gives 1.1% fatality chance. Its a rare stat anyway. Do not sacrifice other stats for this.

2. brutality (feat, 3/3, +50% fatality chance) - you can read about it here. In current build hybrid reigns supreme and general tree is largely underpowered for assassins. Therefor brutality is hardly seen nowadays. If against your better judgement you are going deep into the general tree then pick up this gem. It is still worth it and stacking it with relish in death makes it better than ever.

3. relish in death (feat, 1/1, +15% fatality chance) - best feat you can get. If you are going with hybrid build I simply cannot imagine anyone skipping it. It upgrades your fatality chance to whooping 35% and you will REALLY notice the difference. It is passive, cheap and reliable. What else would you want? Mandatory for both solo PVE and PVP assassins.

4. The sixth con of Cang-Jei (pet, +100% fatality chance, +82 hit rating) - the king and queen of fatality. Period. You can buy this pet for mere 30g and 800 MOAs at rank 4 from Shadows of Jade faction. This pet has 2m cool down and it does what is says: 100% fatality, like always, all the time. The buff lasts 15s so you can really chain-fatality the mobs. There are only 2 downsides to this gem: it cannot be combo molded and it's usable only in solo instances and open world (out side the Border Kingdoms).

1. combo mold - you cannot drop this pet during animation (unlike brutality). You can use it between combo steps thou.

2. open world - you won't abuse this in minigames or while doing Bori which is damn shame. It is however a great addition to your solo PVE and open world PVP.

Tips from brutality guide are applicable to this pet.

There is absolutely no reason not to get this pet. If you are going to buy JUST ONE Khitai pet make it this one.

Age of Conan: things that really get under my skin

2011-05-14T02:08:00.000-07:00

There are few things in Age of Conan that are driving me insane. I find myself SCREAMING at the monitor when those things happen. My head shrink (aka doctor) said it would be very therapeutic for me to vent those feelings on me blog and share it with the rest of you cutters. Who knows, perhaps some of this also drives YOU crazy?

Open world treasure chests - aoc had given "treasure" a new meaning: its worthless junk, hidden around the world. Would you call 1 esteem token and a daggamalt pot a treasure? Yeah, more like TURDsure (see what I did there?). Sometime I am wondering why am I even bothering to open those shit boxes.

Trader - aoc has to have most broken economy in all of mmos. With useless crafting, very rare recipes, drops being BOP and no world epic there is hardly anything on trader. Hell, you could have quit the game in may 2008 and come back now and you would see same crap being sold. It is hard to imagine that in some games trader or auction house is a minigame of itself: there is always something shiny to buy or sell.

Crafting - I have posted on this already so just a reminder: still here, still broken, still pissing me off. I love crafting, but what is being offered in aoc is 1990' MUD style crapfest.

Mob drops - one of the insanely addictive aspect of MMOS is that the very next mob could drop some amazing item. Not in aoc or to be honest: not in Khitai. While the old world mobs can spit out some blues their khitaian counter parts will only shower you with bags from which a shower of garbage will fall out. I have spent in Khitai like a year and during my solo PVE I have been getting around +10 bags a day (from drops and from digging in Kara Korum). To this day I got like 4 blue items out of it. There are some LEGEND of equally mythical few players that got an epic drop out of it, but I don't think I believe it.

Random vs Random minigame pvp - Seriously, pull you head out of your ass Funcom. I have QQed about it few months ago and its still here. I got an advertisement for your pvp FC, feel free to use it: experience epic randomness of minigames with people you don't know to create teams that you won't like.

No longer bullshit:

CC - as of 2.2 CCs are back to being reasonable. Loving the change both in PVP and PVE

Faction progression and MOAS - another great change. It is no longer a living hell to progress through ranks and the MOA gains are great. It should have been like this since day 1.

Good start, now please tackle the rest of craziness :X

What drives you nuts in AOC? Drop me a line in comments.

Dagger and a bowl of rice ep.7: Shadows of Jade

2011-05-03T02:36:00.000-07:00

*This post is spoiler free*

Recently I have been pretty dry on content to do. Yes, there are some epic items I want to buy with my rare tokens from Apostate runs (that's new solo instance), but lets get serious: it will be MONTHS before I will get 1 item (so far I have 50 tokens, WTB 100 more :X). That's hardly a content. I have made up my mind to do a crazy thing: I have ditched my rank 4 Brittle Blade (even thou I WANT their epic death's ward ring) and started Shadows of Jade. I remember how couple of months ago I have decided to go with Brittle Blade because Shadows didn't seem cool enough. Well they certainly have a little different vibe. First of all I have fallen in love with Shadow's gear.

Honestly I have craved it ever since I have seen that youtube video showcasing Jade armor. It reminds me of good old armors from vanilla AOC: simple yet detailed, very assassiny. I have collected quite few pieces of Jade armor and looking forward to upgrade it further. Having very advanced BB set (2 epic items, 1 dungeon upgrade, full solo gear) there is difference between performance (in favor of BB DPS monster of course), but its not game breaking. I like this armor so much that I will willing to have it on all the time when social tabs are introduced to the game (could it be SOOOON? Check out GD letter. Is it the big surprise? Hope so.). Beside for some reason I find thief vibe to suit my character better than his original class of assassin. Its like Garrett vs Altair. For me Garrett is just cooler.

Altair from Assassin's Creed

Garrett from Thief series

Leveling

I could NOT have done it. Period. I had to used like 70 of my veteran tokens to push myself through all the story. Good thing that the faction revamp is right around corner because I am 100% sure I wouldn't have leveled any faction to rank 4 the old fashioned way: through PAINFUL grind. The revamp in 2.2 will introduce 20h cool down on quests, but at the same time it will add a lot more MOA rewards (like instead of ...2 MOAS you will get 16 for same quest, sounds good eh?) and faction rep. I want to check the story from all perspectives which means leveling all the factions to rank 4.

Story

Having completed both Brittle Blade and Shadows of Jade story line I must say that OBVIOUSLY someone have put more effort into writing the Brittle Blade stuff. Shadows of Jade story is decent at best, but falls short most of the times. Basically you are out to sabotage Brittle Blade and steal stuff. Stealing is good. There are some cool part too: in one quest you do some thing that affects the Brittle Blade story. Meaning: when you are playing as Brittle Blade you have a quest that you perform while not being aware that you got fooled by Shadows into doing the thing you did. Have I lost you? It was supposed to be spoiler free :P Trust me, its awesome. Another big surprise is the leader of Shadows of Jade. It will blow your brains out. Didn't see that coming.

The lootie

Apart from great armor (at least visually) there are 2 things that I want from Shadows: the pet and the pots. The pet gives fatality chance (which is great to stack with +15% fatality chance from relish in death feat) and the pot is good for some pvp. I plan to stack up on both Tiger's and Shadow's pots before betraying them.

There you have it. Give this faction a chance is you are just starting out. A lot of people are running in Brittle Blade gear so it will give you that distinctive look too.

Shadows of Jade
Pet: The Sixth Con of Cang-Jei
grants +82 Hit Rating, +100% Fatality Chance, 15s duration (via Faction pets summarized)

Update 2.02.0 on TL

2011-04-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

Ok so the faction and CC changes are on TL. I find them very interesting. Check the video for details.

Few stats:

Liberation - 2m CD
FTD - 30s CD
Avatar - 2m CD
Opportunistic strike - 1,30m CD
Death's Gaze - 1,30m CD
Snap Kick - 45 CD, 1 step combo
Choking powder - 1m CD
Vampyric gaze - 2m CD
Curse of Lotus - 1,30m CD, fear

Immunities applied by CC = 1 minutes of imminity, 5s of total immunity (global)

Patch notes:

General

* Faction and CC changes are introduced on the Testlive servers! These revamps are still subject to change.
* Improved Covenants of Death should now give the intended values of Magical Health Tap to Covenant of Pestilence.
* The stagger debuff now has a unique icon.
* The Lumbering Hulk ability will again remove existing snare effects when used.
* Roots of Hell will now add 10/20/30% resistance against knockbacks while any polymorph is active.

General Crowd Control Changes

* All Root and Silence combos and spell will now grant the target a Recently Impaired buff.
* Most Snare have been tweaked in regard to duration and immunity. The maximum Snare effect is now 60% Hinder Movement.
* Most Fear have been tweak with regards to duration, cast time, cooldown or immunity. Targets affected by a fear will also run slower.
* Most Silence have been tweaked with regard to duration, immunity, cast time range and max targets.
* Most roots have been tweaked with regards to duration, cast time, range and max targets.
* Most stuns have been tweaked with regards to duration, immunity, cast time, range and max targets.
* Several knockbacks have been tweaked with regards to cast time and re use time.
* You can no longer be Staggered while affected by a Snare.

Dungeon - AI District

* The combat log will now display the damage dealt to you when ran over by Sxi Ai.

Had couple of duels. Movement is much more important now and you almost forget about CC. Fights are longer when both players are decent at movment and shorter when one player is trying to use CCs in old fashion (standing still and chain casting)

[Guide] Accelerated

2011-04-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ah the accelerated. This is probably the most assassiny or assassin-a-like feat we have. What it does is granting you 45% speed bonus for mere 2 shards. That's it.

1/3 or 3/3
This is one of those feats that you might want to max out. I am firm believer that you should take full advantage of this feat since its pretty unique both in pvp and pve. You want to be the best at what you do and speed is of the essence.

Stacking
You can stack your speed bonus. Use accelerated (45%), get nimble perk (passive 5%) and wear those stylish veteran boost (10%, but only out of combat) to become the speed demon. No, seriously check the video below. That's assassin in a nut shell.

PVE survivability
Accelerated will allow you to quickly run away from mobs if you are low on HP or grossly outnumbered. Run away with this speed buff while sprinting and hitting your key under which you have bound your hiding. As soon you will get out of combat you will hide and shake off any remaining mob's aggro.
In group pve accelerated might come handy when it comes to getting away from boss until the tank recovers his aggro-hold on him. You can also take down one mob and use accelerated to keep distance from other mobs until your stamina/hp/shards renew, get another one down and repeat.

Mount speed
Accelerated stacks with your mount's speed. I know what you are thinking: tiger mount! *nods* Yes, you can get across the map disgustingly fast with accelerated and tiger. Great not only in pve, but also in JS minigame or...*sigh*.. yes, Bori.

Sneaking
Accelerated will work while you are sneaking increasing your stealth speed. Be aware thou that using accelerated while hidden WILL POP YOU OUT OF STEALH. Use it first and then sneak.

PVP flag carrying
Drop accelerated while carrying a flag for sweet sweet bonus to your speed. Both second wind and lotus overdose will come in handy to replenish your stamina. When it comes to raw speed assassins with accelerated can capture flags before other team even realises what happened. Just remember: its for ninja-ing the flag, it won't do your team any good if you have speed buff while engaging your opponents.

Exploration
The faster you are the longer you will jump. Just do a simple test with normal and swift horse and you will see that swift horse can get your in places MUCH MUCH easier than normal horse. Accelerated will give you that extra something to make that difficult jump a success. This is why assassins are BEST explorers around and nothing beats the feeling you will get by getting on high building and doing /squat

PVP
In pvp accelerated comes handy in several scenarios:

- chasing down the opponent - the woe of pre 1.6 world was assassin jogging after caster, trying to catch up and often failing (for stamina related reasons). With accelerated there is no class that can run away from assassin.

- closing with the opponent - While FTD might be the most obvious choice it won't do in every situation. FTD requires, unobstructed straight patch to your opponent. Great example on when to take advantage of accelerated in HV map where rangers/casters will position themselves on the ramps just above the center and then *pew* *pew* *pew* away.

- avoiding the hits - accelerated makes your really hard to target with combos, especially if you are sprinting all the time.

- avoiding CCs - this is probably less obvious use. There are many classes that will use their stun/kb asap as they get out of your CC. Barb, Hox and DT being prime example. You can use your GC+Soul Strike and then apply SDS and with accelerated you will barely have time to spirit away out of CCs aoe range. Once safe you can throw your lotus dart and feel bad ass about it.

New combo ranks for...peeeeveeepeee!

2011-04-03T15:03:00.000-07:00

With the new patch (coming this week) we will get a suprising update:

PvP
Contraption Merchants in Armories now offer Khitai combo and spell rank upgrades in exchange for Campaign Badges.

PvPers were bothering devs about this for AGES, and by Crom, they got it. It is very reasonably priced too with 50 minigame tokens per book.

So here are the new combo animations along with some cheesy japanise music. Enjoy!

Assassin's Hideout Podcast - ep.24

2011-03-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

show notes:

- dreamworld engine

- new solo instance

- rewards in expansions

let me know in the comments whether the format of the podcast works for you

http://www.assassinshideout.com/Podcast/assassin_24.AIFC

link fixed

Refuge of the Apostate review

2011-03-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

This is part review part bug report for the new Refuge of the Apostate solo instance. There will be SPOILERS so be advised (not to QQ about it). This is written from Assassin's perspective. I would consider my character as advanced in AA's (all the silver perks that I am using are maxed out, all the passive damage upgrades for combos are maxed out, and couple of others) with solo Brittle Blade set and pair of epic daggers.First of all this instance gives hard mode tokens. This will unlock solo pve progression for a lot a people that cannot or do not want to run hard mode instances. At current pace it will take AGES to get even 1 item, but nevertheless the option for that is there.

The story

The quests are a little cheesy for my taste. Pretty much I have no idea what the hell is going on. The story is "there is this guy and he does some stuff like rise golems so...go keal him for teh lootz". Khitai expansion brought great writing (especially in Kara Korum) and what is being served with this instance is just sub-par. What are they digging for? Whats with the golems? There are some JIAN SHI there? Why? Why is that HOX boss raising undead? Wait, this is catacombs or mine and uh, library at the same time? What is this place? And when you have finally found "the notes about the source of power" you just give them to NPC. There is no reveal or epilogue. I guess that part about Sa-kota (is that her name?) and the illusionist trapping her in nightmare is pretty good, but CLEARLY not enough. And where are the cut scenes you have been bragging about FC? Dreamworld engine was supposed to give you new tools and I see old stuff. OLD! There is nothing in this instance that we haven't already seen in Slaughterhouse.

Suggestions: work on lore and the story. You have to "bronze" up the instance, give it soul. Throw in some dialogue between NPCs, perhaps cut scene, some quest CHAIN for non-faction NPC? And that quest about "ring collector" *face palm* who wrote that? You have whole HYBORIA at your disposal and THAT is the best you can come up with? Go get the guy/gal who wrote quests text for Khitai and let him do his thing. This feels like a place holder story written by the code-writing guy. Don't you dare cutting corners on story!

Bugs: there might be no story :X

The visuals

Very diverse. I think it is pretty much strongest part of new instance. It is done right from the start to finish. Parts of this dungeon remind me of other games (and that GOOD) so the mine area feels a little like very beginning of good ol' Dead mines from World of Warcraft, then there are catacombs which remind me of Thief games, later on the stage area is back to old school Tomb Rider mechanics or DDO. The dream zone? Pretty much what we have seen in Max Payne 1. Great stuff. But wait, why are Scarlet Circle mages digging in the mines? This is a work for a peasants and not the very elite of Khitai!

Overall its very solid, yet too small instance. It FEELS much smaller than Slaughterhouse Cellar (by far the largest instance so far).

Suggestions: I would add some neutral NPC for the digging. The different areas of the instance are not tied with each other by story. It feels too much like you are in the mines and BAM, library! Why would there be library under ghost hill? You tell me. Either stick to one visual THEME or explain via the design why the visuals are changing and in the end there is library even thou you started in the mines :X

The mobs

There are about 4 kind of mobs in the instance. Casters, golems, some undead and even fewer Jian Shi. It is OK, but WAAAY too easy. You see there is but one type of mob that will always stay deadly for the players regardless of their gear and AAs - archers. I can PLOW through all the villa content (sometimes I do so for Beguiler Blood), but if I go to Slaughter house (which has archers) I have to watch my pulls because archers will eat my HP very fast.

Suggestions: add archers mobs to slow the progression down and enforce more careful pulls/stealth. Add more trash mobs. It feels like there is not enough fighting.

Bugs: - golems have no attack sound

- golems bleed when fatalities

- mobs lose aggro if you run away far enough. It is too easy to sprint to the first boss, kill few adds (because majority of mobs lost aggro) and kill boss, repeat for main boss.

The mechanics

First of all: the entrance. Please either change where the entrance is located OR give some hint in the quest text about the entrance. I have spent 1 hour looking for it and I had to resort to asking on TL forums. Frustrating as HELL. Second thing is getting to the ghost hill. On my way there I have pulled probably every single arachnoid and canine in the bloody Hyboria. So you have to either fight through BILLIONS of mobs OR pull them all and die near the respad OR pull them out and bug them out on the rocks. Just remove couple of the mobs near the respawn pad so its easier to shake off aggro :X

Now the stage area with the puzzle. It was fun doing it the first time, BUT what the hell? It is same puzzle every time? Are you serious? After beating it for the first time there is ZERO challenge in that content.

And what's with those thingies breathing fire and ice? It slows you down, but you will still beat the clock :P And the fire damage is mediocre at best - why even bother avoiding it?

Suggestions:

- relocate the entrance or give hints in the quest text about it (this one is IMPORTANT)

- remove few spiders and hyenas near the spawn pad

- make the puzzle different every time

- make the fire and ice traps deal MASSIVE damage and MAJOR slow debuff. It should be the part of the skill to avoid them. Traps should be DEADLY.

- add extra chest that can only be looted when a person runs through traps flawlessly. If you are too slow the exit will close down. There should be an extra reward for people performing very well

- add extra challenge to the puzzle area. Knock back traps?

- use emotes for the puzzle area. Emotes are big part of Khitai content so why not use them here too?

Bugs:

- some times the traps (those with sticks) will be active but there will be no visual representation of it.

- you can re-enter the instance and finish it as many times you want until you have returned the quest. No cooldown on the instance (perhaps its just for TL?)

Bosses:

The first boss looks like a Hox (because of the armor). Not really in line with the undead theme. The fight is ridiculously easy. Its about tank & spawn. And who the hell is Corpse Walker? Give the poor lass some persona! Add her to the story.

The main boss is pretty great as character and fighting him is interesting - no questions asked here.Well done!

There is a great NEED for the third boss as a rare spawn. The villa in the commons district has those. Those bosses will spawn only from time to time and can drop rare root (like kittens!). This would make runs more interesting.

Some suggestions for the rare boss:

1. Some super golem (perhaps a general?)

2. Jiang Shi assassin boss (there are some Jiang Shi assassins in the instance already)

Suggestions:

- rework the first boss. Too easy. His garments are not fitting his role. Give him some PERSONA!

- add rare spawn boss to the mix to keep players interested. Give him some special loot.

- add hard mode (is there a hard mode already?)

- give the main boss a fatality that he can use on our character (that dream fatality he does with skeleton hand is rad! more like that!)

Bug: You can fatality the first boss

The loot:

Ah the loot... It will be the main reason for people to keep coming back. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is for you do have it done the right way (TM). Yes, the hard mode tokens are great, but it should be possible to eventually get enough of tokens to buy some epic gear (assumed you have grinded your moas and gold too :X). Even simple ring like death's ward will cost you 490 moas/98 hardmode/25g

Lets assume that each run gives you 1,3 hard mode tokens (because you will get 2 from time to time):

It will then take about 75 days and 75 runs. This is insanity! You might as well NOT give us those tokens.

Want some epic armor? 196 tokens! I will show us some mercy and not do the math of that price.

I am reasonable and I am willing to put in some effort to get the most shiny things, but lets keep things in perspective. I am sure that you don't want to over-reward the players, but so far you have grossly UNDER REWARDED the player base and this is why you basically had to rework faction progression system, give us more moas for KK and Paikang and reduce lvl1 and lvl2 blue's moa prices. Do not make the same mistake twice. Get the rewards RIGHT the first time and in six months from now.

My idea is: 2 hard mode tokens for run, a chance for extra 1 (3 total) and if the rare boss spawns it has also a chance of dropping extra 1. So if you get super lucky you might get 4 tokens and if not then you will have to "work" about +30 days and +30 runs for 1 basic epic item. Even most picky players will have at least 6 items from 6 factions on their wish list and 1 item will take about 30 or 60 days to obtain. Even if you up' the hard mode tokens count you WILL keep the MOST HARDCORE busy for over a year...on

one toon ;p

Give us some carrot!

On the other hand I like the high chance of bag drops from mobs. They always might be holding something extra.

Suggestions:

- more hard mode tokens (at least 2 per run)

- add chest spawn to second room in library (there is no reason to go there now and you can skip it)

- add a low low chance of epic drop from one of the bosses (is it already in?)

- new recipes, social wear and pets Low low looooooooooooow drop rate.

Before I round up this post here is a quick vid of Fass of Exalted speed running the instance. A lot of spoilers and a proof that it is way too easy right now.

Lotus Assassin

2011-03-13T06:13:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been extremely frustrated with my Assassin experience in Age of Conan. In solo pve I have maxed out all factions (well I still need 300k for Hyrkanians, but I could use veteran tokens to max out). No zone is offering any challenge whatsoever: avatar and DWW + Gravy to overcome all!

Same thing is happening in pvp: I am getting kills, but then again I am dieing to ridiculous stuff like pvp lvl 1 ranger CCing my ass back to oblivion. That and the problem that every single assassin feeds off same stuff: some variation of hybrid build with avatar, DWW, FTD and Explosion. I have to agree to the bad rap assassins are getting: it IS all about avatar-->FTD-->Snap kick-->Explo-->DWW. This combination just works, so I don't blame anyone for using it. If anything you SHOULD specc in the "best specc" and hybrid is indeed a VERY POWERFUL combination: all the best toys with only downside being lack of anti cc.

Enter the Lotus state

I have decided to go back to my 1.4/1.5 roots by speccing in Lotus/General and stick with it (at least before I will go completely mad). I am still putting 5/5 into Corrupted Blades feat from corruption trees. I don't think speccing 56/5/18 really counts as being hybrid and massive passive damage from CB is too good to pass up..

So why speccing this "inferior" combination? I need something different - badly. I am willing to put up with a lot just to have an opportunity to "mix it up" with a class I have been playing non stop since may 2008.

My lotus philosophy
I am not ready to "show and tell" my build yet because the last 10 point are so hard to distribute. I just LOVE this feeling of creative anxiety when you are "dead locked" deciding your build. Lets be honest: there is not much to decide about hybrid ;p I have, however, found a major flaw in my previous tests which made me shy away from lotus. Shards management. Having access to Necrotic and Crystallized hybrid build almost makes you forget about shards because you can get them back easily and often. Lotus/General specc has to rely on Crystallized Lotus which gives back 3 shards. That's just not enough and I have found myself either not using grave blossom at all (huge lose in DPS) or skipping Lotus Overdose (exactly as bad). The solution seems to be using castration perk. I know that its a bad upgrade to a horrible combo, but capturing that 2 shards is live saving. I will miss my beloved choking powder, BUT if anything having choking powder instead of castration is making shard management for lotus assassin that much worse (or you won't be using CP at all with is also bad). Another rule to follow is anti cc: I am getting every single one. I have decided to magnify lotus strong points (anti cc and anti magic) instead of trying to plug the holes in the build (lack of healing and armor).

Solo PVE

It almost feels like playing different class. You cannot go with guns blazing and plow trough legions of mobs (yes, that is what hybrid DOES). The problem lies in NOT having the healing factor - the dps is till quite amazing. So it does down to not being able to out last the mobs (avatar makes it possible) because you will never ever out DPS Khitaian mobs. Out DPS mobs? Yeah, Khitai mobs have both constitution and dps of a freaking demon. Hell, some of them ARE demons. While 1v1 or 2v1 with mobs is manageable (for hybrid: laughable) 3v1 is hard as nails and 4v1 is a death wish. If you want to test how good is your lotus build (and lets face it gear and AAs) go to Paikang and try fighting:

1. Gray Ape boss (85 lvl mob, fight the WHITE ones, not the black ones) for 1v1

2. Outlaws for 2v1, 3v1 and 4v1

The ultimate test for any assassin build (and assassination capabilities in general) is taking down Dark Legion's general - solo. I haven't attempted this as Lotus yet, but its hard even for hybrid.

To sum it up: lacking the healing factor makes you focus more on pulling and being a lot less reckless.

PVP

Very mixed feelings. There have been times where I was like "shiiiiiiiiiiiit if I was hybrid specced I would melt that guy's face off" but also times where I have broken every single CC from barbarian and killed him off easily ("CC denied, bitch!"). Getting kills Lotus specc makes me smile, especially when people are very surprised with you breaking their ccs. I have even got a whisper from a conq that tried to KB me sever times to no use: "Why aren't you KBed? You don't have that burning thingy going" (burning thingy must be avatar ;p). I guess excellent balance usage is pretty rare nowadays.

I have also enjoyed sneaking up on TOS with 3 other people and slaughtering him while having Lotus Overdose and Excellent Balance going. There was nothing they could have really done to stop me.

Curse of the lotus (or lotus bomb) is also delicious to use, especially since AOE ccs are not very common.

There are downsides, of course. It is hard to chase down people (even with maxed out nibble which gives +5% speed bonus) and my accelerated/FTDs are sorely missed. Also soldiers are a lot harder to deal with now: no more GC/Avatar/DWW/Grave Blossom "Bam Bam, thank you Ma'm". This is especially evident with Conquerors which are, historically, bane of Lotus Assassins (ever since 1.4).

I think that over all Hybrid is favored with it comes to rough killing (mainly because dreadful, skipped DWW)

but then again Lotus can get those kills that hybrid could not (because hybrid assassin would be cced back to stone age while his pray would get away).

Anti CC

The very first games I was extremely clumsy with my anti cc arsenal. Being hybrid for so long I was using the time I was CCed to sip my coffee. Now I am like "oh shit! I gotta use my anti cc!". Lucky after couple of games I am back into anticipating CC and using anti cc the very second you get stuned/feared/snared/rooted etc. You really have to put your mind into it, otherwise you are not taking the advantage of anti cc and it just might be the only one you have got.

Is it for everyone?

Hell NO! And I must state that its not matter of skill, but sheer stats. Lotus requires gear and AA. While Hybrid might still perform well while under geared it is where Lotus fails miserably. I am even taking advantage of my costly Lotus pets (check them here) to overcome some of this build's shortcomings (and to further it's breathtaking damage).

I will update my findings as get more experienced with post 1.6 Lotus.

And before I end this post here is a little bit of lore I have "written" for my character:

"Bewildered by the corruption slowly taking over his mind he traveled far to the east. There, deep in the Paikang jungle, he has found the temple of Yun who's priest cultivated lotus for generations.

Slith sat under a blossom with his eyes open and dilated with the fumes of the yellow lotus, far-staring, as if fixed on gulfs and nighted abysses beyond human ken. In this unearthly garden of Yun he was contemplating the errors of his ways. There, in his dream-haunted slumber, he has reached the taint that has been sending chills down his very soul. As he was descending into the black abyss he has heard a a single word being spoken, in a rich vibrant tone that was like the golden chimes that ring in the jungle-lost temples of Khitai. It was an unknown tongue, forgotten before the kingdoms of man arose, but he knew that it meant, “Come!”

He turned quickly away and saw great black blossoms nodding at him. One of
these had touched him. They seemed to beckon him, to arch their pliant stems toward him. His is eyes cleared instantly and became cold and cruel as a vulture's. He got up and offered this gratitude to the blossoms which rustled, though no wind blew".

This short text is really made up from several Conan stories by REH (with very little of my own invention). Can YOU name the stories which I have used?

Let THEM make rimes for the vultures

2011-02-27T03:32:00.000-08:00

Today after re-reading "Phoenix on the sword" story I have noticed how similar it is to what has happened to the Age of Conan development. I know that the similarities are not STRIKING, but give it a shot.

"When I overthrew Numedides, then I was the Liberator--now they spit
at my shadow. They have put a statue of that swine in the temple of
Mitra, and people go and wail before it, hailing it as the holy effigy
of a saintly monarch who was done to death by a red-handed barbarian.
When I led her armies to victory as a mercenary, Aquilonia overlooked
the fact that I was a foreigner, but now she can not forgive me.

"Now in Mitra's temple there come to burn incense to Numedides'
memory, men whom his hangmen maimed and blinded, men whose sons died
in his dungeons, whose wives and daughters were dragged into his
seraglio. The fickle fools!"

"Rinaldo is largely responsible," answered Prospero, drawing up his
sword belt another notch. "He sings songs that make men mad. Hang him
in his jester's garb to the highest tower in the city. Let him make
rimes for the vultures."

This reminds me how Age of Conan Producer and Game Director Gaute Godager has resigned from Funcom and Funcom announced that Craig Morrison has been appointed as the new Producer and Game Director. I remember how people were making ALMOST death threats to Mr. Godager back in the 1.0 vanilla AOC because of many maaaaaaaaaaaaany issues with the game (mostly client related). Back then Sil was hailed as "savior of Anarchy Online" and "a man with vision about pvp".

Rinaldo has no personal ambition. He sees in Conan a red-handed, rough-footed
barbarian who came out of the north to plunder a civilized land. He
idealizes the king whom Conan killed to get the crown, remembering
only that he occasionally patronized the arts, and forgetting the
evils of his reign, and he is making the people forget. Already they
openly sing The Lament for the King in which Rinaldo lauds the
sainted villain and denounces Conan as 'that black-hearted savage from
the abyss.' Conan laughs, but the people snarl."

This is exactly the case with Gaute Godager and some players. True, previous Game Director had some pretty amazing ideas about pvp (kingship and powerpoints), but then again he could not release a game with stable client which have lead to the disaster later on. That man is also responsible for no end-game pvp, let alone he green-lighted the game to go live without any in game support for pvp like lvls or gear. All of sudden all that is forgotten because "he had some pretty good ideas for pvp". Yep, in fact he had a lot of ideas, but the execution of was sorely lacking

Who is Rinaldo? Well those are players who idolize the old Game Director. There are quitea few of them. If anything Morrison has lifted Age of Conan from the brink of destruction but now he is being portrayed as a man who butchered pvp when in fact he pretty much established pvp in this game. Before he took over there was none of it (except for random Kheshatta ganking and pointless minis with crappy interface)

"In the old free days all I wanted was a sharp sword and a straight path to my enemies. Now no paths are
straight and my sword is useless".

It very much seems like when Morrison took over the game was in such a shitty state that the "patch" was indeed straight. Basically everything needed a fix.Now when the game is quite stable and improved it is much harder to add value to that AND please majority of the playerbase. Whatever the decision will be it is always criticized on the forums. True, Bori was a huge mistake (or a fuck up if you will), but before all that went down I was pretty satisfied with aoc's pvp. All I care about is M.E. (my enjoyment).

"When King Numedides lay dead at
my feet and I tore the crown from his gory head and set it on my own"

This is in no way, shape or form a written defence of Morrison (seems like he can defend himself on the forums pretty good), but a kind reminder (or a reality check) to all those Rinaldos out there: remember who had the crown before Morrison and in what state Age of Conan was in before he stepped down.

Yellow Priests of Yun'a pet - Gray Lotus

2011-02-22T15:12:00.000-08:00

The gray lotus might just be the most mind-blowing pet in the whole expansion.

Basically this is "just" another flower that you buy from Yun for mere 800 MOAS and 30g.

After activating the pet it will grant you +320 magic damage as well as +80% ranged and melee damage. Now that's something! Furthermore the buff lasts whooping 20s which is enough to take on more than one group of mobs.

Stacking
You can active Avatar of Death, Liberation and Gray Lotus all at once (binding them to 1, 2 and 3 works nicely, easy to press). Those 3 brought me up from 425,2 DPS to 582 for 15s!! And that is not even the best DPS you can get out of hybrid assassin (lotus side of things has even more dps buffs to offer)

Healing
Gray Lotus gives that extra edge to the Avatar of Death when it comes to leeching ridiculous amounts of health.

Buffing
This should be your default buff when fighting mobs. If there is no need for extra healing (golden lotus) or stamina (tree of death) always drop gray lotus to dispatch your enemies faster. Remember than you can use all of your pets in solo instances which might come handy in the 2.1.3 patch which will bring new solo content.
You can get a passive perk that will grant you +10% weapon damage to further "upgrade" this pet's buff to 90%.

As always you don't have to be near the lotus flower: it will grant you 20s buff. Usable while moving.

Assassin's Hideout Podcast - ep.23

2011-02-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

show notes:

- the "show" is back

- changes to veteran tokens in 2.1.2

- new format of the podcast

let me know in the comments whether the format of the podcast works for you

http://www.assassinshideout.com/Podcast/assassin_23.AIFC

Yellow Priests of Yun pet - Golden Lotus

2011-02-16T14:46:00.000-08:00

Not much to tell about this one, really. Sometimes ability to take a punch is more important than dealing the punch. Upon usage this pet will heal your for 240-293 every 3 seconds for 7 seconds - giving total of 3 ticks. At best it is 879 HP resotred in total. Since most assassins are under 8.000 hp this might not be as punny heal for sin as one like to think (more than 10% hp restored).

First of all this heal stacks with both pots and avatar of death so you can combine those to create some pretty nasty healing spike. Back in 1.4 assassins used to have Golden Lotus Extract which was healing about 1-1,5k out of our 4-5k HP pools. Again, this is "free" substitute for that old GLE just like Tree of Death is subsitute for second wind. Obviously this is NOT the pet to use in every fight: you will be much better off using Gray Lotus (more on that gem soon) because of the damage buff. Remember that all the pets are sharing global cooldown of 2m so healing up with Golden Lotus will prevent you from using Gray Lotus.

But when you are in a tight spot and low on HP this just might come in handy. At very least this pet will negate one critical hit from a non-raiding boss like Gray Apes in Paikang, and often that makes enough of a difference ;p

The pet has no radius, just drop it and you will get a buff. Can be used while moving.