Asheron's Call just had a big February update with a lot of changes and additions.

New skills:

Dual Wield - just as you would think, hold a melee weapon in each hand and slice creatures up.

Recklessness - gain an increase to your damage ouput at the cost of taking increased damage on incoming attacks

Dirty Fighting - depending on where you attack a creature/player determines which debuffs you land on the creature. Including debuff to their defense skills, bleeds, healing debuffs.

Shield - The effectiveness of shield is now determined by the shield skill

Sneak Attack - do increased damage from behind the target. Also if you train Deception you have a chance to do increased damage to the front of the target.

Changes:

All one handed melee weapons combined down into the following three skills:

Heavy Weapon

Light Weapon

Finesse Weapon

Each skill has all types of weapons so no longer are you stuck only using an axe or a sword. Now you can use them all.

All missile weapons (Bow, Crossbow and Thrown Weapons) combined into a new skill called Missile Weapons.

Damage increase for all combat skills

Masteries: Now you can choose a melee (Sword, Axe, Two Handed, Staff etc.) mastery and a ranged mastery (bow, crossbow, thrown weapons, magic) and you will receive a damage bonus with those types of weapons

All racial skills have been removed and all races now receive Arcane Lore trained free, 2 extra credits at creation and 6 extra specialization credits. This means you can now choose the race you want to play instead of choosing the race which has the racial advantage.

Quest weapons have been rebalanced to be more effective.

If you played Asheron's Call before it is definetly worth coming back to play with the changes. If you haven't played before.... well that's just wrong so go play it.

Very nice, thx may check it out.

Now if they would only wipe DT for me 

I'm happy with most of the changes, the one exception being my axer.

He's not a max level toon(~L85) and his axes were destroyed for all intents and purposes in the conversions.  I think they went a little too far on axe variance IMO.

Otherwise it's a nice update, with a few new added skill to breath a little fresh air into the game.

Happy I came back a few months ago and was able to finally get AC working again(curse you AC and your antiquated net code, lol).

young: Darktide has really been busy since the patch, a lot of killing. You should definetly hop in there and join the fun.

This update along with everything they've done the last couple years has really brought a lot of life back to AC. A lot of races to choose from now. Previously before this update they added the combat skills Void Magic and Two Handed Combat, so a lot of new skills lately.

They are still working on getting Lugians in as a playable race so that will be fun.

Overall it is a game often overlooked but also often very fun for those who discover it and try it out for at least a week (there is a good amount of knowledge to build up. However, they have also made the new and low level experience a lot better over the course of the last 2 years as well. They've also made leveling a lot faster with high creature/quest xp).

Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

young: Darktide has really been busy since the patch, a lot of killing. You should definetly hop in there and join the fun.

 

 

This update along with everything they've done the last couple years has really brought a lot of life back to AC. A lot of races to choose from now. Previously before this update they added the combat skills Void Magic and Two Handed Combat, so a lot of new skills lately.

 

They are still working on getting Lugians in as a playable race so that will be fun.

 

Overall it is a game often overlooked but also often very fun for those who discover it and try it out for at least a week (there is a good amount of knowledge to build up. However, they have also made the new and low level experience a lot better over the course of the last 2 years as well. They've also made leveling a lot faster with high creature/quest xp).

Resubbed yesterday to check it out

I didnt get a chance to play yet but im looking forward to checking out all the new stuff specially the latest patch.

So it didn't have dual wield or sneak attack before? I'm guessing next patch will introduce a new class, the "healer". =P

Originally posted by BarelyEin

So it didn't have dual wield or sneak attack before? I'm guessing next patch will introduce a new class, the "healer". =P

 Never played AC have you....

There is no holy trinity in AC. Every player can take a healing skill and heal well. People who use magic can take just as much of a beating as people who take a melee weapon. AC realized from the start that you should let people play how they want and not force some kind of holy trinity on them. That is why the game is so fun.

AC also never had elves or orcs or boars etc. They came up with most of their own fantasy creatures and settings.

Sneak attack isn't like other games where you get to go invisible and wander around. You stay visible the entire time. It just gives you a lot of extra damage if you hit a target in the back.

Nope, never played, always been interested though. Maybe now is the time to try it. =D

Sounds like time to resub and roll a new character. Thanks for the update SnarlingWolf!

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Sounds like time to resub and roll a new character. Thanks for the update SnarlingWolf!

 Nice, now to just get everyone else to realize what they're missing and to hop in.

There is a free 14 day trial everyone, no excuse not to try it out.

To top it all off they are having a bonus XP/Luminace weekend (actually 4 days I believe) this upcoming weekend. Definetly a good time to jump back in.

Always sad to see an old MMO remove depth and complexity.

Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Sounds like time to resub and roll a new character. Thanks for the update SnarlingWolf!

 Nice, now to just get everyone else to realize what they're missing and to hop in.

 

There is a free 14 day trial everyone, no excuse not to try it out.

Unfortunately, the "free trial" still, after all these years, requires a credit card to use.

Given the track record of game companies and their "security" the past couple years, I don't give my CC info to ANY game company any more.

Originally posted by Garvon3

Always sad to see an old MMO remove depth and complexity.

This change adds depth and complexity.

Instead of being locked in to one weapon, you can choose the best for what you want to do at any given time; whether you want tighter variance, or more high-end damage, or faster attacks. Each weapon had its own unique strengths and weaknesses, enabling you to use more of them increases options, rather than decreasing them.

As does enabling you to fully customize, rather than having to pick a certain race to play a certain way.

The only problem is that the trial still requires a CC and there are no alternate payment methods available - thats' the only thing that's kept me from resubscribing for years now.

Originally posted by Garvon3

Always sad to see an old MMO remove depth and complexity.

Always sad to see a poster make a statement about something they haven't actually tried, but hey this is MMORPG.com right?

You obviously don't play nor have you tried the changes.

As already stated, the game is just as in depth and complex as it ever was if not more so now.

Just to clarify since your original post, masteries for weapons are still a part of these updates I guess? I had read somewhere that they had decided to take them out altogether, but I'm really hoping that's not the case. I've always liked being able to specialize in a certain weapon, as it helps me give my character an identifiable "theme".

Anyway, I just wanted to double check. I'm thinking of giving the game another go and I'll be going melee this time. Don't suppose any actual attack skills have been added to melee combat in the recent years? That was my only gripe with melee - it never seemed like there was a whole awful lot to do aside from turning on auto attack.

Thanks in advance for the info :)

Originally posted by alacres

Just to clarify since your original post, masteries for weapons are still a part of these updates I guess? I had read somewhere that they had decided to take them out altogether, but I'm really hoping that's not the case. I've always liked being able to specialize in a certain weapon, as it helps me give my character an identifiable "theme".

Anyway, I just wanted to double check. I'm thinking of giving the game another go and I'll be going melee this time. Don't suppose any actual attack skills have been added to melee combat in the recent years? That was my only gripe with melee - it never seemed like there was a whole awful lot to do aside from turning on auto attack.

Thanks in advance for the info :)

 Yes they are part of the update. The devs have never mentioned taking them out all together. Some players wanted them to be taken out so they could hit max numbers on every weapon type.

They added two handed combat skill a while back which is just as it sounds. You can wield two handed weapons at the cost of no shield.

With this patch they added recklessness, works on where your power bar is, dirty fighting, effect depends on which height you hit at, sneak attack, increased damage from behind the target, and dual wield, just as it sounds you can wield two weapons.

So yes, they've recently added quite a bit to melee combat. Come back and you will enjoy it.

Originally posted by PyreSpirit

The only problem is that the trial still requires a CC and there are no alternate payment methods available - thats' the only thing that's kept me from resubscribing for years now.

Figured this was worth mentioning, as of today AC(and LotRO/DDO) can have subscriptions paid with paypal so there is an alternate payment method.

http://forums.ac.turbine.com/showthread.php?t=54733

Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

Originally posted by alacres

Just to clarify since your original post, masteries for weapons are still a part of these updates I guess? I had read somewhere that they had decided to take them out altogether, but I'm really hoping that's not the case. I've always liked being able to specialize in a certain weapon, as it helps me give my character an identifiable "theme".

Anyway, I just wanted to double check. I'm thinking of giving the game another go and I'll be going melee this time. Don't suppose any actual attack skills have been added to melee combat in the recent years? That was my only gripe with melee - it never seemed like there was a whole awful lot to do aside from turning on auto attack.

Thanks in advance for the info :)

 Yes they are part of the update. The devs have never mentioned taking them out all together. Some players wanted them to be taken out so they could hit max numbers on every weapon type.

 

They added two handed combat skill a while back which is just as it sounds. You can wield two handed weapons at the cost of no shield.

 

With this patch they added recklessness, works on where your power bar is, dirty fighting, effect depends on which height you hit at, sneak attack, increased damage from behind the target, and dual wield, just as it sounds you can wield two weapons.

 

So yes, they've recently added quite a bit to melee combat. Come back and you will enjoy it.

Hey, sorry for the response delay. It looks like they've added a lot of exciting things to the game to make melee a bit more interesting. I've actually been messing around with different build ideas and I've been thinking of going with something that uses heavy weapons (or maybe light...I'm still not sure of the main differences of them) and life magic. I plan to specialize it for vulning purposes. I figure having the casting element added to my melee build will make my character a lot more fun to play. The drawback of course is having to switch back and forth between melee and wand, but with my gaming mouse, I can have it assigned pretty easily so I don't think it will bother me much.

I guess my only real concern/deterrent from playing now is wondering about the remaining logevity of AC. I've read on the official forum that they removed the multi-monthly subscriptions plans and now only have the single month plan. I hope that's not a sign of anything. This game has stood the test of time for so long, and I really hope that they decide to keep it around for many more years to come. 

This game, with an updated UI and graphics, would be about as close to the perfect MMO as you could get. Well, with the old magic system that is, not the one they have currently.

I am tempted to jump back in, but it's been a damn long time since I played...