The S.T.A.L.K.E.R

The Man, The Legend, The Mustache

Recently I have been leveling my scout, AKA Xadaganian Stalker, and he has been rather expedient at the process. The journey was perhaps not as easy as my healer’s on the League side simply because the League Area has more quests. In fact I was level twelve before I left the Novgorod Area. As it stands now I’m done with all the quests except those in XAES, and will probably only be 11 when leaving. Sort of annoying really.

Also heres a video of my man in Action.

The spec I plan to use is here:
As of that video I only had one ruby and put it into Piercing arrows.

Allods 8-10 Empire

This is the next installment of my Allods online guide. Since there were no negative comments on my previous piece, the formatting will stay the same. The images are the same size, same click to enlarge.

Overall these levels went by fast, but had the most running around to do. For those who haven’t caught on yet the zone scheme for Nezebgrad goes in a counter clockwise direction. Old Quarter -> Bort Quarter -> Hadron Quarter -> Izune -> Astral Quarter -> Victory Park -> Sewage Plant -> Boilers Camp (The final zone for 10-11 players)

Allods Online 4-8 Empire

So recently I’ve started playing the F2P MMO by the name of Allods Online. When compared against all the other free MMOs out there it is by far the best, due to its surprising resemblance to WoW. The fact that it succeeds in copying the formula down to the art style of the League makes it even more admirable when you realize that they tried to add a touch of something not copy pasted. Namely the class system, although very common classes appear each race has a different take on it and a different racial ability. Any who this guide starts off right after the Tutorial. Simply put of you need aguide for the tutorial look into finding a new hobby.

The Thursday Torpedo

As of late I’ve been writing a series of articles on another MMO based blog. They appear every Thursday and I’ve decided to moniker them The Thursday Torpedo. In the spirit of fair play heres the latest two:

The Adventure Begins (Issue 1)

The Adventure Continues (Issue 2)

50 to 60 ~ Growing A Pair

The levels between 50 and 60 took my bald albino demonologist to a place where he fit right in, the snowy peaks of the E Mountains (thats right I’m not even going to TRY and spell it). Since just about everyone with the copy of the game rolled a free 50 the zone has become very crowded, sorta like an unattended apple pie near an ant hill. The major difference is that ants don’t kill each other for PvP EXP, also they dont send gloating tells with such original messages as “L2P n00b” and timeless classics like “Go back to PvE server”. Regardless of the RP component in the server title I didn’t meet a single person in EM that actually behaved like a human being rather some obsessive compulsive sans medication and no sleep. That being said I am currently level 80 on Magh and working on my next 80, theres a lot more people when one is 80.

When I got tired of being repeatedly ganked I joined up for some mini-game fun. Little did I know how incredibly powerful demonologists are at group PvP, the fact that I hit anything in the proximity of my target with my nuke makes it very easy to kill things unintentionally and unlike melee damage to non-targeted enemies doesn’t get reduced. Also standing 30 meters away from combat made it easy to notice when anyone decided to target me. Other casters posed a problem at this level as I had one stun and a knockback as my forms of CC.

What? Overpowered? Me? No way!

Character Creation – Part 4 (Mages)

Mages

The mage classes are the only ones who get pets, well two of them get pets one gets blood pits. These are the supposedly more damaging caster classes and have as such been stuck wearing robes that turn even the most hulking mage into something slightly more feminine and less bad ass. The mage classes follow the standard formula for sub-groups in AoC, that is to say 2 classes that fit the biill and one ugly duckling. In this case its one really ugly and demonic duckling. About the only similarity between the mage classes is that they have the full set of 3 bars and get stuck with assassin gear often. Also all of them get a party shield that absorbs a set amount of damage from every hit taken up to a point. That point is about as easy to reach as someone on a desert island because the shield resets itself every 30 seconds and can be made to do this even faster. The mage general tree forces upon you natural mana regen, this is useful for two thirds of the mage classes. Farther down the tree is the standard buff to armor vs melee or magic, hate decrease, damage increase, and CC break.

Character Creation – Part 3 (Rogues)

Rogues

The rogue classes are the non magical DPS branch of the classes. They do their damage with the good old and reliable steel. True to their name they are masters of the hiding skill and get a skill that increases their speed while in hiding mode. They are also the only class to move at walking speed in hide and not use any stamina to move whilst in hide. All the rogue classes get at least two stances to choose from, the ranger gets 4 but must feat into them. Overall these classes were meant to come close to the damage of mages while being more survivable and not reliant on a mana bar. In their general tree the rogue gets natural stamina regen and also abilites that lets them break Roots, Snares, Fears, Charms, and resist Knockbacks. Also the general tree grants them a 50% chance to return to life when dieing.

Character Creation – Part 2 (Priests)

Priests

The Priests are the healers of this game; they all get a team HP buff,  a cone heal, a team wide big heal, and some form of self damage buff. The ToS and PoM get some really handy [[oh shit my balls are about to get punctured]] buttons which the BS decides to skip out on for the most part. The priests can do damage and output healing effectively, the only thing that stops them from being the only class played in the game is their mana issues. This is the most balanced and well rounded class mostly because it can do everything at once, as a priest you’re one of three classes that can heal and you can choose between intelligence based spells, wisdom based spells, and melee combat for your damage.

Character Creation – Part 1 (Races and Soldiers)

First off just like any MMORPG, Age of Conan lets you create your own character. And of course part of the creation process is picking a race to play. This race often limits what classes you can choose to play, for a second here I’m going to reference WoW because it is seen by many to be the guiding light of MMORPGs. In World of Warcraft it used to be that your faction determined what classes you could play as, however seeking great player anonymity Blizzard entertainment made an expansion pack, then made people buy it in order to get an Alliance Shaman or a Horde Paladin. Honestly that was the worst move they ever made, and one of the reasons I quit the damn game. Anyways, Funcom decided to man up and actually take lore into account during character creation. In fact your race choice will limit you to 6 or 7 classes that you can choose to play. This is one of my favorite things about the game because it forces the player to make a choice and allows there to be a feeling of continuity in the game’s lore and story line. Great job Funcom, you actually did something right!

Back to AoC: The Free 50 Experience

Me and Age of Conan have always had a very dog like relationship. We both love to play catch, but my owner wont let me. I guess what I’m trying to say is I love Age of Conan and it is on my top 5 list for MMOs, however paying the $15 a month seemed rather expensive and Funcom seemed to be meandering aimlessly with the patching. Just like a blind man playing darts, they scored a couple of accidental bulls-eyes but also hits lot of people. But now all of a sudden Funcom read my wish list and said, "come back for $11 a month and a free 14 days, oh and we’ll throw in a free level 50 and free character transfers". Hell I never though it to be possible that I’d get that damn lucky. Instantly I made my free lvl 50 Demonologist on the RP-PvP sever, which is actually just a PvP server with less assholes.

My brand new 50