Age of Conan for World of Warcraft players
by Mike Schramm 
May 20th 2008 at 2:00PM
Funcom's new MMO Age of Conan opens up their servers today (the game is set for release tomorrow), and like many WoW players, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. Our good friends over at Massively have put together a guide specifically for you -- it's a look at Age of Conan from the point of view of a player of World of Warcraft.A lot of things are the same between the two games -- talents are very similar, and there are a lot of comparable mechanics and spells (DoTs, healing, and aggro, of course, all play a role in AoC as well as in Azeroth). But there are a lot of differences, too: Age of Conan's combat is based on real-time, which means you actually press a button to strike, rather than just setting a target and going to town. Instances play a different role, too -- you start out in a private instance, and can level in a world by yourself for a much longer time than in World of Warcraft. And Funcom has put in quite a few things designed to pull us away from WoW also: mounted combat, a deeper guild system, player cities, and some more PvP mini games.
Of course, even if you do go to play some AoC, Wrath of the Lich King will probably bring you back to WoW anyway -- as fun as killing stuff in the Hyborian Age is, it doesn't hold a candle to meeting Arthas Menethil, in our humble opinion. But if you've heard about Age of Conan and are wondering what the difference is, Massively's guide has you covered.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Instances, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Markymark May 20th 2008 2:12PM
I tried the beta and I dunno it's kindy buggy. I'm sure they fixed all that but I'd rather play oblivion then its bastard child impersonator.
Thijz May 21st 2008 3:03AM
Duh, it's a beta, offcourse it's buggy. Look at WoW's beta, everyone kept falling through the world (and that still happens).
Also, it's kinda useless to do a discussion like this on a WoW-fansite, since obviously none of you guys have played the game. I see this guy a few posts below me say 'Up, down, left, right, A, B, A, B, Select, Start!! FTL :(' which is utter BS. AoC uses 3 different attack-directions, bound to your 1, 2 and 3 keys.
And no, you don't have to memorize combo's. You just click a skill and the game shows some directions on your screen (up, right, left for example). If you do this right, the effect from that combo is unlocked (a stun/snare/bleed/whatever). There's no need to memorize anything at all.
wasniahC May 30th 2008 10:56AM
No.. its not just 3.. you only start with 3. You unlock more as you reach higher levels. At level 40 you get other strokes with "Q" and "E". I've heard loads about a 6th attack but nobody has unlocked it yet.. we'll have to wait and see.
Yea, there is LOTS of lore around Conan. I recommend going to this site:
http://gutenberg.net.au/sfproject.html
And keying in ctrl+f, and searching for AU,Conan.
As for a comparison to WoW.. this I've mentioned here will certainly make a change (for the better I believe) for melee combat. Casters get to mix spells together. You get a first-person view for firing a bow, as a ranger. And the graphics are better too.
WoW will no doubt be improved greatly from WotLK, but there's only so far you can go with those graphics and basic combat system etc. Sure, deathknight looks ok.. lake wintergrasp looks ok.. but you get so much more out of AoC, I think. The community seems to be more mature in AoC as well.
As for all the comments I keep seeing about how terrible AoC's PvE will be, how terrible beta was.. how many of you saw WoW's beta? As mentioned here, WoW was terrible at beta too (As is expected!) and there wasn't much for PvE at first either.
Scott May 20th 2008 4:01PM
Thats right! Good bye Azeroth~I'll be back when Arthas makes his return.
Naix May 20th 2008 2:27PM
All my friends, family, and some co-workers play wow. It would take an epic game to pull me away. I have vested to much time to just walk away to another mmo. I still have so much wow to play. With WoTLK on the way (Like 6 months or less) there is no way I am going to another MMO.
Xin May 20th 2008 2:32PM
from what i read there is no raiding or any good pve stuff to do. aoc = fail
Reinard May 20th 2008 2:42PM
But...but but but BLOOD!
BOOBIES!
:(
RanWitScissorz May 20th 2008 2:44PM
because wow had tons of raid content when it first came out... molten core, and well that was it
David May 20th 2008 2:39PM
No mac client... I'm staying in Azaroth.
Ste May 20th 2008 2:49PM
You're staying in Azaroth? Where's that then?
Hurode May 20th 2008 3:10PM
I knew I should have made a left toin at Albukoykee
prudychick May 20th 2008 3:04PM
I received an odd email on AoC today. Not knowing who the sender was I of course didn't open it. The sender was WoWBreak and the preview in my gmail they wrote that they think I was in a guild of theirs at one time. Well the fact that I've only been in two guilds in my entire WoW lifetime and would never ever, ever, ever, ever give out my email address which is different than the one I use to log in with....
Dotixi May 20th 2008 3:05PM
Not to sound like a moron...but the combat system seems overly complex. The combo system reminds me of old console games: Up, down, left, right, A, B, A, B, Select, Start!! FTL :(
jbodar May 20th 2008 10:17PM
Not sure if you're referring to a different code, but the Konami code was ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A
Sarah Jul 2nd 2008 4:01AM
Er, it's just a case of pressing a button and then it telling you what direction to press. If you think that is complicated, I'm amazed you managed to post on here!
Pingmeister May 20th 2008 3:10PM
If I was to join it would be specifically to walk around in Hyboria which, as a Conan nerd, I am familiar with the way the lore-maniacs are in Azeroth.
But...I don't need a new game to soak up my time. Sticking to WoW here.
migellito May 20th 2008 3:18PM
The combat system, which involves actually attacking your opponent, is exactly what I've been hoping for. I loved Jedi Academy, and longed for a combat system like that within an mmo.
Unfortunately, my computer can't handle AoC... :/
Matt May 20th 2008 3:23PM
sorry no...this reminds me ALOT of SWG's NGE. click click click click click click click click click click click click click click! oh head dead.. wait ANOTHER ONE!! click click click click click click click click click. phew... talk about annoying as hell...this is not a good combat system at all. FPS + MMO doesnt really work, tabula rasa has a better combat system than AOC...
Badger May 20th 2008 3:20PM
Is there any RP depth to this game? I know the stories and films created a pretty vast, dark, gritty world in which to play ...
J. A. S. May 20th 2008 3:56PM
'But there are a lot of differences, too: Age of Conan's combat is based on real-time, which means you actually press a button to strike, rather than just setting a target and going to town.'
See, this is something I do not get. I was watching the combat demonstration video for AoC, and it looked like it they had just stripped out all of the abilities of a WoW character and required the auto-attack to use individual button presses. You don't just right click on an enemy and wait until they're dead in WoW (well, unless you're a paladin), you're using a range of abilities in every fight. The shield system seemed a bit spotty too. Are you supposed to memorize the canned combos of other classes or NPCs, or are you supposed to be able to recognize, based on animation, where an attack is going to come at you from?
The video also showed a distinct lack of wizards, so I went onto their website (this was a week ago) only to find it down. Today it's back up, but has only videos and concept art; there's no actual useful information. The About page mentions demonologists, but I'll be damned if I can find any info on the official website that explains what this, or any potential magic user, would be doing in the game. I have rarely seen game websites, and have never seen an MMO website, this vague about what the game itself actually is. Seems like they're trying to sell it on the graphics alone.