Age of Conan still relevant?

[iCandy]

I can't stand WoW anymore and SWTOR is terrible imo..so I would really like an MMO to play.

A lot of the F2P MMO's aren't that interesting to me mainly because most of them are filled with Bots and no GM's.

Is AoC something worth playing if I pay the $15 monthly fee? Is there another game out there I can get into?

PS: Definitely looking for a fantasy MMO btw, like Rift/WoW/GW/AoC...

[Necrolepsy]

You won't be satisfied with any mmo, you sound burnt out. Quit mmos for a year or so.

[Deleted]

AoC dropped it's monthly fee a while ago.

[Melpo]

Give mmo's a break for a while and then try Rift. It's WoW 2.0 and has enough content to keep people occupied.

[Erela]

I still think Warhammer is really fun, but maybe that's just me.

[D_K_night]

your mileage will vary, I will just tell you what a buddy of mine said about AoC. This fella is a WoW-hater so that's just an FYI for you. He has played all the following MMO's:

WoW
AoC
Rift
Darkfall
Eve
DAoC
Aion
Warhammer
SWTOR

I just want to let you know that this guy has pronounced every MMO as a "WoW-killer" and doesn't like to talk about it when that MMO didn't end up meeting that expectation. Anyways he's playing SWTOR and boldly claimed during SWTOR's development that it will be the "most iconic game in history of MMO's". I didn't ask him about SWTOR experiences yet...

But based on what he told me, he said that he had the most fun out of any MMO playing AoC. He made a big thing over the fatalities which, to me are just window dressing but that is only my opinion.

He doesn't play AoC anymore though, and stopped playing quite some time ago. After AoC was done for him(roughly 3 months)when he moved onto I believe Warhammer(3 months or so "TOTAL WOW KILLER MAN"), then Aion for a while(didn't like at all), and then Rift, played that for about 3 months and the moved on finally to SWTOR.

So that's my take from my friend's perspective. See if you can find AoC on sale or for a cheaper price.

[iCandy]

You won't be satisfied with any mmo, you sound burnt out. Quit mmos for a year or so.

Definitely not burned out.

I haven't played WoW since the end of Wrath and I only played SWTOR for a month and I felt like I was in a beta test.

AoC dropped it's monthly fee a while ago.

No..They made the game "F2P" but you get penalized if you play it free. You don't get nearly the amount of content or luxuries you get if you pay the monthly fee..feel free to read the AoC website.

[hailey]

AoC is largely the same game that failed to capture most peoples attention. The F2P model is just a gimped format of the game, so you can't realistically expect it to be enjoyable.

Simply from the RP/Lore aspect I like LOTRO above most other F2P games out there. There's just something about the landscapes and the world that puts me at ease and makes it an enjoyable experience if you're willing to take it slow and just soak it all in.

mechanically every MMO is so similar these days. Some do it better than others but they are all trying to do the same thing. If you don't like WoW there's really nothing that the genre has to offer you these days. Except fringe games like Eve maybe.

I am looking forward to Firefall personally

[Drakhar]

To get any kind of reasonable answer, what did you focus on while playing WoW/SW:TOR/any other MMOs you've played, and what aspects of WoW did you like/dislike in both the past and present. Respond to some of those and it may be easier to figure out which MMO(s) would be best for you to try.

[Edge-]

AoC is largely the same game that failed to capture most peoples attention. The F2P model is just a gimped format of the game, so you can't realistically expect it to be enjoyable.

I'm enjoying it. One of the main reasons it failed was because it got rushed out and didn't have much in the way of content once you got past level 20 or so, so people just stopped playing since there wasn't really any significant questing ect. to be done.

It's freemium, but it's worth giving a shot. It's definitely a bit different than the standards most people are used to.

[Deleted]

I am also burnt out, so I am just waiting for (beta) TERA online.

[ScottsdaleHokie]

AoC still sucks.

Rift is your best bet.

[Redmage]

If you don't like wow or swotor you probably wont like AoC.

You could try rift... i think it still has a free trial.

[Veyne]

=D

It's great to see other people interested in Age of Conan. It really is a great MMO that's been forever tarnished by the horrible state it was in when it was launched (so many bugs and performance problems that it was nearly unplayable). Here's the deal with Age of Conan.

First of all, yes, it's Freemium service IS gimped compared to paying a subscription. However, much like LoTRO, you don't actually HAVE to pay the subscription to do new content. First of all, the ENTIRE game is free up to 80. Most dungeon content is unavailable for a free subscriber, but you can get to 80 from questing alone without getting into dungeons. You can also, essentially "rent" gameplay time in which these dungeons and whatnot ARE available to you if you want to check out more content, but still don't want to pay the subscription. Even though it is gimped, however, the Free service DOES at least let you get a taste for the game without having to shell out the cash before hand.

From time to time, I still resub to AoC whenever I get the spare money. I love its atmosphere and I love its classes. I especially love its healing model. All healers are damage dealers that must deal damage to make their healing stronger and must heal to make their damage stronger in some way or another. It's most apparent in the Bear Shaman class (my favorite class in any MMO ever). But it is important to keep in mind that the healing paradigm in Age of Conan is very different. Most healing is Area of Effect direct or heal over time spells, and just about every spell has a bit of a cooldown. The closest thing to a traditional healer is the Priest of Mitra, who has access to one spell that deals damage to all enemies in a straight line between you and your target, and also heals nearby allies.

The free classes a pretty generic... ish.

There is one class for each archetype available to free players:
- Priest of Mitra for the Priest archetype is essentially a Smite-centric Holy Priest on steroids, with a bunch of other, awesome damage dealing spells.
- Demonologist for the Mage archetype is a fire/lightning mage, nuke-centric, with demon minions.
- Barbarian for the Rogue archetype is just about the best melee damage dealer last I tried, but I never got into it. But hey, if you like playing aleather wearing Fury Warrior who can stealth.... =)
- Guardian for the Soldier archetype is your typical sword and board, heavy armor tank, but also has a polearm evasion tank/DPS build that dabbles in a little bit of elemental damage.

If you are a past subscriber, you can grandfather up to 4 of your characters, even if they're not "free" classes, to play under a free plan. This is how I get to play with my favorites: Dark Templar, Bear Shaman and Herald of Xotli (this is also a really fun class not much like anything else I've played in an MMO: a two-handed sword wielding melee Fire Mage, basically) for free. However, even as free player, you can buy individual classes and more character slots as you go if you want.

One of the biggest complaints that many people have with Age of Conan is the combo system. There are no autoattacks, each melee swing is done by pressing a directional melee attack button depending on which direction your enemies defenses are set to. Whenever you use a melee ability or a ranged ability as a Ranger, you trigger a combo-input panel where you have to press the right directional buttons in the right order before time runs out to do the complete attack (each attack generally has initial damage for pressing the button, but the real damage comes from finishing the combo). It takes a little while to get used to it, but I've rather grown fond of it.

The best part of the game, sadly, is 1-20, with the fully voice acted quests in Tortage. That's not to say the rest of the game sucks, however. I just wish they could have done more of the game at that level.

In the end, all I can tell you is to check it out.

[Hoodi]

At this current time my friend there is nothing better than wow so if you are burnt out then leave MMO's well alone for a bit.

Try investing some time in some single player games you have not caught up with as last years 4th quater was really awesome.

Get yourself signed up for Beta's of other MMO's and try them out when their beta's go live. You may come back to MMO's in the next couple of months and find out that wow is better or SWTOR got better or nothing has changed.

The only true way to deal with Burnout is just taking a break from MMO's

[insmek]

There are some people out there who absolutely swear by AoC. The problem is, there's just not enough of them. If you're starting the game now, I'd wager it's going to feel like a single player game most of the way to max level.

For a F2P game, I'd wait until Aion goes F2P next month, or give Lineage II a shot if you're not against click-to-move.

[Gouky]

If Age of Conan was more casual, I would play the shit out of it.

but it's way to grindy.

[D_K_night]

and also it raises the question if you want an MMO for the sole reason of PvP. my friend said AoC has the best PvP of any MMO he has ever played. he didn't tell me why he unsubbed, but it may have something with do what happened at the end game.

[probert]

Rift has a 4 day free unlimited play weekend coming up. I highly recommend it.

LOTRO has some weaknesses, but its a very good open world MMO -- huge PvE world, very deep questing and crafting. Takes forever to level, combat is a bit tedious...no factions.

[Valeron]

I think AoC is great. Still has the best melee combat of any mmo that I've played. The biggest problem I have with it is the low population.

Definitely worth a shot though.