Age of Conan Leveling and Questing Guide

Age of Conan Leveling and Questing Guide by Milambrios1

contents.

Intro.

i. General comments on Characters, and creation.
ii. Some basic Recommendations
iii. Some basic Information on Crafting
iv. Comments on PvP.

1) Tortage

2)Your main racial City.

3)Level 20 Area.

4) Level 40 Areas

5) level 50 Areas

6) level 60 Areas

7) level 70 Areas.

8) Grind Spots

Introduction

Before any one gets all bent out of shape, this is entirely a creation of my own opinions and experiences in the game. If you have anything to add, or any comments, or hate my spelling or grammar mistakes, please see the bottom of the post.

I have not, and will not, ever post exact quest details. I feel it is extremely important that a person experiences the awesome quests, and story line the the dev’s have created. There are few, if any quests you really need exact details on.

Simply put, if you need help with a quest, read the dialog in the quest book, it will have major hints on how to complete the quest. If you still cant figure it out, i can guarantee you there is a post and answer in the forums.

i. General Comments on Characters and Creation.

First off, i know your going to try a class that you think your familiar with from another MMO. Don’t. The classes in AOC have little true resemblance to anything you’ve played before. Each class is different and unique in a way that, if you were a tank in WoW (for example) your going to be surprised at the way a “tank” class works in AOC.

Second, some AOC servers have a naming policy, so naming your character Mcscruffykins will probably get you a forced name change. Bob, or George (tho dumb names) might be overlooked. But in any case do try to name your character something that your going to want to be looking at down the road. A lvl 80 demonologist with the name Mcfluffykins is going to get you noticed, and ganked…and spawn camped, and your eventually going to hate it. (if you can even keep the name)

Third, Be careful on the server type you choose. PVP, (even world pvp) is vastly different in AOC than pretty much any other MMO. From my experience pvp servers can be really vicious, but are also incredibly fun, you have to have a good deal of skill to kill mobs, and immediately turn around and kill the player ganking you from behind. RP-PVP servers are a little better, with a higher chance of some one stopping by to talk to you, or try to RP you before they gank you. But the roaming gangs, and spawn camps still exist. If your not already in a guild, and decide for PVP server, get one FAST. Preferably one with 60 or so active members. PVE is probably your best bet when you first make a character, so you can learn the class, its abilities, without constantly looking over your shoulder.

Do note, the learning curve is pretty steep for some of the classes later in the levels (*cough* guardian *cough*). More importantly, AOC throws things up in the air and will change the way you do things every 10 levels or so.

For example, lvl 30 soldiers get heavy armor, you now can “tank” better. LVL 40 melee now get the combat rosette, which equals 2 extra directional attacks, which will throw you off for quite a while. For casters, lvl 40 is a turning point in casting, when your spells get allot better, or have become not so effective as you’d hoped or are used to. Lets not forget lvl 50 for casters and when you get spell-weaving or level 60 for plate armor for soldiers.

ii. Basic Recommendations

There are just a couple things to note, on general principal. Throughout most of the game, your class should be able to take 2-3 mobs on an average pull, and survive fine, taking more than that regularly is not recommended as the recovery/exp/time ratio becomes imbalanced. Some classes can take significantly more (soldier classes) some will have occasional difficulty with those numbers (mages, on occasion).

Be aware of the targeted mob. Check the lower right hand corner of your screen where it shows which mob your targeting. Different mobs will have different visuals for that area. For example, Boss mobs will have little spiky horns, and a blood or flesh decorated border. Mini bosses will have only one side with horns. Elites will have a thick red border, with some oriental looking spines on each side. Elite bosses will have the Think red border, with the flesh+blood design, with a big nasty blood and guts design over its health.

Normal mobs hit for your average damage. mini-boss mobs hit for a little bit more damage, and have higher hit points. Killing one is the equivalent of about 1-1.5 normal mobs.

Bosses hit for about double normal damage, and have very high HP. Killing one is about the same as taking on 2-3 normal mobs.

Elites do the equivalent, or some times higher damage than a boss, they have huge amounts of HP. Killing one is about the same as taking 3-6 normal mobs.

Elite Bosses have Damage to the point that cloth wearer can get 2 shott-ed and tanks will go down fast without healing, their HP is massive. Killing a Elite bosses is the equivalent of killing 30-40 normal mobs.

iii.Basic Information on Crafting

First off, you get your first tier of harvesting skills at level 20. Yes you can get them all. Wood, Stone, Minerals, Prospecting, Leather, which equates to Ash, Sandstone, Copper, Silver, and Leather.

You get your actual crafting profession at lvl 40. Yes, you can have 2 of them, yes the manual is wrong, yes this is confirmed. A good recommendation, is if your going Armour Crafting, go Gem-cutting or weapon-smithing to augment the crafting. Or Alchemy and Gem-cutting. Personally i consider the other professions as guild oriented, and not profit, or character oriented crafting.

There are different quests for each tier, that gives you access to the different normal and rare harvesting materials, and crafting recipes.

And yes, the crafted items are more than worth it. Some of the best armor and weapons you can have are the crafted items (if properly gemmed) and are generally significantly better than quest rewards, and even most dungeon drops, bare the rare exception.

Note: Higher tier recipes require guild cities with the appropriate building to craft. There are also dropped recipes that can net you an incredible amount of money.

iv. Comments on PvP

I’ve seen allot of comments where people are not shure how to play there class or unshure of its abilities versus anothe class.

Simply: Any class vs Any class is totally a fight of skill. It may feel like round robin, because some classes have a weakness to something another class is good at. This is balanced for every level above 20 (that I’ve seen). I will go through class by class and give you a good idea on what to expect, generally on the classes play style.

There are few simple tricks that you can use that will SEROUSLY improve your chance of winning any fight. For fighters, double tap forward, and you get a chance to stun your opponent for 2-5 seconds ( a free cc, which rox for versus casters). For casters (really for any one), double tap left or right and you suddenly have a high chance of dodging the damage they do to you, giving that extra little push to pull of that cc.

NOTE: EVERY class goes through a weak period. It just happens. Deal with it. Every class also goes through a strong period, enjoy it.

Soldiers.

Guardians.

Guardians, simply, are the toughest class in the game. They can take more damage than most other two classes combined and come out with a good percentage of their health. Both guardian specs have a viable tank tree, tho personally i think that juggernaut spec is superior to pole arm. Dont get me wrong tho, this class isnt strictly for tanking, there ARE viable dps specs.

If you decide to spec so, you will never be at the top, but then again, you will never be at the bottom, and you will very rarely have the same squishy issues other dps classes will.

Dark Templar.

These guys are the guardians little brothers. If specced correctly, they can be one of the better general tanks, while still dishing out enough dps not to bore you to tears in combat.

Generally tho, ive found that dark templars are not as tough as a guardian, at least against one on one, but are quite a good bit better against multiple mobs, versus how a guardian works.

There is also a dps spec for dark templars, tho it sets my teeth on edge and makes me feel more like a caster than a melee.

Conquerers.

One word. killers. You are the dps class of the soldiers, you can dish out more dps than any of the others. Because of the massive amount of burst dps that you can do (if specced correctly) you are the one real danger that comes from the soldier classes. With a little planning, and the correct timing you can become any classes worst nightmare.

But be prepared, as a dps spec conq, you will be almost as squishy as the rogue classes.

On the other hand, the “tank” spec conq can take an almost astonishing amount of normal mobs at one time, and come out ahead. It also excells at being an OT for playing round robin agro management, or for healer protection.

Priests

Tempests of Set.

Personally, i find the ToS to be the most fun of the priest classes to play. Mostly due to the AOE spec. In no other game that i know, can you, as a priest, run into a group of mobs, drop a few spells, and walk away alive.

The dps potential of these guys are astonishing, and only goes up the more people in a group.

You should be aware tho, that there are three general specs, a single target spec, an AoE spec, and a heal spec.

Priest of Mitra

Arguably the purest healer of the game, but unlike other mm-o’s you have some seriously nice pew pew.

These guys can generally take 2-3 at a time, with little trouble, tho taking huge groups of mobs in one pull, like the ToS is quite a bit out.

If you play a pom, generally be prepared to be woo’d by almost every guild who does regular raiding, as your heals are superior to all others, atleast in the aspect of group wide, or raid wide healing.

Bear Shaman

Arguably the toughest of the priest classes, your ability to melee while healing gives you some very nice dps potential, and still keep you alive.

The one thing i find about these guys, is they can chain pull like no one else. You can yank 3 or so mobs to you, kill em while keeping healed up, and then pull another 3 without really stoping do do more than pop a pot.

Rogues

Barbarians.

You may not do the most damage of any class (tho it is extremly impressive at times), or stealth the best, or have the best tanking ability, but you are the most all around balanced class, that ive come across in a long time. Your knock back, stuns, and those super hard hits are what make you a threat to everything that breaths, and even most of those who dont.

Generaly, there are two real specs for barbs, one is more…err..tanky and the other one is almost strictly dps. You can break the specs down into two hand, versus dual wield.

The first spec, at higher levels generally means, if things go to ****, you have the ability to stand toe to toe with most mobs, and even some bosses for enough time for a group (or even, on rare occasions, a raid) to recover.

The second spec means…well generally your riping stuff to shreds so fast that you can accentually pull from a tank.

Assassins,

This class is probably one of the most challenging melee character to play. Your dps potental makes other melee classes cry, your survivability makes priests laugh, but your over all abilty makes every one envious.

I am absolutely serious about the dps tho. There are times where you will be ready to hit your second, or even your third combo, and realize that your missing because the mob you were going after is already dead.

Rangers.

Your ability to slow, stop, bleed, and do massive damage to anything AND stealth, will make you one of the most hated classes in the game. For good reason. LOL *Salvo* dead enemy. Lets just say, that at this time, Rangers hit so hard that it can scare the pants of a guardian who isnt used to seeing his HP go down beyond 50%.

This is not to say that playing a ranger is lol****face because it isn’t. To be able to play a ranger, takes skill, dedication, and a serious masochistic streak.

I rarely see a ranger over 60, and those who i do see, are gods of kitting, and killing. Generally, at that point, they can solo things that frustrate other players and not even realize what their doing.

Mages

Demonologists

Personally i found this class one of the funnest to play. This class has the best pew pew of all the other mages. And arguable the highest dps, when you consider spell-weaving.

I guess it does kinda help to have my own minion that runs around with her pert little boobs bouncing behind. I digress.

In actuality demonologists can be specced a surprisingly large number of ways. AOE, single target, etc. Each one brings a new and interesting flavor to the way you can play a Demonologist, tho not all specs are viable at all levels.

Necromancers.

Im not sure what to say about necro’. These guys seem to be the better balanced classes of the game, enough dps to kill stuff, enough survivability to stay up, and enough fun to be fun.

Generally, i stink when playing a pet class, so im not sure what to say about these guys. They had more survivability than the other mage classes, and the aoe spec was pretty impressive. I loved the pets tho, most “undead” type pets from other games just look dopey, these looked positively gruesome.

Herald of Xotli.

Personally, i was absolutely shocked at what the HOX had become. When i orignaly left the game, the hox could spec so they could stay in demon form, for around 2 minutes, which would give them enough survivability to make it super fun, tho not so tough to make them invincible.

They also had the ability to be this super glass cannon, charge into a roup of enemies, blast them to death in under 10 seconds, and spend the next 5 regening. They could only do this like once every 2 minutes, but the option was there.

Now i find them… lack luster. They are now more like glass pistols than anything else.

1. Tortage

Common Questions Awnsered.

How do I unlock the gate in the beach sequence?
– They usually miss the altar/sarcophogus thing with the key in it

Where is Isleen? (She’s part of the priest destiny quest)
– Take the second left once you enter and go up the spiral staircase.

Where is the Treasury? (Part of the soldier and rogue destiny quest)
– its the first left immediatly after you enter in from the rogue door (the one you had to climb a bunch of ladders to get to)
– Go past stroms throne there are some recesses that lead to a set of ladders, go up the ladders, and you will find a circular room that leads to a stair way. Up the stairs and to the right.
(thanks given to Ehrym73 for the sugestion)

a) The jungle.

So, you’ve finally selected your character class, and are done with the long and confusing opening cut scene.

First off, turn right around and jump into the water, near where the prow of the sunken ship is, you will find a treasure chest under the waves. Get it, sometimes it will have a pearl or a nice low level ring. Next, do the quest. Rescue the harlot, but before you run into the jungle, make sure you follow the beach and kill all the other scavengers, and the crocs. One way on the beach leads you past Kalanthes, to some crocs, the other way along the beach leads you to some scavengers, and more crocs. And a boss croc. Don’t forget to loot the treasure chest, it some times has a ring, or a pearl in it.

b) Getting into the City

So you made it to Tortage. (and you should be lvl 5 or 6, if your lucky) Run down the path and talk to the guard. Uh oh, you cant enter the city because your a slave.

Go back up the path you came from, and talk to the giant dude with the hammer. He wants you to get him some bricks. Face the city, and when you go towards the city, take the left hand path, past some pirates (quite a bit tougher than the mobs you been killing so far).

Be warned, when you find the bricks (by seeing the glowy blue flames over them) on occasion you can get a boss demon bat to spawn. He’s rather tough, for low levels and does knock back which can suck for casters.

Go back to Turach (the giant guy) give him the bricks, and then head back to the guard. Poof, you have access to the city now. The guard will have given you a quest to give a note to Tina. Don’t do that one yet. Wait a bit and do some of the other quests.

c) The city.

First off, go to the armor and weapon merchant and purchase your upgrades. Its important that your aware what kind of armor and weapon you can wield, for your class. A soldier wearing light armor will get pownd. Sell everything in your inventory, that you can.

Also, it might be a good idea to buy some healing potions from the Alchemist, as they heal better than a priest does at that level. Also there are 3 or 4 (i forget exactly how many) quests you need to do before you start your destiny quests (the note to Tina one).

Talk to the harlot, and kill the pirates behind the Bearded Clam. There should also be a smith who you need to talk to and go loot some empty stalls. There are some others, and you should probably do them. Doing those quests you should be about level 7 or 8 now.

If not, kill some of the lower level pirates until you are. You will thank me later for it. Be warned, Don’t do any of the quests that lead you to the harbor or White Sands, Those areas, are generally to Tough for you yet. Nows the time to go do the destiny quest line.

Once you get to the Destiny quest that says See trainer at level 10. you need to NOT continue on the destiny quest line, and go back to Tortage Day time (speak to your trainer for this option).

Once your back in the day time, there is a plethora of quests your going to want to do. You can do the quests in white sands(some of them at least) and the ones near the lighthouse/harbor.

Its important that you speak to Turoch, and the mitran priest, outside tortage. They will have quests for you to do.

Honestly you can probably level from 8 to 15-16 on the tortage city quests.

Do the destiny quest until you get to the “see trainer at 15” and instead of continuing, go back to tortage.

This is the important bit. your going to want to do every quest possible for you, until you get to lvl 20. There are plenty of them. Be aware that ever time you level your going to want to run around tortage to see if any new quests opened up. Also, note that almost ever quest is part of a chain of follow up quests. A large number of quests don’t open up until you have finished a certain quest line.

White sands, and Acheron Ruins are your friends during these levels. The Pictish drops will be very sweet for light/cloth wearer. The Pictish weapons will be well worth it for those who wield 2h weapons.

Once you hit 20 (or so) continue the destiny quest, until you leave tortage.

It is EXTREEMLY important for you to finish all the quests in tortage. (if you leave tortage before doing so, you can go back to tortage any time, as there is a “smuggler” near where you load into your racial city that will port you back). You will want the drops, exp, upgrades, and the level advantage will help you a great deal as you level in the lvl 20 areas.

2. Your main racial city.

Every one goes to a their racial city after leaving Tortage. Stygian to Kemi, Aquilonians to Old Tarantia, and Cimmerans to Conach village, etc etc.

It is important to note, that there are tons of little quests in all of the major cities, so running around doing the “deliver this to so and so in such and such” in your main city, then going to the next main city, and then the last racial city, will easily net you 2-3 levels.

Might take some time because of all the running around and loading. I really recommend doing this, you will find some very interesting NPC’s to talk to, start some of the more interesting quest lines, get nice money(which now actually becomes important), and become familiar with the main cities, wich will become paramount later in levels.

if you’ve finished all the quests from the main cities you can expect to be between lvls 24-26

note: while your here its usually a good idea to replace your lower level, or incidental pieces of armor with the better vendor armor, or the greenys on the auction. Its also a good idea to buy some of your level health pots.

3. The first Level 20 area.

It is a very important decision to which of the level 20 areas you go to. Not all areas are the same. And at some point you WILL have to go to a different area to get to 40, and go to the next “tier” of area. Every area is different, and offers different rewards for different classes.

* Area one. (Guardians, Conquerers, Dark Templar), Rogues (Barbarians, Rangers), and probably the Bear Shaman best leveling is going to be initialaly from Connacht Valley, in Cimmeria.

The quests there will get you from 24-25 ish, all the way until level 30-35 (depending on how much grinding you end up having to do. wich should be none.) The number one reason your going to want to start in this area is because most if not all the drops and quest rewards are light to heavy armor, and geared for the more melee friendly classes. There area a few caster friendly drops or quest rewards, but there are better areas for that sort of thing.

* [u]Area two[u](Priest of Mitra, Tempest of Set, not Bear Shaman) and the Mage Classes (Demonologist, Necromancer, Herald of Xotli) and Assasins should really start in Khopesh province, in Stygia. The reason is that a majority of the quest rewards, and drops area geared for mana dependant classes, or cloth wearers. Due to the way the quests work here, you should get from 24-25 to 34-37.

Very important

If your NOT level 23-25 Do not go to the recommended area yet. Either go and complete the city quests, or go to Wild Lands of Zeleta, in Aquilonia, and do the quick and fast quests in the newbie town there to get you their. Once you do hit 25-ish, go to the recommended area. You will thank me later.

Note: it is a good idea that during this period you save your money, only spending it on pots (if you have to), also keep most of the green named drops, to sell on the trader, so you can collect up money for your mount at 40.

3b. The second level 20 area.

If you’ve followed this guide so far, you should be between lvl 34-37, and run out of major quests in the first level 20 area you went to. Don’t panic, its OK, its not a big problem.

Your first and best bet is to now go to Stygia for the Pyramid quests. This instance is located in the lower right hand portion of the map, and has level 29-30 ish normal mobs. The quest rewards are OK, but its mostly for the good exp, and some variety in your questing that your going here.

Next, and In most, if not all cases, i recommend going to Wild lands of Zelata, in Aquilonia. There will be more than enough quests to level you to 38-40.

Probably the most important parts of this area is the Sanctum of Burning souls (which you should get plenty of quests from, especialy if you’ve explored other areas.) and the Front lines instances. The front lines instances (gotten by the Missing Regiment quest) Gives huge amounts of exp (compared to what your normally getting) has awesome quest rewards for all classes, and is something of a gateway for 3 quest chains.

The Sanctum of Burning Souls is going to be the most important area for you. The instance is elite, meaning every mob is also elite. The bosses are tough, and the quests rewards for the area is absolutely awesome.

Probably the 4 most important drops that your going to get in this area are the really nice shield from the drowned one boss, the really nice sword and helm from the warlord, the really nice caster armor from the Princess, and the really nice mace from the ancient one boss.

There are 6 or 7 quests (if i remember) that you can get to go into the area, and at least one quest gotten from a ghost inside. So if you get a group, and you WILL need a group, make sure to have every one share. Its also recomended that you go back repeatedly and get as many of the blue drops as you can. Some of thies drosp will last you into your late 40s and 50s.

If you have finished all the quests for Wild lands of Zelata, and completed all the major instances (spider caverns in Cimmera, Pyramid in Stygia, Front-lines, and Sanctum of Burning souls in Aquilonia) and your STILL not level 40. You need to head to the 3rd level 20 area left to you, and hope you can get enough quests to level you to 40 (and more than likely you should). If that doesn’t work, i honestly recommend you go do the crafting quests at this point, that way you can get the random spawns, when your mining nodes, and just running through the area to level you up.

5. Level 40 Areas

General info

Congratulations! your now level 40! Mounts, the combat Rosetta, and crafting is now yours!

First things first, if your not a armor crafter, befriend one. because at some point in the very near future your desperately going to want to get a crafted set of armor.

Second, GET LVL 40 POTS!! seriously, at this stage, if your not using pots on a regular basis, your either far far more skilled than the average player, or retardedly lucky.

On a side note, if your not in a guild now, its usually a good idea to find one at this point. You will start to need regular grouping mates from now on, and some of the benefits from guild cities will seriously start to play a major role in your crafting experience.

Leveling

As for actual questing, your first bet is to go to the nobles district, and do all the quest you can there. At some point (lvl 43-44 ish) the quests there will peter out. You should probably go to the Fields of the Dead (in Cimmeria). At about level 46-48 ish, the quests will peter out there to. Aaaand you get to go back to the Nobles district. If your unlucky enough to not have the quests in the Nobles District available to you (ie grey exclamation marks or some such) Start doing the repeatable quests.

It is EXTREEMLY important that you DONOT do any of the 50 area quests, once you hit 49. IF you do them, you WILL have problems leveling later on, and be forced to grind or do the higher end repeatable quests.

Note: There are “repeatable” quests now available to you. Most of them are rather easy, solo-able, and super great exp. All of them put together is decent tho.
* through out Fields of the Dead there are “wanted posters” posted for Vanir kill counts. these are easy fast exp. And did i mention they are Repeatable?
* in the nobles district there are quests in the Arms-man Tavern, and outside Villa Verde, for the “nobles villa.” these quests are awesome exp, good money, but are on a timer, before you can do the next step. you will WANT to complete the steps. The quest rewards are well worth it.
* the Arena quests (inside the Arms-man Tavern, after the buggy testing quest) are Really Exceptionably Awesome Quest Rewards. Seriously, some of the armor rewards made me think about giving up my crafted set

Probably the one of the most awesome drops, and quest rewards for “timed” or “repeatable” quests are the ones you can receive in the crafting areas. These are NOT solo-able. they are tough and mean. and hurt. But you will get blue item drops (some rumored purple drops, but unconfirmed). So it is well worth it. You WILL need a group for this. If your doing the arena quests DONOT do the group quest for it. Wait till your in your mid 50s or so. Its just simply to hard, even with a full group to do those quests..

6. Level 50 Areas

General info

If you use a shield or 1h sword, when you hit 54-ish ignore everything else until you do this quest. Go to the Nobles District, go to the armsman tavern…and do the Arena quests. The elite mob quest chain will allow you to get your first purple. Either an incredibly awsome 1h sword, or a shield, either of which you will use till almost 70.

For casters level 50 is perhaps the most important. You get spell-weaving.

Damage. Dealing. Gods. Im absolutely serious. A priest, while always doing decent damage, during spell-weaving, will seriously out damage any melee class. Priests, and other casters have to be carefully about doing it during a group, because you do enough damage that it is NOT possible for a tank, or any other class to pull mobs off of you, even with all the hate gathering stuff skills/abilities/combos out there.

Melee classes get things thrown up a bit too. Towards the end of the 40s, and beginning of the 50s most of your major attacks get replaced with ones that use the lower left, and lower right directional swings. Which if your not familiar with them, can really change the pace of battle.

Gear now becomes absolutely paramount. Your to the point that your regularly going to be hit for 150-300 or more damage from mobs. Being able to take those hits either through absorbs, shield spells, or other means is very important.

Like during level 40 its a good idea to find groups for Imaran ravine, the Oasis, and the Frost swamp. AT this point the instances will do more than drop incedental pieces. This doesn’t count the random chance of a blue non-set piece, wepon drop, or other random drop that will be usable to drop. These areas are also fantastic exp if you find your having trouble leveling.

Even as good as these set peices are, if you have a friendly armourcrafter, and you can get them to craft you a set of the blue con crafted gear that is generaly superior to anything.

It is not going to be easy to find good crafted gear. But it is well worth it. A full set of good blue crafted gear, at this point can last you into your low 60s.

Leveling

First off, if you havnt so far, you need to finish off the quest in Fields of the Dead, Hopefully you have gotten the quests for the Tomb. Which i recomend doing at this point. The end boss mob there is EXTREEMLY tough for her level, and involves some very interesting tactics. If your lucky enough to kill the boss befor your level 60 good job. The quest reward is seriously nice.

No later than about 52-ish do your Destiny quest its good exp. After that head to the Eiglopan Mountains. This is some seriously nice leveling here. Couple grind-ish quests, and the culmination of some of the nicer chains from the Nobles District, and before. At about level 54-55 ish, go back to the Nobles district and do the Cistern, and Main branch quests. With Eiglophan Mountains, and the isntaces done you should be around 57-58 befor you have any problems finding quests.

At about57 with so few quests its a GREAT time to start gearing up. There are a few recomended places to go to get some exceptional gear to last you into your 60s.

Every boss in the Cistern/Main Brance drops some kind of blue gear. Head pieces, legs, gloves, rings, staffs, you name it. There is something for every class.

The three greatest recomendations for getting good gear at this point is doing the Arena Group quests. You get a PURPLE item, (yes, an epic). Either a shield, sword, or mace.).

Also you can either go to the market and search for the blue set pieces (in name only, no set bonuses) for you class, or start up a group and do the repeatable quests from the crafting villiages. These quests will net 4-5 blue drops per run, and is well worth doing it to get gear up.

Once around level 58 or so, there is a gap in the regular content, and quests in the regular area progression, and you will need to start doing Yimirs pass.

Yimirs Pass is an excellent quest area. Super exp, decent quest rewards, and the quests actually seem to reward more money than the other similar level quests.

The one really neat quest, and some what hidden, is what i call the Goddess quest. At the extreme far north of the area, is a rez pad. Near the rez pad is Yimirs daughter. Do her quests, and if you READ THE TEXT carefully…you maka-tha-luv with her. Just so you know, i know of five other females throughout the game that will maka-tha-luv with you…tho most of the others will make you feel a tad…..itchy afterwards.

7. Level 60 Areas.

Genral information

Do i even need to tell you to get the level 60 pots?

First off. Do your destiny. Im not giving any hits, but its epic. Not exactly a surprise, but very very good for an mmo. At this point King Conan will give you some quests. There nice, and if you have a lack of quests, do them, but you can wait for higher levels.

There are a few secerets about the destiny quest area in Thunder River, First off there are 2 optional bosses one drops a key to a seceret area, the other drops either a realy nice 1h blunt, a 1h edge, or a 2h edged. If you kill that boss, and dont get a drop you want, simply donot compleate the instance, and just asura out. Wait about 10 min. and then go back into the area.

The key, the other boss drops is for a secret gate. To find the gate your going to have to jump into all the pools of blood and swim down to find the one that has the tunnel that leads to the gate. Unfortunatly, i didnt find out about this untill after i compleated the destiny, so i only know from second hand sources. Supposedly another boss with some nice treaser and no trade blues is behind the gate.(Thanks Rafik, and Kendrik for the info)

Second, befriend an armor smith, and get yourself a set of crafted Armour. I don’t care if you think that awesome looking helm from the Cistern, or the really neat looking breastplate from the Sanctum is good. At this level, screw looks, your desperately going to want some quality gear, for the next 10 levels. Trust me, the crafted stuff is brilliantly better. Especially if you can gem it.

Most importantly, its better than anything your going to get for quests, until you can start doing the higher end dungeons, prison colony, or doing exp runs through the crafting instances, and in most cases the blue crafted gear is vastly superior to the blue drops from the crafting instances just becaus you can chose what you want.

Otherwise, The pieces you get in the crafting instances are exceptional peices of equipment, and well worth the time into getting them. It was difficult for me to debate between the pieces of plate armour i had from crafting vs the blue 60 level plate drops from the crafting areas. Some of the crafted peices won out. some of the blue pieces won out.

Leveling

If at this point you haven’t gone to Yimirs pass, go do that now. The quests there are nice exp, decent rewards, and can net you around 5 levels. If your having difficulty finding quests, Yimirs pass is your place to go.

After that, your best bet is to go to Thunder River, and do the quests there. You should get from 63ish to 66ish before the quests there start turning red on you. Once that happens go to Aztels Approach and do the ones that are no further than the avalanche. That should net you another 2 levels or 3.

At about level 65-66 you will also start geting quest for the Prison Colony. Dont even worry about them. The prison Colony is so difficult that you need to be in your low 70s for the group to effectivly finish the quests. Not saying its impossible for an upper 60s group to do it, its just that the bosses (which most of the quests need) hit from 800-1900 on a fully juggernaught specced tank with full blue crafted gear that has hit deffensive cap, no healer can keep up with that kind of pounding.

Leveling in this leveling bracket isn’t really that smooth. You will be forced to run between Atzels approach and Thunder River every few levels to make sure you’ve gotten all the quest available. Once you hit about level 68 things become realy rough.

In all honesty, unless your lucky and/or didnt do quests befor their level, you will be forced to grind out a level at least once. If you were smart, then the quests in Aztels and Thunder river will usher you into level 70 without to much grinding.

This isnt entirely a bad thing. At this point you need to start saving up for the higher teir mounts (for when you hit 80) the exceptional crafted items. Some of the best money will be from doing the wanted posters, the villia quests, wich scale both in exp, money, and has a good chance to drop blue gear. On an average run you should get atleast one blue drop from doing 2 villa quests.

6. Level 70 Area

General info

First off, now that youve hit 70, and befor you do anything else, it is time to gear up. At this level the mobs do wicked damage, and if your not geared properly your going to feel like your in tortage again, and taking only 1-3 mobs at best. Forget leveling, forget Kashetta. Go to the crafting area instances, get groups and do as many runs as you can stand. At this level the sets that drop will blow almost everything you have compleatly away. They are phenominal, the armour will look great, and lets not mention the awsome blue weapon drops.

You will get lucky to get 1 or even 2 blue items that you can drop per 1 run of a single instance. Considering in most cases you can do a full run in about an hour or an hour and a half, your looking at some decent grind time.

Let me repeate, it is absolutly vital that you gear up. Normal mobs are tough at this level. Elite mobs are sinisterly hard, and lets not even talk about raid mobs. IF your even going to start raiding at this point, not having a full set of gear is lunacy.

Another option, that may take about the same amount of time, is crafted blue gear. At this point it is still something of a toss up between what seems to be better, the blue drops or blue crafted gear. The greatetest advantage that i know of for the crafted gear, is being able to specify what exactly your looking for. The blue drops are all around good peicies of armour, for example the cloth caster drops are good drops for either priests OR mages, with little real specification between them. Same for the heavy armour, and plate drops.

Being able to put an extra 150 taunt(an extra 15% hate modifier give or take) to the crafted plate can seriously show an improvment in agro control for tanks. At this point, unless you have a purple weapon that is your level, a blue crafted wepon can be vastly superior to anything except purples. Especialy until you start getting raid gear.

Leveling

At this point you need to make a decision, you can go along with the typical thing you have been doing, do the quests, get some levels, get some rewards, few levels later run out of quests, grind some, and now you have more quests….oooooooor you can get a grind group.

It sounds crazy, boring, and insane. Dont let that fool you, level 70+ grindning is like nothing else in the game. You can get a level, or TWO every hour you grind. There are grind spots where, depending on the make up of your group, your going to be CONSTANTLY on your toes, and the addrenaline will be pumping as what feels like wave after wave of mob comes rushing at your group, and you can baerly keep alive let alone keep yourself, or your group mates safe. Some of the awsomest pve experience ive had was doing grind groups.

In all honesty, if you do grind, i would recomend only grinding 1-3 levels at a time, and then doing a bunch of the quests. There are several resons for this. The first is becaus some of the quest items are very nice (some occasional blue rewards) the cash at this level for quest turn in is almost shocking (17 silver for killing 10 mobs!1!11!!!11! o.O?)

Also the number one reason you want to keep up on your quests is becaus EVERY quest your getting, will lead you, or point you to, the teir 1 raid dungeons, and also lay the groundwork for the higher teir, and level 80 end game content. I wont spoil it for you, but let me say some of the areas are far more epic than most mmos ive played, had for end game dungeons.

Unfortunatly, its not realy possible for me to continue at this point with information, becaus almost all of the 78-80 content is geared towards end game, raiding, and pvp. Wich goes into a different section, which will be added as i go along.

Grind Locations and Tactics

Like i said before, some of the funnest pve experiences Ive ever had in 15 years of multi-player games was in AoC grind spots.

The first and most important thing your going to need, to do the incredibly fun grind spots, is a healer. Personally, i prefer a pom, not really sure, but they seem to heal better for most of the game, compared to the other healer classes. The next thing your going to need is a tank with AOE taunt. The last and most important thing, is one of the mages specced in AOE pew pew.

That trifecta is perfect for taking 8-15 mobs at a time. Which is what you should be shooting for.

Level 20-30 Grind locations

Generaly this is a bad time to do serious grinding. You have tons of quests, and more progression than at any time in the game. But…should you actualy need to grind, there are a few realy nice places to go.

At level 20, the picts at the very end of the pict area in Tortage are still resonably conned, and come in enough size that you can pull tons of them.

At about level 25, The vanir in connals valley respawn quickly enough for you to run to one camp, clear it, and run back to the last camp, and clear it.

At level 30, the best spot, is the Nemidian soldiers in Wild lands.

Level 30-40 Grind Location

One of the best grind locations in this bracket are the Vanir next to the mixed yimi vanir camp with the statues and sorcerers at the very end. Behind this hill there is a camp of Vanir with none of the elite Yimir mixed in, and you can generaly pull a good 10 of them, or more. There is a path that leads up the hill, and most of that path are more vanir. But remember top of the hill is the mixed yimir/vanir camp, so be-careful of going to far up.

Level 40-50 Grind locations

Alright, simply enough, go to Fields of the Dead, the Vanir re-spawn rates there are ridiculous, and you can easily pull an entire camp of them, and while finishing them off, have re-spawns join the fight.

Be super careful tho, there are elite bosses in some of the vanir camps, so chose carefully.

Level 50-60 Grind Locations

Honestly, there is so many quests, and areas for this level bracket, that its a rather terrible idea to grind. Your going to miss out on a sh*t ton of exp, money, and blues if you do nothing but grind, so im not giving anything for this bracket.

Level 60-70 Grind Locations

At the low 60s, go to Atzels approach, kill the camps of Atzels very near avalanche, the re-spawn is pretty decently fast. There are a couple of camps there in Atzlels were you can use this neat little trick.

There are archer type mobs on the outside of some of the camps, when you agro them (have to body agro, and not actually strike them in any way) Instead of attacking you, then run and go blow one of the alarm horns. This will spawn around 6-7 regular mobs. Basically, you can spawn them, pull the camp, go to the next camp, and come back, and have the look out re-spawned already.

In the upper 60s bracket, the most awesome place to grind in the game comes available. There is place that you can constantly pull mobs. You can actually pull TOO many mobs if your not careful.

At the far end of Atzels, near that bridge, to the west, right by the ruins with all the prisoners, is a supply cart…

Go hit it..please.. just touch it.

Evey mob within a friggen mile will agro to that spot.

If your carefully you can pull the mobs safely. The way to do it is simple, but effective. There is this place with a wooden palisade and a hill behind it. This spot is within like 5 meters of the supply wagon. What is awsome about this spot, is you can hide your healer and pew pew friend behind it, hit the wagon, and then run behind it, and wait for the mobs to agro to the wagon spot.

Of course the mobs jut down the hill from you will occasionally chose your spot to run through, but there are only 5-6 of them that will run that way, and those are easy to kill.

Any way, one you hit the supply wagon, and the mobs are gathered, all you have to do is peek your head out the end of the palisade, and agro the entire group. Back up behind the palisade, and what will happen, is only around 10-15 of the mobs will be able to get to you. The ones that are agro’d to you, but unable to get to you, will de-agro, and walk around confused like, until you peek your head back out.

Basically, you can hit the wagon, pull the area clear, the wagon will re=spawn, kill the wagon, and boom, more mobs, meaning you can continuously pull pretty much until you get sick of it.

Level 70-80 Grind spots

In your low 70s, go do Atzels super grind spots. There really isn’t any place better, and you can quickly get levels without even really being aware of it.

If the Atzels guys stop giving you enough exp, or they finally turn white con to you, go do quests. Honestly, there arnt any good grind spots till 75.

At 75 there are the set guys at the ruins in the east and western section of Kshettatatat-whatever place. There SOFT! So there rae realy rather easy to kill, and they convienyenty seem to gather in groups of 10 ish, so you can blow through camps with little pause.

If your realy ambishous you can gather a full group and go do the Death badit dudes to the east of the city, and east of Thoth-amons stronghold. These guys come in WAVES, so have a good group or your going to get swamped.

Alright. Those are the grind spots that i know of. OF course there are more, specialy with the expansion. But those are my little secrets.