A Most Productive Day

I had the day off from work today and it turned into one of the most fun and productive days I have had in AoC.  I started off around level 22 on my conqueror and was finishing up some quests in Old Tarantia before heading off to the next zone.  I ended up at level 30, having completed scores of quests in the Gateway to Khitai zone.  Not only did I gain eight levels but I had tremendous fun doing it.

Getting from Old Tarantia to the Gateway of Khitai requires a bit of travel and sight-seeing.  From the docks of Old Tarantia, one mus take a ship to Khemi, the capital city of Stygia and from there a ship to Khitai.  The ship to Khitai requires either expenditure of coin or a promise to help protect the ship and caravan on the journey.  Being short on coin, I signed up to protect the caravan.  Hey, free passage is free passage, right?

My Conqueror at the start of his Khitain adventures

Of course, along the way we find ourselves in a canyon area, which is the perfect place for an ambush.  I was enlisted by the Caravan leader to earn my keep and scout the canyon before the caravan proceeded.  Inevitably, I found myself pinned down by archers in the canyon and had to scale the canyon walls to kill each one in turn.  After succeeding in defeating the would-be brigands, I returned to the caravan and we completed the journey.

The first steps in Khitai are the perfect example of just how brutal the Conan world can be.  The first quest area is an ambushed trading caravan pinned down by enemy forces.  Your initial quests are from this caravan, as you fight off waves of attackers, find supplies for the sieged caravan or trek to the Great Wall to ask for assistance.  The quests are nothing extraordinary and are along the same lines of any other quest-based MMO but the story, the atmosphere and, of course, the graphics set AoC apart from other MMOs.  This is a barbaric world, filled with dead bodies, half-eaten corpses and vile death all around.  It is 100% Conan.

The adult-rating holds true in Godslayer

After helping out the caravan, I made my way to a small village surrounded by enemies.  This is the next quest hub and sends you on various quests to help the village residents.  It was here that I was treated to my first gank in Khitai.  Matter of fact, the entire evening was a solid mix of PvE and PvP.  I intend to post more in-depth about my PvP adventures later this evening or tomorrow, so let me get back to the remainder of the evening.

I quested for a couple of hours solo which got me to level 24 or so.  About this time I was invited to a group by a Priest of Mitra.  Figuring a Conqueror and PoM (healing class) was a good combination, I took him up on his offer.  I am glad I did.  For the next six hours we made our way across the zone, finishing quest after quest.  From killing undead Samurai to killing Yak and feeding their meat to a dog, we did everything.  And we had tons of fun doing it.

At the end of the night I joined his guild.  The guild is very small and brand new, they do not even have a city yet, but I figure it will be fun to help grow a small guild and see one built up from scratch.  I look forward to seeing a guild city built and the guild grow into a raiding guild.  It has been awhile since I have been a part of that growth process and I miss it.

We picked up another healer along the way, a Tempest of Set, that I uncouthly killed after mistaking him for a player who had attacked us earlier.  I rezzed him (yes, a tank class with a rez AND a battle rez!) and he joined us for the rest of the evening.

By the time I logged off I had reached level 30 and completed the first set of Khitain gear.  This gear has a totally different look than the other gear in the game and keeps with the Asian feel of the expansion.  I look positively samurai-like at the moment, which is a nice change of pace from other MMOs.

We also set up a time tomorrow night to venture into the first six-man instance in AoC, the Black Castle.  With two healers and a tank, we should not have a problem finding three more folks to head into the castle with us.  I am extremely excited to experience my first “dungeon” in AoC and I will be writing about it more tomorrow night.

I am going to leave you with a few more pictures from my initial taste of Khitai.  I hope you enjoy them!

Khitain vista

The zone is huge and, yes, you can get to the towers back there!

First glimpse of the Great Wall

The Samurai look I ended the night with.

A merry band of travelers: Tempest of Set, Conqueror and Priest of Mitra

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Cimmeria. I am home.

My wife and I have constant arguments about where we are going to retire to when we get older.  Now, my wife loves the beach and the warm sun.  I, on the other hand, love mountains, trees and snow.  I don’t know, maybe it is my Norwegian ancestry but give me cold mountains, lakes and trees over the beach.  Anytime.

My wife would love Tortage, I mean as long as she ignored the blood-thirsty Picts and the 12 foot long Alligators.  Oh, and the undead things.  Those too.  Tortage is bright and sunny.  With long white sand beaches and a warm sun.  Perfect for my wife.  Not for me, though.

I'm sorry but tell me this is not a scene right out of a Conan novel!

Maybe that is why I am actually enjoying Cimmeria more than Tortage.  It is absolutely beautiful.  No doubt one of the most beautiful areas I have been to in any MMO.  It looks perfect.  Right out of the books.  Huge snow-covered mountains, beautiful pines and winding creeks.  It is all there.

But for everything beautiful in Cimmeria, there is also a brutality.  There is a war going on there between the Vanir and the Cimmerians and you can certainly tell.  Forts with spiked walls, bodies stacked underneath.  Vanir waiting in bushes to ambush you.  Villages burned to the ground.  Yeah it is brutal.

A Cimmerian fort to hold back the Vanir tide.

The quests here all center around defeating the Vanir.  Killing the lookouts and the raiders.  Gathering supplies for the camps.  All in all they are your normal quests in an MMO war zone.  Nothing special there.  But, the environment makes it special.  It was a bit of a shock the first time I clicked on a quest giver and, unlike Tortage, was not treated to a voice over but I quickly realized I did not really need a voice over.  Yeah, they are nice but, really, who cares?  Give me the quest and send me on my way.

Red-head demon! Feel mah hammer!!

One of the early quests I received had me working my way up a mountain, killing Vanir along the way, to face a Vanir boss at the top.  I fought my way up, sometimes fighting 3 Vanir at a time.  Here is where I truly started to learn my character.  Each fight was intense and I came out of each with a sliver of health.  I learned to use my AoE stun, step back and heal, to make sure I used all my HoTs constantly.  It was a struggle.

This.....is going to hurt.

Alas, I got to the top of the mountain and got one add too many and I fell at the feet of the boss I was sent to kill.  I was disappointed but I actually look forward to scaling that mountain again.  It was that fun.

Notice the texture work on the shield and armor. Simply amazing.

On a related note, I sure could use another lowbie to level with!  If any of you fine readers have considered getting into AoC, either for the first time or to return, now would be a great time!  It’s tough to go it alone, even for a mighty Bear Shaman!

Further AoC Impressions: The UI, Quests and PvP!

Following up my earlier post on AoC, here are my further impressions on other aspects of the game.  I am going to talk a bit about the UI, Quests and PvP.

The UI in AoC is….adequate.  At best.  For a game with such a complex combat system, the UI is certainly lacking.  I believe this might be a sacrifice to the possible X-Box AoC port and they developed it with the port in mind.  There is a serious lack of customization options available.  You can not resize any of the UI and you are unable to move the targeting windows around.  In addition, the UI takes up a large chunk of screen real-estate.  I enjoy a minimalist UI design in my MMOs.  Keep the size and function of the UI as invisible as possible.

In WoW most of my bars were completely invisible and my screen only displayed the mini-map, the targeting windows and the group windows.  This is not possible in AoC.  Luckily, there are a number of UI mods out there and I am experimenting with them at the moment.  I hope to find one I like soon but I really hope Funcom improves the UI in the upcoming expansion.

Questing in AoC is just like every other MMO out there, though the stories might be a bit more interesting.  Much of that is because of the world.  Hyboria has always been an interesting intellectual property and it certainly strengthens the quest lines in AoC.  The cut scenes are fairly cool but, again, they are something I do not need. There is a bit of traveling involved which, coupled with the amount of instancing, can get a bit annoying.  Still, I am having a lot of fun overall and I enjoy the quests.

Now for the all-important PvP.  I rolled on the Cimmerian server, which is a PvP server.  In AoC that means that, other than the cities, you can be attacked almost anywhere, by anyone. There are no factions, so you really have to be on your toes.  You can consider no one friendly and you have to watch your back constantly.

My first experience in PvP was not out in the world but in the mini-games, AoC’s version of Battlegrounds.  They are very enjoyable and not unlike WoW at all.  The only problem I had with them is how infrequently they popped at my level.  I think a lot of this, at low level at least, is because the queuing interface is so difficult to find.  It is tucked away in a screen that you would never know was there, unless you went looking for it.  I would imagine a few new players miss it entirely, which really could cut down on the number of pops at low level.

The first mini-game I entered was a standard “capture-the-flag” affair.  I, of course, entered the game and found myself in a PuG against a pre-made.  Aaaah, memories of WoW!  We were summarily annihilated and I had very little chance to do anything at all.

The other three games I played were in a mini-game called Totem Torrent.  This is a bit different than any BG in WoW.  Basically, the two teams have to just kill each other.  At each end of the playfield there are totems, which can be destroyed.  If your teams Totem is destroyed, your team can no longer respawn after death.  Which means it is only a matter of time before you lose.  Alternately, you can simply concentrate on killing the other team until the timer runs out and the team with the most kills wins.

Again, upon entering, I found myself in a PuG against a pre-made.  This time was different, however.  We beat them.  Three straight times in fact!  We decided to simply defend our totem and not attack theirs at all.  They tried multiple times to attack the totem and we pushed them back every time.  They changed tactics and tried to lure us away from the totem but we stayed disciplined and did not allow it.  In the end, every game was a massacre.

We were also lucky in that we had three healers.  Myself, another Bear Shaman and a Priest of Mitra were able to keep our team healed pretty well.  It took some getting used to as far as healing is concerned.  I am so used to targeted healing but all the Bear Shaman’s heals are AoE or cone effect.  Indeed, I believe all heals in the game are like that, so you never have to target the player you want to heal.  Because of this, positioning is very important and took some getting used to.

So far my strategy with the Bear Shaman is to stay at the periphery of the fight and rush in after battle is engaged.  Keep my HoTs up and help finish people off.  What I heard about the Bear Shaman is true; they are slow builders.  You really feel inadequate at low levels, before your heals get stronger but, at level 20, he is starting to come into his own.

Of course my first PvP experience was marred by what I call “new-player” lock up.  You know, when something new happens and you suddenly forget what every key does and what order to push them in?  Yeah, that was me.  It happens most often in PvP, until you finally figure it out.  I stood there and watched myself die, all the while muttering:

Oh shit, what do I do?  What do I press first?  Damn….I’m dead.

After that first experience, I slowly started to figure it out.  And I had fun.  A lot of fun.  The games went quickly and my machine handled them like a champ, with nary a hiccup.  I am so proud of my little PC!

Other than the mini-games, my only other PvP experience was a coupla higher level ganking me, though there was one really interesting and fun encounter.

I was about to zone into the sewers for a quest and I saw a Bear Shaman that was two levels higher than me standing at the door.  I parked myself at the door (outside the instance is non-PvP) and went to get a drink.  When I came back he was gone.  I figured he had went inside so I zoned in and prepared myself to get jumped.

Upon zoning in, I heard the sounds of battle and found myself watching the level 21 BS laying the smack down on a couple of level 12 players.  Being the awesome person that I am, I could not allow that!  So, with a mighty battle roar, I launched myself into the fray.

With only a few hits, and the help of the two level twelves, I had the Bear Shaman down to a sliver of life.  Of course, he decided at that moment that discretion is the better part of valor and made for the zone exit.  Ah-ha! I was ready for this and this time did not lock up.  I used my Ferocious Smack.  This ability does a bit of damage but, more importantly, knocks the target down.  The Bear Shaman promptly landed on his ass and I finished him with my Shrewd Blow.  Even better, it ended up a fatality and I knocked his head off his shoulders!

Triumph!!

The two level twelves thanked me and I zoned out to the save zone to take a quick break.  When I returned I saw that the level twelves had just zoned out and were both at less than half health.  Of course, the Bear Shaman had jumped them again after I left.  They invited me to group and we went Bear Shaman hunting.

We zoned back in, only to find the Bear Shaman gone.  Heading down a ramp and into a bigger room we ran into the Bear Shaman.  He initially only saw my group mates and he charged in, only to find himself on the receiving end of my massive Warhammer.  He tried to get up the ramp and escape but I blocked him off (collision detection ftw!) and we ended him again.

This time he griped in the general channel about how I was ruining his fun and that I should leave him to gank the level twelves in peace.  Oh, the irony….

That’s it for now.  I will probably post more later but now I am heading back to Hyboria!

Back after the holidays and playing more Allods!

Well, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a good New Years!  For me, I am glad it is over.  Working in retail makes the holidays real stressful.  That said, I enjoyed my time with my family and I hope you folks did as well.

So, what have I been doing gaming-wise?  Pretty much the same thing I was doing before the holidays.  Splitting my time between Darkfall and Allods Online.  Two totally different games that I enjoy for very different reasons.

As far as Allods is concerned, I have leveled five characters to level 10 or above.  I am not leveling too high on any of them, simply because I do not want to get burned out and I would like the leveling experience 15 and up to be as fresh as possible after release.  I already know I am going to play a lot of the game after release, so there is no reason to level a character and then watch in dismay as all my hard work is deleted by a server purge.

So far, I believe I enjoy my Paladin the most.  He starts off slow as far as damage is concerned but once I got a two-hander at level ten, the time to kill decreases substantially.  In addition, he can take a ton of damage.

Guderian, Orc Paladin

One thing about Allods that I really like is how much talent specs mean to your character.  Like WoW, a different talent spec can totally change how you play and even the purpose of your class.  This is a nice change from WAR and Aion, where I felt that spec meant very little, as least compared to WoW.  A mêlée DPS paladin plays a lot different from a tank paladin, which plays very different from a magic DPS paladin.  Your stat allocation will also radically change the effectiveness of your class.  All this put together means that two paladins are rarely alike, a welcome change from Aion and WAR.

After leaving the starting city the game opens up tremendously.  The zone outside the capital city is huge and gives reminiscence to the zones surrounding Ironforge and Stormwind.  It certainly increases immersion and there is awe while approaching the city, to see how large and all-encompassing it is.  Again, a stark contrast to WAR and Aion, where the capital cities are their own zones.  The area around the Empire capital reminds me of Arathi Highlands in WoW, rolling hills, bordered by mountain ranges.  The are seems at least as big as Arathi and there are tons of quest hubs located across the map.

Questing is another thing done right.  There is a good mix of solo and group quests and enough diversity in the type of quests to satisfy. There is no “ground-breaking” innovation in quests, as they are all the standard kill quests, collection quests and Fed-ex quests, but they are interspersed well and all are well written and interesting.

Quest awards are well thought out and seem to have a good loot table.  This is a nice contrast to WAR and Aion, which seemed to have useless quest rewards in many cases, or quest rewards that were poorly itemized.

The gear also looks very nice, keeping to the Soviet style of the Empire. Military style hats and helms abound and the game has really integrated the World War II Soviet/Nazi style with the standard fantasy MMO style.  Really the game abounds with style and character.  It is just an interesting world.  There is “personality” here that has been missing in a lot of MMOs since WoW.  Warhammer had a lot, especially on the dwarf/greenskin side but Aion had none, though to be fair, it may have had personality that I could not quite grasp being American and it from a Korean publisher.

A Soviet Orc General

A Human Soviet General

Okay, this is too cool, an Undead Soviet General?

As you can tell I am enjoying Allods more and more every day.  This is going to be a pretty big hit and, most likely, the biggest F2P MMO around.