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The Anvil of Crom: Finding an Age of Conan hidden faction
A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across an odd quest chain in the Kara Korum portion of Khitai. It was odd because there was no real indication of its existence, at least in terms of the usual NPC exclamation point or any sort of standard MMO visual signal. How did I find it? That's a long story, the short version of which is that I needed a base texture for some new Anvil of Crom graphics that were in the works. Some of the village buildings in Khitai have this nifty moss-covered stone look to them, and as I zoomed in to get a good screen cap, I saw a funky symbol on the wall. It was clickable, and doing so rewarded me with a pop-up window, a quest called Telltale Signs, and my first brush with one of Age of Conan's hidden factions.
The Anvil of Crom: Four reasons to return to Age of Conan
A couple of weeks ago, one of Massively's more eloquent commenters referred to yours truly as "Funcom's biznitch." Well, OK, biznitch wasn't the exact word, but you get the idea. This bit of nerdrage was amusing for multiple reasons, not the least of which was that I hadn't covered (or played) Age of Conan for nearly five months at the time. You know what, though? I do like Age of Conan, and I did miss Hyboria. Sure it's got its issues, omissions, frustrations, and WTF-were-they-thinking design decisions, but it's also got a game world unlike any other in the MMO space. Join me after the cut for a few reasons I came back (as well as a preview of what the future holds for The Anvil of Crom).
The Anvil of Crom: Playing through Dead Man's Hand
A few weeks ago I teamed with Funcom to bring you an exclusive preview of the Dead Man's Hand solo instance featured in Age of Conan's new Savage Coast of Turan adventure pack. Over the past couple of days I finally managed to spend a bit of time playing through it, and for the most part it's been a lot of fun. I say "for the most part" because I did experience a couple of gnat-bite annoyances in terms of acquiring the proper quests and completing a couple of the boss fights. Overall, though, it's definitely an instance worth checking out (though I'm not sure I'll be adding it to my daily rotation like I did with the Breach and Forgotten City dungeons).
The Anvil of Crom: Alternate advancement explained
Welcome back to the Anvil of Crom, Conan fans. I trust you've been gorging yourselves on the movie and all of the new content that the Age of Conan dev team has pushed out the door over the past couple of months. This week I'm going to step back and take a high-altitude look at one of the game's mechanical aspects, that being the alternate advancement system that shipped with 2010's Rise of the Godslayer expansion. I say high-altitude because many of the AA tricks you'll learn over the course of your AoC career will be class-specific, and though I'll eventually get to those in my series of class guides, today I'll start with an overview of the system as well as a bit of commentary relating to why you should care about it. For you free-to-play folk, yeah, Funcom did lock your AAs behind the paywall for the time being, and yeah there is quite a difference between a "fresh" level 80 and a level 80 who has had even a little bit of AA training. Join me past the cut to see if upgrading is worth it.
The Anvil of Crom: A look inside the Forgotten City
A couple of weeks ago I took you on a tour of the Breach, one of two new instances that debuted with Age of Conan's free-to-play Unchained patch. Today, we'll nose around the second dungeon, an outdoor playfield called the Forgotten City that -- like its predecessor -- has AoC's distinctive far-eastern flavor written all over it. The two instances are similar in that they both scale to a player's level between 40 and 80, and they're both accessed via the Gateway to Khitai zone that serves as the entry point into AoC's Rise of the Godslayer content. That's about where the similarities end, though, as the dungeons are quite different in terms of visual style and challenge level. %Gallery-129172%
The Anvil of Crom: Once more unto the Breach, dear friends
Ah yes, where else but Massively can you get a lesson in both Shakespeare and Age of Conan (in the same article, no less)? Nowhere else, I tell you, and before we get to the Conan part, let's get ye olde English out of the way. Many of you have no doubt uttered today's titular phrase on your way into a particularly nasty game dungeon. A few of you may have even uttered it correctly. Here's your gold star. The rest of you, pay attention: It's unto the breach. Unto, not into. So said Shakespeare and later Olivier in his 1944 film adaptation of Henry V. And yeah, I used to say it wrong too. Anyway, on to the AoC. The Breach in question is one of two new solo dungeons added with the Unchained update, and thanks to Blood and Glory, this particular dungeon is the only one of the pair that your humble columnist has found time to sample. %Gallery-128404%
The Anvil of Crom: Your guide to the Refuge of the Apostate
Wow, I've completely forgotten how to play my Demo. Due to recent adventures in Bear Shaman land, my level 80 Age of Conan characters have been collecting quite a bit of dust. I haven't really missed them yet, either, as the Shaman is a heck of a lot more enjoyable than I expected. That said, he's only 35, and therefore he's out of the running when it comes to showing me through the new Refuge of the Apostate dungeon content that Funcom released a few days back. Join me after the cut as I get reacquainted with spamming shockstrike and running around with various succubi pets and a severe outbreak of particle effects. I might even be persuaded to offer up a proper guide for the new dungeon (and some review commentary) as well.
The Anvil of Crom: Tortage in four hours (or less)
So you've just created another Age of Conan alt and you're dreading a second (or third, or fourth) Tortage run-through. Maybe you've come back to the game after a long absence -- or you're completely new -- and your friends are waiting for you to get off the island in a hurry and join them in Hyboria proper. Regardless of the reason, many people prefer to zip through Age of Conan's newb levels once they've experienced the story a time or two (it does vary somewhat based on your class archetype, but in the end, you're still the liberator of Tortage, Strom's bane, yada, yada). Since Funcom has yet to implement any skip-the-island functionality for those of us with multiple toons and plenty of Tortage experience, the only thing left to do is grin and bear it. Happily, though, The Anvil of Crom is here for you in the form of the Tortage Speed Run guide. Join me after the cut to see how I went from the character creation screen to stepping off the boat in Khemi with a level 16 Necromancer in a little under four hours.
The Anvil of Crom: Breaking down the Khitai grind, part one
So I'm attacking the endgame faction grind with renewed vigor. After spending the past couple of months thoroughly engaged in Darkfall and somewhat distracted by Global Agenda, I have to confess to (formerly) being less than enthusiastic about Khitai repeatables, marks of acclaim, and 6-man pick up groups in Age of Conan. Time away from Hyboria (or at least, less time in Hyboria) makes a man yearn to return, though, as there is no place in MMO land that compares in terms of sights and sounds. That said, I'm still not a fan of the grind, and I still think Funcom needs to address the fact that it takes the average player months -- if he's lucky -- to get a full suit of Khitai armor (never mind jewelry and a couple of weapons). It does seem a bit less daunting when you break it down into chunks, though, and when you set yourself a reasonable goal and stop worrying about if or when you'll ever have time to play an alt.
The Anvil of Crom: Class guide #1 - The Demonologist
This week I'd like to kick off something a little bit different. Thus far The Anvil of Crom has been somewhat reactionary, meaning things happen in the Age of Conan game world that make for good discussion, or things happen in the community surrounding the game that do likewise. Aside from my semi-regular Hyborian travelogue series (and an occasional guide or two), the column has basically reflected the current game-related news. Initially that was by design, as I didn't want it to be yet another gaming blog that talked about more of the same stuff you'd find at 100 other destinations. The problem is, Age of Conan doesn't feature a large internet presence, and every time I look for a guide, I'm reminded of the fact that I should write one. Beginning today, I'm going to embark on a series of class guides designed to give newbs and vets alike the information they need to determine whether a particular archetype is right for them. My initial thought is to offer three guides per class: a 1 - 40 examination, a 40 - 80 synopsis, and a look at the class at endgame. Obviously this will be an ongoing experiment, since Age of Conan boasts a hefty complement of classes (12 as of this writing), each of them fairly unique from the others and their conventional MMORPG counterparts. Join me after the break for a look at the life and times of a young Demonologist, as well as a brief gameplay video of the class in action.
The Anvil of Crom: Traveling the Silk Road
Last week we spoke briefly with Funcom executive producer and game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison regarding Age of Conan's random encounter mechanic, which will invoke a series of one-off solo instances designed to add a bit of flavor to the journey to Hyboria's Far East. We also checked out five of the 11 available instances: four sea-faring adventures and one rare-spawn quest-giving encounter. This week, we'll step through the remaining five adventures, all of them land-locked, in addition to taking a quick look at the second rare spawn. Voyage past the cut for more.
The Anvil of Crom: Random encounters with Craig Morrison
So, what do random encounters and Age of Conan executive producer Craig "Silirrion" Morrison have in common? Truthfully, not much as far as The Anvil of Crom and its author is concerned, as I've never had the pleasure of meeting Funcom's game director in person. That said, he was kind enough to answer a few questions for this week's column via email, all of them pertaining to the random encounter mechanic implemented with last May's Rise of the Godslayer expansion. What's a random encounter, you may find yourself asking? Peek behind the curtain and find out.
The Anvil of Crom: Building a Khitai PC
So I've finally started to have technical issues with Age of Conan. Despite being in the original closed beta, the launch weekend headstart, and several bug-ridden months of playtime after that, I've never really been unable to run the game until recently. I'm playing with the same PC I used back when the game debuted in 2008; the only concession to hardware advancements I've made in the past two years is an updated video card. For some reason though, Khitai has become increasingly unplayable on my rig. This is curious because I was in the Godslayer beta with no problems, just like I tooled around in the Gateway zone when the expansion went live with no problems. After the last couple of patches though, I'm unable to play in Hyboria's far east for more than a few minutes before a memory crash takes me back to the desktop. Also, I've had to completely bottom-out my graphical settings to be able to load into the new zones (and even with this concession, it literally takes four to six minutes -- yes I've timed it -- of staring at the loading screen and progress bar). Slog past the cut for more. %Gallery-98996%
The Anvil of Crom: Filling the leveling gaps
Never let it be said that The Anvil of Crom doesn't exist to serve the readers, as this week, we're taking a step back from our usual industry rantings and ravings to indulge in the creation of a proper leveling guide. There aren't really a lot of such Age of Conan resources on yonder intarwebs (and if you've written any I missed, my apologies but Google doesn't like you). Anyhow, my guildmates began to flounder about after exhausting their 30-ish level quests, and (after I pointed and laughed for a few minutes) I figured a formal guide was in order. So, join me after the cut as I perform my Hyborian civic duty and clue some of our newer players in to the best places to get their level on. Also, keep in mind this is how I've progressed on several characters across three of the four racial choices and their associated zones, so if you have a more efficient way, feel free to share it in the comments.
The Anvil of Crom: Class selection guide
Welcome, my barbaric friends, to The Anvil of Crom. Last week we kicked around the difficult dilemma of server selections for my return to Age of Conan, and with that out of the way we can delve into some of the class choices available in Funcom's version of Hyboria. Given that I'm currently playing two rangers (one on Wiccana, one on Cimmeria), this column will ultimately focus heavily on those experiences. I'll also toss in the occasional comment on assassins (my launch day character and now an alt) as well as how my rangers fare against all twelve classes. Age of Conan is a unique title in many ways, but none are more readily apparent than the melee combat system and the newish take on traditional MMORPG class roles. If you're new to the game or newly returned, chances are you're having a bit of a time deciding which class is right for you. If you pick one based on prior genre experience, you may find some surprises in store. Hit the link below for some basic class breakdowns as well as my reasons for going ranger. Page 2 of 3 >>
The Anvil of Crom: AoC community guide
Cue the Basil Poledouris music, the lamentations of women, and the sounds of armor and steel, for Massively has come to Hyborea. Join me as I kick off the column and chronicle the trials and tribulations of a newb making his way through Funcom's version of Robert E. Howard's harsh realm. Every week we'll bring you Age of Conan tidbits, commentary, and news and views straight from the horse's mouth in the form of Funcom guests and Q&A. This week, per Massively tradition, we'll take a quick look at the game's community and examine the resources available to the neophyte barbarian and the seasoned throat-slitter alike. Follow along after the break for a listing of essential resources for the new or returning Age of Conan player.
