So, getting my rating high enough to have guaranteed drake and title (2300 - 2320 should let us sleep calm about getting to top 0.5%, which according to arenajunkies calculator is top 63 teams in 2v2 in our battlegroup), with still at least 3 weeks ahead of us before the end of the season, it’s just a grind factor before we get there.

Age of Conan is starting 17th of may with early access programme, allowing people who preordered the game to download the client (d/ling as I type this) for 4.35 euro (or $5 for US player I believe). This is going to give people with preorders HUGE advantage, not because those few days will matter much in the end, but because with much lower population it will be much easier to level up. When the game actually starts and there will be bunch of level 5 guys running around starting zone, with 5 people to 1 monster ratio, FFA PvP servers will be simply unplayble for at least a week, it will be just one huge blood bath. Going ahead with early access me and my guildies are pretty much going to stick with each other, we are not really social people, but running around and questing in group is a good thing to do in enviorment where everybody can kill you everywhere. For the same reason, the ‘full stealth’ (the ones that don’t loose stamina while stealthing) classes (all from the rogue archetype: Assassin, Barbarian and Ranger) will be probably very popular. Heck, it seems that our main group will be 5 assassins, 3 barbarians and one priest of mitra.

I did play for some time in beta, got 17 level or so on my barb. I pretty much like the idea that there is a two-handed fighter considered as a melee dps class (hence the rogue archetype) and not a tank. It pretty much have all the tools I’d like to have - stuns, knock backs, health regens and things like no-escape (ranged weapon throw that disarms you but stuns the target and deals damage) or unstable mind (removes all stuns, roots and slows and gives a short immunity) make a perfect PvP class, stealth is just a cherry on top of the cake. Sure it won’t have the hp or armor (light armor only) of the solider classes, but I guess we can all agree that the “soft” classes aren’t always the ones that die fastest (demo locks or ShS rogues in WoW can be pain in the ass to kill).

I’ll post here how my AoC progress goes, not quitting WoW, I’m playing arenas only atm, so it’s not really time consuming and shouldn’t be a problem to handle those two games at once. I will eventually stick to one game, and I’m not judging AoC untill I play the endgame, at which point of time WotLK will be probably out, so it’s a good idea to stay up to date with WoW. I also expect AoC to be pretty much imbalanced and bugged as funcom rushed for the release (they didn’t have the choice to move the release date like Warhammer), so yeah, I’ve to see what the devs are up to and what directions they take.

Terhix