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The Anvil of Crom: AA resets, tradeskills, and hardcore PvP stagnation
Welcome back to the Anvil of Crom, dear readers. After the content explosion of the past couple of months, it seems almost strange to be relatively relaxed when it comes to Age of Conan. I'd gotten so used to scrambling around re-writing columns at the last minute -- and polishing up interviews and impression pieces -- that I had almost forgotten what it feels like to settle into a comfortable gameplay groove. In looking around for interesting topics this week, I realized that it's been quite some time since I turned the column over to the community. So without further ado, join me after the cut to see what's on the minds of Hyborians at home and abroad as we power through the week's hot topics.
The Anvil of Crom: Recessions, appearance tabs, and PvP for the returning player
Welcome to the Anvil of Crom, Conan fans. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks, and all of the announcements, new content, business model changes, and general gameplay shenanigans are only going to generate more Age of Conan discussion as the summer wears on. This week I'd like to take a brief time out to highlight some worthwhile (and ongoing) community discussions. Every so often it's good to take a bit of a break from my rantings and ravings and hand the microphone to you guys, and what better way to do that than by examining a few of the more interesting forum discussions to be found on both the U.S. and EU boards. Without further ado, join me after the cut and add your two copper to the comment section.
May Warhammer Online community update details Sigmar Tide event
Sound the WAAAGH! Warhammer Online's May community update was released today and includes details on the upcoming version 1.4.3. Particularly, it outlines the upcoming in-game event Sigmar Tide. Due to the fact that the event won't be available on the public test server to avoid spoilers, the team at Mythic is taking the opportunity to give players an idea of what they should expect from the event. The event itself is based on a special date in Warhammer lore: the day that Sigmar, founder of the Empire, ascended to godhood. And how does the Empire celebrate this occasion? Exactly how you would expect in the Warhammer universe: killing the tainted, hanging witches, and burning heretics. This jovial holiday will introduce a new scenario -- the College of Corruption -- into the mix, and it will be available to all players of any level for the duration of the event. For more information on the event, head on over to the full article.
The Anvil of Crom: Is it just a dream (world)?
So the Dreamworld update is finally here, and Funcom has either made a mess of things or kicked a lot of graphical butt, depending on your perspective (as well as how your computer decided to handle the new engine rollout). Yes 2.1.3 went live last week, and it's got the Age of Conan community talking. Rangers and the newbs people who play them also have the AoC community chattering away, but really, when is that ever not the case? In this week's Anvil of Crom, I'll add my two cents to both discussions, and I'll also bribe, cajole, extort, and yes, coerce readers into voting in the latest poll to determine the grisly fate of my upcoming community-driven avatar.
The Anvil of Crom: In praise of forum PvP
Hello my fellow barbarians, and welcome back to The Anvil of Crom. The new year is but a babe at this point, but there's already a lot going on in the world of Funcom's Hyboria. If these first few days are any indication, I'm certainly not going to be hurting for column topics in 2011, and the Age of Conan community isn't going to be hurting for discussion items either. As far as my in-game adventures are concerned, I'm plugging away at the Khitai content with my Demonologist and seriously considering making him my permanent main. I'm still waffling a bit as I love alts and love the way they allow me to experience different parts of the game, but the post-80 grind is simply too much to bear on multiple toons. I guess moving to a single-character playstyle is ultimately a good thing, but in past games I've been unable to shake the nagging suspicion that I'm missing something. Look for more on this in a future column (assuming I can make up my mind). Anyhow, it's been quite a while since I took the community's pulse (mid-November to be exact), so what say we take a look at what's got Age of Conan's players (and developers) talking of late.
Tabula Rasa's Guardian gaffe?
As Guardians in Destination Games' Tabula Rasa already well know, the staff ability saw something of a change this past week, and it was an unexpected change at that. Players wielding a staff saw their damage reduced to about 20% of what it was, and the speed of their attacks was raised 5x times, ostensibly to make up the DPS lost. On the official TR site, a community update went up to let players know that this was only part of a proposed Guardian tweak that they're working on behind the scenes, of which the 5x speed increase was a part -- the lowering of the damage was just a hotfix to temporarily rein in the damage until the full fix came out.Now, as an aspiring Guardian myself, I can tell what's wrong with this idea right away. Giving the Guardian, the tank class of the game, a 5x attack speed increase is destined to upset players. Guardians tend to put five pumps into hand-to-hand because the damage bonus it affords stacks with staff damage. The problem? Putting five pumps into hand-to-hand also gives you a 75% knockback chance. Think about that. If you increase the number of swings Guardians take by five, you're increasing the number of knockbacks by five. Knockbacks, those fun little occurances where you actually lower your DPS by knocking your enemy out of melee range.I think this may be the first time I've heard a class-wide, "NERF!" in Tabula Rasa since it went live. *sniff* They grow up so fast!
