MMOHub's Guide of the Godslayer - Part 1 .

MMOHub’s Guide of the Godslayer

Week One: A Quest of Clarity
Cody Hargreaves Age of Conan Rise of the Godslayer expansion has opened the floodgates for a healthy amount discussion in the few short weeks since its release on May 11th. You see, in short, it harder. Much harder—actually—than we level 80 players were expecting, as it introduced with it a number of new concepts and features that we’d never really seen before. To start, the level cap of 80 remained the same, forcing players to discover a new form of advancement; a new world, Khitai, was added, and brought with it 5 new play fields, 13 new dungeons including a Tier 4 Raid Instance; and 12 convoluted factions were added, some opposed and some allied, and all offering new upgrades and equipment tailored specifically to individual classes and playstyles. It was a lot to take in. In fact, it still is. It overwhelming. The first time you step into the Northern Grasslands, the first level 80 playfield in Khitai, you’ll have almost no idea where to go; what to do; which direction to turn. And that why we’re here. To take a look at it all, piece by piece, week by week, and make it all… well, make sense. Today, we’re going to be looking at those first few hours in the Northern Grasslands; namely, at Factions, and which will best suit your individual needs; and the Alternate Advancement system, and how complex a system it really is. Let get to it. CHOOSING YOUR FACTIONS From the moment you first step foot in the Northern Grasslands you are asked to begin selecting which of the available Factions you’d like to ally yourself with. This process takes the form of a quest, which will see you exploring every corner of the Grasslands for the leaders of the various available Factions, and asking them plainly: ‘Why should I ally with you?” It a simple enough question; however, the answers you’ll receive, sadly, are not. The faction leaders speak of morals and principles and enemies, but for the most part, all you’re really interested in hearing about is what gear they have to offer your class, because ultimately, that why you’re going to be choosing them. You’ll work for them, increase your rank with them, and then buy gear from them using the tokens you’ve earned in the process. Below is a simple chart that clearly outlines which factions offer the best equipment for which classes, and too, which factions are opposed. Remember, allying with a faction will automatically make you an enemy to their opposing faction, not only preventing you from purchasing equipment from them, but allowing them to kill you on sight, too. Brittle Blade (Demo/Necro/HoX/Sin/Barb) VS Shadows of Jade (Demo/Necro/Hox/Sin/Ranger/BS) Children of Yag-Kosha (Barb/PoM/ToS/Ranger/BS) VS Yellow Priests of Yun (Barb/PoM/Tos/Ranger/BS) Hykanians (Barb/PoM/ToS/BS/Ranger) + Fast Horse Mount VS The Wolves of the Steppes (HoX/Demo/Necro/Sin/Conq/DT/Guard) + Wolf Mount Last Legion (Conq/DT/Guard) VS Scarlet Circle (Demo/Necro/Sin/HoX/PoM/ToS) Scholars of Cheng-Ho (Demo/Necro/Sin/HoX/PoM/ToS) VS Tamarian Tigers (Barb/BS/Ranger/Conq/DT/Guard) + Tiger Mount Note: The Scholars of Cheng-Ho and the Tamarian Tigers are not in the Northern Grasslands. They can be found in the Chosain Province, one zone east. Additionally, there are two remaining ‘hidden’ factions in Khitai; however, they are not opposed, and their benefits are not class specific, so they can be joined freely when you have found them. We’ll come to them here in later weeks. Looks simple enough, right? It is, when you know what you’re looking for. And while this list doesn’t show individual gear, at least you’ll know which to choose for your class. Choosing which set of gear you’d like to pursue from there is up to you, as there are many on offer, most differing slightly in playstyle, but mostly, your choice is visual. Though be warned, this list isn’t a Bible. Some factions offer weapons, accessories, pets and potions that would benefit classes outside those listed above, and too, you may choose a faction simply because you want a specific mount or pet, but again, these decisions remain in the hands of the individual. This list is merely an overlaying guide for your gear, offering you a good place to start completing quests and grinding reputation with at least one faction that you can be sure will benefit you later down the track. Once you’ve selected which factions you’d like to ally with, and started working on a few of their quests, you’ll likely have started earning a nice pocket of Mastery Experience, too. Don’t know what that is? Let take a look. ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT As there are no new levels in Rise of the Godslayer, advancing your character is a little different to how you might expect, and in the beginning, a little difficult to grasp. Dubbed Alternate Advancement (or AA), each player that has purchased the expansion, regardless of their level, will now have access to a new feat tree that can be unlocked by earning experience through either PvE (Mastery) or PvP (Prowess) play. Take a look: On the left, you’ll see a collection of PvE skills, on the right, PvP, and down the middle, a small selection specific to your individual class. You’ll also notice that there are three different coloured sections running from top to bottom: blue, red and white. Blue skills can be accessed immediately, while red skills require you to have spent 5 points to access, and white require 10. Though it may be a little difficult to see in this picture, each skill also shows a different coloured border: bronze, silver or gold. Bronze skills are passive, and will begin functioning immediately after you purchase them, silver skills need to be equipped to one of the 6 available slots in the lower left of your screen (with two slots allocated to each colour rank), and gold skills require BOTH slots for only one skill, but are incredibly powerful. All skills located to the left of bar down the centre are specifically tailored towards PvE gameplay, and as such, can only be purchased with Mastery Points, earned accordingly through gathering Mastery Experience in PvE gameplay such as completing quests, killing enemies and toppling dungeons. To the right of the class bar down the middle, is the PvP area, with each skill requiring Prowess Points to be purchased, which again, can be earned by collecting Prowess Experience through PvP gameplay such as Minigames, or by simply killing other players. Each time you collect 1,000,000 (a million) experience in either Master or Prowess; you’ll be awarded with 3 points to spend in their respective column. You’ll also be given 1 expertise point that can be spent in either, and skills found in the central class column usually require a combination of both Prowess and Mastery points to obtain. See? It complicated. And believe it or not, there more. As you’re only given 2 slots for each colour rank, you’re only going to be able to select 2 blue, red and white skills at any given time. This means that prior to engaging in battle; you’re going to need to decide which type of battle it going to be (PvP/PvE), and which skills will benefit you the most. It sounds limiting, but you’ll soon find that it adds another level of depth to both combat and character progression, and it a nice break from the norm. Be warned though, that this process is long. While many skills only require 1 or 2 points in order to attain the first rank, there are 5 ranks for most skills, and they progress in point consumption steadily, with some of the later gold bordered skills requiring up to 40 for a single rank. At 3 points per 1 million XP, it going to take a while. Finally, to make the process a little more bearable, and too, to offer the more ‘casual’ players a less ‘hardcore’ experience, you have the ‘Time’ option. Alongside earning points, level 80 players can choose to purchase their skills using time; i.e. you select Time from the bottom of the window, then select a skill, and a timer will appear (ranging from 18 hours to well over 700) depending on the quality of the skill, and once the timer has depleted, you’ll be awarded the skill. And to sweeten the deal, the timer will continue while you’re offline. Pretty sweet, huh? While some skills can take more than a month to complete, many of them can be picked up overnight, and as such, we recommend that you begin by purchasing as many of the 18hour bronze (passive) skills as you can use first, thereby offering yourself the largest increase to your class in the shortest possible time, and too, opening up the red and white sections of the tree (which contain vastly superior skills) as quickly as possible. And that about it for Alternate Advancement. If you don’t quite understand it yet, don’t panic. It a lot to take in, but it begins to make a lot more sense as you progress through the game. NEXT WEEK ON” Thanks for reading; with any luck, this guide was useful to you in some way, and if not, here hoping the future instalments will be! Next week, we’re going to take at look at the first 6-man dungeon in Khitai, the Kang Pagoda, complete with a step-by-step strategy guide detailing how to topple the boss encounter, Po-Sha. Stay tuned.