New Age of Conan novels

July 24th, 2008

We caught up with Jeff Mariotte, author of the new novel trilogy Age of Conan: Marauders to find out a little about what its like to be working on the Conan license!

Here is what he aoc gold had to say when we asked what it meant to him to be part of the license team!

Age of Conan is more than just a game—it’s a multi-pronged effort by Conan Properties International and some talented creative partners to expand upon parts of Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age that Howard, during his too-brief career, didn’t have a chance to thoroughly explore. To be asked by CPI and Ace Books to become part of that process, by writing the first-ever young adult novels set in the Hyborian world, is an honor and a privilege for a long-time REH fan like me.

My trilogy is called Age of Conan: Marauders, and involves three young characters, two Aquilonians and a Pict, who find themselves thrown together by circumstance and must pit themselves against the dark and brutal Hyborian world. The first book, Ghost of the Wall, has just been released by Ace, with the next two scheduled for late March (Winds of the Wild Sea) and late May (Dawn of the Ice Bear).

On my website I wrote an essay about what Conan and the works of Robert E. Howard have meant to my life. You can find that essay here: Conan and Me . I also supplemented the essay with posts on my blog that expanded upon some of the topics it touched on. Those posts start here , and continue for about the next week. I post occasionally about Conan and REH-related things, so you may want to check back occasionally.

My great thanks to Funcom for giving me the opportunity to spread the word to Conan fans worldwide. We all love spending time in the Hyborian world, and Funcom’s new game will be an amazing way to make the experience real!

–Jeff Mariotte

Thanks to Jeff for taking the time out to talk to us about the books aoc gold and what Conan means to him!

You can find more information on the new books over at Conan.com, so make sure you drop by and keep an eye out for them at your local bookstore!
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Mini F.A.Q.

July 9th, 2008

Question II: lawlz i l!ke to pwn ghey n00bs & grife them do u grife ghey n00bs?

Question I: Why is the Herd on a RP-PVP sever and not straight up PVP?

* Not really, we aren’t a griefing guild… sure a lot of our actions in game will with out a doubt be construed as griefing but to us it is simply playing a part.

When we mention roleplay, we aren’t aoc gold talking about attending in-game weddings, flirting with elven maidens or shooting magic missiles at evil wizards quoting Shakespeare. We are talking about running around like a pack of drunken, angry blood thirsty savages, humping, maiming or killing everything we feel like humping maiming or killing. Too serious for you? How about charging every scantily clad barbarian we see a loin cloth tax and killing them if they don’t pay up? The possibilities are endless.

And that’s all I can’t think of for now. I am the administrator of the website & forum so if you have any problems accessing the site, creating an account or submitting an application just send me a shout.

Anything in character for a drunken barbarian (think Korgoth of Barbaria) is quite acceptable. Anything in character for a spineless pimply faced 11 year old fat boy with anger issues is not acceptable.

We will be well known for mass murder though age of conan gold . During our Grazing events a few times each week, the entire guild will get on Ventrilo (preferably drunk) and we will stampede all over the face of Hyboria murderering anyone in our path who doesn’t join us or get down on their knees.

Question III: Join or Die, eh? Does that mean you are going to kill everyone on sight?

* Generally it means you have the freedom to kill whom ever you wish whenever you wish with your guild backing you up.

* Because contrary to popular belief, roleplay can be fun and hilarious in the right hands.


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Dark Templar List of Known Issues

July 9th, 2008

15. Various Covenant’s damage not showing in combat log. Cov of Veng (the unholy damage)and Cov of War(damage shield damage) do not appear to be displaying damage in the combag log

1. Charge has many issues. - Passing Through the Target, Character Lock-up and Invalidating Follow-up Combos are being reported.

23. Female Avatar Attack Speed is different then Male Attack Speed - Some reports also indicate they hit for less then their Male counterparts.

4. Goad and Goad Mob - Fixed (see 6-16-08 patch notes)

(See Post #14)Rite of Blood doesn’t scale correctly either

14. Tooltips display incorrect information. This is across multiple skills.

a. Improved Dread Fury - feated fully with 5 points shows 250% when in actuality it is only 2.5%

End Of List

11. Both Malacodor feats cost 2x the health they state & bonus is sub-par.

I have enough free time to keep this updated on a daily basis. It will take an effort from everyone to keep this list fresh and on the front page until it is a sticky. Thanks to all Dark Templars who have contributed either directly or through posts of their own.

Start of Fixed Issues List

2. Feat - the Dread Shadow pet will successfully spawn again. Requires use of A Soul for Our Feast IV (level 80) (See 5-27-08 Patch Notes)

9. Lifesaver Diminishing Rate of Regeneration. - The tool tip shows a constant decline in the rate of regeneration of health until refreshed by a new application of the skill.

22. Rite of Blood When swimming or mounted this spell once cast only gives the initial Stamina hit, the Stamina over Time hits do not show in combat log or through the stamina bar.

13. Spells still showing in Spell List after a age of conan gold respec of feats Some spells (Cov of Arms, Soul Barrier) will still show in the friendly list of spells after intially putting feat points into them and later on during a respec not putting points in that specific feat. Feat is unable to be used, but still showing in the list.

1. Counter Strike Stance Not Providing Reflective Damage past Tier 2. (See 5-27-08 Patch Notes.)

While not a bug per say, many of the feats in the Dark Templar tree are positioned badly. For Example: Having to improve Cov of Pestilence in order to get Cov of Putrescence which is needed to get Dooming Presence. While it is understood these feats are related, one shouldn’t have to choose both pestilence and putrescence for Dooming Presence. improving pestilence should be up in the tree closer to Cov of Arms for improvement.

12. Soul Barrier takes away the max mana per hit regardless of the amount of incoming damage. Scaling of ability doesn’t seem to be working as well

Borrowed some from the Guardian List as age of conan gold they also share the Solider Tree with us and so these skills also affect the DT class.

21. Sadism counters increases the damage you take from Martyrdom. 10/10 counters increases the damage to cast the spell by 12%.

Start of Reported Issues List

Let’s keep this thread free of flames and whines. I would like to have a compiled list of known bugs and if possible how to recreate the bugs. If a tool tip or feat does not work as intended, let’s get it listed, along with some parsed combat logs to back the data up.

6. Instant Skills not firing off properly. - When in a charge, the middle of a combo, or stunned/knocked back if an Instant skill is used it will have a cool down but not give the result. aoc gold Volcanic Rage is still being reported as of 5-29-08.

In the spirit of what KieraTaer has done for the Guardian Class and what others are attempting to do on our own forums I think it would be good to have one list of compiled bugs for the Dark Templar class.

2. Multi-tiered Feats not providing proper benefits once more then one Feat point is added in. - Surging Health, Invulnerable Soul, , Blood Frenzy, Blighted Soul, and Corrupt Weapons are some of the feats reported with this bug.

10. Dread Shadow only works with A Soul for Our Feast IV Requires the use of a level 80 combo(A Soul For our Feast IV), but the feat can be reached at level 70. Can it be changed to work with A Soul for Our Feast III. (Assuming that lower level combos of the same name are not sharing a cool down)

17. Air of Death not showing damage in combat log Touch of Death also will not cause any damage when using it.

3. Stance Lock up - Changing stances can sometimes completely lock up your UI preventing you from doing anything. Your only option is to force quit and restart.

c. Unholy Strength - Mind Wreck and Mind Shatter are not listed in the tool tip. Are they not considered combos, or just not listed?

18. The health Tap (magical) effect of imp aura of dread fury works with all unholy dmg except Touch of Death, which deals magical unholy damage…

3. ‘Mystical Bane’ combo: (See 6-9-08 Patch Notes)The damage dealt by the Incinerate Ether component of Mystical Bane combos will now correctly deal 50% of the mana burned to be consistent with other power burn effects.

5. Martyrdom doesn’t scale from rank 4 to rank 5 except for a lower health cost.

6. Animation Clippings and Stances Freezing Lower Body Animation when engaged. - See 6-02-08 Patch Notes.

8. Anticipation is not adding bonus damage as stated it should in tool-tip.

5. Warping at the end of a Charge. - Resolved Internally and on Release. Fixed on Release of 6-09-08 Patch.

7. Charge is costing a percentage of our Stamina when used. Is this intended? - It seems that using the charge skill at times will drain a percentage of our stamina.

16. Covenant of Pestilence Rank 1 and Rank 2 have same damage tool-tip tooltip damage doesn’t change, will test for actual damage change

20. Sadistic Soul (DT pulsing AoE when Sadism Counter = 10) This is working but will transfer if in a group and another member affects you with sadism after your sadism counter reaches max (10 or less if feated), the person that affects you with sadism will get the sadistic soul buff. The only way to get sadistic soul back onto the DT is to get a sadism counter on yourself (IE: ritualistic bloodshed/masochism).

4. Leech Life V has a higher stamina cost then Leech Life VI.

19. Soul for a Feast When used has two icons, one over the target, and one over the player and team. Players and teams have this as a buff on their buff list and will steal life for the duration of the buff, but the mobs do not show a debuff over their target window. Why put a graphic effect on an opponent that isn’t getting a debuff? None of our other abilities with debuffs get extra graphical effects.

7. Cunning Deflection doesn’t always proc it’s damage effect. - Stealth Resolved with 6-12-08 Patch

End of List

b. Incinerate Ether - the tool tip is wrong, or the skills are not working as intended. Incinerate Ether tool tip needs to be edited now.

8. June 2 Buff Patch Bugs. - Resolved with 6-09-08 Patch.


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~Cult of the Blood Lotus~ - Tyranny

July 9th, 2008

We are currently recruiting, however it is less than what I would call open recruiting. We only want those who are active and will contribute to the guild as we do everything we can to help our members.

If you are interested you may find out website @ Bloodlotus.net, and in-game please contact Tailimus, Brey, or Xploit.

CULT OF THE BLOOD LOTUS - TYRANNY SERVER

Hardcore/Casual meaning we take it seriously while trying not to lose sight of fun.

We have had some rough experiences age of conan gold as of late and therefore are quite picky as to who we will take in. Here is our info…

Ventrilo is a requirement, you don’t necessarily need a mic but you are required to have the program and be able to get on so you may hear what is going on in a group etc.

We are currently at a dozen members but all are age of conan gold extremely active.

We are a PVP guild focused on late game seige and raids.

Full Tier 1 city completed


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Protect Aquilonia, See Hyboria, Join Primus Pilus (RP PVP guild)

July 9th, 2008

Recruits MUST have left prior guild in good standings, if applicable.

Some may see us as criminals, while others see us as warlords, which refuse to give up on battles long lost.

Recruits MUST be average height and weight, for a soldier.

It was no coincidence that the same sunrise age of conan gold Leonius saw in his dream was quickly raising over the horizon, blood crimson color as if Crom himself had pierced it with his sword, signs of death. Suddenly battle horns sounded, for thousands of Picts were on their way to the fort, and a collision course with destiny. A great battle ensued but the Picts gained the upper hand, destroying the fort and pushing the garrison back to Fort Velitrium. By time the battle was over both sides had been dealt significant casualties, and neither could advance their lines any further. Of the 480 men only some 50 remained, including just five from the fourth century.

Guild Story:

Amidst the chaos at the end of the battle the remaining four survivors from the fourth Century slip into the woods, and into hiding. They knew the king would not risk another open war the Picts, so their only course of action was to wage a war in secret. They would band together as mercenaries, for this time they would fight not for land but to avenge their fallen brothers from the Battle of Tuscelan. To honor the fallen the named themselves “Primus Pilus” meaning Prime Century. They would soon raise an army, under the command of General Leonius, and Prefect Gemellus.

King Numedides would soon be slain by Conan. “Primus Pilus” followed the king in title only, for he was nothing but a weak puppet ruler, under the influence of the vial sorcerer Thulandra Thuu. It was at this time that the survivors revealed themselves and supported Conan’s new rise to power, for Conan had to been at the Battle of Tuscelan, and he offered the best chance to take the fight back to the Picts.

Recruits MUST have at least a combat level of 20 and have completed the starting area prior to joining.

Recruits must be entering their main character into the guild. Alts will be allowed into the guild on a case by case bases. You must have your “Main” in the guild, and have reached level 70 on that character. Your alt must meet all the above requirements, and you will be limited to one alt in the guild.

Recruits are strongly encouraged to download and use Ventrilo (see Appendix #2 for details). Even if you don’t have a mic you can still listen. This WILL BE required for all raids.

Recruits MUST have a good knowledge of Conan lore.

At the military fortress of Fort Tuscelan, along the Black-River, a garrison of imperial soldiers was assigned to guard Conajehara, knowing that they were the first and possibly the last line of defense.

Amidst a blood crimson sunrise, the first century of the forth cohort, stood vigilant watch over the walls. Under the command of First Centurion Leonius and Second Centurion Artorius Gemellus, the century was busy shoring up the defenses, for earlier that night Leonius had had a dream, and war would soon be upon them. His superiors dismissed his dream as nothing more than a hallucination, but the legionaries under his command believed him, for they had no choice, unless they risk the flogging that would ensue for speaking out against an officer.

We are mercenaries in title only; we fight for a higher purpose other than fame and fortune.

Our true motives are known only to us.

Recruitment Requirements:

Recruits MUST be willing to participate in PVP when called to do so! See Code of Conduct for more details.

Those that do not know us might think our motives to be purely for financial gains.

We fight for a higher purpose other than personal glory and riches.

Recruits MUST be at least 18 years old in real life, to be accepted into the guild. NO EXCEPTIONS will be made, unless you were a prior member of an Alpha Company guild, and then you will be subject to additional training.

This is the standpoint of our guild members in the grand RP scheme of things:

Recruits MUST be from Aquilonia. The only exception to this rule will be for “Bear Shamans” that can only come from Cimmeria. “Bear Shamans” will be allowed into the guild in a limited quantity and age of conan gold you should seek the permission of an officer prior to applying. “Bear Shamans” that have sought permission from an officer, must apply just like anyone else, in addition you will be required to post a back-story on the Alpha Company Online Forums as to why you (as a Cimmerian) would be aiding your former enemies, prior to your acceptance into the guild.

Other RP information:

In some cases we take money for our services, but only what we need for supplies, and arms.

We are more a splinter type legion that refuses to give up its war.

How over players might view members of our guild:

The leadership of the guild uses its former training as legionaries, to train its new members.

We fight to safeguard those that cannot or will not safeguard themselves.

Pallantides, leader of the Black Dragons, under secret decree from Conan, continues to supply us with orders and supplies when he can. For soon he will have need for mercenaries not just to battle the Picts, but other forces that threaten the sovereignty of Aquilonia.

Recruit MUST have a name acceptable to RP standards. Names that ARE NOT acceptable include but are not limited to leet names, names that spell out phrases, names that are copyrighted, or names that go against lore. Such names may be acceptable by game standards, but they are not acceptable by ours.


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Blowing my free respec to experiment with all the pet feats

July 9th, 2008

Okay, the big update with my findings:

Pets

* Frenzy is 20 second duration, 60 second cooldown with maxed Unholy Fortitude. That means you may have a pet tank for you 33% of the time after this update.

The mana and stamina are NOT Drained from the mob, the Harvesters instead just heal you of Mana and Stamina as an attack proc.

* Damage on 8x mutilators is pretty consistent, between 40-80 damage per hit on level 80 mobs, although I’m not sure which of those numbers is the result of bone horde and which is the Mutilation dot. They behave as expected under Walk with Death.

* Reapers heal 32-41 a tick. Their actual range seems longer now than before. Damage was consistently 184 vs a level 80 Spotted Sabertooth in Purple Lotus Swamp, sans Walk with Death.

* Void performs as it originally did, only for around 218 a tick to both Stamina and Mana. This may or may not be based on a percentage of their maximum, so these numbers may vary greatly vs players (as has been the tendency in the past.).

* Arcanists now cast in 1 to 1.5 seconds. They seemed to tear **** up! Damage range was slightly lower than Reapers but of course that’s to be expected given their rapid cast time.

I’ll take some samples and get back with you guys on my findings on what pets I think are useful and which aren’t.

* Arcanists now use the Ice Strike animation for their spells, and Arcanist’s Knowledge stacks up to +2.5% magic Damage for your whole group. Likewise, that boost to damage would multiply your +Magic Damage by that amount, so having a Nightfall/DtS necro in a group with someone running Arcs would be pretty good.

Reanimation Spells

First, the spec.

* Blighted Ones now drain 174 Stamina a tick and 216 mana. Usual proc rate is between once every 2 seconds to multiple times per second. The PVP implications of this pet are obvious.

* Life Stealers’ heals ranged from high 30s to mid 50s naturally and could crit in the 70s to 90s range, and they happen seemingly about the same as other pet procs, anywhere from once every two seconds to up to twice or three times in a single proc.

Frozen Hatred no longer seems to spawn from pet kills.

* Archmagi seem to be doing about 278ish vs aoc gold 79-80 in PLS. Not too bad. I wasn’t expecting them to be doing the 370+ they were doing before but I could still kite and 2x archmages took 5 shots to take them down each rather than the 3 it took before.

* Corrupters still tear some amazing amounts of ass, especially with Flesh to Worms affecting the target.

* Harvesters regenerate 45-49 mana per tick and 32-35 stamina per tick. You must be in closish proximity to them to receive stamina and mana healing. Ticks occurred anywhere from around once every 2 seconds to multiple times per second.

* Necrotic Bombs seem to deal about 700-900 damage when detonating and pulse for about 100 a tick each. The poster that implied popping No Rest and mass summoning them was incorrect, as it seems their age of conan gold deaths don’t count as detonations in that situation.

* Consider Cabal to be = Bone Horde for Mage Pets. This is the long and short of it, and I think BH and Cabal may stack so having 5x BH and 5x Cabal will buff damage across the board better than loading up with all of one pet type.

* Magus Damage so far seems identical to that of Reapers, but I’m still not noticing any splashing taking place. I was hoping they’d splash like they were advertised. How many updates later and the feats are still busted.


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Skill Points

July 9th, 2008

Bandaging

Casting Concentration

After that you are on your own. I usually keep around 100 points in hide and then another 100 or so points in various ares. I do this in case I need to reset them and put them into climbing to achieve a quest, or various other needs.

Heavily Fill:

Two other areas that you will still want to heavily invest skill points into are bandaging and mana attractor. Bandaging will cut down your downtime immensely since we are not a healing class and often if you are pulling only a few mobs at a time, you should never have to rest. Mana attractor improves your regen rate. I personally never ever run out of mana unless it’s a aoc gold sustained fight in a group. Fatalities and maxing your points in the right area make it nearly impossible.

Mana Attractor

Mana Renew

Max:

The two main components of your skill age of conan gold points are mana renew and casting concentration. You can’t afford to be interrupted, that is our life and blood, so casting concentration should always be maxed. If anyone knows if you receive a positive benefit with overmaxing points (710/650) please post or PM me. The other point you want maxed is mana renew.


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Join the Murder Herd or get murdered to death!

July 9th, 2008

Basically you may murder, pillage and bully to age of conan gold yer hearts content… but if you ever run away from a fight, talk smack, horde yer loot or are in any way disloyal to the Herd then we will hunt you down and eat you for dinner every night.

We don’t have a mission statement because mission statements are for bland, pathetic cubicle workers who need motivation. We are not here to grind away our lives for “phat lewt” or to look for “e-girlfriends” while sucking on cheeseburgers in smelly computer chairs. We are here to have a good, laid back time, kill a plethora of players, steal their “phat lewts” and then to kill their “e-girlfriends”.

* III All spoils are divided equally.

*Ridiculously rockin R-alliteration and ascii cows courtesy of conveniently creative Conq

o You never run from a opponent, never. If you’re out numbered and/or out leveled… just close yer eyes and start swinging. Take as many heads as you can or at least break some knee caps before you go up on the mountain to meet Crom. Oh, and spit on them too… Crom loves spitting.

o You may break the back of anyone who refuses to bend a knee to the Herd. This is not figurative, our motto is “Join or Die” and we mean it.

In a nut shell, the Murder Herd is a mature, aoc gold rp (role play), pvp (player versus player) oriented online gaming community currently focused entirely on the Age of Conan.

Server: Cimmeria

o It pays to be evil… a lot and especially a lot if they put item looting in. So it’s simple… when we go on drunken guild rampages killing everyone we find… all the spoils are divided evenly, same goes for general game play. Keep it in the Herd.

* I Mercy may not be given unless bartered for.

For those who desire to know, Conq is the Herd’s sub leader and my partner in crime. My officers include Monkey, Bowzer, Throbbert(Penetricia), Cheshire, Phukkju(Sordes), Vesrix, Arrocken, Thorbrand, and Nala. Please contact any of these men if you have a heartfelt need to be insulted, have your tush meddled with, or if you need help with any covert sheep smuggling operations.

* VI Kill everyone who defies the Herd!

* II There is no path for retreat.

* V Only the dead may leave the Herd.

Though the thread we now bring to you is baren, lonely, and, as yet, devoid of all things sheep related, fear not, bovine befrienders! For we are still the same beloved boisterous barbarians that you have grown so attached to. Ok, enough of that girly man bologna, on to business!

o All deserters and outcasts will be slaughtered on sight every time they dare to enter our presence. Our loyalty to each other is the most valuable asset we have, anyone who breaks it, will be hunted, forever. Oh, and that goes for the people we boot as well.

o This should be pretty clear… everyone not in the Herd is prey. Consider them like fluffy bunnies.. you can tease them and pet them and hug and cuddle them but eventually they go in the god damn rabbit stew, got it? Good!

There are some rules though, six of em and they are very serious because violation of any of these will not only mean your immediately dismissal but also subject you to an intense amount of physical harassment *puts on a serious face*

* IV Taunts and boasts are for love play.

Web Site: www.MurderHerd.com

Is Canada America’s hat?: Absolutely

Total Members as of 5/18/08: 218

Matriarch, here, presenting our brand spanking new recruitment thread: Welcome to the renowned residence of the roughest, rowdiest, most ruthless and rambunctious rapscallions ever to ravage the roads of Hyboria!

o None of that “come on you little bitch, attack me” or bragging “lolz I just wtf pwnt you” crap. If I hear that coming out’ta yer mouth, I’m gonna shove you in the stew with the dead rabbits.

Leader: Matriarch

Guild Interview: http://conanvault.ign.com/View.php?v…s.Detail&id=37


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Feat Allocation and Breakdown!

July 9th, 2008

Level 50: Overload Shockblast 2/3 and Wicked Bolts 1/5. If you don’t feel like putting a point in Quickened Iron you can save an extra point and get 3/3 Overload Shockblast this level. I don’t recommend not getting Wicked Bolt, it’s an entirely new spell, and an instant cast CC at that! It’s amazing for stopping casters or throwing in while waiting on SB to reduce damage taken.

(Level 62+ Note: We’re going back to the general tree now, as we have everything in Havoc that helps us AOE. There are several ways you can go about maxing this tree, depending on your focus. I will present one order for points, but you can mix and match to get what you feel necessary first. See discussion in this post.)

Level 68-69: Unleashed Power 2/2. Some might argue that this spell isn’t needed, but I see it as being useful for those pesky ranged mobs. This will make your “green circle” bigger for SB and IoA, allowing you to more easily include ranged mobs in your AOE while still hitting the melee mobs on you. Getting casters down is a priority after all.

Here is our blank feat tree so you have a point of reference.

Level 40-43: Rapid Recharge 5/5. There’s a bit of a grey area concerning the points in the next few levels. Basically you need to have 30 points in the tree by level 50, and you have 2 routes to choose from. Personally I never use Shockstrike for splash damage, so Discharge and Chained Shockstrike are worthless to me. You are perfectly welcome to pick them up if you prefer using Shockstrike in your AOE cycles or on mere 2 pulls though. With our mana talents though, you can use SB and IoA with impunity, there’s nothing stopping you from Shockblasting down just 2 mobs. Improving the cooldown on Shock lets you kill your primary target faster in just the same way as Shockstrike though, and is more versitile (instant cast vs. 2.5 seconds).

(Level 78-80: These talents are mostly throw away. You already have the non-broken and important spells for our class, these are fluff. If Funcom fixes some of our broken talents, these would be the first to go. Especially something like Crimson Shield. If that feat added to the Damage Absorb per hit properly, it would be a MUST HAVE. See discussion in this post.)

Default

Level 70-74: Specter Chant 5/5. Another mana talent. With the way our spells’ mana cost tends to skyrocket, and throwing in Lore of Skelos’ increases, you can never have enough mana regen, especially with AOE spells.

Level 10-14: Swift Shockstrike 5/5. The only option.

Level 80: Agonizing Jolts 1/1. A mostly useless talent because the snare doesn’t kick in until the first tick of damage 2 seconds after you start channeling. It *does* not stop channeling in PVP based on range though, as far as I know, so if someone runs at extremely low health and happens to not use a pot, this might kill them. Channeling it then stopping when the first tick happens in PVE doesn’t do much, since you could just precast a Shockstrike and achieve the same mob HP when it reaches you. Pick it up earlier instead of 1 point in Bombardment if you want, in which case you’d finish Bombardment here.

Level 52-53: Quickened Iron 3/3. Put off filling out Wicked Bolts for now, it’s imperative to stop getting that pesky empty shield debuff! Wicked Bolts is a great spell, but the extra points increase your PVP viability mostly, and this is an AOE build before it’s a PVP build (though I don’t think it’s a gimp PVP build).

Level 44-48: Bombardment 5/5. Leaving out the crappy pet aoc gold and storm chains feats (honestly I think storm chains breaks too easy for any points in improving its damage to be worth it, and you’re going to get the rest of your CC in a few levels), as well as the Shockstrike splash talents, this is all that’s left. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really great talent. Remember when I mentioned pulling more mobs with Shock/Shockstrike? This talent augments that ability perfectly. I’d almost pick it up even earlier if there weren’t other feats to get. If you are single pulling you can get far more casts off than before, and it’s amazing for PVP.

Level 20-23: Overload 5/5. This is an amazing spell, age of conan gold and if you want to be a true AOE grinder, you need all the regen spells you can get. It’s especially useful when using high mana cost spells like SB and IoA. With 5/5 it procs a charge almost every single AoE cast.

Level 62: Mystical Attunment 1/5. More damage, it unlocks the next Tier for us, and the rest of the Shield feats are borderline useless.

Level 80: Mirrored Iron 2/3 and 3/3. There’s not much left in the trees, and this *will* increase your AOE damage to some extent. don’t forget Protection of Set applies to party member too, so even if you’re not tanking mobs will still be reflecting on themselves. It’s only +20% damage per proc though, no proc chance increase unfortunately.

Level 49: Nothing, save your feat point for 50, we have 30 points in Havoc now.

Level 38: Mirrored Iron 1/3. A *very* solid 1 pointer for AOEing. This causes your Protection of Set to occasionally proc ~250 damage on anything that attacks you. Further points only increase the damage dealt by 10% each. (Too bad it’s not +chance to proc by 10%.) A no brainer for fighting lots of mobs at once.

Level 51: Overload Shockblast 3/3. The third point doubles the damage increase from this amazing talent, quite possibly the most important feat in an AOE build. While it sucks waiting a level to get it, overall, it’s just one level. Shockblast should really be tearing through mobs now, with the AOE root and wicked bolts that you also get at level 50, you’ll feel like a new class!

Level 70: Lore of Skelos 1/1. Nice damage increasing spell, you should get the most use out of this spell in PVP (stack it with pacts). For one point, there’s no reason not to pick this up, you can even use it to bring down mobs when you over aggro accidently. Remember to always use all the cooldowns you have available to you!

Feat Allocation and Breakdown!

Level 39: Quickened Iron 1/3. This is where you really start wishing you had more points. You will start noticing a lot more Empty Shield debuffs in the 40’s, which this feat fixes, but because we need to prepare for the best talent in the Havoc tree, filling this feat out is going to have to wait.

Level 29-32: Mage Blood 5/5. It’s time to start hitting the general tree, getting an awesome mana talent is just bonus.

Level 75-77: Tome of Erlik 3/3. Another burst damage talent, again mostly a PVP talent. Stacking this and Lore of Skelos can actually bring you up to par with the PVP damage of most other classes. And again, feel free to use them to bring down especially large or difficult pulls in PVE too.

Level 78-79: Possession 2/2. Basically this spell incapacitates/stuns the enemy for 5 seconds. However, it’s a 5 second channel before it goes off, so using it in the middle of a fight to gain the upper hand is practically worthless. you might use it as an opener to keep the enemy from doing anything for 5 seconds while you wind up on them, that way the channeling is pre-combat. This means you’re not opening with max range Shockstrike though. :/ Alternately in a group this spell becomes more useful since you have teammates to keep killing while you do the channeling and possession.

Level 33-37: Archmage 5/5. This spell doesn’t affect you quite so much in the 30’s, but very soon you’re going to need it a lot more than the other options. This spell is critical for keeping your IoA and Hellfire Stream damage from degrading as you level.

Level 15-19: Natural Conductor 5/5. More damage is never bad.

Level 64-67: Mystical Attunment 5/5. More damage to all our spells. No brainer.

Level 24-28: Earth Recharge 5/5. Another amazing AOE grinding regen spell. The mana gained is *very* significant when using our expensive AOE spells.

Level 60-61: Thunderclap 5/5. You should have 4 points at 60 and get the 5th at 61. This is a HUGE spell in terms of AOE survivability. Maxing it out is a big priority, you should use this spell very often to keep yourself alive against hard hitting pulls.

Level 63: Purge 1/1. Instant cast, no cooldown, this is a good PVP feat. Many classes can remove your CCs or just simply need to be CCed again to be beaten, and removing the 60 second immunity they gain after your first root lets you throw the other one back on and regain the upper hand. We are very squishy for melee, so CCing them is a high priority. And hey, it’s just one point.

Level 54-57: Wicked Bolts 5/5. You need 5/5 to get our next amazing spell, and lets face it, who doesn’t want a huge knockback? It’s great in PVP (when it works), and every second counts when you knock back a melee mob.

Level 58-59: Nothing, save your points.


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So what is equitable about this…

July 9th, 2008

–we don’t have time to get another combo off unless we are fortunate enough to have ferocious smack not on cooldown and not go and get completely resisted for the KB.

I am comparing Bear shaman to Tempest of Set damage skills at the moment, and well… I am finding we are coming up short…

Our Favorite and Shortest Combo is the three step Crush armor.

In that amount of time the ToS is already about 1sec from finishing another lighting strike and unless we critically one shotted him will end our lives…

Resists not working in PvP make me sad… And I have yet to see age of conan gold the rune of immunity ever work in a fight for the 6% immunity..

Their LS is a 3 second cast, they have a .5 sec cast strike to go with that..

We have ONE feat worth a damn to aoc gold resist this stuff which snares us and really won’t let us close the distance unless we use the charge, which doesn’t stun like the soldiers and seems to be far glitchier than their charge as far as preloading stuff..it also takes a full second to activate..

Someting is horrible off Lucy…

I timed the amount of time it takes to get this combo off with all the relavent abilities activated to boost damage..and found against someone standing still.. it takes 5 seconds from start of combo to finish of animation..And THEN if goes on cooldown for 45secs..


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