Age of Conan Cheats

Leveling and Character Development

2009-11-13T14:19:00.002+01:00

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures features 80 levels of character advancement, and every level is reached by gaining experience points through completing quests and killing enemies.

Questing is the primary way of gaining experience, allowing you to see the world and experience the stories of Hyboria while advancing your characters. Killing enemies also provides experience points, and this is based on how difficult the enemy is. Every time you gain a level, you will have to make a range of decisions that impact your character’s future:

Attributes: Your attributes will gain automatically when you gain new levels.
Skills: You will gain a certain number of skill points that you can invest in your various skills.
Feats: You will gain a certain number of feat points that you can use to buy new feats or strengthen the feats you’ve taken before.
Combos: Depending on your character’s class, new combos may become available when leveling up.

The apprenticing system:

Find a high level guy to apprentices you, which will bring you to within 1 level of that person.
You fight creatures which are the same level as the person who is apprenticing you, gaining you massive amounts of experience.
You will skip most of the questing and story line while gaining skills and abilities much faster than you can learn to use them.

While this is a great way for casual players to catch up to their hardcore friends, the questing in this game makes leveling very fast while at the same time not feeling like work. However there are some trouble spots where you may be required to do some grinding. Those spots could be better dealt with by making use of the apprenticing system.

MY LEVELING ROUTE

11-29:
I made my way through levels 1-29 the first day I played. There are tons of quests that you can stack to help you level. I was level 19 when I left Tortage, and hit level 20 after entering Conall's Valley. I then quested in Conall's until I was level 29; it was very easy and super fast. By the way, I did not play in closed beta.

29-39:
In the second day leveling, I managed to get through these 10 levels. Black Castle is a good place for these levels. However around level 35, I went to pyramid of the Ancients,. This was a great spot for leveling 35-39 which took almost the same amount of time as levels 29-35.

39-50:
During the third and part of the fourth day I leveled from 39-50. At level 39, I traveled to Old Tarantia Noble District, and was very surprised at how quickly I leveled. I stayed at Noble District until around level 45, then I went to Field of the Dead.

On a side note, I did some arena during these levels. Arena is in the tavern in Old Tarantia Noble District, and there are solo/group quests there for you to do. There is a level requirement on all of these quests, and I think you can do the final group quest at around level 57. These are well-worth the experience end rewards they give. I quested all the way to 48.5 in Field of the Dead, then went into Eiglophian Mountains for a short time.

50-57:
Fifth day leveling. At level 50 the game slows down with regard to leveling. I managed to quest in EM until around level 55, then I had to grind to 56. It
seems like some quests opened between 54-56, so I did those and got close to 57, then I had to grind out some more experience to hit level 57. It was at that
time I got the typical quest to head to another area - in this case, the place was Thunder River.

57-58:
On the sixth day, I found out that Thunder River was way too difficult for soloing at this level. Luckily, I heard that Atzel's Approach was much better for leveling.

58-63:
Atzel's Approach is awesome! When Upon arrival,I found the content to be very difficult. However, Once I got past that part of the zone, my experience flew.
I did all of the quests and ended up somewhere around level 63.

63-68:
The seventh day of levelingled me out of Atzel's Approach and back to Thunder River. I was able to finish the quests here much more quickly than before, so I hung out here for a while. There was a little grinding involved but nothing too terrible. After finishing all of the quests that I could, I went back to Atzel's Approach. I finished up the quests I had and headed to Ivoryvale at level 67. Ivoryvale is an icy canyon full of non-aggro mammoths, generally in pairs of two. Once I was out of quests here I grinded on the mammoths until I hit level 68.

68-72;
I started my eighth day out by grinding those mammoths until I reached 70. Level 70 was great since it led me to Kheshatta. Kheshatta is a sweet place, especially when you're the only one in the zone. I quickly cranked out two full levels from quests alone.

72-76:
I started the ninth day out with more grinding in Kheshatta until I hit level 73 and some more quests opened up at. I knocked out those quests very quickly,then grinded my way to 74 where some more quests opened up. Although they seemed to be group quests. So then I headed over to the Death Master Camps, where I managed to hit 76 that day.

76-80:
Death Master Camp AE group. In my experience this is the best place to tackle these levels. Basically, you pull the entire lower camp and level it. These levels would take forever solo. You need nearly 3 million experience to level from 79 to 80.

Subscribe to Age of Conan and receive The Secret World beta access

2009-11-13T13:51:00.001+01:00

Funcom recently announced their plans to get older players back into Age of Conan and boost multi-month subscription rates. Players with inactive subscriptions are invited to retry the game for two weeks and receive a double experience bonus. Those who sign up for multi-month subscriptions will receive these additional bonuses:

3-month sub: Beta access to The Secret World
6-month sub: Beta access + in-game helmet that boosts experience gain by 10%
12-month sub: Beta access + helmet + a free copy of Conan expansion Rise of the Godslayer

Age of Conan has received many updates in the year and a half since its release. However, MMO players can be an unforgiving bunch, so these incentives to give the game another shot are quite necessary. And it's extra-smart given all the excitement around The Secret World. Considering how many players would be willing to pay for beta access, a subscription to a vastly improved AoC is just icing on the cake.

For those interested in catching up on AoC, check out the most recent game director's letter, new content, and revised subscription options. Have a burning question for Funcom about this or anything else?

Barbarian Class Guides

2009-11-12T22:40:00.006+01:00

The barbarian is one of the most dangerous and feared sights on the battlefield. Their combat style focuses on strength, aggression, and relentless assault.

Whether wielding two-handed weapons that sweep through enemy lines or fighting with a weapon in each hand, when the opportunity to deliver that devastating killing blow Comes, they are ready.

Wounding barbarians enrages them, making them stronger and more deadly in battle and their varied array of powerful attacks can knock an enemy senseless, immobilize them, or make the very ground shake around them. Like other rogues, they excel at sneaking and the arts of ambushing.

Archetype: Rogue
Permitted Races: Cimmerian, Aquilonian
Weapons: One-handed edged, one-handed blunts, twohanded
edged, two-handed blunts, bows, thrown weapons, and
dual wielding.
Armor: Cloth armor and light armor

Feat Guide:

Great Weapons master build:

Butcher build:

Cheat the Reaper build:

Leveling/Straight DPS build:

I didn't take any of the aggro reducing talents, add them if you want a more group oriented build.

Now I am going to explain my reasoning for picking the feats that I did, and explain why I skipped some things.

Berserker Tree.
Blood rage: Grants the barbarian the Blood Rage Stance which increased damage inflicted and enemy attacks have a chance of increasing the barbarian's rate of Health regeneration and evasion chance. The ealth effect can be applied three times.

Required to advance.
Atrocity: Increases the damage done by barbarians Butcher combos.

Great Weapons Master: Increased the damage done by two-handed edged and two-handed blunt weapons.

Atrocity vs Great Weapons Master: For leveling, get Great Weapons Master until you get Butcher IV. Butcher IV is when the butcher line really starts to shine, and becomes a strong, cheap combo. Great eapons Master is supposed to scale with levels, but unless Butcher isn't that great at level 80 I am going to lean towards picking Atrocity.

Shock and Awe: Reduces the reuse time for Stunning Punch and Clobber combos.

Bread and butter PvP talent. Stuns and knockbacks are our only form of CC and this lowers the recast time on them. At max level it lowers Stunning punch by 13 seconds and clobber by 11 with 3 feat points invested. Staggering punch: Improves the Stunning Punch combos by adding an effect that also reduces the victims movement speed.

I've included this talent in both builds but that is subject to change based on the how well the talent actually works. Ive tried testing this feat out a few times and right now it currently doesn't seem to be snaring the target after the stun wears off. Theres a possibilty I didnt test it thoroughly enough, but as far as I can tell right now this feat isn't working properly. I imagine it will be fixed soon, which is why I left it in the builds. IF FIXED, this will be an amazing talent depending on the snare duration.

Reverse swing: Augments the Staggering Blow combo by increasing the damage the barbarian inflicts.

After spending some time using this feats after getting Staggering blow II my mind has been completely changed. This is another one of those feats that start to shine the higher you go up in level. After getting Staggering Blow II at level 34 the damage of Staggering Blow goes up a LOT.

Something every barbarian will learn is that when fighting elite mobs you will run out of stamina VERY quickly. At level 38 with 1500 stamina all my stuns/knockbacks are above 200 stamina with stunning punch costing a whopping 271 at the moment. The nice thing about Butcher and Staggering blow is they are both relatively cheap on stamina and they both do great damage after their level 30 upgrades. I highly recommend picking up this talent after receiving Staggering blow II as its damage is amazing. I've had a couple 1200 HITS with staggering blow on nonshielded sides, which is really high. Another thing to note about this feat is that its pretty much a 1 point or 5 point feat. I'm not sure it's bugged but at one point its 5% three points it was 6% four was 7% and 5 was 10%. If you use Staggering blow every time it's up you can basically keep the 10% damage buff up almost 50% of the time. It lasts 6 seconds and the cooldown on Staggering blow is 15 Seconds. I'm not sure if the cooldown will increase with higher ranks, so keep that in mind. I may make room for this in my level 80 pvp build depending on if Staggering blow is still a strong combo at 80.

Paralysis: Adds a brief root effect, preventing the target from moving, to the barbarian's Clobber combo.

Awesome one point talent. Adds a root to Clobber, which can be used as a CC. potentially even more awesome with Finishing blow thrown in the mix. Clobbering a group of enemies and than finishing blowing one enemy while the others are knocked down and rooted after the knockdown.

Eyes of madness: Grants the barbarian an ability that makes all foes in the vicinity less likely to focus their attacks on them.

PvE talent, skipped. Pick this feat up if you are running a pve build or just want the extra reduced threat.

Insanity: Permanently increased the barbarian's resistance to fear effects.

Passive fear resist; prereq for unstable mind.

Grisly wounds: The barbarian augments the Butcher combos with their own inborn brutality, adding more damage over time.

I no longer think this ability is worth it, even for the butcher build. The DoT damage is still fairly weak evenwith the upgrade, it's the good base damage that makes butcher strong. If you want to run a Butcher build I would recommend grabbing Reverse swing instead of picking up this talent. I've removed this from the butcher build.

No escape: Grants an ability that enables the barbarian to throw their weapon, impaling their enemy, cause massive damage that lingers for a short time and also stuns the victim. This ability disarms the barbarian for a short time.

The damage from the frontload attack + dot damage is VERY strong, plus the fact that it stuns. If you are having trouble getting your weapon back, keep smashing your active block button until you get it back. This is probably considered our strongest ability at the moment. I was apprenticed to 75 earlier and my no escape actually one shotted a level 80 regular mob. It's awesome, pick it up. It seems they've fixed the bug with this ability as well, so no complaints here.

Combo - Earth Shatter: This mighty combo stuns all foes in close vicinity.

Another AoE stun. What more needs to be said? You want this feat. Although the stamina cost is pretty high, so use cautiously.

Finishing blow: Grants the barbarian a charge ability available after they knock back an enemy. Their charge caused severe damage but a high stamina cost and long reuse time.

Funcom recently fixed the bug that allowed us to do insane amounts of damage with that extra second attack, but in the process they broke this ability. It still takes no stamina, but it's only doing maybe 50 damage more then a white attack currently. Completely useless now, if you really want to put one point in it for being able to close in on a knockdowned target okay, but i think its better to start a combo and run up. This is going to be skipped until they fix it.

Arcane Marauder: When hit by spell damage the barbarian gains natural health regeneration and drains mana from enemies around them.

After getting this ability I'm still not sure exactly how it works. It seems that it's currently bugged and procs from EVERYTHING. This includes running, sprinting, attacking, I mean ANYTHING. I haven't been able to test how much mana it regens but with 1 point in it it adds 9 natural health regen which isn't very noticeable. We will see where this feat goes, it may become useful at 80 in siege pvp but for leveling I would skip it, or add one point in it.

Unstable Mind: Grants the barbarian an ability which immunity for a short period of time.

Beastial Wrath anyone? The duration on this is around 9 seconds with 3 points, and has a two minute cooldown. From my experience with it only one point is necessary, atleast at the moment. You still get the snare break, and until end game PvP is around, thats about all you need. Even then it could be arguable that only one point is needed with a second snare break feat easily accessible by picking up Escape Artist in the general tree. Unless you need points to move further down the Berserker tree and don't want to put points into an earlier feat I would only put one point into this FOR NOW. This ability will start to really shine if there are snares that are easily reapplied continually with little to no cooldown, or in siege warfare.

Swarm Fighter: Grants the barbarian an ability that taunts all minions in the area for a short period of time. Every attack from a minion will trigger a heal effect when this ability is active.

Another pve talent, could be possibly useful against pet classes in PvP but doesn't seem worth the five feat points.

Hammer and Anvil: Enhances Stunning Punch combo by increasing the damage it inflicts.

You will be using stunning punch a lot, and this increased the damage and is also a prereq for Comatose.

Fearsome agility: When hit in combat there is a chance to gain a short evade buff. This can stack up to 5 times.

More survivability. There isnt really enough points for it with the butcher build but if you arent planning on using butcher it seems useful enough.

Rampage: When hit in combat you will occasionally damage every enemy around you for a small amount.

The usefulness of this talent depends on how much it procs and how much damage it deals which is information we don't really have access too at this point. Either way it's required for Thirst for Blood, so it's a must have.

Comatose: Enhances Stunning Punch combo by increasing the amount of time the victim is stunned for.

A longer stunning punch? Yes please.

Rampaging horde: Grants an ability that increases the damage inflicted upon foes based on the number of friendly barbarians within range. Maximum number counted is 10.

Unless you and all 48 of your friends are barbarians, not worth it.

Combo - Scatter Foes: Grants the barbarian a combo that will knock back all foes in a wide cone in front of them.

Another AoE knockback. This is a very useful feat and anyone this far down the Berserker line will definitely want to get this.

Combo - Decapitation: Grants the barbarian a swift combo that inflicts massive damage and increased the chance of a fatality. This combo has a long reuse time.

Do I really need to explain why to get this feat? Huge damage and possible forced decapitation plus it's a prereq for Thirst for blood.

Welcoming death: Grants an ability that increases the damage inflicted by the barbarian's attacks based on the number of dead foes nearby, up to a maximum number of 10.

Doesn't seem very useful for PvP; if all your teammates are dead this feat isn't going to save you anyway. This feat doesn't really sound that great at all honestly, even for PvE. chances are if you are in a raid or instance you will be continually moving after each pull so this will never really take effect unless you are killing in a confined area.

Thirst For Blood: Grants an ability that drives the fellowship into a wild bloodlust. Attacking or being attacked can trigger a damage bonus effect and multiple applications of this effect eventually boosts health and stamina regeneration.

Extra damage, more health, and stamina regen. This is the end all feat of the Berserker tree.

General Tree:
Excellent balance: Grants the rogue an ability which makes them immune to being knocked back in combat. Additional feat points increase the duration of the immunity and shortens the refresh time.

Required. A nice feat to have anyway, especially if you are fighting another barb or a knockdown heavy class.

Natural protection vs Toughness:
Natural protection: Increases the rogue's elemental resistance ratings.

Toughness: Increases the rogue's physical resistance rating.

Physical or Magical resistance? I personally will be going for Toughness. So far with my experience as a barbarian, our toughest fights are going to be against other melee classes. I usually rip up the cloth classes, of course this subject to change at end game. For now i'll be sticking with Toughness.

Subtlety: The rogue's strikes are less likely to attract a foes attention in battle, making them less likely to break off from their current target to attack the rogue.

PvE talent, stake it if you want to PvE. Otherwise skip it.

Second Wind: Grants a new special ability that gives a short duration but substantial stamina boost. Takes a moderate amount of time to refresh.

Just what barbarians need. I don't know about you guys but I burn through stamina like nobodies business, and a barbarian without any stamina is a worthless autoattacker.

Keen senses: Substabtially reduces the reuse time of the Search ability.

Not sure what it actually lowers the search timer too, although a very fast search would be useful in PvP situations, atleast more useful than an extra .5% physical damage reduction.

Quick recovery: The rogue instantly recovers stamina after being knocked back in smelee.

Stamina= good. Plus a LOT of classes have knockdowns, this way you can hopefully avoid knockdowns with Excellent Balance, but if you do get knocked down you will atleast get some stamina back from it.

Alright, I am going to break form here because I am going to be comparing a couple of the 2nd and 3rd tier General abilities together. The choice of what to pick
becomes a lot tougher choice at this point. Acrobat gives you more survivability. Endurance means a shorter cooldown on second wind, which means more stamina overall. Escape artist and Agile mind both sound extremely useful, but it's hard to tell how much of an effect fear and charm will have on people in PvP. At this point I am probably going to stick with Endurance and Acrobat. Depending on the cooldown of Unstable mind and how often I find myself snared I will be picking up Escape artist accordingly.

I hope this helps out some of you who are having a hard time deciding what feats to get.

Assassin Class Guides

2009-11-12T21:38:00.003+01:00

The much anticipated class guide section complete with PVP and PVE builds for each class This time we will look at the Assassin.

Assassins are the most lethal killers in Hyboria. Those aspiring to the top of this profession face the most deadly regime of training, discipline, and study, but the ones that survive are executioners supreme.

No other class can deliver blows as deadly as an assassin. Their arsenal of lethal combos is complemented by their ability to slip past enemies unseen. Assassins can dual wield daggers with lightning speed and can modify their attacks against specific targets, such as unholy attacks against heavily armored foes, or poison attacks versus mana users. Few can stand against an assassin in combat.

Archetype: Rogue
Permitted Races: Aquilonian, Stygian
Weapons: Daggers, crossbows, and dual-wielding
Armor: Cloth armor and silk armor

Assassin
I can't find any solid posts or info on assassin abilities, and hybes is very incomplete. If anyone has anything, I'd be glad to post it.

Why would I play this class?

High single target DPS (Sneak attack goodness)
You enjoy stalking your target (the joys of a methodical kill)
Murder is a hobby (???)

Why would I pass on this class?

Identity crisis (again)
You are very squishy (one of THE squishiest)
Near mandatory beginning spec (Lotus is nice though)

General Assissin Info: The assassin is your typical rogue class. Now, opinions vary greatly. According to some, you are unable to kill players 10 levels below you. Other say Crom himself has an account and he plays an assassin. Assassins are stealthy and deadly. Its real problem is that all the rogue classes are stealthy and deadly. The Ranger can engage from range, the barbarian can engage multiple mobs.

Assassin in PvE: Have a tough time. Mob in this game pop up in groups, and this is not a class designed for groups. You just have to pick your battles. Most PvE centered (and most everyone from 1-40ish) go into Lotus for its survivability. After that you can switch into another build to suit your tastes. In groups your usefulness goes up a great deal as you no longer have to worry as much about survivability.

Assassin in PvP: For the problems they have in PvE, I'll bet you were hoping me to say they melt face in PvP. They are dangerous, no doubt, but not really more
dangerous than the other rogue classes, and that is where the problem lies at the moment. Corruption after 40ish is the spec of choice for PvP damage.

PVE BUILD:

PVP BUILD:

Vistrix Tank Tactic and Kylliki and Chatha Flaw

2009-11-06T11:32:00.002+01:00

Basically this is same as Bane tactic except you dont need bane - instead you have a tank far away from dragon while everyone nukes it, when the dragon is stunned, the tank simply charges it using irritate and cry of havoc to get aggro and points dragons fire away from group.

This saves everyones lives and without the use of irritating banes.

Also after the recent patch kylliki's healers no longer spawn, so she is incredibly easy. Chathas minions "Utamons" dont reflect damage anymore.

Leather Secret spots

2009-10-28T11:43:00.001+01:00

**The Secret Spots for Leather Gathering**

Here are some good very good spots to gather leather know of.-

-Rough Leather/Brindled Leather- Far NW corner of the Wild Lands. Specifically the diseased bears. Most of them seem to have about a 25-50% chance to have a drop.

-Along the River in Khopsef Province. The Crocodiles are known to do good drops.

-Prey drop Rough Leather as well, in any resource zone.

-Grained/Calloused Leather Along the rode to Yak, specifically the snow cat. (Unconfirmed)

Best Spot Known So far.
You can farm Rough, calloused, brindled and grained all at the same time here.-

-In poitan, down the hill from the "temple" looking building and right outside the city walls of whatever guild owns that spot (center/east of mini-map). There are 2 sets of cows that drop the leather quite frequently and the respond rate is so insane that you never have to wait for respawns. If your a melee class use your bow. In 1 hour of farming I usually have the following 35 rough, 35 calloused, 7 brindled, 7 grained. (on average)

How to solo Torgvall (Connal's valley)

2009-10-09T12:44:00.001+02:00

People hate group in CV for some reason, so you have to get creative. Here's an easy way to solo Torgvall without having to wait for 3-5 level 30s to come help you.

1. Buy health potions. I've never needed more than 5, but buy 10 in case you need to do it twice.

2. Clear the mobs around Torg, run off to reset Torgvall.

3. Observe the tents near Torg. You can hop over them and because he is too big, he has to run around. Basically, you can move between one side of the tent and the other while he has to move around them. So, he can be forced to chase you since the path he takes is always 2-3 times as long as the path you take.

4. Fight him, when your health gets about 50% hop over the tents (to the side he isnt on) and take a health pot. Hop back and forth until healed.

5. Keep fighting until you take him down.

Warning: you might have to fight adds more than once, so keep a thought toward respawns. Also, you have to hit torgvall every 45 secs or he will reset. This is easy as you only need 25 to regen with the potions.

I've done it with the necro, hox, ranger, and guard so far all level 30-34. It's easy, just a bit slow.

Infinite LV 50 mob spawns for exp

2009-10-05T19:59:00.002+02:00

Up in the Eig Mountains, at the whitehand camp. Theres a boss called Diabolist Aino, she's 54.

She will spawn 4 "Minions," but they are not labeled minions and you receive full exp from them.

Anyways, don't attack the boss, let her live, your group will out heal her damage.

Every time you kill the 4mobs she spawns, they respawn and you get endless waves of exp.

I did this for over 40mins, got a whole level at 55 in less than an hour. With a lvl 55 conq, 44(apprecntice to 54)HoX, 55 Bear Shaman.

Coords are @ 945,764.

Funcom to Cut 20% of Workforce

2009-09-29T19:35:00.002+02:00

Funcom is reducing its work force by about 20%. The planned launch for Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures in Korea will continue as planned, but the development of The Secret World has been extended by several months as the company adjusts its schedule. The Norwegian-based developer will be cutting jobs mostly in its Norwegian subsidiary. Our best wishes go out to those affected by the change and potential loss of their jobs.

Cost reductions and forced leave in Funcom

Funcom N.V has initiated a program of cost reductions, reductions in head count and use of forced leave (permittering) to better align the Company's operations to the current marketplace.

Around 20 % of the staff of the Company will be affected by headcount reductions or forced leave, mostly in the Company's Norwegian subsidiary.

The Company's development of the Age of Conan expansion pack and its preparations for launch in Korea will continue as planned, as will the preparations for the limited beta of its first free- to-play MMO scheduled to take place during Q4. The development of The Secret World will be some months extended due to the initiatives with even more focus on ensuring the delivery of a game that is fully in line with the high expectations amongst fans and gamers across the world.

Source

A Latecomer's First Impressions of Age of Conan

2009-09-28T20:17:00.000+02:00

Two reasons for the timing of this review. The game is officially a year old - yay go Age of Conan! Secondly, I've had the game a couple of days now. After hearing how buggy and awful the game was by the usual pack of naysayers, and a couple of generally reliable sources, I decided to give it a burl myself.

Ok, firstly, to point out my perspective. Currently I'm experienced in a number of MMO's (WoW, Tabula Rasa, Fury Online, WAR, I even had a short stint in LotRO among a week or two in countless others). Machinery wise - my rig should be able to handle pretty much any MMO throws at me - Quad Core Q6600, 4gb DDR2, Geforce 9800GT 512mb, 1.5TB total internal HDD capacity, 1TB external, 24" primary LCD monitor @ 1920x1200 res, 17" secondary LCD @1280x1024 res. All on Windows 7 RC1 64bit.

Oooh nasty a beta OS and 64bit to boot :O With a beta version of DirectX (11) installed by default. Surely I'm asking for trouble.

Ok, fresh from the box, I install it, it gets up to patching, informs me I need to upgrade from Directx 11 to Directx 9. Points me at the appropriate Microsoft download site. After boggling at this and trying to find any other solution than lose 4 years of DirectX upgrades, I bite the bullet and install Directx 9. Heh, turns out it's happy to run side by side with 11 and let each game choose which to run on.

After this it was just a matter of downloading the patches, approx total of 3gb worth of downloads later (ooh a year's progress in this game = 3gb, not too shabby, the dev's have been busy). I log into the game, notice that like WoW, they have "Oceanic" servers, boxes physically located in the US, but designed to run on upside-down time, and have raid clocks reset appropriately. On the recommendation of Mikes I roll on the Oceanic PvE server.

I get to the character creation screen, I'm greeted by a boat with people rowing on it. Three people tend to stand out, the slaver near the aft cabin, a scantily clad concubine looking woman inside said cabin, and one guy who's meant to be rowing, halfway down the crowd, that instead is busy daydreaming. The game asks me to pick male or female. Being that I wanted to make a big brutal melee character to follow along my tastes in other games (I like tanking, but I like giant weapons even more) I choose male. The camera zooms to the daydreamer who now stands up. It asks me to choose a number of options Race/Class etc, but more importantly, it allows me to customise my character to levels completely unseen in most major MMO's. The customisation is phenomonal. I can adjust the proportions of arms, legs, waist, chest, smile, brow, eyes so on and so forth. Brilliant.

After finally deciding I was happy my Cimmerian Guardian looked brutal enough, I accept, the boat crashes, I fall overboard, the boat sinks, I sink to the bottom of the water, but shock horror I come back up to the surface, and wash up on a beach.

The obligatory welcome happens, with an old guy, and a particularly fan-servicey lady who's tied up in a very skimpy outfit with a Russian accent to boot. I begin my adventure on the island of Tortage.

I work my way up through some quests, and come across an option to go to nighttime - as it turns out, all my story-driven questing is to be done at nighttime, solo. Like the new "phasing" system thats starting to take off in certain other major MMO's *cough WOW*. The first place I came across this concept for use of early levelling was LotRO. Worked wonders.

Turns out I didn't like the guardian as much as I'd hoped. Didn't seem right. So there he sits on my character selection screen, stuck at lvl 12. I'm sure I'll come back to him. I decide to roll something completely different, but generally my 2nd choice in fantasy games - the nasty, evil caster archetype - I want to roll a Demonologist. I choose female, camera zooms to the lady I thought to earlier be a concubine, but everything else works out the same.

I play my way through Tortage, following all the quests I can get, loving how this caster works. She's everything I dreamed my Warlock in WoW to do.

The city of Tortage really seemed alive to me. The npc's flirted, or poured their hearts into everything they said, the quests all meant something, you got to really hate Strom and Mithrelle. Every word spoken by an NPC had voice acting to it. It was truly a complete experience.

I complete the Tortage quests and get sent back to my homelands of Stygia. With designs heavily borrowed from the Egyptians. (yes I realise REH based Stygia on Egypt) The NPC's are silent. I'm sent to every corner of the world by the different NPC's - I have troubles grouping anything more than 2-3 quests to take me to the same area so I can bowl them over in succession.

The whole experience that was Tortage just did not seem to follow onto Khemi - the major port of Stygia. NPC's could not care less about me unless they had a quest for me, and then it was "I need this. Go get it.". The writing seemed to take a downturn. I'd heard among early reports that things beyond Tortage weren't completed by launch. Granted, it was by no means game breaking, but definately immersion shaking.

I had one quest that took me into an area, that while my quest was yellow to me (approx right for my level) - I died within a few moments there, and the graveyard I was sent to was surrounded by mobs 4 times my level. I hearthed, ditched that quest and found some more.

I traveled to Cimmeria, the landscape boggles me still - definately the most beautiful in game land I have ever seen. Green valleys and snow covered mountains, a rolling brook, pine trees, wolves, badgers and people with red hair I have to kill. Truly heaven.

It would seem that my fears were all misguided, as I found myself exploring smaller towns, they seem to be completely written, with well planned quests but still lacking some bits of voice acting, and nobody trying to get in my pants yet.

As with any MMO, one of the important factors is the community. Right from the word go, I noticed there was a "New Player Help" global channel, and a global general channel. I kept my eyes peeled for both. People requested help in the NPH channel and received solid, timely and friendly help from people at or near the level cap. I rubbed my eyes. I've never seen this in any MMO. Not one outburst of "Lol, noob, RTFM" to be seen. To even more amazement, the furthest general seemed to descend was when somebody tried to start an argument about how WoW was the only mmo worth playing. He didnt get any response. He shut up pretty damn quickly.

Some people were whinging about graphical errors and memory leaks. I've been monitoring my CPU and Ram load while ingame ( having a second screen with the gadgets on top of my G15 screen displaying them as well) with nothing really to report. There was use of the cpu. There was use of ram. Neither got particularly tough. I turned everything up to maximum on the settings and still no troubles. Granted I wouldn't want to try and run photoshop, maya and a hard drive defrag in the background.

All in all, I can see myself falling head over heels for this game, I'm currently lvl 22 with my main and absolutely loving it. Would I recommend somebody play it? Absolutely, grab a copy if you see it on the cheap, or if you're free to download 13gb, give the trial a whirl. You'll see what I'm talking about.

I will report back when I've tried group content, some pvp and/or hitting the level cap. Until then, I've got some leveling to do, and only 10 days left of being unemployed to do it.

Age of Conan Guides Information, Tips, Gold Strategies, Macro Guides, Exploits, cheats and more....all in a dynamic online eZine.

When you can have this, why settle for a traditional printed Game Guide which is outdated by the time it reaches the shelves? With mmOverload you receive a fully dynamic strategy eZine which is updated literally hundreds of times throughout the day.

Article Source:
Vangsoe, Mads "A Latecomer's First Impressions of Age of Conan." A Latecomer's First Impressions of Age of Conan EzineArticles.com. http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Latecomers-First-Impressions-of-Age-of-Conan&id=2880389

Warping back up a cliff

2009-09-17T16:16:00.002+02:00

In order to help players who get stuck in the Geometry, Funcom made a /stuck command that "Rewinds" the players movement so that they can get unstuck without having to call a GM to help.

This can be exploited to warp back up a cliff where enemies cant reach you.

First, go to top of desired cliff and drop off. Don't move from this spot and just nuke or range dps your enemies from where you landed. When it gets too hot for you down there, simply type /stuck and you character will warp back up the cliff.

If you think this article kicked ass, subscribe to the RSS feed or follow me on Twitter! Share with your friends, or leave a comment below (or better still, do both!) My entire concept of self-worth is in your hands, so that makes you kind of a big deal. Srsly.

Solomon Kane!

2009-09-14T18:48:00.004+02:00

Okay, first of all I need to get something off my chest.

ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG They're fricking doing a Solomon Kane movie and it doesnt look like it's going to suck! Oh sweet jeebus yes!

Ahem.

Yes, the next most well known of Robert E Howard's characters (first being Conan) is going to hit our lovely cinemas soon in what looks like a truly epic scale film. No cheesy Ahhhnowld, but unfortunately also no James Earl Jones.

James Purefoy is taking up the title role. If you don't know him, he's the one you have to do a quick double-take to make sure it's not Christopher Lambert but younger.

IMDB Linkage

Official site

Michael J. Bassett - Solomon Kane
by dreadcentral

Trader "Dirty tip"

2009-09-12T14:27:00.002+02:00

When someone does a search for an item on the trader, it will give a page of results. For example, do a search for Beguiler Blood and it will show various amounts from different sellers.

If you don't like the competition and want to own the market on Beguiler Blood, break up all your stacks and sell them individually 1 at a time. This way when someone does a search, only yours will show up (assuming you have that many to sell).

People can still use the advance search feature to find other sellers, but you would be surprised how many people are too stupid to do this.

It's also handy if you have an alt with a bank guild just to use as extra storage if you plan to flood the market with something.

Stuck Command when Stoned

2009-08-10T11:27:00.001+02:00

For those of you who get tired of getting stoned in BRC and then getting feared to all parts of the room, here's a simple exploit.

Normally, you have time to move to say the door before you are completely stoned. So most people walk slowly to the door and gather together so the the person with the sand can unstun the whole lot of stoned people. Well, if you don't make it in time or get fear away from the door, all you need to do is enter the /stuck command. It will march you to the door. Depending on how far away you are, you may need to do this a couple times.

That's it! From there the sand person can get the whole lot in one go.

Age of Conan Noble District gank areas

2009-07-18T10:41:00.001+02:00

There are two major areas that any long range class from rangers, ToS, PoM, Necros, and Demos can easily exploit!

The first and major spot that i find to help raise my KDR is by the second camp -before you enter the main city area - there is a large wall where you get on top of and stop everyone that has to go by in order to get to the main questing area.

In order to do this you climb on the junk by the wooden fence by the camp and face the small wall which when you press sprint and jump at the right moment you can get on top of! and there you are the first spot to help your KDR.

The second spot a little more obvious is past the first set of guards in the noble district, and you go down the bridge and there is a place to climb up on top of there is a great place to stealth and gank who ever come to kill the NPCs there which is really often. there you are two places to help get your KDR up

Age of Conan cheat - levathius "no limit time for trash mob" taktik

2009-07-16T15:52:00.001+02:00

- Tos activate Selfrezz
- Whole Raid run inside and die in front of Levithius
- Now Tos use Selfrez and rezz all People
- Clear left Trash Mob
- Clear right Trash Mob
- Now pull the 2 Guards at Door and Timer starts , Boss will spawn in 2 min
- Happy farming

Age of Conan Eploit: farm epic bosses with assassin

2009-07-01T20:24:00.002+02:00

For this you need an assassin with Death's Gaze specced. You simply need to get 2 soulshards, target the boss and doubleclick death's gaze. This will make any boss affected by it return to it's spawn point and stand there while you kill it. It won't reset and you can even kite if some other epic mob aggroes you while the boss keeps the same hp until you can come back to kill it.

They have shitloads of hp now though, I cba doing it myself for the 30s per kil.

AOC: Athyr Bast One Shot Exploit

2009-06-26T16:51:00.001+02:00

Tos activate selfrez. Have the raid move to the door. Pull the boss and have a total wipe. Tos use selfrez and then rez everyone. Nobody should accept the rez yet. Only have a tank, healer, and one other class accept it. The tank will pull Athyr Bast and tank for about 5 seconds, and then everyone else accpts the rez. This will only put the 3 people that took the original rez at risk to get the oneshot.

AoC Trick: Nice PvP spot

2009-06-24T20:56:00.001+02:00

If you are a ranger with a +5 range bow on whitesands, there is a nice spot which you can get to which will prevent most players from reaching you in time to attack you.

When you first enter whitesands turn right and swim out to the little island of stone. After that, swim over the the cliff which should be in front of you. Go to the corner where the two cliffs meet and sprint-jump on top of it. this may take a few tries but eventually you will get on the side of the rock. Climb up and get on top of the tallest rock. you now have a nice view of the entrance to whitesands and you can reach pretty far with your +5 bow, you can also shoot players who are swimming over to try to get you.

Age of Conan Necro Damage Exploit

2009-06-16T15:10:00.001+02:00

This works best from 1-75. After 75, the damage is so small that it isnt worth the trouble. Join a mini game. Once you are in app'd level up to the max cast, cast all of your buffs and despoil the foul. You can quit the mini game now if you want. Your buffs will not drop when you leave...even if you are killed. You will have the damage bonus from despoil of your app level, not your actual level.

Age of Conan Rabbit Snare Exploit

2009-06-09T15:17:00.001+02:00

There is a quest in Ymirs Pass that you get a rabbit snare when you accept the quest. The snare will spawn as a pet, so you can buff it, heal it, etc. You can spawn many of these and with friends grouped up, you can spawn even more. Have a TOS in the group use the buff for electric damage. If you and your group have spawned a ton of snares you can think of plenty of things to do I am sure.

ToS Exploit!, Massive AOE damage, Take out bosses easy!

2009-05-31T19:12:00.000+02:00

You Must be 50+ to get the quest, and 60 to have the spec required to use it fully.

Ok theirs a quest giver in ymirs pass named Daolric(or something close), he gives a quest to catch a rabbit, and gives you a rabbit trap. The trap spawns basically a pet which acts as a player, it responds to storm crown ability and many others. You can spawn unlimited amounts.

Dont finish the quest, just keep the trap, at 60 you can spec into TloS, or triumphant life of set, in the Thunder tree, which heals all team mates and ads pulsing AOE damage for each it heals. Spawn a ###### load of the traps, and do it up with the abilities mentioned and you can easily level, and put out so much xp that it is possible to solo some instance bosses(I was able to solo most of the Sewers under Tarantia, netting me some great items and amazing xp)

Unfortunately it only works for ToS, but if you group with a buddy, perhaps even another healer, you can level friends and yourself very quickly.

More Age of Conan Cheats

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed! or follow us on Twitter

Age of Conan - A Review

2009-05-29T22:58:00.000+02:00

Age of Conan - A Review

Age of Conan - A Review
By Mads Vangsoe

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Age of Conan has been one of the most anticipated MMORPGs for a long time. There are several reasons for this. The biggest is probably the name. Conan is very well known; in Europe probably most of the films with the California governor in the leading role, while comic books probably has been the most popular in the U.S. and less widespread in Europe. Another reason is because it's Norwegian Funcom, which is behind. They have led to the success of Anarchy Online and Age of Conan should show what they have made of experience in this industry. Last but not least because early Funcom declared that they would follow the original Conan submission where Hyboria (the world it all takes place in) is a violent place, without placing constraints on, and thus make the first MMORPG with a 18 + PEGI rating. Looking on the box, we see that it has at least succeeded with this.

As in all MMORPGs, we make our own character. In Age of Conan, there are 3 cultures of human choice. So no elvere, dwarves or orker here. What culture you choose has an impact on where you start down after the introductory area, and what professions you can choose from. There are 12 professions, divided into 4 different types: fighters, healers, magicians and "light warriors' who prefer physical battle but without the big armor and big weapons. The 12 professionals offers good variety and there should certainly be something for all. Although they are listed up as types in a standard MMORPG, there is no standard against them. Hyboria is a violent place, and even healers are formidable warriors, and certainly not those who stand in the background and let others fight for them. The appearance can be amended and even though there are only a limited number of tattoos, scars, hair styles and the like to provide uniform shape, the system to design the body and face, is so deep that it is possible to built a unique character to play with.

Once you have created your character, it becomes time to explore Hyboria. Or rather the island of Tortage, where the first 20 levels of the game is on. The first 20 levels acts as an introduction to the game, and already here it shows that Funcom are not afraid to explore new avenues. Just as the Lord of the Rings Online Age of Conan is heavily driven by story, and the island of Tortage is an introduction to the story that will follow you the rest of the way to level 80 In order to deliver the story as well as possible, Funcom has done it for a Single-story. So even though the game is a MMORPG, so much of your time the first 20 levels set Single. There is also much to do in multiplayer at this stage, and you can even switch between Single-and multiplayer when you feel like it. The normal daily cycle is out of the loop at the beginning and at night you play Single-player, while the days are reserved for multiplayer. A bold way to build a MMORPG, but it works extremely well. When you have fought through the introduction witch you will end about level 20, you are ready to explore the rest of Hyboria, which takes place in the traditional way, ie in multiplayer mode, but a few quests dealing with the main story, which takes place in Single.

Hyboria is a very violent society and it is also reflected in the game. Fighting is clouded aspect of the game, and Funcom has also been innovative. They wanted to create a battle system where you do not just press buttons in timed sequences, which often ends up in an online role-playing. It is partly managed with their combo system. There is no auto-attack in the Age of Conan. Instead, in the beginning 3 attack buttons (buttons 1, 2 and 3) that we should press when you want to attack. Later there will be 2 more, so you have 5 buttons in total. 1 is an assault weapon which swings from left to right, 2 is a frontal attack, and 3 is an attack from right to left. Same enemies makes himself looked up to protect themselves against attack from certain directions, as shown with small 'shield' in front of them. It would then be important to use attack from the direction where there is less protection. It is reasonably simple, but as you rise in level, The system becomes more and more advanced. You get the specific attack combinations, which starts with a click of a button and you should perform a specific combination of attacks to create a special effect. There are many of them, and when you put them together with magic, as players are also able to use so that it supplied some very tactical battles which, despite the fact that there are a lot of them are never trivial or boring. These include a lot more movement to position itself in the right place so that frames the enemy or enemies properly all the time. If you lose a battle, it can often be traced back to a wrong decision during the battle and so it is not that your character does not have the right weapon or armor on, as is often the case in traditional role-playing.

This combo system is also one of the most discussed elements in the Age of Conan. Properly executed combos can lead to fatalities, as the extra brutal ways to beat the enemy to death. For example, by chopping the head of them, bury the sword through them and then kick them overthrow or similar. Common to all fatalities is that they are extremely bloody, as Funcom stresses by allowing the blood from the enemy spraying up on the screen. There is no doubt why Age of Conan has been a 18 + rating. At first glance it may seem a bit like platforms, but there is actually a good effect in the game, and helps emphasize the violent world in which the game takes place. It is also to make fatalities for something special, as always, produces a small smile when they succeed.

Once you leave Tortage, the first you observe is, that Hyboria is not a large and open world. As is seen in other games, which among other things, Ever Quest II, then the world put together by 'instances' were you can not travel freely everywhere. You have to find transportation options, which will then 'zap' you to a new area. It is a little disappointing, but understandable when you know it is to reduce lag. One thing which is less understandable is that some areas may exist in several versions (Something EQ II also takes advantage of), so if there are too many players in one area, then there is made an extra copy of it - And that is actually slightly sad. This will inevitably make the interaction between the players less, and here in the beginning, there has been some bugs with the system so that you have not been able to switch versions. So even though a group was at the same place in Hyboria, they could be spread over several versions and could not see each other or implement quests together. To reach the same version of a field the players had to travel far, or just be dying or logging in and out. This has obviously put a damper on the groups.

When you see the graphics in Age of Conan - the instance system is now all forgiven. The graphics are really nice and detail-filled, even on an older machine, which this notification. Hyboria is full of detail and where you can see that other online games puts restrictions on the number of shrubs, trees and the like, to ensure the performance, Age of Conan is not holding back. Cities are not only the same 10 building types repeated over and over again, but filled with small details that distinguish them from each other, which is really beautiful and makes them seem as real cities, not just pixels on a screen. When we have very detailed people run around, it's no wonder that Funcom have forced themselves to introduce an instance system to ensure performance in the game. A place where Funcom unfortunately have not spent so much time is the interface. It is not completely thought out. Especially chat interface acts as a second-hand work and it is a shame because after all is an important thing to talk to other players for an online game, and is strongly constrained to a not very intuitive interface.

The sound in a game like this is very important. It is after all a game to be played very long, so the sound will be long. It is also supported. The music is pretty good and although it safe enough to become tired of it at a time, then it will probably last a good while. I am at least not yet tired of it. There is not much to tell about the .ound effects. Background sounds and sound effects do not stand out, but it is also rare that it happens in mmorpgs.

There is also other stuff then battle in the game. When you are level 20 you can learn how to gather resources, and when you are level 40, you learn so to make things out of these resources. During this review, I was only able to sniff at crafting and here Funcom has decided to try something new. The whole system is based on quests. It dosen't help leveling your crafting skills, by using large amounts of resources and make a lot of things - but you level by completing quests. Anyone can learn the 6 different collection skills which will be used to gather resources. One need only to complete the first quest thouge. When it is complete you can - when your level is high enough - get the next quest, where you learn how to gather more resources. The same principle applies to crafting, so to make things. You can only learn a profession, and must choose. But once you learn to do new things by completing quests. So the boring monotonous work, to make hundreds of the same object to be better, has completely eliminated in Age of Conan. In return, your crafting profession is inextricably linked to your character level.

An exciting thing when a new MMORPG launches must have the operational quality. Last time Funcom tried, namely with Anarchy Online, it went completely wrong. The servers went down, clients crashede and it took many months before they had addressed it. They have fortunately learned from that, and Age of Conan launch went much better, although it did not go smoothly. The servers have been very stable, but there are many players who have put up with bugs, which has made it hard to play. Either because they can not update or install the game or because they can not log in Annoying errors that might be difficult to avoid and which it did not have to be hit by. But Funcom has this sense dummet a little, for their online customer service has been largely non-existent in the start-up so that people who have experienced them have received little attention. People have established contacts in the game (petitions), and patiently waited for help for many hours without getting it. When they saw the next day return, there is simply a message that their petition has been deleted because they were not online when Funcom approached (and in many cases the contact took the middle of the night European time). It's just not good enough.

I have fortunately been spared the major problems, but has one bug that really bothers me. NPC'ere are often invisible, leading to some pretty frustrating experience sometimes. For example, when running through a city and suddenly being assaulted at invisible enemies. Please allow up to 20 seconds before they suddenly materialize, and then the battle is often lost. Battle system is based on that one place is true in relation to the enemy and it is therefore difficult when they are invisible. In other situations you can run around and look for a specific person, and even if you stand on the spot where the person should be, he is not. So patience is a good thing to wait in a minute, then that person probably emerge as a magical way. This can also be exploied to a advanced for the gamer.

Nobody doubts that Age of Conan is a breath of fresh air to the MMORPG-genre. Funcom is not afraid to try new stuff, and it should certainly be commended for at a time when it seems as if developers are queuing up to emulate World of Warcraft. Some might not care about the many instances which have Age of Conan to work less well, and destroys the illusion of a cohesive world to explore, and I should then like to admit that I had hoped there were fewer instances. But when you look how beautiful the area is, then it might be just the price we must pay for it. Battle system is very exciting and I believe that other MMORPG's will be leaning from Age of Conan in the future - for this is something more interesting than we have seen in any other game. Whether it is enough to ensure a solid group of supporters is hard to say. PVP portion of the Guild, fighting against each other is not really got going yet, but it will most likely also attract a lot. In addition, there is crafting, which does not work as a wholehearted effort by Funcom, but whether this is because I did not reach that far with it, is hard to say. Age of Conan is based on quests, and there are a lot of them and they work thorough and filled with anecdotes, but nothing new in this genre, so it is hardly a crowd-puller in itself. But for online role-playing, you should make the service to review Age of Conan (and remember to get a little further than level 20, when the game switches to character). Who knows, maybe you are in love with Funcom's Hyboria world. If you are allergic to bugs, and not so technically savvy with your PC's settings, it might be an idea to wait a bit to try it out, hopefully Funcom will have eliminated the worst bugs soon.

Finally, I just mention that a notification of a MMORPG can not be written just after just 3 weeks of games. It can not be more than a description of the first impression and MMORPG are games to be played long and often to really show what they can. So take it with a pinch of salt. There is plenty of potential in the Age of Conan, but if Funcom exploit it, the time will tell.

Age of Conan Guides Information, Tips, Gold Strategies, Macro Guides, Exploits, cheats and more....all in a dynamic online eZine.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mads_Vangsoe
http://EzineArticles.com/?Age-of-Conan---A-Review&id=2372277

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed! or follow us on Twitter

Age of Conan the Board Game

2009-05-28T11:35:00.000+02:00

Age of Conan the Board Game

Age of Conan the Board Game
By Mads Vangsoe

A short time ago Fantasy Flight Games announced that their long-awaited Age of Conan-board games are now available and should be heading towards the stores at the time of writing. The game has been announced for a good while, and should really be published last year, but that was it not to go.

Now it should be good enough and the long wait for us Age of Conan-geeks is over. The usual superior style by Fantasy Flight Games are played seem to be hyper-stylish produced, including a larger quantity of plastic shapes (over 168 paragraphs!) in the usual superb design and quality.

The basic mechanisms of gameplay was taken from another of Fantasy Flights board game hits, Tolkien-board game War of the Ring, however - It have been modified somewhat. According to Fantasy Flight Games' game designer's blog, where you have been able to follow the game's development, the game mechanics designed to capture the essence of Robert E. Howard stories and give the feeling of Conan universe, while it should include both strategy and adventure.

If we are to believe the (very excited) sneak-peak reviews online, and keep the actually plugs, and the rules should design a really good cocktail, so there is reason to be enthusiastic. I for one am glad as small children at Christmas Eve and can not wait to get their hands on a version of the Age of Conan the board game.

Age of Conan has been created by game designers Francesco Nepitello, Marco Maggi and Roberto Di meglio, and the Italian firm Nexus Games in partnership with Fantasy Flight Games, as the Italians are clearly becoming more than just pizza makers.

Age of Conan Guides Information, Tips, Gold Strategies, Macro Guides, Exploits, cheats and more...all in a dynamic online eZine.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mads_Vangsoe
http://EzineArticles.com/?Age-of-Conan-the-Board-Game&id=2371681

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed! or follow us on Twitter

Age of Conan: One Year Later video

2009-05-19T21:34:00.000+02:00

Funcom's Glen 'Famine' Swan blogs about Age of Conan's upcoming 1 Year Anniversary, and a great video from CptHeatSink. If you quit Age of Conan early in to the game, then give the video a viewing, you get to see things that have been added since launch, such as new landscapes and new mobs. The video is also not short of epic battles! Makes me want to go play right now.

A latest press release announced today that not has Age of Conan been holding its own after a disappointing end to 2008, but it has also been seeing a rise in player participation. Great news for a game that many yelled would be dead within months after reading financial statements in '08! This rise in activity has rekindled lagging communities and has given a more cheery outlook for Funcom's bottom line just in time for the AoC birthday bash.

Now in May's Letter From the Game Director, Craig Morrison takes a little walk down memory lane and shares a bit about the future of Age of Conan.

I first heard of the project over five years ago, in the summer of 2004 when, as a freelance editor for IGN, I got to meet some of the folks from Funcom on a press tour in London. They let me in on what their next, then unannounced, project was. That project was Age of Conan, we sat in the hotel bar and talked for hours, (and incidentally was also the first time I saw a prototype demo for what would later become The Secret World!) headed out into Covent Garden and talked some more, and it was that meeting that started the conversations that would eventually lead to me being hired by Funcom later that year. There was a passion for what they did, and for the games they created evident even from those early chats, if the company hadn’t had that aspect and personality to it I doubt I’d be here writing this letter!

When the game was revealed to the public the following summer I got to do the annual trip around the various conventions and trade shows in my role as community manager. It was really during these shows that I got to see just how much people cared about the license and were passionate about seeing a virtual world based on Conan become a reality. It is still the same buzz I get whenever I get to meet gamers and the players of our games, it is your enthusiasm for what we do that really drives us to do what we do with these games. It is also what keeps us going when the pressure is on, and when we need to remind ourselves why we want something to be enjoyable. The greatest thanks as always goes to you, the players and community around our games, without you there really wouldn’t be much point for me to what we do.

Lastly being given the responsibility of leading the team responsible for Age of Conan has been the greatest honour. The team here are dedicated and passionate about the game, and while perhaps people get a little tired of me mentioning that again and again when they ask me what its like to work on a project of this scale and profile, I say it because it really is true. So my thanks also go to the team I get to work with each and every day. It is their creativity, effort, imagination and hard work that make the game what it is today.

Ok, anniversary induced musings on how cool it is to get work on these kind of games done with, what about the updates itself?

Read more on Age of Conan's official website or go to mmOverload for Age of Conan Cheats

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed! or follow us on Twitter

Age of Conan Cheats

Leveling and Character Development

Subscribe to Age of Conan and receive The Secret World beta access

Barbarian Class Guides

Assassin Class Guides

Vistrix Tank Tactic and Kylliki and Chatha Flaw

Leather **Secret spots**

How to solo Torgvall (Connal's valley)

Infinite LV 50 mob spawns for exp

Funcom to Cut 20% of Workforce

A Latecomer's First Impressions of Age of Conan

Warping back up a cliff

Solomon Kane!

Trader "Dirty tip"

Stuck Command when Stoned

Age of Conan Noble District gank areas

Age of Conan cheat - levathius "no limit time for trash mob" taktik

Age of Conan Eploit: farm epic bosses with assassin

AOC: Athyr Bast One Shot Exploit

AoC Trick: Nice PvP spot

Age of Conan Necro Damage Exploit

Age of Conan Rabbit Snare Exploit

ToS Exploit!, Massive AOE damage, Take out bosses easy!

Age of Conan - A Review

Age of Conan the Board Game

Age of Conan: One Year Later video

Leather Secret spots