Thursday, May 15, 2008

Age of Conan - Other Class Choices

This will be the first MMOG that my friend Brendon and I can play together from the start, so we're fairly certain we'll be spending a lot of time in a static duo group. Incidentally, if anyone was wondering, he can't smell a thing so that's why he can tolerate a vegetarian's company.

Moving on... it looks like he'll be using the Barbarian as his class in our group, and I'm probably oing to use the Bear Shaman in that case as it'll be nice to have a DPS powerhouse teamed with a healer (and a melee healer at that). Now these two characters we'll only really play when we're online at the same time and in the mood for teaming, so that still leaves me with the difficult decision of which class I want to play as my main honcho.

I'm still sort of leaning towards the Herald of Xotli for his absolute damage output and the coolness factor of a two-handed sword wielding fire and demonic mage. But that doesn't mean I have ruled out all of the other classes the game has to offer.

I spent a lot of time in the beta with the Dark Templar and Assassin, but the Barbarian is also a class I'm itching to play and I'm sort of leaning towards making one myself. But then I start thinking about the Demonologist, the Necromancer, the Tempest of Set, and even the Priest of Mitra... and of course that leads me to thinking abouut how tanks are always useful and I start thinking about the Conqueror and the Guardian.

Is it possible for a game to have 12 classes and each one of them are fun to play? I never used to think so, but with the way combat works and the way Spellweaving is touted as working I think Funcom's sort of struck gold when it comes to that area. None of the classes are boring or any less interactive than the next one. And that speaks volumes for the replayability to me, with the exception of only having one starting area in Tortage.

So then, dearest readers... if you had to pick for me knowing my previous playing habits across WoW, LotRO, TR, and now the AoC beta which class (aside from the Bear Shaman since he's decided upon) would you suggest?

A tank, a rogue, a caster, or yet another healer? I'd love to hear some ideas since my head can't seem to come to a conclusion and time's a-waisting.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a certain magic in playing an MMORPG from the start (or closely afterwards), together with your friends.

I think I'm addicted to that experience actually. =)

I played a lot of early MMOs finding friends in-game, but for the past 6 years or so I've insisted on dragging my RL friends with me. It's been hella rewarding, especially when we get together LAN-style and play.

Brendon said...

Yeah, I have known Bill for a couple of years now but we have never found a good MMO to start out together. We tried with WoW but by the time I got to 40 I got bored and he had already seen much of the game so we both just lost interest. Hopefully this game will be fun for small groups and I am really looking forward to playing it real soon. :)

sam said...

Yeah brendon I feel that myself. I quit WOW shortly after BC due to burn out. I recently tried to come back and play with my friends only to discover that it's pretty much impossible at this point. I'm 6 months behind on everything. Its no fun for my friends to come run me through everything. (ANd I'd rather eat glass anyway) And by the time I did catch up they'd have moved on and be 6 months ahead anyway.

I'm hoping for a new game that lets us start over. Unfortunately one hasn't come out that has pulled my friends out of WOW yet.

But that starting out with your friends and conquering the world together is the absolute best.

Keen said...

I'm looking at the Herald of Xotli or one of the pure casters myself. Still can't decide here either. :(

Anonymous said...

Well that's me all patched-up and ready to go.

And the game is patched-up too, although it was one hell of a fight, hence the patching myself up afterwards. Thank goodness for my vorpal sword of patch finagling.

Is the game actually duoable from the start, then? I got the impression that it was very much the single player game from the off until level 20. If that's not the case, then perhaps Zoso, Elf, myself and others can get our little gang going straight away. Which is nice.

Bildo said...

It's sort of both, Mel.

On one hand the Tortage Night portion (the Destiny Quests) are solo only. But in between all that you'll be spending time in Tortage Day which is a fully multi-player experience. You'll be able to solo or duo, or whatever during that time.

It's not until once you're out of Tortage that you'll be able to all duo all the time though.

The Tortage quests move you along fast and hard, but they're not enough to level to 20 alone on so expect to be able to quest with your friends quite a bit.