Many updates but no new PvP system in today's Age of Conan patch

This morning sees the arrival of one of the larger patches for Age of Conan. To get the bad news out of the way first: the new PvP changes, including the fugitive system, PvP XP and PvP gear, aren't in yet. They are still in testing over on the Testlive Server, so interested players can experience the system first-hand and give feedback.

Changes that have gone live include revamps to several dungeons including the Pyramid of the Ancients, revised resource collecting areas, and an almost complete fix to the female versus male attack speed issue. The patch also includes changes to looting, with all green and blue drops now being either Bind on Pickup or Bind on Equip. This particular change has caused mixed reactions among the players.

A fairly severe rebalancing of gems is also causing some grief, with invulnerability gems revealed to have been overpowered all along by accident. Another extremely significant change is the adjustment to drops from epic bosses, notably those in the Field of the Dead and Cannibal Caves, which reportedly now drop around 5 silver instead of 30, making them nigh-on worthless for gold farmers.

There's no suggestion of when the PvP patch will go live, but further testing is obviously necessary. Unless it somehow goes live later today, which is frankly unlikely, this will place the PvP patch outside Funcom's revised estimate of July.