1.05 is here - Perfect time to come back.

[Yegolev]

Do I get anything fancy if one of you gives me a Free Trial referral?

Hurry up before I lose interest.

EDIT: Ahaha, account name "Yegolev" already taken, what the fuck?  I must have drank a LOT last year.  What to do...

[Vash]

So, in a fit of boredom I grabbed the trial, working on a Tempest of Set now, might try a Guardian next.

Tempest's name is Exequias.

[Nebu]

I couldn't find my disks... but I did find something for others.

Newegg is selling AoC right now for $12.99 with free shipping.  Tough to beat that. 

[Cheddar]

I will join if you kids are still playing when I get back from vacation.

[Hindenburg]

Hrm, was finding the kill speed of my conflag demo a bit lacking compared to my pre-patch ToS, thought that maybe they also were having trouble handling 4+ mobs in 1.05, logged on him, went to the villas and tested. ToS still fry stuff damn good, only difference is that I now have to vjolt when handling 4+ mobs if I don't have an Idol down. Still keep finishing those fights at full health and mana, which is 

Does anyone know if demo's are supposed to have to pot when handling more than 3 mobs? Also, is havoc better for aoe?

[CaptainNapkin]

I didnt have a DX10 card at release, but now that I do this game looks amazing. The looks alone made it worth the price of another month.
If I roll a new toon on Agony, do I find you folks by the standard 'Bat Country' guild or '/join f13' or something similar? (I looked up)

[Velorath]

Protip: if you create a 50, dislike the class, and want to create another, just cry to a gm and he'll give you another chance.

It's true! My assassin is no more!

Apparently they won't be doing that anymore after today.

[Cheddar]

Whats the deal with the 50 bonus?

I will be coming back as a necro - by far the most fun of any class I have played since joining the diku spectrum. 

[gimpyone]

Whats the deal with the 50 bonus?

I will be coming back as a necro - by far the most fun of any class I have played since joining the diku spectrum. 

You can help us kill every other necro then.

[Velorath]

So the general consensus we seem to have come to is that assassins suck balls.  Seems like most of us have been jumped by them at some point only to beat them easily or have them run off before defeat.  As a lv. 20 necro, I fought off a 39 assassin to the point where he had to take off running with only a sliver of health left (wish I could have finished him off, but he was too high to agro any of the mobs in the area so I couldn't keep up with him).  Later on at lv. 26 I was jumped by a lv. 29 who barely scratched me before I snared him with some ice and allowed my 8 undead followers to claw him to death while I remained safely out of distance.

Anyone still planning on coming back would be advised to steer away from this class.

[schild]

An assassin at my level tried to jump me while I was in a huge battle, managed to get half my health off before I noticed, slammed on hand of mitra and he ended up running away while all the mobs were still beating on me. Poor guy.

[Falconeer]

Before the patch, meaning one week ago, at level 80, Assasins are extremely powerful. Extremely. Everyone wants one.

No idea about now, or at lower level, but a lev 80 assassin is a beast. It requires much skill on the player side, though.

[schild]

Before the patch, meaning one week ago, at level 80, Assasins are extremely powerful. Extremely. Everyone wants one.

No idea about now, or at lower level, but a lev 80 assassin is a beast. It requires much skill on the player side, though.

Maybe there's a powerhouse level 80 build that is simply total crap prior to 80. Or maybe everyone just sucks. Fact of the matter is they are entirely laughable even up to around 40 right now. I haven't fought an assassin at a higher level. With the support of a ranger, however, they are unstoppable.

That said, every class is unstoppable with the support of a ranger.

[ezrast]

Got the trial and I'm trying to figure out the classes. Bear shaman looks neato but from experience I know that I tend to prefer squishy ranged classes over melee, and I can't figure out what differentiates the other healy-types. Should I just make one of each?

Also, is there a strong crowd control class?

[Draegan]

I originally leveled up an assassin to 76 and he's stuck on some server somewhere.  They were terrible a year ago.  Nothing worked for them.  Everything was broken.

They were fun though to PVE with.  Lots of numbers flashing all over the place.  I have no idea how they turned out.

[Falconeer]

Why assassins are beasts in lev 80 pvp.

Fast as hell.
Insane damage.
Crazy CC.
Crazy anti-CC.
Crazy evade-invul skills.
Self-heal.
Charge.

Of course you can single them out and have fair fights based on your skills, but if a good assassin pops beside you in mass-pvp you are dead. They are like TF2 spies. They are great to kill ranged or any other second liner.

This, all based onpre-patch AoC. I know nothing about now.

[Draegan]

I've read a few posts, but I'm building a DT now that will be based on survivability. Not sure if it's going to work in this game but we'll see.

[Cyrrex]

Damn you people and your making want to install this again and give money to the evil Norwegians.  Damn you! 

So, is it good now?

[Engels]

So, I resubbed and I'm feeling a bit duped atm.

2/3rds of my toons need to be renamed and DX10 looks like ass on my machine. (8800gt c2d 6750 4gigs ram)

I can't speak for gameplay mechanics in general, but I spent an hour or two on my 20th level HoX and it all seems pretty much like it used to be.

I get a free level 50 toon too. Before I throw in the towel, I would like to join Bat Country on the new PVP server. Can anyone make recommendations for a PVP toon for someone that favors rangers ? (already have one, don't want another)

[schild]

Play a ranger.

Haha, no?

Necro then. If you want easy street.

Also, can you join that server? It's not a euro server.

[Engels]

I'm a eurofag, but I live in the US

[Morfiend]

SDX10 looks like ass on my machine. (8800gt c2d 6750 4gigs ram)

That's really odd. I have a setup a lot like yours. 8800gtx, c2d e6600, 6gb ram. DX10 looks absolutely fucking amazing. Unfortunately I take to big a performance hit running at 1900x1200 res (30 inch monitor) to play on DX10. Its like 15-30 fps vs 65-80fps.

[Morfiend]

Can anyone thats played a high level "combo" class tell me if they still use the LL and LR attacks also? I freally like melee at the early levels, but once the combos start getting longer I just find it annoying. I really hated having to use 5 swing keys. So, does anyone know if a level 80 is going to have to use those keys for combos?

[Xuri]

All melee classes (and rangers) get the extra directional attacks at level... 40 I think, and you most likely have to use them for some combos, yes.

[Morfiend]

All melee classes (and rangers) get the extra directional attacks at level... 40 I think, and you most likely have to use them for some combos, yes.

Yeah, I know you get them at 40. The reason I asked is that on my 55 HoX, I used to have to use them, now none of my combos on him require them. I was hoping they took them out of combos.

[Engels]

SDX10 looks like ass on my machine. (8800gt c2d 6750 4gigs ram)

That's really odd. I have a setup a lot like yours. 8800gtx, c2d e6600, 6gb ram. DX10 looks absolutely fucking amazing. Unfortunately I take to big a performance hit running at 1900x1200 res (30 inch monitor) to play on DX10. Its like 15-30 fps vs 65-80fps.

You'll have to tell me what set up you have going to make it look great. I too have a 1900x1200 monitor, and had to switch to lower settings to get the FPS back to playable, but my dissapointment was not to do with FPS (that would be just a weak vid card) but rather that I just didn't see what I saw in those vaunted screenshots, even at lower FPS. Its possible that my settings were dumbed down from months ago and I turned off some shiney that needs to be on to see the DX10 goodness.

[Morfiend]

Ill have to check when I get home. But basically, I turned it to DX10, AAx4, Bloom, God Rays. And it just blew my mind how good it looked.

[Engels]

Ill have to check when I get home. But basically, I turned it to DX10, AAx4, Bloom, God Rays. And it just blew my mind how good it looked.

I'll do that too. Maybe I'll eat my words. Bytw, is God Rays an actual setting, or a popular term for something else?

[squirrel]

SDX10 looks like ass on my machine. (8800gt c2d 6750 4gigs ram)

That's really odd. I have a setup a lot like yours. 8800gtx, c2d e6600, 6gb ram. DX10 looks absolutely fucking amazing. Unfortunately I take to big a performance hit running at 1900x1200 res (30 inch monitor) to play on DX10. Its like 15-30 fps vs 65-80fps.

Yeah I have an 8800GT (512) and a C2Quad and the DX 10 LOOKS AMAZING - but performs like shite. I was getting 12 - 25 fps in Tortage. Dropping down to DX 9 and shader 3.0 it shot up to 90+ fps. So...DX 10 for me is for screenshots only heh.

[Draegan]

Ill have to check when I get home. But basically, I turned it to DX10, AAx4, Bloom, God Rays. And it just blew my mind how good it looked.

I'll do that too. Maybe I'll eat my words. Bytw, is God Rays an actual setting, or a popular term for something else?

Actual setting.

[schild]

Ill have to check when I get home. But basically, I turned it to DX10, AAx4, Bloom, God Rays. And it just blew my mind how good it looked.

I'll do that too. Maybe I'll eat my words. Bytw, is God Rays an actual setting, or a popular term for something else?

Actual setting.

You know when you're in a forest and light beams through trees and it looks like a ray of sunshine. Like where cats would enjoy sleeping.

Yea, it's those. And they look fucking fantastic.

[Vash]

One thing 1.5 is not helping, is figuring out which class to play as someone who didn't bother with AoC at release.   

While I'm still on my trial I'm playing as many different classes as I can handle to get a taste of the different playstyles.  However, it would be nice to have an idea of how a given class stacks up in the late/end game considering it sounds like the relative power of classes shifts a good amount as you progress through the levels.  (Like how it's already evident that Necro's and Rangers are really powerful early on but other classes will catch or surpass them latter on with new abilities, for ex. charge type abilities for mele)

Would also be nifty if it was easy to look up the popular/most effective feat builds for a given class and get an explanation of how the different builds differ in playstyle.

I know the Wiki and Forums have a lot of information available but after some browsing and reading it appears nearly all of it is relating to pre-1.5 and thus is not necessarily applicable to how things currently play out in game with all the class, balance, and feat changes in addition the the stat revamp.

Unless I get some sagely advice or there's a strong need for a certain class I enjoy, it looks like I'll just be picking a class somewhat haphazardly based on how they play in the 1-20 range and hoping I'm not a gimp once I push for the higher levels.

[Cyrrex]

It's AoC dude...what are the chance you'll end up playing it long enough to determine the long term strengths and weaknesses of a given class?  Go for instant gratification.

[Morfiend]

Unless I get some sagely advice or there's a strong need for a certain class I enjoy, it looks like I'll just be picking a class somewhat haphazardly based on how they play in the 1-20 range and hoping I'm not a gimp once I push for the higher levels.

The thing is, with 1.5 just a few days ago, everyone is reworking builds, as the majority of popular builds have been made obsolete. The same goes for class power levels. Since people are not sure, a class that is considered weak today, could be the next FotM class once a new feat build is discovered for it.

Here is about what I have been able to find from reading the forums, but take this with salt, as it could all change.

Soldiers:
Frenzy stance got nerfed, leading to lowered damage across the board. Conqs seem the most unhappy of the soldier classes.

Rogues:
Havent heard much from Barbs, Assassins ether claim to be completely gimped, or killing machines. Rangers are happy in general.

Mages:
Demos seem to be in the same place Assassins are. Some say they are OP others that they are horrible. HoX's are fairly powerful end game from what I am hearing. Necros. Well Necros are very OP at lower levels, not sure how they pan out in the end game.

Priests:
ToS and PoM are both a little less powerful than before 1.5, but still pretty high on the power scale. I hear Bear Shaman are having problems with running out of mana.

Basically, pick a playstyle you like and go for it, as this early in 1.5, its to hard to tell whats going on.

[Hindenburg]

The thing with demo's is the difference between havoc and conflag. Cliff's notes: havoc shocks faces, conflag take moar buttons and is nowhere near as good.