Age of Conan's defense system detailed
Everyone is familiar with the tried-and-true combat systems found in just about every MMO to date, although more games are becoming the exception as time goes on. Age of Conan happens to be one of those exceptions and with its very active directional combat system comes some new ways to manage your defenses during the heat of battle.
Funcom has gone and made an informative overview of all the different ways to 'defend thy self' in their upcoming Hyborian online adventure. It's a good thing they have too, because there is a lot to consider when keeping your head firmly attached to your body in this game.
Beyond the passive defenses typical to any MMO there is also terrain and movement to consider -- especially since Age of Conan employs collision detection. This means hiding behind objects or even double-tapping your movement keys to dodge once in a while.
However, the main thing to keep in mind are your shields -- and we don't mean the typical kind you strap onto your arm. While AoC certainly has classes that can hold onto a shield for extra protection, it also has a special shielding system that NPCs and players alike use to focus their defenses.
Basically, characters in AoC have little shield icons around their bodies that increase the damage reduction of attacks originating from the direction they're guarding. So as an example, you could instantly stack all of your shielding to your right side if you see an enemy charging up a right-side attack. This also means that attacks from behind leave characters open to more damage, as there aren't any shields on player's backsides. Another thing this system does is ensure that players won't mash one set of attacks repeatedly, because monsters (and attentive players) will realize what they're doing and compensate with more shields -- pretty cool, if you ask us.
