General Discussion

Managing Editor Jon Wood is in Oslo visiting the Age of Conan developers at Funcom where he has learned that the 14 Age of Conan classes have been folded down to 12 as four classes are merged into two.

Managing Editor Jon Wood has been in Oslo, Norway taking part in an Age of Conan Press Event. While there, he learned that the planned 14 classes for the upcoming MMORPG have been folded down into 12.

The two classes in question were known as the Lich, and the Stormcaller.

The Stormcaller has been merged with the Scion of Seth class to create a new class called, The Tempest of Seth. This new class will maintain most of the abilites of both the Stormcaller and the Tempest.

The Lich class was a perfect fit to fold into the Necromancer class, with the undead nature of the Lich. Necromancers will now have the ability to turn themselves into a Lich and while the core feeling of the Lich has remained, being folded into the Necromancer class makes them casters rather than the melee class that they were previously.

A number of other interesting tidbits on Age of Conan came out during the trip, and you can read all about them on Monday and Tuesday of this week, so don't forget to drop by MMORPG.com and take a look.

Read it all here.

Well that's somewhat disappointing. I was looking forward to Funcom's version of the Lich, rather than your standard Necromancer found in most games. Oh well, I guess we will just have to see how this turns out. Guess I'll be making another necromancer

This might be disappointing to some, however look further into this for live launch. What this will do is:

-Reduce work loads of balancing/fixing classes for launch or post launch, even by reducing 2 classes you can focus time on others that need it more.

Yes, I have played necromancers in almost every game that has had them. However, I've NEVER been satisfied with how necromancers were portrayed (most notibley was the uselessness of a pet decaying over a very short time like in GW, to the point they are laughably and annoyingly funny. The fact there are no pet using necromancers in GW for pvp shows they are useless and aren't true necromancers).

However, at least to me, necromancers in Age of Conan will feel like true necromancers now. I was kind of concerned with the fact we REALLY haven't had any information pertaining to the specifics of the necromancer class yet. I was debating if I was going Lich or Necromancer for beta (when I get an invite) or retail, even though my decision has probably been made up for me now. I say this because my first MMO was UO (like a lot of the vet community), however my first TRUE modern MMO was EQ to which I bet a lot of you can guess what I played 3 different times to max level on 3 different servers . So it was going to feel kind of weird just summoning things and not looking.....necrorific? Did I mention I've played countless necromancers on DAOC...............perhaps I should should see a counselor .

In any case it's not all that bad of news for most. Just a refocusing of ideas to make retail a lot cleaner and crisp from refocused work. I just hope necromancers and the new Tempest of Seth, or w/e it's called, won't be all fumbly bumbly because they merged 4 classes down to two just 2months from launch.

-Moo

Wow, this seems like a huge move for a game so close to release.  I hope this doesn't mean that the game still has a lot of major issues to work out at this point.

Seems like they havn't gotten rid off those classes, just incorporated them into other classes. I do agree that the Necromancer class is alot better now. From what i know about lich's, they are incredibly powerful necromancers anyway, and so it only makes sense that the ability to become one, via necromancy, sould be a high lvl ability and not a given starter class/ability. It's like the jedi's in SWG. If everyone can be one right away, it makes it less impressive or important.

I havn't really followed the details of AoC, i'm just waiting for it to be released and i'll see what classes there are at the character creation screen, so im not too worried about this news.

It's "Tempest of Set", not Seth.

yup. my mistake. Changed.

i on the other hand am not going to play conan, its jsut going to be like every other MMO , boring, i was looking forward to a caster who used its abilities more like a tank

beh

Good new my optimist friend!

Herald of Xotli is the class for you!

http://aoc.wikia.com/wiki/Herald_of_Xotli

http://aoc.wikia.com/wiki/Spells/Herald_of_Xotli

better to fix this stuff before launch than 6months - 1 year after launch.