The Anvil of Crom: Delving into PvP minis

There's a lot to like about Funcom's Age of Conan MMORPG, whether you're into the lush visuals, the lore, or the laid back progression. If you're anything like me, with combat and competitive sensibilities that lean toward the carebear side of the fence, you'll also likely appreciate the game's approach to PvP. For starters you have two major options: the free-for-all PvP servers or the PvE-focused realms that give you a bit more control over the ganking experience.

On the former, you've got your standard kill-everything-that-moves mentality, which, while fun in spurts, ultimately gets in the way of Age of Conan's top-notch PvE experience. On the latter, you can kill or be killed on your own terms, either in the Border Kingdom zones or in the game's mini-PvP scenarios.

Hit the jump for some minigame impressions.

The basics

Age of Conan's minigames are pretty straightforward, and offer a quick way to get your PvP fix without having to hunt around for random opponents, plan elaborate sieges, or deal with spawn-camping. Each mini takes place in its own instance, and players can sign up whilst continuing to go about their business elsewhere in the game world. When the rosters are filled, the game will prompt you to accept or decline the invite, and you'll be whisked away to 15 minutes of dedicated bloodletting. If you're thinking Warhammer Online's scenarios, you're not far off, though it's worth noting that Age of Conan's minis pre-dated Waagh by several months.

Minis require 12 players (so be prepared to wait for a bit if you're trying to join during off-peak hours) which are split into two teams of six. You can sign up at random and be subjected to the whims of the unholy pickup group, or you can sign up as a pre-made group. The latter option is highly recommended, as successful minigame PvP is highly dependent on organization and teamwork. You'll still get kill credits, guild renown, and PvP XP if you PUG it, but odds are you'll die more often than necessary due to all the helter-skelter bum-rushing, not to mention lose the match. In my experience, PUGs rarely utilize group chat, preferring to simply charge the enemy and hope for the best. There is the occasional experienced player who will try and direct attacks or call out objectives, but they're few and far between.

Minis are segregated by player level, so you won't have to worry about signing your newb Demonologist into a match and being demolished by a level 80 Assassin. In addition, your level is bumped up to the tier maximum upon joining the match (i.e. if you join a level 20-39 minigame as a level 26, you'll actually be level 39 for the duration of the match in terms of hit points and other stats). That said, you won't have access to level-based attack skills that you've yet to earn, which means there is some advantage for higher-level players. Even so, organized groups can and do overcome higher-level adversaries and win matches regularly.

Capture the skull

Speaking of matches, they come in two flavors: Capture the Skull and Annihilate the Opposing Team. Both are exactly what you would expect given the names. Capture the Skull is the Hyborian equivalent of capture the flag, with six players donning red capes and six players donning blue. Grab your opponent's flag/skull, plant it back at your base, and thrill to the spoils of victory if you manage to do it more often than your enemies.

Capture the Skull attempts nothing new, and as such it may bore those battle-hardened PvP types who've been doing variants of it since the late 1980s. For those of us who dabble, however, it's a pleasant diversion from quest-running, progression, and roleplaying. Curiously, Funcom opted to implement a very vanilla version of the minigame. As an example, it might be interesting to require your team skull to be secure before you can plant the enemy's. As it stands now, it's just a foot race to see who can get a rogue to the opposing skull first and protect him on the way back. Limiting the available plant times might liven things up a bit.

Annihilate the opposing team

On the other side of the minigame spectrum you have Annihilate the Opposing Team. Like Capture the Skull, there's not a whole heck of a lot to it in terms of complexity. It's basically the Age of Conan version of Team Deathmatch. Stick the pointy end into the other man, do it more often than your opponent, and enjoy your victory scoreboard. Your team will spawn next to their team totem, which is at the opposite end of the play field from your opponent's totem. As long as the totem is standing, you'll be able to resurrect after being killed. This leads to the common strategy of rushing the enemy totem as soon as possible, since the team that loses its totem has exactly one life left. Die after your totem has fallen and you'll be treated to ten minutes of looking at your crumpled corpse and a rather annoying status box that announces your lack of a respawn point.

This game type is also somewhat problematic because players can hide inside their initial spawn/respawn points due to the area being inaccessible to enemy players. My first experience with Annihilate the Opposing Team consisted of lying dead in the middle of the map for over six minutes. After my team totem had fallen, one of my teammates decided to hide inside the spawn area rather than let himself be killed and end the match.

The maps

The play field maps are really my only major gripe with Age of Conan's minigame PvP. While most are well-laid out and absolutely beautiful to look at (particularly the Blood Ravine and Hallowed Vaults areas), there are only four of them (at least through 50, my current level). I'd love to see twice as many maps added in a future update, as you very quickly learn the hotspots after a couple of hours queuing for minis.

Conclusions

Ultimately, minigame PvP in Age of Conan does exactly what it sets out to do: namely, provide a controlled competitive environment for players looking to earn the game's PvP rewards or simply take a break from PvE. There are problems, particularly with the Annihilate the Opposing Team respawn mechanic, and it would also be quite nice of Funcom to allow cross-server minis to alleviate some of the wait time. Aside from those small issues, I highly recommend gathering four or five of your closest friends and having at it.

Until next week, I leave you with the requisite bar brawl PvP.

Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran, as well as the creator of Massively's weekly Anvil of Crom. Feel free to suggest a column topic, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality via jef@massively.com.