My thoughts on the AoC Starting Area, Barbarian, and Bear Shaman

I have been playing more classes lately and want to share my thoughts on the Barbarian and Bear Shaman. Before I do though, I want to talk a bit about the starting area of Age of Conan and give a few pieces of advice that might come in handy should you decide to get the game.

I consider levels 1-19 to be the “starting area” for AoC. These levels are here to show players what they can expect in the rest of Hyboria. As such they are supposed to be rather easy like an introductory course since it won’t be uncommon for there to be first time mmorpg players giving the game a try. Unfortunately that means there is quite a large amount of content that gets old very quickly for the veteran or experienced player. The Tortage area is full of quests but they are very simple “go here and pick this up off the ground” or “go here and kill 3 scorpion” quests. If you have ever completed the Durotar starting area for Orcs and Trolls in WoW you will be a pro at the Tortage content.

The content is linear and the story is very basic. Before some of you have a violent case of nerd rage and begin commenting with fists swinging I urge you to do a search on our blog here and see that I enjoy linear play. What I don’t like, in linear play or otherwise, is the mundane feeling of having to push through something to get to what I really want to do. I didn’t have that feeling the first time I played through the starting area, but I did the second time and every time after that.

What makes the Tortage area 10x worse than it should be is how much of it is “Single-Player only”. The real storyline of the Tortage area and truly the best content is restricted to night time and single-player only. This is very frustrating for me since I am a social player. I crave the random social interactions of mmorpgs and I really feel like I am denied that experience in 60% of the Tortage area. Compounded with redundant instancing of towns (aka Tortage 1, Tortage 2, Tortage 3, etc) the whole experience begins to feel very isolating and more like another hurdle I want to just jump over and be done with. I think Funcom realized this a few months ago. I believe this entire experience at one point in time was 100% single-player. What a nightmare that would have been. If I can give any advice it would be that you mix things up when playing through Tortage. Do some night quests then switch to Day and do a few. Don’t stick with one too long or you’ll burn out. The Night content is lonely and the Day content feels thrown together at the last minute.

The night content is well done though once you look past the forced single-player. It’s an interesting storyline and definitely fun the first time through. After the first time through, if you’re like me, you’re going to wish you could skip the whole thing and just start your character at level 20 when (supposedly) the more open and real mmorpg world and experience begins. If I were in Funcom’s shoes I would do all I can to reduce this Tortage experience to level 10 or 13. Let players get out into the world quicker so that they don’t feel suffocated in what feels like 20 levels of tutorial.

Bear Shaman
This class reminds me a lot of my Shaman from WoW at low levels. Very much a melee oriented character with a few minor support abilities early on that are better suited for soloing or duoing than they are grouping. I keep hearing people say “the Bear Shaman sucks early on!” but I can’t see what they’re talking about. With a decent 2hander I was crushing stuff to pieces at level 13 and never coming close to death. Early on, I think at level 4 or so, the Bear Shaman gets an ability that places a HoT on himself after his next successful melee hit. That thing rocks!

Supposedly the Bear Shaman is a mid to late bloomer. I can understand that. If you look at the class as a healer or true support role it’s definitely sub-par at low levels. But the class by itself is far from weak. One of my favorite things to do with my BS is to gather up 3 mobs and line them up, execute a forward attack combo that swings 3x, and watch them all be crushed into pieces. It’s like windfury for the WoW shaman, I swear! Great fun and a mean class to go 1v1 against in PvP.

Pros: Combos, stuns, decent dps, sturdiest of the healers, hot’s, good in pvp
Cons: Late bloomer, lacking in support abilities early, learning curve, too many adds = death

Barbarian
Woah.. I thought the Ranger did damage. The Barbarian rips stuff apart without any effort. It wasn’t until my Barbarian hit level 7 and I had my 2nd cunning strike combo that I realized how quickly this class sets itself apart as a damage dealer. I went to the White Sands area (a little island near Tortage) and shredded camps of 3 Picts at a time. I have no idea whether or not this class stays this way but it’s incredibly durable right now. I honestly could not tell the difference between the barb and the dark templar’s survivability but the difference in damage was night and day.

Being a rogue type class it’s great to be offered a 2hand weapon. I remember one of my Shadowblade alts in DAoC was a 2h spec and this feels a little similar. I took my Barbarian for a spin in the mini-games and tested 2h vs. dual wield and I definitely feel the 2hand has the edge. Big hits out of stealth + crits + the fast nature of AoC’s combat = scary. You can’t go wrong with this class at all and unless it somehow loses the edge later on… it’s going to be a very popular class right up there with the Ranger and Assassin. Just a tip: If you see a Barbarian running at you with a 2hander, you best run the other way.

Pros: Insane damage, great survivability, choice of DW/2h, stealth, unparalleled in pvp
Cons: It’s going to be overplayed