A new developer update for the month of November is now up for the barbarian-em up Age of Conan.

The developers lay out the road map for the next series of updates to the game, covering planned additions as far out as Q2 2012.

First up is the 3.1 update, which is currently being rolled out on the servers. This is mostly a tech update that is not adding new content.

There’s more juiciness in the planned 3.2 update, which will bring the new dungeon “House of Crom”, which Funcom promises will be “one of the most spectacular and atmospheric indoor locations we have added to the game yet”. Besides this new dungeon, update 3.2 will also see the addition of a new raid, the Jade Citadel, where players will fight to nab some nice loot from the Khitan Emperor himself.

Update 3.3 is going to conclude the Khitan raid encounter that 3.2 began, with a new raid instance and two new raid encounters.

3.3 will also bring some new things to the blood smeared PvP table. It will be adding PvP world bosses and a chance to get some new PvP mounts. Funcom is also talking about doing some changes to the PvP mechanics, which may include some significant changes to sprinting and stamina.

Update 3.4 is going to be mainly another tech update. It may also contain some changes to the siege systems as well as adding max level AA balanced versions of some existing dungeons.

Update 4.0 is the last point on the developer update. This is going to be the next adventure pack, which is going to take place in an as yet undisclosed location. Most likely this update will also feature a complete revamp of the trade skill system, which is going to be changed quite fundamentally and hopefully make trade skills more interesting and useful to players.

Update 3.1 is currently being deployed to the servers. Funcom hopes that Update 3.2 can start pretty quickly after 3.1 has been implemented. Update 3.3 is planned for early 2012, probably around February. Update 3.4 is looking at a Q1 2012 release date and the big 4.0 update has a vague estimate of Q2 2012.

Today Funcom has revealed the launch date for the Savage Coast of Turan pack as September 8th, although early access will begin starting August 31st for those that purchased the Early Access Bonus pack. The Age of Conan Turan pack costs 1300 Funcom points and the early access pack is 2000 points for premium players, which is about $10.83 and $16.66 respectively. The early access pack also includes an additional level 50 character option and additional character slot.

To celebrate the upcoming launch of the Savage Coast of Turan pack Funcom is also offering the Jewels of Turan pack, which offers 60% off of the combined costs of its content.

There you will find the access to the pack, all the benefits of the Early Access Bonus pack plus a selection of great items, including an exclusive Sand Demon pet that can only be attained through purchase of this fantastic sale pack! You will also get a great vanity armor set styled on Conan’s armor from the recent Conan the Barbarian movie.

It’s official, Age of Conan is now a free2play MMORPG, rebranded as Age of Conan: Unchained.  The AoC website has been completely redone for the re-launch and Funcom has made a list of all the major new content that has been added since the launch in 2008.

To tally up the content that was added since launch we have 6 solo playfields, 9 group dungeons and 9 added features which include,

• Alternate Advancement System
• Factions of Khitai
• Guild Events and Horse Racing
• Guild Renown
• The Mounts of Khitai
• Veteran System
• Regional Fast Travel System
• Offline Character Progression
• Vanity Item Slots

Having played Age of Conan during beta and for the first month after launch, I can’t say I will be going back to give it another shot now that it’s free.  Although the changes made since the launch seem to have been mostly positive.  Feel free to write to us if you have some opinion on how the new F2P Age of Conan compares to the P2P model.

Changes are coming to the land of Hyboria.  Today Funcom announced that Age of Conan will be re-launched this summer as a free to play MMORPG titled Age of Conan: Unrated.  Age of Conan will become free to play, however will retain a premium subscription option that will give players access to extra content.

Aside from the premium subscription, Funcom will also be opening an item store that will allow anyone to purchase exclusive content such as weapons and mounts.

SVP of Sales & Marketing Morten Larssen stated, “Now we turn to another chapter in this story as we thrust ‘Age of Conan: Unrated’ into the world of free-to-play games, a gaming space that is becoming rapidly more popular and profitable across the board.”

The “Unrated” part of the title is Funcom’s way of reaffirming Age of Conan’s position as the sexiest and most savage MMO in the world.

Conan the Barbarian Producer and Paradox CEO Fredrik Malmberg had this to say about the movie tie in,

“We have worked closely with the Funcom creative team since 2003 and carefully crafted a unique look and feel for Conan’s world,”  ”Many of the concepts, locations and designs from the game development were utilized by the film team for consistency, and we are thrilled that many elements of the film, distributed by Lionsgate in the US and UK, will feel familiar to the Age of Conan players.”

Conan the Barbarian movie is set to be released this summer on August 19th, so the content pack should be released around the same time.  The pack adds all new encounters, the massive new area of Ardashir, new dungeons and raids as well as new armor sets and monsters that moviegoers can already observe in the recently released theatrical movie trailer.

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Hello again.  Since I started writing this column I look at things somewhat differently, considering sides and options I wouldn’t otherwise give a second thought to. I try to present things from all perspectives even if I can’t be exactly impartial; we all have our own opinion and preference about things, don’t we?

Age of Conan: The Rise of the Godslayer has a component of grind, though not everyone will agree on which part of the content is just Grind or Fun…

Every game can be seen as something fun and dynamic or the most boring “grind” ever experienced. The same game will be perceived by different gamers through their own likings and preferences. That challenge is what MMOs have to deal with.

All of you probably have thought on occasion, “Why does that exist in this game? Why not focus completely on this other facet of the game instead, and not split efforts and resources?” The answer is, in my humble opinion, really simple: because anything can become tedious after a while of repeating it. Well, almost anything I guess. *wink*

In a sense, everything in an MMORPG is a form of grind. Some people find questing boring, some people find PvPing not only boring but futile, some others find factions and the repetitive process of raising them, simply stupid. Everything, from raiding to crafting harvesting, building a city or collecting alts of maximum level is, or can be, a grind. It does have a purpose of course, a goal for each one. It is just a matter of finding the grind that goes with your style. And here is where variety plays a key role, offering the chance to try something different when the claws of the monster of boredom threaten to ruin our enjoyment.

I am not a PvPer; probably because I am more competitive than I like to admit and I am not as good at it as I would like to be. But that doesn’t mean I do not do PvP at all. Recently, I decided to see for myself just how much truth was in the statement about Bori Shrines. On the PvE-RP server that I play on, it has been renamed as Bori’ing. I can only imagine the hell (sorry PvPers, I am biased) it must be in a more populated server, knowing as I know now, that a single game can disrupt and ruin the effort of five others focusing on the altars.

Let me explain, for those of you not familiar with the mechanics of Bori. In the Cimmerian End (CE) of the Border Kingdoms, there are three flags at three camps that can be claimed by anyone (by clicking on the flags.) After some moments the flag is captured by the guild of the character who claimed it. A flag being captured can be contested, that is, someone else from a different guild clicks on it and tries to capture it for their own.

Once the flag has been captured an altar will appear nearby, and there is where the rare resources (aka greens) from the nodes in CE can be “sacrificed” to Bori. Each green sacrificed will add an amount of “units” to the sacrifice; the number varying according to the value of each. Tier 1 resources will add a very low amount, Tier 2 ones higher amount of units while the Tier 3 resources are the most valuable of them all.

When the altar reaches the sum of 666 units Bori will be pleased and each member of the group will receive Marks of Conquest, 9000 points of Glory, PvP experience and also Prowess and Mastery experience (Alternative Advancement points or AA); PvP and Prowess varying according to potions, Volumes of Carnage or possible buffs modifying its gain percentage.

So, basically, what one does at Bori is… yes, you guessed right, mine and chop. In a word: Gathering. Which, in itself, is not really exciting though highly effective towards AA and renown for the guild. This, of course, changes if/when someone enters the area and fights for the right to gather the coveted resources; which is most possibly what developers had in mind when designing and implementing this part of the content.

Do not think I’m criticizing the concept of PvP though. Not at all because, analyzing raiding, there are many arguments to consider it just another form of grind. Let’s admit it, going week after week to the same instances, killing the same bosses for months to get a set of armor is grinding. Sometimes even following tight schedules to adapt our real life, in order to attend all the raid runs, which can become a second job; committing to spend 4 or 5 hours, twice or three times a week is not something everyone is willing to do.

Another example is Housing. Housing is a feature demanded in AoC for many subscribers. Since there is no housing in this game, I will use the systems of other games, from building your own house from scratch, to craft the furniture or get nice items and trophies to place in your house, everything is grind.

Yes, my friends, we all grind, with different goals, for different objectives and in different varied manners. The key is finding the sort of grind that meets our requirements and satisfies our gaming needs of the moment, because the fun we get from it makes the difference from getting bored from wanting to stay just a little bit longer to finish whatever we started.

So, next time do not think so lightly about aspects of the game you don’t enjoy so much, for they could prove the source of fun if you get bored of the one you’re enjoying so much now. And if you disagree, please let your own experience or opinion on the comments; everyone is most welcome.

Hyrkanian Insight updates every Saturday.

Greetings fellow adventurers, and welcome once more to this corner of FunCom’s Age of Conan world. Last week I could not update Hyrkanian Insight due to technical problems which, incidentally, are not yet really solved; only patched temporarily. Whatever, here I am, back with renewed energy.

Today, I want to bring to your attention some of the work being done by the AoC Team, what’s new inside and outside the game, through the community updates from last week and the one published yesterday. Some very interesting things can be extracted between the lines along with a lot of speculation and guess-work.

Come aboard for some rumors and facts…

Technical problems

An important announcement for many, including me, is that memory handling has improved vastly so people having the “out of memory” crashes hopefully won’t suffer them any longer. Also DX9 and DX10 have been tweaked to offer better performance and/or higher visual effects. I’m hoping to enjoy Khitai beautiful design now without dreading to crash every time I zone or randomly when I go there. I must admit I have been avoiding Khitai because of this.

Last week I was not the only one having technical problems apparently, as FunCom admitted and announced in their community update on Feb 4^th. The issue was related to the Dreamworld engine since the anti-alising provided by graphic cards was not working with the new Deffered Shading, and the difficulty to offer a solution added up to the deadlines scheduled to bring the next patch to live servers.

This must have been a real worry to them, taking into account their own words when explaining that they are working on an integrated solution to implement

… even if it may not come in the launch version

Wow. I mean, to announce that they cannot guarantee a solution says much about the magnitude of the problem. Though, knowing that they also were thanking people for their help on the test servers and also asking everyone to go there over the last week also says clearly that they were expecting the patch delivered after such mentioned week. Don’t you agree?

In a way it was good that I couldn’t write last week’s article, since this point caught my attention and I was sure to mention it on the Hyrkanian Insight. But yesterday the new community update was published and Oh surprise! Not only have they “found” a solution to the anti-alising, what they will be using is the newest technology from Nvidia! Yes, you read right, Age of Conan will be using the FXAA anti-alising which is the latest development from the graphic card giant. If you are interested in the detailed explanation from the render coder, visit the official forums.

I don’t know you, but I cannot help thinking it is not mere chance that the Nvidia guys miraculously developed this new anti-alising off the top of their heads so they must have been aware of this issue with previous engines and graphic cards. Also I can see FunCom thinking they could come up with a solution of their own to save up paying more money. Of course all this is speculation on my part for I have no proof towards or against it.

Item Packs for sale

However, as every other company their goal is profit (of course) and this new option is available for every subscriber on the account page just proves it.

The Christmas offer of a 1-year subscription to get not only a discount on the overall prize of it, but also a nice white tiger as mount along with porting scrolls, potions to boost Prowess & Mastery XP, PvP XP and adventuring XP or tasty foods and drinks to keep your character ready for anything in Hyboria and beyond have raised, or so FunCom claims, much expectation amongst gamers. So much that they have decided to add this as a permanent option for everyone to have access to it.

It seems that the path towards F2P system has started. I have been told that there won’t be too long before AoC become free to play, and definitely things like these Packs for sale seem to confirm it. Though as with everything, rumors are to be believed just so far, even if we are not the only ones to bring this subject up.

I cannot know about the US servers, but the EU servers have experienced a decrease of active gamers for whatever reason. Some are expecting the new Dreamworld to bring many back into the game, but with skepticism. Again rumors grow that there will be another merge among the European servers, even getting to name different servers as the candidates to be merged together.  After checking numerous threads that have been there for long months, I can’t really say if it’s a rumor or just wishful thinking from some (or many). Every thread on the official forums I’ve checked starts as a suggestion of a merge to solve the low population issues of different serves and ends up as an open battle of PvP against PvE against RP and none will accept that there are issues on all sides, that there are improvements on all sides and that there are efforts to give something to everyone. Fact is gamers have been quitting AoC, as of late all guilds in my chosen server are struggling to get raids and minis and Khitai Hard Modes… as it seems almost all the other servers have population issues and people leaving as well.

Community Features

I have left this for the last because it makes me wonder beyond imagining. So, they are introducing personal interviews with gamers. Most people agree that the number of people participating on the Forums and expressing their opinions/ideas is minor. You will mostly see the same names repeated thread after thread on the general and server forums, so this new feature will reach not the majority of the subscribers. One would guess that this is an answer to all those complaining that the player base is not heard or taken into account by the developers.

Well, there you have it. My question is:  What is the choosing method? How will they decide who is interviewed? Many will probably consider this a very good opportunity to get a moment of “fame”? But also is a way to try and tip the balance towards their preferred area of the game. In their words you could introduce yourself, your guild or express your likings and disliking. We can only guess, my friends, maybe they have a fixed series of questions that they’ll make to every gamer chosen, maybe it’ll be more of a relaxed conversation… we will just know when it’s released, which it will be soon, since the first persons being interviewed will be contacted within this month, February.

Conclusion

Next week the testing finishes (with a bit of luck) and the focus will be the plan to deploy the update to the live servers. Will it bring more whining from the noisy members on all sides? I am sure many will be pleased though and will see it as a proof of the effort the Team is making to give us what we want, which not always is what we really need.

Let us pray to the 999.999 Gods of Khitai, with any luck there’ll be at least one that listens to us. Meanwhile feel free to post your pray, facts or rumors in the comments. And as good bye this week I present you the protagonist of the tale I’ve started narrating some weeks ago and which soon will see its continuation.

Hyrkanian Insight updates every Saturday (usually ;P)

Hello again. As you may know, last week, in the first part of The Art of Healing, we were talking about the different healer classes in Age of Conan and their particularities, differences and resemblances. Today, we’ll continue our examination of the healing process and explain the work of those devoting their time to keep their comrades alive.

Understanding how healing works is not only important for the gamers playing a healer, but also for those playing other classes, if only to make the healing job a bit easier and let them know what to expect from them. So follow me after the jump and let me tell of you of the days of mending. *winks*

How to heal

As I said, I’m no expert and I don’t pretend that my way of seeing things is the only valid way or even the best; but I hope these tips help you better understand the work of a healer. I would like to point out that, even though many people rank healers as good or bad based on the amount of healing done, using parsers like Conan Stats and other programs like it, (and having in mind that the more you heal the better for the raid or group) it’s not about spamming the heals to everyone; it’s more a matter of timing the heals so they are efficient and heal the most amount at the right moment. And sometimes, a healer will even focus on a single target, like a soldier off-tanking some mobs apart from the main raid, or a non-soldier (barbarian or assassin) also off-tanking a mob on a “fun pull” during an instance.

I’ll say again that groups and raids have different tactics. In a raid there are different encounters with bosses that have different skills and requirements, but there are some things that are valid for every situation.

The first thing that a healer should do is keep the particles shown for either the group or the raid, so they know at all times who’s being healed (with the blue heals) and can notice if someone was left out of the cone of effect. This way you will avoid spamming heals unnecessarily and be more power-efficient. (If your computer is as old as mine, this may be sort of a problem; just lower the particles to “low” setting and disable “world particles.”) Knowing who’s been missed with blue heals is most important in raids, where the number of people is much higher and there may be more than one fight and various soldiers tanking various mobs.

Positioning is also quite important. The green heal will affect all the members in the healer’s group, no matter where they are. But the blue heal, as stated in The Art of Healing part I, affects only those in front of the caster and in a cone area. Therefore, the healer should place herself or himself so the most number of people is between them and the mob(s) being killed. The nukes have an area of effect (AoE) though, thatbeing centered on the healer and working outward in a radius. The area of effect can be augmented with feats like Far-Reaching Spirit or All-Encompassing Spirit, which can be found in the general healers’ tree.

This also applies to the rest of the raiders, placing yourselves between the healer and the mob will assure you a steady influx of healing whenever possible.

Personally, I usually start casting the green heal since it’s the slowest to cast, and then again immediately after the blue heal. As a Priest of Mitra (PoM ) I then work on building the Divine Blessing effect from the holy damaging spells to get the Divine Halo to add another heal to the member of lowest health. Bear Shamans (BS) get a buff from successfully smacking their foes which also will improve their blue heals, and Tempests of Set have their own buff as well.

Once heals are cast and the buff is at its maximum, it just depends on each fight. Using crowd control spells and skills, if needed, helping dps down the mobs, or using special spells like Holy Cleansing or any other for specific fights. And of course renewing the green and blue heals as soon as they wear off.

Coordinating the use of the nukes is very helpful in certain fights, particularly in raids, where the presence of the three different healing classes is most useful. Since the nuke has a debuff that will prevent anyone from being healed with it for a whole minute, using the PoM, BS and ToS nukes will help greatly in long fights or in encounters where large amounts of damage are dealt regularly to the whole raid or a high number of members; thus coordinating their use and agreeing on a set order (or maybe having someone ask for them when needed) will improve the efficiency of these heals and prevent healing power from going to waste.

Conclusion

It is my experience that it doesn’t matter what you choose, the three classes are designed to provide main healing and each of them can keep a group alive on their own in an instance. The skills are there, the tools are there to be used. So it comes down to the player and how s/he makes use of them, turning them into great healers or just mediocre ones. Tempests of Set are as good as healers as the other two can be, if the gamer behind the character knows what they’re doing and bothers to do it. I have been in groups with Bear Shamans as the only healer class in the group, with ToS as only healer class in the group (and he wasn’t even healing specialized) and with Priests as well. I even remember an occasion where the ToS was number 1 in healing done in certain encounter (I usually run Stats add-ons to check on stuff like this) AND he was also number 1 in damage done in that same encounter! I mean, being both the top of healing and DPS is just amazing!

I can hear some of you say, “Yeah, yeah, but that was just one gamer doing that.” Well, yes but that only proves that the class is not deficient or lacking; that what most people blame on the characters or the skills/spells available, is just their own lack of understanding what they have in their hands. Don’t get me wrong, stats are not everything and don’t show the real skills of a gamer with his/her characters, but achieving top stats speaks for itself.

These are my general tips and explanations of healing in AoC. As with everything, there are exceptions, certain encounters that will require different tactics and cycles of spells, but those must mostly be learned through experience. Most of the times it doesn’t matter how much you read about an encounter, you won’t really master it until having gone through it at least once or twice. Though, obviously, knowing some concepts and facts beforehand will improve everyone’s performance for sure.

Please, feel free to disagree and state your own opinion in the comments. All will be welcome.

Hyrkanian Insight updates every Saturday.

Well, hello my fellow Hyborians and Khitans. Welcome to another week of Hyrkanian Insight. This time we will be discussing the Art of Healing in FunCom’s Age of Conan; reviewing the differences, but also the similarities, of the three healing classes: Bear Shaman, Priest of Mitra and Tempest of Set (listed by alphabetical order, not by personal preference.)

So if you enjoy keeping your brothers in arms alive, or if you are curious about the mysterious ways of those in whom you trust your life, sit down and grab an argossean red, or maybe a good Cimmerian stout while I share my humble knowledge of the healing art with you all.

When I started playing AoC back in June 2008, I gamed with my husband and my brother. We were really looking forward to this game and we all decided to create Stygians. In our lack of knowledge, we thought maybe the necromancer would be somewhat similar to the one in EverQuest, whose pets can tank for the caster, while the rest of the group members remain safely out of harm’s way, (or relatively) so I created a Demonologist, my brother a Necromancer and my hubby a Tempest of Set (to have some healing.) It was the only healer option, as we all wanted to be Stygians and progress together. I remember one of our first adventures in the starting area, particularly remember our shock when the mobs went straight for us even with the pets hitting them and us doing nothing to gain agro; and then the even wider astonishment at our healer’s lack of healing power. His only healing spell was Healing Lotus, a heal over time spell which, in its first stages, healed 2 points of health each tick. Of course, it was not enough, given the fact that we didn’t have a soldier with high armor and damage mitigation among us.

Nonetheless, we couldn’t believe a healing class didn’t have a single direct healing spell, which in AoC are known as “nukes” (I know that now, but didn’t then.) However, we persevered, we grew together, left Tortage Island and went to explore and conquer Khopshef Province, achieving deeds even without the help of a soldier. And still the healing skills of the Tempest of Set seemed lacking and insufficient; though most probably, I’m sure, due to our lack of knowledge about how those healing skills exactly worked.

Nowadays, after having leveled up a Priest of Mitra to maximum level (and raided with her more T1 and T2), a Bear Shaman to level 53, and toying with a Tempest of Set who is still only level 22, I can say that I understand much better the ways of Healing and how it works in this, our game of choice (though I am far from being an expert on the matter.) Looking back in time it’s clear to me that we didn’t understand the class and took for granted that the Tempest of Set was not a real healer, but something of a hybrid class that could only be at most a backup healer. Honestly, nothing could be further from the truth.

Common ground

The three healing classes have the same base healing spells and are as follows:

Green Heal: A low, heal-over-time (HoT) which affects group members ONLY. It’s known as green heal because of the green ring effect that remains for the spell’s duration. This heal has a long casting time. The green heals are: Renewal (Bear Shaman), Healing Lotus (Tempest of Set) and Emanation of Life (Priest of Mitra).

Blue Heal: A direct, moderate heal with a moderate heal-over-time component which affects everyone standing in a cone in front of the healer, with a variable area and range (depending on the feats chosen.) As with the green heal, it’s known as blue heal because of the blue ring that will appear around those affected by the spell. This way it’s easier to know if you’ve missed someone with the blue heal. This spell has a short casting time, nearly instant, and is practically impossible to interrupt. The spells are: Blood Flow (BS), Life of Set (ToS) and Wave of Life (PoM

Nuke: The nuke is a potent direct-heal which will significantly replenish everyone within the range of effect around the healer. With this one it doesn’t matter whether the members of the group or raid are in front or behind the caster. Though this spell has a moderate casting time, it can be reduced with feats until making it even instant (if investing 5 points in the right feat.) Reducing the casting time is highly helpful in emergency situations. But be aware that, even if the recast is not too high, those affected by the nuke of a healer will get a debuff preventing them from being healed again by it for 1 minute. The nukes are: Fierce Recovery (BS), Vitalizing Jolt (ToS) and Radiance (PoM).

The three healers also have different spells to do what’s known as “crowd control”; those being stun, knockback, fear or root their enemies, which can save not only themselves from being killed, but also their group members, if a pull goes wrong or unexpected enemies join the fright. Like Ursine Crush or Ferocious Smack in the case of the Bear Shamans, Cobra Stare or Quicksand used by Tempests of Set or Condemn and Eye of Judgment for the Priests of Mitra; to name some of them.

Differences

Which is the best healing class of the three, is a source of many and heated discussions. Many defend the Bear Shaman and their medium armor as the best; for the higher armor, arguing it provides a higher survival ability. Others defend the Priest of Mitra as the “pure healer” class. And in truth, very few consider the Tempest of Set as a main healer class, but this is probably because most gamers choosing ToS as their class go for pure DPS (damage per second) feats and specs, not bothering much, if at all, with healing. Let’s have a look now at each class separately.

Bear Shaman These are the Cimmerian healers, basing their powers and spells in the spirits and the earth itself. They can wear medium armor and are melee healers; they not only look after the health of their comrades but also are fearful in direct battle, having melee combos like the soldier or rogue classes. But however appealing, this can be a drawback as they not only have to maintain a good power pool for the spells, but also a stamina pool for their melee combos. The choice of feats is very important because it’ll mark the difference between good BS healers from lousy ones. Even if going for the Spirits feat tree, investing 5 points in Nature’s Revenge from the Wrath tree is a must, since it will give a really useful buff with each melee hit to boost the healing of the Blood Flow (blue heal). And yet both trees will have healing benefits.

Priest of Mitra Priests are firm believers of the teachings of the god Mitra, obtaining divine powers to restore health and protect their friends and allies. They can wear light armor but if they choose, can also use shields for their own protection in battle. Although a PoM’s focus is protecting their comrades, they can punish their enemies severely with Holy Wrath. The DPS power of a PoM is not as high when specialized in healing, but they are tough to kill as well. Spells for self-protection, like Hand of Mitra, which provides self-immunity for a short period of time, can save them from tight spots while soloing, instancing or even raiding. Crowd control (CC) spells like Condemn, or Avatar of Mitra are also really helpful. Then again a PoM not specialized in healing, won’t be as effective and efficient as a BS or a ToS who are.

Tempest of Set The followers of Set may be the most fearful healers, commanding the Storm and the Snake they worship as strongly as they can heal their allies with the powers Set grants them for their loyalty and dedication. Lightning and venom are second nature to them, providing a deadly combination for these stygians. This, however, does not diminish their healing abilities, being able to keep their comrades alive while spellweaving (to add their DPS to the group) makes them worthy allies in any confrontation. They can root with Quicksand, stun with their Cobra Stare and heal themselves at the same time, becoming immune to most damage with their Serpent’s Transmutation. Again the difference comes from the feats chosen, which will enhance the healing or the damage output. Yet I suspect (this is the class I know the least on a first-hand basis) also enhancing both.

And with that I will stop for this week, as the subject will take longer than I expected at first. Next week we’ll see about the healing process in groups and raids and a few other considerations, as well as a personal conclusion about it all. Hope you enjoyed part one.  I look forward to your comments until next week.

And remember, Hyrkanian Insight updates every Saturday.

Have you ever wondered how a guild grows in level? Are you one of those who, maybe, believes it impossible to grow a small guild? Then allow me to contradict you. Oh yes, things have changed since launch, and even though some might complain that it is unfair to lower certain requirements, the truth is, building up a guild city and raising the level of a guild could both use a good thorough revision.

Hello again and welcome back to Hyrkanian Insight, where you’ll find all sorts of thoughts and facts concerning the game Age of Conan, which we love (and sometimes hate) with a passion. As you may have guessed we will be talking about renown in its various forms and how to acquire it. Come with me, stranger or friend, to see about work and fun…

First things first, I’m sure everyone who has joined a guild in AoC knows about renown, but for those new to the game or even those who haven’t played, let me explain: Renown is to a guild what XP is to a character. Each and every member of a guild can and will earn renown through various methods, and they will get it even without noticing it. So, why is renown and guild level important? Easy, guild levels bring rewards; from social outfits to show off on your walks through the city, armored mounts from which it will be nearly impossible to knock you off while you’re riding, to better and various decorations for the guild city, as well as better lasting potions from the guild city vendors and exclusive pets only available at certain guild level. If that doesn’t thrill you, there is an arena in Khemi, which is only accessible if you belong to a guild of a certain level. More recently the quests to learn the dances of other race are only available to members of guilds level 9 or above. And for PvPers, the access to Volume of Carnage and various siege engines also depend on guild level.

All that from top of my head. All  rewards for each level can be discovered in the Renown tab of the guild window, which you can open by clicking on the third icon on the upper left corner of the UI. And to add to it, there’s the rankings, which weekly will determine the top most renowned guild, depending on the amount of renown earned during that week. It is just a matter of pride, I know, but doesn’t it feel good being part of the best guilds on a server? Or being on top and get to the exclusive new area in Old Tarantia to relax in, at a nice terrace on the roofs of the towers, after an adventuring day?

Let’s get into details. Renown is the sum of the Valor, Glory and Artistry that each member (sometimes the guild itself) gets through questing, PvPing or crafting.

Valor

Valor points are awarded to players after defeating each mob or encounter; the amount awarded will depend on the level of the mob compared to the level of the character. Epic mobs will grant higher valor than normal mobs, and that’s why raiding is decisive for remaining on the rankings and earning a good income of renown. Valor will also be received after finishing each quest, (again the quest level will determine the amount of valor awarded.) This makes doing quests, even after reaching maximum level, important, because those quest will prove a boost in valor for the guild. Not counting the money and sometimes good items rewarded that will help us progress.

Glory

Glory is the equivalent of Valor for PvPers. Killing other characters while in a PvP area, achieving goals in minigames or simply taking part in those will earn you glory. Sometimes, even when doing PvE content, one can be surprised with glory points; this happens when one of the group members gets charmed by a boss, instantly becoming a foe; if he or she gets killed the rest will get glory. I would advice against this practice if you’re in a group (sometimes in raids it’s not possible to control it) for the loss of a member might prove critical for the outcome of the encounter with the boss, hehe. Also, farming Bori Shrines will grant you a good amount of glory; 9000 points for each altar completed, apart from good mastery and prowess XP which is always welcome. Doing Bori requires owning the expansion though, and even if it’s easy enough when there’s just you and your group in Cimmerian End, it can be a pain in PvP severs or populated servers which do PvP a lot.

Artistry

Finally, Artistry is the renown earned through crafting in any of its forms. Every profession will earn artistry points with each combine they do; the higher the level of the combines, the more points acquired. Whether it is polishing gems, brewing potions or crafting mighty weapons and armor pieces, all of it earns renown for your guild, benefitting all the guild members in the process. Even gathering earns you a small bit of artistry, well yes, it only happens when you harvest rare resources, and yes it’s so small it’s laughable; but as it comes while you’re harvesting it doesn’t hurt and it’s welcome none the less, isn’t it?

Now, all of above will happen without you even noticing it. To level your character you will quest and defeat foes; to acquire PvP ranks and equipment you will go to PvP areas and fight other gamers; and if you’re a tradeskiller spending time gathering resources and converting them into shiny new pieces of artistry will be a second nature to you. So it’s not much of an effort gaining renown for your guild.

However, there are other options to earn renown which don’t happen as you do other stuff. For one, you can pay Tatianus to cry out loud the virtues and deeds of your guild. Each time someone walks (or runs) by Tatianus and he tells them about it, the guild will earn 2000 renown points. Now this renown will not go to the player pool who paid him, but to the guild as a whole. The curious thing about Tatianus is that half an hour of his services cost 20 silvers, 45 minutes 50 silvers and an hour 75 silvers. I know, it’s extortion. For less than the cost of a straight hour you could have half that time extra; but it would mean that you must come back to him each 30 minutes to pay him again and make sure you don’t get beat by other eager guild member to it.

Also in Old Tarantia, by the PvP recruiters there are four NPCs who are more than willing to take crafted stuff off your hands to equip the armies defending the Kingdom Borders. They will award you artistry points for your cooperation. Alchemists can hand sets of potions of each level, all 12 level 40 items, all 12 lvl 50 and so on can be handed in exchange for artistry. It might not seem like much, but if you take into account that alchemy mats are not that difficult to get, why not use them to earn renown and as the icing in the cake being able to get some additional points instead of selling the result products to a vendor for a miserable price. Gemcutters though are required to be lvl 80, because the NPC will require sets of the same color gems but all levels, but the renown is very good for each, added to that of polishing each gem independently. Weaponsmiths and Armorsmiths can also hand the finest pieces of their work. Obviously architects cannot hand in their work like this.

I left Architects for last on purpose. This is a very expensive and tricky profession that I do not recommend unless you plan on being the architect of a guild city, or co-architect. Leveling up is really costly and will take the money you could be using on equipment, mounts (if you don’t have veteran tokens) or other stuff. It also requires an insane amount of harvesting time to gather materials for the different buildings and decorations. But, if you are one, the rewards of building up are great. The artistry earned from converting resources into slabs, blocks, frames and lintels (among other items needed for constructing buildings, walls and towers) award artistry to the crafter, however when an architect builds up something it also gets artistry points for the guild. And it is high amounts of artistry. To name an example, the Honored Matriarch statue costs 300 granite and 75 feldspar. Crafting the statue will get the architect 120 artistry, but placing it gives the guild 246.000 points of artistry!! And so on with the rest of things that can be put in the guild.

I hope this helped you or at least that did entertain you for a while. If you know any other way I did overlook, please let us know in a comment, you will be most welcome.

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