Age of Conan

For anyone thinking about buying or just bored and wants a read ... My pro's and Con's.

First off .. I've played alot of the markets MMORPGs, I'll give a brief overview of my playstyle.

I'm mostly an explorer / Acheiver. I like to find all the places and do all the quests. Killing MoBs for no reason is not my idear of fun. I also like to cap out tradeskills and factions etc. Raids are ok ... more an evil I have to put up with really, I'd rather run group instances than raid tbh. PvP is ok when meaningful and RvR is a blast assuming theres a reason. Teamwork is paramount to me. Yes I was a raider (EQ WoW and EQ2) .. but raiding is time consuming and I have a life too :/ (so my wife tells me.....)

That said .. AoC

Quests ... there is a ton of quests. If you like quests you'll never get bored. However ... Running ... there is ALOT of running. Its no wonder all the toons are built like superman .. all the damm running they do !

The world. People have talked about instancing and small world. Yes 1-20 you will see alot of instances. Past 20 not so much so. Its annoying having to zone into an inn to talk to an NPc only to leave .. but its managable. The other instances? Well if you got on ok with EQ2 you wont have issues. The zones are fairly large ... I'd say LP (Loping Plains) sized if you need an EQ2 yardstick.

Classes. The classes seem nice. Some are harder to solo etc .. but the balance seems ok. I'm Playing a Tempest .. interesting class and alot like my Smite cleric from DAoC (pre-nerf!) so alot of fun. I played all the classes to 5 (which is nothing really) and some to 10-12. They all seem fun. The combo's are tricky to get used to .. and the double tapping is damm annoying since I can't use a side mouse button to do it (diverting me from chaining attacks) .. but its managable and something that just takes time to get used to.

Heals seem weak at low levels. As a healer or healer hybrid it's annoying at first .. your heals seem usless (b/c they are) .. but by 20 heals are getting better and 25+ (at least for the Tempest) your heals start to really impact your playstyle.

Community. Can only talk of my sever Bard, and thats a let down so far. Seems OOC is seldom used and no one really talks ... maby I just need to join a guild. Maby I am on a low pop server or something .. but no one seems to be talking at all on my server .. so alot of the times it seems like a single player game :/

Crafting. Just started my gathering skills tonight, I'm only level 30 so I cant craft yet ... gathering is same old same old. Run around hitting nodes. The starting quests for gathering at least give some decent XP tho ! Just remember to map-note all the nodes and you'll do fine ! It does seem to me that resources are VERY limited. I dunno how much (resource wise) it will take to build a keep / seige force ... but I think the resource camping will begin soon, this may be an issue down the way since they are on static spawns and just regenerate. 

Overall I am liking the game so far. Its pretty thats for sure and runs pretty well on my system. I dont have the best system (Athalon Duel 64, 2g Ram, 8600GTS card) and I run it will settings high and get 35-40FPS ... except citys where I can drop to 18-22 FPS. 

PvP ... well I only really get into RvR now .. so I cant comment on PvP until I get to do some RvR .. there are lots of posts on the state of PvP tho ... makes me glad I choose a PvE server :p

Bottom line ... if you like EQ2 then AoC fits pretty well into the mold. Combos are pretty much the same as chaining CA's in EQ2 ... sure theres no auto attack .. but who ever won a fight with auto attack? There are quests and quests and quests to do. As for the WoW crowd ... if your a hard core raider .. I'd say stick with WoW at least abit longer (until AoC gets more raid content) .. if your a PvE WoW player who likes to quest and group ... try AoC .. its not as bad as some say .. but not as good as some hype it either ! Just make sure your Rig can run it ... its not a PC friendly game (hog's specs)

D~