The Man, The Legend, The Mustache

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.

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)

Go to the Orc houses and grab the wine crates

Next to the wine crates there is also the chest for the quest. The final wine crate is inside the house guarded by one Orc.

Kill the termites for the meat. Keep heading towards the back of the enclosure.

Whne you get to the back drink the potion and right click the rocks. There are three inside with the termites.

Go out and to the right and down the Alley, turn left and go through the grass.

Now you are on the other side of the pipe, grab the last rocks that you need.

Now go back and turn in all the quests.

Don't forget to go around and turn in this quest as well.

When walking to the next district pick up this quest.

Inside the building next to the quest giver is your first group boss. You will need a group to do this. It CANNOT be soloed.

Turn the boss quest in and keep going. Talk to the Shaman and pick up the quest.

You will need to right click the rocks and kill the spirits that it summons.

Pick up all the quests around this zone.

Go down the stairs you came up and all the way down to this enclosure. Pick up the quest.

This next area has the quest mobs for many quests. Turn in the talk quest and get the next quest he gives you.

Pick up the glowing corpses for the quest.

Next get ready for the most annoying grind yet. The spiders are mobs for two quests and there are relatively few of them on a slow timer. So they're almost always dead. It takes a while simply because of that.

They drop the spider webs.

They also drop the blood.

When you go through the spiders and the goblin workers this guy meets you. Get his quest.

The spiders are scattered around the entrance. First go to the right then move left avoiding the Arena.

The Widow is pretty far to the left from the entrance.

Shes VERY easy to solo. Afterwards go turn it in.

Head towards the center then take this left to get back to the quest givers.

Turn in all the quests and be sure to grab the one from the leader.

As you go to complete the Chief's quest grab the one from the Police Officer (if he's not there that means some league killed him. Happens quite often.

Then after that turn around and go right into the square between the houses. The orcs drop the relic.

This guy has the ceremonial dagger for the Officer's quest.

Turn the holy relic quest in, then proceed through the spider enclosure to the workers.

This is the switch that you are looking to toggle. After you use it, all the workers turn red.

Turn in the Leader quest and grab the next one.

Turn in the Officer quest on your way to the Leader quest.

Talk to the people and accept the quest they give you.

Kill the duelists, then drop the quest. It is glitched and will never finish.

Now its time to go back to the park and take care of those elementals. You should have the quest for them if you picked it up earlier. If not go the center and get it.

The bushes for the quest are the ones that aren't neat and have their branches all over.

Get the quest for Black Lord while turning in the others. DO it now if you need the reward. Or leave it for later if you don't. It ends up being a detour from the quest path.

As you head toward the Sewage Plant kill the hyenas for the quest.

Turn in the hyena quest and grab the ones being offered.

Head south and kill all the slugs you need in the pit.

Then head North East towards the plant. The outer fence is surrounded by the pipes. Click em for the quest.

You may or may not have to actually go into the plant to finish off the pipe quest.

Turn in those quests at the Sewage camp and then head to the old square. Talk to the innkeeper to gain level 9. Then pick up/turn in all the quests (Do the daily again if you. A waste of time TBH).

Make doubly sure you pick up the quest from Oleg.

One of the quests has you going back to the swamp camp.

The quest has you wade into the Smuggler camp.

Philip is the guy you need to kill to finish the quest.

Head to boilers camp from the Sewage plant through the Old Quarter to turn in the quest. Pick up all the quests offered.

To do the quest with the rats just use the item when they're close to melee range.

Be sure to turn the quest in and pick up the next part.

Kill the two converts and remember this spot for later.

Go through the doorway formed by the pipe and pick up this quest.

Kill the League Spy/Saboteurs to get the plans to drop. It might take a while, just keep at it.

Now is the time to go to where the converts were standing and down the stairs.

Collect the Tep Tablets from the pedestals. Also Kill the Converts in here. This is the way into XAES, so remember it well.

Turn in the plans quest as you go into Borts quarter to do the rep quest.

Keep doing it until you're respected with the City. It took me 8 runs.

Run across the map to the park and turn in the talk quest and get the next part.

And we're back in the Smugglers camp for this quest. You only need to kill about 4 of them to get to the quest NPC.

Head back to the Old Square and turn in the quest and talk to the innkeeper. You should hit level 10.

Buy all the blue rep gear. Gear is a major part of this game and the rep gear is some of the best.

As you head North to the main square, pick up the bag quest. Doing it takes some time, and is easier the higher level you are.

On the steps pick up the Guide's quest and do it real quick. Its free exp.

The Adventure Begins (Issue 1)

The Adventure Continues (Issue 2)

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!

However what ticked me off the most about mini games is that despite there being four maps people only que up for one and exactly one. Also if you’re in a PUG playing a premade you stand no chance, none what so ever. Unless of course part of your PUG is not a PUG. Really the key to PvP XP is winning and the key to that is capturing the flag. Also there was a match where the team balancer glitched so my team was playing 4 people down (there were only 2 of us vs 6 of them).

Demonologists lead the pack again

In the screenshot above I was playing a pre-made on red (Frazz plays only premades and has stayed at 59), however it jsut goes to show that kills arent everything. They won the game despite there being more blues in the top 5 than reds. That right there is pretty much the last mini game I ever played, to this day despite being 80 I haven’t played another one. I might start again at some point, but for me they were boring. The rest of PvP level 1 I achieved through open world PvP (more on that later)

(Written from Russia)

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.

Demonologist

Gameplay: As with every caster in the game it boils down to spamming your spell of choice. You get to choose from either lightning or fire for your preffered method of zapping people’s testes and or ovaries off, however due to the great foresight exibitited so often by Funcom one of the trees is rather unfinished and ends up being unusable in some cases (Fire on Yak = whipe). When you’re not spammign oyur arsenal of spells chances are you’re putting up your self buffs. Despite the sheer amount of these only three of them are useful in any which way and one of those you dont get until the end. Summoning your pet will probably take as long as putting on all of your buffs so learn to love that animation which looks like your character is about ot shit a satanic egg.

Intended Role: Magical DPS the old fashioned firect damage way

Actual Role: Damage, AoE Damage

Necromancer

Gameplay: The necromancer does the same amount of damage as the demonologist if not more, the damage is spread out between the necromancer and his pets and most of it is in the form od DoTs. Besides have a wide variety of DoTs the necro also get a straight up nuke that does a lto less damage than most of the other nukes in the game. Also the necromancer can summon an army of pets that is limited only by his remaining pet points, these minions can be sacrificed to give the necromancer benefits. The combination of pet damage, DoTs, Snare Procs make the necro a force to be reckoned with in PvP. With the correct feating and good gear the critical hits on Ice Strike end up hitting for far more damage than the critical hits the demonologist can put out. PvE wise the necromancer’s pets do a lot of the work and due to his AoEs and thier debuff effects the necromancer has no trouble taking on large mobs. In raids their DoTs do good damage to bosses and when combined with spamming Ice Strike the necromancer can output phenominal DPS nubmers.

Intended Role: Pet based DPS

Actual Role: Magical DPS with pet helpers

Herald of Xotli

Gameplay: In the recent patches the HoX has been crossing onto the more magic based side of the melee caster hybrid. Out of all the hybrids in the game this is the only one that wields a 2 handed Edged (great fatalities) and also gets to transform. The demon form is an interesting part of the HoX class and ends up being invaluable in PvP and PvE due to its AoE stun. Currently the HoX is powerful in PvP due to their CC and burst damage abilities. There have been report of them 3 shotting soldiers who have over 11k HP. PvE wise they’re fun to play but are hurt by their cloth armor, the only class that has it tougher PvE wise is the assassin, at least the HoX gets a magic shield. Either way the HoX can be pretty high up on the damage charts despite being unable to reach the DPS potential of the other mage classes, namely the demonologist (and ranger, despite that beign a rogue). In terms of fun for the time, I have to say that HoX was by far my favorite character to level.

Intended Role: Melee Magical DPS

Actual Role: Melee Caster DPS

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.

Assassins

Gameplay: Assassins are by far the squishiest class in the entire game. They get as much HP as mages, but no mage shield (the mage shield absorbs a very noticeable amount of every hit), they also wear cloth armor and are melee sorta like the HoX, but with no mage shield. Assassins end up relying on evasion for survival and stealth to get kills. There is no class in the game that is better at hiding than an assassin, fact is even barbs are at a slight disadvantage to them. However Assassins need to get the first hit in or else its going to be a tough fight. Due to their lack of armor and lack of CC Assassins end up being very challenging to play in PvE and have to use their stealth attacks to their advantage as much as possible. This same ability to sneak around and choose their fights leaves the Assassin in a very good spot PvP wise. However due to broken offhand mechanics (if you don’t finish your combo you don’t get a chance to do offhand, also the chance of an offhand proc is much lower than said before) they suffer at times DPS wise, also the fact that daggers do less damage than the axes and swords Barbarians can dual wield leaves them far behind on the DPS meters at raids. Overall this class is an interesting and unique one despite its many weaknesses.

Intended Role: Melee DPS stealth based

Actual Role: Stealth based Melee

Barbarian

Gameplay: The Barbarian is the typical representative of the Rogue category, he wears light leather armor and swings either giant two handed weapons or two lesser ones. The barbarian also gets a great amount of CC at his disposal if he is invested in the Beserker tree and wields a two handed weapon, that same tree gives him the ability to break any CC on himself, an ability which no their classes poses. The barbarian gets, like all rogues, two stances to choose from both of which end up increasing his damage. Additionally the barbarian has a passive proc that activates when he lands a critical hit. Every ciritcal hit increases his damage by 2% and the buff lasts 15 seconds. PvP wise the Barbarian is just as good as the assassin at picking his fights, and unlike the Assassin the Barbarian can stand toe to toe with melee classes due to his evasion, light armor, and CC abilities. In PvE the Barbarian is better off than the Assassin because he can unleash CC effects on a whole crowd of enemies allowing him to stand unharmed and unleash his primal rage on the meat bags unfortunate enough to have met him.

Intended Role: Melee DPS

Actual Role: Melee DPS

Ranger

Gameplay: In the Funcom spirit of making a game balanced the ranger is the most survivable of the rogue classes. The ranger gets Medium armor, gets to use a shield, and true to his name stays at range for most of the fight. Also the ranger is the only class that can approach the DPS potential of the mage classes. Just like the other rogues the Ranger gets to pick and choose his fights from stealth, but in addition to that he also doesn’t have to be in melee range. Often in PvP a ranger will pop out of stealth with a pair of quick attacks that will have most classes at near 60% health, then the ranger can snare their target and just fire away from a safe distance. If the target does manage to close the gap, the ranger can always take out his trust sword and shield set to make himself more survivable. With that sword the ranger can yet again snare the target or knock them back or can just do damage to them with combos like Shield Bash. The ranger is the only class in the game that gets both ranged and melee ranged combos, also the ranger gets the most different snares than any other class they also get a pair of knockbacks but no stun. Unlike the other Rogue classes the Ranger has to feat into his stances, or live without them. As a final precaution rangers were given traps that can be set down and will root whoever passes over them. Overall this class is great for PvP and PvE at all levels and stands out as the shining star amongst the rogue classes.

Intended Role: Ranged DPS

Actual Role: Ranged DPS with great survival

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.

Priest of Mitra

Gameplay: The Priest of Mitra (PoM) has recently gotten a lot of love as far as spell damage goes (wisdom based), and the fact that very few people in the game have a high holy resistance helps as well. Overall they make great healers due to the fact that they get so many great CC options, and powerful heals. They follow the standard priest template in terms of heals, and their damage abilities are the standard single target nuke. However their true value to the team comes in the form of their AoE knockback because it lets them go bowling. A team can round up 10+ mobs and just wait for the kockback to cast. By the time the mobs get up they’ll be dead if said team has enough AoEs. In the spirit of game balance the PoM gets the same base nuke damage and cast time as the necro while getting the handy ability to use a shield and wear light armor. In affect the PoM gets medium armor, heals, and good spell damage. Overall its a very well balanced class that can do everything at once.

Intended Role: Pure Healer

Actual Role: Healer/DPS

Bear Shaman

Gameplay: Continuing in the template of inserting one failed abortion per category, Funcom decided to throw in a melee healer along with the casters. However as opposed to the other casters with their standard group buffs the bear shaman gets Totems (long lasting team wide buffs), Manifestations (short duration team buffs), and Claws (self buffs). Also the BS’s team wide 1 hour HP buff gives a laughable amount of HP until it is feated at which point it gives the same HP buff as the other priest’s HP buffs and throws in a natural health regen bonus. The damage output of the bear shaman is laughable when compared to the damage done by their priestly cousins however it is fun to run around with a giant club hitting anything in the way. In the end the Bear Shaman has the ability to output more healing than his cousins because of totem effects and manifestations.

Intended Role: Melee Healer

Actual Role: Best Healer

Tempest of Set

Gameplay: This fine and grand class had the ability to one shot any other class in the game in a PvP environment for quite some time before they got nerfed for the sake of game balance. That having been said the Tempest of Set (ToS) still can output ridiculous amounts of damage (intelligence based spells) especially to large groups of enemies. In some non-existent parallel world this class could very well be in line with game balance, however this is not that world. Giving this class good damage, good heals, and good CC effects doesn’t lend itself well to game balance. However post damage nerfs this class almost makes some semblance of fitting in power level wise, sorta like roadkill fits in with a group of forest animals. In terms of leveling up there is no class that can go faster. Due to the large amounts of AoE damage the ToS can put out while healing themselves its a wonder if they die when pulling 6+ mobs, other classes struggle with 3. In the end this class is another shining example of Funcom’s innate ability to balance the game.

Intended Role: Damage Dealing Healer

Actual Role: Damage Dealer and Healer rolled into one

First off in Age of Conan there are three races that you can play as: the Aquilonians, the Cimmerians, the Stygians. Each race has its own deep story that is actually the basis for the class limitations and each race has its own stereotypes. Now for a more detailed breakdown:

The Aquilonians: The Aquilonians are probably based off of the Roman Empire in many ways. Their people are accustomed to defending the border of their rich and prosperous kingdom, they have freedom of religion but hate magic. The Aquilonian Empire is the one that King Conan rules, and it is flourishing despite repeated pict invasions. The people of Aquilonia are tough and disciplined, and have very few stereotypes pinned on them. In the traditional (and horribly wrong) good to evil meter they fall right in the good side. Aquilonians are fair skinned blond haired people and their God is Mitra. From a gameplay point of view they can choose from more classes than any other race and are easiest to roleplay as. Their territories tend to be forested and pretty green. An Aquilonian can become and Soldier or Rogue class as well as a Priest of Mitra.

The Cimmerians: The Cimmerians are probably based off of the Nords in many ways. Their people are tribal and mostly stay well within their northern mountainous homes, typically they are fair skinned and dark haired due to never leaving the weak northern sun. They are hunters and what are commonly referred to as barbarians. They distrust any strangers coming through their land and few ever leave the place where they were born. King Conan himself is Cimmerian, though he is not the stereotypical one, he wished to go out and see the world and interact with many peoples. His countrymen are happy to sit atop their mountains leering at anyone who passes by. The Cimmerians acknowledge Crom as their God, but do not worship him in the traditional sense of priests and temples. The Cimmerians are a tough and hardworking people who aren’t afraid of bloodshed and in fact condone it. From a gameplay point of view they have the noble barbarian stereotype attached to them and their lands are filled with beautiful snow and high mountains. Rolepalying as one is much less free-form then an Aquilonian due to the stereotypes attached to the race, however they are honorable people and warriors at heart. A Cimmerians can be any soldier, as well as any Rogue (with the exception of Assassin, a Cimmerian would roar a battle challenge rather than sneak up on an opponent), and a Bear Shaman.

The Stygians: The Stygians are loosely based off of the Egyptians. They have a very rigid caste system into which one is born with no social mobility. They reside in the southern deserts and because of this are dark skinned and dark haired people. They are often seen by others as being the incarnation of evil and are frequently the reason behind the latest plot to destroy the world. The Stygians fear their God Set and will do anything for him, in return he reveals his secrets to them. The Stygian people are those that believe in intelligence over strength and study the darkest forms of magic obsessively. Typically any Stygian outside of their kingdom is there to gather information or discover some previosuly hidden secret of magic. As far as roleplaying goes they are typically intelligent and scheming, constantly in search of power by any means necissary. They are also the only race that can play any of the Mage classes, in addition to that they get all the rogues (except the barbarian) and the Tempest of Set.

Soldiers

Meat Shields as they’re affectionately known these are the big fat hairy men getting puffed on by the magic dragon. They are bound together through wearing plate armor and using stances. In addition to those base mechanics guards also get to magically empower you and themselves with various buffs through the use of shouts. The soldiers are the basis for all sub-group dynamics, they share gameplay mechanics and have two classes that are close and one class that’s like that red haired cousin nobody loves. The general tree gives the soldier natural heal regen as the base and continue on to give the basic armor and protection feats, more importantly the only taunt that you’ll ever get resides within the general tree and is a real must have for holding aggro.

Guardian

Gameplay: Guardians these days have a great time of leveling. The polearm has its own tree filled with fun AoEs and other gimmicks. These let the Guardian AoE farm on the same level as the priest and caster classes. In addition to that they’ve been blessed with multiple charges. The guard gets to choose from three different self buffs: Manuevers, Stratagems, and Tactics. Those are of course in addition to the two stances they get to choose from. The two trees each service one of the two guardian weapon combinations, Juggernaut for Sword and Board, Tempest for Polearm. The guardian passive procs when the guardian’s allies are hit or when the guardian is hit depending on which one is chosen.

Intended Role: Tank of the highest calibre

Actual Role: Tank or Melee DPS

Dark Templar

Gameplay: The Dark Templar (aka DT) has been the black sheep of the classes for a long time. This class is one of the few to not have gotten a major overhaul since launch and remains to this day relatively underpowered. That being said the Dark Templar is more than just any one of his abilities, as a matter of fact a proper DT should be using multiple combos just to kill a bunny. Ok maybe the damage isn’t that low, but it still isn’t in line with any of the other classes in the game. Overall the DT even with a sword and talisman does the least amount of damage in the game. That having been said this is one of three melee classes that uses mana, and unlike the other two tanks relies on health tap to stay tanking. Due to the low damage this health tap might seem negligible but once all the abilities are thrown in the self healing prowess of the DT is rather apparent. The DT proc triggers when team mates are hit and gives the DT more health and mana tap, at higher stacks it triggers a small pulsing AoE that damages everyone around the DT. The DT self buffs are Auras (affect whole team), Covenants, and Drain Life. Overall the DT ends up being great at tanking large mobs because the health tap scales well with multiple targets.

Intended Role: A different way to tank

Actual Role: Tank

Conqueror

Gameplay: This class was intended to be the offensive tank. While wearing plate armor the conqueror is able to dual wield and use two handed weapons, in a raid this would be the constant DPS that wont die, or a good off tank. However in Funcom’s infinite wisdom, they nerfed this class so it no longer does significant damage. The end result is you have a melee fighter putting out slightly more damage than the DT while not being nearly as good at survival. The team buffs that the conqueror gets are directional and only one can be down at a time, if your team happens to move the buff ceases to work. More importantly the passive proc activates on damage done to team mates or on competition of a 2H combo (see that, Funcom’s picking your weapon for you). This proc after it stacks up has a chance to heal the team when they do damage and at full stacks is allows the use of Furious Resurgence, the only combat rez in the game. Any end game raid MUST have a conqueror so that he can use it when the tank goes down. Other than that the guardian ends up being forced into Heavy armor (tiered gear and PvP gear) despite being able to wear plate.

Intended Role: Well Protected Melee DPS

Actual Role: Battle Rezing the Tank

My brand new 50

So now with my account reactivated for a measly $11 and my brand new 50 shining hard, I wanted to go and kill lots of things to test out why everyone always complains about casters being too good. As it turns out they’re damn right, now even my lvl 53 Herald of Xotli can put out such numbers on a big mob reliably and he’s in the same subcategory as this demonologist, and the necromancer.

Quick Tangent: In Age of Conan there are 12 classes split into 4 subcategories. The classes are as follows:  Guardian, Dark Templar, Conqueror; Priest of Mitra, Tempest of Set, Bear Shaman; Barbarian, Assassin, Ranger; Demonologist, Herald of Xotli, Necromancer. The semicolons divide the classes into groups of 3, each class within a group has something in common with the others in the group. The first three I listed are soldier classes, they are the tanks of AoC. Only soldiers may wear the heavy armor in this game, they also can all wield Shields, and choose between one handed and two handed weapons. The second group are the priests, they are the healers in Age of Conan. They also can all wear at least light armor and have shields, except for the bear shaman who gets medium armor and no shield. The rogue classes are the most varied in the game, and are very hard to classify. For example the assassin can only use daggers and wear cloth/silk armor, meanwhile the ranger is meant to use bows or crossbows and wears medium armor, the barbarian can choose between one two handed weapon or dual wielding however they cna only wear light armor. The final group is the mages, they are damage dealers same as the rogues but they do damage using the mana bar rather than the stamina bar. They are also confined to only cloth/silk armor and are the only ones in the game to have pets. But even they vary greatly from one another. (check back later for a full article on classes and races)

Anywho for my demonologist I chose to spec Havok because I find it more fun to shoot lightning, also it is arguably the better PvP branch, and since this is a PvP server I was going to be forced to do a lot of it. I of course set a talent path to getting the most AoE, damage, and pet damage i could. I would say it worked out pretty well. My spam spell does 500+ to every mob right from the get go with start equipment. Now at level 62 it does 700+ and towards the end of the game it should be doing close to 900-1000 damage, non-critical. Turns out that the 2.5 second cast is worth it becasue I was able ot down large groups very quickly by onyl spamming one spell.

During

After

As you can see from two comparison images, there is an unnoticeable dip in my mana bar and a small chunk of my HP missing. During the battle I received no healing, used no crowd control spells and used no items. As one can tell its very efficient. In fact I could keep rolling like that for a very very long time. Overall I have to say my return to the game has been great. More on different parts of it later.