I'm not playing AoC anymore, but I've always felt that AoC melee combat is quite unique, even if in general AoC's combat has its flaws which a number of players disliked, namely its predetermined set of directional keys you needed to execute for a skill to be fired off. An issue for which a simple solution exists, namely the ranger combat skills.

But first, in order to see how ranger combat would've made a difference, an explanation about AoC's melee combat.

What made melee combat in AoC different from combat in other MMO's?

- of course, you had the fatalities, visual effects that looked great and that were triggered when you performed a critical killing hit with your combo (think Mortal Combat) and that were different depending on what combo skill you used

- there were directional shields and directional attacks: you didn't just click a skill to attack, you had directional white attacks and your enemy (NPC, player) could shield one side heavily or all of his sides evenly. So if he shielded his left side heavily, you attacked him from above or his right side for more damage (if you attacked him on his heavily shielded side, your damage would be a fraction from normal)

- those 2 above also applied to ranged combat. Melee combat though had an additional thing: you could tab to your target, but your attacks weren't tab target-based. In fact, you didn't need to target a single enemy at all, because all your melee attacks were basically a frontal, point-blank AoE cone of 1-2m (depending on your weapon), that hit everything within that field and radius.

Those 3 together led to a totally different melee combat experience than in other MMO's, with a great visceral feel to it, where you tried to manoever the enemy NPC's together and position yourself so that you hit 2 or 3 of them with each of your attacks, and where you paid attention to how they shielded themselves so that you could hit them at their weakest spots for extra damage. You were far more immersed in the battle than in other MMO's where for melee combat you just needed to click your skills, with no positioning or directional attacks or shielding.

The only thing lacking to it is how ranger combat works. You see, you couldn't just fire off most of your skills, you had to perform a combo, where you for example first did 1 left directional white attack, then an up directional attack, and only then end the skill you started. Also, that pattern was predetermined, stray from it and your combo fails.

Not so for ranger attacks: you can fire off your skill right away, but if you want additional effects, like a root added to your smash skill attack or more damage or for example a longer duration to your knockdown or maybe a poison effect, then you used the directional attack that'd add that effect to your combo finish.

So you can fire off your ranger skill straight away, or you can add effects to it by performing the appropriate directional white attacks first, effects that were different depending on what skill you triggered.

And this is how all combat in AoC should've been done right from the start at launch: the FC devs had the right idea, only they didn't finish it off (probably due to lack of time and rushing) to perfect it. But implementing this kind of melee combat would've resulted in a lot more tactics, and an even more immersive feel than melee combat in AoC already has.

If you don't play...wait...really?

WHY!?!?

Heh, it was time for a change, to try out and play some other MMORPG's.

Besides that, a lot of my guildies had moved on.

Originally posted by MMO.Maverick

So you can fire off your ranger skill straight away, or you can add effects to it by performing the appropriate directional white attacks first, effects that were different depending on what skill you triggered.

Which Ranger skills have that?

my friend has been telling me about the gameplay of the ranger class in War and i think they have actually come the closest out of the games that have cookie cutter classes to the style it should be, changing stances between ranged and melee. when i played AoC ranger was ranged only.

I never liked how they messed up stealth in that game. Sure it wasnt supposed to be invisibility but they royally messed it up from the beginning. Mobs could see you from like MILES away even when it was pitch black middle of the night in game time with no light sources and they were like 4 levels lower then you.

This would have been the right approach to the combo system!

Originally posted by Blutmaul

This would have been the right approach to the combo system!

Played it a bit and he's right. They should redo all the classes combo based on this and add a Xbox controller support.

Originally posted by Deewe

Originally posted by Blutmaul

This would have been the right approach to the combo system!

Played it a bit and he's right. They should redo all the classes combo based on this and add a Xbox controller support.

 Believe someone in these forums posted awhile back how to get the xbox controller to work with AoC.

Originally posted by Sevenwind

Originally posted by Deewe

Originally posted by Blutmaul

This would have been the right approach to the combo system!

Played it a bit and he's right. They should redo all the classes combo based on this and add a Xbox controller support.

 Believe someone in these forums posted awhile back how to get the xbox controller to work with AoC.

That was me ;)

Among other things you need autohotkey to remap the keys. It works like a charm and makes playing the game a much better experience. I'm usuall not very fond of controller game play. I'd rather like a mouse and keyboard. But this game is designed to be played with an XboX controller, you can feel it.

Combat in age of conan is my favorite for all the MMORPG'S out there to date. I play mainly as a sin but rolled a ranger- tons of fun.

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Originally posted by Lateris
Combat in age of conan is my favorite for all the MMORPG'S out there to date. I play mainly as a sin but rolled a ranger- tons of fun.

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I grouped with a Sin last night. Man, their DPS isn't Damage Per Second it's DEATHS Per Second. That guy melted through enemies, often before I was able to get a combo off as a polearm guardian.

Super fun melee system though, I really enjoy it.

just thought I'd add a little bit more information on how the class works.

When you use a standard attack you get an "upper attack bonus" or a "lower attack bonus" depending on where the attack was directed.  The attack bonus will stay available for 5 seconds, and the timer refreshes after any standard attack. When you use a skill (such as penetrating shot) there are additional bonus'  in damage or effect that will occur if you have a upper or lower attack bonus active. Using a skill will remove the counter for the upper or lower attack bonus.

So if I was going to aggro a mob I could start off with my snare skill to slow him, upper attack, then lower attack then penetrating shot (uses both bonus' for major damages) or I could upper attack, then lower attack and the use a snare attack (upper bonus slows them more, lower bonus slows them longer) or I could use and upper attack to aggro, lower attack while they run at me keeping the attack bonus' up, drop a trap and switch to my swords and use a melee skill with extra damage from the upper/lower attack bonus.

The ranger is definately my favorite class in AoC. I wish I could remember all the skill names to do a better job explaining it.

Thanks to the OP for making the thread!